FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a packaging member made of a singlesheet of biobased material.

The present invention further relates to method for making a packaging member made of a single-sheet of biobased material.

The present invention also relates to a box containing at least one packaging member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There is an ongoing need to develop packages that are sustainable. One way of making packages more sustainable is to avoid plastic parts and use biobased materials instead. Plastic (parts) is fossil-based and should be replaced by renewable biobased materials.

In publication FR756576 is disclosed cardboards with series of cut-outs for providing interior compartments for cardboard boxes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a packaging member made of a single-sheet of biobased material, wherein the single-sheet is folded into a three-dimensional shape by utilising an origami tessellation, the three-dimensional shape having at least one compartment for receiving or containing an article.

In a preferred embodiment of the packaging member of the invention, the origami tessellation is Huffman’s "waterbombs" tessellation or similar type of tessellation.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the packing member of the invention, the receiving compartments have walls with essentially the same highness, along the full width of the walls and with respect of each other, and flat areas are formed in the bottom of each receiving compartment of the packaging member. The bottom of the entire packaging member is preferably quadrangular.

The biobased material in the packaging member of the invention is preferably selected from organic fibre materials, such as pulp, mechanical pulp, chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP), nano fibre, micro cellulose fibre, greaseproof paper, or nano cellulose (translucent).

In a particular preferred embodiment of the packaging member of the invention the thickness of the single sheet is 30-400 g/m ² , preferably 40-280 g/m ² , and most preferably 60-180 g/m ² .

"In a particular preferred embodiment, the single sheet is preferably provided on at least one of its sides with a barrier layer. The barrier layer according to the invention is arranged to provide a fat barrier and /or humidity barrier and /or water barrier function.

In a preferred embodiment, said barrier layer is accomplished by means of a coating composition applied onto the sheet of biobased material, wherein said coating composition comprises microfibrillated cellulose (MFC).

In a preferred embodiment, said coating composition comprises microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) in an amount of at least 90% by weight, calculated as dry weight.

In a yet further preferred embodiment, two packaging members are used as counterparts, e.g. one is the bottom part and the other one is the top part. It is preferred that in such a case the two packaging members are identical.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a box containing at least one packaging member of the invention.

In a preferred embodiment of the box of the invention, the article contained in a compartment of a packaging member of the box is edible, such as a confectionary, like e.g. chocolate, or a candy or cherry tomatoes. In a further preferred embodiment of the box of the invention it may serve as medicine box, i.e. the article contained in a compartment of a packaging member of the box being one or more medicines.

In another preferred embodiment of the box of the invention, the article is a non-foodstuff article such as e.g. a toy, a lipstick, a small machinery part.

In yet a further preferred embodiment, the box of the invention may where necessary and/or advantageous have a lid. The lid may preferably be of the same material as the box itself e.g. cardboard or carton. The function of the lid is to enable closing and opening of the box containing the at least one packaging member.

A yet further object of the invention is a method of making a packaging member of the invention, the method involving at least the following steps:

- feeding a single-sheet of biobased material trough the nip of at least two rollers, which rollers have means for preparing folding lines of the origami tessellation in the single-sheet, thus obtaining a collapsible structure

- collapsing the obtained collapsible structure into the three- dimensional shape of the origami tessellation, the three-dimensional shape having at least one compartment for receiving or containing an article.

The term "biobased material" as used herein refers to products or materials that mainly consist of or comprise a substance or substances derived from living matter (biomass) and either occur naturally or are synthesized. "Biobased material" may also refer to products made by processes that use biomass. "Biobased material" as used herein also refers to renewable material derived from non-fossil-based, biomass-derived material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following the invention will be described in greater detail by means of preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a packaging member according to the invention provided with foldings in a three-dimensional but not yet fully collapsed form; and

Figure 2 shows a perspective view of a packaging member in a fully collapsed form according to the invention, fitted inside a carton box with no top.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 shows a single sheet of carton 1 which has been pre-creased according to David Huffman’s origami tessellation named "waterbombs". The sheet of carton is not fully flat due to the "waterbombs" crease pattern made therein according to the creasing and folding pattern of David Huffman’s origami tessellation named "waterbombs", which is known per se. The sheet of carton 1 shown in figure 1 may be folded into a three-dimensionally shaped packaging member having the three-dimensional shape of Huffman’s "waterbombs" tessellation, and which also may be described as a tray with a series of identical compartments or pigeonholes, each of which has a flat square bottom and four perpendicular sidewalls extending perpendicularly in the same direction (vertically) from the outer edges of the square bottom. The tray 11 as a whole has the shape of a cuboid with a square bottom, side walls constituted by two creases 8,9, but open at the top. Said cuboid tray is snugly fitted inside a square carton box 7 of cuboid shape as shown in figure 2.

The tray 11 with receiving pigeonholes 10 as presented in figure 2 has nine compartments or pigeonholes 10 with flat bottoms. Depending on the shape, dimensions, and number of repetitions of the creasing and folding patterns the tray 11 may be provided with less or more than nine compartments or pigeonholes 10, such as e.g. four compartments wherein the tray also has an overall square bottom. The overall shape of the tray 11 may alternatively be designed to have an overall rectangular bottom with e.g. 5x6 i.e. 30 compartments placed inside carton box 7 having a rectangular bottom and sidewalls but open at the top.

As also shown in figure 2, each of the four walls of each compartment or pigeonhole 10 constitutes of two adjacent flat separate creases 8, 9 parallel and adjacent to each other. The first crease 8 has its highest point at a first corner point 6a of the compartment 10 and descends towards a second corner point 6b on the opposite side of the same compartment 10. In other words, the first crease 8 and second crease 9 both extend between the first and second corner points 6a and 6b, respectively, but crease 8 descends from point 6a towards 6b, whereas crease 9 descends in the opposite direction from point 6b towards 6a. Together creases 8 and 9 constitute an entity forming a continuous sidewall of the compartment 10, but which has a height that is highest at the two corner points 6a and 6b of the sidewall and is lowest halfway between the said two corner points 6a and 6b. The upper edge of the wall when creases 8 and 9 are taken together as one single wall thus has a curve-like shape with its bottom at the middle of the wall with respect of its width.

One way of producing a "pre-shaped" sheet of carton 1 as shown in figure 1 is feeding a sheet of carton 1 through the roller-nip of a pair of rollers (no figure). Each roller has an embossed pattern of lines on its outer surface (sheath or jacket surface). In this case, the embossed pattern is the crease pattern for David Huffman’s origami tessellation "waterbombs". The embossed pattern is identical but mirror imaged on the two rollers, i.e. if the first roller is "left-handed" then the second roller is a "right-handed" version of the first roller. Depending on the scale or dimensions of the origami tessellation desired, the lines of the embossed pattern have a height of e.g. 3mm to 2cm.

When a sheet of carton is fed through the nip, the crease pattern for David Huffman’s origami tessellation "waterbombs" is pressed into the carton, thus forming the creasing pattern in the carton. When the carton is folded according to this pre-formed creasing pattern, the folded packaging member 11 made of carton 1 as shown in Figure 2 is obtained.

The diameter of the roller may be adjustable such, that one revolution thereof produces the surface pattern of one long piece in one revolution. Adjacent on the roller surface there may be a continuum of patterns producing a plurality of parallel members or pieces. These members or pieces are separated from the preshaped web or sheet of full width by cutting. It is possible to form l...n (n= 0, 1, 3...) adjacent pre-shaped preforms to be folded into their designed three-dimensional shapes.

Another way of producing pre-shaped preforms with desired creasing patterns is to use sheet-like anvils, wherein has been worked the structure required by the surface pattern. These sheets are pressed against each other like a stamp against its support. The surfaces of this kind of stamp may also be planar, having its surface provided with embossments forming the folding lines of the folding. The anvil of the stamp has a corresponding groove structure or a soft surface into which the embossments forming the pattern is allowed to press while simultaneously forming the creasing lines in the carton. The carton is then folded along said creasing lines into its final three-dimensional shape. Folding of the preform may be done with suitable pushing arms or devices, which press the preform into its three-dimensional shape.

In a further manner, the shape may be formed in a surface in consecutive steps, wherein the pattern is formed in the surface stepwise. Such procedure is disclosed in patent US10118360B2. Formation of the pattern would occur in steps by pressing only the folding lines into the surface of the material. A successive "stamping" folding adds lines onto the surface and the stamping is performed a sufficient amount of times.

Correspondingly, there might be several roller-nips in succession, if the pattern requires several repeats for forming the creases in the surface. Successive roller-nips may also guide the folding of the lines into desired direction, if the geometry in the surface pattern of the roller-nips is suitable.

Huffman’s "waterbombs" tessellation is the only three-dimensional origami tessellation known to provide a pigeonhole type of packaging member for receiving and keeping articles such as chocolates or candies. Most importantly, the compartments or pigeonholes in the packaging member need to have a bottom, and walls that are essentially flat, but not necessarily completely planar. The walls do not need to have a constant height over the whole width thereof as long as the overall wall height keeps each article in its own compartment and prevents adjacent articles from touching each other. Further, the walls need not be perpendicular with regards of the bottoms, as long as each wall keeps each article in its own compartment and prevents adjacent articles from touching each other. In Huffman’s waterbombs tessellation the wall height is at its highest at the cross-section of the walls.

The invention also provides a method of making a packaging member as described above. This method involves at least the following steps:

- feeding a single-sheet of biobased material trough the nip of at least two rollers, which rollers have means for preparing folding lines of the origami tessellation in the single-sheet, thus obtaining a collapsible structure

- collapsing the obtained collapsible structure into the three-dimensional shape of the origami tessellation, the three-dimensional shape having at least one compartment for receiving or containing an article. It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as the technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. The invention and its embodiments are not limited to the examples described above but may vary within the scope of the claims.