The present invention relates to a package with a sealed inner package provided with an exhaust hole regulated by an exhaust valve, to a sheet of packing material, and to a method of producing a sheet of packing material.

In the following description, reference will be made, for brevity, to a rigid packet of cigarettes with hinged lid and housing a sealed inner package without loss of generality in reference to the present invention.

PRIOR ART

In Figure 1 a sealed inner package A known and described in detail in the patent application US2006228057A1 is illustrated. Said sealed inner package A is provided with an extraction opening B to extract the items contained inside the sealed inner package A and with an exhaust hole C, which is formed through a wall of the sealed inner package A for exhausting part of the air from, and depressurizing the sealed inner package A, and is coupled to an exhaust valve D.

As shown in Figure 2, the exhaust valve D is initially carried by a tape E wound in a reel and is drawn from the tape E to be applied to the wall of the sealed inner package A at the exhaust hole C.

As shown in Figure 3, the exhaust valve D comprises a support layer F which is permanently glued to an underlying sheet of packing material G which constitutes the wall of the sealed inner package A and an active layer H which is superimposed on and glued to the support layer F. In the active layer H a valve element is defined, which is movable between a closed position in which it seals the exhaust hole C and isolates the exhaust hole C from the outside atmosphere and an open position in which the exhaust hole C communicates freely with the outside atmosphere; in particular, the valve element is defined by a portion of the active layer H which is separated from the rest of the active layer H by a U-shaped through incision (better illustrated in Figure 1) and is connected to the underlying inner layer by means of an adhesive element. The exhaust valve D described in patent application US2006228057A1 must be separated from the tape E, and then applied (with some precision in order to be correctly aligned with the exhaust hole C) to the sheet of packing material G that defines the sealed inner package A immediately before or after folding the sheet of packing material G; accordingly, in the packing machine forming the sealed inner package A it is necessary to provide for the presence of a labeling station in which each exhaust valve D is separated from the tape E and then applied (with extreme precision) to the corresponding sheet of packing material G. However, the presence of said labeling station may be problematic in an existing packing machine, since it is complex to find the necessary space for the labeling station itself; in this regard it is well to note that the labeling station requires the presence of a feeding unit of the tape E and that must support the corresponding reel, and the devices for changing the reel itself, and that the labeling station must also provide a drying zone wherein the glue between the support layer F of the exhaust valve D and the underlying sheet of packing material G has time to consolidate to achieve a sufficient degree of adhesion for preventing an undesired detachment of the exhaust valve D itself during subsequent handling of the sheet of packing material G. Furthermore, the fact of having to cyclically feed the reels, whereon the tapes E bearing the exhaust valves D are wound, to the packing machine, constitutes a logistics complication of the packing machine with an evident increase of the overall production costs. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a package with a sealed inner package provided with an exhaust hole regulated by an exhaust valve, a sheet of packing material, and a method of producing a sheet of packing material, which package, sheet of packing material and method of producing a sheet of packing material are free of the drawbacks described above and are, at the same time, easy and inexpensive to manufacture . According to the present invention, a package with a sealed inner package provided with an exhaust hole regulated by an exhaust valve, a sheet of packing material, and a method of producing a sheet of packing material, as claimed in the appended claims are provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate some non-limiting embodiments, wherein:

- Figure 1 is a perspective view of a known sealed inner package that is part of the state of the art and is provided with an exhaust hole regulated by an exhaust valve;

- Figure 2 is a perspective view of a known tape that is part of the state of the art and supports a series of exhaust valves of the type illustrated in Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 illustrates two sectional views of the known exhaust valve illustrated in Figure 1 in a closed position and in an open position of the exhaust hole respectively;

Figure 4 is a front perspective view and in a closed configuration of a packet of cigarettes produced according to the present invention and comprising a sealed inner package provided with an exhaust hole regulated by an exhaust valve;

Figure 5 is a front perspective view of the packet of cigarettes of Figure 4 in a partially open configuration;

Figure 6 is a front perspective view of the packet of cigarettes of Figure 4 in a fully open configuration;

- Figure 7 is a front perspective view of the sealed inner package of the packet of Figure 4;

Figure 8 is a front perspective view of a group of cigarettes contained inside the sealed inner package of Figure 7;

Figure 9 is a front perspective view of a stiffener contained inside the sealed inner package of Figure 7;

- Figure 10 is a plan view of a sheet of packing material provided with a sealing panel of the "open & close" type and used to form the sealed inner package of Figure 7;

- Figures 11 and 12 are two different sectional views of an exhaust hole and of a corresponding exhaust valve formed in the sheet of packing material of Figure 10 in a closed position and an open position of the exhaust hole respectively;

- Figure 13 is a sectional and exploded view of the sheet of packing material of Figure 10 at the exhaust hole and of the corresponding exhaust valve of Figures 11 and 12;

- Figure 14 is a plan view of the sheet of packing material of Figure 10 devoid of the "open & close" type sealing panel; and

- Figure 15 is a front perspective view of an alternative of the packet of cigarettes of Figure 4 in a partially open configuration . PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In Figures 4, 5 and 6 the number 1 indicates as a whole a rigid packet of cigarettes. The packet 1 of cigarettes comprises an outer container 2 made of cup-shaped cardboard or rigid paperboard and a sealed inner package 3 (better illustrated in Figure 7) housed inside the container 2. The sealed inner package 3 encloses a group 4 of cigarettes (illustrated in Figure 8) of a parallelepiped shape and has at the top and in front a cigarette extraction opening 5; the cigarette extraction opening 5 is arranged centrally, is closed by a sealing flap 6 of "open & close" type and affects a portion of a front wall of the sealed inner package 3 and a portion of a top wall of the sealed inner package 3. The sealing flap 6 adheres normally to the part of the sealed inner package 3 arranged about the extraction opening 5 to close (seal) the extraction opening 5 itself, and may be temporarily lifted to free the extraction opening 5, and then allows the extraction of a cigarette through the extraction opening 5 itself.

The outer container 2 has an open top end 7 and is provided with a cup-shaped lid 8 hinged to the container 2 along a hinge 9 to rotate, with respect to the container 2, between an open position (illustrated in Figures 5 and 6) and a closed position (illustrated in Figure 4) of the open top end 7. The lid 8, when in its closed position, gives the outer container 2 a rectangular parallelepiped shape having a top wall and a bottom wall parallel and opposite to each other, a front wall and a rear wall (in which the hinge 9 is formed) parallel and opposite to each other, and two side walls which are parallel and opposite to each other. Between the side walls and the front and rear walls four longitudinal edges are defined, while between the upper and lower walls and the of front, rear and lateral walls eight transverse edges are defined .

As shown in Figure 9, the sealed inner package 3 comprises a stiffener 10, which is made of cardboard or rigid paperboard (quite similar to the cardboard or rigid paperboard constituting the outer container 2), is U-shaped and is arranged inside the sealed inner package 3 contacting the group 4 of cigarettes. The stiffener 10 comprises a front wall 11 of substantially rectangular shape, which is arranged contacting a front wall of the group 4 of cigarettes and a pair of lateral walls 12, which are connected to the opposite sides of front wall 11 and are arranged contacting the lateral walls of the group 4 of cigarettes. The front wall 11 has a window which is arranged at the top, is delimited by an edge 13, is U-shaped, and facilitates the extraction of the cigarettes from the group 4 of cigarettes as it leaves exposed a top area of the front wall of the group 4 of cigarettes.

The function of the stiffener 10 is to give greater stiffness and greater shape stability to the sealed inner package 3 in order to prevent the same sealed inner package 3 from collapsing on itself after removing a part of the cigarettes contained inside the sealed inner package 3 itself, thus complicating the extraction the remaining cigarettes and, in particular, making extremely complicated the opening and the subsequent closing of the sealing flap 6. An additional function of stiffener 10 is to provide a suitable mechanical protection for the cigarettes during formation and handling of the sealed inner package 3. Finally, another function of the stiffener 10 is to keep the lid 8 in the closed position, as the lid 8 passes from the closed position to the open position (and vice versa) it must slightly deform in an elastic way the top and front of the stiffener 10.

As illustrated in Figure 10, the sealed inner package 3 is obtained by folding a sheet 14 of heat-sealable packing material, which has a rectangular shape, is folded about the group 4 of cigarettes enclosed in the stiffener 10 and once folded is stabilized by heat-sealing (i.e. overlapping portions of the sheet 14 of packing material are connected together in a stable manner by heat-sealing) . The sheet 14 of packing material has a U-shaped incision 15 and defines the extraction opening 5; furthermore, the sheet 14 of packing material is glued to the sealing flap 6, which has a rectangular shape and completely covers the incision 15 (i.e. the extraction opening 5) . A pressure-sensitive re-stick adhesive 16 (i.e. which does not dry) is interposed between the sealing flap 6 and the sheet 14 of packing material allowing even after a long time to separate the sealing flap 6 from the sheet 14 of packing material, and then to bring together again the sealing flap 6 and the sheet 14 of packing material for a great number of times. The presence of the pressure-sensitive re-stick adhesive 16 (i.e. which does not dry) between the sealing flap 6 and the sheet 14 of packing material determines the permanent gluing (that is, also in use it is never separated) of the portion of sheet 14 of packing material enclosed within the incision 15 (that is, at the extraction opening 5) to the sealing flap 6; therefore, when the sealing flap 6 is lifted from the sheet 14 of packing material the portion of the sealing flap 6 enclosed within the incision 15 (that is, at the extraction opening 5) is lifted together with the sealing flap 6 thus freeing the extraction opening 5. Moreover, the presence of the pressure-sensitive re-stick adhesive 16 (i.e. which does not dry) between the sealing flap 6 and the sheet 14 of packing material determines a temporary gluing (that is, separated in use) between the portion of the sheet 14 of packing material surrounding the incision 15 (that is, surrounding the extraction opening 5) and the sealing flap 6 so as to normally maintain the sealing flap 6 contacting the sheet 14 of packing material to close (seal) the extraction opening 5.

The sealing flap 6 is provided with two grip tabs 17, each of which devoid of pressure-sensitive re-stick adhesive 16 (i.e. which does not dry) on the side facing the sheet 14 of packing material (that is, the surface facing the sheet 14 of packing material) and is arranged in the vicinity of the extraction opening 5 and below the extraction opening 5 itself. Each grip tab 17 is likely to facilitate the gripping of the sealing flap 6 at the time of lifting the sealing flap 6; in other words, to lift the sealing flap 6, a user can easily grab a grip tab 17, which is in no way fixed to the sheet 14 of packing material in contrast to the rest of the sealing flap 6.

As illustrated in Figures 5, 6 and 7, the sealed inner package 3 comprises an exhaust hole 18, which is formed through a front wall of the sealed inner package 3 to exhaust part of the air from, and depressurize, the sealed inner package 3. In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 5, 6 and 7, the exhaust hole 18 is formed through the front wall of the sealed inner package 3, but it is clear that the exhaust hole 18 can be formed in other positions (for example through the top wall) of the sealed inner package 3; in any case, it would be preferable for the exhaust hole 18 to be formed at the stiffener 10, i.e. in an area of the sealed inner package 3 that rests on the underlying stiffener 10. In fact, during the exhaust of part of the air from the sealed inner package 3, an exhaust device rests with a certain mechanical pressure on the sealed inner package 3 about the exhaust hole 18 and thus the presence of the underlying stiffener 10 at the exhaust hole 18 prevents the mechanical pressure exerted by the exhaust device from damaging the cigarettes contained inside the sealed inner package 3 (i.e. the stiffener 10 protects the cigarettes contained inside the sealed inner package 3 from the mechanical pressure exerted by the exhaust device) . Moreover, the sealed inner package 3 comprises an exhaust valve 19 which is superimposed over the exhaust hole 18 and has the function of maintaining the exhaust hole 18 normally isolated from the outside atmosphere so as to not have any passage of gas between the sealed inner package 3 and the outside atmosphere. The exhaust valve 19 is normally closed (i.e. it normally seals the exhaust hole 18 and isolates the exhaust hole 18 from the outside atmosphere) and is temporarily open (i.e. the exhaust hole 18 communicates freely with the outside atmosphere) just and only during the exhaust step of part of the air contained inside the sealed inner package 3 to depressurize the sealed inner package 3 itself.

As illustrated in Figures 10-13, the exhaust valve 19 comprises a valve element 20, which is movable between a closed position (illustrated in Figures 11 and 13) in which it seals the exhaust hole 18 and isolates the exhaust hole 18 from the outside atmosphere and an open position (illustrated in Figure 12) in which the exhaust hole 18 communicates freely with the outside atmosphere. As illustrated in Figure 10, the exhaust hole 18 is arranged at the sealing flap 6 so as to be completely covered by the sealing flap 6 itself. Preferably, as illustrated in Figure 10, the exhaust hole 18 is arranged alongside the extraction opening 5 at the edge of the sealing flap 6 arranged about the extraction opening 5; in other words, the exhaust hole 18 does not affect the extraction opening 5 and is arranged laterally to the extraction opening 5 in the band of the sealing flap 6 surrounding the extraction opening 5. According to an alternative not illustrated, the exhaust hole 18 could also be placed at the extraction opening 5 (i.e. could be superimposed over the extraction opening 5) ; however, in this embodiment, the exhaust hole 18 is not superimposed on a wall of the stiffener 10. As illustrated in Figures 11, 12 and 13, the exhaust hole 18 is formed completely through the sheet 14 of packing material and passes through the sheet 14 of packing material; i.e. the exhaust hole 18 passes from side to side through the sheet 14 of packing material. Furthermore, the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19 is defined by a portion of the sealing flap 6 (and therefore only by the sealing flap 6) which is separated from the rest of the sealing flap 6 by a U-shaped through incision 25. It is clear that, like all the rest of the sealing flap 6, also the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve

19 (which is part of the sealing flap 6 itself) is connected to the underlying sheet 14 of packing material by the pressure-sensitive re-stick adhesive 16 and allows even after a long time to locally separate the valve element 20 and the sheet 14 of packing material for a great number of times. In the embodiment illustrated in the attached figures the U- shaped through incision 25 forms a sharp angle at the cusp (as better illustrated in Figure 10), but according to alternative and completely equivalent embodiments the U-shaped through incision 25 may have a rounded shape at the cusp or it could be shaped as a broken line formed by the union of multiple straight segments angled one with respect to the other.

Normally, the re-stick adhesive 16 which is located at the exhaust valve 19 keeps the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19 in close contact with the underlying sheet 14 of packing material to seal the exhaust hole 18, i.e. isolating the exhaust hole 18 from the outside atmosphere (as shown in Figure 11) . When an adequate uplifting force is applied to the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19 (typically as a result of suction or by mechanical action) , the valve element

20 of the exhaust valve 19 is lifted from the underlying sheet 14 of packing material (and therefore the re-stick adhesive 16 interrupts its binding action) allowing the exhaust hole 18 to communicate freely with the outside atmosphere (as shown in Figure 12) ; when the uplifting force acting on the valve 20 of the exhaust valve 19 stops, the valve element 20 rests again on the underlying sheet 14 of packing material (as shown in Figure 11 and possibly with the aid of a mechanical pressing member) determining a new closure of the exhaust valve 19 due to the binding effect of the re-stick adhesive 16. In the embodiment described above, there is only one exhaust hole 18 of relatively large dimensions and the exhaust valve 19 has a single valve element 20 which is coupled directly to the exhaust hole 18 (i.e. superimposed over the exhaust hole 18 itself) . According to an alternative and perfectly equivalent embodiment, multiple exhaust holes 18 of smaller size are provided and the exhaust valve 19 has several valve elements 20, each of which is coupled directly to a corresponding exhaust hole 18 (i.e. superimposed over the exhaust hole 18 itself) . According to a further and perfectly equivalent embodiment, only one exhaust hole 18 of relatively large dimensions is provided and the exhaust valve 19 has several valve elements 20, each of which is arranged about the exhaust hole 18 (i.e. the valve elements 20 are uniformly distributed about the exhaust hole 18) .

It is important to note that the exhaust valve 19 is a multi ^¬ purpose one, i.e. may be used many times as it is possible to pass several times from the closed position to the open position and vice versa (the re-stick adhesive 16 interposed between the valve element 20 of the sealing flap 6 and the underlying sheet 14 of packing material can in fact be repositioned several times) . As previously mentioned, the exhaust hole 18 is formed through the front wall of the sealed inner package 3 and therefore is superimposed on the front wall 11 of the stiffener 10. The stiffener 10 may be free of holes at the exhaust hole 18, because in any case, by taking in air through the exhaust hole 18, the air reaches the exhaust hole 18 by flowing in the space between the inner surface of the sealed inner package 3 and the outer surface of the stiffener 10; however, in this embodiment it is necessary to apply a greater depression to overcome the load losses generated by the "tortuous" path followed by the air inside the sealed inner package 3 for reaching the exhaust hole 18. According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in Figure 9, the front wall 11 of the stiffener 10 has a through hole 26, which is arranged at the exhaust hole 18 (i.e. aligned with the exhaust hole 18) and allows a more direct air flow from the inside of the sealed inner package 3 towards the exhaust hole 18.

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in Figure 9 and in Figures 11, 12 and 13, about the through hole 26 of the stiffener 10 a permanent, non-separable adhesive 27 is applied (thus different from the re-stick adhesive 16) locally determining a permanent gluing between the sheet 14 of packing material and the underlying stiffener 10 (i.e. between the lower face of the sheet 14 of packing material and the upper face of the front wall 11 of the stiffener 10) . The function of the permanent adhesive 27 is to bind the sheet 14 of packing material to the underlying stiffener 10 at the exhaust valve 19 (i.e. about the through hole 26 of the stiffener 10) so that when an uplifting force is applied to the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19, only the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19 is lifted from the sheet 14 of packing material. In other words, in absence of the permanent adhesive 27 when a lifting force is applied to the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19, also the sheet 14 of packing material could be lifted (i.e. both the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19 being part of the sealing flap 6, and the underlying sheet 14 of packing material) without thereby determining the desired separation between the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19 and the underlying sheet 14 of packing material; the presence of the permanent adhesive 27 instead mechanically binds the sheet 14 of packing material to the underlying stiffener 10 preventing the sheet 14 of packing material from lifting and thus allowing the exhaust valve 19 to properly open when an uplifting force is applied to the valve element 20 of the exhaust valve 19.

According to a preferred, but not binding, embodiment, the exhaust hole 18 is formed through the sheet 14 of packing material before applying the sealing flap 6 to the sheet 14 of packing material; in the same way, the through incision 25 delimiting the valve element 20 is formed through the sealing flap 6 before applying the sealing flap 6 to the sheet 14 of packing material. In this way, the implementation of the exhaust hole 18 and of the through incision 25 is extremely simple and can be performed with trivial mechanical operations. It is important to note that when the sealing flap 6 is applied to the sheet 14 of packing material, a high precision in the relative positioning of the exhaust hole 18 and the through incision 25 delimiting the valve element 20 is not required, as little deviations do not alter in any way the functionality of the exhaust valve 19. Alternatively, the exhaust hole 18 and the through incision 25 may be made on the sheet 14 of packing material and on the sealing flap 6 after applying the sealing flap 6 on the sheet 14 of packing material; in this case, it is necessary to use laser processing which allows to etch with extreme precision only part of the overall thickness of the sheet 14 of packing material and of the sealing flap 6.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 5-7 and 10, the sealing flap 6 has a perfectly rectangular shape; possibly, the sealing flap 6 could be arranged asymmetrically with respect to the extraction opening 5 to increase the size of the edge of the sealing flap 6 which is arranged alongside the extraction opening 5 and covers the exhaust hole 18 (i.e. to allow the presence of a larger exhaust hole 18) . In the alternative illustrated in Figure 15, the sealing flap 6 comprises a projection 28 which projects from an edge of the sealing flap 6 and locally increases the size of the sealing flap 6 at the exhaust hole 18. The sealed inner package 3 described above has numerous advantages . In the first place, in the embodiment of the sealed inner package 3 described above the exhaust valve 19 is from the outset already integrated in the sheet 14 of packing material coupled to the sealing flap 6 and therefore is not necessary to provide any kind of additional operation for the preparation of the exhaust valve 19 itself; in this way, the packing machine is greatly simplified (in this respect it is important to observe that the exhaust device that rests on the sealed inner package 3 about the exhaust hole 18 to exhaust part of the air from the sealed inner package 3 itself is extremely small and compact and therefore simple to install even in an existing packing machine) . Moreover, the sealed inner package 3 described above is also simple and inexpensive to produce, since the operations required to integrate the exhaust valve 19 in the sheet 14 of packing material coupled to the sealing flap 6 are easy to perform and do not require the use of any additional material.

In the non-limiting embodiment illustrated in the attached figures, the package of the present invention contains a group 4 of cigarettes; thanks to the numerous advantages of the package of the present invention, said package can also be used to contain articles other than cigarettes, such as food products (candies, chocolates or other sweets) .