The present invention relates to a box of sheet material, such as cardboard or corrugated board, and the blank to be folded and glued in order to obtain such a box.

Prior art document FR 2 665 137 discloses several kinds of boxes whose polygonal cross-section is different from the conventional rectangular cross-section: e.g., octagonal, hexagonal, rectangular with all the four corners cut, rectangular with two consecutive corners cut, and triangular with all the three corners cut.

Such boxes must be erected from a respective blank by using a machine including inter alia a mandrel whose external cross- section corresponds to the one of the box.

One object of the present invention consists in providing a box which can be erected without recurring to a dedicated machine.

According to the present invention, this object is achieved by means of a box of sheet material, such as cardboard or corrugated board, having a bottom wall, a top wall and a side wall, and a rectangular cross-section with two opposite corners cut, so that said side wall is formed by six panels, namely first and second opposite panels, third and fourth opposite panels which are orthogonal to the first and second panels, and fifth and sixth corner panels which are inclined in respect of the first, second, third and fourth panels.

A further subject-matter of the present invention is constituted by a blank of sheet material, such as cardboard or corrugated board, for forming the above-captioned box, such blank having a series of six parallel first crease lines, and a second and a third crease line intersecting said six first parallel crease lines, wherein said first, second and third crease lines delimit a center series of a tongue, first panel, third panel, fifth panel, second panel, fourth panel and sixth panel, wherein each of said first, second, third and fourth panels has an upper flap and a lower flap, and wherein said upper flaps are intended to form the top wall of the box, said lower flaps are intended to form the bottom wall of the box, and said panels are intended to form the side wall of the box.

A further subject-matter of the present invention is constituted by a method for erecting the above box from the above blank, providing for the steps of:

- folding the tongue, first panel, third panel, fifth panel, second panel, fourth panel and sixth panel about the first crease lines, respectively,

- adhering the tongue having an adhesive on one of its two faces to an inner face of the sixth panel forming a continuous side wall of the box, which side wall is constituted by the first and second opposite panels, the third and fourth opposite panels which are orthogonal to the first and second panels, and the fifth and sixth corner panels which are inclined in respect of the first, second, third and fourth panels, and

- folding the bottom flaps of 90° about the third crease line and adhering them together in order to form a bottom wall of the box.

The peculiar cross-section of the box of the present invention allows that it can be erected manually from the blank, portions of which are pre-glued, without having to recur to a machine.

The box of the present invention is particularly suitable for packaging flexible and/or round or circular articles, such as bottles.

Further advantages and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, given by way of non-limiting example with reference to the appended drawings, in which: figure 1 is a perspective view of a box according to the invention, and figure 2 is a plan view of a blank for forming the box of figure 1.

A blank of sheet material, such as cardboard or corrugated board, has (figure 2) a series of six parallel first crease lines 22a-f, and a second and a third crease line 24a, 24b intersecting substantially orthogonally the six first parallel crease lines 22a-f.

The first, second and third crease lines 22a-f, 24a, 24b thus delimit a center series of a tongue 26, first panel 10, third panel 14, fifth panel 18, second panel 12, fourth panel 16 and sixth panel 20. Furthermore, each of the first, second, third and fourth panels 10, 12, 14, 16 has an upper flap 10a-16a and a lower flap 1Ob-16b, whereas the fifth and sixth panels 18, 20 have no flaps, namely the upper and lower sides of the fifth and sixth panels 18, 20 are free. As it will be explained in detail in the following, the upper flaps 10a-16a are intended to form the top wall of a box, the lower flaps 10b-16b are intended to form the bottom wall of the box, and the panels 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 are intended to form the side wall of the box.

In order to erect a box as illustrated in figure 2 from the blank of figure 1, the tongue 26, first panel 10, third panel 14, fifth panel 18, second panel 12, fourth panel 16 and sixth panel 20 are folded about the crease lines 22a-f, so that the tongue 26 with an adhesive on a face adheres to an inner face of the sixth panel 20 forming a continuous side wall of a box.

Such side wall is constituted by six panels, namely the first 10 and second 12 opposite panels, the third 14 and fourth 16 opposite panels which are orthogonal to the first and second panels 10, 12, and the fifth 18 and sixth 20 corner panels which are inclined in respect of the first, second, third and fourth panels 10, 12, 14, 16, of an angle in the range 10° to 80°, preferably 45°. The first 10 and second 12 opposite panels, the third 14 and fourth 16 opposite panels and the fifth 18 and sixth 20 corner panels are substantially equal to each other, respectively, and in particular the panels of each couple have the same length and the same height. In sum, the box has a rectangular cross-section with two diagonally opposite corners cut, taking into account that, in the absence of any specific indication to the contrary, any reference to "rectangular" in the present description includes the particular case of "square".

On the other hand, the bottom flaps 10b-16b are folded of 90° about the crease line 24b and possibly adhered together in order to form together a bottom wall of the box, which is orthogonal to the side wall, whose panels 10, 12 14, 16, 18 and 20 lie in respective vertical planes.

In a conventional way, the box whose side and bottom walls were formed as described above can then be filled with any kind of desired articles.

Finally, the box may be closed by folding the upper flaps 10a- 16a of 90° about the crease line 24a and possibly adhered together in order to form together an upper wall of the box, which is orthogonal to the side wall.

Naturally, the principles of the invention remaining the same, the details of construction and embodiments may be widely varied with respect to those described purely by way of example, without thereby departing from the claimed scope. In particular, any portion of one or more side panels can be removed in order to allow to see the content of the box and provide aesthetic effects which are able to capture the attention of the public. Also, the shape of the upper and lower flaps may be varied, provided that they allow the formation of the upper and lower wall of the box.