JP7489122B2 - Blister Pack - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a blister pack that holds and stores everyday items and other products that are displayed in stores.

Blister packs are widely used as packaging to hold everyday items and other products in a stored state when they are displayed for sale in stores. A typical structure is a plastic blister that contains the product, joined to a backing that holds the items contained in the blister.

However, in recent years, the adverse effects of plastic products on the environment have come into question, and there is now a demand for the blisters in blister packs to have a smaller environmental impact.

In response to the above demands, Patent Document 1 proposes a paper blister pack made entirely of paperboard. This blister pack is made by folding a paperboard blank into a polygonal shape to form a blister, and then attaching a strip of adhesive that runs along the periphery of the side wall of the blister to a backing paper.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-321922

The blister pack proposed in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1 has a low environmental impact because not only the backing but also the blisters are made of paper. However, because the blisters are formed by folding paperboard, it takes more time to produce the blisters than conventional plastic blisters, and the blisters tend to be inferior in terms of design.

In addition, gaps form between the side walls of the blister, allowing dust and other particles to easily get into the blister and exposing it to fraudulent activity. To address this issue, the gaps can be eliminated by providing a glue strip between the side walls and gluing them together. However, this increases the effort required to fold the blank when making the blister, and also adds the task of gluing the side walls together, further reducing work efficiency.

Therefore, the objective of the present invention is to provide a blister pack that has a low environmental impact, is highly aesthetically pleasing, and is easy to manufacture.

In order to solve the above problems, the blister pack of the present invention is made of a pulp molded product and comprises a blister having a cup-shaped main body for accommodating an article, and a backing sheet for holding the article accommodated within the main body of the blister, the blister having a flange portion that protrudes outward from the periphery of the opening of the main body, the backing sheet comprising a top sheet piece with a window through which the main body of the blister passes, and a back sheet piece on which the top sheet piece is superimposed, the main body of the blister protrudes from the window of the top sheet piece, the opening of the main body of the blister is blocked by the back sheet piece, and the top sheet piece and the back sheet piece are joined together while the flange portion of the blister is sandwiched between the top sheet piece and the back sheet piece.

With the above configuration, not only the mount but also the blisters are made of paper, which means that the burden on the environment is smaller than when plastic blisters are used. Moreover, because the blisters are made of pulp molded products, a wider variety of gap-free three-dimensional shapes and various surface shapes can be easily achieved by press processing, compared to blisters formed by folding paperboard as described above. Also, attaching the blister to the mount can be easily done by simply joining the front sheet piece and back sheet piece of the mount that sandwich the flange portion of the blister.

Here, it is desirable that the flange portion of the blister is formed so that its thickness gradually decreases outward. In this way, the difference in level between the portion where the front sheet piece and the back sheet piece of the mount are directly joined and the portion where the flange portion of the blister is sandwiched is reduced, resulting in a good appearance.

As a method for removing the stored item, the back sheet piece may be partitioned by perforations into a lid portion that covers the opening of the blister and the peripheral portion surrounding the lid portion, and the lid portion may be formed with a knob portion that protrudes from the joint surface with the front sheet piece. The knob portion of the back sheet piece may be grasped, and the perforation may be cut while the lid portion is pulled away from the blister, allowing the item to be removed from the opening of the main body of the blister.

As described above, the blister pack of the present invention has blisters made of pulp molded products, and the flange of the blister is sandwiched between a front sheet piece of a mount through which the main body of the blister passes and a back sheet piece of the mount that covers the opening of the main body of the blister, and the front sheet piece and back sheet piece are joined together. This means that the environmental impact is smaller than that of a blister made of plastic, and compared to a blister made by folding paperboard, the blister pack has excellent design and is easier to manufacture.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a blister pack according to an embodiment; FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the blister pack of FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the blister pack of FIG. 1 as seen from the back side. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part illustrating the pressing process of the blister of FIG. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a bonding process of the mount shown in FIG.

The following describes an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. The blister pack 1 is used to store items (for example, everyday items displayed in stores) and, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, includes a blister 10 made of a pulp molded product and a backing 20 to which the blister 10 is attached.

The blister 10 has a main body 11 that contains an item (not shown) and is formed in a circular cup shape in a plan view, and a flange 12 that protrudes outward is formed on the periphery of the opening of the main body 11. The thickness of the flange 12 is gradually reduced outward (see Figure 4).

The backing sheet 20 is made by folding a roughly rectangular blank of cardboard material at the center in the longitudinal direction to separate it into a top sheet piece 21 and a back sheet piece 22 onto which the top sheet piece 21 is superimposed. A circular window 23 is opened in the center of the top sheet piece 21 to allow the main body 11 of the blister 10 to pass through.

Then, the main body 11 of the blister 10 is protruded from the window 23 of the top sheet piece 21, the opening of the main body 11 of the blister 10 is blocked with the back sheet piece 22, and the flange portion 12 of the blister 10 is sandwiched between the top sheet piece 21 and the back sheet piece 22, and the top sheet piece 21 and the back sheet piece 22 are joined together (see Figure 5), so that the items contained in the main body 11 of the blister 10 are held by the backing paper 20.

In addition, small holes 24, 25 are made in the front sheet piece 21 and the back sheet piece 22 at corresponding positions near the respective folded portions, and by overlapping and joining the two sheet pieces 21, 22, a locking hole is formed through which a hanger or the like can be passed when the blister pack 1 is displayed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the back sheet piece 22 is divided by perforations 28 into a lid portion 26 that covers the opening of the blister 10 and a peripheral portion 27 surrounding the lid portion 26, and the lid portion 26 is formed with a knob portion 29 that protrudes from the joint surface with the front sheet piece 21. Therefore, an item can be removed from the opening of the main body portion 11 of the blister 10 by pinching the knob portion 29 of the back sheet piece 22 with fingers and pulling the lid portion 26 away from the blister 10 while cutting the perforations 28.

Next, the manufacturing procedure for this blister pack 1 will be described. When manufacturing the blister pack 1, the blister 10 and backing paper 20 are prepared in advance. The method of manufacturing the blister 10 is the same as that of a typical pulp molded product, in which raw materials such as waste paper are dissolved in water to make a pulp slurry (a fluid containing pulp fibers), the pulp slurry is treated to remove foreign matter, and the pulp fibers are removed to form a pulp molded intermediate product. The pulp molded intermediate product is then pressed to make a pulp molded product, which is then punched out to produce a finished product.

In the above-mentioned press processing step, as shown in Figure 4, the pulp molded intermediate product is sandwiched between upper and lower dies 2 and 3, which have processing surface shapes corresponding to the product shape, and pressed at a specified temperature and pressure. The shape of the flange portion 12 of the blister 10, which gradually becomes thinner toward the outside, is also formed in this process.

On the other hand, the backing 20 is made by punching out a paperboard with a print on its surface into a predetermined shape, making cuts in the blank around the perforations 28 and the tab 29, and applying adhesive 6 (see Figure 5) to the non-printed surface of the peripheral portion 27 of the back sheet piece 22. A water-based glue that has a small environmental impact is used as the adhesive 6.

The blister 10 and the mount 20 thus prepared are assembled by first passing the body 11 of the blister 10 containing the article through the window 23 of the top sheet piece 21 of the mount 20, folding the mount 20 at the center position in the longitudinal direction to overlap the top sheet piece 21 and the back sheet piece 22 with their non-printed surfaces facing each other to form an intermediate assembly. Next, as shown in FIG. 5, this intermediate assembly is pressed with an upper die 4 having a recess 4a slightly larger than the body 11 of the blister 10, and a lower die 5 having a flat upper surface. At this time, the upper die 4 is heated in advance with a heater, so that the adhesive 6 between the top sheet piece 21 and the back sheet piece 22 of the mount 20 is softened by the heat transmitted from the upper die 4, and the two sheet pieces 21 and 22 are bonded together with the flange portion 12 of the blister 10 sandwiched between them.

This blister pack 1 has the above-mentioned configuration, and since not only the backing 20 but also the blisters 10 are made of paper, it places a smaller burden on the environment than those that use plastic blisters. Furthermore, since the blister 10 is made of a pulp molded product, it can easily be made into a variety of three-dimensional shapes and surface shapes other than those in the embodiment, and can exhibit superior design properties to blisters formed by folding paperboard. In addition, since there are no gaps like those in paperboard products, there is no risk of dust or the like getting in or becoming a victim of fraud while the blister pack 1 is on display.

The blister 10 can be attached to the backing 20 simply by joining the front sheet piece 21 and the back sheet piece 22 of the backing 20 that sandwich the flange portion 12 of the blister 10, making it easy to manufacture the blister pack 1 as a whole.

Furthermore, the flange portion 12 of the blister 10 is formed so that its thickness gradually decreases outward, so that there is a small difference in level between the portion where the front sheet piece 21 and the back sheet piece 22 of the backing paper 20 are directly joined and the portion where the flange portion 12 of the blister 10 is sandwiched between them, resulting in a good appearance.

The embodiments disclosed herein should be considered to be illustrative and not restrictive in all respects. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the claims, not by the meaning described above, and is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope of the claims.

For example, the means for removing the item from the blister is not limited to that described in the embodiment, but can be a method of opening the blister by cutting the backing along a perforation.

Reference Signs List 1 Blister pack 2, 3, 4, 5 Mold 6 Adhesive 10 Blister 11 Body 12 Flange 20 Mount 21 Surface sheet piece 22 Back sheet piece 23 Window 26 Lid 27 Periphery 28 Perforation 29 Handle

Claims (2)

The container is made of a pulp molded product and includes a blister having a cup-shaped main body for accommodating an article, and a backing for holding the article accommodated in the main body of the blister;
The blister has a flange portion that protrudes outward from the periphery of the opening of the main body,
The mount comprises a top sheet piece having a window through which the main body of the blister passes, and a back sheet piece on which the top sheet piece is overlapped,
a body portion of the blister is protruded from a window in the top sheet piece, an opening of the body portion of the blister is closed with the back sheet piece, and a flange portion of the blister is sandwiched between the top sheet piece and the back sheet piece, and the top sheet piece and the back sheet piece are joined together ,
The flange portion of the blister is formed so that its thickness gradually decreases toward the outside,
A blister pack characterized in that an inner edge of the top sheet piece facing the window is inclined to follow the inclination of the flange portion . The back sheet piece has a lid portion covering the opening of the blister and a peripheral portion around the lid portion, the lid portion being partitioned by a perforation, and a tab portion protruding from a joint surface between the lid portion and the front sheet piece is formed on the lid portion,
The blister pack according to claim 1, characterized in that an article can be removed from the opening in the main body of the blister by pinching the tab of the back sheet piece with fingers and pulling the lid portion away from the blister while cutting the perforation.

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