Spacing support for packs for rod-shaped articles, container comprising a spacing support and method for assembling a spacing support

Abstract

A spacing support for packs for rod-shaped articles, the spacing support comprising a pair of side walls extends from a bottom wall, thereby forming a housing for supporting and accommodating a plurality of packs arranged in two adjacent rows, the housing comprising an access aperture through which the packs may be introduced into and extracted from the housing. At least one of the side walls comprises a plurality of positioning elements projecting towards the inside of the housing, wherein the positioning elements are configured to delimit positioning sections in which the packs may be held, and wherein the positioning elements are made as one predefined strip connected with the at least one of the side walls and a further wall of the housing. Also disclosed is a container comprising a spacing support and a method for manufacturing a spacing support.

1 . A spacing support for packs for rod-shaped articles, the spacing support comprising a pair of side walls extending from a bottom wall, thereby forming a housing for supporting and accommodating a plurality of packs arranged in two adjacent rows, the housing comprising an access aperture through which the packs may be introduced into and extracted from the housing;
 wherein at least one of the side walls comprises a plurality of positioning elements projecting towards an inside of the housing, wherein the positioning elements are configured to delimit positioning sections in which the packs may be held, wherein the positioning elements are made as one predefined strip connected with the at least one of the side walls and a further wall of the housing, and wherein positioning elements of the plurality of positioning elements are formed in a Z-shape.   
     
     
         2 . The spacing support according to  claim 1 , wherein the predefined strips are connected with the spacing support at both of their longitudinal ends. 
     
     
         3 . The spacing support according to  claim 2 , wherein one end of the longitudinal ends of the predefined strips is connected with the at least one side wall of the housing and another end of the longitudinal ends is connected with the bottom wall of the housing. 
     
     
         4 . The spacing support according to  claim 1 , wherein each positioning element of the plurality of positioning element is formed in a Z shape. 
     
     
         5 . The spacing support according to  claim 1 , wherein the Z-shaped positioning elements are asymmetric, wherein a first section and a last section of three sections forming the Z-shaped positioning element, have different lengths. 
     
     
         6 . The spacing support according to  claim 1 , wherein the longitudinal ends of the predefined strips are formed integrally with the at least one side wall or the further wall of the spacing support. 
     
     
         7 . The spacing support according to  claim 1 , wherein both of the side walls of the housing comprise a plurality of positioning elements, and wherein each of the plurality of positioning element is made as one predefined strip connected with the respective one of two side walls and the further wall of the housing. 
     
     
         8 . The spacing support according to  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of positioning element projects inwards and extends into the housing less than half of a width of the bottom wall, wherein the width of the bottom wall extends perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the housing. 
     
     
         9 . The spacing support according to  claim 2 , wherein the housing comprises two compartments arranged adjacent to each other, each compartment for accommodating one of the two rows of packs, wherein each compartment is formed by a pair of side walls extending from a portion of the bottom wall, wherein a side wall of each pair of side walls comprises a plurality of positioning elements. 
     
     
         10 . The spacing support according to  claim 9 , wherein each one of the longitudinal ends of the predefined strips is connected with the side wall of the pair of side walls of the two compartments comprising the plurality of positioning elements and each other one of the longitudinal ends of the predefined strips is connected with the portion of the bottom wall of each compartment. 
     
     
         11 . A container for packs for rod-shaped articles comprising a body accommodating a spacing support according to  claim 1  and a plurality of packs for rod-shaped articles accommodated in the spacing support. 
     
     
         12 . The container according to  claim 11 , wherein the positioning elements of the spacing support forms positioning sections along a longitudinal direction of the housing in which positioning section a pack is held, wherein the positioning elements are arranged at a fixed distance, which distance is greater than a size of the packs measured along the longitudinal direction of the housing. 
     
     
         13 . The container according to  claim 11 , wherein a top wall of the packs projects beyond a top edge of the side walls of the spacing support at the access aperture. 
     
     
         14 . A method for assembling a spacing support according to  claim 1  with a plurality of packs for rod-shaped articles, comprising
 forming a housing for two adjacent rows of packs for rod-shaped articles by folding respective contiguous and adjacent walls of a blank of sheet material into a shape of a ‘U’ along folding lines, the walls forming a bottom wall and two side walls extending from the bottom wall; 
 introducing an aligned group of packs for rod-shaped articles into the housing; then 
 pushing by pushing elements predefined strip portions of at least one side wall into an interior of the housing thereby forming Z-shaped positioning elements in between adjacently arranged packs.