A packaging problem of this type exists relatively often in the packaging industry, in particular in the case of sensitive measuring instruments. Wood fiber used to be used extensively in this case. However, wood fiber is relatively expensive and crumbles during use so that it is not suited for every article to be packaged. Plastic, for example polyestyrol, has therefore, for a long time, very often been used in the place of wood fiber, which plastic is provided in large quantities of small pieces and is filled into the packaging cavities. If the individual plastic pieces are dimensioned advantageously, then a relatively loose and light structure is provided by these plastic pieces in the remaining cavities of the packaging containers, which structure, however, at the same time is capable of guaranteeing a stable positioning of the packaged article, if the packaging material is used correctly.
Unfortunately, such plastic parts are environmentally incompatible; they are not at all suited for disposal. Also, repeated use of such plastic pieces has up to now not been successful because the plastic pieces, when used again, are no longer sufficiently elastic and have permanent deformations in them which result in a substantially dense packaging of the plastic pieces. Further, the pieces, just like the wood fiber, have the tendency to crumble.
A method for the manufacture of a shock-absorbing packaging cushion is known from DE-C-38 39 225, which cushion consists of a natural, environmentally protecting disposable fill material and a cover material manufactured of a tear-resistant strip of paper. The strip of paper is thereby bent at lines extending parallel to one another to form a tube and the free, projecting end regions are connected flat with one another.
When straw or blade-like products are used as fill, in order to prevent these products from piercing through the cover material, and to avoid the danger of the cover tearing open and the fill material falling out of the cover, the blade-like products are shortened and are split open by crushing the length. The flatly connected end regions of the strip of paper are prior to their connection bent toward one another through further fold lines, are bent outwardly and fastened to the tubular cover, with the ends of the filled tube being sealed off.
The known packaging material is expensive, because here the blade-like products must first be pretreated, creating thereby due to the crushing a lot of dust particles, which are particularly disadvantageous for later use. Moreover, this known packaging requires an extremely tear-resistance paper, which has a negative effect on the shock-absorbing characteristic of the packaging material.