US2706066A - Display and dispensing carton - Google Patents

Description

April 12, 1955 w. J. WELLS 2,706,066

DISPLAY AND DISPENSING CARTON Filed July 7, 1952 2'Sheets-Sheet 1 ,Z/ INVENTOR ATTORNEYS April 12, 1955 w. J. WELLS 2,706,066

DISPLAY AND DISPENSING CARTON Filed July 7, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 emu/u. PINK I BRIDAL rum ll l| ATTORNEYS nited States Patent DISPLAY ANDDISPENSING CARTON William John Wells, Buifalo, N. Y., assignor to F. N. Burt Company, Inc., Buffalo, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application July 7,1952, Serial No. 297,457

3 Claims. (Cl. 221-92) This invention relates to. packing, shipping, display, and dispensing cartons of the type in' which vendible articles or small package units may be packed for shipment and sale, the cartonsv presenting the articles or goods" in. an attractive display in the retailers storev and permitting the dispensing of items therefrom to the purchaser.

The general object of the invention is the provision of a novel and improved" display and dispensing container of the class described" which is of simple construction and assembly, which is easily and economically manufactured, and which greatly facilitates the packing of articles and packages of different grades, colors, flavors, or other characteristics, so. that they may be selectively dispensed in accordance with the preferences of the customers.v

In its preferred embodiment the invention contemplates the provision of an. outer enveloping carton member having suitable closure flaps at the top and bottom there of, and an inner carton member comprising one or more trays each containing a plurality of articles or packages of commodities of the same characteristics but differing in such characteristics from generally similar commodities in the other trays. Registering'openings in the several interior trays or enclosures and in the outer enclosing carton; member are provided whereby individual articles selected from the difierent trays may be removed, Without disturbing articles in. the other trays or interior compartments. I

Provision is preferably made" for the several groups of articles of the same characteristics contained respectively in the several internal trays to be arranged in a vertical stack, with the dispensing openings opposite the bottommost article in the particular tray, so that when the bottommost article is removed through the appropriate opening, the superposed items will descend by gravity so that. there will always be an article or package positioned opposite. the particular opening; until the supply of articles in the tray is exhausted.

Additionally, the invention. preferably provides other openings in the periphery of the various sections of the dispenser and opposite the. position of the" lowermost article of each series, for insertion of the lingers in order to eject or withdraw the article from the dispenser.

Other features which may be provided in the practice of. the present invention, include the provision of means for suspending the dispensing carton, means for linking the interior trays together, means for raising the: position of the lowermost tray above the bottom of the dispensing container, and closure means for the various parts of the device.

Other objects and features. of novelty will be apparent from the following specification when read in connection with the accompanying drawings in which one embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of. example.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view of a dispensing; carton embodying, the principles of the invention, the thickness: of the sheet material ofwhich the various parts of the carton are preferably composed being somewhat exaggerated for the sake of clearness of illustration on the scale on which the drawings are made;

Figure 2.is a vertical or longitudinal central section from front to rear of the carton shown in Figure 1, as taken on line 22 of that figure;

2,706,066 Patented Apr. 12, 1955 Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective; view of. the bottom of the external wrapper portion of the dispenser showing the flap closure means;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view on a smaller scale showing a modification of the top closure flapfor the purpose of suspending the dispensing carton from a Wall or other support;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of one of. the individual trays which go to make up the interior containing and. segregating means for the variousarticles;

Figure 6 is a plan view of a blank from which the tray shown in Figure 3 is made;

Figure 7 is a transverse vertical sectional view of a tray unit taken on line 77 of Figure 5;

Figure 8 is a view in rear elevation of one of the tray units with one of the closing, flaps in extended position; and

Figure 9 is a perspective view of a filler elementj adapted to be disposed within. the bottom portion of. the carton to support the lowermost tray unit in' a somewhat elevated position. i

For purposes of general reference, the novel dispensing combination is indicated as a Whole by the numeral 10 and, as probably best shown in Figure 2 of the drawings, the combination comprises an external enveloping carton member 11 which in the preferred embodiment comprises a vertically elongated rectangular prismatic box having a rear wall 12, side walls 13 and 14, and a front Wall 15. The outer enclosing carton member is also provided with a top tuck-in closure flap 18 having the usual tab 19 at the forward edge thereof insertable within the container in the normal closed position thereof.

The closure flap arrangement at the bottom of the container is shown very clearly in Figures 2 and 3 of the: drawings, the bottom tuck-in flap 20 being hinged at 21 to the opposite edge of the carton from the hinge point of the top flap l8, and the tab 22' being insertable in the usual way after the side flaps 23 and 24; are closed and interlocked. These side flaps are provided with interlocking tongues, the onev designated 25 being a part of the flap 24 and the tongue 26' being integral with the flap 23. It will be readily understood how the interengaging edges of the flaps 23 and 24. are constructed when it is understood that the outer edge of the flap 23 comprises the substantially rectilinear edge portion 23, the tongue 26, and the remaining substantially straight portion 29. The outer edge of the flap 24 is constituted by the substantially straight edge portion 30, the tongue 25, and the rectilinear remaining portion 31. The point designated 32 represents an acute angled notch which is provided between the tongue 25 and the edge portion 30 of one of the flaps and the Eongue portion 26 and the edge portion 29 of the other The novel dispensing container may be disposed upon a table or counter as suggested in, Figure l or it may be suspended from a wall or other support as indicated rather diagrammatically in Figure 4. For the latter purpose the upper flap 18 is provided with a crease 35 whereby it may be folded sharply as indicated in Figure 4 and this brings into close registry the holes 36. formed in the top flap upon either side of the crease line 35 and centrally of the top of the carton. When the flap 18 is opened out and the holes 36 are in registry, the entire carton may be suspended from a nail or hook 37 received through the holes or openings 36. In alternative arrangements a cord or ribbon may be passed through the openings 36 and the carton suspended thereby from any suitable support.

Disposed within the outer enveloping carton section 11 is a compartmented pre-assembled internal carton sec.- tion which may be designated generally by the reference numeral 40 and which in the illustrated embodiment comprises three separately formed but interconnected trays or container elements 42, one of these units being shown in perspective in Figure 5 of the drawings. Each of the units 42 is adapted to be packed before assembly at the particular department or source of manufacture or supply of the articles or sales units having the same characteristics, and then the several trays, each containing a plurality of units which differ in a major characteristic from the units in the other trays forming the insertable multiple member or cartridge 40, are brought together and interlocked and then inserted within the outer carton member 11.

The particular construction and arrangement of the individual article-containing trays will now be described. These trays are made up from the blanks 42A illustrated in Figure 6 of the drawings. The top wall of a tray is shown at 45, a side wall at 46, the bottom wall at 47, and another side wall at 48. A flap 49 is provided to overlap the edge of the wall 45 and to be glued or otherwise permanently secured thereto. The trays are all openfaced, not being provided with a front wall. The rear wall of each tray is comprised by the interlocking and overlapping of the various flaps 50, 51, 52, and 53. The illustrations in Figures 7 and 8 show very clearly how these flaps are interlocked to form the rear wall of the tray. The two flaps 50 and 52 are folded down into the plane of the rear wall and the notches 56 and 57 together form a rectan ular opening 60. Each of the two side flaps 51 and 53 is provided with oppositely extending tabs 62 and 63, the length of the flap at the tabbed portion thereof being slightly greater than the length of the rectangular opening 60. Thus when the two flaps 51 and 53 are bent toward and beyond the plane of the rear wall of the tray the tabs 62 and 63 will snap past the end edges of the opening 60 and lodge behind the flaps 50 and 52 and will be securely held in closed position as indicated in Figure 7 of the drawings.

For linking the trays together so that they may be more conveniently inserted in the outer casing 11, the top wall 45 of each trav is provided with a transverse slot 65 and the bottom wall with a curved slot 66, the effect of which is to provide a bendable tab 67 for insertion in the slot 65 of the next lower tray.

As shown best in Figure 1 of the drawings, the outer container section 11 is provided at spaced points throu hout its hei ht with cut-away portions which transsect the front wall of the container and also extend for a considerable distance along each side wall 13 and 14. The front Wall portion of this cut-away is indicated at 70 and the side wall portions at 71. The cut- aways 70, 71 are provided adjacent the lowermost portions of each of the interior trays 42 and are of a height approximating that of the articles or packages to be dispensed, these items, for the purpose of illustration, being small cylindrical fiat boxes 75 of face powder. As shown in Figure 2, there are four of these packages within each of the trays 42, the packages beingstacked vertically and the bottommost one being visible through the front openings 70 in the outer container. As previously described, the trays 42 have no front walls and therefore there is no obstruction to the passage of the lowermost article 75 forwardly through the opening 70.

To assist in ejecting the box or article, side openings 78 of somewhat limited extent are provided in the walls 46 and 48 of the tray 42 into which the fingers of the purchaser may be inserted in order to remove the article 75 through the front opening. As each of the lowermost articles is dispensed. the superposed articles descend within the trays, until the contents of the particular trays are exhausted.

As previously explained, the articles in the several trays 42 differ in essential characteristics, whether in color, flavor, or grade, and the different trays 42 may be filled in portions of the manufacturing or assembling plant where the items of the same characteristic are produced or stored. Then the trays from these different sources are brought together and interlinked and inserted in the outer cartons 11. The nature of the contents of the several compartments of the dispenser may be indicated upon the front wall 15 of the outer container section 11 as. for example, the tint designations 80 of the face powder within the boxes 75. It will be noted that the boxes obtainable from the uppermost compartment are designated Bridal Pink; those from the intermediate compartment Natural, and those from the lowermost compartment Brunette. In order to ensure that the proper trays 42 containing the articles of the externally posted descriptions are placed within the container in the proper order, the trays are also marked with similar legends as at 82 in Figure 5.

In order to prevent inadvertent ejection of the lowermost article 75 through the opening 70 if the entire dispensing arrangement were tilted forwardly, a very slightly protruding lip may be formed on the upper margin of the front opening 70, this lip exerting only a slight pressure upon the box 75, which incidentally may be domed slightly as shown, and this pressure will be sufficient to prevent the box from falling out of the carton but will not be enough to interfere with the purposeful removal of the box or article by the fingers when they are inserted through the side openings 71, 78.

In order to somewhat strengthen and reinforce the bottom construction of the dispenser and to raise the lowermost tray 42 to a position where the bottom article 75 may be withdrawn through the front opening 70, which is slightly above the bottom of the container, a filler element or pad is provided. This pad is merely a hollow block formed of a folded continuous strip of sheet material and inserted in the bottom of the container. Overlapping flaps 91 and 92 forming an end wall of the filler pad 90 may be glued together in order to retain the pad in set-up condition.

It will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments illustrated and described herein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.

, Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A display and dispensing carton for the selective dispensing of items such as articles or packages from a plurality of supplies of such items segregated according to characteristics, said carton comprising, in combination, an outer container having dispensing openings through which said articles may be removed in its front side wall at vertically spaced points along the height thereof, a removable inner container having a plurality of superposed compartments separated by horizontal partitions, each compartment adapted to contain superposed items of characteristics different from those of items in other compartments, openings in the front side wall of said inner container each affording access to one of said compartments and registering at least partially with one of said vertically spaced openings in the outer container, and registering side openings in the two side walls adjacent the front side wall of both the inner and outer containers at the same level as the respective openings in the front side wall of the outer container, the side openings in the outer compartment being extensions of the front openings but the side openings in the inner container being separate openings from the front openings therein, said inner container side openings thus being spaced from the front wall of the carton.

2. The carton as in claim 1 wherein the upper front margin of each of the openings in the outer container has an integral dependent lip thereon projecting slightly into the path of the items upon removal from said carton to prevent inadvertent ejection of the lowermost of said items from said compartments but permitting deliberate removal of the items therefrom.

3. In a carton comprising outer and inner containers having registering dispensing openings in the respective front walls thereof, the improvement comprising openings in the side walls of said outer compartment adiacent the front wall thereof which are extensions of said dispensing opening, and openings in the side walls of said inner compartment adjacent the front wall thereof which register with the side wall openings of said outer container but are separate from the inner compartment side wall openings, the inner container side wall openings thus being spaced from the front wall of the carton.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,898,056 Johnson Feb. 21, 1933 1,915,341 Walker June 27, 1933 1,934,362 Levkoff Nov. 7, 1933 1,956,642 Einson a May 1, 1934 1,973,641 Lock Sept. 11, 1934 2,046,751 Reichel July 7, 1936 2,214,380 Nisbet Sept. 10, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS 255,698 Italy Nov. 3, 1927

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