AU1841501A - A container - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Invention Title: AMCOR Limited Gordon Mellis CULLEN CO., Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, 239 George Street, Brisbane, QId. 4000, Australia.

A CONTAINER The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: A CONTAINER Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to containers made from a blank of foldable material and, in particular, to stackable containers.

The invention has been developed primarily for use in conjunction with a pallet and will be described hereinafter with reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular use.

Description of the Prior Art The use of pallets for bulk storage and transport purposes is wide spread in many industries. Containers are often stacked on the pallets, which can be lifted and moved by forklifts and the like. Also, loaded pallets are often stacked upon each other so that an upper pallet rests upon the containers stacked on a lower pallet.

•Containers that are stacked on the pallets often contain items that are susceptible to damage if they are subjected to a compressive load.

The containers, which are often inexpensive cardboard boxes or the like, provide only limited protection to the items stored within. If the containers are subjected to a compressive load of sufficient magnitude they are prone to collapse, which often results in the contents of the collapsed container being damaged. In order to reduce the probability of a container collapsing when the container is stored on a pallet the compressive load that the container is subjected to must be limited to an acceptable range. To accomplish this the S- number of containers stacked on a particular pallet is reduced and loaded pallets are not stacked upon each other. These methods of reducing the load have the undesirable effect of increasing the amount of floor space required to store the containers or require the use of expensive shelving systems, which leads to increased storage costs.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to substantially overcome, or at least ameliorate, one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art.

Summary of the Invention According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a container made from a plurality of blanks of a foldable material, the container having: a first pair of opposed side walls, each side wall having a main panel and a pair of edge formations hinged to opposing edges of the main panel, and each edge formation being configurable to form a post; a second pair of opposed side walls, each side wall having a main panel and a pair of attachment flaps hinged to opposing edges of the main panel, whereby to erect the container from the first and second pairs of opposed side walls, the attachment flaps of the side walls of the second pair of opposed side walls are attached to adjacent main panels of the side walls of the first pair of opposed side walls.

Preferably, each edge formation consists of a series of panels olooo S•hinged to each other. The series of panels may consist of: i first panel; a second panel hinged to the first panel about a fold line; a third panel hinged to the second panel about a fold line; and a fourth panel hinged to the third panel about a fold line, wherein the first panel is hinged to an edge of a main panel about a fold line. The first panel may be attached to an inner face of a main panel of an adjacent side wall of the second pair of opposed side walls. The fourth panel may be attached to an inner face of the main panel to which the first panel is hinged.

The first, second, third and fourth panels may be configured to form an openended prism. The prism may have a triangular cross-section. The triangular cross-section may correspond to a right angle triangle. The prism may have a quadrilateral cross-section.

Preferably, the main panel of at least one pair of opposed side wall panels consists of two minor panels that are hinged together about a fold line.

Preferably, a pair of flaps is hinged to opposing edges of at least one main panel.

Preferably, each main panel of at least one of the pairs of opposed side walls has at least one holding aperture.

Preferably, each one of the second pair of opposed side walls has a pair of spacer panels hinged to opposing edges of the main panel of the associated side walls, and has an attachment panel hinged to a free edge of the spacer panel.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood and put into practice, a preferred embodiment thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 is a plan view of a first blank according to a first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a plan view of a second blank according to a first •embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a container according to a first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 4 illustrates the container of Fig. 3 in a partially collapsed configuration.

Fig. 5 illustrates the container of Fig. 3 with flap panels folded.

Fig. 6 illustrates the container of Fig. 5 with longer flap panels.

Ti Detailed Description Blank 10 of Fig. 1 has a main panel 11, a pair of flaps 12 and a ,pair of first panels 13. Flaps 12 are hinged to main panel 11 about fold lines 17 while first panels 13 are hinged to main panel 11 about fold lines 18.

Second panels 14 are hinged to first panels 13 about fold lines 19. Third panels 15 are hinged to second panels 14 about fold lines Fourth panels 16 are hinged to third panels 15 about fold lines 21.

Holding apertures 22 are formed in main panel 11 by partially removing a portion 23 so that portion 23 remains attached to main panel 11 by portion 24.

Blank 40 of Fig. 2 has a main panel 41, a pair of flaps 42 and a pair of spacer panels 43. Main panel 41 consists of two minor panels that are hinged about a fold line 48.

Flaps 42 are hinged to main panel 41 about fold lines 47. Fold line 48 extends through flaps 42. Spacer panels 43 are hinged to main panel 41 about fold lines 45. Attachment panels 44 are hinged to spacer panels 43 about fold lines 46.

Container 50 in Fig. 3 is formed from two of the blanks illustrated in Fig. 1 and two of the blanks 40 illustrated in Fig. 2.

To construct container 50 panels 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the first and second blanks 10 are folded towards an interior surface of the main panel 11 along fold lines 18, 19, 20 and 21, respectively. The dimensions of panels 13, 14, 15 and 16 are such that, when folded, the panels 13, 14, 15 and 16 form a support post 51 whose cross-section corresponds to a right angle triangle. Panels 13 and 16 form the sides of the right angle triangle while panels 14 and 15 form the hypotenuse of the right angle triangle.

Panel 16 may be attached to the interior face of the main panel 11 by any suitable method such as gluing or stapling.

20 Alternatively, panels 13, 14, 15 and 16 may be configured to form a post 51 having a quadrilateral cross-section. For example, panels 13, 14, 15 and 16 may be configured to form a post 51 having a rectangular S.cross-section.

Panels 44 of the third and fourth blanks 40 are folded towards an interior surface of main panel 41 along fold lines 46 so that panels 44 are at right angles to main panel 41. Panels 44 are then attached to an exterior face of main panels 11 of the first and second blanks 10 by any suitable method such as gluing or stapling. Blanks 10 and 40 are configured so that fold lines 18 of the first and second blanks 10 substantially coincide with fold lines 46 of the third and fourth blanks Panels 13 of the first and second blanks 10 are attached to main panels 41 of the third and fourth blanks 40 by any suitable method such as gluing or stapling.

Two or more containers 50 can be stacked together, in which case posts 51 of the lower containers 50 assist in supporting the upper containers Fig. 4 illustrates the container 50 of Fig. 3 in a partially collapsed configuration. Panels 41 of the third and fourth blanks 40 are folded along fold lines 48 causing panels 11 of the first and second blanks 10 to move toward each other. As panels 41 are folded the angle between panels 13 and 16 decreases and panels 14, 15 move out of alignment with each other. If lo container 50 is completely collapsed panels 13 and 14 lie upon panels 15 and 16 so that post 51 is also collapsed. Panels 43 function as a spacer between panels 41 and panels 11 so that the thickness of panels 13 to 16 in the collapsed configuration does not prevent panels 41 from folding along fold lines 48.

15 Fig. 5 illustrates the container 50 of Fig. 3 with flaps 12, 42 Sfolded at right angles to panels 11, 41 along fold lines 17,47.

Container 60 of Fig. 6 is identical to container 50 of Fig. 5 except flaps 12, 42 of container 60 are wider than flaps 12, 42 of container The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the art, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. For S: example, the dimensions of panels 13, 14, 15 and 16 could be such that Spanels 13, 14, 15 and 16 form a support post 51 having a quadrilateral crosssection.

Claims (14)

1. A container made from a plurality of blanks of a foldable material, the container having: a first pair of opposed side walls, each side wall having a main panel and a pair of edge formations hinged to opposing edges of the main panel, and each edge formation being configurable to form a post; a second pair of opposed side walls, each side wall having a main panel and a pair of attachment flaps hinged to opposing edges of the main panel, whereby to erect the container from the first and second pairs of opposed side walls, the attachment flaps of the side walls of the second pair of opposed side walls are attached to adjacent main panels of the side walls of the first pair of opposed side walls.

2. The container of claim 1, wherein each edge formation consists of a series of panels hinged to each other.

3. The container of claim 2, wherein the series of panels consists "of: a first panel; a second panel hinged to the first panel about a fold line; a third panel hinged to the second panel about a fold line; and 20 a fourth panel hinged to the third panel about a fold line, wherein the first panel is hinged to an edge of a main panel about a fold line.

4. The container of claim 3, wherein the first panel is attached to an inner face of a main panel of an adjacent side wall of the second pair of opposed side walls. 0 .0 25

5. The container of claim 3, wherein the fourth panel is attached to an inner face of the main panel to which the first panel is hinged.

6. The container of any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the first, second, third and fourth panels are configured to form an open-ended prism.

7. The container of claim 6, wherein the prism has a triangular cross-section.

8. The container of claim 7, wherein the triangular cross-section corresponds to a right angle triangle. 8

9. The container of claim 6, wherein the prism has a quadrilateral cross-section.

The container of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein each main panel of at least one pair of opposed side wall panels consists of two minor panels that are hinged together about a fold line.

11. The container of any one of claims 1 to 10 having a pair of flaps hinged to opposing edges of at least one main panel.

12. The container of claim 11, wherein the flaps extend at least partially across the container.

13. The container of any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein each main panel of at least one of the pairs of opposed side walls has at least one holding aperture.

14. The container of any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein each one of the second pair of opposed side walls has a pair of spacer panels hinged to opposing edges of the main panel of the associated side walls, and has an attachment panel hinged to a free edge of the spacer panel. 6%go A container substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments as that embodiment is illustrated in the drawings. 20 DATED this 8 day of February 2001 AMCOR LIMITED By their Patent Attorneys CULLEN CO.