AU2021100888A4 - Lightweight casket having foldable features - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a modified flat packed cremation casket which is shipped ready for rapid assembly at funeral homes and crematoriums. 0 -C aA)a a) I I I SV) zo- m~ n 0 mV 0I -C V m O o I r~J II 00I LrII LLI IIY

Description

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LIGHTWEIGHT CASKET HAVING FOLDABLE FEATURES FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to cremation and burial caskets for humans

and pets, and more particularly, to the surface-decoration of flat-packed corrugated

fibreboard and medium density fibreboard and particleboard caskets.

.0

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Caskets and cremation containers are constructed from a plurality of materials,

including metal, wicker, engineered wood, honeycomb fibreboard and corrugated

.5 fibreboard.

As the world and communities become more environmentally conscious, there is

growing need to provide environmentally-friendly products and processes. No less is

this need true than in the case of a deceased person when deciding whether to

cremate or bury the deceased.

The decision to cremate the deceased is determined by family members or

individuals by choice or by religious beliefs, custom or tradition. For environmental

reasons, it is preferable to use only those materials which are fully combustible and

non-toxic during cremation of the body.

It is not economical to pre-assemble cremation caskets and ship mostly air when

transporting the caskets from manufacturer to funeral home. A better method is to ship lightweight caskets flat-packed and to empower funeral home operators to quickly assemble the caskets without glue or special tools, in under three minutes.

Caskets are then only assembled just before a cremation or burial is required, to

save on restricted floor space.

Another alternative is to use a rental casket for the funeral service and use a

disposable corrugated cardboard casket insert that is taken out with the body and

cremated.

There are also multiple versions of funeral coffins and caskets that use medium

.0 density fiberboard, timber, metal or other materials. However, these versions have

one or more of the following problems: high-cost to transport fully-assembled, non

combustible hinges, slow burning, high storage costs.

Therefore, there is a clear need in the industry for an environmentally-friendly,

quick-combustible or biodegradable casket that can be shipped flat-packed and used

.5 for either burials and cremations.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is growing global demand amongst consumers for either custom printing, do

it-yourself painting and pen or marker decoration of funeral caskets, prior to a funeral

service. This includes for both engineered wood and corrugated fibreboard caskets.

Funeral arrangers need to be confident that a decorated casket or coffin that has

been returned to them from a family or person, has not had its structural integrity reduced through the addition of water-based paints or inks, that have the potential to reduce glue bonding between panels that make up the casket or coffin.

Wrapping a casket with a self-adhesive film, commonly polyvinyl chloride,

polyurethane or a polyolefin film is considered planet-destructive, as these films do

not naturally biodegrade or incinerate without noxious out-gassing occurring.

This invention is for a coffin or casket sleeve made from corrugated fibreboard. The

sleeve replaces the traditional lid and now functions as a lid, folds into a shoebox lid

.0 shape and slides over the top and sides of a casket base, with the sides of the

sleeve/lid extending down most of the sides of the coffin or casket base walls. The

sleeve does not reduce the structural integrity of the base section of the coffin or

casket.

.5 Four slots are pre-cut into the sides of the lid or sleeve, two on each side, to allow for

carry handles made from rope, twine, ABS, or wood, to protrude through the sides of

the lid.

Barbed-pins will push in the four bottom corners of the outer sleeve and into the side

walls of the base of the casket, to stop the sleeve from lifting up after a body is

placed into the casket. The sleeve slides over the base and covers most or all of the

base section side-walls.

Sleeves are die-cut, folded and transported flat-packed to families, artists,

photographers, printers and funeral homes, to allow for their surface decoration,

independent of the structural base section of the casket.

The advantage of the slidable sleeve is that the sleeve, functionally as a typical lid,

and as a separate portion to the base of the casket, may be used by relatives or

friends of the deceased to decorate the casket, without compromising on the

strength of the casket.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the casket sleeve which has been die-cut and

.0 score-creased to allow it to fold into a thin panel for packing into a shipper box as an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows the assembled casket sleeve as an embodiment of the present

invention.

Figure 3 shows the base as an embodiment of the present invention

.5

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention,

reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings and

described in the following written description. It is understood that no limitation to the

scope of the invention is thereby intended. It is further understood that the present

invention includes any alterations and modifications to the illustrated embodiments

and includes further applications of the principles of the invention as would normally

occur to one skilled in the art to which this invention pertains.

The present invention provides a decorative sleeve or lid that slides over the base of

a burial or cremation casket which acts functionally as a casket lid but which allows

decoration by persons without requiring to have the casket base in their possession

at the same time. The funeral homes prefer to keep the base section as they do not

want its structural integrity compromised with decorative paints.

The sleeve may be produced from either honeycomb paperboard or corrugated

fibreboard.

.0 Thus, the decorative sleeve also functions as a lid with a flat top. The sides of the

lid/sleeve extend downwards in a vertical pane, to cover at least 80% of the surface

area of the four sides of the casket base section.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the flat-packed casket sleeve which has been

.5 die-cut and score-creased to allow it to fold into a thin panel for packing into a

shipper box as an embodiment of the present invention.

The sleeve with 5 sides basically slides and fits on top and over the outer four walls of the base.

The flat panel folds into a 5-sided box that slides over the base of a rectangular

corrugated fibreboard or honeycomb paperboard casket base. As shown in Figure 1,

after being decorated and shipped flat-packed to a funeral arranger, the sleeve (8) is

opened up and placed on top of the casket base. The four sides of the lid (1, 3) are

then folded down (4, 5) to form a boxed sleeve (8), which slides over the base. The

pre-cut slots (2) on the side of the sleeve (8) allow carry handles (9) made from any

material (rope, ABS, wood, bamboo) to protrude through the slots.

The lid is usually decorated before it is folded, using pens, pencils, coloured

markers, cardboard cut-outs, water-based paints, dried plants or digital printing inks.

The double-crease line shown in Figure 1 allows the lid sides to be folded 180

degrees back into a flat panel for cost-effective transport with minimum air trapped

inside.

Parallel crease lines (4) allow the lid to fold to 180% degrees for flat-pack shipping.

Single crease lines (5) allow the flap section, which is part of the lid, to fold to 90

degrees only.

The small side flaps (6) fold 90 degrees to a vertical position (perpendicular to the

.0 ground) BEFORE the head and feet flaps (3) fold 90 degrees to a vertical

position. The side flaps (6) are then fastened to the head and feet flaps

using adhesive, velcro or barbed push pins.

In Figure 3, the carry handles (9), manufactured from rope, ABS or timber, protrude

through the holes (2) in the sidewall of the lid (Figure 2).

.5 Basically, the cremation casket according to the present invention is environmentally

friendly, strong, light weight and easy to store. Rather than pre-assembled, the

casket according to the present invention is flat-packed making it best-suited for

shipping and transportation direct to funeral homes, resulting in large transport cost

savings and efficiency in storage and distribution.

The design of the casket according to the present invention enables funeral homes

to store up to 33 pre-packed caskets, upright on a shipping pallet with a surface area

under 1.5sqm. Each triple pack measures approximately 1910x1100x80mm. Each

casket is substantially rectangular when assembled.

The inside of the casket including base, walls and the sleeve may be lined with any

suitable material such as is typically used in funeral caskets.

Carry handles may be attached in one of multiple ways to the side walls of the

assembled main section. ABS injection-moulded handles are attached with metal

screws, bolts and washers, to the side walls of the casket. Alternatively, ropes made

from cotton or hessian are inserted into the side walls with knots tied on the ends to

prevent them from pulling out of the sidewall. Two layered blocks of honeycomb

fibreboad or corrugated fibreboard are glued to the inside side-walls to strengthen

.0 the side-wall and prevent the rope knots or washers with bolts from pulling through

the sidewalls.

The design specifically allows for flat-packability to reduce transport cost.

.5 The present invention provides a new corrugated fibreboard casket design,

optimised for both cremations and eco-burials. It includes a new shoebox style lid

which assembles with a "crash-lock" fold, without the need for fasteners.

The casket may be fully assembled, without use of any tools or adhesives, in about

less than 3 minutes. The casket assembly comprises fastening means such as zip

ties and barbed push pins or clips. The base is pre-lined with polyethylene plastic

liner to act as a protective waterproof liner for body fluids.

Legend

Figures 1 and 2

1 - lid side flap

2 - slot for carry handles 3 - head and feet flap 4- parallel crease line 5 - single crease line 6 - head and feet side flap 7 - top of lid

8-sleeve

9 -handle

10-casket base

.0

While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the specific features of

the preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated that many additional features can

be added and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiment

without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other changes in

.5 the preferred embodiment of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the

art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the

foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the

invention and not as a limitation.

z0

Claims (1)

1. Claims

   The claims defining the invention are as follows:

   Claim 1

   A cremation casket or coffin assembly, comprising:

   a main section containing a sleeve member formed of a paper honeycomb or

   corrugated fibreboard material, the sleeve having a front wall, a back wall and two

   side walls, the walls being generally vertical and generally perpendicular to a bottom

   .0 or base panel;

   said sleeve functions as a lid, folds into a shoebox lid shape and slides over the top

   and sides of the casket base, with the sides of the sleeve/lid extending down most of

   the sides of the coffin or casket.

   .5 Claim 2

   The assembly according to claim 1 wherein four slots are pre-cut into the sides of the

   sleeve, two on each side, to allow for carry handles made from rope, twine, ABS, or

   wood, to protrude through the sides of the sleeve.

   Claim 3

   The assembly according to claim 1 wherein four barbed-pins will push in the bottom

   corners of the outer sleeve and into the side walls of the base of the casket to stop

   the sleeve from lifting up after a body is placed into the casket.

   Claim 4

   The assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the sleeve section

   comprises one or more fold lines to allow a pre-folded cut-out to be folded down to

   form a smaller dimension bundle for shipping.

   Claim 5

   The assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the assembly comprises

   support structures which are inside the casket and which form the skeleton of the

   .0 casket and give the casket its strength such that a big rectangular section is glued

   into the base where the body lies on; two smaller rectangular sections are glued to

   the side walls of the base; the corrugated fibreboard flute direction of these support

   structures runs opposite to the flute direction of the base panel providing a cross

   fluting effect which gives the casket its strength; and the smaller rectangular sections

   .5 are glued under the lid to provide extra support, utilizing the same cross

   fluting technique.

   Fig 1

   1 2 2

   5

   3

   Legend

   1 - lid side flap 2 - slot for carry handles 3 - head and feet flap 4- parallel crease line 5 - single crease line 6 - head and feet side flap 7 - top of lid

   3

   7 4 6 2 2 1

   Fig. 2

   7

   2 3

   Fig. 3 - Casket Base

   10