EP0523495A1

EP0523495A1 - Open cardboard container for fruit and vegetables

Info

Publication number: EP0523495A1
Application number: EP92111416A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Emilio De Rossi
Original assignee: ORTOPACK Srl
Current assignee: ORTOPACK Srl
Priority date: 1991-07-12
Filing date: 1992-07-06
Publication date: 1993-01-20
Also published as: IT222689Z2; ITMI910646U1; ITMI910646V0

Abstract

A cardboard container (10) with open spaces (10a) for packaging fruit and vegetables.
The cardboard container (10) is obtained from a creased blank and comprises a base panel (11), cross walls (12) and side walls (13) upwardly extending beyond said cross walls (12); upper covering strips (16) are parallel arranged to the base panel (11) and inwardly protruding reinforcement tabs (18) are provided for the side walls (13) to define open spaces (10a) for packaging fruit and/or vegetables to be stored; fruit - vegetables exhibiting openings (13a) are provided in the side walls (13).

Description

The present invention relates to a cardboard container, or similar material, for packaging fruits and vegetables, provided with a solidity that permits it to be stacked in sufficiently high and stable piles without damaging the stored product and moreover comprising large openings for ventilating, inspecting and exhibiting the fruit and/or vegetables packaged therein.
Nowadays containers for packaging fruit and vegetable products are at a disadvantage due to an inadequate protection of the stored products especially during the phases of transport and packaging in general. In fact during these phases it is often necessary to stack several containers in order to reduce the volume of the goods to be transported, but this creates problems of crushing and bruising for the stored fruit and/or vegetables with consequent financial losses deriving from the impossibility of selling a damaged product.
Moreover some of the containers known hitherto do not enable the consumer to satisfactory check the quality of the stored product, without removing the same since they do not allow a sufficient inspection of the fruit and/or vegetables stored therein.
There are also sealed containers for fruit and vegetables that due to their sealed structure prevent the ventilation of the product with consequent damage to the proper ripening of the stored product; the said sealed containers are also disadvantageous in relation to the even distribution of temperature inside refrigerators or cold-storage rooms; in fact in said refrigerators or rooms there may be areas with a temperature different from that required due for example to the frequent opening of the rooms for withdrawing and restocking with other new containers. Therefore with these containers convective motions of air from the colder areas to the warmer areas cannot be exploited in order to homogenise the product temperature rapidly inside the refrigerators or cold-storage rooms. The presence in these rooms of sealed containers impedes said convective motions of air and thus these packagings are not very advantageous.
The scope of the present invention is to provide a cardboard container or similar material for fruit and vegetable products having an improved solidity that permits it to be stacked in piles of remarkable height and adequate stability, at the same time protecting the product contained therein from crushing and bruising.
A further scope of the present invention is to provide a container which allows air to circulate and come into contact with the stored fruit and vegetables allowing even ripening of its various parts; which container, at the same time, does not impede, inside the refrigerators or cold-storage rooms, convective motions of air which allow rapid homogenisation of the temperature whenever areas with different temperatures are created, due to for example openings of the rooms for restocking and withdrawals containers.
A further scope of the present invention is to provide a container which adequately exhibit the packaged product allowing the consumer to see the same so that it is possible to ascertain adequately the quality of the product purchased.
A further scope is to provide a container which is rapidly and simply prepared both in view of packaging by hand to be performed directly on the harvest field, and in view of mechanical packaging by suitable machines and devices.
A further scope of the present invention is to provide a container which requires the least possible quantity of raw material and at the same time performs good wrapping of the fruit and vegetables stored therein.
The scopes cited above are accomplished by means of a cardboard container or similar material, having the characterizing features of claim 1.
Moreover according to the invention, reinforcement tabs defining open spaces for storing, are formed by cutting and folding them from a creased blank so as to form, in correspondence of the open spaces, suitable exhibiting openings in the side walls creating considerable advantage for the ventilating and inspection of the fruit and vegetables stored in the container.
The container is constructed from a blank and it is maintained in constructed condition by suitable upper ends tabs, formed on the extension of covering strips of side walls of the container respectively which are fastened each other and to the cross walls of the container by either glueing or stapling.
Schematically the packaging of the products to be stored starts with a firts step of raising of the side walls and positioning of the end and reinforcement tabs to define inner open spaces in which, in a second step, the fruit is spaced; subsequently in a third step the covering strips are arranged in order to restrain the fruit and the upper end tabs are stapled or glued to the end tabs. As can be noted said steps are simple to perform both for a worker operating directly by hand on the harvest field and for a suitable machinery providing the mechanical packaging.
The invention will be illustrated in greater detail hereinunder with reference to the accompanying drawings which show, by way of an example, the general principles of the present invention and an example of an embodiment of the present invention. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an axonometric view, partially sectioned, of the container according to the invention;
Fig. 2 is a plane view of the blank of the container.

In the figures the generical container is shown both in the constructed form 10 and in the blank form 20.
The figures show that the container 10 comprises a base panel 11 and peripheral walls defining a pair of cross walls 12 and a pair of side walls 13; said side walls 13 upwardly extend at a greater height than the cross walls 12 and are folded in order to form respectively a pair of connection strips 14, connecting said side walls 13 to said panel 11, and another pair of connection strips 15, connecting said side walls 13 to the upper covering strips 16. The pair of covering strips 16 are also formed through inwardly folding the said side walls 13 and, although they only partially cover the product, perform the function of wrapping the fruit and/or vegetables inside the container at the same time guaranteeing them adequate protection from bruising and crushing; these covering strips 16 are arranged parallel to the base panel 11 and at their ends have upper end tabs 17 which are folded inwards parallel to said cross walls 12.
Inwardly protruding and spaced apart reinforcement tabs 18 extending between said base panel 11 and said covering strips 16; said reinforcement tabs 18 have the function both of providing adequate reinforcement to the container 10 and of creating inner open space 10a for storing the fruit and vegetables.
The side walls 13 also present at their end tabs 19 having a shape similar to the reinforcement tabs 18; the previously mentioned upper end tabs 17 are fastened to this end tabs 19 which are then fastened to the cross walls 12 for assembling the container.
Exhibiting openings 13a are formed in the side walls 13 in correspondence of said reinforcement tabs 18, in order to ventilate and inspect the stored product. Said exhibiting openings 13a, extending also on part of the connection strips 14 and 15; they simply are the holes which remain in the side wall 13 due to the arrangement of the reinforcement tabs 18.
In Fig. 2, the blank 20 shows the lines of folding and cutting (more marked) from which the container described previously is obtained.
Said blank 20 is divided into a central panel 21 which corresponds to the base panel 11 of the container and into cross panels 22 which are folded along transverse folding lines in order to define the cross walls 12, and into side panels 23 which are folded along longitudinal folding lines in order to define said side walls 13.
In said side panels 23, along longitudinal folding lines, strips 24, 25 and 26 are formed; they correspond to the connection strips 14 and 15 and to the covering strips 16 respectively. Moreover it is shown that said strips 26 present at their ends tabs 27 which are formed by cutting along transverse cutting lines and are folded along longitudinal folding lines to define said upper ends tabs 17.
Cutting said side panels 23, along transverse, longitudinal and slanting cutting lines and folding along transverse folding lines, are obtained the tabs 28 corresponding to the reinforcement tabs 18 and the tabs 29 corresponding to the end tabs 19.
Starting from the blank defined in this way it is possible to construct the container, according to the invention, by means of limited and simple operations, both manually and mechanically.

Claims

A cardboard container for packaging fruits and vegetables comprising a base panel (11) and peripheral walls defining cross walls (12) and side walls (13) upwardly extending beyond said cross walls (12), characterized in that said side walls (13) present inwardly folded upper covering strips (16) parallely arranged to said base panel (11), said side walls (13) and said covering strips (16) at their ends having inwardly folded end tabs (17, 19) fastened each others and to said cross walls (12) of the container, and in that said side walls (13) comprise inwardly protruding and spaced apart reinforcment tabs (18) extending between said covering strips (16) and said base panel (11), said end tabs (19) and said reinforcement tabs (18) defining inner open spaces (10a) for storing fruits and vegetables and fruit exhibiting openings (13a) on the side walls (13) in correspondence of at least some of said storing open spaces (10a).
A cardboard container for fruit, vegetables and similar according to claim 1, characterised in that the fruit exhibiting openings (13a) are extending between the covering strips (16) and the base panel (11).
A cardboard container for fruit, vegetables and similar according to claim 1, characterised in that said container 15 obtained from a creased and cut blank (20) comprising a central quadrangular panel (21) defining the base panel (11), a pair of side panels (23) which are folded along longitudinal folding lines said side panel defining the side walls (13) of the container, a pair of cross panels (22) to be folded along transverse folding lines said panels defining the cross walls (12) of the container, a pair of end strips (26) which are folded along longitudinal folding lines and which define the covering strips (16) of the container and whose ends (27) are folded along transverse folding lines to define the end tab (17) for fastening said covering strips (16) to the end tabs (19), a double pair of intermediate strips (24, 25) which are folded along longitudinal fastening lines, said intermediate strips (24, 25) defining the connecting strips (14,15) between the base panel (11) and the side walls (13) and between said side walls (13) and the covering strips (16), and tabs (28, 29) formed by cutting along transverse, longitudinal and slanting lines to form portions of the side panels (23) and of the intermediate strips (24, 25) which are folded along transverse folding lines for defining the reinforcement and end tabs (18, 19).
A cardboard container for fruit, vegetables and similar according to the previous claims, characterised in that said reinforcement tabs (18, 19) are cut from said blank (20) in correspondence of the openings (13a) in the panels of the side walls (13) of the container, said tabs (18, 19) having shapes and dimension corresponding to said openings (13a).
A cardboard container for fruit according to claims 1 and 2, characterised in that the connection strips (14, 15) form an angle between the covering strips (16) and the side walls (13) and between the side walls (13) and the base panel (11) of the container respectively.
A container for fruit and vegetables according to claims 1 and 2, characterised in that said end tabs (17) and said cross walls (12) are connected to said end tabs (19).