EP0770553B1 - Container for the transport and presentation of articles - Google Patents

Abstract

The crate has a lower closed volume (1) on top of which can be encastred an upper volume (2) which is open in its lower surface. The lower volume is composed of a basin (3) with a horizontal bottom delimited by a vertical peripheral edge. It is closed by an upper horizontal partition (5) containing a window (7) into which is housed a part of the article. The upper volume is composed of an upper horizontal wall and a vertical peripheral wall. The vertical wall covers the peripheral edge of the lower volume and encloses the article for its transportation. The lower volume serves as a display plinth for the article when the upper volume is removed.

Description

The present invention relates to a new system intended for the packaging of one or more articles of relatively high weight and / or dimensions, to allow, at will, either transportation and handling, or presentation at the point of sale.

Such articles can be, for example, household objects or intended for housing, such as a series of plates or glasses, batteries of diffusers for light fixtures, or bottles, works of art, pieces of tooling or the like, a characteristic common to all these articles being that it is both relatively heavy and bulky, and at the same time fragile.

Currently, such articles are carefully stored in packaging protecting them from shocks during transport and handling, but they must then be extracted from these packaging, for example from their carton, to be placed on appropriate displays on the point of sale. Such handling is often the cause of a significant proportion of breakage, and a source of loss of time since it is necessary, in fact, to carry out two successive storages of these articles, the first in their transport packaging. and the second on their presentation stand.

The system according to the invention eliminates both the risk of breakage and this loss of time, by allowing the same base to be used both for the transport and handling of the articles and for their presentation at the point of sale. According to the invention, it suffices to associate with this single base a removable protective volume to constitute a transport packaging, and remove this protective volume to dispose of the items directly arranged on a display.

Such a configuration provided with a presentation base covered by a cover forming the packaging volume has already been disclosed, in particular by US-A-2 654 469 in the name of FULMER.

However, the volume described in this document is suitable for elongated objects of reduced size. To solve this problem, the lower volume is made up of a succession of closed prismatic volumes, having horizontal partitions only on two sides.

This solution leads to a complex assembly, necessarily expensive to implement because of its greater sophistication.

The system of the invention comprises a closed lower volume, above which can be fitted an upper volume open on its lower face, said volumes being made of cardboard, the upper volume consisting of a horizontal upper wall and a vertical peripheral partition, the shape and dimensions of which are such that said vertical peripheral partition covers the lower volume by enclosing said article for its transport when the upper volume is embedded on the lower volume, while said lower volume serves directly as a base for presentation of said article when said upper volume is removed.

The invention is characterized in that the lower volume consists of a bowl formed by a horizontal bottom delimited by a vertical peripheral rim and closed by an upper partition distinct from the bowl and generally horizontal in appearance, in which is practiced at least one window in which a portion of said article can be accommodated, with a view to its maintenance and presentation, said upper volume coming to cover the peripheral rim of the lower volume.

According to a preferred embodiment, the upper partition of the lower volume is a curved blank so that said window provides said article with a three-dimensional housing, and more particularly, the packaging being of rectangular shape, the blank closing the lower volume is rectangular and its width is greater than the width of said bowl, so that once in place, its surface has the appearance of a dihedral surface in which said window is practiced thus ensuring the article a three-dimensional support.

According to an additional characteristic, in the case of an article having a relatively large dimension in height, the holding in place of said article by said base is reinforced by means of a second blank similar to the first and placed over the article before embedding from the upper volume to the lower volume.

According to another additional characteristic, the articles housed in the packaging having a determined shape, but various possible dimensions, the blank windows have on at least some of their edges grooved zones so as to conform to the dimensions of said articles by folding under the effect of their placement in windows.

According to another additional characteristic, at least one zone of the vertical partition of the upper volume has windows intended to reveal indications made on zones facing the vertical rim of the lower volume.

Of course, the volumes constituting the system according to the invention can have any shape, for example the two volumes are of general prismatic or pyramidal shape with rectangular or polygonal base, or else the two volumes are of generally cylindrical or conical shape with circular base or oval, but in practice they will be of rectangular shape, the most convenient to realize. They will be made of any suitable material, and preferably of cardboard, corrugated cardboard or the like.

• La figure 1 représente les éléments d'un exemple de réalisation du système de conditionnement selon l'invention à l'état séparé.
• La figure 2 représente les mêmes éléments associés pour constituer un conditionnement de transport d'articles apparaissant dans une zone arrachée de la figure.
• La figure 3 est une vue à plat d'un flan utilisable comme élément de maintien dans un système tel qu'illustré aux figures 1 et 2.
• La figure 4 est une variante du flan de la figure 3.

Other characteristics will appear from the following description:

• Figure 1 shows the elements of an exemplary embodiment of the packaging system according to the invention in a separate state.
• FIG. 2 represents the same elements associated to constitute a packaging for transporting articles appearing in a torn region of the figure.
• FIG. 3 is a flat view of a blank usable as a holding element in a system as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.
• FIG. 4 is a variant of the blank of FIG. 3.

The system according to the invention comprises a lower volume 1 and an upper volume 2, made for example of corrugated cardboard.

In the example shown, the system is parallelepipedic, volumes 1 and 2 each having the shape of a prism with a rectangular base of length L and width l.

The lower volume consists of a bowl formed by a bottom 3 delimited by a vertical rim 4, and by an upper partition 5, preferably created from an independent blank as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and having, as appears in FIGS. 1 and 2, a curved shape, of dihedral appearance along an axial fold 6. In this partition, which closes the bowl, windows 7 are formed, the shape and dimensions of which are adapted to those of the articles to be placed in this packaging.

In the case shown, the articles A are light diffusers of circular shape, a portion of which A 'penetrates inside the closed volume 1, to a degree ensuring their maintenance in position, even during handling and transport. .

If necessary, in the case where the articles A are relatively large, as shown in FIG. 2, an auxiliary blank 5 'is placed over the articles A.

This blank 5 ′ may be identical to the blank 5, that is to say also include windows 7 ′ in which the articles A fit, which are thus completely immobilized. In the case where the articles A have a flat upper face, the blank 5 ′ can be a simple dish with a flat bottom which is applied to these flat upper faces, which is sufficient to maintain the articles A.

The lower volume 1, furnished with articles A, constitutes for these a directly usable display.

The upper volume 2 is in the form of a prismatic box, of length L and width l, having a height H slightly greater than that of the whole of the volume 1 with the articles A in place. Its lower face being open, it is easy to fit it over said assembly, as can be seen in FIG. 2, the lower edge 8 of the peripheral wall 9 of the upper volume 2 flush with the lower edge 10 on which the peripheral rim 4 of the lower volume 1 folds over the horizontal bottom 3.

Once the upper volume 2 fitted over the lower volume 1, as shown in FIG. 2, the base 1, furnished with the articles A, as described above, possibly supplemented by the auxiliary blank 5 ′, is entirely enclosed in volume 2, the whole of the base 1, and of the protective volume 2 then constituting, without any other arrangement, otherwise its joining by an adhesive tape joining the underside of the bottom 3 and the vertical panels 8 and 9, a packaging allowing the transport and handling of items A.

Once all the transport and handling operations have been completed, it suffices to remove the volume 2 to have, without any other intervention, a display stand on which the articles A are already placed on their base.

We therefore saved the operations of extracting articles A from their transport case, then placing them on an appropriate presentation base, with the risk of breakage and the loss of time that they represent.

It will be noted that the nature of the blank 5 is essential, since it conditions the maintenance in place of the articles A in the bowl 3-4, the assembly constituting the closed volume or base 1.

To this end, according to an important characteristic of the invention, this support is made three-dimensional thanks to the curve of the blank 5 once in place. As illustrated in Figure 3, the width l 'of the upper surface 5 is greater than the width l of the bowl 1, so that, once in place, the surface 5 will be folded down around its axis 6, providing a dihedral appearance, as well as the windows 7. Edges 11 and 12 on the four sides of the surface 5 are used to guide the surface 5 on the top of the bowl 1.

According to another characteristic of the invention, illustrated in FIG. 4, the windows 13 can be arranged to receive articles A all having the same shape, but different dimensions. To this end, grooved zones 14 are provided in such a way that, when an article A of larger dimensions is inserted, these zones are deformed so as to adapt to these dimensions. This contributes to the multi-use characteristic of the system.

According to yet another characteristic, notches 15 are cut at the base of at least one of the panels 9 of the upper volume 2 (FIG. 1), so as to reveal indications 16 worn on the corresponding zones of the rim 4 of the lower bowl 1 (Figures 1 and 2).

Finally, an edge 17 of said bowl can also be indented to better reveal the articles A on their display.

Claims (10)

1. System for packaging at least one article (A) which is relatively heavy and/or has relatively large dimensions, and making possible, as desired, either handling and transport or display at the place of sale, comprising a lower enclosed volume (1), over which may be fitted an upper volume (2) open on its lower face, the said volumes being made of cardboard, the upper volume (2) consisting of a horizontal upper wall and a vertical peripheral partition, the shape and dimensions of which are such that the said vertical peripheral partition covers the lower volume (1) while enclosing the said article (A) for its transport when the upper volume (2) is fitted over the lower volume (1), whereas the said lower volume (1) serves directly as a display stand for the said article (A) when the said upper volume (2) is removed,
   characterized in that the lower volume (1) consists of a tray formed of a horizontal bottom (3) bounded by a vertical peripheral edge (4) and enclosed by an upper partition (5) distinct from the tray and having a generally horizontal appearance, in which at least one window (7) is constructed in which a portion (A') of the said article (A) may be housed with a view to holding and displaying it, the said upper volume (2) covering the peripheral edge (4) of the lower volume (1).
2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper partition (5) of the lower volume is a blank, curved so that the said window (7) offers a three-dimensional housing for the said article (A).
3. System according to claim 2, characterized in that when the packaging has a parallelepiped shape, the blank (5) enclosing the lower volume (1) is rectangular and its width is greater than the width of the said tray so that once in place, its surface has the appearance of a dihedral surface in which the said window (7) is constructed, thus ensuring that the article (A) is held in three dimensions.
4. System according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the two volumes (1, 2) have a generally prismatic or pyramidal shape with a rectangular or polygonal base.
5. System according to claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the two volumes (1, 2) have a generally cylindrical or conical shape with a circular or oval base.
6. System according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that, in the case of an article (A) having a relatively large height dimension, the holding in place of the said article (A) by the said stand (1) is reinforced by means of a second blank (5') similar or not to the first blank (5) and placed above the article (A) before the upper volume (2) is fitted over the lower volume (1).
7. System according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that since the articles (A) housed in the packaging have a definite form but various possible dimensions, the windows (7) of the blank (5) comprise on at least certain of their edges grooved zones (14) so as to conform to the dimensions of the said articles (A) by folding under the effect of their being put in place in the windows (7).
8. System according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one zone of the vertical partition (8, 9) of the upper volume (2) comprises windows (15) designed to allow information (16) to appear which is carried on the opposite zones of the vertical edge (4) of the lower volume (1).
9. System according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the vertical edge (4) of the tray of the lower volume (1) is cut away so as better to reveal the article (A) displayed when the upper volume (2) is removed.
10. Use of the packaging according to any of the preceding claims, for the transport and display of a series of articles (A) having a rounded appearance, such as pieces of crockery (plates, dishes and the like), lighting accessories (diffusers, lamp-shades and the like) and other articles designed for the home, bottles, objets d'art, tools and the like.

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