EP1866213B1

EP1866213B1 - Carton with dispensing feature

Info

Publication number: EP1866213B1
Application number: EP06739512A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Fabien Jego
Original assignee: Meadwestvaco Packaging Systems LLC
Current assignee: WestRock Packaging Systems LLC
Priority date: 2005-03-23
Filing date: 2006-03-23
Publication date: 2008-11-19
Anticipated expiration: 2026-03-23
Also published as: JP2008534395A; WO2006102584A1; DE602006003740D1; GB0505946D0; ATE414655T1; ES2318746T3; AU2006226798A1; CA2601908A1; EP1866213A1

Abstract

A carton for containing articles is of substantially tubular structure comprising a base panel (4), a top panel (2) and side wall panels (3, 5). The articles (B) are arranged within the carton such that a lowermost row of articles is in rolling contact with the base wall panel. The carton comprises end walls which at least partially close each end of the carton. One of the ends of the carton comprises at least two detachable portions (10, 11), each formed from sections of the end wall and adjacent side wall. One of the end walls comprises an aperture juxtaposed the detachable portions to facilitate their removal. The removal of the detachable portions facilitates access to the endmost articles for removal whilst remaining portions of the one end wall substantially prevent unintended shedding of the remaining articles from the carton.

Description

Technical Field of the Invention

The invention relates to cartons and more particularly to a carton for multiple articles having a dispenser for allowing constrained removal of individual articles.

Background of the Invention

Cartons for encasing multiple articles are useful for enabling consumers to obtain and transport a desired quantity of individual articles such as soft drinks or other beverages. When such a multiple-pack of articles is obtained, a consumer often requires removal of the articles individually. Thus it can be appreciated that a carton with a dispensing feature that facilitates the removal of a single article from the carton at a time would be desirable.
When the articles contained in the carton are of cylindrical or generally of cylindrical form and are disposed in the carton upon their sides, it is important that the articles be constrained such that the remaining articles do not roll out of the dispenser when one is removed. Thus, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a carton with a dispenser that allows constrained removal of individual articles so that they do not undesirably dislodge from the carton when the articles are accessed. It is also important that the dispenser provide a condition where the articles are easily accessible. In cartons containing dairy products, such as bottles of yoghurt, it is also desirable to allow air to circulate within the pack to keep the products contained within the carton cool.
Such cartons are known, for example from US 3,178,242 to Ellis . In US '242 a tubular carton for containing cans is disclosed, the carton is provided with a unitary detachable portion which comprises portions of the top, side and end walls of the carton. A remaining lower portion of the end wall serves to prevent the lowermost row of articles from rolling free of the carton. Cans held in upper rows of the carton are however not restricted from undesirably rolling free from the carton which can be very inconvenient to a consumer. This is especially so when the carton is to be placed in a refrigerator to provide a compact storage and dispensing carton.
The present invention seeks to avoid or at least mitigate these and other problems of the prior art.
US2004/232214 and US2004/164136 both disclose similar cartons which cartons comprise an access means defined in a portion of an end wall thereof.

Summary of the Invention

One aspect of the invention provides a carton for containing articles, arranged in rows, the carton being a substantially tubular structure comprising a base panel, a top panel and side wall panels, and comprising an end wall provided to at least partially close an end of the carton and an access means formed at said end of the carton, said articles, when present, being arranged within the carton such that a lowermost row of articles is in rolling contact with said base panel, said access means comprising at least two detachable portions formed from sections of said end wall and said side wall panels, and the arrangement being such that removal of said detachable portions facilitates access to, and removal of, articles disposed adjacent said end wall, and retaining portions of said end wall are defined after removal of said detachable portions such that one said retaining portion extends upwardly from the base panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles in said lowermost row and another said retaining portion depends from the top panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles disposed in an uppermost row, characterised in that said end wall defines an aperture juxtaposed said detachable portions to facilitate removal of said two detachable portions.
Preferably each detachable portion is defined by a single frangible line which starts and terminates at said aperture provided in said end wall.
Preferably said another retaining portion is displaced during intentional removal of an article and returns to an orientation coplanar with said end wall after the intentional removal of that article.
Preferably said detachable portions are shaped to provide sufficient exposure of end portions of said articles disposed adjacent said end wall and to prevent said articles disposed adjacent said end wall from accidentally dislodging from the carton via an aperture formed in said side wall panels when said detachable portions have been removed.

Preferably, the carton contains two rows of articles and two detachable portions

A second aspect of the invention provides a blank for forming a substantially tubular carton for containing articles arranged in rows, the blank comprising a series of main panels for forming the carton walls, including a base panel, a top panel, side wall panels and end panels for forming an end wall to at least partially close an end of the set up carton, and access means comprising at least two detachable portions formed from sections of said end wall and adjacent side walls, wherein removal of said detachable portions facilitates access to and removal of articles disposed adjacent said end wall, and retaining portions of said end wall are defined after removal of said detachable portions such that one said retaining portion extends upwardly from said base panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles in a lowermost row and another said retaining portion depends from the top panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles disposed in an uppermost row, characterised in that said end wall comprises an aperture juxtaposed said detachable portions to facilitate removal of said two detachable portions.
Additionally said detachable portion are defined by frangible lines which start and terminate at an aperture provided in said end wall.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which;

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a carton blank according to a first embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 2 is a perspective front, side and top wall view of a carton erected from the blank of Fig.1;
Fig. 3 is a perspective front, side and top wall view of the carton in Fig. 2 with a first part of a dispensing feature displaced;
Fig. 4 is the carton in Fig. 3 showing the complete displacement of the dispensing feature;
Fig. 5 is the carton in Fig. 4 showing the displacement of an uppermost article row retaining means during the process of removing an article in the uppermost row;
Fig. 6 is the carton in Fig. 5 showing the return of the uppermost article row retaining means to a nominal disposition following the completion of the process of removing an article from the uppermost row;
Fig. 7 is the carton in Fig. 6 with the entire uppermost row of articles having been removed.

In the figures, corresponding features are indicated by the same reference numerals.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments

Figs. 1-7 illustrate an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 shows a blank 1 from which the carton of Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 is erected. The blank 1 is vertically elongate as viewed in Fig. 1 and is formed of paperboard. However the blank 1 may be formed of other foldable material such as a plastic sheet or the like. The blank 1 is designed for packaging articles of an identical configuration, such as beverage bottles, arranged in two rows. It is envisaged that the articles could be cans or other cylindrical objects which may be arranged in more than two rows.
Referring to Fig. 1, the blank 1 includes four primary panels for forming the carton walls, a top wall panel 2, a first side wall panel 3, a base wall panel 4 and a second side wall panel 5. The primary panels are foldably connected one to the next along fold lines 12, 13 and 14. A glue flap 21 is foldably connected to the top wall panel 2 along a fold line 31. Reference numerals 22, 22a, 23, 23a, 24, 24a, 25 and 25a designate end flaps which are hinged by fold lines 32, 32a, 33, 33a, 34, 34a, 35 and 35a to the ends of primary panels 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively.
To form an erected carton from the blank 1, the top wall panel 2 is folded along the fold line 12 to lie flat on the first side wall panel 3. Glue is applied to the glue flap 21 and then the second side wall panel 5 is folded along the fold line 14 to lie flat on the base wall panel 4. By this means, the second side wall panel 5 is glued to the glue flap 21. An open ended tubular carton is then formed by folding glue flap 21 inwardly along fold line 31 and folding base wall panel 4 inwardly along fold line 13.
When loading the dispensing carton it is rotated so that it stands on its second side wall 5, so that the first side wall 3 is then viewed as the top wall and the top and base wall panels 2 and 4 are viewed as the sides of the carton 50, the articles are fed in from the open ends of the carton 50 in two lines side by side so that the circular ends of the cans abut the first side panel 3 and second side panel 5. After bottles have been loaded through one or both of the open ends of the carton, the end flaps 22, 22a, 23, 23a, 24, 24a, 25, 25a, 26, 26a, 27 and 27a are folded to close front and rear ends of the carton. The end flaps are then folded and glued to form front and rear end walls which close the carton.
In order to close the rear end of the carton end flap 23 is first folded about fold line 33 towards second side panel 5. As end flap 23 is folded, the adjoining web or gusset end flaps 24, 27, 22 and 26 are automatically folded inward of the carton end. End flap 25 is then folded upward about fold line 35. Glue or other securing means is then used to secure end flaps 23 and 25 together, thus forming a rear end wall. The end flaps 23 and 25 are each shaped such that upon securing the two end flaps together an aperture is formed in the end wall. In other embodiments the structure of the composite rear wall may be different, for example gusset panels 26 and 27 may not be needed and the end flaps 23 and 25 of the rear wall may be shaped to form a different shaped or smaller sized aperture, or indeed an aperture may not be formed in the rear wall.
A similar folding, gluing and closing routine is employed at the front end of the carton. End flap 23a is folded down towards second side panel 5, thus causing the gusset panels 26a and 27a to fold inward and thus cause end flaps 22a and 24a to also fold inward of the carton end. Glue or other adhesive means may then be used to secure end flaps 23a and 25 a together, such that end flap 25a is in partially overlapping relationship with end flap 23a and together, the two panels form a composite end wall having an aperture 40. In other embodiments the aperture 40 may be shaped and dimensioned differently to that shown in the figures. The erected and closed carton 50 is shown in Fig. 2.
In use as a dispensing carton the carton is orientated such that the base wall 4 is viewed to be at the bottom of the carton and the top wall 2 is viewed to be the top of the carton 50. Thus in Figs. 3 through 7, the bottles B are illustrated lying on their sides, in two tiers or rows.
The erected cartons 50 in Figs. 3 - 7 show a two part dispensing feature integrally formed at a front end portion of the carton. The two-part dispensing feature is employed to allow controlled access to the articles contained in the carton. The dispensing feature comprises two detachable portions 10, 11, defined by single tear lines or frangible connections 6, 7. Each frangible connection 6, 7 starts and terminates at an edge of the aperture 40 which aperture 40 is juxtaposed the detachable portions 10, 11. Removal of each detachable portion facilitates access to the endmost bottles in the carton 50 whilst remaining portions of the front end wall substantially prevent the remaining articles from being undesirably dislodged from the carton.
The dispensing feature is integrally formed in the end flaps 23a and 25a and the side walls 3 and 4. The opening 40 through which the bottles B may be removed from the carton 50 is defined by the two frangible lines 6 and 7 and void or aperture formed between end flaps 23a and 25a. As illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, the first frangible line 6 defines a detachable region 10 (illustrated in Fig. 3) of the end flap 23a and the second side wall 5 which may be removed to gain access to the articles within the carton. Similarly, the second frangible line 7 defines a detachable region 11 (illustrated in Fig. 3) formed from adjacent sections of the end flap 25a and the second side wall 3, which detachable region 11 may be removed to gain access to the bottles B contained within the carton 50. The removal of the two aforementioned detachable regions 10, 11 by a consumer may be assisted by the consumer inserting a finger into the void or aperture 40 inherent between the end flaps 23a and 25a. In this way the user can contact inner faces of the detachable portions 10, 11 to manipulate the detachable portions 10, 11 with sufficient force to break the frangible connections 6, 7.
Removal of the detachable regions 10, 11 exposes parts of the frontmost bottles B contained within the carton 50, as shown in Fig. 4. After removal of the detachable regions 10, 11 a lower section 9 of the front end closure, which comprises portions of the end flaps 23a, 25a,24a and 27a in addition to the web or gusset panel 27a remains integral to the rest of the carton 50 and provides a means for retaining bottles contained in the lowermost row.
A second remaining part of the dispensing feature is a retaining portion 8 which is formed from upper portions of end flaps 23a and 25a. The retaining portion 8 provides substantial retention of the uppermost bottles B contained in the carton 50 to prevent them from being undesirably dislodged from the carton 50. However retaining portion 8 can be substantially displaced to allow an article to be deliberately removed from the carton as shown in Fig. 5.
After the removal of an article in the uppermost tier, the retaining portion 8 will return to its nominal disposition such that the respective front face of 8 is again coplanar with retaining portion 9. In this way constrained removal of bottles from the uppermost tier is facilitated and the unintentional emptying of the contents from the carton 50 is prevented. Fig. 6 illustrates how, after the removal of the endmost, uppermost article, it is possible to remove the endmost, lowermost article by raising it over the retaining portion 9 and pulling it past the displaceable retaining portion 8, as described in the previous paragraph.
It can be appreciated that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention, for example, the size and shape of the panels may be adjusted to accommodate articles of differing size or shape. More than two detachable portions may be provided and both the detachable portions and the aperture in the end wall may be alternatively shaped to that herein describe. Other variations may also be made within the scope of the invention. For example a handle may be provided in the top panel and the dispensing feature described may be provided in one or both ends of the carton.
It will be recognised that as used herein, directional references such as "top", "bottom", "front", "back", "end", "side", "inner", "outer", "upper" and "lower" do not limit the respective panels to such orientation, but merely serve to distinguish these panels from one another. Any reference to hinged connection should not be construed as necessarily referring to a single fold line only; indeed it is envisaged that hinged connection can be formed from one or more of the following, a score line, a frangible line or a fold line without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

A carton for containing articles (B) arranged in rows, the carton being a substantially tubular structure comprising a base panel (4), a top panel (2) and side wall panels (3,5), and comprising an end wall (23a, 25a) provided to at least partially close an end of the carton and an access means formed at said end of the carton, said articles (B), when present, being arranged within the carton such that a lowermost row of articles is in rolling contact with said base panel (4), said access means comprising at least two detachable portions (10, 11) formed from sections of said end wall and said side wall panels and the arrangement being such that removal of said detachable portions (10, 11) facilitates access to, and removal of, articles (B) disposed adjacent said end wall (23a,25a) and retaining portions of said end wall are defined after removal of said detachable portions (10, 11) such that one said retaining portion (9) extends upwardly from said base panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles in said lowermost row and another said retaining portion (8) depends from the top panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles disposed in an uppermost row, characterised in that said end wall (23a, 25a) defines an aperture (40) juxtaposed said detachable portions to facilitate removal of said two detachable portions (10, 11).
A carton according claim 1 wherein each of said detachable portions (10, 11) is defined by a single frangible line (6, 7) which starts and terminates at said aperture (40) defined in said end wall (23a, 25a).
A carton as claimed in claim 2 wherein said another retaining portion (8) is displaced during intentional removal of an article (B) and returns to an orientation coplanar with said end wall (23a, 25a) after the intentional removal of that article (B).
A carton as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein said detachable portions (10, 11) are shaped to provide sufficient exposure of end portions of said articles disposed adjacent said end wall (23a, 25a) and to prevent said articles disposed adjacent said end wall from accidentally dislodging from the carton via an aperture formed in said side wall panels when said detachable portions have been removed.
A carton as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein said carton (50) contains two rows of articles (B) and two detachable portions (10, 11).
A blank for forming a substantially tubular carton for containing articles arranged in rows, the blank (1) comprising a series of main panels for forming the carton walls, including a base panel (4), a top panel (2), side wall panels (3, 5) and end panels (22, 23, 24, 25) for forming an end wall to at least partially close an end of the set up carton, and access means comprising at least two detachable portions (10, 11) formed from sections of said end wall (23a, 25a) and adjacent side walls (3. 5), wherein removal of said detachable portions (10, 11) facilitates access to and removal of articles (B) disposed adjacent said end wall, and retaining portions of said end wall are defined after removal of said detachable portions (10, 11) such that one said retaining portion (9) extends upwardly from said base panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles in a lowermost row and another said retaining portion (8) depends from the top panel to restrain unintended dislodgement from said carton of articles disposed in an uppermost row, characterised in that said end wall comprises an aperture (40) juxtaposed said detachable portions (10, 11) to facilitate removal of said two detachable portions.
A blank according to claim 6 wherein said detachable portions are defined by frangible lines (6, 7) which start and terminate at said aperture (40) provided in said end wall (3, 5).