FR2674510A1 - Package for concave-bottomed bottles - Google Patents

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to propose a package for concave-bottomed bottles allowing the safe transport of the latter whilst preventing damage to their labels. According to the invention, the package for concave-bottomed bottles consists of at least one lower panel intended to serve as a support for the bottles and at least one upper panel intended to rest on the said bottles. The invention is characterised in that these upper and lower panels are identical and provided with cups, the outside of each cup being capable of receiving the concave bottom of a bottle and the inside of each cup being capable of receiving the upper end of the neck of another bottle.

Description

The invention relates to the packaging of bottles with a concave bottom such as champagne bottles.

This type of bottle is frequently provided with labels consisting of a sheet partially or entirely of paper or of metallic material of thin thickness contributing to improving the aesthetic appearance of the product.

The problem caused by these labels lies in the fact that they are very easily damaged during the packaging of the bottles on which they are affixed. The labels, in order to be easily placed on the bottles by the labelers, must have a small thickness. During the conventional packaging of these bottles, they are caused to rub against each other or against the material constituting the packaging. This friction takes place at first when the bottles are placed next to each other but especially during transport. The packaging used for the storage and transport of this type of bottle is conventionally constituted by cartons provided with cross-pieces delimiting unit volumes each allowing the housing of a bottle.

This type of packaging avoids friction between the bottles but does not prevent them from being in permanent contact with the material constituting the braces. During transport, the bottles are made to turn on themselves, which causes the labels to deteriorate.

The present invention aims to provide packaging for bottles with a concave bottom allowing them to be transported safely while avoiding deterioration of their labels.

According to the invention, the packaging for bottles with a concave bottom consists of at least one lower plate intended to serve as a support for the bottles and at least one upper plate intended to rest on said bottles.

The invention is characterized in that these upper and lower plates are identical and provided with cells, the exterior of each of which is capable of receiving the concave bottom of a bottle and the interior of each of which is capable of accommodating the top end of the neck of another bottle. These cells are regularly spaced from each other so as to isolate each bottle from its neighbors and avoid any friction.

Advantageously, said cells are in the form of roughly hemispherical growths.

Preferably, these cells have a dimension such that their positioning in the bottom of the bottles and on the necks of these makes it possible to block the bottles by preventing any rotation.

Although one can envisage carrying out the packaging in any material having a sufficiently high mechanical resistance not to break under the pressure exerted on the one hand by the weight of the bottles and on the other hand by the positioning of the necks to inside the cells, the plates are preferably made of expanded polystyrene.

The advantage presented by the use of expanded polystyrene is that this material has a certain elasticity allowing it to deform to accommodate the necks of the bottles and, thus, wedge them.

Advantageously, these plates have a thickness of between 1 and 5 mm and are, on at least one of their faces, reinforced by a plastic film with high mechanical resistance.

Also preferably, the film used to reinforce the plates has non-slip properties.

The material constituting the film or the material constituting the plates can be printable.

When using the packaging according to the invention, a first plate is placed inside a container which may consist, for example, of a cardboard whose dimensions in a horizontal section are slightly greater than those of said plate . This first plate is arranged so that the cells can accommodate the concave bottoms of the bottles.

The bottles are placed on the plate and thanks to the distance separating the cells from each other, these do not touch and are not in contact with the container. A second plate is placed on the necks of the bottles causing them to block. This second plate can itself serve as a lower plate for a second layer of bottles. A stacking of several stages of bottles can thus be produced, the weight of the bottles of a stage favoring the blocking in the cells of the necks of the bottles positioned on the lower stage. The height of the box is chosen so as to correspond to an integer number of stages, the last plate thus being able to be blocked by the cover of the box. In order to favor the positioning of the plates, these are preferably provided with at least 2 notches.

The invention as well as the advantages which it presents will be more easily understood thanks to the description which follows of a nonlimiting example of embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings in which - FIG. 1 represents a plate for making of the packaging, - Figure 2 shows a section at the two cells of the plate according to Figure 1, - Figure 3 shows a partial sectional view of two bottles in a package according to the present invention.

According to Figures 1 and 2, a sheet 1 of expanded polystyrene has a thickness of 2.5mm and is coated on its outer face with a plastic film 3 with high mechanical strength. This plate is provided with cells 2 regularly spaced from each other and in the form of roughly hemispherical growths. The distance between the axis of each cell is 6cm. These cells each have an internal volume 4 capable of receiving the neck of a bottle and an external surface 5 capable of cooperating with the bottom 7 of another bottle.

The cells are arranged at the rate of 6 along the length of the plate and at the rate of 4 across the width, making it possible to accommodate two dozen bottles. The plates 1 are provided with lateral notches 10 allowing their positioning.

According to Figure 3, the bottles 6 are arranged between two plates 1. The bottoms 7 of these bottles receive the cells 2 of the lower plate. The cells 2 of the upper plate receive the necks 8 of the same bottles 6 and allow them to be blocked. The diameter of the bottles is 5.5 cm and makes it possible to provide a space 9 between them avoiding any contact between the labels 10 and thus excluding their deterioration.

Claims (6)

 1) Packaging for bottles (6) with concave bottom (7) consisting of at least one lower plate intended to serve as a support for the bottles (6) and at least one upper plate intended to rest on said bottles (6) characterized in that said upper and lower plates (1) are identical and provided with cells (2), the exterior (5) of each of which is capable of receiving the concave bottom (7) of a bottle and the interior (4) of each is capable of accommodating the neck of another bottle (6), the cells (2) being regularly spaced from one another so as to isolate each bottle (6) from its neighbors.  2) Packaging according to claim 1 characterized in that said cells (2) are in the form of roughly hemispherical growths.  3) Packaging according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that said cells (2) have a dimension such that their positioning in the bottom of the bottles (6) and on the necks of these makes it possible to block the bottles (6) .  4) Packaging according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that it is made of expanded polystyrene.  5) Packaging according to claim 4 characterized in that each plate (1) has a thickness of 1 to 5mm and is coated on at least one of its faces with a film (3) plastic with high mechanical strength.  6) Packaging according to claim 5 characterized in that said film (3) has non-slip properties.