GB2086856A - Two-part packaging containers - Google Patents

Abstract

A two-part packaging container comprises a tray and a cover having a top 14 and a skirt 18. The tray fits into the cover and a rim or flange of the tray springs past locking panels 20 of the skirt 18 locking the tray to the cover. The cover is a cut and creased blank which can be folded to the use condition without glue. The tray is a thermoformed tray. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements relating to packaging containers The invention relates to packaging containers, and in particular concerns two-part packaging containers, one of which is a tray for holding products or produce, and the other of which is a covering element.

Many foodstuffs and food products are packaged in trays, which may be for example thermoformed plastics material or metal foil, or even lined cardboard, and in such packaging the food product is placed in the tray, which has an open top defined by a flange at the top of a wall region which is devergent in an upwards direction, enabling the tray to be nested with other similar trays, the wall region leading from a base. After filling of the trays, it is usual to apply a covering lid or foil, such as a metal foil or plastics film, and in the utilisation of the foil it is customary to seal the foil to the tray top rim, by means of heat sealing or adhesive or other suitable means.

It is also known, with a thermoformed tray, for the open top to be closed by means of a board panel, and the extension edge to the top rim crimped over the edge of the panel in order to maintain the panel in position.

Each closed, tray package unit may have display or instruction material printed thereon, but more commonly it is normal to use the tray unit in conjunction with a cardboard or the like sleeve in which the tray unit is contained, the sleeves carrying the said display and/or instruction material. The sleeves are constructed from cut and creased blanks of cardboard folded and glued to form the sleeves.

The sleeve performs or can perform several functions, namely to carry the printing material (it is much easier to print the sleeve than to print the tray unit), and secondly to make the package as a whole better able to stand up to the handling involved in the transportation and distribution systems which are employed to move the packages from the producer to the supermarket shelves.

The present invention is concerned with a two part package comprising a tray unit and a cover unit, but in which the cover unit and tray unit are capable of ready combination, and in a preferred embodiment, there will be additional advantages that glueing will not be required for erecting the cover unit and there will be a saving in the material of the cover unit as compared to the sleeve referred to above.

According to the present invention, a two part packaging container comprises a tray unit provided with an upper rim or bead projecting outwardly from the top of the wall of the tray unit, and a cover unit comprising a panel and an edge skirt, and the tray unit and cover unit are adapted to be pushed together, said cover unit having internal resilient holding means which deflect as the tray unit is pushed into the cover unit, but which are designed to spring back behind the underside of the rim or bead thereby to retain the cover unit and tray unit in held relationship to form the final package.

The resilient holding means may be formed by means of panel portions of the cover unit, which are folded inwardly from the bottom edge of the skirt.

The cover unit is preferably formed from a cut and creased blank of sheet material, such as cardboard, plastics material and the tray may be cardboard, moulded plastics sheet or shaped metallic foil or any other material or combination of materials.

We anticipate that mostly the trays will be of plastics material sealed by means of a suitable metallic or plastics foil, so that the package unit can be placed in a microwave oven for cooking of the contents, when such contents comprise cookable foostuffs.

In a particularly suitable case, the cover means comprises a top panel having a skirt around the whole periphery thereof, the depth of the skirt being equal to or greater than the depth of the tray unit, so that when the tray unit is inserted into the cover unit, the skirt will cover and conceal the tray unit when the package rests on a surface. By this means, the combined packages are better suited for stacking, because the stacking loading will be taken by the cover units and not the trays, which can be relatively flimsy.

Additionally, by virtue of the construction described, it is possible to design the cover unit to be erectable without any glueing thereof, as will in particular be described with reference to the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, and as compared to a sleeve and tray arrangement, there is a saving in material of the cover unit as compared to the sleeve and tray construction of the prior art.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a tray of the tray unit of the embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 shows a side elevation of the tray shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the blank for erection into the cover unit of the package; Fig. 4 is an underneath perspective view showing how the cover unit is erected; Fig. 5 is a sectional end elevation of the completed package showing the cover unit and tray unit interclipped; Fig. 5A is a detailed view illustrating how the holding means of the cover unit deflects on insertion of the tray unit; and Fig. 6 is a sectional side view of the completed package.

Referring firstly to Figs. 1 and 2, the tray which is illustrated in this case is a thermoformed plastics material tray, and is provided with a base 10, an upwardly divergent wall 12, and a top peripheral flange 14. The tray is of rectangular form in plan view, and its depth is relatively small compared to the width and length of the tray. It is to be appreciated that trays of different sizes and different materials can be used in the present invention. The tray essentially is conventional, and in use would be filled with the product to be held thereby, normally a foodstuff, and then the top of the tray is closed by sealing film or foil applied to the top of the flange 14.

Referring now to Fig. 3, in this view is shown a blank, suitably of cardboard, which is cut and creased to the form shown, the crease lines being indicated by double dotted lines. The blank comprises a main top panel 1 6 of rectangular form, and the blank is symmetrical about the central longitudinal axis and about the central transverse axis of the main panel 1 6.

Hinged to the longer sides of panel 1 6 are outer wall panels 18, and hinged to the outer edges of outer wall panels 1 8 are inner wall panels 20, which, as will be clearly explained hereinafter, form the holding means of the combined package.

At the ends of panels 1 8 are lock flaps 1 8A.

To the narrower sides of the panel 1 6 are hinged outer wall panels 22, and hinged to the outer edges of said panels 22 are inner wall panels 24, and finally hinged to the outer edges of wall panels 24 are inner locking strips 26. It is to be noted that the inner wall panels 24 have tapered sides 28, and the strips 26 have curved end tabs 30.

Erection of the blank shown in Fig. 1 is very simple in that the outer wall panels 1 8 and 22 are folded upwardly so that flaps 1 8A lie to the inside of panels 22, and then the inner wall panels 20 and 24 are folded inwardly. The strips 26 lie against the inside of the top panel 1 6 (as shown in Fig. 4), and the corners of the inwardly folded inner wall panels 20 clip past the edges of the inner panels 24 and over the ends of the strips 28, thereby locking all of the inner panels 20, 24 in the inwardly folded condition, making the lid in a condition ready to receive the tray unit.

By virtue of the resiliency of the board, the inner panels 20 and 24 try to unfold, but as regards the inner panels 20 as they are locked at the corners of the cover unit they can and do deflect outwardly only in the central region, so that the free edges of the inner panels 20 in fact bow outwardly and form spring ledges for holding the tray unit as illustrated in Fig. 5. As regards the inner panels 24, as these are shorter than panels 20 and as they are provided with strips 6, they do not bow like panels 20, but take up an inclined position, as shown in Fig. 6, in dotted lines.

To assemble the package it is simply a matter of pushing the tray unit into the cover unit, and the units are designed, from a dimension point of view, so that as the tray unit is so fitted, its rim edges deflect the inner panels 20, as shown in Fig.

5A against the natural resilience of the panels 20 to bow outwardly, and so the rim edge regions pass the free edges of the panels 20, when they spring back to the outer position, locking the tray unit to the cover unit.

At the same time, the end sections of the rim of the tray unit push the inner panels 24 away from the inclined position and back towards the inner surface of outer panels 22, and the tray unit maintains these panels in that position, so that there is a slight end loading on the tray unit, which also assists in holding the tray unit firmly to the lid unit.

The outer wall panels 18, 22 of the lid unit are preferably equal to or greater than the depth of the tray unit, so that the tray unit becomes totally contained within the lid unit. This is advantageous from the handling and distribution point of view as concerns the packages, because it increases the stacking strength of the package. That is to say, the packages can be stacked in much higher columns without damage being imparted to the tray unit containing the products. It is not necessary however that the wall should be of this depth, and the tray may be deeper than the walls, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5.

As regards the embodiment described, it will be noticed that there is no glueing of any portion of the lid unit which represents a considerable advantage over the tray and sleeve arrangement of the prior art, and furthermore as compared to the said sleeve and tray arrangement, there is a considerable saving in board as between the lid unit of the present invention and the sleeve of the prior art sleeve and tray unit.

The tray unit can be easily removed from the package according to the invention by deflecting the side walls of the tray, but in an alternative construction, the lid unit may be provided with a tear strip, enabling it to be torn open for release of the tray unit.

Claims (9)

1. A two part packaging container comprising a tray unit provided with an upper rim or bead projecting outwardly from the top of the wall of the tray unit, and a cover unit comprising a panel and an edge skirt, and the tray unit and cover unit are adapted to be pushed together, said cover unit having internal resilient holding means which deflect as the tray unit is pushed into the cover unit, but which are designed to spring back behind the underside of the rim or bead thereby to retain the cover unit and tray unit in held relationship to form the final package.

2. A container according to Claim 1, wherein the resilient holding means may be formed by means of panel portions of ,he cover unit, which are folded inwardly from the bottom edge of the skirt.

3. A container according to Claim 2, wherein the panel portions are locked at the corners thereof and the central regions bow outwardly to provide resilient locking portions behind which the upper rim of bead of the tray catches.

4. A container according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the cover unit is formed from a cut and creased blank of sheet material, such as cardboard or plastics material.

5. A container according to Claim 4, wherein the cover means comprises a top panel having a skirt around the whole periphery thereof, the depth of the skirt being equal to or greater than the depth of the tray unit, so that when the tray unit is inserted into the cover unit, the skirt will cover and conceal the tray unit when the package rests on a surface.

6. A conductor according to Claim 4 or 5, wherein the cover unit is constructed from a onepiece blank of cut and creased material and the skirt is defined by outer and inner panels respectively hinged to the top panel of the cover unit and to said outer panels, the inner panels interlocking by the folding action to hold the cover unit in erected condition so that no glueing is necessary.

7. A container according to claim 6, wherein when the tray is locked to the cover unit some of the inner panels spring under the tray rim.or bead whilst others press against the tray rim or bead.

8. A container according to any preceding claim, wherein the tray is a thermoformed plastics tray.

9. A two-part container substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.