GB2199561A - Packaging container - Google Patents

Abstract

A packaging container 10 for a flexible, deformable item, such as an air filter element 50, comprises a rectangular base, rectangular side walls 14, 16 rectangular end walls 18, 20, and an openable top comprising triangularly-shaped flaps 24, 26, 28 and 30. Each of the side flaps 24 and 26 has the apex thereof bent at right angles to the plane of the flap along a fold line 40, 42 to form a depending tab 44, 46. The side flap 26 has a slot formed therein parallel to the fold line 42, which slot is sized to accommodate tab 44 of flap 24. When the flaps 24, 26, 28 and 30 are in a closed position with the flap 24 overlying the flap 26, the tabs 44, 46 restrain the air filter element 50 from any substantial movement within the package. <IMAGE>

Description

PACKAGING CONTAINER This invention relates to packaging containers for flexible deformable items, and, in particular, it relates to packaging containers for flexible air filter elements.

It is customary design procedure on internal combustion engines in motor vehicles for the inlet air supplied to the engines to be filtered to remove dust and other solid or liquid contaminants. With many such engines, the inlet air is filtered by passing the air into a cylindrical air filter housing containing an annular replaceable air filter element formed from a series of accordion pleats of filter paper, the ends of each of which are sealed separately from those of adjacent pleats soars to form the pleats into a series of pockets, the series of pleats being arranged in the form of an annulus of rectangular cross-section, the inner face of said annulus including the open ends of said pockets, and the peripheral edges of said inner face of the annulus having moulded and bonded thereto continuous seal strips of elastomeric material which overlie and seal the parts of the open ends of the pockets immediately adjacent said sealed ends of the pleats.

Annular replaceable air filter elements of the above construction are inherently flexible and are readily deformable, particularly in directions radial to the annulus. Thus, for example, if such an annular filter element is stood on its peripheral edge, it will collapse inwards under its own weight from a circular shape to a flattened loop shape with a horizontal base and an inwardly-curved upper edge, similar to the shape adopted by a broad rubber band when stood on edge and allowed to collapse under its own weight. If such an annular replaceable air filter element is allowed to collapse under its own weight during storage thereof, there is a very real risk that the element will adopt a permanent set to said flattened loop shape, which will result in difficulties in correctly and accurately inserting the element into place in the corresponding cylindrical air filter housing.Consequently, there is a need to provide a packaging container for such a flexible, deformable air filter element which will prevent this tendency for the element to sag under its own weight.

Known techniques for packaging such elements include packaging the element in a square box dimensioned to retain the element essentially in its circular shape. Often there is used additionally a ring of stiff packaging material sized to conform with the inner periphery of the element, which ring is inserted into the element before or after placing the element in said square box. Although these known techniques of packaging meet the problem of element sag satisfactorily, they do suffer the disadvantage of overall size of packaging container, in the sense that the square packaging container contains a large amount of empty, unused space, and this can be expensive both with regard to the cost of the packaging material and the cost of storage space of such square packaging containers.

A packaging container for a flexible deformable item according to the present invention comprises an orthogonal base, orthogonal side walls, orthogonal end walls, and an openable top formed from at least two flaps, each one of which is hinged along one side thereof to a respective wall edge of said container and has a depending planar formation thereon which extends parallel to said one side and forms, when the top is in a closed position, a depending partition within said container which restrains a portion of the item within the container between a wall of the container and the depending planar formation, at least one of said planar formations passing through a slot in another one of said flaps so as to secure the flaps together when the top is in a closed position.

Preferably, the container is rectangular in shape, with opposed rectangular side walls, opposed rectangular end walls and a top formed from four substantially triangularly-shaped flaps, each one of which is hinged along one side to a respective wall edge, each of the flaps hinged to a side wall edge having the apex of the triangularly-shaped flap opposite the side wall edge bent downwards along a fold line extending parallel to said side wall edge to form said depending planar formation, and said slot is formed in one of the flaps hinged to a side wall edge between said side wall edge and said fold line, the distance between said side wall edge and said slot being sufficient, when the top is in a closed position, to allow the depending planar formation of the other flap which passes through the slot to retain said portion of the item securely against the respective side wall of the container.

Advantageously, the flaps forming the top of the container all overlap one another along the free edges thereof when the top is in a closed position.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the container is formed from a single shaped blank of stiff packaging material provided with suitable fold lines.

A preferred embodiment of the invention and how it may be performed are hereinafter particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an isometric view of a packaging container according to the present invention with the top thereof in a closed position; Figure 2 is an isometric view of the packaging container of Figure 1, showing the top of the container in a partially open position; Figure 3 is an isometric view of the packaging container of Figure 1, showing the top of the container in a fully open position; Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of the packaging container of Figure 1, taken in the direction 4-4 in Figure 1; Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of the packaging container of Figure 1, taken in the direction 5-5 in Figure 1; and Figure 6 is a container blank shaped and provided with fold lines, which blank can be assembled into a preferred embodiment of the packaging container shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 shows a packaging container 10 according to the present invention, which container comprises an orthogonal base 12, orthogonal side walls 14,16, orthogonal end walls 18,20, and an openable top 22. The openable top 22 is formed from four substantially triangularly-shaped flaps 24,26,28 and 30, each one of which is hinged along one side 32,34,36 and 38 to a respective wall edge of the container 10.

Each of the flaps 24 and 26, which are hinged respectively to side walls 14 and 16, have the apex thereof opposite the hinged side 32,34 thereof bent downwards relative to the plane of the flap 24,26 along a fold line 40,42 extending parallel to the hinged side 32,34 thereof to form a depending planar formation 44,46 on the flap 24,26, which will hereinafter be termed a depending tab, as .can be seen more clearly in Figures 2 and 3.

As can be seen in Figures 2 and 3, there is a slot 48 formed in flap 26 between the hinged side 34 and the fold line 42, which has a length corresponding to the fold line 40 of flap 24. The slot 48 is formed in. flap 26 at such a distance from the hinged side 34 that, on closing the flap 24 down over the flap 26, the depending tab 44 passes through the slot 48 and retains a portion of a flexible, deformable air filter element 50 inside the container 10 securely against the side wall 16, as shown in Figure 5.

Container 10 is formed from a single blank of stiff packaging material, and a preferred blank is shown in Figure 6, wherein it can be seen that the blank has been made to fit closely within a overall rectangular configuration, to reduce packaging material wastage to a minimum. Referring now to Figure 6, it can be seen that the blank is a single, one-piece blank in which the flaps 24,26,28 and 30 are all integrally attached to the corresponding walls 14,16,18 and 20, which are all, in turn, integrallyattached to the respective edges of the base 12. Fold lines 32,34,36, 38,40,42,52,54,56 and 58 are all formed in the blank as indicated in Figure 6, along with the slot 48 in flap 26.It should be noted that fold line 56 also forms one side of two triangularly-shaped flaps 60 and 64, and that, likewise, fold line 58 forms one side of two triangularly-shaped flaps 62 and 66. Flaps 60.62,64 and 66 form respective extensions to the ends of side walls 14 and 16.

Container 10 is produced from the blank shown in Figure 6 by first bending the flaps 60,62,64 and 66 about the respective fold lines 56 and 58 until the flaps are at right angles to the respective side walls 14 and 16. Side walls 14 and 16 are then bent at right angles to the base 12 about fold lines 52 and 54, so that flaps 60 and 64 extend along the fold line 56, and flaps 62 and 66 extend along the fold line 58. The container 10 is completed by bending the end walls 18 and 20 at right angles to the base about fold lines 56 and 58 to bring the end wall 18 into contact with flaps 60 and 64, and end wall 20 into contact with flaps 62 and 66.

The flexible, deformable air filter element 50 can now be placed in position within container 10 by deforming the element from its normal annular shape to the oval shape of the element shown in Figure 3, wherein the outer periphery of the element is in contact with the walls 14,16,18 and 20 of the container 10, and the curved areas of the oval shape are considerably less curved than the curved areas produced when the element sags into the aforesaid flattened loop shape under its own weight.

The container 10 can now be closed by first bending the tab 46 at right angles to flap 26 about the fold line 42, and then bending the top flap 26 down at right angles to the side wall 16 about the fold line 34 so that the flap 26 extends across the top of the container 10 and the tab 46 is located adjacent a portion of the inner periphery of the element 50, as shown in Figures 2 and 5. Flaps 28 and 30 are then both bent at right angles to the respective end walls 18 and 20 about the respective fold lines 36 and 38, so as to overlap the edges of flap 26, as shown in Figure 2.Finally, tab 44 is bent at right angles to flap 24 about fold line 40, and flap 24 is bent at right angles to side wall 14 about fold line 32, so that the tab 44 passes through the slot 48 in flap 26 and locates adjacent a portion of the inner periphery of the element that is positioned substantially opposite the tab 46, as shown in Figure 5. The container 10 isnow in the fully closed condition shown in Figure 1, with the flap 24 extending across and overlapping the edges of flaps 26,28 and 30. In the fully closed position, flap 24 is held in position by the engagement of the tab 44 in the slot 48 in flap 26.

If desired, it is possible to form an integral locking tab in flap 26 adjacent the slot 48, which is arranged to pass through a slot formed in a portion of the fold line 40 of flap 24, once the tab 44 has been inserted into the slot 48, so as to lock the flap 24 into place over the edges of flaps 26, 28 and 30.

The packaging container of the present invention provides an inexpensive and effective way of packing and storing a flexible, deformable item, such as an air filter element, so that it occupies a minimal storage space and is prevented from permanent deformation during storage. Thus, for example, where the item packed is the flexible, deformable air filter element previously described, the packaging container of the invention retains such an element firmly but gently in place, irrespective of the storage position of the container and with only minimal deformation of the element under its own weight. Moreover, the preferred embodiment of the packaging container of the invention can be constructed simply, easily and economically from a single blank of stiff packaging material, and can be readily opened or closed without damaging the packaging material. Consequently, since there is no need to destroy or discard the packaging material of the container in order to obtain access to the contents thereof, the container could be made reusable, if desired.

Claims (6)

Claims:

1. A packaging container for a flexible deformable item, comprising an orthogonal base, orthogonal side walls, orthogonal end walls, and an openable top formed from at least two flaps, each one of which is hinged along one side thereof to a respective wall edge of said container and has a depending planar formation thereon which extends parallel to said one side and forms, when the top is in a closed position, a depending partition within said container which restrains a portion of the item within the container between a wall of the container and the depending planar formation, at least one of said planar formations passing through a slot in another one of said flaps so as to secure the flaps together when the top is in a closed position.

2. A packaging container for a flexible deformable item according to claim 1, in which the container is rectangular in shape, with opposed rectangular side walls, opposed rectangular end walls and a top formed from four substantially triangularly-shaped flaps, each one of which is hinged along one side to a respective wall edge, each of the flaps hinged to a side wall edge having the apex of the triangularly-shaped flap opposite the side wall edge bent downwards along a fold line extending parallel to said side wall edge to form said depending planar formation, and said slot is formed in one of the flaps hinged to a side wall edge between said side wall edge and said fold line, the distance between said side wall edge and said slot being sufficient,when the top is in a closed position, to allow the depending planar formation of the other flap which passes through the slot to retain said portion of the item securely against the respective side wall of the container.

3. A packaging container for a flexible deformable item according to claim 1 or 2, in which the flaps forming the top of the container all overlap one another along the free edges thereof when the top is in a closed position.

4. A packaging container for a flexible deformable item according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the container is formed from a single shaped blank of stiff packaging material.

5. A packaging container for a flexible air filter element, substantially as hereinbefore particularly described and as shown in Figures 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.

6. A container blank shaped and provided with fold lines as shown in Figure 6 of the accompanying drawings.