GB2247872A - Assemblies of bottles or other items - Google Patents

Abstract

Bottles 1 stacked in rectangular arrays one upon the other (Figure 1) are separated from each other within the arrays by apertured, substantially-planar separators 4 that nest on the bottle-shoulders 5 in areal contact therewith. Each separator 4 has under-surface recesses 8 that are defined by domed portions 11 of its upper-surface 12 and engage the bottle-shoulders 5 in close, conforming surface-contact. The bottle-necks 6 project upwardly through apertures 7 that break through the bottoms of the recesses 8 with the aperture-edges turned away in the form of a collar 14 upstanding from the upper-surface 12. Ridges 13 that interconnect the domed portions 11, and an upstanding peripheral rim 10 strengthen the separator 4 which is a moulded plastics sheet. <IMAGE>

Description

Assemblies of Bottles or other Items This invention relates to assemblies of bottles or other items, and is concerned especially, though not exclusively, with such assemblies used for bulk storage and/or transport of the items.

Where bottles or other items are to be stored and/or transported in bulk, it is commonly necessary to take special steps to ensure that they are not damaged through contact with one another. This is especially so in the circumstances where bottles or other items having a decorative or other external-surface feature, are assembled together side by side in layers stacked one upon the other on a pallet. Any rubbing together of the items during handling of the pallet can lead to damage of the surface feature, and in order to avoid this, it is common to interpose cardboard or other elements between them to ensure their separation from one another.

In the latter respect, it is common to use cardboard dividers or separators of an egg-box configuration.

These involve crossed strips of cardboard that interengage to produce a unitary, rectangular array of cells within which the bottles or other items are individually located so as to be separated from one another. Because of their unitary construction, dividers or separators of this form are generally easy to handle and contribute a degree of cohesion within the assembled layers. However, they do have the disadvantage of imposing constraints on the methods of loading and unloading that can be used.

For example, where empty bottles transported to a filling station, stacked on a pallet, are to be unloaded onto a conveyor that supplies the bottles to the filling machinery, successive layers of the stack are presented in turn to the loading platform of the conveyor. This, in general, enables the bottles of the presented layer to be swept automatically onto the conveyor, standing upright directly from the stack. However, if cardboard separators of the egg-box form are utilised in the stack, the sweeper mechanism cannot be used, and the bottles have to be removed from the divider cells for loading onto the conveyor, by hand.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to provide an improved form of assembly of mutually-spaced bottles or other items, that may be used to overcome this specific problem.

According to the present invention there is provided an assembly of bottles or other items that are held side-byside in a mutually-spaced relationship by a separator which comprises an apertured, substantially-planar member, the separator engaging with the bottles or other items to hold them as aforesaid with the bottles or other items projecting through individual apertures of said member, wherein the engagement of the separator with each bottle or other tem is established at the respective aperture through conforming surface contact of the member with that said bottle or other item such as to nest the separator on that bottle or other item in areal contact therewith.

Each bottle or other item may have a shouldered part, and in these circumstances the separator may nest as aforesaid on the shoulders of the bottles or other items.

The surface contact between the separator and the bottles or other items may be established at each aperture within a recess in an under-surface of the separator, the aperture breaking through the bottom of the recess to enable the bottle or other item in each case to project up through the separator. The edge of the aperture may be turned away from the bottle or other item so that it does not contact (and thereby cannot damage) the outer surface of such item. Also, the said member may be a sheet member and in these circumstances may be configured with domed portions in its upper-surface to define the recesses in the under-surface. In this latter case, ridges may be provided to interconnect the domed portions for strengthening the separator.

The said member may be a moulded sheet of plastics or other material, and may have an upstanding peripheral rim to contribute rigidity to the separator.

A bottle-stack which includes a multiplicity of assembled arrays of bottles according to the present invention, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows part of a pallet loaded with glass bottles stacked in rectangular arrays one upon the other and separated from each other in the arrays according to the present invention by moulded plastics separators; Figure 2 is illustrative of part of one of the arrays of the stack of Figure 1 to enlarged scale and partly in section, showing details of the form of separator used and its engagement with the bottles; Figures 3 and 4 are plan views from below and above respectively, of the form of separator used in the stack of Figure 1 and shown in Figure 2; and Figure 5 illustrates a step in the manufacture of the form of separator shown in Figures 1 to 4.

The example of bottle-stack to be described is used for the storage and/or transit of empty bottles. Although the bottles in this example are empty and without closure caps, the invention is nonetheless readily applicable to the stacked storage and/or transit of filled and capped bottles.

Referring to Figure 1, a multiplicity of empty bottles 1 are loaded together on a wooden pallet 2 to stand upright side by side with one another in a plurality of rectangular arrays that are stacked one upon the other.

The bottles 1 of each array stand on a sheet 3 of corrugated cardboard, and are engaged by a substantiallyplanar moulded-sheet tray or separator 4. The separator 4 locates and retains the bottles 1 firmly together in a mutually-spaced relationship on the respective sheet 3 so that they cannot come into contact with, and rub on, one another.

The bottles 1 have an external surface coating that simulates frosting, and the separator 4 nests on shoulders 5 of the bottles 1 to protect the coating from damage. In the latter respect, the separator 4 is apertured and is placed over the bottles 1 of its array to seat on the bottle-shoulders 5. More particularly, and referring now also to Figure 2, the necks 6 of the bottles 1 project through individual apertures 7 that break through from recesses 8 in the under-surface 9 of the separator 4. The recesses 8 are configured to conform closely to the shoulder-shaping of the bottles 1, so that the separator 4 nests in areal (and therefore non-damaging) contact only, with the bottle-coatings. Referring now also to Figures 3 and 4, the recesses 8 with their central apertures 7, are located in rows and columns, surrounded by an upstanding, peripheral rim 10 of the separator 4.Each recess 8 in the under-surface 9 is defined by a domed portion 11 of the upper-surface 12 of the separator 4. The portions 11 are interconnected in the rows and columns on the upper-surface 12 by ridges 13 that serve to strengthen the separator 4 against bending. The ridges 13 rise to only part of the full height of the portions 11 so that a significant flank area for shoulder-contact is preserved around the full circumference of each recess 8 on the under-surface 9.

The bottom of each recess 8 where it opens in the aperture 7, is shaped to break contact smoothly with the bottle-shoulder 5. In this respect, and as best seen in Figure 2, the shaping forms a short cylindrical collar 14 that stands upright from the corresponding domed portion 11 on the upper-surface 12. In this way, the surrounding, cut edge of the aperture 7 does not contact, and cannot therefore scratch, the coating of the bottle 1 projecting through that aperture 7.

The separator 4, on its under-surface 9 inwardly of the rim 10, has a flat peripheral land 15 which is co-planar with octagonal lands 16 between the recesses 8. The junctions between the lands 15 and 16 and the recesses 8, like the junctions between the collars 14 and the recesses 8, are rounded to ensure smooth run in to conforming, areal contact with the bottles 1 on the shoulders 5. The co-planar lands 15 and 16 add to the rigidity of the separator 4 within the rim 10, maximizing areal contact within the recesses 8 and holding the bottles 1 firmly apart.

The overall rigidity of the separator 4 allows it to be held by the rim 10 when being placed on the bottles 1 during loading in the stack, and also when being removed from them during unloading at a filling station. In the latter respect, the separators 4 can be readily removed from each individual array of bottles 1 of the stack as that array is, in its turn, presented to the sweeping mechanism of the conveyor that supplies the bottles to the filling machinery. Removal is carried out in the one operation and without need for the bottles 1 to be individually handled.

The separator 4 is vacuum formed from a sheet of highimpact polystyrene, polyvinyl-chloride, or polyethylenetetrathallate. The mould used conforms negatively to the configuration of the upper-surface 12 required, except to the extent that it provides slightly greater depth to the rim 10 and the collars 14 of the moulded product. The product as removed from the mould and exhibiting these features, is as illustrated in Figure 5. The apertures 7 are cut out, and the rim 10 and collars 14 are reduced to size, by a single cut made in a plane represented in Figure 5 by the broken line 17; this cut also frees the resulting separator 4 of surrounding waste 18.

Although the bottles 1 have been described above as having an external surface coating, and the separator is used to ensure that the coating is not damaged by preventing the bottles from rubbing on one another, it will be appreciated that the separator may be used to hold bottles or other items separated, whether or not they have any decorative or other external-surface feature. Such separation may be desirable, for example, in the case of thin or delicate glass-ware.

Also, with the separator described, the bottles are arrayed in regular rows and columns; this is not necessary. For example, in order to increase the packing density and/or more efficiently or readily to accommodate bottles of non-circular (perhaps, triangular) crosssection, they may be arrayed in staggered rows.

Furthermore, although the invention has been described in the context of enabling bottles to be unloaded onto a conveyor from a stack, using a sweeping mechanism, it will be appreciated that it is just as applicable in the circumstances where unloading takes place by a lifting mechanism, or even by hand.

Claims (11)

Claims:

1. An assembly of bottles or other items that are held side-by-side in a mutually-spaced relationship by a separator which comprises an apertured, substantiallyplanar member, the separator engaging with the bottles or other items to hold them as aforesaid with the bottles or other items projecting through individual apertures of said member, wherein the engagement of the separator with each bottle or other item is established at the respective aperture through conforming surface contact of the member with that said bottle or other item such as to nest the separator on that bottle or other item in areal contact therewith.

2. An assembly according to Claim 1 wherein each bottle or other item has a shouldered part, and the separator nests as aforesaid on the shoulders of the bottles or other items.

3. An assembly according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the surface contact is established at each aperture within a recess in an under-surface of the separator, the aperture breaking through the bottom of the recess to enable the bottle or other item in each case to project up through the separator.

4. An assembly according to Claim 3 wherein the edge of the aperture is turned away from the bottle or other item so as to space it from contact therewith.

5. An assembly according to Claim 3 or Claim 4 wherein said member is a sheet member configured with domed portions in its upper-surface to define said recesses in the under-surface.

6. An assembly according to Claim 5 wherein the domed portions are interconnected with ridges to strengthen the separator.

7. An assembly according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the separator is a moulded sheet of plastics or other material.

8. An assembly according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said member has an upstanding peripheral rim to contribute rigidity to the separator.

9. An assembly according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the separator is substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 2 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.

10. A bottle-stack comprising a multiplicity of assemblies of bottles according to any one of the preceding claims, stacked one upon the other.

11. A bottle-stack substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.