GB2279331A

GB2279331A - Container formed from a blank

Info

Publication number: GB2279331A
Application number: GB9226923A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Alan Murfitt
Original assignee: AMCOR PACKAGING
Current assignee: AMCOR PACKAGING
Priority date: 1992-12-24
Filing date: 1992-12-24
Publication date: 1995-01-04
Anticipated expiration: 2012-12-24
Also published as: GB9226923D0; GB2279331B

Abstract

A container formed by folding a blank cut from sheet material has along an upper edge of one wall a pair of locating formations (33, 34) which can be received in corresponding recesses (37 - 40) provided at the underside of a superposed, like container. Adjacent to the locating formations (33, 34), the wall has a substantially flat, upwardly facing surface (27) which bears the super-posed container. The locating formations have relatively narrow crests and are downwardly divergent. <IMAGE>

Description

Title: Container and method of making the container Description of Invention From one aspect, the present invention relates to a container which is formed from initially flat sheet material which is folded to form the container.

The invention particularly concerns a container having a wall which includes an outer leaf, an inner leaf and a bridge portion which lies at a margin of the wall, is integral with the inner and outer leaves and connects said leaves to each other at said margin. Containers of this kind, called herein the kind described, are useful for stacking one on another. The bridge portion of a lower container is suitable for bearing a part of a super-posed container.

There is a requirement for containers which have interfitting locating formations which define a predetermined location of a super-posed container relative to a lower container and which restrain horizontal movement of the super-posed container relative to the lower container. For this purpose, it is known to provide on the walls of containers upstanding tongues which can be received in complimentary recesses formed in a super-posed container. However, it is common for an upper container to be moved into the required position relative to a lower container by sliding of the upper container on the lower container.If the upper container abuts a tongue projecting upwards from the lower container during sliding of the upper container into the required position, the upper container may bend the tongue downwards out of its path and this reduces the effectiveness of the tongue in subsequently maintaining the required relative position of the containers.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a container of the kind described in which said wall further includes a formation which is integral with the inner and outer leaves and projects beyond the bridge portion in a direction away from the inner and outer leaves.

The formation is preferably tapered, having a narrow crest remote from the leaves and being divergent towards the leaves. The width of the crest is preferably substantially less than the width of the bridge portion of the wall.

By the width, we mean herein the dimension measured in a direction from the outer leaf to the inner leaf.

In the preferred container, the wall comprises one or more intermediate leaves between the inner and outer leaves. One function of the or each intermediate leaf is to act as a spacer between the inner and outer leaves.

In a case where said wall includes one or more intermediate leaves, the or each intermediate leaf is preferably reduced in the vicinity of said formation. The or each intermediate leaf may be reduced in thickness in the vicinity of the formation. Alternatively, the or each intermediate leaf may be reduced in height in the vicinity of the formation. Such reduction of the or each intermediate leaf provides space within which the formation can converge towards the crest.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of making a container from sheet material wherein a blank is cut from the material, the blank is creased along fold lines, including a pair of parallel lines and a further line which, if produced, would lie partly between the parallel lines, and wherein the blank is subsequently folded to form the container, said parallel lines defining folds between respective leaves of a wall of the container and a bridge portion of the wall and the blank being folded at the further line to form a crest of a formation which projects from said leaves beyond the bridge portion.

An example of a container embodying the invention and an example of a method of making the container will now be described. with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIGURE 1 illustrates a blank which is folded to form the container, FIGURE 2 shows a perspective view of the container with one end portion of the container being unfolded and FIGURE 3 is a partial cross section through the one end wall of the erected container on the line marked III-III in Figure 2.

The container illustrated in the accompanying drawings comprises a substantially flat bottom wall 10 which is rectangular in shape, a pair of walls 11 and 12 along respective opposite margins of the bottom wall and a further pair of walls 13 and 14 along a further pair of opposite margins of the bottom wall.

In the following description, the walls 13 and 14 are referred to as end walls and the walls 11 and 12 are referred to as side walls. However, these designations do not imply that the walls 11 and 12 are longer than the walls 13 and 14. The walls 11 to 14 may have the same length or the walls of either pair may be longer than the walls of the other pair.

In the particular example of container illustrated in the drawings, each of the side walls 11 and 12 comprises a single thickness of material and is substantially flat. These walls are mutually parallel and are perpendicular to the bottom wall 10.

The end wall 13 comprises and outer leaf 15, an inner leaf 16 and intermediate leaves 17 and 18 which lie between the outer leaf and the inner leaf.

The intermediate leaf 17 comprises right-hand and left-hand flaps 19 and 20 and the intermediate leaf 18 comprises right-hand and left-hand flaps 21 and 22.

The flap 21 meets the side wall 11 at a rectilinear fold 23 and the flap 22 meets the side wall 12 at a further fold 24. The flap 19 meets the inner leaf 16 at a rectilinear fold 25 and the flap 20 meets the inner leaf 16 at a rectilinear fold 26. At the folds 25 and 26, the sheet material is folded through 180 iso that the flaps 19 and 20 lie in face-to-face contact with the inner leaf 16.

The end wall 13 further comprises a bridge portion 27 at that margin of the end wall which is remote from the bottom wall 10. The bridge portion extends from the outer leaf 15 to the inner leaf 16, meets the outer leaf at a rectilinear fold 28 and meets the inner leaf at a parallel fold 29.

The bottom wall 10 has a pair of holes which lie beneath the end wall 13, these holes being spaced apart along the end wall but spaced also from the side walls 11 and 12. On the free edge of the inner leaf 16 remote from the bridge portion 27, there is provided a pair of tongues 30 and 31 which enter the holes in the bottom wall to hold the inner leaf in the required position near to, but spaced from the outer leaf 16. That dimension of these holes in the bottom wall which is measured in a direction from the end wall 13 to the end wall 14 is considerably greater than the corresponding dimension of the tongues 30 and 31.

Thus, each hole is occupied only partly by the corresponding tongue. Each hole leads to a corresponding recess in a lower edge of the end wall 13, the recess being formed by cutting away respective marginal portions of the flaps 19 to 22.

One of these recesses is shown at 32 in Figure 3.

The bridge portion 27 is interrupted at two positions along its length by respective gaps in which there are locating formations 33 and 34 respectively.

As viewed in a direction along the wall 13, that is to say from the side wall 11 towards the side wall 12, the formation 33 has a narrow crest 35 remote from the leaves 15 and 16 and a tapered shape, being divergent from the crest 35 towards the leaves 15 and 16. The locating formation is integral with the leaves 15 and 16 and is continuous from one leaf to the other. The width of the crest 35 is somewhat less than twice the thickness of the sheet material of which the formation is formed. Furthermore, the crest 35 is somewhat rounded, in contrast with the bridge portion 27 which is substantially flat across the major part of its width. It will be noted that the width of the crest 35 is considerably less than the corresponding dimension of the bridge portion 27.

The locating formation 33 protrudes beyond the bridge portion 27 in a direction away from the inner and outer leaves 15 and 16 of the wall.

Preferably, the locating formation projects beyond the bridge portion a distance which is less than the width of the bridge portion but this distance is preferably at least as great as the width of the crest 35 and at least as great as the thickness of the sheet material from which the formation is formed.

The locating formation 33 extends downwards from the exposed surface of the bridge portion 27 a distance which is at least as great as the width of the bridge portion to respective positions where the formation 33 merges with the outer and inner leaves 15 and 16. At the crest 35, the sheet material is folded along a line indicated at 36 in Figure 1 through an angle somewhat less than 180 At the crest 35, the sheet material is preferably folded through an angle within the range 1500to 170 The length of the formation 33, that is the dimension measured in a direction from the wall 11 towards the wall 12, is substantially the same as the corresponding dimension of the hole in the bottom wall 10 through which the recess 32 is accessible.The locating formation 34 is formed and arranged in the same manner as is the formation 33.

The end wall 14 is constructed and arranged in the same manner as is the end wall 13.

The blank shown in Figure 1 is cut from substantially flat sheet material, for example, board comprising one or more corrugated lavers sandwiched between substantially flat layers of paper. Board comprising two corrugated layers sandwiched between three flat layers is suitable for forming the container illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The blank is creased along the lines shown as broken lines in Figure 1 and is cut along the lines shown as full lines. It will be noted that the formations 33 and 34 are divided from the bridge portion 37 by slits which also divide the locating formations partly from the leaves 15 and 16.

Mutually parallel slits extend from the holes in the bottom wall 10 to define tongues 37 to 40 in the bottom wall adjacent to these holes. These tongues, however, remain at least approximately in the plane of the bottom wall and are not folded relative to the bottom wall. They are able to yield somewhat as the tongues 30 and 31 pass over them to the holes in the bottom wall.

As shown in Figure 1, the sheet material is creased along interrupted lines 28 and 29 which are spaced apart by a distance which, in the example illustrated, is approximately equal to twice the thickness of the sheet material from which the blank is formed. These fold lines lie between the leaves 15 and 16. At the interruptions in the lines 28 and 29, the blank is creased along a further fold line 36 which, if produced, would then lie partly between the fold lines 28 and 29 and be spaced equally from them.

As shown in Figure 1, the flaps 19 to 22 are cut away in the vicinity of the locating formations to form cut-outs 41a to 41h. These cut-outs provides spaces upon which the locating formations can intrude when the container is assembled. Alternatively, instead of cutting away material to form cut-outs 41, the sheet material may be crushed in corresponding areas to reduce the thickness of the sheet material locally. Such crushing also provides spaces upon which the locating formations can intrude.

The particular example of container represented in the accompanying drawings is entirely open at its top. The invention may alternatively be applied to a container having a flange along one wall or respective flanges along walls of the container partly to close the top of the container. The invention may also be applied to a container having flaps which can be used to close the top of the container completely. For example, a respective flap may be connected with each of the side and end walls of a container by a bridge portion similar to the bridge portion 27 and which is immediately adjacent to the wall and by a web which extends from the bridge portion to the flap, the flap being at a level below the bridge portion when the container is closed and the web extending downwards from the bridge portion to the flap.A locating formation similar to the formation 33 would be provided in a gap in the bridge portion and a hole for receiving the locating formation would be cut in the bottom of a like container to be stacked on the container having the locating formation.

Although we prefer each locating formation to be integral with the innermost and outermost leaves, it would be within the scope of the invention to provide the locating formation on inner and outer leaves which lie between further leaves of the wall.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the following claims, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, as appropriate may, separately or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims

1. A container formed from sheet material which is initially substantially flat and is folded to form the container, wherein the container includes a wall, said wall includes an outer leaf, an inner leaf and a bridge portion which lies at a margin of said wall, is integral with the inner and outer leaves and connects said leaves to each other at said margin and wherein said wall further includes a formation which is integral with the inner and outer leaves and projects beyond the bridge portion in a direction away from the inner and outer leaves.

2. A container according to Claim 1 wherein said formation is tapered, having a narrow crest remote from the leaves and being divergent towards the leaves.

3. A container according to Claim 2 wherein, adjacent to said formation, the bridge portion has a width measured in a direction from the outer leaf to the inner leaf which is substantially greater than the corresponding dimension of the crest of said formation.

4. A container according to any preceding claim wherein said wall comprises one or more intermediate leaves between the inner and outer leaves.

5. A container according to Claim 4 wherein, adjacent to said formation.

the intermediate leaf or at least one of the intermediate leaves is reduced.

6. A container according to Claim 2 or according to any one of Claims 3 to 5 as appendant to Claim 2, wherein said formation is separated from each of said inner and outer leaves by respective slits which extend away from the crest a distance which is at least as great as the width of the bridge portion.

7. A container according to any preceding claim wherein there is in the container at a position adjacent to a margin of said wall opposite to the bridge portion a recess and wherein the recess has a size such that it can receive a projecting portion of a locating formation of a sub-adjacent container which is substantially the same as said container.

8. A container according to Claim 7 wherein the recess and the formation have substantially the same length.

9. A container according to any preceding claim wherein said formation projects beyond the bridge portion in a direction away from said leaves a distance which is less than the width of the bridge portion.

10. A container according to Claim 1 wherein said formation comprises two, mutually divergent leaves which merge with each other at a crest of the formation.

11. A method of making a container from sheet material wherein a blank is cut from the material, the blank is creased along fold lines including a pair of parallel lines and a further line which, if produced, would lie partly between the parallel lines, the blank is subsequently folded to form the container, said parallel lines defining folds between respective leaves of a wall and a bridge portion of a wall and the blank being folded at the further line to form a crest of a formation which projects from said leaves beyond the bridge portion.

12. A container substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

13. Any novel feature or novel combination of features disclosed herein or in the accompanying drawings.