GB2279334A - Inserts for cartons - Google Patents

Abstract

A moulded plastics insert (2) for supporting an article e.g. an Easter egg (11) in a carton (14) comprises two co-operative parts (4, 6) made of plastics sheet material and each having a principal plane, each said part having a recess (8, 10) extending outwardly from said plane, each said recess being of such a shape that it can be moulded without negative draw. The recesses (8, 10) together define a compartment (12) when the insert parts are closed together, for receiving an article which has a longitudinal axis, the arrangement being such that when the insert with such an article therein is inserted in a carton to extend generally diagonally in the carton from a lower edge region (42) to an opposite upper edge region (44) thereof, the said longitudinal axis of the article is upright in the carton. <IMAGE>

Description

INSERTS FOR CARTONS The present invention relates to inserts for use in cartons and is particularly, but not exclusively, concerned with the packaging of easter eggs.

Easter eggs are usually sold in cardboard cartons and are supported in the carton by cardboard inserts.

These cardboard inserts are supplied in the form of relatively complex cardboard blanks which have to be manually folded before they can be used. It has been found that the action required to fold these inserts into the desired shape can give rise to repetitive strain injuries for the packer.

Packaging for products such as easter eggs also needs to be made tamper-proof or tamper-evident in response to customer demand. Accordingly the practice of merely wrapping an easter egg in foil and putting the egg into a carton with an open window for display is no longer appropriate. It has been proposed to cover the window with a sheet of transparent plastics material or to add a plastics insert to protect the egg. This latter insert has up to now been in addition to the cardboard insert mentioned above. Accordingly the cost of the packaging is increased.

Viewed from one aspect the present invention provides a moulded plastics insert for supporting an article in a carton, comprising two co-operative parts made of plastics sheet material and each having a principal plane, each said part having a recess extending outwardly from said plane, each said recess being of such a shape that it can be moulded without negative draw, the said recesses together defining a compartment when the insert parts are closed together, for receiving an article which has a longitudinal axis, the arrangement being such that when the insert with such an article therein is inserted in a carton to extend generally diagonally in the carton from a lower edge region to an opposite upper edge region thereof, the said longitudinal axis of the article is upright in the carton.

In this manner, the need for cardboard inserts requiring folding is removed. The packer need only place an article in the open insert, close it and insert it into a carton. This reduces the number of movements required which in turn reduces the possibility of repetitive strain injury. Furthermore this plastics insert is able, at the same time, to provide protection against tampering whilst still allowing an article to be clearly displayed.

In one form of the invention the said insert principal planes coincide, in use, with the diagonal plane extending between said lower and upper edges of a carton. With such an insert, the production costs can be kept to a minimum and the simple design makes the moulding process relatively simple. In order to avoid problems of negative draw, the compartment need not conform exactly to the shape of the product to be housed and may instead be only approximately the right shape.

For example, if the compartment is to house an easter egg, it may only have an approximate egg shape, whilst being close enough to such a shape to hold an easter egg steady, in use.

In another embodiment the insert is provided with spacer parts which, when said insert is inserted in a carton, cause said principal insert planes to be angularly displaced from the diagonal plane extending between said lower and upper edges of the carton. Such a design may permit the compartment to be conformed more readily substantially to the shape of the article to be housed.

Viewed form another aspect the invention provides a moulded plastics insert for a carton, comprising two cooperative parts made of plastics sheet material and each having a principal plane, each said part having a recess extending outwardly from said plane, each said recess being of such a shape that it can be moulded without negative draw, said recesses together defining a compartment when the inserts parts are closed together, and the insert further having spacer parts arranged to support the insert diagonally in a carton between a lower edge region and an opposite upper edge region thereof but with said insert principal planes angularly displaced from the diagonal plane extending between said carton edges.

The said spacer parts preferably extend in mutually opposite directions from each end of the insert when closed.

The provision of such spacer parts is particularly useful for ensuring that a longitudinal axis of an article to be housed and displayed is at the desired inclination in the carton. Thus, if the insert is used to package egg-shaped articles, the spacer means can help to ensure that the axis of the article is substantially vertical in the carton.

The two inserts parts may be separate but preferably they are hingedly connected together along an edge of the insert to enable the parts to move between a closed position and an open position. In either case, the parts may have locking means to maintain the two parts in the closed position. These locking means may be of any suitable type, for example a snap-fit frictional arrangement.

Two embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side view of a first embodiment of a plastics insert, positioned in a carton, with part of the carton cutaway for clarity; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the insert of Figure 1, when closed, from the front and one side; Figure 3 shows the insert from the same aspect as Figure 2 but with the insert partially open and an easter egg therein; Figure 4 is a side view of the insert of Figure 1, when in the fully open position; and Figure 5 is a side view of a second embodiment of an insert, positioned in a carton.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4, a moulded plastics insert 2 for housing an easter egg has two parts 4 and 6. Each part 4 and 6 is formed with a recess 8 and 10 which, when the insert 2 is in the closed position shown in Figures 1 and 2, together define an egg shaped compartment 12 for receiving an easter egg 11. The compartment 12 is so arranged that the longitudinal axis 13 of the egg is vertical when the insert is positioned in a carton 14 in the manner shown in Figure 1.

The two parts 4 and 6 are hingedly connected together to permit relative movement of the parts 4 and 6 between the closed position and open positions illustrated in Figures 3 or 4. Lugs 18 on part 4 are to facilitate de-nesting of the insert from a stack of the same, by a user.

The parts 4 and 6 have respective principal planes 22 and 24 which lie flush against one another when the insert 2 is in the closed position. The recesses 8 and 10 extend outwardly from the respective planes 22 and 24.

The edge 26 of each plane 22 and 24 is surrounded by a wall 28, part 30 of which extends above the plane 22 or 24 and part 32 of which extends below the plane.

The walls 28 terminate in an outwardly extending rim 34.

As will be seen most clearly from Figure 2, the walls 28 of each part 4 and 6 are dimensioned so that the two parts 4 and 6 nest together when the insert is in the closed position. The rims 34 of each part 4 and 6 lie flush when the insert 2 is closed.

Recess 10 is formed with a protrusion 36 which extends outwardly of the back wall of the recess. Thus when the insert 2 is in the carton 14, as shown in Figure 1, the protrusion 36 rests against the back wall 38 of the carton to provide additional support for the insert.

In use, the insert is opened, an easter egg 11 placed in one of the recesses, and the insert is then closed and placed in a carton 14 as shown in Figure 1.

As can be seen from that Figure, the opposite end edges 40 of rims 34 rest against the bottom front edge 42 and the opposite top back edge 44 of the carton 14. Thus the plane 46 defined by the rims 34 extends diagonally across the carton, coinciding with the diagonal plane of the carton which extends between the bottom front edge 42 and top back edge 44. The protrusion 36 from recess 10 rests against the back wall 38 of the carton 14. The insert principal planes 22 and 24 are angularly displaced from the carton diagonal plane 46 and, in particular, intersect it in a middle region of the carton. The longitudinal axis 13 of the egg extends vertically in the carton.

The insert is moulded from a suitable plastics material such as unplasticised PVC. In particular, the shape of each recess is selected such that negative draw is avoided. The process starts with a piece of flat sheet plastics. The plane of the sheet defines a moulding plane and is also the plane 46 of the rims 34.

Part of each half of the plastics sheet is drawn upwardly whilst the other part of each half is drawn downwardly to define insert planes 22 and 24 and walls 28. The two recesses are then drawn downwardly of the two insert planes 22 and 24.

Figure 5 shows a second, simpler insert 102 which also embodies the present invention. As with the first embodiment, this insert 102 has two parts 104 and 106 which are hinged together. However, the planes 122 and 124 of the respective parts 104 and 106 coincide, when the insert is closed, with the diagonal plane of the carton 14 which extends between the bottom front edge 42 and top back edge 44. In this case, in order that the two recesses 108 and 110 can be formed without negative draw, the recesses do not exactly conform to the shape of an egg to be housed in the compartment 112. Rather, that part 109 of the recess, which would be subject to negative draw if the recess conformed exactly to the shape of the egg, extends initially (when the insert is viewed in cross-section) at an acute angle tr, measured from inside the recess, from the planes 122 and 124. In this way, no part of the wall of each recess is inward of another part of a recess wall, thus avoiding negative draw problems in moulding. The second insert 102 is formed in much the same way as the first although the simpler design leads to a simpler moulding process.

Although the inserts have been particularly described above in relation to their use to house easter eggs, it will be appreciated that they can also be used to house other items such as bottles or cosmetic items.

The inserts could also be modified so as to house one or more confectionery bars in addition to an easter egg.

Claims (9)

Claims

1. A moulded plastics insert for supporting an article in a carton, comprising two co-operative parts made of plastics sheet material and each having a principal plane, each said part having a recess extending outwardly from said plane, each said recess being of such a shape that it can be moulded without negative draw, the said recesses together defining a compartment when the insert parts are closed together, for receiving an article which has a longitudinal axis, the arrangement being such that when the insert with such an article therein is inserted in a carton to extend generally diagonally in the carton from a lower edge region to an opposite upper edge region thereof, the said longitudinal axis of the article is upright in the carton.

2. An insert as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in use, said insert principal planes coincide with the diagonal plane extending between said lower and upper edges of a carton.

3. An insert as claimed in claim 1, wherein the insert is provided with spacer parts which, when said insert is inserted in a said carton, cause said insert principal planes to be angularly displaced from the diagonal plane extending between said lower and upper edges of the carton.

4. A moulded plastics insert for a carton, comprising two co-operative parts made of plastics sheet material and each having a principal plane, each said part having a recess extending outwardly from said plane, each said recess being of such a shape that it can be moulded without negative draw, said recesses together defining a compartment when the inserts parts are closed together, and the insert further having spacer parts arranged to support the insert diagonally in a carton between a lower edge region and an opposite upper edge region thereof but with said insert principal planes angularly displaced from the diagonal plane extending between said carton edges.

5. An insert as claimed in claim 3 or 4, wherein said spacer parts extend in mutually opposite directions from each end of the insert when closed.

6. An insert as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the wall of the said recess in one said insert part has a protrusion arranged to rest against the adjoining side wall of a said carton, in use.

7. An insert as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the two said insert parts are integrally hinged together for movement between open and closed positions.

8. An insert as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said recesses together define an egg-shaped compartment for receiving an egg shaped article.

9. An insert substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 5, or Figure 5, of the accompanying drawings.