GB2352228A - Cartons with handles - Google Patents

Abstract

A collapsible carton comprises a series of outer wall panels 12 and a series of inner wall panels 11, said panels being connected by intervening panels which form a base of the carton when the inner wall panels 11 are pushed downwardly within the outer wall panels 12. A handle panel 19 is attached to two inner wall panels 11 by side pieces 19b, 19d and locking tabs 18a on flaps 18 foldable out of the other inner wall panels 11 cooperate with slots 18b in the panel 19 to define a cellular array of spaces within the carton.

Description

2352228 Carton with handle, and blank therefor This invention relates to a

carton having a handle, and concerns in particular a handled carton of card or the like made by erecting a suitably cut, creased and folded blank.

Erectable cartons or boxes, of the sort referred to generally as "cardboard boxes" (although in fact they can be made of materials other than,cardboard), are of great value in the packaging industry, for they may be preformed then stored in their space-saving un-erected (collapsed) state, only being opened up (and usually further folded and interlocked) and erected into their use state immediately prior to their actual utilisation.

One such type of box or carton is that the subject of our co-pending British Patent Application No: 98/18,811.3. This type is that known variously as a "Page 'Miracle'" box (in America, because it is made by Page and is a "miracle" of the packaging art) and as an "archive" box (because it is used primarily for the archiving - the long-term storage of office files, etc). A drawing of a blank for such a carton is shown as Figure 2A of the accompanying Drawings, while Figure 2B shows the carton erected from the blank.

Many of the available box-like cartons are multipurpose containers, and one particular such purpose is to carry bottles, for which utilisation a doubleskinned carton of the "archivell type mentioned above would be of particular value, owing to its inherent strength (although at present "archive" cartons do not seem to be in general use for carrying bottles). The bottles may range in size from 250ml beer bottles through 75cl wine bottles up to 2 litre bottles of soft drinks, and they may be disposed in regular arrays of two, four, six, eight, nine, twelve, fifteen, twentyfour and more (usually as groups of 2xl, 2x2, 3x2, 4x2, 3x3, 5x2, 4x3, 5x3, 6x4 and so on). If a carton is indeed to be employed for this type of purpose then it is convenient to provide it with interior space dividers slotted card strips that fit together to make an appropriate array of rectangular cells into each of which a bottle fits - and thus to prevent the bottles when in situ rattling around. in the box.

Now, when making such a spacer-utilising carton it is clear that the carton can first be erected, to form an empty box, and that then the cellular array of spacers can be assembled and placed inside the carton. It would be advantageous, though, if the spacer array could be provided, both pre-assembled and pre-positioned, within the carton - or, rather, within and as "part,of" the collapsed form of the carton - so that the very act of erecting the carton simultaneously opens out the array and deploys it correctly positioned therein. It is this problem that the invention of our aforementioned Application seeks to solve, and it does so by using a carton of the "archive" type, where, because of the way the carton is intended to be erected, in their collapsed state the bottom/top portions lie outside rather than between the walls, and as the carton is erected these bottom/top portions fold and move into position without passing through the interior space of the carton (which latter is what happens with most other forms of carton). This has the consequence that the required spacer divider strips can be pre-located in position within the collapsed carton at what will become the carton's interior space without being in the way of the carton's bottom/top portions as these latter move into position during the erection sequence. Thus, the invention of our aforementioned Application provides a collapsed carton of the "archive" type, and an erected carton formed therefrom, wherein fixedly located in position within the portion forming the inner section of the carton are spacer strips disposed to define a cellular array of spaces within the erected carton.

The produced carton is very satisfactory for many purposes, but it requires two hands to carry it, and so is not always as convenient as it might be. It is at least partially this problem that is addressed by the present invention, which proposes the use of a purposeprovided handle by which the carton can be carried with one hand while filling it with, say, bottles with the other. Thus, the invention suggests that the conventional spacer strips fixedly located in position within the part forming the inner section of the carton, and disposed to define a cellular array of spaces within the erected carton, are replaced by a combination of a central handle portion and a set of flaps cut from the inner section material. More specifically, the invention suggests the use of a central divider that at the same time forms a handle portion projecting (up) beyond the (top of) the carton, while the (longer pair of) panels which will in use form facing side walls of that part of the erected carton's inner section are cut and folded to form inwardly- projecting flaps that themselves act as further dividers.

In one aspect, therefore, this invention provides a collapsed carton of the "archive" type, and an erected carton formed therefrom, wherein fixedly located in position within the portion forming the inner section of the carton is a handle portion projecting out of the carton (in the latter's erected state), and wherein each panel of one pair of those panels which will in use form handle-portion-parallel facing side walls of the erected carton's inner section is cut and foldable to form one or more inwardly-projecting flap each of which itself acts as a divider, so that the handle portion and the flaps together are disposable to define a cellular array of spaces within the erected carton.

The invention provides a carton - either a collapsed carton or an erected carton'.- of the "archive" type. By this is meant not that the carton need be exactl.y like any particular "archive" carton but that it is of this general type. The blank for such a carton is usually an elongate oblong in overall shape, and has along one of its long sides those portions (or panels) which form the four side wall surfaces (the two ends and the left and right sides) of the inner section and along the other of its long sides those portions (or panels) which form the four side wall surfaces of the outer section, these two sets of four panel portions being joined by a matching set of four pairs (two sets of four) of "facing" trapezium portions (each pair mounted with the shorter of the two parallel sides together along a line that is the central long axis of the blank and the longer sides adjacent the related side portion), which trapezium portions fold, concertina-fashion and in an interlocking manner, to form the bottoms of the inner and outer box sections. A general instance of such a blank is shown in Figure 2A of the accompanying Drawings, while an instance of a blank in accordance with the present invention is shown in Figure 1B. The carton can be provided with one or more closure flaps, these extending suitably from the relevant lengths of the "free" edge of the panels forming the four side walls of the outer section.

Obviously, the carton - and thus the blank - can of of any suitable size. For carrying a dozen claret or burgundy wine bottles, or spirit bottles, in a 4x3 cell array an appropriate size - for the erected box - is roughly 12Jx9Jx14in (3lx24x3Ocm) long-by-wide-by-deep, giving individual cells of about 3x3in (7.5x7.5cm). However, the handled carton of the present invention is particularly suited to carrying six bottles (or cans, or whatever) in a 3x2 array, and is Xoughly 11x8x6in long-by-wide-by- deep (28x20x15cm), giving individual cells of about 3x4in (7.5xlOcm).

Fixedly located in position within the part forming the inner section of the carton is a single handle portion, conveniently arranged along the central (long) axis plane so as to to divide the interior of the erected carton into two side-by-side elongate spaces. The handle portion extends out of the carton - "upwards" out of the open "top" of the erected carton when arranged in the usual manner relative to gravity - and may do so as far as seems desirable. A convenient height for the projecting part is from 5 to 7in (about 12.5-17.5cm), with perhaps 6in (15cm) preferred. This projecting part of handle portion most advantageously includes a cutout into which the User's fingers may be slotted, to enable a good grip, and this cut out is conveniently from 1 to 2in (2.5-5cm) below the top edge of the portion.

The handle portion is fixedly located within the part forming the inner section of the carton, and this fixing may be, as is conventional, with lateral end flaps that are then glued to the inside surface of the carton's inner section. Thus, the handle portion is in this respect generally like a conventional Z-form divider.

Moreover, in order to increase the relative certainty of the handle and the inner section not parting company glues may not be of the best, or applied properly, and materials sometimes tear - it is desirable to lock the handle flaps into place by providing each of the adjacent edges - the "top" edges - of the inner section's walls with a flap that can be folded down over, and then glued onto, the handle's flap (this is shown in the accompanying Drawings).

In the carton of the invention, the panels of one-pair of those panels which will in use form the erected carton's inner section facing side walls parallel to the handle portion are cut and folded to make inwardlyprojecting that is, normal to the plane of the handle portion - flaps which act as dividers, so that the handle portion and the flaps together define a cellular array of spaces within the erected carton. Obviously, the side walls can be cut to make these divider flaps of any size and spacing, but most conveniently the cuts will form flaps that are equisized and equispaced, that are almost the full extent of the distance from the wall to the handle portion, and that are about half to two- thirds of the depth of the carton. Most preferably each flap has a locking tab on its handle-adjacent edge, which tab can fit into a corresponding slot in the handle portion and so hold the flaps in the chosen position.

When in use, the load - half-a-dozen bottles of wine, say - carried in the erected carton of the invention is supported on the "floor" of the carton, which is itself directly supported by the handle glued to the inner section's side panels, and given the strength of the glue (and the locking flaps mentioned above) there is no significant chance that the carton will come apart. However, it is possible that, under continuous flexing, the carton's outer section might slide down from the inner section, and to reduce the chance of this happening it is preferred that the bottom edge of each of the non-flap-carrying side walls of the inner section be given a protruding tab that will lock into a corresponding slot in the bottom edge of the mating outer wall section, and so serve to prevent relative movement of the two sections.

The carton of the invention may be made from a sheet of any appropriate material (typically a fibre board such as a thin or thick, corrugated or plain card or board made from natural cellulose fibres, or even a wholly or partially synthetic material such as a plastic like a polythene or a polystyrene, or a fibre board coated therewith). The handle portion can likewise be made from a sheet of any appropriate material (though, because it has to take significant stresses, the handle portion material is preferably significantly heavier thicker, and more robust - than the carton material). All this is well-known in the Art, and needs no further comment here.

It is perhaps here worth noting that it is usual to make a blank by cutting, scoring or indenting the flat sheet of material (with a "forme") from which the carton is formed, this being done so that the blank can then be folded and erected into the carton. To aid in the interpretation of the Figures discussed hereinafter, the creases shown in dot-dashed line form fold in reverse to those shown as dashed lines.

An embodiment of the invention is now described, though by way of illustration only, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic Drawings in which:

Figures 1A,B show, in perspective and from above, an erected handled "archive" carton of the present invention, and also the blank for this carton (without the handle); Figures 2A_,B show respectively the more general form of the blank for the archive-type carton, and (in see-through form) the carton erected therefrom; Ficrure 3 shows the carton of Figure 2 in partially-erected form; Figures 4A-C show in section (on the plane IV-IV of Figure 3) three stages in the further erection of the partiallyerected carton of Figure 3; Figures 5A-E show the sequence of operations n ecessary to construct the Figure 1 carton of the invention.

Figures 1A,B show a handled "archive" carton of the invention, when erected and as a blank.

The carton of Figure 1A is a double-skinned carton, having inner and outer box sections (generally 11,12). As can be seen from Figure 1B, the blank is an elongate oblong, and has along one (the top one as viewed) of its long sides those portions (or panels: 11a,b,c,d) which form the four side wall surfaces (the two ends and the left and right sides) on the inner section and along the other of its long sides those portions (or panels: 12a,b,c,d) which form the four side wall surfaces of the outer section, these two sets of four panel portions 11,12 being joined by a matching set of four pairs (two sets of four:llla,b,c,d; 112a,b,c,d) of "facing" trapezium portions '(each pair - l1la/112'a, 111b/112b, etc - mounted with the shorter of the two parallel sides together along a notional line (15) that is the central long axis of the blank and with the longer sides adjacent the related side portion), which trapezium portions fold, concertina-fashion (not shown here) and in an interlocking manner, to form the bottoms of the inner and outer box sections (the 111 trapezium portions of a more conventional "archivell carton are indicated in Figure 2B).

In its erected state the carton is held together by the main flap (16: projecting from the outer wall section 12a at the left end as viewed)) being glued to 12d. And to reduce the small chance of the inner and outer box sections 11,12 sliding one out of the other, the end portions 11b,11d of the inner box section are provided with small projecting tabs (171b, !ft) at what becomes the bottom edge of the portions, which tabs are, as the box is erected, pushed into mating locking slots (172b,c) at the bottom of the corresponding inner end portions 11b,d.

Unlike the more conventional archive box shown in Figure 2B, and unlike the box the subject of our aforementioned Application, the box of the present invention has dividers which are not completely separate from the box's material (and have to be supplied as an additional part, in an additional step) but which are instead integral with the box's structure. More specifically, the pair of longer inner wall portions lia,c are provided with four integral swinging flaps (as 18), two side-by-side on each wall portion, suitably cut and shaped out of the wall material. In use (as shown in Figure 1A), these flaps 18 are bent inwardly to form divider pieces, rather like gates, that can swing into or out of position (as shown by the arrow-headed lines S). The inward edge of each flap has a tab (18a) that in use fits into a matching slot (18c; see below) on the handle portion, to lock the flap into place.

Finally, the carton of the invention has, unlike the carton of our aforementioned Application, an "integral" handle (19) - integral in the sense that, though it is not a part of the blank of Figure 1B, nevertheless it is fixedly secured into place in the carton's collapsed form. The handle 19 is shown in Figure 1A. As is better seen in Figure 5C (which is discussed hereinafter), the handle has slots 18b for the flaps' locking tabs 18a, and side pieces (19b,d), and these are glued to the inside surfaces of the relevant inner end wall portions 11b,c. And to reduce the small chance of the side flaps 19b,d becoming unglued, and pulling off (so that the handle pulls out and the carton and its contents fall to the floor), the top edges of the end portions llb,l1d of the inner box section are provided with small projecting flaps (119b,d) that are, as the box is assembled and then erected, folded down over, and glued to, the corresponding handle side pieces 19b,d.

It will be observed that the handle 19, with its two side pieces 119b,d, forms a Z-divider, and that this becomes the central divider of the carton when erected. Thus, the handle 19 divides the carton into two lengthwise, while the four swinging, gate-like flaps 18 divide each of those two parts into three, providing the carton as a whole with six spaces.

To illustrate the principle of the double-walled archive box construction and operation there is provided Figures 2, 3 and 4, which'show a generalised carton. The blank of'Figure 2A, it will be seen, is much the same as the blank of the carton of the invention shown in Figure 1B, and needs no further description here. The erected carton is shown in seethrough form in Figure 2B; in this Figure there can be seen the way in which the trapezium sections 111,112 that join the inner and outer wall portions 11,12 are disposed to make the floor of the erected carton.

Figures 3 and 4 show - in diagrammatic form - how the double-skinned carton of Figure 2B is erected (and the carton of the invention, shown in Figures 1A,B, is erected in the same manner). From its collapsed, flat form it is opened out, into three dimensions, to give the Figure 3 form, in which the inner box 11 is positioned "above" the outer box 12, supported on the four pairs of trapezium sections (Illa,112a, etc), and then the inner box is simply pushed down into the outer box, the trapezium sections folding down, in a concertina, interlocking fashion, to form the base of the carton.

Finally, the sequence of Figure 5 shows how the blank of Figure 1B is folded, and provided with the central handle portion 19, to form the collapsed blank of the invention.

The process starts with the blank of Figure 5A which is the same as the blank of Figure 1B, and in essence similar to the blank of Figure 2A. The first step is to fold the wall sections 12 underneath so that they lie behind the trapezium portions 112. This state is shown in Figure 5B (in an actual production line the sections 11, 111 and 112 would normally be folded over on top, and the carton formed in an "inverted" state).

Next, the pre-prepared handle part 19 is laid in position on the inner box end wall 11d - which will become part of the inner surface of the inner box 11 and the relevant side piece 19d is glued to the inner surface 11d, while the flap 119d projecting from the top edge of the inner wall portion Ild is bent over and glued to the inside surface of the handle side piece 19d. This is shown in Figure 5C.

The whole of the right-hand (as viewed) end of the blank - the four I'd" sections - is then folded over, with the handle 19, to lie on top of the 'Ic" sections, as shown in Figure 5D; at this point the other handle side piece 19b overlies, and is glued to, the other end wall section, llb. At this point the other securing flap 119b is bent down and glued to the inside surface of the handle side piece 19b.

Finally, the left-hand end (as viewed) of the blank - the four "a" sections - is folded over on top of the handle 19 and all the "b" sections, and the main flap 16 is glued into place on the outside surface of the outer box wall 12d. This is the fully-collapsed state of the carton of the invention, and is shown in Figure SE.

Erecting the carton is essentially exactly like erecting the more conventional carton of Figure 2B, and as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The carton is opened out from its fully-collapsed state (Figure 5E), into the "open" - rectangular - state like that of Figure 3. The inner box 11 is then simply pushed down into the outer box 12 (as in Figures 4), the trapezium portions folding down to form the double-skinned base as this is done. Finally, the flaps 18 are swung out, gate-like, to form the divider piece-s, each flap's rocking tab 18a fitting into the corresponding slot 18b in the handle portion.

Claims (10)

Claims

1. A collapsed carton of the "archive" type, wherein fixedly located in position within the portion forming the inner section of the carton is a handle portion projecting out of the carton when the latter is in its erected state, and wherein each'panel of one pair of those panels which will in use form handle-portionparallel facing side walls of the erected carton's inner section is cut and foldable to form one or more inwardlyprojecting flap each of which itself acts as a divider, so that the handle portion and the flaps together are disposable to define a cellular array of spaces within the erected carton.

2. A carton as claimed in Claim 1 which is notionally divided into a 3x2 array of spaces.

3. A carton as claimed in either of the preceding Claims, wherein the handle portion includes a cut-out into which the User's fingers may be slotted.

4. A carton as claimed in any of the preceding Claims, wherein the handle portion is fixedly located with lateral end flaps that are then glued to the inside surface of the carton's inner section.

5. A carton as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the handle flaps are locked into place by providing each of the adjacent edges, top, edges of the inner section's walls with a flap that can be folded down over, and then glued onto, the handle's flap.

6. A carton as claimed in any of the preceding Claims, wherein the panels which in use form the erected carton's inner section facing side walls parallel to the handle portion, being cut and folded to make inwardlyprojecting flaps which act as dividers, so that the handle portion and the flaps together define a cellular array of spaces within the erected carton, are so cut to make these divider flaps equisized and equispaced, almost the full extent of the distance from the wall to the handle portion, and about half to two-thirds of the depth of the carton.

7. A carton as claimed in Claim 6, wherein each flap has a locking tab on its handle-adjacent edge, and there is a corresponding slot in the handle portion into which that tab can fit and so hold the flaps in the chosen position.

8. A carton as claimed in any of the preceding Claims, wherein the bottom edge of each of the non-flap-carrying side walls of the inner section has a protruding tab that will lock into a corresponding slot in the bottom edge of the mating outer wall section, and so serve to prevent relative movement of the two sections.

9. A collapsed carton as claimed in any of the preceding Claims and substantially as described hereinbefore.

10. A carton, being an erected form of a collapsed carton as claimed in any of the preceding Claims.