NZ601130B - Improved plant guard - Google Patents

Abstract

Patent 601130 A tree guard is formed from a blank that is folded about a crease lines to form a triangular shaped guard. Corrugations are provided running across the width and down the height of the guard which are offset about a central fold line so that the blank can be folded and corrugations nested together. s nested together.

Description

Patents Form No 5 NEW ZEALAND Patents Act 1953 CAROLE LESLEY STUBBS COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Invention Title: Improved plant guard I/We Carole Lesley Stubbs, of 41 Elm Grove, Kew East, 3102, Australia; hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- Cross-Reference to Related Applications The present application claims priority from Australian Provisional Patent Application No 2011902691, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Introduction to the Invention This invention relates to plant and tree guards and the like, and in particular to lightweight tree guards used to assist in the establishment of seedlings and the like, with the guard being manufactured of lightweight plastic or similar materials adapted for folding and assembly on site.

Background to the Invention Lightweight plant and tree guards herein after referred to generally as tree guards, are generally made of rigid plastic sheeting material folded into triangular or square section tubes or fabricated out of an adaption of milk cartons or the like.

The provision of dedicated manufactured tree guards is most readily provided by manufacture from rigid plastics material with the rigidity being provided by the use of hollow profile sheeting material known as coreboard or coreflute etc. The coreflute plastic sheeting material is a thin walled plastic sheet comprising two outer skins joined together by an array of parallel ribs. Such sheeting material is typically manufactured from polypropylene and is available in sheets between 1.9mm to 2.5mm thick, with a density of about 300 to 400 grams per square metre.

Whilst the use of such core flute sheeting material is convenient and provides for a satisfactory product, a number of difficulties are encountered with the use of such core flute material, including the relatively high price of such manufactured sheeting compared to solid plastic sheeting of the same superficial density. Moreover, coreflute material cannot be supplied in rolls and must be transported and stored as sheets cut to size, which provides manufacturing limitations. The overall thickness of the generic coreflute raw material provides sufficient mechanical stiffness for tree guards, but adds significantly to transport costs. The lightest sheet material available from the coreflute material is limited by the inherent extrusion process with a minimum available at 1.9mm thick at 300 grams per square metre. For the purposes of manufacturing tree guards in accordance with the invention, such raw materials are in many respects over engineered for medium to small sized tree guards and therefore represents an unnecessary waste of the raw materials and unnecessary cost. Finally, the high level of stiffness provided by coreflute materials, even in the lightest sheet material available, is in many respects greater than necessary for the design requirements of tree guards and the unnecessary stiffness presents difficulties in assembling the tree guard for use.

In order to address the above problems, the use of solid sheet plastic materials has been investigated. However, difficulties are encountered with the introduction of suitable stiffness to the finished tree guard product. Whilst the inherent lack of stiffness with the solid sheeting materials represents a primary challenge, the benefits of solid sheet materials are substantial including the relative ease of extrusion from a wide range of available materials on relatively inexpensive equipment. Solid sheeting material is easily supplied and transported in bulk in rolls of several thousand metres in length thereby allowing a wide range of products to be made from a single supply of stock sheeting material. A tree guard product made from solid sheeting material with the provision of suitable rigidity need only be in the order of .3mm to .4mm thick, which would greatly reduce transport and storage costs. Solid sheet material is readily available in a wide range of gauges to allow precise and economical matching of mechanical requirements to the raw materials, without resorting to over-engineering and associated wastage. The inherent stiffness of solid sheeting can be readily matched to the size and design of a product once a suitable configuration is reached to provide for the rigidity of the finished tree guard products.

Accordingly, one object of the invention is to provide an improved tree guard product.

Statements of the Invention In a first aspect the invention provides a blank for a tree guard comprising a generally elongate sheet of formable material having a length and a width wherein said sheet includes a first primary array of corrugations running across part of the width of said sheet adjacent an edge at an end of the width and down the length thereof, a first secondary array of corrugations running across an adjacent part of the width of said sheet toward the centre and down the length thereof separated by a first assembly crease line, a second secondary array of corrugations and a second primary array of corrugations separated by a second assembly crease line wherein said first primary and first secondary corrugation arrays are separated by a central transportation crease line from and off-set relative to said second primary and second secondary corrugation arrays such that said blank can be folded for transportation along said transportation crease line with said first and second corrugation arrays nesting together and wherein said first and second assembly crease lines provide for the folding of said blank along the length thereof for assembly into said tree guard.

The blank may be assembled by folding into a triangulated shape tree guard.

The blank may include additional primary and secondary corrugation arrays to provide for assembly into square, polyogonal or circular tree guards.

The tree guard may include joining lips running down each lengthwise edge of the material.

The corrugations are most preferably provided at sufficient depth and amplitude to provide sufficient rigidity over the width of the corrugations. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the corrugations have clearly delineated peaks and troughs, thereby providing relatively straight or linear sides to the corrugations. Alternative corrugation shapes may include sinusoidal or any repeated shape conferring sufficient stiffness to the guard.

The primary corrugation arrays are preferably wider than the secondary corrugation arrays to allow for the transportation crease line.

The transportation crease line is preferably provided with a plurality of formed apertures for receiving a mounting stake when in the assembled state.

The tree guard of the invention is preferably configured for folding into a triangulated assembled form by folding along the first secondary assembly crease lines and allowing the transportation crease line to remain unfolded. Alternative assembled configurations may include square, rectangular, circular or polyogonal.

The configuration of the right and left hand corrugation arrays are preferably mirror imaged and off-set to allow nesting as the blank is folded along the fold line such that the folded blank can nest within itself for ready transport and subsequent nesting of additional folded blanks for compact and economic transportation.

Alternatively, the configuration of the form blank, allows nesting of a plurality of blanks without folding into one and other.

Detailed Description of the Invention The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to one particularly preferred embodiment of a triangular tree guard shown in Figures 1 to 5 as follows: Figure 1 shows an elevation view of the formed blank prior to stacking or assembly; Figure 2 shows a section to demonstrate the stacking and nesting provisions; Figure 3 shows a plan view of the formed blank; Figure 4 shows a plan view of the blank folded for nesting and transport; Figure 5 shows a plan view of the guard folded for assembly and use.

Legend: 1. Formable blank 2. Length 3. Width 4. Corrugations in first primary array . Corrugations in first secondary array 6. First assembly crease line 7. Corrugations in second secondary array 8. Corrugations in second primary array 9. Second assembly crease line . Transportation crease line 11. Joining lip 12. Corrugation peak 13. Corrugation trough 14. Apertures . Stake Referring firstly to Figure 1, the tree guard of the invention is made up of a suitable portion of elongate sheeting plastics material 1 which is cut to a length 2 and a width 3 from a roll or sheet of raw material. The formable material is flat and can be drawn from materials of suitable thickness; e.g. from between .3mm thick to any suitable thickness in accordance with the dimensions of the final tree guard product and the stiffness required in the assembled guard.

The formable material 1 is then formed into a specific configuration either by thermo-forming, moulding or any one of available known techniques. The formable material is provided on the right hand side with a first primary array of corrugations 4 inset from the edge, so as to provide a joining lip 11 running along the edge. The first primary array of corrugations 4 then runs down the length 2 of the sheeting material.

The first primary array of corrugations are preferably formed with clearly defined corrugation peaks 12 and corrugation troughs 13, such that the sides of the corrugations are flat and provide a sharp and defined corrugation, thereby providing maximum rigidity for the form of material by virtue of the corrugation array. Running adjacent the first primary array of corrugations is provided a first secondary array of corrugations 5. The first secondary array of corrugations is preferably shorter than the first primary array of corrugations in width across the sheet and separated therefrom by a first assembly crease line 6. The alignment and configuration of the first primary and first secondary array of corrugations is identical for the right hand side. The reduced width of the secondary array of corrugations allows for the provision of stake apertures at the transportation crease line 10 whilst retaining the symmetrical shape. In this manner the combined width of the first and second secondary corrugation arrays plus the stake apertures formed down the transportation crease equal the width of the primary corrugation arrays. Once the blank is assembled into a triangle shape, each side of the triangle is substantially equal so as to form an equilateral triangle shape for the guard. Other configurations are possible using different length and number of corrugation arrays.

The sheeting material is then provided with a transportation crease line 10 running down the length 2 of the sheet adjacent the right hand side corrugations. A second secondary array of corrugation 7 and a second primary array of corrugation 8 separated by a second assembly crease line 9 in an analogous form to the previous array of corrugations is then formed on the left hand side. The provision of the corrugation arrays provides for a substantially mirror image right and left hand side to the formed material, with the particular exception that the first primary array and first secondary array of right hand corrugations are specifically offset by half corrugation width to the second secondary array and second primary array of corrugations of the left hand side.

In this manner, the offset of the corrugation arrays, allows the formable material to be folded along the transportation crease line 10 such that the respective right and left hand corrugation arrays neatly and compactly nest together as shown in Figure 2. In this manner, the blank of the tree guard being made up of the formed material 1 can be readily folded for highly efficient and economical transport with a series of blanks being nested one on top of the other, for highly compact storage and transport.

Referring now to Figure 3, the blank is shown in plan view in its unfolded form where the offset nature of the right and left hand corrugations is clearly evident. The right hand side of the blank can be seen with the troughs of the first primary array of corrugations 4 and the first secondary array of corrugations 5 projecting from a first place of the blank and the left hand side corrugations being the second secondary array 7 and second primary array 8 having the peaks projecting from the second side of the blank material. In this manner, the folding of the blank along the transportation crease line 10 allows neat and compact nesting of the right and left hand side of the blank.

Figure 4 shows a plan view of the blank being folded along the transportation crease line 10 clearly highlighting the nesting ability of the blank once the fold is completed allowing the blank to occupy minimal space in its own right and also facilitating nesting of a large quantity of folded blanks.

The tree guard of the invention is readily assembled into a triangular configuration with the blank being unfolded from the transportation crease line in the manner shown in Figure 3 and subsequently folded along the first and second assembly crease lines 6 and 9 to affect triangulation with the lengthwise joining lips 11 being mated together as shown in Figure 5 whereby the joining lips can be readily stapled or fixed together to provide for a highly rigid triangulated tree guard in accordance with the invention. The tree guard has provision for a stake 15 or other fixing means which can pass down the general area of the transportation crease line 10 by way of a plurality of apertures 14 formed down the length thereof.

In this manner, the tree guard of the invention in its assembled form, provides a highly rigid guard with the rigidity down the length 2 provided by the arrays of corrugations providing rigidity across the width 3 and the assembly crease lines 6 and 9 in conjunction with the stake 15 providing longitudinal rigidity to the assembled and fixed tree guard.

The tree guard may include third, fourth and subsequent primary and secondary corrugation arrays to provide for more assembly folding options including square, polyogonal or circular.

The invention provides for the first time the ability to manufacture tree guards and the like from readily available solid sheet plastics material and the like by way using well known techniques thereby providing a highly versatile rigid readily transported tree guard that can be manufactured from a wide range of readily available materials are no longer limited to the provision of a dedicated specialist primary material.

In addition to the economy of manufacture, the tree guard material of the invention provides significant improvements in storage and transport and thereby overcomes many of the previous difficulties encountered with manufacture based on the core flute or similar materials. Whilst the invention has been described with reference to one particularly preferred embodiment, the invention can be adapted to a wide range of materials and products and is not limited to the particularly preferred embodiment as detailed above.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as broadly described.

The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims (9)

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. A blank for a tree guard comprising a generally elongate sheet of formable material having a length and a width wherein said sheet includes a first primary array of 5 corrugations running across part of the width of said sheet adjacent an edge at an end of the width and down the length thereof, a first secondary array of corrugations running across an adjacent part of the width of said sheet toward the centre and down the length thereof separated by a first assembly crease line, a second secondary array of corrugations and a second primary array of corrugations separated by a second 10 assembly crease line wherein said first primary and first secondary corrugation arrays are separated by a central transportation crease line from and off-set relative to said second primary and second secondary corrugation arrays such that said blank can be folded for transportation along said transportation crease line with said first and second corrugation arrays nesting together and wherein said first and second assembly crease 15 lines provide for the folding of said blank along the length thereof for assembly into said tree guard.

2. A tree guard comprising an assembled blank according to claim 1 wherein said guard adopts a triangulated shape in cross-section.

3. A tree guard or blank therefore according to any previous claim wherein the said corrugations are provided at sufficient depth and amplitude relative to the stiffness of said sheet material to provide sufficient rigidity over the width of said corrugations to support said guard.

4. A tree guard or blank according to any previous claim wherein said primary corrugation arrays are wider than said secondary corrugation arrays.

5. A tree guard or blank according to any previous claim wherein said crease lines 30 are formed as lengthwise regions of compliance in said sheet so as to provide a specific and preferential folding line for said sheet.

6. A tree guard or blank according to any previous claim wherein said transportation crease line includes a plurality of formed apertures for receiving a 35 mounting stake when in the assembled state.

7. A tree guard according to claim 2 wherein said assembly crease lines are positioned to divide the width of said blank into three generally equal portions such that the triangular shape is generally equilateral. 5

8. A tree guard or blank according to any previous claim wherein the configuration of said first and second corrugation arrays are mirror imaged and offset to allow nesting as the blank is folded along said transportation crease line.

9. A tree guard or blank according to any previous claims substantially as 10 hereinbefore described with reference to the figures.