SK38096A3 - Carton and divider panel - Google Patents

Abstract

A divider panel (60) for separating stacked articles (A) in a packaged carton (100a) having two or more tiers of articles (A) where the panel (60) comprises deformable means (62, 62b, 62c, 62d) which is adapted operably to nest between stacked articles (A) on adjacent sides of the panel (60).

Description

Cardboard and partition panel

Technical field

The present invention relates to cartons for wrapping a number of articles such as cans or bottles. In particular, it relates to cartons and dividing panels that are used to coat two or more layers or product lines.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,113 (Schuster) discloses a carton for wrapping a double layer of articles, wherein the composite articles are stacked end to end. Schuster also describes the use of a partition panel between the ends of stacked products. Two types of partition panels are described, comprising in both cases a substantially planar, rectangular piece of paperboard. In one embodiment, the panel comprises deformable portions adjacent the ends of the stacked articles, and in both embodiments, the panel includes an end tab that serves to position the panel adjacent the first article row prior to pushing the top article row through the partition panel to a position above the bottom article row.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention seeks to overcome or at least limit the various problems of the prior art in this field. According to one feature of the present invention, a separating panel is provided for separating stacked products in a carton containing two or more rows of articles, wherein the panel comprises deformable

- means which are usable adapted to be placed between stacked articles which are thus in contact with adjacent sides of the panel.

preferably, the deformable means is located in that region of the partition panel that surrounds an opening having a smaller diameter than the hem diameter at the end of the article on which the respective deformable portion is located.

The deformable means may be purposefully deformed under the effect of the pressure exerted by the articles or articles placed thereon so that the necessary deformation is performed prior to wrapping the article with a full-size carton, such as a closed carton box. The deformable means may be defined by an outer fold line which may comprise a series of notches. These series may form a circle or may be substantially parallel to the inner edge of the deformable means. The outer notch may be broken to form one or more hinges. One or more of the ends of the one or more notches may be turned inward. The deformable portion may comprise a circular region which is delimited by internal and external notches. The circular region may be continuous.

The deformable means may comprise a series of flaps which may be partially delimited by radial slits.

The dividing panel may comprise means for allowing the panel to be moved to a respective fastening position with respect to the end of the first article in the array of articles.

Another important feature of the present invention is the provision of a partition panel for separating stacked products in a carton containing two or more rows of articles, the panel comprising means for allowing the panel to be moved into position relative to the first row of articles.

The transfer means may comprise means for cooperating with the outer container, wherein the cooperating means may comprise a slot or opening in the panel.

The panel may include means for cooperating with the products in the first place, which helps to maintain these products in the respective positions. These means may also comprise fastening tabs that operatively grip or hold portions of the articles in the first place. The fastening tabs may be hingedly attached to the partition panel and are purposely folded away from the partition panel so that they can grip the first row of articles.

The dividing panel may further comprise means at its ends which allow continuous processing of successive panels such that said end means cooperate, for example, with means for deflecting said fastening tabs.

The end means may comprise a cutout at one end of the partition panel.

A further feature of the present invention allows the production of a carton comprising two or more rows of stacked articles, each row being separated from the next row by a dividing panel according to further features of the invention.

Yet another feature of the present invention allows the manufacture of a stencil blank for manufacturing a carton according to another feature of the present invention.

Description of the drawings

Embodiments of the present invention will now be explained solely by way of description of the example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic, perspective view of a machine that is usable for packaging cartons according to

-4 of the invention.

Fig. 2 to 5 are schematic, perspective views of the arrangement of articles and partition panel according to the invention in the various stages of the packaging process.

Fig. 6 is a schematic, perspective view of a first embodiment of a dividing panel according to the invention in the product bonding phase during the packaging process shown in FIG. First

Fig. 7 is a schematic, perspective view of a first embodiment of a dividing panel according to the present invention during the punch wheel operation during the packaging process.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of a partition panel according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a plan view of a second embodiment of a partition panel according to the present invention.

Fig. 10 is a plan view of a third embodiment of a partition panel according to the present invention.

Fig. 11 is a plan view of a fourth embodiment of a partition panel according to the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a plan view of a fifth embodiment of a partition panel according to the present invention.

Fig. 13 is a plan view of a template carton blank for making a carton according to the present invention.

Fig. 14 is a perspective view of a carton made of the stencil blank shown in FIG. 13th

Fig. 15 is a plan view of a second stencil blank for manufacturing carton according to the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a carton made of the stencil blank shown in FIG. 15th

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1, a carton packaging machine 10 according to the present invention is shown. Generally speaking, the machine

-5 takes over the supply of products such as beverage cans and arranges these products into an arrangement in the upper and lower feed paths. To arrange the products in the lower feed path, a partition panel is added which is subsequently manipulated so that its deformable parts are correctly positioned on tops of the products. Thereafter, the topsheet of the articles is deposited on the partition panel so as to abut the articles on the bottom articles in a situation where the bottom of each top article is disposed in a deformable portion of the partition panel located at the top of the bottom article. The stacked, divided, double layer of articles is then wrapped with a carton, which in this example is a carton of the full-package type.

The very fact that the upper products are deposited on the lower products, which will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 2 to 5, does not mean that the stacked products will be reliably fixed in the carton during storage or transport, in this respect the products should be kept tight in the full carton. It will be appreciated that the partition panel 60 also ensures that the tops and bottoms of the downstream products do not rub against each other in a wrapped carton, which would otherwise create nasty marks at the ends of at least one of the products. For example, when articles A are made of aluminum, a more sustained abrasion of the downstream ends of the stacked articles may result in a nasty alumina-containing deposit at one end. In addition, the movement of the articles may result in damage to the ends of the articles, including tearing off the ring at the end of the can.

Turning more closely to the components of the machine 10 shown in FIG. 1, it can be seen that the two lower product feed rows 38 are fed into the machine by a conveyor 36. The product feed Ä in the rows 38 is controlled by a pair of so-called star wheels. The feed mechanism 16 attracts

-Dividing panels as inserts 60 from column 13 in the storage cabinet

12 which in this example comprises an additional device 14 for accommodating a plurality of inserts. The feed mechanism 16 may include, for example, suction plates that remove the front partition panel 13 from the storage cabinet and move it to the appropriate position following the tops of the articles A in the lower rows.

As can be seen in FIG. 2, the dividing panel 43 has side slots 41 that allow the panels to be displaced by the gripping chain 42 which is guided near the tops of the articles & on each side of the rows 38. In this sense, synchronization of the gripping chain 42 can be controlled. of the mechanism 16 to allow the articles and the partition panel 60 to be assembled together so that the deformable portions 62 of the panel 60 assume the appropriate position on the tops of the article A in the assembly.

The product and divider panel assemblies are then transported along the lower displacement path to the intermediate embossing wheel 16 which forces the fastening tabs 66 defined on the liner 60 from the plane of the divider panel to be wedged between the tops of adjacent panels in the lower assembly. In this example, the articles A are cans having an upper edge E having a smaller diameter than the diameter of the main body of a substantially cylindrical can. Therefore, the fastening tabs 66 may be positioned in the gap between the skirts of adjacent articles, thereby keeping the partition panel 60 in place during movement of the lower article assembly.

The embossed extruder 18 is shown in more detail in FIG. 6, where it can be seen that the device comprises a cylindrical wheel which is driven by drive means (not shown) which actuate radially protruding fingers rotating about a central axis of the wheel. The shaped end portion of each finger presses down to the upper position during rotation

The surface of the fastening tab 66 of the partition panel 60. The end portions may advantageously be rounded to ensure easy entry and exit of the fingers from the openings surrounding the tabs 66 in the panels 60.

The product assembly shown in FIG. 3 is then moved to the punch wheel 20 shown in FIG. The punch wheel comprises a cylindrical wheel that is rotatably driven about the cylinder axis by drive means (not shown). The cylindrical surface of the wheel comprises two rows of hollow cylindrical cups having a flange corresponding to the base of the product. Again, the movement of the punch wheel 20 is synchronized with the movement of the bottom product assemblies and the interposed divider panels, so that the individual cups deform by crimping or squeezing the deformable portion 62 in the panels 60, resulting in these deformable portions 62 settling on tops of the products. Fig. 5, the articles A comprise an upper end having a longitudinal recess with respect to the upper edge R. Accordingly, the deformable portions 62 form a cup-like structure between the edge E and the end of the article. This arrangement is shown in FIG. 4. Therefore, the partition panel 60 may be held in position on the article bottom assembly by either or both of the tabs 66 and the deformable portions 62. In addition, the gripping chain 42 may continue to cooperate with the slots 64 to ensure that the individual partitioning the panels 60 are precisely positioned with respect to the product assembly.

At this point, the top assembly is positioned on top of the assembly shown in FIG. 4. In this example, the two upper rows 44 of products are transported by the conveyors 22. These rows may be guided on fixed guideways not shown in the accompanying drawings. The supply of these product lines 44 can be controlled by the star wheel 46 and consequently can be moved

Both the upper and lower assemblies controlled by the device 46, such as a vertically oriented star wheel. In this example, the device 48, which performs alignment of the upper and lower pairs of articles, includes star wheels (not shown) positioned on both sides.

Evenly measured recesses in the upper and lower plates of each star wheel affect the alignment of the upper and lower product so that the upper product moves away from its support and the star wheel rotates to form a sufficiently effective hole through which the upper product engages in the dish delimited by the deformable portion. 62 on the top of the lower product. By repeating this procedure, a stacked assembly is formed as shown in FIG. 5. The number of products in the stacked groups may of course be any of the stacking pair, namely three or four stacked products, etc. the assemblies may of course comprise any suitable number of rows.

The stacked assembly may be transported as a unit using, for example, a conventional conveyor to a carton packing station, with the lower product group remaining at the bottom.

In this example, the stacked article assembly is wrapped with a full-size carton to form a separate packaging carton 100 or 100a. as shown in FIG. 14 and FIG. 16. Referring to FIG. 1, the machine 10 comprises a container box 24 with a container 26 of stencils 90 or 90a for making cardboard. One template carton blank may each be removed from the front of the cartridge 26 by means of a feed mechanism 28. Similar to the mechanism described above 16. The carton blank may thus be moved from the cartridge box 24 to the feed chain 30, which may have, for example, clips to be attached. cooperating parts of carton

9a will move it to the extended printing chain 34. The device at the front portion 50 of the suspended printing chain 34 first presses the top panel 93, 93a of the carton onto the upper ends of the top articles. Then, the sides 92 and 94 of the carton 100, 100a are folded down, to which a folding wheel 32 is used. Subsequently, the sides of the carton are guided by a side gripping chain 52 according to the control 54 to expand the shoes holding the articles. the article where the means 22, 97a are positioned, by pressing the sides of the carton 22 and 94 to the sides of the stack of the assembled articles. the overhead compression chain 34 may continue to press the top of the carton to the article assembly, while the locking mechanism 56 performs folding of the panel base portions 21 and 95 to the bottom of the stacked article assembly.

Fig. 8 shows a plan view of one embodiment of a partition panel 60 according to the invention. As described above, the partition panel comprises a set of deformable portions 62, side cut-out portions 64, and fastening tabs 66. In addition, the partition panel comprises end slots 78, as can be seen in FIG. 6, they can be used to continuously process successive dividing panels in the passage phase through the extruder wheel 18, since adjacent slots 76 form holes 77 into which the ends of the fingers of the extruder 18 enter.

The deformable portion in this example comprises a plurality of foldable flaps 74. Each flap is defined by an inner circular slot 68 and a pair of radial slots 22. The effective fold line is made in this example by making a series of slits 70 serving as hinges in partition panel 72 that can be made. for example, of paperboard.

In FIG. 9 shows a plan view of another embodiment of a partition panel 60a. This panel is basically similar

-10bottled flaps 74b. delimited by the line 68b formed by the products of the panel 60. so that the same components are indicated by the same reference numerals with the addition of the letter ä In this case, the flap fold line 74a is not specifically defined and deformable cup shapes may be formed using a similar device as above described punch wheel.

Fig. 10 shows an embodiment of a partition panel 60b according to the present invention. In this case too, similar components are marked with the same reference numbers with the addition of the letter h. In this example, they deform the deformable portions 62b whose toothed inner edge is a corrugated section. The flaps do not have to have predetermined fold lines and, for example, the punch wheel described above may be used to form a cup shape. However, it is preferable that the flap 74b is disposed substantially on the outer diameter of the article hem E, as shown schematically in the dashed line in FIG. 10. In this case, the flaps 74b will be able to form a partition between the ends of the stacked articles.

Fig. 11 shows another embodiment of a partition panel 60c according to the present invention. Again, the partition panel preferably comprises side slits 64c and end slits 76c. In this case, however, the deformable flaps are not applied in the deformable portion and a circular cutout in the panel is simply made instead of the deformable portion. The diameter of the hole so formed should be smaller than the diameter of the product hem R so that the cup shape can be made using a similar device as the punch wheel that deforms the paperboard into a cup-shaped, nest-like shape. Of course, this shape can be by applying a load to the stacks themselves, preferably it can be done before closing the whole-package carton, if such a carton is used. Preferably, fastening tabs 66c are also provided.

i co

FIG. 12, yet another embodiment of a partition panel 60d of the present invention is shown. In this example, side slits 64d and end slots 76d may be employed. In addition, fastening tabs 66d could be used. but they are not shown. The deformable portion 62d comprises a movable flap 74d. which is delimited by a continuous inner circular cutout 68d and an interrupted outer substantially circular cut 70d. The outer notch 70d has inwardly directed end portions which can be used to make the deformable portion 62d easier and more deformable and to limit possible tearing. The flap 74d is hingably connected to the rest of the panel by hinges 75d. which are formed by the broken outer notch 70d.

Fig. 13 shows a plan view of a stencil blank 90 for carton according to the present invention. The carton blank 90 comprises a first base panel portion S1, a side panel 92, an upper panel 93, a second side panel 94, and a second base panel portion SS. These panels are hinged one behind the other when a bevelled strip of known type is applied between the base panels and the side panels, which can form formations for retaining the product bottoms, as seen in the practical form of FIG. 14. In addition, the top panel and the side panels are hingedly connected by known shoulder panels, which in turn may comprise product holding portions or shoulder holding portions 97, as shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14. On the assembled carton 100 shown in FIG. 14 it can be seen that the base panel parts S1 and SS are folded in a known manner so as to form a base wall of the carton, which is maintained wholly using known fastening means SS, which are placed on both base panel parts. The side walls 22 and 94 of the panel are logically longer than the known cartons, and also the parts holding the bottoms and tops of the articles are more closely separated, as is usual and, in fact, the associated pairs can

12 rather carry other products than is the case with previously known cartons.

In FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 are cartons that can be wrapped: a total of two sets of six products arranged in rows of three. In another example shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, the carton 100a is adapted to wrap two stacked assemblies of eight articles arranged in rows of four. Also in this example, the same parts that are used in the carton 100 are marked with the same reference numerals with the addition of the letter and. However, the individual cartons may have a handle which may take one of many forms, such as those shown in the drawings.

Although the cartons presented herein contain only two stacked assemblies or layers of articles, it is possible to produce a carton that encapsulates three or more such layers. The number of stacked assemblies can be varied, logically from one up.

?] /

Claims (21)

PATENT CLAIMS A dividing panel for separating two stacked products in a carton having two or more rows of products, characterized in that the panel comprises deformable means adapted to be operably positioned between stacked products adjacent to the sides of the panel. A dividing panel according to claim 1, characterized in that the deformable means are located in that region of the dividing panel that surrounds an opening having a smaller diameter than the bead diameter at the end of the article which is positioned relative to the operable deformable portion. A dividing panel according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the deformable means are deformed by the effect of the pressure exerted on each other by stacked products or other pressure means such that the deformation is carried out before final wrapping in the form of a full-board carton. Dividing panel according to any one of the preceding claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the deformable means are divided by an outer fold line. Dividing panel according to claim 4, characterized in that the fold line comprises notch sets. Dividing panel according to claim 5, characterized by - 14s, wherein the notch assemblies form a circle or are substantially centered relative to the inner edge of the deformable means. Dividing panel according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the outer notch is interrupted to form one or more hinges. Dividing panel according to claim 7, characterized in that the one or more ends or the one or more slots are turned inwards. A dividing panel according to any one of the preceding claims 5 to 8, characterized in that the deformable portion comprises a circular region which is defined by an inner cut and an outer cut. A dividing panel according to claim 9, characterized in that the circular region is continuous. A dividing panel according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the deformable means comprise a set of flaps. 12 or 13 that relocate for collaboration A dividing panel according to claim 11, characterized in that the flaps are partially delimited by radial slits. A dividing panel according to any one of the preceding claims 1 to 12, characterized in that it comprises means enabling it to be displaced in an appropriately fastened position relative to the end of the first product in the product line. 14. A dividing panel for separating stacked products in a carton having two or more rows of articles, characterized in that the panel comprises means for moving it in an appropriately fixed position with respect to the first row of articles. The dividing panel according to the claims, characterized in that the means comprise means with an external conveyor. -15 * 7 Dividing panel according to claim 15, characterized in that the cooperation means comprises a cut-out or opening in the panel. A dividing panel according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that the panel comprises means for cooperating with the products in the first place, thereby helping to keep them in position. A dividing panel according to claim 17, characterized in that said means comprise fastening tabs that are operably supported or in contact with the product portions in the first place. A dividing panel according to claim 18, characterized in that the fastening tabs are hingedly connected to the dividing panel and are operably folded away from the dividing panel to support the first product line. A dividing panel according to any one of claims 17 to 19, further comprising means at the ends 16 of this panel, which allow the processing of successive panels during the determination of the effectiveness of said cooperating means. 21. The partition panel of claim 20 wherein said means comprises a cutout at one end of the partition panel.