US20070119915A1

US20070119915A1 - Carton structure with seal-assistant ears

Info

Publication number: US20070119915A1
Application number: US11/604,609
Authority: US
Inventors: Shu-Ju Liao
Original assignee: BenQ Corp
Current assignee: BenQ Corp
Priority date: 2005-11-29
Filing date: 2006-11-27
Publication date: 2007-05-31
Also published as: TWI271363B; TW200720162A

Abstract

A carton structure includes a circling peripheral plate providing two opposing open ends, and a plurality of seal plates for covering respective open ends of the peripheral plate. The seal plate includes at least a seal-assistant ear located at one lateral side of the seal plate. When the seal plate covers the respective open end, the seal-assistant ear can be folded toward the peripheral plate so that a correct position of the seal plate for sealing the open end of the peripheral plate can be obtained.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to one type of carton structures, and specifically to such kind of carton structures whose seal plates have seal-assistant ears.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Please refer to FIG. 1, a schematic view of a well-known carton structure 1, where shows on the left side an unfolded plane status (i.e., the status of the carton structure just manufactured) and on the right top side a three-dimensional aspect of the carton structure after assembled. The carton structure 1 (particularly made of corrugated papers) used for carrying objects comprises a circling peripheral plate 10, four reinforcing plates 12 extended from two opposing sides of outer rims 101 of the circling peripheral plate 10, and the four seal plates 14 separated by the reinforcing plates 12 at intervals and extended from two other sides of the outer rims 101 of the circling peripheral plate 10.
Please refer to the three-dimensional schematic on the right side of FIG. 1, where the circling peripheral plate 10 is delimited by dashed lines (the dashed lines shown in figure crease during assembling carton 1) into four sections, thereby connecting its front end and back end to form circling sides of an empty tetragon container for the carton 1. After the circling peripheral plate 10 of the carton 1 is connected, the reinforcing plates 12 can be folded towards the center of the open ends and cover two opposing open ends formed by the circling peripheral plate 10, while the seal plates 14, extended from the circling peripheral plate 10 and separated by the reinforcing plates 12 at intervals, are used for covering the reinforcing plates 12. A well-known cubic carton structure is therefore formed after the circling peripheral plate 10 is connected, the reinforcing plates 12 is folded and met, and the seal plates 14 is aligned and sealed.
As everybody knows, the object of cartons is for carrying objects. As regards the structure, it still maintains a limited feature of “analogous four-bar linkage motion” caused by the open ends formed by the circling peripheral plates 10 because the seal plates 14 on either top or bottom side (normally on the top side) of the carton have not been aligned and sealed; that is, the open ends of the carton 1 will be transformed along the parallel directions when external forces are applied. Concerning prior arts, the most likely external forces making the open ends of circling peripheral plate 10 distorted along with the type of “analogous four-bar linkage motion” is the forces arisen from objects disposed in the carton 1 with bad arrangement.
Please refer to FIG. 2, where folding the two seal plates 14 to match in line may cause a “dislocation” phenomenon as shown in the figure because the structure of the carton 1 is distorted by external forces before the open ends are sealed. Certainly, with a “relevant manipulation” by workers (such as rearranging the objects inside the carton, applying another external force to push or pull the circling plate 10 to a precise cubic shape, or using adhesive tape with force and sticking it on the plate 10, . . . , and so on), the carton 1 can finally be sealed; however, “relevant manipulation” heretofore known may normally become an operation of time-consuming or human resource wasting if human resource is limited or if a large carton structure is applied.
Thereafter, to cope with the limited human resource and facilitate required operation of sealing, improving the prior art of carton structures heretofore known is necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide one kind of improved carton structure equipping a positioning ear in advance on the seal plates of carton as an assistant positioning structure during sealing process, thereby effectively avoiding the dislocation phenomenon occurred when sealing the carton structure heretofore known.
An improved carton structure of the present invention comprises a circling peripheral plate and a plurality of seal plates used for covering two opposing open ends of the peripheral plate where a seal plate has two corresponding lateral edges which need to be aligned with the outer rim of the peripheral plate while the seal plate is covering an open end of the peripheral plate. It is characterized in that at least one of the lateral edges of at least one of the seal plates may extend with a seal-assistant ear being creased and folded towards the peripheral plate while the seal plates are covering the corresponding open ends of the peripheral plate, thereby aligning the lateral edges of seal plates with the outer rims of the peripheral plate.
In an embodiment of the present invention, two lateral edges of the seal plates of the carton structure have their own seal-assistant ear.
In an embodiment of the present invention, two corresponding lateral edges of every seal plate of the carton have their own seal-assistant ear.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the seal-assistant ear of the carton structure has sticky strip for sticking and fixing it to the circling peripheral plate where the ear is folded toward.
In an embodiment of the present invention, a positioning hole is located at relevant place on the peripheral plate of the carton structure and provides positioning function for the corresponding seal-assistant ear to penetrate through when the ear is folded toward the peripheral plate.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the improved carton structure has a plurality of dashed lines, which associates with two corresponding seal-assistant ears on the same seal plate to facilitate the opening of the sealed carton.
In the present invention the seal-assistant ear of the improved carton structure may be set at end, middle, or any appropriate section along the edges of the seal plate.
In order that examiner can further understand and approve this invention, a detailed consideration of the ensuing description and drawings is illustrated as follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of a well-known carton structure where on the left side shows an unfolded plane of the carton structure and on the right top side shows a three-dimensional schematic of the assembled carton structure.
FIG. 2 shows a three-dimensional schematic for the operation of the well-known carton from FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 shows an unfolded plane schematic of the first embodiment for the improved carton structure of the present invention.
FIG. 4 shows an assembled three-dimensional schematic of the improved carton structure from FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 shows a zoom-in schematic of a seal-assistant ear on one side of the carton from FIG. 4 after the carton has been sealed by seal tape.
FIG. 6 shows an unfolded schematic of the second embodiment for the improved carton structure of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the following description, to maintain the consistent technology description of the present invention, parts with same function but subtle difference in shapes will also use the same terms and drawing notations in various embodiments.
Please refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, an unfolded plane schematic of the first embodiment of the carton structure of the present invention and its three-dimensional assemblage schematic, respectively, where in FIG. 4 seal plate 14 is in the situation that carton 1 is still not sealed. The embodiment is exemplified by a cubic carton.
As shown in the figure, improved carton structure 1 of the prevent invention comprises a circling plate 10 (delimited by dashed lines as shown in FIG. 3) formed by four sections, a plurality of seal plates 14 for covering the open ends 20 at two opposing sides of circling peripheral plate 10 connected, and reinforcing plates 12 separated by the seal plates 14 in interval.
In the present invention, the relationship of the relative positions or the method of sticking or covering with regard to circling plates 10, reinforcing plates 12, and seal plates 14 during the assemblage of carton structure 1 is the same as that of the prior art of carton structure, thereby no more description with redundancy here.
As shown in the figure, seal plate 14 has two corresponding lateral edges 140, which should be aligned with the open rims 101 of circling plate 10, when it covers open end 20 of circling plate 10 and then carton 1 is sealed. The major feature of carton 1 of the present invention is that at least one of the edges 140 of at least one of the seal plates 14 extends with a seal-assistant ear 141, which can be bent and folded towards peripheral 10 while seal plate 14 covers on corresponding open end 20, thereby facilitating to align edge 140 of seal plate 14 with outer rim 101 of peripheral plate 10 and further avoiding the “dislocation” phenomenon when sealing carton 1.
As shown in the figure, two corresponding seal-assistant ears of seal plate 14 of carton 1 of the present invention are linked along their bottom edges with a dashed line 145, which can be formed by creasing or punching holes, and the like, thereby facilitating to open carton 1 by tearing seal plate 14 along the track appeared by the help of dashed line 145 after carton 1 is sealed.
Please refer to FIG. 5, a zoom-in schematic of one seal-assistant ear 141 sealed by a seal tape 3 from improved carton structure 1 of FIG. 4. During the sealing process of carton 1 of the present invention, seal plate 14 can be properly positioned on peripheral plate 10 with the help of seal-assistant ear 141 so as to effectively avoid or correct a likely “dislocation” phenomenon, thereby facilitate to stick seal tape 3 to carton 1. On the other hand, as to a relevant stick of seal tape 3 to two seal plates 14 (as shown in the figure seal tape 3 does not completely cover seal-assistant ear 141), employing the turnover (as the arrow indicates) of seal-assistant ear 141 and the guideline along dashed line 145 can facilitate to tear away seal tape 3 and to open carton structure 1 while destroying the seal of carton 1.
The first embodiment of the improved carton structure is illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. The carton has seal-assistant ears 141 merely set at two corresponding edges 140 of two seal plate 14 at one side of circling plate 10. In other words, seal-assistant ears 141 are merely set at seal plates 14 at one side of carton after assembled.
Please refer to FIG. 6, an unfolded plane schematic of the second embodiment of carton 1 of the present invention. In this embodiment, each seal plate 14 has two seal-assistant ears 141; in other words, every seal plates 14 at both sides of circling peripheral plate 10 are equipped with seal-assistant ears 141 for auxiliary positioning when assembling carton 1. Also, as shown in the figure the seal plates 14 of one side of carton structure 1 of the embodiment have dashed lines 145, but those of the other side do not. As regards this embodiment, the side with dashed lines 145 should be placed on the top of carton 1 when being assembled.
In the prevent invention folding seal-assistant ears 141 towards circling peripheral plate 10 so as to help seal plates 14 disposed properly at improved carton structure 1 can typically facilitate the sealing process for workers. Certainly, if seal-assistant ears 141 can be effectively fastened on circling peripheral plate 10, the effectiveness of positioning becomes more confirmed. The pre-operating of “effective fastening” can not only use seal tape to fasten seal-assistant ears 141 on circling peripheral plate 10 in advance, but can be implemented by the following two embodiments.
Please refer to FIG. 7, another schematic of embodiment of seal-assistant ears 141 of improved carton structure 1 of the present invention. In this embodiment, besides without dashed lines 145 mentioned before, seal-assistant ears 141 of seal plate 140 of carton 1 has a sticky strip 143, thereby effectively fastening and sticking seal plates 140 to their corresponding peripheral plate 10 when seal-assistant ears 141 are folded towards circling peripheral plate 10.
Please refer to FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, an unfolded plane schematic of the third embodiment of carton 1 of the present invention and a zoom-in schematic of seal-assistant ear 141 at one side of carton 1, respectively. The difference between the embodiment here and that in FIG. 3 is that in this embodiment circling peripheral plate 10 has positioning hole 102 to its corresponding seal-assistant ear 141 at suitable place to provide corresponding seal-assistant ear 141 (particularly, ear ends 1410) to pass through for positioning (as shown in FIG. 9) when seal-assistant ear 141 is folded towards circling peripheral plate 10, thereby confirmedly fastening seal-assistant ear 141 to its corresponding circling peripheral plate 10.
In the prevent invention seal-assistant ears 141 of improved carton structure 1 can be set at the end section of edge 140 of seal plate 141 (as shown in the above embodiments), the middle section, or even some suitable section of edge 140 with a plurality of seal-assistant ears 141. Certainly, if seal-assistant ear 141 shifts to the middle or other sections of edge 140, sections of reinforcing plate 12 affected by the shifting should be properly modified during manufacturing.
In the present invention improved carton structure 1 can be shaped as rectangular column as previous mentioned, triangular column, or any shape column for the carton.
In the prevent invention, the width of the seal-assistant ear compared with that of the edge located by the ear should be relevant to facilitate the seal-assistant ear to be folded by workers. Thus, the width should not be so wide that it affects the folding consistency; it should also not be so narrow that it affects the function of auxiliary positioning. In a preferred embodiment, the width of seal-assistant ear should be less than 10 cm.
From the description above, the improved carton structure of the present invention is employing the seal-assistant ear structure equipped in advance on the seal plate of the carton as an auxiliary positioning tool when sealing carton, thereby effectively preventing the “dislocation” phenomenon when sealing cartons.
The above description is using a preferred embodiment to illustrate the present invention in details and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention. Those who are familiar with this art should understand that any subtle modifications and adjustments will not exempt from infringing the object and scope of this present invention.
From the description above, the implementation of the embodiment of this invention conforms to the requirements of invention specified by the patent law. Please examine and approve this application.

Claims

1. A carton structure comprising:

a circling peripheral plate; and

a plurality of seal plates used for covering two open opposing ends of said peripheral plate, wherein said seal plate has two corresponding lateral edges to be aligned with an outer rim of said peripheral plate while said seal plates are covering said open ends of said peripheral plate, characterized in that at least one of said lateral edges of at least one of said seal plates extends a seal-assistant ear to be folded and creased towards said peripheral plate while said seal plates are covering said corresponding open ends of said peripheral plate, thereby aligning said one of said lateral edges with said outer rim of said peripheral plate.

2. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein two said lateral edges of said seal plate have their own said ears, respectively.

3. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein two said lateral edges of every said seal plate have their own said ears, respectively.

4. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said ear has a sticky strip to be stuck to said circling plate when said ear is folded towards said circling plate.

5. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said circling plate has a positioning hole at a relevant place to be passed through by corresponding said ear when said ear is folded towards said circling plate.

6. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said ear is located at an end section of said edge.

7. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said ear is located at a middle section of said edge.

8. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said seal plate has at least one dashed line extending along one side of said ear to link two said edges, thereby facilitating to open said carton which has assembled and sealed.