US2326269A - Lined carton - Google Patents

Description

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 'INVENTOR HHRRVFWHTEHS HTTORNEY H. F. WATERS LINED CARTON Original Filed May 13, 1941 FHNW. .HU

Aug. 1o, 1943.

Aug. 1o, 1943. H. F. WATERS 2,326,269

LINED CARTON original Filed May 15,'1941 A2 sheets-sheet 2 INVENTOR. HFIRRY F. WH TE/S HTTORNEY PatentedJAug. 10, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE f zszazso 'l f man oaa'roN um r. waters. New York. N. Y. original application May 1s, l1941, sei-iai No." l 393,111. mvieea una uns appumiun my is, u

1.942. serial No. 443.290

(Cl. 229-14) A 4 Claims.

This invention relates to a novel lined carton. This application is a' division of my application Serial N- 393471. led May 18, 1941, for Method of making containers and products thereof.

.A It is within the 'contemplation o! the present invention to provide 'a novel method of forming duplex containers having an outer four-sided carton and an inner tubular liner which involves a few and simple operations and which. may be readily carried out on a practical and industrial scale at a high speed and at a low cost.

It is a further object oi the invention to provide flexible sheet material containers of substantially fiuid-tight character in which the longitudinal seam is formed substantially continuously by applying adhesive to the longitudinal marginal portions of a sheet and in which the transverse seams are formed by the application-oi heat and pressure to predetermined transverse strips oi the tubular structure so formed.

Fig. 1 illustrates a top elevational view of a carton blank having a liner attached thereto and embodying some of the principles of the present invention:

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 shows the carton blank and attached liner in the next stage. of their conversion into a lined tubular carton;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken on line 4-4 of Fig. s;

Fig. 5 illustrates the carton blankand the liner converted into a duplex tubular form;

Fig. 6 depicts a transverse sectional view taken on line 6 4 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 'I is a similar view of the tubular container after its erection;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the upper portions of the lined container in the erected condition preparatory to lling and to forming the top seal;

Fig. 9 is a similar view showing the mouth portions of the liner flattened down into the plane defined by the hinge lines of the top flaps;

Fig. 10 is a similar perspective view of the top portions of the container after -it has been lled with the commodity to be packaged and after its mouth portions h`ave been folded into sealing position;

Fig. 11 is a perspective representation of the resulting package after the tabs resulting from the top seam have been folded inwardly within the space dened .by the body of the carton;

Fig. 12 is a perspective view of. the package with the top end iiaps closed and the lfront 'and rear naps open; and

Fig. 13 is a similar view of the top portions of the completed package. l

The present invention will be seen to be directed to the combination of tube-lined cartons in which the tubular lining may be made of thermoplastic sheeting or liquid-proof sheet material, having at least( the marginal edges provided with heat-fusible coatings or adhesive compositions. and oi which the liner is secured, in part, to cartonpanels and erectable therewith from fiat-folded form. In the novel construction herein the inner or liner seam and outer or carton seam are substantially juxtaposed but independent of each other.

Figs. 1 to 3 illustrate the application of the principles of thepresent invention to the production of a `four-sided carton having a uid-tight exible-walled bag therein. In Fig. 1 is shown a 4four-sided carton blank 50' having front and rear panels 5i and 52 and having two end panels 53 and 54. Panels 5l .and 52 have top closure ilaps 55 and 56 and bottom closure ilaps 61 and 58 associated therewith and end panels 53 and 54 have top closure aps 59 and 60 and bottom closure flaps 6i and 62 hingedly connected thereto. The carton blank is provided with conven tional longitudinal score lines 45, 46, 41 and 48 and with conventional transverse score lines 49. A glue flap is hingedly connected to panel 52 and is continued by means of tabs or ears 66 which are hingedly connected to top and bottom closure flaps 56 and 68, respectively.

To the carton blank described is attached a liner 'Ill constituted of exible material which is fusible and fluid-tight on at least the top surface thereof, such as, for example, paper coated with a suitable fluid-tight and thermoplastic material. 0f course, a flexible sheet constituted of integrally thermoplastic material may .be likewise employed with equal or similar results. This liner sheet has dimensions closely approximating those of the carton blank and is attached thereto by vmeansoi lines of adhesive 1l provided on the various panels 5I to 54 so that vthe liner will follow the movement of the carton blank during the subsequent folding operations. As it will be best observed in Fig. 2, liner 10 is so attached to blank 50 that its right hand edge slightly protrudes beyond the cartonblank.

The ilrst step in converting blank 50 and liner 10 into a container includes folding'carton on score line 41. Hereafter, the protruding portion by means of spots of adhesivel.

13 of the liner is folded back alongthe edge of glue flap 66 and tabs 66 and is attached thereto This structure will be readily observed in Figs. 3 and 4.

The next operation involves folding carton and liner along score line 46 and applying a suitable quick drying adhesive which is thermoplastic upon drying to the top surface of the folded back portions of the liner. This folding operation will bring the two longitudinal marginal strips of the liner into cooperating contacting position whereby the adhesive applied thereto may take efi'ect and will firmly bond these regions together and form a longitudinal seam. At the same time the left hand marginal strip of end panel 63' may be attached to the corresponding portion of glue flap 66 by means of glue,or some other suitable adhesive. These operations will convert carton blank 60 and liner sheet 10 into a foursided tubular carton with a four-sided tubular liner, the latter having .a completely fluid-tight and fusible inner surface. The finished structure 0;? this collapsed tubular container will be best seen in Fig. 6 which clearly shows that the liner forms a complete tubular structure the seams of which are independent from those oi' the carton. i

Other important properties of this structure will appear in Fig. 7 which is a cross-sectional view taken across the tubular carton and liner after it has been erected. From Fig. 7 it is apparent that the main fold line 19 of the longitudinal seam of the tubular liner is placed in the medial line of end panel 63 and that the longitudinal seam of the liner is flattened in the plane of such panel. This circumstance is of great importance during the subsequent operations required for forming the bottom closure and the top closure of the liner. It is also worth noting that the region of adhesion in the longitudinal seam of the liner generally denoted by reference character 16 is spaced from fold line 19 'of the liner whereby a slip joint structure of desirable characteristics is obtained, as it is set forth more fully in my co-pending application Serial No. 260.708, led March 9i, 1939. 'Ihis slip Joint makes it possible for the inner tubular liner -to expand under the effect of internal pressure and to pay out excess material incorporated therein whereby full support of the liner material by the considerably stronger carton walls is assured under all operating conditions. I'his operation provides a collapsed four-sided carton with a four-sided tubular liner which may be shipped or stored in the collapsed condition, shown in Fig. 5, and is ready for its ultimate use.

When it is desired to package commodities into this container, the preferred procedure followed is to first square up or erect the collapsed carton and thereby simultaneously to erect the tubular liner, which obviously follows all movements of the carton panels. Hereafter, the bottom of the tubular liner is sealed by the application of heat and pressure to a transverse zone thereof and is folded into the body of the carton and the bottom flaps of the carton are closed thereabout. Thus, the tubular liner has been converted into a bag with an open filling opening. This bag may now be filled with the commodity to be packaged and after filling, the mouth opening may be likewise sealed and the top flaps may be closed thereabout in a similar manner. In view of the fact that the procedure followed in forming the top and bottom closures of the liner are identical,

in the following only formation of the top closure will be described.

Fig. 8 illustrates the upper portions of the lined carton in the erected condition thereof. In this condition the liner may be filled with a determined amount of the commodity to be packaged through a suitable filling device diagrammatically shown by a filling spout 60. In this condition of the erected container, tab 66 hingedly connected to top flap 66 is located between the body oi' the liner and the longitudinal seam 8|. Hereafter, all top closure flaps 65, 66, 66 and 60 are folded away from the upper portions of the liner in order to facilitate manipulation thereof. Folding away of top closure flap 66 willy pull out tab 66 from its former position and leave the mouth portions of the liner completely free for subsequent operations. In forming the top closure seam, the upper portions of the liner are flattened into the plane defined by the hinge lines of the top closure aps so that all of the mouth portions are brought into a single plane including the upper end of longitudinal seam 6l. This condition is illustrated in Fig. 9. It will be readily observed in this figure that the flattened mouth portions contain only two layers of material brought into face to face position and that intervening and doubled up layers are completely absent from this structure. Heat and pressure may be applied to a transverse strip 82 of these attened portions already in this condition of the package but in most cases it is preferred to first fold the regions to be heat sealed vertically upwards as this is shown in Fig. 10 whereby the regions to be heat sealed are more accessible to a conventionaLheat sealing device. This application of. heat and pressure will provide a hermetic seal which in the absence of intervening or doubled up layers is completely free from the danger of leakage.

After the top closure seam has been formed, it may be folded fiat and the resulting tabs 63 and 84 may be folded into the body of the package, as this appears in Fig. 11. The top closure naps may now be folded into closing position in a number of different ways for example by first folding end panel flaps 69 and 60 into position (Fig. 12) and then folding main panel flap 55 and finally main panel iiap 66 into closing position. Tab or ear 66 attached to flap 56 may be adhesively secured to end panel 63, as shown in Fig. 13,.although, of course, it is also possible to fold this tab inwardly so that it doesnt appear in the finished package.

It will be noted that the present invention provides a simple, inexpensive, hermetically sealed package having a combination of seams formed by adhesion and of seams formed by heat fusion. Moreover, the invention discloses a novel type of four-sided packaging medium involving an outer carton and an inner liner which is formed with a minimum amount of material and which has various desirable properties, such as the absence of intervening and doubled up layers in any one of the seams.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with a few preferred embodiments thereof, variations and modifications may be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departing from the principles of the present invention. Thus, while in the four-sided tubular carton it is preferred to provide the longitudinal seam of the liner by means of an adhesive, in some cases heat sealing may be resorted to without materially changing the finished strucv 2,326,269 ture. I consider all of these variations and modications to be within the true spirit, and scope of the present invention as disclosed in the foregoing description and defined by the appended I claim:

1. A four-sided, lined tubular carton, adapted to be erected from collapsed form, having at least four longitudinal score lines defining opposed pairs of main and end panels and a glue flap and top and bottom closure iiaps hingedly connected to said panels, a tubular liner adhesively secured to at least one pair of said panels to open and close with the carton and having a longitudinal seam flattened in the plane of one panel with a fold line adjacent to Ithe medial line of said panel, and ears connected to the carton forming extensions of said glue flap to provide a continuous folding edge and a continuous supporting surface for the longitudinal seam of the liner.

2. A four-sided, lined tubular carton, adapted to be erected from collapsed form, having four longitudinal parallel score lines defining opposed pairs of main and end panelsl connected to a tubular-structure by means of a glue flap and top and bottom closure flaps hingedly connected to said panels, a tubular liner adhesively secured to at least one pair of said panels to have the liner open and close with the carton and having a longitudinal seam iiattened in the plane of one panel with a fold line positioned substantially in the medial line of said panel, and ears hingedly connected to top and bottom flaps forming extensions of said glue nap and providing a continuous folding edge and a continuous supporting surface for the longitudinalseam of the liner,said

constituted of flexible material fluid-tight, and

fusible on the inner surface at least adhesively secured to one pair of said panels to have the liner open and close with the carton, said liner having its longitudinal marginal portions secured in face to face position with a reactivable fusible adhesive to form a flattened longitudinal seam with a fold-line positioned in` the medial line attened' condition of the carton and being' adapted to be withdrawn into non-obstructing position by folding the corresponding closure flaps away from the liner whereby the liner may be hermetically sealed by applying heat and presears being interposed between the body portion 7 of the liner and the longitudinal seam in the flattened condition of the carton `and being adapted to be withdrawn into a non-obstructing position by folding the corresponding closure sure to transverse flattened terminal portions thereof.

4. A four-sided, lined tubular carton, in knockdown form, having score lines defining opposed pairsof main and end panels and a glue flap and top and bottom closure flaps hingedly connected to said panels, a tubular liner constituted of flexible thermoplastic material within said carton adhesively secured to a pair of said panels to open and to close with the carton, said liner having its longitudinal marginal portions secured in face to face position with a reactivable fusible adhesive to form -a flattened longitudinal seam with a fold line positioned in the medial line of one end panel, and a pair of ears hingedly connected to a top and a bottom flap respectively longitudinally extending the glue flap to the full length of the liner, said ears being interposed between the body portion of the liner and the longitudinal seam in the flattened condition of the carton and being adapted to be withdrawn into non-obstructing position in the erected condition of the carton whereby the liner may be hermetically sealed by applying heat and pressure to collapsed transverse terminal portions thereof and said carton :may :be closed at either end by means of said closure naps and ears.

HARRY F. WATERS.

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