US2801784A - Shipping container - Google Patents

Description

D. H. BLATT SHIPPING CONTAINER Aug. 1 957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 uwEN-roia I onvlo H- BLHT ATTORNEY Filed April 2, 1966 Aug. 6, 1957 D. H. BLATT 2,801,784

SHIPPING CONTAINER Filed April 2. 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 g INVENTOR B UFWID H- BLHTT ATTORNEY srnrrmo- CONTAINER David H. Blatt, Elkins Park, Pa., assignor, by mesne assignment's, to Owens-Illinois. Glass Company, Toledo,

Ohio, a. corporation of Ohio Application April 2, 1956, Serial No. 575,525

4 Claims. Cl. 229-23 This invention relates generally toshipping containers formed of corrugated board and the like and more particularly to a. novel construction of a toroidal shaped container.

It has long. been recognized. by shippers of articles of circular form, such as coiled pipe, tubing, cable, wire, tire casings and other such. annular shaped articles, that when. the same are packed in containers of square shape, such containersentail considerable waste ofvaluable floor space, particularly in transportation vehicles, in relation to the shape of the article encased in the container. Obviously, if the outer shape of the container may be made to conform generally to the external shape of its cont'ained article, the number of such article-filled shipping containers of a given size which may be stored within a given area. offloor space may be considerably increased. Such high density stacking of the encased articles not only during shipment thereof, but. also when the same are stored, results in substantial savings to both the shipper. and the consignee of the goods.

Having in mind the foregoing, it is among the principal objects of the present invention to provide an exceedingly simple and inexpensive construction of toroidal shaped shipping container which is ideally adapted for the reception of articles of generally annular shape, such as coiled hose, wire, cable and the like.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to form such a. toroidal shaped container of a pair of flat blanks of suitable sheet material, such as corrugated paper board, which are respectively cut', scored and shaped into generally annular form and which are then assembled in nested relation to provide the container with. an annular article-receiving chamber or well. having endless. concentric ,side enclosing walls, a permanently closed bottom wall and a readily openable top wall.

A further object of the invention is to provide a construction of toroidal shaped hollow container suitable for the shipment and storage of relatively heavy articles which by the nature and form of its construction is not only provided with a reinforced bottom wall and with overlapping top closure flaps to adequately close the top of the container after the annular shaped article is placed therein, but is also strengthened throughout.

Still another and important object and advantage of the present invention resides in the fact that the toroidal shape of the container in itself is such as to insure against any lateral shifting of the article packed therein, there being thus eliminated completely the necessity of employing in the container any auxiliary packing or filler members of any kind.

Other objects of the invention and advantages inherent in. andresulting from the use of the container constructed in. accordance therewithwill be apparent more fully hereinafter, it being. understood that the present invention consists substantially in the combination, construction, location and general arrangement of parts, all as de- United States Patent scribed in detail in the following specification, as. shown in the accompanying drawings and as finally pointed. out in the appendedclaims.

In the accompanying drawings which are illustrative of a container constructed in accordance with and embodying the principles of the present invention,

Figure 1 is a plan view of the blank cut and scored to form the outer member of the toroidal container;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the blank similarly cut and scored to form the inner member of the container;

Figures 3 and 4 respectively show the blanks of Fig,- ures 1 and 2 folded upon themselves with their free ends secured preliminary to their being shaped into the form of endless annular members; t

Figure 5' is a plan view of the outer member expanded to annular shape and showing the bottom flaps thereof. in overlapped, secured together relation;

Figure 6 is a plan view of the inner member expanded to annular shape, showing, the bottom flaps thereof. extended in position to overlie the bottom flaps of. the outer member;

Figure 7' is a plan view showing the bottom flaps of the inner and outer members secured together to form the completed container, with. its top flaps. open;

Figure 8 is a plan view of" the completed container showing its top closure flaps in closed. position;

Figure 9 is a. perspective view, partly in section, of a portion of the container; and

Figure 10 is a transverse sectional view of the container as takenon the line 10-10 of Figure 8.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, it will be observed that the container of the present invention is essentially constructed of two rectangular blanks. 10 and 11 formed of suitable sheet material, such as corrugated fiber board, the blank 10 constituting the outer shell of the container and the blank 11 constituting the inner shell thereof.

The blank 10, which is scored longitudinally along the spacedparallel. lines 1212 and transversely along the uniformly spaced lines 13, is also slit at. opposite sides thereof, as at I414, to provide a central panel 15' having along each opposite side thereof a plurality of relatively foldable flaps 16 and 16 The blank thus scored" and slitted may be bent along the transverse fold lines 13 into the shape of. a polygonal shell having a wall portion formed of contiguous sections of the central panel all. of the same size and. shape. In the particular construction illustrated, the panel 15 is transversely scored; to provide eight identical contiguous sections 17' which are relatively bendable about the transverse fold lines 13' to form an octagonal shell.

The flaps 16 along one side of. the panel 15 are foldable inwardly toward the center of the preliminarily formed. shell and at right angles to the angularly related wall sections 17 to provide the shell with an inwardly extending flange (see Figure 5) which is made up of the several flaps 16 disposed with their corner portions overlapping one another. Upon permanently securing together the overlapping corner portions of the adjoining flaps 16, as by wire staples 18 or otherwise, the outer shell formed of the blank 10 assumes a. more or less rigid polygonal shape, in which formed structure the flaps 16 respectively extend coplanar with the angularly related wall sections 17.

In order to complete the external: shell: structure as shown in. Figure 5', the opposite: ends of the central. panel 15' thereof are joined together in abutting relation, as by an adhesively secured tape 19 or otherwise. Preferably, this tape 19 is applied before expanding the blank Patented Aug. 6,1957

I the bottom unturned flange of the outer shell.

into polygonal shell form, as by folding the blank about its central transverse score line and then taping together its free ends, as shown in Figure 3, to provide a relatively compact, fiat structure convenient for handling and for storage.

The blank 11, of' which is formed the internal shell structure of the container, is also longitudinally scored, and transversely scored and slitted to provide a central panel 20 having a plurality of contiguous Sections 21 adapted to be angularly'related to form a wall of polygonal shape and a plurality of relatively foldable flaps 22 and 22 extending from opposite sides of the wallforming central panel 20. As in the case of the blank 10, the contiguous sections 21 of the panel 11 are all of identical size and'shape to provide a polygonally shaped shell of which the wall sections are all angularly related to the same degree. However, the blank 11 is appreciably shorter than the blank so that the shell formed thereof is diametrically smaller than that formed of the blank 10. Preferably, the number of foldable wall-forming sections 21 in the blank 11 equals that of the corresponding sections in the blank 10, so that upon nesting the shell formed of the blank 11 within the shell formed of the blank 10 their'corresponding angularly related sections may be disposed in spaced, parallel relation to provide a container having an annular article-receiving chamber or well.

1 In order to insure maintenance of the inner and outer shells of the container in their desired concentric relation, the flaps 22 of the blank 11, when the latter is expanded into shell form, are turned outwardly as shown in Figure 6 so that they respectively extend at right angles to the angularly related wall-forming sections 21 and so are adapted to overlie the corresponding flaps 16 which form As in the case of the structure formed of the blank 10, the opposite ends of the central panel 20 of the blank 11 are suitably hingedly joined, as by a flexible adhesively secured tape 23. The blank 11, like the blank 10, may be doubled upon itself, as shown in Figure 4, to form a compact, substantially flat unit which is adapted to be readily expanded into generally annular shape to form the inner shell of the assembled container.

For effecting a permanent assembly of the nested inner and outer shell structures, the outwardly turned flaps 22 of the expanded inner shell are permanently secured in superposed fiatwise relation to the corresponding inwardly turned flaps 16 of the expanded outer shell, as by wire staples 24 or otherwise. The resulting structure is a toroidal shaped container (see Figures 7, 8 and 10) of substantial strength and rigidity having an annular well 25 which is ideally adapted to receive circular articles, such as coiled hose, cable and the like. The annular well 25 is thus provided with a double thickness bottom wall formed of the permanently secured overlapping flaps 16 and 22, with spaced, concentric side walls formed respectively of the angularly related contiguous sections 17 of the blank 10 and the corresponding sections of the blank 11 and with overlapping top closure flaps formed respectively of the flaps 16 and 22 of the blanks. These top closure flaps normally extend coplanar with the wall-forming sections to which they are joined during assembly of the inner and outer shells to make up the complete container and until after the container is loaded, whereupon first one set of the closure flaps (e. g. those designated 22*) and then the second set thereof (e. g. those designated 16 are folded across the open top of the well to close the same, the two sets of top closure flaps being thus disposed in substantially the same relation as are those forming the bottom of the well. However, in order tofacilitate opening of the container, the top closure flaps in their overlapped relation maybe held closed by adhesive tape or any other suitable means (not shown) which lends itself readily to easy opening of the topclosure flaps.

It will be understood, of course, that the blanks 10 and 11 may be transversely scored and slitted at uniformly spaced intervals to provide each of them with any desired equal number of contiguous wall-forming sections, which number for each blank may range from three (to provide a hollow container of triangular shape in hOIi? zontal cross-section) to more than the eight shown in the drawings (to provide a hollow container of generally cylindrical form in horizontal cross-section). Obviously, the hollow container is always of polygonal shape in horizontal cross-section because of the angularly related flat side wall sections thereof, but the greater the number of such sections employed in constructing the walls of the nested shell structures the more closely will the completed container approach a truly cylindrical shape.

It will be apparent also that the effective transverse width of the annular article-receiving well 25 of the container may be varied as desired by simply varying the transverse width of the opposite side flaps of the blanks 10 and 11, while the depth of the well may be varied by changing, as desired, the transverse width of the central wall-forming panels of the blanks. Thus, if a narrow, deep well is desired, the opposite flaps of the blanks 10 and 11 would be of reduced width while the central transversely scored panels thereof would be of substantially increased width. Conversely, if it is desired that the toroidal container be provided with a wide, shallow well, the side flaps of the blanks 10 and 11 would be relatively wide as compared with the width of the transversely scored central panels thereof. Although unnecessary in all instances, it is preferred that the overlapping flaps forming the stapled bottom of the toroidal container and those constituting the top closure elements are of such relative transverse dimension that they all extend across the bottom and the top of the container well for the full width thereof, thereby insuring substantially complete transverse overlapping of the overlaying pairs of the flaps.

It will be apparent that the present invention is subject to various changes and modifications which may be made from time to time without departing from the general principles or real spirit thereof, and accordingly, it is intended to claim the invention boardly, as well as specifically, as indicated by the appended claims.

What is claimed as new and useful is:

1. A shipping container of generally toroidal form comprising a pair of blanks of sheet material cut, scored and folded to provide a pair of hollow shell members each of the same polygonal shape in horizontal cross section but of different diametric dimension, said members being nested one within the other to provide an annular article-receiving well therebetween, said blank being each characterized in that it includes a plurality of angularly related contiguous wall-forming sections, each of said sections having flaps extending laterally from oppo': site edges thereof and adapted to be folded at right angles to the plane of their associated section, the flaps extend ing laterally from the bottom edges of said wall-forming sections constituting the bottom closure flaps of the aunular well of the container and those extending laterally from the top edges of the wall-forming sections constituting the top closure flaps for said well of the container.

2. In a shipping container as defined in claim 1 where-' in the bottom closure flaps associated with one of said shell members are substantially disposed in a common plane extending normal to the axis of the container with the end portions of adjoining pairs of said flaps in overlapping relation. 7

3. In a shipping container as defined in claim 1 wherein the bottom closure flaps associated with one of said shell members are substantially disposed ina'common plane extending normal to the axis of the'container with the end portions of adjoining pairs of said flaps in over lapping relation, and wherein said overlapping end por tions of said flaps are permanently secured together. i 3

4. In a shipping container as defined in claim l where in the bottom closure flaps associated with one of said shell members are substantially disposed in a common References Cited in the file of this patent plane normal to the axis of the container with the end UNITED STATES PATENTS portions of adjoining pairs of said flaps secured together in overlapped relation and wherein the corresponding flaps 2527'842 Muuaney 950 associated with the other of said shell members respec- 6 FOREIGN PATENTS tively overlap and are secured to the flaps of said first mentioned shell memben 856,245 France June 7, 1940

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