US2866575A

US2866575A - Plastic novelty and method of making the same

Info

Publication number: US2866575A
Application number: US593845A
Authority: US
Inventors: John J Lattuca
Original assignee: BEST PLASTICS CORP
Current assignee: BEST PLASTICS Corp
Priority date: 1956-06-26
Filing date: 1956-06-26
Publication date: 1958-12-30
Anticipated expiration: 1975-12-30

Description

Dec. 3o, 1958 2,866,575

J. J. LATTUCA PLASTIC NOVELTY AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed June 26, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Il: v l.

' INVENTOR. f6 f\\\\. MM BY W L Q TTRNE YS Dec. 30, 1958 J. J. LATTUcA 2,865,575

PLASTIC NOVELTY AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed June 26, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR.

AT TORNE YS vBY nitd StatCS PLASTIC NVELTY AND METHOD F MAKING THE SAME John J. Lattuca, Hempstead, N. Y., assigner to Best Plastics Corporation, Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application June 26, 1956, Serial No. 593,845

4 Claims. (Cl. 2241-94) It is an object of the invention to provide an improved container made of sheet material and especially suitable for manufacture from sheets of thermo-plastic material. Another object of the invention is to provide a container constructiony which can be manufactured at much lower cost than comparable containers of the prior art.

In accordance with one feature of the invention the 'i containers for use as party favors are molded from sheet material and shaped so that individual containers nest within one another and have handles which lie in at positions where they do not interfere with the nesting. A customer who buys a group of nested containers separates them and bends the handles upwardly into operative positions at the time that the containers are set out to be used. After use, the handles can be returned to their original positions and the favors can be nested together again for storage until the next time they are needed.

Another feature of the invention relates to the construction of the handles of the containers so that different handles bent upwardly from opposite sides of the favors l are conveniently locked together to hold them in their raised positions and even though the connections of the handlesto the body of the container remain stressed for separating the handles when the connection between them is released.

It is anothei object of the invention to provide a simple i and inexpensive method of making a party favor of the character indicated. The preferred method of making the party favors consists of vacuum forming the individual containers from dierent sheets of plastic; and .H

then shearing groups of the containers from the unformed portions of the sheets by first stacking a group of the formed sheets together before placing them in the shear. The portions of the handles which are to be sheared from the remainder of the container are preferably severed as a part of the same shearing operation which cuts the containers from the unformed portions ofthe plastic sheets.y j

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part hereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views:

Figure l is a side elevation, partly broken away and in section, showing a container of this invention made to resemble a basket and for use as a party favor;

Figure 2 is an end view of the party favor shown in Figure 1, part of the view being broken away and in section;

Figure 3 is atop plan view of the party favor shown in Figures l and 2;

Figure 4 is an enlarged, detailed view showing the tongue and the slit construction for holding the handles together; 7

' Figure 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 3; p

Figure 6 is a top plan view of the party favor shown in Figure 3 before the handles are bent up into operative position;

Figure 7 is a sectional view, on a reduced scale, on the line 7--7 of Figure 6, and showing the location of the handles before their intermediate portions are severed from the other part of the container;

Figure 8 is a diagrammatic, sectional view illustrating the way in which the containers are made by vacuum forming;

Figure 9 is a top plan view, on a reduced scale, showing a plastic sheet after it is formed by the vacuum forming step illustrated in Figure 8; and

Figure 10 is a diagrammatic view illustratingthe way in which the formed -containers are cut from the unformed portions of the sheet and the handles are cut from the sides of the container, along portions of their length, in the same operation as the one which cuts the containers from the sheet.

The container shown in Figure 1 is shaped to resemble a basket and includes a body portion 10 having a bottom 11 and side walls 12. The side walls have embossing 14 to simulate reeds or straw from which a basket would be woven.

At diametrically opposite locations, there are projections 16 extending from the top edgeof the side walls 12; and there are

handles

17 and 18 connected to these projections 16 along the radially extending sides of the projections. The

handles

17 and 18 are shaped so that when they are bent upwardly they form bows' across the open top of the container, and there are decorations 20 at the middle of each of the

handles

17 and 18.

Figure 2 shows the way in which the

handles

17 and 18 are bent upwardly from one of the projections 16. The entire container, including the body portion 10, projection 16,

handles

17 and 18, and decorations 20 are preferably made of one piece of sheet material. The embossing and the shape of the container increases the stiffness so that sheets of lighter gauge can be used than would otherwise be the case. The handles 17 and v 18 are of concave-convex cross section. This cross section increases the stiffness of the handles and also makes the appearance more realistic.

In order to keep the

handles

17 and 18 in their upright positions, there are fastening means on the decorations 2? for attaching the decorations of the different handles together. This construction is best shown in Figures 3 and 4. A tongue 24 projects from the decoration` 2t) of handle 1'7, in position to extend into a slit 27 in the decoration 20 at the middle of the handle 18.

In the illustrated construction, the tongue 24 is formed las an arrow head and has shoulders 26 which catch behind an edge of the slit 27 to prevent the tongue 24 from pulling out of the slit 27 after it has been fully inserted. The tongue 24 is also made with a slight concaVo-convex transverse curvature which assists in making the shoulders 26 catch behind the edge of the slit 27.

Figure 6 shows the shape of the

handles

17 and 18 with respect to the circumference of the top edge of the side walls 12. The ,structure is designed so that when the

handles

17 and 18 are in their downward positions, their inner edges are immediately adjacent to the circumferential top edge of the body portion 10. Thus the

handles

17 and 18 can be molded directly from the portion of the sheet material immediately beyond the in :genders tended top edge of the side wall, and the handles are then severed from the side wall along the intermediate part of their extent by a `direct shearing action and without thenecessity of `removing any material from between the body of the container andthe handles. This not only savesmateriahbut it also simplifies the manufacture of ithe container and is` one of the factors in the low cost ot the container.

The sheet material `from which the container is made is preferably a plastic and one which is stiiily ilexible at Vroom temperature. This expression stiiily flexible is used herein to designate a material which will hold its shape when undisturbed and which will spring back to shape when distorted moderately by the application of force that bendsit. When the handles 17` and lare bentupwardly at angleslof approximately 90 to the projections 16 to which the ends 1of the handles are connected, `this `bendwill ordinarily crease the sheet material since it is bent beyond its elastic limit but it does not break. Heavy paper can be used to make the containers of this invention, but thermo-plastic sheets of plastic material are preferred;`

Figure 8 illustrates a vacuum forming operation diagrammatically. A thermo-plastic sheet 30 is held in a clamping frame 32 while the sheet is heated by heaters 34. Radiant heaters areordinarily employed.

Whenithe sheet 30 has been heated above its softening point, it is drawn down over a mold 36 by a vacuum created under the sheet 30 and within the clamping frame 32. T his vacuum draws the sheet down tightly over the contours ofthe mold 36 and against the supporting plate 37 to which the mold 36 is connected. The vacuum frame 32 `moves downwardly to the position indicated by the dotted lines. Such vacuum forming operations are well understood in the molding art and no further explanation of this step is necessary for a complete understanding of the invention.

Because of thelarge surfacearea and small massof the sheet 30, the sheet cools quickly and can be stripped from the mold 36 `almost immediately after being formed. Figure 9 is a top plan view of the formed sheet and the line along which the formed portion is to be severed from the surrounding unformed flat areas is indicated by dashed lines in Figure 9. 'The linesalongwhich part of thelength of each

handle

17 or 18 is to be severed from `the body 10` of the container is indicated by dotted-lines in Figure 9.

`Figure 10 is a diagrammatic illustration of the cutting or shearing operation. A group offormed sheets 30 are preferably nested together and placed over an anvil 40 which holds the formed sheets against displacement. A die 42 makes the cuts which are indicated in dotted lines in Figure 9 and another die 43 makes the cut which is indicated in dash lines in Figure 9. These dies 42` and 43 operate in conjunction with

stripper plates

45 and 46, respectively, and the stripper plates are provided with springs 48 and suitable guides in accordance with conventional practice.

It will be understood that the apparatus shown in Figure l is merely diagrammatic and representative of the nal cutting or shearing step by which the containers of the invention are made. It will be understood further that the formed containers can be severed from the surrounding unformed areas of the sheet without first nesting a group ofv containers, but the nesting reduces the number of shearing operations and it is desirable to have the containers nested for purposes of storage and shipment.

The preferred embodiment of this invention has been illustrated and described, but changes and modifications can be made and some features can be used in different combinations without departing from the invention as described in the claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A party favor basket comprising a single sheet ot thermoplastic material formed to include a bottom and a side wall of self-supporting thickness and that diverges upwardly and at a progressively increasing rate of divergence toward the upper end of the side wall and to a top edge that extends around the basket along a curved line, two bow-shaped handle portions of the basket extending along the top edge thereof and cut therewith, each ofthe handle portions extending along most of the length of one-half of the top edge, each handle portion being embossed to stiffen it but being of substantially the same thickness across its full Width and of the same thickness as the top edge, outward projections at opposite sides of the basket, the handle portions being integrally connected at their ends to opposite sides of the projections and being separate from the rest of the basket elsewhere and curving outwardly and upwardly away from said projectionsand having their mid portions connected togetherabove the said portion of the basket.

2. The party favor described in claim l and in which each of the handles has a complementary portion at the top and center of the bow shaped to engage the complementary portion of the other handle to connect the handles together.

3. Theparty favor described in claim l and in which one of the handles has a tongue extending toward the other handle and the other handle has a portion with a slit for engagement by the tongue to connect the handles together.

4. The party favor described in claim l and in which `one of the handles has a decorative embossed portion at its mid region with a tongue of one-piece construction with the rest of the handle portion and extending therefrom toward the other handle, and said other handle has a` corresponding embossed decorative region of one piece `construction with the rest of the handle portion and with a slit for receiving the tongue, the tongue being shaped like an arrowhead to provide shoulders that catch behind the ends of the slit to prevent-the tongue from being fwithdrawn from the slit.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS