US2995238A - Carton - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 8, 1961 R. c. CASSELMAN CARTON Filed Jan. 15, 1958 FIG. 2

INVENTOR.

FIG. 4

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,995,238 CARTON Robert C. Casselman, Auburndale, Mass, assignor to P0- laroid Corporation, Cambridge, Mass, a corporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 15, 1958, Ser. No. 709,016 1 Claim. (Cl. 206-62) This invention relates to cartons and more particularly to novel cartons which are particularly useful for holding rolls of photographic sheet materials.

One object of the present invention is to provide cartons of the type which are inexpensive to manufacture, simple to assemble, easy to load with the materials to be carried therein and which can be utilized as such or converted, in a very simple manner, to provide a stable supporting surface to assist in the application of a protective coating to photographic prints held thereon.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a means of readily mounting, temporarily, a single-plane object, such as a photographic print, to a supporting medium.

These and other objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises an article of manufacture possessing the features, properties, and relation of elements which will be exemplified in the article hereinafter described and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claim.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a preferred form of blank used for making a carton in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the carton formed from the blank of FIGURE 1, the top closure being shown in the half-closed position;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the car-ton of FIG. 2 as it is utilized to assist in the application of a protective coat ing to a photographic print; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the carton of FIG. 2 as it is utilized to support a coated photographic print in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

This invention relates generally to novel cartons which are particularly useful for holding rolls of photosensitive sheet materials and which can be utilized as such or converted, in a very simple manner, to provide a supporting surface for the protective coating of photographic prints mounted temporarily thereon. The photographic sheet materials for which this carton is particularly designed comprise, in one form thereof, a roll of negative photosensitive sheet material and a roll of positive sheet material. These two sheets are preferably associated with rupturable, liquid-carrying containers and are adapted to be used in a camera of the type shown in United States Patent 2,435,717, which camera produces a positive print on a predetermined area of the positive sheet, this positive print being subsequently severed from the remainder of the sheet. A carton of the present invention is constructed and so arranged to safely hold two such sheets in roll form for shipping to the camera owner. In addition the carton is so constructed that, upon the opening of a closure, there is provided a means of readily mount .ng, upon the carton, temporarily, a previously severed positive print. Thus a medium is provided for the support at a positive print during subsequent photographic operaions which comprise the manual coating of the retained rositive prints surface with a protective composition to affect thereby an increase in the resistance of said print :0 subsequent abrasion and deterioration.

ice

A preferred type of carton is formed of a single sheet of material, such as chip board, which is cut into a blank, and suitably scored and perforated as described hereinafter. This blank is then formed into a canton having lateral walls, including front and back walls, and end walls. The carton alsoincludes top and bottom closures having portions forming the top and bottom Walls. The top closure constitutes an upward extension of either the front or rear wall, while the bottom closure constitutes a downward extension of the other of said front and rear walls. The sheet material is preferably scored along the lines defining the boundaries between the various walls so as to assist in folding the blank during formation of the carton. The end walls preferably include extensions providing top and bottom flaps for assisting in closing the top and bottom of the carton, the boundaries between these flaps and their respective end walls being preferably scored.

In order that the above-described carton may be readily converted into a print retaining and supporting medium, a closure is slit from each side of said closure along the hinge line thereof, preferably coextensive with the scoring contained thereon. Each slit extends less than one-half the distance between their respective origins and terminates in a separate slit, preferably of comparative equal length, contained within the closure perpendicular to the hinge line thereof. Thus when said closure is in an open or extended position, the respective tabular projections, contained within the closure and formed by the aforementioned slits, may be utilized to retain, against a coextensive carton wall, a single-plane object, such as a photographic print, upon insertion of a margin or an extension of a margin of said object beneath the respective tabular projections.

The tabular projections may, where desirable, be formed by either the slitting or perforation of a closure from opposing sides, each of the slits or perforations extending less than one-half the distance between their respective origins and terminating at a point in the closure further distant, from the wall contiguous with the closure, than its respective origin. Where the tabular projections are formed by the perforation of a closure, the perforated margins of said tabular projection may be severed prior to the mounting of a photographic print.

Referring now to the various figures, wherein like numerals refer to like elements, a carton is formed from a blank 11 preferably cut from a single sheet of material such, for example, as commercial chip board. The carton includes a front wall 12, a rear wall 13, a first end wall 14, and a second end wall 15. A plurality of score lines 16 define the boundaries between the various walls enumerated above. A top closure 17 is provided as an extension of the front wall 12 and a bottom closure 18 is provided as an extension of the rear wall 13, score lines 19 being provided to define the boundaries between the closures and their associated front and rear Walls. Each end wall 14 and 15 is provided with tabs 20. Another tab 21 constitutes a lateral extension of the front wall 12, this tab being coated with an adhesive 22 for securing tab 21 to the inner surface of end wall 15 during manufacture of the carton.

To permit ready bending of the closures 17 and 18 during formation of the assembled carton, there are provided score lines 23 extending across each closure. The inner corners of the top closure 17 include tabs 25. As can be seen from examination of FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 the tabs 25 are, in the preferred form, located adjacent to score line 19 on the periphery of the top closure 17.

When forming the carton, shown in FIG. 2, from the blank of FIG. 1, blank 11 is creased along the vertical score lines 16 to form a rectangular carton body, the outer surface of tab 21 being secured, by means of the adhesive 22, to the inner surface of the end wall 15. Bottom tabs 20 are then folded inwardly, the bottom closure 18 is folded along score line 19 and the outer end 24 thereof is folded alongscore line 23 and tucked inside of the front wall 12. The product to be carried by the carton is then inserted within the carton, the top tabs 20 are folded inwardly, and the closing of the carton is then completed by folding the top closure along score line 19, folding the outer end thereof along score line 23 and tucking it behind rear wall 13, When it is desired to remove the contents of the carton, the top closure 17 is lifted, the tabs 20 are moved to the side, and the contents removed.

In a preferred use of the carton of this invention, as shown in FIG. 3, the top closure 17 is in an open or extended position. A margin of a photographic print 30 is inserted beneath tabs 25 and the protective coating is applied while the print 30 is held firmly against the front wall 12 of the carton. Due to the resiliency of the chip board tabs 25, the photographic print 30 is held firmly in such close proximity to the front wall 12 that said front wall 12 forms a supporting medium for the print 30 during the manual coating operation. After the coating of the print 30 is complete, said print 30 is removed from attachment beneath the tabs 25 and the canton may be further utilized as a container and/ or for the subsequent coating of additional photographic prints.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the preferred carton is so constructed that the measured distance along a diagonal axis from the distant edges of opposite walls is substantially equal to the dimensional distance measured from opposite edges along a medium axis of a photographic print 30. A print-retaining means is thus provided such that, upon insertion of a freshly coated photographic print into the carton, each of two opposite edges of said print is held in substantial contact throughout its length with a distant edge of said cartons opposite walls. Thus, the coated surface of the photographic print is held firmly insulated from contact with foreign matter during the time interval required for the protective coating to dry and/or harden.

The use of the container, by means of which packaged film is transported, as a supporting medium for the protective coating of photographic prints has the decided advantages of simplicity of operation, low cost of manufacture and ready availability to the photographer. The carton of this invention thus avoids the necessity of utilizing a separate apparatus or makeshift means to support the photographic pr t during the coating operation. In as much as the solution used to coat the photographic print may adversely affect some paint, stain, varnish, plastic, etc., finishes the use of makeshift fiat surfaces to support the print during the coating operation is necessarily limited as to both availability and suitability.

Since certain changes may be made in the above product without departing from the scope of the invention herein involved, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

A photographic film package comprising a carton initially containing rolls of photographic sheet materials, said rolls being adapted to be photoexposed and processed, a plurality of photographic prints of predetermined dimensions being removed selectively from one of said rolls after processing, said carton having front, back and side walls arranged so that said carton is rectangular in horizontal cross section, a top closure fiap hinged to its back wall, said flap being movable to an open position substantially coplanar with said back wall, first and second tabs extending from an anchored portion thereof a substantial distance toward said flap hinge and formed one on either side of said flap and integral thereto, said print being adapted to have portions of an edge thereof inserted under said tabs when said flap is in said open position, said back wall supporting said print during the application of a protective coating thereto when said print is inserted under said tabs, the diagonal distance between opposite corners within the interior of the carton being equal to the width of said print, whereby said print, after being coated, may be inserted within the carton and retained thereby, the edges only of said print contacting the interior surface of said carton.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 910,753 Weaver Ian. 26, 1909 1,103,708 Thumb July 14, 1914 1,272,618 Burgess July 16, 1918 1,390,405 Waldes Sept. 13, 1921 1,564,250 Lambert Dec. 8, 1925 1,746,721 Tanner Feb, 11, 1930 1,934,218 Webb Nov. 7, 1933 1,989,659 Adsit et a1. Feb. 5, 1935 2,141,752 Hoarle Dec. 27, 1938 2,768,909 Haslam Oct. 30, 1956 2,803,561 Kather Aug. 20, 1957

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