US3503494A - Dispensing package for aprons - Google Patents

Description

March 31, 1970 Z ET AL 3,503,494

DISPENSING PACKAGE FOR APRONS Filed Jan. 7, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ROBE X $TZ LAMONT F. ANDREWS ATTORNEYS United States Patent US. Cl. 206-57 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A package of thin sheet-plastic aprons or the like stacked for individual dispensing. A rack is folded from a flat sheet to provide major upstanding portions against the front and rear walls of an outer box and a series of major upstanding portions in between, with minor bottom portions resting on the bottom wall of the outer box and cooperating with the major portions and the box to porvide compartments. In the series of major upstanding portions, two major portions back up each other and are folded fiat against each other by top folds, each group of two such major portions being separated from the next major portion on each side by a minor portion. A stack of plastic articles is then supported accordion fashion by the rack in the box.

This invention relates to an improved package for plastic aprons and the like.

Plastic aprons are cut from thin sheet plastic and are intended to be disposable. They are used in kitchens, laboratories, darkrooms, hospitals, and other places where it is important to protect ones clothing and where it is considered undesirable to have aprons cleaned often but where it is yet important to use clean aprons.

The plastic aprons being quite thin and being disposable, it is important to have them readily accessible. Individual packaging does not meet this need and greatly increases the total cost. Nor can a stack of aprons conveniently be packaged fully open and flat, because of the wide area that would involve. If the aprons were to be folded into a small package and stacked, they would become quite inconvenient to get out and also inconvenient to package, due to the number of folds that would have to be made. It is also inconvenient to have them packaged in rolls or in such a partially folded shape that they must have two or three unfoldings.

The present invention solves this problem by providing, in addition to an outer box which may be square in cross section in one direction and rectangular in the other, an inner rack which serves to support the aprons so that they can be folded once, then stacked fiat, and then brought by the rack to a kind of accordion-like shape of An outstanding convenience of this package is that one can grasp the apron at any of several visible and accessible folds when the package is opened and pull out a single apron without disturbing any of the other aprons. The dispensing is both very quick and convenient. From the manufacturers standpoint, the packaging is also quite convenient, since it is quite simple to stack the aprons in a once-folded condition on top of each other, to make a vertical stack of the aprons on top of the corrugated sheet from which the rack is to be folded, while it is still flat, and then to fold this corrugated sheet into its accordion-like position and place it into the outs de box.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will ap- 3,503,494 Patented Mar. 31, 1970 pear from the following description of a preferred form thereof.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a package embodying the principles of the present invention, with the top of the package open so that aprons can be dispensed therefrom.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of one of the plastic aprons of the package of FIG. 1, unfolded to a fully fiat condition and indicating the fold line by which it is given a single fold before being stacked and in which folded form it comes out of the carton when dispensed.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the inner retainer rack before folding and before laying the stack of aprons thereon.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view in elevation and in section taken along the line 44 in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the invention comprises an outer carton or box in which may be a fairly standard type of box, preferably made from corrugated paper, an inner retainer rack 11 also preferably made from corrugated paper, and a stack 12 of the aprons 13.

The box 10 preferably has square end walls 14 and 15, rectangular front, back, and bottom walls 16, 17, and 18 and a unitary hinged cover 20 with a top wall 21 and flaps 22, 23, and 24, joined by a fold line 25 to the rear wall 17.

One of the plastic aprons 13 is shown in FIG. 2. As will be seen, the apron 13 can be cut out by so-called cookie cutters from sheet plastic without any other manufacturing step, and is provided with an integral neckstrap portion 26 which encloses a head and neck opening 27 and leads down to the main portion 28 covering the chest of the wearer. It also has a pair of integral ties 29 and 30 which extend out from the sides 31 and 32 and are brought around back and tied when the apron 13 is worn. For use in this invention, each apron 13 is individually folded once only before packaging along its longitudinal center line 33 indicated in FIG. 2 to reduce the width of the package. Then they are all stacked flat on each other.

The retainer rack 11 used in this invention comprises a corrugated paper sheet having a series of fold lines, and it will be noted that reading from the left to right in FIG. 3 there is an edge separated by a major portion 41 from a fold line 42 which is spaced by a minor portion 43 a short distance away from the next fold line 44. The fold line 44 is separated by another major portion 45 from a sharper type of fold line 46, which is mainly a cut 47 with folds 48 and 49 at the edges only, so that the next major portion 50 can be folded quite flat against the major portion 45. This continues section after section in this manner with fold line 51 joining the major portion 50 to a minor portion 52, and a fold line 53 joining the minor portion 52 to the major portion 54. Then a fold line 55 like the fold line 47 enables a major portion 56 to be folded flat against the major portion 55. Thence follow in order a fold line 57, a minor portion 58, a fold line 59, a major portion 60, a fold line 61, a major portion 62, a fold line 63, a minor portion 64, a fold line 65, and a major portion 66.

The result, when the rack 11 is folded, is shown in FIG. 4, in which there are erect major portions 41 and 66 at each end and a series of double thickness erect retainer portions 45, 50 and 54, 56, and 60, 62 in between. These cooperate with the minor portions 43, 52, 58, and 64 to provide compartments 67, 68, 69', and 70* in between the major portions, each compartment having a bottom wall but open at the top.

The stack 12 of once-folded flat aprons 13 may be placed on the retainer 11 before the retainer 11 is folded, and

then the retainer 11 is folded into the position shown in FIG. 4, thereby putting the apron stack in accordion-like storage position. This means that the side straps 29 and 30, the neck straps 26 and the abdomen covering portion 28 appear on the retainers as shown in FIG. 1. Thus the walls 45, 50 support the lower portion of the main apron portion, the walls 54, 56 support the main portion 28 and straps 29 and 30, and the walls 60, 62 support the straps 29 and 30 and neck straps 26. The major portions 41 and 66 at the ends serve to space the rack 11 in the box 10 and to provide compartments 67 and 70.

The user, in taking an apron out, grasps one at any portion of the apron 13 above one of the retainer folds 47, 55 or 61 and is able with his thumb and first finger to immediately separate the top apron 13 from the other other aprons below. Then he simply pulls his selected apron out, leaving all the other aprons in place.

To those skilled in the art to which this invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The disclosures and the description herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.

We claim:

1. A package of thin sheet-plastic articles stacked for individual dispensing, comprising an outer box having front, rear, bottom, and end walls,

a rack folded from a flat sheet providing major upstanding portions against the front and rear walls of the box and a series of major upstanding portions in between, with minor bottom portions resting on the bottom wall and cooperating with said major portions and box to provide compartments,

the series of major upstanding portions comprising a series in which two major portions back up each other and are folded flat against each other by top folds, each group of two such major portions being separated from the next major portion on each side by a said minor portion, and

a stack of said plastic articles supported accordion fashion by said upstanding portions of said rack.

2. A package of thin sheet-plastic aprons stacked for individual dispensing, comprising a stack of said aprons, each folded once and then stacked,

an outer box having front, rear, bottom, and end walls,

a rack folded from a flat sheet providing major upstanding portions against the front and rear walls of the box and a series of major upstanding portions in between with minor bottom portions resting on the bottom wall and cooperating with said major portions and box to provide compartments,

the series of major upstanding portions comprising a series in which two major portions back up each other and are folded fiat against each other by top folds, each group of two such major portions being separated from the next major portion on each side by a said minor portion,

said plastic aprons being supported accordion fashion by said upstanding portions of said rack.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,013,051 9/1935 Hermani 220-22 3,243,079 3/ 1966 Rettmer 22l63 3,332,547 7/1967 Rowe et al. 206-56 FOREIGN PATENTS 619,613 10/1935 Germany.

WILLIAM T. DIXSON, 112., Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R.

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