U.S. patent application number 11/604609 was filed with the patent office on 2007-05-31 for carton structure with seal-assistant ears.
This patent application is currently assigned to BENQ CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Shu-Ju Liao.
Application Number | 20070119915 11/604609 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38086470 |
Filed Date | 2007-05-31 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070119915 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Liao; Shu-Ju |
May 31, 2007 |
Carton structure with seal-assistant ears
Abstract
A carton structure includes a circling peripheral plate
providing two opposing open ends, and a plurality of seal plates
for covering respective open ends of the peripheral plate. The seal
plate includes at least a seal-assistant ear located at one lateral
side of the seal plate. When the seal plate covers the respective
open end, the seal-assistant ear can be folded toward the
peripheral plate so that a correct position of the seal plate for
sealing the open end of the peripheral plate can be obtained.
Inventors: |
Liao; Shu-Ju; (Taipei Hsien,
TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
LADAS & PARRY
26 WEST 61ST STREET
NEW YORK
NY
10023
US
|
Assignee: |
BENQ CORPORATION
|
Family ID: |
38086470 |
Appl. No.: |
11/604609 |
Filed: |
November 27, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
229/143 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65D 5/0236
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
229/143 |
International
Class: |
B65D 5/00 20060101
B65D005/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Nov 29, 2005 |
TW |
94141925 |
Claims
1. A carton structure comprising: a circling peripheral plate; and
a plurality of seal plates used for covering two open opposing ends
of said peripheral plate, wherein said seal plate has two
corresponding lateral edges to be aligned with an outer rim of said
peripheral plate while said seal plates are covering said open ends
of said peripheral plate, characterized in that at least one of
said lateral edges of at least one of said seal plates extends a
seal-assistant ear to be folded and creased towards said peripheral
plate while said seal plates are covering said corresponding open
ends of said peripheral plate, thereby aligning said one of said
lateral edges with said outer rim of said peripheral plate.
2. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein two said lateral edges
of said seal plate have their own said ears, respectively.
3. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein two said lateral edges
of every said seal plate have their own said ears,
respectively.
4. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said ear has a sticky
strip to be stuck to said circling plate when said ear is folded
towards said circling plate.
5. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said circling plate has
a positioning hole at a relevant place to be passed through by
corresponding said ear when said ear is folded towards said
circling plate.
6. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said ear is located at
an end section of said edge.
7. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said ear is located at
a middle section of said edge.
8. The carton structure of claim 1, wherein said seal plate has at
least one dashed line extending along one side of said ear to link
two said edges, thereby facilitating to open said carton which has
assembled and sealed.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] (1) Field of the Invention
[0002] The invention relates to one type of carton structures, and
specifically to such kind of carton structures whose seal plates
have seal-assistant ears.
[0003] (2) Description of the Prior Art
[0004] Please refer to FIG. 1, a schematic view of a well-known
carton structure 1, where shows on the left side an unfolded plane
status (i.e., the status of the carton structure just manufactured)
and on the right top side a three-dimensional aspect of the carton
structure after assembled. The carton structure 1 (particularly
made of corrugated papers) used for carrying objects comprises a
circling peripheral plate 10, four reinforcing plates 12 extended
from two opposing sides of outer rims 101 of the circling
peripheral plate 10, and the four seal plates 14 separated by the
reinforcing plates 12 at intervals and extended from two other
sides of the outer rims 101 of the circling peripheral plate
10.
[0005] Please refer to the three-dimensional schematic on the right
side of FIG. 1, where the circling peripheral plate 10 is delimited
by dashed lines (the dashed lines shown in figure crease during
assembling carton 1) into four sections, thereby connecting its
front end and back end to form circling sides of an empty tetragon
container for the carton 1. After the circling peripheral plate 10
of the carton 1 is connected, the reinforcing plates 12 can be
folded towards the center of the open ends and cover two opposing
open ends formed by the circling peripheral plate 10, while the
seal plates 14, extended from the circling peripheral plate 10 and
separated by the reinforcing plates 12 at intervals, are used for
covering the reinforcing plates 12. A well-known cubic carton
structure is therefore formed after the circling peripheral plate
10 is connected, the reinforcing plates 12 is folded and met, and
the seal plates 14 is aligned and sealed.
[0006] As everybody knows, the object of cartons is for carrying
objects. As regards the structure, it still maintains a limited
feature of "analogous four-bar linkage motion" caused by the open
ends formed by the circling peripheral plates 10 because the seal
plates 14 on either top or bottom side (normally on the top side)
of the carton have not been aligned and sealed; that is, the open
ends of the carton 1 will be transformed along the parallel
directions when external forces are applied. Concerning prior arts,
the most likely external forces making the open ends of circling
peripheral plate 10 distorted along with the type of "analogous
four-bar linkage motion" is the forces arisen from objects disposed
in the carton 1 with bad arrangement.
[0007] Please refer to FIG. 2, where folding the two seal plates 14
to match in line may cause a "dislocation" phenomenon as shown in
the figure because the structure of the carton 1 is distorted by
external forces before the open ends are sealed. Certainly, with a
"relevant manipulation" by workers (such as rearranging the objects
inside the carton, applying another external force to push or pull
the circling plate 10 to a precise cubic shape, or using adhesive
tape with force and sticking it on the plate 10, . . . , and so
on), the carton 1 can finally be sealed; however, "relevant
manipulation" heretofore known may normally become an operation of
time-consuming or human resource wasting if human resource is
limited or if a large carton structure is applied.
[0008] Thereafter, to cope with the limited human resource and
facilitate required operation of sealing, improving the prior art
of carton structures heretofore known is necessary.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] The object of the present invention is to provide one kind
of improved carton structure equipping a positioning ear in advance
on the seal plates of carton as an assistant positioning structure
during sealing process, thereby effectively avoiding the
dislocation phenomenon occurred when sealing the carton structure
heretofore known.
[0010] An improved carton structure of the present invention
comprises a circling peripheral plate and a plurality of seal
plates used for covering two opposing open ends of the peripheral
plate where a seal plate has two corresponding lateral edges which
need to be aligned with the outer rim of the peripheral plate while
the seal plate is covering an open end of the peripheral plate. It
is characterized in that at least one of the lateral edges of at
least one of the seal plates may extend with a seal-assistant ear
being creased and folded towards the peripheral plate while the
seal plates are covering the corresponding open ends of the
peripheral plate, thereby aligning the lateral edges of seal plates
with the outer rims of the peripheral plate.
[0011] In an embodiment of the present invention, two lateral edges
of the seal plates of the carton structure have their own
seal-assistant ear.
[0012] In an embodiment of the present invention, two corresponding
lateral edges of every seal plate of the carton have their own
seal-assistant ear.
[0013] In an embodiment of the present invention, the
seal-assistant ear of the carton structure has sticky strip for
sticking and fixing it to the circling peripheral plate where the
ear is folded toward.
[0014] In an embodiment of the present invention, a positioning
hole is located at relevant place on the peripheral plate of the
carton structure and provides positioning function for the
corresponding seal-assistant ear to penetrate through when the ear
is folded toward the peripheral plate.
[0015] In an embodiment of the present invention, the improved
carton structure has a plurality of dashed lines, which associates
with two corresponding seal-assistant ears on the same seal plate
to facilitate the opening of the sealed carton.
[0016] In the present invention the seal-assistant ear of the
improved carton structure may be set at end, middle, or any
appropriate section along the edges of the seal plate.
[0017] In order that examiner can further understand and approve
this invention, a detailed consideration of the ensuing description
and drawings is illustrated as follows.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] FIG. 1 shows a schematic of a well-known carton structure
where on the left side shows an unfolded plane of the carton
structure and on the right top side shows a three-dimensional
schematic of the assembled carton structure.
[0019] FIG. 2 shows a three-dimensional schematic for the operation
of the well-known carton from FIG. 1.
[0020] FIG. 3 shows an unfolded plane schematic of the first
embodiment for the improved carton structure of the present
invention.
[0021] FIG. 4 shows an assembled three-dimensional schematic of the
improved carton structure from FIG. 3.
[0022] FIG. 5 shows a zoom-in schematic of a seal-assistant ear on
one side of the carton from FIG. 4 after the carton has been sealed
by seal tape.
[0023] FIG. 6 shows an unfolded schematic of the second embodiment
for the improved carton structure of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0024] In the following description, to maintain the consistent
technology description of the present invention, parts with same
function but subtle difference in shapes will also use the same
terms and drawing notations in various embodiments.
[0025] Please refer to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, an unfolded plane
schematic of the first embodiment of the carton structure of the
present invention and its three-dimensional assemblage schematic,
respectively, where in FIG. 4 seal plate 14 is in the situation
that carton 1 is still not sealed. The embodiment is exemplified by
a cubic carton.
[0026] As shown in the figure, improved carton structure 1 of the
prevent invention comprises a circling plate 10 (delimited by
dashed lines as shown in FIG. 3) formed by four sections, a
plurality of seal plates 14 for covering the open ends 20 at two
opposing sides of circling peripheral plate 10 connected, and
reinforcing plates 12 separated by the seal plates 14 in
interval.
[0027] In the present invention, the relationship of the relative
positions or the method of sticking or covering with regard to
circling plates 10, reinforcing plates 12, and seal plates 14
during the assemblage of carton structure 1 is the same as that of
the prior art of carton structure, thereby no more description with
redundancy here.
[0028] As shown in the figure, seal plate 14 has two corresponding
lateral edges 140, which should be aligned with the open rims 101
of circling plate 10, when it covers open end 20 of circling plate
10 and then carton 1 is sealed. The major feature of carton 1 of
the present invention is that at least one of the edges 140 of at
least one of the seal plates 14 extends with a seal-assistant ear
141, which can be bent and folded towards peripheral 10 while seal
plate 14 covers on corresponding open end 20, thereby facilitating
to align edge 140 of seal plate 14 with outer rim 101 of peripheral
plate 10 and further avoiding the "dislocation" phenomenon when
sealing carton 1.
[0029] As shown in the figure, two corresponding seal-assistant
ears of seal plate 14 of carton 1 of the present invention are
linked along their bottom edges with a dashed line 145, which can
be formed by creasing or punching holes, and the like, thereby
facilitating to open carton 1 by tearing seal plate 14 along the
track appeared by the help of dashed line 145 after carton 1 is
sealed.
[0030] Please refer to FIG. 5, a zoom-in schematic of one
seal-assistant ear 141 sealed by a seal tape 3 from improved carton
structure 1 of FIG. 4. During the sealing process of carton 1 of
the present invention, seal plate 14 can be properly positioned on
peripheral plate 10 with the help of seal-assistant ear 141 so as
to effectively avoid or correct a likely "dislocation" phenomenon,
thereby facilitate to stick seal tape 3 to carton 1. On the other
hand, as to a relevant stick of seal tape 3 to two seal plates 14
(as shown in the figure seal tape 3 does not completely cover
seal-assistant ear 141), employing the turnover (as the arrow
indicates) of seal-assistant ear 141 and the guideline along dashed
line 145 can facilitate to tear away seal tape 3 and to open carton
structure 1 while destroying the seal of carton 1.
[0031] The first embodiment of the improved carton structure is
illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4. The carton has seal-assistant
ears 141 merely set at two corresponding edges 140 of two seal
plate 14 at one side of circling plate 10. In other words,
seal-assistant ears 141 are merely set at seal plates 14 at one
side of carton after assembled.
[0032] Please refer to FIG. 6, an unfolded plane schematic of the
second embodiment of carton 1 of the present invention. In this
embodiment, each seal plate 14 has two seal-assistant ears 141; in
other words, every seal plates 14 at both sides of circling
peripheral plate 10 are equipped with seal-assistant ears 141 for
auxiliary positioning when assembling carton 1. Also, as shown in
the figure the seal plates 14 of one side of carton structure 1 of
the embodiment have dashed lines 145, but those of the other side
do not. As regards this embodiment, the side with dashed lines 145
should be placed on the top of carton 1 when being assembled.
[0033] In the prevent invention folding seal-assistant ears 141
towards circling peripheral plate 10 so as to help seal plates 14
disposed properly at improved carton structure 1 can typically
facilitate the sealing process for workers. Certainly, if
seal-assistant ears 141 can be effectively fastened on circling
peripheral plate 10, the effectiveness of positioning becomes more
confirmed. The pre-operating of "effective fastening" can not only
use seal tape to fasten seal-assistant ears 141 on circling
peripheral plate 10 in advance, but can be implemented by the
following two embodiments.
[0034] Please refer to FIG. 7, another schematic of embodiment of
seal-assistant ears 141 of improved carton structure 1 of the
present invention. In this embodiment, besides without dashed lines
145 mentioned before, seal-assistant ears 141 of seal plate 140 of
carton 1 has a sticky strip 143, thereby effectively fastening and
sticking seal plates 140 to their corresponding peripheral plate 10
when seal-assistant ears 141 are folded towards circling peripheral
plate 10.
[0035] Please refer to FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, an unfolded plane
schematic of the third embodiment of carton 1 of the present
invention and a zoom-in schematic of seal-assistant ear 141 at one
side of carton 1, respectively. The difference between the
embodiment here and that in FIG. 3 is that in this embodiment
circling peripheral plate 10 has positioning hole 102 to its
corresponding seal-assistant ear 141 at suitable place to provide
corresponding seal-assistant ear 141 (particularly, ear ends 1410)
to pass through for positioning (as shown in FIG. 9) when
seal-assistant ear 141 is folded towards circling peripheral plate
10, thereby confirmedly fastening seal-assistant ear 141 to its
corresponding circling peripheral plate 10.
[0036] In the prevent invention seal-assistant ears 141 of improved
carton structure 1 can be set at the end section of edge 140 of
seal plate 141 (as shown in the above embodiments), the middle
section, or even some suitable section of edge 140 with a plurality
of seal-assistant ears 141. Certainly, if seal-assistant ear 141
shifts to the middle or other sections of edge 140, sections of
reinforcing plate 12 affected by the shifting should be properly
modified during manufacturing.
[0037] In the present invention improved carton structure 1 can be
shaped as rectangular column as previous mentioned, triangular
column, or any shape column for the carton.
[0038] In the prevent invention, the width of the seal-assistant
ear compared with that of the edge located by the ear should be
relevant to facilitate the seal-assistant ear to be folded by
workers. Thus, the width should not be so wide that it affects the
folding consistency; it should also not be so narrow that it
affects the function of auxiliary positioning. In a preferred
embodiment, the width of seal-assistant ear should be less than 10
cm.
[0039] From the description above, the improved carton structure of
the present invention is employing the seal-assistant ear structure
equipped in advance on the seal plate of the carton as an auxiliary
positioning tool when sealing carton, thereby effectively
preventing the "dislocation" phenomenon when sealing cartons.
[0040] The above description is using a preferred embodiment to
illustrate the present invention in details and should not be
construed as limiting the scope of the present invention. Those who
are familiar with this art should understand that any subtle
modifications and adjustments will not exempt from infringing the
object and scope of this present invention.
[0041] From the description above, the implementation of the
embodiment of this invention conforms to the requirements of
invention specified by the patent law. Please examine and approve
this application.
* * * * *