Package Attachment For Containers

Abstract

A card package for attachment to soft drink bottles and the like to hang and carry a premium item such as golf tees. The method of making the film card package comprises on a large sheet of chipboard, cardboard or the like punching at spaced locations a plurality of lines intersecting at the center and forming the diameter of a circle. Then laying the premium items such as golf tees at each location punched and thereafter heat and vacuum sealing a sheet of film over the face of the sheet and over the premium items and the intersecting lines after which the individual cards are die punched out from the board at the same time punching out a circular disc with the center of the intersecting lines as the center of the circle which leaves a hole with the film over the cut portion of the lines along the edge of the hole in the card. The film around the hole is resilient and elastic and when stretched in place over a soft drink neck pulls the edge of the hole tightly against the neck of the bottle beneath the cap securing the card tightly in place against the bottle. This provides a measure of security against accidental displacement as well as discouraging improper removal by patrons prior to purchase.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Film packaging articles and premium advertising packages.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The known prior art includes a premium card which has a premium item such as golf tees or the like either taped thereon or sealed thereon by a plastic cup which has been sealed to the face of the card. The opening in the card is a punched hole which has been made with cut lines around the inside for placement over the soft drink bottle or any other container. The edges around the hole is the weak point and the spreading of the edges of the opening ofttimes leaves the opening permanently enlarged or distorted and the card is readily dislodged. This has been a problem in this type of premium packaging because the cards become dislodged and are a nuisance to the stores or so many of the premiums are lost or removed before the premium item gets to the customer. Other solutions to this problem seem too costly and any solution necessarily must be an inexpensive one because the premium packageing art would not bear any significant increase in cost over what is already involved in giving a premium. The present arrangement not only produces additional security of the card on the bottle but also does it by employing a method which should not be any more expensive and may be less expensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The method of making a premium card package attachment to a bottle wherein a film is superimposed and laminated over the face of the card after the intersecting cuts are made for the subsequent expansion of the opening and then the closure opening is cut in the card with the film uncut in the expansion areas around the hole thereby providing a stretch-film which tightens against the bottle and a reinforcement for the edge of the hole.

An object of this invention is to strengthen and resiliently reinforce the hole in a card package without significantly increasing the cost of manufacturing.

Another object of this invention resides in the method of simultaneously forming a plurality of card packages by precutting the expansion slots and thereafter cutting the closure opening.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a premium card package of the present invention in place on a typical soft drink bottle neck beneath the crown or closure.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along lines 2--2 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of part of a sheet illustrating the first of a sequence of steps in the method.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the sheet shown in FIG. 3 after another step has been performed.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the sheet shown in FIG. 4 about to receive the superimposed sheet of plastic film.

FIG. 6 is the sheet shown in FIG. 5 after the sheet of film has been heat sealed in place in superimposition on the sheet.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the card shown in FIG. 6 illustrating how a die simultaneously cuts the individual cards and plugs from the sheet.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1 a typical soft drink bottle designated generally by reference numeral 10 has the usual crown, closure or cap 12 thereon with the typical crimp 14 therein over a neck designated generally by reference numeral 16 which has an annular bead 18 thereon. One of the premium cards of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 designated generally by referenece numeral 20 and comprises a generally flat sheet of material which has been formed into a tag-like formation with a top flat portion 22 having an opening 24 which has been forced down over the crown 12.

Card 20 is bent along a line generally represented by reference numeral 28 to provide a second flat merchandise receiving portion 30 on which beneath the film 32 is a premium article of merchandise such as the golf tees 34. The entire surface of the card 20 is laminated with superimposed plastic film 32 which bulges and covers the golf tees but becomes a laminated coating and surface of the card 20 in the other areas. The opening 24 has a plurality of cuts 38 therein which were formed by a cutting instrument or punch in the manufacture of the card 20 to allow the peripheral edge 40 of the hole 24 to expand and enlarge in the manner shown generally in FIG. 2 forming a neck 42 which fits over the protrusion 18 and helps hold the card 20 in place to prevent accidental displacement from the closure 12. It is significant to note that in the present card 20 the individual cuts 38 are covered by the plastic film 32 which may be any of many polyethylene or other plastic films conventionally and commonly used in the packaging industry. Such films are tough and strong and have a certain amount of stretch and can be selected to have a certain memory (ability to return after stretching) similar to skin, depending upon the thickness of the plastic sheet. Thus, the neck 42 is an elastic neck or collar with a type of gore or gusset at the cuts 38 covered by the plastic 32 whereby the neck 42 is stretched tightly in place beneath the closure 12 and holds closely to the contour of the bottle. When the card 20 is lifted the tendency is for the neck 42 at the edge 46 to ride beneath the edge of the closure 12 and resist any displacement of the card 20 from the bottle 10. It is almost necessary to tear the card 20 in order to remove it from the bottle which is exactly what is wanted because it discourages customers from doing this obvious act of tearing a card from a bottle and it prevents accidental displacement or dislodging which occurs when the clerks or other people are handling this merchandise.

Such arrangement lends itself to mass production and inexpensive manfuacture by employing the method set forth in FIGS. 3 thru 7, inclusive, as follows:

In FIG. 3 a sheet of cardboard or chipboard 50 is provided with a plurality of package card locations 52 at each of which is a multiple series of intersecting lines designated generally by 54 made, for example, by a series of cutting tools or punchers 56 passing down through the sheet 50. Typically, a sheet of this sort would be 30 inches by 36 inches and would have 54 package locations thereon providing 54 of the cut places 54 to make 54 individual premium cards 20 with packages of premiums. After the card 50 is cut to provide the intersecting cuts 54, the premium items, such as the golf tees 34, are placed at the location on the sheet below the respective cut lines 54 while the sheet 50 may be resting on the surface of a conventional thermo-vacuum forming machinery which is used in the skin packaging or film packaging field to make vacuum pack items. This art of vacuum packaging with heat sealing and vacuum forming machinery is well known and conventional equipment is utilized here so this per se does not form any part of the specific claimed invention but is used in the present form of the method. In the manner shown in FIG. 5 in such conventional heat sealing and vacuum forming equipment a sheet of plastic film 58 is superimposed over the sheet 50 covering the golf tees 34 and covering the series of intersecting lines 54. This sheet 50 is heat sealed and placed so that it becomes actually a laminated, coated surface of the sheet 50 permanently sealed thereon and bulging in the areas where the golf tees 34 are located to provide the blister or bulging package. The resulting combination of the film 58 and the sheet 50 is shown in FIG. 6. Then the sheet shown in FIG. 6 is moved to conventional die punching equipment which has a die that has been manufactured with the die cutting outline of a series of individual cards 20 in the manner shown in FIG. 7 and which in the die includes a disc or plug cutter for cutting out the plug 60 with the center of the intersecting lines 54 as the center of the plug 60 leaving some cut lines 54 at the margin or periphery of the hole. The die cutting machinery and equipment is conventional and common and does not per se form any specific claimed part of this invention. As illustrated in FIG. 7 after the die cutting takes place all of the individual cards 20 are removed and the plug 60 is removed therefrom but the film 32 which remains after cutting covers and is laminated to the entire surface of the card 20 including covering the cut lines 38 in the manner described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2.

The factory that produces the chipboard or cardboard 50 can cut the intersecting lines 54 and can print the guide lines and markers and the packaging plant would receive the sheets 50 in the condition shown in FIG. 4 without the golf tees or other premium items 34. The packaging plant would complete the steps of the procedure shown in FIGS. 4 thru 7, inclusive, by using the conventional heat sealing and vacuum forming machinery and conventional die cutting equipment to complete the operation shown in FIG. 7. Once the procedure is set-up, the operation should not be any more expensive or costly than employed previously to produce cards that did not have the additional security provided by the present card through the film in the area of the neck 42.

While I have shown and described a particular specific embodiment of this invention applied to a soft drink bottle it is apparent that the same concept and arrangement could be utilized by application to many other types of things that are containers as well as non-containers and while I have shown a particular method and steps for manufacturing the cards 20 which is believed to be especially useful, all of this is by way of illustration only and does not constitute any sort of limitation since there are various alterations, changes, eliminations, deviations, additions, subtractions, combinations, separations and departures which may be made in the embodiment and method shown and described without departing from the scope of my invention as defined by proper interpretation of the appended claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. In a card package for the attachment of a premium item to an object such as a soft drink bottle or the like which has a protrusion thereon:

a. a card having a premium item covered with film thereon,

b. an opening on said card for attachment over said protrusion on said object and said opening having a plurality of cut portions extending inwardly on the card from the marginal edge of the opening outwardly to permit the opening to expand when inserted on the protrusion on the object,

c. and a stretch film attached to said card and extending between said cut portions at said opening and providing expansion when said opening is enlarged for attachment as for example over the crown of a soft drink bottle.

2. The card package in claim 1 wherein said film is adhered to the top surface of the card package.

3. The card package in claim 1 wherein said stretch means is an elastic material which recovers from stretched condition.

4. The card package in claim 3 wherein said elastic material is a film around said opening.

5. The card package in claim 1 wherein said cuts become enlarged when expanded and are connected by said stretch means which forms an expanded neck on said card.

6. The card package in claim 5 said stretch means being elastic and therefore returning from stretched condition when released.

7. The card package in claim 6 said stretch means being a film between said cuts.

8. In a method for forming a card package with a reinforced opening for attachment to a soft drink bottle and the like, the steps are:

a. cutting a plurality of intersecting cut lines through a sheet of material such as cardboard and the like,

b. superimposing a sheet of film plastic over said cut lines and adhering said sheet of film plastic in place on said card to laminate same at the intersecting lines,

c. and cutting a hole through said sheet at said intersecting cut lines leaving some of said cuts extending from the marginal edge of the hole into the sheet of material with the plastic sheet film between some of the cuts providing an expansion means at the margin of said hole.

9. The method in claim 8

d. placing the premium items such as golf tees on the card prior to laminating the film and having the film cover the premiums at the time of lamination to package the items at the same time the intersecting lines are covered.