U.S. patent number 3,840,172 [Application Number 05/300,648] was granted by the patent office on 1974-10-08 for one-piece box with hingedly connected lid.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Somerville Industries Limited. Invention is credited to John Zimmermann.
United States Patent |
3,840,172 |
Zimmermann |
October 8, 1974 |
ONE-PIECE BOX WITH HINGEDLY CONNECTED LID
Abstract
A one-piece carton of the type having a lid portion hingedly
connected thereto wherein the lid portion is adapted to fit over
the container portion by making the open end of the container
portion smaller than the open end of the lid while the closed upper
end of the lid portion and the bottom end of the container portion
are substantially the same dimensions. The open end of the
container portion is made smaller than the open end of the lid
portion by ensuring that upon assembly of the container portion the
side walls are toed inwardly. The side walls of the container
portion are maintained in the inwardly toed position by articulated
panels which are connected to adjacent side walls of the container
portion and the lid portion. The articulated panels are creased
along angularly inclined fold lines which extend from the base of
the side walls of the container portion and the lid portion and
intersect one another, the angle formed between the back wall and
the fold line which extends from the lid portion whereby the side
walls of the container portion are toed inwardly in a direction
away from the bottom wall. Preferably the lid portion has a height
which is less than 50 per cent of the height of the container
portion.
Inventors: |
Zimmermann; John (Willowdale,
Ontario, CA) |
Assignee: |
Somerville Industries Limited
(London, Ontario, CA)
|
Family
ID: |
23159997 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/300,648 |
Filed: |
October 25, 1972 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
229/144; 229/160;
229/145 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65D
5/6626 (20130101); B65D 2301/10 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B65D
5/66 (20060101); B65D 5/64 (20060101); B65d
005/24 (); B65d 005/66 () |
Field of
Search: |
;229/33,36,44R |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Price; William I.
Assistant Examiner: Bernstein; Bruce H.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Fetherstonhaugh & Co.
Claims
What I claim as my invention is:
1. In a one-piece carton of the type having a bottom wall, a front
wall, a back wall and a pair of oppositely disposed side walls
defining a container portion having an open upper end and a lid
portion hingedly connected to the back wall of the container
portion and having a top wall, a front wall and a pair of
oppositely disposed side walls defining an open lower end, the side
walls of the said container portion being folded along the fold
lines which are aligned with the fold lines along which the side
walls of the lid portion are folded, the improvement wherein said
front wall of said container portion has a fold-over flap at its
upper edge and said side walls of said container portion each have
a front edge and a flap panel hingedly connected to and projecting
connected from said front edge and folded to a position inwardly of
said front wall and underlying said fold-over flap when the
container portion is erected, said flaps each having an upper edge
which is upwardly inclined in a direction away from its connection
with said side wall panels of extending container portion whereby
said upper edge of said flap portion is engaged by said fold-over
flap of said front wall to retain said side walls of said container
portion in said inwardly inclined position.
2. A unitary nestable blank for forming a carton comprising a lid
front wall fold-over flap, a lid front wall, a lid top wall, a
container back wall, a container bottom wall, a container front
wall and a container front wall fold-over flap hindedly connected
along longitudinally extending spaced parallel hinge lines, a pair
of container side wall panels hingedly connected to said bottom
wall along parallel transverse hinge lines, a pair of articulated
panels hingedly connected to said back wall along parallel
transverse hinge lines and a pair of lid side walls hingedly
connected to said lid portion along parallel transverse hinge
lines, said parallel transverse hinge lines being aligned with one
another, said articulated panels being foldable along weakened fold
lines extending inwardly thereof from the intersections of the
transverse and longitudinal hinge lines thereof, said articulated
panel means being connected to said side walls of said lid and said
container portion along longitudinally extending hinge lines, first
flap panel means hingedly connected along the longitudinally
extending hinge lines to said side walls of said container portion
and projecting outwardly therefrom and second flap panel means
hingedly connected along longitudinally extending hinge lines to
said side walls of said lid portion and projecting outwardly
therefrom, said flap panels, said side walls of said container
portion, said articulated panel means and said side walls of said
lid portion having a single cut nestable edge extending
continuously thereof, the portion of the nestable edge extending
from the hinge line connecting the flap panels to the side walls of
the container portion being angularly inclined outwardly in a
direction away from said hinge line and the portion of the nestable
edge extending inwardly from the end of the flap panels which are
connected to the side walls of the container portion and the
adjacent side wall being angularly inclined inwardly in a direction
towards the outer end of the flap panel equal to the outward angle
of inclination of the nesting edge of the first mentioned flap
panel.
Description
This invention relates to one-piece cartons of the type having a
hingedly connected lid portion. In particular, this invention
relates to improvements in one-piece cartons of the type having a
hingedly connected lid portion and an articulated panel or bellows
construction connected to the back wall of the container portion to
facilitate assembly of the container.
Cartons having a back wall of the container portion hingedly
connected to the bottom wall of the container portion and employing
articulated panel means for connecting the back wall to the lid or
the container portion are well known. If the articulated panels are
not connected to the side walls of the container portion, the side
walls of the container portion are free to fold inwardly of the
area of the container when the carton is assembled and may
interfere with the carton loading operation. For this reason it is
more common to connect the edges of the side walls of the container
portion to the articulated panels and to leave the edge of the side
wall of the lid portion free from the articulated panels. The
disadvantage of this construction is that the side walls of the lid
portion are free to bend outwardly adjacent their back edge, and
this results in the formation of "dog ears" during handling,
loading and shipping of cartons of this type.
While it required have been said that it was apparent that this
difficulty could be overcome by connecting both the side wall of
the container portion and the side wall of the lid portion to the
articulated panels, this would have requierd a construction wherein
the articulated panels and the side walls are hingedly connected
along aligned hinged lines to the top, bottom and back panels
respectively. This was not previously thought to be possible due to
the fact that it would result in the top wall panel of the lid
portion being the same size as the bottom wall panel of the
container portion so that the lid would not fit over the container
portion. The practice in the industry has been to make the top wall
panel of the lid portion larger than the bottom wall panel of the
container portion so that the lid will fit over the container
portion. To achieve this construction it is necessary to place the
fold lines of the side walls of the container portion out of
alignment with the fold lines of the side wall panels of the lid
portion. As previously described, this construction would not
permit the articulated panels to be connected to both the side
walls of the container portion and the side walls of the lid
portion, and consequently it was not previously thought to be
possible to overcome the dog-ear problem by connecting the
articulated panels to the side walls of both the lid and container
portions.
Difficulty has also been experienced in attempting to construct the
unitary blank for manufacturing a carton of the kind described
above such that the blank may be struck from a sheet of material in
a single cut operation. It has not previously been possible to
provide the clearances required for the end flaps without spacing
the side edges of the blanks away from one another in their outline
on the sheet from which they are to be struck.
SUMMARY
The present invention overcomes the difficulties of the prior art
described above and provides a simple and inexpensive one-piece
container wherein the side walls of the container portion and lid
portion are restrained by articulated panels and wherein the lid
portion is adapted to fit over the container portion without
buckling.
According to an embodiment of the present invention there is
provided in a one-piece carton having a container portion and a lid
portion having side walls hingedly connected along aligned hinge
lines, the improvement wherein at least one pair of the side walls
is angularly inclined along the aligned hinge lines such that the
open end of the lid portion is larger than the open end of the
container portion and fits over the open end of the container
portion without buckling.
The present invention also provides a nestable blank construction
wherein the nesting edges of adjacent blanks may be formed in a
single cut operation.
The invention will be more clearly understood after reference to
the following detailed specification read in conjunction with the
drawings wherein
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a blank according to an embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 2 is pictorial view showing the first step in the formation of
the carton from the blank of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a pictorial view showing a further step in the formation
of the closed one-piece container;
FIG. 4 is a view of a closed container; and
FIG. 5 is a sectional view along line 5--5.
With reference to the drawings, the refence numeral 10 refers
generally to a unitary blank according to an embodiment of the
present invention. The blank 10 consists of a fold-over flap 12, a
lid front wall 14, a lid top wall 16, a container back wall 18, a
container bottom wall 20, a container front wall 22 and a fold-over
flap 24, which are connected to one another along longitudinal fold
lines 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23. Top side walls 26, articulated
panel means 28 and bottom side wall panels 30 are connected to top
wall 16, back wall 18 and bottom wall 20 respectively along fold
lines 36a and 36b, 38a and 38b, 40a, and 40b. The fold lines 36a,
38a and 40a are aligned with one another and similarly the fold
lines 36b, 38b and 40b are aligned with one another so that the
top, back and bottom walls are of the same length. The articulated
panels 28 are connected to the back edges of the top side wall
panels and the back edges of the bottom side wall panels along
hinge lines 42, 44 respectively.
The articulated panels 28 are formed with a first diagonal fold
line 46 and a second diagonal fold line 48. The first diagonal fold
line 46 extends at an angle .theta..sup.1 with respect to the fold
lines 38a and 38b and the second diagonal fold line 48 extends at
an angle .theta..sup.2 with respect to the fold lines 38a and 38b.
An important feature of the present invention is that the angle
.theta..sup.2 is greater than the angle .theta..sup.1 so that the
open end of the container portion will be smaller than the open end
of the lid portion so that the lid will fit over the open end of
the container portion without buckling. Preferably the angle
.theta..sup.1 is 45.degree., while the angle .theta..sup.2 is about
46.degree.. It has been found that by increasing the angle
.theta..sup.2 to 46.degree. the side walls of the container may be
sufficiently inwardly toed on assembly to permit the lid portion to
fit over the container portion without buckling of the container
portion.
To further insure that the side walls of the container portion are
inwardly toed on assembly, the flaps 50, which extend outwardly
from hinge lines 52 at the front edge of the side walls 30, are
formed with an upper edge 54 which is outwardly inclined at an
angle .theta..sup.4 from the plane of the upper edge of the side
walls. The angle .theta..sup.4 is sufficient to insure that the
height H4 is about a sixteenth of an inch greater than the height
of the side walls 30. The lower edge 56 of each flap 50 is spaced
outwardly from the plane of the fold line 40a. As shown in FIG. 5,
the upper edge 54 of the flap 50 is engaged by the underside of the
flap 24 in a position such that the side walls 30 are retained at
the front edge in the toed in configuration.
As previously indicated, the practice in the manufacture of cartons
of the type described has been to make the dimensions of the top
wall panel of the lid larger than the dimensions of the bottom wall
panel of the container. The previously described toeing in of the
side walls permits the length of the panels 16 and 20 to be equal
to one another. By similarly toeing in the front wall panel 22, it
is possible to make the width of the top wall panel 16 equal to the
width of the bottom wall panel 20, thereby effecting a saving in
material. In order to obtain the required toeing in action, the
side edges 22a of the front wall 22 are inclined at an angle
.theta..sup.5 to the plane of the fold lines 40a, 40b.
Referring again to the articulated panel means 28, it will be seen
that each articulated panel 28 consists of sub-panels 28a, 28b and
28c. It will be noted that the upper edge 29 of the panel 28c
follows a curved contour in extending between the section of the
fold lines 44 and 48 and the upper edge of the side wall 30. It
will be noted that the curved edge 29 is symmetrical about the
plane defined by the broken line 60. The plane defined by the
broken line 60 is disposed centrally of the transverse width of the
blank so that by forming the portion of the panel 28c symmetrical
about the line 60 it is possible to form adjacent blanks by forming
one straight cut. The portion of the panel 28c adjacent the side
wall 30 is formed with a greater width than would otherwise be
provided by a straight diagonal so as to form an end post which
adds considerably to the stacking strength of the container. One of
the problems frequently experienced when the side walls of the
container portion are not secured to articulated panels is that the
side wall does not enhance the stacking strength of the carton in
the corner area to any extent.
In the normal construction of a carton it is customary to decrease
the upper edge of the flaps 62 which are connected to the side
walls 26 by an amount sufficient to permit the flap 12 to fold over
the flap 62 while the front panel 14 and side panels 26 are of the
same height. Normally this is done by a stripping operation after
the blank is formed. The present invention eliminates the need for
a stripping operation by cutting the upper edge 64 at an angle
.theta..sup.3 relative to the plane of the upper edge of the major
portion of the side walls 26. Angle .theta..sup.3 is equal to the
angle .theta..sup.4 and the cut is made of a sufficient length to
extend over the distance a which is equal to the length a of the
flaps 50. This construction permits the flaps 64 to be recessed to
a sufficient extend to permit the closure flap 12 to be folded
over, while also permitting the same cut which is used to form the
angle .theta..sup.4 at the edge 54 to form the angle .theta..sup.3
at the edge 64 so that it is possible to form two blanks with
identical side edges by a single straight cut.
To assemble the carton of the present invention the blank is folded
along the aligned transverse fold lines 36a, 38a, 40a and 36b, 38b,
40b. Flaps 50 are folded into the position overlying the fold line
20 and the front wall 22 is folded upwardly into an outwardly
overlying relationship with respect to the flaps 50. The closure
flap 24 is then folded over the flaps 50 and secured in a position
wherein the side walls 30 are toed inwardly. As previously
indicated, the upwardly inclined upper edge 54 of the flaps 50
engages the underside of the fold line 23 so as to retain the front
edge of the side walls 30 in the inwardly toed relationship.
The lid is assembled by folding the flaps 62 inwardly to a position
overlying the fold line 15 and folding the front wall upwardly to a
substantially vertical position and subsequently folding the flap
12 over the flaps 64 and securing the flap 12 in a folded
position.
To close the carton the lid is raised and the back wall 18 is
raised. The action of raising the lid and the back wall 18 causes
the articulated panels to fold inwardly of the carton, and by
reason of the fact that the angle .theta..sup.2 is greater than the
angle .theta..sup.1, the fold line 48 serves to cause the adjacent
edge of the side walls 30 to be inwardly inclined so that the side
walls are "toed in" by the closing action so that the area of the
open upper end of the container is less than the area of the open
lower end of the lid. As a result of this toeing in action, it is
possible to fit the lid over the upper end of the container portion
without causing any buckling of the lid or the container portion.
By reason of the fact that the articulated panels are secured to
both the side walls 30 of the container portion and to the side
walls 26 of the lid portion, no dog ears exist. In addition, it has
been found that the enlarged portions of the panels 28c serve to
bear against the portions 28b of the panel during the closing
operation so as to insure that when the articulated panels are in
the closed position, they are directed into a face to face
relationship with the back wall 18 of the container.
It has been found that with the construction described above it is
possible to make cartons from a material having a calibre of at
least .040 inches without any buckling occurring during the closing
operation.
Preferably the height of the lid portion is substantially less than
the height of the container portion so that in closing the lower
end of the lid portion is spaced above the plane of the bottom wall
20 which, as previously indicated, is at least the same width as
the top wall 16. It has been found that if the lid portion 16 is no
more than half the height of the container portion, it is possible
to achieve the required closing action without buckling.
From the foregoing it will be apparent that the present invention
provides a simple and inexpensive carton construction capable of
effecting a saving in material, while eliminating the dog ears
which have created problems with the cartons of the prior art.
* * * * *