Multiple article carrier and method

Abstract

A multiple article carrier production blank designed to be formed into a multiple article carrier of the type containing a plurality of similar and/or different articles is disclosed. The blank may be formed into the multiple article carrier and contains means for forming a stop means in the form of a raised panel out of the side panel and the bottom panel. Formed above the raised panel in the top panel are means for providing an opening in the top panel so that an article can be inserted through the opening to rest on the raised panel formed in the bottom of the carrier. The carrier thus formed may be utilized for packaging at least five articles of a like nature such as oil cans in combination with a sixth article that may be either similar or dissimilar such as another oil can or an oil filter. The opening formed in the top panel in combination with the raised bottom panel allows various size oil filters to be placed in the carrier at the retail store. The raised panel, in combination with tab retainers, assures a tight fit of cans in the raised cell portion of the carrier. The stop means may also be formed out of tabs turned out of the bottom of the carrier. Also disclosed is a new and novel method for packaging a plurality of articles in the multiple cell carrier which allows the customer to select the article to be placed in the raised center cell of the carrier.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to multiple article carriers and more particularly to a new and novel multiple article carrier which is designed to hold a plurality of similar articles in combination with a raised center cell in which may be placed another similar article or a dissimilar article.

In the packaging of multiple articles for sale to a retail consumer, it is known to utilize package carriers having central partitions formed in the carrier which separate one row of articles from a side-by-side row of similar articles. Such carriers are utilized for the carrying of cans such as soda, beer, oil, and many other sundry items which are generally packaged in carriers having even number of cells such as two, four, six, eight and even more cells. These prior art carriers are typified by the U.S. Pat. No. 2,523,985, issued to T. W. Foster on Sept. 26, 1950 and the U.S. Pat. No. 2,656,960, issued to H. A. Carruth on Oct. 27, 1953. In these and other similar carriers, a plurality of articles such as cans are rigidly contained by a paperboard carrier which contains an integral carrying handle for use by the consumer in carrying the package from the retail store to its ultimate destination. With the advent of the do-it-yourself trend in today's world, the frequency of people changing their own automobile's oil and oil filter has become even greater. When the urge occurs to the consumer to change his own oil, he generally travels to the nearest automobile store and purchases a given quantity of cans of oil for his automobile along with an oil filter if he desires to also change the filter. If the oil which he purchases is not packaged in a carrier such as those shown in the beforementioned patents, the oil cans will be generally packaged in a paper bag by the salesman and handed to the customer. Since the oil cans are relatively heavy and the paper bags used by the stores are relatively light, oftentimes the paper bag will break before the customer can transport it to his home thereby resulting in harsh words being uttered by the customer.

One solution to this problem obviously is to provide a carrier for the oil such as one of the carriers shown in the beforementioned patents. This solution is, of course, satisfactory when the customer wishes to purchase six cans of oil but is not as satisfactory when the customer only wishes to purchase five cans of oil if his automobile is of the type that uses only five quarts of oil.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to overcome the problems inherent in the prior art carriers, there is provided by the subject invention a new and novel multiple article production blank and the carrier which is designed to handle a plurality of similar articles such as oil cans with the carrier having provisions for placement in the carrier of another similar or dissimilar article at the time of purchase in the retail store. This is accomplished by providing in the production blank and in the carrier as formed a raised center cell in combination with an opening over the raised center cell into which the ultimate customer can insert either another can of oil or an oil filter of the type designed for his automobile.

Accordingly it is an object of the invention to provide a new and novel multiple article carrier production blank which is designed to be formed into a multiple article carrier of the type which can carry a plurality of similar objects and has provisions for inserting in the carrier another similar object or a dissimilar object.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and novel method for packaging a plurality of articles in a multiple cell carrier wherein a quantity of similar articles are packaged in the carrier to fill all of the cells of the carrier with the exception of one cell with the remaining one cell being filled at a later time with a similar or dissimilar article.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a review of the drawings and from a reading of the description of the preferred embodiment which is given by way of illustration only.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the multiple article carrier shown containing five similar articles such as cans in combination with a sixth dissimilar article such as an oil filter box;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the production blank for the carrier shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end view taken along lines 3--3 of FIG. 1 showing the manner in which the production blank is formed into a multiple article carrier around the articles and before the retaining tabs are tucked in;

FIG. 4 is a view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 1 showing the multiple article carrier completely formed around the articles and also showing the raised panel of the carrier;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view, taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 4 showing the raised panel stop means; and

FIG. 6 is a sectional view, taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 4 showing a modification of the preferred embodiment wherein the raised panel is eliminated and replaced with tabs turned out of the carrier bottom.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the drawings in general and in particular to FIG. 1 of the drawing there is shown a perspective view of the multiple article carrier 10 which is shown in its folded position wrapped around a plurality of similar articles 12 such as cans or the like and also containing therein a dissimilar article 14 such as an oil filter contained within a box. The carrier 10 also contains a carrying handle 16 which may be utilized by the customer in transporting the oil and the oil filter from the retail store to his home.

Referring now to FIG. 2 of the drawing there is shown a plan view of the production blank 18 which comprises a generally rectangular bottom panel 20 having hingedly attached thereto a first side panel 22 and a second side panel 24 by means of the scorelines 26 and 28. The bottom panel 20 also has formed thereon on opposite sides thereof a plurality of retaining means 30 which are hingedly attached to the bottom panel 20 by means of the scorelines 32. The retaining means 30 may be formed as semi-circular tabs formed two on each side of the bottom panel 20 or may be formed of some other general shape but in any case would be formed so that their width W from the outer edges 34 and 36 of the blank 18 would be substantially equal to the radius of any circular articles that may be ultimately carried in the carrier whenever the blank is formed into a carrier.

The bottom panel 20 also has formed partially therein and partially in the second side panel 24 a raised platform shown generally by the numeral 38. The raised platform 38 may be formed by means of a horizontal raised panel 40 in combination with a vertical raised panel 42 in which case the vertical raised panel 42 is hingedly attached to the bottom panel 20 by means of the cut scoreline 44 while the horizontal raised panel 40 is hingedly attached to the second side panel 24 by means of the cut scoreline 46. When formed in this manner the vertical raised panel 42 would also be hingedly attached to the horizontal raised panel 40 by means of the cut scorelines 48 and 50 with a die cut 52 forming a glue tab 54 with both raised panels 42 and 40 being severed from the bottom panel 20 and from the second side panel 24 on the sides thereof by means of the die cuts 56 and 58. When formed in this manner on the production blank 18, the raised platform 38 would be formed into a true raised platform whenever the second side panel 24 is positioned 90.degree. to the plane of the bottom panel 20. While in the preferred embodiment shown the raised platform 38 is formed out of the bottom panel 20 and the second side panel 24, it is within the spirit and scope of the invention that it could equally be formed out of the bottom panel 20 and the first side panel 22 and also be formed in other ways.

Formed on the first side panel 22 and hingedly attached thereto by means of a scoreline 60 is a first top panel 62 which may also have hingedly attached therto a plurality of retaining means 64 by means of the scoreline 66 in a manner and of a size similar to the retaining means 30 formed on the bottom panel 20. In a similar manner the second side panel 24 has formed thereon, by means of the scoreline 68, a second top panel 70 which also may have formed thereon a plurality of retaining means 64 by means of the scoreline 66.

The first top panel 62 has formed thereon, by means of the scoreline 72, a central divider panel 74 which in turn has formed thereon, by means of the scoreline 76, an elongated glue tab 78 which is ultimately glued to the bottom panel 20 as will be described more fully hereinafter whenever the production blank 18 is formed into a multiple article carrier 10. The second top panel 70 has formed thereon, by means of the scoreline 80, an elongated glue tab 82 which is ultimately glued to the upper portion of the central divider 74 as will be described more fully hereinafter whenever the productioon blank 18 is formed into the multiple article carrier 10.

The first top panel 62 has formed in the central portion thereof a first handle 84 by means of the die cut 86 with the first handle 84 also having formed therein a locking tab 88 by means of the scoreline 90 and the die cuts 91. The second top panel 70 has formed in the central portion thereof a second handle 92 which is formed by means of the die cuts 94 and 96 with the die cut 96 forming a glue tab 98 which is hinged to scoreline 80. Formed between the die cut 94 and the scoreline 68 is the means for providing an opening in the second top panel 70 of the carrier 10 in the form of a tab 100 and a plurality of tabs 102 and 104 the latter two tabs being formed from the second top panel 70 by means of the scorelines 106 and 108 in combination with the die cuts 110 and 112.

When formed in this manner, the opening provided in the second top panel 70 will be substantially the same width as the width of the raised platform 38 and as shown by the arrow 114 in FIG. 2 of the drawing. By referring to FIG. 1 and to FIG. 2 it can be seen that whenever the second handle 92 is pivoted out of the second top panel 70 into juxtaposition with the first handle 84 with the locking tab 88 locking the two handle portions together, an opening will be formed in the center cell of the package into which may be placed the oil filter or another can of oil in the event the purchaser wishes to purchase six cans of oil instead of five cans of oil and an oil filter. When the oil filter or the cans of oil are inserted into the raised center cell of the carrier, the tabs 100, 102 and 104 are forced downwardly pivoting around their respective hinges in the form of the scorelines 68, 106 and 108. The tabs 100, 102, and 104 also act as a clamp to help retain a smaller oil filter or a can of oil in the raised center cell since they try to return to their original horizontal positions due to the action of the bent paperboard.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawing there is shown the manner in which the production blank 18 is formed into the multiple article carrier by gluing the blank together. As beforementioned, whenever the second side panel 24 is folded approximately 90.degree. with the bottom panel 20, the raised platform 38 is formed with the raised panel 40 being parallel to the bottom panel 20 and the vertical raised panel 42, along with the glue tab 54, being perpendicular to the bottom panel 20. The second side panel 22 is folded about the scoreline 26 with the first top panel 62 being folded about the scoreline 60 and the central divider 74 being folded downwardly about the scoreline 72 until its elongated glue tab 78 can be folded about scoreline 76 and can be glued to the bottom panel 20 by means of the glue that has been previously placed on one side 116 of the elongated tab 78. Thereafter the vertical raised panel 42 and glue tab 54 can be glued to the central divider 74 by means of the glue that has been placed on the surface 118 of these parts. And in a similar manner, the elongated glue tab 82 can be glued to the upper portion of the central divider 74 by means of the glue which has been previously placed on the surface 120 of the elongated glue tab 82. When formed in this manner the multiple article carrier comprises a plurality of cells or areas which can hold a product with one of the cells or areas having a raised platform portion as before described. When formed in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, at least three cans of oil may be contained in the area 122 while two cans of oil may be contained in the area 124 with either a third can of oil or an oil filter being contained on the raised platform 38. When packaged in this manner the retaining tabs 64 and/or the retaining tabs 30 may be utilized to retain the end cans in the package in a manner similar to that taught in the beforementioned Foster U.S. Pat. No. 2,523,985. As shown in FIG. 5, the lower edge 125 of the cans 12 as well as the edge 127 of the panel 40 are in contact with each other and the edge 127 acts as a stop means when packaging the cans 12 in the cell area 124. This, in combination with the retaining means 30 and 64, assures that the cans will be tight in the cell 124. As shown in FIG. 6, the raised panel 40 may be eliminated and replaced with two tabs 129 and 131 which are turned out of the bottom panel 20 of the carrier. In this form of the invention, the oil filter would rest on the bottom panel 20 and be positioned between the tabs 129 and 131.

By utilizing the raised platform 38, the oil filter 14 or another can of oil 12 may be placed in the raised cell as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawing and also in FIG. 4 allowing it to partially protrude from the top of the package the distance 126 thereby making it easily removable from the package at the user's home or in the event that he changes his mind in the retail store and decides to substitute one article for the other. The distance 126 is of course determined by the distance 128 that the raised platform 38 is positioned over the bottom panel 20 which is sized to allow a majority of known oil filter packages to be contained within the cell and to protrude partially above the top of the package.

When the carrier blank 18 is formed into the package shown and with its respective parts glued together, it may be shipped in a collapsed position and quickly opened up at the retail store thereby forming the raised center cell. Thereafter the package may be filled with five cans 12 of oil with the retaining tabs 30 and/or 64 being tucked into the interior of the package to engage the use of the cans as beforementioned and taught in the prior art patents. Thereafter similar packages containing five cans of oil may be placed on top of each other in the retail store in an attractive display with the handles 84 and 92 remaining horizontal in the package thereby allowing the packages to be easily stacked. The retail owner may also have displayed near the prepacked packages of five oil cans another display of loose cans of oil along with another display of the various sizes of oil filters available on the market today. Thereafter the do-it-yourself customer is able to view the various displays and to make a decision as to whether or not he wishes to purchase five cans of oil plus an oil filter or five cans of oil plus a sixth loose can of oil from the other oil display. After deciding which alternative he wishes to pursue, he simply folds the handles 84 and 92 out of their respective top panels 62 and 70 in the direction shown by the arrows 130 and 132 and locks the locking tab 88 in place after which he or the salesman places the desired selection in the raised center cell of the package.

As beforementioned, the package may be formed with a plurality of retaining tabs 30 formed on the bottom panel and/or a plurality of retaining tabs 64 being formed on the first top panel 62 and the second top panel 70 with the preferred embodiment having the tabs formed on both the top and bottom of the package thereby providing a much improved means of retaining the outer cans in the package. In addition the package may be formed by utilizing only a first handle 84 in which case the opening above the raised platform 38 would be formed by a somewhat different cut configuration of the tabs 100, 102 and 104. It is within the spirit and scope of the invention that the opening could also be formed simply by cutting out an opening similar in size to the raised panel 40 in the second top panel 70 in lieu of utilizing the opening formed by the second handle 92, the glue tab 98 and the tabs 100, 102 and 104.

From the foregoing it can be seen there has been provided by the subject invention a new and novel multiple article carrier and method which allows the carrier blank to be formed into a multiple article carrier which contains a raised center section which is designed to contain a similar or different type of article from the type of articles contained in the remainder of the carrier. The raised center section functions also as a stop means, in combination with the retaining means, to insure a tight fit of cans in the raised cell portion of the carrier. As before mentioned it is within the spirit and scope of the invention that the raised platform could be eliminated and other means, such as tabs, utilized to act as a stop means when the cans are inserted into the cell containing the oil filter package.

While many changes may be made in the production blank, the arrangement of the various parts and the steps of the method without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it should be understood that the preferred embodiment has been shown by way of illustration only.

Claims

Having described the invention, I claim:

1. An elongated blank designed to be formed into a multiple article carrier having opposite sides, said blank comprising

a bottom panel, a side panel hingedly attached to said bottom panel, a top panel hingedly attached to said side panel, opposed means spaced from said side panel for interconnecting said top panel to said bottom panel;

the top, bottom and side panels and said opposed means extending between the opposite sides of said carrier so as to define an open ended cell therebetween when said blank is formed into a carrier;

said top panel including retaining means at one of the opposite sides of said carrier;

said bottom panel including raisable means between the opposite sides of said carrier, first means on said raisable means and said retaining means for engaging opposed and spaced portions of an article in the cell between said raisable means and said retaining means and for preventing movement of the article in any direction therebetween when said blank is formed into a carrier; and

said raisable means including second means arranged to support another article adjacent the engaged article when said blank is formed into a carrier.

2. An elongated blank designed to be formed into a multiple article carrier having opposite sides, said blank comprising

a bottom panel, a first side panel and a second side panel; said bottom panel being hingedly attached to the first and second side panels; a first top panel and a second top panel hingedly attached to the first side panel and the second side panel respectively, a central divider hingedly attached to one of the first and second top panels;

the bottom and top panels and the first and second side panels together with the central divider extending between the opposite sides of said carrier so as to define an open ended cell between the central divider and the first side panel and between the central divider and the second side panel when the blank is formed into a carrier;

means for forming raised means above said bottom panel, said means for forming raised means including a portion of said bottom panel and at least a portion of one of the second side panel and the central divider whenever the blank is formed into a carrier;

retaining means formed on said second top panel at one of the opposite sides of said carrier;

second means on said means for forming raised means and said retaining means for engaging opposed and spaced portions of an article in the cell between said retaining means and said certain means and for preventing movement of the engaged article in any direction therebetween when said blank is formed into a carrier; and

said means for forming raised means including second means arranged to support another article adjacent the engaged article when said blank is formed into a carrier.

3. The blank as defined in claim 2 further comprising:

handle means, formed on at least one of the first and second top panels, for providing a handle for the carrier.

4. The blank as defined in claim 2 further comprising:

retaining means, formed on the first and second top panels, for retaining the articles in the carrier whenever the blank is formed into a carrier.

5. The blank as defined in claim 2 further comprising:

retaining means, formed on at least said bottom panel, for retaining the articles in the carrier whenever the blank is formed into a carrier.

6. The blank as defined in claim 2 further comprising:

retaining means, formed on the first and second top panels and on said bottom panel, for retaining the articles in the carrier whenever the blank is formed into a carrier.

7. The blank as defined in claim 2 further comprising:

handle means formed on said first top panel and on said second top panel;

tab means, formed on one of said handle means, for locking said handle means together whenever said blank is formed into a carrier.

8. The blank as defined in claim 2 wherein said means for forming raised means comprises a vertical raised panel hingedly attached to said bottom panel and further comprises a horizontal raised panel hingedly attached to said vertical raised panel and said second side panel, said vertical raised panel being fixedly attached to said central divider whenever the blank is formed into a carrier.

9. The blank as defined in claim 2 further comprising said central divider and said second top panel having formed thereon elongated glue tabs, the elongated glue tab formed on the second top panel being glued to said central divider and the elongated glue tab on the central divider being glued to said bottom panel whenever the blank is formed into a carrier.

10. The blank as defined in claim 2 wherein said top panel includes opening providing means; and said opening providing means comprises at least three tabs cut and formed out of a portion of said second top panel with at least two of said tabs being hingedly attached to said second top panel and at least one of said tabs being hingedly folded out of the hinge between said second side panel and said second top panel.

11. The blank as defined in claim 6 wherein said retaining means comprises a plurality of tabs hingedly attached to said bottom panel and the first and second top panels, each of the plurality of tabs having a width substantially equal to the radius of any circular article that may be carried in the carrier whenever the blank is formed into a carrier.

12. The blank as defined in claim 6 wherein said retaining means comprises four semi-circular tabs formed two on each side of said bottom panel and further comprises two semi-circular tabs formed on the opposite sides of each one of said first and second top panels.

13. The blank as defined in claim 8 further comprising said vertical raised panel having formed thereon a glue tab, taken out of said horizontal raised panel, for gluing to said central divider whenever said blank is formed into a carrier.

14. A multiple article carrier having opposed sides and comprising

a bottom portion, a side portion, a top portion and opposed means spaced from said side portion for interconnecting the top portion and the bottom portion so as to define an open ended cell for receiving a plurality of articles between the opposite sides of said carrier;

retaining means formed on the top portion at one of the opposite sides of said carrier for retaining an article in the cell of said carrier;

said bottom portion including raised means between the opposite sides of said carrier, first means on said raised means and said retaining means for engaging opposed and spaced portions of an article in the cell between said raised means and said retaining means and for preventing movement of the engaged article in any direction therebetween; and

said raised means including second means arranged for supporting and engaging another article adjacent the engaged article during use of said carrier.

15. The multiple article carrier as defined in claim 14 wherein said raised means includes a plurality of raised spaced tabs extending in a direction between the opposite sides of said bottom portion.

16. The multiple article carrier as defined in claim 14 wherein the cell has an intermediate raised cell portion disposed above said raised means, said top portion includes opening providing means in direct communication with the intermediate raised cell portion, said opening providing means to permit insertion of an article therethrough for disposition on said second means.

17. The multiple article carrier as defined in claim 16 wherein said second means is arranged to receive an article of different configuration than the article engaged between said first means and said retaining means.

18. The multiple article carrier as defined in claim 14 wherein said raised means is comprised of a raised platform disposed above said bottom portion and interposed between said side portion and said opposed means.

19. The multiple article carrier as defined in claim 18 wherein said platform includes opposite side edges, at least one of the opposite side edges being said first means and said platform being the ot means.

20. The multiple article carrier as defined in claim 18 wherein the cell has an intermediate raised cell portion disposed above said platform, said top portion includes opening providing means in direct communication with the intermediate raised cell portion so as to permit insertion of an article therethrough for disposition on said platform.

21. The multiple article carrier as defined in claim 20 wherein said opening providing means includes tab means to clampingly engage another article inserted through said opening providing means and disposed on said platform.

22. A method for packaging a plurality of articles in a multiple article carrier having opposite sides, a top portion and a bottom portion extending between the opposite sides of said carrier, and at least one cell interposed between the top and bottom portions and having open ends at the opposite sides of said carrier, said method comprising the steps of

providing raised means having first means and second means of the bottom portion between the opposite sides of said carrier and also retaining means on said top portion at one of the opposite sides of said carrier and spaced from the raised means;

inserting an article in the cell between the top and bottom portions at the one of the opposite sides of said carrier;

engaging opposed and spaced portions of the inserted article between the retaining means and said first means at the one of the opposite sides of said carrier so as to prevent movement of the inserted and engaged article in any direction between said first means and said retaining means and between the opposite sides of said carrier, and

disposing another article on said second means adjacent the inserted and engaged article.

23. A method as called for in claim 22 wherein said carrier includes at least one side portion interposed between the top and bottom portions of said carrier, the one side portion defining one side of the cell between the opposite sides of said carrier.

24. A method as called for in claim 22 wherein the cell has an intermediate raised cell portion between the top portion and said raised means; and said method includes the additional steps of providing opening means in said top portion in direct communication with the intermediate raised cell portion, inserting another article through the opening means for disposition on said second means adjacent the inserted and engaged article at the one of the opposite sides of said carrier.

25. A method as called for in claim 24 wherein the step of inserting another article is effected by another article of different configuration than the engaged article between the top and bottom portions of said carrier.

26. A method as called for in claim 24 wherein it includes the additional step of retaining the inserted and other article between said second means and said opening means.

27. A method as called for in claim 24 wherein the other and inserted article has a top; and said method includes the further step of clampingly engaging the top of the other and inserted article adjacent the opening means on said portion.

28. A method as called for in claim 24 wherein the other and inserted article has a top and a bottom, the top of the other and inserted article protruding through said opening means and above the top portion of said carrier when the bottom of the other article is disposed on said second means.