Lined Shipping Container

Abstract

A shipping container comprising a carton and a liner bag therein. The open end of the bag extends above the horizontal plane of the closing flaps of the carton to an extent exceeding the width of a flap. The top of the bag is closed by elongating and bringing together opposite sides to form a flexible body longitudinally parallel to and extending between two opposing flaps of a pair. The carton and bag are simultaneously closed and a substantially tight seal for the bag is formed by first infolding one of the flaps of the pair, and thereby the body. Thereafter, the opposing flap of the pair is infolded, which also folds the body again and interleaves the body between the two flaps to form two longitudinal closure folds. The body may be of sufficient length to be folded over the second flap to form an additional closure fold. Finally, the flaps of the other pair are infolded whereby the folded body projecting over these flaps is infolded to form transverse closure folds.

Description

This invention relates to a lined shipping container of the type comprising an outer protective box or carton and a high strength liner bag therein for holding the packaged contents.

This invention incorporates an improvement over the shipping containers disclosed and claimed in copending application Ser. No. 770,998, filed Oct. 28, 1968, entitled "Bag-In-A-Box With Spout Opening," in copending application Ser. No. 607,550, filed by W. Egger et al. on Jan. 5, 1967, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,357 entitled "Bag-In-A-Box and Method of Forming," and in copending application Ser. No. 846,754, filed by Joseph Marchinsen on Aug. 1, 1969, entitled "Bag-In-A-Box For Frozen Eggs and the Like." In each of the above applications, there is disclosed an outside protective paper carton or box, and an inner liner bag made of suitable plastic material therein, and adhesively secured to the appropriate inner surfaces of the carton. The inner bag has a gusseted bottom for forming a rectangular-shaped body when it is filled with the packaged material. The top of the bag is sealed and is secured to the top closure flaps by a breakaway adhesive whereby, upon opening the flaps, the top of the bag is pulled to an open position with its opening shaped into a spoutlike formation.

While the containers disclosed in the above applications effectively carry out their functions and objects, the container of the present invention has advantages for certain purposes over the containers disclosed in the pending applications, particularly with regard to closing the top of the bag and interlocking the closed portion with the flaps to solidly support the bag in the carton and, at the same time, to form an effective bag closure, and thereby eliminating the operation of separately sealing the top of the bag.

While U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,822 discloses a carton and a bag secured therein, the bag having a closed portion extending above the horizontal plane of the closing flaps, whereby when the flaps are closed, the extended closed portion of the bag is infolded with some of the flaps, this present invention provides certain improvements and advantages over the disclosure of the patent, as will be pointed out in the disclosure herebelow. Briefly, the container disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,822 requires a separate seal for the top of the bag. Further, the flaps of the patent container require specific shapes, necessitating special dies and operations in the fabrication of the blank. The interfolding arrangement disclosed in the patent results in a bulky flap closure of undue thickness.

An object of the present invention is to provide a carton, a bag liner therein and means to interlock or interleave the closed portion of the bag with the closing flaps of the carton whereby the top of the bag is supported and held in its position solely by the flaps, without the aid of adhesive or similar means.

Another object is to provide a carton and a liner bag therein, the bag having a closing portion above the level of its contents, which portion extends above the horizontal plane of the closing flaps, so that upon infolding of the flaps to closed position, the closing portion of the bag interleaves with the flaps to form closure folds which result in a substantially tight closure for the contents in the bag, thereby eliminating a separate sealing operation for the top of the bag.

A further object is to provide a carton, a liner bag therein having a closure portion of sufficient extent to interleave with the usual closure flaps. Thus, the top of the bag is tightly folded several times, thereby preventing the contents of the bag from entering and accumulating between the folds. Upon opening the flaps, the top of the bag is simultaneously opened, with the closure portion of the bag fully unfolded to facilitate the complete removal of its contents.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the box or carton with the liner bag therein and with the top portion of the liner bag in open position prior to its closure;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the carton and the liner bag therein, showing the top portion of the bag folded into closed position and extending above the horizontal plane of the top flaps; and

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 are perspective views of the carton and liner bag therein, similar to the view of FIG. 1 but illustrating the successive steps of infolding the flaps and the interleaving of the closure portion of the bag therebetween.

Referring to FIG. 1, carton or box 1, made of cardboard or similar material, is provided with the usual closure flaps 2, 3, 4 and 5. A liner bag 6, made of suitable material, is secured within the bag. The above-mentioned pending applications should be referred to for further disclosure with respect to the liner bag, the manner in which it is secured to the inner walls of the box, the shape it assumes, and other details of cooperation between the box and liner bag. The present invention concerns the closure portion of the liner bag 6 and its cooperation with the flaps. Briefly, the carton with its top and bottom flaps extending from its body is normally in a collapsed position, with the liner bag within it and secured to its inner surface. The carton is erected by the usual manipulation and its bottom flaps are folded to form the bottom closure. Simultaneously with the erection of the carton, the liner bag is pulled to its open position, ready for filling. FIG. 1 illustrates the erected carton and the open filled liner bag therein.

The top of bag 6 terminates above the level of its contents in a closure portion designated by reference numeral 7. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the top of the bag is closed by elongating and bringing the tops of the sides 8 to 10 of the bag together in contactual relation to form a closure portion for the bag comprising a body 12 extending from the folded over portions of top 7. One folded over portion comprises rectangular portion 13 with triangular portions or areas 14 and 15 extending therefrom. It should be noted that body 12 is formed by folded layers 17 and 18 (FIG. 4), layer 17 comprising portions of sides 9, 10 and 11 and layer 18 comprising portions of sides 8, 10 and 11. It should also be noted that portion 13 comprises the remainder of side 9, and portions 14 and 15 comprise parts of sides 10 and 11. Portion 20 (FIG. 4) of the folded over formation of top 7, which is opposite portion 13, similarly comprises portions of sides 8, 10 and 11.

Body 12 is proportioned to have a vertical height 21 which exceeds the width or dimension 22 of flap 3. Body 12 is longitudinally parallel to and extends between the pair of flaps 3 and 5. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 3, upon infolding flap 3, a relatively large portion of body 12 extends behind the superimposed flap. Starting from the view shown in FIG. 3, upon infolding flap 5, the portion of body 12 extending beyond flap 3 is folded over itself, and thereby is interleaved between flaps 3 and 5. Thus, body 12, when interleaved between flaps 3 and 5, as shown in FIG. 4, forms two longitudinal closure folds and doubles the closure effect between the two layers 17 and 18.

In the next step in the carton closing operation, body 12 is folded over flap 5, as illustrated in FIG. 5, and flap 4 is infolded, thereby interleaving triangular areas 15 and the portions of folded body 12 extending to the right of flaps 3 and 5 (FIG. 4) between flap 5 and the outside exposed surfaces of flaps 4 and 5, thereby forming transverse closure folds. FIG. 5 illustrates the finally closed position of flaps 3, 4 and 5 and further shows how body 12 finally forms three closure folds resulting in a triple closure effect.

Flap 2 is finally infolded and infolds therewith triangular areas 14 and the portions of layer 17 and 18 extending to the left of flaps 3 and 5 to form transverse closure folds. Flap 2 may be secured by tab and slot means 25 and 26, formed on flaps 2 and 4 respectively, or by other means, such as by adhesive or staples.

Thus, the resulting structure provides a positive holding means between the top of the liner bag and its protective carton or box, so that the bag can not shift or move within the carton. Further, the interleaving relation between all the flaps and the folded top portions of the liner bag forms a substantially fluidtight seal for the contents. In this manner, a separate sealing operation between the top of the sides of the bag, as in the prior art, is eliminated. The disclosed interleaving relation between the flaps and the closure portion of the bag does not require specially shaped flaps and the invention may be applied to the usually commercially available cartons and boxes.

While the invention is illustrated in connection with the closure of the open top of the liner bag, it is obvious that the invention may be applied to closing both the top and bottom of the liner bag. It merely involves interleaving the open bottom end of the liner bag with the bottom closure flaps in the manner illustrated above in connection with top flaps 2, 3, 4 and 5, and thereafter filling the liner bag with the contents desired to be shipped. The open top can then be sealed in the manner disclosed.

It is to be understood that the specific construction and method herein disclosed and described are presented for purpose of explanation and illustration and are not intended to indicate limits of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the following claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. A lined shipping container comprising:

a. a quadrilateral carton having a body portion, a closed end for the body portion, and hinged top flaps arranged in opposed pairs;

b. a liner bag within said carton, said liner bag having a content portion and a closure;

c. said closure being formed by contacting elongated opposing side portions of said bag;

d. said closure extending above the horizontal plane of said top flaps of said carton;

e. said closure further extending substantially parallel to and between one pair of said opposing carton flaps with the vertical dimension of said closure being substantially greater than the width of the flap of said pair of carton flaps so that the infolding of one of said pair of carton flaps covering a portion of said closure and the infolding of the opposing flap of said pair together cause the interleaving of the remainder of the closure between the flaps to thereby form two longitudinal closure folds;

f. the remainder of said closure extending beyond the last-folded flap of said pair of opposing flaps, which remainder is folded over the last-folded flap to provide an additional and third closure fold, and the ends of the folded-over closure projecting over the other pair of opposed flaps in the infolded condition to form transverse closure folds.