Unique Prewrapped Box Structure And Unique Method Of Making Same

Abstract

The prewrapped box includes a separate ornamental wrapper permanently affixed externally thereon. The method is directed to the permanent fixing of the separate ornamental wrapper on the box blank; the collapsed box with wrapper thereon; said ornamental wrapper being on the box as sold and used.

Description

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The prewrapped box is of the knockdown or collapsible type and includes a substantially flat scored foldable blank with the separate flexible ornamental wrapper permanently affixed to the exterior surface of the blank, with said blank set up or erected to box form with said wrapper thereon, and said wrapped box simulating, or appearing to be, a hand wrapped box.

The prewrapped box of the present invention has many advantages over the semi-rigid fully formed box usually with a separate cover therefor. The manufacturer of the preformed semi-rigid boxes, of course, must pack and ship those boxes in their erected condition to large department stores or any other concern that might use and/or sell the boxes. This requires time and expense as is obvious. The department store or the individual must store the boxes until used and a clerk must manually wrap a separate wrapper about the box and usually either secure it with Scotch tape and/or tie it to maintain that separate wrapper in proper position about the box, and sometimes place a bow H or ribbon I or any other ornament on the wrapper.

In the present invention, the box structure from the broadest aspect has a permanent ornamental wrapper thereon affixed to the exterior surface of the box. Suitable bows or ribbons or other ornaments may be attached to the wrapper by any suitable means. The box is of the knockdown and erectable type, being knocked down for purposes of shipping and, in one instance, for the purpose of selling the same in that condition. In the knocked down state, of course, applicant's box is prewrapped and the boxes can be stacked on one another and many thousands put in a master carton or the like and shipped with the greatest of ease and with much less expense and avoiding all of the storage space such as required for preformed semi-rigid boxes.

Simply stating applicant's box, it includes an ornamental wrapper permanently on the exterior surfaces of the box when the box is collapsed and may be provided with a transparent cover. To erect the box, the outer cover is first removed and the box then set up ready for use. The box is sold, in some instances, to customers, department stores, gift shops or the like in its collapsed condition within its cover. The customer may take the box home and put an article that is purchased in that box and close it without any trouble whatsoever. The flexible ornamental wrapper may be of any solid or mixed colors and with out suitable ornamentation thereon or applied thereto, if desired.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the collapsed or knocked down carton and there is preferably a transpatent cover surrounding the collapsed or knocked down box which is in substantially flat condition and sold as such;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the unclosed, set up or erected box of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the box with its end flaps closing the box;

FIG. 4 is a view of the substantially flat blank and opposite it is the separate wrapper;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view with the wrapper of FIG. 4 applied over the blank and permanently adhesively adhered thereto;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the box erected and ready for insertion of a commodity or any other kind of goods therein;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the open box structure;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the closed box structure;

FIG. 9 is a view on line 9 -- 9 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a view on line 10 -- 10 of FIG. 8; and

FIG. 11 is an enlarged sectional view of a corner portion of the box.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

In FIG. 1, the box B is collapsed with the ornamental wrapper W affixed thereto and with a protective cover C about the collapsed box, said cover also serving to maintain the box in collapsed condition ready for sale. The cover C is preferably transparent and enables viewing the ornamental wrapper therebeneath. The wrapper W may have attached thereto a ribbon ornament I, FIG. 1, or a ribbon rossette type ornament H, FIG. 3, or any other kind of ornament may be affixed to the wrapper.

The method of making the box as in FIGS. 1 - 3 and 6 - 8 with the ornamental flat flexible wrapper W affixed to the box when collapsed, FIG. 1, and also when the box is erected, FIGS. 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8, comprises providing the flexible one piece paperboard, plastic or like substantially flat box blank, FIG. 4. The blank is suitably scored at S to define interconnected foldable body panels 12, 13 and side panels 14, 15 and an additional side panel 16 that inwardly overlaps side panel 15 when the box is erected, FIGS. 9 and 11. Closure flaps 12', 13', 14' and 15' and 12a, 13a, 14a and 15a are hingedly secured to each of panels 12, 13, 14 and 15.

The specific method of making and assembling the box structure with an ornamental flat wrapper W affixed to the flat blank and to the box in collapsed or erected condition includes providing the one piece substantially flat box blank with connected together body panels and side panels, applying a line of adhesive 17 at the marginal edge of said additional side panel 16, applying another line of adhesive 18 inwardly of a free end edge of another side panel opposite the additional side panel, providing the ornamental wrapper of less over-all dimensions than the over-all dimensions of the flat box blank, placing the wrapper on the blank, securing the wrapper to the blank at the two lines of adhesive by placing marginal end portions of the wrapper on the adhesive that is inwardly of the free end of said another panel and affixing the opposite marginal portion of the wrapper that extends over said additional side panel to the line of the adhesive inwardly of the edge of that panel, and with the wrapper thus affixed to the blank, the opposed marginal edge portions of the wrapper extend only over portions of all of the outwardly flatly extending closure flaps, applying pressure sensitive removable adhesive strips F with adhesive G at each opposed edge of the wrapper, set up the blank into tubular condition by means of the score lines, secure the blank into tubular condition and with opposite end portions of the wrapper W' extending over portions of all of the closure flaps, inturn each side panel closure flap, inturn each body panel flap, lock said body panel flaps in overlapping relationship with respect to the already inturned side panel flaps and thus closing both ends of the box and rigidizing the box, inturn the extensions of the wrapper from the side panels to overlie the already inturned locking flaps, the inturn the extensions of the wrapper from the body panels to overlie the inturned side wall portions of the wrapper, and seal the already inturned extensions of the wrapper. Suitable small pieces of a conventional sealing tape T may be used with or without the pressure sensitive means F.

The substantially flat, one piece paperboard, plastic or the like flexible box blank in FIG. 4 and from which the box in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 is made, includes similar rectangular body panels 12 and 13, and each panel has substantially similar integral infoldable end closure flaps 12' and 12a and 13' and 13a, respectively. Closure flap 12' has a projecting locking tongue L for interlocking in slit U in flap 12a. Likewise, closure flap 13a has a similar tongue L' for interlocking in a slot U'. Side panels 14 and 15 each have substantially similar inturned or infoldable oppositely disposed side closure flaps 14', 14a and 15' and 15a, respectively, and there is an additional infolding side closure flap 16 that extends outwardly of flap 16 and overlaps side closure flap 15 when the box is erected, FIGS. 9 and 11.

A line of adhesive 17 is at the marginal edge portion of the additional side flap 16 and another line of adhesive 18 is inwardly of side flap 15.

Score lines S are in the blank to allow folding or setting up the blank to erected box form as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8. There is a broken line X in FIGS. 2, 5, 6 and 7 inwardly of each end of the unclosed box, and these broken lines X, of course, are not on the ornamental wrapper but used only to designate what comprises the projecting inturnable end portion W' of the wrapper closure at both ends W' of the box. The broken lines X indicate where the ornamental wrapper W terminates with respect to the body panels 12,13 and side panels 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 in FIG. 5, as well as to the erected or set up box in FIGS. 2, 6 and 7. In other words, the portions of the box flaps and the wrapper thereover each extend outwardly of line X and said extending portions of all the closure flaps are inturned and locked, FIG. 7, and the extending portions of the wrapper are then turned inwardly over the inturned closure flaps. Thus, the box is closed and sealed, FIGS. 3 and 8.

Viewing FIG. 6, the side closure flaps 14a and 15a are each turned inwardly substantially horizontally flush or aligned with the ends of body panels 12 and 13. The closure flap 12a with its locking slit U is then turned inwardly and the closure flap 13a is turned inwardly to engage flap 12a and the locking tongue 20 on closure flap 13a is slipped into the slit U on closure flap 12a, see FIG. 7, and, thus all closure flaps are locked or held in proper closed condition at both ends of the box, and then the opposite projecting side portions W1 and W2 of the wrapper W are turned inwardly over an opposite adjacent portion of the already locked in place closure flaps.

In regard to FIGS. 9 and 11 is an enlarged portion of FIG. 9 showing the overlapped portions of side walls 15 and 16 and with an inturned marginal end portion of the wrapper W' between portions of side walls 15 and 16 and the adhesive 17 and 18 fixing these side walls and end marginal portion of wrapper W', FIG. 11, together and to thus allow the box to be collapsed and erected and without fracturing the wrapper W at the top and bottom edges of the box inasmuch as the remainder of the wrapper is absolutely free and unsecured in any manner to any of the remainder of the box panels and side wall and end closure flaps. The effect of the unsecured major portions of the wrapper is that the erected box gives the appearance or simulation of having been hand wrapped with a separate unattached sheet of wrapping paper. Wrapping and wrapper are used synonymously herein. In using ornamental wrapper herein, it is to include, of course, any ornamentation whatsoever printed or otherwise applied thereon. The wrapper may be paper, plastic or any other suitable flexible material. Any other ornamentation, such as bows, ribbons, representations of animals, birds, etc. may be secured to the wrapper by any means, such as adhesives, staples, embossed, or the like.

As this invention may be embodied in several forms, sizes and shapes without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, the present embodiment is therefore illustrative and not restrictive, since the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description preceding them, and all changes that fall within the metes and bounds of the claims or that form their functional as well as conjointly cooperative equivalents are, therefore, intended to be embraced by those claims.

Claims

1. A prewrapped, collapsible and erectable box structure comprising a substantially flat blank with a pair of body panels, a first side panel joined at its opposite edges along spaced parallel fold lines to adjacent edges of the body panels, a second side panel joined along a fold line to the other edge of one of said body panels, and an additional side panel joined along a fold line to the other edge of the other body panel and having a free edge portion, end closure flaps on opposite ends of the body panels and said first and second side panels, a first line of adhesive on said second side panel immediately adjacent and parallel to said fold line, a second line of adhesive along the free edge portion of said additional side panel, and a wrapper adhesively secured to said blank only at said first and second lines of adhesive and covering substantially all of said body panels and extending at its opposite edges over at least a portion of the end closure flaps. but free of attachment to the end closure flaps, so that the blank may be erected and collapsed with the wrapper fixed thereto, and the end closure flaps closed prior to folding of the opposite edges of the wrapper, said wrapper completely enclosing

2. A prewrapped, collapsible and erectable box structure as in claim 1, wherein said box structure is collapsed, a separate, ornamental decoration fixed on the wrapper, and a transparent cover over the collapsible box and

3. A prewrapped, collapsible and erectable box structure as in claim 1, wherein the end closure flaps on opposite ends of the body panels have

4. A prewrapped, collapsible and erectable box structure as in claim 3, wherein adhesive means is on the edge portions of the wrapper to secure the edge portions in folded position over the end closure flaps of an

5. A prewrapped, collapsible and erectable box structure made from a substantially flat blank, said box including opposed main body panels connected by said panels at opposite sides thereof and infolded end closure flaps on opposite ends of the body panels and side panels, and an ornamental wrapper adhesively secured at opposite ends thereof along a pair of substantially parallel adhesive lines on a pair of said side panels at opposite sides of said body panels, respectively, said wrapper extending over and covering substantially all of said body panels and side panels and extending at its opposite edges over at least a portion of said end closure flaps, said wrapper being free of attachment to any of said end closure flaps, so that the box may be erected with the wrapper fixed to the blank, and said end closure flaps closed prior to folding of the extended edge portions of the wrapper over said infolded end closure

6. A prewrapped, collapsible and erectable box structure as in claim 5, wherein the end closure flaps on opposite ends of the body panels have

7. A prewrapped, collapsible and erectable box structure as in claim 6, wherein adhesive means is on the edge portions of the wrapper to secure the edge portions in folded position over the end closure flaps of an erected box structure.