Package with complementary body sheets

Abstract

A package has a body and a severable cover integral with one end of the body with the body being smaller at least in part than the cover to permit the telescoping of the cover and the body on severance of the cover. A method of making a package having a body and a cover is provided. The method involves forming a member having a cover portion and an integral body portion and severing the cover portion from the body portion to permit the thus formed cover to be telescoped over the body.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is well known to form packages for containers of the type involved in this invention having a body and a cover which telescopes over the body. Heretofore, such packages have been made by separately forming the body and the cover and then mating them to form the package or container. In accordance with the present invention, a member is formed in which the body and the cover are unitary and then the cover is severed. This is particularly advantageous, for example, when employing vacuum forming in which instance the upper half and the lower half of the member are separately vacuum formed, secured together, and then severed to separate the cover from the body portion. This is typical of the great savings in cost that can be achieved with the method of the invention.

In the prior art, it is known to merchandize products in simple plastic packages, for example, a blister package and a relatively expensive plastic package having a body portion with a removable cover. In the package of this invention, the package is sold with the body and the cover integral, but the cover can be severed from the slide or body and thereafter telescoped therewith to close its open end.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A package has a body and a severable cover integral with one end of the body with the body being smaller than the cover at least in part to permit the telescoping of the cover and the body on severance of the cover. The method of making a package having a body and a cover involves forming a member having a cover portion an integral reduced body portion adapted to telescope with the cover portion on separation of the cover portion and severing the cover portion from the slide portion to permit the thus formed cover to be telescoped over the body. Interlocks are provided to hold the cover at a predetermined position on the body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a package in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the package of FIG. 1 with the cover in place;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the package of FIG. 1 before the cover is separated from the slide portion;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the package as shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic showing a typical first step in the method of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a vertical section through a partially formed package of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a cutting step in the method invention;

FIG. 8 is an exploded view showing the product of the method of the invention;

FIG. 9 is a top plan view of an alternative package showing the cover in the closed position;

FIG. 10 is a top plan view of the package of FIG. 9 in the course of formation and before the cover is severed;

FIG. 11 is an exploded top plan view of the package of FIG. 10 with the cover in the open position;

FIG. 12 is a side elevation of a blister package in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 13 is a top plan view of the package of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is an exploded perspective view of the package of FIG. 12 showing the severed cover removed from the remainder of the package;

FIG. 15 is a side elevation of the structure of FIG. 14 showing the cover telescoped onto the slide portion of the package;

FIG. 16 is a view of a still further package embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of the package of FIG. 16 with the cover on the package;

FIG. 18 is a bottom plan view of an alternative embodiment package;

FIG. 19 is an exploded vertical section of the modified package of FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 is a view of the package of FIG. 18 with the cover removed.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERREDD EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a package 2 in accordance with the invention has a hollow body 4 with a reduced portion 6 which is adapted to telescope with a cover 8. Portion 6 tapers inwardly in the direction of cover 8. The open end of cover 8 has a peripheral inwardly extending lip 10 which is adapted to engage groove 12 in body 4 at the inner end of portion 6 to releasably hold cover 8 on body 4.

Package 2 is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 with cover 8 still integrally connected to its portion 6. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, package 2 is comprised of an upper half 16 and lower half 18 having flanges 20 and 22 respectively which are bonded together. Package 2 is cut along the line indicated at 24. It will be appeciated that the package 2 before this cutting is useful in its own right in that a product may be placed inside before flanges 20 and 22 are bonded together. When the cover portion is severed, it can be telescoped over the body if only a portion of the contents of the package are used initially. Lip 10 is deflected as it rides up the taper of portion 6 and snaps into groove 12 to hold the cover in the closed position.

An embodiment of the method of this invention is shown schematically in FIGS. 5 through 7. Assuming it is desired to make the package 2 of polyethylene, the upper half 16 and the lower half 18 are each formed by taking a sheet 30 of polyethylene and clamping it to a mold 32 having the appropriate configuration and opening 34 leading to a manifold 36 for creating a vacuum. The sheet is heated by a source of heat indicated schematically at 38 and then drawn down into the mold by withdrawing air through manifold 36. The sheet 30 cools against the walls of the mold and is then withdrawn. As shown in FIG. 6, the upper and lower halves 16 and 18 are then mated with the flanges 20 and 22 being bonded together, for example, by a suitable adhesive or by a high frequency electronic sealing. After the bonding operation if the package is not to be used in the form existing after bonding, it is cut to sever the cover 8 by a cutting device indicated at 42 in FIG. 7 to provide the final package 2 shown in FIG. 8.

It will be appreciated that a wide variety of materials may be employed to make the packages of this invention such as, for example, synthetic resins, paper board, rubber, fabric impregnated with synthetic resin and the like. If the package is to be sold in a form where the consumer must cut off the cover from the remainder of the container, the material and its thickness will be selected to facilitate ready cutting by such instruments as scissors and knives as are readily available to the average consumer. Because of their wide applicability and the ease of handling, synthetic resins such as, for example, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl cloride are preferred.

Further it will be understood that the method of the invention may vary widely within the parameter of first forming the package with the cover integral with the body portion of the package and then severing the cover. It will be obvious that the method of the invention can be carried out with conventional injection molding and conventional blow molding which are too well known to require further description here and which can be employed to form a package having integral body and cover portions which may then be severed to provide a cover telescoping over the body portion. Of course, the blow molding and injection molding eliminate the necessity for initially forming upper and lower halves but are none the less more expensive than the thermo forming with a vacuum described more specifically above and which, of course, is also well known in the art.

A package 50 shown in FIGS. 9 and 11 can be employed, for example, for packaging an unusual coin. Package 50 has a cover 52 and a slide 54 with a recess 56 for the receipt of a coin. Grooves 58 and 60 in slide 54 coact with peripheral lip 62 on cover 52 to releasably hold the cover in the fully open position as well as in a retracted position for the display of a coin.

The package 50 before the separation of the cover 52 from slide 54 is shown in FIG. 10 and may readily be formed by conventional injection molding with slide 54 and handle end 64 being solid and cover 52 being hollow. Here again severance along the line 66 separates cover 52 for subsequent telescoping over slide 54. The package 50 can also be made by vacuum forming.

Referring now to FIGS. 9 and 10, a blister package 70 has a vacuum formed upper half 72 with a flange 74 bonded to a sheet 76 to provide package 70 with a body 78 having a reduced portion 80 and a cover portion 82. The upper half 72 may be transparent or otherwise, as desired. Reduced portion 80 has a pair of grooves 84 and 86. Cover portion 82 is dimentioned so that when severance is carried out along the line indicated by the dotted line 88 in groove 86, the cover portion 82 will telescope over the slide portion 80 as shown in FIG. 12 and the cut end of cover portion 82 will engage groove 84 since the cut through groove 86 makes the end have a slightly larger diameter than the main portion of reduced portion 80.

A package 90 having a body portion 92 and a cover portion 94 is illustrated in FIG. 16. Here again severance along line 96 either before or after sale to the consumer provides a cover 94 which can be telescoped over the slide portion 92.

Referring now to FIG. 18, a package 102 has a body portion 104 and a top portion 106 respectively having flanges 108 and 110 about an open side (see FIG. 19). Body 104 has a reduced neck portion 112 which in turn has a pair of opposed side flanges 114 and 115 adjacent its open side. A sheet 116 is secured by an adhesive 118 to flanges 108 and 110 but not to flanges 114 and 115. Sheet 116 which may be made, for example, of paper, synthetic resin or cardboard has a perforated line of weakness indicated at 22 which is centered so as to run over the spaced adjacent ends of flanges 108 and 110 and which is interupted by openings 124 and 126 which respectively span flanges 114 and 115.

To open package 102 a thumbnail, knife, or similar instrument is pressed down along line of weakness 122 to sever sheet 116 along this line. The cover 106 with its associated portion of sheet 116 is then removed. If only part of the contents of the package 102 is used, cover 106 can be replaced by telescoping it over neck portion 112.

The above described embodiments are illustrative and are not intended to be limiting.

Claims

I claim:

1. A package comprising a body, and a severable cover, a portion of said body being smaller than the cover to permit the telescoping of the cover and body on severance of the cover, said body being formed with an outwardly facing groove, and an inturned lip integrally connecting said body to said cover for severance of the lip from the body with said cover and removable engagement of the lip into and out of said groove upon said telescoping.

2. A package according to claim 1, said body and cover each comprising at least one thermoformed sheet.

3. A package according to claim 2, said body and cover each comprising a backing sheet marginally secured to a respective thermoformed sheet.

4. A package according to claim 1, said body and cover each comprising a pair of thermoformed sheets.

5. A package comprising a pair of complementary body sheets secured to each other in facing relation and combining to define a body having an end, at least one of said body sheets having an outwardly facing indent spaced from said body end, a pair of complementary cover sheets secured to ach other in facing relation and combining to define a cover entirely separate from said body and having an interior hollow, said cover sheets having facing marginal portions unsecured to provide an opening communicating between the interior hollow of said cover and the exterior thereof, said opening being of a size for longitudinally sliding telescopic insertion of said body end through said opening, and an inturned projection of one of said cover sheet marginal portions for releasable retaining engagement in said detent.

6. A package according to claim 5, said body sheets being spaced to define an interior hollow in said body.

7. A package according to claim 5, at least one of each of said body and cover sheets being concave.

8. A package according to claim 7, at least the other sheet of each of said body and cover being generally flat.

9. A package according to claim 5, said pair of body sheets being marginally welded together, and said pair of cover sheets being marginally welded together.

10. A package according to claim 1, said body being formed with an additional outwardly facing groove parallel to said first mentioned groove spaced intermediate the latter and the severance line of said lip for removable engagement of said lip into and out of a selected one of said grooves.