Packing tray

Abstract

A packing tray comprising a sheet formed with a plurality of packing pockets arranged in parallel rows, each of said pockets having a side wall that defines an inverted frustum and a bottom configuration that is elongated in the direction of the axis of its respective row, said side walls being dished in vertical cross-section for flexibility by a rounded object deposited therein, posts above said pockets and arranged in a plurality of rows to flank said rows of said pockets, the upper end of said posts being adapted to support the bottoms of a similar tray stacked above said tray in use, each pocket having four of said posts disposed outwardly of and above its side wall, the side wall of each of said posts merging with the side wall of each of its adjacent pockets, the side wall of each of said pockets merging with the side wall of each of its four adjacent posts. This invention relates to a packing tray for soft or frangible articles, such as apples. It is customary to pack apples on trays which are stacked one above the other in a box. A popular type of tray has been a tray known as the deep pocket tray. It is usually made from a sheet of pulp moulded to contain rows of deep spherical pockets each designed to contain and support an apple. Posts of sufficient height above the pockets are arranged in a suitable manner support the weight of the apple tray next above so that the weight of the apples in the pockets is borne by the structure of the trays. Trays of this type have for many years been subject to the defect that apples of lesser diameter than the pockets are supported at only one or two contact points or on a contact ring of small diameter near the bottom of the apple. Unless the apple is of sufficient size to fill the pocket, it is free to roll about in the pocket and become bruised in transport. This invention provides a tray design that overcomes this advantage and that provides more adequate support for articles such as apples which are off-round in horizontal cross-section. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a deep pocket tray for packing apples and the like that will provide an improved manner of support. A packing tray according to the invention comprises a sheet formed with a plurality of rows of packing pockets, each of the pockets has side walls that define an inverted frustum and a bottom configuration that is elongated in the direction of its respective row. The side walls are dished for flexibility by a rounded object deposited therein. Posts are arranged above the pockets in a plurality of rows to flank the rows of pockets, the upper ends of the posts being adapted to support the bottoms of a similar tray stacked above the tray. Each pocket has four posts disposed outwardly of and above its side walls and one-quarter of the side wall of each of the posts merges with the side wall of a different adjacent pocket. The side walls of each of the pockets merge with the side walls of four adjacent posts. The invention will be clearly understood after reference to the following detailed specification read in conjunction with the drawings.

Description

IN THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a tray according to this invention suitable for packing apples;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a portion of the tray of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along the line 3--3 of FIG. 2 and illustrating the manner in which a similar tray is stacked on top of the tray of FIGS. 1 and 2; and

FIG. 4 is a view along the line 4--4 of FIG. 1 and illustrating stacked trays with articles packed in the pockets.

In the drawings, the numeral 10 generally refers to a tray for packing delicate articles such as apples which are off-round in at least one cross-section. Apples are usually packed on their sides with their stems in a horizontal direction. They tend to be round in one vertical cross-section and elongated or off-round in a vertical cross-section at right angles to the round cross-section. The tray of this invention is adapted to support an apple or other object of similar shape characteristic in a pocket which provides a flexible four-point support for the apple. The tray additionally has posts around each pocket which are adapted to form supports for an overlying tray so that trays can be stacked one above the other. The general constructions of deep pocket trays which comprise rows of deep pockets designed to contain and support articles, alternated with rows of posts of sufficient height and arranged to support the weight of the tray next above, so that the weight of the articles in the upper layers is borne by the structure of the trays and not by the product contained in the trays is well known and not described in detail in this application.

With tray of this general type, the pockets in horizontal cross-section have been made symmetrical about the central vertical axis of the pocket. The pockets are generally spherical with a flat, round or square bottom. A difficulty with these deep pocket trays has been that apples of lesser diameter than the pockets are supported at only one or two contact points or on a contact ring of small diameter near the bottom of the pocket. Unless the apple is of sufficient size to fill the pocket, it is free to roll about and become bruised in transport.

It has been found that if the pocket is formed with a bottom that is elongated and side walls that flare upwardly from the four quarters of the bottom towards the surrounding posts, a pocket that is elongated in horizontal cross-section results which is capable of providing a resilient four-point support for an off-round article such as an apple.

The tray 10 is preferably moulded from wood pulp by the well known wood pulp method for forming packing trays, but it need not necessarily be formed of wood pulp or by this method. This invention is concerned with the configuration of the tray.

Tray 10 is formed with a plurality of rows of packing pockets 12. The axis of the rows of pockets 12 extend diagonally across the surface of the tray as illustrated in FIG. 1.

The flat bottom of each of the pockets 12 is rhomboidal in form and elongated in the direction of the axis of its respective row as is apparent from FIG. 1. The side walls of each pocket flare upwardly from its bottom and merge with the side walls of four surrounding posts 14. The posts 14 are also arranged in rows which extend diagonally across the tray and it will be noted that a row of posts flanks each side of a row of pockets.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated, the posts are rhomboidal at their tops and of a corresponding shape and size to the rhomboidal bottoms of the pockets 12. There are four posts surrounding each pocket, two on each side and one-quarter of the side wall of each of the posts merges with a different pocket. At the same time, the side walls of each pocket merge with one-quarter of the side wall of its respective four surrounding posts.

The general arrangement of pockets and posts in deep pocket trays is well known in the art and not elaborated on in detail in this specification. This specification is concerned with a configuration for the pockets which is derived from the elongated nature of the bottoms of the pockets.

As indicated, the bottoms of the pockets 12 are elongated with the result that the upwardly extending dished walls of the pockets are elongated in cross-section in the direction of the rows. This is illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawings wherein the dotted lines indicate the disposition of an apple in the pockets.

Apples are usually packed with their stems in a horizontal disposition and in this disposition, they are elongated in horizontal cross-section. The elongated pocket of the tray of this invention is adapted to support articles of this characteristic without undue rolling around in the pockets. The dotted lines 18 illustrate the position of apples in the pockets.

FIG. 4 is an illustration showing the side walls of two stacked trays with the position of an apple indicated by the numeral 18. It will be noted that the side walls are dished in vertical cross-section and that the bottom of a pocket 12 rests on the top of a post 14. The side walls of the pocket 12 are dished so that the apple in the upper tray engages the side wall of its respective tray at a location that is displaced from the point that the apple in the pocket below engages the opposite side of the same side wall. Moreover, due to the elongated nature of the bottoms of the pockets, each apple contacts the side walls of its respective pockets at points that are displaced horizontally and vertically from the points of contact of the apple in an adjacent pocket. The side walls of the pockets can therefore flex without bruising of apples due to the pressure of one towards the other.

It has been found that side walls of the pockets should be dished or curved on an arc of at least twice the average diameter of the apples or other articles to be packed in the pockets.

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate the manner in which the pockets in adjacent rows merge with each other between the posts. This general arrangement is well known.

As indicated, this invention is concerned with the elongated nature of the pockets which has been achieved by means of a particular arrangement of the bottom of the pocket. The pockets are elongated and preferably rhomboidal. The posts are preferably identical in shape to the pockets because as indicated in FIG. 4 and as is the custom with trays of this type, the pockets of one tray rest on the posts of an underlying tray in use.

While the rhomboidal shape is preferred, it will be apparent that alternative shapes which are elongated in the direction of the pocket rows could be used to achieve a similar result. For example, an elliptical bottom might be devised. Moulding in wood fibre is not a precise thing and it is quite feasible that a pocket having the characteristics of this invention could be formed with a shape for the bottom that is other than a precise rhomboid provided that it is elongated to provide for the elongated nature of the pocket wall in horizontal cross-section.

Claims

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A packing tray comprising

a sheet formed with a plurality of packing pockets arranged in parallel rows,

each of said pockets having a side wall that defines an inverted frustum and a bottom surface having a configuration that is elongated in the direction of the axis of its respective row,

said side walls being dished in vertical cross-section for flexibility by a rounded object deposited therein,

posts above said pockets and arranged in a plurality of rows to flank said rows of said pockets,

the top surfaces of said posts being adapted to support the bottom surface of the pockets of a similar tray stacked above said tray in use,

each pocket having four of said posts disposed outwardly of and above its side wall,

the side wall of each of said posts merging with the side wall of each of its adjacent pockets,

the side wall of each of said pockets merging with the side wall of each of its four adjacent posts,

said top surface of said posts being similar in configuration to the configuration of the bottom surface of said pockets,

said top surfaces of said posts being elongated in the direction of their respective rows whereby top surfaces of said posts and bottom surfaces of said pockets extend in parallel rows and are each elongated in the direction of their respective row,

the bottom surface of each of said pockets having a portion of its longitudinal axis that is parallel to a portion of the longitudinal axis of the four posts disposed outwardly of its side walls.

2. A packing tray as claimed in claim 1 in which said bottom configuration is rhomboidal.

3. A packing tray as claimed in claim 1 in which said side wall of said pockets in vertical cross-section are dished as aforesaid on an arc of at least twice the average diameter of articles to be packed in said pockets.