Reclosable carton

Abstract

A carton and blank for making same made from foldable sheet material such as paperboard or the like, the carton having a lid defined by perforated lines and a hinge line so that the carton may be sealed, but after opening the lid may be moved back into position to make the carton a convenient storage device for papers, canceled checks, etc.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to cartons having a hinged closure which are initially sealed and are reclosable after opening.

2. Description of the Prior Art

It is common practice to package blank checks or the like in standard tray-style cartons with a separate matching cover. This type of carton must be placed in yet another carton or sleeve for mailing to prevent the unattached cover from coming off.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention discloses a carton which initially is sealed and may be used as a labeled mailer. The carton is opened along perforated lines across the ends and front panel and the top may be rotated about a hinge or fold line across the back panel. The carton remains upright and the cover may be brought back down into position to make a handy storage location for canceled checks or the like. An extended glue flap is positioned against the inside of the front panel and has a line-cut eye formed therein to receive a line-cut tab on the severed edge of the front panel after opening.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a blank adapted to be folded into a carton as described in the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows the blank of FIG. 1 partly folded and glued;

FIG. 3 shows the blank of FIGS. 1 and 2 folded prior to shipping to a customer;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the carton completely assembled with the ends sealed;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the carton shown with the reclosable top cover in an open position;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an opened carton showing the reclosable feature of the top;

FIG. 7 is a sectional elevation view of the carton shown in FIG. 5 taken along section lines 7--7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As can be seen in the figures, a substantially rectangular sheet of paperboard or similar sheet-like material is used to make the blank and carton. As seen best in FIG. 1, the blank includes three parallel fold lines shown as 10, 11, and 12 which are arranged parallel to each other and displaced between the two opposite lateral edges of the blank. These three parallel fold lines extend from the top to the bottom edge of the sheet and serve to define the four wall panels of the carton which include a bottom panel 15, a back panel 16, a top panel 17, and a front panel 18.

Each of the body panels are defined at the top and bottom edges by hinge lines which serve to attach closure flaps to the top and bottom edges of each of said panels. These closure flaps are attached along the two parallel fold lines shown as 20 and 21 which are oriented perpendicular to the first mentioned parallel fold lines 10, 11, and 12. Closure flaps 25 and 26 are hingeably attached to the bottom panel 15, flaps 27 and 28 are hingedly attached to the back panel 16. Closure flaps 29 and 30 are hingedly attached to the top panel 17 and closure flaps 31 and 32 are hingedly attached to the front panel 18.

An extended glue flap, shown as 35, is hingedly attached to the lateral edge of the blank along fold line 36 which connects the glue flap 35 to the bottom panel 15. The extended glue flap serves as a liner panel against the front panel 18 when in assembled configuration. A separate panel could, of course, be used instead of extending the glue flap. A perforated line 40 is formed in the front panel 18 and extends from the top to the bottom edge of that panel. The perforated line 40 is formed with a U-shape tab therein in order to create an insertable reclosure tab which is shown in the figures as 41. The perforated line and tab 40 and 41 are positioned a predetermined distance from the outer lateral edge of the sheet 42, and that distance is also the spacing of a line-cut line 43 in the glue flap 35 from the hinge line 36 which also forms the lateral edge of the sheet at the opposite end. The interaction of these two components will be described later.

The back panel 16 has formed therein a hinge or fold line 45 which extends from the top to the bottom edge of the back panel 16 and serves, as will be described later, as a hinge for the reclosable top after the carton is opened. In addition, the closure flaps 27, 28, 31 and 32 on the back and front panels, respectively, are provided with perforated lines which extend from the opposite ends of the hinge line 45 and the perforated lines 40 at angles which will result in contiguous relationship of the perforated lines at the ends of the carton when the carton is sealed. These perforated lines are shown as 50, 51, 52, and 53 respectively.

In order to illustrate the assembly of the carton, FIG. 2 shows a typical initial folding and gluing step wherein one end of the carton blank is folded inwardly about the hinge line 10 and a strip of adhesive shown as 60 applied along the outer surface of the glue flap 35 as can be seen in FIG. 3. The opposite end of the container blank is then folded on top of the glue flap 35 along the fold line 12, thereby sealing the outer portion of the front panel 18 as shown in FIG. 1 to the glue flap 35. It would be in this configuration that the carton would normally be shipped to the customer to be filled and sealed. In this situation, the contents would be end loaded and the ends sealed by some ordinary method. It should be understood that any conventional closing means may be used, and the method just described is that which would be most applicable to automatic folding and gluing equipment presently available on the market.

As can be seen in FIG. 4, the finally sealed carton is one which can be mailed or otherwise shipped since it is in fact an integral package. The package or carton is opened by breaking the solid portions of the sheet-like material along the perforated lines 40, 41, in the front panel and the overlying perforated lines 50, 52, and 51 and 53 on the end closures of the carton, as shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 then illustrates how the top of the carton may be reclosed by bending the cover down and inserting the tab 41 into the line cut line 43 so that the carton may be used as a storage carton for canceled checks or whatever the original contents may have been.

It should be noted that in the configuration as disclosed the closure flaps on the top and bottom panels 17 and 15, which are numbered 29, 30, and 25, 26 respectively, are of such size and proportions that they do not encroach on the areas which include perforated lines thereon in the enclosure configurations. For example, as seen in FIG. 7 only the closure flaps hingedly attached to the front and back panels which are seen as 28 and 32 and which lie in overlapping relationship to one another, need perforated lines therein in order to effect opening and closing of the carton top. If it were desired to make the closure flaps 26 and 30, for example, larger they would either require moving the perforated lines or alternating the shape of the closure flaps. It should be understood that the dimensions of the carton may be changed, for example, the location of the hinge line 45 in the back panel 16 may be moved up or down, which would result in a corresponding change in the angle of the perforated lines which extend through the closure flaps attached to the back panel and front panel. However, these changes are mere changes in form and would be within the scope of those skilled in the art.

In accordance with the Patent Statutes, I have described the principles of construction and operation of my improvement in RECLOSABLE CARTON; and while I have endeavored to set forth the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that obvious changes may be made within the scope of the following claims without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Claims

I claim:

1. A blank made from foldable paperboard or similar sheet-like material adapted to be erected into a sealed carton, which, when opened, has a reclosable hinged top cover, comprising:

a substantially rectangular sheet of said material having opposed top, bottom and lateral edges;

three parallel fold lines spaced intermediate the two lateral edges of said sheet, said parallel fold lines defining four panels;

said four panels including a bottom panel located at a first of said lateral edges of said sheet, an adjoining back panel, a top panel adjoining said back panel, and a front panel adjoining said top panel and located at the second lateral edge of said sheet from said bottom panel;

closure flaps hingedly attached to the top and bottom edges of each of said panels;

a perforated line extending from top to bottom across said front panel and said closure flaps attached to said front panel, said perforated line spaced from said second lateral edge of said sheet a predetermined distance, and said perforated line being formed in part in a U-shape to form an insertable reclosure tab;

said perforated lines in said front panel closure flaps being oriented at predetermined angles in a direction away from said second lateral edge of said sheet from the ends of said perforated line in said front panel at the top and bottom edges thereof; and

perforated lines in said back panel closure flaps aligned parallel to said perforated lines in said front panel closure flaps, extending from the ends of said back panel fold line at the top and bottom edges of said back panel;

a glue flap hingedly attached to said bottom panel along said first lateral edge;

said glue flap having a line-cut formed therein and spaced from said first lateral edge a length equal to said predetermined distance spacing of said perforated line in said front panel, said cut line adapted to receive said reclosure tab; and

a fold line extending from top to bottom in said back panel adapted to become a hinge for rotating said reclosable top cover after said carton is opened.

2. A reclosable carton made from foldable paperboard or the like, comprising:

substantially rectangular top and bottom panels arranged in parallel, spaced apart relationship;

a back panel of substantially rectangular shape, said back panel having a foldable hinge line formed therein parallel to said top and bottom panels;

a front panel having a perforated line extending the length thereof, said perforated line having a U-shaped insert tab formed therein pointing toward said bottom panel;

a liner panel positioned on the inside of said front panel, said liner panel having a line-cut eye formed therein adapted to be engaged by said insert tab to effect reclosing of the carton;

end closure flaps hingedly attached to said top, bottom front and back panels and adapted to lie in overlapping relationship with one another;

said perforated line in said front panel extending across said front panel closure flaps at a predetermined angle and terminating near said back panel hinge line;

said back panel closure flaps each having a perforated line formed therein and extending parallel to said perforated lines in said front panel closure flaps; and

said flaps and perforated lines thereby forming a sealed carton having a hinged lid initially sealed along said perforated lines which can be reclosed after opening by insertion of said tab into said eye.

3. The carton of claim 2, wherein said liner panel comprises an extended glue flap hingedly connected to the front edge of said bottom panel.