GB2310200A

GB2310200A - Containers

Info

Publication number: GB2310200A
Application number: GB9701933A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Christopher Hallam
Original assignee: Concept Packaging Ltd
Current assignee: Concept Packaging Ltd
Priority date: 1996-02-16
Filing date: 1997-01-30
Publication date: 1997-08-20
Also published as: GB9701933D0

Description

ELONGATE BOUNDARY WALL PANEL, LOCATING MEANS AND CONTAINER The invention relates to elongate boundary wall panels, locating means and to containers and, particularly, though not exclusively, to panels and containers made of materials such as cardboard or the like.

It is desirable in the packaging industry to be able to make containers which are of a relatively rigid construction from materials such as thin card, whereby the costs for the container may be kept to a minimum.

It is also desirable to be able to provide such a container with a neat appearance so that it may be used for products where good presentation is required, such as for chocolate boxes and the like.

In one example of container of this kind, there is provided a boundary wall defining a hollow body which extends around and supports a base member. In one such example, the base member may be a disk and the boundary wall together with the disk defines a cylindrical container.

UK Patent application GB-A-2,283,965 by the present applicants concerns such a type of container whereby the base is held in position within the boundary wall by means of an in-turned flange. The flange is formed by making a continuous score line along a bottom edge of the boundary wall panel and turning the flange up so that it lies against the boundary wall. When the flat piece of card forming the boundary wall is curved during the process of making up the container, the opposite ends of the flange are brought into mutual abutment and, by provision of the continuous score line, the in-turned flange is held in face to face engagement with the interior face of the boundary wall without requiring adhesive to keep the flange in that position.Opposite ends of the wall panel may be secured together by means of gluing, for example, and the base inserted within the space defined by the boundary wall until it lies atop the flange.

The aforementioned UK patent application does provide a number of advantages over prior systems in that gluing of the flange is not required and by providing a given length of material for formation of the boundary wall with a particular length of flange, when the opposite ends of the flange are brought into abutment a container of a consistently repeatable size may be formed so that preformed bases will fit within the boundary wall snugly every time.

Whilst the abovementioned system is very good and reliable, it would be beneficial to be able to provide a container arrangement whereby the join between opposite ends of the wall panel can be made prior to shipping to the customer, but in which the wall panel can be stored flat subsequent to joining, this is not possible with the known system as folding of the wall panel subsequent to joining causes the boundary wall and flange to deform and break down in the region adjacent the flange leading to a reduction in quality of the finished product.

In view of the above, it is a first aim of embodiments of the present invention to provide a container of the abovementioned type which can be easily assembled from flat stored components. It would be desirable for such a container or boundary wall therefor to be suitable for a variety of shapes.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an elongate boundary wall panel for a container, the panel being provided with a plurality generally transverse folding areas longitudinally spaced apart from one another and a length-wise extending flange formed along a transverse edge region of the panel, wherein the flange is foldably and integrally connected to the elongate panel by means of a score-line, the flange being provided along a main extent of the length of said wall panel but at least part of the flange being absent in said folding areas.

Preferably, there are provided a plurality of flanges and the flanges may be completely absent in said folding areas.

The score line may not extend along a full length of its respective flange and the flange/boundary wall joins may include a region which is creased or cut for instance.

In use, the boundary wall panel of the present invention acts in much the same way as the wall panel of GB 2,283,965 in that when the flange is turned in and end regions of the wall panel joined together, the in-turned flange is held in a state of compression and retained in face to face engagement with the boundary wall panel without otherwise being secured to the panel. However, in contrast to the arrangements disclosed in the aforementioned patent application, the wall panel may be produced and stored subsequent to joining in a folded condition by folding the panel at the predefined folding areas so that the panel takes up less space, this can be done without causing damage to the boundary wall or the flanges as the flanges are arranged to be discontinuous at the folding areas.

The boundary wall may be provided with extra creases in which the flange need not be discontinued, this is because the extra creases can be used to define a finished container shape, rather than to define areas where the wall is folded for storage.

The positioning of the folding areas may be utilised to ease joining of the two ends of the panel as they may be arranged to bring the two ends together at the desired joining position, in this way they may define the length of the completed band. Alternatively, the joining position could be judged by bringing opposite ends of the flanges into abutment as in the prior arrangement.

A further problem with previous designs can be that if the two ends of the wall panel are not joined together at the right place, the fit between the boundary wall panel and the base panel for insertion therein may be quite loose so that the in-turned flange does not support the base panel at all points and the base panel may push through the bottom of the boundary wall.

Also, if the disc were to warp or shrink it is better to have a bigger ledge.

With a view to improving this system, a second aspect of the invention provides for one or more of the in-turned flanges to have a number of transverse creases or folds formed therein so that when the flange is turned in against the boundary wall, the flange at the points where the folds or creases occur sits against the boundary wall, but in areas adjacent to the folds or creases, the flange sits further away from the boundary wall so as to form a ledge of an effectively increased width on which a base plate may sit.

A yet further aspect of the present invention concerns the accurate location of a base plate with the boundary wall in the assembled condition. With any "concave" container it will be appreciated that the boundary wall will conform to the shape of the base plate as the base plate is inserted therein. When the boundary wall is provided with pre-printed information and the base plate is also provided with similar printing, accurate placing of the base within the boundary wall is required in order to ensure proper registration of the two components with one another. However, accurate registration of these components can be difficult to achieve.

Accordingly, a third aspect of the present invention provides locating means associated with the boundary wall panel of a container for cooperation with a complementary formation on a base plate.

The base plate can therefore be located and registered relative to the boundary wall.

The locating means may comprise a slot or similar formation formed in a region of the boundary wall panel for cooperation with a protrusion provided on the base plate.

The locating means may provide extra protection against the base plate either pushing through the boundary wall or riding up out of the top of the boundary wall.

The locating means suitably comprises a flange projecting from the body of the boundary wall panel. The locating means may be provided on one end of the boundary wall panel, at the top of the panel or at the bottom or may be a separate piece of card.

Preferably, the locating means comprises a hinged panel which is preferably pulled back during assembly to give a spring effect to give more positive anchorage of the base plate.

Alternatively, the locating means may comprise any other suitable formation such as a visible or machine readable marking on the boundary wall panel for alignment with a similar marking on the base plate.

Suitably, the locating means on the boundary wall panel is located at a position of a fold or crease in the boundary wall panel.

According to a fourth aspect, a container is provided incorporating a boundary wall panel as herein described in accordance with any of the aforementioned aspects.

Suitably, the container is generally heart shaped.

In this case, the locating means may be provided in the region of the top of the heart shape at which the curved sections meet at an obtuse angle (defined by measuring the angle between the raw edges, ie, not through the base).

It will be appreciated that wherever containers are mentioned herein, the invention is also applicable to lids for containers.

Any of the aspects of the present invention may be combined with one another in any combination or utilised with the container disclosed in GB 2,283,965 (the content of which is incorporated herein by reference) to form improvements thereon.

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how embodiments of the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of a boundary wall for formation of a container; Figure 2 shows, in more detail, a region of the boundary wall of Figure 1 adjacent to a folding area; Figure 3 shows detail of creases formed in a flange area of the boundary wall of Figures 1 and 2; Figure 4 is a plan view showing part of an assembled boundary wall showing how the creased flange conforms to the boundary wall when the boundary wall is ready to receive a base plate thereon; Figure 5 shows base plate locating means arranged on the boundary wall; Figure 6 shows a base plate for utilisation in conjunction with the boundary wall of Figures 1 to 5;; Figures 7A to 7C show alternative base plate locating means; Figure 8 is a bottom perspective view showing an assembled boundary wall and base plate; Figure 9 is a perspective view showing a joined and flat stored boundary wall; Figure 10 shows a second embodiment of a boundary wall according to the present invention; Figure 11 shows a base plate for utilisation in conjunction with the boundary wall of Figure 10; Figure 12 is an enlarged view of the arrangement of the locating means on the boundary wall panel of the second embodiment; Figure 13 is an enlarged view of the formation on the base plate of Figure 11 for cooperation with the locating means shown in Figure 12; and Figure 14 shows a container constructed from the boundary wall of Figure 10 and the base plate of Figure 11.

In the attached drawings, edges and cut lines are shown by continuous lines while folds and creases are shown by dashed lines.

Referring initially to Figure 1, an elongate boundary wall panel 1 is shown, the boundary wall panel has a number of transverse folding areas 2, flanges 3 and a base plate locating means 4, to be described in further detail later.

Figure 2 shows the arrangement of the transverse folding area and the flanges 3 in more detail. It should be noted that each folding area 2 extends from an upper region 5 of the boundary wall 1 to a lower region 6. This lower region 6 defines a length-wise line from which each of the flanges 3 are hinged. It will be noted that the flanges 3 are discontinuous about the folding areas 2.

Where the flanges 3 join the boundary wall 1, they are effectively hinged thereto by means of score lines 7, which score lines 7 are made on an outside face of the boundary wall 1.

The folding areas 2 may be defined by transverse creases and their positioning is chosen so as to enable the boundary wall panel 1 to be folded into a convenient flat pack size.

By providing defined folding areas and making the flanges 3 discontinuous about the folding areas 2, the integrity of flange 3 and boundary wall 1 is maintained even when the boundary wall is in a folded condition such as is shown in Figure 9.

Referring now to Figure 3, detail of the flanges 3 is shown as including crease marks 8. These crease marks 8 may be formed either by scoring, creasing or embossing, in practice, and serve the function of providing a well defined ledge upon which a base plate may be sat. This feature is illustrated in Figure 4 which is a plan view showing the boundary wall in a state where both ends of the boundary wall are joined together and the flanges 3 are turned in to form a ledge 9. It should be noted that the flange portions 3 may be turned in to lie against the inner face of the boundary wall 1 either before or after joining together of the two ends of the boundary wall.As can be seen from Figure 4, with the flanges 3 turned in, the areas of the flanges which are creased tend to lie flat against the upstanding portion of the boundary wall 1 and the areas intermediate those creases stand slightly away from the wall. This is an improvement over the prior art arrangement as, effectively, the uppermost portions 9 of the flanges 3 provide a relatively wide ledge upon which the base plate 10 of Figure 6 may be placed. This wider ledge reduces the possibilities of the base plate 10 being pushed past the ledge 9. Figure 8 illustrates the general configuration of an assembled boundary wall and base plate.

Referring now to Figures 1, 5 and 6, in particular, use of the locating means 4 will be described.

The locating means 4 is provided at an end region of the boundary wall 1 and hingedly connected therewith along line A-A' of Figure 1. The locating means 4 has a lower cut away portion 11 which is arranged so that, when the boundary wall 1 is curved to join the two ends together, the ends 12 and 13 of the outer most flanges 3 can be brought into abutment or near abutment with each other, the locating means 4 is pulled back and located inside the boundary wall 1 as shown in Figure 5 and with a gluing tab 14 located outside the boundary wall, the locating means 4 being able to either overlie the flange 3 as shown in Figure 5. Because the locating means 4 is pulled back it will tend to push against the disc 10 when it is inserted to provide better anchorage for the disc. The locating means 4 is provided with a slot 15 for the reception of a tongue 16 formed in the base plate 10 which serves to provide a registration point between the base plate 10 and the boundary wall 1 when they are assembled together.

When joining the band it is possible to use the flange ends as dimensioners but, in practice, the creases at the folding areas 2 determine the point of joining.

Providing the locating means 4 in a hingedly attached manner provides very positive location of base plate 10 as the hinging effect acts to push against the plate 10 to make it fit more snugly.

Whilst the locating means 4 has been described as being at the end of the wall panel 1 it will be appreciated that other locations for it are envisigable as shown in Figures 7A and 7B. It could also be made multithickness to increase the hinging effect as shown in Figure 7C.

Referring to Figures 10-14, a second embodiment of the present invention is shown. The second embodiment is designed to produce a heart shaped container. The second embodiment comprises, as shown in Figure 10, an elongate boundary wall panel 101 having a transverse folding area 102, flanges 103 and base plate locating means 104, described in further base plate. The flanges 103 join boundary wall 101 at score lines 107. The flanges 103 perform a similar function to flanges 3 of the first embodiment described above. The flanges 103 can include crease marks corresponding to crease marks 8 of the first embodiment, but these are not shown in Figures 10-14.

This second embodiment can also be flat packed.

Figure 11 shows a base plate 110 for use with the boundary wall panel 101 of Figure 10. The base plate 110 is generally heart shaped with a tongue arrangement 116 at the top of the heart to cooperate with locating means 104.

The tongue arrangement is described in further detail later.

Use of the locating means 104 will now be described with reference to Figures 10-14 and especially Figures 12 and 13.

The locating means 104 are provided at either end of boundary wall 101. The two ends are substantially similar, comprising a first flange 120 hingedly connected to the body of boundary wall panel 101 by crease 121 and depending from first flange 120 is a second flange 122 (also forming part of the locating means 104). The second flange 122 is hingedly connected to first flange 120 by crease 123 so that the second flange 122 can fold about crease 123 to overlie first flange 120. Each of the first and second flanges 120, 122 respectively include a cut out slot 115A, 115B respectively, positioned so that when the second flange 122 overlies first flange 120 the slots 115A, 115B are aligned.

The band is joined by aligning line A-A' with line B B' and gluing the first flanges 120 together in a face-toface relationship. Second flanges 122 are then folded over first flanges 120 (but not glued) to provide an aligned slot 115 through which the tongue arrangement 116 on base plate 110 can project to locate and register the boundary wall panel 101 and base plate 110 with respect to one another as shown in Figure 14 (in which the depth of the boundary wall panel 101 is exaggerated for clarity).

Referring now to Figure 13 in particular, the tongue arrangement 116 is shown in more detail. The tongue arrangement 116 is in the plane of base plate 110 is joined to the rest of base plate 110 by a fold line 124 and comprises two panels 125, 126 linked by a fold line 127. The second 126 of the two panels 125, 126 projects across a cut out slot 128 in base plate 110 into which locating means 104 is inserted as shown in Figure 14. In practice, the tongue arrangement 116 is folded to withdraw panel 126 from slot 128 to allow insertion of locating means 104 and then inserted through slot 115 once again to be in the plane of base plate 110.

The second flanges 122 provide the hinging effect against base plate 110, ie, a biassing force to help it fit more snugly and securely.

Although specific embodiments of the boundary walls 1 and 101 for the formation of a container have been described, it will be appreciated that many variations may be provided which would fall within the scope of the present invention. For instance, the locating means 4 and 104 need not be of a slot formation for the reception of tongues 15 and 115 but may have some other formation and, since registration of base plate and boundary walls 1 and 101 could be achieved automatically by a machine assembly arrangement, base plates 10 and 110 and boundary walls 1 and 101 could instead be provided with some visible or non-visible but machine readable mark to enable automatic assembly in the correct orientation.

The crease marks 8 formed in the flanges 3 (and optionally in flanges 103) can be formed by a variety of methods such as embossing, folding, etc. and may be formed automatically by machine at the same time as the main extent of the boundary wall is formed from a sheet of card or similar.

Although fixing of the two ends of the boundary wall together has been described as being done by gluing, other means of attachment are within the scope of the present invention and, for instance, a tongue and slot fixing or other fixing could also be utilised.

It will also be appreciated that the present invention is suitable for the production of a wide variety of shapes of container.

The reader's attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment(s). The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.

Claims

Claims:

1. A locating means associated with the boundary wall panel of a container for cooperation with a complementary formation on a plate.

2. A locating means according to claim 1, in which the locating means provides extra protection against the base plate either pushing through the boundary wall or riding up out of the top of the boundary wall.

3. A locating means according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the locating means comprises a slot or similar formation formed in a region of the boundary wall panel for cooperation with a protrusion provided on the base plate.

4. A locating means according to claim 3, in which the locating means suitably comprises a flange projecting from the body of the boundary wall panel.

5. A locating means according to claim 4, in which the locating means is provided on one end of the boundary wall panel.

6. A locating means according to claim 4, in which the locating means is provided at the top of the panel.

7. A locating means according to Claim 4, in which the locating means is provided at the bottom.

8. A locating means according to any preceding claim, in which the locating means comprises a hinged panel which is preferably pulled back during assembly to give a spring effect to give more positive anchorage of the base plate.

9. A locating means according to any one of claims 1 to 7, in which the locating means comprises a visible or machine readable marking on the boundary wall panel for alignment with a similar marking on the base plate.

10. A locating means according to any preceding claim, in which the locating means on the boundary wall panel is located at a position of a fold or crease in the boundary wall panel.

11. A elongate boundary wall panel for a container, the container comprising a locating means according to any preceding claim.

12. An elongate boundary wall panel for a container, the panel being provided with a plurality generally transverse folding areas longitudinally spaced apart from one another and a length-wise extending flange formed along a transverse edge region of the panel, wherein the flange is foldably and integrally connected to the elongate panel by means of a score-line, the flange being provided along a main extent of the length of said wall panel but at least part of the flange being absent in said folding areas.

13. An elongate boundary wall panel according to claim 12, in which there are provided a plurality of flanges.

14. An elongate boundary wall panel according to claim 13, in which the flanges are completely absent in said folding areas.

15. An elongate boundary wall panel according to any one of claims 11 to 14, in which the flange/boundary wall joins include a region which is creased or cut.

16. An elongate boundary wall panel according to any one of claims 11 to 15, in which the boundary wall is provided with extra creases in which the flange need not be discontinued.

17. An elongate boundary wall panel according to any one of claims 11 to 16, in which the positioning of the folding areas is such that they can be arranged to bring the two ends together at the desired joining position.

18. An elongate boundary wall panel for a container, the panel being provided with a plurality generally transverse folding areas longitudinally spaced apart from one another and a length-wise extending flange formed along a transverse edge region of the panel, wherein the flange is foldably and integrally connected to the elongate panel by means of a score-line, in which one or more of the inturned flanges to has a number of transverse creases or folds formed therein so that when the flange is turned in against the boundary wall, the flange at the points where the folds or creases occur sits against the boundary wall, but in areas adjacent to the folds or creases, the flange sits further away from the boundary wall so as to form a ledge.

19. An elongate boundary wall panel according to any one of claims 11 to 17 or claim 18, further comprising a locating means according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

20. A container incorporating a boundary wall panel according to any one of claims 11 to 19.

21. A container according to claim 19, in which the container is generally heart shaped.

22. A container according to claim 22, in which the locating means is provided in the region of the top of the heart shape at which the curved sections meet at an obtuse angle.

23. An elongate boundary wall panel substantially as described herein with reference to and as shown in Figures 1 to 6, 8 and 9 and in combination separately with Figures 7A, 7B and 7C, or in Figures 10 to 14 of the drawings that follow.

24. A container comprising an elongate boundary wall according to claim 23.