WO2004014754A1

WO2004014754A1 - Pack assembly

Info

Publication number: WO2004014754A1
Application number: PCT/NL2003/000576
Authority: WO
Inventors: Anne Marten Hiddema; Roland Edwin Van Der Werf; Johannes Hendricus Van Bommel
Original assignee: Huhtamaki Protective Packaging BV
Current assignee: Huhtamaki Protective Packaging BV
Priority date: 2002-08-12
Filing date: 2003-08-12
Publication date: 2004-02-19
Anticipated expiration: 2005-02-12
Also published as: AU2003261666A1; NL1021256C2

Abstract

Support (10) made of a moulded fibre material consisting of a flat side and a side provided with accommodations (12). These accommodations are so made that a series of drink packs of parallelepiped shape, and more particularly the closures thereof, can be accommodated by said accommodations. When the support is placed on the packs a carrier is produced on which a subsequent series of packs or outer packaging can be placed. The support can extend over a limited portion of the surface of a series of packs which, for example, has been placed in a box. It is also possible to use the support as carrier for a group of packs.

Description

Pack assembly

The present invention relates to a pack assembly comprising a group of parallelepiped-like drink packs placed next to one another, each provided at the top with a closure that is raised with respect to the top surface thereof, said group comprising a number of rows of packs as well as a carrier enclosing said group from above or from below, which carrier contains a support for, respectively, bearing a further pack assembly or bearing the related pack assembly, which support is provided with a peripheral rim as well as accommodations for said closures. A pack assembly of this type is disclosed in FR 2 775 666. In this assembly a group of drink packs is held together with shrink wrap. A lid-like carrier that bears on the drink packs with two surfaces is placed on the top thereof. The first surface bears on the top of the closures, such as caps. The second surface, which is at a lower level, bears on the top of the drink packs. In this way when a further pack assembly is stacked on top the force from said further pack assembly can be uniformly distributed over the packs located below it and damage to the closures can be prevented. As a result the risk of damage can be limited. Such a carrier is produced from moulded or thermoformed plastic material.

The aim of the present invention is to provide a pack assembly that has a higher stability than the construction described in this French patent. This aim is realised with a pack assembly as described above in that said carrier comprises a moulded fibre material and in that said peripheral rim is made hanging down or upright with a length such that the top or bottom, respectively, of the side walls of said drink packs adjoin said rim within the latter.

According to the present invention the part bearing on the packs or the part on which the packs bear is provided with a peripheral rim within which the side walls of the packs are enclosed from above or, respectively, from below. As a result, using the carrier according to the invention it is possible not only to provide support towards a pack assembly beneath it or, respectively, above it, but the relevant group of packs of the pack assembly is also held together in the lateral direction. Further stability is obtained as a result. According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention this stability is such that it is no longer necessary to apply shrink wrap or other means to hold the packs together.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention there are further means to restrict the lateral movement of the packs arranged underneath or, respectively, on top of the carrier. These means can be a further peripheral rim but they can also be, for example, ridges or other enclosures. The support is preferably made from, a moulded material provided with elevations and depressions. The elevations act as accommodations for the cap-like closure, whilst the depressions are preferably made in the form of supporting ribs which bear on the surface of the packs that surrounds the cap-like closures. Although any type of moulded material can be used, a particularly simple construction is provided if moulded fibre material is used.

According to a first variant of the invention it is no longer necessary to use boxes any more for the transport and storage of packs. According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention the support is constructed as a carrier. That is to say, the support is made in such a way that it extends over all packs of a group. By providing the support with a peripheral rim, these packs are held together. In this way it is possible in a particularly material-saving manner to hold packs together and to group them, followed by transport and storage. A particularly small amount of waste is produced when separating into the individual packs.

The invention also relates to a support comprising a moulded material, an essentially flat side and an opposing side provided with a series of accommodations in line, delimited between ribs. In particular this support is so constructed that it can be nested. This can be achieved by selecting the position of the elevations and the ribs of the support in an appropriate manner. Using the abovementioned support it is possible to stack groups of packs above one another and alongside one another. However, it is also possible to arrange the supports such that they are always stepped in groups of packs on top of one another. By this means a particularly stable unit of packs can be obtained, for example on a pallet. The stability is greater than in the case of simply stacking boxes on top of one another. After all, the accommodations with the cap-like closures fitted therein ensures stable and reliable positioning of the support.

According to the invention the support is provided with accommodations for receiving, for example, the cap-like closures. These are received in the accommodations over the entire height or at least part of the height. Consequently, when the cap-like closure is subjected to load the weight caused by the load will be uniformly distributed by insertion of the support according to the present invention, not only over the cap-like closures, but also over the adjacent part of the pack. Because this adjacent part is usually closer to the peripheral edge of the pack, this has a higher bearing capacity. In this way denting of the underlying packs, and more particularly at the location of cap-like closures, by the weight of the packs placed on top is prevented.

As described above, the carrier can comprise a box and in particular the base thereof. In combination with such a box, the support according to the invention is, for example, placed in the central part thereof, that is to say the part some distance away from the relatively rigid side walls of the box.

The invention will be explained below with reference to illustrative embodiments shown in the drawings. In the drawings: Fig. 1 shows, diagrammatically, a perspective view of a box for containing drink packs;

Fig. 2 shows the application of the invention with the box according to Fig. 1; Fig. 3 shows a further variant of the invention; and Fig. 4 shows the support shown in Fig. 3 in combination with packs. In Fig. 1 a box for accommodating three rows of packs 5 provided with a so-called spin cap 6 is indicated by 1. Each row consists of four packs 5. Box 1 is provided with side walls 3, a base (open carrier) and top surface 4. In the illustration shown here the central part of the top surface 4 has been removed. It will be understood that this may or may not be present. When a number of boxes 1 are stacked on top of one another the weight of the central series of packs 5 in the upper box will be transferred to the central series of packs 5 of the box beneath it. After all, in view of the distance from the side walls 3 and the flexibility of the top part 4 hardly any force will be transferred by this. This means that the weight of one or more series of packs on top presses on the cap-like closures 6. Consequently, dents can be produced in the upper series of packs 5 and/or the cap-like closures 6 in the lower series of packs 5 can be pushed inwards. In all cases an undesired result is obtained.

In order to avoid this problem a support 10 is proposed according to the invention. This is shown in Figure 2 and in the subject embodiment is made of moulded fibre material. Moulded fibre material is understood to be a material moulded from an aqueous fibre slurry essentially consisting of wood-based material. Such a fibre material can be moulded in the slurry-like state and then dried. One example is moulded board produced from paper material. Support 10 consists of a peripheral flange 11 and a number of accommodations 12 for the closures 6. There are ribs 13 and elevations 14. Ribs 13 are so made that when support 10 is placed on the central series of packs 5 this makes contact with the top of these packs. The elevations 14 provide an additional support surface together with the accommodations 12 and flange 11 for the further pack placed on the box 10. Preferably flange 11, top of accommodations 12 and top of elevations 14 are in the same surface on which the central part of the next pack bears. In this way a uniform distribution of the weight of the box on top onto the box below can be obtained.

A further variant of the present invention is shown in Fig. 3. In this figure the support is indicated in its entirety by 20 and also consists of a moulded fibre material. The accommodations for the closures 6 of packs 5 (see Fig. 4) are indicated by 22 and 23. Ribs 25, 26 are located between these. A flanged edge is indicated by 27.

As can be seen from Fig. 4, support 20 functions not only for distributing the load from the series of packs 5 on top onto the series below in that the accommodations fit over the closures 6 of the series of packs below, but also serves as a tray for accommodating a group of packs. As a result of the flanged peripheral edge 27 the position of the packs is accurately delimited.

In this embodiment the assembly of raised parts and ribs has been so chosen that when the supports 20 are not in use these can be stacked on top of one another turn and turn about such that they nest. That is to say the raised parts and ribs move past one another.

It has been found that it is possible to stack appreciable heights using the supports 20 described above. Six groups of packs on top of one another are found to constitute no problem at all and no additional measures are needed to distribute the weight.

In particular in the case of the construction shown in Fig. 4, but also in the case of the embodiment according to Fig. 2, it is possible to let the support extend over only part of the group below. If the support has a size that is greater than said group, this will extend towards a further group and the groups will thus be linked to one another in this way.

The groups of packs can, moreover, be held together, for example, by shrink wrap or with straps. As a variant it is possible that the edge 27 in Figs 3 and 4 extends downwards, as a result of which the tops of a group of drink packs are held together instead of the bottoms, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. A combination of the two is also possible, that is to say both packs on top and packs placed below are held together by means of a support 20. A particularly stable unit is produced as a result and the use of shrink wrap or the like is no longer necessary.

Although the invention has been described above with reference to a preferred embodiment, variants that are obvious will be immediately apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the above. These fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. Pack assembly comprising a group of parallelepiped-like drink packs placed next to one another, each provided at the top with a closure that is raised with respect to the top surface thereof, said group comprising a number of rows of packs as well as a carrier enclosing said group from above or from below, said carrier comprising a support for, respectively, bearing a further pack assembly or bearing the related pack assembly, which support is provided with a peripheral rim as well as accommodations for said closures, characterised in that said carrier comprises a moulded fibre material and in that said peripheral rim is made hanging down or upright with a length such that the top or bottom, respectively, of the side walls of said drink packs butt up to said rim within the latter.

2. Pack assembly according to Claim 1, wherein said assembly comprises only said packs and said carrier(s).

3. Pack assembly according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that said carrier is provided with further enclosing means in order to enclose packs of a pack assembly positioned underneath or on top thereof.

4. Pack assembly according to Claim 3, comprising three rows of packs.

5. Pack assembly according to one of the preceding claims, where said closures are cap-like closures.

6. Pack assembly comprising a group of parallelepiped-like drink packs (5) placed next to one another, each provided at the top with a closure (6) that is raised with respect to the top surface thereof, said group comprising a number of rows of packs as well as a carrier supporting said group, the middle row of said packs being provided with a support, which, when fitted, delimits an essentially flat surface at the top and at the bottom is provided with accommodations (12, 22, 23) for receiving said accommodations, characterised in that said carrier comprises a box (1) and said support is fitted in said box on the row of packs that does not directly butt against the walls of said box and said support comprises a moulded fibre material.

7. Pack assembly according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said support is provided with support ribs (13, 25, 26) which when said cover is in the fitted position extend from the top thereof down to the boundary of said closures.

8. Pack assembly according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the accommodations in said support are made in such a way that they nest in one another when said supports are placed on top of one another turn and turn about.