Patent ID: 7056270
Filing Date: 2006-06-06
Classification: B31B,B65D,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method for making two open top boxes as a base and lid of a carrying case, the base and lid being hinged together along rear edges and having a releasable latch mechanism for releasably securing the lid to the base at the front edge in a closed position comprising: (a) for each of the open topped boxes, an assembly sheet having a flat core sheet of rigid polymer foam with a uniform thickness of between one to three centimeters, the core sheet bonded on an inside surface to an inner polymer sheet and bonded on an outside surface to an outer polymer sheet, where the outer polymer sheet comprises rigid polymer with a thickness greater than or equal to 1.5 millimeters and the inner polymer sheet comprises rigid polymer with a thickness about one half that of the outer polymer sheet; (b) making four first router cuts in the assembly sheet, where on each side of the first router cuts the inner polymer sheet and core sheet are cut through to form a 45 degree surface sloping toward a center line from the inner polymer sheet and downward across the core sheet, where an inner surface of the outer polymer sheet is also partly cut through to define a rectangular peripheral groove with four corners along said center line, the rectangle of the peripheral groove establishing edges of a floor section and forming a living hinge with the adjacent outer polymer sheet; (c) making eight second router cuts, two from each corner of the peripheral groove so that each second router cut: (d) making four end cuts through the assembly sheet to define four sidewalls, each end cut extending from ends of the second router cuts and parallel to a different edge of the peripheral groove, where the end cuts form 90 degree surfaces relative to the plane of the outer polymer sheet; (e) applying sloped wall adhesive to the sloped surfaces of the floor section and the sidewalls; (f) rotating the sidewalls upward substantially 90 degrees about the living hinges connecting the sidewalls with the floor section so that all the sloped surfaces contact an adjacent sloped surface and the surfaces of the end cuts substantially form a plane to form an open topped box with four top corners; (g) prior to the sloped wall adhesive setting, applying an edge piece to an outside surface of each top corner and closure edges to top edges, wherein each said edge piece comprises longitudinal ridges adapted to provide a required spacing relationship to adjacent 90 degree edges of the outer polymer sheets of the sidewalls; and (h) applying four top corner pieces and four bottom corner pieces to respective each of the top and bottom corner; wherein each said top corner piece abuts an inner surface of the top corners, spans a top edge of the top corner, and extends downward to urge a top end of each said edge piece onto an outer edge of the box and thereby urging said longitudinal ridges into a required spacing relationship to adjacent 90 degree edges of the outer polymer sheets of the sidewalls; and wherein each said bottom corner piece is bonded to an outside surface of the edge pieces at each said bottom corner of the box.