Patent ID: 6158587
Filing Date: 2000-12-12
Classification: B65D

Abstract:
Resiliently expandable sleeves, tapered to facilitate nesting in storage, and moulded from paper pulp or recycled waste papers, a multiplicity of which can be assembled into a closely connected group of sleeves for the positioning and protective separation from each other of articles placed vertically and closely spaced in a container, each said sleeve being comprised of four side walls of similar shape and dimensions, each tapered from a wider width at its upper end to a lesser width at its lower end, said four side walls of each said sleeve being connected together at a predetermined portion of the length their adjacent edges to form the tapered tubular form of said sleeve, said four upper edges of said side walls of each said sleeve forming the rim of a square opening designed to provide free entry of said article, each of said side walls being designed to deflect outwardly of said sleeve, to permit the further entry of one of said articles into said sleeve to a point in the length of said sleeve where the total internal connected circumference thereof is approximately equal to, but not less than, the circumference required to accommodate the size and shape of the article to be entered therein, and beyond that point the connections between said adjacent edges of said side walls are discontinued to permit the required further entry of said article into said sleeve, the upper ends of adjacent sleeves being connected together at the upper edges of adjacent side walls thereof, when required to form a closely interconnected group of said sleeves.