Tray container with tear out cover

A tray-type container is disclosed which is formed from paperboard having a coating of heat sealable and heat resistant film material and which, when fully set-up has a rectangular bottom wall with upstanding side walls which are connected at the corners by folded triangular web members and which have an outwardly directed flange formation at the top edges on which the margins of a lid member of the same material may be adhesively secured with provision for tearing out the major portion of the lid member so as to uncover the contents in the tray while leaving substantial marginal portions of the lid member intact and secured in reinforcing relation on the tray flange.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to containers and is particularly concerned with 
improvements in product containers which are in the form of a tray and 
which may be fabricated from paperboard of a character which will enable 
the container to serve the dual purpose of packaging the product and 
permitting it to be processed in the same container. 
Tray containers have been developed heretofore which are particularly 
adapted for use in the marketing of a bakery product where the container 
may be of a character which will permit the product to be processed in the 
container in which it is packaged. Products such as cakes, pastry, and the 
like which are generally in a flowable state initially, that is, in a 
liquid or semi-liquid condition, require that the container be leakproof 
when filled to a predetermined level with the product and capable of 
withstanding oven temperatures during the baking process without being 
destroyed by the heat in the oven. For such products, the containers most 
commonly employed are formed from thin metal foil or relatively stiff 
metallic sheet material which can be pressed or shaped to the desired form 
and serve as part of the package in which the product is marketed. Such 
containers are generally expensive and lacking in esthetic appeal since 
they do not readily accept the inks commonly employed in decorative 
printing. Efforts have been made, with some degree of success, to provide 
non-metallic trays which are suitable for this purpose. One such tray 
structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,797 granted to Guelfo A. 
Manizza Sept. 19, 1978. Another tray construction of this type, which is 
formed from paperboard having a filmlike heat resistant coating is 
disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 148,908 filed May 12, 1980 by 
Guelfo A. Manizza and William M. Brown which has been developed for 
handling bakery products, such as bread, where a rectangular shape is 
desired so that the finished product will have the conventional 
rectangular shape of a loaf of bread. In trays of this type having a 
coating in the form of a plastic film, the plastic film generally has 
shrink characteristics which differ from paperboard with the result that 
the side walls will buckle and have an unattractive appearance unless some 
provision is made to overcome the difference in shrinkage such as the 
scoring or cutting arrangement employed in Ser. No. 148,908 at the fold 
line between the side wall panels and the flange which is most often 
desired so as to seat thereon the margins of a lid or for other reasons. 
Experience with tray structures of this type having a top flange on the 
side walls has shown that there is a need for a construction which will 
permit reinforcing the side walls against buckling or bulging and which 
will enable a satisfactory lid structure to be employed without detracting 
from the advantages obtained by the use of the flange and the film coated 
material. 
It is a general object, therefore of the present invention to provide an 
improved lid structure for open top trays of the type described which 
affords greater rigidity in the side walls, and provides the tray with 
greater capability in use, and which is economical to produce so as to 
compete with trays formed of metal foil, and the like. 
It is a more specific object of the invention to provide an improved lid 
structure and a method of securing the same on the top edge flange of a 
tray like container which is fabricated from a paperboard blank, 
preferably coated with a film forming heat resistant plastic material, 
which is cut and scored, so that it can be set-up with side wall panels 
upstanding from a rectangular bottom wall panel and connected at the 
corners by pairs of integral web members which are folded upon each other 
and secured against the faces of side walls, which have narrow top flanges 
for reinforcing the side walls and on which margins of the lid may be 
secured with the lid having provision for tearing out the major portion so 
as to expose the contents while leaving the marginal portions intact and 
secured in side wall reinforcing relation on the top edge flange. 
The herein disclosed and claimed invention comprises a lid or cover for a 
tray structure of the type having upstanding side walls with a relatively 
narrow top edge flange, which tray structure is fabricated from a cut and 
scored blank of paperboard material, with the top edge flange formation 
adapted to be adhesively adhered beneath the margins of the cover member 
and the cover member being cut scored on opposite faces adjacent its 
peripheral margins so that the major portion which the cut-scores surround 
may be torn out and a marginal strip will remain adhered to the top face 
of the tray flange so as to stiffen the flange and side wall.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION 
Referring to the drawings, there is illustrated a tray-type container or 
carton 10 which is adapted for use in the preparation and marketing of 
bakery products, particularly, bread, the tray structure being fabricated 
from a single sheet of flexible paperboard material which is coated with a 
heat resistant film and which is cut and scored as illustrated in FIG. 7. 
It will be understood that the container shown in the drawings is 
described and illustrated for the purpose of setting forth the presently 
preferred form of the invention and that the principles of the invention 
may be otherwise applied. 
The tray 10, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 6, is fabricated from the cut and 
scored blank 12 which is shown in FIG. 7 with the face uppermost which 
will become the inside face in the set-up tray. In the form illustrated, 
the blank 12 is prepared from paperboard, of relatively light weight or 
gauge, which is coated or laminated with a suitable material to render it 
more resistant to damage when subject to high temperatures, such as baking 
oven temperatures. The illustrated material is paperboard provided with a 
coating of plastic film material which will incresae its resistance to 
absorption of heat to the degree desired for withstanding baking oven 
temperatures and which will also permit heat sealing of the coated surface 
to the paperboard surface. A suitable treatment of paperboard stock to 
form the blank 12 is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,104 granted Sept. 9, 
1976 to William Paul Kane. 
The blank 12 is particularly designed to form a tray for processing a loaf 
of bread, having a somewhat greater length than width. The blank is in the 
form of a generally rectangular sheet of the foldable material having a 
substantially greater length than width, which is cut so that the grain is 
in the direction of the width or shortest dimension of the blank, as 
indicated by the arrow 13 in FIG. 7. The blank is cut and scored or 
creased, so that it is symmetrical about longitudinal and transverse 
center lines a--a and b--b. It is divided by parallel longitudinally 
extending, transversely spaced, hinge forming score or crease lines 14, 15 
and by parallel transversely extending, longitudinally spaced, hinge 
forming score or crease lines 16, 17 which define a bottom wall forming 
center panel 18 with its edges coinciding with the bottom edges of 
sidewall forming panel portions 20 and 22, and end wall forming panel 
portions 23 and 24. The side and end wall panel portions 20, 22 and 23, 24 
are connected at the four corners of the blank by corner connecting web 
portions 25, 26, 27 and 28. The transverse score lines 16 and 17 are 
extended at their opposite ends on lines 30, 32, 33 and 34, respectively, 
which are on a slight angle or inclination in the direction of the 
opposite ends of the blank and which define the opposite ends of side wall 
panels 35 and 36. The side wall panels 35 and 36 have relatively narrow 
flange forming edge reinforcing panel portions 37, 38 which extend along 
the free outer margins thereof and which are divided therefrom by 
combination cut and creased lines 40 and 42, the latter being parallel 
with and spaced outwardly of the score lines 14 and 15, respectively. The 
longitudinal score lines 14 and 15 are extended at their opposite ends on 
lines 43, 44 and 45, 46 which are at a slight angle or inclination in the 
direction of the opposite sides of the blank and which define the ends of 
end wall panels 47 and 48. The end wall panels 47 and 48 have outboard 
margins with relatively narrow edge reinforcing panel portions 50 and 52 
which are divided therefrom by combination cut and creased lines 53 and 
54, the latter being parallel with and spaced outwardly of the score lines 
16 and 17, respectively. The corner connecting web panels 25, 26, 27, 28 
are each divided in an identical manner and only one will be described in 
detail. The corner web panel 25 is divided by a center fold forming score 
line 55, so as to form pairs of triangular web panels 56, 57. The pair of 
triangular panels 56, 57 connect side and end wall panels 35, 47, while a 
corresponding pair of panels formed in the corner web panel 26 connect 
side and end wall panels 36 and 47 at that end of the blank. At the other 
end of the blank pairs of triangular panels in corner web panels 27 and 28 
connect the end wall panels 35 and 36. The outside edges of the corner web 
panels 56 and 57 are cut on lines 58 and 60 which are approximately normal 
to the score lines 30 and 43 which define the ends of the associated side 
wall and end wall panels 35 and 47. The triangular web panel 57, which 
adjoins the end wall forming panel 47 has a narrow edge flange forming 
panel portion 62 which is divided thereform by a combination cut and 
scored line 63 which is parallel with and spaced inwardly of edge line 60. 
The panel 62 will have a width somewhat less than the width of the 
associated flange forming panel 37, which permits the panel 62 to be 
folded and engaged beneath the end of the associated flange forming panel 
37 when the corner web panels 56 and 57 are folded into overlying relation 
with and along the top outside margin of the associated side wall panel 
35. The flange forming panel 62 is cut, at the end adjoining the end 
flange forming panel 50, on the line 64 so as to leave the panel 50 with a 
small tab 65 extending from the end thereof. The opposite end of flange 
panel 50 is cut to form a like tab 65' and the flange panel 52 on the end 
wall panel 48 is provided with like tabs 65, 65' in the same manner. The 
flange forming panels 37 and 38 on the long length side wall forming 
panels 35 and 36 are each extended at their opposite ends to provide 
integral corner connecting tabs 66 and 66'. These tabs 66, 66' on the 
flange panels 37, 38 extend beyond the transverse hinge fold lines 30, 32 
and 33, 34 and are cut so as to overlie the end tabs 65, 65' on the flange 
members 50 and 52 on the end panels 47, 48 when the tray is set up. 
The combination cut and scored lines referred to may be formed by "skip 
cutting" or "cut scoring" the blank material, that is, by cutting on these 
lines closely spaced cuts of relatively small length which extend through 
the plastic film coating but not through the paperboard with which the 
film forms a laminate. The intervals between the small lengths cuts may or 
may not be creased, since the cuts will define the hinge fold line for the 
relatively light gauge paperboard sa well as a means for relieving the 
tension in the film. 
In setting up the tray 10 from the blank 12, the end wall panels 47 and 48 
may be folded on the hinge lines 16 and 17 simultaneously with the folding 
of the side wall panels 35 and 36 about the hinge lines 14 and 15. The 
corner connecting web structures 25, 26 and 27, 28 will fold with the end 
and side wall panels with which they are integrally connected and the two 
halves of each such corner structure will fold upon themselves and about 
the hinge lines 30, 33 and 32, 34 with the folded panels being directed 
into overlying relation on the end portions of the outside faces of the 
side wall panels 35 and 36, leaving the small, narrow flange forming 
panels 62 on the web panels positioned with the coated or film side or 
face exposed for heat sealing to the outside faces of the end portions of 
the flange forming panels 37, 38 on the side walls 35, 36. The end wall 
forming panels 50 and 52 will be folded into outwardly directed flange 
position followed by folding of the flange portions 37, 38 so as to bring 
the end tabs 66, 66' on the flange panels 37 and 38 into overlying sealed 
relation. 
In the form of the tray illustrated the plastic film material and the 
paperboard material have sufficiently different shrinking and stretching 
characteristics when heated and cooled so that the side walls will 
normally tend to buckle due to this difference. This tendency is releaved 
somewhat by the flange and the corner connecting web arrangement and also 
by cut scoring on the flange hinge lines. The buckling tendency is further 
reduced by the application of a cover member or lid 70 which is adapted to 
be applied with its margins adhesively secured to the flanges 37, 38 and 
50, 52 so as to seal the contents in the tray. The lid or cover member 70 
is especially formed from a paperboard sheet or blank having a film 
coating on the surface of the same character as the film on the tray, with 
the film coated face adapted to become the inside face when secured on the 
tray. It is cut with its overall dimensions corresponding to the overall 
dimensions of the top of the tray so that its margins may be adhesively 
secured on the top surface of the peripherial flange formation on the 
tray. The panel member constituting the cover is prepared for application 
by cutting on two parallel peripherial lines 72 and 73, with the cutting 
being to partial depth and on opposite faces of the panel. The cutting 
lines 72 and 73 are spaced from each other and inwardly of the peripherial 
edge of the flange formation on the tray side and end walls. The cutting 
lines are located, or spaced, as shown in FIG. 5 so as to define a 
peripherial marginal strip 74 of substantial width somewhat less than the 
width of the flange formation. The outside cutting on the line 72 is made 
to a depth which will substantially sever the paperboard portion 75 of the 
panel while the inside cutting on the line 73 is of sufficient depth to 
sever the film coating 76 leaving a strip area 77 between the two cutting 
lines of sufficient width to insure a proper sealing of the contents of 
the carton. A tear starting tab 78 (FIG. 2) is formed at one corner by 
interrupting the outer and inner cutting on lines 72 and 73 and cutting on 
the spaced outwardly directed lines 80 and 82 on the outside of the panel 
to the same depth as cutting line 72. This will enable the user to start 
the tearing along the partially cut lines by lifting the tab 78 upwardly 
(FIG. 3). The removal of the lid material defined by the cutting line 72 
on the top face of the cover panel will leave intact on the flange the 
marginal strip 74 which is outboard of the tearing line 72 as a stiffener 
for the flange and the associated side wall panels. If the inside cutting 
73 is sufficiently deep, as a result of inaccurate adjustment of cutting 
blades, which may occur, the tearing may leave on the tray flange some 
portions of the paperboard in the area between the cutting lines 72 and 73 
along with the film material in this area, which is generally not 
objectionable. 
In FIGS. 8 and 9 a modified form of lid or cover member 84 is illustrated 
in which the cutting on the spaced parallel peripherial lines 85 and 86 in 
the margin of the lid is uninterrupted and in one corner of the panel cuts 
are made on closely spaced U-shaped lines 87 and 88 which are of the same 
character as the cutting on lines 85 and 86 so as to define a tab area 90 
which may be pressed inwardly with a finger so as to permit the panel 
material at 92 outboard of the tab 90 to be grapsed and pulled upwardly to 
start the tearing on the cutting lines 85 and 86 as illustrated in FIG. 9.