Multi-unit package particularly for parallelepiped cartons

A package which accommodates a plurality of parallelepiped cartons includes a sleeve having a top wall panel and a bottom wall panel interconnected by spaced side wall panels thereby forming a tubular structure in which the parallelepiped cartons are accommodated. The tubular structure includes end wall panels which at least partially close the ends of the tubular structure. Corners of the sleeve each formed in part by a side wall panel and an adjacent end wall panel extend substantially the full height of the packaged cartons adjacent to such corners are each formed with a recess. The recesses of one sleeve are sized and positioned to receive said upper and lower corner portions of a like adjacent sleeve so that the adjacent sleeves can be nested when in flat form.

This invention relates to a multi-unit package which is particularly 
suitable for parallelapiped cartons sometimes referred to as `brik` 
cartons. Such brik cartons are normally formed from a composite paperboard 
or like material having an inner fluid resistant lining and more usually 
containing a foodstuff or beverage such as fruit juice, milk or soups. 
Such brik cartons have walls which are relatively "soft" i.e. exhibit some 
give when pressure is applied to them but which recover to their previous 
disposition when the applied pressure is relieved. 
There is a demand for the sale of such cartons in multiple units of, say, 
six cartons and the present invention is concerned with a retaining 
wrapper which holds together in a group a number of such brik cartons to 
provide a "carry home" package. The wrapper is designed to enhance the 
resistance to vertical loading of the package so that it is stronger when 
stacked during palletization. Moreover the wrapper is designed to provide 
a carrying handle and to give panel space on which advertising material 
can be presented. 
One aspect of the invention provides a package which accommodates a 
plurality of parallelepiped cartons and comprises a sleeve including a top 
wall panel and a bottom wall panel interconnected by spaced side wall 
panels thereby forming a tubular structure in which said parallelepiped 
cartons are accommodated, said tubular structure including end wall panels 
which at least partially close the ends of the tubular structure wherein 
corners of the sleeve each formed in part by a side wall panel and an 
adjacent end wall panel extend substantially the full height of the 
packaged cartons adjacent to such corners and wherein upper and lower 
edges of each side wall panel adjacent upper and lower portions of said 
sleeve corners are each formed with a recess, said recesses of one sleeve 
being sized and positioned to receive said upper and lower corner portions 
of a like adjacent sleeve so that the adjacent sleeves can be nested when 
in flat form. 
According to a feature of this aspect of the invention, said recesses and 
said corner portions may be complementary. 
According to another feature of this aspect of the invention, said top wall 
panel and said bottom wall panel may comprise strips of material extending 
between said side wall panels said strips being shaped so that a pair of 
cooperating end closure panels of one sleeve can be nested with the top 
and bottom wall panels of a like adjacent sleeve when in flat form. In 
constructions where this feature is adopted, said top and bottom wall 
panels are of waisted form. 
Another aspect of this invention provides a package which accommodates a 
plurality of parallelepiped cartons and comprises a sleeve including a top 
wall panel and a bottom wall panel interconnected by spaced side wall 
panels thereby forming a tubular structure in which said parallelepiped 
cartons are accommodated, said tubular structure including end wall panels 
which at least partially close the ends of the tubular structure, wherein 
upright corners of the sleeve each formed in part by a side wall panel and 
by an adjacent end wall panel extend substantially the full height of the 
packaged cartons adjacent to such corners and wherein a pair of 
cooperating end wall panels of one sleeve can be nested with respective 
ones of the top and bottom wall panels of a like adjacent sleeve when 
those sleeves are in flat form. 
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a pair of nested 
carton blanks each of which blanks is adapted to form a wrapper for 
accommodating a plurality of parallelepiped cartons and each of which 
comprises, in series, a first side wall panel, a top panel, a second side 
wall panel and a bottom panel hinged one to the next and wherein each side 
wall panel has an end closure panel hinged thereto at opposed end edges 
thereof, the hinged connection between an end closure panel and an 
adjacent side wall panel providing an upright corner of said wrapper and 
wherein opposite extremities of each corner of one blank are received in 
recesses formed in marginal edges of opposite side wall panels of a like 
adjacent blank thereby providing for the nesting of said adjacent blanks. 
A still further aspect of the present invention provides a pair of nested 
carton blanks each of which blanks is adapted to form a wrapper for 
accommodating a plurality of parallelepiped cartons and each of which 
comprises, in series, a first side wall panel, a top panel, a second side 
wall panel and a bottom wall panel hinged one to the next and wherein each 
side wall panel has an end closure panel hinged thereto at opposed end 
edges thereof, and wherein a pair of cooperating end closure panels of one 
blank is received in nested relationship relative to the top and bottom 
wall panels of a like adjacent blank thereby providing for nesting of said 
adjacent blanks.

Referring to the drawings, the elongate blank 10 shown on the left side of 
FIG. 2 is formed from paperboard or like foldable sheet material and is 
shown in flat nested relationship with respect to a similar blank 10a. 
Like reference numerals in relation to blank 10a designate like part of 
blank 10 with the addition of suffix "a". 
Wrapper blank 10 comprises a first side wall panel 12, a top wall panel 14, 
a second side wall panel 16 and a bottom wall panel 18 hinged one to the 
next along transverse fold lines 20, 22 and 24 respectively. 
At each of the opposite transverse ends of side wall panel 12 is hinged an 
end wall panel 26 and 28 about longitudinal fold lines 30 and 32 
respectively. Likewise, side wall panel 16 carries at each of its opposite 
transverse ends, end panels 34 and 36 hinged to side wall panel 16 about 
fold lines 38 and 40 respectively. 
It will be seen that the top and bottom wall panels take the form of a 
"waisted" strip of material. This facilitates nesting of the blanks as 
described below and in the case of the top wall panel the "strip" provides 
a convenient handle by which the package can be carried. Bottom wall panel 
18 has a securing flap 42 hinged thereto along transverse fold line 44. 
When the wrapper is applied to a group of brik cartons and formed into a 
sleeve, the securing flap 42 is glued or otherwise secured to the free 
(lower) transverse marginal edge of side wall panel 12. The completed 
package is shown in FIG. 1 where a group of six carton briks are 
maintained in a unit by a wrapper blank of the type described. The ends of 
the tubular structure formed by the wrapper are closed partially by 
cooperating end closure panels 26, 34 and 28, 36 respectively, each 
cooperating pair being secured in overlapping relationship. 
In order to allow blanks to be struck from a web of paperboard stock with a 
minimum of material wastage, various of the panels of the blanks are 
shaped in such a way that adjacent blanks can be nested head to toe, as 
shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the top wall (handle) panel 14 and the bottom wall 
panel are of waisted configuration thereby to be nestable with respect to 
the end wall panels of adjacent blanks which are of complementary form. 
For example, in FIG. 2, end wall panels 26a and 34a are each shown engaged 
in a respective complementary recess 14', 18' which are defined by end 
edges of panels 14, 18 respectively by virtue of their shape. 
At the corners of the package illustrated in FIG. 1, the wrapper is 
co-extensive with the cartons so that dimension `d` of the wrapper carton 
is substantially equivalent to the height of the adjacent packaged carton 
`B1`. By the provision of such a `full height` corner construction, the 
stacking strength of the package is enhanced because the vertical 
compressability of the package as a whole is improved so that crushing of 
the brik cartons is resisted. It is, of course, possible to have the 
height of each side wall throughout its length equivalent to dimension `d` 
but such a carton design detracts from the full nesting of adjacent 
blanks. Thus, each side wall at its upper and lower edges is formed with a 
recessed portion adjacent each corner of the wrapper. For example, the 
upper and lower corner parts C1, C2 of the package formed from blank 10, 
adjacent carton B1 (FIG. 1) nest into complementary recesses R1 and R2 
formed in side walls 16a and 12a, respectively of blank 10a when the 
blanks are struck from the paperboard web. Hence, upper corner portion C1 
of blank 10a is nested into recess R1 of the blank 10 and lower corner 
portion C2 of blank 10 is nested into recess R2 of blank 10a whereby the 
upper and lower portions C1, C2 of nested blank lay adjacent one another. 
With this arrangement the end closure panels of one blank can be virtually 
fully nested with a like adjacent blank whilst also providing a full 
height corner structure for the package.