DISPENSER PACKAGE

Abstract: A dispenser package for stacks of nested tapered cups that serves as a shipping container, and as an apparatus for dispensing cups. The problem associated with cup dispensers, is that it is not always practicable to mount the dispenser in every desired location. The present system provides a plurality of containers containing the cups stackable upon one another to be used in a variety of locations, and positions. The dispenser package (11) holds a stack of nested tapered disposable cups (25) for dispensing them individually. The dispenser package (11) has a generally circular opening (18, 118) in the top wall (12, 112) through which the bottoms of the tapered cups protrude surrounded by a series of flexible tabs or yieldable segments (23, 119) around the periphery allowing a cup to be pulled through the opening, but which function to restrain the cup immediately below. Slits or knife cuts (26, 122) in the top wall (12, 112) of the dispenser package (11) extend from the opening (18, 118) in the top wall (12, 112) to each of the sidewalls (14, 15, 16, 17) at the mid point of each sidewall to permit loading a stack of cups (25) through the top opening (18, 118) of the dispenser package (11) without tearing of the top wall (12, 112). An opening (19) may be provided in the bottom wall of each package with radial slits (21) extending outward a distance sufficient to permit stacking of the individual packages (11) into a compact, multiple unit bundle of package (10) for shipping and display.

Description: DISPENSER PACKAGE This invention relates to a dispenser package for stacks of nested tapered cups that serve as a shipping container and also as apparatus for dispensing the cups. Cup dispensers are well known in the art and generally require some form of permanent mounting on a wall or other suitable structure. It is not always practicable to mount a dispenser of this type in every desired location, and they frequently are mounted in a single location not convenient to all users. This invention provides an improved package structure for nested paper cups that is suited as dispensing apparatus useful in a variety of locations. This invention comprises an improved package structure comprising a container having substantially planar, par¬ allel, mutually spaced first and second walls; each said wall including a generally circular opening, the opening in said first wall axially aligned with the opening in said second wall; said container being adapted to hold a stack of nested cups each having a tapered side wall, a circular bottom wall, and a circular open top, said bottom wall being smaller than either of said openings, and said open end being greater than at least said opening in said second wall, whereby said stack protrudes through said opening in OMPI IPO said second wall at its one end and rests on said second wall in the region of the opening therein, the recited protruding stack of one of said containers extending through said opening in said second wall of the other of said containers so that said last recited second wall is disposed in engagement with the first wall of the recited one container, said cups being dispensible by grasping a protruding cup and removing it through said first opening of a container, either in the recited assembled mode of said units or in the separated mode thereof. Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a perspective view of a package comprising four containers for nested cups illustrating elements of the invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the package in Fig. 1, in a partially disassembled mode; Fig. 3 is a plan view of one of the containers illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, looking in the direction of arrows 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a bottom view of a container, looking in the direction of arrows 4-4 of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is an elevational showing of the composite package of Figs. 1 and 2 , with a portion of one container sectioned generally along the line 5-5 of Fig. 2; Fig. 6 is a plan view of a container illustrating a modification of the structure of Fig. 3; Fig. 7 is a bottom view of a container illustrating a modification of the structure illustrated in Fig. 4; Fig. 8 is a plan view of a container illustrating another embodiment of the container. With reference to the figures. Fig. 1 illustrates a package 10 of two pairs of stacked container units 11 and 11' , each identical to the other and comprising containers or cartons of paperboard capable of serving as dispensing apparatus. Referring also to Figs. 2 and 3, each carton 11 and 11' is of generally rectangular configuration, in- eluding planar, parallel, mutually spaced first and second walls 12 and 13, respectively, joined by planar side walls 14, 15, 16 and 17. As is seen in Fig. 3, first or upper wall 12 includes a generally circular opening 18, and, as is seen in Fig. 4, second or lower wall 13 includes a generally circular opening 19 axially alligned with opening 18. Opening 19 preferably is smaller or of lesser diameter than opening 18, and along its periphery there are provided radially inwardly projecting tabs 20 defined by radial knife cuts 21 in lower wall 13. Tabs 20 are connected to wall 13, along the periphery of opening 19, and include perfora¬ tions 22 extending transversely of the bases of the tabs and outlining a polygon with the perforations substan- tially aligned with the periphery of opening 19. The upper opening 18 preferably is larger or of greater diameter than opening 19, and is substantially defined by tabs 23 which, in turn, are defined by relatively short radial knife cuts 24. Perforations 22 are arranged so that they do not intersect the slits formed by radial knife cuts 21, i.e. the per¬ forations 22 do not join 21. Tabs 20 may be pushed inward to form an opening in the bottom 14 of the dispenser package, preferably of somewhat smaller diameter than opening 18 in the top of the package, the tabs 26 bending along lines defined by perforations 22. As is seen to advantage in Fig. 5, an inverted stack of tapered cups 25 is disposed in each carton 11 and 11', wherein the tapered side wall and bottom wall of the end cup of a cup stack protrudes through the larger opening 18, and the open top of the other end cup of the same cup stack rests on the lower wall 13, in the region of perforations 22. Tabs 20 conveniently serve as a dust cover for the lower walls of a lowermost carton 11 of a package. Tabs 23 defined the upper opening 18 are sufficiently flexible and resilient, as is the nature of the paperboard of the carton, to accommodate one-at-a-time removal of protrud- ing cups through opening 18. In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 6, the top wall 12 of each dispenser package 11 and 11' is provided with slits or knife cuts 26 extending from the circular opening 18 to each of the sidewalls 14, 15, 16, and 17, at a point on the circular opening 18 adjacent each sidewall. The slits or knife cuts 26 are preferably positioned to extend from the center of the top of each side wall to the circular opening 18, the cuts intersecting the circular opening at a point on its periphery nearest the adjacent sidewall. It has been found that provision of the slits or knife cuts 26 permit a stack of cups 25 to be loaded into the package 11 through the top opening 18 without tearing the top wall 12 and without disabling the tabs 23. In another embodiment, illustrated in Fig. 7, tabs 20 formed by knife cuts 21 on the bottom wall 13 of the dispenser package are joined at their inner ends by webs 20' holding the tabs 20 in place until the webs are ruptured by insertion of the small end of a protruding OMPI " stack 25 of cups in one package into the open end of a stack 25 of cups in another package thereby tearing the webs 20' " and pushing tabs 20 inward. It will be evident that any number of dispenser containers may be stacked in this 5 manner to form a compact package. An alternate preferred embodiment of opening 18 in the upper wall of the container is illustrated in Fig. 8. In this embodiment, the top wall 112 of the dispenser package 10 is provided with a generally circular or generally octa¬ gonal opening 118. In the preferred embodiment illus¬ trated in Fig. 8, the opening 118 is made up of four arcuate jaws 119, the arcuate segments each subtending an angle of 40° to 45° and each interconnected to four 15 straight sided segments 120 by curved fillets 121 having a small radius relative to the radius of the arcuate portion of jaws 119. The upper opening 118 as defined by the straight sided segments 120 and the circular segments of arcuate jaws 119 are smaller than the diameter of the 20 top curl or rim of a cup. The purpose of the arcuate jaws 119 will become apparent from the following description of their function. In use, an inverted stack of tapered cups 25 is disposed 25 in dispenser package 11, as illustrated in ig. 5 such that the tapered side wall and bottom wall of the end cup of a cup stack protrudes through opening 118, and the open top of the other end cup of the cup stack rests on the lower wall 13. Jaws 119 defining the smaller diameter portion 30 of opening 118 are sufficiently flexible and resilient to permit the withdrawal of one cup through opening 118 while retaining the remainder of the stack. The top wall 112 of this embodiment of the dispenser 35 package is provided with slits or knife cuts 122 extending OMPI from the midpoint of each of straight segments 120 de¬ fining opening 118 in the top wall 112 of the dispenser package to each of the sidewalls 14, 15, 16, and 17, at the midpoint of each sidewall. The knife cuts are perferably positioned to extend from the center of the top of each sidewall to the center of each straight segment 120 as il¬ lustrated in Fig. 8. Knife cuts 122 permit a stack of cups 25 to be loaded into the package through the top opening 118 without tearing the top wall 112 of the package and without damage to arcuate dispensing jaws 119. The straight segments 120 are preferably parallel to the side walls and the arcuate jaws 119 are preferably opposite the corners of the top wall. In this embodiment of the invention, four diagonal slits or knife cuts 124 in the top wall 112 of the package may be provided to intersect the opening 118 at the midpoint of the arcuate dispensing jaws 119. As a cup is dispensed, at times several cups may cling to one another whereupon the diagonal knife cuts 124 cause a slight division of dispensing jaws 119 on each side of slits 124 allowing the segments of the dispensing jaw to snap over the top rim or curl of the first cup onto the rim of the trailing cup thereby separating the cups and allowing a single cup to be dispensed. The combination of curved or arcute jaws 119 and interconnecting straight sided segments 120 and ra¬ dial slits 124 move with a slight independence of one another to provide an improved cup dispensing package. The straight sided segments 120 contact only a very small area of the rim of a cup on either side of knife cuts 122. This arrangement serves to reduce resistance to with¬ drawal of a cup from the package. The combination of arcuate jaws 119, straight segments 120 and radial slits 122 and 124 cooperate to allow slight separations of the knife cuts with just enough movement for dispensing a O PI single cup while retaining the remainder of the stack in the package. As is further seen to advantage in Fig. 5, the pair of i 5 stacked cartons 11 are so positioned that the protruding end cup 25 of a cup stack in one carton 11, i.e. lower carton, extends through the smaller opening 19 of the other carton 11, i.e. upper carton, flexing the radial tabs 20 about perforations 22 and being received in the 10 open top of the bottom or lowermost cup of the inverted stack in the upper carton 11. Further to the paired cartons 11, the lower wall 13 of the upper carton is disposed in engagement with the upper wall 12 of the lower carton, whereby the upper carton is supported on the lower 15 carton. To separate a pair of stacked cartons, one need only lift an upper carton to a postion as shown in Fig. 5. Assembly of the side-by-side pairs of cartons 11 as a package 10 is maintained by a sheet of flexible material 20 such as a clear plastic film overwrap 27 (Fig. 1) held in the illustrated rectangular form over the protruding cup stacks by a flat rectangular sheet 26 of stiff plastic material in an inverted U-shape configuration, wherein the flat loop portion rests atop the inverted cup stacks 25 and the leg portions are generally coplanar with the sides of the assembled cartons as shown. While two pairs of cartons 11 are illustrated as making up "V the package 10, it will be appreciated that several pairs 30 may be arranged side by side, in a single line, or in a square array, either being overwrapped with a clear plas¬ tic sheet or film as shown, and having a form also as shown to present a flat upper package surface facilitating stacking of several packages. Alternatively, where 35 stacking of the packages is not contemplated, assembly of a package may be achieved using conventional shrink- wrapped film without the form 27. Alternatively, a plurality of containers may be arranged atop one another in a package, and assembly may be maintained by clear wrapping film. In any of the described combinations, the inventive structure achieves both practical and aesthetic qualities desired of a cup dispenser, affording an attractive, compact package capable of ready disassembly by the user into equally attractive, easy to use dispensing units. While paperboard is the preferred material of the carton, it will be apparent from the foregoing that other mater- ials affording adequate flexibility and resilience for flexure of the tabs, such as polyethylene or like plastic, or laminates including paperboard, plastic, or metal foil, will be suitable for use in achieving objectives and advantages of the invention. It will be appreciated that the foregoing as well as other alternative embodiments may be resorted to without de¬ parting from the scope of the claims.

Claims: Claims : 1. A dispenser container structure for disposable cups comprising a container (11) having substantially planar, parallel, mutually spaced top (12, 112) and bottom (13) walls and a plurality of side walls (14, 15, 16, 17); an opening (18, 118) in the top wall (12, 112) of said container provided with a plurality flexible tabs (23, 119) restricting said opening to a size insufficient to permit passage of a cup freely there through, said container being adapted to hold a stack of nested cups (25) each having a tapered side wall, a bottom wall, and an open top having an external rim, said bottom wall of each said cup being smaller than said opening (18, 118) defined by said tabs (23, 119) and said rim portion of said cup being larger than said opening defined by said flexible tabs (23, 119) whereby said stack (25) protrudes through said opening (18, 118) in said top (12, 112) , said flexible tabs (23, 119) surrounding said opening in said top (12, 112) being capable of permitting passage of a cup there through by flexure of said tabs. 2. A dispenser container structure as defined in Claim 1 wherein said tabs are defined by ' a series of radial knife cuts (24) in said top wall (12) surrounding said opening ( 18) . 3. A dispenser container as defined in Claim 1 wherein said top wall (12, 112) is divided into a plurality of segments by knife cuts (26, 122) extending from the edge of said opening (18, 118) to each of said sidewalls (14, 15, 16, 17) with each segment having at least one flexible tab (23, 119). 4. A dispenser container as defined in Claim 1, wherein said opening (18, 118) in said top wall (12, 112) is defined by a plurality of flexible arcuate jaws (119) interconnected by straight sided segments (120). 5. A dispenser package as defined in Claim 4 wherein said arcuate jaws (119) and straight sided segments (120) are joined to one another by curved fillets (121). 6. A dispenser package as defined in Claim 1 wherein said bottom wall (13) includes an opening (19) smaller in diameter than the opening (18, 118) in said top wall (12) and axially aligned therewith, a plurality of radial slits (21) extending from said opening in said bottom wall outwardly a distance from the center of said small opening (19) sufficient to exceed the radius of the small end of a cup but less than a distance equal to the radius of the large end of a cup. 7. A dispenser package as defined in Claim 6 wherein a plurality of knife cuts (22) in a generally circular pattern is provided in said bottomwall (13) at the outer ends of said radial slits (21) defining a plurality of tabs (20) in a non-intersecting relationship with said radial slits (21) and forming a generally circular line of weakness facilitating bending of said tabs (20) in¬ wardly along fold lines defined by said pattern of knife cuts (22). 8. An improved cup package (10) comprising at least a pair of containers (11, 11') as defined in Claim 1, each of said containers (11, 11' ) including an opening (19) in the bottom wall (13) thereof axially aligned with and of smaller diameter than said opening (18) in said top wall (12), and a plurality of tabs (20) extending outwardly -from said smaller opening (19) wherein the recited pro¬ truding cup stack (25) of one container (11) of said pair extends through said bottom wall (13) of the other container (11') of said pair and is nested in the lower- most cup in said other container (11'), said bottom wall (13) of said other container (11') of said pair engages said top wall (12) of said one container (11) of said pair in an assembled mode of said pair of containers, said containers being separable in said assembled mode to form a disassembled mode thereof permitting dispensing of a cup from either container. 9. A package structure as defined in Claim 8, including a sheet of flexible material (27) wrapped over said separable containers (11, 11') for maintaining the re¬ cited disposition thereof.

Inventors: GOULD JEROME, KELLOGG THOMAS W, KUCHENBECKER MORRIS W, PAWLOWSKI THOMAS DOMINIC, VAXMONSKY JOSEPH J, GOULD, JEROME, KELLOGG, THOMAS, W., KUCHENBECKER, MORRIS, W., PAWLOWSKI, THOMAS, DOMINIC, VAXMONSKY, JOSEPH, J.
Applicants: JAMES RIVER DIXIE NORTHERN INC, JAMES RIVER-DIXIE/NORTHERN, INC.
Application year: 1983
Main classification: B65G59
IPC codes: B65D83, B65G59, G07F13