End loaded carton and method of loading it

Abstract: An end loaded carton having top, bottom and side walls foldably adjoined to form a tubular structure is provided with closure structure for the lower portion of the ends of the tubular structure which includes a triangular corner panel (21, 29) hingedly connected with the lower part of each end edge of each side wall (12, 6) and having a crease line extending divergently upward from the lower corner of each side wall, a pair of closure panels (25, 33) foldably adjoined to said corner panel along said crease lines at each end of the carton and forming a closure structure for the lower part of each end of the carton, a bottom end panel (4) foldably joined to each end edge of the bottom wall together with a connecting web panel (26, 34) foldably joined to the bottom edge of each closure panel and to each of the bottom end panels at each corner of the carton.

Description: This invention relates to cartons for packaging a plurality of containers such as bottles or cans and which preferably is formed of paperboard. European patent specification publication number 0,044,169 discloses in Fig. 5 an end loaded carton for packaging a plurality of articles such as bottles or cans and is concerned with a closure structure for the ends of the carton, the closure structure including closure flaps foldably adjoined to gusset panels which in turn are foldably joined to the end edges of the carton side walls. The construction described in this disclosure is concerned with a modification in the arrangement of band lines associated with the end closure panels so that they more closely conform to the shape of these containers which are in contact with the end closure panels. End closure panels connected to the top wall at each end of the carton are connected to side end closure panels which themselves are connected to the side walls by means of gusset panels (connecting web panels). These gusset panels lie in the plane of the side walls of the blank so that when the side walls are erected relative to the top wall the gusset panels, which hinge with the side walls, are disposed in the upright plane of the side walls. In the present arrangement, a construction which is similar in some respects is provided to achieve a tighter fitting package. However, gusset type panels (connecting web panels) interconnecting a bottom panel and adjacent side wall panels remain in the plane of the bottom panel end after the carton blank has been put into a sleeve form in which the side walls are erected relative to the base. In closing the ends of the carton of the present invention, the bottom end panels are folded downwardly which, inter alia, shifts the corner panels to effect a partial gripping action of the corner articles within the carton. Therefore, according to one aspect of the invention there is provided an end loaded carton for packaging a plurality of articles and comprising top, bottom and side walls foldably adjoined to form a tubular structure, an end closure structure for each end of said tubular structure each of which end closure structures includes a pair of corner panels hingedly connected to the end edges of respective ones of said side walls, a pair of closure panels each of which is foldably adjoined to respective ones of said corner panels and forming a part of said closure structure for the lower part of each end of the carton, a bottom end panel foldably joined to each end edge of said bottom wall, and a connecting web panel foldably joined to the bottom edge of each of said closure panels along a first fold line and to each of said bottom end panels along a second fold line to form a corner portion of the carton wherein each corner panel is defined in part by a pair of divergent crease lines extending upward from the lower corner of each side wall and in which one of said crease lines hinges said corner panels to the adjacent side wall and the other of said crease lines hinges the adjoined closure panel to said corner panel in that each of said connecting web panels and said bottom end panel to which it is foldably joined are substantially coplannar when said carton is formed to provide said tubular structure but prior to the folding of said end closure structure and wherein downward folding of each of said bottom end panels toward a vertical position following loading of the carton effects partial closing of the associated closure panels and bending of said crease lines and shifting of said corner panels to initial positions astride the carton corners thereby effecting a partial gripping action of the corner articles within the carton. Another aspect of the invention provides a method of loading and closing the ends of an end loaded carton subsequent to loading, which carton comprises a top, bottom and side walls foldably joined to form a tubular structure, and further comprising an end closure structure having a first corner flap, a first closure panel, a first connecting web, an end panel, a second connecting web, a second closure panel and a second corner flap hingedly joined together in series, each of the corner flaps being hingedly attached to associated edges of respective side walls and said end panel being hingedly connected to said bottom wall, the method comprises the steps of presenting said carton in its tubular form such that none of the panels of the end closure structure impede access to loading the carton through its open ends, passing articles into the carton through at least one of the open ends of the carton, and folding said end panel away from the open end to effect movement of the first and second closure panels and first and second corner flaps inwardly towards the open end thereby at least partially closing said open end. An embodiment of this invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a blank as viewed from the inside and which embodies the invention; Figure 2 is a view of the blank shown in Figure 1 following a folding and gluing operation whereby the top, bottom and side walls are formed into a tubular structure when the collpased arrangement of Figure 2 is manipulated into set up condition; Figure 3 is a view of the set up open ended carton ready for loading; Figure 4 is an end view similar to Figure 3 following loading and during an intermediate stage of forming the closure structure for the lower portion of the end of the carton; and Figure 5 is a view similar to Figures 3 and 4 but which shows the loaded carton with its end structure fully closed. With reference primarily to FIG. 1, the numeral 1 designates the bottom wall of the carton. A bottom end panel 2 is foldably joined to an end edge of bottom wall 1 along fold line 3 while a bottom end panel 4 is foldably joined to the end edge of bottom wall 1 along fold line 5. One side wall of the carton includes a lower portion 6 which is foldably joined to a side edge of bottom wall 1 along fold line 7 together with an upper portion 8 which is foldably joined to lower side wall portion 6 along fold line 9. A glue flap 10 is foldably joined to the upper portion 8 of one side wall along fold line 11. The opposite side wall of the carton includes a lower portion 12 foldably joined to a side edge of bottom wall 1 along fold line 13 together with an upper portion 14 foldably joined to lower side wall portion 12 along fold line 15. Top wall 16 is foldably joined to the upper portion 14 of one side wall along fold line 17 and includes hand gripping aperture 18 which includes finger gripping flaps 19 and 20 of well known construction. Closure structure for the lower portion of one end of the carton includes corner flap 21 which is foldably joined to the lower portion 6 of one side wall along a fold line 22 and which includes a crease line 23 which extends divergently upward from the lower corner 24 of the carton. Closure panel 25 is foldably joined to corner panel 21 along fold line 23. Connecting web 26 is foldably joined to the bottom edge of closure panel 25 along fold line 27 and to bottom end panel 4 along fold line 28. As is indicated on FIG. 1, fold lines 27 and 28 are disposed with respect to each other at an angle of approximately 55 degrees. Fold line 28 is disposed with respect to the end edge 5 of bottom wall 1 at an angle slightly in excess of 45 degrees and preferably at an angle of approximately 48 degrees as indicated in FIG.1. On the opposite side of the carton, a corner panel 29 is foldably joined along fold line 30 to an end edge of the lower portion 12 of a side wall and a crease line 31 extends divergently upward from carton corner 32 and defines an edge of corner panel 29. A closure panel 33 is foldably joined to corner panel 29 along crease line 31. A connecting web 34 is foldably joined to a side edge of closure panel 33 along fold line 35. Connecting web panel 34 is foldably joined to bottom end panel 4 along fold line 36. Fold lines 35 and 36 are angularly disposed with respect to each other by an angle of approximately 55 degrees and the fold line 36 is disposed with respect to the bottom end edge 5 of bottom wall 1 at an angle somewhat in excess of 45 degrees and which preferably is approximately 48 degrees. The opposite end of the carton is closed by structure identical to that just described. This closure structure includes bottom end panel 2 together with corner panel 37 and closure panel 38 together with connecting web panel 39 as well as corner panel 40, closure panel 41 and connecting panel 42. In order to form the collapsed carton of FIG. 2 from the blank shown in plan view in FIG. 1, an application of glue is first made to the top wall 16 as indicated by stippling. Thereafter the upper portion 8 of one side wall is elevated and folded toward the right along fold line 9 while the upper portion 14 of the other side wall is elevated and folded to the left along fold line 15. This action causes the stippled adhesive on the top panel 16 to adhere to the glue flap 10. The blank then appears as shown in FIG. 2. The collapsed carton as shown in FIG. 2 is set up ready for loading as shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 4 the articles B have been loaded through the end of the carton and bottom end panel 4 has been folded downwardly into approximately a vertical position. This action results in the disposition of fold line 28 slightly above fold line 5 as shown in FIG. 4 and swings the closure panel 25 together with the corner panel 21 into partially closed positions due to the action of connecting web 26 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. Connecting web 26 is foldably joined to bottom end panel 4 along fold line 28 which is arranged at an angle slightly in excess of 45 degrees to the end edge 5 of bottom wall 1. This action causes bending at fold line 22 and at crease line 23 so as to cause corner panel 21 and the associated closure panel 25 to move to initial positions astride the carton corners. Corner panel 29 and closure panel 33 are similarly manipulated by connecting web 34. An application of glue is made to bottom end panel 4 as indicated by stippling in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 5 bottom end panel 4 is then folded upwardly through an angle of approximately 180 degrees to cause the end closure panels 25 and 33 together with the corner panels 21 and 29 to shift to their final closed positions due to the towing in action attributable to the disposition of fold line 28 somewhat above fold line 5 so as to tighten the end closure structure substantially and to form an attractive closure for the end of the carton and to grip the articles such as bottles B in a secure manner. Bottom end panel 4 is secured to end closure panels 25 and 33 by the glue applied to bottom end panel 4.

Claims: An end loaded carton for packaging a plurality of articles and comprising top (16), bottom (1) and side walls (12,14: 6,8) foldably adjoined to form a tubular structure, an end closure structure (4,25,33; 2,38,41) for each end of said tubular structure each of which end closure structures includes a pair of corner panels (21,29; 37,40) hingedly connected to the end edges of respective ones of said side walls, (6,12) a pair of closure panels (25,33,38,41) each of which is foldably adjoined to respective ones of said corner panels and forming a part of said closure structure for the lower part of each end of the carton, a bottom end panel (2,4) foldably joined to each end edge of said bottom wall,-and a connecting web panel (26, 34; 39, 42) foldably joined to the bottom edge of each of said closure panels along a first fold line (27,35) and to each of said bottom end panels along a second fold line (28,36) to form a corner portion of the carton, each corner panel being defined in part by a pair of divergent crease lines (22,23; 30,31) extending upward from the lower corner of each side wall and in which one of said crease lines hinges said corner panels to the adjacent side wall and the other of said crease lines hinges the adjoined closure panel to said corner panel, characterized in that each of said connecting web panels (26,34; 39,42) and said bottom end panel (2; 4) to which it is foldably joined are substantially coplannar when said carton is formed to provide said tubular structure but prior to the folding of said end closure structure and wherein downward folding of each of said bottom end panels toward a vertical position following loading of the carton effects partial closing of the associated closure panels and bending of said crease lines and shifting of said corner panels to initial positions astride the carton corners thereby effecting a partial gripping action of the corner articles within the carton. An end loaded carton according to claim 1 wherein each of said web panels is of substantially triangular configuration. An end loaded carton according to claim 1 wherein said first and said second fold lines intersect at the bottom corner of the adjacent side wall. An end loaded carton according to claim 1 wherein said first and said second fold lines are disposed at an angle of approximately fifty-five degrees to each other. An end loading carton according to claim 1 wherein said second fold line is disposed at an angle somewhat in excess of forty-five degrees to the adjacent end edge of said bottom wall. An end loading carton according to claim 5 wherein said second fold line is disposed at an angle of approximately forty-eight degrees to said adjacent end edge of said bottom wall. An end loading carton according to claim 1 wherein each of said bottom end panels is bonded to the associated closure panels. An end loading carton according to claim 1 wherein downward folding of each of said bottom end panels to a vertical position followed by upward folding through approximately one hundred eighty degrees of each of said bottom end panels moves said second fold line to a position slightly above the associated end edge of said bottom wall and effects a final towing in closing of said closure panels and a final shifting of said corner panels to final positions astride the carton corners thereby to tighten the carton about the end articles in the carton. A method of loading and closing the ends of an end loaded carton subsequent to loading, which carton comprises a top (16), bottom (1) and side walls (12,14;6,8) foldably joined to form a tubular structure, and further comprising an end closure structure (4,25,33;2,38,41) having a first corner flap (21,37), a first closure panel (25,38), a first connecting web (26,39), an end panel (4,2), a second connecting web (34,42), a second closure panel (33,41) and a second corner flap (29,40) hingedly joined together in series, each of the corner flaps (21,37,29,40) being hingedly attached to associated edges of respective side walls and said end panel (2,4) being hingedly connected to said bottom wall, the method is characterised by the steps of presenting said carton in its tubular form such that none of the panels of the end closure structure impede access to loading the carton through its open ends, passing articles into the carton through at least one of the open ends of the carton, and folding said end panel (2,4) away from the open end to effect movement of the first and second closure panels (25,38,33,44) and first and second corner flaps (21,37,29,40) inwardly towards the open end thereby at least partially closing said open end. The method according to claim 9 further comprising the step of folding the end panel (2,4) downwardly to a substantially inverted position thereby causing relative hinged movement of all the panels of the end structure. The method of claims 9 or 10 further followed by the step of closing each open end of the carton by moving the end panel (2,4) towards the open end wherein closing movement of the end panel (2,4) causes end closure panels (25,33;38,41) and corner panels (21,29) to move from partially closed positions substantially to their closed positions thus forming a closure which securely grips articles adjacent the ends of the carton. The method of claim 11 wherein an application of glue is made to the bottom of the end panel (4,2) and the end panel is then folded into a closed position thereby enabling the end panel (2,4) to become secured to each of the first and second end closure panels (25,33;38,41).

Inventors: WOOD PRENTICE J, WOOD, PRENTICE J.
Applicants: MEAD CORP, THE MEAD CORPORATION
Application year: 1988
Main classification: B65D71
IPC codes: B65D71