A method for packaging decorating articles

Abstract: The invention of this patent application relates to the packaging of decorating articles. Typically said articles are packaged in plastics packaging which is required to be fitted to the articles by hand or, when performed automatically, the finished package is undesirably bulky. The method of packaging of the invention allows a plurality of articles to be packaged at one time and is an automatic process. The finished package is designed such that only the head portion of the articles are packaged with the handle portion projecting from the packaging. Furthermore the dimension of the packaging is close to the dimension of the article which is trapped therein. Additionally there may also be incorporated into the package a backing layer or printed advertising material to enhance the appearance of the article to the consumer.

Description: This invention relates to the packaging of articles, which comprise head portions and handle portions, of which the head portions typically require protection to prevent damage thereof prior to the articles being purchased or used. One particular type of articles to which the invention relates are articles for decorating, and typically although not exclusively to brushes. The invention relates to the method of packaging said articles in plastics material, and in particular relates to an improvement in the way in which the said plastics packaging is provided and also to the method by which the packaging of the brush is performed. The packaging of said brushes serves to protect the bristles of the brush from damage, prior to sale; to enhance the appearance of the brush to the prospective purchaser and allows information and advertising labels to be placed in or on the package. Although this patent discusses the issues specifically relating to the packaging of brushes it should be understood that the patent relates to the use of this method of packaging in relation to other decorating sundries and in particular with regard to other paint applicators such as rollers and pads where the application heads require protection. Paint applicators and in particular brushes are generally required to be at least partially packaged to protect the bristles of the brush head from damage during transit and subsequent inspection by potential purchasers. It has been found that if said bristles are not packaged they are prone to become splayed such that when the applicator is used, the painted finish is substandard. It is therefore desirable, as it is with any decorating sundry, that the head portion be protected by packaging whilst allowing said head to be viewable by the potential purchaser. It is furthermore preferable that said heads and, in particular, brush heads are kept in a closely fitting package, such that said bristles are kept in a tight formation as desired. At present there are a plurality of methods by which brushes may be packaged. One of the most common methods involves the placement of a brush within a plastic wallet or sleeve as is disclosed in patent US3419132 wherein the wallet is provided with a flap, which, once said brush is in location, is folded and adhered to the remainder of the wallet to maintain said brush in position, and close the wallet. This sleeve can also be provided with location means for the brush and the method of packaging is widely used but is at present performed manually. The manual packing of said brushes is time consuming and a typical production rate using this method is eight brushes packed per minute. In addition, the use of manual labour to package said brushes increases the possibility of damage to the bristles during packing as the packer attempts to manipulate the brush such that it fits within the plastic wallet. There are also several automatic methods available and one such method involves the provision of a preformed plastic outer cover for the fitment of the whole brush therein and the adherence of a peripheral lip around the plastic coverto a card backing sheet to form the package. Such packages are disclosed in Patents US 4240552 and US4905828. Due to the requirement for the provision of a plastic lip to be adhered to the backing card and the tolerances required therefor, the package is required to be considerably larger than the brush itself leading to excessive use of the packaging material. In addition the finished size of this packaging prohibits the use of this method as it is regarded as a disadvantage of this and all the packaging methods currently in use that the overall size of the packaging, once complete, is too large. In order to comply with the demands of the retailers of the said articles it is desired that the dimension of the packaging should be as close to the size of the article as possible. It is also desired that the packaging should prevent damage to the shape and condition of the packaged article and in respect to brushes in particular, the bristles of the brush. Additionally it is an ever present objective to allow the production rate of packaging to increase. There are further packaging methods available as disclosed in patents FR-2481670 and FR-2154253 which disclose methods of packaging for electrical components and granulate material respectively. However in both cases there is no appreciation shown of the fact that the packaging methods can be used for the packaging of articles for the purpose of displaying and protecting the articles held therein. The articles are typically wholly enclosed by the packaging which is provided purely for the purpose of protecting the articles held therein but not for the purpose of restricting the size of the packaging or any other display considerations and as such do not provide solutions to the problems of packaging the articles of this application. The aim of the present invention is to provide an utilise a packaging method which is specifically suitable for the packaging of said articles and in particular paint applicators such that at least the heads of the applicators can be kept in a secured, protective package and said package does not detract from the appeal of the product. The present invention relates to a method of packaging decorating articles, or part of said articles, in a plastics packaging material for the display thereof, characterised in that said articles or parts thereof are placed respectively in a plurality of side by side cavities formed in a sheet material base of plastics material; said articles or parts thereof covered by a plastics sheet material top, to trap the same in the packaging and the top is sealed to the base at least at the areas between the adjacent cavities and a cutting action is performed to separate the packaging into individual packages with at least one decorating article located in each package. Preferably said sheet material base of the packaging has formed therein a multiplicity of moulded cavities such that said sheet material base will allow a plurality of said articles to be placed in position and sealed therein by application of the sheet material top. Preferably the head portion of the articles are trapped by the packaging, whilst the handle portion projects therefrom. Preferably the top is a sheet material of sealable synthetic plastics. Preferably the method of packaging will ensure that the shape of said cavities prevents the packaged articles from being released from the package without destruction of said package. Preferably, the cavities will be formed such that they provide an interference fit with the articles placed therein. Preferably, said seals in the packaging will be formed by R/F Welding wherein there is provided specially designed tooling which, when applied to the plastic sheeting will cause a seal to be formed between the first and second parts of the packaging. Typically there will be provided machine tool jigs in which the sheet material base is placed. Preferably, the machine tool jig will be driveably moveable, with articles placed in said cavities, to present same for the application of the sheet material top. In one embodiment the method of packaging will provide trapped within the sealed package, in addition to the article, an inner sheet which is sealed within the package. An inner sheet will in one embodiment be provided with an inner sheet in the form of a coloured vinyl which serves as a backing to the article. A further method of packaging involves the further step in that there is provided external to the sheet material top an external vinyl layer. Typically the packaging method so described may also be used to package a plurality of said decorating articles in one package such that the packaging process so described may be used to trap a number of articles within one final package. In a further embodiment the cavities in the sheet material base are formed with location means which locate with at least the head portion of the articles when placed therein to locate and hold the articles in the cavity. In one embodiment the package will include an inner sheet in the form of a card or label upon which is provided printed matter. Preferably the inner sheet will be a vinyl which serves as a backing material to the package. The method of packaging and the packaging will now be described with reference to the following diagrammatic drawings and in relation to one embodiment of the packaging wherein:- Figure 1 shows the form of a brush, in elevation, to be packaged; Figure 2 shows a side view of the brush in Figure 1; Figure 3 shows a plan view of the sheet material with cavities; Figure 4 shows an elevation of the sheet material with cavities; Figure 5 shows a schematic representation of the packaging process; Figure 6 shows an elevation of the finished packaged brush; and Figure 7 shows a side view of the finished packaged brush. As can be seen from Figures 1 and 2 in this embodiment the decorating article to be packaged is a brush 10 which is of a rectangular headed form 12. The brush 10 comprises a brush handle 14 and a brush head 12 which is formed of bristles 16 and a brush clamp 18 which attaches the handle 14 to the head 12. It is only the brush head portion 12 which, in this case, is required to be packaged. Figures 3 and 4 show sheet material base part 20. The said sheet material 20 includes a cavity 22 which is shaped such that the brush head 12 can fit therein. The cavity 22 is repeated a plurality of times 24, each of the same dimensions. The narrowed section 26 is shaped such as to locate the sheet material cavity 22 around the narrow top 27 of the handle 14, hence ensuring that the finished pack shall not slip off the brush. There is shown in one cavity the provision of friction location means 23 which serve to further maintain the brush in portion in said cavity. These may be repeated in each cavity as required. The spaces 28 and 30 around the said cavities are provided such that the welding and cutting operations may be performed thereon. The brush heads 12 are placed into the cavities 24 in the direction of arrow 34. The said brush heads shall be easily placable in the cavities 24. The side walls 36 of the cavities 24 are designed to minimise the overall width of the finished blister pack. Figure 5 gives a schematic representation of the Blister packaging process. The brushes 10 are firstly placed in position following arrows 34 into the cavities 24 of the sheet material 20. Once the brushes 10 are in position the said sheet material with cavities is placed as in arrow 38 into the machine tool jig 42 shown in section through the cavity section. This machine tool jig is formed so as to accurately locate the sheet material 20 and cavities 24. The said jig forms seats with the said sheet material at 40 and is repeated for each cavity. Additionally an inner sheet 67 may be placed on top of the jig 42 once the brushes are in located position. The jig 42, sheet material 20, cavities 24 and brushes 10 and hereby jointly represented by the numeral 43, are presented, 44, for the sheet material top 46 application, the sheet material (46) in this case in the form of a continuous roll 48 however in another embodiment (not shown) the said film may be in precut sheets. The sheet material top, 46, is placed on the top of the jig 43 and in contact with the sheet material 20 at the areas 49 shown. The next stage is for the jig 43 with sheet material top 46 and represented by the numeral 52 to be presented, 50, for the welding and cutting operations in which the sheet material top is welded to the sheeting material 20 at predesignated points. The welding and cutting head 54 is forced down ,56, onto the jig 52. The sheet material top 46 is first welded to the said sheet material 20 by means of welding faces 58 and 60 which are placed so as to weld in the spaces so previously described as 28 and 30. The said sheet material is then cut into individual blister packs by means of cutters 62. The welded and cut blister packs can then be removed from the jig (not shown). Figures 6 and 7 show the finished blister pack 64 and trapped brush head 12 with handle 14 remaining unpacked. A hole 66 has also been punched in the said pack to provide for hanging the pack on display. It can be seen that this form of packaging requires only a small gap 68 to be left between the brush and the package, with the weld seal 70 close to the size of the brush and at the rear of the brush when on display. The use of this method of packaging brushes reduces by a considerable amount the overall size of the packaged brush and therefore meets the requirements of the retailers of the said brushes. The packaging additionally provides an enhanced visual appearance of the goods which is desirable to the manufacturer in the competitive trade in which they are involved. In addition this package serves to increase the protection provided for the bristles of the brush and is of such a form as to keep the bristles in the required shape. The production rate for the packaged brush is improved from approximately eight packaged brushes per minute to sixty brushes per minute which represents a substantial increase in productivity at what was previously a bottleneck area of the production process. Additionally the manpower required to operate this new packaging process is reduced from forty persons to twelve persons, a reduction of seventy per cent.

Claims: A method of packaging decorating articles (10), or part of such articles, in a plastics packaging material for the display thereof characterised in that said articles, or parts thereof, are placed respectively in a plurality of side by side cavities (22) formed in a sheet material base (20) of plastics material; said articles or parts thereof, covered by a plastics sheet material top (46) to trap the same in the packaging and the top (46) is sealed to the base (20) at least in the areas (28) between adjacent cavities and a cutting action is performed to separate the packaging into individual packages with at least one decorating article (10) located in each package. A method of packaging according to Claim 1 characterised in that the said sheet material base (20) has formed therein a multiplicity of moulded cavities (22) such that said sheet material base (20) will allow a plurality of said articles (10) to be placed in position and sealed therein by application of the sheet material top (46). A method of packaging according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that the head portion (12) of the articles (10) are trapped in the packaging whilst the handle portion (14) projects therefrom. A method of packaging according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that the sheet material top (46) is a sealable synthetic plastic. A method of packaging according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that the shape of said cavities (22) prevents the packaged articles (10) from being released from the package without destruction of said package. A method of packaging according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that the said cavities (22) are formed such that they provide an interference fit with the article (10) placed therein. A method of packaging according to claim 1 characterised in that said seals are formed by R/F welding such that there is provided tooling (58) (60) to cause the seal to be formed and hence trap the articles (10) in the cavities (22). A method according to claim 1 characterised in that there is provided machine tool jigs (42) (43) in which the sheet material base is placed. A method of packaging according to Claim 8 characterised in that the machine tool jig (42) is drivably movable (44) with the articles placed in said cavities (22) to present same for the application of the sheet material top (46). A method of packaging according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that there is trapped within the sealed package, in addition to the article (10), an inner sheet (67) which is sealed within the package. A method of packaging according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that there is provided, external to the sheet material top (46), an external vinyl layer. A method of packaging according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that there is provided a plurality of articles (10) in one package and held in trapped location between the sheet material base (20) and sheet material top (46). A method of packaging articles according to any of the preceding claims characterised in that there is provided in the cavities (22) of the sheet material base (20) location means (23) to locate said articles respectively therein. A method of packaging according to any preceding claim characterised in that the cavities are provided with location means (23) which locate with at least the head portion of the articles when placed therein to locate and hold the articles in the cavity.

Inventors: STONE HENRY STEPHEN NEIL, STONE, HENRY STEPHEN NEIL
Applicants: STANLEY WORKS LTD, THE STANLEY WORKS LIMITED
Application year: 1992
Main classification: B65D75
IPC codes: B65D75