Abstract:
A carton includes an open top container ( 10 ) and a separate top closure ( 20 ). The upper periphery of the open top container is reinforced by reinforcing panels ( 76, 88, 96 ) and the top closure is releasable from the open top container.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to a carton for containing a plurality of similar articles, such as bottles and a means for retaining the bottles within the carton and in particular to a means of accessing the articles. 
         [0002]    Cartons for encasing multiple articles are useful for enabling consumers to obtain and transport a desired quantity of individual articles such as soft drinks or other beverages. Such cartons need to be strong enough to support multiple articles, especially if the articles are bottles. It is also desirable for such cartons to be easy to handle and portable. 
         [0003]    It often desirable for the articles contained within the carton to be displayed and also for the carton to have large areas which can be printed with advertising graphics. It is also often desirable for the articles to be easily accessible and it is also preferable for the articles to be secured in place within the carton, especially if the articles are fragile, for example glass bottles. It is however undesirable for articles to be accessed too easily, for example, before being purchased. 
         [0004]    It is also desirable to have a carton which after the contents of the articles have been consumed can be used to return the empty articles to a recycling point. 
         [0005]    The present invention seeks to provide a means for displaying the articles or a portion of the articles in combination with an access means for removal of the articles where the access means leaves the carton with sufficient integrity for replacement of articles for the purpose of returning to a recycling point. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    According to a first aspect of the invention, in a carton of the type comprising an open top container and a separate top closure, the upper periphery of the open top container is reinforced around the perimeter by reinforcing panels hinged along an edge of the upper periphery, wherein the top closure is releasable from the open top container. 
         [0007]    Preferably the reinforcing panels are hinged to at least one adjacent reinforcing panel. The top closure may be at an elevation below that of an upper extremity of the open top container when the carton is in use. 
         [0008]    Alternatively the top closure is at an elevation substantially equal to that of a lower extremity of the reinforcing panels when the carton is in use. The carton may further comprise at least one reinforced handle aperture struck from one of said opposing walls, the arrangement being such that the handle apertures are located at an elevation above the top panel. 
         [0009]    Preferably the top closure comprises apertures for receiving articles or a portion thereof, wherein each aperture has a frangible connection with at least one other aperture to facilitate removal of the articles. The carton may retain sufficient structural integrity such that it can be re-used for returning empty articles. 
         [0010]    According to a second aspect of the invention, a two part blank comprising a first part that forms an open top container and a second part which forms a top closure, the first part comprises reinforcing panels hinged along an upper edge of the open top container, which reinforce the upper periphery of the open top container in a carton in a setup condition, wherein the top closure is releasable from the open top container. 
         [0011]    Preferably the top panel comprises apertures for receiving the articles or a portion thereof, wherein each aperture has a frangible connection with at least one other aperture to facilitate removal of the articles. The carton may further comprise at least one reinforced handle aperture being struck from one of said opposing walls. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    Exemplary embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which; 
           [0013]      FIG. 1A  illustrates a first part of a blank for forming a carton according to a first embodiment of the invention; 
           [0014]      FIG. 1B  illustrates a second part of a blank for forming a carton according to a first embodiment of the invention; 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  is a perspective view from the front, side and top of a carton being constructed from the blanks of  FIGS. 1A and 1B ; 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view from the front, side and top of a carton constructed from the blanks of  FIGS. 1A and 1B . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0017]      FIGS. 1A and 1B , show a first and second part of a two-part blank respectively for forming a carton  30 , made from paperboard or similar foldable sheet material. It is envisaged that a unitary blank could be used instead, without departing from the scope of the invention. In the first embodiment of the invention two blanks  10  and  20 , of  FIGS. 1A &amp; 1B  are formed into a tubular crate and a cover respectively. The cover is inserted into the tubular crate to form the carton  30  of the first embodiment, which is shown in  FIG. 1C . 
         [0018]    In the embodiments to be described the carton  30  is of the fully enclosed type, although it will be recognised that the invention could be applied to a crash bottom carton without departing from the scope of the invention. The invention is designed to receive similar articles, such as bottles, but it is envisaged that the present invention could be used to contain other articles, without departing from the scope of the invention. 
         [0019]    Turning to  FIG. 1A , the blank  10  comprises a first side wall  12 , a front panel  14 , a second side wall  16  and a back panel  18 , hingedly connected one to the next in series along fold lines  42 ,  44 ,  46  and  48  respectively. Handle apertures  54  are struck from the first and second side walls  12 ,  16 . Finger gripping tabs  58  protrude inward from the upper edges of the handle apertures  54 . The finger gripping tabs enable the erected carton to be easily grasped and lifted by the handle apertures  54 . 
         [0020]    The blank further comprises bottom end flaps  72  and  74  hingedly connected to each of the first and second side walls  12 ,  16  along fold lines  62  and to each of the front and back panels  14 ,  18 , along fold lines  64 . The bottom end flaps  72 ,  74  provide a bottom end closure means when the blank is erected into a carton. It is envisaged that other bottom end closure means could be used without departing from the scope of the invention. 
         [0021]    Top end flaps  76 ,  96  are also provided and are hingedly connected to each of the first and second side walls  12 ,  16  and the front and back panels  14 ,  18  along fold lines  68  and  66  respectively. The top end flaps  76 ,  96  are hingedly connected one to another and can provide reinforcement to the top edges of the first and second side walls  12 ,  16  and the front and back panels  14 ,  18  when the blank is erected into the carton  30 . The top end flaps  76 ,  96  can also be used to secure the cover formed from blank  20  within the carton without the need for adhesive. The blank  10  also comprises a glue flap  88  which is hingedly connected to the back panel  18 , along fold line  48 . 
         [0022]    Turning to the construction of the tubular crate from blank  10 , a series of sequential folding and gluing operations are required, which preferably can be performed in a straight line machine, so that the crate and/or blank  10  are not required to be rotated or inverted to complete the construction. The folding process is not limited to that described below and can be altered according to particular manufacturing requirements. 
         [0023]    The first stage is to apply glue to the outside edge of glue flap  88  and then fold it 180° about fold line  48  so that it lies in flat face contacting relation with the inside face of back panel  18 . The front panel  14  is then folded about fold line  44  to lie flat on top of the inside face of second side panel  16 . This causes the first side panel  12  to come into flat face contacting relation with the back panel  18  and the glued outer edge of glue flap  88 , so that the first side panel  12  becomes stuck to the glue flap  88 , thus connecting the first side panel  12  and back panel  18 . The blank  10  can then be erected into a tubular structure and using a similar series of folding and gluing steps, the bottom end flaps  72 ,  74  can be secured to form a bottom end closure means. 
         [0024]    A second blank  20  is shown in  FIG. 1B , which can be formed into a cover for the tubular crate formed from the blank  10  of  FIG. 1A . The blank  20  comprises a main panel  22 , which is, on either side, hingedly connected to cover end flaps  28   a  and  28   b  along fold lines  38   a  and  38   b  respectively. The cover end flaps  28   a  and  28   b  can provide structural rigidity as well as aesthetic appeal to the carton  30 , when assembled. 
         [0025]    The main panel  22  further comprises apertures  56  for receiving the similarly configured articles and each aperture is connected to at least one other aperture by a frangible connection or nick  37 . In this first embodiment the apertures  56  are arranged in four rows and each aperture  56  is connected to at least one other aperture  56  of the same row by a frangible connection or nick  37 . In other embodiments of the invention the arrangement of the apertures  56  or frangible connections or nicks  37  may differ from that described in the first embodiment of the invention. It is envisaged that many arrangements could be used without departing from the scope of the invention. 
         [0026]    Once the tubular crate has been loaded with the bottles or other similar articles, the blank  20  is folded to form a cover. To ensure that the cover flaps  28   b  do not obscure the handle apertures  54  when the cover formed from the blank  20  is inserted into the tubular crate, the cover flaps  28   b  are folded downward out of the plane of main panel  22  and are obscured from view when the carton  30  is fully erected. The cover flaps  28   a  can be folded either upward or downward out of the plane of main panel  22  and may or may not be secured to the tubular crate by use of glue. 
         [0027]    The folded blank  20  is then inserted into the loaded carton so that the apertures  56  of the main panel  22  are brought into registry with the bottle necks. If the cover flaps  28   a  are folded upward out of the plane of the main panel  22  then the cover formed from the blank  20  may be locked within the tubular carton by folding the top end flaps  76  and adjacent inner handle panels  96  about fold lines  66  and  68 . This action may lock the cover within the tubular crate such that the cover flaps  28   a  are in flat face contacting relationship between top end flaps  76  and an adjacent upper portion of the front and back panels  14 ,  18 . 
         [0028]    The carton formed from the blanks  10  and  20  is shown in  FIG. 1C . It can be seen that the bottles are secured within the carton, once the cover made from blank  20  has been secured inside the tubular crate. Access to the bottles is gained by separating the frangible connections or nicks  37 . This may be achieved simply by pulling out a bottle contained within the carton  30 . In this way each bottle can be accessed individually, whilst the structural integrity of the carton  30  is maintained. Bottles not removed are held in position by the apertures  56  and the main panel  22 . Therefore the carton provides an adaptable carrying container, the structural integrity of which is not destroyed when the bottles are accessed. This enables the carton to be reused for the convenient returning of the empty bottles. In this embodiment of the invention, when all bottles are removed, no material from the cover formed from blank  20  is actually removed from the carton  30 . 
         [0029]    In other embodiments of the invention the apertures formed within the top panel may not be circular and may also be provided with additional tabs protruding into the aperture, to aid retention of the bottle necks or other articles contained within the carton. 
         [0030]    The present invention and its preferred embodiments relate to an arrangement for providing a top closure in an open top container. However, it is anticipated that the invention can be applied to a variety of carriers and is not limited to those herein before described and could be used for numerous applications for example a crash bottom carton. 
         [0031]    It will be recognised that as used herein, directional references such as “top”, “bottom”, “front”, “back”, “end”, “side”, “inner”, “outer”, “upper” and “lower” do not limit the respective panels to such orientation, but merely serve to distinguish these panels from one another. Any reference to hinged connection should not be construed as necessarily referring to a single fold line only; indeed it is envisaged that hinged connection can be formed from one or more of the following, a score line, a frangible line or a fold line without departing from the scope of the invention.