Patent ID: 8376136

Claim:
An article holder to hold a longitudinal end portion of a cylindrical article contained in a packaging container, the article holder comprising: an upper face and a lower face facing up and down, respectively, when the article holder is disposed inside the packaging container; an inner face and an outer face facing a center side and an outer side, respectively, in a longitudinal direction of the cylindrical article when the article holder is disposed inside the packaging container; at least one first article receiver formed in the upper face of the article holder to support a lower side of an end portion of the cylindrical article, the first article receiver including, a first recess semilunar in vertical cross section, forming a semilunar opening in the inner face of the article holder and a rectangular opening in the upper face of the article holder, the rectangular opening continuous with the semilunar opening, and a first arc-shaped projection projecting from an inner circumferential surface of the first recess, having a radius (r 2 ) smaller than a radius (r 1 ) of the first recess, and at least one second article receiver formed in the lower face of the article holder to support an upper side of the end portion of the cylindrical article.