Box divider unit and method for its manufacture

Abstract

The invention provides a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into at least six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsed having the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges as viewed from a side. The steps being formed by two face-to-face central elongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottom leaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length. The first intermediate leaf being disposed between the short top leaf and the central elongated leaves, and the second intermediate leaf being disposed between the short bottom leaf and the central elongated leaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its length from adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of its thickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of the compartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined to adjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to the transverse cut, the connecting line being formed by the remaining uncut material adjacent to the transverse cut.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Israel Application No. 161605, filed on Apr. 25, 2004.

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the packaging of multiple articles.

More particularly, the invention provides a resilient protective box divider, and a method for its manufacture.

Beverages, pharmaceuticals and many other products are filled into hard containers, such as glass bottles, and are often shipped in carton boxes. Box dividers are used to divide the carton into a multiplicity of individual cells, typically square shaped, each cell holding one product, item or container. The divider thus prevents impact, possible breakage and/or abrasion when during transportation adjacent containers would otherwise rub or impact each other. Currently nearly all box dividers are made out of carton, the dividers serving to ensure that there is no contact between the items being marketed. Various forms of this type of divider are seen in recent U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,148,942 5,190,212 5,601,521 6,024,241 6,499,655 6,547,126 and 6,669,082.

The simple divider, an oblong carton strip with a series of cuts to half the divider height, has been in use for at least a hundred years, and there is no doubt as to its efficacy. The main problem with this divider is that time is required to assemble the dividers in the carton. The degree of protection given by this divider is adequate for the vast majority of product items, although extremely fragile items, for example items made of thin glass, may still be damaged under rough handling. Furthermore this divider is made of two parts which must be assembled.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to obviate the disadvantages of prior art box dividers and to provide a divider made of a foamed elastomer which provides protection of fragile items even under rough handling conditions during transport or storage.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a one piece divider.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a box divider having a flat space-saving configuration for storage and yet can be deployed within a few seconds into its ready-to-use configuration.

Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a method for the manufacture of the novel design disclosed herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention achieves the above objects by providing a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into at least six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsed having the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges as viewed from a side, said steps being formed by two face-to-face central elongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottom leaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length, said first intermediate leaf being disposed between said short top leaf and said central elongated leaves, and said second intermediate leaf being disposed between said short bottom leaf and said central elongated leaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its length from adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of its thickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of said compartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined to adjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to said transverse cut, said connecting line being formed by the remaining uncut material adjacent to said transverse cut.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention there is provided a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into at least six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsed having the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges as viewed from a side, said steps being formed by two face-to-face central elongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottom leaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length, said first intermediate leaf being disposed between said short top leaf and said central elongated leaves, and said second intermediate leaf being disposed between said short bottom leaf and said central elongated leaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its length from adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of its thickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of said compartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined to adjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to said transverse cut, said connecting line being formed by the remaining uncut material adjacent to said transverse cut.

In a most preferred embodiment of the present invention there is provided a method for manufacturing a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider, comprising the following steps:

• • providing a foamed-elastomer sheet, if available of thickness equal to the height of the desired box divider;
  • alternatively bonding together a plurality of foamed-elastomer sheets, the total height of the stack being equal to the height of the required box divider;
  • blanking the stepped form, and executing the long cuts and the short cuts by means of a single-element press-mounted ply-wood based steel-rule die.

Yet further embodiments of the invention will be described hereinafter.

It will thus be realized that the novel device of the present invention can be expanded from its compact configuration to its deployed configuration simply by grasping the smallest leaves and drawing them apart. The divider is made as a one-piece item and requires no assembly and is fitted into the shipping carton while held in its deployed state. The four sidewalls of the carton retain the divider in its deployed state, and so the divider is ready for immediate use.

Manufacture of the box divider may be achieved by a single stroke of a combined blanking and cutting die, no further manufacturing process being required. A plywood-base steel rule die is used, such die being well suited for the cutting of soft materials, including the foam rubber or foam urethane which are the preferred materials for the divider of the present invention. Dies of this type are widely used for shape cutting of boxes and cartons, and have been developed into a mature technology.

In the following drawings and description reference is made to a square-shaped divider 5 by 5, i.e. having 25 compartments. The collapsed divider shown has a left-right symmetrical form, the two shortest leaves being directly opposite each other. There is however no difficulty in producing a divider for a rectangular (oblong) carton. In its compact configuration such a divider would be asymmetrical, and the short upper and lower leaves would not be directly opposite each other.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described further with reference to the accompanying drawings, which represent by example preferred embodiments of the invention. Structural details are shown only as far as necessary for a fundamental understanding thereof. The described examples, together with the drawings, will make apparent to those skilled in the art how further forms of the invention may be realized.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a photograph of a preferred embodiment of the deployed box divider according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the divider in its compact configuration;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged detail view of a part of the divider seen in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an embodiment made out of a plurality of bonded-together foamed elastomer sheets;

and

FIG. 5 is a photograph of the divider in a partially deployed state.

FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

There is seen in FIG. 1 an extended foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider 10 for dividing a carton box 12 into 25 cushioned compartments 14. The elastomer is a rubber or a flexible thermoplastic such as urethane.

The divider 10 is held in its deployed configuration by the walls 16, 18, 20, 22 of the carton 12 into which it is inserted.

A plurality of short cuts 24, to be described with reference to FIG. 2, appear as square-section hollow prisms 26 located at the center of any array comprising four compartments 14 arranged in a square configuration.

With reference to the rest of the figures, similar reference numerals have been used to identify similar parts.

When collapsed, as seen in FIG. 2 and in the enlarged detail of FIG. 3, the divider 10 has the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges when viewed from a side. The steps 28 are formed by two face-to-face central elongated leaves 30, in combination with a short top 32 and a short bottom leaf 34. In the present embodiment there are three first 36, 38, 40 and three second leaves 42, 4446 of intermediate length. The first intermediate leaves 36, 3840 are disposed between the short top leaf 32 and the central elongated leaves 30, and the second intermediate leaves 42, 44, 46 are disposed between the short bottom leaf 34 and the central elongated leaves 30.

Each leaf is separate along a major portion of its length from adjacent leaves due to a series of long cuts 48.

Furthermore, a series of short transverse cuts 24 are seen between the long cuts 48 at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of the compartments 14. The transverse cuts 24 extend through only a portion of the leaf thickness. The resulting form is that each elongated and intermediate leaf is joined to adjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line 50 adjacent to the transverse cut 24, and seen most clearly in FIG. 3. The connecting line 50 is formed by the remaining uncut material adjacent to the transverse cut 24.

FIG. 4 illustrates a box divider 54 as wherein the height of the divider is built up by stacking multiple sheets of foamed elastomer 56, 58, 60, each sheet being bonded to each adjacent sheet.

In order to further illustrate the form of the divider, there is shown in FIG. 5 a photograph of the divider 10 in a partially collapsed configuration. However in practice either the divider is stored completely collapsed as in FIG. 2 or it is deployed completely extended as in FIG. 1, the midway position being shown in the figure being for illustrative purposes only.

The present invention also includes a method for manufacturing a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider, comprising the following steps:

• 1. Providing a foamed-elastomer sheet, if available of thickness equal to the height of the desired box divider.
• 2. Alternatively: bonding together a plurality of foamed-elastomer sheets, the total height of the stack being equal to the height of the required box divider, as seen in FIG. 4.
• 3. Blanking the stepped form, and executing the long cuts and the short cuts by means of a single-element press-mounted ply-wood based steel-rule die. The form of the die corresponds to the pattern seen at the upper portion of FIG. 4

The scope of the described invention is intended to include all embodiments coming within the meaning of the following claims. The foregoing examples illustrate useful forms of the invention, but are not to be considered as limiting its scope, as those skilled in the art will be aware that additional variants and modifications of the invention can readily be formulated without departing from the meaning of the following claims.

Claims

1. A foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider for dividing a box into at least six cushioned compartments when extended, and when collapsed having the form of an elongated component stepped on four edges as viewed from a side, said steps being formed by two face-to-face central elongated leaves, in combination with a short top and a short bottom leaf, and at least a first and a second leaf of intermediate length, said first intermediate leaf being disposed between said short top leaf and said central elongated leaves, and said second intermediate leaf being disposed between said short bottom leaf and said central elongated leaves, each leaf being separate along a major portion of its length from adjacent leaves and being transversely cut through part of its thickness at a pitch corresponding to the width of one of said compartments, each elongated and intermediate leaf being joined to adjacent leaves by at least one narrow connecting line adjacent to said transverse cut, said connecting line being formed by the remaining uncut material adjacent to said transverse cut.

2. The box divider as claimed in claim 1, wherein when extended, said short cut appears as a square-section hollow prism located at the center of any array comprising four compartments arranged in a square configuration.

3. The box divider as claimed in claim 1, wherein the height of the divider is built up by stacking multiple sheets of foamed elastomer, each sheet being bonded to each adjacent sheet.

4. The foamed elastomer collapsible box divider, wherein said elastomer is a rubber.

5. A method for manufacturing a foamed-elastomer collapsible box divider, comprising the following steps: providing a foamed-elastomer sheet, if available of thickness equal to the height of the desired box divider; alternatively bonding together a plurality of foamed-elastomer sheets, the total height of the stack being equal to the height of the required box divider; and blanking the stepped form, and executing the long cuts and the short cuts by means of a single-element press-mounted ply-wood based steel-rule die.