Patent Application
20070095697
This invention relates to cartons, and more particularly to a carton for enclosing and dispensing articles.
Cartons for encasing and dispensing multiple articles such as soft drink cans or bottles are useful for enabling consumers to transport, store, and access the articles. The consumer typically prefers the flexibility to easily access one or more articles at a time. To that end, some cartons have dispensers which allow one or more articles to be removed while continuing to encase the remaining articles. The dispenser includes a detachable portion of the carton that is removed to form an opening from which articles may be dispensed.
Many cartons encase multiple rows or tiers of articles, one above the other, that are carried within the carton. Particularly, when the articles are rounded and cylindrical, it is desirable to overcome the tendency of the articles to fall out when the consumer operates the carton dispenser or otherwise removes one or more of the articles through the opening provided by removing a detachable portion of the carton. To prevent this occurrence, the dimensions and position of the opening are engineered such that the remaining articles are restrained after an article is dispensed. Therefore, these dispensers often include a relatively small opening positioned near the top of the carton that may succeed in restraining the articles but severely limits the visibility of articles that remain in the carton. In addition, the detachable portion of the carton is often difficult to remove in order to properly form the dispenser opening. Specifically, detachable portions that form wider openings which allow access to more articles can be especially difficult to remove.
Therefore, there is a need for a carton having an improved dispenser that is easy to operate and that facilitates viewing and selectively accessing articles that remain in the carton after the carton is opened.
The various embodiments of the present invention overcome the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a carton with a dispenser having a detachable portion that is easily removable to define an opening that fully exposes articles for removal. In addition, the opening partially exposes articles that are retained by the carton as an indication of the number of articles that remain in the carton.
In an exemplary embodiment, a carton including an exemplary dispenser has a front wall that is hingedly connected to an adjacent wall along a fold line. The dispenser includes an at least partially detachable portion formed at least in part from the front wall and, in some embodiments, from the adjacent wall. In certain embodiments, the at least partially detachable portion is defined by a substantially continuous severance line. The detachable portion extends from the fold line which hingedly connects the front wall and an adjacent wall toward an opposing edge of the front wall. Specifically, the at least partially detachable portion extends to a distal end that is closer to the opposing edge than to the fold line. In certain embodiments, the detachable portion is substantially elongate and tapers along at least a portion of its length such that its width becomes relatively narrower as it approaches the opposing edge of the front wall or the distal end of the detachable portion.
The carton packages or encloses a plurality of substantially cylindrical articles which are arranged in a matrix configuration. The ends of the articles are disposed so as to be substantially parallel to the front wall. The matrix arrangement includes two or more tiers of articles with the lowermost tier of articles extending along the fold line next to the adjacent wall. The detachable portion defines an opening in the carton that fully exposes an end of at least one article in the lowermost tier of articles. In certain embodiments, the opening partially exposes an end of at least one article in a tier above the lowermost tier of articles. In such embodiments, for example, the opening partially exposes an end of at least one article that is closer to the opposing edge than to the fold line. In embodiments where the detachable portion is defined in part from the adjacent wall, the opening exposes a portion of a side of at least one article in the lowermost tier of articles.
The carton includes an end wall that is hingedly connected to the adjacent wall and to the front wall to form a bottom corner. In certain embodiments, the detachable portion extends from the bottom corner of the carton toward a top corner of the front wall. In the exemplary embodiment, the top corner is defined by the front wall, a top wall which opposes the adjacent wall, and an end wall. In certain embodiments, the detachable portion is substantially elongate with a wider end disposed at the bottom corner and a narrower end adjacent to said top corner.
In some embodiments, the detachable portion includes a tear initiation feature that is disposed at the distal end. The tear initiation feature may be a push tab, an aperture, a slit, or the like. In certain embodiments which include a push tab, the push tab is in registry with a space between four adjacent articles which are disposed in two adjacent tiers of articles.
The carton and the blank from which the carton is formed include severance line segments that define the detachable portion. The carton has a front wall which is defined in part by a first edge and an opposing second edge. A first severance line segment extends convexly from a first intersecting point at the second edge to a vertex and from the vertex to a second intersecting point. The vertex is closer to the first edge than to the second edge. The first severance line segement further extends from the vertex to a second intersecting point that is closer to the second edge than to the first edge. The first severance line segment at least partially defines a detachable portion that has a width which is relatively narrower at the vertex than at the second edge.
In certain embodiments, the detachable portion is further defined by a second severance line that is formed in an adjacent wall. The adjacent wall is hingedly connected to the front wall along the second edge. The second severance line interconnects the first and second intersection points. In certain other embodiments, the first severance line segment extends along a third edge.
Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the present invention will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. All such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages are included within the scope of the present teaching and are protected by the accompanying claims.
The foregoing has broadly outlined some of the aspects and features of the present invention, which should be construed to be merely illustrative of various potential applications of the invention. Other beneficial results can be obtained by applying the disclosed information in a different manner or by combining various aspects of the disclosed embodiments. Accordingly, other aspects and a more comprehensive understanding of the invention may be obtained by referring to the detailed description of the exemplary embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims.
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. It must be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms, and combinations thereof. As used herein, the word “exemplary” is used expansively to refer to embodiments that serve as illustrations, specimens, models, or patterns. The figures are not necessarily to scale and some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. In other instances, well-known components, systems, materials, or methods have not been described in detail in order to avoid obscuring the present invention. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
Referring now to the drawings in which like numerals indicate like elements throughout the several views, the drawings illustrate certain of the various aspects of exemplary embodiments of a dispenser according to the present invention. The dispenser is formed in one or more walls of an exemplary carton, as is discussed below in detail. In the embodiments described herein, the carton dispenses articles such as cylindrical beverage cans through an opening defined by a detachable portion of the carton. The detachable portion extends across a large proportion of the length of the carton, and preferably, more than half of the carton length. In one exemplary embodiment, for example, the detachable portion extends diagonally across a front wall of the carton from a bottom corner toward a top corner. In another embodiment, the detachable portion extends longitudinally across at least part of the length of the front wall from a bottom edge to or toward a top edge of the front wall. The opening is substantially elongated with a narrower portion through which the ends of certain articles in upper tiers are partially exposed and a wider portion through which the ends of certain articles in the lowermost tier are fully exposed.
Referring to
End flaps are hingedly connected to opposite ends of each primary panel along fold lines that are substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the blank 10. As described in further detail below, the end flaps at each end of the blank 10 combine to form end closure structures that define end walls of the carton 100. Front end flaps 30, 32 are hingedly connected to the front panel 12 along fold lines 34, 36, respectively, and rear end flaps 38, 40 are hingedly connected to the rear panel 16 along fold lines 42, 44, respectively. Top end flaps 46, 48 are hingedly connected to the top panel 14 along fold lines 50, 52, respectively. Bottom end flaps 54, 56 are hingedly connected to the bottom panel 22 along fold lines 58, 60, respectively, and bottom end flaps 62, 64 are hingedly connected to the edge flap 24 along fold lines 66, 68 respectively.
In each exemplary embodiment, a detachable portion is formed from at least the front panel 12 and optionally, also from at least one other panel, such as the bottom panel 22 to define a dispenser for the carton 100. The detachable portion is defined by a substantially continuous contoured severance line. As used herein, the phrase “frangible line” or “severance line” includes, but is not limited to, perforations, a line of perforations, a line of short slits, a line of half cuts, a single half cut, any combination of perforations, slits, and half cuts, short score lines, and the like.
According to the first embodiment, a detachable portion 70 defines a dispenser R1 (shown in
As used herein, the term “taper” is expansively defined as to become narrower at one or both ends. Thus, the opposing sides or segments of the severance line 72 that taper are not necessarily straight lines, but can be curved or stepped such that the detachable portion 70 narrows from a wider portion. Further, the detachable portion 70 is not limited to a gradual reduction in width and is not required to constantly become narrower between ends.
As an optional feature, in this and each other exemplary embodiment, the upper end E1 of the detachable portion 70 includes a push tab 74 that functions as a tear initiation means for the detachable portion 70. The push tab 74 is defined in part by a U-shaped segment of the severance line 72 and by a fold line 75. The blank 10 may also include a suitable handle H, which allows the user to easily carry the carton in its erected form.
It is envisaged that, in any embodiment of the present invention, the carton can be erected from a respective blank by a series of sequential folding and gluing operations, which can be performed by a straight-line automatic packaging machine so that the blank is not required to be rotated or inverted to complete construction of the carton. It is also envisaged that the series of sequential folding and gluing operations can be performed manually. The folding process is not limited to that described below and can be altered according to particular manufacturing or user requirements.
According to an exemplary method, the carton 100 can be partially erected and pre-glued or otherwise secured as a tubular structure which may be collapsed for shipping or for loading into an automatic packaging machine. The collapsed tubular structure is formed as the bottom panel 22 is folded such that the inside surface of the bottom panel 22 is in flat face contact with the inside surface of the front panel 12. Glue or other adhesive is applied to the outside surface of the bottom panel 22 and to the outside surface of each of the bottom end flaps 54, 56 such that, as the blank 10 is folded along the fold line 20, the inside surface of the edge flap 24 at least partially overlaps, is in flat face contact with, and is thereby secured to the outside surface of the bottom panel 22 to form a composite bottom panel 22/24. Similarly, the bottom end flaps 62, 64 are secured to the bottom end flaps 54, 56 to form composite end flaps 54/62, 56/64, respectively. When the blank 10 is arranged as a collapsed tubular structure, the inside surface of the rear panel 16 is in flat face contact with or otherwise overlaps at least a portion of the inside surface of the top panel 14 and at least a portion of the inside surface of the front panel 12. The sheet material of the blank 10 can be secured together by any known or yet to be developed means for securing sheet material, including glue or other adhesives, staples, mechanical fasteners, Velcro®, and the like.
The walls of the collapsed tubular structure are pulled apart to erect the tubular structure and articles are loaded through one or both of the open ends of the tubular structure. When arranged as a tubular structure, the front panel 12, the top panel 14, the rear panel 16, and the composite bottom panel 22/24 form a front wall 112, a top wall 114, a rear wall 116, and a bottom wall 118, respectively.
Once articles have been loaded into the tubular structure, the end flaps are folded and secured to form end closure structures at each open end of the tubular structure and thereby define end walls of the carton 100. Specifically, one of the end closure structures is formed as the end flaps 46, 54/62, 30, 38 are folded inwardly along fold lines 50, 58/66, 34, 42, respectively, and are secured together in an at least partially overlapping arrangement to form a composite end wall 120. Likewise, end flaps 32, 40, 48, 56/64 are folded inwardly along fold lines 36, 44, 52, 60/68, respectively, and secured together in an at least partially overlapping relationship to form a second composite end wall 122. The end flaps are secured to one another by glue or by other means for securing, as described above. The carton 100 is then in a fully erected and loaded condition as shown in
As shown in
Referring again to the first embodiment shown in
In certain embodiments, the position of the push tab 74 corresponds to the space between four adjacent articles B such that, when the push tab 74 is pressed, the push tab 74 folds into the space or is otherwise unobstructed by the articles B in the carton 100. Specifically, referring to the second embodiment illustrated in
In the first embodiment, the detachable portion 70 is a removable portion of the front wall 112 and of the bottom wall 118. The detachable portion 70 can be substantially continuously removed to define an opening O by initiating a tear at the upper end E1 of the detachable portion 70 and continuing the tear toward the lower end E2 of the detachable portion 70. The detachable portion 70 is separated from the remainder of the carton 100 along the severance line 72 which can be represented by a front wall segment 72A and a bottom wall segment 72B that define front and bottom wall sections of the detachable portion 70, respectively. Specifically, according to an exemplary method illustrated in
It is contemplated that any means for detaching the detachable portion 70 from the carton 100 may be used in place of severance lines including, but not limited to, zippers, tear strips, and the like.
In the first embodiment, the opening O is formed in the front wall 112 and in the bottom wall 118. This configuration is partially beneficial in that the opening O exposes a portion of the side of at least the endmost article B in the lowermost tier T, thereby making it easier for a user to grasp the article B and remove it through the opening O. Removing a portion of the bottom wall 118 is particularly useful to overcome the friction between articles B and the walls of the carton 100 in order to remove articles B when the carton 100 is fully loaded. In alternative embodiments such as the second embodiment shown in
A relatively wide portion of the opening O is disposed adjacent to the corner C2 so as to fully expose at least the endmost article B in the lowermost tier T of articles B. Thereby, one or more articles B in the lowermost tier T of articles B can be dispensed or removed from the carton 100 through the opening O. A relatively narrow portion of the opening O extends from the relatively wide portion of the opening O toward the corner C1 to at least partially expose one or more articles B in the upper tiers T of articles B as well as to at least partially expose articles in columns M that are offset from the end wall 122. It should be understood that the direction and length of the relatively narrower portion of the opening O determines which of the articles B in the upper tiers T of articles B, and which of the articles B in the columns M, are partially exposed. Partially exposing articles B in the upper tiers T and in columns M that are offset from the end wall 122 provides an indication of how many articles B remain in the carton 100. Further, the diagonal extension of the opening O provides optimal visibility that encompasses multiple tiers T and multiple columns M of articles B.
The opening O, defined by removal of the detachable portion 70, is positioned and dimensioned to facilitate dispensing an endmost article B from the lowermost tier T of the matrix arrangement or otherwise an article B located at or near the bottom corner C2 of the carton 100. Articles B are dispensed from the bottom tier T of the carton 100 such that the articles B are encouraged to move toward the bottom corner C2 under the influence of gravity. This is particularly useful when the carton 100 rests on bottom wall 118 or is tilted such that bottom wall 118 is lower than top wall 114. Specifically, after an article B has been removed through the opening O, a void is created at the bottom corner C2 and the articles B push against each other until the void is filled.
In certain embodiments, the relatively wide portion of the opening O is sufficiently wide such that two or more articles B in the lower tier T are fully exposed. For instance, referring to
In a third embodiment shown in
Referring to the blank 10 shown in
Referring to
In the third embodiment, only the two middlemost articles B in the two lowermost tiers T are accessible such that as one of the accessible articles B is removed, the articles B in the upper tiers T fill the void left by the removed article B. The remaining articles B may similarly be removed. Alternatively, articles B ay be removed from the opening O in the carton 200 when it is set on its end all 120 or rear wall 116.
In the exemplary embodiment, the edges G1 of the wide portion of the opening O are located a distance S2 from the top and bottom walls 114, 118, respectively, such that retaining portions N1, N2 of the front wall 112 remain and such that the ends of the outermost articles B in the lowermost tier T are at least partially exposed. Preferably, but not necessarily, the distance S2 is less than the diameter D of an article B. The width W1 of the wide portion of the opening O between the edges E1 is less than the width W2 of the front wall 112. Further, the width W1 is preferably, but not necessarily, equal to the difference between the number of articles B in each tier T times the diameter D of each article B and twice the distance S2. The edge G2 is located a distance S3 from the front wall 112 and is a design choice that at least partially determines the size of the bottom portion of the opening O. Additionally, tapered edges G3 of the opening O are contoured or otherwise shaped to at least partially cover the ends of certain articles B in the tiers T above the lowermost tier T. More specifically, in the exemplary embodiment, the two endmost articles B in the tiers T above the two lowermost tiers T are completely enclosed and the centermost articles B in those tiers T are partially exposed. It should be understood that the detachable portion 170 can be designed to fully expose, partially expose, and fully enclose certain articles in order to optimally facilitate dispensing, retaining, and/or viewing articles in the carton 400.
The present invention has been illustrated in relation to a particular embodiment which is intended in all respects to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention is capable of many modifications and variations without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, as used herein, directional references such as “top”, “base”, “bottom”, “end”, “side”, “inner”, “outer”, “upper”, “middle”, “lower”, “front” and “rear” do not limit the respective walls of the carton to such orientation, but merely serve to distinguish these walls from one another. Any reference to hinged connection should not be construed as necessarily referring to a junction including a single hinge only; indeed, it is envisaged that hinged connection can be formed from one or more potentially disparate means for hingedly connecting materials.
Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the carton described represents only one example of the various types and configurations of cartons that will be suitable for implementation of the various embodiments of the invention.
Thus, the above-described embodiments are merely exemplary illustrations of implementations set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention. Variations, modifications, and combinations may be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the scope of the claims. All such variations, modifications, and combinations are included herein by the scope of this disclosure and the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/714,189, filed Sep. 2, 2005, and to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/727,019, filed Oct. 14, 2005, both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60714189 | Sep 2005 | US | |
| 60727019 | Oct 2005 | US |
