Claims
- 1. A carton moulded from a sheet of plastic resin material by thermoforming and comprising:
- a bottom section having cells for receiving articles to be packaged;
- a cover formed integrally with the bottom section and having a top, a front wall, side walls and a back wall which is resiliently hinged at its lower edge to the rear edge of the bottom section;
- the front wall of the cover having a plurality of inwardly extending locking flutes with a locking aperture in at least some of said flutes;
- the regions between at least some of said cells extending upwardly and terminating at a top edge, said regions forming a recess with the top of each recess being a locking extension corresponding to each locking aperture, each locking extension extending from the rear of a recess forwards to said top front edge, each locking extension engaging with the lower edge of the corresponding locking aperture when the cover is in the closed position.
- 2. The carton recited in claim 1 wherein each extension is inward of the front of said bottom section, the edge of said locking aperture engaging said locking extension within the confines of said cells, the front wall of said cells in the row of cells adjacent the front of said bottom section forming the outermost front wall of said carton so that said cells have maximum size for a given dimension of said carton.
- 3. The carton recited in claim 1 wherein each recess has two side walls which extend outwardly and downwardly from said top of each recess.
- 4. A carton according to claim 1 in which each locking flute has a trapezoidal configuration, narrow at the bottom edge of the front wall of the cover, increasing in width towards the top of the cover.
- 5. A carton according to claim 1 in which each locking flute is inwardly offset from the front wall of the cover and of increasing depth from the bottom edge of the front wall of the cover up to the locking aperture.
- 6. A carton according to claim 2 in which each locking flute is inwardly offset from the front wall of the cover and of increasing depth from the bottom edge of the front wall of the cover up to the locking aperture.
- 7. A carton according to claim 1 in which each locking aperture extends from the rear of each flute to the rear face of the front wall of the cover.
- 8. A carton according to claim 4 in which each locking aperture extends from the rear of each flute to the rear face of the front wall of the cover.
- 9. A carton according to claim 7 in which each locking aperture has a slot-like configuration extending along the locking flute in which it is situated.
- 10. A carton according to claim 8 in which each locking aperture has a slot-like configuration extending along the locking flute in which it is situated.
- 11. A carton according to claim 1 in which said regions are formed by an upward extension of the plastic sheet material from the sheet line during the thermoforming operation.
- 12. A carton according to claim 1 in which the locking apertures are aligned longitudinally to define an interrupted channel in which said locking extensions are received when the carton is closed.
- 13. A carton for the packaging of eggs and the like thermoformed by male and female dies from a polystyrene foam plastic sheet having a sheet line comprising:
- a cell section formed from said plastic sheet to define a plurality of cells extending from the sheet line in one direction for reception of packaged articles and of a depth such that said articles are enclosed thereby for a portion less than their vertical dimension as packaged;
- a plurality of fixed integral cell section extensions located above the sheet line and stretched in an opposite direction from said one direction;
- a dished cover resiliently hinged to the rear edge of said cell section, said cover being formed from said plastic sheet to define a front wall, a back wall, and end walls extending in said one direction from said sheet line and fixed to each other and to a top for said cover;
- a plurality of flutes in said front wall of said cover each having an offset surface which is inwardly offset with respect to said front wall, and a hole in said offset surface;
- said extensions each having a horizontal latching element located at a terminal end of said extension, each latching element being complementary to one of said flutes in said front wall, each latching element projecting outwardly through a complementary one of the holes in the inwardly offset surface of said cover and within the confines of said flute to latch said carton in the closed position.
- 14. The carton recited in claim 13 in which each locking flute has a trapezoidal configuration, narrow at the bottom edge of the front of the cover, increasing in width towards the top of the cover.
- 15. The carton recited in claim 13 in which each locking flute is inwardly offset from the front wall of the cover and of increasing depth from the bottom edge of the front wall of the cover up to the locking aperture.
- 16. The carton recited in claim 13 wherein said latching elements are latch bars.
- 17. The carton recited in claim 13 wherein said cell section has the same plan dimensions as said dished cover so that said carton can be processed in the same packaging machinery used to pacakge articles in coverless cell sections.
- 18. The carton recited in claim 17 wherein said cell section has eighteen cells and wherein said dimensions are such that one of said cartons with its cover open fits in the packaging machinery adapted to receive two eighteen coverless cell sections.
- 19. The carton recited in claim 13 further comprising:
- said latching elements including a latch bar which extends across each of said flutes, said latch bar projecting through the hole in the complementary flute and within the confines of said flute.
- 20. The carton recited in claim 13 further comprising:
- a rectangular post extending from the inside of the top of said cover toward said cell section when said carton is in the closed condition to maintain said eggs in position in said cell section.
- 21. A carton moulded from a sheet of plastic resin material by thermoforming and comprising:
- a bottom section having cells for receiving articles to be packaged;
- a cover formed integrally with the bottom section and having a top, a front wall, side walls and a back wall which is resiliently hinged at its lower edge to the rear edge of the bottom section;
- the front wall of the cover having a plurality of inwardly extending locking flutes with a locking aperture in at least some of said flutes;
- a plurality of recess shaped extensions of the front wall of said bottom section, each extension having a latching bar on the underside of the top of the extension and two side walls which extend outwardly and downwardly from said latching bar, each extension being between two adjacent cells in the row of cells adjacent the front of said bottom section, each extension being inward of the front of said cell section, the edge of each locking aperture engaging a latching bar with the confines of said cells, the front wall of said cells in the row of cells adjacent the front of said bottom section forming the outermost front wall of said carton so that said cells have maximum size for a given dimension of said carton.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 831,088 filed Feb. 20, 1986, now Pat. No. 4,625,095, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 630,164 filed July, 12, 1984, now abandoned. This application is also a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 723,715 filed Apr. 16, 1985, now Pat. No. 4,625,906, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 481,512 filed Apr. 1, 1983, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (15)
Continuations (1)
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630164 |
Jul 1984 |
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Continuation in Parts (2)
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831088 |
Feb 1986 |
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481512 |
Apr 1983 |
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