1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the packaging arts and specifically to the packaging of light, relatively fragile articles which have been molded from lightweight materials, such as sheets of polystyrene foam.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Light, relatively fragile containers of a variety of types, such as food containers, egg cartons, plates, trays and the like, are manufactured by the millions, and shipped to food packagers in such numbers for packaging eggs, fruits, vegetables and meats for retail sale. The containers in question are often molded from polystyrene foam sheets, and are therefore quite light and relatively fragile.
In the prior art, containers of this type have been stacked and arranged in some desired array for shipment on pallets, the generally wooden frames which can be transported by a fork lift. The stacks of containers are then wrapped with film material, such as shrink-wrap or stretch film, with the film material at least partially enclosing the pallet making it a part of the resulting package.
In such a situation, the pallet makes up a considerable portion of the size and weight of the package. While the stability of the package may be significantly enhanced by the sturdy wooden pallet, the presence of the pallets makes it risky to stack the packages atop one another in a warehouse or truck as they may easily damage the fragile articles in the packages beneath due to their weight. Moreover, the pallets take up a great deal of room in a loaded truck, perhaps as much as 12% of the volume of the truck, reducing the number of the articles that could be included in a single truckload, and making it difficult to fill the truck completely.
The present invention provides a solution to this problem of the prior art by eliminating the requirement for a pallet.
Accordingly, the present invention is a package for stackable articles, such as the relatively fragile containers identified above. The package comprises a top cap and a bottom cap, which are substantially tray-shaped. Specifically, the top and bottom caps each have a base with side and end walls extending therefrom.
The package includes a plurality of stacks of the articles of interest. The stacks are arranged in a desired array on the bottom cap either vertically or horizontally. That is, the stacks may be either standing on or lying on and over the bottom cap.
The top cap is disposed atop the array and oriented toward the bottom cap so that the top and bottom caps partly enclose the array.
Sheet material, such as, for example, shrink-wrap or stretch film, wraps the array and at least partly wraps the top and bottom caps, thereby enclosing the array securely between the top and bottom caps.
In a preferred embodiment, the top and bottom caps are folded from blanks cut from stiff sheet material, such as corrugated board or plastic.
The present invention also includes a method for making a package of stackable articles. The method comprises the step of providing a top cap and a bottom cap for the package, the caps being as described above.
The method further includes the steps of forming a plurality of stacks of the stackable articles, and of arranging the plurality of stacks in a desired array on the bottom cap. Finally, the method also includes the steps of disposing the top cap atop the array, and of wrapping around the array and at least part of the top and bottom caps with sheet material to enclose the array securely between the top and bottom caps, thereby forming the package.
The present invention will now be described in more complete detail with reference being made to the drawings identified below.
Turning now to these figures,
To assemble the tray-shaped top or bottom cap 20 shown in the perspective view thereof given in
The package 40 is typically used for shipping light, relatively fragile articles, especially those which have been molded from sheets of polystyrene foam. Typically, the package 40 contains hundreds of such articles, which are stacked in a compact arrangement, sandwiched between the top and bottom caps 20 and wrapped in a sheet material, such as a shrunk-wrap or stretch film 42.
The present invention is not limited to any specific article of the above general type. For example, the package 40 shown in
As implied above, there is no intention on the part of the inventor to limit the present invention for use in shipping egg cartons molded from polystyrene foam. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the package of the present invention may be used to ship nestable or stackable articles of many kinds made from polystyrene foam or from other materials. Egg cartons, produce containers, plates and food trays are but a few of the many kinds of articles. Moreover, the articles need not be stacked horizontally as shown in
Modifications to the above would be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art, but would not bring the invention so modified beyond the scope of the appended claims.