Containers
AssigneeICEE Holdings Unit Trust, ICEE Holdings Pty. Ltd., Trustee
InventorLeslie John Skinner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A blank for a box made from an expandable material which is initially moulded generally flat in which, where folds forming hinges are to be made to enable the formation of the box, the tooling which defines the shape of the blank is such as to provide a thickness of the expanded material less than the thickness of the major part of the blank where the folds are to be made having defined edges generally in the direction of each fold the fold and subsequently applying pressure along the area where folds are to be permitted to reduce the thickness of the this blank without removing material therefrom thereby providing hinges to permit formation of the box. The invention also provides a method of making the blank and a box made from the blank.
Claims19
1-15. (canceled)
A method of forming a blank comprising the steps of
- providing a tool having two components which overlay each other and define the outer shape of the blank, the components being provided with members which, where folds are to be made, extend further toward the centre of the blank than the remainder of the blank,
- delivering an expandable material into the tool and effecting expansion thereof to form the initial blank,
- placing the formed blank into another tool similar to the first tool but in which the members where folds are to be made extend further into the area between the tool component, and
- applying pressure to the tool so that the members where folds are to be made reduce the thickness of the blank without removing material therefrom to form a hinge.
19-26. (canceled)
A method of forming a blank for a box made from an expandable material which is initially moulded generally flat, the blank comprising folds forming hinges adjacent junctions between a base of the box and the sides of the box and the base of the box and ends thereof to enable the formation of the box,
- wherein the method comprises
- a first step of configuring a first portion of tooling to define a shape of the blank such that a thickness of the expanded material at the folds is less than the thickness of a major part of the blank with the area of less thickness having defined edges that extend generally in the direction of each fold, and further comprising
- a second step of configuring a second portion of the tooling to apply pressure at each folds to further reduce the thickness of the blank without removing material therefrom, to form hinges that permit formation of the box, the second portion of the tooling has an outer part that corresponds to the equivalent first portion of the tooling used during molding to provide the defined edges and an inner part which is generally a continuation of the defined edges to cause the reduction of the thickness of the blank at each fold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.