System, Method and Apparatus for Making and Using Flex Column Void Based Packing Materials
AssigneeCal Poly Corporation
InventorsJay Singh, Evan Cernokus
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system, method and apparatus for forming a flex-column includes a three-sided column having a triangular cross-sectional shape, an open first end, an open second end, and three corners, each one of the three sides including a flex line dividing each of the three sides into two portions, at least one perforation along an edge of each one of the two portions wherein the edge of each one of the two portions coincides with one of the three corners and at least one non-perforation along an edge of each one of the two portions.
Claims21
A method of making a void packing material comprising:
- determining a two-dimensional pattern for a desired three-dimensional shaped flex-column having at least three flex-column sides, an open first end, an open second end, a plurality of fold lines and at least three corners;
- forming the two-dimensional pattern on a selected sheet of material having a selected thickness;
- separating the two-dimensional pattern from the selected sheet;
- folding the two-dimensional pattern along the plurality of fold lines to form the three-dimensional shaped flex-column;
- and
- securing a first one of the at least three flex-column sides to a last one of the at least three flex-column sides.
A method of forming a void packing material from a selected sheet of material comprising:
- determining a two-dimensional pattern for a desired three-dimensional shaped flex-column having three flex-column sides, an open first end, an open second end, a plurality of fold lines and three corners;
- forming the two-dimensional pattern on a selected sheet of material having a selected thickness;
- separating the two-dimensional pattern from the selected sheet;
- folding the two-dimensional pattern along the plurality of fold lines to form the three-dimensional shaped flex-column;
- and
- securing a first one of the three flex-column sides to a last one of the three flex-column sides;
- wherein the desired three-dimensional shaped flex-column including a triangular cross-sectional shape, each one of the three flex-column sides including:
- a flex line dividing each of the three flex-column sides into two portions, the flex line allowing the two portions to flex along the flex line to form first fold angle between the two portions;
- at least one perforation along an edge of each one of the two portions wherein the edge of each one of the two portions coincides with one of the three corners;
- and
- at least one non-perforation along an edge of each one of the two portions.
A method of supporting an item in a container comprising:
- forming a plurality of three-dimensional shaped flex-columns from one or more two-dimensional patterns in one or more selected sheets of material;
- placing a first portion of the plurality of three-dimensional shaped flex-columns in the container;
- placing the item on the first portion of the plurality of three-dimensional shaped flex-columns in the container, the container having an interior volume greater than the size of the item;
- and
- placing a second portion of the plurality of three-dimensional shaped flex-columns in the container to substantially fill a remaining interior volume of the container;
- wherein each one of the plurality of three-dimensional shaped flex-columns includes at least three flex-column sides and at least a portion of the first or second portions of the plurality of three-dimensional shaped flex-columns include at least one hole in at least one of the at least three flex-column sides and the at least one hole has a size sufficient to provide opportunity for a portion of another one of the plurality of three-dimensional shaped flex-columns to interlock with the at least one hole.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.