Spacer tray for packaging containers

A spacer tray for containers, the spacer tray being formed of a plastic sheet material, the spacer tray being shaped to provide a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to (m.times.n), where m is an integer greater than 2 and n is an integer greater than 2, the container-bottom receptacles being disposed in an array of m columns and n rows, a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to (m-2) (n-2) being located interior of container bottom receptacles located on the perimeter of the spacer tray to define tray-interior container-bottom receptacles, each container-bottom receptacle being shaped to receive at least a part of a bottom portion of a container, each tray-interior container-bottom receptacle being configured to surround substantially entirely the bottom portion of a container seated in the receptacle, a container-spacer wall being located between each pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles to maintain the bottom portions of containers seated in the pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles in a spaced-apart relationship, the spacer tray having a height less than half the height of the containers the spacer tray is adapted to seat, the spacer tray being shaped so that two such spacer trays facing in the same direction and placed one atop the other with the container-bottom receptacles of the two spacer trays generally coaxially aligned nest one inside the other container-bottom receptacle within container-bottom receptacle, the spacer tray having a number of container-loading-guide-pin openings passing through it, each container-loading-guide-pin opening being shaped, dimensioned, and located to permit a container-loading-guide pin to pass through the opening for locating the spacer tray during loading.

A spacer tray for containers, the spacer tray being formed o a plastic sheet material, the spacer tray being shaped to provide a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to (m.times.n), where m is an integer greater than 2 and n is an integer greater than 2 , the container-bottom receptacles being disposed in an array of am columns and n rows, each container-bottom receptacle being shaped to receive at least a part of a bottom portion of a container, a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to 2(m+n)-4 being located on the perimeter of the spacer tray to define tray-periphery container-bottom receptacles, a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to (m-2) (n-2) being located interior of the tray-periphery container-bottom receptacles to define tray-interior container-bottom receptacles, each tray-interior container-bottom receptacle being configured to surround substantially entirely the bottom portion of a container seated in the receptacle, each tray-periphery container-bottom receptacle being configured to surround only partially the bottom portion of a container seated in the receptacle so that a portion of the container extends outwardly of the perimeter of the spacer tray, the spacer tray being dimensioned so that the outer perimeter of the spacer tray extends n further laterally than the outer edges of containers seated in the tray-periphery container-bottom receptacles, the spacer tray having a height less than half the height of the containers the spacer tray is adapted to seat, a container-spacer wall being located between each pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles to maintain the bottom portions of containers seated in the pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles in a spaced-apart relationship.

A spacer tray for containers, the spacer tray being formed of a plastic sheet material, the spacer tray being shaped to provide at least four container-bottom receptacles, the container-bottom receptacles being disposed in a row-column array, each container-bottom receptacle being shaped to receive at least a part of a bottom portion of a container, a container-spacer wall being located between each pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles to maintain the bottom portions of containers seated in the pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles in a space-apart relationship, the spacer tray having a height less than half the height of the containers the spacer tray is adapted to seat, at least four of the container-bottom receptacles having container-bottom locators positioned centrally within the receptacles, each of the container-bottom locators being shaped to fit within an indentation in the bottom of a container seated in the receptacle to tend to locate the bottom of the container, each of the four container-bottom receptacles disposed at a corner of the spacer tray having a container-bottom locator positioned within the receptacle, each container-bottom receptacle disposed at a corner of the spacer tray being configured to surround only partially the radially-outer walls of a bottom portion of a container seated in the receptacle, outer perimeters of the spacer tray at the corners not extending laterally further than the outer edges of containers seated in the four container-bottom receptacles disposed at the corners of the spacer tray.

A spacer tray for containers, the spacer tray being formed of a plastic sheet material, the spacer tray being shaped to provide a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to (m.times.n), where m is an integer greater than 2 and n is an integer greater than 2, the container-bottom receptacles being disposed in an array of m columns and n rows, each container-bottom receptacle being shaped to receive at least a part of a bottom portion of a container, a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to 2(m+n)-4 being located on the perimeter of the spacer tray to define tray-periphery container-bottom receptacles, a number of container-bottom receptacles equal to (m-2) (n-2) being located interior of the tray-periphery container-bottom receptacles to define tray-interior container-bottom receptacles, each tray-interior container-bottom receptacles, each tray-interior container-bottom receptacle being configured to surround substantially entirely the bottom portion of a container seated in the receptacle, each tray-periphery container-bottom receptacle being configured to surround only partially the bottom portion of a container seated in the receptacle so that a portion of the container extends outwardly of the perimeter of the spacer tray, a container-spacer wall being located between each pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles to maintain the bottom portions of containers seated in the pair of adjacent container-receptacles in a spaced-apart relationship, the spacer tray being dimensioned so that the outer perimeter of the spacer tray extends no further laterally than the outer edges of containers seated in the tray-periphery container-bottom receptacles, the spacer tray having a height less than half the height of the containers the spacer tray is adapted to seat, the spacer tray having a number of container-loading-guide-pin openings passing through it equal to (m-1) (n-1), each container-loading-guide-pin opening being located centrally of four container-bottom receptacles defined by the intersection of a pair of adjacent rows of receptacles with a pair of adjacent columns of receptacles, each container-loading guide pin opening being shaped and dimensioned to permit a container-loading guide pin to pass through for locating the spacer tray and guiding bottom portions of containers into container-bottom receptacles during loading of the spacer tray, the spacer tray being shaped so that two such spacer trays facing in the same direction and placed one atop the other with the container-bottom receptacles of the two spacer trays generally coaxially aligned nest one inside the other container-bottom receptacle within container-bottom receptacle, the spacer tray having a plurality of nesting-binding interference structures shaped and positioned to prevent two spacer trays so nested one inside the other from binding at least when one spacer tray has a predetermined nesting-binding-interference orientation relative to the other in the plane of the spacer trays.