Pop-up food tray for combination meals

A pop-up tray having a flattened storage condition and a deployed condition for holding fast food items including a beverage cup, a main course, a side dish container, and a fluidic condiment, the tray comprising:

• (a) a tubular structure including top, bottom, front and back wall portions having hinged connections therebetween, the front and back wall portions each having hingedly connected upper and lower sections, the upper and lower sections having proximal facing contact in the storage condition, the top wall portion being formed having:
• (i) a main opening for receiving the main course, the tubular structure further comprising a plurality of container wall portions hingedly connected to top wall portion and extending within the main opening, free extremities of the container wall portions being formed for interlocking engagement between the top wall portion and the bottom wall portion when the tray is in the deployed condition for supportively containing the main course;
• (ii) a secondary opening for receiving the side dish container in projecting relation to the top wall portion;
• and
• (iii) a circular array of spring cam elements for gripping a beverage cup when the beverage cup is inserted within the array, the spring cam elements being integrally formed and coplanar with the top wall portion in the storage condition, the cam elements being formed for contacting the beverage cup at a first plurality of locations proximate the base thereof, and at a second plurality of locations being elevated above the first plurality of locations, with the cup resting on the bottom wall portion and projecting above the top wall portion in the deployed condition;
• (b) a pair of leg walls having hinged connections to the tubular structure at opposite ends thereof, the leg walls each have hingedly connected upper and lower segments, the lower segment being hingedly connected at an intermediate location to the bottom wall portion, the upper and lower segments having facing contact in the storage condition, the upper section of each of the leg walls being hingedly connected along a leg hinge axis to the top wall portion, the leg hinge axes being curved concave outwardly along opposite ends of the top wall portion for detenting the tray into the deployed condition with the top wall portion formed upwardly convex, the lower segments of the leg walls being reinforced for limiting bending thereof;
• and
• (c) a tray panel having a hinged connection to the tubular structure, the tray panel having a storage position in facing contact with the bottom wall portion in the storage and deployed conditions of the tubular structure, a deployed position projecting from the tubular structure, and a closed position in facing contact with the top wall portion for covering the main opening thereof,
• wherein the tubular structure, the tray panel, and the leg walls are integrally formed of a single sheet of card stock.

A method for forming a pop-up tray, comprising:

• (a) providing a sheet of stiffly flexible material;
• (b) forming a perimeter contour of the sheet to define:
• (i) adjacent top, bottom, front and back wall portions, and a tab wall portion, of a tubular structure, the front and back wall portions each having upper and lower wall portion segments;
• (ii) respective outer leg wall portions adjacent opposite ends of the top wall portion;
• and
• (iii) respective inner leg wall portions adjacent opposite ends of the bottom wall portion, each of the inner and outer leg wall portions having upper and extremity segments, the extremity segments being longer than the upper segments;
• (c) forming hinge discontinuities between adjacent pairs of the wall portions, along opposite ends of the top and bottom wall portions, between the upper and lower wall portion segments, and between the upper and extremity leg wall segments;
• (d) forming at least one opening in the top wall portion;
• (e) bonding the tab wall portion to another of the wall portions along a most remote opposite wall portion extremity of the sheet to form the tubular structure;
• (f) flattening the tubular structure with the upper and lower wall portion segments in facing relation and the top and bottom wall portions in proximal facing relation;
• (g) folding the inside leg wall portions between the upper and extremity segments thereof into facing relation with the extremity segments facing the bottom wall portion opposite the top wall portion;
• (h) folding the outside leg wall portions between the upper and extremity segments thereof into facing relation with the extremity segments facing corresponding extremity segments of the inside leg wall portions;
• and
• (i) bonding respective ones of the inner and outer leg wall portion extremity segments in facing relation, thereby completing the tray in the flattened storage condition with the top and bottom wall portions in proximal facing contact, the deployed condition being attained by subsequently pivoting the leg wall extremity segments downwardly and outwardly to rigidly space apart the top and bottom wall portions as the upper segments of the leg walls pivot downwardly and inwardly relative to the top wall portion into an over-center condition relative to the extremity segments.