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US 6,712,204 B1Granted
Foldable carrier for retaining objects
OwnerStephen M. Toussaintinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerStephen M. Toussaintinventor
Estimating the term…
A carrier for securely retaining one or more objects is provided, cut and scored from a unitary blank of paperboard or similar foldable sheet material so that it can be folded into two overlying panels and then manually fastened so that one panel is characteristically bowed away from the other to form an interior space. This bowed panel has at least one u-shaped mouth opening into this interior space, cut through the bowed panel face and large enough to allow an object to be loosely inserted through it with one-hand and retained therein for storage or transport. This carrier can then be integrated into the design of another product. Also, the carrier can be attached to the surface of selected articles with an adhesive strip applied to the back of the carrier or by using a standard pronged fastener that extends through openings provided in the carrier's back panel or by some other suitable attachment device. Additionally, a top panel, a cover panel and a cover fastening tab can be provided to cooperatively overlie the front of the carrier and further secure the portion of the object that extends from the mouth opening across both its face and top sections thereby assuring secure storage and transport without regard to the carrier's physical orientation.
A carrier for retaining at least one object, the carrier comprising a body, the body including in combination an interior face, an exterior face, a bottom scoreline subdividing the body for folding into a front panel and a back panel, the back panel terminating in a distal edge opposite the bottom scoreline and including a fastening tab, cut interior to the edges and through the faces of the back panel, the tab having two extremity points, the extremity points defining a line disposed generally parallel to the bottom scoreline and spaced from the bottom scoreline by a distance (a), the front panel having a fastening edge opposing and generally parallel to the bottom scoreline, at least along its point of engagement with the fastening tab, and spaced from the bottom scoreline by a distance (b) so that, in assembling said carrier, the front panel is folded along the bottom scoreline so that its interior face overlies the interior face of the back panel and the fastening edge is engaged under the fastening tab, with the predetermined difference between the greater distance (b) and the lesser distance (a) causing the front panel to compressively bow outward from the back panel and create a pocket space between the opposing interior faces, sufficient in size to accommodate the thickness of the object to be retained.
A blank adapted for folding and assembly into a carrier for removeably receiving and securely retaining at least one object, comprising, a body formed from a unitary sheet of foldable material having an interior face and an exterior face and having two lateral edges, two opposing edges, and a transverse bottom scoreline between said opposing edges facilitating folding to subdivide the body into a back panel and a shorter front panel, said front panel when folded, adapted to be positioned in overlying relationship to a segment of the back panel bowing outwardly from the back panel to form a pocket space there between, retaining means for securely fastening said front panel in an overlying, outwardly bowed relationship to the back panel, and at least one pocket mouth opening means cut into the front panel for providing access to the pocket space when the front panel is fastened in an overlying outwardly bowed relationship to said back panel so as to receive and securely hold an object therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.