Back to results
US 6,783,005 B2Granted
Liner
AssigneeUnilever Home & Personal Care USA, Division of Conopco, Inc.
InventorsEdward John Giblin, Corinne Saso
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeUnilever Home & Personal Care USA, Division of Conopco, Inc.
InventorsEdward John Giblin, Corinne Saso
Estimating the term…
A new way of shipping cartons and other packages so as to minimize the cost and the resource used. The invention is directed in the first embodiment to a liner, particularly for use in combination with shrink wrap packaging, which includes corners for compressive strength and yet panels having deceased height intermediate such corners. The decreased height panels result in conversation of the resource used to make the liner. In a preferred embodiment, the liners are nestable so that they fit closely one on top of each other in the manufacturing process, therefore conserving space. Moreover, nestability of the liner blanks helps promote conservation of resource particularly when the liner blanks are cut from the same fiberboard blank.
A combination liner and shrink wrap packaging comprising a liner wrapped around a plurality of packages and further comprising shrink wrapping around said combination of liner and packages, said liner including at least three panels separated by fold lines at corners, the height of said liner at said corners being the same or different, the height of at least one of said panels at a point intermediate said corners being less than 90% of the height at any of said corners, said liner corners being disposed adjacent and receiving corners of said packages.
A combination liner and package comprising a liner wrapped around a plurality of cartons, said liner including at least three panels separated by fold lines at corners, the height of said liner at said corners being the same or different, the height of at least one at said panels at a point intermediate said corners being less than 90% of the height at any of said corners said liner corners being disposed adjacent and receiving corners of said cartons.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Wrappers shrunk by heat or under tension, e.g. stretch films or films tensioned by compressed articles: and provided with inserts
Details of blanks: blanks mutually positioned to minimise waste material upon cutting out the individual blank from a continuous or large sheet
Containers for storage or transport of articles or materials
Term ended 28 Dec 2020 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
There is substantial pressure to reduce costs and conserve resources in the manufacture of products. This is particularly true of the resource devoted to packaging and shipping of products such as detergent cartons. Often such products will be shipped in a shipping case made of corrugated fiberboard.
Brown et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,630 discloses a packaged product which includes a plurality of cartons, a corrugated board of paperboard carrier wall disposed along a portion of the periphery, and shrink wrapping. The Brown et al. invention does not require a full shipping case, but utilizes corrugated board or paperboard as the carrier wall for the multipack.
Fales, U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,653 discloses a packaging container for protection of fragile articles during shipping and storage which includes an outer carton and plurality of inner packing support panels attached to the contained article by a heat shrinkable film.
FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a blank shown in bold suitable for forming the liner of the invention, nested with other blanks.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a unit of four juxtaposed packages which has been wrapped in accordance with the invention.
Referring to FIG. 1, liner 100 is formed of corrugated fiberboard or corrugated plastic board It comprises first glue flap 101, first side panel 102, rear panel 104, second side panel 106, front panel 107 and second glue flap 108. Separating glue flap 101 form side panel 102 is transverse score or fold line 110. Separating side panel 102 from rear panel 104 is second fold line 112. Separating rear panel 104 from side panel 106 is third fold line 114 and separating side panel 106 from front panel 107 is fourth fold line 116.
The heights of panels 100, 107 are reduced medial to the fold lines which define their ends. At the fold lines, the height of the liner is preferably roughly equivalent to or slightly greater than the height of the package around which the liner is wrapped. This will provide full compression strength, particularly at the corners of the liner. At the tops and bottoms of the liner at the fold lines 110 and 114 and 116, the inner extends at its top and bottom for a short distance in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the liner and roughly parallel and adjacent to the tops and bottoms of the packages which the liner is meant to contain. For panels 104 and 107, after the short section which is parallel to the longitudinal axis, the upper and lower sides of the liner extend perpendicularly toward the middle of the liner for a short distance after which the upper and lower ends of the liner again are disposed parallel to the longitudinal axis of the liner. In this way, the liner provides for good compressive strength at the corners and yet spares resource by not including the full height intermediate the fold lines.
At the glue flaps 101, 108, fold lines 110, 116 also exist. The glue flaps will generally be full height. That is, their height will generally correspond to the height of the package which is being contained. Upper ends 120, 122, extend parallel to the longitudinal axis of the liner. Bottom ends 140, 142 of glue flaps 101, 108 are generally disposed parallel to the longitudinal axis of the liner and adjacent and parallel to the lower ends of the packages which the liner is meant to contain.