Shipping and display container

#This invention relates generally to containers and to blanks for making them. More specifically, the invention relates to a corrugated shipping and display container and to a blank for making it, wherein the container is easy to open and provides easy access to the contents when it is open.

#Many products are shipped in containers having a portion that can be removed at a point of use or sale to display the product in the container and make the product easily accessible. These containers typically have a top portion that can be partially or wholly removed or pivoted out of the way to expose the contents. Containers with removable top portions generally use tear tapes or the like to facilitate the separation of the top portion from the bottom portion. Such structure is difficult to manufacture and burdensome to use. Further, containers with limited removable sections restrict access to the products within the container. Thus, the nature and type of product that may be placed in the container is limited.

#U.S. Pat. No. 6,981,632 is an example of a prior art effort to solve the problems inherent with conventional shipping and display containers as described above. In this patent a blank is folded and glued so that the container can be opened without requiring the use of tear tape or similar means. This is accomplished by gluing together flaps at the sides of the container, with a frangible line connecting a side flap on a top section of the container with a side flap on a bottom section. The frangible line can be broken by grasping and pulling the side flaps connected to the top portion, thereby releasing the top portion side flaps from the bottom portion side flaps and enabling the top portion to be pivoted up to expose the contents of the container. However, the top portion remains attached to the bottom portion along a hinge line at the top of the rear wall. To completely remove the top portion from the bottom portion this hinge line must also be broken. Moreover, the manner of folding and gluing the blank results in a triple thickness of flaps at the sides of the container, and produces interrupted surfaces on the sides of the container that make it difficult to apply graphics to those surfaces.

#The foregoing, as well as other objects and advantages of the invention, will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a rear top perspective view of a container according to the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a rear top perspective view of the container of FIG. 1, showing the tear-out panel being separated from the rear wall of the container;

#A container according to the present invention is indicated generally at 10 in FIGS. 1-4. The container has a bottom wall 11, back wall 12, top wall 13, a front wall 14 comprising a major front wall panel 15 and minor front wall panel 16, and opposite side walls 17 and 18. The embodiment shown in these figures corresponds to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, wherein major front wall panel is on the outside of the minor front wall panel, but FIGS. 1-4 depict the principles of operation of the invention, which is essentially the same in all embodiments. As seen in these figures, a substantial top portion 19, including the top wall 13, parts of the back wall 12 and side walls 17 and 18 and a majority of the front wall 14, is completely removed from the container to expose the contents for access and/or display in the remaining bottom portion 20.

#The major front wall panel 15 and minor front wall panel 16 overlap at adjacent edges (see, e.g., FIGS. 5a-5g) but are unsecured to one another, and the side walls 17 and 18 comprise secured together side flaps extending from the top wall, front wall and back wall. The side flaps include first side flaps 21 extending from respective opposite ends of the top wall 13, folded and secured by adhesive or other suitable means to a respective adjacent first portion 22a of second side flaps 22 extending from opposite ends of the major front wall panel 15, but unsecured to third side flaps 23 extending from opposite ends of the back wall 12. Fourth side flaps 24 extending from opposite ends of the bottom wall 11 are folded and secured to the third side flaps 23 extending from opposite ends of the back wall and to fifth side flaps 25 extending from opposite ends of the minor front wall panel 16. The second side flaps 22 extending from opposite ends of the major front wall panel 15 include a second portion 22b that lies behind the fourth side flaps 24. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-4 this second portion is secured directly to the fourth side flap. The first and second portions 22a and 22b of the second side flap are joined together by a frangible line 26 so that they may be readily separated from one another. In a preferred embodiment these frangible lines each comprise a 3×3 series of spaced perforations.

#A tear-out panel 30 in the back wall 12 is defined by diagonal perforated lines 31 and 32 extending from the top wall 13 near its opposite side edges into the back wall and terminating at a thumb tab 33 at approximately the middle of the back wall. This tab may be grasped and pulled away from the back wall to detach the tear-out panel from the back wall. It will be noted that the width of the tear-out panel where it joins the top wall is less than the width of the top wall, leaving short connecting portions X and Y at opposite sides of the tear-out panel. These connecting portions are made frangible at the juncture of the top and back walls by a 3×3 series of alternating cuts and creases. By lifting the tear-out panel upwardly and rearwardly the connecting portions X and Y are broken and the first and second portions of the second side flaps are detached from one another, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and since there is no other attachment between the top portion 19 and bottom portion 20 of the container, the top portion is completely freed from attachment to the container, whereby the entire top portion of the container may be lifted away from the container to expose product held in the container. The remaining bottom portion 20 has a low front wall 14′, defined by the minor front wall panel 16, relatively low stepped side walls 17′ and 18′ defined by the bottom flaps 24 and back wall flaps 23, and a back wall 12′ with a removed area 34 where the tear-out panel 30 was removed.