JPH0755706B2 - Sleeve type carry handle - Google Patents

Description

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a sleeve type item carrier, and more particularly to a sleeve type item carrier having an improved handle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Sleeve-type carriers used to package beverage cans are generally formed from paperboard stock that is unrolled into a sleeve to accommodate the cans. After the paperboard stock is unrolled, the end panels of the stock are folded and joined by gluing. The resulting package is intended to completely enclose the can. The package includes a handle, which is provided in the top panel for easy user lifting and carrying of the package.

A variety of different handle designs have been used for many years in sleeve type carriers, the most common being probably the suitcase type handle. The handle extends along the length of the carrier and includes two handle openings formed in the top panels that are spaced apart from each other, with the top between the openings of the handles. The panel portion forms a strap. The carrier is lifted by inserting a finger into one of the openings and lifting it over the strap portion. One of the problems with this design is that the edges of the straps often hit the hand and feel uncomfortable, especially when carrying the package for extended periods of time. Another problem is that lifting stresses are concentrated at the ends of the straps, which necessitates the use of relatively thick paperboard to prevent tearing at these locations.

To overcome these problems, it has been suggested to employ a laterally extending handle. Such handles include a laterally extending opening formed in the top panel of the carrier through which a finger is inserted. The user then places his or her finger on the underside of the top panel to lift and carry the package. With this configuration, it is more comfortable to carry out the steps of lifting and carrying than the conventional one, but it is necessary to take measures to disperse the lifting stress on the package in order to prevent tearing. is there. Without such measures, at the end of the opening of the handle of the package, as can be seen in the handle configuration disclosed in US Pat. No. 2,718,301 to F. di Palmer. Tear is likely to occur. With the design as found in the Palmer patent, the only way to prevent tearing from occurring is to use a relatively thick paperboard, resulting in high production costs.

To eliminate the tendency to tear, the carry device disclosed in US Pat. No. 4,558,816 to PJ Wood has a centrally located slit extending to the side panel. And a series of fold lines are connected to the slit. The purpose of this configuration is to disperse the lifting stress that occurs when the package is lifted by the handle. However, even with this design, the lifting stress is concentrated more than expected near the ends of the slits extending in the lateral direction, so it is unavoidable to adopt a configuration designed to make it relatively sturdy. When you lift the carrier,
The top panel will be pulled up suddenly.

A carrier that uses the design of a laterally extending handle that eliminates the tendency for tears to occur at the end of the handle and reduces the thickness of the paperboard without making the handle structure extremely flexible. It has been desired to provide.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an improved handle design that overcomes the above-referenced problems. The top panel comprises a handle opening consisting of two spaced-apart edges extending laterally from the fold connecting the side panel to the top panel. Each spaced-apart edge of the handle opening is foldably connected to a flap or tab that covers a portion of the handle opening, one of the spaced edges being the top panel center point and the end panel. It is located between one and the other. The top panel further comprises a slit extending from the end of the spaced edge via a fold connecting the side panel to the top panel and ending at the top of the side panel. .

According to such a configuration, even if the slit is displaced from the center point of the top panel, it is sufficiently close to the center point, so that the handle opening is positioned almost at the center. Therefore, when lifting the carrier, the weight is evenly distributed on either side of the handle opening, but such misalignment of the slits reduces lifting stress and thus tears. Less likely to occur,
It allows the use of thin paperboard.

These design features can be easily embodied in a standard type sleeve-type carrier, yet have a few slits in the material forming mold to provide new fold lines. It just needs to be changed.

Other features and aspects of the present invention, as well as various advantages of the present invention, will be readily appreciated from the following detailed description of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of the production material used to form the carrier according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a carrier formed from the material shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged partial plan view of the handle portion of the top panel of the carrier shown in FIG.

4 is an enlarged partial sectional view of the handle portion taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 2 taken along the length of the carrier, in which the user's finger covers the handle opening. Shows the state where the tab is being pushed down.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 4, showing a state in which a finger is applied to the tab and the tab is bent backward, and then the package is lifted by the finger.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an upper portion of the carrying device according to the present invention, in which when the carrying device is lifted along one edge of the opening of the handle, the handle part and the upper part of the side panel are bent. It shows the state.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 6 with the carrier lifted along the other edge of the handle opening.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1, a material 10 for production comprises a central portion 12, which is intermediate via a score line 16.
Connected to 14. The end portion 18 is connected to the intermediate portion 14 via score lines 20. When the material is folded around score line 16, central portion 12 becomes the top panel of the carrier and middle portion 14 becomes the side panel of the carrier. Score line
The end portions are dimensioned such that when the end portions are folded around 20, the end portions overlap each other. If you glue the areas where the end parts overlap,
The attached end portion becomes the bottom panel of the carrier.

A dust flap 22 is connected to the central portion 12 via score lines 24 and a dust flap 26 is connected to the end portion 18 via score lines 28. The end flap 30 is aligned with the score lines 24 and 28 and is connected to the intermediate portion 14 via a score line 32 forming a continuous portion of the score lines 24 and 28. When forming the carrying device, the score line 16 and
After folding the material around 20, with dust slap 22
26 are folded towards each other. Thereafter, the end portions 30 are folded towards each other and glued to the dust flaps to form the end panel of the carrier.

The resulting carrier 34 is shown in FIG. As you can see in the drawing, the top panel 12 is made of material
Supports 10 central compartments 12 and side panels 14
Corresponds to the middle compartment 14 and the end panels are flaps 30
Are formed from. Bent parts 16, 20, 24 and 32 are made of material 10
Corresponds to score lines 16, 20, 24 and 32. The bottom panel corresponding to the end compartment 18 is not visible in this figure.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the top panel includes a handle opening 36. Prior to lifting the carrier by the handle, the opening is covered by flaps or tabs 38 and 40 which are connected to the top panel via fold lines 42 and 44. As you can see in Figure 3, tab 38 and
The adjacent edges of the 40 can be easily torn by the downward pressure of the user's finger so that the tabs 38 and 40 can be folded downwards inside the carrier around the fold lines 42 and 44. Spaced narrow paperboard compartments 46
Connected through. Therefore, the opening of the handle is preferably covered by a mating tab so that dust and dirt can be prevented from entering the carrier.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, and particularly FIG. 3, the ends of the fold lines 42 and 44 are connected by a laterally extending slit 48 in the handle opening 36. Accordingly, the handle opening is defined by the fold lines 42 and 44 and the slit 48. The slit 50 extends from the end of the fold line 42 and is connected to the adjacent end of the slit 48. The slit 50 extends through the fold 16 and ends at the top of the side panel 14. If necessary, the end of the slit 50
To eliminate the tendency of the side panels to tear at the ends of the slits 50 when lifting and carrying the carrier, use a small bend such as that shown by 52 in FIGS. 1 and 2. You may end it.

A flap or tab 38, as shown in FIG.
The 40 adjacent edges are approximately aligned with the laterally extending centerline of the carrier. In other words, the adjacent edges of the tabs pass through the center point of the top panel 12. Accordingly, the edge of the handle opening and the slit 50 extending from that edge, as well as the edge 44 of the handle opening, are offset from the center point of the top panel.

Referring to FIG. 4, the inside of the carry device 34 is shown with a can C of drink wrapped therein. It will be appreciated that since the handle opening 36 is centered in the carrier, the carrier must be designed so that the row of cans directly below the top panel 12 has an even number of cans. . This design allows the opening of the handle to be positioned between the cans so that the user can insert their fingers into the space between adjacent cans. For example, 12 arranged in 3 rows of 4 cans each
The carrier shown in FIG. 4 can be designed so that it can hold 24 cans, or 24 cans arranged in 4 rows of 6 cans each. Thus, the two cans shown next to the handle opening 36 are the two innermost cans located in the top row directly below the top panel 12.

Referring to FIG. 4, when the user's finger is pushed down sufficiently against the tabs 38 and 40 to break the weak connection between the tabs 38 and 40, the user's finger causes the fold line 42 to bend. Around tab 38 is folded down. At the same time, the underside of the finger folds tab 40 down about fold line 44. As can be seen from the drawing, the fold line 42 is out of alignment, so that as the tab 38 is rotated about the fold line 42, the tab 38 bumps into the nearest can C. However, at this time, the user lifts the carrier upward while the bending operation of the tab continues. This operation produces the result shown in FIG. That is, the top panel adjacent the fold line 42 is raised and the tab 38 is folded under the panel 12 in the space created by the raised panel. The double-thickness board made by the top panel 12 and the tabs 38 provides a finger cushion. The tab 40 is bent down from the plane of the top panel.

As shown in FIG. 6, when the carrier is lifted in the manner shown in FIG. 5, the bending stress 16 on the top panel bends upward due to the effect of lifting stress,
Move inward from each other. Since the slits 50 are formed in the side panel 14, it is possible to perform the above-mentioned inward movement. Thus, the stresses created by the lifting are evenly distributed in the side panel 14 and the folds 16 of the top panel 12 are smooth and uniform between the slit 50 and the end panel closest to the edge 42. Turn up in a fashion.

Since the distance from the slit 50 to the nearest end panel is shorter than the distance from the slit 50 to the opposite end panel,
It is easier to lift the carrier from edge 42 than from edge 44, but it goes without saying that it is also possible to lift the carrier from edge 44. In such a case, as shown in FIG. 7, the user's finger engages the edge 44 and the fold line 16 between the slit 50 and the end panel closest to the edge 44 is Lifting stress draws them towards each other. In a manner similar to the bending of the top panel in the above example, the top panel 12 between the slit 50 and the end panel closest to the edge 44 bends upwards and the lifting stress folds with the side panel 14. Distributed over section 16. When the carrier is lifted along the edge 44, the action of depressing the tabs 38, 40, and then folding the tab 40 until it abuts the underside of the top panel 12, is the act of the tab 40 replacing tab 38. As described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, except that the tab is the tab. In any case, bending the top panel uniformly and smoothly upwards can evenly distribute the lifting stress and avoid stress concentration at any area or place, thus tearing the paperboard. It means that you can avoid that.

It is not necessary to use the score lines as disclosed in the Wood patent. Since the slit extends from the edge of the opening in the handle to the top of the top panel, it is possible to evenly distribute the stress to the extent that it does not require the use of stress distribution score lines.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the adjacent edges of the handle flaps are centered in the top panel, but in a carrier designed to hold an odd number of containers just below the top panel. It is possible to adopt the structure of the handle of the present invention. In such a case, the edges of adjacent flaps are positioned above the spaces between the cylindrical side walls of adjacent containers and are thus offset from the centerline of the top panel. Therefore, lifting along the edge closest to the end panel closest to the handle opening is a common way of lifting the carrier.

It is obvious from reading the above description of the preferred embodiments that certain features of the preferred embodiments of the invention may be modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A sleeve type article carrier, comprising: a top panel (12), a bottom panel (18), and a fold line () between the top panel (12) and the bottom panel (18). 16) two side panels (14) connected along, and two end panels (30) between the top panel (12), the bottom panel (18) and the side panel (14). ) And the top panel (12) has an opening (36) in the handle, the opening in the handle including a fold line (16) connecting the side panel (14) to the top panel (12). ) Extending across
Two spaced apart, substantially parallel edges (42,44), the spaced apart edges (42,44) having ends located on the top panel (12), the handle opening (36). Spaced apart edges (42, 44)
, A tab (38, 40) covering a part of the opening (36) of the handle is foldably connected, and the tab (38, 40) is spaced apart from the opening (36) of the handle. The tabs (38, 40) have edges terminating adjacent to each other between the edges (42, 44).
6) is almost entirely covered, and one of the spaced edges (4) of the opening (36) of the handle is
2) is located between a point equidistant from the end panel (30) and one of the end panels, the top panel (12) connecting the side panels (14) to the top panel. Has a slit (50) extending across and through the closest fold line (16) connecting to (12),
Each slit (50) terminates adjacent the item at the top of the nearest side panel (14), the slit (50) extending from each end of one of the spaced edges (42). And the slit (50) is substantially aligned with one of the spaced edges (42) and the side panel (14)
A sleeve type item carrier without a stress relief line. 2. A sleeve-type item carrier according to claim 1, wherein spaced apart edges (42,44) of said handle opening (36).
Is a sleeve type item carrier which is arranged at substantially the same distance from the center of the top panel (12). 3. The sleeve-type item carrier according to claim 1, wherein the adjacent edges of the tabs (38, 40) are depressed by a user's finger hitting one of the tabs. Sometimes a sleeve-type item carrier that is weakly connected to each other for easy separation.