CA1191819A

CA1191819A - Package assemblies

Info

Publication number: CA1191819A
Application number: CA000419236A
Authority: CA
Inventors: G. Michael Whiteside
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-01-11
Filing date: 1983-01-11
Publication date: 1985-08-13

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A package assembly has a rigid base member with at least one pair of parallel lines of weakening defining a tear strip. At least one row of packages is positioned on the base member and removably secured to a tear strip by frangible adhesive. A film of plastic material passes over the packages and is secured to the base member to re-tain the packages in assembly therewith. The packages are removable from the assembly by removing the plastic film, tearing the tear strip from the remainder of the base member, and separating the packages from the tear strip by breaking the frangible adhesive.

Description

This invention relates to package assemblies which enable a number of packages to be transported as a single unit from the package manufacturer or filler to a place where the packages are r,equired.
There are many instances where such packaye assem-blies would be useful. For example, in the food industry, food of various kinds is packages in various different types of packages, such as cans or cartons of circular or rectangu-lar section. For many years, it has been the conventional practice to transport such packages from the manufacturer to a retail outlet in cardboard boxes, and a considerable amount of expense and labour is incurred in the packing of such boxes by the manufacturer and subsequently unpacking the bo~es and arranging the packages on display shleves such as are commonly found in a supermarket. Other pack-ages assemblies have been proposed, but these still involve a considerable amount of expense and labour.
It is therefore an object of the present inven-tion to provide a package assembly which requires less expense and labour in packing and unpacking and which is especially useful in the food industry for transporting packages from the manufacturer to a retail outlet.
According to the present invention, a package assembly comprises a rigid, frangible base member having at least one pair of parallel lines of weakening defining a tear strip, at least one row of packages positioned on the base member and removably secured to a teæ strip by frangible adhesive, and a film of plastic material passing over the packages and secured to the base member to retain the pack-ages in assembly therewith, the packages being removable ~' 3~

from the assembly by removing the plastic film, tearing thetear strip from the remainder of the base member, and separa-ting the packages from the tear strip by breaking the fran-gible adhesive.
There may be a plurality of rows of packages, with the base member having a plurality of tear strips, each tear strip extending beneath the respective row of packages. The packages may be removably secured to the base member by spots of frangible adhesive, and the film may provide an imper-forate covering the packages to resist entry of dust or dirt.
The base member may b~ of fibrous material, withthe adhesive having a greater adherence to the fibrous material than to the packages to cause substantially all the adhesive to remain attached to the tear strip when the packages are removed therefrom.
The top and/or bottom of the packages may be pro-vided with tamper-evident structure. For example, each package may have superposed folded over portions at the bottom, the lowermost portion having an aperture exposing an adjacent portion and the tear strip having a partially cut-out portion secured by adhesive to the bottom of each package over the aperture, each partially cut-out portion separating from the remainder of the base member when the associated package is separated therefrom and remaining attached to the bottom of the package. The bottom of such a package cannot be opened without destroying the adhesive connection between the cut-out portion and the bottom of the package.
Each package may have superposed folded over por-tions at the top, an uppermost of said portions having a slot exposing an adjacent portion, a spot of thermoplastic material having been deposited in the slot to engage the adjacent portion and also overlapping at least one side edge of the slot to engage the uppermost portion. The top oE such a package cannot be opened without fracturing the spot of thermoplastic material in and around the slot.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a base member in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, Figure 2 is a similar view showing packages of rectangular section positioned on the base member, Figure 3 is a simiiar view showing a plastic film extending around the packages and secured ` to the base member, Figure 4 shows the package assembly of Figure 3 in an inverted position, Figure 5 is a perspective view of a base member in accordance with another embodiment, Figure 6 i5 a similar view showing packages of circular section positioned on the base member of Figure 5, E'igure 7 is a perspective view of a package show-ing tamper evident top and bottom struc-ture in an open position, Figure 8 is a plan view of a base member having tamper-evident structure cooperable with the tamper-evident bottom structure of the package of Figure 7, Figure 9 is a bottom view of the package after separation from the base member, Figure 10 is a sectional view along the line l0-10 of Figure 9, and Figure 11 is a plan view of the package after closure of the top.
Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows a base member 12 in the ~orm of die-cut paper board which is rigid yet frangible. The base member 12 has three pairs of parallel lines of weakening, each forming a tear strip 14 t and with each tear strip 14 having a tab 16 at one end which has been punched out of the board. The base member 12 has a relatively smooth bottom surface and a rougher, more fibrous upper surface. If desired, appro-priate printing may be applied to the smooth bottom surface.
By means of appropriate equipment, the nature of which will be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art, three rows of spots of molten adhesive 18 are applied to the fibrous upper surface of base member 12, with the spots 18 in each row being spaced along a respective tear strip 14. Usually, the adhesive will be applied by appli-cators situated above a conveyor along which the base member is travelling. The adhesive may be conveniently of the kind commonly known as hot melt.
While the adhesive is still molten, a series of packages 20 of rectangular section are placed in adjacent side-by-side relationship on the base member 12 so as to occupy substantially the whole area of the base member.

3 ~

The packages may for e~ample contain food~ and may be car-tons or paper packagesO Usually, the packages 20 will be positioned on the base member 12 by equipment which feeds the packages in a direction perpendicularly to the direction in which the base member 12 i5 travelling, and then posi-tions a pre-arranged set of packages on the base member 12 immediately after the adjesive spots 18 have been applied thereto.
As shown in Figure 2, the packages 20 are arranged in the same number of rows as there are tear strips 14, i.e. three, with each package 20 being positioned over an adhesive spot 18. The adhesive is such that it will adhere to the packages 20 to the extent that the packages 20 are secured to the base member 12 firmly enough to resist move-ment relative thereto during normal handling, but which can be broken by manual force to separate the packages 20 from the base member 12 when desired.
Referring not to Figure 3, a plastic film 22 is then passed completely around the packages 20 and secured to the bottom surface of the base member 12 near the edge.
The plastic film 22 is arranged to form an imperforate cover over the packages to resist entry of dust and dirt or alternatively may form a tunnel-like wrapping which is open at the ends. Again, the nature of the equipment re-quired for this purpose will be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art.
The resultant package assembly can then be trans-ported conveniently from the manufacturer to a retail out-let such as a supermarket. Then the package assembly is at the retain outlet, it is merely necessary to turn the package assembly upside down, as shown in Figure 4, remove the plastic film 22, and pull each tab 16 to tear the tear strips 14 away from the remainder of the base member 12, with the adhesive spots 18 on each tear strip 1~ separating from the packages 20 without tearing fibre from the packages. The remainder of the base member 13 is then removed.
Figure 5 shows a different manner of positioning adhesive spots 26 which is suitable when the packages are metal cans 28 (shown in Figuxe 6). Adhesive spots 26 are positioned in each tear strip 14, and are arranged such that each can 28 engages two adhesive spots 26 which are diametrically opposite on the bottom of the can.
Any convenient number of packages may be positioned on the base member in a single layer, for example six, twelve, twenty-four or thirty-six, and the packages may be of paper, metal or plastic. The packages may be arranged in two layers, before application of the plastic film, and in this case it is preferable for the packages to be shap~d in such a manner that there is some interlocking between the bottoms of the packages in the upper layer and the tops of the pack-ages in the lower layer.
The packages and ~ase membex may be provided with structure which enables the packages to be tamper-evident, that is to say have structure which indicates when un-authorized tampering with the top or bottom of the packages has occurred. Referring to Figure 7, the bottom of a package 32 has a bottom panel 34 which is an integral extension of one wall and which has a central rectangular aperture 36. The bottom panel 34 also has a flap 38 which is insertable into the container at the opposite wall. Side flaps 40, 42 are integral extensions of opposed side walls, and are folded across the bottom of the package before the bottom panel 34 when closing the bottom of the package, so that the ends of the flaps 40, 42 appear in the aperture 36. Slits 37 are provided between the bottom panel 34 and flap 38 at the ends to provide locking in the closed posi-tion.
The top of package 32 has a top panel 44 which is an integral extension of one wall. The top panel 44 has a flap 46 which is inserted into the package at the opposite wall and also has a slot 48 extending inwardly in a gener-ally diagonal manner from one of the corners of the panel 44 adjacent the flap 46. Side flaps 50, 52 are integral extensions of opposite side walls, and are folded across the top of the package before the top panel 44 when closing the top of the package, so that the slot 48 lies across one of the flaps 50, 52 ~ s shown in Figure 8, the base member 54 is of a si~e to receive four containers 32 and has tear strips 56 positioned so that two strips 56 extend under each container 32. Spots of frangible adhesive 58 are applied to the tear strips 56 immediately before the packages 32 are positioned on the base member 54. The base member 54 also has four rectangular cut-out portions 60 which are severed from the remainder of the base member 54 except at the corners where retaining portions hold the cut-out portions 60 in place.
Spots of non-frangible adhesive 64 are positioned on the cut-out portions 60 immediately before the packages 32 are posi-tioned on the base member 54. The cut-out portions 60 are arranged to be somewhat larger than the apertures 36 in the bottom panels 34 of the packages 32.
The bottom of package 32 is closed before filling and, after filling, the top of the package 32 is then closed.
The adhesive spots 56, 64 are applied to tbe base member 54 and four packages 32 are placed thereon. The non-frangible adhesive spots 64 on the cut-out portions 60 are positioned so that they will be partly within and partly outside the periphery of the apertures 36 in the bottoms of the pack-ages 32 so that the cut-out portions 60 become adhesively secured to the ends of the flaps 42 and to the bottom panel 34. A spot of thermoplastic material 66 is applied to the top of each package 32, partly in the slot 48 to contact the flap 52 and partly overlapping the edges of the slot 48 so as to contact the top panel 44.
When the resultant package assembly is opened by removal of the plastic film, and each package 32 is sep-arated from the base member 54, each cut-out portion 60 remains attached to the associated package 32 and breaks away from the remainder of the base portion 54, with frac-ture of the retaining portion 62. The bottom of the re-moved package 32 is shown in Figures 9 and 10. The bottom of the package 32 is consequently tamper-evident since the bot-tom cannot be opened without destroying the ad~esive conne~

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tion between the cut-our portion 60 and the package itself.
Similarly, the top of the package 32, as shown in Fi~ure 11, is also tamper-evident since it cannot be opened with-out destroying the adhesive connection between the thermo-plastic spot 66 and the panel 44 and flap 52.
Other emobdiments of the invention will be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art, the scope of the invention being defined in the appended claims.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclu-sive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A package assembly comprising a rigid base member having at least one pair of parallel lines of weakening defining a tear strip, at least one row of packages posi-tioned on the base member and removably secured to a tear strip by frangible adhesive, and a film of plastic material passing over the packages and secured to the base member to retain the packages in assembly therewith, the packages being removable from the assembly by removing the plastic film, tearing the tear strip from the remainder of the base member, and separating the packages from the tear strip by breaking the frangible adhesive.

2. A package assembly according to claim 1 wherein there is a plurality of rows of packages and the base member has a plurality of tear strips, each tear strip extending beneath a respective row of packages.

3. A package assembly according to claim 1 wherein the packages are removably secured to the base member by spots of frangible adhesive.

4. A package assembly according to claim 1 wherein the film provides an imperforate covering over the pack-ages to resist entry of dust or dirt.

5. A package assembly according to claim 1 wherein the base member is of fibrous material, and the adhesive has greater adherence to the fibrous material than to the packages to cause substantially all the adhesive to remain adherred to the tear strip when the packages are removed therefrom.

6. A package assembly according to claim 1 wherein each package has superposed folded over portions at the bottom, the lowermost portion having an aperture exposing an adjacent portion and the tear strip having a partially cut-out portion secured by adhesive to the bottom of each pack-age over the aperture, each partially cut-out portion sep-arating from the remainder of the tear strip when the asso-ciated package is separated therefrom and remaining attached to the bottom of the package.

7. A package assembly according to claim 1 wherein each package has superposed folded over portions at the top, an uppermost of said portions having a slot exposing an adjacent portion, a spot of thermoplastic material having been deposited in the slot to engage the adjacent portion and also overlapping at least one side edge of the slot to engage the uppermost portion.