US3232515A - Carton blank - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 1, 1966 w. R. sAlDEL 3,232,515

CARTON BLANK Filed March 29, 1965 HMI United States Patent O 3,232,515 CARTON BLANK William R. Saidel, Park Forest, lll., assigner to integral Packaging Company, Chicago Heights, Ill., a corporation of Iliinois Fiied Mar. 29, 1963, Ser. No. 269,649 1 Ciaini. (Cl. 229-37) The present invention relates to a novel carton or box and a method and apparatus for applying yadhesive material to cartons or other Workpieces. While the method and apparatus of the present invention are particularly suitable for applying adhesive material to portions of folding boxes or cartons formed from iiberboard, cardboard and the like, other uses will suggest themselves.

It has heretofore been suggested to apply a hot melt or thermoplastic adhesive material to limited areas or flaps of a folding box or carton structure. In addition such cartons or boxes have -been stacked in a at condition for storing or shipping and for subsequent assembly at W ich time the adhesive material is to be reheated and activated for enabling portions of the boxes or cartons to be adhesively connected together. However, substantial difiiculties have been encountered in that the carton or box blanks tend to stick together when they are stacked, particularly in the event that they are placed on the stack before the thermoplastic adhesive material has been suiii- Ciently cooled. Many attempts have heretofore been made to overcome this difficulty, but such attempts have usually resulted in the provision of relatively complicated and expensive machines or machines which require an undue amount of door space.

lt is an important object of the present invention to provide a novel carton structure and a novel method and apparatus for applying adhesive material to articles such -as box or carton blanks eiciently and at high speeds and in a manner which enables the blanks to be stacked almost immediately without sticking together.

A further important object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and apparatus for applying adhesive material to articles, which method and apparatus are relatively economical and require a relatively small amount of iioor space.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and apparatus for applying a hot melt or thermoplastic adhesive material to articles in a manner such that the applied adhesive material cools very rapidly for preventing fouling of the apparatus or sticking of the articles to each other.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. l is a simplified side elevational View showing an apparatus incorporating features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken generally along line 2 2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken along line 3 3 in FIG. 2 `and showing features of the present invention in greater detail;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a carton blank especially suitable for processing lin accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view of a portion of the carton blank showing the manner in which adhesive material is applied in greater detail.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings wherein like parts are designated by the same numerals throughout the various figures, lan apparatus incorporating features of the present invention is shown in simplified form in FIGS. 1 and 2. The apparatus comprises a unit ICC 12 adapted to retain a stack 14 of articles to be processed such as carton blank 16 shown best in FIG. 4. The feeding unit 12 may be of known construction and need not be shown or described in detail. It suffices to state that the feeding unit 12 is adapted to deliver the articles or blanks 16 from the stack one at a time and in a manner such that the articles may be conveyed along a predetermined path of travel in a manner described below in adjacent but spaced apart relationship.

The apparatus 10 also comprises a unit 18 which is adapted to apply hot -melt or thermoplastic adhesive material to articles moving continuously along a predetermined straight path of travel. More specifically, the unit 1S comprises conveying means which may be in the form of opposed endless belts 20 and 22 respectively mounted on rollers 24-26 and 28-30. The endless belts are adapted to receive successive articles or blanks 16 therebetween and convey the blanks in closely adjacent but spaced apart relationship along a straight line path of travel. In the embodiment shown, the endless belts are adapted to engage central portions of the blanks as shown best in FIG. 2, which blanks include oppositely extending end aps 32 and 34 which project laterally of opposite sides of the belts and also of the remaining portions of the blank. Thus outer marginal portions of the aps 32 and 34 are presented for having adhesive material applied along strips 36 and 38 thereon as will be described more in detail below.

In order to apply the adhesive material to the aps 32 and 34, pairs of rollers or disks 40-42 and 44-46 are disposed at opposite sides of the conveyor belts 20 and 22. The rollers 40 and 44 are fixed on a shaft 48 and the rollers 42 and 46 are tixed on a shaft 50, which shafts lare driven Iin timed relationship With each other and with the conveyor belts 20 and 22. Any suitable drive means may be provided for driving the shafts and the conveyor belts, which drive means may include a motor 52 having pulleys 54 and 56 fixed on its output shaft 58. An endless belt 6i) extends from the pulley 54 around a pulley 62. connected with the roller 30 associated with the conveyor belt 22, and an endless belt 64 extends from the pulley 56 around a pulley 66 on the shaft 48. The shaft 5) is driven from the shaft 48 through gears 68 and 79 and the roller 26 associated with the conveyor belt 29 is driven from the roller 30 through similar gears 71 and 73 on the roller shafts.

The lower most rollers 4G an-d 44 are respectively partially submerged within tanks 72 and 74 which contain a supply 76 of adhesive material. In the embodiment shown heating coils 7S and Si) are provided in the containers or tanks 72 and 74 for maintaining thermoplastic adhesive material in a heated and fluid condition.

In accordance with an important feature of the present invention the co-operable pairs of rollers dil-42 Iand 45s-46 are constructed and disposed for applying the adhesive material to the strip portions 36 and 3S of the articles or carton blanks in the form of a plurality of spaced apart dots 82. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 the dots 82 are small in diameter and are of substantial thickness or height. The dots 82 are spaced apart from each other a distance which is preferably at least as great as their diameter, and areas S4 on the surface of the strip portions 35 and 33 of the blank between the dots are maintained substantially free of the adhesive material. It has been found that when the adhesive material is applied in this manner, the dots 32 of the adhesive material will cool almost immediately under ordinary room temperature and air conditions to an extent such that successive blanks may be stacked together without sticking. In actual practice it has been found that the conveyor belts 20 and 22 need extend only a very short distance beyond the rollers before discharging the successive blanks onto a receiving and stacking conveyor 86 or other suitable receiving and stacking means. For example the conveyors 2@ and 22 need retain the blanks which are moving at high speed for only one or two feet beyond the rollers before depositing the blanks on the stacking means.

In order to apply the adhesive material in the manner described above, the rollers 40 and 42 are constructed and arranged as shown in detail in FIG. 3. More speciiically, the peripheral surface 88 of the roller 4@ is formed with a plurality of small pockets 90 which are spaced circumferentially and transversely of the surface 88 and which have a diameter and depth corresponding to the diameter and height of the dots 2 of adhesive material. The pockets 90 are spaced apart from each other by surface areas 92 which are substantially smooth segments of a cylinder and Which correspond to the above described surface areas 84 on the blank between the dots 32.

The roller 40 is formed from a hard unyielding material such as steel and the roller 42 is similarly formed from a hard unyielding metal or other suitable material. The peripheral surface 94 of the roller 42 is smooth and, as shown best in FIG. 3, the rollers 40 and 42 are disposed in closely spaced apart relationship such that the minimum distance between their peripheral surfaces S8 and 94 is less than the thickness of the carton blank or other article 16 being processed. With this arrangement, the blank is squeezed between the smooth surface portions 92 of the peripheral surface 88 and the smooth peripheral surface 94. This causes the under surface of the blank to conform to the curved peripheral surface 88 sufficiently completely to cover and seal each successive pocket 90. The pockets 90 are, of course, filled with adhesive material picked up from the container 72. This material is pulled from each pocket to form the dots 82 as successive portions of each blank pass from between the rollers as a result of adhesion to the blank and also as a result of a suction action which takes place after the surface of the blank has been tightly pressed against the surface areas 92 entirely around the successive pockets 9d. It is further to be noted that the pressure with which the blank is forced against the surface areas 92 between the pocket causes substantially all of any adhesive material which may be on the surface areas 92 to be squeezed out or into the pockets 90 in a manner such that no undesirable amount of the adhesive material will cling to the areas 84 of the blank between the dots S2.

The rollers 44 and 46 are respectively constructed and arranged in a manner identical to the rollers 40 and 42. Therefore the rollers 44 and 46 need not be described in detail.

It will be appreciated that the carton blank 16 may include a variety of sections or panels of different sizes and arrangements. ln the embodiment shown the blank is adapted to be folded to provide a rectangular box. Thus the blank includes first, second, third and fourth side panels 96, 98, 100 and 102 which are integrally connected along scored bend lines 104, 106 and 198. A flap 110 is articulated to an outer edge of the panel 95 along a scored bend line 112 and is adapted to be adhesively or otherwise secured to a marginal portion of the side panel 102. The carton blank also includes relatively short end aps 114-116, 118-120, and 122-124 respectively extending from scored bend lines at opposite ends of the side panels 96, 98 and 100, which scored bend lines provide continuous lines 126 and 128 perpendicular to the previously mentioned scored bend lines.

It is to be noted that the previously described end flaps 32 and 34 to which the dots of adhesive material are applied are relatively long as compared with the remaining end fiaps and project laterally outwardly therefrom to facilitate the application of adhesive material thereto. In

i the embodiment shown, the end flaps 32 and 34 are adapted substantially completely to cover the opposite ends of the carton or box structure when the blank is folded to its set-up condition.

However, it is contemplated that the flaps 32 and 34 could be shortened while certain of the other end flaps could be lengthened. In other words, the blank is cut so that at least one portion of the end aps projects outwardly of the remainder of the flaps at both ends of the blank and the adhesive material is applied to the outwardly projecting flap portions.

Furthermore, it is contemplated that the longer flap portions may be used for supporting and controlling the carton during filling of the carton. For example, the carton manufacturer may fold the blank along the line 106 to a fiat condition, secure the flap 110 to the panel 192 and then ship the blank in the flattened condition to a packer. The packer may then feed the blank into a processing machine having pairs of opposed endless belts or equivalent means capable of gripping the exposed end portions of the longest ilaps which, in the embodiment shown, are the aps 32 and 34 for supporting and advancing the attened carton along a straight path of travel. When feeding the carton into the processing machine, the carton is iirst positioned so that the line 166 provides the leading edge, and the processing machine includes a stop element, shiftable finger or cam means or other suitable mechanism engageaole with the leading edge of the carton for causing the carton to unfold to an opened condition while it is still supported by its longer end flaps. Then after the carton is filled with the desired products, the end flaps are closed and secured in a known manner.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described herein, many details may be changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

The invention is claimed as follows:

A folding one-piece carton blank comprising rst, second, third and fourth side panels articulated along substantially parallel bend lines, relatively short end flaps extending laterally from bend lines at opposite ends of said first, second and third panels, said second mentioned bend lines being substantially perpendicular to said rst mentioned bend lines, and relatively long end flaps projecting from bend lines at opposite ends of said fourth panel laterally beyond outer end edges of said relatively short end aps, and thermoplastic adhesive material in an elongated strip disposed along surfaces of outer marginal portions of said relatively long end flaps, said thermoplastic adhesive material being in the form of a plurality of small spaced apart dots, said dots having a predetermined small diameter and a substantial height relative to said diameter and a generally semi-spherical configuration, said dots being spaced from each other a distance similar to said diameter, and said areas of said surfaces between said dots being substantially free of any adhesive material.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,249,089 7/ 1941 Murray et al.

2,396,946 3/1946 Grupe.

2,521,989 9/1950 McPherson.

2,727,676 12/ 1955 Tilly 229-37 2,979,247 4/1961 Pellaton et al. 229-14 .3,067,923 12/ 1962 Thiets 229-14 3,697,783 7/ 1962 Burt et al. 229-37 JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Examiner.

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