US2465661A - Collapsible hexagonal container - Google Patents

Description

March 29, 1949. w. A. RINGLER COLLAPSIBLE HEXAGONAL CONTAINER Filed June 13, 1945 WILLIJHM H.R INGLR,

- INVENTOR.

Patented Mar. 29, 1949 2,465,661 COLLAPSIBLE HEXAGONAL CONTAINER William A. Ringler, Wayne, Pa... assignor to The Gardner-Richardson Company,

Middletown,

Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application June 13, 1945, Serial No. 599,156

My invention relates to the provision of paperboard packages for articles of polygonal, round or spherical form, of such structure that the package conforms more closely to the shape of the article.

It is an object or my invention to provide polygonal packages other than cubical or rectangular, of one-piece or unitary character, and manufactured by operations current and usual in the folding carton industry. It is an object of my invention to make polygonal cartons which can be handled, shipped and stored in the knocked-down condition, but can be readily set up by hand. It is an object of my invention to provide polygonal containers which when set up are both tight and stron giving good protection to the contents.

My structures, by way of example, may be used as hat boxes, but they also may be employed for a wide variety of other articles such, for example, as game balls, and may be made in appropriate sizes for the purpose. It is an object of my invention to produce a polygonal container which, as manufactured,.. shipped and stored, is in the form of a tubular structure, and which is produced by bending, cutting and scoring boxboard to produce blanks and by tubing such blanks on the ordinary carton tubing machines.

These and other objects of my invention which will be set forth hereinafter or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these speciflcations, I accomplish by that construction and arrangement of parts in folding paperboard cartons of which I shall now set forth certain exemplary embodiments. Reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a blank for a carton which is hexagonal in cross-section.

Figure 2 is an isometric view of the closed carton.

Figure 3 is a partial cross-sectional view through a closure of one type.

Figure 4 is a partial sectional view of another type of closure which I may employ, and is taken along the line 44 of Figure 2.

In the practice of my invention I provide tubular structures of four enclosing body walls in articulation. An opposite pair of body walls is configured by score lines to the polygonal shape of the desired carton. The remaining body walls are scored to permit folding about the contour of that polygonal shape. Between projecting portions of the last mentioned body walls and the first mentioned body walls beyond the said score lines, I provide bellows folding portions which 1 Claim. (Cl. 22941) serve not only to increase the tightness of the structure, but to maintain its shape in a rigid fashion. Means for effecting closures are also included.

In Figures 1 to 4 inclusive, I have shown a carton involving a regular hexagon. Body walls 40, 4|, 42 and, together with a glue flap 44, are provided, articulated together by means of scores 45, 46, 41 and 48. The walls 40 and 42 are demarked by further score lines 49, 50, 5|, 52 into the desired cross-sectional shape. It will be noted that in the case of a regular hexagon, scores 49 and 50, as well as scores 5| and 52, meet centrally of the walls 40 and 42, demarking, in extensions of these walls, triangular portions 53, 54, 55 and 56, which meet at the center. triangular portions are angularly bisected by slanting score lines 51, 58, 59 and 60.

The walls 4| and 43 are demarked by transverse score lines 6|, 62, 63, 64 into portions which will fold and form angularly related sides of the cross-sectional polygon. The ends of walls 4| and 43 are provided with suitable interengagement means.. These may vary as to form. I have shown at the top of wall 43 an articulated flap 65 having, along its line of articulation, a shorter out line 66. I have also shown the wall 4| as having at its top an extension 61, of a length equivalent to that of the out line 66 and having articulated-ears 68 and 69 at its ends.

On the bottom ends of walls 4| and 43, I have shown another type of closure involving flaps III and II articulated to these walls respectively. Cut lines are used to form sub-flaps 12, I3 within the first mentioned flaps and articulated to walls 4|, 43 along the same score lines. The sub-flap I2 is shown as provided with an eyelet l4 and body wall 4| is shown provided with, a bendable metallic fastener 75.

It will be clear from the description above how the blank of Figure 1 may be tubed, as by folding along score lines 48 and 48 with the adhesive juncture of the glue flap 44 to the outer edge of wall 43. It will also be clear how the tubed structure may be squared up or erected and brought into polygonal shape by the inward collapse bellowswise of the triangular portions 53, 54,55 and 56.

In the case of the top closure means illustrated at the top of the blank in Figure 1, closure may be efiected by bending inwardly the flap 65, folding over the ears 68 and 69 on the flap 61 and then passing this flap together with the ears through the cut line or slit 66. The ears These aseaeei then spring outwardly due to the natural resilience of the board, locking the structure together, as illustrated in Figure 3. The turning of the flap inwardly rigidifles the structure at this point, as will be apparent.

In the case of a closure structure such as is shown at the bottom of the blank in Figure 1, the flaps i and H extend outwardly (Figures 2 and 4) to form handles. The flap 13 extends inwardly. The flap 12 on wall 43 laps the anguiarly related portion of the opposite wall, as shown in Figure 4, and the bendable metal fastener I5 may be passed through the eyelet or grommet 14 and bent overso as to hold the box closed. 7

It will be understood that the dimensions as well as the shapes of the various walls of my carton may be modified. Thus the walls ll and 43 may be made of greater or less width to give boxes of different depths. Also, by re-arranging the score lines in walls 40 and and correspondingly changing the dimensions of the blank elsewhere, cartons may be made to have other cross-sectional shapes. Such shapes may involve other regular polygonal figures, or they,

may involve shapes of polygonal character but irregular both as to the length and as to the angular disposition of walls of the closed carton along the cross-sectional contour. I

Modifications maybe made in my invention without departing from the spirit of it. Having thus described my invention in certain exemplary embodiments, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A tubular hexagonal carton formed of a single paperboard blank having four main sections and a glue flap in articulation, said main sections and said glue flap being of the same length, alternate ones of. said main sections being scored to form hexagonal panels, the vertical diagonal dimensions of which are less than the length of' said sections, said hexagonaliy scored sections being cut inwardly aslant from their corners to meet the vertically opposite apices of said hexagonal panels, so as to leave triangular portions ing provided with engagement means for iastenv ing said ends together, the other ends or said last mentioned sections being provided with flaps having interiorly cut portions forming sub-flaps, said flaps adapted in the erected structure to come together to form handles with hand-holes, and said sub-flaps having interengagement means for detachably holding together the said ends of said sections, said carton being foldable on a pair of alternate scorelines intermediate said main sections to allow the carton to be collapsed.

WILLIAM A. RINGLER.

REFERENCES crrrm The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED s'm'ms PATENTS Name Date Davidson Feb. 24, 1925 Berkowitz Sept. 29, 1925 Berkowitz Apr. 5, 1927 Schrier Jan. 6, 1931 Wellman Jan. 3, 1933 Comley Oct. 3, 1939 Number Loth Apr. 25, 1944 Buttery M--. Mar. 27, 1945 Stone July 3, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date France Apr. 29, 1935 Number Palmer Aug. 11, 1942

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