Top Gripping Article Carrier Having Brace Tab

Abstract

A carton of the top gripping type comprising a plurality of main panels for forming a top wall (20), side walls (14, 18) and a bottom wall (16). The carton further comprising container receiving apertures (70a, 70b, 70c, 70d) formed in rows in the bottom wall for accommodating the bottles (C) held within the carton. The carton further comprising retaining structure for retaining the bottles within each aperture and an arrangement for urging the upper portions of the bottles held in one row to towards the upper portions of the bottles held in an adjacent row. The carton further comprising spacer (40, 90) provided to maintain the upper portions of the rows of bottles in spaced relationship and provided to counteract the displacement of the bottles due to the retaining structure such that a tensioned arrangement is provided in which the bottles are held and restricted from moving relative to one another.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates to a carton produced for packaging a plurality of articles, for example bottles. More particularly the invention relates to a carton of the top gripping type which attaches to the tops of the articles thereby securing the articles in an array. The invention also provides a means of restricting the movement of the bottles contained within the carton.[0002]It is known to provide top gripping article carriers which comprise apertures for receiving articles. The articles are often held in place by retaining tabs which are formed from material used to create the apertures. The retaining tabs support the bottles by engaging an underside portion of a flanged portion of the bottle top. This arrangement only supports the upper portion of the bottles and the bottoms remain free to twist and move even when contained within the top gripping carton and the tabs are weakened by the unstable nature of the bottles within the carton so reducing ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention provides a carton of the top gripping type with retaining means for holding containers and spacing means to prevent the containers from moving relative to each other. The retaining means encourages the upper portions of the containers held in one row to lean towards the upper portions of containers held in an adjacent row, while the spacing means maintains the upper portions in a spaced relationship. The carton is formed from a plurality of main panels with container receiving apertures arranged in rows, and the bottom wall of the carton has a plurality of retaining tabs and a wide end-to-end length in relation to the side walls. The blank for forming the carton also includes the retaining means and the spacing means. The technical effects of the invention include improved structural rigidity, reduced movement of the containers, and improved stability of the carton.

Problems solved by technology

This arrangement only supports the upper portion of the bottles and the bottoms remain free to twist and move even when contained within the top gripping carton and the tabs are weakened by the unstable nature of the bottles within the carton so reducing its effectiveness.

A further problem is that a top gripping carton needs to be of sufficient strength to support the bottle.

A rigid structure would address this problem but produces its own difficulties.

In particular, a top panel and / or base panel do not provide requisite rigidity and sufficient strength to support the bottle.

When cartons containing two rows of bottles are lifted the bottles in one row often move with respect to the bottles held in the other row such that the two rows split away from one another which weakens the package.

This can make the carton difficult to carry, often results in some of the more loosely held bottles falling from the carton and can even result in the carton tearing or ripping.

However, the keels are somewhat complex to set up from a collapsed form in the carton blank.

In some embodiments the base of the carton is formed from two overlapping base panels which are also required to be interlocked and accordingly the formation of the carton and keel structure is fairly complex.

A problem associated with such a carton is that the tops of the articles of one row are free to move towards articles held in the other rows even with the keel structure.

This problem is partially overcome by having side panels which extend to a significant proportion of the article height, but this requires additional material which is uneconomical.

Images