Abstract: A planting system in which the basic unit of the system comprises a plurality of individual containers for growing plants to a stage suitable for transplanting and in which the plurality of containers are secured in a flexible carrier sheet. The securement of each of the containers in the carrier sheet is such that the entire basic unit can be handled in a number of shipping, handling, filling, growing, and transplanting operations in a convenient, unique and efficient manner. Various articles of manufacture are contemplated in the system of the invention which aid and render in the unique and efficient use of the system. Those articles of manufacture include shipping and handling cartons, holding trays, filler plates and portable pack arrangements.

Abstract: A high-speed planting method and machine in which a plurality of plants are provided in a plurality of webs. The webs are flexible and each web carries a plurality of plants fixed in an array of a plurality of adjacent rows and substantially perpendicular ranks. In the method and machine, each web is bent in a curve about an axis parallel to the ranks of plants, and during the bending operation each leading rank of plants is ejected from the web as a group. Concurrently with that operation, each removed rank of plants is conveyed toward the ground, and each plant in each conveyed rank is successively set into the ground in spaced relation along a line.

Abstract: A plastic cup is provided of the thin wall variety having inner and outer spaced walls with an insulating air space therebetween. Successive cups in a telescoped stack seal effectively together so that a food concentrate or the like placed in the bottom of each cup will be protected against contamination and spoilage. To this end, the cups are provided with stacking rings and cylindrical sealing surfaces whereby a certain degree of movement between adjacent telescoped cups is permissible without allowing the entrance of air into the space between such adjacent cups. The inner and outer walls of each cup are spaced apart in the stacking and sealing ring area to allow pivotal movement of an inner cup wall with regard to its corresponding outer cup wall, whereby a telescoped stack of nested cups can flex, i.e., the axis of the stack can go from straight to arcuate, without breaking the seal between adjacent telescope cups which would lead to contamination or spoilage of the food ingredient therein.

Abstract: A planting system including a growing container which is inserted into the ground absent wall portions thereof and from which the plant growing in the remaining portions in the ground may grow into a mature plant, such, for example, as a tree. The container comprises a frame and a thin removable and discardable sleeve in all embodiments. The planting system further includes methods of planting the containers. Also, hand tools for planting the containers are disclosed.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to improvements in plastic preforms adapted for telescopic association with a complementary smooth surfaced mandrel such as is used in conventional plastic blow molding machines. More particularly, the present invention contemplates a novel type of plastic preform as herein, which comprises an elongate hollow plastic member, the inner surface of which in the aggregate conforms generally with the shape defined by the smooth peripheral surface of a complementary mandrel. The inner peripheral surface of the hollow plastic member or preform below the rim portion presents a plurality of circumferentially spaced surface portions adapted for initial direct impingement with restricted areas of the peripheral surface of a complementary smooth surfaced mandrel, the spacing between the said surface areas of impingement providing passageways extending generally longitudinally throughout substantially the entire longitudinal extent of the plastic member.

Abstract: A molding machine into which nested stacks of preforms or parisons at ambient temperatures are loaded, which denests and applies the preforms individually onto complementary shaped mandrels in the machine. The preforms are made of a thermoplastic material, such as polystyrene, and the mandrels of the molding machine are internally heated to heat each parison as the machine is intermittently rotated. The mandrels are circumferentially mounted about a carriage in the machine and the carriage rotates about a horizontal axis. When viewing the machine at the side at which the carriage rotates in a counterclockwise direction, the preforms are individually applied to the mandrels at the 3 o'clock position by a loading mechanism. From the 3 o'clock position around and to the 6 o'clock position each preform is being heated on its mandrel.

Abstract: The process and apparatus for use in the injection-blow molding of relatively thin walled thermoplastic articles with accurately controlled wall thicknesses. Also, the sub-process and apparatus for use in the blow molding of certain nestable thermoplastic preforms into non-nestable relatively thin walled containers.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for converting, by reshaping, thin-walled nestable plastic containers into non-nestable container products wherein the nestable container is telescopically mounted on and releasably locked to a complementary male mold member, the nestable container thereafter being heated to a predetermined temperature to permit ready deformation thereof, and subsequently expanded against the non-nestable inner wall configuration of a mold cavity by differential fluid pressure to form non-nestable container products. In order to mold uniform container products by a continuous molding operation, the nestable plastic container is held in fixed relation relative to the male mold member in the vicinity of its open mouth where the container is insulated from heat.

Abstract: Reshaping of a nestable plastic container of substantially uniform wall thickness into a non-nestable container of substantially uniform wall thickness by substantially uniform radial and axial enlargement thereof. The nestable plastic container is heated below its rim portion to a predetermined temperature where the nestable container is readily deformable, the thus heated nestable container then being fixedly supported in a mold cavity having a non-nestable inner wall configuration, and subsequently expanding the nestable container against the non-nestable inner wall configuration of the mold cavity by differential fluid pressure to form a non-nestable container product.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to nestable type articles, and more particularly to nestable containers designed to counteract the jamming or wedging of telescopically associated or stacked containers. The invention is particularly useful for one-piece thin-walled plastic containers of the type used in vending machines and comprises a unique wall formation for urging or guiding adjacent identical containers in a nested stack into different rotational positions to insure a positive and substantial stacking abutment between adjacent containers. An embodiment of the present invention disclosed herein includes a one-piece, thin-walled plastic container having a sidewall diverging generally upwardly from the bottom, said container being equipped with novel stacking means comprising upper internal and lower external circumferential stacking sections formed by a series of axially spaced abutments and recesses. The abutments and recesses extend generally axially and radially.