CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/664,132 filed Mar. 22, 2005.
STATEMENT CONCERNING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT Not applicable.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to point-of-sale displays, and in particular to a display carton that is supported by a greeting card rack.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Card racks such as are found in greeting card stores and drug stores display greeting cards in narrow tiers or rows of slots that slant from top to bottom so as to be able to display a large variety of greeting cards to the consumer. It is desirable to also display other products in the card aisle that may complement greeting cards, for example, chocolates to go along with Valentine's Day cards. However, greeting card racks are not well suited to displaying products other than cards as they are so specifically adapted to displaying cards. Unlike cards, boxes of chocolate tend to be heavy, whereas the materials of the card rack are typically thin walled, plastic, or other breakable materials that cannot support heavy loads typically.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a carton that can be supported by a card rack and loaded with relatively heavy items to store and display them at the card rack. The carton may be made of ordinary sheet materials, such as corrugated paperboard, and provide one or more shelves for storing and displaying the products which are available for purchase. One or more card rack adapters are secured to the carton at or near the rear surface of the carton that fit into one or more slots of the tiers of the card rack to support the carton from the card rack.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the detailed description which follows. In the description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a greeting card rack supporting a card rack display carton of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional, schematic view illustrating how an adapter of the carton fits into two tiers of the card rack and is secured to the rear wall of the carton;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the adapter by itself;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating how the adapter fits into a slot in the rear wall of the carton;
FIG. 6 is a view like FIG. 5, but with the flap fully inserted into the slot in the rear wall of the carton;
FIG. 7 is a view from the front of the carton illustrating how the flap is folded over the inside surface of the rear wall of the carton and secured with fasteners (only one shown, although two would be used typically) and also illustrating how a shelf is assembled to the carton with the tongue of the shelf being inserted into a slot of the carton;
FIG. 8 illustrates how the tongue of the shelf is folded over the outside surface of the rear wall of the carton and reinserted into another slot in the rear wall of the carton;
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the carton showing just the top shelf and the bottom shelf, with the top shelf secured at the left side with a fastener (it being understood that the right side would also typically be secured with a fastener) and illustrating a reinforcement supported on the lower shelf which would help support the weight of the shelf that is provided directly above the lowest shelf;
FIG. 10 is a perspective view illustrating the uppermost shelf and the shelf directly below the uppermost shelf with a reinforcement between the two shelves;
FIG. 11 is a view of an unfolded blank for making a carton for the display;
FIG. 12 is a view of an unfolded blank for making an adapter for the display;
FIG. 13 is a view of an unfolded blank for making a shelf for the display; and
FIG. 14 is a view of an unfolded blank for making a reinforcement for the display as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. 1 through 3, a display 10 of the invention is supported by the slots of tiers 12 of a greeting card rack 14. The display 10 may be used, for example, for supporting boxes of chocolates, which can make the display 10 quite heavy, on the order of 40 to 50 pounds or more. The tiers 12 are typically made of relatively thin-walled materials, such as plastic or wood, which are not made to support weights of this magnitude.
The display 10 includes a carton 16 and two adapters 18. The carton 16 can be provided with shelves 20 that support the product displayed for sale. For example boxes of chocolates could be stacked on each of the shelves 20. The carton 16 has a rear wall 22 to which the adapter 18 is secured. The adapter 18, carton 16 and shelves 20 are all made out of foldable sheet materials, such as corrugated paperboard.
Referring to FIGS. 3-6, the adapter 18 has a body portion 24 that has front 42, rear 46 and side 44 walls, a bottom wall 25 and an open top that angles, a first flap 26 hingedly connected by an intermediate flap 28 to the front wall 42 of the body portion 24, and a second flap 30 hingedly connected by a second intermediate flap 32 to the rear wall of the body 24. The first flap 26 is hingedly connected to the top edge of the front wall 42 of the body 24 and the second flap 30 is hingedly connected to the top edge of the rear wall 46 of the body 24. As stated above, the top edges of the side walls of the body 24 angle upwardly and rearwardly from the front wall to the rear wall to approximately match the angle of the rack 14.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, the tiers 12 (which may have dividers that define side by side pockets) of the rack 14 are defined by upright front and rear walls 36 and the spaces or slots between the walls 36 are normally used for storing and displaying greeting cards. However, when the display 10 is mounted to a card rack, the slots between the walls 36 are occupied by the body 24 and by the second flap 30, with the wall 36 in front of the body 24 extending up into the area of the joint between the joint 24 and the first flap 26 and the wall 36 behind the body 24 extending up into the area of the joint between the flap 30 and the body 24. The connection between the tiers 12 and the adapter 18 provides support for the display 10, and as illustrated in FIG. 1, it is preferable that two of the adapters 18 are used to support the display 10. Of course, depending on how much weight the display 10 will be required to support, more or less adapters 18 may be used. The body 24 and flap 30 may either bottom in the pockets defined by the tiers, or not, but they should extend deep enough into the pockets so they do not become dislodged when the carton is loaded or unloaded.
Also as illustrated in FIG. 3, first flap 26 is inserted through a slot 38 in the rear wall 22 of the carton 16 and the intermediate flap 28 extends through the slot 38 in the assembled position of the adapter 18 relative to the carton 16. Flap 26 is then folded down over the inside surface of the rear wall 22 and secured with at least one, and preferably two, fasteners 40. These fasteners 40 may be of the screw or push type and are commonly available, typically made out of plastic. Other means of securement such as adhesive, interlocking tabs, clips or other fasteners may be used. FIG. 7 illustrates one of the fasteners 40 in position at the left side, with a hole provided on the right side for a second fastener 40, it being preferable to use two such fasteners 40 to secure the flap 26 to the rear wall 22 although in some applications only one may be needed.
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, it can be seen that the adapter 18 in the body portion 24 is hollow, having an open top and a closed bottom. The body portion 24 has side walls 44, a front wall 42 and a rear wall 46. Referring to FIG. 5, the slot 38 preferably extends all the way across the rear wall 22 of the carton 16, as does the flap 26.
FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate how a support tray or shelf is assembled to the carton 16. The shelf 20 has a tongue portion 50 extending from its rear edge that is inserted into a relatively wider slot 52 in the rear wall 22 of the carton 16, as shown in FIG. 7. As shown in FIG. 8, the tongue portion 50 is folded over the outer surface of the rear wall 22 and end portion 54 of the tongue portion 50 is inserted through a relatively narrower slot 56 that is slit at its ends (but not cut out) to allow the passage of the wings that extend from the end portion 54. Once through the slits, the wings are trapped behind the rear wall 22 by the slits to prevent the tongue portion 50 from disengaging the rear wall 22. This type of a trapping construction is standard practice in the art of making corrugated containers.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 9, the sides of the shelves 20 are preferably secured to the side walls of the carton 16 with fasteners 40. Although only one side is shown as secured by a fastener 40 in FIG. 9, it is preferred that both sides be secured, just like both sides of the flap 26 should be secured. Any type of fastener, including adhesive, clips and interlocking tabs could be used.
Referring to FIGS. 9, 10 and 12, a reinforcement 60 can be provided between adjacent shelves 20. The reinforcement 60 has side walls 61 and a rear wall 63, with cutouts 65 in the rear wall to accommodate the slots in the rear wall 22 of the carton 16. On the bottom shelf 20, the tongue 50 gets inserted through a slot 52 at nearly the very bottom of the container 16 and gets folded up and back through a slot 56 (with slits at the ends) which is above the slot 52 that the tongue was initially inserted through, contrary to the other shelves, in which the tongue is folded down to get inserted back through the slot 56. The reinforcement 60 serves to help support the next adjacent shelf above the shelf 20 on which the reinforcement 60 is resting, which can be beneficial, especially if the display 10 is shipped fully loaded with candy or other heavy items.
A card-rack-supported display of the invention has been described in considerable detail. Many modifications and variations to the display described will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention should not be limited to the embodiment described.
