FILLER TRAY AND UNITARY BLANK FOR ASSEMBLING SAME
A filler tray and a unitary blank for assembling the filler tray are provided. The filler tray generally includes a bottom filler, a back filler, and two side fillers that assemble together to define an opened top enclosure adapted to contain one or more high cost product packages. The products contained in the filler tray are accessible from the open top enclosure. The filler trays may be palletized in standard configuration and may be assembled from the unitary blank cut from a single sheet of corrugated fiberboard.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to trays used for shipping and display of products. More particularly, the present invention relates to a product display filler tray that may be palletized in standard full pallet configurations while providing non-product filler space at the back, bottom and sides of the tray.
2. Description of the Related Art
Shipping boxes are well known in the art and are designed to contain objects for convenient transport. Shipping boxes are used to transport consumer products to retail stores. After arrival at the retail store, individual products are removed from their shipping boxes and placed on store shelves for presentation to retail consumers. The transported products are removed by store personnel by lifting the product out of a cut-opened shipping box. When placed on the shelf, products are typically oriented such that the main label of the product, or secondary package enclosing and containing the product, faces the consumer. Shipping boxes are typically made from a sheet of corrugated kraft material, often referred to as corrugated fiberboard.
Owing in part to the popularity of the so-called “club” stores, it is increasingly desirable to display packaged products in the same box in which they are shipped. Such shipping/display boxes eliminate the need for removing individual products from the shipping box and stacking them on a shelf. Products for sale in club stores are increasing shipped and displayed in trays. Shipping/Display trays, hereinafter simply display trays, are boxes that have a single bottom panel, or an assembled bottom formed from multiple bottom flaps, for placement of the product, but are typically opened at the top and have openings in one or more upright walls of the box to display the product label and to facilitate removal of the product directly by the consumer at the point of purchase. Among the problems with which the packaging engineer must deal in devising suitable open walled display trays, is the need for sufficient strength for stacking must be capable of holding.
A number of improvements were made in the prior art boxes to address these issues. For example, Vesborg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,504 is directed to a shipping and display box. Spamer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,002 is directed to a case for displaying articles in retail outlets, which is preferably formed of corrugated plastic or fiberboard material. DeMott, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,360 is directed to a stackable box having a display opening. Locking slots and locking tabs are illustrated. Edgerton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,299 is directed to a combined product shipping and display box. Carr et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,337 discloses a box for a bag stack.
Product shipping boxes and product display trays are often stacked on pallets for more convenient and efficient transport to retail stores, especially to club stores, which typically turn over more product than traditional retail stores. Often, whole pallets of product in display trays are placed in the aisles of club stores for presentation to consumers.
However, for small-sized, high-cost, low-turnover products even club stores do not wish to purchase entire pallets of full display trays containing a large number of these products. The inventory cost to purchase and stock these full pallets is often prohibitive. In the prior art, so-called “filler trays” were provided to address this problem. Filler trays included empty spacers or “fillers” that took up space in the display tray that would otherwise have been occupied by high-price products had the entire display tray been fully loaded. Thus, a filler tray retained the advantage of full display tray palletizing and aisle-way pallet presentation, without the disadvantage of high product inventory cost of display trays without fillers. Fewer of the small sized, high-cost, low turnover products needed to be inventoried since some of the space on the palletized filler trays was occupied by empty fillers.
In the prior art, fillers for filler trays were supplied as separate boxes placed at the bottom, sides, or back of the display tray before product loading. Products were then place adjacent to the fillers to occupy the remaining space in the filler tray. These fillers were separately made and thus costly and inconvenient to use. Further, different sized fillers were needed to accommodate various product space requirements. There remains a need for a filler tray, assembled from a unitary blank, that is durable, strong, economical, versatile, and convenient for use with small, high-cost products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONProvided is a durable, strong, economical, and versatile filler tray assembled from a unitary blank formed for a single sheet of corrugated fiberboard, which is sometimes referred to as a unitary blank. The unitary blank may be pre-assembled into a “flat”, well known in the art, that presents a knocked-down, planar configuration for convenient shipping and storage of the filler tray. The filler tray provides an enclosure for storing and displaying products that are accessible through the open top of the filler tray. The filler tray may be palletized in standard configurations.
Various fillers, assembled from the unitary blank, take up space in the filler tray that would otherwise be occupied by product. This is advantageous when high-price products are displayed in the tray, as fewer products need to be inventoried when the products are purchased in full pallets.
More particularly, the filler tray includes a bottom filler, a first side filler foldably connected to the bottom filler, a second side filler foldably connected to the first filler, and a back filler foldably connected to the bottom filler and the first side filler and fixedly connected to the second side filler. The various fillers include foldably connected panels, flaps, and tabs that are folded about connecting horizontal and vertical foldlines for assembly into the filler tray. The foregoing aspects and others will be readily appreciated by the skilled artisan from the following description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. As used herein, positional terms, such as “bottom”, “left” and the like, and directional terms, such as “upward”, “horizontal”, “outward” and the like, are employed for ease of description in conjunction with the drawings. None of these terms is meant to indicate that the described part or assembly must have a specific orientation except when specifically set forth. For simplicity of presentation, repeated parts in the Figures are not necessarily all labeled, although it is understood that these unlabeled parts are to be considered equivalent to duplicate labeled parts.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONBottom filler 102, left side filler 104L, right side filler 104R, and back filler 106 together define an opened top enclosure adapted to contain one or more product packages P. An assembled filler tray 100 generally defines the boundaries of the hollow interior portion of the enclosure in which the product packages P are disposed. Product packages P are removed by a consumer through the opened top filler tray 100. A plurality of filler trays 100 may be placed in one or more standard configurations on a pallet (not shown).
Filler tray 100 and the various fillers described, are assembled from foldably connected panels, flaps, tabs, and other parts of unitary blank 200 shown in
Bottom assembly 208 includes a front bottom flap 208F, a back bottom flap 208B, a left bottom flap 208L, and a right bottom flap 208R. Front bottom flap 208F is foldably connected to front panel 214 along a horizontal front bottom flap foldline 216, back bottom flap 208B is foldably connected to back outer panel 212 along a horizontal back bottom flap foldline 218, left bottom flap 208L is foldably connected to left outer side panel 210L along a horizontal left bottom flap foldline 220, and right bottom flap 208R is foldably connected to right outer side panel 210R along a horizontal right bottom flap fold line 222. The bottom flaps of unitary blank 200 are generally configured as surfaces that taper from their respective foldlines to their opposite ends. As described more fully below with reference to
Filler tray 100 (
In this manner, the perimeter sidewalls of filler tray 100 are formed and unitary blank is pre-assembled. However, as described above, unitary blank 200, now pre-assembled, may be configured as a flat. Right outer side panel 210R, now projecting upward from the flat surface used for pre-assembly, may be pivoted in one direction about perimeter tab foldline 232 where right outer side panel 210R fixedly couples to perimeter tab 230. At the same time, left outer side panel 210L, now also projecting upward from the flat pre-assembly surface is pivot in the same direction about left outer side panel foldline 224. If the direction of pivot is toward the right edge of
After pre-assembled unitary blank 200 is received as a flat, further assembly of unitary blank 200 into filler tray 100 commences.
Referring again to
After the assembly of bottom assembly 208 as described above, further assembly of unitary blank 200 into filler tray 100.
Referring again to
After the assembly of back filler 106 as described above, further assembly of unitary blank 200 into filler tray 100 commences.
After the assembly of left and right side fillers 104L and 104R, further assembly of unitary blank 200 into filler tray 100 commences.
From this disclosure, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that other conventional materials and fabrication techniques could be substituted. Also based on this disclosure, the person of ordinary skill in the art would further recognize that the relative proportions and positions of the parts illustrated could be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Claims
1. A filler tray comprising:
- a bottom filler
- a first side filler foldably connected to said bottom filler;
- a second side filler foldably connected to said bottom filler; and
- a back filler foldably connected to said bottom filler and said first side filler, and fixedly connected to said second side filler.
2. The filler tray of Claim 1 wherein said bottom filler, said first side filler; said second side filler, and said back filler together define an open top enclosure adapted to contain one or more product packages.
3. The filler tray of claim 1 wherein said filler tray comprises corrugated fiberboard.
4. The filler tray of claim 1 wherein said filler tray is assembled from a single sheet of planar corrugated fiberboard.
5. The filler tray of claim 1 wherein said back filler is fixed connected to said second side filler by adhesive.
6. The filler tray of claim 1 further comprising perimeter panels comprising:
- an outer back panel;
- a first outer side panel foldably connected to said outer back panel;
- a front panel foldably connected to said first outer panel; and
- a second outer side panel foldably connected to said front panel.
7. The filler tray of claim 1 wherein said bottom filler comprises a bottom assembly foldably connected to a front panel, and;
- a bottom platform foldably connected to said front panel.
8. The filler tray of claim 1 wherein said back filler comprises an outer back panel;
- a back filler top panel foldably connected to said back outer panel;
- an inner back panel foldably connected to said back filler top panel, and;
- an inner back panel bottom flap foldably connected to inner back panel.
9. The filler tray of claim 8 further comprising:
- a first inner back panel side flap foldably connected to said inner back panel, and;
- a second inner back panel side flap foldably connected to said inner back panel.
10. The filler tray of claim 1 wherein said first side filler comprises:
- an outer side panel;
- a outer side panel top flap foldably connected to said outer side panel;
- an inner side panel foldably connected to said outer side panel top flap;
- a inner side panel bottom flap foldably connected to said inner side panel, and;
- an inner side panel front flap foldably connected to said inner side panel.
11. A unitary blank foldable into a filler tray of claim 1.
12. The unitary blank of claim 11 wherein said unitary blank comprises corrugated fiberboard.
13. The unitary blank of claim 1 The unitary blank of claim 11 is formed from a single sheet of planar corrugated fiberboard.
14. The unitary blank of claim 11 wherein said unitary blank is pre-assembled into a flat.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 29, 2006
Publication Date: Jan 3, 2008
Inventor: Christopher Phan (Dublin, CA)
Application Number: 11/427,674
International Classification: B65D 5/02 (20060101);