Plastic tie display package
A display package that has top and bottom walls each wall having an interior and a periphery. A side wall connects the peripheries of the top and bottom walls to define an enclosure and dividing walls extending up from the bottom wall toward the top wall to divide the enclose into a plurality of compartments for containing articles. The top wall defines a cover panel opposite each compartment, each cover panel extending from a hinge line in the interior of the top wall to a location adjacent to the periphery of the top wall. Each cover panel is swingable using a finger access hole in the panel, about that hinge line between a closed position wherein the cover panel lies substantially parallel to said bottom wall and closes the associated compartment and an open position wherein the cover panel is swung away from the bottom wall and partially exposes the associated compartment. Each cover panel is releasably retained in its closed position so that the package can be hung on edge from a support, and constructs an attractive point of sale display for the articles therein.
This invention relates to a container or package for displaying and dispensing small articles. It is particularly suitable for containing and displaying elongated articles which may come in different lengths such as cable ties, cotton swab sticks and the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe prior art is replete with containers and packages for displaying and dispensing articles of one kind or another. These conventional containers range all the way from plastic bags and boxes to blister packs which usually comprise a see-through-thermoformed shell bonded to a backing card. Some of these packages include provision for accessing the interior of the blister pack by way of a door or cover panel in the shell or in the backing card. Usually these blister packs are each dedicated to a specific article. In other words, they are not compartmentalized and designed to provide independent access to the various compartments. Those containers and packages that do provide for such independent access are unduly complex and costly so that they are not economical for containing very inexpensive articles such as cable ties and the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, it an object of the present invention to provide an improved container for containing and displaying a multiplicity of inexpensive items.
Another object of the invention is to provide a container such as this which provides ready access to those articles without opening up the entire container.
A further object of the invention is to provide a container which is especially adapted to hold various different species of the same basic article and to provide ready access to selected ones of those species without disturbing the others.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a container of this type which is relatively easy and inexpensive to make.
Still another object of the invention is to provide such a container or package which can be accessed many times without jeopardizing the overall integrity of the container or package.
Other objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and an arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the followed detailed description, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.
Briefly my container comprises top and bottom sections, each section preferably being thermoformed of a suitable transparent plastic material. The bottom section of the container is provided with a plurality of pockets or compartments designed and dimensioned to contain a multiplicity of elongated articles such as cable ties so that the articles have a preferred orientation in each compartment. The various compartments may have different lengths to accommodate different length articles.
The top section of the container is co-extensive with the bottom section and is adapted to cover all of the pockets or compartments in the latter section. The top and bottom sections each have peripheral edge margins which interfit with those of the other section so that the two sections may be press fit together all along their peripheries to form tight enclosures for the articles. Those sections may also have additional interfitting surfaces between at least some of the various pockets to isolate those compartments and to rigidify the container.
In accordance with the invention, the top section of the container is formed with a plurality of discrete cover panels located directly above the plurality of pockets in the bottom section. These cover panels are hinged to the top section so that they can be swung between a closed position wherein they completely cover the underlying pockets in the bottom section and an open position when they expose at least portions of the associated pockets. Each cover panel may correspond to a single pocket or overlie a plurality of adjacent pockets, usually, but not necessarily, pockets having the same dimensions.
As will be described in more detail later, each cover panel is provided with edge margins which are shaped to interfit with the walls of the underlying pocket in the bottom section so that when that panel is swung to its closed position, it is releasably retained in that position.
Preferably also, each cover panel is formed with a flexible resilient flap spaced from that panel's hinge to the top section. That flap normally reposes in a “home” position in the same plane as the associated cover panel. However, that flap may be deflected downward by a user's finger enabling that finger to engage under an edge margin of that cover panel and lift that panel to gain access to the contents of the associated pocket or pockets in the bottom section.
As we shall see, my container is constructed so that it can withstand rough handling even to the extent of being dropped on the floor. Also for the same reason, it can be suspended on edge in a display rack or the like without any mixing or disorientation of the contents of the various compartments therein. Still further, the container is constructed so that its cover panels can withstand repeated openings and closings to access the container contents so that the container should have a relatively long useful life. In other words, it should last as long as any articles remain in the container. Yet with all of these advantages, the container is still relatively easy and inexpensive to make in quantity. Therefore it should prove to be a highly desirable and marketable product.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSFor a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3 of the drawings, my container comprises a bottom section or base 10 and a top section or cover 12. Both sections are thermoformed of a suitable transparent plastic material such as polyethylene. The illustrated sections 10 and 12 are rectangular. However, they could just as well be circular, oval, etc.
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A similar cut line 44 extends between the outer ends of hinge lines L, L, L separating cover panels 36c-36e from the remainder of cover portion 34b, allowing those panels to be swung between open and closed positions. When top section or cover 12 is positioned properly on bottom section or base 10, the cover margin 32 is in register with the base margin 14 and the indents 32a of the cover are in register with indents 14a of the base. To hold the two sections together, the side walls of the raised portions 34a and 34b of section 12 frictionally engage on and around the raised edge margins 16a of the base 10. Also, dimples 48 are provided in the cover portions 34a, 34b which are dimensioned and positioned to plug into the dimples 18 in the base. To permanently secure the top and bottom sections together an adhesive or bonding agent (not shown) may be applied between the edge margins and indents of the two sections and/or between dimples 18 and 48.
It is a feature of the invention that special means are provided in top section 12 for strengthening the cover panels 36a to 36e and their connections to raised portions 34a and 34b of that section so that the cover panels can be opened and closed many times without failure. Also, the cover panels are specially designed to facilitate their opening and closing and to releasably retain the cover panels in their closed positions.
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To facilitate opening panels 36a to 36e, the bottom wall 52 of each panel is provided with a generally U-shaped cut line 62 lying close to the segment of side wall 54 directly opposite the corresponding hinge line L. Each cut line 62 defines a flexible resilient flap 64, which is normally coplanar with the remainder of bottom wall 52, but which can be flexed downwardly as shown in
It is important to note that the cover panels 36a to 36e are dimensioned so that they overlie only a fraction, preferably no more than half, of the areas of the underlying compartments C1 to C5. This ensures that when a cover panel is in its open position, articles can be withdrawn easily from the associated compartment(s) without any appreciable likelihood of the articles falling out of the compartment(s) even if the container should be shaken or tipped to some extent.
To optimize the strength of the hinge connections at hinge lines L of the cover panels to the remainder of top section 12, the dimples 48 in that cover section and the underlying dimples 18 to which they are anchored are strategically located close to the opposing ends of the hinge lines L of the adjacent panels 36a and 36b, on the one hand, and panels 36c to 36e on the other. In other words, dimples 48 are located adjacent to the inner-ends of the webs 42 between panels so that the dimples 48 provide reinforcement to, but do not hinder the opening and closing of, the cover panels 36a to 36e. Preferably, arcuate slits 66 separate the dimples 48 from the adjacent webs 42 to ease the opening/closing of the associated cover panel(s). Of course, if a web 42 is slitted as shown at S in
The container described herein can be hung by way of its tab 22 from a peg or pin on a point of sale rack. Being transparent, the vertically orientated container exposes its contents and thus provides an attractive point of sale display.
As a direct result of above described construction of the container, the container provides a very sturdy enclosure for the container contents in the event the container is handled roughly or even dropped. For the same reason, the container cover panels may be opened and closed repeatedly without fear of failure and when closed, they are securely retained in their closed positions, but may be opened easily due to the hinging structure and the convenient finger access holes provided in those panels.
It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above among those made apparent from the preceding description are efficiently attained. Also, since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.
It is also to be understood the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention described herein.
Claims
1. A container comprising
- top and bottom walls each wall having an interior and a periphery;
- a side wall connecting the peripheries of the top and bottom walls to define an enclosure for articles;
- dividing walls extending up from the bottom wall toward the top wall to divide the enclosure into a plurality of compartments each of which has side wall interior surfaces and an entrance opening, said top wall defining a cover panel opposite the entrance opening of each compartment, each cover panel extending from a hinge line in the interior of the top wall to an edge located adjacent to the periphery of the top wall and being swingable about said hinge line between a closed position wherein the cover panel lies substantially parallel to said bottom wall and closes the entrance opening of the associated compartment and an open position wherein the cover panel is swung away from said bottom wall and exposes the associated compartment, and
- retainer means for releasably retaining each cover panel in said closed position.
2. The container defined in claim 1 wherein at least two of said plurality of compartments and their associated cover panels are arranged side by side in a row so that the hinge lines of their associated cover panels are collinear and extend perpendicular to the dividing wall separating at least two compartments.
3. The container defined in claim 2 wherein the top wall also defines a web extending between two adjacent cover panels in said row so that said two adjacent cover panels move in unison between their open and closed positions.
4. The container defined in claim 2 wherein said top wall is anchored to the dividing wall between said collinear hinge lines.
5. The container defined in claim 4 and further including a slit in the top wall said slit extending between the opposing ends of said collinear hinge lines.
6. The container defined in claim 1 wherein the length of each cover panel is no more than about half the length of the associated compartment.
7. The container defined in claim 1 wherein each cover panel includes a flexible resilient flap adjacent to said edge of that panel to allow finger access under that panel in order to lift that panel away from said bottom wall toward its said open position.
8. The container defined in claim 1 wherein at least said top wall is of a transparent plastic material.
9. The container defined in claim 8 and further including a perforated hang tab projecting from said side wall.
10. The container defined in claim 1 wherein the retainer means for each cover panel comprise panel exterior surfaces which frictionally engage the side wall interior surfaces of the associated compartment.
11. The container defined in claim 1 where the plurality of compartments include a first pair of adjacent similar compartments having a selected first length and a second pair of adjacent similar compartments having a selected second length longer than the first length.
12. The container defined in claim 11 wherein the second pair of compartments extend perpendicular to the first pair of compartments.
13. The container defined in claim 1 and further including a raised reinforcing rib extending around the entrance opening of ends compartment.
14. The container defined in claim 13 wherein each cover panel is formed as a pair with a bottom wall, a sidewall extending up from the bottom wall and an outturned flange at the top of side wall which engages said rib of the associated compartment to establish the closed position of said cover panel.
15. A container comprising
- a bottom section including a bottom wall, a side wall extending up from the bottom wall to an outturned peripheral edge margin which defines a plane and a plurality of dividing walls which extend up from the bottom wall toward said plane so as to divide the bottom section into a plurality of adjacent compartments each compartment having a length, a width and an entrance, and
- a top section having a top wall and a peripheral planar edge margin extending around the top wall said top section being shaped and dimensioned so that when the top section is positioned on the bottom section the peripheral edge margin of the two sections are in register said top section also including cut lines in said top wall defining a cover panel opposite each compartment entrance opening in the bottom section, and cover panel being swingable about a hinge line in the top wall that extends across the width of the associated compartment between a closed position wherein the cover panel closes the entrance opening of the associated compartments and an open position wherein the cover panel is swung away from the entrance opening into the associated compartment, said plurality of cover panels and said bottom sections having interfering surfaces which releasably retain said cover panels in their closed positions, and
- securing means for securing said top and bottom sections together.
16. The container defined in claim 15 wherein at least one of the top and bottom sections are of a transparent plastic material.
17. The container defined in claim 15 wherein each cover panel includes a finger access hole adjacent to an edge of that panel directly opposite the hinge line thereof.
18. The container defined in claim 15 wherein the entrance opening and cover panel of each compartment occupy only part of the length thereof.
19. The container defined in claim 15 wherein said securing means comprise a bonding agent between said peripheral edge margins of the top and bottom sections.
20. The container defined in claim 15 wherein said securing means comprise interfitting dimples formed in the top and bottom sections at the locations of said dividing walls between adjacent compartments.
21. The container defined in claim 20 wherein at least some of said dimples are aligned with the hinge lines of the cover panels associated with said adjacent compartments.
22. The container defined in claim 21 and further including slits in said top wall extending between opposing ends of said hinge lines and bypassing said dimples to facilitate the opening and closing of the cover panels.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 12, 2004
Publication Date: May 18, 2006
Inventor: William Dalrymple (Kingston, MA)
Application Number: 10/987,763
International Classification: B65D 73/00 (20060101);