Package Box Module

- AU OPTRONICS CORPORATION

A package box module for packaging an object is disclosed, which includes a package box having a sidewall and plural first coupling structures disposed on the sidewall, and a common cushion disposed between the object and the sidewall. The common cushion includes plural second coupling structures and plural flexible structures disposed between the second coupling structures. The common cushion can be enlarged by extending the flexible structures, so that the first coupling structures couple to the second coupling structures, thus a gap between the object and the package box is filled by the common cushion.

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Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 99106338, filed Mar. 4, 2010, which is herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a package box module. More particularly, the present invention relates to a display panel package box module.

2. Description of Related Art

Various display panels have becoming popular in daily life, such as a liquid crystal display panel, an organic light emitting diode display panel, a plasma display panel, etc. Those display panels have replaced traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) displays thereby becoming the main stream for displays and are already broadly used in consumer electronic devices or computer products, such as portable televisions, cellular phones, camcorders, laptop computers, desktop displays, projection televisions, etc.

The manufacturers may manufacture various sizes of liquid crystal displays according to different custom order, and the related sizes of cushions thereof are manufactured to protect the liquid crystal displays and prevent the liquid crystal displays from damage during transporting.

However, manufacturing different sizes of package boxes fitting the display panels may increase the material cost. Furthermore, if the production of the display panel shut down, the package boxes thereof would become idle package boxes, which would become a waste of space and cost.

For the forgoing reasons, there is a need to use the package boxes efficiently and reduce the number of idle boxes.

SUMMARY

An aspect of the invention provides a package box module for packaging an object. The package box module includes a package box having a sidewall and plural first coupling structures disposed on the sidewall, and a common cushion disposed between the object and the sidewall. The common cushion includes plural second coupling structures disposed corresponding to the first coupling structures, and plural flexible structures disposed between the second coupling structures. The common cushion can be enlarged by extending the flexible structures, so that the first coupling structures couple to the second coupling structures, thus a gap between the object and the package box is filled by the common cushion.

A thickness of the common cushion is substantially equal to the gap between the object and the package box. The material of the common cushion is a foaming material, such as an expanded polyethylene foam. Each of the flexible structures is a half-cut structure. The half-cut structure can be plural notches, and the notches are staggered arranged along a height direction of the common cushion. The half-cut structure can be plural notches, and the notches are staggered arranged along a thickness direction of the common cushion. The first coupling structures can be plural first cavities. The second coupling structures can be plural protrusions designed corresponding to the first cavities. The common cushion may further include plural second cavities arranged inside of the protrusions. The shape of the package box can be substantially a rectangle; the shape of the common cushion can be substantially a rectangle. The flexible structures are arranged on the sidewalls of the common cushion. The package box has plural corners, and the first coupling structures are disposed at the corners.

The common cushion can fill the gap between the object and the package box to protect the object. Therefore the idle package boxes, which may not match the size of the object directly, can be utilized for packaging the object with the common cushion. The common cushion can be used in different sizes of the package boxes, and need not produce various sizes of cushion for various sizes package boxes. Therefore, the material cost and the number of idle package boxes can be reduced.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings,

FIG. 1A is an explosion diagram of a first embodiment of the package box module of the invention;

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of the common cushion 120 assembled in the package box 110 of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2A is an explosion diagram of a second embodiment of the package box module of the invention;

FIG. 2B is an assembly schematic diagram of the second embodiment of the package box module of the invention;

FIG. 3A is an explosion diagram of a second embodiment of the package box module of the invention;

FIG. 3B is an assembly schematic diagram of the second embodiment of the package box module of the invention;

FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are partial schematic diagrams of different state of a second embodiment of the common cushion of the package box module of the invention; and

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are partial schematic diagrams of different state of a third embodiment of the common cushion of the package box module of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.

Refer to FIG. 1A. FIG. 1A is an explosion diagram of a first embodiment of the package box module of the invention. The package box module 100 is utilized for packaging an object (not shown). The package box module 100 includes a package box 100 and a common cushion 120. The package box 110 includes a first casing 111 and a second casing 112 coupling to the first casing 111. The first casing 111 includes a sidewall 114, and plural first coupling structures 116 disposed on the sidewall 114. The common cushion 120 is disposed between the object and the package box 110. The common cushion 120 includes plural second coupling structures 122 disposed corresponding to the first coupling structure 116, and plural flexible structures 124 disposed between the second coupling structures 122.

The shape of the package box 110 and the common cushion 120 is substantially a rectangle. The package box 110 has a sidewall and plural corners. The common cushion 120 has a sidewall and plural corners. The first coupling structures 116 are disposed at the corners of the package box 110. The second coupling structures 122 are disposed at the corners of the common cushion 120. The shape of the second coupling structures 122 is designed corresponding to the first coupling structures 116. The flexible structures 124 are disposed on the sidewall of the common cushion 120. Extending the flexible structures 124 can enlarge and adjust the size of the common cushion 120, so that the second coupling structures 122 can couple to the first coupling structures 116, and the common cushion 120 can be fixed on the package box 110. The common cushion 120 can fill the gap between the package box 120 and the object.

More particularly, each side of the sidewall of the rectangle package box 110 has two of the first coupling structures 116 disposed at the opposite ends. Each side of the sidewall of the rectangle common cushion 120 has two of the second coupling structures 122 disposed at the opposite ends. Each side of the sidewall of the rectangle common cushion 120 has at least one of the flexible structures 124. The flexible structures 124 can be pulled and extended, so that the length of the sidewall of the common cushion 120 can be increased to fit the length of the sidewall of the package box 110, and the second coupling structures 122 can couple to the first coupling structures 116.

Refer to FIG. 1B. FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of the common cushion 120 assembled in the package box 110 of FIG. 1A. The package box 110 might be an idle package box in the present invention, so that the size of the package box 110 may not fit the size of the object. Therefore, the present invention utilizes the common cushion 120 to fill the gap between the package 110 and the object. The users can choose a preferred package box among the idle package boxes, wherein the size of the preferred package box is selected according to the thickness of the common cushion 120 and the size of the object, so that to fill the gap between the object and the selected package box 110 by the common cushion 120.

In this embodiment, the second coupling structures 122 of the common cushion 120 can couple to the first coupling structures 116 of the package box 110 directly, and the common cushion 120 can fill the gap between the object and the package box 110 but not being extended.

The first coupling structures 116 are plural first cavities disposed at the corners of the package box 110. The second coupling structures 122 are plural protrusions designed related to the first cavities. The protrusions of the second coupling structures 122 can couple to the first cavities of the first coupling structures 116 to fix the common cushion 120 on the package box 110. The common cushion 120 further includes plural second cavities 126 arranged inside of the protrusions of the second coupling structures 122. The second cavities 126 can be regarded as a space to prevent the corner of the object, such as the corner of the display panel (not shown), from contacting the common cushion 120 directly.

Refer to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B simultaneously. FIG. 2A is an explosion diagram of a second embodiment of the package box module of the invention. FIG. 2B is an assembly schematic diagram of the second embodiment of the package box module of the invention. The package box module 200 is utilized for packaging an object (not shown). The package box module 200 includes the package box 200 and the common cushion 220. The package box 210 includes the first casing 211 and the second casing 212 coupling to the first casing 211. The first casing 211 includes the sidewall 214, and plural first coupling structures 216 disposed on the sidewall 214. The common cushion 220 is disposed between the object and the package box 210. The common cushion 220 includes plural second coupling structures 222 disposed corresponding to the first coupling structure 216, and plural flexible structures 224 disposed between the second coupling structures 222.

In this embodiment, the package box 210 is also selected according to the size of the object and the thickness of the common cushion 220 in order to fill the gap between the selected package box 210 and the object by the common cushion 220. Namely, the thickness of the common cushion 220 is similar to the gap between the package box 210 and the object when the package box 210 is selected. The size of the package box 210 might be larger than the original size of the common cushion 220. The present embodiment further includes extending the flexible structures 224 of the common cushion 220 to enlarge the size of the common cushion 220 to fit the size of the package box 210, so that the second coupling structures 222 of the common cushion 220 can couple to the first coupling structures 216 of the package box 210 to fix the common cushion 220 on the package box 210.

The material of the common cushion 220 can be a foaming material, especially the foaming material of having a predetermined hardness and extensibility, but not easily generating particles. The foaming material of the common cushion 220 can be an expanded polyethylene (EPE) foam. The foaming magnification of the EPE foam can be 9, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30. The preferred foaming magnification of the EPE foam can be selected from 9 to 30.

The flexible structures 224 of the common cushion 220 is a half-cut structure, i.e. the cutting would not cut off the foaming material but penetrate the foaming material or slice the side of the formed foaming material. The foaming material is still a continuous structure but not being cut off when the notches 226 of the flexible structures 224 are formed on the foaming material. In this embodiment, the notches 226 penetrate the foaming material along the thickness direction of the common cushion 220 but do not cut off the foaming material along the height direction. Namely the notches 226 of the flexible structures 224 penetrate but do not cut off the foaming material of the common cushion 220.

The notches 226 are staggered arranged on the foaming material. The extensive foaming material can be extended with the flexible strictures 224 having the notches 26, and the flexible structures 224 is extended as a netlike shape. Thereby the size of the common cushion 220 can be enlarged by extending the flexible structures 224 to fit the size of the package box 210, and the second coupling structures 222 of the common cushion 220 can couple to the first coupling structures 216 of the package box 210. Therefore, the common cushion 220 can be fixed on the package box 210 and fill the gap between the object and the package box 210.

Refer to FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B simultaneously. FIG. 3A is an explosion diagram of a second embodiment of the package box module of the invention. FIG. 3B is an assembly schematic diagram of the second embodiment of the package box module of the invention. The package box module 300 is utilized for packaging an object (not shown). The package box module 300 includes the package box 300 and the common cushion 320. The package box 310 includes the first casing 311 and the second casing 312 coupling to the first casing 311. The first casing 311 includes the sidewall 314, and plural first coupling structures 316 disposed on the sidewall 214. The common cushion 320 is disposed between the object and the package box 310. The common cushion 320 includes plural second coupling structures 322 disposed corresponding to the first coupling structure 316, and plural flexible structures 324 disposed between the second coupling structures 322.

The size of the package box 310 is selected according to the size of the object and the thickness of the common cushion 320, so that the common cushion 320 could fill the gap between the package box 310 and the object. The flexible structures 324 of the common cushion are partially extended to enlarge the size of the common cushion 320 in order to couple the second coupling structures 322 of the common cushion 320 to the first coupling structures 316 of the package box 310. Therefore, the common cushion 320 can be fixed on the package box 310 and fill the gap between the object and the package box 310.

Refer to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are partial schematic diagrams of different state of a second embodiment of the common cushion of the package box module of the invention. The flexible structure 424 of the common cushion 420 is the half-cut structures. The flexible structure 424 is similar to the stretching structures of an accordion. The flexible structure 424 includes plural notches 426. The notches 426 are arranged along the height direction of the common cushion 420, but the notches 426 do not cut off the common cushion 420. The notches 426 are staggered arranged front and rear on the common cushion 420. The flexible structure 424 can be extended from the state of FIG. 4A to the state of FIG. 4B with the notches 426.

Refer to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B. FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are partial schematic diagrams of different state of a third embodiment of the common cushion of the package box module of the invention. The flexible structure 524 of the common cushion 520 is the half-cut structures. The flexible structure 524 is similar to the stretching structures of an accordion. The flexible structure 524 includes plural notches 526. The notches 526 are arranged along the thickness direction of the common cushion 520, but the notches 526 do not cut off the common cushion 520. The notches 526 are staggered arranged up and down on the common cushion 520. The flexible structure 424 can be extended from the state of FIG. 5A to the state of FIG. 5B with the notches 526.

The common cushion can fill the gap between the object and the package box to protect the object. Therefore the idle package boxes, which may not match the size of the object directly, can be utilized for packaging the object with the common cushion. The common cushion can be used in different sizes of the package boxes, and need not be produced in various sizes of cushion for various size package boxes. Therefore, the material cost and the number of idle package boxes can be reduced.

Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A package box module for packaging an object, the package box module comprising:

a package box comprising a sidewall, and a plurality of first coupling structures disposed on the sidewall; and
a common cushion disposed between the object and the sidewall, the common cushion comprising: a plurality of second coupling structures disposed corresponding to the first coupling structures, and a plurality of flexible structures disposed between the second coupling structures,
thereby the common cushion is enlarged by extending the flexible structures, and the first coupling structures couple to the second coupling structures, thus a gap between the object and the package box is filled by the common cushion.

2. The package box module of claim 1, wherein a thickness of the common cushion is substantially equal to the gap between the object and the package box.

3. The package box module of claim 1, wherein a material of the common cushion is a foaming material.

4. The package box module of claim 3, wherein the foaming material is an expanded polyethylene foam.

5. The package box module of claim 1, wherein each of the flexible structures is a half-cut structure.

6. The package box module of claim 5, wherein the half-cut structure comprises a plurality of notches, and the notches are staggered arranged along a height direction of the common cushion.

7. The package box module of claim 5, wherein the half-cut structure comprises a plurality of notches, and the notches are staggered arranged along a thickness direction of the common cushion.

8. The package box module of claim 1, wherein the first coupling structures are a plurality of first cavities.

9. The package box module of claim 8, wherein the second coupling structures are a plurality of protrusions designed corresponding to the first cavities.

10. The package box module of claim 9, wherein the common cushion further comprises a plurality of second cavities arranged inside of the protrusions.

11. The package box module of claim 1, wherein a shape of the package box is substantially a rectangle; the shape of the common cushion is substantially a rectangle; the flexible structures are arranged on a plurality of sidewalls of the common cushion.

12. The package box module of claim 11, wherein the package box comprises a plurality of corners, and the first coupling structures are disposed at the corners.

Patent History
Publication number: 20110215019
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 24, 2010
Publication Date: Sep 8, 2011
Applicant: AU OPTRONICS CORPORATION (Hsin-Chu)
Inventors: Chung-Hsing Wu (Hsin-Chu), Kun-Hung Hsieh (Hsin-Chu), Wen-Yuan Chang (Hsin-Chu), Jen-Wei Peng (Hsin-Chu)
Application Number: 12/822,490
Classifications
Current U.S. Class: Foamlike Retainer (206/523)
International Classification: B65D 81/02 (20060101);