Means and Method for Packaging Frangible Articles

The present invention relates to packages for frangible food products and more specifically to a system for shipping multiple packages of a processed frozen food product such as breaded onion rings, fruit pies and the like.

Due to the fragility of many frozen food products, the manner in which such products are packaged for shipping has a large effect upon their condition after transit from point of origin to the ultimate consumer.

Presently such food products are packaged in sacks made of plastic, paper or foil. Several of these sacks are placed inside a cardboard shipping container and then transported in this condition. A significant amount of product breakage occurs during the transit of such packages because articles in a given package abrade or collide whenever the shipping container is jarred. At the present time, the best solution to the breakage problem has been to hand pack the fragile articles in layers between sheets of paper so that each article is separated from all others. Although breakage is reduced by such a technique, the expense of hand packing relatively inexpensive articles, such as frozen onion rings, is prohibitive.

A packaging system has now been discovered which employs vacuum formed plastic packages, filled by machine, to reduce breakage of frangible articles during shipping without a substantial increase in packaging costs as compared to bag pack packaging systems.

The packages, which have a tub shaped body portion and a peripheral flange, are filled with the frangible product and then placed in a shipping container. Each package is positioned in the container with one edge of its flange resting on a rigid horizontal surface. The flange serves as a shock absorbing support which reduces the abrasive effect jolts to the shipping container have on the frangible product.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a machine packaging system for frangible articles whereby product breakage during shipping is minimized.

A further object is to provide packages which suspend frangible articles above the bottom wall and below the top wall of a shipping container so that the articles are not directly subject to impacts on the container.

An additional object is to provide packages having multiple cradling compartments each of which is adapted to receive one of multiple uniformly shaped articles.

Other objects will be apparent from the following description.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a flanged package according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of a side panel of the package taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale;

FIG. 3 is a side view of a shipping container, containing a plurality of the packages shown in FIG. 1, with one of its sides partly broken away;

FIG. 3A is an enlarged fragmentary side view of the shipping container shown in FIG. 3, with one of its sides broken away and showing part of one of its packages in section.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side view on a reduced scale of a shipping container containing multiple layers of the packages shown in FIG. 1 with one of its sides partly broken away;

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a special purpose package which is a variation of the package shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view on an enlarged scale taken along line 7--7 of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 is a top view of a shipping container containing a plurality of the packages shown in FIG. 6, with a portion of the top wall broken away.

The basic packaging unit of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. This two piece package indicated generally at 10 includes a body portion 11 shaped like a rectangular box having an open side, side panels 12-15 surrounding the open side and a back panel 18 which is opposite the open side. Extending outwardly from the body portion, perpendicularly to the side panels at the edges of the side panels nearest the open side is a flange 20. Gussets 24 are optionally positioned between the side panels and the flange 20 for supporting the flange in a fixed angular relationship to the side walls. Gussets are not required if the packaged article are lightweight or if the package is constructed of sufficiently rigid materials. The side walls 12-15 perferably include ribbing 26 as shown in FIG. 2. The ribbing 26 increases the strength and rigidity of the sidewalls and also effects the amplitude of the tub portion's movement. A flat lid portion 28 is sealed to the flange 20 after the articles to be shipped are inserted into the interior of the body portion 11.

The body and lid of the package shown in FIG. 1 may be constructed from any material which can be formed into the desired shapes. It is necessary that the flange 20 be sufficiently rigid to support the body portion and enclosed article. For optimal shock absorption, however, it is necessary that the flange be formed of a somewhat flexible material or that it be flexibly joined to the body portion. Most plastic sheet materials display the desired semi-rigidity if a suitable sheet thickness is chosen. Many plastics are additionally advantageous in that they are transparent and thus allow easy observation of package contents. Laminates of paper or foil are other materials may be suitable if they possess the proper characteristics.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, flanged body portions constructed from vacuum formable sheets of oriented polystyrene ten mils thick and lid portions cut from 71/2 mil sheets of the same material are heat sealed together. The resulting package has a flange and lid combination 171/2 mils thick, which displays the desired semi-rigidity. When these packages, containing frozen breaded onion rings, are properly arranged in a rigid walled shipping container, product breakage during shipment is reduced.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the packages of FIG. 1 enclosed in a suitable rigid walled shipping container 32. The walls of the container preferably comprise corrugated paper board, but other rigid materials would work equally well.

The positioning of the packages inside the shipping container 32 is critical to the success of packaging system. It is essential that each of the packages of FIG. 1 rest on the edge of its flange as shown in FIG. 3 so that the flange 20 can serve as a shock absorbing support or cushion which maintains the body portion 11 in an elevated position above the bottom wall 34 of the shipping container. In addition the top wall 36 of the shipping container should rest on that portion of the flange 20 which extends from the top of each package. According to this arrangement, the packages are wedged between the top and bottom walls of the shipping container 32 so that both horizontal and vertical movement of the flanges 20 is restricted, but the body portions 11 are free to move up and down inside the container in response to jolts which occur during shipping. Because the body portion 11 is suspended above the bottom wall 34 and below the top wall 36, it is free to swing as shown by arrows 33 in FIG. 3, between the positions shown by solid and broken lines in FIG. 3A; without contacting either the top or bottom walls. This capacity for vertical movement without contacting a rigid surface and without substantially altering the shape of the body portion 11 is believed responsible for the reduction in breakage observed in comparison tests between the packaging system according to the present invention and prior bag type systems.

Any number of packages can be included in a one layer shipping container so long as each of the packages rests on one of its flanged edges. The packages occupy a minimum volume if arranged in rows. In one such arrangement packages in each row are positioned in a head to tail array whereby all the packages in a given row are similarly oriented with the back panel of each package facing the lid or an adjacent package in the same row. FIG. 4 is a top view which shows a rectangular box containing two rows of packages in the head to tail array. To further conserve space, the lid portions of packages in adjacent rows of the array face in opposite directions. Although other horizontal arrangements are possible, it is believed that the array shown in FIG. 4 is the most dense possible using packages of the type shown in FIG. 1. The horizontal arrangement shown in FIG. 4 is especially advantageous because the packages 10 are positioned with their side panels 12 out of contact with the sides of the container 32. When this arrangement is used, the flanges 20 which extend outwardly from the side panels 12 contact the sides of the container and thus serve as shock absorbers to dampen lateral jolts on the shipping container 32.

It is possible to include multiple layers of packages in a given shipping container. In order to do so, however, it is necessary to provide rigid platforms so that packages in each of the upper layers can rest on the edges of their flanges. FIG. 5 shows an arrangement in which two layers of packages are included in a single shipping carton. In this embodiment a rigid, horizontal divider sheet 42 is positioned on top of the first layer of packages. This divider sheet provides a platform for the second layer of packages. In this embodiment, it is preferred that the top wall 36 of the shipping container be in contact with the edges of the flanges extending upwardly from the packages in the upper layer.

A special purpose package 50 for transporting rectangular fruit pies and other similarly shaped articles is shown in FIG. 6. This package includes a body portion 51 having side panels 52-55 and a back panel 58, which panels correspond to similarly named panels of the package shown in FIG. 1, and also includes a lid portion 68.

The special purpose package 50 differs from the package 10 in that the body portion 51 additionally includes multiple corrugations which extend from points adjacent the flange on one of the side panels 52, across the back panel 58, and along the opposite side panel 54 to points adjacent the flange. These corrugations define indentations or troughs 72 which are adapted to receive and cradle rectangular articles 74 during shipping and storage.

Like the packages 10, the special purpose corrugated packages 50 are conveniently positioned in rows inside a shipping container. As previously described, every such package must rest on a flanged edge in order to achieve the desired cushioning effect. The maximum density arrangement of corrugated packages 50 is somewhat different, however, than that of the packages 10. FIG. 8 is a top view which illustrates the most dense packaging pattern for a single row of corrugated packages 50. In this array, adjacent packages in the row are positioned back to back so that their corrugated back panels 58 interlock. When the special purpose packages 50 are arranged in this back to back array it is important that the troughs be vertically oriented as shown in the top view, FIG. 8. If the troughs are horizontally oriented, the vertical motion of the tub portions 50 will be restricted and shock absorbing effect of the flange reduced. Multiple layers of corrugated packages may be included in a single shipping container by including a rigid divider sheets as previously described.

In operation packaging is accomplished by filling the body portion of the package with the frangible articles to be shipped and then heat sealing, cementing or otherwise attaching the lid to the flange thereby closing the open side of the package. The packages are positioned inside the rigid walled shipping container with each package resting on a flange so that the body portion is elevated above the floor of the box. The top wall of the shipping container is closed, wedging the enclosed packages into position. The container is maintained in an upright position during transit to its intended destination so that the packages contained inside are suspended during the entire trip.

In order to test the performance of the present invention, shipping tests were made to compare the prior bag pack with the tray pack of the present invention. In those tests, cases containing bag packaged onion rings were shipped along with cases containing vertical tray packaged onion rings.

In a first test run, sample cases of frozen breaded onion rings were shipped from Weston, Oregon to a distributor in Bettendorf, Iowa. A portion of these cases were further transferred to retailers in the Columbus, Ohio area. In a second test run, cases of frozen breaded onion rings were shipped from Weston, Oregon to a Seattle, Washington distributor. A portion of these packages were then forwarded to various Seattle area retail units. The contents of the sample cases were graded when they reached their ultimate destination to determine the percent of broken onion rings by weight. The tray pack cases according to the present invention included 173/4 pounds of onion rings divided among 10 packages. The packages were positioned in the shipping containers in the arrangement shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The bag package cases included twenty pounds of onion rings divided among eight bag packages which were lined up in two rows of four. The results of these shipping tests are summarized in the Table below:

It was observed that bag packages leaving Weston, Oregon had about one weight percent more broken onion rings than the tray packages. The figures in the above table, after correction to account for this predistribution difference, indicate that 0.89 weight percent fewer onion rings were broken during shipment to the Seattle distributor in tray packages. Likewise, 2.39 weight percent fewer onion rings were broken when the tray pack was used in the Columbus shipment. As can be seen from the table, the difference in breakage was even greater at the retail level. Also significant was the large difference in the percent of packages having greater than 10 weight percent breakage. Individual packages having a large number of broken particles are a major source of customer dissatisfaction. The use of the present invention substantially reduces the possibility that a customer will obtain a package containing more than ten weight percent of broken onion rings.

While I have shown and described preferred embodiments of my invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from my invention in its broader aspects.