Plastics Sheet Material and Articles Produced Therefrom

Reference will now be made to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows how compounded material is produced;

FIG. 2 shows how container blanks are produced from the sheet material of the invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional elevation illustrating the basic difference between the formation of creases using a creasing rule and a half cut knife;

FIG. 4 is a plan of a blank of sheet material according to the invention which is erectable into a packaging container

FIG. 5 is a plan of the blank of FIG. 2, after it has been folded to flattened skillet form;

FIG. 6 is an end view of the skillet of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is an end view similar to FIG. 6, but shows how the skillet is erected to tubular form;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of another blank of sheet material according to the invention;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view illustrating the sequence of the erection operation of the blank of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view illustrating the erected container resulting from erecting the blank of FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view of a container of sheet material according to the invention;

FIG. 12 is a sectional elevation showing how the end plugs and blank of the container of FIG. 11 are fused together; and

FIG. 13 is a sectional elevation similar to FIG. 12 but showing a modified form of end plug.

Referring to FIG. 1 a compounding machine of conventional form is indicated by reference numeral 1, and it will seen that this is associated with feed hoppers 2 and 3. The resin, namely the sequential copolymer resin is introduced into the compounding machine at hopper 2, whilst the inorganic particulate material is introduced at hopper 3. In the compounding machine, the materials, including any additives such as antioxidants, colouring matter and oils are mechanically worked into a molten mass of melt flow index in the range as herein specified, and the molten mass is extruded in the form of a plurality of strings of which one is indicated by numeral 4. These extruded strings are cooled or allowed to cool, and then are reduced to particle form 5 by means of a grinding apparatus 6. At this stage, the compounded particles may be bagged as shown by reference numeral 7, and the compounded particles can subsequently be heated once more into a molten mass in an extruding machine 10 and extruded in sheet form 12.

Referring now to FIG. 2 the extruding machine is indicated diagrammatically again by reference numeral 10, and the sheet material being extruded therefrom by reference numeral 12. A break is shown in the sheet material 12 between the extruding machine 10, and a conventional cutting and creasing machine 14 in order to indicate that the sheet material may well be stored for example in reel form before being passed to the cutting and creasing machine 14. Indeed, the extruding may be done in one location or factory, and the cutting and creasing done in another location or factory. It is on the other hand possible to pass the sheet material 12 directly from the extruder to the cutting and creasing machine 14, assuming that the material has cooled and set sufficiently to enable cutting and creasing to be carried out thereon. Furthermore, it may be more usual to cut the material 12 into large sheets which are individually cut and creased as is done conventionally with high quality cardboard.

In any event, the material 12 is shown emerging from the machine 14 as having been cut and creased to define container blanks 16, the skeletal waste of the sheet material being indicated by numeral 18. This skeletal waste can be re-processed by being ground to particle form and returned to the extruder in order to maximise use of the material.

In the example shown, each blank comprises a number of rectangular panels connected together by crease lines formed in the machinery 14, and one of the panels is provided with end closure panels 20, another of the panels being provided with a glue tab 22. The container which can be erected from each of the blanks 16 is also shown in the figure, and the erection is by a conventional process by glueing the tab 22 to the outside of the extreme panel as the other side of the blank. To close the container, the end panels 20 are simply folded over as indicated by the arrows in the Figure and tuck in tabs of these end panels serve to hold the end panels in closed position.

It will be appreciated that the machinery 14 can be adapted to produce more complicated blanks, or even simpler blanks such as might provide book jackets or wallets which do not require any glueing, or the blanks may simply define inserts for insertion in other packaging containers.

Several more specific plant installations will now be described.

1. Polypropylene powder complete with stabilisers etc., and filler, for example the chalk or talc referred to herein are taken from bulk storage silos and automatically fed to a high speed mixer.

The thoroughly mixed ingredients are then fed directly into a twin contra rotating screw extruder where the molten polymer and filler are subject to high shear action, and the resulting homogeneous compound forced through a standard flat sheet die to produce the sheet material.

The extrudate is then passed through a conventional sheet line consisting of a polishing roll stack, surface treatment unit, such as a Corona discharge unit, anti-static bath, haul off and slitter, terminating in a winding unit for reels or a guillotine and stacking unit for flat sheets.

2. One alternative is to take the polypropylene powder with stabilisers etc., and feed this with the chalk or talc filler directly into a compounding unit, such as a Buss Ko Kneader. The Buss Ko Kneader would then be fitted with a conventional cross head extruder, this cross head extruder being fitted with a standard sheet die and conventional sheet line equipment as described in (1).

3. A further alternative would be to replace the standard sheet die in (1) and (2) with a multi-hole die face cutting unit to produce pellets or granules as described in relation to FIG. 1. These granules could then be processed through a conventional single screw extruder and sheet line.

4 . A further alternative would be to replace the standard sheet die in (1) and (2) by a strand die, water bath, granulator and drying unit to produce pellets or granules.

The maximum temperature in the compounding and extrusion systems is in the order of 250.degree. C.

A Buss Ko Kneader type P.R 200 is capable of producing up to 1,000 kgs per hour of 40% filled polypropylene in either sheet or pellet form.

An 80 m.m. dia. twin screw extruder is capable of producing up to 250 kgs per hour of 40% filled polypropylene in either sheet or pellet form.

In the field of cut and creased packaging containers, the material lends itself to the production of unusual and novel container constructions several of which have been illustrated in FIGS. 3 to 13 and will now be described.

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 7, in FIG. 3 there is shown, to an enlarged scale, a sectional view of the sheet material 110 according to the invention which is being simultaneously creased by means of a creasing rule 112 of conventional construction, and a cutting knife or rule 114. The creasing rule 112 has a rounded edge which engages the sheet 110, and therefore tends to compress the sheet against the forme 116, whilst the rule 114, having a sharp cutting edge 118 which engages the sheet, slices into the sheet and cuts same as opposed to the creasing action of the rule 112. The rule 112 forms a conventional crease, whilst the rule 114 forms what is known in the art as a "half-cut". It is not necessary that the half-cut should penetrate half the depth of the sheet 110.

The plastics sheet material 110 is formed with creases and at least one half-cut crease cline in order to give the resulting skillet container certain desired characteristics, as will be explained. It is to be noted that where a half-cut is provided in the sheet material, the requirement is to improve the dead fold characteristics of the sheet, and therefore it is to be pointed out that some other crease forming arrangements, as opposed to conventional creasing, can be used to improve the dead fold characteristics of plastics sheeting. Where the expression half-cut is used herein it is intended that such equivalent crease formations be covered.

Referring now to FIG. 4, in this Figure there is shown a simple blank 120 which is erectable by container erecting machinery into a skillet container. The blank is of plastics sheet material as set forth herein and in the Figure the crease lines are indicated by chain dotted lines whilst the half-cuts are indicated by double parallel lines. The blank comprises four panels, 122, 124, 128 which are hingedly interconnected along conventional crease lines 130, 132 and 134, the panels 122 and 126 being identical, and the panels 124 and 128 being identical, but larger than the other two. All the panels are rectangular in cross section, as shown in FIG. 7, to the free edge of panel 128 is hinged a glue tab 136, the tab 136 being hinged to panel 128 by half-cut crease line 138.

The ends of the panels 122 to 128 are provided with conventional tuck-in flaps and end closures 140 and 142, as will be well understood by those skilled in the art. It is to be mentioned, however, that flaps and panels 140 and 142 are hingedly connected to the panels 122 to 128 by means of half-cuts, in order to improve the dead fold characteristics of these flaps and panels relative to the main panels 122 to 128, to which they are connected.

Erection of the blank is by conventional erecting machinery, and in the first stage of operation the blank is folded about the crease line 134, so that panel 128 overlies panel 126 and partially overlies panel 124. In the next operation, the panel 122 is folded over panel 124, so as to overlie at its free edge region, the glue strip 136, glue having been previously provided on either panel 122 or strip 136 or both so that the blank takes up the skillet form illustrated in FIG. 3.

Because the skillet has the three conventional creases 130, 132 and 134, it does not lie completely flat when not otherwise constrained, but rather takes up the position as shown in FIG. 6, and the creases 134 and 130 recover from the 180.degree. bending slightly and this combined with the natural bowing effect at crease 132, causes the skillet to be slightly open as shown. This slight opening of the skillet in the flattened condition, facilitates the erection of same to the position shown in FIG. 7. In FIG. 7 there are shown two erecting members 144 and 146, the erecting member 146 having been inserted into the tubular skillet whilst in the condition shown in FIG. 6. To erect the skillet container from the position shown in FIG. 6 to that shown in FIG. 7, the members 144 and 146 are moved as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 7. With this operation the container folds along half-cut crease line 136 which has good dead fold characteristics and the sharp corner thereat is maintained as shown in the FIG. 7 position when the constraint of the members 146 and 144 is removed. Indeed, because this corner remains sharp this has the effect of maintaining the entire container in the erected position. If crease 136 were a conventional crease, however, the container would tend to return towards the FIG. 6 position, which would be undesirable from the point of view of automatic loading of the container. In a modified arrangement, each of crease lines 136 and 132 is defined by a half-cut.

It is appreciated that other forms of skillet container embodying this aspect of the invention can be produced and that the example given shows a particularly simple form of skillet container.

Referring now to FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 and firstly to FIG. 8, the blank 210 as illustrated is erectable into the container illustrated in FIG. 10. The blank is of synthetic plastics sheet material as herein set forth and is suitable not only for cutting and creasing by conventional methods, but also is capable of being thermoformed by heating and moulding techniques which are also conventionally known. The blank comprises a base panel 212, a top panel 214, a rear panel 215, an outer front panel 218, an inner front panel 220, and a thermoformed insert panel 222, these panels being hingeably interconnected along fold lines 224, 226, 228, 230 and 232. The outer front panel 218 is provided with locking extension tab 234, whilst crease line 230 has a central slit 236 for receiving the tab 234 as will be explained. Rear panel 216 is provided with extension flaps, 238 whilst inner front panel 220 is provided with shorter extension flaps 240. The moulded insert panel 222 has extension flaps 242 to which are hingeably connected tuck in flaps 244. The lines of creasing in the blank of FIG. 8 are indicated in chain dotted lines, whilst the cut lines are indicated as is normal by full lines. The moulded insert panel 222 finally is provided with a further extension flap 246 which forms an inner rear panel in the erected container as will be evident hereinafter.

The blank 210, apart from the thermoforming of the panel 222 is cut and creased using conventional techniques, and the panel 222 is moulded using conventional techniques. The cutting and and moulding operations may be performed sequentionally or simultaneously although in the latter case either the cutting and creasing machine would have to be modified simultaneously to perform thermoforming, or the thermoforming machine would have to be adapted to perform a cutting and creasing operation.

The creases formed in the blank may be any conventional means such as creasing rules, or by means providing half-cuts or skip cuts.

In erecting the blank shown in FIG. 8 to the container shown in FIG. 10 the blank is first of all folded about crease line 236 in a manner indicated by arrow 246 in FIG. 8. In addition, the panel 222 is folded inwardly about crease line 232 until it reaches the position shown in FIG. 9. The panels 214, 216 and 218, are folded into a vertical plane about crease line 228, and this sequence of operations results in the blank reaching the condition shown in FIG. 9.

To complete the container, the flaps 238 and 240 at the container ends as shown in FIG. 9 are tucked inwardly, and the ends are closed by flaps 242, the tuck in flaps 244 being tucked under the folded in flaps 238 and 240. The container finally is closed by folding panels 218 and 214 about crease line 226, and by inserting extension lock tab 234 into the locking slit 236. This erection can be done either by hand or by machinery, but in either case the results a packaging container having a moulded insert which forms an integral part of the original blank, which is a significant departure from known packaging containers, as such known containers are normally provided with separate insert, and is achieved by the production of sheet material according to the invention.

It is to be appreciated that the articles to be held by the moulded compartments in the panel 222 would be inserted into such compartments before the final closing of the container.

It would be appreciated that this aspect of the invention has wide application, as dictated by the product to be held by the container. For example, the moulded portions could be designed to hold a specific article such as an Easter Egg or a decorative bottle in a specific rotation in relation to the package outer dimensions, so that the article not only would be held positively by the moulding portions, but also would be cisible through openings in the container walls.

In other embodiments, where it is necessary to form fixed seams i.e. equivalent to the glue seams in cartonboard containers, the plastics material may be heat welded or sealed. Of course, there is no reason why such seams could not be provided by sticking portions of the blank together, but the basic use of a plastics material of the invention gives the extra possibility of heat sealing and welding.

Referring now to FIGS. 11 to 13, in FIG. 11 a packaging container is shown to comprise a body portion 310 and two end plugs 312 and 314. The plugs 312 and 314 are identical in construction. The body 310 is a cut and creased blank of plastics material according to the invention. The body is generally of square section, and has a seam 316 running lengthwise of the body, this seam being formed by an overlapping flap formed in the cutting and creasing of the blank. The body 310 prior to connection of the caps 310 and 312 thereto is capable of being collapsed to flattened condition for transportation.

Each of the end caps 310 and 312 is formed of the same material as the body 310 but is moulded, in this case thermoformed.

In using the container illustrated in FIG. 11, the end plugs 310 and 312 and the body 310 can be transported as separate items. The person who will fill the container for example with liquid medium, will erect the body 310 to the condition shown in FIG. 11, will insert one of the plugs 310 and 312 in the appropriate end of the body 310, will fill the body, and then will insert the other plug 312 and 314 in the other end of the body the plugs being liquid tight sealed in position in order to seal the container completely.

The container may be provided with an easy opening device either in body 310 or in one or both of the end plugs 312 and 314.

In attaching each plug 312 or 314 to the body 310, the surfaces of the plug and body which are brought together may initially be softened by jets of hot air, and then the softened contacted surfaces are pressed together in order to fuse together the plastics material of the can and body.

FIG. 12 illustrates how the cap 314 is fitted into the body 310, and also illustrates a pair of pressure dies 318 and 320 which serve for the pressing together of the flange region of the plug 314 and the overlapping wall portions of the body 310.

FIG. 13 shows a modified form of end cap 314 which is provided with an additional and outwardly located flange portion 314B which lies outside the wall portions of the body 310 when the plug is fitted to the body as indicated in FIG. 13. In this arrangement, the inner surface of the additional flange 314B and the outer surface of the wall portions 310 which overlap this flange 14b are softened prior to pressing same together as indicated in FIG. 12 using dies 316 and 320.

Instead of heat fusing the surfaces of plug and body together, it may be possible to fuse them together using heat sealing or welding or ultrasonic or high frequency welding.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated is sutable, for example for holding liquid contents. It has the advantage that it takes up relatively little space during transportation and the plastics material will not suffer from the raw edge "wicking" effect which happens in equivalent cardboard containers.

It will be appreciated that this aspect of the invention can be applied to containers of different construction from that illustrated, the embodiment illustrated being an extremely simple example. In another embodiment, only one plug 312 or 314 may be used, and the other end of the body can be sealed closed by forming fillet creases and by heat sealing the portions of the wall of the body which are brought together by folding the body about said fillet creases.

This invention also provides a method for making folded containers, other articles or blanks therefore, according to this invention using machinery conventionally used in the manufacture of folded cardboard containers other articles or blanks therefor, with or without a make ready.

It is also possible, as shown in FIG. 2 to produce thermoformed container, such as tubs and cups as indicated at 24 in the drawing far from the sheet 12. Conventonal thermoforming methods may be used.