The invention relates to packaging.

In the marketing of bottled drinks and other products crates are long established in some markets, multipacks in others. Crates are particularly useful in a closed system, i.e. markets where empty bottles are returned for re-use. Multipacks on the other hand offer more scope for product differentiation by use of distinctive preprinted packaging. There is a desire to avoid incompatible approaches as between one market and another, while also accommodating returns. Attempts have been made to integrate crate and multipack marketing methods using packaging applied to the tops of groups of bottles received in crates. However, this leaves the consumer with a flimsy pack; there is not much room for distinctive trade dress and bar codes applied to the individual bottles are left exposed, leading to the possibility of confusion with other bar codes applied to the packaged groups.

We have seen that with suitable design a crate can take either individual bottles or similar articles, or multipacks receiving a substantial portion of each article and accordingly the invention provides a bottle or other article packaging system in which the articles, packed in multipacks, are received in space filling array in a crate, the crate having a vertical strengthening rib received in a slot in the side of the pack opened up by the rib on insertion of the pack into the crate.

The invention correspondingly provides a multipack for use with a crate having a vertical strengthening rib, the multipack having a slot in one of its sides which is openable by the rib to receive the rib upon insertion of the multipack into the crate.

The crate may be of conventional design in which the strengthening ribs are a matrix of vertical walls formed in the crate bottom, the walls also acting to separate the bottles. Preferably, however, the strengthening ribs are relatively short horizontally, and extend substantially from top to bottom of the crate, to cooperate with article base separators upstanding from the base of the crate to locate and separate the articles.

Filling lines for crates are readily provided with alternative paths in which the bottles or other articles can go straight to crates or via a multipack filling line, so that production can be balanced exactly to the call of market at any time.

The multipack slots for reception of the crate ribs are preferably in the form of interrupted cuts so that the packs retain strength prior to insertion. Preferably further the slots are provided only where sides of the packs extending over two or more articles in the filled packs are to lie adjacent to the ribs, which are provided in the crate wall. For example if four 3-packs are to be accommodated in a 12-bottle crate one long face of the packs will have the slots, so that on removal at point of sale the packs still have one integral side for strength after removal from the crate. (It is readily possible when machine filling the packs into the crates to provide for orienting them appropriately). As another example in 6-packs (3 x 2) to be accommodated two to a crate, one long face and the two short faces of the packs will have the slots.

Basal recesses in the multipacks that accommodate the separators in the base of the crate where present are conveniently formed simply as cut-outs, but if desired may be defined by cuts, with the material of the multipack pushed aside on insertion into the crate. If so, the material is

likely to spring back when the multipack is removed but this is no disadvantage, indeed it happens with the slots in the pack sides and there is an advantage in that on removal of the packs the legibility of advertising and other indicia printed across the face of the pack is substantially unimpaired. The separators conveniently include crossed vertically extending slots for reception of a wall of the multipack in each of a plurality of different orientations within the crate.

Some products such as "Coca Cola" (Trade Mark) are sold in bottles that in conventional crates touch the crate at contact points provided by expanded diameter portions of the bottles, and such bottles can be accommodated particularly satisfactorily in the multipacks of the invention if, at the contact points, the material of the packs is cut away to allow the contact points to touch in an array of the packs as they would in an array of the bottles without packs. When crated the multipacks then take up no more useful space in the crate than the bottles alone, and a preferred aim of the invention in providing for multipack or individual bottles in the same crate in initial supply is met, as is return of empty bottles.

A further desirable feature of multipacks to be used in crates is compatibility with use of the hand holes in the ends of the crates, providing for ready insertion of a user's fingers. Suitable provision depends on the disposition of the multipacks in the crate. A 12-bottle crate with three 4 x 1 multipacks for example needs finger room at the ends of the multipacks, while if alternatively four 3 x 1 packs are used they will lie across the crate and it is their long sides that need provision. End provision is conveniently by sloping the top ends of the packs, taking up what would otherwise be free space inside the pack adjacent to the bottle neck. Side provision is conveniently by a portion of the pack side being joined to the pack top by a hinge panel defined by two parallel scores that, on insertion of the fingers, allow the top part of the side portion to be depressed inwards, hinging

oppositely about the scores. Such a depressible side portion also allows finger insertion between adjacent multipacks received in a crate, allowing the tops of the multipacks to be gripped for withdrawal.

Such finger-room is also significant in multipacks supplied in outer cartons, when corresponding handholes are provided. Accordingly, a multipack with one side provided with a depressible portion double hinged to the top to allow finger access when packed in a crate or carton, is an independent aspect of the invention. So also is a bottle or other article packaging system in which the articles, packed in multipacks, are received in space filling array in a crate having an upstanding article base separator provided on its bottom, the separator having crossed vertically extending slots for reception of a wall of one of the multipacks in each of a plurality of different orientations within the crate.

It is to be noted that the hinging arrangement for finger access allows the material of the multipack side to be continuous with that of the top, so that the unacceptable weakening that a handhole would mean when combined with the crate-rib slots is avoided.

The packaging system of the invention also allows for up to 20% grater article packing densities than are achievable with prior systems, with corresponding savings in storage and transport costs.

The invention is further discussed below in relation to particular examples, shown in the accompanying drawings: Fig. 1 is a part cut away view of a crate; Figs. 2, 3 show two 2 x 3 multipacks; Figs. 4, 5, 6 show 1 x 3, 1 x 4 and 2 3 multipacks; Figs. 7 , 8 are detail sketches; and Fig. 9 is a bottle half-section. Figs. 10 - 12 show multipack blanks.

In the crate, designed for plastics moulding, sides 1 ends 2 and base 3 are indicated, the ends being apertured at 4 for finger access in using the crate. Strengthening ribs 5 are formed in the sides and ends, and in the base are bottle- base separators 6. The separators each consist of four upstanding moulded projections, or post elements, with a curved envelope or profile adjacent to the bottle positions 7 and a cross-shaped slot 8 between the elements that receives the material of adjacent multipacks in one direction or the other according to the disposition of the packs in the crate.

The multipacks of Figs. 2 to 6 are all of broadly corresponding design with base 10, top 11, plain side 12 slotted side 13 and end flaps 14, 14'. Glue flaps as at 15 (Fig. 2) join base and one side to form a sleeve, and further flaps 16, 17 may join top to ends and base to ends. In the top is a reinforced handle 18 of per se known kind, which in the designs with end gluing flaps 16, 17 (figures 2, 4, 5) runs into the flap 16. Alternatively it can run across the pack (Figs. 3, 6) leaving the end to be provided with a crate- rib receiving slot, according to the crate design that the pack is for. The pack of Fig. 2 for example would allow only two rather than five side strengthening ribs in the long side of a 12-bottle crate, between the three packs accommodated.

As may be seen, all the packs have at least one side slotted at 18, others not, for strength as discussed earlier. As shown, the slots may be formed of multiply-scored material fully separated by a pre-cut, but equally for example they may be divided by single scores and/or not be fully pre-separated. Detail sketch 7 shows such part division at 19, with a curved slot-end 20 entered by the crate rib when the pack is loaded into the crate so that separation occurs along the line of the part-division 19 with folding about score 21. On removal of such a pack the folding about 21, which is effected with little force, is largely reversed by the material of the pack

with the advantages discussed earlier. As an alternative to fully or partially pre-cut slots, separate flaps divided from the remainder of a blank by one or more scores may have edges brought together on erection of the blank to define the slot.

At the upper part of Fig. 7, where the central panel of a 3 1 pack broadly corresponding to Fig. 4 is shown, a double score defines a hinge flap 22 which when the pack has been placed in a crate such as that of Fig. 1 allows the top of the panel to be depressed, as discussed earlier, when the fingers of a user are inserted in the hand hole 4, or between adjacent multipacks or a multipack and an adjacent crate wall for removal of multipacks. The top of the panel moves inwards by folding about scores 23 and 24, flap 22 moving inwards under top 11.

In Figure 8 the alternative way of allowing for finger room also discussed earlier is shown. Numbering corresponding to that of Fig. 2 is shown, but between top 11 and gluing flap 16 is a sloping portion 25 with corresponding sloping edges 26, 26' of end flaps 14, 14'. The pack is a 1 x 4 pack and provided with the sloping portion at each end. Such packs can be loaded longways three to a 12-bottle crate with the sloping portion of the middle one allowing finger room at the handle 4.

In Figs. 3 and 7 there is shown the further feature of a cut out for bottles with expanded portions, which in the "Coca Cola" (Trade Mark) bottle is for example double, one near the base and the other somewhat below the middle of the total bottle height, though some two thirds of the way up the main body of the bottle before it begins to diminish in diameter towards the neck. The bottle is shown in a schematic sketch of its half section in Fig. 9. By comparison with Fig. 7 it may be seen how cut outs such as those at 27 in Fig. 7 can allow a rubbing shoulder such as 28 in the bottle in Fig. 9 to project through the thickness of the material of the pack and

be in contact despite the presence of the pack. (Fig. 7 is not drawn to the proportions required for the bottle of Fig. 9, and Fig. 3 is for a bottle with a single shoulder; the principle is however clear.)

In regard to the bottle-base separators (posts) in the crate, packs such as those of Figs. 2, 3 and 6, with more than one row of bottles, have holes on the pack base centre line as at 30 in Fig. 2 to accommodate the complete quadripartite post. At the sides, corresponding holes 31 on the non-slotted side of the pack accommodate two parts of the post, the material of the side of the pack entering one or other part of the cross-slot 8. On the slotted side of the pack the bottom ends of the rib-slots 18 correspondingly accommodate the posts where the packs, rather than being adjacent to a wall of the crate are between other packs, for example the middle two packs of four 1 x 3 packs (Fig. 4) in a 12 bottle crate, or the middle one of three 1 x 4 packs (Fig. 5) correspondingly. In such arrays the end packs are oriented so as to have the slotted sides adjacent to the crate ends (1 x 3 packs) or crate sides (1 4 packs), but the middle packs can go either way. (The point does not arise with two 2 x 3 packs in a 12 bottle crate) .

Blanks for multipacks embodying the invention are shown in Figs. 10 - 12. The blank of Fig. 10 is for a 3 x 1 pack. On erection base glue flap 15 is secured to plain side 12. Sloping portions 25' are folded to overlie the flaps 16' and end tabs 41 are glued across the meeting edges of parallel- scored end flaps 14, 14'. Parallel scored base-to-end gluing flaps 17' are likewise secured within the end flaps 14, 14'. The blank of Fig. 11 is similar, except that it makes a 4 x 1 pack and only provides for finger room by means of sloping end portions 25', whereas the blank of Figure 10 provides both kinds of finger room previously discussed.

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Fig. 12 shows a 2 x 3 pack blank. Once again sloping portions 25" are folded to overlie flaps 16'. The base-to-end gluing flaps 17" are relieved at 42, the flaps 16' relieved at 45 and the sloping portions 25" relieved at 46 to accommodate a pair of crate strengthening ribs. On erection, edges of panels 43 and 44 formed from the end flaps 14, 4' are brought together to define the edges of slots for receiving those ribs. The blank has a hinge flap 22 as well as the sloping portions 25", so providing both kinds of finger room.