It is common practice to produce wall plug packs by injection moulding a suitable plastics material. The plugs are attached to a central sprue, and the central sprue is commonly adjusted in length to include an additional portion having no plugs attached to enable the sprue with wall plugs attached to be suspended as a unitary item from a hanger at the point of retail sale.

Accordingly the sprue with plugs attached may be considered to constitute a pack of plugs wherein the number of plugs contained in the"pack"is determined by the number of plugs which can be moulded with a given size of sprue.

It is sometimes desirable to increase the number of plugs in a"pack" beyond the number which can be accommodated on a single sprue. In such circumstances, it is known to package more than one sprue and wall plug unit together.

A general aim of the present invention is to provide a package unit, in particular a plurality of wall plugs mounted on a common support body, which is capable of being detachably secured to other such units in order to enable packs containing a desired number of wall plugs to be easily produced, and to also enable different combinations of sizes of wall plugs to be conveniently assembled in the same pack.

According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided a package unit for creating a pack, the package unit comprising a unitary one piece

plastics moulding having a generally planar support body and a plurality of moulded articles depending from sides of the support body, the support body including location means on one planar face and complementary location means on an opposite planar face such that a first package unit can be stacked in a face to face manner with a second package unit with the location means on the support body of the first package unit co-operating with the complementary location means on the support body of the second package unit to locate the position of the first and second package units relative to one another, the support body of the package unit further including latch means and complementary latch means arranged such that the latch means on said first package unit co-operate with the complementary latch means on the second packaging unit in order to maintain engagement of the location means and complementary location means.

Various aspects of the present invention are hereinafter described, by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pack according to an embodiment of the present invention ; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a package plug unit for incorporation into the pack of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a view similar to that of Figure 1 showing a hanger of the pack detached from the package units of the pack; Figure 4 is a sectional view of the package units of Figure 3; and Figure 5 is a perspective view of package units of a pack according to another embodiment of the present invention.

A pack 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown in Figure 1. The pack 10 includes two package units 12 stacked together and a hanger 14.

In the illustrated embodiment, the package unit 12 includes first and second elongate support bodies 22,24 respectively which are hingedly connected end to end by a hinge portion 20.

As shown in Figure 2, the package unit 12 is preferably a unitary moulding, moulded from a plastics material suitable for wall plugs, which comprises a sprue 16 of generally planar, elongate form which defines the support bodies 22,24 and to which a plurality of wall plugs 18 are integrally attached.

The first and second support bodies 22, 24 each include location means 26, and complementary location means 30 so that when the sprue 12 is folded in half about hinge portion 20, the location means 26 on one support body, viz. body 22 inter-engage with the complementary location means 30 on the other support body, viz. body 24 to locate the relative face to face positions of the support bodies 22, 24 and restrain relative movement therebetween in a direction parallel to their opposed faces 28, 32 respectively.

The first and second bodies 22,24 are each further provided with latch means 34 and complementary latch means 48 which inter-engage to restrain separation of bodies 22,24 in a direction perpendicular to said faces 28, 32 when said location means 26 of one body are inter-engaged with the complementary location means on the other body.

In the embodiment shown in Figure 2, the location means are in the form of projections or stub shaft 26a integrally formed on the front face 28 at spaced

positions along its length, the complementary location means are in the form of sockets 30 integrally formed on the rear face 32 at positions along its length corresponding in position to the projections 26 formed on the front face 28 of the other body.

The unit shown in Figure 2 is shown in a first hinged position whereat the support bodies 22,24 extend in a common plane. In this condition, the location means 26 and latch means 34 of the support body 22 are located on the'front'side of the unit and the complementary location means 30 and complementary latch means of body 22 are located to the'rear'of the unit.

For body 24, the reverse is true, viz. the location means 26 and latch means 48 are located on the rear side of the unit whereas the complementary location means 30 and complementary latch means 42 are located on the front side of the unit.

Thus on folding of the unit to a second hinged position whereat the bodies 22,24 are in face to face opposition, the projections 26a provided on the front face 28 of the body 22 are received in the sockets 30 provided on the rear face 32 of the body 24.

Preferably the latch means 34 are preferably defined by resiliently deflectable fingers 34a protruding from its front face 28. At their free ends, each of the fingers 34a includes a formation 36 extending away from the finger 34a to define a shoulder 38. The complementary latch means are preferably defined by complementarily shaped apertures 40a provided at positions along the length of the body 24 corresponding in position to the resiliently deflectable fingers 34a provided on the other body 22.

As more clearly seen in Figure 4, on folding about hinge portion 20, the resiliently deflectable fingers 34a protruding from the front face 28 of the

first body 22 are received in the complementarily shaped apertures 40a provided in the second body 24. Once the fingers 34a are received in the apertures 40a, shoulders 38 prevent withdrawal of the fingers 34a by engaging the front face 28 of the second body 24.

As shown in Figure 4, the location means and latch means of one body and the complementary location means and complementary latch means of the other body are located on the outside of the folded unit. Thus, as illustrated in Figure 4, it is possible for a plurality of units 12, 12' to be connected together by inserting the resiliently deflectable fingers 42a on the second body 24 of a first unit 12 into the correspondingly shaped apertures 48a provided in the first body 22'of the second unit 12'. Once the fingers 42a are received in the apertures 48a, shoulders 46 prevent withdrawal of the fingers 42a by engaging the front face 28'of the first body 22'of the second unit 12'.

In this arrangement, the location means 26 provided on the front face 28 of the second body 24 of the first unit 12 are received in the sockets 30' provided on the rear face 32'of the first body 22'of the second unit 12'. In this way, adjacent units 12 may be aligned with each other and detachably connected together.

Each of the resiliently deflectable fingers 34a, 42a may only be withdrawn from its respective aperture 40, 48 by flexing the finger 34,42 to disengage the respective shoulder 38,46.

It will also be appreciated that units 12, 12' may be attached to one another whilst in their first hinged condition as illustrated in Figure 2. This provides a'longer'pack and so enables more plugs to be provided in the pack.

Preferably, each of the first and second bodies 22,24 include attachment formations preferably in the form of apertures 50,52 formed at its free end, remote from the hinge portion 20.

Preferably the hanger 14 of the pack 10 shown in Figure 1 is of generally planar form having a slot 54 at one end to enable the pack 10 to be hung on a hanger for display/storage in a retail outlet. The hanger 14 is preferably a plastics moulding and may be moulded from a plastics which is the same as or different to the plastics from which the units 12 are moulded.

The hanger 14 may also include, for example, a screw size guide for the wall plugs 18 provided in the pack 10 and/or a drill size guide.

The hanger 14 and at least one of the sprue and wall plugs units 12 preferably include complementary engagement members which enable the hanger 14 to be connected to the units 12.

As shown in Figure 3, the hanger 14 may include a pair of parallel, resiliently deflectable fingers 56,58 provided on the hanger 14. At their free ends, the fingers 56, 58 include formations 60, 62 extending away from the fingers 56, 58 in opposite directions to each other. The formations 60,62 define shoulders 64,66.

The resiliently deflectable fingers 56,58 are receivable in the apertures 50,52 which are preferably formed in at least one of the bodies 22 or 24 of at least one of the units 12. Each of the apertures 50,52 corresponds in cross-section to a respective one of the fingers 56,58.

Once the fingers 56,58 are received in the apertures 50,52, shoulders 64,66 prevent withdrawal of the fingers 56,58 by engaging the rear face 32 of the

body 22 or 24 in which the apertures 50,52 are provided. This engagement enables the hanger 14 to be connected to the units 12 in a snap-fit manner.

Preferably the location means, complementary location means, latch means and complementary latch means are positioned relative to one another such that on assembly of a pack, the inter-engagement of one unit to the other is only permitted when the units are oriented such that the apertures 50,52 on one unit are positioned at the same end as apertures 50,51 on an adjacent unit.

In the embodiment shown in Figure 3, apertures are formed in each of the bodies 22,24 of each unit 12. It is envisaged, however, that the apertures 50,52 may be provided in only one of the bodies 22,24 of only one of the units 12.

In order to detach the hanger 14 from the units 12, the fingers 56, 58 may be squeezed together to disengage the shoulders 64, 66 from the rear face 32, and thereby enable the fingers 56,58 to be withdrawn through the apertures 50,52.

In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, the wall plugs 18 of each of the units 12 are the same size as each other.

In other embodiments, as shown in Figure 5, the wall plugs 18 of each of the units 12 may differ in size from each other.

For example, a first unit 12'may include wall plugs 18'of a first size; a second unit 12"may include wall plugs 18"of another size; and a third unit 12"'may include wall plugs 18"'of a yet further size. Each of these

units may be moulded using a differently coloured plastics such that the colour is indicative of the size of plug.

The support bodies 22,24 of each unit 12 of the embodiment shown in Figure 5 is preferably formed in the same way as the support bodies shown in Figure 3, thereby enabling the units 12 to be secured together, and connected to a hanger 14. This enables packs containing different sizes of plugs to be easily assembled.

The bodies 22,24 and hinge connection 20 are preferably defined by a sprue during moulding.

It is envisaged that each unit 12 may comprise a single body 22 or 24 only.

It is also envisaged that moulded articles other than wall plugs may be integrally moulded with the support bodies 22 or 24.