This invention is a package for assembling different products and the purpose is to add several of the qualities required in the supply chain of which the package is a part. Furthermore, by using only fiber based material, the invention can contribute to the sustainable society which is necessary for the future. The object is also to solve different mechanical problems in order to meet the demands from customers and to provide the final user normally supermarkets, department stores etc. with a package which meets their needs in a better way.

One factor to consider is the machinery currently used by e.g. trade mark owners. The invention will be designed in order to be produced with existing machinery. This will be achieved by changing certain parts and changing the layout of the machinery if necessary. These parts are based on the parts from the prototype of the invention. The design of these functions makes up a separate part of this patent application.

Background of the invention

In modern distribution of provisions as food, hygiene products, car care products etc. the package is often a bottle, a tin, a can, a jar or a cardboard box. The packages of these are usually either a box, normally made of corrugated cardboard or enclosing plastic film or a combination of these. In the latter case the design is mostly a bottom plate or tray made of e.g corrugated cardboard with plastic film making a shell round the goods. The film gets Its proper shape by shrinking it through heating.

All above performances {type of outer packages) require a lot of work for the final user of such packages, i.e. supermarkets and department stores of different dimensions and need of delivery quantity. Today all customers receive the same size of the outer package, often containing 12 -24 consumer packages.

The present Invention will in first hand provide an alternative to the corrugated cardboard/film package, but will also function for product packages delivered in other outer packages.

The cardboard/film solution was invented at the end of the 1960s. Since then higher demands have grown for the following factors: for the first thing, easier handling; second thing, better ergonomics; third thing, avoiding the use of plastic film for environmental reasons: fourth thing, adaptation of package size depending on the size of the shop: fifth thing, smaller amounts in each package: sixth thing, better display: seventh thing, possibility to function in automatic storage rooms: eight thing, traceability and for the ninth thing stable loading pallets.

The art of technic

A previously known invention according to SE 0004158-2 refers to a package with upturned folds designed to join a bottom plate, which in a preferable example together with a horizontal tape or band or strap was keeping the content in place. The bottom plate had upturned friction elements to minimize movements on a piate having two open sides. The German patent specification DE 3530489 Al shows different examples, where the front and backsides are open. It has friction elements similar to the Swedish invention mentioned above.

The side folds in SE 0004158 - 2 are limited by the width and fold height of the package and are not optimal when a tape to keep it together is needed high up on the product package. Another drawback with this solution and with DE 3530489 is that the friction elements take up much space and that they form a part of the outer package. Furthermore, where the containers product packages stands without a supporting side wall, the content may get displaced and fall out since the tape is the only stabilizing item in that part of the package. The materia! in the assembly package is usually 3 mm thick, enough to prevent the direct contact between the consumer packages by the friction elements, in connection with the side wall or its folds. The friction elements and their folds help to extend the binding tape. This leads to destabilization. The invention according to DE 3530489 was on the market in Sweden during a short time around the year 1990 without having a possibility to come in here, which perhaps was a reason of the above statement.

Another technical standpoint is that a corrugated cardboard tray has glued folds, which make double cardboard thickness in each corner of the plate. This does not matter when packages are wrapped in plastic, but is more important when the plastic is replaced by a tape.

The invention is described closer below by aid of the preferred embodiment examples referring to the drawings enclosed , in which

Fig. 1 is a sketch of the ready package to which the numbers in the patent claims refer to,

Fig. 2 shows corner structures of different length unfolded and the dotted line indicates a 90" folding line as well as an unfolded bottom plate,

Fig. 3 shows a bottom plate designed for 6 and 4 respectively consumer packages or multiply in the same configuration unfolded,

Fig. 4 shows the underside of a tray with punches for locking of e. g. bottle tops,

Fig. 5 shows a device for a mobile production equipment, seen from above,

Fig. 6 shows the same as 5 from the side, and

Fig. 7 shows different designs of bottom plate with corner structure.

Description of the invention

The object of the invention is to replace current plastic film, with one or several tapes. Still in combination with trays of corrugated cardboard or other material with folded edges. These tapes can be made of paper, plastic or other material. The edges on each side of the tray keep the content in place together with the tape. Depending on the height of the content the stability is kept with one tape high up on the product package together with the flaps of the tray. With DE 3530489 and SE0004158-2 the material can be the same as originally if two bands or tapes are used. Then you get at least two stabilizing points. The size and shape of the product, which is to be placed in the package, decide the position of the tape/tapes.

The present invention eliminates the disadvantages when using plastic film in the handling and to avoid the weaknesses involved in today's tape solutions. This is done by replacing the glued corners with supporting posts of thinner material than in the tray in order to reduce the extension of the tape. The height of the structures is adjusted to the height of the product so that the band can be placed to the height the product allows. They are also so narrow at the bottom, where they are glued to the inside of the tray, that the circumference of a tin, jar, can or a bottle touches only the edge of the tray. Thus the tape gets maximal contact with the surface of the package content. The posts may also be placed in other positions than the corner or the corner post can be completed with further connections between plate and tape. There will be a notch for the tape in the corner post to keep the tape in place. The product is kept in place at the bottom by the edges of the plate and in top by the tape/tapes when they are tightened. A two-sided open solution like SE 0004158 - 2 can be used with two tapes. If the product has low friction, as with bottles and jars made from glass, which have been treated with stearate, it may be suitable to increase the friction between the products in the package, similar to the inventions described earlier. This will be solved with a piece of cardboard or other paper material with good friction, alternatively a bit of glue directly between product packages. In order to get the tape closer to the product packages, the hole in the notch can be made big enough for the tape to run more or less freely outside the surface of the product package. The post can also be replaced by an extension of the side of the tray to adapt to some machinery. This is applicable to low products where larger amounts of material are of less importance and in situations where the extension of the tape does not cause a problem. To avoid extension of the tape the cardboard material can be compressed previously in the contact point between the tape and product package. An assembly package in some thin material may also work.

Addition to the design of the invention.

Interlocking between trays standing on each other, e.g. on a pallet, with the top diameter smaller then the bottom one, e.g. bottles, are made with punches on the underside of the tray. The top of the bottle underneath the tray makes punches in the tray and the edge thus created stops big movements.

A device for production of the present invention

Here is a description of two different layouts and their functions for the production of the present invention.

Layout for a mobile machine:

1. This one works with movements sideways as well as vertically.

2. During feeding of a round product package from a track a vision camera reads the decor of the product. The circumference of the product is registered in a computer program monitored by a step by step motor or other electric motor. Several products are registered after each other and the computer program evaluates the pictures and sends angle commandos to a step by step motor or time to stop for an ordinary electric motor. 2 - 48 tight registrations can be used.

3. By changing the position of the picture into an angle/time figure the motor can be monitored to turn the product so that the desirable motive of the surface is shown towards the buyer of the product when it is placed in the selling place.

4. The products are placed in the position B where the motor, either from below from above or from the side, can change the position of the product. When the products are in the right position they are lifted in a locked position and the number is grouped C and placed in a ready-made outer package D before the application of the tape. The lifting device, point 4, releases the product.

5. If the group is pushed towards the side, which is a common method, there is a risk that the position of the product is dislodged, in that case it is necessary to lock the position in a different way from securing by pressure or vacuum which are the methods to be used for lifting.

6. Package + content are placed under tape station on a lift platform E.

7. Lift plate E lifts package with content to its right position for the tape to be placed on the right level on the packages. The packages have been secured in their positions G by a lifting device over the product packages, which locks them before the taping. The taping process is carried out. There is an alternative solution to make the taping on the same level with other types of taping. The same method can be used for remodeling of current machinery as described below.

8. The package is lifted H from the taping unity and placed on a pallet. This lifting device is preferably connected to a robot which builds a ready-made pallet- The robot has preferably a capacity for 1-12 simultaneous lifts and has in that case several lifting devices connected to the robot arm.

9. The gluing of the corner posts can be made in one or two steps. In one step the posts are preferably glued on the inside, in two places in each corner, altogether 8 places, to meet the functional needs of a glued edge. With two steps the posts are pre-glued In 4 points and are finished at the trayforming of the other 4 points. This method is preferable when placed in an already existing line of machinery. With a low package the post may be replaced by a bigger edge.

Layout for built-in parts:

Final layout for the conditions in each particular case. Parts to be added are:

1. The vision camera with computer program and rotary motor.

2. A lifting device for lifting and grouping the product packages.

3. The group is put on an even bottom sheet with glued support posts, as in point 8, step 2 above.

4. The tray is raised and gets the final glue, with resistance from each glued corner to secure its stability.

5. The taping can be made by lifting like a mobile machine or at the same level with another tape solution which tightens and joins the tape before and after the passage of the package through the taping machine. The products shall be fixed in place before the taping, as shall the mobile machine.