Envelopes – wrappers – and paperboard boxes – Paperboard box – A sidewall includes a folded lateral extension of an...
Patent
1994-12-07
1996-01-30
Elkins, Gary E.
Envelopes, wrappers, and paperboard boxes
Paperboard box
A sidewall includes a folded lateral extension of an...
229164, 229918, 493137, 493162, B65D 530, B65D 21032
Patent
active
054875056
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to an arrangement in a box, and more specifically concerns a corner structure in an open-top, stackable box, especially intended for vegetables.
2. Prior Art
In recent years, the trend in agriculture has been towards increased automatisation when sowing or planting as well as harvesting vegetables. When harvesting vegetables, modern farms thus use reapers with packing stations, where the vegetables are directly packed in bags or boxes of various sorts. Mostly, the vegetables are then taken directly to a cold storage, to be distributed later on to wholesale or retail dealers.
In harvesting, many vegetables, such as iceberg lettuce, are handled manually, i.e. the vegetable is manually handled and placed in a box. Usually, the boxes are open at the top and of such dimensions that four corner-to-corner boxes cover the surface of a loading pallet. The boxes are in addition stackable, so that a loading pallet holds about 40 boxes filled with vegetables, such as iceberg lettuce.
When harvesting e.g. iceberg lettuce, one therefore has to use many loading pallets and a great number of boxes. Conveniently, the boxes are in the form of blanks which are successively erected and filled with vegetables. Since a high and even harvesting rate is desirable, the vegetable boxes have to be erected fairly quickly, and the number of operations required for doing this should therefore be limited. At the same time, however, the vegetable box, usually made of environment-friendly paperboard, has to be stable and stackable to a considerable height. Alternatively, a plurality of machine-erected boxes can be brought along and successively filled and placed on the loading pallet supporting the boxes.
GB-A-2,185,964 teaches such a box, in which triangular vertical corner areas are obtained when erecting the box, a stabilising triangular plastic part being applied on the upper ends of the corner areas. Apart from the fact that a great many plastic parts have to be brought to the harvesting site (about 160 plastic parts are required for a loading pallet with iceberg lettuce), several drawbacks are associated with this box structure. Moreover, the use of plastic materials should be restricted for environmental reasons.
The GB box structure with mounted plastic parts or knobs is very stable when loaded in the vertical direction. However, if the box is exposed to transverse forces, as is usually the case when the filled vegetable box is lifted to be placed on the loading pallet or on another box, the bottom and the side walls of the box are deformed, frequently causing the plastic knob to slide upwards and fall off. Should two or more plastic knobs fall off, which is not uncommon, the erected vegetable box becomes unstable and runs the risk of collapsing.
Apart from this serious disadvantage impairing the GB vegetable box, applying the plastic knobs out in the fields means extra work. It should also be observed that the container for the plastic parts takes up quite a lot of space in the fairly restricted packing station.
Another aspect is that plastic parts may be lost, either when erecting the box and applying the plastic knobs or when the box is unevenly loaded, as described above. Usually, the plastic knobs fall to the ground and are, for various reasons, seldom picked up after the harvest to be reused or destroyed. Instead, there is a considerable risk that the plastic parts be ploughed into the ground, where they remain. Not being degradable, or only slowly so, the plastic parts constitute an environmental hazard. The plastic knobs are a problem also when the used vegetable boxes are to be destroyed, since they then have to be removed and somehow taken care of.
In addition to the serious drawbacks mentioned above, prior-art vegetable boxes suffer from other disadvantages. The box disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,814 is unsuitable for use in a cold storage owing to the design of its side walls, the boxes preventing the cooling air from circulating
REFERENCES:
patent: 2350932 (1944-06-01), Schaefer
patent: 3792646 (1974-02-01), Bauer
patent: 3918630 (1975-11-01), Meyers
patent: 4418863 (1983-12-01), Kimbrell, Sr.
patent: 4546913 (1985-10-01), Castillo
patent: 4613045 (1986-09-01), Watson
patent: 4799620 (1989-01-01), Vilella
patent: 5016814 (1991-05-01), Fullerton
Bjorkebo Gaard AB
Elkins Gary E.
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