Special receptacle or package – For plural beverage-type receptacles
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-12
2004-11-23
Bui, Luan K. (Department: 3728)
Special receptacle or package
For plural beverage-type receptacles
C206S433000, C206S499000, C206S507000, C206S518000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06820743
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is often desirable to ship bottles or other vessels, typically containing liquids. However, the typical shipping environment is replete with situations that can result in damage to the vessels and their contents. In the wine industry, for example, especially in the high end product lines or in gift packaging industries, it is common practice to ship wine typically in packs of one, two, three, four, six or twelve bottles, in a corrugated carton with some type of protection to prevent the bottles from becoming broken and spilling their contents during shipping.
Heretofore, in the shipping of wine, expanded polystyrene packaging material has been used as a shipping protector wherein different configurations are employed to provide top, middle and bottom layers for maintaining the bottles in spaced relation to one another. The bottles are typically provided in groups of two, three, or four bottles per horizontal layer. For example, a standard three bottle configuration has a bottom protecting expanded polystyrene part “A”, three bottles positioned therein, a separating center expanded polystyrene protector “B” positioned on top of the bottles, sometimes in an interlocking relation with the “A” part, a second layer of bottles positioned on top of the “B” part and finally a third top portion (denoted “C”) which engages with the top portion of the “B” part as well as the top layer of bottles. While certainly providing a fine job of packing performance, such expanded polystyrene protectors have several drawbacks. First, because the various expanded polystyrene pieces fit together in only one configuration, the amount of storage space required for maintaining inventory of the various packing components is large. The parts do not nest together to provide a compact storage format and accordingly take up the same volume in storage prior to use as would be required for a fully configured carton with wine bottles therein. Thus, storage problems exist, especially for a wine retailer who does not desire to devote extensive space to storage, since each square foot of space devoted to storage reduces space available for inventory or product display. A further issue with respect to the expanded polystyrene type packaging materials that employ “A” and “B” or “A”, “B” and “C” configurations is inventory maintenance. It becomes difficult to control the inventory of “A”, “B” and “C” components since not every shipment will use all three portions. A shipment of one layer of bottles, for example, will likely use an “A” and a “C” part, while a shipment of two layers of bottles uses an “A”, one “B” and one “C” part. A shipment of three or four bottle layers would use one “A”, two or three “B” and one “C” part. Accordingly, it becomes difficult to predict how many of each item should be kept in inventory.
Other wine bottle package inserts employ an A/B configuration wherein the two parts form a clam-shell type package such that each layer of bottles requires an A and a B part to completely surround the bottles. Such protectors, whether made of expanded polystyrene or of molded pulp fiber, typically employ a bottle engaging geometry configuration on one face thereof and support surfaces on the opposite side such that in order to properly pack and protect a row of wine bottles, two such protectors are positioned around the bottles with the bottle engaging geometries of the two protector pieces face-to-face and the support foot side of each protector piece facing outwardly with respect to the bottles. Accordingly, in order to pack two layers of bottles in a shipping carton, four bottle protector inserts are required. To pack four bottle layers in a carton, eight such protector inserts are required. Minimizing shipping weight is an issue in packing, so the need for two shipping protectors per layer can undesirably increase the shipping cost as the number of bottles per shipping carton increases.
With the various “A”, “B” and “A”/“B”/“C” configuration packs, it becomes critical during loading of the shipping carton that the particular A and B parts (and/or C parts) be oriented correctly both with respect to top to bottom and left to right orientation within the package in order to ensure that the bottles and packing fit perfectly within the carton. This can slow down throughput in high volume shipping operations, since the packer must carefully orient the packaging insert to ensure that it is of the correct orientation prior to beginning the packing process.
A further disadvantage to standard expanded polystyrene type protectors is that they are less environmentally friendly than protectors of molded fiber, which are typically made from recycled paper and themselves can be recycled into reclaimed waste paper stock. The expanded polystyrene type protectors are difficult to recycle and do not easily biodegrade. Therefore, the trend is toward use of recycled and recyclable materials for protectors. One such material is molded fiber, especially molded paper pulp. However, while it is possible to devise an expanded polystyrene protector with two functional sides, allowing an “A” only configuration and reducing inventory problems, it becomes difficult to provide protectors with two functional sides thereto when employing molded pulp, since unlike with expanded polystyrene, which allows shapes on one side of an item to be formed without interfering with the second side (given a protector of sufficient thickness), the nature of molded pulp items results in the three-dimensional structures of one side of an item having a non-negligible three-dimensional effect on the reverse side of the item. For example, a valley on one side of a molded fiber article forms a corresponding hill on the other side of the article. Accordingly, it has heretofore been impractical to employ molded fiber protectors for bottles or the like with two functional sides thereto.
In accordance with the prior art, rib portions of shipping protectors have heretofore been formed as a rib feature extending from a boundary plane of the protector. For example, a rib or other feature extends from the top plane or web of the protector, downwardly to a position defining the rib bottom and back upwardly to the top plane of the protector. Each such rib feature has heretofore been isolated from other adjacent rib structures, by the web of the protector.
Another concern with prior art protectors is that when a number of the empty protectors are stacked in a nested configuration for shipping or storage, the protectors tend to become rather tightly engaged with each other, making their separation difficult. This is especially true if the stack is dropped or otherwise subject to vibration or impact during shipping, for example. The tight engagement and the attendant degree of difficulty in separating the individual protectors can slow down the packing of articles by the ultimate end user, as a worker must take a relatively great deal of time to separate the individual protectors from each other prior to use.
In the wine industry, there are four bottle types which are predominantly used in 750 ml volume configurations, Riesling/hock style bottles, Chardonnay/Burgundy style bottles, champagne punt bottles and Bordeaux style bottles. The Riesling/hock bottle has a more elongated neck and provides a relatively smooth transition from the body of the bottle through the neck. The Chardonnay/Burgundy bottle is of a slightly quicker transition between the body of the bottle and the neck portion so as to have a less elongate appearance than the Riesling/hock bottle. Also, the Riesling/hock bottle is typically somewhat taller than the Chardonnay/Burgundy style bottle. The Bordeaux bottle is substantially the same height as a Chardonnay/Burgundy bottle but rather than employing a relatively concave transition from the body of the bottle through the neck, it has a convex transition portion into a substantially cylindrical shaped neck. The Champagne bottle is a low shoulder profile (fat) bottle. In accordance with wine bottle shipping packs of th
Hurley Richard B.
Hurley Richard D.
Bui Luan K.
Dellett & Walters
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