GB2092546A - Handle for can carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

A lifting device for lifting a group of containers held together by a carrier of the type shown in Fig. 5 is formed from cut and creased sheet material and has a tongue or tongues engageable within the aperture (26) in the centre of the carrier, flaps of the tongues being resiliently foldable out of the plane of the remainder of the device to engage under the carrier so that lifting of the lifting device effects lifting of the containers by the flaps engaging under the carrier. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Handle for can carrier This invention relates to devices for use in connection with the lifting of groups of containers which are held together by means of a particular holding device. The particular holding device is in fact a web of plastics material provided with apertures, and in which apertures the containers are frictionally and resiliently held.

In particular, the holding device as described has been almost universally adopted for holding together cans for beverages such as beer, which are generally cylindrical, and are closed by means of a ring pull closure lid.

The described holding device is known by the name "HICONE" (registered trade mark).

The holding device is essentially a sheet of plastics material which is provided with the apertures, and which is forced over the can ends to hold the containers frictionally and resiliently. The sheet material is subsequently cut so as to provide individual holding devices which retain cans in groups of four arranged in a square array, the cans being held together so that the wall regions of adjacent cans are close together.

A holding device for holding four cans as described is provided with a central aperture, which is somewhat diamond shaped, this being provided to save plastics material and also to provide an insertion hole for a finger or thumb to enable the group of containers to be lifted and transported.

A group of four cans held together by such a holding device can be lifted by hand either by gripping portions of the device with the fingers, or by lifting one can of the group of four, so that all are lifted. Such holding devices will be referred to herein and in the claims as HICONE holding devices.

Recently, there have been so-called special offers regarding cans of beer whereby the purchaser is offered four cans for the price of three, and there has arisen a need therefore to provide a means which will enable the offer to be displayed, without of necessity altering the printing on the cans themselves.

The present invention aims at providing such a means, but it is also designed to provide an additional function, which is that of enabling the group of containers to be lifted.

In accordance with the invention, there is provided a lifting device which is manufac turfed from cut and creased sheet material, such device being adapted to fit to a HICONE holding device holding a group of cans held together the said lifting device providing on the one hand a handle and also a display area whereby printing may be carried thereby for the purposes, for example, of indicating a special offer.

The lifting device may be adapted to cooperate with the holding device to perfom its functions. For example, if the lifting device according to the invention has a tongue portion which passes through the aperture in the holding device, holding a group of four containers, the said tongue may be provided with flaps which engage under the holding device when the lifting device according to the invention is raised.

To apply the lifting device according to the invention to a HICONE holding device holding a group of containers, the said holding flaps may be folded to a flat condition and the tongue and folded flaps passed through the said aperture.

Release of the holding flaps enables them to spring outwards to a position whereby they will catch the underside of the holding device enabling the lifting device according to the invention to provide a means enabling the group of containers to be lifted, through the intermediary of the holding device.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a group of containers held together by a holding device of the type herein described; Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of the group of containers shown in Fig. 1, the section being taken on the line ll-ll in Fig. 1; Figure 3 is a plan view of a blank of a lifting device according to the present invention; Figure 4 shows a lifting device according to Fig. 3 when erected and ready to be inserted into the holding device which holds the containers together; Figure 5 shows a perspective elevation of a HICONE holding device; Figure 6 shows a sectional elevation of the container holding device and the lifting device engaging the holding device;; Figure 7 is a plan view of a lifting device blank according to a second embodiment of the invention; Figure 8 shows the blank of Fig. 7 partly erected; and Figure 9 shows the blank of Fig. 8, when fully erected, ready for insertion in the holding device.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. 1 there is shown four beer cans 10 arranged in a square array and having their top ends held together by means of a HICONE holding device comprising a plastics material sheet 1 2 (see Fig.

5) having apertures 1 3 therein, and in which apertures the containers are held, the plastic material being stressed so as to grip the top of the containers resiliently, and being of sufficient strength to perform the holding function, and also to enable the group of containers to be lifted, by lifting one container with the hand, or by lifting the containers by gripping the holder.

The device according to the present invention is for use in conjunction with the holder shown in Fig. 1, and the embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 3 comprises a blank 14 of cut and creased material, for example cardboard, which can be arranged co-operatively with the holder in order to enable the group of four containers to be lifted by means of the lifting device.

In the example illustrated in Fig. 3, the blank is of cardboard material, and is symmetrical about the axis of symmetry 16. Each half of the blank comprises a trapezium shaped portion 18, from which extends a central tongue 20, and to each side of the tongue is a hinged lifting flap 22. In order to fold the blank shown in Fig. 3, to make it suitable for engagement with the container holder, it is folded about the line 16, and then the lifting flaps are folded along fold lines 24, through 1 80 degrees back onto the tongues 20. The thus folded flaps 22 and the associated tongues 20 are pushed through the central, generally diamond shaped aperture 26 (Figs.

4 and 5) in the holder, and then the held flaps 22 are reieased. The flaps 22 subsequently spring outwardly by virtue of the resilience of the material from which the blank is made, thereby to catch under the holder 12, so that when the blank is lifted by means of the double thickness trapezium shaped portions 18, the said tongues 22 engage the underside of the holder and the holder and the held containers can be lifted as a unit for transportation as shown in Fig. 6.

The trapezium shaped portions 1 8 may be provided with a finger aperture as shown in chain dotted lines, and the trapezium shaped portion may also carry printed material indicating special offers or other advertising information.

Instead of the aperture of the fingers, the trapezium shaped portions may be cut away as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3 in order to provide a generally T-shaped panel defining a long tongue 20 so that when the device according to the invention is inserted in the aperture 26 in the holder, it is pushed downwards so that the tongue will lie centrally within the group of containers with the top section of the carrier lying between the top edges of the containers and projecting only slightly above same. This arrangement is of particular advantage when, as is usually the case, the containers are shrinked wrapped in dozens.

As regards the arrangement shown in Fig.

3, if this is employed with containers which are shrink wrapped, then the trapezium shaped portions may require to be folded down onto a pair of adjacent container top ends, about the fold lines 27.

In actual practice, the holding devices 1 2 are applied to groups of containers on a continuous basis, there being a large sheet of plastics material in which the holders are formed, the sheet being suitably punched and creased and the sheet, whilst in stretched condition, is applied onto the container ends as they move on a conveyor. The sheet is subsequently cut to define the individual hrlC ing devices, holding groups of four containers, and the lifting devices according to the invention may be applied to the plastics sheet material of the holders before or after severing of the sheet material, and indeed before the sheet material is applied to the containers.

The lifting devices may be applied manually, or by suitably adapted machinery.

Referring to Figs. 7, 8 and 9, a second embodiment of the invention is shown. Fig. 7 shows a blank 60 of cardboard material comprising a trapezium shaped portion 62 from which extends a tongue 64. The tongue has side locking flaps 66 which are similar to the flaps 22 of the Fig. 3 embodiment. A cut in the portion 62 defines a second tongue 87 of a shape similar to tongue 64 and tongue 67 has flaps 68. A crease line 70 extends across the portion 62 as shown so that the tongue 67 can be folded out of the portion 62 as shown in Fig. 8 to lie in exact register with the tongue 62. To prepare the lifting device for engagement with the holding device, the flaps 22 and 68 are folded about folds 65, 69 back on the tongues 64, 67 as shown in Fig. 9. In the Fig. 9 position, the lifting device is ready to be engaged in the holding device in the same manner as described in relation to the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 6 (see in particular Fig. 4). An advantage of the Figs. 7 to 9 embodiment is that it uses less boared and also the displacement of the tongue 67 out of portion 62 simultaneously forms a lifting aperture 72.

Modifications of the invention are possible, and alternative carriers may be devised which are adapted to co-operate with the holders in a different fashion from that described.

Claims (9)

1. A lifting device of cut and creased sheet material, such device being adapted to engage a HICONE holding device holding a group of cans together, said lifting device providing a handle also being adapted so to engage the holding device that the group of containers can be lifted by the lifting device acting through the holding device.

2. A lifting device according to claim including a tongue which passes through the aperture of the holding device and catching flap means which are hingedly connected to the tongue and are adapted to engage under the holding device.

3. A lifting device according to claim 2.

wherein there are two tongues each with catching flaps.

4. A lifting device according to claim 3, wherein the device is a blank of cut and creased sheet material having a fold line along an axis of symmetry and when folded about said line, the device is T-shaped with the arms of the T defining the handle and the legs defining said tongues.

5. A device according to claim 4, wherein the handle has a finger engaging aperture.

6. A device according to claim 3, wherein the device has a panel of trapezium shape from one side of which projects one of said tongues and the other tongue with its flap means is defined in said panel and can be folded out of the panel onto superimposed relationship with said one tongue, the folding of the tongue out of the panel defining a finger engaging aperture.

7. A lifting device adapted to engage a HICONE holding device holding a group of cans together substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs. 3, 4 and 6 or Figs. 7, 8 and 9 of the accompanying drawings.

8. An assembly comprising a group of containers held together by a HICONE holding device and a lifting device having a handle and which is operatively engaged with the holding device whereby the group of container ers can be lifted by lifting the said lifting device.

9. An assembly according to claim 8, wherein the lifting device is according to any of claims 1 to 7.