Carton For Bottles

Abstract

According to the present invention there is provided a carton suitable for transporting bottles, the carton including: i) a series of side wall panels that are interconnected and form an enclosure and can be manipulated from an empty collapsed orientation for storage in a space saving manner to an assembled orientation into which bottles can be loaded; and ii) an internal wall structure positioned inside and connected to the side wall panels at pre-selected locations such that as the enclosure is manipulated from the collapsed orientation to the assembled orientation the internal wall structure is located in an operative position which defines separate compartments each adapted to receive a bottle and thereby avoid bottles loaded into the carton from contacting each other.

1 . A carton suitable for transporting bottles, the carton including:
 i) a series of side wall panels that are interconnected and form an enclosure and can be manipulated from an empty collapsed orientation for storage in a space saving manner to an assembled orientation into which bottles can be loaded; and   ii) an internal wall structure positioned inside the enclosure and including a) a central divider that is connected to only one of the side wall panels and b) lateral dividers that extend from the central divider only and are connected to the side wall panels at pre-selected locations such that as the enclosure is manipulated from the collapsed orientation to the assembled orientation the central and lateral dividers are located in an operative position which define separate compartments each adapted to receive a bottle.   
   
   
       2 . The carton according to  claim 1 , wherein the side wall panels and the internal wall structure are made from a single sheet of material. 
   
   
       3 . The carton according to  claim 1 , wherein the side wall panels and the internal wall structure are formed from fluted or corrugated cardboard. 
   
   
       4 . The carton according to  claim 1 , wherein the number of compartments defined by the internal wall structure and, thus, the number of bottles that can be loaded into the carton is a multiple of two. 
   
   
       5 . The carton according to  claim 1 , wherein the central and lateral dividers are integrally connected along a single fold line. 
   
   
       6 . The carton according to  claim 5 , wherein the central divider extends along the length of the carton so as to define two rows into which the bottles can be loaded. 
   
   
       7 . The carton according to  claim 5 , wherein the lateral dividers extend from opposite sides of the central divider and define a series of ranks across the width of the carton. 
   
   
       8 . The carton according to  claim 5 , wherein the central divider includes two layers of material and that each lateral divider is formed by a tongue cut into one of the layers and folded outwardly from the central divider. 
   
   
       9 . The carton according to  claim 5 , wherein each lateral divider includes an outer tab that is fixed to one of the side wall panels. 
   
   
       10 . The carton according to  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the side wall panels includes a line of weakness that defines an openable section that can be opened by hand so as to reveal contents of the carton. 
   
   
       11 . The carton according to  claim 10 , wherein the internal wall structure includes a frangible section that allows the openable section to be detached from the internal wall structure when the openable section is opened or removed from the carton. 
   
   
       12 . A method for packaging bottles into a carton including a) a series of side wall panels that are interconnected and can form an enclosure; and b) an internal wall structure positioned inside the enclosure, the internal wall structure including a central divider that is connected to only one of the side wall panels and lateral dividers that extent from the central divider only and are connected to the side wall panels at pre-selected locations, and the method includes:
 i) manipulating the orientation of the carton from a collapsed orientation in which the carton can be stored in a space saving manner to an assembled operative orientation in which the internal wall structure defines a series of compartments that are each adapted to receive a bottle and the internal wall structure is adapted to avoid bottles loaded into adjacent compartments from contacting each other; and   ii) loading bottles into the compartments.   
   
   
       13 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the side wall panels and the internal wall structure are made from a single sheet of material. 
   
   
       14 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the side wall panels and the internal wall structure are made from fluted or corrugated cardboard. 
   
   
       15 . The method according to  claim 12 , wherein the central and lateral dividers are integrally connected along a single fold line. 
   
   
       16 . A blank formed from a single sheet of material, wherein the blank can be assembled into the carton according to  claim 1 . 
   
   
       17 . A blank that can form the carton according to  claim 1 .