US2692720A - Shipment corner protector - Google Patents

Description

(Jet. 26, 195 4 R. T. SUESS ET AL 2,692,720

SHIPMENT CORNER PROTECTOR Filed June 25, 1952 VENZ ORS I Y ama c. m fiiwvmmfl I5 ATTORNEYS.

Patented Oct. 26, 1954 SHIPMENT CORNER PROTECTOR Ralph T. Suess, Menasha, and Donald C. Shepard, Jr., Neenah, Wis., assignors to Menasha Wooden Ware Corporation, Menash-a, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application June 23, 1952, Serial No. 295,096

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to improvements in shipment corner protectors, and more particularly to weight sustaining protectors for the lower corner portions of crated shipments and the like.

Polished wood cabinets, appliances, and other pieces of furiture are customarily packed and transported in shipping cases and the present invention is primarily concerned with protectors disposed adjacent corner portions of an encased piece of furniture or the like to adequately protect the surface portions of the piece of .furniture against scratching and marring.

In copending application, Serial No. 262,030, filed December 17, 1951, now abandoned, there is disclosed shipment corner protectors which are very adequate for the upper corner portions for an encased piece of furniture, appliance or the like. Where, however, shipment corner protectors are applied to the lower corner portions of a heavy piece of furniture, cabinet or appliance considerable weight is imposed on such corner protectors and they must be of a type to provide ample bearing surfaces which will withstand considerable compression due to the weight imposed thereon. In the structure disclosed in said copending application all of the bearing surfaces of the corner protectors are composed of superimposed layers of corrugated fiberboard with the corrugations extending parallel to the angularly related furniture surfaces to which the protectors are applied. With the corrugations so arranged, the corrugated layers may ccllapse or break down if subjected to undue pressure due to weight imposed thereon.

With the foregoing in mind it is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide shipment corner protectors especially applicable to the lower corner portions of heavy articles of furniture or the like and arranged so that the corrugated fiberboard layers at the bottom of the protectors which are subjected to the pressure from the weight of the article borne thereby are arranged longitudinally of the direction of pressure thereon so that the pressure or weight is actually applied to the ends of the flutes or corrugations with the result that the improved corner protectors can sustain many times the amount of pressure per square inch than can the corner protectors of said copending application.

A further object of the invention is to provide corner protectors especially applicable to the corner portions of packaged case goods wherein the case goods or encased furniture rest on narrow surfaces which must bear the entire weight, the improved corner protectors being applicable to such limited surfaces to bear an undue amount of localized weight and pressure.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive form of corrugated fiberboard corner protector having two surfaces at right angles to each other with non-abrasive protective facing material to engage right angularly related vertical wall portions of a shipment and also having rigid bottom supporting sections at right angles to the planes of the first mentioned sections.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simple and relatively inexpensive form of shipment corner protector foldable from a fiat form to a set up form.

A further object of the invention is to provide a shipment corner protector so constructed that a number of the same can be stored or transported in flat condition with the non-abrasive facings of adjacent members in contact, the protectors being easily folded from flat to set up form for use on the lower corner portions of packed or crated pieces of furniture or appliances or on packaged case goods.

A further object of the invention is to provide a shipment corner protector which is of very simple construction, is easy to apply to the desired corners of an article or case to be packed and shipped, which is relatively inexpensive, which protects angularly related side wall portions of the article to which it is applied and forms a strong support for a bottom portion of the article, and which is well adapted for the purposes described.

With the above and other objects in view the invention consists of the improved shipment corner protector and its parts and combinations as set forth in the claim, and all equivalents thereof.

In the accompanying drawing in which the same reference characters indicate the same parts in all of the views:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the improved corner protector in its set up condition showing its relation to a bottom corner portion of an encased cabinet or packaged case goods, the latter being shown in broken lines;

Fig. 2 is an inverted plan view of the shipment corner protector applied to a corner portion of a package or article of furniture;

Fig. 3 is a plan view on a smaller scale of the corner protector in its fiat condition prior to being set up;

Fig. 4 is an inverted plan view of the corner protector in its flat condition looking at the surface provided with a non-abrasive facing; and

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 55 of Fig. 1.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, it will appear that the improved shipment corner protector, designated generally by the numeral 8, prior to being set up takes the form of a polygon. Specifically, the member 8 in its flat condition for storage and transportation comprises a pair of square sections 9 and Hi separated from one another by a scored line of fold II. As shown in Figs. 3 and 4 the lower margin of each of the square sections 9 and I has foldably associated therewith by scored lines I2 and I3 at right angles to the scored line II, bottom sections I4 and I in the form of rectangles. The rectangular section I5 is coextensive in length with the side of the square section It thereadjacent, while the rectangular section It is somewhat shorter than the side of the square section 9 thereadjacent, leaving between the rectangular sections I4 and IS a space of sufficient length to accommodate the breadth or transverse dimension of the section I5 when the protector is folded into a set up condition.

Each unitary member 3 may be easily cut, stamped or otherwise formed from standard multi-ply corrugated fiberboard or the like. While the invention is not to be restricted thereto, the undersurface of a unit 8 preferably carries a thin sheet of a non-abrasive facing material as shown in Fig. 4, which facing material forms the inner surface of the sections 9 and H1 when the unit 8 is in its set up condition, as shown in Fig. l. The facing material may be creped cellulosic wadding or the like. Each of the scored fold lines I I, I2 and I3 comprises a slit extending through the various plys of the corrugated fiberboard from the surface shown in Fig. 3 to an inner layer or ply so that the various sections 9, I0, I4 and I5 may fold on said remaining inner plys, separating along said lines of severance, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. g

It is proposed that a corner protector unit 8, when it is to be used, be folded from the fiat form of Fig. 3 to the three-sided form of Fig. 1 wherein the square sections 9 and I0 are at right angles to each other and the rectangular sections 14 and I5 are folded upon the lower portions of the inner faces of the sections 0 and i0 and abut one another to form a bottom for the protector of L-configuration.

In Figs. 1 and 2 the numeral It may represent a bottom corner portion of a piece of furniture, appliance or carton of case goods. The improved set up corner protector may be applied to any desired corner or corners of the article or carton l6 but it has greatest utility in connection with the bottom corner portions of such member it, particularly where the member I6 is relatively heavy.

From Figs. 1 and 2 it will therefore be observed that the square sections 9 and [0 have their inner protective facings in contact with right-angularly related side wall portions of the article or case I6, and a portion of the bottom of the article or case I6, which exerts substantial pressure because of its bulk and weight, seats on the top portions of the rectangular sections I4 and I5. In the set up condition of the unit these sections I4 and I5, as will be observed, have their flutes or corrugations disposed axially of the direction of pressure or weight imposed by the member l6. These flutes or corrugations can, in their longitudinal disposition, bear a very great amount of weight and pressure.

To maintain the unit 8 in its set up condition, a piece of tape may be applied across the adjacent bottom portions of the various sections or, the various sections may be retained in their complementary set up relationship by any other suitable means.

It will be understood that it is preferred to apply the improved corner protectors to the four bottom corners of a piece of furniture, appliance or case. If desired, the upper corner portions of the appliance or case may have applied thereto corner protectors of the type shown in the pre- Viously mentioned copending application, Serial No. 262,030. When the appliance or furniture with the corner protectors applied thereto is housed within a container or shipping case, the sections, of the protectors 8, having considerable thickness, will space and protect the surfaces of the encased article'from the inner walls of the shipping case to prevent the surfaces of the furniture or the like from being scuffed, scratched or marred. Also, the non-abrasive facings on the section 9 and Ill prevent injury to polished surfaces to which they are applied. If the corner protectors are applied to any exterior corner portions of a case or carton, such corner portions will, of course, be materially reinforced and the rectangular sections I 4 and I5 will bear the weight imposed thereon without collapse.

It will be appreciated that if the corner protectors were to be stored or transported in their set up condition, they would be unduly bulky and would require considerable storage space. However, in the fiat form shown in Figs. 3 and 4, a large number of the units 8 may be compactly stored or packed, preferably by being arranged in a pile with each adjacent pair having nonabrasive facings thereof in adjacency.

The improved shipment corner protectors are of very simple construction, may be easily packed and shipped in their fiat condition, are easy to set up and apply, are adapted to withstand undue weight and pressure thereon, and are well adapted for the purposes set forth.

What is claimed as the invention is:

A three-sided shipment corner protector formed of multi-layered corrugated fiberboard sheet material, comprising a pair of right-angularly related large sections of similar size and formation foldably connected along their adjacent inner edges and having their corrugations extending vertically, and a pair of relatively small rectangular sections of multi-layered corrugated fiberboard sheet material at right angles to each other and in endwise abutment and extending along only the lower inner face portions of said large sections with their corrugation parallel to those of the large sections, one of said small sections being of less length than the other and said small sections being of different size and proportions than the large sections, each small section being foldably connected to the lower marginal portion of an adjacent large section, said rectangular sections complementing each other in the formation of an L-shaped ledge with their corrugated flutes adapted to underlie a load imposed on said ledge in a direction axially of the force of said load on the ledge.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,550,646 Larson Aug. 18, 1925 1,786,189 Bowersock Dec. 23, 1930 2,160,221 Masters et al. May 30, 1939 2,271,265 Kirby Jan. 27, 1942 2,324,031 Schiffenhaus July 13,1943 2,670,122 Davidson et a1 Feb. 23, 1954

Images