Basket carriers for bottles have been around for many years. These have normally had to be glued on right-angle gluers in order to ensure that all of the panels and flaps that were being glued were in proper position for alignment when glued. Gluing on a right-angle gluer facilitated the folding and gluing of these multi-piece carriers, but it was a relatively expensive process.
Basket carriers have typically been made from a single blank of material, usually coated paperboard so that product identity and any advertisement could be printed on the carrier. It is obvious that coated paperboard is not needed for producing the interior of the carton (i.e., partitions) as printing is not normally placed there. Consequently, it would be desirable to make these partitions out of a less expensive material, such as uncoated paperboard, or recycled board, which would significantly lower the cost of the carrier. In the past, there has been no good manufacturing method for producing three piece carrier on a straight-line gluer.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds