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Filler tray and unitary blank for assembling sameFiller tray and unitary blank for assembling same description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080000955, Filler tray and unitary blank for assembling same. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001]1. Field of the Invention [0002]The present invention relates to trays used for shipping and display of products. More particularly, the present invention relates to a product display filler tray that may be palletized in standard full pallet configurations while providing non-product filler space at the back, bottom and sides of the tray. [0003]2. Description of the Related Art [0004]Shipping boxes are well known in the art and are designed to contain objects for convenient transport. Shipping boxes are used to transport consumer products to retail stores. After arrival at the retail store, individual products are removed from their shipping boxes and placed on store shelves for presentation to retail consumers. The transported products are removed by store personnel by lifting the product out of a cut-opened shipping box. When placed on the shelf, products are typically oriented such that the main label of the product, or secondary package enclosing and containing the product, faces the consumer. Shipping boxes are typically made from a sheet of corrugated kraft material, often referred to as corrugated fiberboard. [0005]Owing in part to the popularity of the so-called "club" stores, it is increasingly desirable to display packaged products in the same box in which they are shipped. Such shipping/display boxes eliminate the need for removing individual products from the shipping box and stacking them on a shelf. Products for sale in club stores are increasing shipped and displayed in trays. Shipping/Display trays, hereinafter simply display trays, are boxes that have a single bottom panel, or an assembled bottom formed from multiple bottom flaps, for placement of the product, but are typically opened at the top and have openings in one or more upright walls of the box to display the product label and to facilitate removal of the product directly by the consumer at the point of purchase. Among the problems with which the packaging engineer must deal in devising suitable open walled display trays, is the need for sufficient strength for stacking must be capable of holding. [0006]A number of improvements were made in the prior art boxes to address these issues. For example, Vesborg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,504 is directed to a shipping and display box. Spamer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,002 is directed to a case for displaying articles in retail outlets, which is preferably formed of corrugated plastic or fiberboard material. DeMott, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,360 is directed to a stackable box having a display opening. Locking slots and locking tabs are illustrated. Edgerton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,299 is directed to a combined product shipping and display box. Carr et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,337 discloses a box for a bag stack. [0007]Product shipping boxes and product display trays are often stacked on pallets for more convenient and efficient transport to retail stores, especially to club stores, which typically turn over more product than traditional retail stores. Often, whole pallets of product in display trays are placed in the aisles of club stores for presentation to consumers. [0008]However, for small-sized, high-cost, low-turnover products even club stores do not wish to purchase entire pallets of full display trays containing a large number of these products. The inventory cost to purchase and stock these full pallets is often prohibitive. In the prior art, so-called "filler trays" were provided to address this problem. Filler trays included empty spacers or "fillers" that took up space in the display tray that would otherwise have been occupied by high-price products had the entire display tray been fully loaded. Thus, a filler tray retained the advantage of full display tray palletizing and aisle-way pallet presentation, without the disadvantage of high product inventory cost of display trays without fillers. Fewer of the small sized, high-cost, low turnover products needed to be inventoried since some of the space on the palletized filler trays was occupied by empty fillers. [0009]In the prior art, fillers for filler trays were supplied as separate boxes placed at the bottom, sides, or back of the display tray before product loading. Products were then place adjacent to the fillers to occupy the remaining space in the filler tray. These fillers were separately made and thus costly and inconvenient to use. Further, different sized fillers were needed to accommodate various product space requirements. There remains a need for a filler tray, assembled from a unitary blank, that is durable, strong, economical, versatile, and convenient for use with small, high-cost products. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010]Provided is a durable, strong, economical, and versatile filler tray assembled from a unitary blank formed for a single sheet of corrugated fiberboard, which is sometimes referred to as a unitary blank. The unitary blank may be pre-assembled into a "flat", well known in the art, that presents a knocked-down, planar configuration for convenient shipping and storage of the filler tray. The filler tray provides an enclosure for storing and displaying products that are accessible through the open top of the filler tray. The filler tray may be palletized in standard configurations. [0011]Various fillers, assembled from the unitary blank, take up space in the filler tray that would otherwise be occupied by product. This is advantageous when high-price products are displayed in the tray, as fewer products need to be inventoried when the products are purchased in full pallets. [0012]More particularly, the filler tray includes a bottom filler, a first side filler foldably connected to the bottom filler, a second side filler foldably connected to the first filler, and a back filler foldably connected to the bottom filler and the first side filler and fixedly connected to the second side filler. The various fillers include foldably connected panels, flaps, and tabs that are folded about connecting horizontal and vertical foldlines for assembly into the filler tray. The foregoing aspects and others will be readily appreciated by the skilled artisan from the following description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an assembled filler tray in accordance with the principles of the present invention; [0014]FIG. 2 is a plan view of a unitary blank used to assemble the filler tray of FIG. 1; [0015]FIG. 3A is a bottom plan view of the filler tray of FIG. 1; [0016]FIG. 3B is a top plan view of the filler tray of FIG. 1, and; [0017]FIGS. 4A-4H is a series of figures that shows assembly of the filler tray of FIG. 1 from the unitary blank of FIG. 2, pre-assembled into a flat. [0018]Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. As used herein, positional terms, such as "bottom", "left" and the like, and directional terms, such as "upward", "horizontal", "outward" and the like, are employed for ease of description in conjunction with the drawings. None of these terms is meant to indicate that the described part or assembly must have a specific orientation except when specifically set forth. For simplicity of presentation, repeated parts in the Figures are not necessarily all labeled, although it is understood that these unlabeled parts are to be considered equivalent to duplicate labeled parts. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0019]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an assembled filler tray 100 in accordance with the principles of the present invention. The outside surface of filler tray 100 is shown in FIG. 1. Filler tray 100 is assembled from a unitary blank 200 shown in FIG. 2. The inside surface of unitary blank 200 is shown in FIG. 2. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 together, filler tray 100 includes a bottom filler 102, a left, e.g., first side filler 104L foldably connected to bottom filler 102, a right, e.g., second side filler 104R foldably connected to bottom filler 102, and a back filler 106 foldably connected to bottom filler 102 and left side filler 104L and fixed connected to right side filler 104R. In one embodiment, back filler 106 is fixedly connected to right side filler 104 by adhesive bonding. [0020]Bottom filler 102, left side filler 104L, right side filler 104R, and back filler 106 together define an opened top enclosure adapted to contain one or more product packages P. An assembled filler tray 100 generally defines the boundaries of the hollow interior portion of the enclosure in which the product packages P are disposed. Product packages P are removed by a consumer through the opened top filler tray 100. A plurality of filler trays 100 may be placed in one or more standard configurations on a pallet (not shown). Continue reading about Filler tray and unitary blank for assembling same... Full patent description for Filler tray and unitary blank for assembling same Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Filler tray and unitary blank for assembling same patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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