US20080142396A1

US20080142396A1 - Packaging container having product protection structure

Info

Publication number: US20080142396A1
Application number: US11/842,669
Authority: US
Inventors: Zheng-yang Li; Rui-Xiang Lai
Original assignee: AU Optronics Corp
Current assignee: AU Optronics Corp
Priority date: 2006-12-15
Filing date: 2007-08-21
Publication date: 2008-06-19
Also published as: KR100979375B1; TWI321119B; KR20090132571A; TW200824993A; KR20080055613A

Abstract

A container for packaging flat panels is provided. The container has a protection structure. The flat panels are packaged in a hollow space defined by inner walls of the protection structure. The inner walls of the protection structure are formed with a plurality of recess sets for defining a plurality of receiving space so as to accommodate flat panels with different dimensions.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a packaging container for flat product types, and particularly to a protection structure for flat product types as well as a packaging container having the protection structure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Nowadays, with the increasing number of flat product types, a packaging container supporting multi-specification is eagerly awaited to be developed. Take flat display panels for example, such display panels come in various sizes of 15, 17, 19, 21 inches, and so on. A specific size of flat display panels needs a dedicated packaging container for that specified size. With multiple sizes of flat display panels that are required to be supported in packaging containers, various packaging container size specifications are needed.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional product packaging structure. As shown, a rectangular recessed packaging structure is defined by inner walls. The packaging structure can accommodate a number of flat display panels with the same size only. The product packaging structure is adapted for the size of flat display panels to be packaged when it is a single size; however, if the dimensions of products to be packed are diverse, it is required to design a dedicated product protection structure for a product with a specific size, and such requirement leads to the increase of production cost.
Further, as stated above, the conventional packaging container is used to package flat display panels with a specific size, and therefore the production costs for various packaging containers will be enormous if products to be packaged are of different sizes and the quantity for each size is small.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To address the foregoing drawbacks of the prior art technology, the present invention provides a packaging container having a protection structure with inner walls defining a hollow space. There are a plurality of recess sets disposed on the inner walls. The recess sets include a first recess set for defining a first receiving space and a second recess set for defining a second receiving space.
In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the recess sets of the packaging container are with equal depth in an orientation that is perpendicular to the bottom, and each recess set includes four recesses for defining a rectangular receiving space. These recesses are disposed separately or at least one recess of the first recess set also belongs to the second recess set. The first receiving space and the second receiving space overlap partially.
Further, in a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, there is an upper cover for covering the protection structure of the packaging container. The bottom of the upper cover is flat and has auxiliary fixing pieces constructed thereon. The auxiliary fixing pieces comprise a first type of protruding piece, which is a long protruding piece, and the thickness of the first type of protruding piece is generally equal to the height difference between the height of the top of the first products and the height of the top of walls of the packaging container after the first products are placed into the first receiving space. The auxiliary fixing pieces further comprise a second type of protruding piece, which is a shorter protruding piece, and the second type of protruding piece has a thickness that is generally equal to the height difference between the height of the top of the second products and the height of the top of walls of the packaging container after the second products are placed into the second receiving space.
The first and second receiving space of the packaging container according to the present invention share partial common space. The first protruding pieces are shaped so that they are able to be accommodated in the space of the first recess without occupying the said common space when the upper cover covers the packaging container.
The packaging container of the present invention can be used to contain a single type of products or a mixture of multiple types of products. In addition, the packaging container can be used to contain one product, or multiple products.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a conventional product packaging structure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the product protection structure of packaging container of a first embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the product protection structure of packaging container of a second embodiment according to the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an upper cover for the packaging container of the first embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be described in details in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following descriptions, the horizontal direction being the longer side is defined as the width, and the vertical direction being the shorter side is defined as the length for the sake of convenience of description.
FIG. 2 shows schematically the product protection structure 1 of a packaging container according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Various products are accommodated in inner receiving space respectively defined by a plurality of recess sets 11, 12, 13, and 14. Recesses of the recess sets are disposed on the inner walls of the protection structure. As shown, the recesses are with equal depth in the orientation that is perpendicular to the bottom, and the receiving space defined by the recess sets share some common space.
According to the present invention, each recess set of the product protection structure includes four recesses, and each recess has two sides. As shown in FIG. 2, a specific product is accommodated in a receiving space defined by four recesses. The four recesses are used to fix respective corners of the product. In a preferred embodiment, a cavity formed in the apex of each recess is used to protect the corners of the products. In the present embodiment, the receiving space defined by the recess set 11 is used to accommodate the product 31, the receiving space defined by the recess set 12 is used to accommodate the product 32, and the receiving space defined by the recess set 13 is used to accommodate the product 33. For the product 31, the four recesses of recess set 11 are used to fix the four corners of said product 31. For the product 32, which has a length shorter than that of the product 31 and a width longer than that of the product 31, so that the product 32 cannot be accommodated in the recess defined by the recess set 11. The present invention provides a recess set 12 to form a receiving space with a length and width matching the length and width of the product 32, to accommodate the product 32. Similarly, the product 33 can be supported in the same manner. As shown in this drawing, the product 33 has a width longer than that of the product 31 and a length shorter than that of the product 32, so a different receiving space is needed for containing and protecting the product 32 effectively. As shown, the object of protection is achieved by disposing the recess set 13 in the protection structure according to the embodiment of the present invention. When the recess sets 11 and 12 have been formed in the inner walls of the protection structure, a slanting receiving space constructed by new recesses, which are formed in the inner walls, is used to accommodate the product 33. It is noted that the three recess sets are disposed separately so as to define different receiving space in the present embodiment.
The number of types of the products to be accommodated in the product protection structure can be augmented by increasing the quantity of the recess sets in the inner walls. FIG. 3 shows schematically a product protection structure of the second embodiment according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the product protection structure of the present invention comprises four recess sets 11, 12, 13, 14 with equal depth in the orientation that is perpendicular to the bottom. It can be seen that the receiving space defined by the recess set 11 is used to accommodate the product 31, the receiving space defined by the recess set 12 is used to accommodate the product 32, the receiving space defined by the recess set 13 is used to accommodate the product 33, and the receiving space defined by the recess set 14 is used to accommodate the product 34. The first three receiving space with corresponding recess sets are the same as in the first embodiment, so no further description is given here. It is noted that, in the present embodiment, two recesses of the recess set 13 also belong to the recess set 14. As shown, the two recesses 132, 134 in the recess set 13, which includes recesses 131, 132, 133 and 134, respectively share the same space with the two recesses 142, 144 of the recess set 14, which includes recesses 141, 142, 143 and 144.
In summary, the recesses of the recess set are disposed separately from each other. Alternatively, at least one recess of the first recess set also belongs to the second recess set. In addition, the material of the product protection structure of the present invention can be foamed plastics or any other proper materials.
To firmly fix the products, especially when there are various products of different total thickness are placed within the product protection structure, the present invention also provides an upper cover fitting for the product protection structure. As shown in FIG. 4, the upper cover and the product protection structure together make up a packaging container.
Referring to FIG. 2 in conjunction with FIG. 4, an upper cover shown in FIG. 4 is used to cover the product protection structure 1. A bottom of the upper cover 2 is flat and has auxiliary fixing pieces provided thereon. For a preferred embodiment, the auxiliary fixing pieces are protruding pieces. In the first embodiment, it is supposed that the resultant thickness of the products 33 is greater than the thickness of the product 31. Two types of protruding pieces are provided on the bottom. As shown, the first type of fixing pieces are protruding pieces 22 used to fix the product 31 and the second type of fixing pieces are protruding pieces 21 used to fix the product 33.
Each of the first type of protruding pieces 22 has a thickness that is generally equal to the height difference between the height of the top of the first products and the height of the top of said walls of the packaging container after the first products are placed into the first receiving space. Each of the second type of protruding pieces 21 has a thickness that is generally equal to the height difference between the height of the top of the second products and the height of the top of the walls of the packaging container after the second products are placed into the second receiving space.
In the above embodiments, the first and second receiving space of the present invention partially overlap with each other. To make the upper cover adaptable for the first and second products, the first type of protruding pieces 22 are shaped so that they are able to be accommodated in the first receiving space without occupying the overlapped portion when the upper cover covers to the protection structure. Those ordinary skilled in the art will readily observe that the type of protruding pieces can be designed for different requirements.
In the above embodiment, each recess set has four recesses, however, the present invention is not limited to this. It is understood by one ordinary skilled in the art that other numbers of recesses are also possible to be included in each recess set.
While the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been illustrated and described in details, various modifications and alterations can be made by persons skilled in this art. The embodiment of the present invention is therefore described in an illustrative but not in a restrictive sense. It is intended that the present invention should not be limited to the particular forms as illustrated, and that all modifications and alterations which maintain the spirit and realm of the present invention are within the scope as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A packaging container comprising:

a protection structure having a plurality of inner walls defining a hollow space, and a plurality of recess sets formed in the inner walls, the plurality of recess sets including a first recess set for defining a first receiving space and a second recess set for defining a second receiving space.

2. The packaging container of claim 1, wherein each recess set is formed with equal depth in an orientation perpendicular to the bottom of the packaging container.

3. The packaging container of claim 1, wherein each recess set comprises four recesses.

4. The packaging container of claim 3, wherein the four recesses of each recess set define a rectangular receiving space.

5. The packaging container of claim 1, wherein the recesses are disposed separately from each other.

6. The packaging container of claim 1, wherein at least one recess of the first recess set also belongs to the second recess set.

7. The packaging container of claim 1, wherein the material of the product protection structure comprises foamed plastics.

8. The packaging container of claim 1, wherein the first and second receiving space partially overlap with each other.

9. The packaging container of claim 1, further comprising an upper cover for covering the protection structure.

10. The packaging container of claim 9, wherein a bottom of the upper cover is flat.

11. The packaging container of claim 9, wherein the upper cover has auxiliary fixing pieces provided thereon.

12. The packaging container of claim 11, wherein the auxiliary fixing pieces comprise protruding pieces.

13. The packaging container of claim 11, wherein the auxiliary fixing pieces comprise a first type of protruding piece, and the first type of protruding piece has a thickness substantially equal to the height difference between the height of the top of first products and the height of the top of walls of the packaging container after the first products are placed into the first receiving space.

14. The packaging container of claim 13, wherein the auxiliary fixing pieces further comprise a second type of protruding piece, and the second type of protruding piece has a thickness substantially equal to the height difference between the height of the top of second products and the height of the top of walls of the packaging container after the second products are placed into the second receiving space.

15. The packaging container of claim 13, wherein the first and second receiving space partially overlap with each other, and the first protruding piece is shaped so that the first type of protruding piece is accommodated in the first receiving space without occupying the partially overlapped space.