General Mills, Inc.

Jenna M Ronquillo

George A Tuszkiewicz

Peter L Novotny

David W Jordan

Thomas Miller

A carton is formed by folding and interconnecting a plurality of body pieces to establish at least front and rear panels and opposing side panels which can be joined to establish the carton with an interior cavity for containing edible products. At least two of the front, rear and opposing side panels are interconnected by one or more bridge tabs so as to constitute a unitary, single one of the separate body pieces, thereby preventing the interconnected panels from skewing during assembly of the carton.

Carton and method of creating the carton

A carton is formed from folding a unitary blank, made from paperboard, to establish a front panel, a rear panel, opposing side panels, a bottom wall and a top wall. To strengthen the carton, at least two side inserts, having a caliper which is equal to or greater than the caliper of the unitary blank, are provided within an interior cavity of the carton and against a respective one of the opposing side panels. The unitary blank has a predominate fiber orientation which is directionally different from each of the at least two side inserts. With this arrangement, the cartons have enhanced structural integrity, enabling similarly configured cartons to be effectively, vertically stacked without deformation.

Paperboard carton

In a method of ultrasonically bonding paperboard, first and second pieces of paperboard are supplied, with at least one of the first and second pieces of paperboard being provided with a clay coating. The first and second pieces of paperboard are moistened and positioned in a gap between a sonotrode and an anvil of an ultrasonic welding unit. The ultrasonic welding unit is activated and the first and second pieces of paperboard are compressed between 30-70%, more preferably between 40-60%, to cause the clay coating to mobilize and force the clay coating material into fiber matrixes of the first and second pieces of paperboard, followed by cooling of the first and second pieces of paperboard, to bond the first and second pieces of paperboard.

Method of ultrasonically bonding paperboard

A paperboard carton is formed by folding and interconnecting an even number of body pieces to establish at least a bottom wall, first and second spaced main face walls, opposing side walls and a top wall, which collectively define an interior cavity for containing edible products, with the first and second main face walls and the opposing side walls being spaced by each of the bottom wall and the top wall, each of said body pieces being formed of paperboard, and at least two of the body pieces having predominate fiber orientations which are directionally distinct from one another, thereby establishing a compression strength for each carton which enables similarly configured cartons to be directly stacked upon each other for shipping purposes.

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Woodbury, MN, United States of America

Jenna M Ronquillo