Shipping and dispensing package for a series of articles

Abstract

A package for shipping and dispensing articles such as integrated circuit mounting sockets or the like comprises an extruded, open-ended plastic tube having a reentrant rib formed along one tube side so that the interior tube chamber accommodates the bifurcated lateral outlines of such i.c. sockets in side-by-side serial relation to each other inside the tube with the socket bodies resting on the rib and with the socket terminals suspended and protected on either side of the rib. Segments of the tube material extending around part of the tube periphery near each end of the tube are separated from the tube material along the two opposite sides of each segment and are integrally attached to the tube material at the two opposite ends of the segments, the segments having plastic materials in the end portions of the segments deformed beyond the elastic limit of the tube materials so that the segments are reliably positioned to extend across the tube chamber with one of the sides of each segment disposed to intercept socket bodies inside the chamber and with the widths of the segments oriented to be generally parallel to the tube axis for positively blocking dispensing of sockets from open ends of the tube, the segments each being adapted to be selectively moved out of the tube chamber with a tool for permitting reliable and free dispensing of sockets from an open tube end.