Wire shipping and dispensing container

Abstract

A two part wire receptacle for receiving wire being laid therein by a flier in a coiled pattern is disclosed. The first part is permanent wire receiving basket has a relatively flat surface with a plurality of upstanding inner wire guide elements defining the inner periphery of the coil and a further plurality of upstanding outer wire guides defining the outer periphery of the coil. Another form of the first part may be embodied in a machine for receiving and packaging wire being laid therein in a coiled pattern. In the machine, a permanent wire receiving basket has a relatively flat surface, a plurality of upstanding inner wire guide elements defining the inner periphery of the coil, and an upstanding generally cylindrical outer wire guide defining the outer periphery of the coil. The second part which functions as a shipping and dispensing container comprises a relatively flat sheet of support material having a peripheral extent approximately coextensive with the outer wire guide elements, a central opening with a peripheral extent approximately coextensive with the inner wire guide elements, and a plurality of bands of tape, cardboard, or similar strap or banding material for fastening a coil of wire to a face of the sheet so that the wire and sheet may be removed as a packaged unit, and a new sheet placed in the basket to receive additionlal wire. The bands comprise a number of lengths of the tape or other material each passing through the central opening, about the coil of wire, and about the outer periphery of the coil of wire and of the support material to close upon itself. The sheet of support material may be formed from corrugated cardboard with the inner and outer peripheral extents formed as concentric regular n-gons having respective edges oriented generally parallel to one another. Square and octagonal peripheries are disclosed as illustrative with the corresponding number (four or eight) of strips of fiberboard, tape or similar banding material, each extending generally orthogonal to a corresponding one of the pairs of parallel edges of the n-gon. The strips are initially flat and generally coplanar with the sheet and are subsequently folded about the sheet of support material and about the coil of wire and fastened in place thereabout to secure the coil of wire to the sheet of support material.