Paperboard cartons are used for a wide variety of applications. Many of them are formed from a single blank of paperboard and then folded, tubed and erected to form a three dimensional container for holding the desired product. It is important, where possible, that the containers be shipped from the manufacturer to the user as a flat package in order to conserve space and shipping costs. The manufacturer then runs the flat packages through a machine which tubes and erects the cartons and fills them with the product.
There are circumstances, however, where the flat packages must be handled manually and yet during the process of erecting the flat packages into a three dimensional container, there must not be any manual contact with the inner container surfaces. Such containers may be used in chemical laboratories or in experiments wherein a product or sample must be placed in a sterilized container manually. It is normally required to use both hands to transform the flat package into a tubed, erected, three dimensional container. In such cases, however, it is also difficult to prevent manual contact with the inner container surfaces.