There has been a long-standing need for protective devices in packaging various articles to protect them against damage during shipping, storing, and handling. This is particularly true for mechanical parts, such as swivel journals, universal joints, and similar automobile parts, which are manufactured in one location and shipped to another location for assembly into a designated machine, vehicle, or other mechanical devices.
In the past, such articles have normally been packaged in a bellows-type envelope which is generally made of of elastomeric material, such as rubber. Such materials are used for their elasticity and flexibility in accommodating various sized items as well as for their cushioning effect during shipping and handling.
Nevertheless, such bellows-type wrappers are particularly vulnerable to a number of adverse effects. Thus it is common practice to attempt to protect such wrappers by means of protective devices typically formed of two semi-spherical shells made, for example, of plastic which may be removably connected to each other, for example by an elastic means. These protectors, however, also suffer from numerous disadvantages. In addition to their expense, they are not biodegradable and consequently are not easily disposable. This results with the need to recycle them. Recycling, however, is a time-consuming and often a difficult operation which involves providing for designated deposit areas, scheduling pick-up of the deposited protectors, transportation to the recycling plant, and the recycling procedures themselves which include cleaning and inspection.
In addition to the foregoing disadvantages, problems are often experiened inserting the articles into the elastic protective devices, particularly wherein such articles are oversized and have an irregular shape. Moreover, if an undue amount of stretching the elastomeric material is required in order to fit the protective device over the article, the protective device becomes punctured or torn so as to expose elements of the article it was intended to protect.
The present invention, therefore, was developed to provide a novel product which overcomes the shortcomings and disadvantages of prior art protective devices. The protective device of the present invention is disposable or at least more easily recyclable without sacrificing the desired characteristics of protection, fitting, and removal, as well as ease of maintenance and convenient storage.
Prior art attempts to protect mechanical elements, such as the ends of shaft portions, include the use of cylindrical tubes of cardboard. It was found, however, that starting with a cardboard cylindrical tube, considerable adjustment was required to shape the tube into a frustoconical configuration so as to permit the element being packaged to be wedged within the interior of the tube. In addition, this was a particularly difficult manipulation to accomplish without damaging or destroying the cardboard material. Furthermore, the bulk of void space resulting from forming a cylindrical tube into a frustoconical shape is very cumbersome for handling and storage purposes. In addition, it often causes problems for certain types of elements which need protection which are disposed in the narrower section of the tube, particularly in the case of certain journalled transmission elements for driving the wheels of a vehicle.
It is believed that the present invention proposes a relatively simple solution to these problems and yet offer many advantages which prior art protective devices do not have.