FR2821712A1 - Plant pot made from sheet of water-repellent biodegradable material such as treated cellulose fibres, paper and plastic film - Google Patents

Abstract

The plant pot is made from cut, folded and glued biodegradable sheet material (11) with fold lines (13a, 13b, 13c, 13d) forming side walls (15a, 15b, 15c, 15d) with flaps (16a, 16b, 16c, 16d) for gluing them together, and projecting feet (18a, 18b, 18c, 18d). The sheet material is made from a water-repellent paper or cardboard or non-woven material made from cellulose fibres with waterproofing agents, preferably 0.7 mm thick. It can have an extruded polymer film on one side and a layer of a printable paper on the other.

Description

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La présente invention concerne un godet pour végétaux et notamment un godet pouvant être emboîté avec plusieurs autres et pouvant être facilement déboîté par traction par le bas. BUCKET FOR PLANT CULTURE

The present invention relates to a bucket for plants and in particular a bucket which can be nested with several others and which can be easily dislodged by pulling from below.

 Plastic buckets are already known. These buckets are used for transplanting plants a few weeks old or for seedling growth. These plastic buckets are trapezoidal in shape and have a convex imprint at their bottom which allows the bottom not to lie flat on the ground or on the bottom of a container in which they are placed side by side, so that avoid an accumulation of moisture between the bottom of the bucket and the soil or the bottom of the container, accumulation of moisture which would be harmful to the roots of the plant. This impression is made by thermoforming. These plastic buckets also have a bead on their upper external edge, so as to allow the buckets to nest with each other, before their use, then their easy disengagement by pulling downwards. In addition, these buckets are most often black or possibly brown. They also have holes made in their bottom to allow the drainage of excess irrigation or rain water.

 These prior art buckets have many drawbacks.

 A first drawback, and not the least, is that they are made of non-biodegradable plastic material and therefore harmful to the environment.

 Another drawback is that the cost of their manufacture is not negligible since they are most often obtained by extrusion molding, this extrusion molding requiring expensive machines.

Furthermore, when it is desired to modify the shape of the bucket and / or its

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 dimensions, it is necessary to provide for each modification a mold of different shape and / or dimensions.

 Yet another drawback is that the cups are of a solid color and that they cannot include decorative patterns, since they are made of plastic that is difficult to print by conventional printing methods.

 Paper buckets have been described in document DE-A-40 09 463 which are obtained by folding a grooved flank comprising bonding tabs which secure the walls of the bucket. The bottom of the bucket has holes allowing water to flow.

 Paper or cardboard cups are also known from document GB-A-586 918. These cups are also obtained by folding a grooved side. These buckets have a drainage hole at their base.

 Document FR-A-1 411 594 describes a device making it possible to control the germinative growth of a bulbous plant. Such a device is placed on a pot in which is placed a bulb. This device is therefore not intended to contain the culture support material as well as the cultivated plant.

 Other cardboard cups have been described in the documents USA-2 760 709, FR-A-999 480, US-A-4 418 497, GB-A-891 078 and FR-A- 2 685 994. The latter document describes in particular a bucket produced by folding and grooving a blank cut out of biodegradable material which is provided with a bottom face having the shape of a quadrilateral, said face being secured by each of its edges, by means of fold lines, of faces intended to form the walls of the bucket, said faces being secured to each other by bonding tabs. An opening is provided at the fold lines connecting the faces of the body to the elements of the bottom face.

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 All these buckets cannot meet current needs or the problems raised in agriculture by paper or cardboard buckets.

 A first problem which arises is that the paper and cardboard used in the prior art are certainly made of a biodegradable material, but this material is not very resistant to humidity and after a few days, the paper or cardboard having absorbed a significant amount of moisture is torn and the growing medium escapes from the cup, carrying the plant.

 Another problem which arises is that the paper or cardboard cups of the prior art have a flat bottom. When these buckets are placed in a box, which is made of plastic, the bottom of which is pierced with mesh to allow drainage, the moistened buckets tend after a few days to let the roots of the cultivated plant pass and the roots of the plant pierce the bottom and suckle the soil on which the box filled with buckets is placed.

 The buckets must therefore not have a bottom which rests directly on the bottom of the box or on the ground. However, it is impossible to create a sufficiently convex bottom with a cardboard or paper material, unlike a plastic cup whose bottom can be thermoformed.

 Another problem that arises is that the buckets must be stacked in large quantities when empty and then must be gripped in existing machines at high speeds. Their seizure is done by the bottom and buckets such as those described in the document FR-A-2 685 994 when they are stacked in each other adhere by suction to each other and it is almost impossible to remove them. to separate.

 The present invention aims to solve the problems mentioned above

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A first object of the invention is to provide a bucket for plants which is biodegradable over time, but which is also sufficiently resistant during one season to contain the culture medium and the seed or cultivated plant.

 Another object of the invention is to provide a bucket which is biodegradable, made of a non-plastic material, and which does not allow the roots of the cultivated plant to suck the soil, when the bottom of the bucket rests on the latter.

 A third object of the invention is to provide a bucket which can be stacked with a multitude of other similar buckets and which allows a conventional machine to pick up the buckets at high speed, by pulling down, at high speed, without damage the bucket.

 To this end, the invention relates to a bucket for growing plants produced by grooving and folding a blank cut from biodegradable material, said bucket comprising a face forming a bottom having the shape of a quadrilateral, said bottom face being integral by each of its edges, by means of fold lines, of faces intended to form the walls of the bucket, said faces being joined together by adhesive tabs, characterized in that the biodegradable material is a hydrophobic sheet made up in particular of fibers biodegradable.

The bucket according to the invention also has the following characteristics:
The sheet is a paper or a cardboard or a nonwoven consisting of cellulosic fibers and in mass of one or more agents conferring the hydrophobic character and possibly other biodegradable fibers and optionally fillers and other additives;
The sheet has a thickness of 0.5 to 1 mm, preferably 0.7 mm;
The blank has at least two U-shaped cutouts in two parallel fold lines forming the bottom of the bucket, said cutouts being

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such that the bucket has at least two seats raising the bottom of said bucket;
The blank preferably comprises four U-shaped cuts, each of the cuts being made in each fold line forming the bottom of the bucket;
The blank has on each of two faces intended to form two walls of the facing bucket, on their external edges, two projections intended to extend outside the bucket to form stops on which the upper edge d 'A second cup fitted on the first cup comes to rest, so as to allow nesting of the cups with their bottoms distant from each other.

The blank has on its bottom side orifices allowing the liquid to flow outward;
The sheet comprises on one side a paper, preferably a kraft paper, laminated on which a polyethylene film has been extruded and on the opposite side a coated paper allowing offset printing;
The bonding tabs and the faces of the bucket are secured by means of a hot-melt adhesive resistant to water and / or aqueous liquids.

 The following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings by way of nonlimiting examples, will make it possible to understand how the invention can be put into practice.

Figure 1 is a plan view of a blank of a prior art bucket closest to the present invention;
Figure 2 is a plan view of a cup blank according to the present invention;
Figure 3 is a perspective view of a bucket according to the present invention;
Figure 4 is a sectional view of a blank of a cup according to the present invention;

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Figure 5 is a view of a plurality of buckets stacked together.

 FIG. 1 shows a flat blank of a bucket described in document FR-A-2 685 994. The blank 1 has a bottom face 2 having the shape of a quadrilateral, more particularly a square, having edges 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d which are formed by grooves in the blank 1. The edges 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d have holes 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d allowing the flow of a liquid to the outside the bucket when it is assembled. The blank has faces 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d which are intended to form the faces of the bucket. The faces 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d are joined together by gluing tabs 6a, 6b, 6c and 6d. The blank may be made of biodegradable cardboard.

 Such a bucket of the prior art has many drawbacks.

 Firstly, when the bucket is placed on the ground, its bottom 2 rests directly on the ground and therefore the roots of the plant cultivated in the bucket can penetrate through the cardboard and come to grip in the ground. When the buckets are moved, the user inevitably tears off the roots of the plant, which can cause it to wilt, compromise its recovery during transplanting and even lead to its decline.

 Secondly, the cup being produced from a cardboard blank, the cardboard as a result of the moisture present in the culture medium, such as soil or potting soil, is absorbed by the cardboard and the latter is quickly disintegrates, in a period less than the growth period of the plant in the pot. The roots of the plant can therefore pierce the bucket more easily, and the growing medium can escape from the bucket. The whole pot, culture medium and plant then becomes unpresentable and unsuitable for sale.

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 A third disadvantage of the bucket of the prior art is that it does not allow the use of a commercial machine for the automatic filling of the buckets. In fact, the machines currently on the market are intended to use nesting of buckets one inside the other. The machine picks up the buckets one by one, exerting a force on them. If the buckets of the prior art are fitted into each other, they are very difficult to dislodge because their walls touch and adhere to each other, this phenomenon being increased if the hygrometric degree of the air is high, because then the cardboard will absorb moisture from the air and the walls of the cups will tend to agglomerate with each other, because the cardboard is a material made of cellulose fibers which are very hydrophilic. During the automatic filling of the buckets, the machine used, by exerting a certain force on the buckets, will deteriorate them, and this all the more easily as the buckets are weakened by absorption of moisture.

 In Figures 2 and 3, there is shown respectively a blank for the manufacture of a cup according to the invention, and the cup according to the present invention.

 The blank 11 according to the invention comprises a bottom face 12 having the shape of a quadrilateral, more particularly a square, comprising edges 13a, 13b, 13c and 13d which are formed by grooves in the blank 11. The blank comprises faces 15a, 15b, 15c and 15d which are intended to form the faces of the bucket. The faces 15a, 15b, 15c and 15d are joined together by gluing tabs 16a, 16b, 16c and 16d. The bottom 12 has holes 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d allowing the flow of a liquid outside the bucket when the latter is assembled. Unlike bucket 1 of the prior art shown in Figure 1, the bottom 12 has a first series of holes 17 which are arranged in the internal area of the bottom, but also a

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second series of holes formed by cutouts 18a, 18b, 18c, and 18d which are located on the fold lines of the grooves 13a, 13b, 13c and 13d. These cutouts 18a, 18b, 18c, and 18d have two functions. The first function is inherent and consists in allowing the flow of water or a liquid being in excess in the culture medium contained by the cup. The second function, which is a characteristic of the bucket according to the present invention, is that these cutouts are in the shape of a U, the base 19 of which is parallel to the groove 13 (or fold line) and the wings 20, 21 are perpendicular to the base 19. The base of the U is made in the bottom 12. Thus, when the bucket is assembled and placed on the ground, the bases 19 of the cutouts 18 rest on the ground, while the bottom 12 of the bucket is raised. We can better see this function on the
Figure 3. Thus, the bottom of the bucket does not rest on the ground, which prevents the roots from penetrating into the ground and which also prevents rotting of the biodegradable material constituting the bucket, rotting which would be due to an excess of humidity and proximity of the material to the ground.

 Preferably, the blank has four cutouts 18, but it can also be provided that it only has one pair made in two parallel fold lines (for example 13a and 13c or 13b and 13d).

 There is shown more particularly in Figure 4, the material constituting the bucket, in cross section. This material consists of two layers. The first layer is a sheet 22 made of biodegradable fibers. This sheet may for example be a cardboard composed of cellulose fibers or other natural fibers, such as sisal, straw, recovered cotton, cellulose fibers from recycled paper, etc., and possibly other biodegradable fibers, such as biodegradable plastics. This sheet can be obtained on a paper machine or can be a nonwoven. This sheet is hydrophobic and comprises in mass an agent conferring the hydrophobic character. The tablecloth further comprises a second layer which is a

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 kraft paper 23 onto which a polyethylene film 24 has been extruded The function of this film 24 is to make the surface of the water table impermeable and consequently to extend the life of the bucket by preventing penetration into the water table and / or water saturated with mineral salts or fertilizers from the culture medium contained in the well. The kraft paper 23 and the polyethylene film 24 are deposited on the face of the blank 11 which will constitute the interior of the cup, once the blank 11 folded and assembled.

 Preferably, the sheet 22 has a thickness of 0.5 to 1 mm, better still 0.7 mm and the polyethylene film has a thickness of a few microns.

 On the opposite side of the sheet 22 a coated paper has been deposited which allows offset printing. This paper is deposited on the face which will constitute the outside of the bucket, once the blank 11 folded and assembled.

 According to another characteristic of the invention, the blank comprises on each of two faces 15a, 15c, intended to form two walls of the bucket opposite, on their external edges 23a, 23c, two projections 24a, 24b and respectively 24c, 24d intended to extend outside the finished cup to form stops on which the upper edge 23 ′ of a second cup fitted on the first cup comes to rest. As can be seen in more detail in Figure 5, the buckets can be nested one on top of the other, so that their bottoms are distant from each other. Because the bottoms are distant from each other, there is no suction effect, which without their presence would take place. The buckets can then be pulled one after the other by the arm of an automatic machine, in the no of the Arrow F, without the bucket gripped and pulled by the automatic machine currently on the market, being damaged.

 The blank according to the present invention further comprises bonding tabs 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d which are coated with a hot-melt adhesive and

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 which allows the final assembly of the bucket, after folding along the grooves 13a, 13b, 13c and 13d.

 The hot-melt adhesive is represented by dots in Figure 5. This hot-melt adhesive is resistant to water and / or aqueous liquids, namely liquids saturated with mineral salts and / or fertilizers from the culture medium contained in the bucket.

 Of course, the invention has been described with regard to the best embodiment, but this embodiment can be modified and made variants, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

 1. Bucket for plant cultivation produced by grooving and folding a blank (11) cut from biodegradable material, said bucket comprising a face forming a bottom (12) having the shape of a quadrilateral, said bottom face being secured by each of its edges, by means of fold lines (13a, 13b, 13c and 13d), of faces (15a, 15b, 15c and 15d) intended to form the walls of the bucket, said faces (15a, 15b, 15c and 15d ) being joined together by bonding tabs (16a, 16b, 16c and 16d), characterized in that the biodegradable material is a hydrophobic sheet (22) made in particular of biodegradable fibers. 2. Bucket according to claim 1, characterized in that the sheet is a paper or a cardboard or a hydrophobic nonwoven consisting of cellulosic fibers and in mass of one or more agents conferring the hydrophobic character, and possibly other biodegradable fibers and possibly fillers and other additives. 3. Bucket according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the ply has a thickness of 0.5 to 1 mm, preferably 0.7 mm. 4. Bucket according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the blank has at least two cutouts (18) in a U in two parallel fold lines (13) forming the bottom (12) of the bucket, said cutouts (18 ) being such that the bucket has at least two seats raising the bottom (12) of said bucket. <Desc / Clms Page number 12>

 5. Bucket according to claim 4, characterized in that the blank preferably comprises four cutouts (18a, 18b, 18c and 18d) in a U, each of the cutouts being produced in each fold line (13a, 13b, 13c and 13d) forming the bottom of the bucket. 6. Bucket according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the blank comprises on each of two faces intended to form two walls of the bucket opposite, on their external edges, two projections (24a, 24b and 24c, 24d) intended to extend outside the bucket to form stops on which the upper edge of a second bucket fitted on the first bucket comes to rest, so as to allow nesting of the buckets with their distant bottoms each other. 7. Bucket according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the blank has on its bottom side (12) orifices allowing the flow of liquid to the outside. 8. Bucket according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sheet comprises on one side a paper, preferably a kraft paper, laminated on which a polyethylene film has been extruded and on the opposite side a coated paper allowing offset printing. <Desc / Clms Page number 13> 9. Bucket according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the polyethylene film has a thickness of a few microns. 10 Bucket according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bonding tabs (16a, 16b, 16c and 16d) and the faces of the bucket are secured by means of a water-resistant hot-melt adhesive and / or to aqueous liquids.