Tray for displaying and protecting candy and the like

Claim 1

A one-piece multicompartment tray suitable for attractively displaying and protecting highly frangible articles such as candy, cookies and the like during shipments and handling, said tray being of generally rectangular shape and formed from a thin sheet of a thermoplastic vinyl resin and having a multiplicity of closely spaced rectangular cup-shaped compartments for receiving the said frangible articles, said compartments having greater length than width, said tray having a continuous peripheral lip, surrounding said compartments, sidewalls and end walls of each of the compartments being generally parallel to a portion of said lip and being fluted and flexible, said continuous lip having a laterally extending portion and a generally vertically extending portion and being of heavier guage than the sidewalls and bottom of the cup-shaped compartments, said laterally extending portion of said lip being integrally attached along its length to walls of compartments most closely adjacent thereto, walls of compartments most closely adjacent an adjacent compartment being joined together at their upper edges to form ribs, the material at the topmost portion of said ribs being of substantially greater thickness than the material of the sidewalls and bottom of said compartments, at least some of said ribs being parallel to each side and end of said tray and extending continuously across said tray to cooperate with said lip to stiffen said tray, each of said compartments having therein at least one hollow boss having a tilted upper surface and protruding from a portion only of the bottom of said compartment and from one sidewall and an end wall thereof, the upper surface of each of said bosses being supported at its highest edge by and being integral with a sidewall of the compartment an adjacent sloping edge of said upper surface of said boss being supported by and being integral with an end wall of said compartment, the remaining edge of the upper surface portion of said bosses being supported by and integral with a generally vertical wall portion which extends from and is integral with the floor of said cavity, the upper surface of each boss being tilted downwardly towards a boss-free sidewall of the compartment which is closer to a portion of said peripheral lip, and which is parallel to said sidewall than is said sidewall supporting said boss.