Support and cushioning tube

Claim 1

A packaging system for a product such as an appliance or the like having four rectangularly arranged vertical corner edges, comprising: a rectangular container sleeve adapted to surround a rectangular product, said sleeve being dimensioned relative to the product to provide a clearance space at each corner thereof between nested vertical corner edges of said sleeve and a rectangular product located within said sleeve, said container having a top and a bottom, and a corner post in each said clearance space, each said corner post including a unitary one-piece convolutely wound paper tube having its surface treated with a hardenable material and its fibers disposed longitudinally, each said tube having an unsealed and unpressurized interior and including a generally flattened section shaped to provide a substantially right angular cross-section defined by generally planar spaced-apart, substantially parallel outer and inner walls shaped at substantially right angles along vertical outer and inner corners, respectively, to engage the associated inner vertical corner edge of said sleeve and the associated external vertical corner edge of a product, respectively, each said tube having a first plurality of longitudinally-directed indentations along the length of at least one of said inner and outer walls on each side of its respectively associated corner edge, said plural indentations in said one wall extending substantially across said flattened tube section to said other wall, but being structurally unconnected relative thereto throughout a substantial portion of their length, for dividing said flattened tube section into at least three longitudinally-directed tubular subsections, said three tubular subsections including (a) a central tubular subsection located in the general region between said inner and outer vertical corners to provide a protective buffer for the vertical corner edge of a product located in said container sleeve, and (b) a pair of outer tubular subsections disposed on opposite sides of said central subsection defined by spaced-apart outer and inner wall sections, said indentations separating said central subsection from said outer subsections and having inner surfaces proximate said other wall opposite thereto for contacting the inner surface of said other wall when said corner post begins to buckle under compressive longitudinally-directed forces and/or transversely-directed forces applied thereto, each said tubular subsection being closed in horizontal cross-section throughout substantially its entire cross-section.