The term "packaging" should be understood as including mainly the following operations:
filling portable containers or receptacles with materials or small articles to form packages;
inserting articles, or groups of articles, into containers or receptacles;
closing filled containers or receptacles otherwise than by metal-, glass-, or wood-working operations;
enclosing, or partially enclosing, articles or quantities of material, in sheets, strips, blanks, webs, or tubes of thin flexible material, e.g. wrapping;
bundling articles, e.g. holding articles together in groups by applying string or wire;
attaching articles to cards, sheets, or webs.
Operations of these types employed in the manufacture of articles other than packages are classified in other appropriate sub-classes, e.g. making confectionery products by casting in moulds formed by wrappers Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...A23G, filling ammunition cartridges Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...F42B.
Methods of packaging which are wholly characterised by the form of the package produced, or the form of the container or packaging-element utilised, are classified in Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B65D rather than in this sub-class.
In the following elaborations, the term "package" is used to mean the end product of a packaging operation, e.g. a filled and closed container, an article enclosed in a wrapper, a group of articles held together by string or wire, a crate of bottles.
In the following elaborations, the term "materials" is to be understood as embracing matter, or masses of articles, which are to be packaged, as distinct from separate or individual articles.
In this sub-class, the following terms are used with the meanings indicated:
The expression "rigid or semi-rigid containers" is to be interpreted as including:
containers not deformed by, or not taking-up the shape of, their contents;
containers adapted to be temporarily deformed to expel their contents;
pallets;
trays.
The expression "flexible containers" is to be interpreted as including:
containers deformed by, or taking-up the shape of, their contents;
containers adapted to be permanently deformed to expel their contents.
The term "packaging elements" is to be interpreted as including:
elements, other than containers, for covering, protecting, stiffening, or holding together articles or materials to be stored or transported;
packaging materials of special type or form not provided for in other sub-classes.
The term "packages" is to be interpreted as including:
combinations of containers or packaging elements with articles or materials to be stored or transported;
articles joined together for convenience of storage or transport.
The word "paper" has been used to embrace materials, e.g. cardboard, plastic sheet materials, laminated materials, or metal foils, worked in a manner analogous to paper.
Containers, packaging elements, or packages with auxiliary means or provision for displaying articles or materials are classified in this sub-class and not in Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...G09F.
Methods of packaging which are wholly characterised by the form of the package produced or the form of the container or packaging element utilised, as distinct from the operations performed or apparatus employed, are classified in appropriate groups of this sub-class rather than in Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B65B.
This sub-class is intended to be as comprehensive as possible. Therefore, only containers or packages of a nature clearly confined to a single other sub-class should be classified in the latter sub-class.
Portable containers, packaging elements, or packages should, as far as possible, be classified primarily according to their constructional or functional features; classification according to the particular articles or materials which are packaged, or intended to be packaged should be normally regarded as being of secondary importance, except in cases where this is considered to be the characterising feature.
In this sub-class, the following terms are used with the meanings indicated:
The term "handling" includes feeding, folding (other than in the manufacture of products), guiding, orientating, storing, unwinding, and winding.
The term "thin material" includes (a) sheets, signatures, envelopes, blanks and thin piles thereof (hereinafter referred to as "articles") and (b) webs, tapes, and films, e.g. of paper, fabric, metal foil, or plastics. So far as (a) is concerned, the relevant groups are primarily intended to cover the handling of articles made of paper or cardboard, but also include the handling of articles made of other materials which have similar characteristics or present similar handling problems, e.g. articles made of sheet-plastics or leather.
The term "filamentary material" includes threads, wires, ropes, cables, and hoses.
The term "package" is used to mean a mass of filamentary material, formed by coiling, depositing, or winding, with or without a supporting core or former or an enclosing container or receptacle.
So far as filamentary material is concerned (groups Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B65H 49/00 onwards), this sub-class includes only methods or devices of general application or interest. Methods or devices intimately associated with other operations on filamentary material or means for performing such operations, e.g. spinning, weaving, braiding, lace-making, knitting, sewing, making ropes or cables, are classified in the relevant sub-classes for these operations.
This sub-class is concerned with the kind of container sometimes called a "forwarding container", and its use to forward goods from one place to another as a unit. The container is separable as a unit from the vehicle which carries it. Thus, the inventions to be classified in this sub-class centre on the transfer of the containers on and off or between vehicles which carry them to their destinations. Furthermore, inventions relating to aspects common with containers as such, aspects of vehicle construction, the securing of loads in general on vehicle and aspects of load movement in general should be classified in the relevant classes.