Spacer tray for packaging containers

摘要

A spacer tray 2 for containers 32 is formed of a plastic sheet material and is shaped to provide a plurality of container-bottom receptacles 4. Each container-bottom receptacle 4 is shaped to receive at least a part of a bottom portion of a container 32. A container spacer wall 30 is located between each pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles 4 to maintain bottom portions of containers seated in the receptacles spaced apart from one another. The spacer tray 2 can include nesting-binding interference structures 40, 42 to prevent two spacer trays placed one atop the other from binding when one tray is rotated 180 degrees relative to but otherwise aligned with the other tray. The spacer tray can include a plurality of container-loading-guide-pin openings 36 passing through it which permit container-loading guide pins 78-from a high-speed spacer-tray loading machine, for example-to pass through for locating the spacer tray 2 and guiding bottom portions of containers 32 into container-bottom receptacles 4 during loading of the spacer tray.