Tamper-evident packaging, method of making same, and intermediate therein

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawing, and in particular to FIG.
1 thereof, therein illustrated is a carton blank generally designated by the reference numeral 10.
The carton blank 10 is configured and dimensioned for eventual use as the familiar paperboard carton used for small medicaments, such as aspirin, and the like although the principles of the present invention are equally applicable to paperboard cartons of widely disparate sizes, shapes and styles.
For example, the paperboard cartons may be of the seal-end or tuck-end styles, the former generally being considered as affording the most advantageous tamper-evident packaging characteristics but the latter, despite its deficiencies in this area, being made relatively more acceptable by the application of the principles of the present invention thereto.
The illustrated carton 10 is a seal-end carton and includes a front panel 12, a rear panel 14 and two side panels 16, 18.
Disposed above the front and back panels 12, 14 are top flaps 20, and disposed below the panels are bottom flaps 22, each of the flaps 20, 22 being configured and dimensioned to close an open top or open bottom respectively, of the erected carton.
The side panels 16, 18 have at their tops upper tabs 28 and at their bottoms lower tabs 30.
The upper tabs 28 are adapted to fold inwardly underneath the top flaps 20, while the lower tabs 30 are adapted to fold inwardly and underneath the bottom flaps 22.
The tabs 28, 30 are held in position by the flaps 20, 22, respectively, by glues or the like.
The manufacturer's glue tab 32 extends along the free side of back panel 14 and is adapted to be glued or otherwise secured to the free side of the side panel 16 during finishing of the carton by box manufacturers so as to maintain the various panels 12, 14, 16, 18 in a three-dimensional construction of rectangular cross-section.
The carton blank 10 may be formed of any paperboard adapted to be printed with ink.
A preferred paperboard is the blister pack paperboard commercially available under the trade name BLIS-PAC from Federal Paperboard Co