Packaging unit for fruit or like articles

Claim 1

A packaging unit for the packaging of fruit or like articles comprising, in combination: a rigid, box-like container having an accessible top, a bottom and four sides; and a plurality of substantially rectangular pocket trays mountable in said container with one end of said trays resting on said container bottom and the other end of said trays located at said container top such that said trays are substantially vertical when said container is resting horizontally on its bottom, and in a tray that presents, when disposed horizontally, a plurality of staggered parallel rows of upwardly directed pockets having a vertical cross-section generally conforming to the shape of the fruit or like articles to be placed therein, and in which the top rim of each pocket has an approximately triangular shape in plan and has curvilinear convex sides, and in which the vertices of each pocket are arranged at a higher level than the sides joining said vertices, whereby two adjacent pockets of one row and the intermediate pocket of the adjoining staggered row define a triangular pyramidal projection in correspondence of the common vertex, wherein the improvements in said pocket trays that permit their vertical packing in said container without damage to the contents of said pockets include said tray being made of foamed plastic sheet having a thickness in the pocket areas so as to afford a sufficiently sturdy structure that the pocket sides can operate as shelves to hold the pocket contents in the pocket, and at least the side of said pyramidal projection forming a part of said intermediate pocket being concave so that the pocket contents rest on said concave side of said pyramidal projection whenever said tray is disposed in a substantially vertical orientation.