Beverage can carton with opening panel

Claim 1

A paperboard carton for holding a plurality of beverage cans, said carton comprising: (a) side, bottom and top walls foldably connected together to form a tubular container; (b) end flaps foldably connected to end edges of said walls and overlapped and secured to each other to form end closures for said container; (c) said top wall comprising an outer top wall panel foldably connected to one of said side walls, said outer top wall panel including means forming centrally disposed finger openings in said outer top wall panel; (d) said top wall further comprising an inner top wall panel foldably connected to the other of said side walls, said inner top wall panel underlying and being adhesively secured to an inner surface of said outer top wall panel to provide a medial weight-bearing portion of said top wall which is two-ply in construction, and said inner top wall panel having an inner free edge which includes a medial tab which extends between said finger openings and which is flanked by recesses providing for insertion of fingers through said finger openings into the interior of said container; (e) an opening panel comprising a first portion disposed in said one of said side walls, opposite ends of said first portion being defined by two generally parallel arrays of cut score lines extending toward said top wall with bottom extremities of said arrays being interconnected by a hinged fold line which is parallel to and spaced upwardly from said bottom wall, said generally parallel arrays of cut score lines merging into respective series of converging cut score lines, with the uppermost one of each series of merging cut score lines being spaced apart from 5/16 inch to 7/8 inch from the fold interconnecting said first side wall and said outer top wall panel, said opening panel further comprising a second portion disposed in said outer top wall panel, said second portion being defined by diverging cut score lines which diverge from a common apex toward said end closures of said container, the outermost ones of said diverging cut score lines being disposed substantially colinearly with said generally parallel arrays of cut score lines and being spaced apart from 1/2 inch to 11/8 inches from said fold interconnecting said one side wall and said outer top wall panel, there being flanking shearing marginal portions of said opening panel extending between said converging and diverging cut score lines; and (f) the grain of the paperboard in said outer top wall panel and said one side wall being generally parallel to said end closures to facilitate linear shearing of said shearing marginal portions of said opening panel when the latter is pulled away from the remainder of the container to open the carton.