Engineered molded fiberboard panels, methods of making the panels, and products fabricated from the panels
A honeycomb-shaped panel is formed from a plurality of generally sinusoidally shaped strips of molded fiberboard material each having spaced, oppositely directed flat peaks, the peaks of adjacent strips being secured together to form a plurality of hexagonally shaped cells extending perpendicular to the surfaces of the sheet. The strips may be cut from a single sheet of corrugated fiberboard sheet material and then secured together to form the honeycomb panel, or a plurality of such panels may be secured together face to face with their ribs aligned to form a stack, and selected cuts may be made through the secured, stacked panels to form a plurality of honeycomb panels of desired surface shape and height dimensions. The strips forming the cells are substantially rigid and resistant to collapse of the cells, and form a substantially rigid core when assembled between two flexible fiberboard skins, while the panel is bendable to adopt a desired panel curvature.
1. A fiberboard product, comprising:
a single multi-ply panel having first and second outer layers of flexible flat fiberboard material and a core layer of flexible flat fiberboard material secured between the outer layers, the layers being flexible prior to assembly and the assembled layers being substantially rigid;
the core layer including fiberboard sheet portions with voids between the portions;
the panel being cut and shaped to form a tubular product having opposite open ends; and
a flat panel secured across one open end of the tubular product to form a bin;
wherein the core layer comprises a honeycomb shaped sheet of molded fiberboard material having a plurality of open-ended hexagonal cells oriented transverse to the outer layers with the open ends facing the respective first and second outer layers.
2. A tubular product, comprising:
a sheet of molded fiberboard material of corrugated shape having opposite first and second faces and opposite ends, each face having a plurality of alternating ribs and grooves extending in a first direction along the sheet, and a plurality of spaced slits extending transversely across the ribs in the first face and terminating short of the outer ends of the ribs in the second face;
the sheet being formed into a closed tube with the first face facing inwards into the tube and the alternating ribs and grooves extending around the periphery of the tube, whereby the tubular product has alternating ribs and grooves and spaced rows of slits along its length, and the alternating ribs and grooves and spaced rows of slits are visible on the outside and inside of the tubular product.
3. The tubular product of claim 2 , wherein the sheet is formed into a spiraling tubular shape.
4. The tubular product of claim 2 , wherein the sheet is formed into a cylindrical tubular shape with alternating ribs and grooves extending circumferentially around the cylindrical tubular product.
5. The tubular product of claim 4 , further comprising an annular strip of flexible flat material secured in each groove in the outer face of the tubular shape.
6. The tubular product of claim 2 , wherein the sheet is formed into a rectangular tubular shape having four corner regions.
7. The tubular product of claim 6 , wherein the slits are formed in spaced slotted regions of the sheet only, each slotted region corresponding to a respective corner region.
8. A multi-layer fiberboard panel, comprising:
first and second core layers of corrugated fiberboard sheet material having opposite outer and inner faces with a plurality of ribs and grooves on each face, the core layers positioned with their ribs and grooves extending parallel to one another, each rib having a flat peak and the flat peaks of the ribs on the inner face of the first layer aligned and adhered with the flat peaks of the ribs on the inner face of the second core layer to form a plurality of open cells of hexagonal shape between the core layers;
third and fourth layers of flat molded fiberboard material, the third layer having an inner face secured to the flat peaks of the ribs on the outer face of the first core layer and the fourth layer having an inner face secured to the flat peaks of the ribs on the outer face of the second core layer;
fifth and sixth layers of corrugated fiberboard sheet material secured to the outer faces of the third and fourth layers, respectively, the fifth and sixth layers having a plurality of ribs and grooves extending parallel to one another and perpendicular to the ribs and grooves of the first and second layers; and
seventh and eighth layers of flat molded fiberboard material secured to the outer faces of the fifth and sixth layers, respectively.