Carton with article protection insert

1. A method of forming a carton comprising:

obtaining a carton blank comprising a plurality of panels comprising a top panel, a bottom panel, a first side panel, and a second side panel, and at least one access feature in the top panel;

obtaining an article protection insert blank comprising a plurality of features for engaging a respective article of a plurality of articles;

positioning the article protection insert blank relative to the carton blank, the article protection insert blank is in face-to-face contact with the top panel in a first position;

forming an interior of the carton at least partially defined by the plurality of panels, the forming the interior of the carton comprising forming an open-ended sleeve;

loading the plurality of articles in the interior of the carton; and

accessing the article protection insert blank through the at least one access feature to form an article protection insert and to move the article protection insert from the first position to a second position with the features in engagement with a respective article of the plurality of articles.

2. The method of claim 1 , the accessing comprises operating a carton forming machine having at least one finger and the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises inserting at least one finger being through the at least one access feature to contact the article protection insert and position the article protection insert in contact with at least one article.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising attaching the article protection insert blank to the carton blank in the first position, the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises at least partially detaching the article protection insert blank from the carton blank.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein in the second position the article protection insert is generally parallel to the top panel and spaced apart from the top panel.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the features comprise at least one opening in the article protection insert, the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises receiving at least a portion of an article of the plurality of articles in the at least one opening.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the features comprise at least one notch in an edge of the article protection insert, the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises engaging the at least one notch with at least a portion of an article of the plurality of articles.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of articles comprises containers having a cap and a shoulder, the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises contacting the plurality of features with one of the cap and the shoulder.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises engaging a respective cap of a respective article of the plurality of articles.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises engaging a respective shoulder of a respective article of the plurality of articles.

10. The method of claim 3 , wherein the article protection insert has a middle portion and two outer portions, the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises positioning the middle portion to be in face-to-face contact with the top panel and the two outer portions to extend downwardly from the middle portion.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of articles comprises containers having a cap and a shoulder, the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises contacting the middle portion with respective caps of the containers, the outer portions each comprising notches in a respective outer edge, and the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises engaging the notches with a respective container at a location below the shoulder.

12. The method of claim 3 , wherein the article protection insert blank has a top panel, a first side panel foldably connected to the top panel, and a second side panel foldably connected to the top panel, the top panel of the article protection insert blank having the at least one opening, the articles are arranged in adjacent rows in the carton, the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises folding the first side panel and the second side panel of the article protection insert blank relative to the top panel of the article protection insert blank to be located between adjacent rows of articles.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein at least one of the first side panel and the second side panel of the article protection insert blank having article protection flaps and the moving the article protection insert to the second position comprises moving the article protection flaps from a first position substantially parallel to the one of the first side panel and the second side panel of the article protection insert blank to a second position for placement between articles of an adjacent row of articles.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of panels comprise a bottom panel, and the carton blank further comprises at least one article protection flap foldably connected to the bottom panel, the method comprises moving the article protection flap from a first position that is substantially parallel to the bottom panel to a second position wherein the article protection flap is folded relative to the bottom panel.