GROWING FROM THE CORE: 1970-2000
Sonoco’s 125-year legacy is marked by reliable customer service. We’re committed to creating better packaging by listening to our customers’ needs and challenges. Patents are just one way we do this.
At Sonoco, patents are the pulse of innovation. Full of highly detailed drawings, footnotes and small type, patent applications are no small feat. Over the course of a century, our 400-plus patents record our long history of smart and successful thinking.
One of our most prolific in-house inventors, C.K. Dunlap, taught math in Hartsville’s city schools until CEO Charles Coker recruited him to join Sonoco. The new job unleashed Dunlap’s imagination, and he ultimately became Engineering Vice President, with more than 40 patents to his name when he retired.
Our innovative patent creators continue this legacy today. Here’s just a small sampling of our team members’ recent out-of-the-box thinking:
- Child-resistant Dial Trap Pack, a type of container that protects customers and their kids. It’s an adaptation of a container developed for pharmaceuticals: An adult can unlock the container by rotating it from the locked position to unlock it, then relock it to keep little ones from getting into mischief. The patent application was filed in February 2022.
- A face shield that attaches to your glasses, designed in 2020 by five Sonoco staff members in Illinois. Who wouldn’t want splatter protection that you can clip onto your shades?
- A twist-action, portion-control sauce dispenser for liquids, developed in 2016, improves on the kind of dispenser seen in fast-food restaurants for squirting mustard and ketchup on your burger. This version includes a piston and sauce pouch used to dispense liquid in a consistent amount every time.
Our longstanding dedication to innovative thinking goes back to our very first patent application in 1908, when we were still known as the Southern Novelty Co. This patent described how to make paper cones for yarn-winding machines. Receiving patent protection the following year, this patent stood out in the market. These cone-shaped spools fed yarn into knitting machines with even tension and kept the resulting fabric from getting caught or tangled. An early Sonoco ad hailed the company’s “cones that are uniformly perfect in fit and balance” and described how they prevented flaws that might stop up the works and waste time and material.
This first patent is a perfect example of Sonoco thinking—the kind that spurs better quality and efficiency.
For Sonoco, it’s never one and done. In 2002, we filed a patent application for a collapsible yarn carrier tube used in the dyeing process for yarn and other fabrics—which previously involved metal tubes that required frequent cleaning.
We find there’s always a new idea that can make our processes better. The point is not just new inventions and improvements for their own sake. Whether face shields or yarn carrier tubes, all our patents bring benefits to Sonoco’s stakeholders.
Our customers deserve a partner as passionate about their products as they are. Collaborating with them, we create innovative packaging solutions that meet their needs and solve their challenges. Our holistic approach works in tandem with their team to ensure Better Packaging. Better Life.®—one patent at a time.