DE8717802U1 - Plastic bottle crate - Google Patents

Description

Schoeller-Plast AG _f &Pgr;, route de la Candendne, CH-1680 Raicnt,

Switzerland

Plastic bottle crate

The invention relates to a bottle crate made of plastic according to the generic term of claim 1.

For bottle crates that are predominantly made of one piece

A wide variety of designs are known for boxes that are injection-molded from plastic, but they all have in common that at least one handle is provided, primarily in one of the side walls, which makes handling the box, especially its transport, easier.

The predominant design of the handle is that a through opening is provided in a side wall close to the upper edge of the box, which defines a bar-like handle body between itself and the upper edge of the box. To grasp the box, you reach with your hand over the upper edge of the box from above and reach with your fingers through the handle opening so that the hand encloses the bar-like upper edge of the box and the box can be lifted and transported. However, with boxes that are filled with full bottles, especially with the 20-pack boxes that are predominantly used, this causes difficulties due to the weight. The ideal shape of a handle is as a solid one.

A fully formed handle cannot be sensibly implemented in plastic injection-molded crates due to the need to save material. In addition, certain cycle times are specified for the manufacture of bottle crates, which do not allow a full forming of a handle as a full profile on the bottle crate, especially since cooling difficulties would also arise with such a form of a handle. A fully formed handle would also lead to a corresponding increase in weight and would therefore run counter to the efforts to make the bottle crate as light as possible.

Another disadvantage of the conventional bottle crate for carrying _is that the upper edges of the crate are usually profiled for reasons of stabilizing the side walls and also the handle areas of the crate, so that when grasping the

Boxes by hand around the profile edges of the profiles

grips, which press into the hand depending on the weight of the boxes.

The object of the invention is to create a bottle crate 7,u which, while being sufficiently stable, ensures a handle design that saves material compared to a solid profile and enables bottle crates to be carried comfortably.

This object is achieved according to the invention by the features contained in the characterizing part of patent claim 1.

According to the invention, the claw areas of a handle are divided into a large number of closely spaced slats, which allows the ideal

form e:ln«s solid profile with a closed grip surface, but nevertheless achieves a material-saving effect and a technically reasonable realization of these handles, taking into account the cooling cycles of crates made of plastic. The slats, which are preferably designed with rounded edges, provide a quasi-closed grip surface, which makes it easier to carry even heavy bottle crates. Furthermore, the slat designs in the area of the grip areas, which are already at risk for stability reasons, lead to an increase in stability, which has an overall positive effect on the rigidity of the bottle crate. Compared to a conventional handle on a bottle crate with a U-shaped handle bar in cross-section, a handle with slats only leads to an increase in weight of around 10 to a maximum of 30%, which is extremely favorable compared to the solid profile and nevertheless guarantees the advantages of the solid profile.

The slats can be raised above the handle body, and can be arranged on just one or more surfaces of the handle body and partially or over the entire circumference of the body. According to an alternative embodiment, the slats are formed by forming corresponding recesses next to one another in the handle body, with two adjacent recesses between them delimiting the slats, which expediently run flush with the rest of the handle body, i.e. the generatrices of the slats merge flush into the box wall sections adjacent to the handle area.

To increase the grip surface, it is preferred that the

free slat edges are thickened in the form of knobs. In a structurally simple way, however, the slat edges are rounded.

According to an advantageous development of the invention, the slats are formed in a carrier element, which can be subsequently inserted into a correspondingly profiled handle body, whereby the protruding slats then form the actual handle surface of the bottle box.

In the following, embodiments of the invention are described with reference to the drawing.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a part of a bottle crate according to a section along line C-C of Fig. 3,

Fig. 2 is a side view of the bottle crate shown in Figs. 1 and 3, whereby the right half of Fig. 2 is a view from outside the bottle crate and the left half of Fig. 2 is a view of the bottle crate from inside towards the narrow side

shows, namely according to a section along the line B-B of Fig.l,

Fig. 3 shows a part of the bottle crate shown in Figs. 1 and 2 in side view

view, the left half of the box according to Fig. 3 showing a sectional view along line A-A of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 another embodiment of a bottle crate in plan view similar to

Fig. 1, where the upper left quarter

a view of the bottle crate from below and the lower half shows a sectional view of the bottle crate,

Fig. 5 is a view of the device shown in Fig. 4 Bottle crate analogous to the view in

Fig.2,
0

Fig. 6 is a side view of the device shown in Fig. 4 and

5 shown bottle crate in a

View analogous to Fig. 3, Fig. 7 a part of a bottle crate to illustrate

position of a handle body in sectional view,

Fig. 8 a schematic plan view of a handle body with three alternative designs

forms of lamella formation.

In the bottle crate shown in Figs. 1 to 3, a handle 2, which is best seen in Fig. 2, is formed in the narrow side marked 1, the T-shaped handle body 3 of which is delimited by two L-shaped through openings 4a and 4b. The handle body 3 is made up of a handle bar 5 on a vertical handle bar 6. The handle bar 6 is designed as a hollow profile, as can best be seen from the sectional view in Fig. 1.

According to Fig. 1 and 2, the handle bar 5 is divided into individual slats 7 on its surface facing the inside of the box and on the 3g top of the box, which are closely spaced and arranged parallel to one another.

These slats 7 are formed by corresponding external recesses 8 in the handle body or in the handle bar 5, whereby each slat 7 is delimited by two recesses 8. Thus, in the embodiment according to Figs. 1 to 3, the gripping area of the handle bar 5, which is grasped by hand when carrying the box on the handle bar 5, is divided into individual closely spaced slats 7. If required, the vertical handle bar 6 can also be divided into slats.

The shape of the slats 7 or the recesses 8 can be best seen in Fig. 3. According to this, the handle body 3 in the area of the handle bar 5 is formed from an L-shaped web 9, from the inside 10 of which the slats 7 protrude at right angles towards the inside of the box. The upper edge 11 of the slat 7 runs flush with the upper end 12 of the web 9 according to Fig. 3 and the inner edge 13 of the slat 7 runs essentially parallel to the web 9 and flush with the end 14 of the web 9. The edge 15 of the slats 7, which comes into contact with the hand in particular when the box is gripped, is rounded. The ends 12 and 14, into which the slat edges merge, are also preferably rounded. In the embodiment according to Figs. 1 to 3, the slats 7 are regular, i.e. They are designed in the same way to each other and are spaced the same distance apart, so that a quasi-closed gripping surface is formed, i.e. one that is largely adapted to a closed tiff surface, which allows the bottle crate to be gripped comfortably.

In addition to the T-shaped handle 2 in the narrow side 1 of the box, another handle formed by a through opening 16 is formed in the long side wall of the box, the upper handle bar 17 of which can also be formed with slats 18, which, however, are only shown schematically.

tically shown without further details in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 shows, however, that the slats are of different lengths and are thus adapted to the grip surface of the hand.
5

The embodiment according to Figs. 4 to 6 differs only slightly from the embodiment according to Figs. 1 to 3 as far as the design of the L-shaped web 9 and the slats 7 adapted to it are concerned. In detail

] Q, the L-leg 19 of the web 9 is angled upwards at its front end, but here again the inner edge 13 of the slat 7 runs flush with the rounded front end 14 of the web 9. Fig. 5 shows that in the area of the transition between the handle bar 5 and the vertical handle bar 6, the slats 7 are formed with increasing length.

Fig. 7 shows the upper part of a box edge, which forms a U-shaped handle body 3, which is limited at the bottom by a recess 19 in the side wall of the box. Slats 7 extend at a small distance from one another within the profile of the handle body 3, whereby a slat 7 can be seen due to the sectional view in Fig. The slat 7 is curved outwards in the area of the handle surface at 20.

Fig. 8 shows only schematically different designs of lamella edges, whereby the lamellae 7 are arranged

3Q of the left illustration are mushroom-shaped at the upper end and widened. The lamellae shown in the middle are round at their free lamella edges at 22, whereas the lamellae shown on the right are knob-shaped at their ends at 23.

Due to the lateral widening of the free slat edges 21 and 23, these embodiments are characterized by

a gripping surface that is largely similar to the closed gripping surface. Of course, further deviations in the shape and arrangement of the slats are possible, in particular the slats can be aligned horizontally and/or vertically and/or diagonally, cross each other, etc.

Claims (1)

■ B f · 1 t t * n sayings 1. Bottle crate made of plastic, which is designed with at least one handle for transporting the crate , characterized in that at least one handle of the box is formed on at least one section with a plurality of closely spaced slats (7). 2. Box according to claim 1, 1Q characterized by that the slats (7) are arranged parallel to each other. 3. Box according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the slats are formed by recesses (8) arranged at a distance in the handle body (3), two of which delimit a slat (7) between them. 4. Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the lamellae (7) are leaf-shaped.
25 ^p . Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slatted edge (11, 13) with the handle body ··■··· 111 (3) is flush. 6. Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats (7) have rounded edges. 7. Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats (7) are formed on one or more surfaces of the handle body (3), primarily on one or both broad surfaces of the handle body (3). 8. Crate according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats (7) extend vertically, horizontally and/or diagonally with respect to the bottle crate. 9· Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats (7) protrude at right angles from the handle body (3). 10.Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats (7) are designed to have different heights to adapt to the curvature of the hand or to the phalanges of the fingers. 11.Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the handle body (3) is formed in the region of the slat section by a web-like profile (9) and that the slats (7) protrude from at least one side of the web. * * ti - 9- 12.!(Axes according to claim 11, characterized in that the web-like profile is formed by an L-shaped web (9), from the inside (10) of which the slats (7) protrude, the length and width of the slats corresponding to the web height and the length of the L-leg, such that the slat edges (11, 13) fit flush into the ends (12) and (14) respectively. dös stiffness (3) overyens.
10 13.Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats (7) are arranged at such a distance from one another that a quasi-closed gripping surface is formed. 14.Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats are rounded at their free slat edges or are formed with knobs (21, 23). 15.Box according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slats (7) are formed on a carrier element which can be inserted into a correspondingly profiled handle body (3) in such a way that the slats (7) form the handle surface.