DE9415584U1 - Plastic, thermally insulated container - Google Patents

Description

PATENT ATTORNEYS · HEMMERICH · MÜLLER · fiROSS^ ·«Po'iÜlMEJEFJ ·'YAi-IJf[IN · GIHSKE - 1

26 September 1994 =.ni 77 192

Company Evelyn Konopka, Mühlhofe 4b, 58540 Meinerzhagen

Thermally insulated plastic container

The invention relates to a thermally insulated meal container made of plastic and closable by means of a lid for separately holding parts of a meal in separate compartments.

Food is often prepared centrally and delivered or served in portions. When serving directly, bowls made of porcelain are usually used, which have walls that divide the entire space into sub-spaces, for example for storing potatoes, meat, vegetables and the like separately. However, difficulties arise when serving meals outside the home, and containers made of plastic film are often used, which are closed with a flat lid to prevent spillage or leakage or food falling out during transport.

The disadvantage here is that such menu containers made of foil cool down quickly, cannot ultimately prevent the food from mixing, and that they represent material losses as lost or disposable packaging and burden the waste management system.

The invention is therefore based on the task of creating a meal container that can better protect its contents thermally and in particular also the intended separation of the individual parts of the packaged meal even in the event of vibrations and the like

PATENT ATTORNEYS · HEMMERICH · MÜLLER · fcRDS&E -.POtLMSlEB -'Y^Lg ₁ IITiN · GIHSKE - 2 -

safely maintained. Furthermore, the menu container should be reusable, i.e. it should be mechanically stable enough to remain usable over a long period of time and be cleanable in a hygienically perfect manner.

This problem is solved with the features of patent claim 1. The result is a menu container that can be produced relatively easily from plastic by injection molding, and that proves to be compact and stable, with the thickness of the walls also contributing to thermal insulation. However, it was recognized as essential that the same design of container and lid as identical bowls not only simplifies the manufacturing process, since only one tool has to be produced and adjustments to the injection molding machine are avoided, but also during actual handling and operation it proves to be advantageous that only one molded part is present and therefore each piece gripped can be used either as a container or as a lid that closes it. The connecting means and zones used here prove to be so advantageous that they not only ensure that the lid is firmly seated, but also that a sealed connection is achieved over the separating walls, which absolutely prevents sauces from overflowing, for example.

Advantageous, expedient and inventive developments of the subject matter of the invention are characterized in the subclaims.

The features of the invention are explained in detail using the following description of an embodiment in conjunction with the drawings showing it. They show:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a plastic, two

menu containers with identical parts,

PATENT ATTORNEYS · HEMMERICH · MÜLLER -SRÖÖSE »POtLMSiEg -"W^fJJlN -GiHSKE - 3 -

Figure 2 shows the menu container according to Fig. 1 with raised, as

Lid used part,

Figure 3 is a top view of one of the two menu containers

the shells forming Fig. 1 and 2,

Figure 4 shows a cross section through the shell of Fig. 3 in

Areas of the large subspace,

Figure 5 shows a cross section through the shell of Fig. 3 in

Areas of the small subspaces, and

Figure 6 shows a longitudinal section offset from the center line

through the shell of Fig. 3.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a menu container consisting of two identically shaped bowls in the closed state, with an upper bowl 2 firmly placed and locked onto the lower bowl 1.

In Fig. 2, a similar container is shown, the upper shell

2 is lifted off in the manner of exploded views. This allows a view into the lower shell 1, in which a transverse wall

3 a large sub-space 4 is separated and the remaining space is divided by a longitudinal wall 5 into smaller sub-spaces 6 and 7. This division is also shown in Fig. 3, which shows a top view of a shell that can be used as a lower shell 1, but could also be used as an upper shell.

It is essential that, when the lower and upper shells 1, 2 are of the same design, a secure seal is achieved between the individual compartments and the entire compartment when they are put on, as well as a locking mechanism that allows the

PATENT ATTORNEYS-HEMMERICH· MÜLLER-JSRPSSS &bull;&bull;PO|.LM4lER*Vi4feÄ<riN· GIHSKE - 4 -

Meal containers must be handled for transport without affecting the contents, namely leakage and/or mixing of the contents.

The connecting devices are shown in Fig. 4, 5 and 6, which show cross sections or a longitudinal section offset from the axis of symmetry.

In the cross-section of Fig. 4 through the large sub-space 4 of the menu container, the base 8 is shown, to which a front wall 9 and a rear wall 10 are connected as outer walls. The front wall is raised on its outside up to a vertex 11 and then slopes inwards over a ramp 12 to a step 13. The opposite rear wall 10 shows an inverse structure: here the vertex 14 is arranged above the inner wall of the rear wall 10 and slopes down over a ramp 15 to a step 16, which merges into the outer wall of the rear wall 10. This means that when a second shell of the same design is placed on top, rotated by 180°, its apex 14 can slide down over the ramp 12, guided by it, until it comes to rest on the step 13, while the ramp 15 slides over the apex 11 and this apex supports the step 16. This means that the apex-ramp-step structure must be inverted in different areas in order to achieve a secure closure of two identically shaped shells.

This implementation of the apex, which is located on the left side of a wall in some areas and on the right side of a wall in other areas, is also recognizable in the transverse wall 3, which is designed with a slightly lower height. The transverse wall half shown on the right ends in a apex 17 facing the viewer, while the part half shown on the left faces the viewer with a ramp 20 leading from a step 18 to the apex 19. The transition of the respective half walls is effected via flanks 21. The apex of the left side wall 22 (see Fig. 3) protrudes beyond the apex 17 and 19 of the transverse wall 3.

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at these vertices it is clear that a subdivision has taken place. However, the vertex 11 of Fig. 4 already ends in the flanks 23 of Fig. 3 and continues as vertex 24 and merges into the vertex 24 of the left side wall 22. There, in turn, a flank area is formed in the middle behind the flanks 21, and this is followed by a vertex area 25 that now runs along the outer wall of the rear area of the side wall 22 up to the left half of the rear wall.

The parallel cross-section, but in the area of the small sub-spaces 6 and 7, shows a section through the left areas of the front and rear walls 9, 10 as well as the longitudinal wall 5. The vertices 24 are on the inside, the vertices 25 on the outside, and the longitudinal wall 5 shows a vertex 25 that drops down to a step 28 via a ramp 27. Here too, it can be seen that by rotating by 180° around an axis that is normal to the plane of the drawing, the vertices 25 can rest on the step formed below the vertices 24 in the same way that the vertex 26 of the bowl placed on top can rest on the step 28.

Steps, crests and flanks are each dimensioned so that sufficient sealing is achieved. The slightly lower approach of the crests of the transverse wall 3 and longitudinal wall 5 makes it easier to place an upper shell in that the higher crests of the outer walls are first guided along the corresponding ramps and only after a mutual position has been largely secured do the sealing elements of the longitudinal and transverse walls come into action.

It is therefore essential that the sealing elements, namely crests, ramps and steps, change from the inside to the outside, i.e. are arranged alternately inside or outside over certain sections of the walls, so that when the shell 2 is rotated by 180° and folded over, a positive engagement takes place.

PATENT ATTORNEYS ■ HEMMERICH ■ MÜLLER · (JRQ^SE:· POLJ-MEtER*■ VAtENJHN · GiHSKE - 6 -

A position created in this way is secured by locking devices. In principle, such locking devices could be designed as grooves and locking strips arranged along the flanks, for example. In the present case, however, a different approach was chosen: the upper and lower shells are each provided with a handle 29 on their side walls to facilitate operation, as well as a locking block 30 connected to it. This ensures that the forces required when both locking and unlocking the locking device essentially only affect the locking device itself and are not directed over significant parts of the shell. Figs. 3 and 6 show relatively large handles 29 that are easy to grasp and grip behind, to which locking blocks 30 are connected. The handles with locking blocks are each arranged directly adjacent to the plane of symmetry, so that when an upper shell is placed, the inlet ramps 31 of the locking blocks 30 first meet one another and, sliding against one another under pre-tension, cause slight elastic deformations. The inlet ramp 31 shown on the left in Fig. 6 slopes upwards towards the rear. The actual locking surface 3 2 is connected to the apex, which slopes slightly from top to bottom and thus results in a certain relaxation of the deformed parts when engaging, but at the same time also provides an intended resistance to the disengagement of the locking device.

Furthermore, Fig. 6 shows a section through the front area of the transverse wall 3, in which the apex 34 is arranged on the left, and it can be seen that in the second half of this transverse wall 3, behind the longitudinal wall 5, the apex 33 of the following section of the transverse wall 3 is located on the right-hand side.

This creates a menu container that is stable due to its wall thickness, which can be easily manufactured as an injection-molded part. A food- and odor-neutral plastic can be used here,

PATENT ATTORNEYS ■ HEMMERICH · MÜLLER · GROSSS -'POCLMESER · WLENTIN · GlHSKE - 7

so that food stored for a long time is not adversely affected. The wall thickness, which at least exceeds the wall thickness of containers made from deep-drawn foil, not only ensures the stability and thus the service life of the container, the poor thermal conductivity of plastic also helps to keep the food warm. The stable design also allows intensive washing processes to be used, so that the menu container can be reused many times and does not require any above-average care in washing machines, when collecting, stacking and the like due to its stability. A significant advantage, however, is that the actual base container and the upper shell that covers it as a lid are the same shape, so that advantages arise even when purchasing and when in use, different parts do not have to be stored in corresponding numbers: there is only one single molded part. It is an advantage that not only is the menu container excellently sealed against the outside, e.g. against leakage, but its individual compartments are also excellently protected against liquids overflowing.

Claims (8)

PATENT ATTORNEYS · HEMMERICH · MÜLLER · &phgr;&rgr;^&eacgr;^· POLJ-ME^R·· Va£.^"PIN · GIHSKE - 8 - 26 September 1994 =.ni 77 192 Company Evelyn Konopka, Mühlhofe 4b, 58540 Meinerzhagen Protection claims 1. A plastic meal container with a lid for storing parts of a meal separately in separate compartments,
marked by a lower shell (1) and an upper shell (2) of identical shape, the outer walls (9, 10, 22) of which have projecting peaks (11, 14, 24, 25) along their front sides and, via a ramp (12, 15), lower steps (13, 16), the peaks (11, 14) adjoining alternately the inner surface and the outer surface of the outer walls and each extending over one half of a side wall and the adjacent half of the adjacent outer wall. 2. Menu container according to claim 1,
characterized, that dividing longitudinal and transverse walls (5, 3) are equipped with ramps (27) leading from apices (26) to steps (28) located at a lower level, with transverse walls (3) along one half of their length showing the apices (33) along one side and along the following half on their other side. 3. Menu container according to claim 1 or 2,
characterized, that the height of the vertices (23, 23) of the longitudinal and/or transverse walls (5, 3) exceeds that of the vertices of the outer walls (11, 14). PATENT ATTORNEYS ■ HEMMERICH · MÜLLER · TROSSE -.POCLMSER -'VALEiJTIN · GIHSKE - 9 - 4. Menu container according to at least one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the level of the vertices (11, 14) and steps (13, 16) and/or the arrangement and/or the curvature of the ramps (12, 15) are designed with a tight fit. 5. Menu container according to at least one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the trays (1, 2) each have locking devices (30) halfway between them. 6. Menu container according to claim 5,
characterized in that the locking devices are locking blocks sliding against each other (30) which protrude slightly beyond the respective symmetry lines of the shells (1, 2). 7. Menu container according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the locking blocks (5) have an inlet ramp at their free end (31) to which, forming a vertex, are connected locking surfaces (32) sloping from this. 8. Menu container according to at least one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the locking blocks (30) are equipped with handles (29).