EP0028953B1 - Water or sand box - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a water or sand pit intended more particularly for educational and recreational activities for young children in accordance with the preamble of the main claim.

There are known water or sand trays used in kindergartens or day-care centers, for example those described in patents US-A-3,823,426, US-A-3,619,823, US-A-2,580,942 and US-A -3,823,426, some of which are in the form of a tank body disposed substantially in the center of a hollowed-out table-forming tray and supported by an appropriate base. These trays, some of which are used mainly indoors, are designed so that the crown of the hollowed out tray provides a safety zone between the peripheral edge of the tray and the central part of the tray containing the liquid or the divided medium. to have access by extending the arm to the contents of the tray, but without the possibility for them to lean over the contents of the tray and therefore, possibly, to fall into it inadvertently. If these devices are entirely satisfactory with regard to safety and flexibility of use, it has however been found that said peripheral crown, forming said safety zone but also a work plan allowing to deposit -various objects, such as toys , did not prevent that water or sand, extracted from the tank during the handling of said objects, does not gradually cover this crown and does not fall outside the tank, with the attendant drawbacks of smearing and then cleaning.

To overcome this drawback, a tank has been proposed with peripheral edges inclined towards the inside of the tank in the manner of the old wash houses and thus allowing recovery of projections or liquid or sandy deposits coming from the tank back in the latter. However, due to their inclination, these edges then no longer make it possible to serve as a work surface, for depositing there, while waiting or in use, the various floating or digging objects used in association with the tank, and it has been found that depositing these objects on the ground or on ancillary trenches had the same disadvantages as the bins with a flat peripheral edge.

The present invention specifically relates to a water or sand tank of the type comprising edges inclined inward and further having means for removably supporting various structures in the vicinity of the surface of the product stored in the tank , at a distance from the edges of the tank, thus allowing greater flexibility in the possibilities of configuration and use of the tank, without cluttering up the edges of the tank by lateral fixing means, and thereby sparing the periphery in particular, when it is filled with water, an unimpeded free access area.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a container of this type shaped so as to have improved rigidity and hold.

To do this, according to an essential characteristic of the present invention, the water or sand tank, of the type comprising a rigid tank body comprising a bottom and side walls extended by edges inclined towards the inside of the tank body, comprises at least one independent support element capable of being positioned in abutment on the bottom to support at least one removable structure in the vicinity of the surface of the product stored in the container in accordance with the characterizing part of the main claim.

According to a more particular characteristic of the present invention, the support element is produced by stacking a plurality of raising elements, the bottom of the tank having locally mounting means cooperating with means corresponding to the end of a support elements to allow the removable mounting of the latter in the tray.

• La figure 1 est une vue schématique en perspective d'un bac selon la présente invention;
• La figure 2 représente schématiquement, en coupe, divers agencements d'éléments supports selon la présente invention;
• La figure 3 représente, en vue de côté, un mode de montage de structure amovible avec les éléments tronconiques de la figure 2; et
• La figure 4 est une vue schématique du dessus du fond d'un corps de bac selon la présente invention.

Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will emerge from the following description of embodiments, given by way of illustration, made in relation to the appended drawings in which:

• Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a tray according to the present invention;
• FIG. 2 schematically represents, in section, various arrangements of support elements according to the present invention;
• 3 shows, in side view, a mounting method of removable structure with the frustoconical elements of Figure 2; and
• Figure 4 is a schematic top view of the bottom of a tank body according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the container according to the present invention comprises a container proper, consisting of a container body 1, advantageously made in one piece, made of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), resting on two panels side 2, 2 'forming a base and braced by tubes 3. As best seen in Figure 2, the tank body 1 comprises a bottom 4, and side walls 5, vertical, extended by edges 6 inclined towards the inside of the tank, and continuously reccording to the side walls 5, these edges 6 advantageously being provided with stiffening ribs 7.

There is shown in Figure 1, a plate or shelf 8, forming a work surface, supported by a support element 9 so as to extend above the surface 10 of the product stored in the tray, away from the neighboring edge 6. This tablet 8 is found on the left side of the section in FIG. 2.

In this embodiment, the element support for the tablet 8 consists of a stack of elevation elements 11 in the form of a truncated cone or cup, made of plastic material and stackable to form a stack of variable height according to the dimensions and the number of elements 11. Correspondingly, also in accordance with the present invention, the bottom 4 of the tank body 1 has locally frustoconical protrusions 12 extending towards the inside of the tank, of shapes and dimensions corresponding substantially to the elevation elements 11. Those -this, especially for use in a water tank, holes 13 in their side wall to allow the introduction of the product stored in the tank, as well as at least one through hole 14 in the transverse wall forming the bottom closing the small end of the frustoconical elements 11, in particular to allow the upper element to be secured to the shelf 8 by means of a pin, a plastic rivet, or a screw system o u with nut 15.

At least some of the raising elements are advantageously provided, at their end of larger diameter, with a radial flange 16, pierced with orifices 17, as shown in the assembly of the central part of FIG. 2, in order to '' authorize head-to-tail stacking, as shown in this central part of Figure 2, where conversely, an upper frusto-conical element, such as that referenced 110 in Figure 2, which can serve as an annex container partially immersed in the bin, for example for the storage of small floating objects.

As shown in FIG. 3, frustoconical rising elements 11 ¹ devoid of a radial flange, can advantageously be provided with longitudinal slots 18, allowing, by elastic deformation, a more pronounced flaring of the part of large diameter of the frustoconical element and thus modulating the insertion of the rising elements into each other, in particular to make them difficult to dismantle by children, and to achieve, as shown in FIG. 3, by means of the same determined number of stacked elements, levels, emerging or submerged, different from the upper element, allowing the mounting of inclined plates 8 'forming a slide, the latter being advantageously made of a semi-flexible plastic.

Other embodiments of the support elements according to the present invention are shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 2. Here, the bottom 4 of the tank body is formed with cylindrical or prismatic hollow recesses 19 for receiving with fitting pins of corresponding shape 20, formed on one face of a rising element 111 of cylindrical or prismatic shape, the another face of the raising element 111 having a recess corresponding to the recess 19 for receiving the stud of another raising element and thus promoting their stacking. As also shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 2, the lifting elements, such as those marked 112 and 113, can be made of a magnetic material in the form of magnetic disks which can be stacked coherently on each other, to support , for example, an upper structure 114, of any given shape or size.

It will be appreciated that the arrangements shown in FIG. 2 make it possible to distribute as best as possible over the free surface of the tank various removable structures 8, 110 or 114 emerging, flush with the surface 10 or immersed, by multiplying as required the possibilities, all keeping free the peripheral zone of the surface 10 of the exposed product stored in the tank in the vicinity of the walls 5 and the edges 6, by allowing in particular a child going around the tank, to propel by hand a small boat or an object floating without colliding with structures extending from the edge towards the inside of the tank which it could not bypass towards the inside of the tank precisely because of the width of the railings formed by the wings of the inclined edges 6 This arrangement also allows a teacher to store out of reach of children objects on a removable structure located in the center of the tray.

There is shown in Figure 4, a top view of the bottom 4 of the tray 1 according to the present invetion. This bottom, which can be flat or slightly curved, is normally slightly inclined towards an opening or discharge plug 21. The hollow or raised formations 12 of the bottom of the tank, allowing the mounting of the rising elements, achieve a certain stiffening from the bottom of the tank, but which is however not sufficient for large capacity tanks. Ribbing both transversely and longitudinally of the bottom would have the drawbacks of retaining in the corresponding grooves certain quantities of the product stored in the tank, thus preventing perfect emptying of the latter. According to the present invention, the bottom of the tank has alternating series of ribs 22 and 22 ', projecting towards the inside of the tank, each rib extending over a portion of the width of the bottom alternately from one of the two side walls opposite the tank defining this width. As seen in Figures 2 and 4, these ribs 22 or 22 ¹ have a cross section substantially in the shape of an inverted V and of decreasing height from the side wall from which they extend.

Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments, it is not limited thereto but is on the contrary subject to modifications and variants, the scope of protection being determined by the content of the claims. In particular, the support elements can be pre-associated with several for a multi-point mounting on the raised or recessed formations of the bottom of the tank, for example, to produce tripod structures, the lower elevation elements, such as the 'Element 111, which can be left permanently in the bottom of the tank, for example by hard fitting, to allow easier stacking of only the upper elements when the tank is already in place. filled with water.

Claims (9)

1. A water or sand tank, including a rigid tank body (1), comprising a bottom (4) and lateral walls (5) extended by edges (6) inclined towards body inside, wherein said tank bottom (4) is locally provided with a shaped formation (12, 19) apt to cooperate by movable engagement with a complementary shaped formation (19) at one end of an independent support member (11;111) adapted to support at least a movable structure (8;114) to which access is given even when tank is filled; and said movable structure, as a working surface within reach of an user's hand inside or outside said tank, extends above tank inside stored product, said working surface being height adjustable by stacking at least two rising elements (11;111) depending upon either tank filling height or tank depth.

2. A water or sand tank as recited in claim 1, wherein said rising elements include stackable elements (11; 111; 112).

3. A water or sand tank as recited in claim 1 or 2, wherein said rising elements (11;111) include means to make one element integral with another one.

4. A water or sand tank as recited in any preceding claims, wherein said rising elements have the shape of truncated cones (11), at least one rising element having the smaller end thereof closed with a transversal partition including at least a through hole (14).

5. A water or sand tank as recited in claim 4, wherein said rising elements (11) include in the side wall thereof at least a through hole (14).

6. A water or sand tank as recited in claim 5, wherein said rising elements (11) are made out of plastic material, at least some of said elements having, from the larger end thereof, longitudinal slots (18) allowing said rising element to radially distort.

7. A water or sand tank as recited in any preceding claims, wherein said movable structure includes a plate (8, 8') provided with interlocking means (15) at one end of a rising element (11).

8. A water or sand tank as recited in any preceding claims, the bottom of which comprises a draining means, wherein said bottom (4) includes substantially parallel ribs (22, 22'), protruding towards tank inside, each rib alternately extending along a part of bottom width from one of said two tank facing lateral walls (5) which define said width.

9. A water or sand tank as recited in claim 8, wherein each rib (22, 22') has a height which decreases from said lateral wall (5) from where it extends toward the facing lateral wall (5).

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