EP0442815B1 - Reinforced container - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention concerns a reinforced container comprising walls made of semi-rigid material, in particular plastic, formed from cellular or solid panels constituting the bottom, the four lateral (12, 13) and longitudinal (10, 11) walls and, on at least two opposite walls or on a part of the upper surface, a rim folded back to form a sheath through which passes a welded metal rod (2) intended to surround at least part of the container. The folded-back edge is held in the sheath shape by the clamping of its end portion between the metal rod and the adjacent wall. <IMAGE>

Description

The present invention relates to a reinforced container comprising walls of semi-rigid material, in particular plastic, formed from one or more cellular or solid plates, suitably assembled and folded, constituting the bottom and the four side walls, and comprising, on at least two opposite walls or on part of its upper face, a folded rim so as to form a sheath through which passes a welded metal rod going around at least part of the tank.

It is known tubs made of plastic material formed of cellular or solid plates whose walls constitute in themselves the element giving rigidity to the whole. However, depending on the type of application envisaged, it is necessary to give sufficient thickness and dimensions, to ensure the solidity of the assembly. This has the drawback of inducing a significant consumption of material, without however the material used being absolutely necessary in all points of the tank.

In addition, when numerous rotations are planned, it is desirable to have a type of container capable of being present in a small volume when it is returned empty.

There are also known tubs made of plastic material formed of cellular plates or other semi-rigid material such as corrugated cardboard, the edge of which is consolidated by a metal rod in the form of a frame held in a sheath. This type of tank is illustrated by US Patents 2,791,365 and US 4,7200,13. However, it appeared that the robustness was not yet satisfactory and that its handling could be improved.

A first object of the invention is therefore to propose a container whose constitution makes it possible to limit the thickness of certain constituent parts while making it possible to obtain, where necessary, a constitution sufficiently robust and suitable for use. envisaged, associated with a simplified mounting method which offers, if necessary, the possibility of reducing the size of the tank when it is running empty.

This object is achieved by the fact that the folded edge is kept in the form of a sheath by the blocking of the end portion of the folded edge between the metal rod and the wall adjacent to said rod.

Thanks to this characteristic, robust containers can be produced from a plate made of semi-rigid material without having to resort to any riveting and stapling of the elements together. Assembly or disassembly is simple and quick.

Another object of the invention is to propose a lateral reinforcement which allows the production in particular of large bins with regard to the lightness of the materials used.

This object is achieved by the fact that the rod has a shape such that its projection on a plane orthogonal to the bottom of the tank has at least two indentations oriented towards the top of the tank.

According to another characteristic, these indentations are formed at least at the angles of the sheaths.

According to another characteristic, these indentations are placed between doubled and opposite faces of the tray.

According to another characteristic, these indentations are placed on two opposite faces which are not lined and situated outside the tank.

Another goal is to obtain stackable bins.

According to one characteristic, this object is achieved by the fact that the metal rod forms a parallelogram provided with at least two indentations located opposite and oriented towards the inside of the tank.

According to another characteristic, this object is achieved by the fact that the metal rod forms a parallelogram provided with at least two indentations located opposite and oriented towards the outside of the tank, these indentations being placed in the sheaths formed on the upper face and adjacent to two opposite side walls.

Another object of the invention is to provide tubs which include positioning tabs.

This object is achieved by the fact that the rod has a shape such that its projection on a plane orthogonal to the bottom of the container has at least two indentations oriented towards the top of the container and projecting from the container.

A final object of the invention is to propose a bin whose reinforcing elements can also serve as grips.

This object is achieved by the fact that the metal rod has indentations on two opposite faces and placed in sheaths located on two opposite walls and in that the other two walls of the tank stop at a level lower than that of the sheaths of so that the two straight parts of the rod are visible to form handles.

• la figure 1 représente une vue en perspective d'un bac à gaines, renforts supérieurs et pattes de gerbage ;
• la figure 2 représente une coupe selon AA d'une paroi latérale du bac ;
• la figure 3 représente une vue en perspective d'une autre forme de bac renforcé à sa partie supérieure ;
• la figure 4 représente une vue en perspective d'un autre type de bac à renforts sur deux côtés opposés et à poignées latérales ;
• la figure 5 représente une vue en perspective d'un bac à supports transversaux supérieurs et à renforts latéraux ;
• la figure 6 représente une variante de réalisation d'un bac selon la figure 5 avec des pattes de positionnement ;

The present invention will appear more clearly on reading the description below made with reference to the drawings below which constitute nonlimiting examples of different embodiments of the containers according to the invention, in which:

• Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a sheath container, upper reinforcements and stacking tabs;
• 2 shows a section along AA of a side wall of the tank;
• FIG. 3 represents a perspective view of another form of reinforced container at its upper part;
• FIG. 4 represents a perspective view of another type of container with reinforcements on two opposite sides and with lateral handles;
• FIG. 5 represents a perspective view of a container with upper transverse supports and with lateral reinforcements;
• Figure 6 shows an alternative embodiment of a tray according to Figure 5 with positioning tabs;

The reinforced container according to the invention comprises, as shown in FIG. 1, longitudinal walls (10, 11) and two transverse walls (12, 13) connected to a bottom (14) which is not visible. The walls are made up of sheets of cellular or solid plastic material, this material being polypropylene or polyethylene. At the upper part of the walls, close to the opening of the container, each of the longitudinal and lateral walls is folded outwards so as to form an annular rim or sheath arranged all around the container.

Thus, if we look at Figure 2, the side wall (12) is extended by a perpendicular rim (120) then a portion (121) parallel to the wall (12), finally a portion (122) perpendicular to the first portion (121) and a second portion (123) parallel to the portion (121) and to the wall (12). This portion (123) is linked to the wall (12) by being simply retained by friction. In this way an annular rim or sheath is formed on at least two walls of the tank. This sheath envelops a metal rod welded at its two ends and shaped so that its projection in a horizontal plane or parallel to the bottom of the tank forms a parallelogram including rectangle corresponding to the dimension of the annular rim. As can be seen in Figure 1, the metal reinforcing rod (2) also has indentations (20, 21, 22) disposed at each angle of the parallelogram and oriented in a plane perpendicular to the horizontal plane. Similarly, on the sides of the parallelogram corresponding to the transverse sides of the tank, the metal rod has on each opposite side two indentations (24, 25) located in the same horizontal plane as the parallelogram. These indentations (24, 25) protrude inside the container and pass through cutouts made in the walls of the container to form stacking lugs allowing the containers to be stacked on top of each other.

The embodiment of the trays according to FIG. 1 allows a reinforcement of the angles of the tray as well as a possibility of stacking them, one on the other, causing the upper tray to rest on the legs of the lower tray which are arranged at the desired depth.

In the embodiment of a container according to FIG. 3, one obtains reinforced containers at their upper part and which can easily be fitted into one another until the outer edges (100, 120) of a lower tray press on the lower part (122, 102) of the outer edges of the upper tray. In this embodiment, the metal rod (2) has on the longitudinal and lateral sides of the parallelogram indentations (26, 27) oriented upwards like the indentations (20, 21, 22) located at the corners of the tank. In this embodiment, the metal reinforcing rod (2) bears alternately on the upper (100, 120) and lower (102, 122) edges of the flanges forming the sheath. Furthermore, the portion (123) of the sheath is held between the metal rod and the adjacent wall of the tank.

The variant embodiment of FIG. 4 relates to a tank whose transverse walls (12, 13) have a height less than the longitudinal walls (10, 11), the latter comprising at their upper part annular flanges forming longitudinal sheaths as in the two previous embodiments. The upper part (100, 110) of the annular flanges is at a sufficient distance from the upper part of the transverse walls (12, 13) to leave a space between the rod portion (2) parallel to the side wall and the latter, sufficient to allow the use of this portion of rod as a handle. The rod (2) comprises, in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the parallelogram, indentations (28, 29) formed on the longitudinal sides of the latter. Each longitudinal side thus comprises at least one rise (26). The ascent (26) presses on the upper edge (100) of the rim while the indentations (28, 29) press on the lower rim (122) of the sheath. The variant comprises a single ascent (26) but it is equally possible to form rods with several lifts per longitudinal side.

It is possible to allow stacking of containers of this type by reinforcing the transverse walls (12, 13) by means of an additional thickness for example, and by shifting the rods (2) outwards, so that the edge lower of an upper edge comes to rest on the edge of the transverse walls (12, 13).

In the variant according to FIG. 5, the container also has transverse walls (12, 13) and longitudinal walls (10, 11) with returns (150, 154) formed at the top of the container and constituting a wall portion parallel to the bottom (14). These returns (150, 154) extending the walls (12, 13) are formed in sheaths, as for the variant of Figure 2, by folds (151, 152, 153) not visible. In the sheaths (150, 154) located near the opposite ends of the longitudinal sides (10, 11), pass the straight portions (52) of the metal rod forming the sides of the stiffening parallelogram. This metal rod (52) has indentations on its longitudinal sides (520, 521) formed in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the parallelogram and oriented towards the bottom of the tank. The height of these indentations (520, 521) can be variable and between zero and the maximum height of the side walls (10, 11). In the case where the longitudinal walls (10, 11) are simple and unlined, the indentations (520, 521) are external to the walls of the tank. The metal rod passes through the walls (10, 11) to pass into the sheaths (150, 154) and come to bear against the interior edges (151, 155) of these sheaths forming the upper returns of the tank.

In the variant of FIG. 6, the tank has lined longitudinal walls (10, 11) inside which pass the indentations (620, 621) formed on the longitudinal sides of the rod. These indentations (620, 621) are such that they support both the lower and upper edges of the sheaths constituting the longitudinal walls (10, 11). The lateral sides of the rod, the projection of which in a horizontal plane has the shape of a parallelogram, also have an indentation (622, 623) formed in the same plane of the parallelogram and allowing these sides to press at the same time on the edge internal (151, 155) of the upper returns (150, 154) of the tank and on the edge adjacent to the lateral sides (12, 13) of these returns. These indentations (622, 623) comprise, in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the parallelogram and perpendicular to the plane of the indentations (620, 621), two respective indentations (6220, 6221); (6230, 6231) arranged near each of the ends of the tank and oriented towards the outside, so as to form positioning tabs.

The exemplary embodiments shown are only illustrative and we can envisage other embodiments. Thus, in the embodiment of FIG. 6, it is very possible to design a variant without indentations (620, 621) or with more than one indentation. Similarly in the embodiment of Figure 4, the number of indentations (26, 28, 29) can be changed.

This type of container can be laid flat for empty transport. For example, a variant of that shown in Figure 5 with the use of a simple metal frame, without indentation, allows a total flattening.

According to this example, the two sheaths formed on the transverse walls (12, 13) are unfolded. The walls (12, 13) are spread out and the walls (10, 11) are folded aside. This results in the flattening of the tank for vacuum transport under a volume as small as possible. If the frame has indentations, it is possible to completely disassemble the tank in two parts, the frame on one side and the plate of semi-rigid material on the other.

Claims (12)

1. Reinforced container having walls of semi-rigid material, notably plastic, formed from cellular or solid plates constituting the base and the four transverse (12, 13) and longitudinal (10, 11) walls and, on at least two opposite walls or on part of its upper face, a shoulder which is folded over so as to form a sheath through which a welded metal rod (2) passes, intended to pass around at least part of the container, characterised in that the folded edge (120, 121, 122, 123) is maintained in the form of a sheath by the locking of the end part (123) of the said folded edge between the metal rod and the wall adjacent to the said rod.
2. Container according to Claim 1, characterised in that the shape of the rod is such that its projection onto a plane which is orthogonal with respect to the base of the container has at least two indentations oriented towards the top of the container.
3. Container according to Claim 2, characterised in that the indentations (20, 21, 22) on the orthogonal plane are formed at least at the corners of the sheaths formed on the four external faces of the container.
4. Container according to one of Claims 2 and 3, characterised in that the indentations (20, 21, 22, 26, 27) are formed round the entire periphery.
5. Container according to Claim 1, characterised in that the shape of the rod is such that its projection onto a plane which is orthogonal with respect to the base of the container has at least two indentations (520, 620, 28, 29) oriented towards the base of the container.
6. Container according to Claim 5, characterised in that the indentations (26, 28, 29) are formed solely on two opposite faces and placed in sheaths formed on two opposite walls (10, 11) and in that the other two walls (12, 13) of the container stop at a level which is lower than that of these sheaths so that the two rectilinear parts of the rod (2) are visible so as to form handles.
7. Container according to Claim 1, characterised in that the metal rod is provided with at least two indentations (622, 623) situated opposite each other and oriented towards the outside.
8. Container according to Claim 7, characterised in that the indentations turned towards the outside are of dimensions corresponding to the sheaths (150, 154) formed on the upper surface and adjacent to two opposite transverse walls (12, 13).
9. Container according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the metal rod forms a parallelogram and has at least two indentations (24, 25) situated opposite each other and oriented towards the inside of the container.
10. Container according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it has indentations (6220, 6221, 6230, 6231) projecting beyond the upper plane defined by the walls and forming positioning brackets.
11. Container according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the rod has indentations (620, 621), each passing through two opposite doubled-over faces (10, 11) of the container.
12. Container according to one of Claims 1 to 10, characterised in that the rod has indentations (520, 521), each one on two faces which are opposite but not doubled-over and which are situated on the outside of the container.

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