EP2062826B1 - Plastic container with collapsible walls - Google Patents

Abstract

The tote box has a base (1) and side walls (2,3), and is made of plastic. The side walls are moving inward, and are held by a bolt (7) in perpendicular position. The side walls carry flexibly displaced bolt and carry the locating bar (6). The locating bar grips the side walls from inside and supports these from back wards. The side walls are adjacent to the locating bar. The locating bar is provided with springy release lever (11) during lying of side walls, and the release lever is placed in the openings of the side walls.

Description

The invention relates to a transport box made of plastic, which are held by a bottom and inwardly foldable side walls by bolts in an upright position, with two opposite side walls carry at their outer edges a stop bar against which the adjacent side wall strikes when erected.

Such transport boxes are used wherever the return transport with the boxes needs less volume in order to save freight costs.

Such transport boxes have been around for decades. They were always a bit shaky when loaded, because it was never possible to construct really strong closures for coupling two side walls together in the box corners. These closures often consisted of several loose pieces that had to be stuck together and those that were all too easily lost, making the whole box unusable.

The invention avoids the disadvantages of the prior art. It is the object of the invention to provide a collapsible transport box, which is very stable and robust, easy to assemble and easy to rebuild and whose closure parts are firmly and captive integrated in the integrally molded walls.

JP 2005 343548 A discloses a transport box according to the preamble of claim 1, wherein one side wall has a wedge-shaped projection provided on an elastic tongue which engages in a corresponding recess in the adjacent side wall, whereby the side walls can be fixed to one another. The fixation is achieved in that a lever is brought down from above onto the wedge-shaped projection, which moves it out of the recess.

The invention is specified in claim 1. Advantageous embodiments are specified in the subclaims.

In this closure for coupling two side walls, all parts are integrally produced with the side walls and thus captive. They lie in recesses of the side walls, so that they can not be broken by external influences. This makes this transport box very robust. The closures require only when folding the box an operation by pressing a lever, the Wiederrichtung the side walls after a vacuum transport, however, is on the closures no handle necessary, they snap by themselves in their position for a transport of goods.

This is done by means of wedge or inclined surfaces on the levers. Namely, the wedge surface is located on each unlocking lever on a likewise wedge-shaped projection of the bolt, which holds behind the release lever bearing side wall with the release levers.

In this case, holes are provided on the transport costs in the region of the release lever in the side wall, which allow access from the outside to the release lever. These holes are suitably surrounded on their outer side by ribs, so that inadvertently can not be accessed to the Entriegelungshebein.

These release levers are brought from the outside, for example by the pressure of inserted into the two holes of the side wall thumbs in their unlocked position, after which the side wall can be folded inwards.

The free end of each unlocking lever is suitably triangular or trapezoidal in plan view, wherein the outer inclined surface rests on the bolt or attacks, so that when setting up the lying flat of the empty transport side locking is done automatically

It is advantageous in this transport box when the bolt is accommodated with the lever carrying it in a recess of the side wall carrying it, in which he is hineindrückbar by the wedge-shaped free end of the Entrieglungshebels.

This is best possible if the wall thickness of the side walls of the transport box is measured sufficiently thick to accommodate the locking and Entreigelungshebel in itself.

This wall thickness is achieved in the transport box according to the invention characterized in that the side walls are formed in its central region by two parallel and U-shaped strips in the middle and lying therebetween lying perpendicular to the bottom wave-shaped wall parts.

These wave-shaped wall parts are formed from a plurality of strips extending perpendicularly to the bottom, wherein strips running sideways parallel to each other are arranged at the front and at the rear side of the side wall between obliquely running strips.

Another advantage of this transport box is that the release lever and the bar carrying lever are so long that they are resiliently pivotable from its rest position to its working position.

In addition, it may be provided that at locations where two side walls abut each other, guide devices are mounted.

Fig.1

eine perspektivische Ansicht des Transportkastens.

Fig.2

einen Querschnitt durch eine Kastenecke im verriegelten Zu- stand.

Fig. 3

einen Querschnitt durch die Kastenecke im Zustand der Ent- riegelung.

Fig.4

eine perspektivische Darstellung dieser Kastenecke im verrie- gelten Zustand.

Fig.5

einen Schnitt durch diese perspektivische Darstellung der Kas- tenecke.

Fig.6

einen Querschnitt durch diese Kastenecke im Zustand der Entriegelung.

The essence of the invention is explained below with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawing. Show it:

Fig.1

a perspective view of the transport box.

Fig.2

a cross section through a box corner in the locked state.

Fig. 3

a cross section through the box corner in the state of unlocking.

Figure 4

a perspective view of this box corner in the locked state.

Figure 5

a section through this perspective view of the box corner.

Figure 6

a cross section through this box corner in the unlocking state.

The transport box consists of a bottom 1 and four inwardly hinged side walls 2,3. These are attached at the bottom by hinges 4.5 inwardly hinged.

The longitudinal side walls 2 carry at their end faces stop strips 6, dents in the erected state of the transport box the End walls 3 rest. The longitudinal side walls 2 are equipped with pivotable bars 7, which support the end walls 3 from the inside in their erected position. Thus, the erected end walls are fixed from the outside by the stop strips 6 and from the inside by the latch 7 in its upright position.

The latches 7 are fixed at the end of integrally formed with the longitudinal side wall 2 springs 8 and lie in openings 9 of the longitudinal side wall 2. The latch 7 may be formed by two bent surfaces 9 at the free end of the spring 8.

In order not to have to press away with the fingers when folding this transport box 7 and thereby bring the fingers in danger to be squeezed when moving the front wall 3, a release lever 11 is housed in an opening 12 in the end wall 3, the free end is bent several times to form outwardly a recess 13 for the support of an externally pressing on the resilient release lever 11 finger and an inclined surface 14 for the system and the pushing away of the latch 7 forming the bent free end of the spring 8. The unlocking lever 11 is actuated from the outside by the pressure of a plugged through the hole 15 and thereby on the release lever 11 dückenden finger.

Of the bent end faces of the spring 8, the perpendicular to the spring 8 end face 16 fulfills the locking function, while the inclined surface 17 serves as a contact surface for the free end of the unlocking lever 11 when the end wall 3 is erected from its ground-parallel position.

In this transport box wall thicknesses are designed so thick that the listed levers 8,11 can be accommodated therein in wall openings 10, 12. Since this wall thickness can not be performed in solid plastic, the side walls are in their middle area by two floor-parallel and in cross-section U-shaped strips 18 and intervening perpendicular to the ground extending wave-shaped wall parts are formed. These wave-shaped wall parts are formed from a plurality of strips 19, 20 extending perpendicularly to the bottom 1, wherein lateral strips 20 which are parallel to the side walls are arranged between obliquely extending strips 19 at the front and at the rear side of the side wall 2, 3.

List of reference numbers

1

ground

2

Longitudinal side wall

3

End wall

4

joint

5

joint

6

stop bar

7

bars

8th

feather

9

bent free end of the spring 8

10

opening

11

release lever

12

opening

13

trough

14

sloping surface

15

hole

16

end face

17

sloping surface

18

U-shaped bar

19

oblique stripes

20

sidewall parallel stripes

Claims (11)

1. A plastic tote box consisting of a base (1) and side walls (2, 3), which can be folded inwards, which are held in upright position by bolts,
   wherein two opposite side walls (2) carry a locating bar (6) on their outer edges, against which the adjacent side wall (3) impacts when it is set upright, wherein the side walls (2) carrying the locating bars (6) resiliently carry displaceable bolts (7), which grip from inside behind the adjacent side walls (3) abutting against the locating bars and support these from behind, whilst the adjacent side walls (3) abutting against the locating bars (6) are provided with resilient release levers (11), which are accommodated in recesses (12) of these side walls (3) and abut against the bolts (7) with wedge surfaces (14) attached to their free ends,
   wherein the bolts (7) are manufactured in one piece with the side walls (2) carrying said bolts, characterised in that the release levers (11) are manufactured in one piece with the side walls (3) of the tote box having said levers.
2. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that the wedge surface (14) at each release lever (11) abuts against a likewise wedge-shaped projection of the bolt (7) which grasps behind the side wall (3) with the release levers (11).
3. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that in the area of the release lever (11) holes (15) are provided in the side wall, which permit access to the release lever (11).
4. The tote box according to claim 3, characterised in that on their outer side these holes (11) are surrounded by ribs which prevent unintentional access to the release levers.
5. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that the free end of the release lever (11) is triangular or trapezoidal or spherical shaped when viewed from above, wherein the outer oblique surface (14) abuts against or acts on the bolt (7).
6. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that the bolt (7) with the lever carrying said bolt is accommodated in a recess (10) of the side wall (2) carrying said lever, in which said bolt can be depressed by the wedge-shaped free end of the release lever (11).
7. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that the wall thickness of the side walls (2, 3) is sufficiently thick to include the closing and release lever.
8. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that in their central region the side walls (2, 3) are formed by two brackets parallel to the base and U-shaped in cross-section and interposed corrugated wall parts running perpendicular to the base.
9. The tote box according to claim 8, characterised in that these corrugated wall parts are formed from a plurality of strips running perpendicular to the base, wherein between obliquely running strips, strips parallel to the side wall are located on the front and on the rear side of the side wall.
10. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that the release lever (11) and the lever carrying said bolt are sufficiently long that they can be resiliently pivoted from their rest position into their working position.
11. The tote box according to claim 1, characterised in that guide devices are attached at points where two side walls (2, 3) abut against one another.

Images