US1974713A - Box for holding bottles - Google Patents

Description

Se t. 25, 1934. A. M. HOOVEN ET AL BOX FOR HOLDING BOTTLES Filed March 1, 1953 WIT/V565 HTTOFINEY Patented Sept. 25, 1934 PATE Nr OFFICE Box FOR HOLDING BOTTLES Albert M. Hooven, Lansdowne, and Jay Harper Fulkerson, Carbondale, Pa.

Application March :1, 1933, Serial No 659,074 2 Claims. (01. 217-19) This invention relates to boxes or crates for holding bottles and like articles and particularly to improvements in boxes of the character employed for the packing, transportation and other handlingof milk or beverage bottleseither filled or empty, boxes constructed in accordance with our invention providing a number of material advantages over the boxes heretofore utilized for like purposes. invention constitutes the first substantial improvement in boxes of this character which has appeared for many years.

While the invention is applicable to boxes intended for the reception of numerous sorts of bottles, it is particularly advantageous in connection with boxes designed for holding milk bottles of the customary form and we shall therefore herein refer more especially to its employment in boxes of that character.

Milk bottle boxes heretofore in substantially universal use comprise wooden side and end panels having transversely extending crossed wires riveted thereto to serve as a bottom and r to hold the wooden panels in assembledrelation with the assistance of suitable metallic corner braces also riveted to the panels, a number of other crossed wires similarly riveted thereto and extending transversely of the box in planes in: termediate of its top and bottom serving as spacers for the bottles and maintaining them substantially upright on thewire bottom, these wires also strengthening the box to some extent. Boxes ofthis character present a number of serious disadvantages which have heretofore nec essarily been tolerated in the industry apparently for the reason that prior to the present invention no satisfactory way of overcoming them has been promulgated. Thus the extension of thecross' wires through thewood panelsso weakens the wood that the boxes frequently become unserviceable inuse through disintegration of" the panels at the point or points against which the strain of the riveted cross wires is exerted and the latter therefore often pull out, rendering'the box unfit for further service. When the box 'isfilled with milk bottles and the interstices between the bottles packedwith lumps of ice-for preserving the milk, the melting of the ice frequently results in one or morepieces thereof becoming lodgedbetween a bottle and the adja cent retaining wiresso that a hasty effort to remove the bottle may cause the ice to become wedged between the bottle and the wires insuch In fact, it is believed that our" These relatively large open spaces between the bottles and the wires also prevent eflicient refrigeration of the milk because of warm air currents circulating therethrough, melting the ice and permitting the resultant cold water to fall through the box without contacting any of the bottles therein whereby the cooling effect thereof is largely lost, while the looseness of the bottles, particularly when the wires are bent, as is fre-' quently the case, permits the'bottles to contact during handling of the box, producing undesirable noise and an additional cause of bottle breakage.

' Furthermore, milk bottle boxes are sometimes used as washing cratesin cleansing and steriliz ing the bottles; in accordance with this practice the bottles are inverted in the box and then subjected to a spray of hot water or other suitable cleansing fluid forcibly projected upwardly through the box bottom. When the bottom consists of crossed wires it is frequently impossible to maintain the bottles upright in such inverted position, which is necessary to permit proper access of the, cleansing fluid to the interiors thereof and effective cleansing of the bottles is thereby prevented, while the displacement of the, bottles mayflresult in additional breakage losses during the cleansingprocess. Finally, it is impracticable to ship such boxes in knockdown condition, for their proper assembly by the consumer or ultimate user requires the possession of machinery not ordinarily available to him.

A principal object of our invention, therefore, is to overcome these and other disadvantages of. the boxes of the prior art and additionally jto provideabox of the character aforesaid which presents certain advantages and improvements incident to or arising out of the novel features and constructions-which weemploy.

:"A further object of J the invention is to utilize perforated sheet material for spacers and/ or for bottom panels in such boxes, whereby maximum inherent strength consistent with satisfactorily low manufacturing costs and other advantages, are obtained. ,1

Another object of the invention is the provision? of a box having structural members of improved design, permitting convenient assembly by the ultimateuser when the box is shipped in knocked down condition, and'also enabling such user to sidered impractical to make any material repair or replacement of parts in boxes of this character so that those having seriously damaged parts have therefore usually been entirely discarded.

[8, Other purposes, objects and advantages of the invention will be understood by those skilled in the art, or will appear from the following description of one embodiment thereof as exemplified by a milk bottle box or crate adapted to contain twelve bottles and therefore of a standard capacity for boxes of this character, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

In the said drawing, Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the said box; Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof; Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the .line 33 in Fig. 2, the normal position of a typical milk bottle being indicated in dot and dash lines; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged horizontal section of a corner portion of the box shown in the preceding figures; Fig. 5 is a similar view taken on a plane somewhat nearer the top of the box, and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of an improved corner brace comprehended by our invention. In the several figures like characters are used to designate the same parts.

According to our invention the milk bottle box shown in the drawing comprises, broadly considered, a pair of wooden side panels 1 and a pair of wooden end panels 2 respectively of suit- 7; able dimensions, spacers 3, preferably two in number, supported in horizontal grooves 4 in the side and end panels and a sheet metal bottom 5 having an upturned peripheral flange 6 in substantial engagement with the outer surfaces of the wood panels adjacent their lower edges. The

corner portions 7 of the flange 6 extend upwardly a short distance beyond the intermediate portions and may be outwardly offset as at '7 to receive the lower ends of corner braces 8.

= Each of the latter, as shown in detail in Fig. 6,

comprises a right-angled metal plate 10 having intur-ned beads 11 extending along its opposite edges, the upper end of the plate 10 being suitably cutout ,and inwardly bent as at 12, a downwardly turned finger or hook 13 having sides respectively paralleling the right-angled webs of the plate 10 and spaced inwardly thereof being provided to engage the inner surfaces of the adjacent wood panels substantially at the vertex of the angle formed thereby at the upper corner of the box when the parts are assembled. A stacking lug l4, suitably formed of sheet metal, may be spot welded or otherwise secured to the finger 13 of each corner brace, these lugs serving to retain a superjacent box in aligned position when the completed boxes are stacked.

When the box is assembled the braces 8 lie at its corners with the beads 11 seated in vertical grooves 17 provided in the side and end panels; the lower ends of the braces are disposed in the spaces between the offset corners 7 of the bottom and the adjacent panels, and their inwardly turned portions 12 rest on the, upper edges of the sides and. ends, in which position the fingers 13 engage the inner faces of the latter thus locking them together. The bottom corners, lower ends of the braces, and sides and ends are drilled before assembly for the reception of bolts 20 which are passed through them after the braces are in place, and, as best shown in Fig. 4, securely hold the parts together when the thin nuts 21 on the ends of the bolts are snugly set up. The ends of the bolts are then preferably peened over to prevent the nuts from backing off.

The spacers 3 are preferably formed from galvanized sheet steel, of fairly heavy gauge, by a stamping operation and have a suitable number of round holes 24 therein with downwardly extending integral collars 25 immediately surrounding the holes to afford an appreciable area of contact between the bottles and the spacers when the former are inserted in the holes. The collars 25 may be of any desired depth, conveniently about oneeighth of an inch in a milk bottle box having two spacers, although when the box is to be used for other purposes considerably deeper collars may be preferred. When the collars 25 are of sufficient depth, say about two or three inches, only one spacer may sometimes be utilized, usually in a position corresponding to that of the upper spacer in the box shown in the drawing, the lower spacer being thereby eliminated, this construction being especially suited to boxes arranged for pint and half-pint milk bottles and for malt beverage and soft dring bottles.

The bottom 5 to which reference has been made may also be stamped out of galvanized sheet steel and the area to be included within the sides of the box may be reticulated and upwardly offset in a like manner; as best shown in Figs. 2 and 4, we prefer to employ square cut-out openings 27 in the bottom, leaving, in effect, a plurality of cross bars 28 and 29, all of which lie in a plane slightly above that of the peripheral edges and thus afford a flat slightly yielding support for the bottles spaced above the support on which the box itself may be disposed. A very definite advantage of a bottom of this character resides in its ability to retain the inverted bottles in upright position, i. e., resting thereon with their mouths downwardly, as when being subjected to the action of a washing machine; additionally, the bars 28, 29 thoroughly atomize the spray of the latter, thus insuring thorough cleansing of the bottles disposed in the box, while the openings 27 at the corners of the bottom serve as sockets for reception of the stacking lugs 14 of a subjacen-t box, as indicated in Fig. 4, without special forming or other operations.

While the various parts of the 'box may be as sembled in a number of ways, a convenient one is as follows: The two end panels and one of the sides are first set vertically in proper relation to each other and two of the braces 8 slipped into place at their abutting corners. The spacers 3 are then slid into their respective grooves through the open side, the remaining side panel then set in place and the other corner braces applied, thus temporarily locking all the said parts together as a unit as the parts are preferably so designed as to fit tightly together. This unit can then be lowered into the bottom, the bolts 20 then inserted, nuts 21 applied, and, preferably, the ends of the bolts peened over after the nuts have been set up. At any time by filing off the peened-over ends, the nuts 21 may be readily removed to permit the box to be taken apart for repair or replacement of any of the parts or to again return it to knockdown condition for shipment.

As has been pointed out, boxes constructed in accordance with our invention, being braced and strengthened with sheet steel, have appreciably greater inherent strength than the boxes in which riveted cross wires are utilized for the bottom and spacing members. Furthermore, the holes in the spacers substantially conform to the shape of the bottles to be put into the box while the spaces between the bottles are constructed so that relatively highly efficient refrigeration of bottles and their contents is effected when broken ice is packed therein around the bottles, as the water running from the melted ice can only escape through the spaces between the collars 25 and the bottles and therefore substantially all of it is brought into contact with one or more of the bottles to impart thereto its maximum cooling effect. Furthermore, the passage of warm air currents through the box is inhibited by the spacers and more adequate refrigeration of the box may thus be obtained with a given amount of ice than in boxes heretofore used under the same conditions and for like purposes. The absence of large openings through which pieces of ice can fall below the upper spacer also prevents the bottles becoming jammed in the box and therefore difficult to remove.

Thus it will be apparent that our invention comprehends several distinct structural improvements over the boxes of the prior art each having inherent advantages and other desirable features of its own as well as contributing to the general advance in the art resulting from their cooperative relation in our improved box. For example, the spacers not only in themselves reduce bottle breakage, noise of handling and the like, improve refrigeration of the contents of the box and enhance its suitability for use as a washing crate, butalso, being integral units in themselves, preferably supported in grooves in the wall panels, are, among other things, readily removable when the box is taken apart for shipment or repair and as readily replaceable in reassembling the box. Additionally, they materially increase the inherent strength and rigidity of the box as a whole through providing substantially continuous lateral abutments for the sides to assist them in resisting crushing forces and the like, while the collars 25, being integral with the spacers, impart sufficient rigidity to the,,latter to prevent bending under such'stresses as well as under the impact of bottles carelessly deposited in or withdrawn from the box. Moreover, our improved corner braces are notably effective to strengthen the box and firmly hold the ends of the wood panels, especially the upper portion thereof, in assembled relation and protect them from breakage, while the sheet metal bottom may yield slightly when a bottle is dropped thereon or the box is dropped on a floor or the like, thereby protecting the bottles from breakage, and also serves to enhance the strength and rigidity of the box as a whole.

While for the purpose of enabling those skilled in the art to comprehend and practise our invention we have herein illustrated and described with considerable particularity a milk bottle box constructed in accordance with the principles thereof, we do not thereby desire or intend to in any way limit or confine the use of the invention to a box of that character as the principles thereof may be employed with equal facility and advantage in other types of boxes and/or containers designed for receiving articles other than milk bottles, and, if desired, various changes and modifications may be made in the design, construction and arrangement of the several parts irrespective of the particular kind or type of box in which they are employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, we claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. A box of the class described comprising end and side panels, a bottom having an upturned flange adjacent its peripheral edge adapted to engage the outer surfaces thereof, said flange having outwardly offset corner portions, an angular corner brace respectively engaging the outer surfaces of each of said side panels and an adjacent end panel and extending between them and an offset portion of said flange including a finger engaging the inner surfaces of said panels, and means securing the braces and bottom in fixed relation.

2. In a box of the class described, a pair of grooved panels disposed substantially normal to each other and a corner brace comprising integral right-angled webs engaging the outer faces of the panels and having inturned beads seating in the panel grooves and a right-angled finger integral with and extending parallel to said webs and engaging the inner faces of the panels.

ALBERT M. HOOVEN. JAY HARPER FULKERSON.

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