US20040094442A1

US20040094442A1 - Carpet tack strip container

Info

Publication number: US20040094442A1
Application number: US10/301,009
Authority: US
Inventors: John Ashbeck
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-11-20
Filing date: 2002-11-20
Publication date: 2004-05-20

Abstract

A carpet-tack-strip container has a rectangular container (1) that is suitably moisture proof, durable and adapted to contain approximately a conventional package of carpet-tack strips (12) either in the package or out of the package for access to the carpet-tack strips conveniently and safely as needed by one or more people to tack down-pointed tacks into a floor for holding the tack strips in place in order to hold carpet placed on the up-pointed tacks in place on the floor. The carpet-tack strip container has a lid (8) that preferably hinges open from near a top end (7) on a back edge (3) and closes further downward on a front edge for exposing ends of the carpet-tack strips. The lid opens without contacting the carpet-tack strips. A shoulder strap (11) and a handle (10) are positioned on a front edge (2).

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to containers for workers who lay carpets to use for carrying a working supply of carpet-tack strips and for placing them within convenient reach for being tacked to floors for laying carpet without damage or danger from working conditions.

Tack strips are thin lath-like boards with small nails sticking up from a top side for holding carpet in place. Pointing down from the bottom side are small cement or wood spikes positioned in the strips for being pounded down into a cement or wooden floor. The strips are generally four feet long, an inch wide and one-quarter inch thick.

The tack strips are sold commercially in cardboard packages about five inches thick, ten inches wide and slightly over four feet long. The packages are very suitable for commercial distribution but not for conditions of use of the tack strips by carpet layers. The packages get wet and fall apart, leaving the tack strips dangerously exposed to feet, hands and car tires. When the tack strips get wet, they distort and become unusable. The nails in them then often fall out and become a hazzard. Access to the tack strips in the packages is inconvenient, time-consuming and dangerous for rapid carpet laying. A worker must work at a slow pace to access the tack strips safely from within the packages. To decrease the inconvenience, people laying carpet often take out several tack strips at a time and place them near where intended to be tacked down to floors. When taken out and left around, they become dangerous to others and to a person who puts them around because the person might forget where they have been put. The nails sticking up are sharp and often cause injuries, which if not taken care of immediately, can result in serious infection. The packages are inconvenient to move about and to place for convenient access. A considerable amount of worker time is lost working with the tack strips as supplied in the packages. Working with the packages also causes worker fatigue which decreases effectiveness and quality of work time.

These problems have persisted for many decades without being addressed or cured prior to this invention.

There are known containers that have been patented for golf clubs, rifles, telescopes and sundry other items, but non for carpet-tack strips in a manner taught by this invention.

Examples of most-closely related known but different containers are described in the following patent documents:



Patent No.
(U.S. unless stated otherwise)	Inventor	Issue Date

5,669,495	West	Sep. 23, 1997
5,005,743	Ramsay	Apr. 09, 1991
4,643,302	Baumgardner	Feb. 17, 1987
5,433,318	Focke	Jul. 18, 1995
4,796,789	Willcocks	Jan. 10, 1989
1,903,798	Turner	Apr. 29, 1930
1,727,578	Wengard	Jun. 28, 1928
1,352,238	Arthur	Sep. 07, 1920

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a carpet-tack-strip container which:

keeps carpet-tack strips dry and in place when stored, transported, carried and positioned for access by a carpet layer or other person using them for laying carpets;

is easily balanced and carried in a hand or over a shoulder; and

has a lid that can be opened for quick, easy and safe access to the carpet-tack strips.

This invention accomplishes these and other objectives with a carpet-tack-strip container that is suitably moisture proof and adapted to contain approximately a conventional package of carpet-tack strips either in the package or out of the package for access to the carpet-tack strips conveniently and safely as needed by one or more people to tack down-pointed tacks into a floor for holding the tack strips in place in order to hold carpet placed on the up-pointed tacks in place on the floor. The carpet-tack-strip container has a lid that preferably hinges open from near a top on a back edge and closes further downward on a front edge for exposing ends of the carpet-tack strips. The lid opens without contacting the carpet-tack strips. A shoulder strap and a handle are positioned on the front edge.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention should become even more readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described illustrative embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

This invention is described by appended claims in relation to description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the following drawings which are explained briefly as follows: [0013]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a carpet-tack-strip container having a package area for receiving a package of carpet-tack strips; [0014]
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a carpet-tack-strip container having a jumbo-pack area for receiving more than a package of carpet-tack strips; [0015]
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a carpet-tack-strip container having a part-pack area for receiving less than a package of carpet-tack strips; [0016]
FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway view from a top of a side of a carpet-tack-strip container showing a lid opened for convenient access to a package of carpet-tack strips that have been removed from the package; and [0017]
FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway view from a top of a side of an empty carpet-tack-strip container in a lid-closed mode and having a package area for receiving a package of the carpet-tack strips in the package.[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Listed numerically below with reference to the drawings are terms used to describe features of this invention. These terms and numbers assigned to them designate the same features throughout this description.



1.	Rectangular container
2.	Front edge
3.	Back edge
4.	First side
5.	Second side
6.	Bottom end
7.	Top end
8.	Lid
9.	Hinge
10.	Handle
11.	Shoulder strap
12.	Carpet-tack strips

Referring to FIGS. [0020] 1-5, a carpet-tack-strip container has a rectangular container 1 having a front edge 2, a back edge 3, a first side 4, a second side 5, a bottom end 6, a top end 7 and a lid 8. The lid 8 has a back edge that is hinged with a hinge 9 to the back edge 3 of the rectangular container 1 predeterminedly near the top end 7 of the back edge 3 of the rectangular container 1.
Coinciding with the [0021] rectangular container 1, the lid 8 has a front edge that is predeterminedly longer than the back edge, a first side that is slanted intermediate a bottom of the front edge and a bottom of the back edge and a second side that is slanted intermediate a bottom of the front edge and a bottom of the back edge.
The [0022] rectangular container 1 and the lid 8 are predeterminedly moisture proof and durable. Preferably, they can be made of a durable plastic or aluminum.
At least one conveyance grip, which can include a [0023] handle 10 and a shoulder strap 11, are positioned predeterminedly on the front edge 2.
The [0024] rectangular container 1 is adapted to contain predetermined carpet-tack strips 12 juxtaposed with the carpet-tack strips 12 being generally about parallel to an axis of the rectangular container 1 and having oppositely disposed ends intermediate an inside periphery of the bottom end 6 of the rectangular container 1 and an inside periphery of a top end of the lid 8 in a lid-closed mode.
The [0025] rectangular container 1 and the lid 8 positioned end-to-end with the lid 8 in the lid-closed mode are adapted to contain a predetermined plurality of the carpet-tack strips 12 juxtaposed within a container area which is defined by inside peripheries of the front edge 2, the first side 4, the back edge 3 and the second side 5 of the rectangular container 1.
The [0026] back edge 3 of the rectangular container 1 has a container-back length that is predeterminedly shorter than intended carpet-tack strips 12 for which the rectangular container 1 is adapted to contain. The back edge of the lid 8 has a lid-back length which is predeterminedly shorter than the container-back length. The lid-back length and the container-back length added together linearly end-to-end is a total-back length. The total-back length is predeterminedly longer than the intended carpet-tack strips 12. The front edge 2 of the rectangular container 1 has a container-front length that is predeterminedly shorter than the intended carpet-tack strips 12. The front edge of the lid 8 has a lid-front length which is predeterminedly shorter than the container-front length. The lid-front length and the container-front length added together linearly end-to-end is a total-front length. The total-front length is predeterminedly longer than the carpet-tack strips 12. The total-front length is sufficiently longer than the container-front length for causing a bottom end of the front edge of the lid 8 in hinged transit to circumvent and thereby to avoid contact with one or more of the carpet-tack strips 12 which may be positioned with bottom ends proximate an inside periphery of the bottom end 6 of the rectangular container 1 and with top ends in close proximity to an inside periphery of the front edge 2 of the rectangular container 1 as illustrated in FIG. 4.
The container area can include a package area for receiving a predetermined package of the carpet-tack strips [0027] 12. The container area can include a full-pack area, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, for receiving a plurality of the carpet-tack strips 12 that has been contained in the package and removed for placement in the rectangular container 1.
The container area can include a part-pack area, as shown in FIG. 3, for receiving a predetermined portion of the plurality of the carpet-[0028] tack strips 12 that has been contained in the package and removed for placement of a part-pack plurality of the carpet-tack strips 12 in the rectangular container 1.
The container area can include a jumbo-pack area, as shown in FIG. 2, for receiving a predetermined plurality of the carpet-[0029] tack strips 12 that has been contained in a plurality of the packages and removed for placement of a jumbo-pack plurality of the carpet-tack strips 12 in the rectangular container 1.
The [0030] handle 10 can be positioned proximate a center of gravity intermediate the bottom end 6 of the rectangular container 1, the top end of the lid 8, the first side 4 of the rectangular container 1 and the second side 5 of the container 1.
The [0031] shoulder strap 11 has strap ends which can be positioned at the center of gravity intermediate the bottom end 6 of the rectangular container 1, the top end of the lid 8, the first side 4 of the rectangular container 1 and the second side 5 of the container 1.
The [0032] handle 10 can be positioned intermediate the strap ends and proximate the center of gravity of the rectangular container 1 and the lid 8 combined with the lid 8 in the lid-closed mode.
Optionally, the [0033] handle 10 and/or the shoulder strap 11 can be positioned off-center to provide a slanted orientation of the rectangular container 1 when hand-carried.
A new and useful carpet-tack-strip container having been described, all such foreseeable modifications, adaptations, substitutions of equivalents, mathematical possibilities of combinations of parts, pluralities of parts, applications and forms thereof as described by the following claims and not precluded by prior art are included in this invention. [0034]

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A carpet-tack-strip container comprising:

a rectangular container having a front edge, a back edge, a first side, a second side, a bottom end, a top end and a lid;

the lid having a back edge that is hinged to the back edge of the rectangular container predeterminedly near the top end of the back edge of the rectangular container;

the lid having a front edge that is predeterminedly longer than the back edge, a first side that is slanted intermediate a bottom of the front edge and a bottom of the back edge and a second side that is slanted intermediate a bottom of the front edge and a bottom of the back edge;

the rectangular container and the lid being predeterminedly moisture proof;

at least one conveyance grip positioned predeterminedly on the front edge;

the rectangular container being adapted to contain predetermined carpet-tack strips juxtaposed with the carpet-tack strips being generally about parallel to an axis of the rectangular container and having oppositely disposed ends intermediate an inside periphery of the bottom end of the rectangular container and an inside periphery of a top end of the lid in a lid-closed mode; and

the rectangular container and the lid positioned end-to-end with the lid in the lid-closed mode are adapted to contain a predetermined plurality of the carpet-tack strips juxtaposed within a container area which is defined by inside peripheries of the front edge, the first side, the back edge and the second side of the rectangular container.

2. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 1 wherein:

the back edge of the rectangular container has a container-back length that is predeterminedly shorter than intended carpet-tack strips for which the rectangular container is adapted to contain;

the back edge of the lid has a lid-back length which is predeterminedly shorter than the container-back length;

the lid-back length and the container-back length added together linearly end-to-end is a total-back length;

the total-back length is predeterminedly longer than the intended carpet-tack strips;

the front edge of the rectangular container has a container-front length that is predeterminedly shorter than the intended carpet-tack strips;

the front edge of the lid has a lid-front length which is predeterminedly shorter than the container-front length;

the lid-front length and the container-front length added together linearly end-to-end is a total-front length;

the total-front length is predeterminedly longer than the intended carpet-tack strips;

the total-front length is sufficiently longer than the container-front length for causing a bottom end of the front edge of the lid in hinged transit to circumvent and thereby to avoid contact with one or more of the carpet-tack strips which may be positioned with bottom ends proximate an inside periphery of the bottom end of the rectangular container and with top ends in close proximity to an inside periphery of the front edge of the rectangular container.

3. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 1 wherein:

the container area includes a package area for receiving a predetermined package of the carpet-tack strips.

4. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 1 wherein:

the container area includes a full-pack area for receiving a plurality of the carpet-tack strips that has been contained in the package and removed for placement in the rectangular container.

5. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 1 wherein:

the container area includes a part-pack area for receiving a predetermined portion of the plurality of the carpet-tack strips that has been contained in the package and removed for placement of a part-pack plurality of the carpet-tack strips in the rectangular container.

6. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 1 wherein:

the container area includes a jumbo-pack area for receiving a predetermined plurality of the carpet-tack strips that has been contained in a plurality of the packages and removed for placement of a jumbo-pack plurality of the carpet-tack strips in the rectangular container.

7. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 1 wherein:

at least one conveyance grip positioned predeterminedly on the front edge of the rectangular container includes a handle.

8. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 7 wherein:

the handle is positioned proximate a center of gravity intermediate the bottom end of the rectangular container, the top end of the lid, the first side of the rectangular container and the second side of the rectangular container.

9. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 1 wherein:

at least one conveyance grip positioned predeterminedly on the front edge of the rectangular container includes a shoulder strap.

10. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 9 wherein:

the shoulder strap has strap ends which are positioned proximate the center of gravity intermediate the bottom end of the rectangular container, the top end of the lid, the first side of the rectangular container and the second side of the rectangular container.

11. The carpet-tack-strip container of claim 10 wherein:

the handle is positioned intermediate the strap ends and proximate the center of gravity intermediate the bottom end of the rectangular container, the top end of the lid, the first side of the rectangular container and the second side of the rectangular container.