US20200339304A1

US20200339304A1 - Food container

Info

Publication number: US20200339304A1
Application number: US16/430,951
Authority: US
Inventors: Jingdong Wu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2019-04-25
Filing date: 2019-06-04
Publication date: 2020-10-29
Also published as: WO2020215463A1; CN109969584A

Abstract

A food container is provided, including a box body, a cover and a locking buckle, wherein the cover is buckled above the box body; an outer edge of the box body encloses an outer edge of the cover, and the outer edge of the box body is provided with a segment of notch, the notch exposes a part of the outer edge of the cover; and the locking buckle is composed of a seal strip and a pull-tab portion, wherein the seal strip is arranged in the notch, and is connected to a break face formed by the box body at the notch through a plurality of connecting bridges, and the pull-tab portion is arranged at an outer side of the seal strip and connected to the seal strip. The food container is easy to open and can ensure the sealing performance.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Chinese Application No. CN 201910340549.8 having a filing date of Apr. 25, 2019, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The invention relates to the technical field of articles for daily use, in particular to a food container.

BACKGROUND

Food containers are indispensable in people's daily life. For example, disposable plastic lunch boxes are widely used due to the advantages of good sealing performance, light weight, beautiful appearance, low cost and the like. The plastic lunch box generally includes a box body and a cover disposed on the box body, with a storage cavity formed between the box body and the cover, functioning to accommodate and seal food. In the prior art, to achieve a good sealing effect, a peripheral part of the box body and a peripheral part of the cover are generally designed as structures closely connected to each other. However, while the sealing performance of the lunch box is improved, the difficulty of the user's operation of lifting the cover from the box body is increased, and finger injury is likely to occur; sometimes it needs to damage the cover or the box body to open the cover successively, and the food in the lunch box is likely to spill, which results in a poor use effect and a poor use experience of the lunch box. Conversely, to reduce the difficulty of opening the lunch box, it needs to sacrifice the sealing performance.

SUMMARY

In view of this, the present invention provides a food container, which is easy to open and can ensure the sealing performance.
A technical solution adopted in the present invention is as follows:
A food container includes a box body and a cover, wherein the cover is buckled above the box body, and a peripheral part of the box body and a peripheral part of the cover are connected in a clamped manner, with a storage space formed between the box body and the cover; the food container further includes a locking buckle, wherein an outer edge of the box body encloses an outer edge of the cover, and the outer edge of the box body is provided with a segment of notch, the notch exposes a part of the outer edge of the cover; and the locking buckle is composed of a seal strip and a pull-tab portion, wherein the seal strip is arranged in the notch, and is connected to a break face formed by the box body at the notch through a plurality of connecting bridges, and the pull-tab portion is arranged at an outer side of the seal strip and connected to the seal strip.
To open the food container, a user pulls up the pull-tab portion to break the connecting bridges that connect the box body and the seal strip, and removes the locking buckle from the notch so that a part of the outer edge of the cover is exposed, then pinches the exposed part of the outer edge of the cover and lifts the cover from the box body, thus conveniently opening the food container. Furthermore, the locking buckle also has safety and anti-theft functions in that the user can know whether the food container has been opened according to whether the food container has the sealing strip or whether the connecting bridges are intact in the food container.
In the present invention, on the one hand, the notch is provided at the peripheral part of the box body to expose a part of the outer edge of the cover, so as to facilitate the operation of lifting the cover and reduce the difficulty of opening the food container, and the reliability of connection between the box body and the cover is almost not affected, thereby ensuring the sealing performance; on the other hand, the seal strip is used to close the notch and shield the exposed part of the outer edge of the cover, thereby also functioning to ensure the sealing performance and also providing safety and anti-theft functions.
The food container is easy to open and can ensure the sealing performance, and also has safety and anti-theft functions.
Further, the peripheral part of the box body is rectangular and has four corners.
Further, the notch is formed at the outer edge at one corner of the box body, and the seal strip is arranged in the notch, with an inner side face of the seal strip being connected to the break face formed by the box body at the notch through the connecting bridges, and the pull-tab portion is connected to an outer side face of the seal strip.
In the rectangular peripheral part of the box body, the portion at the corner has the most concentrated stress and the highest mechanical strength, and is not prone to deformation or damage. Providing the notch at the outer edge of the corner has small influence on the overall average mechanical performance of the box body. In this way, not only is the probability of deformation of the notch during transportation and storage reduced to ensure the sealing performance of the food container, but also the shape of the notch can be maintained when the connecting bridges break, and the notch is prevented from being further split due to the action of an external force to damage the original structure of the box body.
Further, the shape of the seal strip is same as that of a complete corner of the box body, so that the peripheral part of the box body is substantially complete and beautiful in appearance while ensuring the sealing performance.
Further, the four corners of the peripheral part of the box body are all rounded corners, which can avoid inconvenience in transportation and possible injury to the user due to too sharp outlines.
Further, the inner side face and two end faces of the seal strip are all connected to the break face formed by the box body at the notch through the connecting bridges, to improve sealing performance.
Further, connecting bridges connecting the inner side face of the seal strip to the break face are uniformly distributed at intervals, such that the user can successively remove the seal strip by applying a force that is uniform in magnitude.
Moreover, the pull-tab portion has a through hole, and thus the food container has a suspensible function. The user can hang the through hole of the pull-tab portion on a mechanism such as a hook or nail to suspend the food container or suspend the box body separately.
Further, the pull-tab portion is a sheet structure, which is perpendicular to the outer side face of the seal strip and connected to the outer side face of the seal strip, to facilitate suspension and the user's operation of ripping the seal strip by pulling up the pull-tab portion.
Further, the box body, the locking buckle and the connecting bridges are formed together through plastic molding and punching processes, which is conducive to reducing manufacturing processes and costs.
For the sake of better understanding and implementation, the present invention is described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a food container of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the food container of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view in a direction A-A of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a part I in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view in a direction B-B of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a front view of a box body;

FIG. 7 is a top view of the box body;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of a part II in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a bottom view of the box body;

FIG. 10 is a three-dimensional diagram of the box body;

FIG. 11 is a three-dimensional diagram of the food container of the present invention in a direction;

FIG. 12 is a three-dimensional diagram of FIG. 11 along a sectional direction a-b-c-d;

FIG. 13 is a three-dimensional diagram of the food container of the present invention in another direction; and

FIG. 14 is a three-dimensional diagram of the food container of the present invention in a yet another direction.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to all of FIGS. 1-14, a food container provided by the present invention includes a box body 1, a cover 2 and a locking buckle 3.
The cover 2 is buckled above the box body 1, and a peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 and a peripheral part 20 of the cover 2 are connected in a clamped manner, with a storage space S formed between the box body 1 and the cover 2, as shown in FIG. 3. An outer edge 103 of the box body 1 encloses an outer edge 203 of the cover 2, as shown in FIG. 4, and the outer edge 103 of the box body 1 is provided with a segment of notch 12, as shown in FIG. 8, and the notch 12 exposes a part of the outer edge 203 of the cover 2, as shown in FIG. 12.
Referring to FIGS. 8 and 12, the locking buckle 3 is composed of a seal strip 31 and a pull-tab portion 32, wherein the seal strip 31 is arranged in the notch 12, and is connected to a break face 13 formed by the box body 1 at the notch 12 through a plurality of connecting bridges. The pull-tab portion 32 is arranged at the outer side of the seal strip 31 and connected to the seal strip 31 and is provided with a through hole 320.
To open the food container, a user pulls up the pull-tab portion 32 to break the connecting bridges that connect the box body 1 and the seal strip 31, and removes the locking buckle 3 from the notch 12 so that a part of the outer edge 203 of the cover 2 is exposed, then pinches the exposed part of the outer edge 203 of the cover 2 and lifts the cover 2 from the box body 1, thus opening the food container. Furthermore, the locking buckle 3 has safety and anti-theft functions in that the user can know whether the food container has been opened according to whether the food container has the sealing strip 31 or whether the connecting bridges are intact in the food container.
Moreover, the user can hang the through hole 320 of the pull-tab portion 32 on a mechanism such as a hook or nail to suspend the food container or suspend the box body 1 separately, to satisfy the needs of various use occasions.
In the embodiment, the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 is rectangular and has four corners. Further preferably, the four corners of the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 are all rounded corners, which can avoid inconvenience in transportation and possible injury to the user due to too sharp outlines. Correspondingly, the peripheral part 20 of the cover 2 is a rectangle with four corners being all rounded. In other embodiments, the peripheral part of the box body may also be a regular shape or an irregular shape such as other polygon, circle or oval.
To ensure the sealing performance, in the embodiment, the notch 12 is formed at the outer edge 103 at one corner of the box body 1. In the rectangular peripheral part 10 of the box body 1, the portion at the corner has the most concentrated stress and the highest mechanical strength, and is not prone to deformation or damage. Providing the notch 12 at the outer edge 103 of the corner has small influence on the overall average mechanical performance of the box body 1. In this way, not only is the probability of deformation of the notch 12 during transportation and storage reduced to ensure the sealing performance of the food container, but also the shape of the notch 12 can be maintained when the connecting bridges break, and the notch 12 is prevented from being further torn due to the action of an external force to break the original structure of the box body 1. In other embodiments, the notch can be provided at a part on any position of the outer edge of the box body.
To reduce the material cost and ensure beautiful appearance, in the embodiment, the shape of the seal strip 31 is same as that of a complete corner of the box body 1, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 12, the seal strip 31 is arranged in the notch 12 and shields the part of the outer edge 203 of the cover 2 exposed from the notch 12, and is coordinated with the outer edge 103 of the box body 1 in shape, so that the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 is substantially complete in appearance while ensuring the sealing performance, and a small amount of material is used for the seal strip 31.
To improve the sealing performance, in the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, an inner side face 311 and two end faces 313 of the seal strip 31 are all connected to the break face 13 formed by the box body 1 at the notch 12 through a plurality of connecting bridges. Specifically, a gap is formed between the seal strip 31 and the break face 13, and the connecting bridges are arranged in the gap and are perpendicular to the break face 13, wherein three connecting bridges 41 connecting the inner side face 311 of the seal strip 31 to the break face 13 are uniformly distributed at intervals, such that the user can successively remove the seal strip 31 by applying a force that is uniform in magnitude.
When the seal strip 31 is pulled, usually the connecting bridge between one end face 313 of the seal strip 31 and the break face 13 is broken first, and then the rest connecting bridges are broken. Therefore, to facilitate ripping the seal strip 31, in the embodiment, the two end faces 313 of the seal strip 31 are each connected to the break face 13 respectively through only one connecting bridge 42. In other embodiments, depending on the thickness and material of the connecting bridge, more than one connecting bridge can be used to connect each end face of the seal strip and the break face.
To reduce the material cost and ensure beautiful appearance, the pull-tab portion 32 is an annular sheet structure with a through hole 320 formed in the middle. The pull-tab portion 32 is perpendicular to an outer side face 312 of the seal strip 31, and is connected to the outer side face 312 of the seal strip 31, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 12, to facilitate suspension and ripping the seal strip 31.
In the embodiment, the box body 1, the locking buckle 3 and the connecting bridges are made of the same material, such as thermoplastic, to facilitate manufacture at the same time and reduce manufacturing processes and costs. Specifically, the box body 1, the locking buckle 3 and the connecting bridges are formed together through plastic molding and punching processes, wherein the gap between the seal strip 31 and the break face 13 is formed by the punching process to form the notch 12, and the gap between two adjacent connecting bridges is also formed by the punching process, and the through hole 320 of the pull-tab portion 32 is also formed by the punching process. The cover 2 may also be made of the same material as the box body 1, such as being formed by plastic molding.
Referring to FIGS. 4, 5 and 12, FIG. 4 shows a sectional view at the junction of the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 and the peripheral part 20 of the cover 2 (the locking buckle 3 is not cut through by the section line); FIG. 5 shows a sectional view at the junction of the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 and the peripheral part 20 of the cover 2 (the locking buckle 3 and the connecting bridge 41 in the middle are cut through by the section line); FIG. 12 shows a sectional view at the junction of the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 and the peripheral part 20 of the cover 2 (the locking buckle 3 and the connecting bridge 41 in the middle are cut through by the section line); the food container shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 are placed right side up, while the food container shown in FIG. 12 is placed upside down.
To improve the sealing performance, in the embodiment, the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 is bent to form a horizontal platform portion 101, an upward projecting protrusion portion 102 and the upturned outer edge 103, wherein the protrusion portion 102 is located between the platform portion 101 and the outer edge 103; and the peripheral part 20 of the cover 2 is bent to form a downward projecting support portion 201, an accommodating portion 202 with a downward opening, and the upturned outer edge 203, wherein the accommodating portion 202 is located between the support portion 201 and the outer edge 203; the support portion 201 is arranged on the surface of the platform portion 101, the protrusion portion 102 is embedded into the opening of the accommodating portion 202, and the top face of the protrusion portion 102 and the bottom face of the accommodating portion 202 are in contact and form-fitted with each other to achieve sealing; the outer edge 103 of the box body 1 encloses the outer edge 203 of the cover 2 from bottom to top, an end face 103 s of the outer edge 103 being higher than an end face 203 s of the outer edge 203, and the outer edge 103 and the outer edge 203 are in contact and form-fitted with each other to achieve sealing. In this way, the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1 and the peripheral part 20 of the cover 2 are connected in a clamped manner to achieve a good sealing effect.
Further, to achieve a better sealing effect, as shown in FIG. 4, an inner side face of the outer edge 103 projects toward the direction of the protrusion portion 102 to form a lock rib 103 m. The lock rib 103 m is arranged above the end face 203 s of the outer edge 203 and along the outer edge 103, and the lock rib 103 m functions to obstruct the outer edge 103 from upward displacement, thereby preventing the separation between the box body 1 from and the cover 2.
In addition, referring to FIG. 4, the protrusion portion 102 forms a downward opening, and in order to improve the mechanical strength of the peripheral part 10 of the box body 1, in the embodiment, a plurality of reinforcing ribs 104 are provided in the opening of the protrusion portion 102, as shown in FIG. 12 (one of the reinforcing ribs 104 is cut through by the cross section in the figure); and the support portion 201 forms an upward opening, and in order to improve the mechanical strength of the peripheral part 20 of the cover 2, in the embodiment, a plurality of reinforcing ribs 204 are provided in the opening of the support portion 201.
The foregoing embodiments only represent several implementations of the present invention, and are described concretely in detail, but should not be understood for this reason as limiting the patent scope of the present invention. It should be noted that for those of ordinary skill in the art, a number of modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, and all these modifications and improvements are encompassed within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A food container, comprising a box body, a cover and a locking buckle, wherein the cover is buckled above the box body, and a peripheral part of the box body and a peripheral part of the cover are connected in a clamped manner, with a storage space formed between the box body and the cover; an outer edge of the box body encloses an outer edge of the cover, and the outer edge of the box body is provided with a segment of notch, the notch exposes a part of the outer edge of the cover; and the locking buckle is composed of a seal strip and a pull-tab portion, wherein the seal strip is arranged in the notch, and is connected to a break face formed by the box body at the notch through a plurality of connecting bridges, and the pull-tab portion is arranged at an outer side of the seal strip and connected to the seal strip.

2. The food container of claim 1, wherein the peripheral part of the box body is rectangular and has four corners.

3. The food container of claim 2, wherein the notch is formed at the outer edge at one corner of the box body, and the seal strip is arranged in the notch, with an inner side face of the seal strip being connected to the break face formed by the box body at the notch through the connecting bridges, and the pull-tab portion is connected to an outer side face of the seal strip.

4. The food container of claim 3, wherein the shape of the seal strip is same as that of a complete corner of the box body.

5. The food container of claim 2, wherein the four corners of the peripheral part of the box body are all rounded corners.

6. The food container of claim 3, wherein the four corners of the peripheral part of the box body are all rounded corners.

7. The food container of claim 1, wherein an inner side face and two end faces of the seal strip are all connected to the break face formed by the box body at the notch through the connecting bridges.

8. The food container of claim 2, wherein an inner side face and two end faces of the seal strip are all connected to the break face formed by the box body at the notch through the connecting bridges.

9. The food container of claim 3, wherein the inner side face and two end faces of the seal strip are all connected to the break face formed by the box body at the notch through the connecting bridges.

10. The food container of claim 7, wherein connecting bridges connecting the inner side face of the seal strip to the break face are uniformly distributed at intervals.

11. The food container of claim 8, wherein connecting bridges connecting the inner side face of the seal strip to the break face are uniformly distributed at intervals.

12. The food container of claim 9, wherein connecting bridges connecting the inner side face of the seal strip to the break face are uniformly distributed at intervals.

13. The food container of claim 1, wherein the pull-tab portion has a through hole.

14. The food container of claim 1, wherein the pull-tab portion is a sheet structure, which is perpendicular to an outer side face of the seal strip and connected to the outer side face of the seal strip.

15. The food container of claim 1, wherein the box body, the locking buckle and the connecting bridges are formed together through plastic molding and punching processes.