US2760676A - Plastic tote box - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 28, 1956 w, KNIERlEM ETAL 2,760,676

PLASTIC TOTE BOX Filed Nov 1, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l rroeA/fz Aug 28, 1956 A. w. KNIERIEM EAL 25,760,676

PLASTIC TOTE BOX Filed Nov 1, 1955 2 Sheds-Sheet 2 ale/5M,

United States Patent PLASTIC TOTE BOX Arlington W. Knieriem, Pasadena, and Louis C. Folst, Los Angeles, Calif, assiguors to Calresin Industries, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif, a corporation of California Application November 1, 1955, Serial No. 544,149

2 Claims. (Cl. 220-97) This invention relates to tote boxes and, is particularly useful in the handling of paper cartons of fresh milk and other dairy products in a plant for processing these products and in the wholesale distribution of the same. The invention disclosed herein is an improvement on the plastic case disclosed in our co-pending application, Serial No. 457,008, filed September 20, 1954.

In spite of the excellent merits of the plastic case shown in our co-pending application, some difficulty was experienced in substituting said plastic case for the metal bound wood tote boxes formerly used in dairy plant operation and in the wholesale distribution of products produced therein. This difliculty arose from the character and spacing of the angle iron tracks provided for supporting the tote boxes in the delivery trucks built. for use with the old style metal-bound wood boxes. These tracks were provided in pairs for supporting opposite ends of the tote boxes and the latter were slid broad-side onto said tracks with the latter extending inwardly under opposite end portions of the box.

The lowermost portion of the plastic case shown in said co-pending application comprises a rectangular frame which is substantially shorter than the length. of the adjacent lower portion of the case. This is because the lower end portions of reinforcing elements molded in.- tegral with the case and provided at the four corners thereof terminated a substantial distance short of the bottom face of the box. This fact tended to cause one end of said bottom rectangular frame of said plastic case to slip down inside the adjacent rectangular track thereby causing the case to assume a canted position andto jam, making its removal from the truck extremely difficult.

It is an object of the present invention, to provide a plastic tote box for which the difiiculty experienced with said plastic case is eliminated without any loss of strength in the box or increase in the cost thereof.

Unless special care was exercised, some tendency was also experienced in the stacking and unstacking of the plastic cases aforesaid, when these were loaded, for one end of the upper case to slip downwardly into the case immediately therebelow so that the product contained in the lower case would be damaged.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a plastic tote box having the merits of the aforesaid plastic case but which contains features which tend to prevent the damage to goods from inadvertence as above men.- tioned.

In particular it is another object of the present invention to provide a plastic tote box which when a plurality of these are being manually stacked or unstacked, will permit the practice of rocking the uppermost box about the near bottom edge thereof when assembling this on or disassembling it relative to the box immediately therebeneath, so that the upper box may be slid lengthwise into or out of engagement with the lower box and be guided 'ice when being so moved by the relative conformation of the adjacent corner edges of the two boxes.

The manner of accomplishing the. foregoing objects as well as further objects and advantages will be made manifest in the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which Fig. l is a perspective view of three identical plastic tote boxes in stacked relation, each of which comprises a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of one of the tote boxes shown in Fig. 1 illustrating the relation of the lower end corners of said. box to the angle iron tracks provided in delivery trucks for supporting standard old style, metal bound wood milk cases.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. l and showing; the manner in which the reinforcing elements disposed at the midpoint of the sides of the box terminate at their lower ends a substantial distance above the bottom face of the box whereby said elements may rest upon the upper face of the top reinforcing frame of the box. therebelow while the bottom reinforcing frame of the upper box extends inside said top reinforcing frame of said bottom box.

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of the invention illustrating the manner in which the corner vertical reinforcing elements of thebox structure terminate flush with the bottom face of the box, whereas the side intermediate reinforcing elements terminate at their lower ends above the said bottom face of the box. This view also shows, in broken lines, the position of said angle iron tracks relative. to the ends of, said box;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary detail elevational view of adjacent corners. of two boxes in. nested relation as when one box is stacked upon another and illustrates the manner in which the lower end of eachvertical corner reinforcing element of the upper box fits into one of four corner recesses providedin. the top rectangular frame of the box therebelow thereby permitting the bottom rectangular frame of the upper box to fit inside the top rectangular frame of the lower box with the four corner reinforcing elements of the upper box resting directly on top of and in alignment with. the corresponding reinforce ing elements of the lower box.

Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view taken on the line, 6-6 of Fig. 5 and illustrates the area of the upper face of a corner vertical reinforcing element of the lower of two stacked. boxes which is overlapped by the corresponding reinforcing element of the upper box.

Referring specifically to the drawings the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated therein.- comprises a tote box 10. This box is integrally moldedv of plastic material reinforced by a fibrous material, preferably fibre glass, which in less expensive versions of the box may be replaced by cotton or other cellulose fibres.

The principle governing the structure of the box 10 is the same as that of the plastic case disclosed in our copending application above referred to. In other words, the box 10v includes a skeletonal' frame 11' including a top rectangular perimetric frame 12, a bottom perimetric frame 13, corner upright reinforcing elements 14 which are integrally united at their opposite ends with the. corresponding corners of the top perimetric frame 12 and the bottom perimetric frame 13, and intermediate side. upright reinforcing elements 15 which equally divide the sides of the box 10 and are also integrally united at their upper and lower ends with the top and. bottom perimetric frames 12 and 13.

Each of the six faces of the box 10 is thus surrounded by a substantial and very strong perimetric frame. It is ments 14 terminate at their lower ends at the 'bottom'face 16 of the box which is also the bottom face of the bottom reinforcing perimetric frame 13. The intermediate side upright reinforcing elements 15 terminate at their lower ends a substantial distance above said bottom face 16 and yet a sufficient distance below the top face 17 of said bottom perimetric frame 13 whereby the lower end of each element 15 is integrally joined with the bottom frame 13 by a substantial body of material 18.

Corner portions of the upper perimetric frame 1.2 are deflected downwardly into their integral union with the corner elements 14 to form corner notches 19 in said frame, the bottom face 20 of each of which comprises the upper end of the corresponding corner element 14.

Considering just the skeletonal frame 12 alone of the box 10, this very rigid integral skeleton, when placed on top of another such skeleton, nests therewith in perfectly superimposed stacked relation as shown in Fig. l with the bottom perimetric rectangular frame 13 of the upper box extending inside of the top perimetric frame 12 of the lower box, with the bottom ends of the upright corner elements 14 of the frame of the upper box resting directly on the top faces 26 of the corresponding corner elements of the frame of the lower box, and with the bottom faces of the intermediate upright elements 15 of the frame 11 of the upper boxresting directly on the upper edge of the top frame 12 of the lower box and in alignment with the corresponding intermediate upright elements 15 of said lower box.

Formed integral with the top perimetric frame 12, and flush with the inner face thereof, and integral with the bottom perimetric frame 13, and flush with the outer face 26 thereof, are very thin end and side walls 27 and 28 which are also integral with and flush with inner faces of upright reinforcing elements 14 and 15. Formed integral with the bottom perimetric frame 13 and flush with the upper surface 17 thereof is a thin box bottom 29. Where drainage from the box 10 is desired as where this box is used for handling packaged dairy products, the bottom 29 is provided with a series of holes 30. The end walls 27 are provided with handle holes 31 which are located just below the top perimetric frame 12 so that the latter may be gripped by fingers extended through said holes for the purpose of lifting the box 10.

Besides the tremendous strength and relative lightness of the tote box of our invention, it has certain specific advantages over all previous tote boxes including that shown in our co-pending application. Prominent among these is the ability of the box 10 to be employed in trucks equipped with box supporting tracks comprising sections of angle iron without the boxes getting canted and jamming between these tracks, while at the same time nesting perfectly with the other boxes when these are stacked.

Fig. 2 illustrates the manner in which the lower ends of the corner reinforcing elements 14 of the box 10 forms substantially square corners with the bottom face 16 of the box 10 where the ends of this box rest on tracks 41'} which constitute angle irons having vertical flanges 41 and horizontal flanges 42, each of the latter having an upwardly extending rail 43 at its inner edge on which the boxes 10- ride when they are introduced onto the tracks 40. As clearly seen in Fig. 2, a certain amount of clearance is necessary between opposite ends of the box 19 and the vertical flanges 41 of the tracks 44) but with the square corners formed by the juncture of the corner reinforcing elements 14 with the box bottom face 16, the shifting of the box 10 to bring one end of the box into direct contact with one of the track flanges 41 will not result in the other end of the box dropping inside the adjacent track rail 43. In other words, the novel feature of extending the corner reinforcing elements 14 downwardly so as to be flush with the bottom 16 of the box causes the extended portions of these corner elements to prevent the jamming of the box 10 which was possible with the case shown in our co-pending application.

Another peculiar advantage resulting from novel characteristicsof the box 10 is the facility afforded by the notches 19 at the corners of the box to act as guides for the adjacent bottom corner edge of an upper box of a stack of the same when this upper box is either being moved into stacked relation with the box therebelow or being removed from such relation. The tactic thus made available of handling the boxes 10 consists in the person handling such an upper box tilting the same towards himself and moving the box lengthwise into or from superimposed relation with the box therebeneath by placing the near intermediate upright element 15 of the upper box on top of the near side portion of the top perimetric frame 12 of the lower box and sliding the upper box horizontally into or out of proper superimposed relation with the bottom box. It is easy to learn this method whereby the bottom perimetric frame 13 of the upper box is guided by the notch 19 directly therebencath thereby facilitating the shifting of one box 10 into or out of superimposed relation with another box disposed therebeneath for the purpose of forming or breaking down a stack of such boxes. By making this maneuver possible the danger of the operator inadvertently allowing a corner portion of an upper box to bear directly downwardly on the packaged product in the box therebelow and thus damaging this product is practically eliminated.

The box 10 is manufactured by a plastic molding process between male and female molds and under high temperature and pressure. This produces a high density in the material of the box and renders the latter resistant to damage by rough handling. To facilitate the drawing of the box from the mold all of the surfaces, both interior and exterior, of the box 10 are tapered from the top to the bottom of the box.

The claims are:

1. In an integrally molded plastic box, the combination of: a thin shell comprising a bottom, side walls and end walls, said side and end walls converging slightly from top to bottom to permit withdrawal of said case upwardly from the mold in which it is formed and to permit a lower end portion of said shell of one of said 7 boxes to fit within an upper end portion of the shell of another of said boxes disposed therebelow; a rectangular perimetric top reinforcing frame formed by outwardly thickening upper edge portions of said side and end walls; a rectangular perimetric bottom reinforcing frame formed by extending lower edge portions of said side and end walls below said bottom several times the thickness of said bottom, and inwardly thickening said lower edge portions of said side and end walls several times the thickness of said walls, said bottom reinforcing frame constituting a downward thickening of perimetric portions of said shell bottom, several times the thickness of said bottom; and a series of downwardly tapering upright wall reinforcing elements formed by outwardly thickening said shell walls, said upright elements also constituting a downward thickening of said top reinforcing frame at the corners of said shell, said elements thereby reinforcing said side and end walls at their lines of juncture and being integrally united at their opposite ends with said top and bottom reinforcing frame to form in integral skeleton of six rectangular frames, five of which are reinforced in the planes of said rectangular frames by said ends, sides and bottom of said shell, the lower ends of said corner upright elements terminating at the bottom plane of said box, and the corner portions of said top reinforcing frame being deflected downwardly to form corner recesses whereby the lower ends of said upright elements of one box are adapted to rest on corner portions of said top reinforcing frame of a box disposed therebelow while allowing the perimetric hottom reinforcing frame of the upper box to extend a substantial distance within said top reinforcing frame of the lower box.

2. A combination as in claim 1 in which each of the side walls of said box is provided with a vertical reinforcing element formed by outwardly thickening said side wall and downwardly thickening corresponding portions of the top perimetric frame, the lower ends of said side vertical reinforcing elements terminating suificient distances above the bottom plane of said box so that, when one of said boxes is stacked upon another of said boxes as aforesaid, the lower ends of said side reinforcing elements of the upper box rest upon the side portions of the top perimetric frame of the lower of said boxes.

No references cited.

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