CA2091398A1 - Slide-resistant container - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A container such as a trunk organizer for a plurality of articles. The container has a floor and an inner wall which extends upwardly to an upper edge. An outer flexible wall extends downwardly from the upper edge and below the lowermost undersurface of the floor to support the container, providing slide resistance. The distance which the outer wall extends below the lowermost floor undersurface is between about 3/16 and 3/8 inch to allow flexing of the outer wall so that the floor contacts a surface on which the container rests to aid in supporting heavier loads whereby the outer wall thickness may be reduced for cost savings as well as to provide the required flexibility. The container may be "clicked" onto a mat having bosses uniformly spaced and sized, with the bosses engaging the inner surface of the lower outer wall portion, the mat having a slide-resistant lower surface.

Description

~Q913~8 The present invention relates generally to a container for a plurality of articles. An application of the device is as a trunk organizer for a moving vehicle, it being understood that the container may have various other uses.
Known containers generally include covered pouches or compartments, limiting the size of articles which can be stored and accessibility to them. Containers have been prone to tipping or sliding, particularly in a moving vehicle, causing the contents to be jumbled, or in the case of open containers, to be lost. Examples of known containers are shown in U.S. patents 3,430,803; 3,521,808; 4,834,243; 3,601,277; and 3,909,092.
U.S. patent 3,430,803 to Nelson discloses a semidisposable tray comprising a reusable unitary foam plastic base member and a discardable nonfoam film guard for the serving of comestibles. The base member has an outwardly and upwardly extending lip which terminates in an out~ardly and downwardly extendinq exterior wall.
The exterior wall is described as extending downwardly below the plane formed by the substantially horizontally disposed bottom portion, which raises the bottom portion so that it does not rest upon a substrate upon which the tray rests. This is said to greatly decrease sliding or slippage of the tray on a substrate because of frictional forces tllereby produced.
The base member is disclosed as being molded of - 2 - 2~1398 any suitable foamed plastic material such as polyethylene, polyurethane, or polystyrene and is described as structurally stable. For low density polystyrene, a thickness of about 80 mils for the base member is said to be desirable, and it is stated that larger and smaller thicknesses can be used.
The tray of Nelson would not be considered suitable as a trunk organizer or the like for carrying articles in a vehicle, and it is desired to reduce the expense of making a slide-resistant container for a vehicle.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a slide-resistant container for a moving vehicle at a minimum cost.
In order to provide a slide-resistant container, in accordance with the present invention a container is provided with an inner and an outer wall, the inner wall being a containing wall and the outer wall extending downwardly beyond the lowermost floor undersurface. ~he lower edge of the outer wall digs into a carpeted vehicle floor to provide slide resistance. In order that the thickness of the outer wall may be reduced to lower the cost of manufacture, the distance which the outer wall extends downwardly beyond the lowermost floor undersurface is between about 3/16 and 3/8 inch for the container sizes typically provided for a vehicle so that, with the outer wall being composed of a flexible or semirigid material, the container floor rests on the vehicle floor when loaded to a predetermined weight with the outer wall continuing to offer slide resistance as well as resistance to tipping over. ~hus, the amount of force which the outer wall is required to withstand is minimized so that the thickness of the outer wall may be reduced for decreased manufacturing cost.
other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein the same reference numerals denote the same or similar parts throughout the several views.
Brief DescriPtion of the Drawinqs FIG. l is a top perspective view of a container which embodies the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view thereof.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view thereof taken along lines 3-3 of FIG. l.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of a mat and illustrating its combination with the container.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the mat taken along lines 5-5 of FIG. 4.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments Referring to FIGs. l to 3, there is shown generally at ll a container which may be used, for example, as a trunk organizer on a carpeted floor of a vehicle trunk for retaining various articles placed therein. The container ll may, for example, have an overall length of perhaps about 25 inches, an overall width of perhaps about 12 inches, and a height of perhaps about 5 lJ2 inches. The thickness may vary within the container within the neighboorhood of perhaps l/32 to l/16 inch. For example, at the bottom inside corners, the thickness may be perhaps ~1398 about 0.030 inch. Such a trunk organizer may be provided to hold a wide variety of products that may vary in height up to about 12 inches which may tend to tip over but which may benefit from the stabilization provided by the dividing walls 20 described hereinafter and the narrow width.
The container 11 is preferably molded as a single piece and has a containing or inner wall 10 which extends upwardly from the peripheral edge of a floor 22 to the upper edge 28 of the container.
The containing wall 10 is substantially rectangular in a cross-section taken parallel to the floor 22, with rounded corners, and defines, with the floor 22, the overall interior space of the container. The containing wall 10 in this embodiment is comprised of four sides 12, 14, 16, and 18. Sides 12 and 16 are opposed, relatively long, and parallel to each other. Sides 14 and 18 are opposed, relatively short, and parallel to each other. However, the containing wall 10 may comprise more or fewer sides or may be one continuous wall.
In this embodiment the floor 22 comprises a plurality of floor elements 24 separated by double-walled dividing walls 20, each of the double walls thereof extending downwardly from an upper edge 21 of the respective dividing wall 20 to and integral with the adjacent edges of adjacent floor elements 24 respectively. The dividing walls 20 divide the interior space defined by the containing wall 10 and the floor 22 into compartments, each of which can retain articles. Having a number of compartments in such a cellular structure allows the user to place articles in different compartments, each of 091~98 which can retain articles. A number of compartments is provided to minimize contact between the articles, reduce movement and tipping over of the articles, minimize damages and mess from spills and the like, and allow the user to better organize the articles. The floor 22 may be discontinuous, as shown, or continuous.
Each floor element 24 spans between and is integral with a corresponding pair of dividing walls 20 or between an end 14 or 18 and the corresponding dividing wall 20. In this embodiment, the floor elements 24 close the bottom of the container 11. However, in other embodiments, the floor 22 or floor elements 24 may be partially open.
Although the floor elements 24 are shown to be coplanar, they may, if desired, be provided to lie on different planes to effectively provide compartments of different depth.
The floor elements 24 are shown to comprise corrugations 40 for increased strength. However, it will be appreciated that the floor elements may have any other pattern or may even be smooth.
One or more dividing walls 20 may span any two points along the containing wall 10, or alternatively only join the containing wall at one point, or not at all. One or more dividing walls 20 may alternatively not join the floor 22 but rather be spaced therefrom.
The dividing walls 20 are shown to have flanged edges 26 to provide essentially smooth, curved, and continuous joints between the dividing walls 20 and the containing wall 10 and floor elements 24. However, the joints may, if desired, be sharp~

In order that the container 11 not be too stiff so that it may be easier and less costly to manufacture, the container is preferably constructed so that its top surfaces are not all co-planar, i.e., the dividing walls 20 do not extend the full height of the containing wall 10.
One or more of dividing walls 20 may, if desired, extend so as to terminate at or higher than the plane defined by the upper edge 28 of the containing wall 10.
The article containing space defined by the floor 22 and inner wall 10 is supported by an outer or exterior wall 30 which is integral with and extends from upper edge 28 downwardly below the lowermost of the floor element undersurfaces 31 a distance illustrated at 33 in FIG. 3 so that the floor 22 is raised from a vehicle floor, illustrated at 35, or the like upon which the container 11 is placed. The outer wall 30 essentially surrounds the inner wall 10, and its lower edge 38 digs into carpeting 39 which may be on the vehicle floor 35 or other rough surface or otherwise reacts with the vehicle floor 35 grippingly to resist slipping or sliding of the container due to the weight being applied to the edge 38 and resulting frictional force. This gripping resistance may be increased as additional weight is loaded into the container 11 .
The plane of the exterior wall 30 lies at an acute angle, illustrated at 41, to the containing wall 10 which is preferably about 8 degrees so as to provide a good combination of stability, flexibility, tip resistance, and vertical 35 support. However, the exterior wall 30 could be ~091398 disposed to lie substantially parallel to the containing wall 10.
The exterior wall 30 is shown to comprise two long and two short sides 32 corresponding to the interior wall sides 12, 14, 16, and 18 respectively. Each of the two long ones of the sides 32 is shown to comprise four horizontal elongate panels 34 joined at exterior ledges 36 to provide greater structural strength and stiffness, as needed, to the exterior wall 30.
Although three ledges 36 are shown, it will be appreciated that, depending on the material emp~oyed in constructing the container and the strength and stiffness required for a particular application, there could be more, fewer, or no ledges 36 and a corresponding reduction in the number of panels 34. The axes of the panels of each of the long ones of the sides 32 are all shown to be substantially parallel to each other to provide additional strength to the exterior wall 30.
A rigid container exterior wall may cause the trunk organizer 11 to tip more readily and may have the tendency to cause it to "hop" around the trunk of a vehicle when p~aced under load by the vehicle. In order to prevent such instability, the container is preferably molded or otherwise suitably formed of a semi-rigid, durable, light-weight, preferably recyclable material such as high-density polyethylene which would allow some flexing of the outer wall 30 to allow it to deflect under load to thereby increase the gripping resistance of the lower edge 38 to movement of the container 11 and increase the stability of the container as it "floats" on the flexible skirt 30.

~!91398 A large flat area for the upper edge 28 is considered to be inefficient in that it requires more material and therefore more weight and increases the overall size (particularly the S footprint) of the container. The upper edge 28 therefore has preferably a rounded shape, as shown in FIGs. 1 to 3, so as not to have such inefficiency as well as to permit the sides 32 of the outer wall 30 to flex in close proximity to the vertical internal wall 10 to thereby provide a maximum support to the structure without the need for additional reinforcing. The inclination of the flexible outer wall or skirt 30 is also provided to allow it to flex simultaneously in multiple directions as dictated by a combination of vehicle movement and the load placed directly into the trunk organizer 11.
A container 11 as shown in FIGs. 1 to 3 is constructed so that one may nest with another for cost savings in transportation. Thus, for example, 25 of the trunk organizers each having an overall height of 5 1/2 inches may be nested into a stack having a height of perhaps only about 25 1/2 inches.
In order to minimize the weight that must be supported by the exterior wall 30 so that its thickness may be reduced for cost savings, the distance 33 is selected so that the exterior wall 30 flexes to allow the container floor 22 to move downwardly to engage the floor 35 on which the container 11 lies for support of the container 11 when loaded to a predetermined load. If this distance 33 is too little, the container floor 22 takes over to become the skid surface with the outer wall 30 losing its effectiveness. As the g distance 33 increases, the thickness, illustrated at 43, of the outer wall 30 must be increased to accommodate the increased load before the container floor 22 engages the vehicle floor 35.
Should the outer wall 30 have to carry all of the load typically placed in a trunk organizer, it may have to be considerably heavier in constuction and therefore may not adequately flex to absorb vehicle movement. In order to minimize the thickness of the outer wall 30 while maintaining the effectiveness of the outer wall 30 so that it flexes during vehicle movement and prevents the container from "hopping" around the vehicle when partially loaded, in accordance with the present invention the distance 33 is within the range of about 3/16 to 3/8 inch, and such distance is suitable for the typical sizes of trunk organizers. Thus, the skirt 30 is provided to "give" under a predetermined load placed in the trunk organizer allowing the container floor to contact the vehicle floor to carry the majority of the load placed in the container.
Thus, the skirt 30 may provide a large degree of stabilization without carrying all of the load.
The texturing or corrugations 40 are also provided for increased gripping of the floor 22 for increased resistance to sliding movement of the container ll.
The above range of distance 33 allows the outer wall thickness 43 to be reduced to a range of perhaps about 0.06 to 0.07 inch when the container is composed of high-density poly-ethylene to thereby provide adequate support and flexibility at smaller loads. It should of course be understood that this thickness 43 may ~091398 vary depending on the material of which the container is made.
Referring to FIGs. 4 and 5, a mat, illustrated generally at 50, may be provided to alternatively secure the trunk organizer ll so that it resists movement on a vehicle floor. The mat 50 is composed of low-density polyethylene or other suitable flexible material, low-density polyethylene having greater flexibility than that of the high-density polyethylene of which container ll is made. The material for mat 50 may be supplied, for example, in a roll in a tube for the customer to trim to the desired size with a scissors or knife.
The mat 50 is molded or otherwise suitably formed to have a generally uniform thickness, illustrated at 52, of perhaps about 0.08 to 0.l inch, and has a quantity of uniformly spaced and sized bosses 54 on its upper surface 56. The bosses 54 may, for example, have a diameter of perhaps l/2 inch and are spaced apart a distance sufficient to receive two container outer walls 30 therebetween with suitable clearance. The boss height, illustrated at 58, is slightly less than the distance 33 to maximize boss effectiveness while allowing clearance between the bosses 54 and the floor 22.
Gripping members 60, having the shapes of pyramids, are provided on the lower mat surface 62 intermediate the positions of the bosses for engaging the vehicle floor for providing slide resistance of the mat. Such grippers 60 may be similar to those conventionally found on domestic runners. Other suitable means for providing slide resistance may alternatively be provided.

209i398 Returning to FIG. 3, the lower portion 42 (lowermost of panels 34) of outer wall 30 may be said to be flared outwardly to define an inner ledge 44 which is spaced from lower edge 38 a distance, illustrated at 46, which is equal to or slightly greater than distance 33. Inner ledge 44 thus corresponds to lowermost outer ledge 36.
In accordance with the present invention it is important that the bosses 54 be uniformly sized and spaced and that the inner perimeter of the lower edge 38 be precisely shaped in accordance therewith so that the container ll may be "clicked" onto the mat 50 with the corresponding bosses 54 lying under the inner ledges 44 and engaging the inner surface of lower outer wall portion 42 over its perimeter. It should be understood that the container ll may be otherwise suitably shaped to "click" onto the mat. The corners 48 of the lower portion 42 may be suitably rounded to receive the rounded bosses 54 respectively.
Thus, the trunk organizer ll may be securely "clicked" onto a slide-resistant mat 50 on a vehicle floor or may be free-standing on a carpeted vehicle floor or otherwise for slide resistance.
It should be understood that while the invention has been described in detail herein, the invention can be embodied otherwise without departing from the principles thereof, and such other embodiments are meant to come within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (19)

1. A container for a plurality of articles comprising at least one floor element having an undersurface, inner wall means extending upwardly from said at least one floor element, and outer wall means extending downwardly beyond the lowermost of said floor undersurface a distance which is equal to between about 3/16 and 3/8 inch.

2. A container according to claim 1 having an upper edge, each of said inner and outer wall means extending downwardly from said upper edge.

3. A container according to claim 1 further comprising at least one dividing wall means within the space defined by said inner wall means for dividing the container into compartments each of which has one of said at least one floor element.

4. A container according to claim 3 wherein said dividing wall means is joined to said inner wall means and said respective floor elements at edges of said dividing wall means which are flanged to provide substantially smooth, round, and continuous joints.

5. A container according to claim 1 wherein the container is formed as a single piece.

6. A container according to claim 1 wherein said outer wall means is composed of a material which has flexibility to allow said floor element to engage a surface on which the container is placed when the container is loaded with articles of a predetermined weight.

7. A container according to claim 1 wherein the container is formed as a single piece of high density polyethylene.

8. A container according to claim 6 wherein said outer wall means has a thickness which is between about 0.06 and 0.07 inch.

9. A container according to claim 1 wherein the portion of said outer wall means which extends downwardly beyond the lowermost of said floor undersurface is flared outwardly to define an inner ledge which is spaced from the lower edge of said outer wall means a distance equal at least to said distance which said outer wall means extends beyond the lowermost of said floor undersurface.

10. A container according to claim 1 wherein said at least one floor element is corrugated.

11. A container according to claim 1 wherein said outer wall means includes at least one side which comprises at least two horizontally disposed panels joined by a longitudinal ledge.

12. A container for a plurality of articles comprising a single piece having means defining a floor having an undersurface, an upper edge, an inner wall including a pair of side wall portions and a pair of end wall portions extending from said floor upwardly to said upper edge, an outer wall surrounding said inner wall and connected thereto at said upper edge and extending therefrom downwardly beyond said floor a distance equal to between about 3/16 and 3/8 inch to a lower edge whereby, with the lower edge engaging a carpeted vehicle floor, the container floor lies above the vehicle floor with the lower edge offering resistance to movement of the container, the container being composed of a flexible material allowing the container floor to engage the vehicle floor when the container is loaded with articles of a predetermined weight.

13. A container according to claim 12 wherein said outer wall has a thickness which is between about 0.06 and 0.07 inch.

14. A container according to claim 12 wherein said floor comprises a plurality of floor elements, the container further comprising at least one dividing wall for said floor elements within said inner wall.

15. In combination with a container having at least one floor element having an undersurface and a wall means having a lower edge portion which extends below the lowermost of said floor undersurface, a mat portion comprising a sheet, a lower surface on said sheet, means on said lower surface for gripping a floor on which said mat portion is placed, an upper surface on said sheet, and a plurality of bosses on said upper surface and sized and spaced uniformly over said upper surface, said lower edge portion being sized to engage said mat portion with an inner surface of said lower edge portion engaging ones of said bosses over the perimeter thereof.

16. A combination according to claim 15 wherein said distance which said lower edge portion extends below the lowermost of said floor undersurface is greater than the boss height.

17. A combination according to claim 15 wherein said distance which said lower edge portion extends below the lowermost of said floor undersurface is between about 3/16 and 3/8 inch.

18. A combination according to claim 15 wherein said container has an inner wall means extending upwardly from said floor element and further has an upper edge, said wall means which has said lower edge portion and said inner wall means both extend downwardly from said upper edge.

19. A combination according to claim 15 wherein each pair of said bosses has a spacing to receive said lower edge portions of two of said container therebetween.