Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D21/00—Nestable, stackable or joinable containers; Containers of variable capacity
  • B65D21/02—Containers specially shaped, or provided with fittings or attachments, to facilitate nesting, stacking, or joining together
  • B65D21/0209—Containers specially shaped, or provided with fittings or attachments, to facilitate nesting, stacking, or joining together stackable or joined together one-upon-the-other in the upright or upside-down position
  • B65D21/0217—Containers with a closure presenting stacking elements
  • B65D21/0219—Containers with a closure presenting stacking elements the closure presenting projecting peripheral elements receiving or surrounding the bottom or peripheral elements projecting from the bottom of a superimposed container
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D43/00—Lids or covers for rigid or semi-rigid containers
  • B65D43/02—Removable lids or covers

Definitions

• the present disclosure relates to a lid for a container, the lid being adapted to be fitted on the top of a container e.g. to form a closed space.
• the lid has a generally rectangular shape with two pairs of opposing and parallel edges, such that four corners are defined, and extends at least partly in a main plane in between the edges.
• the present disclosure further relates to a storage system comprising such a lid and a first and a second container. Background
• lids and containers may be produced by injection moulding in a plastic material and are well known for the use of storing various objects.
• the container may be suspended in a drawer frame.
• Containers with fitted lids may also be stacked as a storage system to store more items for a given floor surface area.
• One general problem with such storage systems is to improve the stacking functionality.
• One object of the present disclosure is therefore to obtain a lid or a storage system of the initially mentioned kind with improved stacking properties.
• a lid of the initially mentioned kind comprises, in the vicinity of each of said four corners, at least a first and a second corner support.
• the first corner support comprises two support surfaces rising a first step from the main plane
• the second corner support comprises two support surfaces rising an additional second step from the main plane.
• the distance between the second corner supports of two diagonally opposing corners is greater than the distance between the first corner supports of said diagonally opposing corners.
• the distance between the first corner supports of two diagonally opposing corners of the lid corresponds to the diagonal distance between two corners in the bottom surface of a first container
• the distance between the second corner supports of two diagonally opposing corners corresponds to the diagonal distance between two corners in the bottom surface of a second container.
• the lid and/or the container may be made by injection moulding a plastic material such as polypropylene, PP.
• each corner of the lid with a third corner support, which includes two support surfaces rising an additional third step from the main surface of the lid. This allows a container with a third bottom surface size to be stacked on the lid in the same way.
• Each corner support's surfaces may be joined into a corner.
• a surface, elevated from the main plane, may be defined between the support surfaces of the first and second corner supports. This surface may carry a stacked container of a type with a larger bottom surface.
• Fig 1 shows a top view of a lid.
• Fig 2 shows an enlarged portion of the lid in fig 1 , at a corner thereof.
• Fig 3 shows a stack of three containers.
• Figs 4-7 show enlarged portions of the stack in fig 3.
• the present disclosure is related to modular storage systems including drawer frames and containers. Such systems have the benefit, e.g. as compared with a traditional chests of drawers, of being configurable in various ways to address the needs of an end user.
• Drawer frames with metal wire and mesh baskets have been widely appreciated by users that have been able to select wire and mesh baskets with different sizes according to their needs.
• Plastic containers are relatively inexpensive to produce in large series by injection moulding. Unlike a mesh or wire container, a plastic container may be made diffusion tight, and when lids are attached to the containers, the they become stackable, such that a number of containers, with items stored inside, can be stored on a small floor surface. If the storage system is used for instance in a closet, this allows the user e.g. to switch the contents of the closet from season to season.
• Fig 1 shows a top view of a lid 1 , which may be attached to a container.
• the container as well as the lid may be produced by injection moulding a plastic material such as polypropylene, PP.
• the lid has a rectangular shape with two pairs of opposing edges, and defines four corners.
• the lid extends at least approximately in a main plane in between the edges, i.e. its top surface may be more or less flat, usually with the exception that features are provided at the edges for attaching the lid to a container.
• the lid 1 comprises sets 5 of corner supports as will now be described in greater detail.
• a set of corner supports is shown in greater detail in fig 2 illustrating an enlarged portion of the lid in fig 1 as well as in figs 4 and 5 illustrating per- spective views of a set of corner supports.
• the set includes two corner supports 7, 9 where each support has two support surfaces that rise from the main plane of the lid.
• the first corner 7 support comprises a first 1 1 and a second 13 support surface that rise a first step, e.g. about 7 mm, from the main plane of the lid. As shown, they may be mutually perpendicular to be able to support a container stacked on the lid on either side of a corner.
• the first surface 1 1 is about parallel with the adjacent long edge of the lid and the second surface 13 is about parallel with the adjacent short edge of the lid.
• the corner support is thus formed in one piece with the remainder of the lid as a bulge, and the thickness of the lid goods may be uniform over the main plane thereof, also including the supports.
• the surfaces may as illustrated adjoin each other and form a corner 15.
• the corner support may present two surfaces that are capable of abutting against the side walls and/or bottom surface edges of a container at either side of the container's bottom surface corner, when that container is stacked on the lid, and as the skilled person realises this can be achieved in other ways than the one illustrated. For instance, it would be possible to let two cylindrical portions rise from the main plane of the lid, one at each side of the container corner. The side walls on each side of the corner could then abut against the periphery of each cylinder.
• the lid is further provided with a second corner support 9 including two support surfaces 17, 19 which rise an additional second step, e.g. about 7 mm, from the main plane.
• This corner support 9 is located closer to the corner of the lid as compared to the first corner support.
• the support surfaces 17, 19 of the second corner support 9 may otherwise be arranged in a similar way as the corresponding surfaces 1 1 , 13 of the first corner support 7.
• a stair-shaped form may be achieved, and a box supported laterally by the second corner support 9 may rest on a surface 18, a step, elevated from the main plane, between the support surfaces of the first and second corner supports 7, 9.
• This surface 18 may be substantially parallel with the main plane of the lid.
• the distance d2 between the second corner supports of two diagonally opposing corners is greater than the distance d1 between the first corner supports of said diagonally opposing corners.
• the bottom surface of a container is conveniently made smaller than the open top of the container and with inclined walls to allow containers to be nested. Stacking of containers with lids enabled more interns to be stored for e.g. a given floor area.
• Fig 3 shows a stack of three containers, each having a lid.
• the identical top and bottom containers 21 , 23 are larger, more specifically taller, than the container 25 in the middle of the stack.
• the walls rising from the bottom of each container have about the same outward inclination, and the containers have about the same dimensions at the open top, such that identical lids can be fitted on each container. Consequently, the middle container 25 will have a larger bottom area than the other containers.
• fig 6 shows a first corner support which prevents a taller container with a smaller bottom surface from slipping sideways.
• Fig 7 illustrates a second corner support which prevents a shorter container with a larger bottom surface from slipping sideways. As shown, that container rests on a surface that interconnects the first and second corner support.
• the present disclosure is not restricted to the above illustrated embodiment and may be varied and altered in different ways within the scope of the appended claims.
• equally tall containers with mutually different wall inclinations will have different bottom portion dimensions.
• the side walls may be curved or may have step-wise increasing dimensions from the bottom portion towards the upper opening.
• the main plane of the lid is illustrated as flat this is not necessary.
• the main plane may have surface structures of differen kinds and may e.g. be dented inwards in various ways that does not affect a container being stacked thereon.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Stackable Containers (AREA)
• Closures For Containers (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=50687400

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

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Citations (2)

Family Cites Families (5)

• 2014
  • 2014-05-14 EP EP14168246.8A patent/EP2944581A1/en not_active Withdrawn
• 2015
  • 2015-03-13 CN CN201510111787.3A patent/CN105083701A/zh active Pending
  • 2015-05-12 AU AU2015261010A patent/AU2015261010A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2015-05-12 MX MX2016014835A patent/MX2016014835A/es unknown
  • 2015-05-12 US US15/309,100 patent/US20170081077A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2015-05-12 RU RU2016147983A patent/RU2016147983A/ru not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2015-05-12 WO PCT/EP2015/060450 patent/WO2015173227A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2015-05-13 TW TW104115261A patent/TW201609504A/zh unknown

Patent Citations (2)

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