Embodiments of the invention relate to a box, in particular a crate or a transport box for the transport of goods, for example food, and a rack for receiving the box for a presentation of the products located therein and to a system and a method for the presentation of products.
Boxes or crates for receiving products are known in conventional technology. Such crates are for example manufactured from plastics and apart from a rectangular floor include opposing end sides or end walls and opposing sidewalls. The height of the corresponding walls is selected to arrange a predetermined number of products within the crate. Such crates are for example used, during the harvest of food, like for example vegetables or fruits, to directly introduce the harvested vegetables or the harvested fruit on the field into the boxes and then provide the filled boxes to the resellers and finally to the points of sale, like for example supermarkets or the like. The boxes may for example be manufactured from plastics, wherein, however, also other materials are possible, like for example wood, metal or the like. The boxes may comprise foldable walls which enables folding down the boxes after emptying the same so that the sidewalls are folded down in the direction of the floor so that for the back transport of the boxes the volume of the same is minimal and thus a large number of boxes may be transported back simultaneously.
In the boxes a carrier or support is located for example in the form of a cardboard box or a plastics plate or the like which is introduced onto the floor of the box before filling same and on which the products rest.
Once the filled box for example reaches the supermarket, the same is arranged as a whole on a corresponding rack which is suitable for receiving the box. The rack may for example receive the box in an inclined way with respect to the footprint of the rack in order to present the product located within the box in an advantageous way for the customer.
If several layers of products are arranged on top of each other in the box, the above mentioned presentation works well as long as only one or only few layers of products have been removed from the box. If, however, ever more layers are removed, the situation may occur that from a point of view of the observer who looks at the box the products which are contained in the last or bottom layers may only hardly be seen or not be seen at all. This is for example the case when the box is arranged in an inclined way and the last layer of products has been removed by half. From an angle of view of a customer or observer the box then seems to be empty due to the inclined arrangement as the remaining products within the box are arranged in an area of the box floor which is shielded from the view of the observer by a wall of the box facing the observer so that the box already seems to be empty.
This situation is undesired as then the products may not be seen and thus remain within the box and finally have to be discarded as they were not sold.
Another disadvantage of this type of presentation is that the more products are removed the emptier the box seems to be which is undesired with respect to an optimal presentation of the products, as customers may for example not want to select products located in the lower part of the box as the same may unjustly be regarded as impaired by products arranged above the same.
According to an embodiment, a box may have: a floor; two end walls; two side walls; and a plurality of openings in the floor; wherein each of the openings is dimensioned to receive a supporting bar, and wherein the openings are arranged to uniformly lift a carrier introduced into the box using supporting bars introduced into the openings and position the same at a position above the floor.
According to another embodiment, a rack for receiving at least one box mentioned above may have: a supporting frame for receiving the box; and a plurality of supporting bars, mountable to a supporting frame such that the supporting bars, when placing the box onto the supporting frame penetrate through the openings in the floor of the box into the interior of the box.
According to another embodiment, a system for presenting products may have: a box mentioned above; and a rack mentioned above; wherein the box contains several layers of products, wherein the box is arranged on the rack with the supporting bars in the first position, when the box contains a predetermined number of layers of products, and wherein the box is arranged on the rack with the supporting bars in the second position, when one or several layers of the products have been removed from the box.
According to another embodiment, a method for the presentation of products may have the steps of: arranging a box mentioned above, which contains a predetermined number of layers of products, on a rack mentioned above, whose supporting bars are in the first position; and if one or several layers of products have been removed from the box, moving the supporting bars from the first position into the second position, whereby the supporting bars penetrate into the box and lift the inserted carrier with the products arranged thereon with respect to the floor of the box.
The present invention provides a box with a floor, two end walls and two sidewalls. In the floor, a plurality of openings are formed which are dimensioned to receive one support bar each. Further, the openings are arranged to uniformly lift a carrier inserted into the box at support or carrying bars introduced in the openings and position the same at a position above the floor. According to embodiments of the invention the openings have a diameter of 0.1 cm to 5 cm.
According to embodiments of the invention the openings are arranged symmetrically to a center point of the floor surface.
According to embodiments of the invention, one opening each is provided in one of the corners of the floor and at least one opening is provided in a central area of the floor. According to embodiments, in the central area of the floor four openings are provided, wherein according to further embodiments of the invention the openings in the corner each have the same distance to the edges respectively adjacent to the openings, wherein this distance is between approximately ⅛ to approximately ¼ of the length of the short edge. The openings in the central area each include a first distance to the long edges of the floor closest to the openings and a second distance each to the short edges of the floor closest to the openings, wherein the first distance is between approximately ⅓ and approximately ½ of the length of the short edge and the second distance is between approximately ¼ and approximately ½ of the length of the long edge.
According to embodiments of the invention, the carrier introduced into the box is a carrier of a rigid material which when supported at different positions maintains a level shape, i.e. is not bent. The rigid material may be thick paper, cardboard, a wooden plate or a plastics plate.
According to embodiments of the invention, in the floor and/or in the walls the box may further comprise a plurality of ventilation openings to enable a circulation of air through the box. According to embodiments of the invention the box may be foldable, i.e. the end walls and the sidewalls may be configured to be foldable with respect to the floor. According to other embodiments of the invention the box is manufactured from plastics and may serve for receiving and/or for the transport of food, for example fruit, vegetables, meat, etc.
The present invention further provides a rack for receiving at least one box according to embodiments of the invention, wherein the rack includes a frame or supporting frame for receiving the box and a plurality of supporting bars. The supporting bars are mounted to the frame such that the supporting bars, when placing the box onto the frame, penetrate into the interior of the box through the openings in the floor of the box.
According to embodiments of the invention, the supporting bars are movably arranged at the frame to be moved between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the supporting bars are arranged so that the same do not penetrate the interior of a box arranged on the supporting frame. In a second position, the supporting bars are arranged in order to penetrate into the interior of a box arranged on the frame.
According to embodiments of the invention, the supporting bars are further implemented to be arranged so that the same may penetrate into the interior of the box by different penetration depths. For example, the supporting bars may be implemented telescopically or longitudinally shiftable, possibly motorically, to thus set different penetration depths. According to embodiments of the invention, the frame is implemented to carry or support the box at an angle to the footprint or supporting surface on which the frame is arranged.
The present invention further provides a system for the presentation of products, wherein the system includes a box according to embodiments of the invention and a rack according to embodiments of the invention. The box contains several product layers, wherein the box is arranged on the rack with the supporting bars or carrying bars in the first position, when the box contains all or a predetermined number of layers of products. The box is arranged on the rack with the supporting bars in the second position when one or several layers of the products have been removed from the box.
According to embodiments of the invention, the penetration depth of the supporting bars into the interior of the box is increased with a decreasing number of product layers so that a product layer is arranged close to the upper edge of the box.
The present invention further provides a method for the presentation of products arranged in several layers of a box according to embodiments of the invention, wherein a full box is arranged on a rack according to embodiments of the invention whose supporting bars are in the first position. If one or several layers of products have been removed from the box, the supporting bars are moved from the first position into the second position, whereby the supporting bars penetrate or enter the box and lift the integrated support or carrier with the products arranged thereon with respect to the floor of the box.
According to embodiments of the invention, the penetration depth of the supporting bars into the interior of the box is increased with a decreasing number of product layers, so that one product layer is arranged close to the upper edge of the box.
Embodiments of the present invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the following, with respect to the Figures, embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail, wherein in the different Figures like or seemingly like elements are provided with the same reference numerals.
It is to be noted here, that according to other embodiments of the invention the box may not be implemented foldably, that the side and end walls are arranged fixed in the position illustrated in
In
In order to prevent the problems explained above with reference to
In a central area of the floor surface 102 for further openings 134e to 134h are arranged, wherein the openings 134e and 134f comprise the same distance to the long edge of the floor 102 closest to the openings adjacent to the side wall 108b. Likewise, the openings 134g and 134h comprise the same distance to the long edge of the floor closest to those openings adjacent to the side wall 108a. The openings 134f and 134g comprise the same distance to the short edge of the floor 102 adjacent to those openings adjacent to the end wall 106b, and the openings 134e and 134h comprise the same distance to the short edge adjacent to the first end wall 106a. The distances of the openings to the respective edges are as follows:
The openings have a diameter which is in a range from approximately 0.1 cm to approximately 5 cm.
As it may be seen, the openings are evenly distributed across the floor 102 and are provided to allow the penetration of transport bars to be described later into the interior of the box, so that a support or carrier 118 arranged on the floor 102 (see
At this point it is to be noted that in
The bottom position of the supporting bars may alternatively also be selected so that the same partially penetrate the openings in the box floor without penetrating the interior of the box in order to thus cause a locking of the boxes on the supporting structure 138 and thus an improved stability.
b) shows a situation in which already a plurality of products have been removed from the box 100 so that for example only a small number of products 116 is arranged in an area adjacent to the first end wall 106a of the box, similar to the box illustrated in
Embodiments of the invention are not limited to a presentation or arrangement of the box 100 at an angle with respect to the floor surface 126, rather the supporting structure 128, as already mentioned above, may also be arranged substantially in parallel to the footprint or base 126. Also in this case, for an improved presentation of the products 116 in the box 100, when more products are removed, an insertion of the supporting bars into the interior of the box is caused in order to guarantee an arrangement of the products above the floor surface, for example adjacent to the upper edge of the box. The supporting bars 138a-138d may, as illustrated in
If the supporting bars are mounted to the rack 120, the same may be moved either linearly from the bottom to top from the first into the second position or be folded from the first position into the second position or be moved in another suitable way between the two positions.
The use of the supporting bars described with reference to
According to embodiments of the invention, the openings in the box floor may comprise the same or different dimensions, for example, the openings arranged in the area of the corners of the floor may comprise a larger diameter than those in the central area of the floor. The supporting bars are then to be adapted accordingly.
Although some aspects were described in connection with a device, it is obvious that those aspects also represent a description of the corresponding method, so that a block or a member of a device may also be regarded as a corresponding method step or as a feature of a method step. Analog to that, aspects which were described in connection with a or as a method step also represent a description of a corresponding block or detail or feature of a corresponding device.
While this invention has been described in terms of several embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents which will be apparent to others skilled in the art and which fall within the scope of this invention. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and compositions of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations, permutations, and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
This application is a continuation of copending International Application No. PCT/EP2010/063800, filed Sep. 20, 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | PCT/EP2010/063800 | Sep 2010 | US |
Child | 13845285 | US |