Patent Application
20050145686
This invention relates generally to bulk bin caps having safety indicators.
Large corrugated material containers, such as pallet sized bulk bins, are created for a variety of purposes. For example, the containers are used for storing, shipping or displaying relatively heavy produce such as watermelons, cantaloupes, and bagged apples. The bulk bins often include caps or other container structure to cover the ends of the bulk bins. In use, these containers and caps are generally mounted on or attached to pallets or similar structure for ease of storing or moving the container. Generally, the container design is typically a modified square or rectangular shaped with truncated corner regions. However, the truncated shape of the containers potentially creates a potentially hazardous problem because the pallet corners extend outside the truncated corners. A person may not notice the pallet corners and trip over them.
The invention comprises a modified octagonal palletized shipping and display bin cap which has four triangular flaps designed into the bottom panel configuration. These flaps overlie the exposed supporting structure corners and may have various warning indicia printed on them to alert passers by. The indicia may be stripes, solid fields, or other patterns usually printed in bright colors so as to be readily seen. So-called “day glow” colors are very effective. The flaps act as warning flags to alert nearby people to the potential hazard condition. They can be printed at the same time and on the same surface as other material that might appear on the sides of the bins.
The warning tabs are readily formed when the corrugated paperboard blanks for the bin caps are cut out. They do not complicate the process in any manner or require additional material since they are formed from material used to form the bin cap. The tabs remain attached to the bottoms of the corner panels allowing them to be bent outwardly during the bin setup process. They effectively cover the exposed corners of the pallets while remaining firmly attached to the bin itself.
The preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying FIGURES. The present invention provides a safety indicator for containers that are placed upon or otherwise connected to pallets 52 or other shipping structure.
The present invention is preferably formed from containerboard. However, other materials are considered within the scope of this invention, such as, without limitation, paperboard, fibreboard, corrugated containerboard, single wall corrugated containerboard, double wall corrugated containerboard and triple wall corrugated containerboard. As such, the material from which the blank 20 and container 50 are constructed from are not considered limitations to the present invention.
For the purposes of this description herein, the downward direction is defined as the direction perpendicular to the outer surface of the bottom panel 22 when the container 50 has been erected. The upward direction is defined as the direction perpendicular to the inner surface of the bottom panel 22 when the container 50 has been erected.
With reference to
The first corner panel 28 and the second corner panel may include a locking arrangement, such as a slot and tab. For example, the FIGURES show a corner tab 56 formed in the second corner panel 30 and a corner slot 58 formed in the first corner panel 28. However, it will be appreciated that the location of the corner slot 58 and the corner tab 56 may be reversed. Likewise, any other known locking mechanism may be used without exceeding the scope of the present invention.
With respect to
While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow.
