The invention relates to a container for food. In particular, this container comprises a bowl with a base, a side wall, and a bowl brim encircling the top as well as a tightly sealing lid on the bowl brim, when necessary. In the contact area with the bowl brim the lid comprises a soft-elastic sealing material or is provided with such. Furthermore, fastening elements are provided, to mount the lid on the bowl in a removable fashion, namely by applying a pressing force between the lid and the bowl brim.
In particular, food containers serving as freshness preserving receptacles for storing and transporting foods should seal as tightly as possible in order to prevent the oozing of liquids, as well as any air exchange between the interior of the container and the environment. For this purpose the lid of a container of the type mentioned at the outset comprises a soft-elastic sealing material, at least in the area that is put onto the brim of the bowl. Alternatively, a soft-elastic seal may also be provided in the contact area between the lid and the bowl brim in order to ensure the positioning of the lid on the bowl to be air and water tight.
In order to ensure in larger containers with a volume of, for example, one liter or more, for the positioning of the lid on the bowl brim to be really air tight it is mandatory that a permanent pressing force is maintained between the lid and the bowl brim. For this purpose it is known to provide separately operating mounting elements in the form of pivotal lashes on the lid, which engage the bottom of the corresponding protrusions at the exterior of the bowl in a clamping manner and thus press the lid against the bowl brim, with the soft-elastic seal being compressed in the contact area between the lid and the bowl brim. However, in rectangular and/or cube shaped containers there is the problem that the bowl side wall evades this pressure between the lid and the bowl brim, at least at the longer sides, because a container of the type mentioned at the outset is generally formed with a thin wall for reasons of weight and expenses and the stability of the side walls is therefore not always sufficient to create the counter force against the pressure at the bowl brim necessary for air tightness. Therefore, in such containers it is necessary to provided fastening elements at all four sides, which press the lid against the bowl brim.
It is obvious that this considerably worsens the handling of a food container of the type mentioned herein because, in the above-mentioned known container the user must open a total of at least four clamping fastening elements embodied as pivotal lashes with his/her two hands in order to be able to remove the lid from the bowl. This is naturally not being done in a single step.
Based on this prior art, the object of the present invention is to improve a container of the type mentioned at the outset with regard to its handling.
This object is attained in a container having the features of the invention. Preferred embodiments and further developments of the container according to the invention are described in the claims.
A container for food, embodied according to the present invention, essentially differs from prior art in that two or more fastening elements are combined into an operating unit and that this operating unit is embodied as a slide bar. In a container having a basically rectangular shape preferably two slide bars are provided, each of which operate a multitude of fastening elements so that the fastening elements not only create the pressure between the lid and the bowl brim in the proximity of the slide bar but also distributed over the circumference at the two sides without any slide bars. Therefore, on the one hand, the invention facilitates the handling of a container of the present type such that only two operating units for operating all fastening elements distributed over the circumference are provided, in particular, thus the container can be opened or closed in a single step, and, on the other hand, such that the operating units are embodied as slide bars, which again allows a simplified handling in reference to the known pivotal lashes.
As already mentioned, it is advantageous if an essentially rectangular container, i.e. a container with a bowl having two side walls and two end walls, is provided with a slide bar at each end wall, which slide bars simultaneously operate at least two fastening elements, which both engage the corresponding end wall as well as simultaneously one or both side walls.
The fastening elements may comprise, on the one hand, holding surfaces essentially extending horizontally and, on the other hand, latches, which engage the holding surfaces when closing the fastening elements. Preferably the latches and/or the holding surfaces are sloped in order to each form a contact slope in reference to a horizontal plane so that when sliding the latch onto the holding surface a movement of the lid occurs in the direction of the bowl and thus the necessary pressure of the lid towards the bowl brim is created.
Preferably, the latches are embodied with a hook-shaped cross-section and mounted at the lid. On the other hand, this allows the holding surfaces to be very easily formed by a projection in the area of the bowl brim and, if necessary, be provided with recesses, through which the hook-shaped latches can be inserted and engage the holding surfaces by way of a horizontal shifting.
Further advantages result if at least one holding surface, beneficially the holding surfaces at the side walls of the bowl, is provided with guidance surfaces extending essentially parallel to a direction of movement of the corresponding latch and each being aligned approximately perpendicular to the holding surface. Preferably this guidance surface is formed by a lateral guidance bar. The hook-shaped latch then ensures not only that the lid is tightly positioned in a form-fitting manner against the upward acting forces at the bowl, but based on the lateral guidance surface also against a lateral displacement of the lid on the container. It is obvious that this further improves the tight positioning of the lid on the container.
Beneficially, the slide bars according to the invention are mounted on the lid and, if necessary, connected with the latches also provided on the lid; because, when the slide bars are mounted on the lid, they are located at that point of the container which is handled by the user anyway, when he/she wants to separate the lid from the bowl. Additionally, the bowl is then free from any movable parts, which is beneficial regarding the handling of the bowl as well as regarding the contamination of movable parts.
In order to, on the one hand, minimize the danger of injuries by hook-shaped latches and, on the other hand, still to achieve an appealing look, the lid and/or the slide bar are preferably provided with roof-shaped edge surfaces, which laterally cover the latches. This may be embodied such that in the inserted position, the slide bars form the edge surface of the lid, thus, when two slide bars are provided, form a type of divided ring extending over the entire circumference of the lid.
In the following, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is explained and described in greater detail using the attached drawings. In the drawings:
a and 6b are lateral cross-sectional views of the end of the container, in the unlocked (
a and 7b are views, partially in cross-section, of the lateral brim region of the container; and
In a similar perspective view
The latches, which are covered by the roof-shaped edge surfaces 7 in
As discernible in
As mentioned above,
The exemplary embodiment shown in
In the present exemplary embodiment the slide bars 5 are mounted on the lid 4, which offers advantages in handling, because the lid 4 is grasped anyway for opening and closing, and which releases the bowl 1 from any movable parts. However, the slide bars 5 according to the invention can certainly also be mounted on the bowl 1, in which case the lid would not necessarily have any movable parts. A combination of those two alternatives is also possible, i.e. that both the bowl 1 as well as the lid 4 are provided with movable parts. It is only important that groups of fastening elements, embodied here by latches 13, 16 and holding surfaces 15, are connected and uniformly combined to an operating unit, namely a slide bar 5, so that with only two slide bars 5, the pressure force can be guided to the bowl 1 and the lid 4 not only at the ends 3 but also at the side walls 4, in the present example at a total of six points.
By the present embodiment of the slide bar 5 with edge surfaces 7 encircling the lid 4 an appealing look of the container according to the invention results.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20 2005 017 057.7 | Oct 2005 | DE | national |