Patent Grant
8528772
The present invention relates to containers having closures with internal threaded lids, and more specifically to those containers having closures with locking members which engage stops on the lids which are internally threaded.
Child resistant lid assemblies for open head cylindrical containers are disclosed in Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,967,926, 5,125,538 and 7,513,384 (incorporated herein by reference) and others, wherein a threaded connection is provided between the container and lid and at least one resiliently biased locking member is pivotally connected to the lid which cooperates with locking teeth on the container to secure the lid to the container. Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,858, incorporated herein by reference, relates to a rectangular container which the applicant believes to be an excellent product.
While these child resistant lid assemblies have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, the construction and arrangement of the lid closure, container and associated locking member resulted in the use of a significant amount of plastic material in the design shown in the '858 patent.
Furthermore, the open head containers upon which the lids and associated locking members are connected are cylindrical, thereby requiring more space for pallet loading and storage than would be required if the containers were rectangular. Rectangular containers for maximizing use of pallet space are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,606,586 and 3,307,739; however, these containers do not include child resistant lid assemblies. U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,858 has a child resistant lid assembly, but it provides internal teeth in the container which are engaged by a locking member on the lid which engages at least one of those teeth through the lid for the locking configuration. For at least some embodiments, at least removing that opening would be desirable, but would likely render the preferred illustrated embodiment of the '858 unworkable for its intended purpose since those teeth could then not be engaged.
In order to maximize use of pallet space for transportation and storage, a substantially rectangular container and associated child resistant lid assembly of the present invention have been devised, wherein the container may be provided with a rectangular closure snapped onto, or otherwise connected at, an upper rectangular edge of the container. The closure is preferably provided with a central circular opening surrounded by at least one annular wall having threads formed radially exteriorly thereon for engagement with cooperating internal threads on a downwardly depending exterior wall of a lid. A resiliently biased locking member pivotally may be preferably connected to the closure which may engage a stop such as one of a plurality of teeth on an outer surface of the exterior wall of the lid to secure the lid to the container closure. The lids and associated locking members can be positioned inwardly of the peripheral edges of the containers, and also preferably either be recessed to be substantially planar or below an upper elevation of the container and/or protected when the lid is installed and containers are stacked.
Short diagonal side webs may be provided along the peripheral edge portion on the bottom or top of each container for centering the container on top of the lid on the next adjacent lower container when stacking.
Hand grips may also be provided integral with two side walls of the container which are tapered to facilitate nesting of plural containers when empty, the two side walls also having longitudinally extending recesses to facilitate removing the container from the nested position.
The particular features and advantages of the invention as well as other objects will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring to the drawings in greater detail, and more particularly to
The skirt portion 6 of the rectangular closure 2 may preferably be provided with a plurality of peripherally spaced resilient fingers 10,
The first annular wall 4 may be provided with radially outwardly extending coordinated threads 12 which cooperate with a pair of inwardly extending coordinated threads 14 provided on a downwardly extending wall 17 of a lid 16. The threads 14 may be contained in a downwardly extending radially spaced channel 18 formed in the closure 2, which receive the downwardly depending wall 17 of the lid 16 when threaded onto the closure, as shown in
As will be seen in
To facilitate the manipulation of the lid 16 onto and off of the closure 2, the lid 16 may be provided with corrugated surfaces as at 26 and/or tabs 27 to thereby provide gripping surfaces. Tabs 27 may particularly be helpful when the lid 16 is planar and/or below an upper surface 37 of the closure 2. Teeth 24 preferably terminate a distance below an upper surface 36 of the lid 16 and may extend from bottom 38 of the wall 17 such as about half way up wall 17 or other distance and/or have other configurations in other embodiments. They may or may not circumnavigate the lid 16 as illustrated.
As will be seen in
To complete the structural description of at least some embodiments of the container and lid assembly of the present invention, as will be seen in
From the above description it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, that the construction and arrangement of the container 1 and lid assembly 16 of many embodiments of the present invention provide a container configured to maximize use of pallet space, and having a lid assembly positioned inwardly of the side walls of the container so that when placing a plurality of containers in side-by-side relationship, or when stacking the containers, the lid assembly 16 on each container is spaced inwardly from the side wall of the adjacent container, to thereby prevent damage to the lid assembly by the adjacent container during shipment and storage. A relatively large central circular opening for the container can be provided with this construction, which is protected by a child resistant lid assembly. Smaller lids can be used in other embodiments and rectangular shapes are not required for all embodiments. Furthermore, the taper of the side walls of the containers can facilitate nesting empty containers for some embodiments, and the longitudinal recesses 31 if formed in the walls of each container 1 beneath integral handles can facilitate sliding the empty inner container outwardly from the empty outer container because the contact wall surface area between adjacent containers can be reduced, thereby reducing the functional resistance to sliding movement between the containers. When full or when the closure 2 and lid assembly 16 are placed on the containers 1, the container can be stacked. The diagonal webs 32 center the container on top to straddle the lid on the next adjacent lower container, and if utilized, the bottom edge 34 of the container on top can rest on a reinforced area 35 on the closure 2 of the next adjacent lower container for some embodiments.
The terms and expression which have been employed herein are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed.
Numerous alterations of the structure herein disclosed will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. However, it is to be understood that the present disclosure relates to the preferred embodiment of the invention which is for purposes of illustration only and not to be construed as a limitation of the invention. All such modifications which do not depart from the spirit of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.
Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what is claimed herein is:
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5377858 | Morris, Sr. | Jan 1995 | A |
