Patent Application
20230286691
Conventionally there exist various types of boxes or receptacles having covers or lids which are used to contain a variety of items for storage. Some such items may give off odors and others may have a shortened shelf life when exposed to air in a non-sealed environment. In such cases a sealed container may be desired. If the container is sealed, odors may escape when the lid is opened which may also be undesirable or air may enter the container thereby reducing shelf life as the lid is opened. Further, if some of the odoriferous contents are combined with other contents, the other contents may become undesirably contaminated with the odors of the odoriferous contents.
Accordingly, there is a need for a container which fulfills some or all of the deficiencies of conventional containers discussed above as well as other deficiencies.
An exemplary embodiment relates to a storage container. The storage container includes a bin portion configured to hold items. The storage container also includes a first lid portion configured to close the top of the bin with a substantially airtight seal. The first lid portion has a substantially planar region and a raised rim extending at least most of the way around the periphery of the substantially planar region. Further, the storage container includes a sub-bin portion disposed within the bin portion and coupled to the bin portion.
Another exemplary embodiment relates to a storage container. The storage container includes a bin portion configured to hold items. The storage container also includes a first lid portion configured to close the top of the bin with a substantially airtight seal. Further, the storage container includes a sub--bin portion disposed within and coupled to the bin portion and coupled to the bin portion. Further still, the storage container includes a second lid portion configured to close the top of the sub-bin with a substantially airtight seal.
In addition to the foregoing, other system aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the disclosure set forth herein. The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications, generalizations, inclusions, and/or omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is NOT intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, features, and advantages of the devices and/or processes and/or other subject matter described herein will become apparent in the disclosures set forth herein.
The use of the same symbols in different drawings typically indicates similar or identical items unless context dictates otherwise.
Referring to
In accordance with various illustrative embodiments, referring to
Referring now to
Bin 110 may have any of a variety of inner storage areas, for example and without limitation an inner bin 162 that may be used to store, for example, a grinder 163 (
In accordance with another illustrative embodiment, an outer bin 115 may be open such that lid 120 overhangs it with a lip portion 122. Lip portion 122 may be used to help pry lid 120 off of bin 110. Other configurations for providing a grip to aid in opening lid 120 may also be used without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
It should be noted that virtually anything that fits in bin 110 may be stored therein without departing from the scope of the disclosure. In various illustrative embodiments sub-bin portion 160 may be integrated into bin 160 as shown. Alternatively, sub-bin portion 160 may configured as a removable airtight unit that can be coupled within bin 160 through use of mechanical fasteners or magnets. Similarly, Bin 160 may be configurable in some embodiments by providing wall dividers that can be configured in various ways without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
In some instances, one or more components may be referred to herein as “configured to,” “configured by,” “configurable to,” “operable/operative to,” “adapted/adaptable,” “able to,” “conformable/conformed to,” etc. Those skilled in the art will recognize that such terms (e.g., “configured to”) generally encompass active-state components and/or inactive-state components and/or standby-state components, unless context requires otherwise.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to claims containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “ a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “ a system having at least one of A, B, or C″ would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that typically a disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms unless context dictates otherwise. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be typically understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
With respect to the appended claims, those skilled in the art will appreciate that recited operations therein may generally be performed in any order. Also, although various operational flows are presented in a sequence(s), it should be understood that the various operations may be performed in other orders than those which are illustrated or may be performed concurrently. Examples of such alternate orderings may include overlapping, interleaved, interrupted, reordered, incremental, preparatory, supplemental, simultaneous, reverse, or other variant orderings, unless context dictates otherwise. Furthermore, terms like “responsive to,” “related to,” or other past-tense adjectives are generally not intended to exclude such variants, unless context dictates otherwise.
