Patent Application
20240300689
The present invention relates to a stackable basket of the type made of a single piece and provided with two handles and to an assembly formed by the basket and a support for the stacking of baskets.
Remote shopping, i.e., online shopping, is becoming increasingly widespread, particularly for buying groceries and everyday products. Once the order is placed, suppliers must prepare the order for distribution. This means that at some point there is a need to perform product selection and prepare bags to be delivered to the customer. Therefore, one of the steps of the process is the collection of products for preparing the order. This process is similar to shopping in a supermarket: a person must go through the warehouse and select the products, an action known as “picking”, which is also used in the field of component selection and collection in a warehouse for product manufacture.
Likewise, this process is performed using bags of a size manageable by one person, i.e., with a volume in the order of 7-10 liters at most.
Moreover, the final dispatch of the products is performed by means of larger, stackable boxes of standardized dimensions, where the products that have been picked end up.
An objective of the present invention is to facilitate the process from picking to the preparation of boxes which are loaded into delivery vehicles and also to eliminate plastic bags with which the products are delivered to the end customer.
To achieve the stated objective, a first aspect of the present invention proposes a basket as defined in claim 1.
Stacking should be understood to mean that the baskets can be fitted one inside the other, such that they take up less space. This stacking can be performed in any direction, with the preferred direction being vertical, and in this case both face up and face down.
A basket which allows optimizing the picking phase and preparation phase of shipping boxes or BACs, according to French terminology, is provided with the aforementioned features. Specifically, on one hand, the basket has a manageable size for the operator who selects and collects the products, and on the other hand, it is designed to fit in shipping boxes, by two or three in number. The most commonly used boxes have a width of 40 cm and a height of 34 cm, the length of which being about 60 cm. Once the baskets have been introduced in the boxes, it is common practice to stack the boxes themselves. This is where the feature of the handles comes into play, as their inward-angled configuration allows them to be folded inward when the top box is placed on top of the box containing the baskets, or when it is closed. The basket is designed for different uses, such that once the customer has received and emptied them, they can then be returned to the supplier for reuse, which is not the case with the current bag delivery system.
In some embodiments:
In some embodiments:
In some embodiments:
In some embodiments:
Some of these embodiments comprise openings in the walls, and ribs oriented towards the inside of the basket on the inside of the walls and close to the bottom, such that they define a support surface for supporting an identical basket stacked with respect to the basket, with the support surface being arranged according to the vertical direction above the lowermost side of the lower openings, in order to minimize the suction effect when stacking the baskets.
The walls of the basket extend between the mouth of the basket and the bottom of the basket. In the present disclosure, and in the context of the basket, the expression “above” should be understood as being farthest away from the bottom of the basket according to the vertical direction defined by the basket and in the direction from the bottom of the basket towards the mouth of the basket.
The openings of the walls of the basket reduce the amount of material required for the basket and the weight of the basket compared to a basket without such openings. In addition, the openings reduce the suction effect to which two baskets are subjected when stacked given that, unlike a solid wall, the openings allow the free circulation of air. This free circulation of air prevents the vacuum required for the suction effect from being generated in the openings.
The ribs of the basket facilitate the stacking of baskets, given that it is not necessary to introduce a basket all the way to the bottom of another basket, rather it is sufficient to introduce it until it is supported on the ribs.
The arrangement of the support surface above the lowermost side of the lower openings allows ensuring a still further reduction of the suction effect generated between the two baskets in the stack, given that the lower part of the introduced basket will be at or very close to the depth of the lower openings of the outer basket. To that end, most of the air pushed into the stack comes out freely through the openings of the outer basket instead of being forced out, generating a suction effect between the two baskets.
In some embodiments, the basket is made from a plastic having a hardness comprised between 40 and 50 Shore, and preferably 45 Shore. This hardness is suitable as a compromise between a sufficient rigidity, so that the basket does not deform too much when loaded and maintains its dimensions for placement and fitting in the boxes together with the other baskets, and a not-too-high rigidity which allows bending the handles when the box is closed or when a box is placed on top of the box containing the basket.
In some embodiments, the angle of inclination of the handles is 8°. This angle of inclination not only allows the user to carry the bags comfortably, but also facilitates the stacking of the baskets.
In some embodiments, the handles have a substantially rectangular opening with a dimension of about 10 cm according to the longitudinal direction and 6 cm according to the vertical direction. These openings allow a user to easily and comfortably grab the handles by hand.
In some embodiments, the handles comprise an over-thickness arranged on the outer side and adjacent to the opening of the handle, such that they allow the formation of a support surface for the user's hand. This over-thickness allows increasing the comfort with which the user grabs the handles by hand.
The basket is preferably manufactured in one piece by injection.
According to another aspect, the invention relates to an assembly of a basket according to the first aspect of the present invention and a support for the stacking of baskets, the support comprising an upper part, a base, and walls extending from the upper part to the base and having an inclination complementary to the inclination of the inner face of the walls of the basket with respect to the vertical direction, such that when the basket is coupled to the support, the inner face of the walls of the basket is supported on the walls of the support.
This support is capable of supporting a large number of stacked baskets, specifically up to 52 baskets, in a stable manner. In addition, the placement of a first basket on the support is easy.
In some embodiments, the support is made from a single piece manufactured by means of injection.
In some embodiments, the walls of the support have an opening. These openings allow reducing the suction effect caused by the stacking between the support and the lower basket of the stack, i.e., the basket the walls of which are in contact with the support.
In some embodiments, the base of the support comprises protrusions for coupling to another support for stacking the basket. This allows mechanically connecting several supports to one another, such that it is very easy to place the supports correctly and optimally with respect to one another, particularly for their placement on a pallet. In some of these embodiments, each support comprises protrusions for coupling to four other supports.
In some embodiments, the support is hollow, i.e., the support defines an empty interior volume. This hollow support or support with a lower opening allows further reducing the amount of material and the weight of the support, while allowing a high stacking stability to be achieved at the same time, given that it is the mass of the side periphery of the base of the support which contributes to greater mechanical stability of the support and of the stack of baskets.
The different aspects and embodiments of the invention defined above may be combined together, provided that they are mutually compatible.
Additional advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description that follows and will be particularly indicated in the attached claims.
As a complement to the description, and for the purpose of helping to make the features of the invention more readily understandable, in accordance with practical exemplary embodiments of the invention, said description is accompanied by a set of figures which, by way of illustration and not limitation, represent the following:
In the description of the possible preferred embodiments of the invention, it is necessary to give numerous details to enable a better understanding of the invention. Even so, it will be apparent to the person skilled in the art that the invention can be implemented without these specific details. Furthermore, the well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description.
The mouth 1 and the bottom 2 of the basket B have a rectangle shape with rounded corners. The dimension of the mouth 1 of the basket B according to the longitudinal direction X is 37 cm. The dimension of the mouth 1 according to the transverse direction Y is 19 cm. The dimension of the bottom 2 of the basket B according to the longitudinal direction X is 34 cm. The dimension of the bottom 2 of the basket B according to the transverse direction Y is 16 cm. Therefore, the cross-section of the mouth 1 according to a plane containing the longitudinal direction X and transverse direction Y defined by the basket B is larger than the cross-section of the bottom 2 according to a plane containing the longitudinal direction X and transverse direction Y defined by the basket B.
Continuing with
The dimension of the basket B from the bottom 2 to the mouth 1 according to the vertical direction Z is about 32 cm.
With these dimensions, it is possible to fit three baskets in a standardized box, as shown in
As explained above, the picking process is greatly simplified because the baskets according to the invention are gradually filled and arranged in the standardized box BX. This furthermore ensures correct placement of the products in the shipping box. During the picking process, the operator places the products correctly in the basket. Once placed, there is no further handling of the products, so they are well arranged until delivery. In contrast, at present, when products are taken out of the picking baskets to be put in the carton, the process is not done correctly (particularly taking into account that the products may not be seen because they are in bags and/or stacked) and some of them, the less protected ones, may be damaged.
As derived from
The walls WB of the basket B comprise openings 3 connecting the inside of the basket B to the outside. In particular, the openings are arranged in the central part of the walls WB, with the periphery of the walls WB being devoid of openings, such that greater resistance to deformation is conferred to the basket B as compared to a basket having openings in the vertical located at the corners of the basket.
The walls WB comprise solid regions R for marking the basket B, for example, with an identifier of the basket B. These solid regions R are laser engravable or labels can be adhered thereon. In some embodiments, the mark is a one-dimensional code, such as a bar code, for example, or a two-dimensional code, such as a QR code, for example. The presence of the solid regions R enables the marking of the basket B during the manufacture of the basket B.
As shown in
Continuing with
The handles A have a flexible mechanical attachment with the walls WB of the basket B. The flexible mechanical attachment is such that it tilts the handles A an angle θ of repose of 5° with respect to the vertical direction Z defined by basket B.
The flexible mechanical attachment of the handles A with the walls WB of the basket B allows folding the handles A above 5° and, as shown in
As illustrated in
The ribs N of the basket B define a support surface NA for supporting another basket B1 stacked together with the basket B. The support surface NA of the ribs N of the basket B has a shape complementary to the outer shape of the corners of the bottom 2 of the other basket B1, such that the contact surface between the support surface NA of the basket B and the outer part of the corners of the bottom 2 of the basket B1 is maximized.
As derived from
The ribs N mechanically connect a wall WB of the basket B with the bottom 2 of the basket B. This allows, when stacking the baskets B, the load derived from the stacking and transmitted to the ribs N to be distributed between the wall WB and the bottom 2 of the basket B.
Support C defines:
Therefore, in the position in which the support C supports the basket B1 in a stack, a position illustrated in
The dimensions of the support C illustrated in
The dimensions of the support C illustrated in
The dimensions of the support C illustrated in
In some embodiments, the walls of the base 5 of the support C are parallel to the vertical direction ZC defined by the support C.
Continuing with
The support C comprises an opening in the lower part of the base 5.
As illustrated in
As can be deduced from
In light of this description and figures, the person skilled in the art may understand that the invention has been described according to some preferred embodiments thereof, but that multiple variations may be introduced in said preferred embodiments without departing from the object of the invention as claimed.
In this text, the term “comprises” and its derivations (such as “comprising”, etc.) should not be understood in an excluding sense. That is, these terms should not be interpreted as excluding the possibility that what is described and defined may include more elements, steps, etc.
