Coupleable crate

Abstract

Provided is a crate coupleable to another crate or to a variety of carrying platforms. The crate having a base and side-walls upwardly extending from the base, of which at least two opposite side-walls are locking side-walls extending parallel to one another, each of the locking side-walls is configured at a top or a bottom surface thereof with at least one sliding locking slot extending parallel to said locking side-wall and defining a primary sliding path, the at least one sliding locking slot is configured with at least one arresting rib and an uncovered portion extending behind the at least one arresting rib, another one of the top or a bottom surface of the locking side-walls is configured with at least one locking tongue disposed parallel to said locking side-wall and configured for sliding arresting with a respective locking slot.

Claims

1. A crate having a base and side-walls upwardly extending from the base, of which at least two opposite side-walls are locking side-walls extending parallel to one another, each of the locking side-walls is configured at a top or a bottom surface thereof with at least one sliding locking slot extending parallel to said locking side-wall and defining a primary sliding path; said at least one sliding locking slot is configured with at least one arresting rib and an uncovered portion extending behind the at least one arresting rib; another one of the top or a bottom surface of the locking side-walls is configured with at least one locking tongue disposed parallel to said locking side-wall and configured for sliding arresting with a respective locking slot, the at least one sliding locking slot serving as a receiving bay for the at least one locking tongue, and the at least one locking tongue having a length that is parallel to the locking side wall that is shorter than a length of the receiving bay that is parallel to the locking side wall; and a third wall, extending between the two parallel locking side-walls, is configured at one of a top end and a bottom end with a locking latch, slidingly displaceable, normal to said primary sliding path, between a retracted position and a projecting position, wherein at the projecting position it is configured for engaging a latch arresting portion of another one of a top end and a bottom end of a third wall edge of a top or bottom crate, respectively.

2. The crate of claim 1, wherein the sliding locking slots constitute sliding female coupling members of one object, and the locking tongues constitute male coupling members of a male-female coupling system of another object, wherein the male coupling member is configured for engaging a female coupling member such that sliding the male coupling member into the female coupling member along a sliding path causes the male coupling member to be arrested by the female coupling member, thus causing coupling between the one object and the other object.

3. The crate of claim 1, wherein at a stacked position, where the crate is mounted over a second, like crate, the locking latch is engageable with the latch arresting portion thereby preventing sliding displacing the crate along the primary sliding path, as a consequence of which the crate cannot detach from the second crate.

4. The crate of claim 3, wherein at the stacked position, base edges of a top crate configured with locking tongue male projections, engage with female type locking slots configured at the top edges of the bottom crate, slidably engageable along said primary sliding path and arrested in a vertical direction, wherein the locking latch prevents sliding displacement of the crates, so that the stacked crates are securely stacked and engaged with one another.

5. The crate of claim 1, comprising one or more features selected from the group consisting of: (i) the crate is rectangular, with the two locking side-walls being left and right side-walls of the crate, and the third wall being a front or a rear side-wall of the crate, (ii) at least the locking side-walls of the crate extend to the same height from the base of the crate, (iii) the third wall is shorter than the two locking side walls, and wherein a base portion of the crate, below the third wall is configured with a downwardly extending portion for concealing a gap between stacked crates, at the event of a shorter third wall, and (iv) the at least one arresting rib of the sliding locking slots extends flush with a top or bottom surface, respectively, of a locking side-wall.

6. The crate of claim 1, wherein (i) the locking tongues are disposed below or substantially flush with a bottom surface of the crate, and/or (ii) the locking latch is normally biased into its projecting position.

7. The crate of claim 1, wherein the locking latch has at least one feature selected from (i) being manually displaceable between its respective projecting position and retracted position, and (ii) being received within a latch space extending between a double walled cavity, with an opening formed at an external wall surface of the latch space for accessing a latch manipulating portion of said locking latch, for manipulating the latch into its retracted position.

8. The crate of claim 1, wherein the locking latch extends from a bottom end of the third wall and is configured for engaging with a latch arresting portion at a top of a third wall of a second crate below said crate.

9. The crate of claim 8, wherein the latch arresting portion is an inside wall surface of the third wall of a crate below said crate.

10. The crate of claim 1, wherein the locking latch and the latch arresting portion are configured at a front wall of the crate, where the primary sliding path extends between the front wall to a rear wall of the crate.

11. The crate of claim 1, wherein a gliding ramp portion is configured at the third wall, for guidance of the locking latch into latch arresting portion.

12. The crate of claim 1, wherein carrying handles are configured at an outside wall surface of at least at two opposite side walls.

13. The crate of claim 1, wherein the third wall of the crate is configured with a manipulating handle.

14. The crate of claim 13, wherein (i) the manipulating handle is disposed within finger reach from the locking latch manipulating portion, or (ii) the locking latch is manipulable between the projecting position and the retracted position using a single finger of a hand, whilst simultaneously holding the manipulating handle.

15. The crate of claim 1, wherein the locking latch normally projecting from a bottom face of the crate, whereby one or more protecting seat members are provided, extending at least at the vicinity of the locking latch to an extent substantially similar to a projecting length of the locking latch.

16. The crate of claim 1, wherein a top surface of the locking side-walls is configured with one or more protuberances configured with a substantially upright outside-facing surface and an inclined inside-facing surface; the protuberances are configured for engaging within depressions disposed in register at a bottom surface of a like-crate stacked above, to thereby prevent outwards buckling of the locking side walls of a bottom crate.

17. The crate of claim 1, further configured with an auxiliary coupling arrangement for sliding articulating the crate to another object, wherein the auxiliary coupling arrangement is configured on an outside face of one or more of any of the side walls of the crate and on the base of the crate.

18. The crate of claim 17, wherein (i) the object is a mounting platform articulated to any stationary or mobile member, disposed vertically or horizontally, and configured with one or more female couplers elements of a male-female coupling, or (ii) the auxiliary coupling arrangement comprises one or more male-female slider coupler type elements on an outside face the base of the crate.

19. The crate of claim 17, wherein the auxiliary coupling arrangement comprises one or more male-female slider coupler type elements on an outside face of one or more of the side walls of the crate.

20. The crate of claim 19, wherein (i) an auxiliary sliding path extends parallel to, or normal to a primary sliding path of the crate, (ii) the one or more auxiliary male coupling member is configured for engaging a female coupling member such that sliding the auxiliary male coupling member into the female coupling member along a sliding path causes the male coupling member to be arrested by the female coupling member, thus causing coupling between the crate and the objects, or (iii) wherein the auxiliary coupling arrangement is configured with one or more support female coupling elements, in addition to the auxiliary male coupling member, extending along an auxiliary sliding path, for sliding engaging with respective one or more support male coupling elements projecting from the other object, thereby reinforcing articulation of the crate to the other object.

21. The crate of claim 1, comprising one or more auxiliary male coupling members for sliding coupling engagement with a female coupling member of a male-female slider coupler, the auxiliary male coupling member having a female-engaging portion projecting from an outside face of the crate and comprising at least one locking tongue projecting laterally outwardly from the female-engaging portion, the auxiliary male coupling member being configured for sliding engagement with one or more inwardly-directed arresting ribs of a female coupling member of the object, wherein coupling engagement takes place along an auxiliary sliding path.

22. The crate of claim 21, wherein the female coupling member comprising a depressed locking location defined in a surface of a second object, said depressed locking location defined by surface boundaries, said depressed locking location defining said auxiliary sliding path extending between a male coupling member insertion end and a male coupling member arresting end, and configured with at least one arresting rib laterally inwardly extending from the surface boundaries, the female coupling member being configured for slidingly receiving a male coupling member along the auxiliary sliding path.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In order to better understand the subject matter that is disclosed herein and to exemplify how it may be carried out in practice, embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting examples only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1A is a top perspective view of a crate according to an example of the disclosure;

(3) FIG. 1B is a rear perspective view of the crate of FIG. 1A;

(4) FIG. 1C is a bottom perspective view of the crate of FIG. 1A;

(5) FIG. 1D is a top planar view of the crate of FIG. 1A;

(6) FIG. 2A is an enlargement of the portion marked 2A in FIG. 1A;

(7) FIG. 2B is an enlargement of the portion marked 2B in FIG. 1C;

(8) FIG. 2C is an enlarged sectioned view of a portion along line II-II in FIG. 1B;

(9) FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a stack of two crates according to the present disclosure;

(10) FIG. 3B is a sectioned view along line III-III in FIG. 3A;

(11) FIG. 3C is an enlarged sectioned view of a portion along line IV-IV in FIG. 3A;

(12) FIG. 3D is section along line V-V in FIG. 3A;

(13) FIG. 3E is section along line VI-VI in FIG. 3A;

(14) FIG. 3F is section along line VII-VII in FIG. 3A;

(15) FIG. 4A is a perspective front view of a crate according to the disclosure, articulated to a wall mounting plate, through an auxiliary coupling;

(16) FIG. 4B is a perspective rear view of the assembly of FIG. 4A;

(17) FIG. 5 is perspective view of the wall mounting plate of FIG. 4A;

(18) FIG. 6A is an enlarged section along line VII-VII in FIG. 4B; and

(19) FIG. 6B is an enlarged section along line VIII-VIII in FIG. 4B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(20) Attention is first directed to FIGS. 1A to 2C, directed to a crate according to the present disclosure, generally designated 20. The crate 20 is a rectangle shaped open top crate, made of molded resin and comprises a base 24 from which four side-walls upwardly extend, of which two opposite side-walls are referred to as locking side-walls 26, a back wall 28 extending at a rear of the crate, between the locking side-walls 26, and a front wall, between the locking side-walls 26, referred to as a third wall 30.

(21) The two locking side-walls 26 are each configured at their top faces 26A and 26B, respectively, with three female coupling depressions, namely sliding locking slots 34, disposed parallel and along the top face of each locking side-wall 26, and each slot configured with an arresting rib 36, a top surface thereof extending substantially flush with the top faces 26A and 26B, respectively, such that the arresting rib 36 forms an undercut portion 38 therebelow (best seen in FIG. 2A), for arresting a respective coupling male member as will be discussed hereinafter. It is further seen that each of the sliding locking slots 34 is configured with an uncovered portion extending behind arresting rib 36, serving as a receiving bay 40 for a male coupling tongue, as will follow. The sliding locking slots 34 constitute female coupling members of a male-female coupling system.

(22) The sliding locking slots are disposed parallelly along a sliding path (also referred to as an engaging path) extends in direction from the third wall 30 to the back wall 28, as represented by arrow 35.

(23) Also extending from the top faces 26A and 26B, respectively, there are protuberances 46 (two disposed on each side-wall), said protuberances configured with a substantially upright outside-facing surface 48 and an inclined inside-facing surface 49. The purpose of said protuberances 46 will become apparent upon discussing stacking of crates.

(24) The crate 20 is further configured, at each bottom surface 50 of the locking side-walls 26A and 26B, with several locking tongues 54 (three in the illustrated example in correspondence with the three sliding locking slots 34), parallelly extending and disposed along said sliding path 35. Each of the locking tongues 54 is open in a direction facing the back wall, with a space 37 above each tongue, wherein the shape and size of each locking tongues 54 is configured for receiving within the receiving bay 40 namely sliding locking slots 34, and further for sliding engagement with the arresting rib 36, wherein the locking tongues 54 constitute male coupling members of a male-female coupling system. The space 37 is sufficient for receiving the arresting rib 36.

(25) Further configured at a bottom of the third wall 30 of crate 20, there is a locking latch assembly 60 comprising a double walled cavity 62 extending between an external wall surface 64 of the third wall 30, and an inside wall surface 66 thereof, with an inside-protruding housing 68 within the inside space of the crate. The locking latch assembly 60 comprises a locking latch 70, biased by a biasing member 72 within the cavity 62, such that a locking tip 78 of the locking latch 70 normally projects from bottom surface 24B of bottom wall 24 (FIG. 2C). The external wall surface 64 of the third wall 30 is configured with a window 82 allowing access to a manipulating recess 84 of the locking latch 70, facilitating manual manipulating thereof between the normally projecting position (engaged, locked position), and a temporarily axially displaced position, wherein the locking tip 78 is flush or above the bottom face of the bottom wall 24 (disengaged, unlocked position). The arrangement is such that at the projecting position the locking tip 78 is configured for bearing against an inside wall surface 30B of the third wall 30 (FIG. 3C).

(26) As will become apparent hereafter, the object of the locking latch assembly 60 is to prevent sliding displacement of a top, stacked crate, over a bottom crate along said sliding path 35, whilst the male-female coupling members provide articulation of the stacked crates so as to prevent their separation in a vertical direction.

(27) At a top end of the third wall 30, at a location above the locking latch assembly 60, there is a ribbed gliding ramp 88 configured for guidance of the locking latch into latch arresting portion, namely at the location 75 (FIGS. 1D and 3C) bearing against the inside wall surface 30B of the third wall 30 (FIG. 3C).

(28) Further reference is now being made also to FIGS. 3A to 3F, showing stacking of two crates above one another, the two crates being similar to one another and are the same as crate 20 illustrated herein, and are designated 20T (top crate) and 20B (bottom crate), respectively. Likewise, the respective elements of these crates are given like reference numbers as above, however annotated T and B to indicate Top and Bottom, respectively.

(29) For stacking the crates, the top crate 20T is placed over the bottom crate 20B at a partially overlapping position, such that the locking side-walls 26T of the top crate are coplanar with the locking side-walls 26B of the bottom crate, however with the third wall 30T of the top crate disposed slightly before the third wall 30B of the bottom crate, allowing the locking tongues 54 of the top crate to nest within the receiving bay 40. Then, the top crate 20T is slidingly displaced forwards, i.e. along the sliding path 35, namely towards the back wall 28, whereupon the as the locking tongues 54 engage under the arresting ribs 36 the locking tip 78 of locking latch 70 of the top crate slides over the gliding ramp 88, causing the locking latch 70 to temporarily retract and facilitating further sliding displacement of the top crate 20T over the bottom crate 20B, until the containers are flush on top of one another (FIGS. 3A-3F), whereby the locking latch 70 can spontaneously displace into its normally projecting position and engage the latch arresting portion 75 (at the inner surface of the third wall 30B of the bottom crate 20B). Once coupled, the crates 20T and 20B are securely articulated to one another and will not detach unless the locking latch 70 of the top crate is displaced to retract, facilitating sliding displacement of the top crate along the sliding path, though at a reverse sense, whereby the crates are no uncoupled.

(30) Reverting now to the protuberances 46 extending from the top faces 26A and 26B, respectively (of the bottom crate 20B), these are configured for engaging within an upright wall surface 89 of a depression disposed in register at a bottom surface of the top crate 20T stacked above, to thereby prevent outwards buckling of the locking side-walls 26B of a bottom crate 20B, as might have occurred under load.

(31) According to another aspect of the present disclosure, and with further reference now being made also to FIGS. 4A to 6B, the crate 20 is further configured with an auxiliary coupling arrangement. The auxiliary coupling arrangement comprises a first auxiliary coupling arrangement 100 (best seen in FIG. 1D) configured at outside face of the back wall 28 of the crate, and a second auxiliary coupling arrangement 110 configured at the bottom face of the base 24 of the crate.

(32) Whilst the a first auxiliary coupling arrangement 100 is configured only on the back wall 28, it is appreciated that it could just as well be configured on any other side-wall of the crate. Furthermore, the crate 20 can exclude any auxiliary coupling arrangement, or it can be configured with any one or more of the first auxiliary coupling arrangement 100 and the second auxiliary coupling arrangement 110.

(33) Both the first auxiliary coupling arrangement 100 and the second auxiliary coupling arrangement 110 are configured with a plurality of male coupling members 102 and 112, respectively, of male-female slider coupler type arrangements. The auxiliary male coupling members 102 and 112 are configured for sliding coupling engagement with corresponding female coupling members 122 of a male-female slider coupler, e.g. of a mounting plate 130 (best seen in FIG. 5). The auxiliary male coupling members 112 and 122 are configured with a female-engaging portion projecting from an outside face of the crate and comprising at least one (two in the illustrations) locking tongues 114 projecting laterally outwardly from the female-engaging portion, and configured for sliding engagement with inwardly-directed arresting ribs 124 of the female coupling members 122 of the mounting plate 130, wherein coupling engagement takes place along an auxiliary sliding path 125.

(34) In addition, the back wall 28 is configured with a female coupler member 128 (best seen in FIG. 1B), for sliding arresting (along said sliding path 125) with a corresponding male coupling member 131 being an elongate member configured with two laterally projecting coupling ribs 133.

(35) The male-female coupling array disposed on the mounting plate 130 and the first auxiliary coupling arrangement 100 and the second auxiliary coupling arrangement 110 of the crate 20 are disposed so as to facilitate mounting of the crate to the mounting plate 130 either through the first auxiliary coupling arrangement 100 or through the second auxiliary coupling arrangement 110.

(36) It is thus appreciated that the crate 20 can be mounted on a mounting member 130 with the crate opening oriented at any direction. The following are crate mounting examples: the crate can be articulated to a ceiling mounted plate, at a suspended fashion, through coupling of the locking side-walls to the ceiling mounted plate, with the crate's opening facing the ceiling (i.e. facing upwards); the crate can be articulated to a ceiling mounted plate, at a suspended fashion, through an auxiliary coupling arrangement configured at an outside wall of the crate (i.e. with the crate's base extending substantially normal to the ceiling and the crate's opening facing a wall); the crate can be articulated to a surface mounted plate fixed to any bearing surface, through an auxiliary coupling arrangement configured at the base of the crate, (i.e. with the crate's opening facing substantially upwards, normal to said surface mounted plate); the crate can be articulated to a wall mounted plate (e.g. vertically extending mounting plate), through an auxiliary coupling arrangement configured on an outside face of one or more of any of the side-walls of the crate at an outside wall of the crate (i.e. with the crate's base extending substantially normal to the wall mounted plate and the crate's opening facing a ceiling); and the crate can be articulated to a wall mounted plate (e.g. vertically extending mounting plate), through an auxiliary coupling arrangement configured on base of the crate (i.e. with the crate's base extending substantially parallel to the wall mounted plate and the crate's opening facing sideward).