Beverage tray with de-stacking pads and improved stacking detents
US7036666B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 25, 2002 |
| Grant date | May 2, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 12, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
- CPC primaryB65D21/0213
- WIPO fieldHandling
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
A beverage tray has a floor with peripheral, upstanding side and end walls for holding a plurality of containers of beverage, for example in six-packs. The floor has a plurality of downwardly projecting detents on its bottom surface for cooperation with the tops of beverage containers in a sub-adjacent tray to impede free sliding movement of an upper tray over the beverage containers in a sub-adjacent tray to enable stable stacking of the trays, while at the same time enabling the upper tray to be slid over the cans in the lower tray to remove the upper tray from a stack of trays. The detents are rectilinear and present spaced, opposed, parallel, straight detents that define detent sets surrounding bottle top receiving areas. The upper edge of the side wall is smoothly sinusoidally curved to define spaced, alternating upper side wall sections and recessed areas. The side wall has an inwardly inclined, planar outer side wall panel, and a plurality of flat pads are on the outer side wall panel for cooperation with automated machinery used in the handling of the tray.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.