Receptacles – Freight containers
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-01
2004-09-21
Newhouse, Nathan J. (Department: 3727)
Receptacles
Freight containers
C220S263000, C220S323000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06793084
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to a container for liquid and/or solid substances, having a container body which is of double-walled form in the base and circumferential regions as a result of an inner container inserted into an outer container and continuously cylindrical from the base to the filling aperture, and has at its top a filling aperture which is of circular outline in plan view and can be hermetically sealed by a pivotable lid with an annular seal, which lid, at least in a part-region on the container side in the closed state, is of circular form such that it can be pivoted to fit into the inner container and is provided with locking means which are optionally actuable from a position retracted from locking seatings provided on the container body into a position engaging with positive fitting into the locking seatings, the annular seal being disposed in the part-region of the lid lying within the filling aperture in the closed position of the lid and being formed as a continuous sealing ring of elastomeric material, whose external diameter in the underformed state is substantially equal to or only slightly smaller than the clear internal diameter of the inner container and whose internal diameter is substantially equal to or only slightly larger than the external diameter of the lid in the region retaining the sealing ring in its intended assembly position on the lid.
Containers which can be used, for example, for the transportation of wastes or of environmentally hazardous substances such as chemicals, oils and similar liquids, and which therefore have to be sealingly closeable and resistant to the action of external forces, are known (e.g. DE 41 10 847 C2, DE 43 21 199 C2), the actual container body in such cases still being retained in a framework formed by sections enclosing it, which framework has fork guides in the base region for receiving a fork of a fork lift and respective stacking corners in the upper region which permit a plurality of containers to be stacked one upon the other. The known containers have proved highly suitable for specific uses. Because of the fact that they have a filling aperture of significantly reduced diameter by comparison with the internal diameter of the container body, however, their emptying—for example, when filled with a flowing content or pieces of solid content—is critical, especially if the contents tend to adhere or harden. Cleaning of the emptied container through the narrowed aperture is also laborious and also difficult to verify, especially in the region of the container lid surface in the regions adjoining the filling aperture.
U.S. Pat. No. -A-5 083 509 has disclosed a container which comprises a continuous cylindrical inner container without a tapered mouth, but which is intended not as a transportation and storage container but exclusively as a refuse container for solids, and comprises compacting means by means of which the refuse introduced can be compressed into packet form. For this purpose, the container is provided with a compression piston displaceably disposed in the inner container and performing a compression stroke towards the sealed container mouth through evacuation of the space containing the refuse to be compressed. After opening of the container seal, the compressed refuse packet can then be removed from the container. The auxiliary units necessary to evacuate the container, such as the motor-driven suction pump, valves, etc., are in this case disposed below the base of the inner container within an installation space formed by the lengthened outer container.
By contrast, it is an object of the invention to provide a container suitable as a collection, transportation and storage container for all contents in the form of all liquid, pasty and flowing contents, or solid contents in piece form, which is so designed that it is fundamentally authorizable and suitable for all hazardous categories, in other words also including hazardous goods.
Starting from a container of the type referred to initially, this object is achieved, according to the invention, in that the lid, in its end region facing the interior of the container, comprises a peripheral, radially projecting flange which is adjoined, in the direction away from the interior of the container, by a cylindrical peripheral wall on which first the sealing ring and then a continuous cylindrical tensioning ring are disposed to be displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the container, and in that the tensioning ring projects beyond the end wall of the lid on the interior of the container, in the direction away from their interior of the container, and adjustment means for the optional displacement of the tensioning ring in the direction leading towards the interior of the container or out of the interior of the container engage onto the region of the tensioning ring projecting beyond the lid end wall. As a result of the configuration of the container at the filling end, such that the container body virtually no longer has a separate filling aperture but is open at the top and the lid, which in the closed position engages to fit partially into the open container, thus ensures free access to the interior of the container in the opened position, not only the complete emptying of the container and verification thereof but also any careful cleaning thereof that may be necessary are readily possible. In particular, automatic cleaning devices can also be developed, with which, in addition to cleaning with high-pressure jets of cleaning fluid, revolving brushes can be employed whose use is not obstructed or made more difficult by a narrowed filling aperture. By actuating the adjustment means in such a way that the tensioning ring is displaced towards the interior of the container, it is brought into contact with the sealing ring and then deforms it elastically in such a way that it rests both on the inner surface of the inner container and on the cylindrical peripheral wall of the lid, with prestress. The increase in pressure occurring in the interior of the container, which may be attributable, for example, to gaseous constituents released by the contents on warming, additionally deform the sealing ring and so increase the force of its contact pressure on the inner wall of the container or the cylindrical peripheral wall of the lid.
In an advantageous further development of the invention, the outer container may have a shape which is polygonal, preferably octagonal, in plan view, and in that the cylindrical inner container is disposed in concentric orientation to the outer container and its external diameter is at least slightly smaller than the clear distance measured between the interior surfaces of the outer container. The container body is thus of double-walled configuration, the polygonal shape of the outer container being strengthened, by comparison with a cylindrical outer container, by the bending edges formed, in the manner of beading, between the respective part-surfaces of the polygon.
In an advantageous further development of the invention, the outer container comprises a substantially square base plate, whose diametrically opposite limiting edges are oriented substantially flush with the outside of the assigned opposite part-surfaces of the outer container.
In the corner regions of the base plate projecting beyond the outer surfaces of the outer container a metallic corner section extending to beyond the filling aperture in the vertical direction is in each case expediently provided, which corner sections are part of a framework enclosing the container body.
The adjustment means for displacing the tensioning ring are expediently configured from locking elements distributed in the peripheral direction on the top, remote from the container, of the lid end wall beyond the periphery thereof, and guided in a substantially radially displaceable manner and capable of being advanced into and retracted from respectively assigned apertures in the tensioning ring, which locking elements each engage into the respectively assigned aperture in the tensioning ri
Eloshway Niki M.
Newhouse Nathan J.
Norris McLaughlin & Marcus P.A.
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