Animal husbandry – Aquatic animal culturing – Handling and transportation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-29
2004-03-30
Price, Thomas (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Aquatic animal culturing
Handling and transportation
C211S074000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06712022
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to containers for packing live lobsters and crustaceans for shipment by carriers of all types; and in particular to an insulated and compartmentalized container system for the orderly packing, shipping, and unpacking of live lobsters.
2. Background Art
For many years there has been a large demand for live lobsters at areas distant from where the lobsters are harvested. To satisfy this demand, lobsters have been packaged and shipped great distances, including shipment by air transport.
Initially lobsters were shipped in wooden crates and boxes. This was changed to a less expensive means such as wax boxes or curtain coated boxes. Eventually, boxes were produced of foamed polymers such as polystyrene (Styrofoam™) or similar low density, injection molded plastic. At first, the foam plastic was used as an outer wall or box, for its insulation value. Lobster are a live product, and must be kept continuously cool from the time caught, through initial processing, packing, shipment, retail handling and sale, to final delivery to the consumer's kitchen. Mortality of the lobsters while in the channel of distribution results from various problems, most of which can be generally labeled as heat damage. The need for effective insulation, in part, led to the development of a box produced and distributed under the trademark, Cloud Pack™, a mark and product with which this applicant is not associated.
The Cloud Pack™ box is a commercial embodiment of the design disclosed in LaRosa's U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,923, issued Jun. 15, 1993. It is a foam plastic packing system in the form of a three piece box; the preformed pieces consisting of a top section or cover, an intermediate section with an open top and bottom and two longitudinal partitions, and a lower section with vertically oriented, open top compartments. The three sections are all made of Styrofoam, and interlock with tongue and groove joints.
The top section dimensions are 14½ inches wide, 25 inches long and 3 inches high, with a 1 inch Styrofoam wall and top thickness, providing about two inches of depth within the cover section. The intermediate section dimensions are 14½ wide, 25 inches long, and 6 inches high with the two partitions about one quarter inch thick running from end to end, and with about a one and one half inch wall thickness around the sides. The bottom section dimensions are 14½ inches wide, 25 inches long, five inches high, with individual, open top, vertically oriented, square cells that are about four inches deep, suitable for tail first stuffing with a lobster of suitable size. The number of cells varies between box models. There are three types a 32 cell box, a 28 cell box, and a 21 cell box known to the applicant, the numbers generally varying inversely with the size of the lobster for which the box is intended.
Cell Size
Lobster Size
20 cell
1½
pound lobster
28 cell
1¼
pound lobster
32 cell
1
pound lobster
The Cloud Pack requires an aluminum jig fitting over the cell network of the bottom section, as a further upward extending partition used to keep the lobsters claws separated during the packing process. If the jig is lifted prematurely, even a small amount, lobster parts may spill underneath it and it will likely be impossible to reposition the jig to complete the fill. So the box must be emptied, the jig repositioned, and the box refilled again. When filled and closed, the box is banded for shipment. Some freight carriers will accept the box in this fashion; others require or prefer that it be enclosed and sealed in an outer shipping carton, to reduce the likelihood of leakage in transit.
When unloading the box at the retail end, after removal of the cover, the refrigerator ice pack or ice and wet paper, and the intermediate section of the box, the lobster's claws and head and upper body are exposed. The user must carefully lift each lobster from its individual compartment. If not done carefully claws can break away, in part because even under the most careful removal technique, the sharp edges of the lobster's tail may rake, rip and hold onto the foam cell partition, resisting the tug on its claws. Even when successful, the raking action is likely to cause small beads to break away and fragment from the compartment partitioning structure. This foam debris clings to the lobster, causing a further problem when the lobster is put into a tank or container containing a filtration system. The foam beads float on top of the water and tend to clog filters and pumps.
The first Styrofoam boxes, intended mainly for their insulation value, were open boxes into which the lobster were stacked horizontally, as they had been in the earlier wooden crates. Lobsters were laid down one on top of the other by various standard weights. Examples are listed below:
Box Name
Box Weight
TP3 or TP30*
25 to 30 pound Styrofoam boxes
TP40
40 pounds
TP50 or TP1
50 pounds
*also known as the Canadian Shipper
The TP stands for Tech Pak which is a manufacturer of Styrofoam boxes. There are other companies that make or distribute these boxes using the initials of their company as the first two letters of the box. An example is Arjay National, with its AN30 and AN40 boxes.
Other companies make other foam boxes with various shapes according to their weight capacity, as an inner box component to their lobster packing system. All generally use the foam box as an insulating shell providing approximately ¾ inch wall thickness for insulation value. Once filled and closed, the foam boxes are inserted into a corrugated cardboard carton as the outer layer of the shipping container.
Other prior art providing context for an understanding of the disclosure that follows includes Flynn's U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,845, Container and Method for Transporting Live Crustaceans, issued Sep. 17, 1996; Spiegel's U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,815, Container with Adjustable Compartments, issued Feb. 21, 1995; Doughty's U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,359, Sportsman's Combination Receptacle and Ice Chest, issued May 25, 1976; and Hisey's U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,335, Minnow and Fish Preserving Container, issued Sep. 24, 1991.
Styrofoam boxes created a better packaging for the lobsters and other crustaceans. However, mortality problems were still a significant factor so alternative solutions were tried, cell packing probably being the most significant. Inside the various boxes, there is a celled partition system of squares, somewhat like a grid or honeycomb, commonly a set of crisscrossing cardboard partitions that is inserted into the box prior to filling. The partitioning system gives each lobster its own individual compartment or cell, preventing the crushing of lobsters by their collective weight and by jostling while in transit, which causes damage and ultimately some degree of mortality.
This new partition packing arrangement has basically taken over the packaging industry in specific areas such as loose freight or individual store deliveries. It is mostly used to provide the customer or end user a high quality live lobster. Further steps were taken to make an even stronger sturdier box or series of boxes known as the HDS series. Two of which are known as the HDS5 and HDS6. The HDS5 is used mostly as a plain Styrofoam box shipped to Japan. Basically it is the same as a TP40 except, slight different shape. Most importantly a thicker foam wall providing more insulation value is still used with a cell partition as is the HDS6.The HDS6 being a slightly taller box used with a thick outer corrugated and a 24 cell partition.
Although these foam box systems provide more insulation value that the older wooden crates, they still are not the ultimate solution to the packing problems a lobster company faces. Styrofoam boxes with cell partition seem to be the way to ship a better quality lobster with lower mortality, but they need to be incorporated together to provide even better shipping and greater ease of packing and unpacking of the lo
Maine & Asmus
Price Thomas
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