Envelopes – wrappers – and paperboard boxes – Paperboard box – Box includes two side walls which are not formed from the...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-17
2001-10-23
Elkins, Gary E. (Department: 3727)
Envelopes, wrappers, and paperboard boxes
Paperboard box
Box includes two side walls which are not formed from the...
C229S198100, C229S918000, C493S311000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305599
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reusable assembled box to be used, stacked in a container, for transport of parts.
2. Description of the Related Art
For transport of parts, particularly transport of parts to overseas in complete knocked-down (CKD) system, a method of transport employed is that a number of boxes packed with the parts are stacked in a container for transport, and as a box for packing each of the parts, conventionally, a general corrugated fiberboard box (which is in a prism shape and a base and a lid of the box are formed by folding back a lower and upper ends of the corrugated fiberboard respectively) is used.
With such corrugated fiberboard box, the box can hardly be reused after the transport, since at least the base thereof is protected against deflection by means of a gum tape or the like adhered thereto when the box is packed with the parts for transport.
Therefore, normally, the corrugated fiberboard box or the like once used is burned down or sent out as a material for making a recycled paper.
In the situation, a proposition is made for a simple assembling-type reusable box such as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application No. 10-2244 (Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3052184) shown in FIGS.
3
.
To make the simple assembling-type reusable box, a sheet of a board-like body is folded upright to form flaps
106
,
107
, and
108
to be side walls as shown in
FIG. 3A
, thus a hollow rectangular box as shown in
FIG. 3B
is formed, and then four corners of the box are coupled by box corners
130
to
133
respectively to form a packing box.
At each of the corners, as shown in
FIG. 3C
, protrusions
124
and
125
in the box corner are respectively inserted to grooves
141
and
142
provided on upper portions of the flaps to be mutually coupled for retaining the whole shape of the box.
Since there is an external edge
123
formed upright on upper edge of each of the box corners at a position slightly external thereto, respective assembling-type reusable boxes packed with the parts can be stacked in a container (not shown) as shown in
FIG. 3D
for transport.
With appearance of such an assembling-type reusable box, it becomes easier to reuse the box, however, in order to send back the box to the source of the parts while keeping the box in a reusable state, the box of the above-described conventional example still has a problem of a higher transport cost since the box has a larger area when extended.
Therefore, when the box is packed for sending back for reuse, it is forcibly folded into a smaller piece, thus a folded edge is damaged by an unreasonable folding force, in addition to a large amount of labor required in the folding work, causing a tendency that recycling frequency is decreased. Particularly, when a box needing a certain degree of depth is formed, the tendency is obvious. Furthermore, in such a conventional box, since the box is formed by assembling a sheet of board-like body having a large area, strength of a base thereof is limited, therefore it is customary to add the other board-like body to the base for reinforcement thereof, and as a result there issues also a risk of losing it during transport.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a reusable assembled box having a base of higher strength, and capable of reducing transport cost by facilitating transport of once used box by disassembling the box into a compact piece, and of reusing the box in higher frequency, and a method of transport thereof, thus solving the problem of the above-described conventional assembling-type box.
Therefore, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a reusable assembled box is characterized by comprising a first member in a substantially rectangular shape forming a base and a pair of opposing side walls folded up from the base, a second member in a substantially rectangular shape provided with a base, overlain on the base of the first member, in a shape substantially identical to that of the first member and forming a pair of side walls adjacent to the walls of the first member, and coupling members for detachably coupling each other upper end corners of adjacent side walls of the first and second members assembled into a box-like form by overlaying the bases thereof to each other.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the reusable assembled box is characterized by being provided with recessed edges substantially equal to the thickness of the side walls of the first member on opposing sides of the base of the second member which have no side walls.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the reusable assembled box is provided with an engaging portion for engaging joining edges of the adjacent side walls to each other.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the engaging portion is composed of a step-like recessed and protruded portion for meshing with one of an adjacent engaging portion each other.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the reusable assembled box is characterized by having grips formed on side walls of at least the first member.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the reusable assembled box, comprising a first member in a substantially rectangular shape forming a base and a pair of opposing side walls folded up from the base, a second member in a substantially rectangular shape provided with a base, overlain on the base of the first member, in a shape substantially identical to that of the first member and forming a pair of side walls adjacent to the side walls of the first member, and coupling members for detachably coupling upper end corners of adjacent side walls of the first and second members assembled into a box by overlaying the bases each other, is characterized in that, after being transported elsewhere as a transport box, the coupling members are removed from the first and second members, and the first and second members are then expanded and mutually piled up to be sent back to the source.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the reusable assembled box, comprising a first member in a substantially rectangular shape forming a substantially square base and a pair of opposing side walls folded up from the base, a second member in a substantially rectangular shape provided with a base, overlain on the base of the first member, in a shape substantially identical to that of the first member and forming a pair of side walls adjacent to the side walls of the first member, and coupling members for detachably coupling upper end corners of adjacent side walls of the first and second members assembled into a box by overlaying the bases each other, is characterized in that, after being transported elsewhere as a transport box, the coupling members are removed from the first and second members, and the first and second members in substantially the identical shape are then expanded and mutually piled up in the same direction to be sent back to the source. These aspects are made as means to solve the above-described problems.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2921729 (1960-01-01), Alger et al.
patent: 3004695 (1961-10-01), Foss
patent: 3223309 (1965-12-01), Chiorri
patent: 3669339 (1972-06-01), Schilling
patent: 3738562 (1973-06-01), Schwarz
patent: 4449662 (1984-05-01), Okamura et al.
patent: 4619365 (1986-10-01), Kelly et al.
patent: 4787533 (1988-11-01), Hoskins
patent: 5377857 (1995-01-01), Taravella et al.
patent: 5431336 (1995-07-01), Clee
patent: 5687902 (1997-11-01), Tusing et al.
patent: 3052184 (1998-07-01), None
Iino Hideki
Tsubaki Masami
Elkins Gary E.
Farber Martin A.
Fuji Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
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