US 6131730

Patent Overview — US 6,131,730 A

Title: Stackable container case

Patent number: US 6,131,730 A
Application number: US 09/309,932
Inventor: Roger S. Hsu
Original assignee / current assignee (as listed): Rehrig Pacific Company (Rehrig Pacific Co Inc)
Priority / filing date: 1999-05-11
Publication (grant) date: 2000-10-17
Legal status as listed: Expired – Lifetime (anticipated expiration 2019-05-11)
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6131730/en

Purpose: The case is a stackable container case for retaining and transporting cans and other containers (e.g., bottles, canned goods). It is intended to be reasonably inexpensive, lightweight and sturdy, to retain containers under rough handling, to have sufficient stiffness, to be easily stored and transported with or without goods, to be reusable with a long use life, and to nest with similar empty cases for storage.

Plain-language scope (from the supplied excerpt): A plastic case molded integrally as a unitary structure has opposing side walls (12, 14), opposing end walls (16, 18) forming an outer shell, and a bottom panel (20) disposed substantially within the shell. The side walls include a lower wall portion (22) and spaced upwardly projecting pylons, including four corner pylons (24, 30). Spaced upwardly projecting columns (52, 54) cooperate with the bottom panel, side walls and end walls to define can-retaining pockets (36–46). Each end wall includes an integrally molded handle structure suspended proximate to the end wall between upper portions of adjacent corner pylons, defining a generally open end wall area below the handle, plus an integrally molded structural reinforcement member extending between adjacent corner pylons below the handle and spaced sufficiently away from it to avoid interfering with grasping. Raised ribs on side walls and/or pylons add torsional strength, provide an interference fit for containers, and define a recess with the bottom panel to receive a container lip or bottle bottom. A six-container case is described as about 1.5 times as long as wide, holding cans in a 3×2 relationship; the described embodiment receives No. 10 cans.

Not established by this excerpt: the full claim text and exact claim scope, all figures' details, the complete written description (the excerpt is expressly partial), any prior-art references, and the identity or scope of classification-based subject matter beyond the listed classes. No litigation, ownership-transfer, validity or prior-art analysis is provided or implied.