US2574692A - Tote box and rack therefor - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 13, 1951 Filed Aug. 3, 1946 R. K. DAVIDSON ET AL TOTE BOX AND RACK THEREFOR 2 SHEETS-SHEET l F/GI . IN VEN TORS HUBER 7' K. DA V/DSO/V W/L LIAM BA 001V BY A TTX 1951 R. K. DAVIDSON ETAL 7 2,574,692

TOTE BOX AND RACK THEREFOR Filed Aug. 3, 1946 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 A -56 I I x 7 INVENTORS R0 RT K. DAVIDSON F/@ 5 1 W/iZ/AM aaao/v Patented Nov. 13, 1951 TOTE BOX AND RACK THEREFOR Robert K. Davidson and William Bacon, North Woodbury, Conn.

Application August 3, 1946, Serial No. 688,238

3 Claims.

This invention relates to that class of articles known as tote .boxes and to a rack for supporting the same. These so-called tote boxes are in fact metal containers, and they are used in and around factories and the like for storing small articles and for transporting the same from one part of the factory to another. It is the practice to provide one or more of these tote boxes beside each machine which is turning out small parts, and as the parts are finished by the machine, the worker places them in the boxes. It has been the usual practice in the past to use most anything that could be found at hand for this purpose and the containers so used are quite usually of varying sizes and shapes so that at the end of the day when the containers are stacked at random one upon another for storage, parts which have been placed in any given container are often damaged by the weight of other containers piled above and frequently within said given container.

It is the object of this invention to provide tote boxes of uniform size and so shaped that they may be nested one upon another without damaging the contents of any of the boxes.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a group of tote boxes so interrelated in size and shape that a plurality of small boxes such manner that a plurality of sizes of tote boxes may be interchangeably supported therein.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a rack which is open at the front and closed on the sides and rear'and which is of such depth as to accommodate a plurality of tote boxes upon a single pair of horizontal runners with one box being supported directly in front of another, the length of each box being'an aliquot part of the depth of the rack so that when the boxes are placed in the rack and. moved toward the back thereof as far as possible, the front of the first box is flush with the open front of the rack.

These and further objects will appear as the description of the invention proceeds. Referring now to the drawings wherein:

Fig. l is a front elevational view of a plurality of tote boxes supported within a rack.

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of a small tote box nested upon a larger tote box, the larger box being shown only in dotted lines and the smaller box being shown partly in section.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the tote box shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a side elevational view of the tote box of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a side elevational view of a plurality of small tote boxes shown nested upon a single large tote box.

. Describing first the rack of this invention and referring to Fig. l of the drawing, it will be seen that each section of the rack consists of two parallel sheet metal side members In and i2. These members In and I2 are continuous along the entire depth of the rack and are so shaped as to provide equally vertically spaced supporting runners M. The runners M are formed by bending the sheet metal of the members Hi and I2 in such manner as to form horizontal supports it and sloping braces IS. The back of the rack consists of a flat sheet metal member 29 which interconnects the parallel sides H1 and I2.

Closely adjacent the member I2 is another member 22 similar in all respects to the member ll] previously described. A plurality of braces 24 consisting of flat bar members are inserted between the sides l2 and 22 so as to give added rigidity to the rack. The rack in its entirety consists of a series of equally spaced, vertically extending, runner providing sheet metal members such as l0, l2, and 22. Likewise, while only a portion of the rack is shown in Fig. 1, it is to be understood that the rack can be made as high as desired and that actually a fairly large number of horizontal runners are provided.

The tote boxes themselves are formed of three sheet metal members. One member 26 is bent as shown in Fig. 2 to provide the two sides 28 and 30 and the bottom 32 of the box. The two sides 28 and 30 are sloped inwardly towards the top of the box for a purpose which will presently be described. The two ends of the box are formed of sheet metal members Stand 35. The end 34 is bent around the sides 28 and 3!! as shown in Fig. 4 at 38 and spot-welded to the sides. The end 34 is also bent under at the bottom of the box as shown at 4%} and is likewise spot-welded thereto. At the top of the box, the end 34 is bent outwardly to provide an offset portion 42 and the off-set portion 42 is then turned inwardly against itself at the top as shown at 44 for added strength. Since the end 36 is identical to the end 34 except for being a mirror image, it is not believed that a detailed description thereof is necessary.

If desired, a pivotally mounted bail type handle such as shown at 46 may be provided on one of the ends 34 or 36. Likewise, a label-supporting means such as shown at 48 may be provided on one of the ends 34 or 36, and it has been found convenient to make this label-supporting meansof such a size that it fits within the bend formed by the handle 46.

The sheet metal member 26 issoshaped at the top of the box as to provide a horizontal platform 50 which will serve as a means to support the bottom of another tote box in nesting relation. The inward slope of the sides 28 and" 30 enables the outer edges of the platforms 50 to be directly above the outer" edges of the bottom of the box so that the bottom of one box will fit snugly upon the platforms provided therefor upon another box, in nested fashion. Likewise, the member 26 is provided at both of its upper edges with a horizontally extending lip 52 which will serve as a means to pendantly support the tote box between the runners [4 of the rack as shown in Fig. 1.

As shown in Fig. 2, the shallow tote box 54 is nested upon a deeper tote box 56. The tote box 56 shown in dotted lines is twice as deep as tote box 54, but it will be understood that other boxes may be provided which are three times or four times or any even multiple of the depth of box 54.

As seen in Fig. 5, the box 56 is not only twice as 1;

deep as the box 54, but is also twice as long, considering the total length as being the distance between the portions 42, so that two of the boxes 54 may be nested upon the box 56. It will readily be appreciated from an observation of Fig. 5 that if a box twice as long as the box 56 were provided, thenfour boxes of the size of the box 54 couldbe nested upon the single larger box. It will also readily be appreciated that if a box twice as long as-the box 56 were provided, then two boxes the size of the box 56 could be nested upon the single larger box. In carrying out the spirit of this invention, it is only necessary that the bottoms and tops of all the boxesbe the same width and that in length the smaller boxes be an aliquot part, or even multiple thereof, of the length of the larger boxes. Thus, one box may be only one-third as long as the larger box, but the smaller box together with a box two-thirds of the length of the larger box may be nested upon the larger box and completely cover the larger box. In this manner, any number of combinations may be derived wherein smaller boxes are nested upon larger boxes, the only limitations being that all of the boxes be the same width and that the larger boxes be in length an even multiple of the length and depth of the smaller boxes. It will be observed also from Fig. 5 that the portion 42 projects beyond the end 36' for a distance sufficient to provide a space to accommodate and protect the handle 48 from interfering with the box placed next adjacent thereto.

Referring now again to Fig. 1, it will be ob served that boxes of two different depths are shown stored within the rack. It is to be especially noted that the distance betweenthe lip 52 of the box 54 and the bottom of the box is slightly less than the vertical spacing of the runners 14. Likewise, the distance between the lip 52 of the box 56 and the bottom of that box is slightly less than twice the vertical spacing of the runners l4. By this arrangement, it is possible for one tote box to be removed from the rack without disturbing the boxes directly above or below the box which it is desired to remove. Since the boxes are labeled, as previously described, one need only observe the labels and then remove the desired box. The rack is, of course, made deep enough to accommodate the longest tote box which it is found desirable to employ. Thus, the tote boxes which have previously been stacked in nesting relation may be lifted one by one and placed within the rack.

It is here pointed out that the depth of the rack, that is, the distance from front to rear, is such that it will accommodate the longest box of the set. Therefore, since as previously explained, the length of the smaller boxes is such that a number of them-will completely cover the -larger box, a plurality of smaller boxes maybe supported from a single pair of runners and the front of the first box will be flush with the open front of the rack to present a pleasing appearance and to make for convenient use.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in its preferred embodiment and has included certain details, it should be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the p're cise details herein illustrated and described since the same may be carried out in other ways, falling wtihin the scope of the invention as claimed.

What we claim is:

l. A tote box comprising in combination, a rectangular bottom, two ends extending upward from two opposite edges thereof substantially equal distances, two sides extending upward from the other two opposite edges of said bottom; said sides being substantially the same height as said ends and sloping inward toward each other at their upper edges, a narrow substantially horizontal flange extending outward from the upper edge of each side, a guide flange extending upward from the outer edge of each narrow flange, the distance between the inner surfaces of said guide flanges being substantially equal to the width of the bottom of said box, whereby another tote box of similar width may be stacked upon the narrow flanges of said box and be aligned snugly therewith vertically, and a horizontal supporting flange extending outward from each guide flange so as in vertical projection to' extend past the side edges of the bottom of the box and by which said box may be pendantly and slidably supported at its opposite sides from suitable rack means engageable with said supporting flanges.

2. A rack having opposed vertical Walls each provided with a plurality of horizontal guide rails disposed transversely opposite to each other and evenly spaced apart vertically, said rails on one wall extending toward the other wall, in combination with a plurality of tote boxes each having similar transverse dimensions and compreing a rectangular bottom, two ends extending up warcl from two opposite edges thereof substantially equal distances amounting substantiallyto an even multiple of the distance said guidelr'a ils are spaced apart vertically, two sides extending upward from the other two opposite edges of said bottom, said sides being substantially the same height as said ends'and sloping inward toward each other at their upper edges, anarrow substantially horizontal flange extending outward from the upper edge of eachside, a guide flange extending upward from the outer edge 01' each narrow flange, the distance between the inner surfaces of said guide flanges being substantially equal to the width of the bottom of the box and less than the distance between the free edges of said guide rails of said rack, and a horizontalrails disposed transversely opposite to each other and evenly spaced apart vertically, said walls being formed from planar material from which portions are bent horizontally out of said plane to form a guide rail and then downwardly at an angle toward said plane to form a brace for said guide rail, and means to rigidly brace said walls, said rails on one wall extending toward the other wall, in combination with a plurality of tote boxes each having similar transverse dimensions and comprising a rectangular bottom, two ends extending upward from two opposite edges thereof substantially equal distances amounting substantially to an even multiple of the distance said guide rails are spaced apart vertically, two sides extending upward from the other two opposite edges of said bottom, said sides being substantially the same height as said ends and sloping inward toward each other at their upper edges, a narrow substantially horizontal flange extendins outward from t e upper edg c i a guide flange extending upward from the outer edge of each narrow flange, the distance between the inner surfaces of said guide flanges being substantially equal to the width of the bottom of the box and less than the distance between the free edges of said guide rails of said rack, and a horizontal supporting flange extending a limited amount outward from each guide flange the distance between the outer edges of said supporting flanges being only slightly less than the distance between said vertical side walls of said rack, whereby said boxes may be selectively either pendantly supported from said guide rails of said-rack by said supporting flanges slidably engaging the same or stacked vertically in snug alignment upon the narrow flanges of each other independently of said rack.

ROBERT K. DAVIDSON.

WILLIAM BACON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 751,466 Colling Feb. 9, 1904 831,746 Rundell Sept. 25, 1906 954,743 Koller Apr. 12, 1910 1,034,441 Grochau Aug. 6, 1912 1,244,617 Lane Oct. 30, 1917 1,511,569 Lehman Oct. 14, 1924 1,542,115 Weis June 16, 1925 1,682,028 Young Aug. 28, 1928 1,840,141 Vanderhoof Jan. 5, 1932 1,872,733 Greenwald 1 Aug. 23, 1932 2,306,802 Harbison D c. 29, 1 42

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