US1431813A - Berry crate - Google Patents

Description

A. N. JUDD.

BERRY CRATE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28, 1922.

1,43 1,81 3; Patentefi Oct. 10, 1922.

Patented Get. lfl, i922.

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BERRY CRATE.

Application filed February 28, 1922.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that ALBERT N. JUDD, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at vVatsonville, in the county of Santa Cruz and State of California, has invented new and useful Improvements in Berry Crates, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the invention is to provide a crate suitable for use in shipping berries, fruits, vegetables and similar articles either loose or in baskets or boxes and which when arranged in tiers or stacks as when being transported by freight or otherwise will be held against relative shifting movement either longitudinally or transversely to mini mize the risk of injury to the crate or its contents and also avoid collateral inconvern iences incidental to the use of crates of the ordinary commercial forms; and with these objects in view the invention consists in a construction and combination of parts of which a preferred embodiment is shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of a tier or stack of two crates constructed and related in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a sectional view of the same.

Essentially the invention consists in providing each crate with means having a complemental interlocking relation with corresponding means on other crates of the same construction to the end that when a plurality of crates are arranged in a tier or stack the interlocking of the means thus carried by the several crates will retain them in a fixed relation against movement either longitudinally or transversely, and the embodiment of this means which has been selected for illustration in the accompanying drawing consists of a plate 10 which may be of metal, wood, fibre, straw board, or any other equivalent thereof occurring in a sheet or plate form of sufiicient strength and thickness to serve the purpose in view of the size and weight of the crate in connection with which it is to be used, said plate being attached to the exterior surface of the end wall 11 of a crate 12 of the conventional form or of any form adapted for the trans- Serial No. 540,005.

portation of the desired commodity or product. This plate is provided at one edge as for example the upper edge with a cut away portion forming a seat 13 which in the construction illustrated extends transversely throughout a distance approximating the length of the end wall of the crate, and is provided at the opposite or lower edge with a tongue 14 corresponding in dimensions with the cut away portion forming the seat 13 so that when one crate equipped with the device embodying the invention is placed upon the top of any crate similarly equipped the tongue of one interlocks with the seat of the other as shown in Figure 1 while the tongue has a lateral bearing against the end wall of the other crate, and inasmuch as a plate of this construction is applied to each end of each crate, it will be obvious that when two crates are thus positioned with their holding plates in interlocked relation, each is held against movement either longitudinally or transversely with relation to the other.

As a further means of facilitating the handling and tiering or stacking of crates which particularly in freight cars frequently involves the stacking of ten or more in a single tier, it is preferred to connect each two crates at the ends by tapes 15 adhesively attached to the holding plates and spanning the joint between them as indicated in Figure 1. These tapes or retainers may be of such material as to permit of their being cut by a knife passed through the joint between the tongue of one crate and the seat of the other, but when in place they serve to facilitate handling of the crates in pairs or larger numbers as may be feasible according to the weight of the contents.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new and useful is 1. A shipping crate provided on its end walls with offset complemental interlocking elements for engagement with the corresponding elements of adjacent crates arranged in the same tieror stack therewith, and consisting of a plate provided at its opposite edges respectively with a seat and a tongue of corresponding dimensions.

2. A shipping crate provided on its end walls with ofi'set complemental interlocking elements for engagement with the corresponding elements of adjacent crates arranged in the same tier or stack therewith,

and consisting of a plate provided at its upper edge with a cut away portion forming ture.

ALBERT N. JUDD.

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