Rehrig Pacific Company

Pepsi-Cola Company

Arne Lang-Ree

William Patrick Apps

Jeffery R Ackerman

W Joseph Yelder

Gerald R Koefelda

Terry J Nigrelli

Jeff Ackermann

J B Rehrig

Reusable plastic trays for storing and transporting beverage containers, such as twelve-ounce metal cans and two-liter PET bottles. The tray floor has thereon an array of support areas for the containers. The tray rail band thereof is spaced high enough above the floor to prevent container tipping and in a 'low-depth' configuration. The outside rail band faces are vertical on both sides and are against the containers, and thereby add little to the outside tray dimensions. The inside face contacts and supports the peripheral containers. Columns between adjacent support areas interconnect the rail and the floor, angle downwardly and inwardly therebetween, open outwardly and form vertical nesting slots. The trays when empty can thereby be stacked in a deeply nesting position whereby each additional tray adds only the height of its narrow rail to the nested tray stack height. When the tray is a can tray, the bottom surface of the floor has a pattern of protuberances and recessed areas therebetween. When a loaded can tray is supported and located on a similar tray therebeneath, the lower can rims fit into the recessed areas and the protuberances are positioned both inside of and outside of the rims thereby locating and locking the upper tray in place. To unlock the upper tray it is simply twisted so that the protuberances ride up their bevelled edges onto the rims and into a sliding position.

Nestable and stackable tray for cans or the like

A box or container assembly formed of plastics material and particularly adapted for use in a beverage syrup supply system is covered by opposed lid members whose exposed surface contains an organization of channel-defining projections for stacking superposed containers optionally in columnar- or cross-stacked array. A hinge arrangement effects release from the container of any lid subjected to an excessive lateral force and enables the lids, when open, to be held against the container body with minimal lateral flair for compact nesting. Various forms of access openings are described for accessing a syrup bag spigot and for attaching same when the container assembly forms part of a beverage syrup supply system.

Bag-in box with split lid

Fragmentary box wall structure

Split lid box

Lid panel for a box

A molded plastic low-depth tray for beverage cans or the like. The low-depth tray walls angle inwardly to provide for deep empty tray nesting. Outer abutment tabs depending down from the top lip and on the outside of the walls prevent the empty trays when nested from wedging together. The walls each have a plurality of can receiving openings out through which lower portions of cans, when held in the tray on the tray floor, partially extend. Interior surfaces of the walls above the openings are outwardly curved to conform to the cylindrical sidewalls of the adjacent cans. The tray floor thereby has smaller length and width dimensions than that of the array of cans held in the tray. Redoubts or standoffs on the bottom of the floor lock on to the rims of cans in subjacent trays. Stable palletized stacking and cross-stacking of these trays when loaded with cans is thereby provided.

Can tray assembly

A pail assembly including a plastic pail and a plastic lid which can be snap fit sealed to the top of the pail. To reduce excessive outward doming of the lid and the pail floor caused by internal pail pressures, due for example to chemical reactions of hazardous material contents, rib structures are formed on and extend across the interior surfaces of both the floor and the lid. To prevent this doming the floor is also formed to be bowed upwardly at its center with a small curvature radius. A large radius connection of the floor to the pail sidewall better distributes impact stresses. A locating ring channel is formed on the lid surface and is dimensioned to receive therein the feet of two different size pails when the pails are loaded and stacked. Ribs on the outside and inside of the channel resist the tipping of the pails of either size when alternatively stacked thereon.

Plastic pail assembly for hazardous materials

A stackable can tray system including a bottom tray loaded with a layer of cans each having a top rim, an upper tray having a plurality of spaced members depending down from a bottom floor surface of the tray, and a layer of cans in the upper tray. With the upper tray in a normal stacked position on the bottom layer of cans, the spaced members engage relative to the top rims of the cans and thereby block substantial movement of the tray and hold it in a secure position. A generally lateral force applied to the upper tray repositions the spaced members such that the upper tray filled with the layer of cans has its spaced members on the top rims of the cans and it can be slidingly pulled on top of the layer of cans in the bottom tray beneath it, and thereby unstacked.

Stackable can tray systems

A reusable stackable tray for cans being formed by a rectangular wall structure, a web-like floor structure secured to and extending down from the wall structure and a plurality of spaced redoubt floor members spaced on and about and extending down from the bottom surface of the floor structure. Each of the redoubt floor members has a bevelled bottom edge perimeter such that a tray filled with cans can, without being lifted, be slidingly pulled and pivoted on the redoubt floor members directly on top of a layer of cans in another tray beneath it.

Low-depth stackable can tray

For cylindrical fluid containers, a nestable tray including a support floor having a top surface which is generally open across the entire length and width thereof. The top surface has a plurality of support areas for supporting thereon an array of upright cylindrical fluid containers such that the containers are directly adjacent to one another. A wall assembly is secured to and extends generally up from the floor and is dimensioned so that the containers when supported on the floor extend above the top of the wall assembly in a low-depth arrangement. The wall assembly has a substantial lower wall part adjacent the floor and a substantial upper wall part generally above the lower wall part and having an inward surface. The upper wall part is substantially vertical at least along the inward surface. The inward surface is configured to contact on a plurality of spaced points, spaced a distance above the floor top surface, the cylindrical fluid containers on the adjacent support areas and to thereby hold the containers upright. The lower wall part angles upwardly and outwardly such that the tray when empty of the containers can nest relative to a similar empty tray.

Nestable tray for cylindrical containers

A method for stacking and unstacking reusable plastic trays for storing and transporting beverage containers, such as twelve-ounce metal cans and two-liter PET bottles. When the tray is a can tray, the bottom surface of the floor has a pattern of protuberances and recessed areas therebetween. A loaded can tray is stacked on a similar tray therebeneath, such that the lower can rims fit into the recessed areas and the protuberances are positioned both inside of and outside of the rims thereby locating and locking the upper tray in place. To unlock the upper tray it is simply twisted so that the protuberances ride up their bevelled edges onto the rims and into a sliding position.

Method for stacking trays

Divider for bottles or the like

A syrup delivery system including a plurality of open-top, sturdy plastic containers and syrup bags. Each bag is positionable in a separate container with the bag spigot thereof extending accessible out through a container end opening. The open gridwork bottom of the container slopes to the container end opening so that the syrup in the bag can drain more completely out through the spigot with the container supported on a flat level surface. The containers have top locking posts, bottom stacking feet, and undulating-like sides. With the containers aligned so that their end openings face the same direction, the containers can be stacked one on top of the other with the posts of the bottom container engaging up into the feet of the top container. To unstack, the top container is tilted forward, the posts and feet thereby disengage, and the tilted top container easily slid down the sloping front lip of the lower container. To nest the containers, the top container is rotated 180 degress about a vertical axis and the containers, due to their undulating sides, nest together in a relatively compact two-to-one nesting ratio. In the nested position the posts of the bottom container extend up into openings in horizontal support surfaces positioned mid-way up the sides of the top container.

Growing community of inventors

Manhattan Beach, CA, United States of America

Arne Lang-Ree