| WO/2001/049582 | DISPLAY CONTAINER |
| JP2009062068 | FOOD STORING CONTAINER |
| WO/2010/058016 | CUP |
SPADOTTO, Lucio (Via Brandolini 15, Oderzo, I-31046, IT)
| CLAIMS 1. Container made of plastic material for collecting, storing and preserving articles of various nature, consisting of a containing body (24) and a lid (11), the containing body (24) comprising at least a lateral wall (14, 15) which constitutes the lateral surface of the container and a base (18), characterized in that said lateral surface of the containing body (24) comprises at least two separate control portions (12) made of transparent material, able to promote an at least partial inspection of the articles contained in the internal volume of the container from at least two distinct viewing points, and at least an identification portion (13) able to identify the nature of the articles contained therein, wherein the identification portion (13) is made by coloring or marking a part of the lateral surface distinct from said transparent control portions (12). 2. Container as in claim 1, wherein the container is parallelepiped in shape, characterized in that said at least two control portions (12) are on at least two distinct lateral walls (14, 15), advantageously opposite, of the container. 3. Container as in claim 1 or 2, wherein said container comprises a lid (1 1), characterized in that said lid (11) comprises at least a transparent control portion (16) able to promote a visual inspection from above of the articles contained inside the container and/or at least an identification portion (20) able to identify the product contained in the container even in the case where only the lid (11) is visible. 4. Container as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that said base (18) comprises at least a transparent control portion (19) able to promote a visual inspection from the bottom of the articles contained inside the container and/or at least an identification portion (21) able to identify the product contained in the container even in the case where only its base (18) is visible. 5. Container as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that said color or marker of the identification portion (13, 20, 21) can be associated by logical association with the product contained in the container. |
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns a container made of plastic material used to collect, store and preserve articles of various nature, perishable or not, such as for example food, drinks, clothes, toys, tools, stationery material, magazines, books or other, having a different shape and size depending on the article for which it is intended.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Plastic containers are known, of various styles, colors and sizes for collecting and storing articles of various nature such as for example food, drinks, clothes, toys, tools, stationery material, magazines, books or other, generally comprising a containing body and a closing lid.
Containers made completely of transparent plastic material are known, which make their contents visible even when the containers are closed and stacked one on top of the other and/or adjacent to each other in different configurations.
One problem which can occur with completely transparent containers is that they are not always able to guarantee particular storage and preservation conditions which some of the articles stored in them need in order to maintain their characteristics intact. For example, some food or drinks such as milk or similar need to be preserved in conditions of at least partial protection from light sources and this is not possible if the containers are made of completely transparent material.
Although on the one hand containers made completely of opaque plastic material allow to maintain the articles stored in them protected from sources of light and/or heat, on the other hand when they are closed it is not possible to know their contents. In this case, it is difficult and takes a long time to look for specific articles inside the relative containers, particularly in the case of a multitude of containers stacked up or adjacent to each other on shelves, given that it may be necessary to move and open the containers one by one.
Containers in opaque plastic material are also known which have on their surface at least an inspection window closed by transparent material, applied to the container after it has been made. One disadvantage of such containers is that they are complicated to make, and require additional operations to be carried out in order to make the windows on the containers and to close them. Consequently, said containers need a long time to make and are more expensive.
Purpose of the present invention is to make containers able to provide good conditions of preservation even for articles, such as food, which require particular conditions of preservation, such as for example partial protection from light sources and which, at the same time, make it simple and quick to look for and check the articles stored inside them.
The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is set forth and characterized in the independent claim, while the dependent claims describe other characteristics of the invention or variants to the main inventive idea.
In accordance with the above purpose, a container made of plastic material for collecting, storing and preserving articles of various nature, consists of a containing body and a lid. The containing body comprises at least a lateral wall which makes up the lateral surface of the container, and a base.
According to one feature of the present invention, the lateral surface of the containing body comprises at least two separate control portions made of transparent material, able to promote an at least partial inspection of the articles contained in the inside volume of the container from at least two distinct viewing points, and at least an identification portion, able to identify the nature of the articles contained therein, in which the identification portion is made by coloring or marking one part of the lateral surface distinct from said transparent control portions.
According to a variant of the present invention, in which the container is a parallelepiped, there are at least two of said control portions on at least two distinct lateral walls, advantageously opposite each other, of the container.
When a number of containers are stacked up and/or put next to each other, at least one of said two lateral walls can be seen in any case, to allow the articles located inside the containers to be inspected, without having to move the containers from their positions.
According to another variant of the present invention, in which the container comprises a lid, the lid comprises at least a transparent control portion able to promote a visual inspection from above of the articles contained in the container and/or at least an identification portion able to identify the product contained in the container even in the case where only the lid is visible.
According to a further variant of the present invention, the base comprises at least a transparent control portion, able to promote a visual inspection from below of the articles contained in the container and/or at least an identification portion able to identify the product contained in the container even in the case where only the base is visible.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferential form of embodiment, given as a non-restrictive example with reference to the attached drawings wherein:
- fig. 1 is a three-dimensional view of a container made of plastic material according to the present invention;
- fig. 2 is a lateral view of the container made of plastic material in fig. 1 ;
- fig. 3 is a view from below of the container made of plastic material in fig. 1 ;
- fig. 4 is a view from above of the container made of plastic material in fig. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERENTIAL FORM OF
EMBODIMENT
With reference to the attached drawings, a container 10 made of plastic material for collecting, storing and preserving articles of various nature, perishable or not, such as for example food, drinks, clothes, toys, tools, stationery, magazines, books or other consists of a containing body 24 and a lid 11.
In this case the containing body 24 is parallelepiped-shaped, open at the top to allow the insertion and/or removal of the articles which have been stored therein. The containing body 24 comprises two sides 14, opposite and identical to each other, made partly of an opaque plastic material and partly of a transparent plastic material, and two sides 15 opposite and identical to each other, made entirely of opaque material, which both together make up the lateral surface of the container 10. .
In particular, each side 14 has a control portion 12 which occupies, in this case, a considerable part of it, and which is made of transparent plastic material. The control portions 12 are able to promote an at least partial inspection of the articles contained inside the container 10 from two opposite viewing points, and therefore allow to verify the presence and/or disposition even of articles which could be covered by others, looking at the inside of the container only from one side.
The remaining part of the side 14 is made up of identification portions 13 made of an opaque plastic material, able to identify the type of container 10 and therefore the nature of the articles inside it. This identification occurs, in this case, by means of a specific color of said part which defines an identification code of the product contained inside the container.
This type of identification can take advantage of a physical association between the color of the container 10 and the contents stored in it. For example a part colored orange can show that the container 10 contains oranges, yellow contains bananas, etc.
The containing body 24 also comprises a base 18, which has, on two opposite ends, in proximity to the sides 14, two control portions 19 of limited size compared to that of the whole base 18 and made of a transparent plastic material, and an identification portion 21 made of opaque plastic material of the same color used for the identification portions 13.
In this way it is possible to carry out a visible inspection even from the bottom of at least part of the inner volume of the container 10, by means of the control portions 19, and to identify the container 10 by means of the identification portions 21, even in the case where only the base 18 is visible, for example when the container 10 is disposed on an upper shelf of a set of shelves.
The lid 11 allows to completely close the body of the container 24, after articles have been stored in and/or removed from the inside volume of the container.
The lid 11 has, along two opposite ends, in correspondence to the sides 14, two control portions 16 made of transparent plastic material in order to check from above the internal volume of the container 10, while the remaining part of the lid 11 consists of an identification portion 21 made of opaque plastic material of the same color used for the identification portions 13 and 20.
The identification portion 21 is able to identify the type of container even when only its lid 11 is visible because of the way it is positioned.
As shown in the attached figures, the containing body 24 is closed by the lid 11 by means of a plurality of closing elements 17, in this case, two, which allow to close the containing body 24 by same-shape coupling of said closing elements 17 and coupling edges 22 and 23 made for the purpose respectively along the upper end of the container 10 and along the perimeter of the lid 11.
When the container 10 is closed, the edges 22 and 23 are positioned in contact with respect to each other and in an overlapping position.
It is clear that modifications and/or additions of parts may be made to the container 10 as described heretofore, without departing from the field and scope of the present invention.
It is also clear that, although the present invention has been described with reference to some specific examples, a person of skill in the art shall certainly be able to achieve many other equivalent forms of container 10, having the characteristics as set forth in the claims and hence all coming within the field of protection defined thereby.
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