BACKGROUND

Plastic containers have become extremely popular in the transport and storage of liquids and solids and they come in many shapes. The ease of stacking the containers poses a major challenge during these operations. In many situations it is necessary to pack them in another container for this purpose. Due to the shape of the container, the bulk volume of these containers greatly exceeds the useful volume. The voids created in the packing process is a waste for transport and storage. Most of the plastic containers of prior art are disposed of after its primary use. Once the contents are used, the remaining bulky container ends up in the garbage. Although there is a small amount of recycling of the raw material, the volume of the empty container offers a great deterrent to the transport of used containers. Thus they end up in garbage heaps and has resulted in a great environmental calamity. The present disclosure offers a successful solution to the stackability in transport and storage and gives an opportunity for re-use as a construction material. The secondary use of the containers based on the present disclosure as a construction material will create a demand for it. The use of these in the construction will prevent the irresponsible discarding of them to the environment.

Several designs are found in the prior art aimed at overcoming some of the problems discussed here.

DE000003431557 discloses a design for a re-usable container having a rectangular or cylindrical body which has a lid, firmly connected thereto, with a droplet-shaped spout and a matching closure. It provides a user-friendly container with a re-usable lid. The design promotes the re-use of the container for similar materials as the originally used contents like beverages. The application has subsequently been withdrawn.

Another beverage bottle design is given in EP1452455 describes a bottle body having a two part construction, which is narrower at the top and having a removable base. The bottle is made using conventional plastic moulding and is suitable for multiple refilling. Re-usable and returnable double-purpose container with handle for storing and liquids is disclosed in EP1140643. Here the container is a barrel-shaped hollow body with bottom on the lower side and an opening on the upper side. The outer shell is produced through rotation of the generatrix of Container around the central Axis. The threads on the inner shell of the opening is closed by a reusable screw cap.

A container for liquids disclosed in US4691828 is formed of a shell which defines a hollow body with at least two spaced posts upstanding from one side, and at least two recesses on the opposite side in which the posts of similar containers may be snugly received. After the container has been used and emptied of its liquid contents, the containers can be used as toy interlocking building blocks. The stacking of the containers with the posts of containers received in the recesses of adjacent containers in interlocking fashion also facilitates the building of walls or other extensive assemblies of the containers for display purposes and the like. The design in this disclosure can be used to build a tower like structure. The present disclosure encompasses a many more novel options and features compared to this design.

Another stackable plastic container given in US6588612 comprises: a blow moulded plastic bottle having a bottom, four side portions and a top portion. The top portion contains a handle and a spout. The side portions have protrusions and depressions enabling nesting of the containers on the sides. The bottom portion had depressions to nest the handle and spout of another container placed below the first container. Although design given here offers a reasonable stackability, the present disclosure is much more versatile and has many inventive features as disclosed herein. US6588612 also does not offer a ready secondary use as in the present disclosure.

The modular container disclosed in US3749273 illustrates a container module adapted to be readily interconnected with a series of identical modules to form an array of containers that may be configured to standard forms suitable for use with standard handling equipment. The container has vertical structural corner posts having releasable latches adjacent their upper and lower ends to laterally interconnect the module with adjacent modules. Additional latches provide a vertical connection with other stacked modules. This disclosure is suitable for large shipping containers used for transport of a variety of goods.

US6564959B2 discloses a bottle-type plastic container with circular cross-section having a container body and a spout shaped opening for filling and discharging liquid contents. The container body has surface portions,, which are recessed inwards and opposed to each other to define a grip region there between. The recess construction is aimed at engaging the consumer's fingers when the container is held by hand.

Another Bottle-type plastic container is disclosed in US6739467B2. Herein plastic container includes a body and an opening at one end of the container that allows liquid content to be filled into the container and emptied therefrom. The body has a middle height region with front and rear surface portions, and both sides of the rear surface portion are recessed inwards and juxtaposed to each other defining a grip region there between.

Interconnecting bottles utilized to create structures in US8201699 B2 consists of a water or soda bottle or vessel which is designed to allow for the bottle to interconnect with other bottles of similar design and standard dimensions to form useful second use products. A recess in the lower surface of the bottle receives the neck of another storage bottle. There are recesses perpendicular to the vertical axis of the bottle capable of receiving the mating side recess of another storage bottle. There are two such recesses on each storage bottle, one on each side of the bottle, parallel to each other. This allows for a bottle positioned on its side perpendicular to a vertically positioned bottle to be used to connect two vertically perpendicular storage bottles. This offers a limited secondary use of the discarded bottles. The versatility of this disclosure is limited compared to the present disclosure.

None of the disclosures offer a practically usable secondary use at the point of discard. The plastic pollution resulting in from the discharging of a multitude of such containers to the environment has caused an immense ecological problem of unimaginable proportions. The present disclosure offers a very substantial secondary use of the used containers. The target of the present design is to promote a secondary use for the multitude of plastic containers that end up as garbage, causing disastrous repercussions in the environment. The concept suggested in the present disclosure is to incorporate an easy block assembly system in the design of containers aimed at creating a secondary use for the discarded containers. The lego-type designs are disclosed in many other applications similar to the one found in W02020167035. Implementation of the concept described in the present disclosure aimed at promoting a secondary use for the used containers offers a number of benefits for the primary user too. No container design or a patent in the prior art has incorporated the concepts disclosed in the present disclosure and hence can be considered to be novel.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world's ability to deal with them. The use of plastics keeps expanding exponentially. A major problem has been the improper discarding of empty containers in to the environment. These empty containers are of no use to anyone. The present invention is to encourage the use of a special design for manufacture of containers, so that containers could find a demand subsequent to its primary use thereby preventing the indecorous discarding.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Nomenclature

Short Description of figures

Figure 1 External view of the preferred embodiment of container without a cap showing the male knobs and the hidden outline of the depression in the base and the hidden near rectangular slot on the side wall in the vertical orientation

Figure 2 External view of the side wall showing the side with four male knobs of the preferred embodiment

Figure 3 Top view of the preferred embodiment showing the spout position on the top surface and the side wall with two near rectangular slots

Figure 4 Top view of two containers sitting side by side with the male knobs of one container sitting inside the near rectangular slots of the other container Figure 5 Side view of two containers sitting side by side with the male knobs inside the near rectangular slots

Figure 6 Cap with tamper evident ring fitted tightly to the spout

Figure 7 View of a container on top of another container with the cap in position

Figure 8 The depression of the container on top covering the spout of the container below, without the cap

Figure 9 Spout with the cap in position placed inside the depression with an exaggerated clearance between the cap and the depression

Figure 10 Detailed view of the spout with cap in position inside the depression with an exaggerated clearance between the cap and the depression with an exaggerated clearance

Figure 11 Sectional view through the cap and spout sitting inside the depression with an exaggerated clearance

Figure 12 A tower made of three containers

Figure 13 A wall constructed using the lego-type 'self-locking building block' property

Figure 14 An isometric view of wall constructed with containers using 'self-locking building block' property

Figure 15 A suboptimal embodiment - elongated container

Figure 16 Isometric view of elongated container

Figure 17 Wall constructed using the elongated containers

Figure 18 Isometric view of wall constructed using the elongated containers

Figure 19 Plan view of a 90° corner in a wall constructed using elongated containers

Figure 20 Isometric view of a 90° corner in wall constructed using the elongated containers

Figure 21 Suboptimal embodiment with half size container Figure 22 Side view of a half size container

Figure 23 Top View of two half size containers fitted to the preferred embodiment

Figure 24 A suboptimal embodiment having half the size of the elongated container

Figure 25 Side view of the suboptimal embodiment having half the size of the elongated container

Figure 26 Two half size elongated containers placed side-by-side

Figure 7 Compacted assembly of elongated containers all in a horizontal orientation

Figure 28 Four containers fitted in four directions to a container of preferred embodiment

Figure 29 Two elongated containers in a horizontal orientation fitted to a elongated container in vertical orientation

The container in the present disclosure can be used to store and transport a variety of liquids, gases or powders, literally any material which does not have a solid shape. In this disclosure the meaning of the word container is not limited to a bottle or can, but extends to cover any such vessel used to store and transport liquids, powders or such other flowing material which does not have a solid shape. The basic container here is of rectangular appearance with a pouring spout on top and a depression on the bottom surface.

The primary purpose of containers is the storage and transport of a chosen liquid or powder. Once the primary user's purpose is completed, the empty container is discarded in to the environment. These empty containers find very little use subsequently. The present device is aimed at creating a secondary use for these discarded containers. This will prevent the throwing of empty containers into the environment by creating a demand from secondary users.

The present design comprises, four externally rectangular walls connected to a top surface and a base. Filled or empty containers in this disclosure can be stored adjacent to each other on a usual horizontal base plane very conveniently, due to the rectangular external shape. A container can sit on another similar container so that the spout (5) in the top surface (11) of one container gets inserted into the depression (18) in the base (6) of another container placed on top of it. This enables stacking of a number of containers in a very space economical manner. The container that is described in the following section with the associated figures.

Figure 1 through Figure 3 give the design features of the preferred embodiment of the container design. The base (6) of this container is rectangular in shape. The foot print of the container shown in Figure 3 is a square. In the figures 1 and 2 there are four vertical side walls (A, B, C and D) projecting vertically upwards from the horizontal base (6).

The four side walls in Figures 1 and 2 will rise up from the base (6) and end at the horizontal top surface (11) of the container. The top surface (11) will contain a spout (5) making it easy for filling in and pouring out of the contents of the container. The spout (5) is positioned centrally on the foot print when viewed from top as illustrated in Figure 3. The spout (5) rises vertically upwards from the top surface (11) and contains an externally placed set of threads (2), a retainer ring (3) and a neck ring (4) placed sequentially. The top of the spout (5) is an annular sealing surface (1). The thread (2) is ready to accept the sealing cap (21) which can be screwed down to the sealing surface (1) on the top of the spout.

Sidewall A (7) and sidewall C (9) are preferably plain surfaces and are smaller in size compared to the side wall B (8) and the side wall D (10). The side wall A (7) and the side wall C (9) are preferably flat and purposely left blank without any deformations so that the primary user may paste or print literature related to the contents. In the preferred embodiment shown in Figures 1 through 3, the sidewall B (8) contains four identical knobs protruding out of the side wall B (8). The male knob P (12) and the male knob Q (13) are placed at the higher level, closer to the top surface (11) while male knob R (14) and male knob S (15) are at the lower level. The sidewall D (10) placed opposite to sidewall B (8) contains two "near rectangular" slots. The near rectangular slot L (16) is placed exactly opposite to the male knob P (12) and the male knob R (14). The near rectangular slot M (17) is placed exactly opposite to the male knob Q (13) and the male knob S (15). The size of the near rectangular slots is such that when a similar container is placed side by side with the first, the near rectangular slots can devour the corresponding male knobs. Figures 4 and 5 show the arrangement of two containers placed side-by-side with the male knobs sitting inside the corresponding near rectangular slots. The side wall D (10) of the first container and the side wall B (8) of the second container are touching each other with no space between them. This feature can easily be identified as a 'self-locking building block' feature that forms the core advantage of the present design. This feature will be necessary specially to interlock the containers in its secondary use on completion of the primary use.

Figure 6 illustrates the details of the cap (21) used to tightly close the container to prevent any leakage of the contents inside. The cap (21) has an internally placed female thread which will be screwed on to the thread (2) on the spout. For leak-proofing the container, the cap (21) may be tightened down through until the inner bottom surface of the cap (21) sits tightly on the top sealing surface (1) of the spout. Some users of the container may decide to have an additional seal covering the top sealing surface (1). This will ensure that the contents in the container will not be tampered with and also not leak out. A retainer ring (3) on the spout is used to ensure tamper evident function. This tamper evident feature is incorporated in the present cap design. The cap consists of its main body (21) plus a tamper evident skirt (28) at the bottom. A tear line (29) separates the cap body (21) and the skirt (28). This tear line (29) consists of a series of bridges (30). When the cap is unscrewed from the container, the bridges (30) will break along the tear line (29). This is a feature incorporated by many manufacturers to ensure that the product has not been tampered with before its legitimate user.

In addition to the one described above, another interlocking feature is centered at the base (6) of the container. This is enabled by the depression (18) in the base (6). Purposefully located in the base (6) is a cylindrical depression (18), projecting towards the inner body of the container. This depression (18) in one container may choose to accept the spout (5) of a second container of an identical configuration placed below it. The spout (5) of this second container will sink in to the said cylindrical depression (18) of the first. The general arrangement of one container sitting on top of another container is shown in Figure 7. This arrangement is possible even without the cap in position in the spout. The two containers will stand as a single assembly which can stand on its own on the base of the second container. By a similar arrangement, a number of containers could form a single tower. Formation of such a tower with three container bodies (19) is illustrated in Figure 12. This is another 'self-locking building block' feature of the present container design. This feature enables stackability of the container, both in the primary use and in the secondary use, disclosed here.

As illustrated in the Figure 3, the footprint of the container is a square. The flat bottom and the rectangular shaped surfaces of the container offer a series of advantages in stacking and storing. It reduces the voids found when most containers of prior art are stacked and stored. Thus the present design offers a greater space saving feature in storage as well as in transportation.

Figure? illustrates how one container sits on the spout (5) of another container. The base (6) of the first container will sit on the top surface (11) of the container below. The spout (5) of the container below sinks in to the depression of the upper container. This will ensure that there is no gap between the two containers. This is possible with or without the cap in position. This assembly can be further extended as shown in Figure 28 where all four sides of containers are fitted with similar containers. This 'lego-like' feature enables the containers to be built up to form a much bigger structure as given in Figure 13 and Figure 14.

Figure 8 gives the details of the spout (5) without a cap, positioned inside the depression (18). The depression (18) has a slight enlargement (27) at its mouth. The internal diameter of this enlargement (27) is chosen to match with the external diameter of the neck ring (4). The slight interference in the two diameters will ensure a tight fit when one container sits inside the depression of another container. This enlargement (27) shown in detail in Figures 8 through 11, provides a useful function when the spout is inserted to the depression (18) at the base. The neck ring (4) located close to the bottom end of the spout (5) will fit tightly on to the said enlargement (27) of the depression. The tightness is achieved by a slight interference fit between the diameters of the neck ring (4) and enlargement (27).

Figures 8 through 11, show details of the assembly of two containers with the cap (21) in the spout (5). In addition to the interference at the enlargement (27), there is another interference fit between the internal surface of the depression (18) and the external surface of the cap (21). In Figures 8 through 11, the cap (21) and the depression (18) are shown with a clearance between them purely for clarity. In actual fact there is only a slight interference which is not visible..

The two interference fits at the cap surface (21) and at the enlargement (27) in the depression will ensure a steady and acceptable union between the two containers in this direction. When the containers are used as building blocks in their secondary use, a further bond between two containers can be achieved by the use of a filler or an adhesive between the top surface of the cap (21) and the flat surface of depression (18).

The 'self-locking building block' features disclosed here will enable the containers to find a very versatile secondary use. Once the container is emptied of its contents in the primary use, the empty container can be used as a 'self-locking building block' similar to the commonly used 'lego-like' toys. This feature has been appropriately adapted for the containers in this disclosure.

In their secondary use, the empty container can be filled with a commonly available material like sand, earth or clay. This will transform the empty container to a solid 'brick'. The filling of the container with a material like sand or earth will add a strength to the structure. The bricks produced in such a manner can be used to produce a strong interlocked structure as in Figures 13 and 14. These bricks can easily be used to produce a steady and strong wall. This type of wall can be used for many applications like partitions. However they may not be limited to partition walls.

The concept disclosed here can be extended to many other suboptimal embodiments. One such suboptimal embodiment is shown in Figure 15 and Figure 16. In this case, the container is elongated along the surface of the side walls where by this dimension is extended. The base with its depression and the spout remains the same as in the preferred embodiment. In the embodiment shown in Figures 15 & 16, the dimension in the direction of the side wall leaving out the spout is doubled. This extension can be further done in multiples of this dimension, depending on the need.

Similar to the basic shape, in this elongated container also the sidewall A (7) and the sidewall C (9) will remain plain. Figures 15 & 16 show suboptimal embodiment where the dimension is doubled and hence the sidewall B (8) will have 8 male knobs (12, 14, 22 & 24). The sidewall D (10) will have 4 near rectangular slots (16 & 26) to match the said male knobs.

The primary use of this elongated container is very much similar to the basic container design of the preferred embodiment disclosed here except for the shape. This shape may be more appealing for some applications. This embodiment offers a desirable advantage for the secondary use of empty containers. This 'self-locking building block' arising from this suboptimal embodiment would look more familiar and closer to the commonly found standard lego-like building block. In this case, the containers can be fitted together in horizontal and vertical configuration as shown in Figure 29. In this figure, two containers sitting side by side will add up to the dimension of the elongated direction. This is a very useful feature for stacking for storage and transport.

The wall constructed with this elongated container design is shown in Figure 17 and Figure 18. A rectangular corner of two walls also can be accomplished with the clever use of the 'self-locking building block' resulting from this suboptimal embodiment. This is illustrated in Figure 19 and Figure 20. Figure T1 shows an assembly of a number of these containers all kept in a horizontal orientation. All the containers are fitted together to form a rigid structure. This could be either in their primary use or in the secondary use. This feature shows that a number of containers can be made to act as a single entity. This will enable the transport of the containers without additional strapping or using a box. Since there are no gaps in between, the bulk volume will be minimum. The absence of voids between the containers will ensure the minimum bulk volume for the contents. This space saving feature would mean that transport costs and related energy expenditure will be minimized. Thus the primary user of these containers would reap many additional benefits. The elimination of strapping material requirement or additional containers or boxes as done normally. These packaging materials too usually end up in the environment as garbage. Minimization of the use of such materials adds to the list of advantages of the present disclosure.

Two more suboptimal embodiments of this invention are shown in Figures 21 through 26. Figures 21 through 23 show a half-size container of the preferred embodiment design with only two male knobs on one wall and a single near rectangular vertical slot placed on opposite wall. The other two side walls are left blank and plain. The spout and the bottom depression are similar to the preferred embodiment. Figure 23 illustrates how two half-size containers of the present suboptimal embodiment can be fitted to a container of the preferred embodiment. The advantage of the present half-size container is that it can be used to fill any voids created in an assembly as in Figure 20. Similarly Figures 24 through 26 show another suboptimal embodiment going in parallel with the elongated container of the embodiment in Figure 15. Here too, two units can be made to sit side-by-side and be fitted with the elongated container of the embodiment in Figure 15.

Another major advantage of this disclosure is that the design has been carried out with manufacturability in mind. Containers manufactured using this design can be detached from the moulds and blocks in the normal commercial usage enabling uninterrupted production. The shapes and details in the design have been done at this drafting stage itself to enable ease of manufacture.

The concept introduced in this design may be used in the manufacture of any size of container as per requirement. The primary user may decide on the size, colour or material suitable for the product to be filled. The spout comprising the neck and threads may be of any standard design. The cap too may be chosen freely to suit aesthetics and market appeal, as long as matching dimensions are chosen for the mating surfaces. The shape of male knobs may not be limited to the cylindrical shape used in this embodiment. The design may be extended to have other suboptimal features.

'Lego-like' self-locking building block design has not been incorporated in the design and manufacture of containers of any prior art containers. The present design is a novel feature in this context satisfying a long felt need to find a secondary use for the empty containers. The novelties described here make this design worthwhile in the future world. By creating an attractive secondary use for the discarded empty containers, destructive pollution of the environment with empty containers can be reduced substantially.