The invention relates to a transport and handling system comprising a box for transporting and handling objects, such as mail items, and a picking appliance for use with the box and for containing mail items to be picked from the picking appliance when the mail is delivered, which box includes a bottom and four walls, which walls have handles and essentially vertical inner grooves or recesses for cooperating with projecting rails or guide members on a similar box with the purpose of stacking.

Most trays or boxes in the postal industry are designed for sorting and transportation of small standard letters and to some extent large letters. In the "last mile" delivery the mail is often moved to other types of delivery systems. Typically, the solutions must be able to handle several types of mail within a short handling distance, such as small letters, large letters, ad mail, newspapers and small parcels. On bikes and mopeds, bags with dividers are often used. In cars, different systems of boxes or trays and metal cassettes are used. Many postal organisations have tried to implement a picking box or tray for small standard letters, buth there is still a need for a system usable for transportation and handling of larger amounts of mail.

From EP 1 525 059 B1 a box for handling mail items is known. This box in- eludes a bottom and four side walls, wherein the side walls have an interconnected upper and lower part, the upper part being formed in one piece with the lower part via an intermediate step, such that the upper part has a larger circumference than the lower part. The end walls are provided with projecting, vertical rails, and the upper part of the end walls have inner recesses for cooperat- ing with the rails on a second similar box, when the second box is positioned in the first box. When turning the second box 180° around a vertical axe, the rails on the end walls will be arranged on top of the top of the lower box, since the rails will be kept arranged sideways in relation to the recesses in the lower box. The box has inner recesses to accommodate letters, such that those letters may be maintained in an essentially vertical position, while resting on their lower edge. Partitions may possibly be placed in the recesses. The object of the invention is to provide a system that is both suited for transporting objects, such as mail items, appropriately stacked in a box, and readjustment of the box for easy picking of the objects in question, when this is desired. Another object of the invention is to provide a system comprising a picking appliance that may be used in different kinds of transportation boxes suitable for different kinds of vehicles, such that the same system may be used for handling several types of mail within a small picking area. Furthermore, by providing a modular system of boxes and picking appliances, a postal organisation is able to use the same picking appliance and box system for all delivery of mail.

The above objects are obtained according to the invention by the box being designed for detachable accommodation of at least one picking appliance for use when picking individual objects, such as letters and similar mail items, the pick- ing appliance including at least one removable partition and a supporting device, the partition being slidably arranged on the supporting device and being provided with fastening means for fastening it to the supporting device, and the supporting device being provided with mounting means for mounting the picking appliance in the box.

This allows for easy readjustment of the box for use when picking individual objects, and for the box to have a larger volume than the volume taken by the picking appliance, by which the box may accommodate more items than those immediately ready for picking. According to the invention the box may be designed for accommodating two picking appliances next to each other or for accommodating one or more picking appliances on several levels, by which the versatility of the box increases further.

Preferably, according to the invention the partition of the picking appliance may essentially have a sheet form with a stiffener constituting a foot, which essentially projects perpendicularly from the plane of the partition along the edge thereof being closest to the supporting device when in use, and wherein the stiffener has guide members for cooperating with corresponding guide members on the supporting device, which makes the partition slide easily.

According to the invention the supporting device may have holes for cooperating with the fastening means, such as a spring-pretensioned manually operated pin on the partition.

According to the invention the supporting device may have a sheet form, and the mounting means may be projecting flaps formed on the edges of the sheet and adapted for cooperating with corresponding recesses and resting faces in the box, thereby making it possible to both use the picking applicance for picking of mail and the sheet-formed supporting device as a shelf within the box. Depending on the number and position of the recesses and resting faces there may be arranged a picking appliance or a shelf on several levels and in different places in the box.

According to the invention the projecting flaps may consist of two flaps formed on each of two opposite ends of the supporting device, the flaps at the one end being placed closer to the adjacent side edge of the supporting device than the flaps at the other end.

Alternatively, according to the invention the box may have grooves for mounting the sheet-formed supporting device without partition in vertical position, if it is desired that the box be divided into more compartments. According to the invention the supporting device may be box-shaped and constitute a second box, wherein the mounting means may be projecting rails, which are formed on the outer sides of the second box and are designed for cooperating with corresponding recesses on the inner side of the box, which thus constitutes a larger first box, wherein the second box has handle means facilitating handling of the second box with appertaining partition.

Preferably, according to the invention the second box may be designed to be positioned both with its bottom up and down in the larger first box, by which the compartment for accommodating mail, which has to be transported to a picking place, may be increased until picking is needed.

Additionally, according to the invention the handle means of the second box may include both fixed gripping holes formed in the walls of the box, and slots for receiving flexible straps, which straps are fixed to the inner side of the second box and in particular adapted to be used when lifting the second box in filled condition out of the first box.

Furthermore, according to the invention grooves may be formed along the top edge of two opposite sides of the second box, said grooves being adapted for positioning additional, preferably metallic partitions that are essentially parallel to the sliding partition.

Furthermore, according to the invention the grooves or recesses on the inner side of the box are formed in such manner that they, by cooperating with the projecting rails on the second box, allow for the rails of the second box in a first position to be received in longer recesses on the inner side of the first box, and to be received in shorter recesses in the first box in a second position. Thereby, the box of the picking appliance, the second box, may be arranged on a level that is suitable for the user and the volume of the contents of the larger box. The second position may preferably be turned 180° compared to the first position. According to the invention the projecting rails of the second box may consist of two rails formed on each of two opposite end walls of the box, and the rails at the one end wall are placed closer to the adjacent side wall of the second box than the rails on the other end wall.

Additionally, according to the invention the projecting rails on the second box may be rectangular trough-shaped portions having an outwardly projecting opening. Furthermore, according to the invention the projecting flaps of the sheet-formed supporting device with regard to shape and position are placed corresponding to the rails on the box-shaped supporting device, such that the device with appertaining partition may be positioned in the same places of the box as the box- shaped supporting device with appertaining partition.

The invention is described in detail with reference to the figures as follows:

Fig. 1 shows an end view of a first embodiment of a box comprised by the system according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view along the line ll-ll in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the box shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a picking appliance comprised by the system according to the invention, the picking appliance being separated from the box according to Figs. 1 -3.

Fig. 5 is an end view of the box-shaped supporting device illustrated in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view along the line VI-VI in Fig. 8. Fig. 7 is a sectional view along the line VI I- VI I in Fig. 6. Fig. 8 is a plan view of the box-shaped supporting device shown in Figs. 4-7. Fig. 9 shows a front view of the partition illustrated in Fig. 4.

Fig. 10 is a sectional view along the line X-X in Fig. 1 1 .

Fig. 1 1 is a plan view of the partition shown in Fig. 10. Fig. 12 shows an embodiment of an additional partition of the type shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 13 shows a side view and partly sectional view of an additional embodiment of a box comprised by the system according to the invention.

Fig. 14 is a sectional view along the line XIV-XIV in Fig. 13.

Fig. 15 is an end view of the box shown in Figs. 13 and 14. Fig. 16 is a plan view of the box shown in Figs. 13-15.

Fig. 17 shows another embodiment of a supporting device comprised by the system according to the invention. The box A shown in Figs. 1 -3 has a bottom 1 and two opposite side walls 2, 3 as well as two opposite end walls 4, 5. The side walls 2, 3 and end walls 4, 5 are slightly tapering towards the bottom 1 and divided into an upper and lower part, which are interconnected via an upwardly facing circumferential ledge 6 on the inner side with a corresponding circumferential ledge 7 on the outer side.

The inner side of the end walls 4, 5 is on the upper part provided with two essentially vertically extending recesses or grooves 8, 9 and 10, 1 1 , respectively, and in line with these recesses the lower part of the end walls 4, 5 is provided with projecting rails 13, 14 and 15, respectively, essentially in line with the recesses 8-1 1 .

The recesses 8, 9 and the rails 13, 14 on the end wall 4 are placed close to the side walls 2, 3, whereas the recesses 10, 1 1 and the appertaining rails 15, of which only one can be seen, on the end wall 5 are placed closer to the centre of the end wall.

Gripping holes 16, 17 are formed at the top of the end walls 4, 5.

The box A shown in Figs. 1 -3 is designed for accommodation of a picking appliance, such as the picking appliance shown in Fig. 4 generally referred to by number 18. This picking appliance 18 includes a partition 19 and a box-shaped supporting device 20. The box-shaped supporting device 20 has a bottom 21 and two opposite side walls 22, 23 as well as two opposite end walls 24, 25. The box-shaped supporting device 20 is shown in detail in Figs. 5-8. As it appears, the end walls 24, 25 of the box each have two rails 26, 27 and 28, 29, respectively, extending parallelly with the side walls 22, 23. These rails 26-29 are like other rails on the described boxes formed like a rectangular trough with side and end walls. The rails 26, 27 on the one end wall 24 are placed closer to the side walls 23, 22, respectively, whereas the rails 28, 29 on the end wall 25 are placed closer towards the centre of the end wall 25. The rails 26-29 are formed and placed in such manner that they may be received in the recesses 8- 1 1 in the box A shown in Figs. 1 -3 in a first position, whereas they, by turning the box-shaped supporting device 20 180°, will be placed at the top of the box A shown in Figs. 1 -3, since the rails 26-29 are placed next to the recesses or grooves 8-1 1 of the box A. Suitably, recesses may be formed for receiving the lower ends of the rails 26-29 such that the box-shaped supporting device remains positioned at the top of the box A shown in Figs. 1 -3. By turning the box- shaped supporting device 20 in such manner that the bottom 21 turns upwards, the supporting device may also be placed in the larger box A shown in Figs. 1 - 3. To handle the box-shaped supporting device 20 there are both at the top and at the bottom of the end walls 24, 25 formed gripping holes 30, 31 and 32, 33, respectively. The shape and position of those gripping holes correspond to the gripping holes 16, 17 in the box A shown in Figs. 1 -3 such that, regardless of whether the bottom is turned upwards or downwards, there are gripping holes in the box-shaped supporting device 22 opposite to and at level with the gripping holes 16, 17 in the larger box.

As appears from Figs. 5 and 7 in particular, on each side of the upper gripping holes 30, 32 in the box-shaped supporting device 22 there are formed inclined slots 34, 35 and 36, 37, respectively. These slots 34-37 are designed for receiv- ing flexible gripping straps (not shown), which, when in use, are arranged on the inner side of the respective end walls 24, 25. The straps are used for lifting the box-shaped supporting device 20, particularly when arranging it in or removing it from the larger box A shown in Figs. 1 -3. The partition 19 on the box-shaped supporting device 20 has, as shown in Figs. 9-1 1 , almost the shape of a sheet 38 with a foot 39, which projects perpendicularly from the sheet. The sheet 38 and the foot 39 are interconnected by a number of triangular supporting means 40-46 of different sizes. The sheet 38 and the foot 39 as well as the supporting means 40-46 are all moulded in one piece. The foot 39 is formed with recesses 47, 48 forming grooves extending perpendicularly on the sheet 38. Recesses 47, 48 are formed on each side of the middle of the foot, which, when the partition 19 is in use, essentially coincides with a longitudinal median plane in the box-shaped supporting device 20. The side face of the grooves closest to the middle of the foot is an inclined face forming an undercutting in the grooves 47, 48. The grooves 47, 48 match corresponding longitudinal projections 49, 50, respectively, on the bottom 21 of the box-shaped supporting device 20 shown in Figs. 5-8 such that the partition 19 when positioned in the supporting device 20 may engage with the projections 49, 50 in a dovetail-like manner and be slided back and forth along the bottom 21 .

At the middle of the foot 39 of the partition 19 there is an additional groove- shaped recess 51 facing downwards, which is adapted for receiving a longitudinal centrally placed projection 52 on the bottom 21 of the box-shaped support- ing device 20. This projection has a number of holes 53 designed for cooperating with a spring-pretensioned fastening pin (not shown) that is fastened in a manner not shown in detail to a centrally placed hole 53 in the foot 39 of the partition 19 as shown in Fig. 1 1 . This fastening pin is manually operated such that the partition 19 may be fastened as desired in any preferred place in the longitudinal direction of the box-shaped supporting device 20 when the pin engages with one of the holes 53.

A step-shaped projection 55, 56 is provided at each end of the bottom 21 of the box-shaped supporting device 20. Corresponding outer recesses are formed on the outer side of the box-shaped supporting device, which along with the recesses at the lower ends of the rails 26-29 are used for fastening the box- shaped supporting device 20 in a manner not shown in detail on a means of transport. In connection with the groove 51 and the foot 39 of the partition 19 a recess 57 is formed, which may receive the step-shaped projection 55 of the end wall 24 of the box-shaped supporting device 20. Thereby the partition 19 may be moved into abutment with the end wall 24, if it is not to be used. As the longitudinal projections 49 included in the dovetail-shaped connection with the partition 19 end somewhere off the second end wall 25, the partition may easily be mounted in the box-shaped supporting device 20 or be removed therefrom.

As appears from Fig. 9 in particular, the partition is provided with a recess 58 at the top, which recess has a shape that facilitates reading of addresses or the like on those letters or the like that are to be picked from the picking appliance 18.

During use the user places a bundle of mail, from which letters and similar mail items are to be distributed by picking, in the box 20 between the partition 19 and one of the end walls 24, 25. If desired, the picking appliance may be used sepa- rately or supported by the ledge 6, 7 in the box A shown in Figs. 1 -3. Alternatively, the picking appliance may as mentioned above be placed at the top of the larger box. If desired, the user may use one or several additional removable partitions 59 shown in Fig. 4 or Fig. 12. Those partitions are preferably made of metal. At the top they are formed with a hook 60, 61 that projects outwardly from each side and that is designed for engaging with suitable, formed recesses 62 along the upper edges 22, 23 of the side walls 22, 23. As appears from Fig. 4 in particular, those recesses 62 are formed with larger depth on the outer side of the side walls than on the inner side, whereby the hooks 60, 61 may engage with the recesses 62 without essentially projecting from the plane of the outer side of the side walls 22, 23. At the middle of the bottom the partition 59 is provided with a pin-shaped projection 63 for engaging with one of the holes 53 at the middle of the bottom 21 of the box-shaped supporting device 20. The parti- tion 59 is also provided with two grooves 64, 65 for receiving the projections 49, 50 at the bottom 21 of the box-shaped supporting device 20. If desired, the partition 59 may also be provided with a through-going opening in the centre area.

Figs. 13-16 show a second - larger - box B for accommodation of the picking appliance 18. This box B is formed with such a size that it may accommodate two picking appliances 18 next to each other in the box B. The larger box B also comprises a bottom 71 and two side walls 72, 73 and two end walls 74, 75. This box has such a size that it at the centre between the end walls 74, 75 has a stabilizing centre wall 76 that close to the bottom is a double wall, which has an opening at the bottom and further upwards changes into a massive wall. In each half on each side of the centre wall 76 the box B is formed with recesses or grooves, which correspond with the recesses or grooves formed in the first box A and adapted to receive the rails of the picking appliance 18 so that the picking appliance may be arranged crosswise of the box B between the gripping holes 77, 78. Only the first groove 79 of the described grooves is illustrated clearly in Fig. 13, while the second groove 80 is illustrated in Fig. 14. The picking appliance 18 may thus be accommodated in engagement with those grooves 79, 80, since it will bear against a lower supporting face 95, 96, respectively, at the lower ends of the grooves 79, 80.

An alternative to the picking appliance 18 disclosed above, which comprises a box-shaped supporting device 20, a picking appliance having a sheet-formed supporting device 81 may be used. This sheet-formed supporting device has essentially the same elements as those that are included in the bottom of the box-shaped supporting device 20, namely the projections 82, 83 that correspond with the projections 49, 50 for dovetail-like engagement with the partition 19, and a projection 84 corresponding with the projection 52 with holes 85 for fastening the partition 19. Additionally, the sheet-formed supporting device 81 comprises projecting flaps 86-89, which with regard to shape and position correspond with the rails 26-29 on the box-shaped device 20 such that the sheet- formed supporting device 81 with appertaining partition 19 may be positioned in the same places as the box-shaped supporting device 20 with appertaining par- tition 19. Furthermore, the sheet-formed supporting device 81 is designed, with or without the partition 19, for cooperating with a number of other supporting faces or ledges on the inner side of the larger box B. A sheet-formed supporting device may for example be supported in a level defined by a supporting face 90, 91 positioned in connection with suitable recesses on the inner side of the box B (see Figs. 13-14), in addition to the levels that correspond with those, where the bottom of the box-shaped supporting device 21 may be positioned.

Additionally, the sheet-formed supporting device 81 may be used without partition 19 as a partition in the large box B by positioning it in grooves, such as the groove 92 shown in Fig. 13. Next to this groove 92 there is a second groove 93, which ends at a higher level essentially at reference number 93 in Fig. 13. Apart from accommodating the picking appliance the box B may also accommodate the box A, since the rails 13, 14 and 15 of the box A may be received in the same recesses or grooves 79, 80 as the picking appliance, since the box A is accommodated such that the ledges 6,7 end up being positioned at the level of the upper edge of the box B.

The figures show the box B without wheels. However, if desired, a wheel may be mounted in a usual manner at each corner such that the box may be moved easily.

The boxes A and B are formed as a module system and designed such that they commensurably fit to a europallet. They are both preferably moulded out of one piece of polyethylene or possibly polypropylene unless they have to be frost-proof. The supporting device 20, 81 of the picking appliance 18 are produced in the same material, whereas the partition 19 is made of polycarbonate. The invention has been disclosed with reference to preferred embodiments. There may be made a lot of changes without thereby deviating from the idea of the invention. For example, different ribs and grooves may be formed for making the boxes more stable. The figures already show such elements, which have not been described any further. Furthermore, as appears from the figures, there may be formed additional holes in both the bottom of the box-shaped supporting device and the sheet-formed supporting device 81 to facilitate handling of these devices. The boxes are all designed with a slightly tapering shape such that they may be placed in each other to a higher or lower degree. The boxes may be made of other materials than the described materials. Additional- ly, the bottoms, such as the bottom in the box-shaped supporting device, may be formed with for example small grooves to increase the friction, thereby facilitating the handling of mail items that are to be accommodated herein.