This invention relates to a method for mounting a plastics handle on a sheet metal container and a fitting for use in connection with the method.

Metal containers, for exemple containers made of tinplate, used in particular for transport, storing and sale of painting and varnishing products, but also for many other purposes, e.g. transport, storage and sale of certain food products or chemicals, have until now mostly been provided with a carrying handle in the form of a piece of rigid, curved wire which at its ends engages fittings provided on opposite sides of the container, these fittings being shaped as a low cup provided along its edge with projections for securing by welding on the sides of the container and provided at its bottom with a circular hole for engaging of the wire handle.

It has turned out, however, that the wire handles have a number of disadvantages in that when placed during transport next to the sides of the neigbouring container they can damage the information, e.g. the declaration, instructions, warnings etc. lithographed on the sides thereof.

When these inconveniences are to be avoided during the packaging of the filled containers unpropor- tionnally much space is necessary during the transport the cost of which thereby being increased.

Consequently, there has been a wish to provide the containers of the kind mentioned with a handle of flexible plastics which would not scratch the text on the container and which at the packaging would be deformed in stead of damaging the neigbouring con¬ tainer, and in addition it could have a certain width in order to avoid cutting into the fingers when the container is carried by the handle.

GB-A-2 033 332 discloses a plastics handle for a sheet metal container. This handle is designed to be mounted after the container has been filled and closed. Consequently, being specifically designed for this purpose the design and mounting of this handle are not quite uncomplicated. The mounting takes place on the head of a rivet which at the end of its shaft is secured to the wall of the container, and this solution implies a disadvantageous punctiform load of the wall. By an embodiment in which the rivet is provided in the bottom of a load distributing fitting having the shape of a cup, as mentionned above in connection with the mounting of a wire handle, which design is known also from GB-A-2090808 and GB-A-2093792, the fitting will project so much from the container that it will prove hampering to the packaging or the palleting of the containers.

A better load distribution is obtained when using the plastics plug described in EP-A-0 064 825 and which in a special manner is inserted as a support for a handle in opposite holes in the wall of the container. It is however a complication to provide holes in the wall of the container which holes are again to be closed by plugs with an indispensable risk of leakage.

It is therefore the object of this invention to provide a method for mounting a simple plastics handle on a sheet metal container so that the distri- bution of the carrying load from the handle to the container is spread over an area of the wall of the container, and so that the mounting can take place without penetration of the walls and by means of a fitting which only to a limited extend projects outside the side of the container.

This is achieved by a method according to the characterizing part of claim 1.

The plastics handle can of course be in the form of a previously manufactured handle piece, but may conveniently, according to the invention, be cut from a rolled-up plastics band which according to the invention can be profiled in order to achieve a better strength and to make the handle more comfor¬ table in use. Without departing from the idea of the invention, the securing of the support fitting on the container may take place at every stage in the mounting proces of the handle, but according to the invention the most convenient stage is before mounting the handle on the fitting.

However, especially if the handle is present as a premanufactured handle piece, it may, according to the invention, however be appropriate to arrange the handle on the support fitting and expand one of its its ends before securing its other end to the external side of the container.

According to the invention the securing, regard¬ less of the stage of it, may be performed by welding.

A support fitting for mounting a plastics handle on a sheet metal container may conveniently according to the invention have the shape of a tubular rivet the head of which constitutes a collar bent out at one end of the rivet for securing to the container, the collar being provided with a number of projections extending in the longitudinal direction of the rivet serving as welding points, the tube of the rivet forming a cylindrical surface for accomodating a hole in a handle.

A support fitting with a bent out collar with welding projections at one end and furthermore having

a cylindrical supporting surface is as such provided by a fitting of the type previously used when mounting a wire handle, and such a fitting may consequently be used if the bottom of the cup shaped fitting permits an expansion of that end of the cylinder which is opposite the collar.

Although a support fitting provided with a collar for securing by welding is preferable, the use of other support fittings with cylindrical suppor- ting surfaces, e„g„ a short tubular member, is in the range of the invention, and this is also the case if the fitting is secured by other means than by wel¬ ding, e.g. by soldering or glueing.

The invention will be further explained in the following with reference to the drawings in which

Fig. 1 is a schematic sectional side view of the side of a container and of a fitting with a handle mounted according to the invention.

Pig. 2 is a front view of the arrangement of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a sectional view corresponding to the one represented in Fig. 1 of another design of the fitting and the handle.

Fig. 4 is a front view of the arrangement repre- sented in Fig. 3, and

Fig. 5 a perpendicular longitudinal view through the handle represented in Fig. 1 and 2.

In Fig. 1 , 1 designates a portion of a metal sheet container on which a support fitting is secured by welding. The support fitting is composed of a tubular part 2 which at one of its ends is bent out to form a collar 3 having at intervals along its circumference extruded projections 4 serving as welding points when securing the support fitting to the container by wel¬ ding.

The tubular part of the support fitting is, prior to the mounting of a handle 5, formed as a short straight tubular member indicated by the dotted line in Fig 1, whereas the external end of the tube 2, that is the end opposite the collar 3, is expanded, as showed by the unbroken line, after a hole at the end of the handle and with a diameter corresponding to the external diameter of the tubular member 2 has been arranged over the tubular element. The expansion illustrated is a simple bending out of the edge of the tube, but it may also be in the form of an outwardly directed beading of the end of the ^' tubular part 2, or a similar arrangement can have been made having the effect that the outer radius of the outer end of the tubular member is made somewhat greater then the hole in the mounted handle piece in order to avoid a sliding out of the latter from the support fitting.

Fig. 3 and 4 illustrate another embodiment of a support fitting for use in connection with the method according to the invention where parts corre¬ sponding to those shown in Fig. 1 and 2 have the same references. The support fitting in Fig. 3 and 4 differs from the one in Fig. 1 and 2 in having the shape of a cup in stead of being tubular so that by the expansion of the part of the cylindrical surface opposite the collar a further extension must be performed of the material constituting the bottom 6 of the cup. The illustrated bottom is entire, but it may be provided with an aperture more or less great, which means that the support fitting initially ment for the wire handle can be used.

The handle 5 is composed in Fig. 3 and 4 of a simple flat plastics band, whereas the plastics band in Fig. 1 and 2 is profiled having the profile

shown in Fig. 5 comprising bulges 7 along the edges. This latter design implies in addition of providing a better carrying strength a handle which is more comfortable in use by having no sharp edges -which might cut into the fingers.

In the embodiments exemplified above the mounting of a handle on a container is described where the support fitting is welded onto the sides of the con¬ tainer. It is obvious that other securing techniques may be used, such as soldering. In those cases, the collar is not provided with welding projections, but is given a design specifically convenient for the technique used.