INTERLOCKING STACKABLE STORAGE CONTAINERS

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/656,973, filed Jun. 6, 2024, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Many items are acquired by individuals, families, businesses, local governments, and the like, the storage of which can be challenging, depending on the nature and quantity of the items. Decorative items can be particularly challenging, for example, due to their number, fragile nature, and variable sizes. The same is true for collectables, such as figurines, vases, glassware, and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a drawing of an interlockable storage system in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates a drawing of a rectangular support frame for a storage container in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 3A illustrates a frontal view of a handle in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 3B illustrates a side view of a handle in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 3C illustrates a front isometric view of a handle in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 3D illustrates a rear isometric view of a handle in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 4A illustrates a drawing of a rectangular support frame for a storage container in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 4B illustrates a drawing of a rectangular support frame for a storage container in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates a drawing of a plurality of rectangular support frames being coupled together in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 6A illustrates a side view of a handle in the process of cooping two rectangular support frames together in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 6B illustrates a side view of a handle in the process of cooping two rectangular support frames together in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 6C illustrates a side view of a handle in the process of cooping two rectangular support frames together in accordance with an example embodiment; in

FIG. 7 illustrates a drawing of a rectangular support frame for a storage container in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates drawing of a storage container in accordance with an example embodiment; and

FIG. 9 illustrates drawing of a storage container in accordance with an example embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Although the following detailed description contains many specifics for the purpose of illustration, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following details can be made and are considered included herein. Accordingly, the following embodiments are set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, any claims set forth. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Also, the same reference numerals appearing in different drawings represent the same element. Numbers provided in flow charts and processes are provided for clarity in illustrating steps and operations and do not necessarily indicate a particular order or sequence.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics can be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of layouts, distances, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that such detailed embodiments do not limit the overall concepts articulated herein but are merely representative thereof. One skilled in the relevant art will also recognize that the technology can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, layouts, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations may not be shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the disclosure.

In this application, “comprises,” “comprising,” “containing” and “having” and the like can have the meaning ascribed to them in U.S. Patent law and can mean “includes,” “including,” and the like, and are generally interpreted to be open ended terms. The terms “consisting of” or “consists of” are closed terms, and include only the components, structures, steps, or the like specifically listed in conjunction with such terms, as well as that which is in accordance with U.S. Patent law. “Consisting essentially of” or “consists essentially of” have the meaning generally ascribed to them by U.S. Patent law. In particular, such terms are generally closed terms, with the exception of allowing inclusion of additional items, materials, components, steps, or elements, that do not materially affect the basic and novel characteristics or function of the item(s) used in connection therewith. For example, trace elements present in a composition, but not affecting the composition's nature or characteristics would be permissible if present under the “consisting essentially of” language, even though not expressly recited in a list of items following such terminology. When using an open-ended term in this written description, like “comprising” or “including,” it is understood that direct support should be afforded also to “consisting essentially of” language as well as “consisting of” language as if stated explicitly and vice versa.

As used herein, the term “substantially” refers to the complete or nearly complete extent or degree of an action, characteristic, property, state, structure, item, or result. For example, an object that is “substantially” enclosed would mean that the object is either completely enclosed or nearly completely enclosed. The exact allowable degree of deviation from absolute completeness may in some cases depend on the specific context. However, generally speaking the nearness of completion will be so as to have the same overall result as if absolute and total completion were obtained. The use of “substantially” is equally applicable when used in a negative connotation to refer to the complete or near complete lack of an action, characteristic, property, state, structure, item, or result. For example, a composition that is “substantially free of” particles would either completely lack particles, or so nearly completely lack particles that the effect would be the same as if it completely lacked particles. In other words, a composition that is “substantially free of” an ingredient or element may still actually contain such item as long as there is no measurable effect thereof.

As used herein, the term “about” is used to provide flexibility to a given term, metric, value, range endpoint, or the like. The degree of flexibility for a particular variable can be readily determined by one skilled in the art. However, unless otherwise expressed, the term “about” generally provides flexibility of less than 1%, and in some cases less than 0.01%. It is to be understood that, even when the term “about” is used in the present specification in connection with a specific numerical value, support for the exact numerical value recited apart from the “about” terminology is also provided.

As used herein, a plurality of items, structural elements, compositional elements, and/or materials may be presented in a common list for convenience. However, these lists should be construed as though each member of the list is individually identified as a separate and unique member. Thus, no individual member of such list should be construed as a de facto equivalent of any other member of the same list solely based on their presentation in a common group without indications to the contrary.

Concentrations, amounts, and other numerical data may be expressed or presented herein in a range format. It is to be understood that such a range format is used merely for convenience and brevity and thus should be interpreted flexibly to include not only the numerical values explicitly recited as the limits of the range, but also to include all the individual numerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if each numerical value and sub-range is explicitly recited. As an illustration, a numerical range of “about 1 to about 5” should be interpreted to include not only the explicitly recited values of about 1 to about 5, but also include individual values and sub-ranges within the indicated range. Thus, included in this numerical range are individual values such as 2, 3, and 4 and sub-ranges such as from 1-3, from 2-4, and from 3-5, etc., as well as 1, 1.5, 2, 2.3, 3, 3.8, 4, 4.6, 5, and 5.1 individually.

This same principle applies to ranges reciting only one numerical value as a minimum or a maximum. Furthermore, such an interpretation should apply regardless of the breadth of the range or the characteristics being described.

Reference throughout this specification to “an example” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the example is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of phrases including “an example” or “an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same example or embodiment.

The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein are, for example, capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Similarly, if a method is described herein as comprising a series of steps, the order of such steps as presented herein is not necessarily the only order in which such steps may be performed, and certain of the stated steps may possibly be omitted and/or certain other steps not described herein may possibly be added to the method.

The terms “left,” “right,” “front,” “back,” “top,” “bottom,” “over,” “under,” and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.

As used herein, comparative terms such as “increased,” “decreased,” “better,” “worse,” “higher,” “lower,” “enhanced,” and the like refer to a property of a device, component, or activity that is measurably different from other devices, components, or activities in a surrounding or adjacent area, in a single device or in multiple comparable devices, in a group or class, in multiple groups or classes, or as compared to the known state of the art. For example, a data region that has an “increased” risk of corruption can refer to a region of a memory device which is more likely to have write errors to it than other regions in the same memory device. A number of factors can cause such increased risk, including location, fabrication process, number of program pulses applied to the region, etc.

An initial overview of embodiments is provided below, and specific embodiments are then described in further detail. This initial summary is intended to aid readers in understanding the disclosure more quickly, and is not intended to identify key or essential technological features, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

The present disclosure relates to devices and systems for storing and protecting items, including associated methods. Any conceivable item can be stored, including both breakable and non-breakable varieties; however, the disclosed devices and systems are particularly suited for the storage and protection of fragile items, such as, for example, fragile decorative items. Examples of fragile decorative items can include, without limitation, holiday ornaments, knickknacks, figurines, crystalline objects, glass objects, and the like, including combinations thereof. Fragile items can be stored in a storage device, or in multiple storage devices coupled together in a storage system. In one example, fragile items can be placed individually into isolated storage compartments that are adjustable in size, and the fragile item is surrounded by a protective liner material. It is additionally contemplated that in some examples the isolated storage compartments are fixed in size and are not adjustable.

In one example, a storage container can generally be described as having a rectangular support frame that can include a plurality of top frame members, a plurality of bottom frame members, and a plurality of support members coupled therebetween. Additionally, a pair of upper handle locks extends in a uniform direction from an opposing pair of the plurality of top frame members and a pair of lower handle locks extend in opposing directions from each other from an opposing pair of the plurality of bottom frame members. It is noted that the opposing directions are orthogonal to the uniform direction such that the pair of bottom handle locks are positioned such that each bottom handle lock surrounds an upper handle lock of the pair of upper handle locks on three sides when resting on a subsequent storage container. Furthermore, a pair of handles each rotatably coupled to either the pair of upper handle locks or the pair of lower handle locks are positioned and configured to rotate and engage the other handle lock to which they are not rotatably coupled to and then rotate into a locking position adjacent to the locking handle that they are rotatably coupled to. This locking action secures the storage container to a subsequent storage container located either above or below, depending on the positioning of the handles

More specifically, FIG. 1 shows an interlockable storage system including two storage containers 102 in an interlocked configuration. It is noted that any number of storage containers can be interlocked to one another and that such is not limiting. Each storage container 102 includes a rectangular support frame 104 and an outer cover 106.

The outer cover 106 can be made from any number of materials, such as, without limitation, fabrics, canvas, rubber materials, neoprene, polymeric materials, including flexible and nonflexible polymers, and the like. An inner lining may be used in some examples, which can include flexible or more rigid materials when breakability is not an issue. Nonlimiting examples of flexible materials include any conformable material, including, without limitation, both natural and synthetic cloths and fabrics, polymeric materials, rubber materials, neoprene, and the like.

FIG. 1 additionally shows a pair of handles 108 located at each end of the storage container 102. The handles 108 function to interlock one storage container to another while allowing the interlocked storage container to be lifted and/or otherwise moved by the handles when interlocked. It is noted that additional handles unrelated to the interlocking handles 108 can be included to further assist in lifting and moving the storage system.

FIG. 2 shows a nonlimiting example of a rectangular support frame 104. The rectangular support frame 104 includes a plurality of top frame members 110 that forms an upper support frame that supports the upper portion of the outer cover 106. It is noted that for a rectangular support frame that does not have a square configuration, the plurality of top frame members will include frame members of different lengths reflective of the dimensions of the rectangular support frame. The rectangular support frame 104 includes a plurality of bottom frame member 113 that forms a lower support frame. A plurality of support members 112 extend from the plurality of top frame members 110 to provide the rectangular structure of the rectangular support frame. A pair of upper handle locks 114 are coupled to and extend in a uniform direction from an opposing pair of the plurality of top frame members 110.

Furthermore, a pair of lower handle locks 116 extend in opposing directions from an opposing pair of the plurality of bottom frame members 113, wherein the opposing directions are orthogonal to the uniform direction of the upper handle locks 114. The lower handle locks 116 are positioned and structurally configured to surround the associated upper handle lock 114 of the pair of upper handle locks on three sides when resting on a subsequent storage container. Said in another was that is likely of a different scope, a pair of top frame members 110 includes an upwardly extending handle support 114 positioned at opposite ends of the rectangular support frame 104 which are configured to engage and couple the handle 108 to the top frame members 110. A pair of opposing bottom frame members 113 each include a lower handle lock 116 positioned at opposing ends of the lower support frame, where the lower handle locks 116 extend in opposite directions from one another which are both oriented orthogonally to the direction of the upper handle locks 114. The orthogonal orientations of the upper and lower handle locks relative to one another allow the pair of handles 108 to engage and lock the lower handle locks 116 of one storage container to the upper handle locks 114 of a subsequent storage container.

It is noted that FIG. 2 shows a rectangular support frame 104 with four top frame members 110 and two bottom frame members 113. These top and bottom frame members are shown as they are for convenience and are not limited to the numbers of frame members shown.

One nonlimiting example of a handle 108 can include one such as shown in FIGS. 3A-D. FIGS. 3A-D show front, right side, front isometric, and rear isometric views of the handle, respectively. The handle 108 includes a hand grip 118 for grasping the handle 108. and an engagement slot 120 configured to rotatably couple to the upper handle lock 114. The handle 108 further includes an interlock slot 124 positioned to interlockably couple the handle 108 to an associated lower handle lock 116 of a storage container 102 being positioned above the handle 108. The handle 108 further includes interlocking extensions 122 to interlock the handle 108 to side portions of the upper handle lock 114 to prevent rotation of the handle 108 when interlocked.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show nonlimiting examples similar to that of FIG. 2 of rectangular support frames 104. The rectangular support frame 104 includes a plurality of bottom frame member 113 that forms a lower support frame. A plurality of support members 112 extend from the plurality of top frame members 110 to provide the rectangular structure of the rectangular support frame. A pair of upper handle locks 114 are coupled to and extend in a uniform direction from an opposing pair of the plurality of top frame members 110. Furthermore, a pair of lower handle locks 116 extend in opposing directions from an opposing pair of the plurality of bottom frame members 113, wherein the opposing directions are orthogonal to the uniform direction of the upper handle locks 114. Handles 108 are shown in the interlocked position at the upper handle locks 114.

FIG. 4A shows is an example of a support frame whereby the plurality of support members 112 are coupled between the top frame members 110 and the bottom fame members 113 at positions offset from the corners of the rectangular support frame 104. FIG. 4B is an example of a support frame whereby the plurality of support members 112 are coupled between the top frame members 110 and the bottom fame members 113 at corners of the rectangular support frame 104.

FIG. 5 shows a system of 3 storage container rectangular support frames 104 (coverings not shown for clarity) with the bottom rectangular support frame 104 having handles 108a interlocked to the middle rectangular support frame 134. The handles 108b of the middle support frame 136 are rotated upwardly to engage the lower handle locks 116 of the rectangular support frame 138 of the upper storage container.

FIGS. 6A-6B show examples of an interlocking mechanism to attach two storage containers together. FIG. 6A shows a handle 108 interlocked to upper handle lock 114 by the interlocking extensions 122. A lower handle lock 116 of a separate storage container positioned above the lower storage container frame is shown above the handle 108. FIG. 6B shows the handle 108 unlocked from the upper handle lock 114 and rotated upwards to engage the upper handle lock 116 at the interlock slot 124. As the handle 108 is rotated downward, the interlock slot 124 pulls the upper handle lock 116 and thus the upper storage container is pulled downward against the lower support frame (not shown). FIG. 6C shows the handle 108 positioned in the interlocked position with the upper support frame interlocked with the lower support frame.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a rectangular support frame 104 attached to a base support frame 130. The base support frame 130, in this example, includes four castors 132 to allow the interlocked storage containers to be easily moved from place to place.

The storage containers of the present disclosure can be used to store any type of item, including fragile keepsakes, hobby collections, holiday ornaments, and the like. The inside lining and configuration can thus vary to accommodate various sized items. FIG. 8 shows one example of a storage container having an outer cover 106 and handles 108 for interlocking and maneuvering. The storage container also shows one or more trays 140 having individual item compartments 142. The sizes of the item compartments can be fixed or adjustable depending on the storage compartment design. In one aspect, the tray can have a soft lining hanging down into each storage compartment 143 in order to suspend the item off of the bottom surface and sides of the storage compartment. In one example, multiple trays 140 can be stacked upon each other in the storage container. In other examples, trays can be attached to one another on telescopic rods that lift the trays upward for ease of use.

In examples where the item compartments are adjustable, FIG. 8 shows a plurality of compartments 142 formed by a grid of a first plurality of compartment rods 144 spaced apart from one another and extending across a top surface of the one or more trays 140 and a second plurality of compartment rods 146 spaced apart from one another and spaced across the top surface of the one or more trays 140 in an orthogonal orientation with respect to the first plurality of compartment rods 144. As each of the first plurality of compartment rods 144 and each of the second plurality of compartment rods 146 is slidably coupled to the top surface of the one or more trays 140, such action of the various compartment rods relative to one another will alter the size of the item compartments defined by the adjacent compartment rods

FIG. 9 shows an example of a storage container having an opening 150, such as, and without limitation, a zippered opening, in the front of the outer cover 106 whereby access can be afforded to inner storage areas. In one example, drawers can be mounted and slid out of the opening 150. It is noted that the storage containers can include top covers which have not been shown for clarity.