Patents Assigned to International Container Systems
  • Patent number: 6079554
    Abstract: A tray for holding a plurality of beverage containers has a floor with a plurality of container seating areas on its top surface and structure on its bottom surface to enable a plurality of the trays loaded with containers to be stacked on top of one another in stable relationship, yet slid relatively easily on top of one another when desired. Peripheral heel protector bands extend around the periphery of the tray to protect the lower ends of containers from damage, and spacer members project upwardly from the floor between the container seating areas to maintain containers in the tray spaced from one another and prevent displacement of the containers from their seating areas when the tray is tilted. A tray sidewall includes spaced pillars extending upwardly from the periphery of the floor and supporting a top rail at their upper ends.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2000
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Roy Hammett, Douglas H. Heilman
  • Patent number: 5785170
    Abstract: A beverage can tray floor has a plurality of redoubts on its bottom surface for cooperation with the rims of cans in a sub-adjacent tray to impede free sliding movement of an upper tray over the rims of cans in a sub-adjacent tray, while enabling the upper tray to be slid over the cans in the lower tray. The redoubts include at least one elongate, tapered redoubt that extends in spanning relationship to the rim of a can to facilitate initial lateral sliding movement. The tray also has peripheral heel protector bands extending around a bottom portion thereof to protect the heels of cans, and upstanding can spacer members between can seating areas to maintain cans in the tray spaced from one another and prevent displacement of the cans from their seating areas when the tray is tilted. The sidewall includes a plurality of spaced pillars extending upwardly from the floor and supporting a peripheral top rail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 28, 1998
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Hammett
  • Patent number: 5487487
    Abstract: A bottle carrier case having a crenelated side wall, for transporting bottles of beverage. The case has locating means on the bottom of the case for stably stacking the case and has openings provided in the concavities for easily removing the case from overlying bottles. The bottle carrier case is able to both directly stack and cross-stack up to about 50% of its overall depth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 30, 1996
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Hammett
  • Patent number: 5421477
    Abstract: A bottle carrier case for transporting bottles of beverage having locating means on the bottom of the case for stably stacking the case and having openings provided in the concavities for easily removing the case from overlying bottles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 6, 1995
    Assignee: International Container Systems, INc.
    Inventor: Roy Hammett
  • Patent number: 5188233
    Abstract: A carrier tray for deformable beverage containers prevents doming of the underside of beverage cans and abrasion of adjacent cans during transport. The base of the carrier includes upwardly projecting members (62, 63) which are taped to conform to the shape of the underside of the containers. An additional feature of the upwardly projecting members is the retention of the cans in a vertical position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 1990
    Date of Patent: February 23, 1993
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Hammett
  • Patent number: 4896774
    Abstract: A spacer tray 2 for containers 32 is formed of a moldable sheet material and is shaped to provide a plurality of container-bottom receptacles 4. Each container-bottom receptacle 4 is shaped to receive at least a part of a bottom portion of a container 32. A container spacer wall 30 is located between each pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles 4 to maintain bottom portions of containers seated in the receptacles spaced apart from one another. The spacer tray includes a plurality of container-loading-guide-pin caps 36 which permit end portions of container-loading guide pins 78--from a high-speed spacer-tray loading machine, for example--to project into and fit within the interiors of the caps for locating the spacer tray 2 and for reinforcing the caps for guiding bottom portions of containers 32 into container-bottom receptacles 4 during loading of the spacer tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1987
    Date of Patent: January 30, 1990
    Assignee: International Container Systems
    Inventors: Roy Hammett, Edward L. Passarelli
  • Patent number: 4896474
    Abstract: A spacer-tray loading machine loads cans or other containers into nestable spacer trays. The spacer trays are shaped with a plurality of container-bottom receptacles in a row-column array and nest together when empty to form a stack. The spacer-tray loading machine comprises a multiple-lane container feeder for supplying containers arranged in parallel rows to a tray loading area of the machine. The number of lanes equals the number of columns of container-bottom receptacles in the spacer tray. The spacer-tray loading machine further comprises a stacked-tray supply conveyor for advancing a horizontal stack of trays towards a tray-withdrawal end of the stack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 1987
    Date of Patent: January 30, 1990
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: John F. Osteen, Bernard R. Marks, Frederick J. Szeliga
  • Patent number: 4789063
    Abstract: A spacer tray 2 for containers 32 is formed of a plastic sheet material and is shaped to provide a plurality of container-bottom receptacles 4. Each container-bottom receptacle 4 is shaped to receive at least a part of a bottom portion of a container 32. A container spacer wall 30 is located between each pair of adjacent container-bottom receptacles 4 to maintain bottom portions of containers seated in the receptacles spaced apart from one another. The spacer tray 2 can include nesting-binding interference structures 40, 42 to prevent two spacer trays placed one atop the other from binding when one tray is rotated 180 degrees relative to but otherwise aligned with the other tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 1987
    Date of Patent: December 6, 1988
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Hammett
  • Patent number: 4700836
    Abstract: A universal case capable of transporting PET bottles of a base-cup type and a petaloid type includes an outer shell 4, 6 and a plurality of support ribs 32, 34, 36, 38 which are shaped to define a plurality of bottle pockets 25 for receiving the bases of PET bottles. A bottle seating structure 40 associated with each bottle pocket 25 includes a base-cup-bottle alignment structure 42, 44, 48 and a petaloid-bottle alignment structure 54, 56. The two alignment structures 42, 44, 48, 54, 56 are adapted to orient PET bottles respectively of the base cup type and the petaloid type seated in the bottle pocket 25 so that the longitudinal symmetry axis of the bottles extend generally parallel to the pocket centerline. The case also includes a case rest 60 associated with each bottle pocket 25. The case rest 60 has a central-base-surface bottle-to-case load-transmission surface 61 facing the bottle pocket 25 and a case-to-closure load-transmission surface 63 facing outward from the bottom of the case.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 20, 1987
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Hammett
  • Patent number: 4700837
    Abstract: An universal case is adapted to transport PET bottles of both a base-cup type and a petaloid type. The case 2 includes an outer shell 4,6 and a plurality of support ribs 30, 32, 34, 36, 80 for reinforcing the shell. The outer shell and the support ribs are shaped to define a plurality of bottle pockets 25 for receiving the bases of PET bottles. A bottle seating structure 40 is associated with each bottle pocket 25 and includes a plurality of dual-base-engagement projections 52, a base-cup-bottle alignment structure 42 and a petaloid-bottle alignment structure 48, 50. The dual-base-engagement projections associated with a bottle pocket 25 extend generally parallel to a centerline of the pocket and project into the pocket. The number of dual-base-engagement projections equals the number of petaloid lobes 124 formed in the base of a PET bottle of the petaloid type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 20, 1987
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Roy Hammett
  • Patent number: 4410099
    Abstract: A case for unsupported-base multipacks of bottles has an outer wall, a base grid comprising a plurality of interconnected ribs, and partitioning to divide the case into a plurality of multipack receptacles. Each multipack receptacle has a generally hollow supporting pillar projecting from the base grid of the receptacle. The supporting pillar can fit within a space between four bottles of a multipack placed within the receptacle and urge against a side portion of each of the bottles to stabilize the multipack. Empty cases of the invention can nest one on top of the other with each supporting pillar of a lower case extending into the hollow interior of a corresponding supporting pillar of the next higher case. A case rest surface of the base grid of the case has plurality of indentations in it which define closure-locating dimples.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 1981
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1983
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Pierre J. deLarosiere
  • Patent number: 4344530
    Abstract: A reusable case 2 for bottles 4 has a plurality of pockets 64 for receiving base portions of the bottles. Each pocket 64 is equipped with a bottle side-wall gripper 15 and a bottle base support 70 for supporting the bottle 4 and orienting it so that a symmetry axis of the bottle 4 substantially coincides with a centerline of the pocket 64. Substantially coaxial with the pocket centerline is a stacking/cross-stacking case-rest 76. The cases 4 are dimensioned and the pockets 64 positioned so that cases of bottles can be arranged in layers in cross-stacked structure with the bottles 4 in each lower layer being oriented and positioned to locate closures 6 of the bottles 4 within the stacking/cross-stacking case rests 76 of the cases 2 of the next higher layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 1980
    Date of Patent: August 17, 1982
    Assignee: International Container Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Pierre J. deLarosiere