Convertible tray/cover

Abstract

A container lid having flaps along its perimeter. The flaps are hingedly attached to the lid and have elastic coupling therebetween. When at least one of the flaps placed in an upward position, the rest of the flaps are urged upward by the elastic coupling, and thus form a bounded tray on top of the container. When at least one flap is placed in a downward position, the elastic coupling urges the rest of the flaps downward, forming a cover with improved sealing for the container.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0001] This application relates to container covers in general, and more particularly to container covers adaptable to form a tray.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The top surface of many container lids, especially when they form a substantially planar surface, often perform a second duty as a tray. For example, the top of a food container is often used as a food tray, to provide a convenient surface to place food items. Similarly, the lid of a container may provide a convenient storage space for any other item like toys, tools, and the like.

[0003] Especially in a mobile environment, it is desirable to provide such a tray with a rail—a raised surface towards the perimeter of the planar surface. Such a rail prevents objects from rolling, falling, or being swept off the surface. The rail may be a raised portion of the planar surface, a separate piece attached to the surface in the vicinity of the perimeter, an upwardly inclined surface at the edges of the tray, and the like. When a planar surface has such a rail, it becomes a tray.

[0004] At times however, such as for cleaning, storage, or simply when not needed, it is desirable to remove the rail. Additionally, when removed the rail may serve other purposes.

[0005] A container lid, especially a top mounted lid, also benefits from a sealing lip: a downwardly extending surface that generally follows the container wall. Such sealing lips assist in placing the lid on top of the container, help the lid stay in place, and provide better sealing action between the lid and the container walls. In some cases the sealing lip also provides a convenient anchor spot for sealing devices such as hook and loop fasteners, snaps, buttons, clips and the like. In other cases the lip fits tightly over the container walls to providing closing and/or sealing action. A container lid having a sealing lip will be referred to herein as a cover. In the context of this application the term sealing relates to preventing movement of the lid and/or to assisting the prevention of spilling objects from the container, and/or generally to provide better positioning of the lid on the container.

SUMMARY

[0006] It is an object of the invention is to provide a container lid that easily converts between a tray and a cover. Preferably, this conversion only requires a single simple action by the user.

[0007] It is therefore an aspect of the present invention to provide a container lid convertible to a tray or a cover, comprising a plurality of flaps hingedly coupled to the container lid. The flaps may be positioned in at least a downwardly extending and an upwardly extending position. An elastic coupling couples between a first and an adjacent flap. The elastic coupling is adapted to urge the adjacent flap to an upward position if the first flap is hinged into an upward position, and conversely to urge the adjacent flap to a downward position if said first flap is hinged into a downward position. Preferably, the lid is substantially completely surrounded by the flaps when the flaps are in the upward position, and each of the flaps is elastically coupled to an adjacent flap.

[0008] More preferably, when the flaps are in said downward position, the elastic coupling causes the flaps to exert pressure against at least one wall of a container. In the preferred embodiment, the flaps are made of resiliently elastic material.

[0009] In the most preferred embodiment the flaps are hingedly coupled to the lid by a sufficiently thin material between the flaps and the lid, to allow rotation of the flaps about the lid edge.

[0010] In the preferred embodiment the elastic coupling comprises an elastic band anchored to each of two adjacent flaps. More preferably, a loop shaped elastic band is twisted to form two crossing segments between two adjacent flaps.

[0011] In the most preferable embodiment, the lid comprises at least one chamber, and each of said flaps comprise at least one chamber. Stiffeners are at least partially disposed within the chambers.

[0012] In another aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a method of converting a container lid into a tray, the method comprising the steps of urging a first flap, hingedly coupled to the lid, into an upward position via an elastic coupling, and having the first flap impart a force unto an adjacent flap, urging the adjacent flap in turn into an upward position as well.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] FIG. 1 depicts a container lid with flaps in the downward position, thus forming a cover.

[0014] FIG. 2 depicts a container lid with flaps in the upward position, thus forming a tray.

[0015] FIGS. 3a, 3b, and 3c depict example embodiments of elastic coupling between flaps.

[0016] FIGS. 4a and 4b depicts operation of the invention on polygons having more than four sides.

[0017] FIGS. 5 and 6 depict a flattened shape of the preferred embodiments of the invention.

[0018] FIG. 7 depicts a container using the lid in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] In its preferred embodiment the invention comprises flaps hingedly attached to the periphery of container lid. The flaps are coupled to each other by an elastic coupling, and are constructed to move at least between an upward position and a downward position.

[0020] FIG. 1 depicts a container lid 10 with downwardly directed flaps 20 and 25. In this position, the flap becomes a sealing lip and the container lid becomes a cover. The flaps may extend around the perimeter of the lid, or around a portion thereof. For simplicity, only two flaps are shown in this figure. Optionally, the elastic coupling causes the flaps to exert pressure against the container walls, to improve container sealing.

[0021] Attention is now directed to the elastic bands 30 and 35 coupled to the flaps 20 and 25. In order to ease the forming of the tray, a flap 20 is elastically coupled to at least one adjacent flap 25. Thus, when at least one element is hingedly raised, it urges the adjacent flap upward. Therefore, if all flaps are elastically coupled to each other, each rail element urges the hinged flap adjacent thereto to an upward position, and the adjacent flap in turn urges the next flap up and so forth. Therefore, the complete container lid becomes bounded by flaps by hingedly operating only one flap. Similarly, by hingedly lowering an upwardly extending flap, the rest of the flaps will be urged to a downwardly extending position, by having adjacent flaps urge other adjacent flaps downwardly, due to the elastic link coupling therebetween. FIG. 2 shows such a container lid where all flaps have been moved to the upward position and now, together with the container lid, form a tray. Clearly, this action acts similarly to urge all flaps down when one flap is lowered to form a cover.

[0022] Those skilled in the art will understand that while FIG. 2 shows a tray encircled on each side, partial encirclement is carried out by limiting the number of flaps connected with an elastic coupling.

[0023] In the preferred embodiment, the flaps are made of resiliently elastic material and are hinged to the container lid. More preferably, the lid and the flaps are made of plastic material and the flaps are hingedly coupled by having the same material but with sufficiently smaller thickness between the flaps and the lid, to allow rotation of the flaps about the lid edge. Most preferably, the lid and the flaps are made of a plastic enclosure having sealed chambers formed therein. Stiffening inserts are inserted within the chambers. The chambers define the lid and the flaps, and the boundary between the chambers form hinges therebetween. Thus in the flattened position, the lid 50, 60 forms a polygon, a circle, or a combination of the two as seen in FIGS. 5 and 6. The flaps 55, 65 extend outwardly therefrom. Individual flaps are separated from each other by a cutout 58, 68. It will be noted that many different polygonal shapes, or a combination of polygons and arcs, may similarly be used. The flap material itself may be elastic, partially elastic, rigid or a combination. This may be achieved by both the selection of flap material or the stiffener material. The flaps may also have a different elasticity level such as a rigid flap close to the hinge, and elastic farther away from the hinge.

[0024] Preferably, the elastic nature of the coupling between flaps is selected so that the flaps exert pressure against the container wall when in the downward position. Such pressure assists in keeping the lid on the container and improves the sealing action of the lips provided by the downward positioned flaps.

[0025] One skilled in the art will also observe that many ways are known to provide an elastic coupling between the flaps. FIGS. 3a, 3b, and 3c show examples of such coupling. In FIG. 3a, at least one elastic band is anchored to anchor points adjacent to the flap edges. Experience showed that better results are achieved if a pair of intersecting bands is used. In the preferred embodiment, an elastic band forming a loop is used, by twisting the loop to form the intersecting sections as shown, and anchoring the loop to each of two adjacent flap. FIG. 3b provides a second method of providing an elastic coupling between the two adjacent flaps, by attaching an elastic ribbon therebetween. FIG. 3c depicts the flaps being formed from one continuous elastic material. In such case the corner between the flaps forms the elastic coupling and is preferably constructed so the material's elasticity varies to be more elastic further away from the lid surface.

[0026] Partial encirclement provides for yet another preferred embodiment, where one edge of the container lid is hingedly coupled to the container. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7, the container lid may be raised and lowered while connected to the container. If the container is located near a vertical surface, for example the back of a chair, the chair back performs the function of preventing items on the tray from falling out, while the arrangement provides the hinged cover functionality.

[0027] This invention is particularly useful in any accessory that is used inside a vehicle (car, boat, plane), where motion may lead items to roll off the edges of an otherwise flat or level surface. As seen in FIG. 7, The container 70 is attached to, or is rested on a seat 73, preferably so that the seat back 78 supports it, and optionally performs the role of one of the flaps. The flaps extend to enclose the open sides of the lid to form a tray, or, in the downward position, form a cover for the container.

[0028] It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to what has been described hereinabove merely by way of example. While there have been described what are at present considered to be the preferred embodiments of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various other embodiments, changes, and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention and that it is, therefore, aimed to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention, for which letters patent is applied.

Claims

1. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover, comprising:

a plurality of flaps hingedly coupled to said lid and adapted to be positioned in at least a downwardly extending and an upwardly extending position;

an elastic coupling coupled between a first and an adjacent of said flaps;

wherein said elastic coupling being adapted to urge said adjacent flap to an upward position if said first flap is hinged into an upward position, and to urge said adjacent flap to a downward position if said first flap is hinged into a downward position.

2. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lid is substantially completely surrounded by said flaps when the flaps are in said upwards position, and wherein each of said flaps is elastically coupled to an adjacent flap.

3. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein one side of said lid is hingedly coupled to the container.

4. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein when said flaps are in said downward position, the elastic coupling causes the flaps to exert pressure against at least one wall of a container.

5. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said flaps is made of resiliently elastic material.

6. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lid and the flaps are made of plastic material and the flaps are hingedly coupled to said lid by a sufficiently thin material between the flaps and the lid, to allow rotation of the flaps about the lid edge.

7. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said elastic coupling comprises an elastic band anchored to each of two adjacent flaps.

8. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said elastic coupling comprises a loop formed elastic band, said loop formed elastic band being twisted to form two crossing segments between two adjacent flaps.

9. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said elastic coupling comprises an elastic ribbon positioned between two adjacent flaps, and anchored thereto.

10. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said elastic coupling comprises elastic material that forms an integral portion of at least two adjacent flaps.

11. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said flaps are resiliently elastic.

12. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said flaps are rigid.

13. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lid comprises at least one chamber, and each of said flaps comprise at least one chamber, and further comprising stiffeners at least partially disposed within said chambers.

14. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lid is coupled hingedly to a container along one of the lid edges.

15. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lid is substantially circular in shape.

16. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein said lid is substantially polygonal in shape.

17. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of flaps is elastically coupled to any adjacent flap.

18. A container lid convertible to a tray or a cover as claimed in claim 1, wherein when in the upward position, said flaps completely encircle said lid.

19. A method of converting a container lid into a tray, the method comprising the steps of: p1 urging a first flap, hingedly coupled to said lid, into an upward position;

via an elastic coupling, having said first flap impart a force unto an adjacent flap, urging said adjacent flap into an upward position, to form a tray.

20. A method of converting a container lid into a container cover, the method comprising the steps of:

urging a first flap, hingedly coupled to said lid, into a downward position;

via an elastic coupling, having said first flap impart a force unto an adjacent flap, urging said adjacent flap into a downward position, said flaps forming a cover for said container.