Expandable container
Traditional structured-containers have a maximum holding capacity upon exceeding of which would allow excess articles fall out of the structured-container by way of gravitational pull. The utility of these structured-containers is thus limited. The present invention discloses an expandable container with a pair of carry-handles where a net container is coupled to a traditional structured-container to thus synergistically and substantially increase the maximum holding capacity of the traditional structured-container. The pair of carry-handles also adds carrying possibilities and conveniences.
Latest Patents:
The present invention is related to a container for transporting articles. More specifically, the present invention is related to an expandable container that can be used to transport articles.
Containers in general are greatly appreciated for their ability to house articles and making transportation of articles manageable. On a daily basis, people use containers in one form or another. The utility value of a container is greatly increased if its holding capacity is expandable so that it is both convenient to use for transporting a small number of articles as well as a large number of articles. Toward the goal of increasing the utility value of containers, there are a number of inventions disclosing how to add to the holding capacity of a container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,917 issued to Dziersk discloses a utility caddy for use with or without a bucket. As shown in FIG. 6 of Dziersk, essentially, whenever a number of articles exceed the holding capacity of a bucket 50, a caddy 10 can be added thereto the bucket to house any excess number of articles. A shortcoming of this Dziersk invention is that both the bucket 50 and caddy 10 are made of a structured material thus they always occupy a same amount of space regardless whether both are being used. On occasions only a small quantity of articles are being transported, a user still needs to carry these large containers. On the other hand, should the user either only carries the bucket 50 or the caddy 10 and not both, the user may find insufficient amount of container space if the number of articles turn out to require the holding capacity of both the bucket 50 and the caddy 10.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D410329 issued to Wyatt discloses a combined rucksack and net bag. This container overcomes the shortcoming of Dziersk in that the expanded portion is a net that is collapsible when not needed and expandable when needed. Therefore, the net only occupies minimum amount of storage space when not in used. However, a shortcoming of this container is that while the net is useful to carry items much smaller than the main container, its juxtaposition relative to the rucksack while discretely increase the overall holding capacity of the rucksack, it is unable to either integrally or synergistically increase the holding capacity of the rucksack. For example, if an article is so large that it is unable to be fitted into the rucksack, the net is incapable to increase the overall capacity of the rucksack to hold this article.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D429886 issued to Avent discloses a foldable carrying case with a separable net bag. Avent shares the same shortcoming as Wyatt in that the net bag and the three separate folders can only discretely increase the holding capacity of the net bag, but they cannot either integrally or synergistically increase the holding capacity of the net bag so as to enable one single large article to be fitted into the net bag and the folders.
U.S. Design Pat. No. D421178 issued to Dandini discloses a carryall-beach blanket combination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,213 issued to Alicea discloses a deformable retaining net. In this invention, a deformable retaining net 10 is added to a container 22. However, the deformable retaining net 10 is not able to increase the holding capacity of the container 22. It merely helps to retain any articles already housed in the container 22 so as not to fall out of the container 22. In essence, the deformable retaining net 10 has not increase the holding capacity of the container 22.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 20070056978 discloses an expandable container. In this invention, the expandable container 300 is made with a net-container 100 being securely attached to a structured-container 302 by having a bottom restrainer 104 fitted over a rim opening of the structured-container 302 before tightening the bottom restrainer 104. Absent from this invention is the presence of any secondary restrainer in addition to the bottom restrainer 104 that would further secure the net container 100 to the structured-container 302. Also absent from this invention is the presence of a pair of carry-handles and a pair of adjustable shoulder straps being affixed to the net-container 100.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONTo overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art inventions, the present invention discloses a net-container when used in conjunction with a structured-container can increase the overall holding capacity as an expandable container so as to hold either a single large article or a large pile of articles that the structure-container by itself cannot hold.
It is apparent that by combining the structured-container with the net-container would synergistically increase the holding capacity of the structured-container and the net-container when they are both being used separately.
As the expandable container has an increased load capacity, the ease in which a fully loaded expandable container can be conveniently transported becomes increasingly important. The present invention offers several solutions to conveniently carry a loaded expandable container. The first solution is to introduce a pair of carry-handles on the net-container. Instead of requiring a two-hand operation to transport the fully loaded expandable container, a person can conveniently transport the fully loaded expandable container by a one-hand operation via the pair of carry-handles. The person's second hand is free to carry something else.
Another solution offered by the present invention is the introduction of a pair of adjustable shoulder straps to the net-container. To transport a fully loaded expandable container, all one needs to do is to adjust the pair of adjustable shoulder straps to the desired size of the user and put the pair of adjustable shoulder straps correspondingly over the user's shoulders. Alternative, the user may also choose to place either one or both shoulder straps over one shoulder. These methods of transporting the expandable container free up both hands of the user to carry other items.
An enlarged view of the fastener 402 is shown in
In addition to the cylindrical shaped structured container shown in
As clearly shown in
It is visually apparent that the perimeter of the rim-portion 502 is larger than the perimeter of restrainer 104 after it has been tightened. Therefore, the net-container 100 and the structured-container 302 are securely affixed to each other. By so affixing the net-container 100 onto the structured-container 302, the overall holding capacity of the resulting expandable container 300 is substantially and synergistically increased to house either a single large article or a single pile of articles which the structured-container 302 alone cannot fully house.
To visually illustrate the difference in holding capacity of the structured-container 302 and the expandable container 300 of the present invention,
On both ends of the net material are overlapping regions O. Since there are many devoids in any net material, overlapping regions O are needed to provide sufficient amount of material for affixation. The overlapping region O is created by folding overlap portions O from both ends along fold-lines FL and FR. This folding of the overlapping region O would make the folded ends to have double the amount of materials than what otherwise is only a single layer of net material. Both folded ends totaling four layers are then brought together in an overlapping fashion and are affixed together. The end result is that the net material is formed into a cylindrical shape if both end openings are fully open.
As
As an example of the dimensions of the present invention, the perimeter of the round edge of the structured container is 54 inches. The widest opening of the net-container is 55 inches. The height of the structured-container is 12 inches, and the height of the net container is 22 inches.
When a user needs to maintain either the top or bottom restrainers 102 or 104 to a desired loop size, fasteners devices 402 are used. A diagram view of a fastener 402 is shown in
Another diagram view of a fastener 1700 is shown in
Since the net-container 100 is highly adaptable to different shapes, it can be used for structured-containers with different opening shapes. Besides a round-opening of the structured container 302, the net-container 100 can also be used, for example, on a rectangular-opening structured-container as shown in
In
The entire specification of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/221,772 filed on Sep. 9, 2005 is incorporated herein by reference.
From the foregoing detailed description, it will be evident that there are a number of changes, adaptations and modifications of the present invention that come within the province of those persons having ordinary skill in the art to which the aforementioned invention pertains. However, it is intended that all such variations not departing from the spirit of the invention be considered as within the scope thereof as limited solely by the appended claims.
Claims
1. An expandable container with a pair of carry-handles, comprising:
- a structured-container having a top rim situated above a body and the top rim has a perimeter larger than a perimeter of the body;
- a net-container when fully open is in one of a cylindrical shape and a cone shape having a top closable opening and a bottom closable opening with a perimeter larger than the perimeter of the top rim;
- wherein the expandable container is formed by fitting the bottom closable opening to encompass the top rim and close the bottom opening to the extent that would securely but releasably coupled the net-container to the structured-container;
- wherein the pair of carry-handles is affixed to the net-container.
2. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 1, wherein the net-container is collapsibly contained in the structured-container when not being used.
3. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 2, wherein the top closable opening is formed by folding a portion of a net-material along a top fold-line to form two layers and affix the two layers of the net material to become a top channel and the bottom closable opening is formed by folding a portion of the net-material along a bottom fold-line to form two layers and affix the two layers of the net material to become a bottom channel.
4. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 3, wherein an entry hole and an exit hole are formed on each of the top and bottom channels.
5. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 4, wherein a leading end of a top restrainer is inserted into the entry hole and come out of the exit hole of the top channel to provide a structure to control a size of the top closable opening and a leading end of a bottom restrainer is inserted into the entry hole and come out of the exit hole of the bottom channel so as to provide a structure to control a size of the bottom closable opening.
6. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 5, wherein a top fastener and a bottom fastener each with a main-body having a first body hole and a second body hole and a plate having a first plate hole and a second plate hole.
7. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 6, wherein the leading end of the top restrainer is inserted into the first body hole and the first plate hole of the top fastener when these holes are concentric and a leading end of the bottom restrainer is inserted into the second body hole and the second plate hole of the bottom fastener when these holes are concentric.
8. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 6, wherein the body and the plate of each of the top fastener and the bottom fastener are spring biased with a biasing force to push the body away from the plate to prevent the first and second plate holes to be correspondingly concentric with the first and second body holes.
9. The expandable container with a pair of carry-handles of claim 8, wherein the first and second body holes are correspondingly concentric with the first and second plate holes by pushing the plate toward the main body against the biasing force of the spring.
10. A method of making a net container, comprising a plurality of steps of:
- a) fold a top region of a sheet of rectangular net material along a top fold line to form a top double layer;
- b) fold a bottom region of the sheet of rectangular net material along a bottom fold line to form a bottom double layer;
- c) affix the top double layer and affix the bottom double layer to correspondingly create a top channel and a bottom channel;
- d) create a top entry hole and a top exit hole on the top channel;
- e) create a bottom entry hole and a bottom exit hole on the bottom channel;
- f) fold a left region of the sheet of rectangular net material along a left fold line to form a left double layer;
- g) fold a right region of the sheet of rectangular net material along a right fold line to form a right double layer;
- h) overlap the left double layer with the right double layer;
- i) affix the left double layer to the right double layer;
- j) insert a leading end of a top restrainer into the top entry hole;
- k) insert the leading end of the top restrainer out of the top exit hole so the leading end and a trailing end of the top restrainer are outside the top channel;
- l) insert the leading end of the top restrainer into a first pair of top concentric holes of a top fastener device when a first body hole of a top main body is concentrically aligned with a first plate hole of a top plate;
- m1) insert the trailing end of the top restrainer into a second pair of top concentric holes of the top fastener device when a second body hole of the top main body is concentrically aligned with a second plate hole of the top plate;
- m2) attach a pair of carry-handles to the rectangular net material.
11. The method of claim 10, further including a step of:
- n) insert a leading end of a bottom restrainer into the bottom entry hole.
12. The method of claim 11, further including a step of:
- o) insert the leading end of the bottom restrainer out of the bottom exit hole so the leading end and a trailing end of the bottom restrainer are outside the bottom channel.
13. The method of claim 12, further including a step of:
- p) insert a leading end of a bottom restrainer into a first pair of bottom concentric holes of a bottom fastener device when a first bottom body hole of a bottom main body is concentrically aligned with a first bottom plate hole of a bottom plate.
14. The method of claim 13, further including a step of:
- q) insert a trailing end of a bottom restrainer into a second pair of bottom concentric holes of the bottom fastener device when a second bottom body hole of the bottom main body is concentrically aligned with a second bottom plate hole of the bottom plate.
15. The method of claim 14, further including a step of:
- r) adjust the first restrainer through any of the first and second pair of top concentric holes to one of a desired opening size and closure size over a top end of the net container.
16. The method of claim 15, further including a step of:
- s) adjust the second restrainer through any of the first and second pair of bottom concentric holes to one of a desired opening size and closure size over a bottom end of the net container.
17. The method of claim 10, wherein the top main body is spring biased with a biasing force against the top plate so as to prevent the formation of the first and second pair of top concentric holes; and
- wherein the first and second pair of top concentric holes are formed when the top plate is pressed toward the top main body against the biasing force of the spring.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second pair of top concentric holes are formed when the top plate is pressed toward the top main body against the biasing force of the spring.
19. The method of claim 13, wherein the bottom main body is spring biased with a biasing force against the bottom plate so as to prevent the formation of the first and second pair of bottom concentric holes.
20. The method of claim 13, wherein the first and second pair of bottom concentric holes are formed when the bottom plate is pressed toward the bottom main body against the biasing force of the spring.
21. An expandable container with a pair of carry-handles, comprising:
- a structured-container having a top rim situated above a body and the top rim has a perimeter larger than a perimeter of the body;
- a net-container when fully open is in a circular shape with a closable perimeter;
- wherein the expandable container is formed by fitting the closable perimeter to encompass the top rim to securely but releasably coupled the net-container to the structured-container;
- wherein the pair of carry-handles is affixed to the net-container; and
- wherein the pair of carry-handles is one of a fix length and an adjustable length.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 5, 2008
Publication Date: Oct 2, 2008
Applicant:
Inventor: Najma Jamaludeen-Wade (Highland Park, MI)
Application Number: 12/073,434
International Classification: A45C 15/00 (20060101); B65D 33/16 (20060101);