Food Box with flatware attached thereon

A food box with flatware attached thereon. The food box has an attached sheet extending from each of the at least one side sheet of the upper cover body thereof, which covers the box body of the food box from above. The attached sheet is refolded to form an attached flatware portion, together with the side sheet, wherein the attached flatware portion has pressure-made creases thereon of predetermined shapes, according to the outline of ordinary flatware including chopsticks, forks and spoons. The user may take off and obtain at least one disposable flatware piece and strip the residual material along the crease. Furthermore, easy and efficient use can be achieved by using appropriate thickness of material.

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Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to food boxes and, in particular, to a food box with flatware including chopsticks and forks attached thereon, which can be conveniently taken off from the food box so that carrying flatware pieces individually can be avoided. The flatware pieces are firmly structured for use with better efficacy.

2. Descriptions of the Related Art

As known in the present days, the economical structure has changed with a growing population of dinning out people. Mostly people in work are too lazy to go out of the office for lunch. They buy lunch boxes which together with the chopsticks are disposable usually, simplifying matter and saving time. To protect the Earth and conserve the nature, however, one must lessen a waste of resource to avoid causes of destroying the ecological environment. He is obligate to devote his energy in activities like garbage classification and recovery for papers and plastics and reduction of water consumption. It has been known surprisingly that disposable chopsticks are such as being soaked in blenching water heavily for pretty appearance, producing carcinogenic substances after heating. Moreover, a lot of organizations are advocating flatware pieces prepared by oneself to reduce the use of disposable chopsticks, so that one can make a contribution to the reduction of cutting trees as well as keep poisonous substances off, having both sanitation and environmental protection. People may feel inconvenience after all that the flatware pieces prepared should be washed as well; also, people may often forget to carry the flatware pieces. Therefore, “flatware prepared by oneself” would be popularized hardly and how to provide disposable flatware pieces being convenient for use in a sense of environmental protection is an objective currently developed in the industry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of this invention is to provide a food box with flatware pieces attached thereon, the food box having a flatware portion with flatware pieces of predetermined shapes pressure-made being attached thereon, wherein the food box is manufactured by once forming to save the working hour and cost and to conform with both sanitation and environmental protection.

The food box with flatware pieces attached thereon according to the present invention comprises a box body, having an indented loading space for loading the food; an upper cover body, having a main covering sheet, the main sheet being connected to a side sheet on each of at least two side edges thereof, so that the upper cover body may cover the loading space of the box body from above.

The present invention is characterized in that the upper cover body has an attached sheet extending from each of at least one side sheet and the attached sheet is refolded to form together with the side sheet an attached flatware portion, wherein the attached flatware portion has pressure-made creases thereon in predetermined shape according to the outline of ordinary flatware including chopsticks, forks and spoons. The user may take off and obtain at least one disposable flatware piece and strip the residual material along the crease. The disposability frees the user from the inconvenience of carrying flatware pieces individually. Furthermore, easy and efficient use can be achieved by using appropriate thickness of material.

The detailed technology and preferred embodiments implemented for the subject invention are described in the following paragraphs accompanying the appended drawings for people skilled in this field to well appreciate the features of the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings disclose an illustrative embodiment of the present invention which serves to exemplify the various advantages and objects hereof, and are as follows.

FIG. 1 is a perspectively exploded diagram of one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the state of the upper cover of the embodiment in FIG. 1 in planar development, as being fabricated.

FIG. 3 is a plane diagram showing that the embodiment in FIG. 2 has the attached sheet thereof refolded toward the side edge of the upper cover body to form the attached flatware portion, wherein the attached sheet has pressure-made creases thereon of “chopstick” outline.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the state of the embodiment in FIG. 3 in use, as having the attached flatware pieces taken off.

FIG. 5 is a perspective diagram showing that the embodiment in FIG. 2 has the upper cover body with an attached flatware portion on each of the side edges thereof, wherein the attached flatware portions have pressure-made creases thereon of “chopstick” and “fork” outlines, respectively.

FIG. 6 is a perspective diagram showing that the embodiment in FIG. 2 has the upper cover body with an attached flatware portion on each of the side edges thereof, wherein the attached flatware portions have pressure-made creases thereon of “spoon” and “knife” outlines, respectively.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Refer to FIGS. 1 to 3, which show a food box 100 according to the present invention. The food box 100 has a box body 1 and an upper cover body 2 covering the box body from above. Generally, a rope or an elastic band may be put around in collocation for fast covering.

The box body 1 is structured conventionally as being rectangular box-like, having an indented loading space 11 for loading the food. The upper cover body 2, corresponding to the box body 1, has a main covering sheet 21 for covering the loading space 11 of the box body 1 from above, side sheets 22, 23 being on each one of the two long side edges of the main covering sheet 21 (side sheets on the short side edges are usually left out for saving material) and an attached sheet 24 extending from the side sheet 22.

As shown in FIG. 2, folds 25 to 27 are disposed orderly between the main covering sheet 21 and the side sheets 22 and 23, and between the side sheet 22 and the attached sheet 24. The attached sheet 24 is refolded along the fold 27 (as shown in FIG. 3) to form together with the side sheet 22 an attached flatware portion 28. Therefore, the attached flatware portion 28 acquires two-fold material thickness and relatively preferable strength. Further, the attached flatware portion 28 has pressure-made creases 29 thereon in a predetermined shape according to the outlines of flatware pieces. The side sheet 22, 23 are pressed downward as being folded along the folds 25, 26 so that the upper cover body 2 can be formed.

The user may take off and obtain at least one disposable flatware piece by striping the residual material along the crease 29. In case that the upper cover body 2 is made from bamboo material, then the flatware pieces attached to it can be thrown away together with the box. In case that the upper cover body 2 is made of bamboo sheet, then the flatware pieces, together with the box, can be thrown away after use without being washed. In case that the upper cover body 2 is made of paper sheet, then the flatware pieces, together with the box, should be washed after use and then classified and recycled. The upper cover body 2 may be made of paper sheet, wood sheet or bamboo sheet, whereas the material of the attached sheet 24 is not limited to the same as that of the upper cover body 2. The attached sheet 24 may be made of paper sheet, wood sheet or bamboo sheet, as necessary. The way of use may be taken as, but not limited to, that well known to those skilled in the art.

The present invention provides convenience for outdoor use. According to the present invention, the food box with flatware pieces attached can be thrown away or recycled after use. It also confirms to sanitation. The flatware pieces are firmly structured for use with better efficacy. The inconvenience of carrying flatware pieces separately can be avoided. Furthermore, the food box with flatware pieces attached can be made of paper sheet or bamboo sheet in planar development, on which the creases and folds are made directly with pressure. It is manufactured by once forming to save the working hour and cost and to conform to both sanitation and environmental protection.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the pressure-made creases 29 has a conventional outline of chopsticks 31 so that the chopsticks 31 can be taken off and obtained by taking apart the attached flatware portion 28 and striping the residual material, as shown in FIG. 4.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the pressure-made creases 29 has a conventional outline 292 of a fork 32 (refer to FIG. 5) so that fork 32 can be taken off and obtained by taking apart the attached flatware portion 28 and striping the residual material.

Refer to FIG. 6, which shows yet another embodiment of the present invention, wherein the pressure-made creases 29 has a conventional outline 293 of a spoon 33 on one side and a conventional outline 294 of a knife 34 so that the spoon 33 and the knife 34 can be taken off and obtained.

The present invention, as described above, provides a food box 100 with flatware attached. With the food box 100 the user at launch can obtain flatware pieces such as chopsticks 31, a fork 32, a spoon 33 or a knife 34 from an attached flatware portion 28, which consists of a side sheet 22 and an attached sheet 24 such as to have appropriate thickness. The preferable structure of the food box 100 functions as giving convenience for use. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, it is worth mentioning that the upper cover body 2 may have two attached sheets 24′, 24″ attached to two side sheets 22, 23, respectively, which are on the two side edges of the upper cover body 2. The attached sheets 24′, 24″ form together with the side sheets 22, 23 two attached flatware portions 28′, 28″, respectively. The attached flatware portions 28′, 28″ each have different pressure-made creases thereon of different flatware outlines, such as outlines 293 and 294 of spoon 33 and knife 34, respectively, so that two different flatware pieces having different functions can be taken off and obtained for convenience for use.

The food box according to the present invention has the advantage as follows. It can be used at any time with flatware pieces provided conveniently since the attached flatware portion of the upper cover body has pressure-made creases thereon of predetermined shapes according to the outlines of flatware pieces such chopsticks, forks or spoons.

The above disclosure is related to the detailed technical contents and inventive features thereof. People skilled in this field may proceed with a variety of modifications and replacements based on the disclosures and suggestions of the invention as described without departing from the characteristics thereof. Nevertheless, although such modifications and replacements are not fully disclosed in the above descriptions, they have substantially been covered in the following claims as appended.

Claims

1. A food box with flatware attached thereon, the food box comprising:

a box body, having a loading space; and
an upper cover body, being capable of covering the loading space of the box body from above and having a main covering sheet, a side sheet on each of at least two side edges of the main covering sheet and an attached sheet extending from each of at least one side sheet, the attached sheet being refolded to form an attached flatware portion together with the side sheet, wherein the attached flatware portion has pressure-made creases thereon in predetermined shapes according to the outlines of flatware pieces.

2. The food box with flatware attached of claim 1, wherein the attached flatware portion has pressure-made creases thereon in “chopstick” outline so that chopsticks can be taken off and obtained.

3. The food box with flatware attached of claim 1, wherein the attached flatware portion has pressure-made creases thereon in “fork” outline so that forks can be taken off and obtained.

4. The food box with flatware attached of claim 1, wherein the attached flatware portion has pressure-made creases thereon in “spoon” outline so that spoons can be taken off and obtained.

5. The food box with flatware attached of claim 1, wherein the attached flatware portion has pressure-made creases thereon in “knife” outline so that knives can be taken off and obtained.

6. The food box with flatware attached of claim 1, wherein the upper cover body has an attached sheet extending from each of the side sheets on the side edges thereof to form an attached flatware portion, wherein the attached flatware portions have different pressure-made creases thereon of different flatware outlines so that different flatware pieces can be taken off and obtained.

7. The food box with flatware attached of claim 1, wherein the upper cover body has an attached sheet extending from one of the side sheets on the side edges thereof.

8. The food box with flatware attached of claim 7, wherein the attached sheet is refolded to form together with the side sheet an attached flatware portion.

Patent History
Publication number: 20090114708
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 1, 2007
Publication Date: May 7, 2009
Inventors: Ming-Hung Sung (Taichung City), Jhih-Han Lin (Taipei City)
Application Number: 11/933,481
Classifications
Current U.S. Class: With Venting Or Ventilation Means (229/120)
International Classification: B65D 5/00 (20060101);