Waterproof Structure

Abstract

A container for providing a waterproof interior includes a container body and a lid. The container body has an interior, an interior perimeter that defines an opening, and a top exterior surface. The lid is made up of an interior plate and an overmold of material that surrounds the interior plate. The overmold has a seal ring and an overhang for engaging the container body and forming a water tight seal therewith. The lid is removeably from the container body, but when the lid is engaged to the container body, the lid covers the opening such that the overhang is engaged to the top exterior surface and the seal ring is engaged to the interior perimeter.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to devices and housings for providing a protective and waterproof environment therein. More specifically, embodiments of the disclosure are directed to container having an interior that may be made waterproof by the insertion of a lid, which comprises a fairly rigid plate of material that has been overmolded with a softer material that is adapted to engage an inside surface perimeter of the container to form a watertight seal therewith.

SUMMARY

Containers for protecting objects contained therein are well known. Some of these known containers are also known to provide a water tight seal so as to provide a waterproof environment within the container. These known containers however often rely on mechanisms such as compressible O-rings or other deformable materials and structure to provide or maintain the water tight seal between the container body and its lid. O-rings and their equivalents are prone to failure over time and their performance is often reliant on a user having applied the precise amount of force to properly compress the O-ring and thus create the water tight seal.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a which is not reliant on an O-ring or rings to provide a watertight seal between the container body and lid. Moreover, embodiments of the present disclosure are constructed in such a way as to eliminate any need for a user to apply a particular amount of compressive force necessary to from the seal such as in the case of a threaded interface. Unlike prior waterproof containers, embodiments of the present disclosure provide an easily removable lid that forms a water tight seal with the container body with minimal effort, but which may also be removed therefrom and release the seal with minimal effort.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the waterproof container with the lid shown engaged to the container body.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the waterproof container shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the waterproof container shown in FIGS. 1-2 with the lid removed from the container body.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the lid core or plate shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the lid over mold which surrounds the plate shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the waterproof container presented to illustrate various physical dimensions of the container.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the waterproof container and the internal and external pressure effects that act on the container.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As illustrated in FIG. 1-7, the subject of the present disclosure is a container 10 for providing a sealed waterproof interior space 12 into which any of a variety of objects, such as for example an electronic device may be deposited therein and protected from environmental conditions outside 14 of the container 10.

Though the container 10 may be of any size or shape, in the embodiments shown herein, the container 10 is a simple two-piece, rectangular box comprising a container body 16, and a lid or cover 20 that in the closed state (as shown in FIGS. 1-2) has a seal ring 22 which engages an interior perimeter 18 of the container body 16. A top portion 24 of the lid 20 includes an overhang 26 which also engages the top exterior surface or edge 28 of the container body 16.

Container body 16 may be constructed from any suitable material for providing a waterproof environment. Suitable materials include, but are not limited to: plastic(s), resin(s), metal(s) or any combination thereof. In some embodiments, the container body 16 is constructed of a material suitable for also providing impact protection (in addition to a waterproof interior environment), and thus the material from which the container body 16 is constructed must have sufficient material strength to protect not only the container body 16 from breakage but also any object contained therein.

Depending on the intended environment of use and/or the nature of the object(s) that the container 10 is intended to protect within the interior 12, the size and shape of the container body 16 may be varied as well. The container may be of a size and shape sufficient to contain and protect relatively small objects such as a smart phone or other personal electronic devices, or may be configured to contain larger objects such as a lap top computer, important documents or files, or any other objects or substances that it may be desirous to contain in a waterproof environment.

As best illustrated in FIG. 3, the lid 20 has a size and shape which corresponds to the size and shape of the container body opening 30 as defined by the perimeter 18 and the edge 28 of the container body 16; whereby the seal ring 22 of the lid engages the perimeter 18 and the overhang 26 engages the edge 28 to completely cover and seal the opening 30 regardless of its size and shape.

As illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the lid 20 has a two-piece construction consisting of an internal plate 32 of metal or other compression resistant material 34; and an overmold 36 of a relatively soft material 38 that surrounds the plate 32 and which includes and forms the seal ring 22 and overhang 26.

When the lid 20 is placed fitted on and into the container body 16 in the manner shown in FIGS. 1-2, and 6-7, the seal ring 22 frictionally engages the inside perimeter 18 of the container body 16 to form a first component of the water tight seal between the container body 16 and the lid 20.

To form the seal the overmold 36 is provided with a uniform thickness of soft material 38. In some embodiments, an example of which is shown in FIG. 6, the material 38 forms a top portion 24, a sidewall portion 25 and a bottom portion 27 of which each has a thickness of soft material 38 that is substantially equal as measured from the nearest surface of the plate 32.

In the embodiment shown for example, the thickness 24′ of the top portion 24 is between about 1.0 mm to about 3.0 mm, the thickness 25′ of the sidewall portion 25 is also between about 1.0 mm to about 3.0 mm, and the thickness 27′ of the bottom portion 27 is similarly between about 1.0 mm to about 3.0 mm. The seal ring 22 extends outwardly from the sidewall portion 25 and has a thickness 22′ of about 0.3 to about 0.5 mm.

When the lid 20 is engaged to the container body 16 the seal ring 22 is biased between the plate 32 and the perimeter 18 of the container body 16. The uniform thickness of the sidewall portion 25 and the seal ring 22 allows the seal ring to be compressed by about 10% to about 30% from its unengaged state (open) to its engaged state (closed) effectively sandwiched between the plate 32 and perimeter 18 to form a water tight seal between the lid and container body without the need for an additional compressive force such as might be supplied by the use of fasteners or threading the lid against the container body.

To provide for the desired degree of compression necessary to form the water tight seal, the overmold material 38 is selected from any type of flexible material suitable for forming a water tight barrier. In at least on embodiment the material 38 is made up at least partially of silicone or silicone rubber. In at least one embodiment the overmold material 38 is at least partially manufactured from a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), natural rubber, Nitrile, and/or any combination thereof. In at least one embodiment the overmold material 38 has a durometer hardness within the range of about 30 shore A to 80 shore A.

As is shown in FIG. 7, the interaction of the lid 20 with the container body 16 involves some small volume of displaced air within the container interior 12 as the lid 20 is pushed downward to engage the container body 16. In order for the water tight seal to be achieved therebetween, it is required to overcome a small amount of resistance represented by the difference in pressure between the container interior 12 and the outside 14. As the interior pressure (represented by arrows 40) of the air inside the container body 16 naturally pushes against the lid 20 as it is being pushed into place, the seal ring 22 is forced to compress or otherwise displace to release a small amount of air from the inside 12 of the container 10 to equalize the interior pressure 40 with that of the outside pressure (represented by arrows 42). This equalized pressure, along with the frictional engagement of the seal ring 22 between the plate and 32 and perimeter 18, ensures the maintenance of the water tight seal between the lid 20 and container body 16.

To remove the lid 20 from the container, body the reverse process must occur. In order to aid in removal of the lid 20 from the container body 16, the overmold 36 includes an grasping structure 44 such as a tab of protruding overmold material 38 that extends from the overhang 26 and which may be of any size or shape suitable to allow a user to grasp or grip the engagement structure 44 when removing the lid 20 from the container body 16.

In some embodiments, the container 10, and more specifically the lid 20 may include direction or alignment features to ensure that the lid is properly aligned with the container body 16 and more importantly with objects that the container may be custom built to contain and engage. In the embodiment shown for example one to three direction cavities 46 are provided in the lid 20. These cavities 46 extend at least through the bottom thickness 27 of the overmold 36 and may extend at least partially through the plate 32. No cavity 46 may extend through the entire thickness of the lid 20 for the sake of the water tight seal.

Even in embodiments where the lid 20 and container body have no deed for alignment or engagement functionality as provided by the cavity or cavities 46, such features may be present as an artifact of fixing the plate 32 during the application of the overmold 36

The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the above description. Numerous modifications and variations will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Since such modifications are possible, the invention is not to be limited to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described. Rather, the present invention should be limited only by the following claims.

Claims

1. A container for providing a waterproof interior comprises:

a container body, the container body having an interior, an interior perimeter that defines an opening, and a top exterior surface;

a lid, the lid comprising an interior plate and an overmold of material that surrounds the interior plate, the overmold having a seal ring and an over hang;

the lid being removeably engaged to the container body, when the lid is engaged to the container body the lid covers the opening whereby the overhang is engaged to the top exterior surface and the seal ring is engaged to the interior perimeter.

2. The container of claim 1 wherein, the container body is constructed from at least one material selected from a group consisting: of plastic(s), resin(s), metal(s) or any combination thereof.

3. The container of claim 1 wherein, the interior plate is constructed of a rigid material.

4. The container of claim 3 wherein, the rigid material is metal.

5. The container of claim 1 wherein, the overmold is constructed from at least one material selected from a group consisting of: silicone, thermoplastic elastomer, thermoplastic polyurethane, natural rubber, Nitrile, and any combination thereof.

6. The container of claim 5 wherein, the overmold is constructed from a material having a durometer hardness of about 30 shore A to about 80 shore A.

7. The container of claim 1 wherein, the overmold comprises a top portion that extends over the interior plate, a bottom portion that extends under the interior plate and a side wall portion that extends from the top portion to the bottom portion; each of the top portion, bottom portion and the sidewall portion having the same thickness of overmold material.

8. The container of claim 7 wherein, the thickness is about 1.0 mm to about 3.0 mm.

9. The container of claim 8 wherein, the seal ring extends outwardly from the sidewall portion and has a thickness of about 0.3 to about 0.5 mm.

10. The container of claim 7 wherein, the overmold further comprises a grasping structure, the grasping structure being a tab of overmold material extending outwardly from the overhang.

11. The container of claim 7 wherein, the lid defines at least one directional cavity, the at least one directional cavity extending through the bottom portion of the overmold.

12. The container of claim 11 wherein, the at least one directional cavity extends through a portion of the interior plate.