Abstract: A thin wall disposable plastic lid designed to stack with other substantially identical lids without compacting having a circular closure wall and a surrounding downwardly extending skirt. A pair of downwardly extending, closely spaced, annular ribs are formed in the circular closure wall, and a plurality of upwardly extending bosses are also formed in the closure wall and span the space between the ribs. The bosses engage the bottom of the ribs of the next upper lid in the stack when nested to prevent the lids from jamming together.

Abstract: The invention comprises a returnable, non-corrosive metal container that can be cleaned and sterilized for re-filling with a pressurized beverage, the container having a tapering side wall with an integral bottom wall end and an open top end having a beaded rim to receive and sealably hold a removable closure, and ledge means extending from the side wall in predetermined spaced relation with one of the top and bottom ends for nestably receiving another similar container with the tapering side wall thereof being spaced away from the first container side wall in a non-locking relationship.

Abstract: A plastic cup is provided of the thin wall variety having inner and outer spaced walls with an insulating air space therebetween. Successive cups in a telescoped stack seal effectively together so that a food concentrate or the like placed in the bottom of each cup will be protected against contamination and spoilage. To this end, the cups are provided with stacking rings and cylindrical sealing surfaces whereby a certain degree of movement between adjacent telescoped cups is permissible without allowing the entrance of air into the space between such adjacent cups. The inner and outer walls of each cup are spaced apart in the stacking and sealing ring area to allow pivotal movement of an inner cup wall with regard to its corresponding outer cup wall, whereby a telescoped stack of nested cups can flex, i.e., the axis of the stack can go from straight to arcuate, without breaking the seal between adjacent telescope cups which would lead to contamination or spoilage of the food ingredient therein.

Abstract: A fabricated cup or other nestable container in which the sidewall is formed from a rectangular sheet-like blank of a thermoplastic material, particularly an expanded thermoplastic material, the blank having its ends joined to one another in a liquid-tight seam extending the full height thereof to form a sleeve, the blank having a relatively high degree of orientation or heat-shrinkability extending circumferentially of the sleeve, the fabrication of the sidewall from the sleeve being accomplished by telescoping the sleeve over a generally frusto-conically shaped mandrel, by exposing the sleeve to heat to cause it shrink to conform to the configuration of the mandrel and by stripping the shrunken sleeve from the mandrel. A two-piece container may also be formed from such a sidewall by affixing an end closure element to the bottom or smaller end of the sidewall.

Abstract: A closely nestable one-piece cup molded from expanded or expandable beads of polystyrene, the cup sidewall having a major portion which extends from a point which is spaced no further from the larger, open end of the cup than the desired stacking space between like cups in a stack thereof and which gradually increases in its thickness and in its angle, relative to the vertical central axis of the cup, as it proceeds inwardly and downwardly toward the bottom of the cup. Also, a mold having spaced apart complementally-shaped concave and convex molding surfaces on molding members that are reciprocatable, relative to one another, into and out of closely spaced apart molding relationship to mold such a cup from expandable or expanded beads.

Abstract: A lockable vegetation pot and saucer is disclosed comprising a plastic pot having a pot base and integral pot sides diverging from the pot base. The pot has a plurality of pot stops extending from the inside surface of the pot sides. The angle of the diverging pot sides enables stacking of the pot with similar pots when the pot base engages the pot stops of an adjacent similar pot. A plurality of locking apertures are located in the pot sides each aperture having a locking side adjacent the pot base. The invention includes a plastic saucer having a saucer base and integral saucer sides diverging from the saucer base. The saucer has a plurality of saucer stops extending from the inside surface of the saucer. The angle of the diverging saucer sides enables stacking of the saucer with similar saucers when the saucer base engages the saucer stops of an adjacent similar saucer.

Abstract: For the capping of champagne bottles long skirt caps of frustoconical shape are used. These caps of thin metal foils are very fragile and bulky. Generally they are stacked one in another for shipping. To avoid any risk of the stacked caps being wedged into each other, their bottom is filled with a foamed thermoplastic washer. It is either detachable or injected cold.

Abstract: An expendable thin walled cup for liquids and the like is disclosed having a configuration which facilitates improved removal from the forming mold, insures more uniform wall thickness and prevents telescoping of the spacing means of a plurality of the cups when stacked in nested relation.

Abstract: A stackable-nestable container is disclosed having a rim defining the top thereof. The rim along each side is recessed with the recesses terminating in upstanding shoulders adjacent each end. The rim across each end of the container is recessed below the bottom of the recesses in the sides. The container has a pair of legs, one at each end. The height of the legs is substantially equal to the difference in depth between the side and end recesses whereby, when the containers are telescopically nested, an access opening extends between containers for receiving the tines of a forklift as a result of the legs of the upper of two containers resting on the bottom of the container beneath. The lengthwise spacing between the legs equals the width of the container at the top rim and the length of the recesses in the sides of the rim equals the lateral spacing of the legs to permit interlocked stacking when alternate containers are rotated 90.degree. with respect to each other.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to nestable type articles, and more particularly to nestable containers designed to counteract the jamming or wedging of telescopically associated or stacked containers. The invention is particularly useful for one-piece thin-walled plastic containers of the type used in vending machines and comprises a unique wall formation for urging or guiding adjacent identical containers in a nested stack into different rotational positions to insure a positive and substantial stacking abutment between adjacent containers. An embodiment of the present invention disclosed herein includes a one-piece, thin-walled plastic container having a sidewall diverging generally upwardly from the bottom, said container being equipped with novel stacking means comprising upper internal and lower external circumferential stacking sections formed by a series of axially spaced abutments and recesses. The abutments and recesses extend generally axially and radially.

Abstract: A generally circular container of generally cup shape having a side wall and a bottom wall, the side wall in axial cross section of the container being at its upper portion straight and extending at an angle inwardly in the downward direction relatively to the axis of the container or perhaps more aptly defined as an inverted frusto-conical portion of uniform thickness and being at its lower portion curved downwardly and inwardly or defining a curvilinear surface of progressively decreasing diameter, the lower portion of the side wall being of uniform thickness equal to the thickness of the upper portion of the side wall, the lower portion of the side wall merging into the bottom wall of planar disciform configuration merged to the side wall by a smooth rounded curved juncture, the container having an annular, dependent foot extending downwardly from the bottom wall spaced inwardly from the lower extremity of the side wall.

Abstract: A nestable container having a frusto-conical downwardly tapering sidewall, and a bottom which includes a plurality of embossed lugs disposed towards the periphery and a portion lying inside the lugs which is embossed upwardly forming a surface on the interior of the container for engaging the lugs of and radially and axially restraining an upper nested container. In one form of the invention the upper end of the container has means for spacing it a predetermined distance from an adjacent container in a nested stack of containers.