Abstract:
A rectangular container has a child resistant lid assembly wherein the rectangular closure is provided with an opening. The child lid assembly is preferably removably mounted on the closure to close the opening and is preferably positioned during shipment and storage to be substantially planar with the closure. The side walls of the container may be tapered to facilitate nesting with a similar container. The locking mechanism on the closure engages an exterior portion of the lid, such as at least one of a plurality of teeth in a locked configuration.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to containers having closures with internal threaded lids, and more specifically to those containers having closures with locking members which engage stops on the lids which are internally threaded. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Child resistant lid assemblies for open head cylindrical containers are disclosed in Applicant&#39;s U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,967,926, 5,125,538 and 7,513,384 (incorporated herein by reference) and others, wherein a threaded connection is provided between the container and lid and at least one resiliently biased locking member is pivotally connected to the lid which cooperates with locking teeth on the container to secure the lid to the container. Applicant&#39;s U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,858, incorporated herein by reference, relates to a rectangular container which the applicant believes to be an excellent product. 
     While these child resistant lid assemblies have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, the construction and arrangement of the lid closure, container and associated locking member resulted in the use of a significant amount of plastic material in the design shown in the &#39;858 patent. 
     Furthermore, the open head containers upon which the lids and associated locking members are connected are cylindrical, thereby requiring more space for pallet loading and storage than would be required if the containers were rectangular. Rectangular containers for maximizing use of pallet space are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,606,586 and 3,307,739; however, these containers do not include child resistant lid assemblies. U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,858 has a child resistant lid assembly, but it provides internal teeth in the container which are engaged by a locking member on the lid which engages at least one of those teeth through the lid for the locking configuration. For at least some embodiments, at least removing that opening would be desirable, but would likely render the preferred illustrated embodiment of the &#39;858 unworkable for its intended purpose since those teeth could then not be engaged. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In order to maximize use of pallet space for transportation and storage, a substantially rectangular container and associated child resistant lid assembly of the present invention have been devised, wherein the container may be provided with a rectangular closure snapped onto, or otherwise connected at, an upper rectangular edge of the container. The closure is preferably provided with a central circular opening surrounded by at least one annular wall having threads formed radially exteriorly thereon for engagement with cooperating internal threads on a downwardly depending exterior wall of a lid. A resiliently biased locking member pivotally may be preferably connected to the closure which may engage a stop such as one of a plurality of teeth on an outer surface of the exterior wall of the lid to secure the lid to the container closure. The lids and associated locking members can be positioned inwardly of the peripheral edges of the containers, and also preferably either be recessed to be substantially planar or below an upper elevation of the container and/or protected when the lid is installed and containers are stacked. 
     Short diagonal side webs may be provided along the peripheral edge portion on the bottom or top of each container for centering the container on top of the lid on the next adjacent lower container when stacking. 
     Hand grips may also be provided integral with two side walls of the container which are tapered to facilitate nesting of plural containers when empty, the two side walls also having longitudinally extending recesses to facilitate removing the container from the nested position. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The particular features and advantages of the invention as well as other objects will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the container and lid assembly of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a side elevational view of the container and lid assembly shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded, fragmentary, sectional view showing the top edge portion of the container, the container closure, the lid and associated locking member, and the bottom of another stacked container; 
         FIG. 4  is a fragmentary, top elevational view of the container and lid assembly shown in  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along line  5 - 5  of  FIG. 4 . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to the drawings in greater detail, and more particularly to  FIGS. 1 and 3 , the container and lid assembly of the present invention comprises, a rectangular container  1  having a rectangular closure  2  provided with a central circular opening  3  surrounded by at least one, if not a pair of radially spaced annular walls  4  and  5 . The closure  2  is provided with a depending skirt portion  6  extending around the periphery thereof and a depending peripheral wall  7  spaced inwardly from the skirt portion  6  to provide a tapered channel  8  for receiving the upper edge portion  9  of the container  1 , as shown in  FIG. 5 . While a rectangular container is shown and described in the images, it can also be understood that other shapes could be employed as well as and/or the traditional cylindrical style shape of containers. The opening  3  also need not be centrally disposed for all embodiments. 
     The skirt portion  6  of the rectangular closure  2  may preferably be provided with a plurality of peripherally spaced resilient fingers  10 ,  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and  5 , having hook-like ends  10 ′ depending below the lower edge of skirt portion  6 , and adapted to engage within a groove  11 , as shown in  FIGS. 3 and 5 , formed between the container  1  and the upper edge portion  9  thereof, whereby the closure  2  may be tightly and releasably snapped onto the container  1 . Thin vertical cuts  6 ′ through skirt portion  6  separate the sides of fingers  10  from the skirt portion  6  and render the fingers  10  resilient. Slot openings  6 ″ may be provided in the top of rectangular closure  2  to accommodate a mold part for forming the hooklike ends  10 ′ on resilient fingers  10 , during the molding process for rectangular closure  2 . Other molding techniques may be employed whereby slots openings  6 ″ are not provided for all embodiments, and/or other techniques could be utilized to retain the closure  2  to the container  1 . The closure  2  and the lid  16  preferably cooperate with the container  1  in many embodiments to provide a closed configuration thereby enclosing at least a volume, if not goods internal to the container  1 . 
     The first annular wall  4  may be provided with radially outwardly extending coordinated threads  12  which cooperate with a pair of inwardly extending coordinated threads  14  provided on a downwardly extending wall  17  of a lid  16 . The threads  14  may be contained in a downwardly extending radially spaced channel  18  formed in the closure  2 , which receive the downwardly depending wall  17  of the lid  16  when threaded onto the closure, as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 5 . Another annular wall could be provided such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,858 for some embodiments. Annular wall  5  may drop the elevation of the closure  2  at that point thereby creating upwardly facing channel  18  as well as potentially providing an ability for at least some embodiments to provide a relatively or substantially planar closure  2  with the lid  16  when the lid  16  is fully installed, such as is shown in  FIG. 1 . Other embodiments may have a lid  16  extending a distance above the closure  2  such as shown in the &#39;858 patent or other designs and still other embodiments may have other constructions so that upper surface  36  of lid  17  is substantially planar and/or below an upper surface  37  of closure  2 . Channel  18  may have base  41  and be formed by walls, first wall, upwardly extending wall  4  and base  41 . 
     As will be seen in  FIGS. 4 and 5 , a resiliently biased locking member  19 , of the type disclosed in my aforementioned patents, or of other constructions, whether biased or not, may be positioned in the channel  18  or elsewhere, and pivotally connected as at pivot  21  to the lid  16 . The locking member  19  may include a lever arm  22  biased by an arcuate spring member  23 , such as against wall  5  or otherwise, and so that at least one of a plurality of teeth  24  provided on or from the outer surface of the wall  17  also referred to as a stop, to thereby lock the lid  16  onto, or relative to, the closure  2  in a locked configuration. The locking lever  19  may also provided with a thumb engaging portion  25  for moving the lever arm  22  in a counter-clockwise direction away from engagement with the teeth  24 , whereby the lid  16  can be manually unscrewed from the closure  2  in an unlocked configuration. Other locking members  19  of various constructions can be used with other embodiments. Teeth may be ramped such as shown in the &#39;384 patent or otherwise constructed. 
     To facilitate the manipulation of the lid  16  onto and off of the closure  2 , the lid  16  may be provided with corrugated surfaces as at  26  and/or tabs  27  to thereby provide gripping surfaces. Tabs  27  may particularly be helpful when the lid  16  is planar and/or below an upper surface  37  of the closure  2 . Teeth  24  preferably terminate a distance below an upper surface  36  of the lid  16  and may extend from bottom  38  of the wall  17  such as about half way up wall  17  or other distance and/or have other configurations in other embodiments. They may or may not circumnavigate the lid  16  as illustrated. 
     As will be seen in  FIGS. 1 , and  2 , the side walls  39  of the containers may be tapered to facilitate nesting empty containers for shipment, or the like. Two opposite side walls of containers  1  can be provided with integral handles  30  aligned with a longitudinally extending recess  31 . When stacked, the bottom edge of the handle  30  of the top container may contact the upper edge  9  of the next adjacent lower container. By providing the recesses  31  in the container side walls, the contact surface area may be reduced between nesting container, and an air passage is provided to thereby facilitate removing the containers from the nested position as is known in the art. 
     To complete the structural description of at least some embodiments of the container and lid assembly of the present invention, as will be seen in  FIG. 3 , short diagonal side webs  32  may be provided along the peripheral edge portion of the container  1  and possibly integral with the bottom  33  of the container for centering the container on top of the lid  16  of the next adjacent lower container when stacking. When assembled containers are stacked on top of one another, the bottom edge  34  of the top container  1  may rests on the flat reinforced ribs  35  of the top of closure  2  of the bottom container, as shown in  FIG. 3 , if provided or on at least one of an upper surface  36  the lid  16  and/or upper surface  37  of the closure  2 . 
     From the above description it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, that the construction and arrangement of the container  1  and lid assembly  16  of many embodiments of the present invention provide a container configured to maximize use of pallet space, and having a lid assembly positioned inwardly of the side walls of the container so that when placing a plurality of containers in side-by-side relationship, or when stacking the containers, the lid assembly  16  on each container is spaced inwardly from the side wall of the adjacent container, to thereby prevent damage to the lid assembly by the adjacent container during shipment and storage. A relatively large central circular opening for the container can be provided with this construction, which is protected by a child resistant lid assembly. Smaller lids can be used in other embodiments and rectangular shapes are not required for all embodiments. Furthermore, the taper of the side walls of the containers can facilitate nesting empty containers for some embodiments, and the longitudinal recesses  31  if formed in the walls of each container  1  beneath integral handles can facilitate sliding the empty inner container outwardly from the empty outer container because the contact wall surface area between adjacent containers can be reduced, thereby reducing the functional resistance to sliding movement between the containers. When full or when the closure  2  and lid assembly  16  are placed on the containers  1 , the container can be stacked. The diagonal webs  32  center the container on top to straddle the lid on the next adjacent lower container, and if utilized, the bottom edge  34  of the container on top can rest on a reinforced area  35  on the closure  2  of the next adjacent lower container for some embodiments. 
     The terms and expression which have been employed herein are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, but it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed. 
     Numerous alterations of the structure herein disclosed will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. However, it is to be understood that the present disclosure relates to the preferred embodiment of the invention which is for purposes of illustration only and not to be construed as a limitation of the invention. All such modifications which do not depart from the spirit of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. 
     Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what is claimed herein is: