Tray for carrrying plant pots

A tray for carrying a plurality of plant pots includes a base plate and a plurality of container sections. The container sections are provided in the base plate for receiving pots therein. Each of the container sections has an open top end, a peripheral wall and a bottom wall. Retainer members are disposed on the peripheral wall of each of the container sections and are operable to resiliently apply pressing forces to the side wall of a pot received within the container section so as to fixedly hold the pot in position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a tray for carrying a plurality of plant 
pots. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
A conventional tray for carrying a plurality of plant pots includes a base 
plate and a plurality of container sections formed therein. Each of the 
container sections includes an opening formed in the base plate and having 
a suitable configuration, a plurality of support members extending 
downwardly from the peripheral portion of the opening, and a bottom plate 
connected to the lower ends of the support members. Plant pots are 
inserted into the container sections through the openings, so that the 
pots can be transported at one time. 
However, with the conventional tray, the container sections can receive 
only one kind of pots having a size or configuration conforming to the 
container sections. Thus, pots having a larger size than the container 
sections cannot be sufficiently received by the container sections, while 
pots having a smaller size than the container sections tend to move within 
the container sections during transportation. In any cases, an operation 
for transporting pots cannot be satisfactorily performed. Therefore, it is 
necessary to prepare a number of kinds of trays having container sections 
of different sizes and configurations so as to cope with various kinds of 
pots. Such preparation of a number of kinds of trays is unpractical. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a tray 
which is adapted for carrying a plurality of plant pots and which includes 
container sections effective to conveniently receive various kinds of pots 
having different sizes or configurations. 
According to the present invention, there is provided a tray for carrying a 
plurality of plant pots, comprising: 
a base plate; 
a plurality of container sections provided in the base plate for receiving 
pots therein, each of the container sections having an open top end, a 
peripheral wall and a bottom wall; and 
retainer members disposed on the peripheral wall of each of the container 
sections and operable to resiliently apply pressing forces to the side 
wall of a pot received within the container section so as to fixedly hold 
the pot in position. 
The invention will become more apparent from the appended claims and the 
description as it proceeds in connection with the drawings,

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
An embodiment of the present invention will now be explained with reference 
to the accompanying drawings. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a tray 1 for carrying a 
plurality of plant pots (not shown). The tray 1 is made of synthetic resin 
such as polypropylene and has a flat base plate 2. A plurality of openings 
3 are formed in the base plate 2. Each of the openings 3 has a circular 
configuration in plan view and defines an upper opening of a container 
section 6 which serves to receive a pot. The openings 3 are the same in 
size, and their associated container sections 6 are the same in 
construction. Therefore, the explanation of the construction of the 
container sections 6 will be made to only one of the container sections 6. 
The container section 6 has a tubular peripheral wall 4 which has an upper 
end connected to the peripheral edge of the corresponding opening 3 and 
which extends downwardly from the peripheral edge. The peripheral wall 4 
has a configuration tapering in a downward direction. A circular bottom 
wall 5 is connected to the lower end of the peripheral wall 4. Thus, the 
container section 6 provides a substantially inverted truncated conical 
space therein. 
A plurality of retainer members 8 are formed integrally with the peripheral 
wall 4 and are equally spaced from each other in the circumferential 
direction of the peripheral wall 4. Each of the retainer members 8 is 
separated laterally from the peripheral wall 4 by a pair of slits 7 formed 
on both sides of the retainer member 8 as shown in FIG. 3, so that each of 
the retainer members 8 has an upper portion connected to the base plate 2 
at a position adjacent the peripheral edge of the opening 3 and that it 
has a lower portion connected to the peripheral wall 4 at a position 
adjacent the bottom plate 5. 
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the upper portion of each of the retainer 
members 8 has a first bent part 9 and a second bent part 10 which is 
connected to the base plate 2. The first bent part 9 has a configuration 
turned upwardly, while the second bent part 10 has a configuration turned 
downwardly, so that the first-and second bent parts 9 and 10 can impart 
resiliency to the retainer member 8 in a direction substantially toward 
the center of the container section 6. As shown in FIG. 4, upper parts of 
each pair of the slits 7 are connected to a substantially rectangular 
cut-out portion 11 formed on the peripheral edge of the opening 3. The 
cut-out portion 11 has an inner end connected to the opening 3 and has an 
outer end from which the second bent part 10 of the retainer member 8 
extends. 
In this embodiment, the retainer member 8 is inclined relative to the 
peripheral wall 4 in a direction radially inwardly of the peripheral wall 
4 such that the retainer member 8 protrudes inwardly of the peripheral 
wall 4 to some extent. Thus, the inner space defined by the retainer 
members 8 is smaller than the space defined by the peripheral wall 4. 
The operation of the above embodiment will now be explained in the case 
where the pots each having a substantially truncated conical configuration 
or the same configuration as the peripheral wall 4 of the container 
section 6 are put in the tray 1. 
When each pot to be carried by the tray 1 has a size smaller than the space 
defined by the peripheral wall 4 but greater than the space defined by the 
retainer members 8, the retainer members 8 resiliently deform outwardly 
through abutment on the side wall of the pot as the pot is inserted into 
the space defined by the peripheral wall 4. The pot can therefore be 
stably held in position within the container section 6 by the resiliently 
pressing force of the retainer members 8. 
When each pot to be carried has the size substantially the same as the 
space defined by the peripheral wall 4, the retainer members 8 resiliently 
deform outwardly as the pot is inserted into the container section 6 as 
described above. In this case, when the pot has been completely inserted 
into the container section 6, the retainer members 8 are brought in 
substantially the same plane as the peripheral wall 4 by virtue of the 
cut-out portions 11 around the opening 3. Therefore, the pot can also be 
stably held in position without problem within the container section 6 by 
the pressing force of the retainer members 8 on the side wall of the pot. 
As described above, the tray 1 of this embodiment is effective to stably 
hold the pots in position within the container sections 6 even if the size 
of the pots has been changed. This means that the pots having a 
configuration different from the truncated conical configuration can be 
also stably held in position within the container sections 6. Thus, with 
this embodiment, the tray 1 can be conveniently used for transporting the 
pots. 
In the above embodiment, the tray 1 includes two container sections 6, and 
each container section 6 has four retainer members 8. Such number of the 
container sections 6 and the retainer members 8 can be selectively 
determined. Further, the container sections 6 may have different 
configurations other than the truncated conical configuration. 
While the invention has been described with reference to a preferred 
embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that modifications or variation 
may be easily made without departing from the spirit of this invention 
which is defined by the appended claims.