Container for wire spool

A container for a wire spool adapted to be stacked one on top of the other without damage thereto or to its contents. The container comprises a spool housing having a side wall, a bottom wall and an open top end. A cover is provided for the open top end and is engageable about an outer peripheral edge of the open top end. A cover having load transfer ribs converging into a ring which is formed therein and which extends within the housing. The load transfer ring rests on an upper end of a wire spool, when provided in the housing, whereby external loads on the cover will be transmitted to the bottom wall of the housing through the load transfer ring and a core of the spool.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
(a) Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a container for storing, carrying and 
dispensing wire from a wire spool positioned therein and particularly to a 
container construction which permits the stacking thereof, one on top of 
the other, in a manner not to damage the container or its contents. 
(B) Description of Prior art 
Various types of containers for wire spools are known. For example, a 
particular type of container is constructed of cardboard material and 
provided with external metal handles on the side wall. A cardboard cover 
secures over the container to prevent dust from entering within the 
container. A disadvantage of this type of container is that they are weak 
in construction, have a very short life as they are susceptible to damage, 
do not permit safe stacking for shipping or storage, and will wear about 
the peripheral edge as wire is spun out of the wire core whilst the core 
is retained within the container. Also, being of cardboard construction, 
the container will absorb moisture and further being of cylindrical shape 
will not permit containers to be stacked one within the other and 
therefore require a larger area for shipping or storage when there is no 
wire spool within the container. 
SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a container for a wire 
spool which substantially overcomes all of the above-mentioned 
disadvantages. 
It is a further feature of the present invention to provide a container for 
a wire spool and wherein the container with spools are stackable one on 
top of the other without damage to the container as the load distribution 
is directed on the core of the wire spool via the cover and bottom wall of 
the container which are made with interfitting portions. 
A further feature of the present invention is to provide a container for 
wire spool and cover therefor which are stackable one within each other, 
respectively. 
A further feature of the present invention is to provide an improved 
container for a wire spool which is long lasting and which provides 
additional features over the prior art. 
According to the above features, from a broad aspect, the present invention 
provides a container for a wire spool which comprises a spool housing 
having a side wall, a bottom wall and an open top end. A cover is provided 
for the open top end. The cover is engageable about an outer peripheral 
edge of the open top end. Load transfer means is provided in the cover and 
extends within the housing. The load transfer means rests on an upper end 
of the wire spool when provided in the housing whereby external loads on 
the cover will be transmitted to the bottom wall through the load transfer 
means and a core of the spool.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to the drawings and more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 4 there is 
shown generally at 10 (FIG. 4) the container of the present invention 
comprising a spool housing 11 and a cover 12. The spool housing 11 has a 
tapered cylindrical side wall 13 which tapers inwardly from an open top 
end 14, to a bottom wall 15. 
The container 10 is particularly adapted for storing and transporting wire 
spools, such as the type illustrated at 16, the spools comprising 
essentially a spool core 17 having an upper flange 18 and a lower flange 
19 with a body of wire 20 wound about the core 17 and between the flanges 
18 and 19. The spool housing 11 and cover 12 are both molded of a rigid 
plastic material. In order to reinforce the spool housing 11, structural 
ribs 21 are provided thereabout. The ribs 60 about the upper part of the 
sidewall are to prevent the housing 11 to interlock or wedge into one 
another when empty housings 11 are stacked together. Opposed hand holes 23 
are provides in the sidewall 13 adjacent and spaced from the top end 14. 
These are integrally formed in the sidewall. 
The spool housing 11 is further provided with vertically extending, 
downwardly outwardly tapering, centering ribs 24 which are located in a 
spaced-apart manner about the inner surface 25 of the side wall 13 
adjacent the bottom wall 15 whereby when a wire spool is lowered into the 
spool housing 11 the bottom flange 19 will be placed concentrically within 
the container and spaced a minimum distance away from the inner surface 
25. The reason for this is to provide sufficient spacing between the inner 
surface 25 close to the top of the wire spool 16 to provide for the 
drawing or spin-out of wire from the body of wire 20 through the open top 
end 14. Additionally, the spool housing 11 is provided with a moisture 
escape hole 26 in the bottom wall 15 thereof (see FIG. 2). Also, the hole 
26 renders the housing 11 useless as a bucket for storing liquids. A cover 
engaging rim 27 also extends about the upper peripheral edge of the 
housing for frictional engagement with the cover 12, as will be described 
later. 
Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is shown the 
construction of the cover 12. The cover is formed with load transfer ribs 
61 which converge to load transfer rib or ring 30 which extends above an 
inner face 31 of the cover and terminates in a flat external end 32 
whereby to rest on an upper end of the upper flange 18 or top part of the 
core of the wire spool 16 when positioned in the container housing 11. The 
load transfer ring 30 is reinforced by structural ribs 33 extending 
transversely thereacross, as better seen in FIG. 5. As can be seen the 
load transfer ring 30 is inverted cup-shaped whereby to transfer the load 
of a container 10' positioned thereover. The transfer ring will distribute 
this load circumferentially on the upper end of the wire spool and 
substantially in alignment with the cylindrical core 17 of the spool which 
is the most rigid part of the spool, and through this core and lower 
flange 19, onto the bottom wall 15. As shown in FIG. 4 the load of the top 
container 10' is transferred through the core 17 and onto the cover 12 of 
a lower container 10". 
The cover 12 is further provided with a peripheral floating joint 40 which 
permits vertical displacement of the cover 12 about the open top end 14 of 
the spool housing 11 to accommodate in the housing spools having cores of 
varying height. The floating joint is formed by a peripheral vertical end 
wall 41 having a friction member or bead 42 for frictional engagement with 
a portion of the top outer surface 43 of the spool housing side wall 13 
and adjacent the open top end 14. Cover engaging rim 27 frictionally 
engages with the inner face of the vertical end wall 41 and cooperates 
with the annular friction rib 42 to provide a friction seal about the open 
top end and limit the vertical displacement of the cover 12 about the open 
top end 14. Of course, depending on the amount of vertical adjustment 
required to accommodate a range of varying size wire spools 16, the 
peripheral vertical end wall 41 may vary in length. 
The cover is still further provided with one or more alignment cavities 44 
and 45 in the top surface thereof to receive one or more alignment 
protrusions, herein an inner support rim 46 and an outer support flange 
47, formed in the outer face of the bottom wall 15. This provides 
interengagement and centering of containers 10 when positioned one on top 
of the other as clearly shown in FIG. 4. The cavity 44 is provided by the 
inner area of the load transfer ring 30 whilst the cavity 45 is formed in 
the upper surface of the cover between hand hole cavities 48 which are 
diametrically opposed in the cover. The cavities and protrusions are also 
concentrically disposed relative to one another. 
Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 5 and 6, there is shown the 
construction of the hand hole cavities 48 within the cover 12. Each cavity 
has a bottom wall 49 which is closely spaced at an outer peripheral edge 
with the inner surface 25 of the side wall 13 of the spool housing 11. The 
bottom wall 49 extends below the hand hole 23 to permit the insertion of 
fingers of a hand therethrough to manipulate the container. In order to 
ensure that the hand hole cavities 48 are in alignment with the hand holes 
23 there is provided two alignment slots 50 diametrically opposed in the 
upper peripheral edge 51 of the open top end 14 (see FIGS. 2 and 3). These 
aligning slots receive a respective alignment rib 52 (see FIG. 7) which 
extends perpendicular to the planar axis of the cover 12 from the 
peripheral vertical end wall to an opposed wall 53 which define 
therebetween the floating joint previously mentioned. Thus, to engage the 
cover 12 about the open top end 14 of the housing 11 the ribs 52 are 
aligned with each slot 50 and the cover is depressed over the top end 14 
causing the end walls 41 to flex outwardly until the friction rib 42 snaps 
under the cover retaining flange 27. The resiliency of the material of the 
cover will maintain pressure between the friction rib 42 and the upper 
outer surface of the container housing. The slots 50 also allow the 
section 43 of the housing 11 to compress slightly when the cover is being 
depressed. 
It is within the ambit of the present invention to provide any obvious 
modification thereof provided these fall within the scope of the broad 
claims appended hereto. For example, various other structural ribs may be 
provided to further solidify the container. In FIG. 2 there is shown 
structural ribs 54 extending transversely within the cavity defined by the 
inner support rim 46. Further, the shape of the side wall, which is of 
uniform thickness, can be modified, while retaining the interfitting 
feature of the present invention, to provide a larger area in the upper 
end of the spool to further facilitate the drawing of wire from the spool 
core or for other reasons. 
The upper portion of prior art containers have been designed to internally 
accommodate the standard industry "Graham Magnet" wire payoff device, 
whilst the present container will receive such device in an external fit. 
The advantages of the external fit are: 
(a) wire as it is being paid off will rub against the smooth cylindrical 
metal walls of the "Graham Magnet" unit, thus preventing wear of the inner 
wall of the container by the wire, 
(b) fitting the payoff unit over the container will not damage the top rim 
of the container, as it did to prior art cardboard containers, 
(c) the container being tapered will accept less than perfectly circular 
payoff units.