Abstract:
A collapsible stackable casket, having: a base member; a plurality of end members and side members removably secured to the base member to form a casket body. A lid assembly is removably mounted to the casket body, the lid assembly defining a lid chamber capable of receiving the base member and end members when the casket is in an unassembled mode.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to caskets and more particularly to a low cost collapsible stackable burial casket which can be transported and stored prior to use as a highly compact self-contained unit which can be quickly assembled by an unskilled person with simple hand tools when needed for use. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     The prior art discloses several examples of coffins for use in body burial. One example of coffin art is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,197 issued Jun. 5, 1990. This patent shows a strap system comprised of a plurality of u-shaped metal strap members held in a spaced relationship by a plurality of rods. Side sections are fastened to the straps and held by side blocks and the rods which serve as handles for the coffin. 
     An example of a collapsible coffin is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,248 issued Oct. 22, 1991. This patent shows a coffin comprised of a trough assembly and a lid which can be mounted on the trough. All of the elements forming the trough assembly and all of the elements forming the lid are pivotably interconnected to each other by hinges so that these elements can be swivelled down so that they lie in a common plane for facilitating storage and transportation of the coffin. When the coffin is used, the elements are interconnected to each other by means of clamping elements. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,631 issued Jan. 31, 1989 is directed to a modular casket which includes a body receiving compartment defined by at least one modular base section having a rectangular base panel and a pair of rectangular side panels hingedly connected to the base panel along longitudinal marginal edges, and a pair of modular end pieces. The base panel, side panels and modular end pieces have mutually cooperable connecting flanges formed thereon which are adapted for selective interconnection to establish a body receiving compartment having an upper peripheral edge on which a modular cover may be mounted. The various modular components are made of lightweight, high strength doubled-walled plastic construction. 
     Still another example of a foldable coffin can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,713, issued May 21, 1985 discloses a coffin having a cover, an upper frame, a lower frame, and an inside fitting. The coffin has hinged lateral walls permitting its folding into a storage and transportation position in which its height is a fraction of its extended height. Alternate lateral walls are formed of a single flap hinged on one of the frames, the remaining lateral walls being comprised by two flaps hinged together along a middle line and to each of the frames along a direction parallel to the middle line. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,880 issued Jul. 1, 1980 shows a coffin constructed with side walls which are made of a strong corrugated paper material having inwardly turned bottom flaps. The bottom flaps are fixed between an outer bottom plate and an inner bottom plate whose edges abut the inner surfaces of the side walls. Attachment means are provided for mounting foot supports on the under surface of the bottom plate. 
     Another example of a sectional coffin is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,818 issued Apr. 29, 1995 which discloses a coffin kit comprising a one-piece base or tray, two one-piece side members, two one-piece end members and two one piece lid sections. The tray has raised side and end portions. In assembling the coffin the side and end members are assembled in the tray with their bottom outer surfaces fitting snugly against the raised side and end portions of the tray. The side and end members have mitered ends and when the side and end members are assembled, the adjacent mitered ends fit one against another to form corners. The lid is formed in two identical halves and the lid has the conventional vaulted shape. All of these pieces are made of rigid molded plastic such as self-skinning urethane foam and can be joined together using a conventional epoxy glue that sets over a period of 12 hours. 
     Another collapsible casket is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,045,314 issued Jul. 24, 1992. This patent discloses a casket having a base section split transversely at a point intermediate of the ends to form forward and rear portions of the base. A cover or lid also formed in front and rear portions is positioned on the base. The cover and base have flanges on their respective meeting edges and clamps extend over edges of the flanges of the sections for positively clamping the sections in assembled relation. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 1,290,057 to Bintliff issued Jan. 7, 1919 discloses a knockdown casket constructed of end plates, side plates, a bottom plate and a cover. All of the members are separate from each other except for the back side plate and cover which are connected at their longitudinal edges by a hinge. The casket is constructed entirely of sheet metal; and the end plates, side plates and the cover are all reinforced by ribs. The end plates and side plates are held in assembled relation with the upright edges of the end plates being folded to form channel flanges which extend inward at right angles and the upright edges of the side plates are bent outward to form flanges with which the end plate flanges slidably interlock. The bottom plate is held interlocked with the side plates by bending the lower longitudinal edges of said side plates outward to form flanges and by bending the longitudinal edges of the bottom plate to form channel flanges which extend upward at right angles thereto. These longitudinal side plate flanges and the bottom plate channel flanges are adapted to be secured in interlocking arrangement by siding the same sidewise sliding movement. The ends of the bottom plate are also bent upward to form flanges which overlap the lower horizontal edges of the end plates. 
     A review of the prior art shows that while attempts have been made to fabricate readily assembled caskets; these structures have fallen short of meeting the goals of providing an economical casket, that is protected from chipping and scratching easily transported, stacked for storage until ready for use and assembled when needed. The &#39;248 device, for example, has a complicated hinged structure and complex hardware or clamping elements are used to hold the hinged sections together. The &#39;631 modular casket and the &#39;880 coffin are comprised of many parts and a double or even triple walled structure. This modular casket is also preferably fabricated from a plastic such as polyurethane which many potential users object to on aesthetic or environmental grounds. The &#39;197 coffin employs a relatively complex sling or strap system to serve as the main structural support for the device. This is time consuming to assemble and if shipped to the user in assembled form is difficult to store or stack. The &#39;713 coffin has a rectangular embodiment but this structure involves many parts and complex hinging. This coffin incorporates a plurality of rectangular frames and each of the long sides are formed by two hinged flaps. The short sides are only one flap but they are each hingedly connected to one end of one of the frames. The &#39;057 casket is metal and generally requires complicated sheet metal bending and ribbing; as well as being objectionable for aesthetic, environmental and even religious reasons. Similar objections can be raised about the &#39;818 art; it is constructed of a plastic material and the final assembly requires gluing. 
     The present inventive collapsible stackable casket overcomes these shortcomings and is easily assembled, and can be shipped in a stacked economical compact package. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A need exists for a low cost collapsible casket that can be stored conveniently in a small space and quickly and easily assembled when needed. Typically these low cost burial caskets are used by governments and churches to bury those who die in poverty or are unclaimed by family or for use in emergencies which result in many deaths in one place at one time. Consequently these institutional purchasers buy collapsible caskets in large quantities and typically need to store them in large quantities until they are needed. Although some attempts have been made to meet this need for low cost caskets, no casket in the prior art has had the right combination of low cost, compact shipping and storage, simple construction, easy assembly and dignified appearance. Prior attempts to devise and build a low cost burial casket have resulted in caskets made of unsuitable materials such as molded plastic or metal, caskets with many parts, caskets that are heavy and difficult to package and store in the unassembled configuration and caskets which are too expensive. Caskets have traditionally been bulky, large, and heavy; which has led to storage problems for users. The casket of the present invention solves these problems and provides institutions with a convenient, high quality alternative to caskets which had previously been available to them. The casket of the present invention in its assembled configuration has a simple yet dignified appearance due in part to the wooden construction and design. This casket has a wooden lid body made entirely of wood in the preferred embodiment which is held together with screws and other simple hardware. The assembled body has two long sides which serve a dual purpose in the device. The inventive collapsible stackable casket of the present invention has a simple construction yet it is structured so that all of the parts of the unassembled casket except for these two long side walls of the device can be stored in the casket lid for easy shipping and storage. Once these parts are in place in the lid, the side walls of the casket are sized so that they can be secured to the lid to seal these parts inside and form a low profile rectangular box which is easily stored and stacked. When a casket is needed, these side walls are simply removed from the lid, the parts removed from therein and the casket is assembled with simple hand tools in a few minutes. 
     Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a low cost collapsible casket which can be easily assembled when needed. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide a casket that is predominantly made of wood and which has a dignified appearance as the final resting place for a human being. 
     It is yet another object of this invention to provide large volume purchasers with a device that is highly compact in its unassembled configuration and one that can be easily stored, stacked and transported. 
     Yet another object of this invention is to provide a collapsible casket that can be quickly and easily assembled by a single unskilled person with only a simple hand tool and without glues or complicated hardware. 
     In the accompanying drawings, there is shown an illustrative embodiment of the invention from which these and other objectives, novel features and advantages will be readily apparent. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the packing configuration of the casket which shows in phantom the base and the ends of the casket stored in the interior of the lid; 
     FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the collapsible casket illustrating how the casket pieces are assembled into the finished casket body after they are removed from the packing configuration; 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the assembled casket showing an optional routed decorative groove in the side wall and end walls of the device; 
     FIG. 4 shows an enlarged perspective view of a matching pair of corner joint brackets which can be used to secure the adjacent sides of the casket together; 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective drawing showing the matching pair of corner joint brackets illustrated in FIG. 4 in position holding partial sections of adjacent end and side walls together; 
     FIG. 6 shows an enlarged perspective view of an alternative embodiment of a matching pair of corner joint brackets which can be used to secure the adjacent sides of the casket together; and, 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective drawing showing the matching pair of corner joint brackets illustrated in FIG. 6 in position holding partial sections of adjacent walls together. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The best mode and the preferred embodiment of the novel collapsible stackable casket of the present invention is shown generally in FIGS. 1 through 3. FIG. 1 illustrates the casket  10 , generally designated, in a collapsed stacked condition  12 , also referred to as the packing configuration. This is the configuration the collapsible casket would normally be in when it is transferred to the end user for storage and eventual use. The packed stacked casket assembly  12  is comprised of a lid assembly  14 , having a planar top member  17 , longitudinal side members  18  and end members  20  each of which is secured to the planar top member  17  by screws or other suitable fasteners. The top planar member  17  is so named because it forms that function in the assembled casket, although it forms the bottom support of the packing configuration. The lid assembly  14  is shipped to the end user fully assembled in this embodiment and is simply turned over and used as a container to store the other casket parts for shipping. The lid sides and ends can have optional decorative routing  23  as shown in FIG.  3 . 
     The base  25  forming the bottom planar member of the assembled casket  10  is stored in the bottom of the lid assembly  14 . The pieces that will form the end walls of the body  13  of the assembled casket are stored on top of the bottom planar member  25  in the lid and are generally designated  28 . The planar members that will become the longitudinal or side walls  30  of the assembled body  13  are also mounted on the top surface of the side and end members  18  and of the lid assembly  14 . If these side walls have decorative routing, the routing is faced inward into the lid assembly chamber. If desired a metal binder  100  can be tightened around the lid and side members or panels to hold the side members on top of the lid. Shrink or stretch plastic wrap  102  could also be used to hold the packing configuration  12  of side members and lid assembly together as well as protecting same. 
     Hence, the collapsible casket, once it is in the packing configuration, has the same length and width of the casket lid; the height of the casket in the packing configuration being simply the height of the casket lid assembly  14  plus the thickness of an elongated side wall  30 . Additionally, this packing configuration is, except for the optional decorative routed grooves in the sides and ends of the lid assembly, a rectangular box which makes transporting and storing the collapsible casket very simple and convenient. The height of the packing configuration  12  is but a fraction of the height of assembled casket  10 . 
     When the end user is in need of an assembled casket, the longitudinal side walls  30  are removed from the bottom of the lid  14  (actually the top of stacked assembly  12 )and the base  25  and end walls  28  are removed from the lid  14  and fastened together. The longitudinal side walls  30  are mounted to the end walls  28  by brackets  35 . This assembly is shown in FIG.  5 . The lid  14  is shipped in a finished configuration and only the body  13  need be assembled. The hardware required to join the side walls  28  and  30  is in the form of brackets  35  and is attached to the interior surfaces of the walls prior to shipping so that the user can join the adjacent side walls together as will be explained below. The general assembly procedure for this embodiment of the collapsible stackable casket is comprised of the following steps: First the user attaches the longitudinal sides  30  to the bottom planar member  25 . This is easily accomplished, usually with just a screwdriver because both the longitudinal sides  30  are shipped to the user predrilled to receive wood screws and the bottom planar member  25  is also predrilled and countersunk. Any type of fastener known in the art can be used to attach the longitudinal sides  30  to the planar bottom member  25 , as for example nails or staples, but the preferred method is to use a 1.25 inch wood screw. Next, the transverse walls or end walls  28  are inserted down from top to lie flush on the upper surface of base  25  between the two installed longitudinal sides  30  so that the corner brackets  35  which have already been mounted on the inner surfaces of the respective walls interlock and the bottom edge of the end walls  28  contact the upper surface of the bottom planar member  25 . These end walls  28 , like the longitudinal side walls  30 , are predrilled and the bottom planar member is predrilled and countersunk to provide aligned through going bores for mechanical fasteners, in this case the preferred method of attachment being 1.25 inch wood screws. 
     The preferred hardware to use to secure the adjacent side walls  28  and  30  to each other is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. An alternative embodiment  38  is shown in FIG.  6 . FIGS. 4 and 5 show an extra heavy corner joint made of 0.106 inch heavy gauge steel which can be nickel plated or bronze coated. These allow the adjacent side walls of the casket to be securely joined through the wedge action of the corner jointing hardware. As noted, the interlocking parts  35   a  and  35   b  can be attached to adjacent edges of adjacent side walls prior to shipping to the end user. These corner jointing brackets easily attach to the side walls with wood screws. These interlocking parts need no machining and generally only one pair in needed for each corner. If required, the joints can be easily disassembled by reversing the direction of the pressure that was used to install them. Alternatively, the rapid corner joints  38  can be used. Interlocking parts  38   a  and  38   b  work in the same manner as parts  35  and  35   b.  There are made of medium grade steel, typically 0.060 inch thick and may be nickel or statuary bronze coated. 
     The casket is sealed by placing the lid on the assembled lower body and securing it thereto. Any type of fastener known in the art can be used; although the preferred embodiment uses ten 6.5 inch screws to secure the lid to the casket body. The preferred embodiment of the collapsible stackable casket uses plywood for the bottom planar member, and pine for the ends  30 , sides  28  and lid assembly  14 . The decorative routing is optional. 
     The principles, preferred embodiments and modes of operation of the present invention have been described in the foregoing specification. However, the invention should not be construed as limited to the particular embodiments which have been described above. Instead, the embodiments described here should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Variations and changes may be made by others without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.