Patent Publication Number: US-11034488-B2

Title: Partition structure of internal space of food storage container

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a Continuation-in-Part of co-pending application Ser. No. 16/426,371 filed on May 30, 2019, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/377,978, filed on Dec. 13, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,351,311, issued on Jul. 16, 2019, which claims priority to Taiwanese Patent Application No. 105128688, filed on Sep. 5, 2016. The entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a food storage container, especially to a partition structure of an internal space of a food storage container. 
     Description of Related Art 
     Eating food is a major factor for keeping a human being&#39;s life, and the freshness of food should be ensured for preventing from eating deteriorated food and getting ill. With different eating habits of this modern life, sometimes the food has to be temporally stored, and the freshness of food is desired to be ensured when he/she wants to eat, thus a food storage container for storing food and maintaining the freshness thereof is developed. 
     There are a lot of products for storing food, a container is mostly provided for allowing food to be stored, when different foods are desired to be stored at the same time, the foods can only be mixed in the container because there is no partition provided therein; there are some food storage containers provided with partition plates in the container, but the partition plates and the container are integrally designed, and the partitioned spaces cannot be adjusted or changed according to the foods which are desired to be stored by the user. At present, a detachable partition plate structure is provided for allowing the container to be partitioned according to the user&#39;s requirement for conveniently storing different foods. 
     However, in the conventional structural design, locations, for example a bottom part or a lateral wall, have to be thickened because of limitations caused by assembling and positioning, so that the space utilization is limited or the appearance dimension has to be enlarged. 
     Accordingly, the applicant of the present invention has devoted himself for improving the mentioned disadvantages. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is to provide a partition structure of an internal space of a food storage container, in which with a structural design of being mutually matched, a partition component can be provided in the food storage container for effectively utilizing the internal space, thereby increasing the flexibility and convenience of the food storage container. 
     Accordingly, the present invention provides a partition structure of an internal space of a food storage container, which includes a container body and a partition component disposed in the container body; the container body has a bottom part and a plurality of lateral parts surrounding a periphery of the bottom part, and a transversal inner edge is formed between the lateral parts, and a longitudinal inner edge is formed between the bottom part and each of the lateral parts; the partition component is composed of a plurality of plate units, each of the plate units has a partition plate part and an abutting part extended from one side of the partition plate part, and at least one alignment part is extended from at least one side of each of the abutting parts; wherein the alignment part is formed with a curvature, and a curvature defined by the transversal inner edge being extended from each of the lateral parts and a curvature defined by the longitudinal inner edge being extended from the bottom part to each of the lateral parts are substantially the same as the curvature of the alignment part. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective exploded view according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective exploded view showing the partition structure according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view showing the assembly of the partition structure being transversally disposed in the container body according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a cross sectional view showing the partition structure being transversally disposed in the container body according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view showing the assembly of the partition structure being longitudinally disposed in the container body according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 6  is a cross sectional view showing the partition structure being longitudinally disposed in the container body according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 
     Please refer  FIG. 1 , which is perspective exploded view according to the present invention. The present invention provides a partition structure of an internal space of a food storage container, which includes a container body  1  and a partition component  2  disposed in the container body  1 . 
     The container body  1  is made of a transparent material, for example glass or acrylic. The container body  1  has a bottom part  10  and a plurality of lateral parts  11  surrounding a periphery of the bottom part  11 , thereby forming a food storing status in the container body  1 . According to one embodiment of the present invention, a cover member  3  can be further provided on top of the container body  1 , and a top edge of each lateral part  11  covers on top of the container body  1 , thereby allowing the container body  1  to be sealed. Please refer to  FIG. 4  The cover member  3  has a top part  30  and a cover edge  31  surrounding a periphery of the top part  30 , so that when the cover member  3  covers on top of the container body  1 , the cover edge  31  is able to be disposed on a top edge of each lateral part  11 , and a sealing ring  310  surrounding an internal periphery of the cover edge  31  is disposed in the cover edge  31 , so as to abut against the top edge of each lateral part  11  and seal the container body  1 , so that an effect of maintaining freshness can be achieved. Moreover, for allowing the cover member  3  to be tightly combined with the container body  1 , a buckling edge  12  can be correspondingly disposed at the lateral part  11  of the container body  1 , and a buckling part  32  is correspondingly disposed at the cover edge  31  of the cover member  3 , so what when the cover member  3  covers on top of the container body  1 , the buckling part  32  can be tightly buckled with the buckling edge  12 , thereby enabling the cover member  3  to be tightly combined with the container body  1 . 
     The partition component  2  is disposed in the container body  1  for partitioning the container body  1  so as to allow different foods to be stored therein. The partition component  2  can be formed in a transversal status (as shown in  FIG. 4 ) or in a longitudinal status (as shown in  FIG. 6 ), and be disposed in the container body  1  for partitioning the container body  1  into a first space  100 ,  100   a  and a second space  101 ,  101   a . The arrangement of the first space  100 ,  100   a  and the second space  101 ,  101   a  can be altered according to the status of the partition component  2 , so that the partition component  2  formed with the suitable status is able to be disposed in the container body  1  with respect to different foods to be stored by a user. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the partition component  2  is mainly composed of a plurality of plate units  20 , and each plate unit  20  has a partition plate part  21  and an abutting part  22  extended from one side of the partition plate part  21 . According to one embodiment of the present invention, there are two plate units  2 , the plate units  2  can be made through an injection molding means by utilizing a same mold, and the two plate units  2  are oppositely arranged so as to structure the partition component  2 . Details are provided as follows. At least one first pivotal part  210  and at least one second pivotal part  211  are provided at the partition plate part  21  of the plate unit  20  and arranged at one side away from the abutting part  22 , wherein the first pivotal part  210  is disposed with a pivotal shaft  210   a , and the second pivotal part  211  is disposed with a pivotal hole  211   a . As such, when the two plate units  20  are oppositely arranged, the first pivotal part  210  is corresponding to the second pivotal part  211  arranged at the other end, the two plate units  20  can be composed as the partition component  2  through the partition plate parts  21  thereof being pivotally connected, and the partition plate parts  21  can be unfolded to form the transversal status as shown in  FIG. 3 , or be pivotally folded to form the longitudinal status as shown in  FIG. 5 . 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1 ,  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 5 . An alignment part  220  is extended from at least one side of the abutting part  22  of each plate unit  20  of the partition component  2 , the alignment part  220  is formed with a curvature, a transversal inner edge  110  is formed between the lateral parts of the container body  1 , and a longitudinal inner edge  111  is formed between the bottom part  10  and each lateral part  11  of the container body  1 ; meanwhile a curvature defined by the transversal inner edge  110  being extended from each lateral part  11 , and a curvature defined by the longitudinal inner edge  111  being extended from the bottom part  10  to each lateral part  11  are substantially the same as the curvature of the alignment part  220 . Accordingly, when the partition component  2  is in the transversal status, the alignment part  220  is able to lean against the transversal inner edge  100  to partition the container body  1  into the first space  100  and the second space  101  which are vertically arranged (as shown in  FIG. 4 ), and a blocking side  110   a  is formed below the transversal inner edge  110 ; when the partition component  2  is in the longitudinal status, the container body  1  is partitioned into the first space  100   a  and the second space  101   a  which are horizontally arranged (as show in  FIG. 6 ). 
     What shall be addressed is that: the curvature of the alignment part  220  can also be composed of an arc-shaped surface (as shown in figures), or can be composed of a folded angle (not shown in figures); as long as the curvature of the alignment part  220  is the same as the curvature defined by the transversal inner edge  110  being extended from each lateral part  11  and the curvature defined by the longitudinal inner edge  111  being extended from the bottom part  10  to each lateral part  11 , the partition component  2 , whether being in the transversal status or the longitudinal status, can be correspondingly matched with the transversal inner edge  110  or the longitudinal inner edge  111  in the container body  1  via the alignment part  220 , so that an objective of allowing the partition component  2  to be disposed in the container body  1  can be achieved, and the structure aligning and matching can be simplified; each lateral part  11  of the container body  1  can be thinner, thus a designing objective of maximizing the internal space without enlarging the appearance dimension of the container body  1  can also be achieved. 
     Furthermore, the curvature can be designed according to an appearance of food desired to be stored. For example, when the partition component  2  is in the transversal status, if a rectangular food, for example a piece of toast or a sandwich, is desired to be stored, the curvature can be designed to match with a curvature defined at an edge of the toast or the sandwich available in a market, so that a freshness maintaining effect for this specified food is provided. For allowing a user to easily take the stored toast or the sandwich, as shown in  FIG. 3 , an exposed zone  220   a  is formed between the alignment parts  220  of the two plate units  20 , so that the user can easily take via a gap formed in the exposed zone  220   a.    
     Moreover, a plurality of penetrated holes  212  can be formed on the partition plate part  21  of each plate unit  20  of the partition component  2 , so that the first space  100 ,  100   a  can be in communication with the second space  101 ,  101   a ; especially when the partition component  2  is in the transversal status, the second space  101  location in a lower location can still be in communication with the first space  100  located in a higher location. 
     Based on what has been disclosed above, the partition structure of the internal space of the food storage container is provided. 
     Although the present invention has been described with reference to the foregoing preferred embodiment, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various equivalent variations and modifications can still occur to those skilled in this art in view of the teachings of the present invention. Thus, all such variations and equivalent modifications are also embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.