Patent ID: 6874634

Claim:
A tray system comprising a plurality of trays including at least one underlying tray and at least one overlying tray, said trays having substantially the same cross-sectional dimensions and the same or different heights, each tray having a bottom wall; a plurality of wall segments extending up from the bottom wall, each wall segment having an upper end; one or more seating surfaces at or adjacent to the bottom wall of the tray, said seating surfaces defining a seating surface plane; a plurality of latching surfaces, said latching surfaces defining a latching surface plane spaced a selected distance above the seating surface plane, and a plurality of latches, each latch having an arm with one end swingably mounted to one of the plurality of wall segments above one of the plurality of latching surfaces, and a projection on said arm spaced from said one end, said arm being swingable between a latching position wherein the associated projection is spaced above the upper end of the corresponding wall segment a distance substantially equal to said selected distance so that when the trays are arranged in any order in a stack, the seating surface(s) of the overlying tray(s) rest on the wall segment upper ends of the underlying tray(s) and the arms of the latches on the underlying tray(s) may be swung to their latching positions, whereby the projections on those arms engage the latching surfaces of the overlying tray(s) thereby securing together all of the trays in the stack to form a single compact transportable package.