Commodity packaging tray

Abstract

A rectangularly shaped tray comprising a bottom product-supporting wall and up-standing side and end walls. The bottom product supporting wall is characterized by being elevated at its center portion, such as is provided by a quadrilateral pyramid-like bottom product-supporting wall with the apex of said quadrilateral pyramid being at the center portion of the bottom wall and at an elevation higher than the horizontal plane of the bottom of the four corners of said tray, whereby, when the commodity to be packaged is placed in the tray, the weight of said commodity presses the bottom wall of the tray downwardly resulting in the longer sidewalls of the tray being pulled inwardly. In one embodiment, each of the longer sidewalls is further characterized by having a horizontal rib disposed in its upper portion for stiffening purposes to prevent undesired bow-out of the sidewalls and each of the corners, formed by adjacent intersecting walls, comprises a reverse-radius step portion that strengthens said corners to inhibit cracking.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.