Stacking plastic bottle case

Abstract

A molded plastic case has multiple pockets for bottles and recesses formed in its undersurface in register with the pockets for engagement with the tops of bottles in the pockets of like cases located thereunder for stacking. Partition walls within the case intersect each other and the outside walls to form the pockets, and the partition walls are cut away suitably for hand clearance adjacent the handholes in the end walls of the case. The recesses take a rimmed form defined by openings in the case undersurface leaving only ribs extending from the walls of each pocket to support its respective rimmed recess. The recesses are defined in lateral extent by walls of greater height than the edge radius of the bottles and bottle caps used therewith, and the recesses slope from those walls to flat midportions, which are the deepest parts of the recesses and are formed so that a bottle cap may be centered thereat by the sloping recess bottom without defacement of the flat cap top thereby. The lateral extents of the recesses accommodate extreme positions of the caps of bottles in like cases stacked therebelow for centering and retaining action therewith to form a stable stack. The edges of the case undersurface are relieved for telescoping engagement inside the top edges of the outside walls of other like cases for stacking empty cases.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.