Collapsible container

Abstract

A collapsible container having a rigid construction including a base and upstanding sides which can be disassembled and stacked upon the base for storage. The base is provided with a generally flat supporting surface with a plurality of legs with mortises arranged to extend downward from the planar base support surface to receive and lock tenons attached to upstanding sides. The plurality of legs are spaced about the periphery of the base so that a container in either an assembled or collapsed position may be easily supported by a forklift or other such material-handling unit. Upstanding sides with tenons inserted into mortise elements of the unit are held in substantially erect position with the edges of the upstanding sides having tongue and groove connectors. Two of the sides are provided with grooves at the edges with the other two sides providing tongue elements at the edges and receivable into the grooves to provide a rigid and positive corner construction. Locking corner caps are attached to the upper edge of one of the sides of either the tongue or groove side. The locking L-shaped corner caps engages the upper edge of two corner sections of the adjacent side and lock the two sides together. The corner caps further includes a flange to engage legs of another container for vertical stacking. The upstanding sides of the container are vertically ribbed and may be re-enforced to increase the columnar strength of the unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.