Bakery tray with blind stacking and unstacking

In a unitary molded plastic bakery tray having a rectangular bottom, a pair of opposed side walls, a pair of opposed end walls, said side walls and end walls being alternately connected to each other and to said bottom around the perimeter of said bottom to provide an upwardly opening rectangular tray, and interengaging means along said end walls for providing first and second different vertical stacking positions of like trays in a like orientation and 180 degree rotated orientation, respectively, for holding therebetween bakery products of corresponding height during storage and transportation, wherein the improvement relating to facilitating blind stacking, comprises:

• guide feet at the opposite ends of each of said end walls adjacent said bottom, and outwardly spaced from and separate from said interengaging means;
• stacking rail means along the upper edge of each of said end walls being spaced outwardly from and separate from said interengaging means, said stacking rail means having recesses at its opposite ends vertically aligned with said guide feet respectively for freely receiving therein said guide feet to a nesting depth of like containers sufficiently for said interengaging means to provide each of said first and second stacking positions;
• said stacking rail means between said guide recesses being of a continuous height and constructed to receive and support thereon said guide feet to maintain like orientation or 180 degree orientation like containers vertically spaced at a height greater than said first and second positions, so that when blind stacking containers, said guide feet engage said stacking rail means slidably along the entire length of said guide rail means to maintain said interengaging means spaced from each other and inoperative until said guide feet align with and interengage with said guide recesses;
• means between said side walls for pivoting said tray about a midportion of said tray to disengage said guide feet along one of said end walls from the corresponding ones of said guide recesses of a lower stacked tray;
• and
• means along said end walls for receiving the pivoting means of an upper stacked tray when upper and lower trays are vertically aligned in said stacked position and means on said end walls for engaging the pivoting means of an upper stacked tray adjacent said means for receiving said pivoting means such that said pivoting means of an upper said tray is removed from said means for receiving said pivoting means in a lower said tray and thereafter the upper said tray is moved to position said pivoting means of the upper said tray such that the upper said tray is pivoted about said pivoting means from one of said side walls of said tray to disengage said guide feet from the corresponding ones of said recesses at the other of said side walls to permit said guide feet to slidably engage said stacking rail thus enabling the unstacking of an upper said tray from a lower said tray.

In a unitary molded plastic bakery tray having a rectangular bottom wall, a pair of opposed side walls, a pair of opposed end walls, said side walls and end walls being alternately connected to each other and to said bottom around the perimeter of said bottom to provide an upwardly opening rectangular tray, interengaging means providing high and low different vertical stacking positions in a like orientation and 180 degree orientation of like trays, respectively for holding therebetween bakery products of corresponding height during storage and transport of bakery products, wherein the improvement comprises:

• said interengaging means including a top edge stacking rail, a parallel guide rail and an engaging surface between said rails along each of said end walls, a pattern of at least two small recesses and at least two large recesses extending downwardly in each of said guide rails, with the pattern of recesses in one guide rail being different from the pattern of recesses in the other guide rail, so that with 180 degree oriented like stacked trays, vertically adjacent small recesses of adjacent trays will be misaligned vertically of adjacent trays and vertically adjacent large recesses of adjacent trays will be misaligned vertically;
• a pattern of at least two large feet and at least two small feet along the bottom of each of said end walls, the pattern of feet on one end wall being different from the other end wall, so that with 180 degree oriented like stacked trays, vertically adjacent large feet will be vertically misaligned and vertically adjacent small feet will be vertically misaligned with at least some of said feet engaging said engaging surface to provide the high position;
• in the like oriented position of two stacked trays, the large feet of the upper tray will be received within the large recesses of the lower tray and the small feet of the upper tray will be received within the small recesses of the lower tray to provide a low stacked position;
• blind stacking means for providing continuous linear sliding engagement between upper and lower trays for both like orientation and 180 degree orientation, said blind stacking means including said large feet being coplanar with and outward in the sliding direction of said small feet and said large recesses being coplanar with and outward in the sliding direction of said small recesses, said guide rail being linear and uninterrupted between said recesses, said large feet having a bottom continuous linear sliding engagement surface of greater length in the sliding direction than the distance between said continuous linear surface across the top of said small recesses to smoothly span said small recesses, and said pair of large feet being closely adjacent said side walls and said pair of large recesses being closely adjacent said side walls;
• said blind stacking means thereby providing continuous uninterrupted sliding engagement between the forward most large feet on opposite end walls with said engagement surface from an engaging position of said forwardmost one of said large feet of the upper tray slightly beyond vertical alignment with the rearmost one of said large recesses all of the way to the vertically aligned position of said blind stacking containers for both the like orientation and the 180 degree orientation;
• and
• blind unstacking means including a projection extending outwardly from a bottom portion of each of said end walls between said side walls for pivoting said tray about said projections, and said tray having a slot in each of said end walls in vertical alignment with said projections when said trays are in a vertical stack, said slots of a lower tray receiving said projections of an upper tray when said trays are in one of said stacked positions and said projections of an upper tray engaging said interengaging means of a lower tray when said projection is not vertically aligned with said slot such that one of said side walls of an upper said tray is raised with respect to the lower said tray to pivot the upper said tray about the large feet of the upper said tray at the other of said side walls of the upper said tray to displace said projections from said slots of the lower said tray whereby subsequent movement of the upper said tray with respect to the lower said tray to cause vertical misalignment between said projections of the upper said tray and the slots of the lower said tray enables said projections of the upper said tray to engage the interengaging means of the lower said tray to permit pivoting of said tray about said projections by lowering said one side wall and correspondingly raising the other of said side walls of the upper said tray to disengage said large feet and said small feet from said large and small recesses respectively at said other side of the upper said tray to enable unstacking the upper said tray from the lower said tray.