Stackable Storage Box with Interlocking Base and Wrapper
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional stackable storage boxes made from fibreboard lack structural integrity, leading to bottom failure and poor stacking capabilities, and attempts to enhance them with heavier materials result in increased costs without significant improvements.
Innovation Solution
The design features a storage box with pre-formed fold lines and attachment elements, including lower extension portions and upper peripheral channels, which provide double thicknesses for enhanced structural support and alignment, allowing for secure stacking and improved load-bearing capacity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If heavier weight fibreboard and additional reinforcement pieces are used to improve structural integrity, then the strength and stability of the storage box improve, but the cost to the consumer significantly increases and natural resource usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The storage box is divided into separate components: a base portion and a wrapper portion with side wall panels. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and assembled through interlocking attachment elements, achieving structural integrity without requiring heavier materials throughout the entire box.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a single-plane fibreboard structure to a three-dimensional interlocking assembly with the base portion and wrapper portion. The attachment elements create vertical and horizontal connections that distribute loads across multiple dimensions, enhancing strength without increasing material weight.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional fibreboard construction is used, then the storage box remains inexpensive and easy to manufacture, but the bottom fails and opens when loaded and stacking capabilities are poor
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the base portion from the wrapper portion and connecting them through attachment elements, the load-bearing function is concentrated in the reinforced base structure. This prevents bottom failure under load while maintaining the cost-effectiveness of standard fibreboard materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The attachment elements are pre-formed on the side wall panels, and the base portion includes pre-formed receiving structures. This preliminary preparation ensures proper alignment and secure connection during assembly, preventing bottom opening under load without requiring complex manufacturing processes.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional fibreboard storage boxes are used, then they are inexpensive, but they do not positively locate one on top of the other and lack structural integrity to support weight in a stack
Solution Approach 1:
The separation into base portion and wrapper portion with distinct attachment interfaces enables precise positioning during stacking. The interlocking mechanisms ensure that boxes locate correctly one on top of another, providing stacking stability without requiring heavier or more expensive materials.
4Ease of manufacture
If standard fibreboard construction is used, then the storage box remains simple and economical, but dampness causes softening of the lower portion leading to wall failure and stack collapse
Solution Approach 1:
The base portion is separated from the side wall panels, allowing the base to be treated as a distinct component. This enables targeted application of dampness-resistant treatments or materials to the base portion, which is most vulnerable to floor moisture, while keeping the rest of the structure simple and economical.
Solution Approach 2:
The attachment elements act as intermediaries between the base portion and side walls. These elements can be designed to provide a barrier or transition zone that reduces moisture transfer from the base to the walls, preventing softening and failure while maintaining overall simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A stackable and collapsible storage box (100) comprising a foldable wrapper (10) having side wall and end wall panels which are releasably retained within a peripheral channel (30a) on a separate base portion (30). The wall panels have lower extension portions (11, 12) that are folded upwardly to provide a double thickness and these lower extension portions have an upper edge (12a) or apertures (37) that engage with short protrusions (33) formed on an inner wall (32) of the channel to retain the panels. The end wall panels have upper first and second extensions portions (14a, 16) that are respectively folded inwardly and upwardly to provide a support edge (16a) to support hangers for hang files. The support edge can be strengthened with a channel section (19). The box can have a lid (50) has a ridge (53) to compliment channel (36) on the base portion to allow stacking.