US20020109005A1

US20020109005A1 - Mail box caddie

Info

Publication number: US20020109005A1
Application number: US09/783,113
Authority: US
Inventors: James Billings
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-02-14
Filing date: 2001-02-14
Publication date: 2002-08-15

Abstract

A Mail Box Caddie tray, for reception and containment of pieces of mail, fully insertable in an individual, standard United States Post Office mailbox. The tray consists of an inexpensive, one piece, molded plastic, integrating all functional and aesthetic features, having four sides, forming an almost hollow parallelepiped volume, that is cut on an angle and open in front. The tray, limited at the bottom by a rectangular base, extends in the front by a semi-tubular handle. Three sides; the right, the left, and the rear limiting its contour, and equipped with a continuous flange running the perimeter of the three sides. The fourth side, the base, has a specific, unique profile, consisting of three equally spaced, semi-circular ribs, parallel to the length of the sides, providing rigidity.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD:

This invention relates to an improved, one piece manufactured, insertion tray, called Mail Box Caddie. Such a tray fits freely into a standard, postal mailbox approved by United States Postal Service. This tray allows the front lid of the box to be totally closed after insertion of the mail. Such an economical device is advantageous over others due to its cost effective manufacturing. The Mail Box Caddie, made of one simple, durable, plastic part, is beneficial to society due to the improved, expeditious handling of mail while providing protection against the weather, thus making this valuable invention an improvement over the existing design. Considering the huge amounts of important and critical mail delivered to over a hundred million individual homes, stores, farm houses, and small businesses on an everyday basis, these Mail Box Caddie postal boxes would be heavily relied upon.

BACKGROUND & PRIOR ART OF THE INVENTION:

The enormous amount of mail, transferred daily through Post Office boxes, requires both the utmost care and attention of the personnel who insert it and the owner who retrieves it. Considering that these letters and packages have progressively quadrupled in numbers for the last 20 years, and are a mixture of both less significant and more significant mail, the improvement of its handling has become very necessary. Valuable mail, such as personal correspondence, bills, payments to doctors and clinics, official government notifications, insurance data, etc. is very important to keeping an informed, organized existence in our lives. On the other hand, there are large amounts of correspondence consisting of oversized pieces of mail with advertisements, political information, letters and booklets, and charitable support drives which have become a large part of the everyday mail package. Since it is important that no piece of mail gets lost, a caddie tray with its light, yet accommodating sufficient strength, that is both easy and comfortable to handle and giving quick accessibility for mail package retrieval, the Mail Box Caddie becomes extremely important. In one instance, the Mail Box Caddie is important for handicapped people who cannot readily get out of their cars.

Another critical area is for individuals to safely remove mail on a daily basis.

The United States Post Office requires the mailbox to be on the edge of the road and, at times, one must cross the street or road to have access to it. Heavy traffic presents a problem of safety and, therefore, the one picking up the mail must rapidly remove the contents of the box and get back into a safe area to avoid being hit by oncoming traffic. A safer way to retrieve the contents of the mailbox is from the open window of an automobile, but it is still imperative that this be done as quickly as possible due to the surrounding traffic. The economical Mail Box Caddie tray allows one to remove bulky mail packages from the mailbox, and safely carry it away from the mailbox to be sorted, if desired, and then replaced into the mailbox.

PRIOR ART

This basic concept of an inserted drawer, of similar design, exists and is covered in many patented drawers, but following a review of several of them, none compare to the new disclosed Mail Box Caddie insertion drawer as further described in this patent. Following a patent search, several insertable trays were found and discarded for the following reasons: Pat. No.4,160,520-1974 by Cluthe shows a two piece insertable tray, assembled by a transverse hinge. This drawer is a unique design that is non-standard and is fitted to a custom made mailbox with regards to the cover and bottom, and cannot be retrofitted to standard mailboxes. Such a device does not allow the use of the existing standard mailbox. The drawer is not removable and is expensive to manufacture, in relation to the proposed Mail Box Caddie, because of the assembling and having 5 (five) sides and its fail-safe internal mechanism. Pat. No.4,600,143-1986 by Harlow & Felske, shows a one piece, molded plastic having two integral tabs 52 forbidding the insert tray to exit. Collapsible front edges 48 & 58 require a precise tool to form a flexible edge and allow these edges to collapse as the lid if closed. Such a fold has a limited life expectancy. Furthermore, not being able to easily remove the tray from the box, requires the mail to be handled and removed from the front, exposing the contents to bad weather and the risk of spilling them. The new concept of the Mail Box Caddie is less costly to manufacture and does improve the means of quickly and safely picking up the mail as a package. Pat. No. 4,714,192-1987 Harlow, Jr. et al is a patent similar to 4,600,143-1986 with its previously sited disadvantages and are the same as compared to Pat. No. 4,753,385-1988 Phipps, Thompson & Benedict. The tray requiring extensive hinge forming tooling requires the customer to form and tab assemble the tray himself, which can be difficult. Unless the tray is made of resilient plastic, the sides will not remain flat. This design concept is not comparable to the Mail Box Caddie tray for reasons cited further on.

Pat. 4,896,827-1990 George Economou

This mailbox insert does not fit standard, recognized Post Office approved mailboxes and requires one to purchase both the mailbox outer shell and the drawer. The drawer itself will tilt forward when drawn forward, the string will limit its position, but has a tendency to let the mail go forward meaning an extra wall is needed around the drawer.

Pat. 5,009,366 -1991 Albert van Druff & David Fussell

This patent is similar to Pat. No. 4,753,385 and has a tray made of heavy-duty paper or laminated stock material. The description just states “structure to be folded, forming a four-sided box with a tab anchored in the back. When inserted, such a tab stops it from being removed again. The fact that the owner must put it together is less desirable and does not assure a proper assembly each time and this is not comparable to the Mail Box Caddie, which has no such ambiguity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] Sheet 1
FIG. 1 shows a three dimensional perspective of the caddie tray. [0011]
FIG. 2 shows one triangular corner located at the rear bottom of the Mail Box Caddie. [0012]
FIG. 3 shows a magnified cross sectional view of the front handle. [0013] Sheet 2 shows three (3) views an orthographic projection of the Mail Box Caddie.
FIG. 4 shows a left handed side elevation [0014]
FIG. 5 shows an elevated front view. [0015]
FIG. 6 shows a left handed top view.[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to [0017] Sheet 1, FIG. 1, a three-dimensional drawing shows a perspective of the caddie tray 1 from the top, slightly tilted both in front and widthwise. This drawing shows all the features of Mail Box Caddie, a unique assembly enhanced by the relative measurements of its length to its height and width, totally fitting into a standard mailbox. FIG. 1 shows all four sides: the bottom panel 2, a right hand side 3, a left hand side 4, and its back panel 5, along with the edge 10 and both rear comers 6 and 7. At the front of the tray a semi circular handle 8 is shown where the sides 3 and 4 are slanted. The handle is reinforced with six equally spaced, small ribs 9.1-9.6. FIG. 2 shows a cross section of the right hand rear corner, exposing the flat triangular corner 7 adjacent to sides 2, 3, and 5. All sides other than the flat trunked area are joined by a medium, continuous radius. FIG. 3 shows a magnified cross section of the handle 8, and two of the six raised ribs 9.5 and 9.6, showing the connection with the bottom 2 and the right side 3. Al these details have been integrated into a unique, plastic component called the Mail Box Caddie, made of a thin sheet of weather and fire resistant plastic, such as polypropylene, and manufactured by a process comprised of three stages, preheating, pressing and vacuuming, on a formed tool. The output of this process produces a permanently formed tray, which has a judicious balance between strength and weight, capable of lilting a load of about 5 pounds. Sheet 2, FIG. 4, 5 and 6, show an orthographic view of the Mail Box Caddie. FIG. 4 details the profile of both sides 3 and 4 and the slanted end with approximately 30° cut off the front side, its edge 14 and the rear outer view of the triangular 45° rear, bottom corner 6. FIG. 5 show the elevated front view of the Mail Box Caddie, detailing the outer draft angle, on both sides 3 and 4 (required for the forming process) bottom side 2 and the rear side 5. FIG. 6 shows the top view of the caddie tray, detailing the bottom 2 with its three long ribs 11, 12, and 13, equally spaced and parallel to the sides, running from close to the rear wall to nearly the front handle. These ribs add strength to the “U” shaped tray, allowing more rigidity.

Claims

Having thus described the invention, what I claim is:

1. A one piece, integrally molded plastic tray, with a rectangular profiled base, surrounded by three elevated sides, a left, a right, with the top outer continuous flanged edge bracing the tray lengthwise, and a rear side, also having an opening in the front allowing retrieval of the mail. .

2. A tray, as described in claim 1, sized to fit inside a standard Post Office mailbox, having a small clearance when the lid is closed.

3. A tray, as described in claim 1 and 2, having three equally spaced, raised ribs on the base to improve rigidity.

5. A tray, as described in claims 1, 2, 3, and 4 having two triangularly formed rear, bottom corners, to rigidly brace the four sides of the back.

6. A tray, as described in claims 5, which has an approximate ½″ radius around the inside periphery joining the three sides to the bottom, while blending to the triangular corners, allowing for a rigid lengthwise tray.

7. A tray, as described in claims 2, 3, and 5, with an uninterrupted small flange, nearly perpendicular to the side and of constant width, running along the inside periphery and joining the three sides to the bottom, thus allowing for the use a thin sheet of plastic while providing an edge sufficient for rigidity.

8. A unique tray, as described in claims 1-7, fitting entirely into a standard Post Office mailbox for carrying mail, made as one integral, multi-faced, plastic component.