The present invention relates to transport cases for beverage bottles and, in particular, to full depth beverage cases.
Full depth cases surround the bottles for their full height, thereby providing improved protection against breakage and permitting the cases to be stacked without placing any load on the bottles themselves. Formerly, such cases were made of wood or metal, but now, increasingly, they are being integrally molded from synthetic, high impact strength, plastic material such as high density polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and the like.
An example of such a case is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,879, issued Mar. 9, 1971, for a plastic stacking and transport case. A feature of the case in that patent is a bottom designed for easy and rapid locking engagement and disengagement between layers of cases stacked on shipping pallets in criss-cross fashion.
In criss-cross stacking, the cases of one layer are set across the tops of the cases of the layer underneath; so that each case in one layer bridges across at least two cases in the layer underneath. Criss-crossing produces a firmly interlocked stack of cases that acts as a monolithic unit on the pallet.
A drawback of conventional full depth beverage cases is the difficulty in identifying the contents of the bottles in the cases, particularly in stacked cases, because the labels are hidden behind the side and end panels. When the cases are criss-cross stacked, the weight of the upper cases is not carried by the corners of the bottom cases but must be supported by the side and end panels at points between the corners. Thus, these panels are normally formed with solid walls or with closely spaced latticework to provide the necessary vertical strength to the upper margins of the panels.