MX2008003751A - Vessel for planting plants or flowers, and its planar development - Google Patents

Abstract

A vessel (10) for planting plants or flowers has features particularly useful in the field of flower/plant-growing thanks to the advantages for the growth and vegetation of the plants as well as the savings in the transport and storage activities of the vessels themselves. The vessel provides, uniformly arranged in its lateral surface (11), a quantity of cavities and housings (13) apt to promote the correct growth of the roots;it is made in plastic material through a'manufacturing method whose output is preferably the planar development both of the lateral surface and of the base. surface of the vessel. The planar development is so utilized during the phases of transport and storage of the vessel, which, in this case, is composed on site at the moment of its utilization, through simple assembling operations.

Description

CONTAINER FOR PLANTING PLANTS OR FLOWERS, AND ITS PLANO DEVELOPMENT FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a container for planting plants or flowers. The invention also relates to the flat development of a container for planting plants or flowers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREVIOUS TECHNIQUE It is known that containers for planting plants or flowers are widely used, in various shapes and sizes, both in the private and public sectors; in rooms, stores, offices, or as a decoration for streets, squares or public buildings, and in the commercial / industrial sector, in greenhouses and in nurseries of plants / flowers. Although containers with certain aesthetic aspects are used in the private / public sector, by virtue of their material, their shape, and the presence of decorations on their external surfaces, on the contrary, in the commercial / industrial sector, plastic containers are used. , of various sizes, with a fairly standardized form, and very little care of their aesthetic appearance, because they are designed primarily to facilitate their use and to reduce the costs of their provision and use. With regard to this second class of containers, it should be noted that, in view of the cost-to-containment relationship, keep a single plant in the same container as much as possible; often until the plant itself is sold, and this has to be, as can be easily understood and verified, the roots are constricted and develop abnormally; in fact, they tend to get entangled and thicken up to the internal side surface of the container. As a consequence, not only slower growth of the plant occurs but, mainly, a difficulty of vegetation recovery, even when the plant is transferred to a different container, which is what usually happens, in each purchase. It is also to be noted that the containers of different sizes, according to the different types and sizes of the plants they are going to house, are produced, taken and handled with their final use configuration, where it is clearly seen that, due to the waste of space, due to its form, the costs of transportation, supply and storage, are certainly affected. In order to prevent the above disadvantages, professionals in this sector have been trying for some time to develop useful solutions, but taking care to abide by the general rules of reducing costs in this sector. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It is the main objective of this invention to propose a container for planting plants, which guarantees the appropriate conservation and vegetation of the plant during sufficiently long periods.

It is another purpose of the invention to propose a container for planting plants, which has useful aspects to prevent waste of space during its transportation and storage phases. Said purposes are achieved by means of a container of plastic material or similar semirigid material, for planting plants; comprising a side surface, coupled with a base surface; said side surface being provided with cavities and housings that may not be in communication with the outer space. Said side surface is advantageously composed of one or more flat surfaces, connected to each other in a series; the end sides of said surface, or series of surfaces, being interconnected by means of fast fastening means. The cavities and the housings in the lateral surface of the container are projections, which preferably have a truncated cone shape, directed towards the interior and towards the exterior of the container, and have suitable sizes to allow the growth of the roots of the plant. At least some of the exterior projections are provided with openings in their external surfaces. The rapid fastening means, provided to interconnect the opposite sides of the surface, or of the series of surfaces, which make up the lateral surface of the container, are advantageously constituted by elastic capturing elements of the projections, placed in correspondence with the sides opposites; overlapping the projections in the configuration of normal use of the container.

A flat development of the container for planting plants, according to the present invention, provides a first flat surface, provided with cavities and housings, designed to form the lateral surface of the container; and a second flat surface, designed to form the base of the container. Said anterior surfaces, which make up the flat development of the container, are advantageously made by means of a single injection molding operation. It is obvious that the container of the invention, designed as it is said in the above, produces undoubted advantages, as regards the general production as well as the costs of use and as regards the efficiency for the conservation and the development of the plants it contains. The opportunity to form the container in two separate phases allows to obtain, in a first phase, a very useful configuration for storage and supply to the site of use, where it is finally assembled to its normal configuration of a container.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS However, in order to better understand the advantages mentioned above, and the features of the present invention, this will now be described by way of modeling examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a container for planting plants or flowers according to the invention.

Figure 2 shows a detailed view, in section, of a portion of the container of Figure 1. Figure 3 shows a planar development of the container of Figure 1. Figure 4 shows another planar development of a different embodiment of the container of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES With reference to Figure 1, a container for planting plants or flowers, according to the invention, is identified in its entirety with the number 10. The embodiment shown in said figure relates, in particular, to a container having a shape substantially cylindrical, comprising a substantially tubular side surface 11, and a circular base surface 12, visible in Figure 3. On the side surface 11 there are uniformly distributed projections 13, directed both inwardly and outwardly of the container. Said projections are arranged respectively according to alternate rows; they are truncated conical hollow projections, and their size is adequate to accommodate the roots of the growing plant. In particular, it should be noted that all the projections directed towards the exterior 13 ', except those located in the lower portion of the container, are provided with circular openings 14, arranged on their end surface; said openings being suitable to guarantee a uniform growth of the roots. Actually, the roots grow within these projections, but stop the growth when they leave the container, through those openings. Additionally, this prevents the roots from wrapping around the container. As can be seen in the left part of figure 1, in this embodiment of the invention the lateral surface 11 is obtained by folding on itself a flat development surface, shown well in figure 3, whose end portions 15, 16 overlap and they dock. They are simply coupled by overlaying the portion 15 to the portion 16 and pressing against each other in order to cause a quick snap or jump through the capturing elements 18, 19 which, respectively, are within the integral projections to the portion 15; and outside the integral projections to portion 16, as shown in Figure 2, which represents a partial section of the container according to a vertical plane crossing the overlapping sections of the two end portions of the side surface. In Figure 3 the last two rows 20, 21 of the projections 13 ', suitable for overlapping the projections on the other side 16 of the flat surface 11, are clearly shown.; in particular, the projections of the outermost row 21, are provided with hooks 18, suitable for engaging with the hooks 19 of the corresponding projections of the row 22, located on the opposite portion 16 of the flat surface 11. A similar arrangement and the location of the cavities and alloys, whether or not provided with capturing elements, is found on the surface 11 'shown in Figure 4, and which refers to a different embodiment of the invention. In In this case, the container has a flat development such that a flared container having a truncated cone shape is obtained once it has been formed. It should be noted that, also in this embodiment, the projections located along the lower two rows are not provided with openings communicating with the outside, in order to maintain a certain humidity regime in the lower portion of the container. However, suitable drip holes are provided in the base surface 12. It should also be noted that, both in the embodiment of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the base surface and the lateral surface of the container are produced by means of a single phase of injection molding. The two surfaces are connected to each other through flat links 23, of the same material as the surfaces, so that they can be detached and separated when the container has to be configured according to its use. Said configuration can be obtained quickly and easily. In fact, once the two surfaces are detached, when breaking and removing the two links 23, the base surface is placed between the horizontal rows of last and second last projections of the lateral surface, while the latter is folded and closed on itself. same, so that the base surface is automatically restricted in said position, when the two end portions of the side surface are joined together, by means of the fast-acting catching means, as described above, or By other means.

The advantages that relate to efficiency during use and the savings in transportation and storage costs of the container according to the invention appear clearly from what has just been described above. Obviously, the above advantages will remain valid also making changes or modifications to what has been described above; for example, changing the shape, like that of the modality of figure 4, or different forms that could be: a prismatic shape, with flared or parallel sides, made by gathering flat surfaces or directly by molding, although, in the latter case, the advantages related to the logistics of the container are lost. Other changes may relate, for example, to the number and arrangement of the cavities and the accommodations on the side surface of the container. Actually, obviously, they can cover the outer side of the container. Even the shape of the cavities and the housings may be different from the truncated cone shape of the embodiments described above. Depending on the type and size of the plants, the dimensions of the containers may also vary, since their lateral surface may be composed by connecting a series of two or more surfaces having a flat development. The base surface can be obtained by a separate molding process, or by separately adding a plastic sheet. These modifications and others can be carried out; but they will be within the scope of protection of the following claims.

Claims (12)

1. - Container of plastic material or of a similar semirigid material, for planting plants or flowers, comprising a lateral surface and a base surface; characterized in that the lateral surface provides cavities and housings, suitable to promote the correct growth of the roots of the contained plant.

2. - Container (10) for planting plants or flowers, according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the lateral surface (11, 11 ') is composed of one or more flat surfaces, connected together in series; the end portions (15, 16) of said surface, or of the series of surfaces, are joined together by closing, clamping, bonding, joining or different means.

3. - Container (10) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that in said cavities and housings of the side surface of the container there are projections (13) directed both to the outside and to the inside.

4. - Container (10) according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the projections (13) have a truncated cone shape.

5. - Container (10) according to the previous claim, characterized in that at least some of the outwardly directed projections (13 ') provide openings (14) on their end surfaces.

6. - Container (10) according to claim 2 or following, characterized in that the end portions (15, 16) of said surface, or of the series of surfaces, which form the side surface of the container, are joined together by means of quick fastening means.

7. - Vessel (10) according to the previous claim, characterized in that the rapid clamping means are, advantageously, rapid-action capturing elements (18, 19), integral in the projections (13, 13 '), located in correspondence with the end portions (15, 16) of said surface or series of surfaces (11, 11 ') ·

8. - Flat development of a container, made of plastic material or similar semi-rigid material, for planting plants or flowers, characterized in that it comprises at least a first flat surface (11), suitable to be the side surface of the container; and at least a second flat surface (12), suitable to be the base surface of the container.

9. - Flat development according to the previous claim, further characterized in that the first flat surface (11, 11 ') provides cavities and housings; the end portions opposing each other can be joined by means of closing, flanging, adhesion, joining or different means.

10. Flat development according to the previous claim, characterized in that at least some of the cavities and some of the housings provide openings (14).

11. - Flat development according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that the first flat surface (11, 11 ') comprises rapid fastening means, located in correspondence in their end portions (15, 16, 15', 16 ').

12. Flat development according to claim 8 or more, characterized in that it is produced by means of a single phase of injection molding.