Collapsible plastic container

Abstract

A collapsible container has end and side wall panels, and a gate that are assembled onto a pallet base and supported by flanges extending up from a planer base. Either the side or the end walls each have a hinge structure between panels of the walls. The hinge structure permits inward folding of the hinged panels so that they can lay flat, one upon the other, in a folded or collapsed position with the non-hinged panels also laying flat. The end and side walls can be removed from their respective bases and multiple ones of the folded wall configurations can fit within an assembled container. As a result, substantially the entire volume of the assembled container can be filled with the folded wall configurations of other containers for return shipment. This enables a highly efficient return shipment ratio of the containers.

1 . A collapsible plastic container comprising:
 a rectangular pallet base;   a pair of opposed sectional end walls and a pair of opposed side walls upstanding from said pallet base, said end walls and said side walls being hingedly connected at the corners thereof to form a container having an open top when the walls are erected on the pallet base but which fold into a compact rectangular configuration when removed from the pallet base whereby a plurality of sets of folded hinged walls are able to be incorporated within an erected container constructed from the pallet base and a set of hinged walls, each sectional wall including a pair of end panels hingedly connected at a center of the end wall; and   a sleeve mounted at the top and bottom of the hinged connection of each pair of end panels which permit the end panels to be folded inwardly when the walls are collapsed but which prevent the panels from being folded outward when the walls are in an erected position forming a container.   
     
     
         2 . The collapsible plastic container according to  claim 1  which further comprises a gate formed at a gate opening in an upper portion of one of the side walls which is hingedly connected at its bottom edge to the side wall so that the gate may be pivoted to open and closed positions, said gate being hinged to the side wall and positioned to close the gate opening while still permitting rotation of the side wall at the corner where the side wall meets the end walls when the walls are collapsed into a folded configuration.