Collapsible container

Claim 1

A collapsible containing device for containing both liquid and solid cargoes, said device comprising: a flexible component as the primary containing means which is in the form of a bag or sleeve attached at its upper and lower extremities to the upper and lower plates of a collapsible supporting frame; a collapsible supporting frame comprising an upper rigid plate having an opening therein with closure means for filling and emptying the containing device and a lower rigid plate, said plates are attached to each other by collapsible leg members fixedly secured along the perimeter of each of said plates by hinge means which enable said leg members to have an open or extended position and a closed position, wherein said leg members in the open or extended position are perpendicular to said plates and are sufficiently long to fixedly support the upper plate in elevated relation above the lower plate to enable the outer sides of said flexible component to be substantially vertical and taut when the device is filled with cargo, and wherein in the closed or collapsed position the leg members reduce in length so that the upper and lower plates become substantially adjacent to one another and wherein the flexible component collapses toward the three-dimensional center of the containing device; said containing device characterized as having sufficient strength and endurance to be used in both manual and mechanized transporting systems and where said device efficiently utilizes storage and carrier space when full with cargo and is capable of collapsing when empty to a compact configuration which is significantly smaller in volumetric size than its open configuration.