Container

Claim 1

A cheese-box including a plurality of lightweight sidewall members moulded from thermoplastic material, joined to each other along each vertical edge thereof by integral corner forming means which can be united with corresponding integral corner forming means on an adjoining sidewall member to form a tubular assembly with top and bottom openings; upper and lower end pieces mounted on said assembly to close said top and bottom openings respectively, a follower plate located within said tubular assembly and extending generally in a plane parallel with said upper and lower end pieces; resilient means disposed between said upper end piece and said follower plate and arranged to urge said follower plate to exert pressure on material packaged in said container; each of said sidewall members including a thin imperforate planar section forming one of the interior surfaces of the container and having integral generally vertically directed stiffening ribs extending along the outside thereof; a thin integral outer skin provided on said stiffening ribs defining a series of generally vertically directed flow passages between said thin imperforate planar section and said outer skin; a plurality of access openings provided in said outer skin arranged to allow outside cooling air to enter each of said flow passages; outlet openings provided in said end pieces, said outlet openings being arranged to allow air to flow through said flow passageways and to exit through said outlet openings; said lower end pieces each including a plurality of pillars which are adapted to space apart cheese boxes stacked one atop the other; said upper end pieces including locating means which are adapted to locate the pillars of another cheese box stacked thereon; the cheese box being constructed in such a manner that the sidewall members, upper and lower end pieces, resilient means and follower plate may be readily disassembled without use of tools into individual components after use, in order to allow individual cleaning thereof.