Plastic grain scoop

Claim 1

A grain scoop comprising a molded plastic body including an elongated socket portion open at its rearward end, and a scoop portion integral with said socket portion and extending laterally outwardly and forwardly therefrom, said socket portion being of closed annular configuration and having a predetermined straight direction of longitudinal extent, an elongated generally straight handle having a forward end portion fixed within the socket portion of said molded plastic body and extending rearwardly therefrom in the direction of the longitudinal extent of said socket portion, said scoop portion including scoop defining peripheral edges having rearward sections extending outwardly from opposite sides of said socket portion at positions near the forward end thereof and curving outwardly and forwardly and forward sections extending forwardly from the rearward sections in slightly diverging relation with respect to one another, said peripheral edges being disposed generally in a single plane which intersects with the elongated extent of said socket portion at an acute angle, said scoop portion providing a generally straight forward edge extending between the forward ends of said peripheral edges so as to define therewith and with the intervening socket portion the entire periphery of said scoop portion, said scoop portion providing a central longitudinal corrugation of inverted U-shaped cross-sectional configuration having a rearward section extending downwardly and forwardly from the upper forward section of said socket portion with respect to the direction of longitudinal extent of said socket portion and a forward section extending upwardly and forwardly with respect to the downward and forward extent of said rearward section and along a generally straight path which merges rearwardly with a smooth curving transition with said rearward section, said scoop portion including bottom wall portions extending rearwardly from said forward edge and outwardly from opposite sides of said central corrugation and then upwardly to said peripheral edges, each of said bottom wall portions having an outer longitudinal corrugation formed therein of inverted U-shaped cross-sectional configuration in generally spaced side-by-side relation to said central corrugation, said bottom wall portions including forward sections disposed generally in a plane extending at an acute angle with respect to the plane of said peripheral edges and generally concave rearward sections bulging downwardly from the rearward sections of said peripheral edges and from opposite sides of the rearward section of said central corrugation and the forward section of said socket portion, the angle of the plane of the forward sections of said bottom wall portions with respect to the direction of longitudinal extent of said socket portion and the rearwardly extending handle providing a lift angle when the forward sections of the bottom wall portions are in a horizontal position like that of a metal grain scoop, the angle of the plane of the peripheral edges with respect to the plane of the forward sections of said bottom wall portion and the extent of the bulging downward concavity of the rearward sections of the bottom wall portions providing a grain holding capacity like that of a metal grain scoop, and strengthening ribs extending within the U-shaped cross-sectional configuration of said central corrugation and between the lower forward section of said socket portion and within the adjacent concave rearward sections of said bottom wall portions.