(54) CONTAINER (71) We. W.O. ALDERSON LIMITED ofWorsall, Nr. Yarm, Cleveland, TS15 9PT; aBritish Company do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:This invention relates to a container, and in particular to a collapsible container incorporating a pallet or other load-bearing platform.
Materials such as earthenware pipes, or other cylindrical objects, when carried on a pallet have to be stacked in a tapering heap, to retain stability, or alternatively require to be secured very tightly. If it were possible to use the floor space or waggon space occupied by the pallet to store or carry a larger quantity of such articles, this would be advantageous, and it is one object of this invention to provide a container which will enable this to be achieved.
According to the invention, a container comprises a load bearing platform, a single pair of opposed skeletal side walls hinged to the platform, and an arm hingedly attached to the upper edge of each side wall for respective engagement with the arm on the other side wall for retaining the side walls in an erect condition, the arms each being foldable into the plane of the respective side wall, and the side walls being foldable to lie flat one over the other upon the platform.
The load bearing platform may comprise an open framework consisting of four longitudinal members of rectangular hollow section, with cross members welded between them. Two feet are attached to each longitudinal members. These feet may be generallyU-shaped brackets positioned to locate with other containers when they are stacked up in a folded condition, and also to act as a guide for the forks of a forklift.
The sidewalls may comprise circular section and cross members, which also form the hinges, with struts between them to provide a grilled construction.
The side walls may be hinged to the load-bearing platform by U-sectioned stirrups secured to the corresponding edges of the platform the end bars of the walls passing through the stirrups. At each inner hinge location a U-shaped bracket may be provided on the edge of the side wall, straddling the respective stirrup.
The arms may each consist of a tubular end member., hingedly attached to the top cross member of the side wall, with two rods extending perpendicularly to the end member to meet when swung into a horizontal position transversely of the errected container, and carry interconnectable parts of a quick release mechanism preferably on their ends.
The quick release mechanism preferably consists of a flat bar welded across one pair of rods forming an arm, and on the other pair a further flat bar and an angle bar welded to the rods with a space between them to receive the flat bar on the first pair.
This catch is engaged by forming an apex with the arm, then lowering them until they support each other in a horizontal position.
Since forming this apex involves bringing the side walls closer together at the top it follows that once loaded with a cargo exerting an outward force on the side walls this top catch can not be lifted and disengaged, thereby eliminating any risk of accidental disengagement whilst loaded.
After the cargo has been unloaded the catch is simply disengaged by lifting and folding back through 270 degrees the side walls then being lowered flat onto the base.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:Figure 1 is a perspective view of a container according to the invention, in its errected state;Figure 2 is a view of the quick release mechanism from the underside whilst in the engaged position;Figure 3 is a side elevation of the container when folded; andFigure 4 is a side elevation showing the operation of the quick release mechanism.
A container, as shown in Figure 1, comprises an open pallet base 1. The base 1 is supported by eight feet 2, which are Ushaped brackets secured to the underside of the base 1, and arranged in two aligned groups of four adjacent opposed sides of the base.
These aligned groups enable the forks 3 of a fork lift truck to be slotted through the feet, for manipulation of the container. An inverted J shaped stirrup is attached to each end of the longitudinal base members. The upper parts of the stirrups form a series of aligned loops and the lower parts close the ends of the hollow base members.
A lower end bar 5 of an open work grille side wall is received through the loops on each opposed side. A stirrup 13 of steel rod is looped over each of the two inner stirrups 4, which engage against the J section stirrup when the side walls are vertical and prevent an empty erected container collapsing in the form of a parallelogram. The lower end bar 5 is connected to a corresponding upper end bar 7 by a plurality of tubular slats 8, which with the end bars 5 and 7 define the side wall grille 6.
Each side wall 6 is freely pivotable in the loops provided by stirrups 4. Between the middlemost pair of slats 8 a sleeve 9 is carried on each upper end bar 7. Each sleeve 9 carries two spaced apart slats 10.
Each pair of spaced apart slats 10 carries a cross-bar 11, and one (the more narrowly spaced) carries a second, bar 12 nearer the end of the arm.
The manner in which the two arm parts constituted by slats 10 and cross-bar 11 are joined together to maintain the container in its erected state is shown in Figure 2. The cross-bar 12 on the more narrowly spaced pair of slats 10 is of angled cross-section, and is hooked over the cross-bar 11 of the wider pair.
Figure 3 shows the container with the sides folded flat, with one side folded on top of the other, and the respective connectedarm parts folded back, to be in the same plane as the respective sides.
In use, the side walls 6 are held vertically while e.g. pipes are stacked in a rectangularsectioned stack between them. When thestack is complete, the container can then betransported by forklift and lorry from themanufacturing or storage point to the delivery point.
At the latter point, the pipes are unloaded, and the container can then be returned as a compact flat package as inFigure 3 with the side walls and arm parts folded flat against the platform.
The provision of a cubic package for pipes means that these packages can, using the invention, be handled in the convenient ways associated with box shaped articles with a pallet structure of light weight construction.
The folded container may be stacked up to ten high to take up the same floor space as one loaded container.
WHAT WE CLAIM IS:1. A container comprising a load bearing platform, a single pair of opposed skeletal side walls hinged to the platform, and an arm hingedly attached to the upper edge of each side wall for respective engagement with the arm on the other side wall for retaining the side walls in an erect condition, the arms each being foldable into the plane of the respective side wall, and the side walls being foldable to lie flat one over the other upon the platform.
2. A container according to Claim 1 wherein the platform has feet which comprise generally U-shaped brackets positioned to form guides for the forks of the fork lift.
3. A container according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein the side wall members are of a grille construction comprising spaced apart end bars connected by struts or slats.
4. A container according to Claim 3 wherein the side wall members are hinged to the platform by U or J sectioned stirrups secured to the corresponding edges of the platform, the end bars of the side wall members passing through the stirrups.
5. A container according to claim 4 wherein a stirrup attached to the side walls is looped over each of the U or J sectioned stirrups when the side walls are vertical to prevent an empty erected container from collapsing.
6. A container according to claim 3 or 4 wherein the arms are each mounted on a sleeve about an end bar of a respective side wall member and comprise slats interlockable at their free end regions.
7. A container according to claim 4 wherein two transverse latch receptors are spaced apart at the end region of one arm by
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