AU2019100636B4

AU2019100636B4 - Wide-body bulk cargo shipping container and shipping vehicle

Info

Publication number: AU2019100636B4
Application number: AU2019100636A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Zhongbo Li; Haipeng Liu; Yanping Luo; Junmin SAN; Lei Tian; Shaoguang ZHANG; Shuguang Zhang
Original assignee: CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co Ltd; Dalian Research and Development Center of CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co Ltd
Current assignee: CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co Ltd; Dalian Research and Development Center of CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-06-03
Filing date: 2019-06-12
Publication date: 2019-12-05
Anticipated expiration: 2025-06-02
Also published as: WO2017206939A1; AU2017274125A1; EA034192B1; NZ738272A; CN105883232A; AU2019100636A4; EA201792533A1

Abstract

A wide-body bulk cargo transport container and a transport vehicle are provided according to the present application. The wide-body bulk cargo transport container includes a front end wall, a rear end wall, a left side wall and a right side wall, a roof provided with a 5 loading port cover, a bottom frame, multiple top corner pieces and multiple bottom corner pieces. A floor of the bottom frame has an inverted "V"-shaped cross section; the left side wall and the right side wall are of a wide-body structure with a width exceeding outer sides of the top corner pieces and the bottom corner pieces and are each provided with a bottom side door for unloading cargo wherein the plurality of top corner pieces and the plurality of bottom 0 corner pieces are located at positions which define a standard container, and the width between the left side wall and the right side wall is larger than a width of the standard container but less than a road limit width, wherein the left side wall and the right side wall are symmetric in a left-right direction, and each comprises an upper inclined portion connected to the roof, a lower inclined portion connected to the bottom frame, a vertical side portion, a 5 front sealing portion connected to the front end wall and a rear sealing portion connected to the rear end wall. The side walls of the container adopt the wide-body structure, so that the space within the limit is effectively utilized, the volume can be increased by 5% to 20%, the loading capacity of the transport container is improved, the vehicle transport capacity is fully utilized, and the comprehensive benefit is high. Moreover, the transport container adopts an 0 inclined bottom frame form and a bottom side wall unloading means, which can realize automatic cargo unloading without requiring any equipment and with no residue. Thus, not only the efficiency is improved but also the cost is reduced.

Description

WIDE-BODYBULK CARGO SHIPPING CONTAINER AND SHIPPING VEHICLE [0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to Chinese Patent Application No.

201610389287.0 titled WIDE-BODY BULK CARGO TRANSPORT CONTAINER AND

TRANSPORT VEHICLE, filed with the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office on June 03, 2016, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0001A] This application is a divisional application of Australian Patent Application No. 2017274125, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD [0002] The present application relates to the technical field of containers, in particular to a container for transporting dry bulk cargo such as grain. The present application further relates to a transport vehicle provided with the container.

BACKGROUND [0003] Containerized transport is a trend of logistics development in the world. Also, in the field of transport of grain and other dry bulk cargoes, the mode of bulk loading and transporting is very popular, and the transport mode combining the containerized bulk transport, that is, the containerized bulk transport has become an energy saving, low cost, low 20 loss, cost-effective mode of transport.

[0004] Most of the conventional bulk cargo transport containers are standard 20-foot dry bulk cargo containers (as in Figure 1), whose dimensions comply with the standard external dimensions according to ISO 668 Series 1 freight Container-Classification, dimensions and ratings, that is, the maximum external dimensions of the container are limited to the range of 25 6058mm x 2438mm x 2591mm (length x width x height) enclosed by outer sides of top corner pieces 2' and bottom corner pieces 8', and the volume is 31.9m³. This kind of container has cargo loaded from the top and unloaded from the end. When unloading the cargo, a dump vehicle or dedicated unloading equipment is utilized to lift one end of the container and tilt the container toward the door, so as to unload the cargo by gravity or manually.

[0005] The conventional dry bulk cargo container can meet the requirements of bulk

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2019100636 12 Jun 2019 loading and unloading of dry bulk cargoes, and also can meet the requirements of containerized transport, however, the conventional container has certain deficiencies in use.

[0006] Firstly, the conventional container has a small capacity, a poor loading capacity, resulting in a waste of transport capacity. Stringent requirements are imposed on external 5 dimensions of a TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit), in which the standard width is 2438mm.

However, the outline dimension limit width of China's road vehicles is 2550mm, and the limit width of a railway rolling stock can reach 3200mm. The TEU, since being constrained by the width, has a poor utilization rate to the limit. Thus, with the same length and height, the TEU has a small volume and a poor cargo loading capacity as compared with the same type of 0 railway and road vehicles. Moreover, due to the small volume, in loading and transporting grain or other bulk cargoes, the transport vehicle cannot be fully loaded, resulting in a waste of transport capacity.

[0007] Secondly, unloading requires a special vehicle or an unloading equipment, or is performed manually, which cannot perform dumping itself. Thus, the unloading has a low 5 efficiency and a high cost.

[0008] Therefore, a technical issue to be addressed by the person skilled in the art is to improve the cargo loading and unloading capacity of bulk cargo transport containers.

[0008A] Reference to any prior art in the specification is not an acknowledgment or suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction 20 or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be understood, regarded as relevant, and/or combined with other pieces of prior art by a skilled person in the art.

SUMMARY [0009] The present application discloses a wide-body bulk cargo transport container. The 25 side walls of the container are wide-body structures, such that the space within the standard is effectively utilized, and the volume can be increased by 5% to 20%. Thus, the loading capacity of the transport container is improved, and the vehicle transport capacity is fully utilized, thereby the comprehensive benefit is high. Moreover, the transport container includes an inclined bottom frame from and a bottom side door unloading means, which can realize 30 automatic cargo unloading without requiring any equipment and with no residue, which not

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2019100636 12 Jun 2019 only improves the efficiency but also reduces the cost.

[0010] The present application also disclsoes a transport vehicle provided with the container.

[0011] According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wide-body bulk cargo transport container comprisng: a front end wall, a rear end wall, a left side wall, a right side wall, a roof provided with a loading port cover, a bottom frame, a plurality of top corner pieces and a plurality of bottom corner pieces, wherein a floor of the bottom frame has an inverted V-shaped cross section; the left side wall and the right side wall are of a wide-body structure with a width exceeding outer sides of the top corner pieces and the bottom comer pieces and are each provided with a bottom side door for unloading cargo, wherein the plurality of top corner pieces and the plurality of bottom comer pieces are located at positions which define a standard container, and the width between the left side wall and the right side wall is larger than a width of the standard container but less than a road limit width, wherein the left side wall and the right side wall are symmetric in a left-right direction, and each comprises an upper inclined portion connected to the roof, a lower inclined portion connected to the bottom frame, a vertical side portion, a front sealing portion connected to the front end wall and a rear sealing portion connected to the rear end wall.

[0012] Preferably, the multiple top comer pieces and the multiple bottom corner pieces are located at positions which defines a standard container, and the width between the left side 20 wall and the right side wall is larger than the width of the standard container but less than a road limit width.

[0013] Preferably, the left side wall and the right side wall are symmetric in a left-right direction, and each include an upper inclined portion connected to the roof, a lower inclined portion connected to the bottom frame, a vertical side portion, a front sealing portion 25 connected to the front end wall, and a rear sealing portion connected to the rear end wall.

[0014] Preferably, the bottom side door of the left side wall and the bottom side door of the right side wall are respectively arranged on the lower inclined portion of the left side wall and lower inclined portion of the right side wall.

[0015] Preferably, the bottom side door is rotatably connected to the lower inclined portion 30 at an upper edge of a door opening and is provided with a locking mechanism for locking or

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2019100636 12 Jun 2019 opening the door from a lower edge of the door opening.

[0016] Preferably, the number of the bottom side door is two to four, and the bottom side doors are arranged side by side in a longitudinal direction of the container.

[0017] Preferably, a ridge angle of the floor of the bottom frame ranges from 130 degrees to 5 165 degrees.

[0018] Preferably, the front end wall, the rear end wall, the left side wall and the right side wall, the roof and the bottom frame form a closed container.

[0019] In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transport vehicle comprising: a body with a head, and a container arranged on the body, wherein the container 0 is the wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to any one of the above aspects.

[0020] Preferably, the transport vehicle is a railway transport vehicle or a freight transport vehicle.

[0021] In view of the issues that conventional bulk containers are limited in volume due to the standard external dimensions, inadequate in the railway and road transport limit 5 utilization, and require special vehicles or equipment to unload cargo, the wide-body bulk cargo transport container is proposed according to the present application, the container, on the premise that its corner piece positions meet the requirements for a standard container and it is applicable to conventional transport vehicles and conventional container spreaders, increases the width of the container body, takes full advantage of the road limit, increases the 20 volume and improves the loading capacity. Moreover, the container has the bottom frame which is embodied as the inclined floor, and is additionally provided with the bottom side doors, can unload the cargo naturally by its self-gravity without requiring to be removed from the vehicle or requiring other special equipment, thereby, the unloading efficiency can be improved significantly and the cost of use can be reduced significantly.

[0022] The transport vehicle according to the present application is provided with the wide-body bulk cargo transport container, and since the wide-body bulk cargo transport container has the above technical effects, the transport vehicle provided with the wide-body bulk cargo transport container should also have the same technical effects.

[0022A] As used herein, except where the context requires otherwise, the term comprise 30 and variations of the term, such as comprising, comprises and comprised, are not -4 1002599844

2019100636 12 Jun 2019 intended to exclude further additives, components, integers or steps.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0023] Figure 1 is a schematic view showing the structure of a standard bulk cargo transport 5 container in the conventional technology;

[0024] Figure 2 is a schematic view showing the structure of an embodiment of a wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to the present application;

[0025] Figure 3 is a schematic view showing the structure of a bottom frame in Figure 2;

[0026] Figure 4 is a schematic view showing the structure of a right side wall in Figure 2;

[0027] Figure 5 is a view of Figure 4 viewed from direction A; and [0028] Figure 6 is a schematic view showing the wide-body bulk cargo transport container in Figure 2 being unloaded on a transport vehicle without being removed from the vehicle.

[0029] Reference Numerals in Figure 1:
Γ end door,	2' top comer piece,	3' roof,
5 4' loading port cover,	5' side wall,	6' end wall,
7' bottom frame,	8' bottom corner piece.
[0030] Reference Numerals in Figures 2 to 6:
1. front end wall,	2. rear end wall,	3. left side wall,
4. right side wall,	5. roof,	6. bottom frame,
20 7. loading port cover,	8. top corner piece,	9.bottom comer piece,
10. bottom side door,
4-1. upper inclined portion,	4-2. lower inclined portion,	4-3. side portion,
4-4. front sealing portion,	4-5. rear sealing portion.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0031] An aspect of the present application is to increase the volume so as to improve the loading capacity of a transport container by widening side walls of the container, and to utilize an inclined bottom frame form and a bottom side door unloading means to realize automatic

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2019100636 12 Jun 2019 cargo unloading, improve the unloading efficiency, and reduce the usage cost.

[0032] In order to enable the person skilled in the art to better understand the solutions of the present application, the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the drawings and embodiments.

[0033] Referring to Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5, Figure 2 is a schematic view showing the structure of an embodiment of a wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to the present application; Figure 3 is a schematic view showing the structure of a bottom frame in Figure 2; Figure 4 is a schematic view showing the structure of a right side wall in Figure 2; and Figure 5 is view of Figure 4 viewed from a direction A.

[0034] In a specific embodiment, the wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to the present application is a closed container mainly including a front end wall 1, a rear end wall 2, a left side wall 3, a right side wall 4, a roof 5 and a bottom frame 6, which is rainproof and has a leak tightness. The roof 5 of the container is provided with a loading port cover 7, which facilitates loading dry bulk cargo such as grain from the top of the container, and is provided with members such as multiple top corner pieces 8 and multiple bottom comer pieces 9. The multiple top comer pieces 8 and the multiple bottom corner pieces 9 are located at positions which define a TEU, and the eight corner members enclose a space of 6058mmx2438mm><2591mm (length x width x height). Therefore, the container is applicable to not only conventional transport vehicles but also conventional container spreaders.

[0035] The left side wall 3 and the right side wall 4 form a wide-body structure with a width exceeding outer sides of the top corner pieces 8 and the bottom comer pieces 9, and the width between the left side wall 3 and the right side wall 4 is larger than the width 2438mm of a TEU but less than a road limit width. If the container is for road vehicles, the width of the container should be less than the outline dimension limit width 2550mm, and if the container is for railway rolling stocks, the width of the container should be less than the limit width of 3200mm.

[0036] Specifically, the left side wall 3 and the right side wall 4 are symmetric in a left-right direction. Taking the right side wall 4 as an example, it includes an upper inclined portion 4-1 connected to the roof 5, a lower inclined portion 4-2 connected to the bottom frame 6, a 30 vertical side portion 4-3, a front sealing portion 4-4 connected to the front end wall 1, and a rear sealing portion 4-5 connected to the rear end wall 2.

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2019100636 12 Jun 2019 [0037] Of course, the left side wall 3 and the right side wall 4 can be widened by a variety of structures. The top of the widened portion may not be inclined but flush with the roof 5, and only the bottom of the widened portion is designed to be inclined. Alternatively, the bottom of the widened portion may not be inclined but flush with the bottom frame 6, and only the top of the widened portion is designed to be inclined; alternatively, the top and the bottom of the widened portion are flush with the roof 5 and the bottom frame 6 respectively; alternatively, the top and the bottom of the widened portion are designed in arc shapes, etc..

[0038] A floor of the bottom frame 6 has an inverted V-shaped cross section, which is inclined downwards to two sides from the middle respectively. The left side wall 3 and the 0 right side wall 4 are respectively provided with a bottom side door for unloading the cargo at the lower inclined portions thereof. During the unloading process, the floor plays the role of guiding cargo flow, and under the action of self-gravity, the cargo will naturally flow to bottom side doors 10 at the two sides.

[0039] It can be understood that, if a ridge angle of the floor of the bottom frame 6 is larger, the height of the floor is lower, and the volume in the container occupied by the floor due to the ridge of the floor will be smaller according to the volume calculation formula, which facilitates increasing the capacity of the container and increasing the cargo transporting capacity, in another aspect, due to the small floor height, the slope of the bevel on each of the two sides will be gentle, and the material flowing speed will be relatively low in unloading, A) which will affect the unloading efficiency to a certain extent. Conversely, if the ridge angle of the floor of the bottom frame 6 is smaller, the height of the floor is greater, and the volume in the container occupied by the floor is larger, which is not conducive to increase the capacity of the container and improve the cargo transporting capacity, in another aspect, due to the higher floor height, the slope of the bevel on each of the two sides will be more steep, the 25 material flowing speed will be relatively high in the unloading process, which facilitates the improvement of unloading efficiency.

[0040] In order to balance the container capacity and unloading efficiency, it is reasonable to design the ridge angle as 130 degrees to 165 degrees, especially in the case that the ridge angle is 120 degrees, it can not only ensure that the container has a larger capacity, but also 30 ensure that the container can be unloaded with a higher efficiency, thereby meeting the practical use requirements.

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2019100636 12 Jun 2019 [0041] The number of the bottom side doors 10 on each side is two, and the two bottom side doors 10 are arranged side by side in a longitudinal direction of the container, and are each rotatably connected to the lower inclined portion at an upper edge of a corresponding door opening, and are each further provided with a locking mechanism to be closed or opened 5 from a lower edge of the corresponding door opening. In this way, when the bottom door 10 is unlocked, it will naturally be in a drooping vertical state under the force of gravity so that the door can be opened without the aid of an external force, and can be further expanded outwardly under the effect of the extrusion force of the material flow, and the door opening is enlarged, so that the material flows out of the container with a higher speed and flow rate, and 0 the unloading is completed in a shortest possible period.

[0042] It can be understood that, depending on the length of the container or the specific structures of the bottom side doors, the number of the bottom side doors 10 can also be one, or three, four or even more, which can be determined according to the practical requirements.

[0043] Reference is made to Figure 6, which is a schematic view showing the wide-body 5 bulk cargo transport container in Figure 2 being unloaded on a transport vehicle without being removed from the transport vehicle.

[0044] As shown in the figure, this wide-body bulk cargo transport container adopts the same corner members position as those of the standard container, and can be used with conventional container transport vehicles and conventional container spreaders. Each of the 20 side walls is embodied as an ultra-wide structure but does not exceed width requirement imposed by the road limit, and the width thereof can be adjusted according to the road limit, to maximize the volume of the container in the range permitted by the limit. Further, this wide-body bulk cargo transport container adopts the bottom frame structure with the inclined floor and the bottom side door structure, which can be unloaded without being removed from 25 the transport vehicle, and by simply opening the door, the cargo may just be unloaded automatically without residue, and no special unloading equipment is required, which significantly improves the unloading efficiency and reduces operating costs.

[0045] The above embodiments are only the preferred solutions of the present application, and the present application is not particularly limited thereto. On this basis, targeted 30 adjustments may be made according to practical requirements to obtain different embodiments. For example, the top comer pieces 8 and the bottom comer pieces 9 are located

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2019100636 12 Jun 2019 at positions same with different types of standard containers, or the bottom side door 10 is opened by being turned downwards, and so on. Since there are many ways that we can implement this, those ways will not be illustrated one by one here.

[0046] In addition to the above wide-body bulk cargo transport container, a transport vehicle is further provided according to the present application, which may be a railroad transport vehicle or a freight transport vehicle, including: a body with a head; and a container provided on the body. Specifically, the container is the above wide-body bulk cargo transport container, reference may be made to the conventional technology for the rest of the structure, which may not be described herein.

[0047] The wide-body bulk cargo transport container and the transport vehicle according to the present application are described in detail hereinbefore. The principle and the embodiments of the present application are illustrated herein by specific examples. The above description of examples is only intended to help the understanding of the core concept of the present application. It should be noted that, for the person skilled in the art, a few of modifications and improvements may be made to the present application without departing from the principle of the present application, and these modifications and improvements are also deemed to fall into the scope of protection of the present application defined by the claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A wide-body bulk cargo transport container, comprising:

a front end wall,

5 a rear end wall, a left side wall, a right side wall, a roof provided with a loading port cover, a bottom frame,

0 a plurality of top comer pieces, and a plurality of bottom comer pieces, wherein a floor of the bottom frame has an inverted V-shaped cross section, the left side wall and the right side wall are of a wide-body structure with a width exceeding outer sides of the top corner pieces and the bottom corner pieces and are each provided with a 5 bottom side door for unloading cargo, wherein the plurality of top corner pieces and the plurality of bottom corner pieces are located at positions which define a standard container, and the width between the left side wall and the right side wall is larger than a width of the standard container but less than a road limit width,

20 wherein the left side wall and the right side wall are symmetric in a left-right direction, and each comprises an upper inclined portion connected to the roof, a lower inclined portion connected to the bottom frame, a vertical side portion, a front sealing portion connected to the front end wall and a rear sealing portion connected to the rear end wall.

25

2. The wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to claim 1, wherein the bottom side door of the left side wall and the bottom side door of the right side wall are respectively arranged on the lower inclined portion of the left side wall and lower inclined portion of the right side wall.

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2019100636 23 Jul 2019

3. The wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to claim 2, wherein the bottom side door is rotatably connected to the lower inclined portion at an upper edge of a door opening and is provided with a locking mechanism for locking or opening the door from a lower edge of the door opening.

4. The wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a ridge angle of the floor of the bottom frame ranges from 130 degrees to 165 degrees.

0

5. The wide-body bulk cargo transport container according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the front end wall, the rear end wall, the left side wall and the right side wall, the roof and the bottom frame form a closed container.