AU695942B2 - High capacity freight container - Google Patents

Description

11/000 i1 Regulation 3,2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: HIGH CAPACITY FREIGHT CONTAINER Applicant: MARTIN CLIVE-SMITH e The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: 1 1A HIGH CAPACITY FREIGHT CONTAINER This invention relates to freight containers. In the field of freight containers or shipping containers as they are also referred to, there is always a demand to squeeze more cargo into each container. Various series of freight or shipping containers have been standardized over the years such that their overall dimensions are the same, and handling devices known as corner fittings fixed at the extreme 8 corners of a rectangular box shaped container define the maximum width, height and length of the container. Given these dimens;.ns, the size of stowage cells on ships have been fixed to accommodate the containers as close together as is practical, and where there are no cells and containers are placed side by side on deck of a ship or in a container depot, these are placed side by side closely so as not to waste space.

A shipping container typically has a roof, base, front end wall, doors at the rear, and side walls. The side walls are these days made from steel sheet corrugated into vertical members or sections, although in the past there were many container walls comprising flat sheets of aluminium, steel or other cladding supported on vertical members running from roof to base. The width of these wall constructions subtracted from the overall width of Lhe container thus set the internal cargo width of the container. Pallets onto which cargo is placed for handling and loading into containers are today manufactured to fit this internal width almost exactly, typically being 2 pallets to one internal width of the container.

However in recent times it has been desired to increase the internal width of the oeeeo containers to accommodate a larger size of cargo pallet, yet maintain structural ability of the walls and still allow containers to be closely stowed beside one another. Solutions to this problem have been devised and described in 30 European patent application 0206542 by providing smaller and thinner door end frame members, and thin side wall structures. The problem with the smaller frame members is that when the doors of the container are open for RA~ 0

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2 cargo loading, the frame is very flexible and needs special care. Indeed if there is another container stacked upon the smaller framed container, only one door may be opened to prevent its structural collapse. Further, the thinner walls necessitate specially shaped corrugations which have to be used to maintain structural strength leading to extra weight of wall, and are expensive to repair and manufacture.

There is also the problem of internal length. It is desirable to increase the internal length of the container too. This has been achieved in the past by making the door end frame thin as above, and setting back the position of the doors from the more conventionally accepted position. In moving the door back, problems of sealing the doors against water ingress to the flexible door end frames has become a serious problem.

It is believed that if the above problems could be overcome, more shipping lines would be interested in buying the higher cubic capacity containers. The present invention seeks to overcome the problems of special wall structures, door end frame flexibility arid watertighteness.

According to the present invention there is provided a freight container comprising a floor, side walls arranged to extend in a vertical direction relative to the floor, ISO corner fittings located at each corner of the container with :outermost side surfaces of the corner fittings defining the outermost extremities or plan profile of the container, side wall members arranged to extend in a vertical direction and to extend outwardly beyond the plan profile of the container, and a recess between each pair of vertical members of one wall S"being arranged to lie opposite a vertical member of an opposite wall so that when two or more said containers are stowed side by side and substantially in line with each other, the vertical members of the container viewed in plan view 30 align with and are receivable within the recesses between vertical members of a second freight container.

A4 4 In one preferred embodiment of the present invention a container is provided with increased door end frame rigidity by one of two corner door posts being smaller than the other in cross-sectional dimension.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a typical freight container currently in use; Figure 2 shows a diagrammatic plan section with enlarged detail of a typical known freight container; Figure 3 shows a diagrammatic plan section with enlarged detail of the present freight container in accordance with the present invention; Figure 4 shows an end elevational view of one freight container stacked upon another similar freight container; Figure 5 shows a diagrammatic plan view of several containers in accordance with the present invention placed side by side; Figure 6A, 6B and 6C show partial perspective views, various means by which vertical members which form part of the side or end structure of the container in accordance with the present invention are capped; Figure 7 shows an elevational view of an alternative vertical member; Figure 8 shows a partial plan section taken through a door hinge of a container of the present invention; Figure 9A, 9B and 9C show partial perspective views each of a corner 25 fitting illustrating one particular construction thereof to ensure a seal surface for a gasket joint where a gasket closes the gap between door and adjacent .:eo°i S"member; and Figure 10 shows a partial plan view of the corner of two adjacent C containers.

0 In figure 1 there is seen a perspective view of a typical rectangular box shaped shipping container 1 having at each corner a corner fitting 2 comprising a R S& ~~~RDQNNYMPECPWG11777V-9S OC 3A rectangular box with handling apertures 3 formed in each of its three outer faces.

The normal plan profile of a typical shipping container is defined by vertical planes 11 (seen in figure 2) in which lie the outermost vertical faces of the fittings 2 beyond which no component part of the container would normally project.

In figure 1 there are seen walls 8 comprising vertically corrugated steel sheets which connect to top rail 4 and bottom rail 5. The front end wall 15 is again a vertically corrugated steel sheet and is supported by a peripheral frame comprising top rail 16, posts 6 and a bottom rail not seen. The roof 7 comprises a steel sheet either flat or corrugated supported by a peripheral frame comprising top rails 4, 16, 13. The door end frame comprises rail 13, 14 and corner posts 10 onto which are mounted doors 9. The floor 18 comprises timber planks or other suitable material.

It is to be noted that no part of the container projects outside the oo* 2ri rectangular envelop formed by the horizontal and vertical planes in which the 3 outermost faces of the corner fittings 2 lie. The width of major frame of the container 1 is defined by the outermost faces of the top rails 4 and bottom rAils 5 which in most containers falls just inside the overall width defined by the corner fittings 2, but in some other contai~ners might lie outside the overall width defined by the corner fittings 2.

In figure 2 a plan section of the typical shipping container 1 is seen with details enlarged. The wall 8 and end wall 15 can be seen to lie recessed back from the plane 11 which contains the outer vertical faces of fittings 2. The internal width is denoted by arrow W and internal length by arrow L. Post 6 comprises a pressed section to which wall 8 and end wall 15 are welded. The shape of wall 8 seen in section is a typical trapezoidal corrugation having peaks 12 and valley shaped ipaces 17 between peaks 12. The door end post 10 has attached to it door 9 via hinges 20. To lock the doors 9 against the rail 14 and rail 13 there are locking bars 21 which engage with known keepers 19 (seen in figure 1) attached to rail 14 and rail 13, in figure 3 we see a comparative view to figure 2 of the present invention. The wall 28 is similar in shape being formed from trapezoidal coriugations comprising vertical members 46 having pea.cs 22 and spaces 27 formed within the steel (or other material) sheet wh.ch Is wall 28. HOwever it can be seen that the peaks 22 project outsi2de the plane 11 containing the outer vertical faces of fittings 2. The itt ernal width W' is now greater than W.

The front panel 25 is seen in this embodiment as a flat sheet and thus internal length L, is already greater than length L. The shape oC post 26 is formed to suit the new mating position of front panel 25 and wall 28 and optimize internal cargo space.

At the door end there is seen a left-hand post 30, right-hand post 31 and two doors 29. The doors 29 are connected to the posts 30, 31 by a hinges 23 which have two pivots 32, 33. This will be described in detail later.

At this point it will be seen that the hinge 23 allows the door 29 to be set further outwards closer to the plane 24 of the fittings 2 and thus increase the internal length L'.

The left hand post 30 is seen to be relatively wide yet when the door 29 is closed as shown, the depth D of the post 30 does not substantially project into the cargo space beyond the inner face of the closed door 29. Thus a pallet 34 shown as dotted line of almost half the width W' can be placed inside the container and the door 29 closed and occupy the full half width W' without being restricted by the size of the post 30. The right hand post 31 is of a more slender shape than that of the left hand post 30. To load a second pallet next to pallet 34, pallet 34 is placed inside the container first and moved to the left past post 30. Pallet 35 can then be loaded through the remaining half width of W' which exists substantially between pallet 34 and post 31 accepting that there is a small restriction caused by the position of post 31 being inboard of the wall 28. This is normally acceptable since the majority of pallets 36 will have already been loaded into the main body of the container where there is full width W'.

In figure 4, there is seen a diagrammatic view of the door end frame 38 comprising rail 13 rail 14, left hand post 30, and right hand post 31 with doors 29 open. If there should be any racking force denoted by arrow R such as might be caused by the stacking of a container 37 on top of the present container placed on sloping ground, then the door end frame 38 tends to deflect as illustrated by dotted line 38' making operation of doors 29 difficult. However 25 to stiffen the door end frame 38 against such movements, the posts 30, 31 would ideally be made as rigid and bulky as conventional container corner S"posts 10 which are known to prevent the deflection from being too great for manual operation. The space requirements of the present invention prohibit the o"*posts 31 from being as rigid as desired. However this can be overcome by 30 making left hand post 30 of greater depth as viewed in plan across the width of the container this can compensate for the slender and potentially more flexible right hand post 31.

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6 In figure 5 we see a diagrammatic plan view of several containers 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 of the present invention placed side by side substantially in line as they might be in an efficient stow. There are typical norms for the degree to which containers may be stowed out of line before contact of one container against another might be expected. Misalignment might typically be 25mm and thus the space 27 between vertical members 46 would allow for such misalignment.

Known containers of shorter or longer lengths have handling fittings 2 positioned at their ends or at intermediate positions. Thus when these containers are lined up with each other, it is at least one pair of the corner fittings 2 towards one end of the container which would be located substantially in line with adjacent containers.

Each has a left-hand wall 28, and right-hand wall 28'. The position of the peaks 22 of wall 28 of container 41 are offset in relation to the peaks 22 of wall 28' of container 42 with door end frame 38 both at the same end such that the peaks 22 of container 41 align with the spaces 27 of container 42 and vice versa. As the containers are positioned closer together, the peaks 22 of one container pass those peaks 22 of an adjacent container until ultimately contact is made one container to another.

It is convenient in manufacture to make the assembly of wall 28 the same as wall 28' and thus in the present example, the walls 28, 28' are seen to be :"!:roughly asymmetrical about the longitudinal centre line 66 of the wall. Thus :'°,,those peaks 22 and spaces 27 of all the containers 41 to 45 whichever way 25 they might be orientated door end frame 38 to front end frame 40 and vice versa likewise nest with those of its adjacent container. Thus such containers 41 to 45 with such a pitch of peaks 22 and spaces 27 can be placed closely side by side without touching yet have vertical members 46 of sufficient amp' rude from peak 22 to space 27 to provide high strength and not encroach 30 on the valuable cargo space within the container.

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Where the peaks 22 and spaces 27 of the vertical members 46 meet the top and bottom rails 4, 5 various configurations are envisaged. In figure 5, is clear that the peaks 22 of container 43 must not encounter any projection on container 42, 44 at their spaces 27. In figure 6A, 6B, 7 various solutions to this connection where walls 28, 28' meet top rails 4, and bottom rails 5 are seen.

It is common for there to be containers of nominal length 40ft mixed with containers of 20ft and less common to be mixed with containers of 1 Oft and long. Newer types of containers of other lengths are also emerging. Thus the position of vertical members 46 has to be selected to enable containers of different lengths to be positioned with their ends lined up and be compatible with one another these containers being positioned in orientations from adjacent front, front adjacent rear etc.

In figure 6A the top rail 4 is seen in part detail in perspective view and comprises a strong bar or pressing with capping pieces 48 to terminate and shield the peaks 22 should the rail 4 impact another container or the like which would otherwise damage the thinner wall sheet 28. Bottom rail 5 might be shaped with similar capping pieces 48 where wall 28 meets rail 5. The projections might be formed as part of the rail 4, 5 or fixed on to a separate pressing 4, 5. The capping pieces 48 might be integrated with a buffer 59 to deflect away an impacting rail from the wall 28 of the container.

In figure 6B the vertical members 46 taper off toward the rail 4 so that the whole 25 of the rail 4 remains back from the peaks 22 of an adjacent container such as container 43 might be to container 44. A similar connection might be made to °the bottom rail 5. A capping piece might comprise a reinforcing plate 60 fixed to the sloping part of member 46 to resist damage to peak 22 especially where the vertical member is pressed as part of a thin sheet of steel forming the wall 28.

111 1 In figure 6C the vertical member 46 is capped off using a forged or pressed capping piece comprising buffer 61 which is wedge shaped to guide off any impacting member. As a hot forging the buffer 61 is conveniently formed with a lip 62 shown in dotted line which is self locating within the trapezoidal shaped vertical member. The buffer 61 has a bottom plate also denoted by dotted line 62 which closes off that which would other-wise be a cavity formed between sloping face 63 and rail 4. Alternatively the buffer 61 might be made from solid material.

In figure 7 there is illustrated another form of wall comprising a flat sheet 50 which might be of steel, alum~iniumi ply-wood or other sui .able material, fixed to top rail 4 and bottom rail 5 by rivets not show-1 or welding, or other means. The sheet 50 itself is not entirely strong enough for operational use in the shipping container environment, so additional vertical members 51, in this example not formed as part of the sheet 50, are provided for additional support. The vertical member; 51 comprise for example pressed steel or extruded aluminium sections ihich can either be fixed by welding, rivetting, adhesive or other known means or be free from fixing to the panels 31. The vertical members 51 are *fixed to the rails by welding, rivetting or other known means. Tb shape of the member is seen to taper off near the rails 4, 5 so as to nc.

present an abutment to any obstructions or other container being uiv ed into position adjacent to it.

In figure 8-there is seen a detailed plan view of the double hinge 23 with the door 29 in the closed position. There are 2 pivot points 12, 33.

Pivot 31 allows the hinge 29 to rotate freely out through about 270 degrees. Pivot 33 however is restricted in its motion and the door 29 can only rotate outwards through angle A until door 29 or an Abutment attached to door 29 engages stop 52 and back again until it engages stop 53. The purpose of stops 52, 53 is to ensure that the door gasket 39' encounters the post 30, 31 at the right angle during closing of the door 29. When full open as in the position indicated by dotted line 29', the hinge 23 has sufficient degree of freedom to allow the door 29' to fold right back against wall 28.

The double hinge 23 is not essential to the invention but illustrate a means of further increasing the internial length A conventional hinge 20 as in figure 2 might suffice for some applications.

Returning to figures 2 and 3, we see the doors 9, 29 shown 1. the closed position with locking bars 21 engaged with rail and rail 13, 14. To weather seal the doors 9, Z9 against the door end fraL'e 38 there i'; typically a rubber gasket 39 which runs round the periphery of a di)or 9 on its outer edge as seen in figure 2. Gasket 39 seen in section comprises a channel section with inner lip and outer lip 54. The iuter lip laps over the surface of mating sections such as post 10, rail 14.

However to make the door locking bars 21 and door 29 more compact to increase internal length L gasket 39, in figure 3 must take a different route from gasket 39. The locking bars 21 might be recessed withi.n the door frame itself as illustrated on the left hand door, or the door made slimmer adjacent the locking bars 21 compared to the vertical members 64 of the door 29.

in figure 8 an enlarged detail of the gasket 39' can be seen with outer lip 54' contacting seal surface 55 of post 30. En figure 9A there is seen a perspective view of a bottom corner fitting 2 with rail 14 connecting to post 31. The door 29 is open and not seen. What ii seen is seal surface 55 of post 31 and seal surface 56 of rail 14 which do not lie in the same vertical plane. This discontinuity of seal surfaccomplicates the shape and routing of a gasket 39' at this junction Figure 9B shows means whereby the post 31 is shaped to provide a sloping seal surface 57 which allows connection and continuity of surface for outer lip 54' of gasket 39'.

Figure 9C shows means whereby the rail 14 is shaped to provide a sloping seal surface 58 which allows continuity of seal surface from post to rail.

At the vertical joint where the 2 doors 29 meet, similar sloping surfaces in the other structural] members of the container such as the door 29, rail 13, or rail 14 can be formed to provide a substantially continuous seal surface from one seal surface to another. Likewise rail 13 and posts 31, 30 might have similar arrangements.

In figure 10 there is seen in detailed plan view rails 4 and corner fittings 2 or 2 containers standing closely adjacent in line with one another. The rails 4 (and or rail 5) are seen to be wider than plane 11 as required in some types of extra wide containers. The vertical members 47 align as before with the spaces 27 of the adjacent containers.

It is further envisaged that the end walls can be formed in similar fashion to the side walls to enable containers to be close stowed yet embody projecting vertical members. Thus in this regard, reference in the description to side wall can be read as end wall and the containers being side by side can be understood to include the containers being located end to end.

Some other types of containers are envisaged making use of the features of the present invention. Such containers have removable curtain "walls" supported by removable vertical members.

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Claims (13)

1. A freight container comprising a floor, side walls arranged to extend in a vertical direction relative to the floor, ISO corner fittings located at each corner of the container with outermost side surfaces of the corner fittings defining the outermost extremities or plan profile of the container, side wall members arranged to extend in a vertical direction and to extend outwardly beyond the plan profile of the container, and a recess between each pair of vertical members of one wall being arranged to lie opposite a vertical member of an opposite wall so that when two or more said containers are stowed side by side and substantially in line with each other, the vertical members of the container viewed in plan view align with and are receivable within the recesses between vertical members of a second freight container.

2. A container as claimed in claim 1, in which vertical members located on one side wall of the container are asymmetrical to the vertical members located on the opposite side wall thereof.

3. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2, in which the vertical members comprise separate sections fixed to a planar wall sheet, and top and bottom rails are arranged to extend between ISO corner fitt:ngs for supporting the wall sheets therebetween.

4. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 or 2, in which the vertical members are formed as an integral part of the wall sheet.

5. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, in which the vertical members taper towards at least one of their upper or lower ends.

6. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, in which the vertical 30 members terminate at the top and bottom of the container within the plan profile of the container. S" I7A' "7-79-9 DOCR K/ or 12

7. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, in which the vertical members are terminated with a capping piece.

8. A container as claimed in claim 7, in which the capping piece comprises a forged wedge shaped block.

9. A container as claimed in claim 7, in which the capping piece comprises a plate arranged to cover the cross-sectional profile of the vertical member fixed to or f-,rmed as part of the top and/or bottom side rail of the container. A container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising two corner posts at each end of the container, one corner post being of substantially greater length in one cross-sectional direction than in a cross- sectional direction transverse thereto.

11. A container as claimed in claim 10, wherein each corner post at one end of iV,~ container is arranged to support a door of the container so that the corner posts do not project substantially within the cargo space beyond an inner face of the door.

12. A container as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising sea! surface faces arranged to extend between the corner posts and top or ":bottom side rails of the container, which seal faces are made substantially continuous by the provision or a sloping surface running from the corner to a 25 respective one of the top and bottom side rails. S° 13. A container as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10, in which side rails of the container are arranged to project outside the plan profile of the container 3 and the vertical members project outward beyond the side rails.

14. A container as claimed in claim 10, in which each door is mounted on the container by a double hinge. 'RA4 CC N -s, 13 A container as claimed in claim 1, wherein the container side walls comprise an open framework having vertically extending members which extend outwards beyond the plan profile of the container.

16. A container substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figures 3 to 6a and 10; or Figure 6b; or Figure 6c; or Figure 7; or Figure 8; or Figure 9a; or Figure 9b; or Figure 9c of the accompanying drawings. DATED 21 May, 1998 PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Attorneys For: o MARTIN CLIVE-SMITH 6 7 L ZZo i f 6 .I Abstract A shipping container has vertical. side members which project oi taide the normal width of the container: to maximise the width of the :argo space within. To enable such containers to then be close stow d one container beside another, the position of the vertical members can be staggered so that vertical members on one container lie betweel the spaces between vertical members of and adjacent container. as* 00 .0 a