AU753149B2 - Improvements in liquid discharge container side - Google Patents

Description

-2- IMPROVEMENTS IN LIQUID DISCHARGE CONTAINER SIDE FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a container side of the type which include an opening to give access to the nozzle of a liner bag for liquid when housed in a container of which the side forms part.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION It is common to transport and/or store liquids in containers where the container comprises a four sided pallet type base with upstanding side panels and a lid. The side panels are commonly either of the type which 10 are demountable from the base or of the type which can be folded down one over the other over the base to provide (with the lid) a readily transportable pack of elements from which the container can be formed.

The side panels and the lid usually each comprise a metal skeletal frame covered with a liner sheet so that the interior of the container when erected is smooth surfaced.

One of the side panels of such a liquid container has an aperture, closely adjacent the bottom of the side panel, to allow a discharge nozzle of a liquid housing liner bag (made of plastic film) in the container to be accessed from outside the container. The nozzle is usually adapted to be coupled to a liquid discharge pipe and the bore of the nozzle is usually blocked by a membrane which has to be ruptured in order to allow the liquid in the liner bag to discharge through the nozzle and the discharge pipe. Protection is preferably provided for the nozzle extending through the side panel so that it will not be damaged. The protection when -3provided is usually in the form of a metal cover removable or sliding or hinged) which is received into a prepared zone of the side panel frame.

One such arrangement is disclosed in the Australian patent 556931.

The plastic film liner bags as described above are commonly manufactured with one or other of two standard sized nozzles. One nozzle size is for free flowing classes of liquids and the other, larger sized, nozzle is for liquid materials of a class which could be categorised as not free flowing, a syrup such as treacle would typify the latter class of liquids. The length of the smaller nozzle allows the nozzle protecting cover to lie within the 10 footprint of the container base as the nozzle projection beyond the inner face of the liner bag compartment (against which a nozzle flange welded to the liner bag bears) does not exceed the thickness of the container side panel through which the nozzle projects. This allows containers to be stacked hard against each other and as there is no projection beyond the 15 base footprint a container can be slid against another container or racking elements or the like without any damage to the cover or the nozzle protected thereby.

The physical size (mainly the length) of the larger of the two standard nozzles requires the nozzle cover to lie beyond the footprint of the container base if the flange of the nozzle welded to the liner bag bears on the inner face of the liner bag compartment.

The object of this invention is to provide a container side panel construction wherein the larger size nozzle can be accommodated and covered by a protection means which will not extend beyond the footprint of the base of -4a container of which the side panel forms part.

BROAD STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION A liquid discharge side panel for a container, said discharge panel with other panels when mounted in an upright manner on a four sided base provides a support means for a liner bag adapted to hold liquid, said discharge panel comprises a frame having a top and a bottom and two ends and a liner sheet having an inner surface and an outer surface which is fixed to said frame, an opening through the liner sheet, a nozzle retainer located over said liner sheet opening and upstanding from the 10 inner surface of the liner sheet, said nozzle retainer including a housing having a back panel with top and bottom edges and side edges, flanges upstanding from said housing back panel at its top and side edges whereby said housing is coupled to the container side panel and whereby said back panel is spaced from said liner sheet, a nozzle clearance notch 15 in the bottom edge of the housing back panel, at least one slide slidably mounted within the housing and lying closely adjacent an inner surface of said housing back panel, each slide has a bottom edge provided with a nozzle captivating notch which when the slide is in a raised position within the housing is clear of the nozzle clearance notch and allows free passage of portion of the body of a liner bag nozzle through said nozzle clearance notch to a nozzle security position in which said nozzle body portion projects beyond said liner sheet outer surface, said slide when in a lowered position within the housing partly occludes said nozzle clearance notch with said nozzle captivating notch aligned with said nozzle clearance notch and positioned so as to co-operate with means on a nozzle body portion to prevent a liner bag nozzle retracting from said security position.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

Fig.1 is a perspective view of a liquid discharge side panel of the type in use hitherto, Fig.2 is a perspective view of a container fitted with the liquid discharge side panel of the present invention, Fig.3 is a fragmentary sectioned elevation of the nozzle support and retaining means as provided by the present invention with some elements omitted in order to facilitate the description of the drawing, Fig.4 is a top view of the nozzle support and retaining means of Fig.3 with 10 the elements omitted from Fig.3 shown, Fig.5 if a fragmentary front view of the members shown in Fig.3, and Fig.6 is a fragmentary perspective view of the members shown in Fig.3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

Fig.1 illustrates the liquid discharge side panel of the Australian patent 15 556931 where the side panel 1 includes a rectangular frame of four elements 2,3,4,5 (providing a top, bottom and two ends for the frame) and having an intermediate element 6. A liner sheet 7 with an inner surface and an outer surface has its outer surface fixed to the frame.

Bars 8 and 9 extend between the elements 5 and 6 and define a housing for a hinged flap 10 which can be opened by means of a handle 11 with an associated handle security yoke 12. There is a nozzle receiving hole in the liner sheet 7 behind the flap 10. The present invention follows the same concept as disclosed in Fig.1 but provides a number of variations to the construction which allows the object of the invention to be achieved and which provides additional benefits.

-6- Referring now to Fig.2, this is a perspective view of a container incorporating the side panel of the invention and providing a support means for a liner bag adapted to hold liquid. The container is identified 13, it comprises a base 14 and four side panels 15,16,17,18 erected in an upright manner on the base and a lid 19. The lid may be of any form and for that reason no detailed manner of construction is illustrated.

Usually the side panels 15-18 will be either demountable from the base 13 or coupled to the base 13 so as to be able to fold down one over the other over the base. The side panel to base connections are not relevant to this invention, however, to facilitate the following description one form of connection between the side panel 18 and the base 13 will be described later. The panel 18 has a frame including a top rail 20, a bottom rail 21 (both made of angle iron) which are joined by upright end members 22,23 9° (both made of square cross-section tubular steel). The end members 15 22,23 are joined by an intermediate rail 24 (made of square cross-section tubular steel) and there are support bars 25,26 (both made of angle iron) joining the bar 24 to the bottom rail 21, the latter is discontinuous between :I the bars 25,26 to provide bottom rail portions 21 a and 21 b. A liner sheet 27 has its outer face fixed to the frame.

The side panel to base connections include hook means, indicated generally 28 and best seen in Fig.3, on the base 13 engaged by the bottom rail portions 21a and 21b. The base 13 has a central front foot 29 of U shape.

The liner sheet 27 between the bars 25,26 is removed to provide and -7opening through the liner sheet 27 and a liner bag nozzle retainer 30 is mounted over the opening. The nozzle retainer 30 has a back panel 31, (see Figs.3 and 4) with upstanding flanges at the top and at the sides of the back panel 31 and the flanges have out turned portions 32 which are shown clamped between the frame members 24,25,26 and the liner sheet 27. The fourth (bottom) side of the back panel 31 has a nozzle clearance notch 33 dimensioned so as to be slightly larger than the nozzle portion which has to project from the container. It will be seen from the drawings that the distance between the side flanges of the back panel 31 is greater 10 than the spacing between the bars 25,26 thereby forming two lands 34,35 on the rear of the bars 25,26. The described arrangement is clear from Figs.3 and 4.

Complementing the notch 33 in the nozzle retainer back panel 31 there is an upper edge notch 36 in a flange 37 of a discharge trough 38 mounted 15 in the support surface 39 of the base 13, see Fig.3. The height of the lowest part of the flange notch 36 above the floor of the trough 38 is sufficient to accommodate the flange 40 of a liner bag nozzle 41 (see Fig.3) and the vertical location of the lowest part of the flange notch 36 relative to the support surface 39 of the base is such that the lowest portion of the bore of the nozzle 41 is lower than the support surface 39 (see Fig.3).

Two slides 42,43 are shown in Fig 4, the slides can move vertically. The slide 43 has longitudinally extending flanges on its long edges with out turned lands on the flanges. The distal edges of said lands are spaced further apart than the spacing between the bars 25,26 and engagement of -8the lands with the bars 25,26 retain the slide 43 in operating location within said nozzle retainer where the flanges of the slide 43 are spaced from the flanges of the 31 of the nozzle retainer and slide 43 is spaced from the back panel 31 of the retainer. The slide 42 also has flanges and they are disposed between the flanges of the slide 43 and the retainer 30 with the side 42 disposed between the slide 43 and the back panel 31 of the nozzle retainer.

Each plate 42,43 has a nozzle captivating notch in its lower edge (not shown) and the captivating notches are respectively arcs of circles having 10 different radii, the radii respectively substantially corresponding with the S* 0radii of portions of liner bag nozzles (rearward of the shoulder 44 of Fig.3) adapted for the discharge of liquids of different viscosities. If desired a third plate can be added to the group 42,43, the third plate would have no notch and would when lowered close off the notches 33,36 thereby making 15 the container suitable for the transport of discrete material with or without an enclosing liner bag.

S-A nozzle end covering member 45 is provided, it can be of the replaceable, sliding or hinged form, depending upon user requirements.

It will be seen that with the addition of the nozzle retainer 30 the container side panel is usable (if desired) with either a large nozzle 41 (shown in full lines in Fig.3) or a small nozzle 41a (shown in broken lines in Fig.3) and in both cases the member 45 will lie within the footprint of the base 13.

Claims (7)

1. A liquid discharge side panel for a container, said discharge panel with other panels when mounted in an upright manner on a four sided base provides a support means for a liner bag adapted to hold liquid, said discharge panel comprises a frame having a top and a bottom and two ends and a liner sheet having an inner surface and an outer surface which is fixed to said frame, an opening through the liner sheet, a nozzle retainer located over said liner sheet opening and upstanding from the inner surface of the liner sheet, said nozzle retainer including a housing having a back panel with top and bottom edges and side edges, flanges upstanding from said housing back panel at its top and side edges whereby said housing is coupled to the container side panel and whereby =said back panel is spaced from said liner sheet, a nozzle clearance notch in the bottom edge of the housing back panel, at least one slide slidably 15 mounted within the housing and lying closely adjacent an inner surface of said housing back panel, each slide has a bottom edge provided with a nozzle captivating notch which when the slide is in a raised position within the housing is clear of the nozzle clearance notch and allows free passage of portion of the body of a liner bag nozzle through said nozzle clearance notch to a nozzle security position in which said nozzle body portion projects beyond said liner sheet outer surface, said slide when in a lowered position within the housing partly occludes said nozzle clearance notch with said nozzle captivating notch aligned with said nozzle clearance notch and positioned so as to co-operate with means on a nozzle body portion to prevent a liner bag nozzle retracting from said security position. 10

2. A container side panel as claimed in claim 1 having two slides with the nozzle captivating notches in the slides respectively arcs of circles having different radii, the radii respectively substantially corresponding with the radii of portions of liner bag nozzles adapted for the discharge of liquids of different viscosities.

3. A container side panel as claimed in claim 1 having a single slide which lies adjacent but spaced from the nozzle retainer back panel and has *flanges on long edges which respectively lie adjacent the flanges of the side edges of the nozzle retainer back panel and are spaced therefrom, 10 outwardly directed lands on the flanges of said first slide with distal edges_ of said lands spaced further apart than the spacing between a pair of elements of said side panel frame greater, engagement of said lands with said elements retaining said first slide in operating location within said nozzle retainer. 15

4. A container side panel as claimed in claim 3 wherein the nozzle captivating notch is an arc of a circle the radius of which substantially corresponds with the radius of portion of a liner bag nozzle.

A container side panel as claimed in claim 3 including a second slide with flanges on long edges, said slide lies between said first slide and the inner face of said nozzle retainer back panel and the flanges of said second slide lie between the flanges of the first slide and the flanges of the nozzle retainer back panel. 11

6. A container side panel as claimed in claim 5 wherein the nozzle captivating notches in the slides are respectively arcs of circles having different radii, the radii respectively substantially corresponding with the radii of portions of liner bag nozzles adapted for the discharge of liquids of different viscosities.

7. A liquid discharge side panel for a container substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of Figs.2 to 6 of the drawings. Dated this 5th day of August, 1999 Technosearch Pty. Limited By its Patent Attorney Robert Halliday B