AU759671B2 - Container hood with locking device - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

*r Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: TECHNOSEARCH PTY. LIMITED Ladislav Stephan KARPISEK Robert G. Halliday 44 Ashley Street, Hornsby NSW 2077 CONTAINER HOOD WITH LOCKING DEVICE Invention Title: Details of Associated Provisional Application PP8953 filed 02.03.1999 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: 2 CONTAINER HOOD WITH LOCKING DEVICE FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to means for facilitating the discharge of the contents of a container.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Many forms of container are used to house and transport dry flowable materials. Containers of the type which comprise a pallet or base having """four interlocked upstanding side panels are well known. In such containers the sides can be either demountable from the base, or can be folded down 10 in overlying relationship over the base and in one form of container both of the above characteristics are present. Whilst this the invention has been devised with the above forms of container particularly in mind it is not limited to such containers.

When containers have to be emptied the methods adopted depend to a large extent on the contents of the container. In the case of flowable material, such as granules, gravitational discharge would be possible. To facilitate this the container could have a bottom discharge port, however attempts to develop a suitable container have been less than totally successful.

An alternative is to tilt the container to an extent required to cause the contents to flow from the container. If uncontrolled discharge is not to -3occur the flow rate of the material has to be continually monitored and the tilt of the container adjusted to maintain a required discharge rate. This discharge method is labour and/or time intensive and is therefore not favoured.

In another possible discharge method, conceived by the present applicant, a hood with a discharge opening fitted with a flow controlling device is mounted to the open top of the container and then the container /hood assembly is inverted so gravity discharge can take place through the discharge opening. Whilst the foregoing discharge method has appeal the challenge is how to invert the container and support it in the inverted manner in the most efficient and economical manner. The present invention addresses this problem by providing an arrangement similar to that disclosed in Australian patent number 730942, but departing therefrom by providing a variation of the latching means disclosed in that patent application for securing the hood to a container to be gravity discharged.

.:..:BROAD STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a hood for a container having four sides, a base and an open top; said hood comprising a four sided frame with a seating end to sit on top edges of the four sides of a container at the open top of the container, legs on the frame extend away from the seating end of the frame, a discharge chute having a entry end and a discharge end with the chute ends separated by a chute body, the chute entry end is fixed to the hood frame adjacent the frame seating end and the chute body extends away from the frame seating end in the same direction as the frame legs, 4 socket means for hood lifting means, the socket means is mounted on the hood frame and is movable in a direction away from and towards the chute entry end to respectively raise the socket means from a rest position and return the socket means to the rest position, latching means on the hood frame connected by linkage to the socket means, said latching means comprising two hooking links at each of two opposite sides of said hood, each hooking link has a hook arm which lies intermediate a first pivotal connection between said hooking link and said hood frame and a second pivotal connection between the hooking link and the linkage linking the latching means to the socket means, biassing means biasing each hook arm to a latching condition to couple the hood to a container and biasing said socket means being to the rest position, the linkage arrangement being such that movement of said socket means away from its rest position causes unlatching pivotal movement of said hook link relative to said hood frame.

ooooo BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

Fig 1 is a schematic illustration of a container of the general form with :which the hood of the present invention is intended to be used, Fig.2 is a schematic side view of a hood according to the invention, Fig.3 is a view similar to Fig.1 with latching means for coupling the hood to a container in the release condition, :.:Fig.4 is a view similar to Fig.1 with the hood fitted to a container, Fig.5 is a view of the hood/container assembly of Fig.4 inverted, and Fig.6 is a scrap view of the means for mounting movable fork lift truck tine 25 receiving socket means on the hood frame.

oooo• I 5 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

The container 1 of Fig.1 comprises a base 2 with upstanding sides 3,4,5,6 which can be demounted from the base 2, or permanently erected on the base 2, or can be hinged to the base to allow the sides to fold down and overlie the base. A lid 7 is normally provided for the container for use when the container is in use for storing contained goods and when the container is being transported. The lid is shown as having securing hooks 39 for engagement in sockets 38 on the container sides 3 and sides 3 to 6 of containers of the above type are commonly constructed 10 of a metal frame with a top rail 8, a bottom rail 9 and an intermediate rail all end connected to frame uprights 11 and 12. The frame rails and uprights are conventionally made of tubular steel or angle iron. The frame of the container side is covered internally with a liner panel 13, commonly plywood or stiff sheet plastic.

The hood 14 of Fig.2 comprises a four sided ring frame 15 spaced from a four sided bracing frame 16 joined by four angle iron corner posts 17 having foot portions 18. The ring frame 15 is adapted in shape and size to sit on the top edges of the four sides of a container at the open top of a container of the general type illustrated in Fig.l. In use, a sealing strip or other sealing means can be placed between the ring frame 15 and the top edges of the container sides 3,4,5,6.

6 A chute 19, illustrated as having a body 20 which is (typically) portion of a square pyramid, is fixed at its entry end 21 to the frame 15 and has a discharge end 22 provided with a closure means and, if required, flow control means. The shape of the chute 19 can be varied to suit the type of material to be handled. The chute body 20 may be much shorter, as indicated in dotted lines indicated 24 in Fig.2, to support (for example) the top of a liquid filled liner bag housed in the container 1.

0000 Two tubes 25 (or channels with bridging ties joining the top edges of the channel legs) form sockets to receive the tines of a fork lift truck. The 10 tubes 25 are end supported (see Fig.6) on opposed bars 26 of the bracing frame 16. The ends of the tubes 25 are coupled to the bars 26 by pins 27 on the tubes 25 engaged in bearings 28 on the bars 26 allowing the tubes to rise and fall in a guided manner relative to the frame within a range determined by the engagement of the bars 26 by the tubes 25 and collars 40 on the pins 27. The upward movement may be limited by suitable stop means in place of the collars A latching means is provided on the hood whereby the hood 14 can be coupled to a container 1. The latching means comprises a pair of connection arms 30 at opposed sides of the hood frame, the arms 30 at each side of the hood frame have first ends pivotally connected at 31 to the respective tubes 25 and each arm 30 is pivotally connected at its other end to a first end 32 of a hooking link 33. The hooking links 33 are pivotally 7 connected at their second ends 34 to brackets 35 on the frame of the hood.

A hook member 36 is located intermediate its ends 32,34 of the hooking link 33. There is a tension spring 37 associated with each arm 30 with the ends of the springs 37 respectively connected to the associated arms an the hood frame.

In an operational sequence fork lift tines would be inserted in the tubes in the direction of the arrow A in Fig.3 and an upward lifting force would be ooooo applied in the direction of the arrow B of Fig.3. This causes the tubes to rise with the pins 27 sliding in the bearing 28 and the springs 37 are thus 10 tensioned. At the same time the hooking links 33 pivot and the hook members 36 move to the release condition shown in Fig.3.

The hood 14 would then be aligned with the top of a container 1 and lowered onto the container. The frame 15 would come to rest on the upper edges of the container sides 3,4,5,6 and as the fork lift tines are lowered the linkages move the hook members 36 to the engaging condition where they are engaged in hook receivers 38 at the top of the container 1.

The receivers 38 can be saddles (possibly the lid hook sockets 38 of Fig. 1) or hooks or lugs or other suitable means for co-operation with the hook members 36. The latched condition of the linkage is maintained by the action of the springs 37 and the inertia of the tubes 25 as they rest on the members bars 26. This is the arrangement shown in Fig.4.

8 The next step is to invert the container/hood assembly to the condition. This is done by inverting equipment into which the container/hood assembly is placed by means of a fork lift truck engaging the pallet type container base 2. The inverting equipment is not illustrated as it is not part of this invention but is covered by other patent applications by the present applicant.

The foregoing is a presently preferred form of the invention and it is to be understood that changes can be made to the detail of the members described and illustrated without departing from the inventive concepts 10 herein disclosed. By way of example, the hooks 36 could be directed towards each other rather than away from each other as illustrated. It o would also be possible to arrange the linkages so that the hooks 36 face in the same direction.

S S Means other than tension springs 37 can be used to bias the hooks 36 to the engaging condition illustrated in Figs.2 and 4 to 6.

Claims (6)

1. A hood for a container having four sides, a base and an open top; said hood comprising a four sided frame with a seating end to sit on top edges of the four sides of a container at the open top of the container, legs on the frame extend away from the seating end of the frame, a discharge chute having a entry end and a discharge end with the chute ends separated by a chute body, the chute entry end is fixed to the hood frame adjacent the frame seating end and the chute body extends away from the frame seating end in the same direction as the frame legs, socket means for hood lifting means, the socket means is mounted on the hood frame and is movable in a direction away from and towards the chute entry end to respectively raise the socket means from a rest position and return the socket means to the rest position, latching means on the hood frame connected by linkage to the socket means, said latching means comprising two hooking links at each of two opposite sides of said hood, each hooking link has a hook arm which lies intermediate a first pivotal connection between said hooking link and said hood frame and a second pivotal connection between the hooking link and the linkage linking the latching :means to the socket means, biassing means biasing each hook arm to a latching condition to couple the hood to a container and biasing said socket means being to the rest position, the linkage arrangement being such that movement of said socket means away from its rest position causes unlatching pivotal movement of said hook link relative to said hood frame. oSo S.o. 10

2. A hood as claimed in claim 1 wherein the biassing means comprises tension springs connecting hood frame to the linkages linking the latching means to the socket means.

3. A hood as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said socket means is connected to said hood frame through guide means comprising posts slidable in bearings.

4. A hood as claimed in any onew of the claims 1 to 3 wherein the seating end of said hood frame is provided with sealing means.

A hood as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 4 wherein the discharge end of the hood chute is provided with a closure means able to prevent and control the rate of discharge through said discharge end.

6. A hood for a container as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the accompanying drawings. Dated this 14th day of February, 2003 TECHNOSEARCH PTY. LIMITED By its Patent Attorney Robert Halliday f.oe *9 8 o* o o