EP0673334B1 - A stackable packaging unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PCT No. PCT/EP93/03576 Sec. 371 Date Aug. 3, 1995 Sec. 102(e) Date Aug. 3, 1995 PCT Filed Dec. 16, 1993 PCT Pub. No. WO94/14669 PCT Pub. Date Jul. 7, 1994A stackable packaging unit (10) has a lower supporting pallet (12), a marginal wall arrangement (14) made of corrugated cardboard and a covering pallet (16) having the same geometry as the supporting pallet. Both pallets are moulded parts with feet (28 to 32) and have receptions (34 to 38) for the feet on their upper surface. The feet and the feet receptions are asymmetrical, so that the feet of an upper pallet engage the underlying feet receptions (34 to 38) over a short distance (Z1) in a first relative position of two adjacent pallets (12, 16) but engage them over a longer distance in a second relative position. The pallets (12, 16) may thus be closely stacked after use of the packaging unit and transported back to their point of origin.

Description

The invention relates to a stackable packaging unit according to the preamble of claim 1.

Such a packaging unit is described in US-A-4,989,731. It has a base part, a central part defining the peripheral walls of the container and a cover part, the base part and cover part representing different molded parts. Bottom part and cover part can therefore not be stacked compactly mixed.

Also in US-A-4 480 748 a packaging unit is disclosed which shows the features listed in the preamble of claim 1, the lower part and upper part being designed as identical molded parts, so that they can be stacked together. In this known packaging unit, however, the foot sections formed on the lower part and the upper part must point outwards when the packaging unit is assembled.

Similar packaging units are known from US-A-4,550,830 and US-A-4,580,680.

WO-A-93/24380 shows a folding box with a pallet-like lower part and a different upper part.

DE-A-21 65 676 also shows stackable packaging units with a central part, a lower part and an upper part, feet provided on the lower part and upper part pointing outwards when the packaging unit is assembled.

The present invention is intended to create a stackable packaging unit in which the pallet, edge wall arrangement and lid can be stacked, but with the packaging unit set up, a packaging unit is positively positioned on the packaging unit underneath with simple means.

This object is achieved according to the invention by a stackable packaging unit according to claim 1.

In the packaging unit according to the invention, a pallet is also used as the lid, which has the same geometry as the lower pallet. In this way, the upper and lower end parts of the packaging unit can be stacked together indiscriminately and transported back together to the starting point. The storage and the manufacturing costs for the elements of the packaging unit are simplified, since apart from the edge wall arrangement only one further element is required, which at one time fulfills the function of the pallet and at other times the function of a positioning cover. Since the stackable pallets have a high mechanical strength with low weight due to their shape, there is also a weight saving compared to conventional lids, which are simply sections of clamping plates.

Packaging units according to the invention stacked one on top of the other are also spaced so far that the fork of a forklift can be moved quickly between the feet of a packaging unit without the fork having to be aligned very precisely in the vertical direction. Nevertheless, it is ensured that the pallets can be transported back after being dismantled, packed tightly for reuse.

Advantageous developments of the invention are specified in the subclaims.

With the development of the invention according to claim 2, a safe positioning and fixing of the edge wall arrangement is obtained at its lower or upper end.

According to claims 3 and 4, relative positions between successive pallets can be realized in a simple and optically recognizable manner, in which the feet of the upper pallet engage to different degrees in the foot receptacles of the pallet below.

The development of the invention according to claim 5 is advantageous in terms of easy detection of the relative position of pallets lying one above the other.

Figur 1:

einen vertikalen Schnitt durch einen Stapel von Verpackungseinheiten;

Figur 2:

einen vertikalen Schnitt durch einen Palettenstapel aus Paletten, die die oberen und unteren Endteile der in Figur 1 gezeigten Verpackungseinheiten und weiterer solcher Verpackungseinheiten gebildet hatten;

Figur 3:

eine Aufsicht auf die Oberseite einer Palette für eine Verpackungseinheit nach Figur 1 in vergrößertem Maßstabe;

Figur 4:

einen nochmals vergrößerten vertikalen Schnitt durch die Eckbereiche zweier übereinanderliegender Verpackungseinheiten in dem in Figur 1 gezeigten Stapel;

Figur 5:

eine ähnliche Ansicht wie Figur 3, in welcher eine abgewandelte Palette wiedergegeben ist; und

Figur 6:

eine Aufsicht auf eine nochmals abgewandelte Palette.

The invention is explained in more detail below on the basis of exemplary embodiments with reference to the drawing. In this show:

Figure 1:

a vertical section through a stack of packaging units;

Figure 2:

a vertical section through a pallet stack of pallets, which had formed the upper and lower end parts of the packaging units shown in Figure 1 and other such packaging units;

Figure 3:

a plan view of the top of a pallet for a packaging unit according to Figure 1 on an enlarged scale;

Figure 4:

a further enlarged vertical section through the corner areas of two superimposed packaging units in the stack shown in Figure 1;

Figure 5:

a view similar to Figure 3, in which a modified palette is shown; and

Figure 6:

a supervision of a further modified pallet.

In Figure 1, four stacked packaging units 10-1 to 10-4 are shown, each consisting of a support pallet 12, an edge wall arrangement 14 made of corrugated cardboard and a lid pallet 16. The edge wall arrangement 14 has vertical longitudinal walls 14A and, for this purpose, vertical vertical side walls 14B in the unfolded state. The side walls 14A and 14B are hinged at the vertical abutting edges by fold lines.

Products not shown here are arranged inside the packaging units 10-i (i = 1, 2, 3, 4), e.g. Refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, etc. The products are fixed to the support pallets 12 by first tensioning straps, not shown, which extend through corresponding edge cutouts in the edge wall arrangement 14 or through recesses 18 in the support pallets 12, as shown in FIG. 3.

The carrier pallets 12 and the lid pallets 16 are identical molded parts made of pressed chipboard. As can be seen from FIG. 3, radial stiffening beads 20 running in the plate plane, together with stiffening beads 22 adjacent to the edge of the pallet, ensure high load-bearing capacity and torsional strength of the pallets with only a small wall thickness overall.

In Figure 3, the longitudinal center plane of a pallet with 24, the transverse center plane with 26 is designated. Three feet 28L, 30L and 32L lying to the left of the longitudinal center plane and three feet 28R, 30R, 32R lying to the right of the longitudinal center plane 24 are molded into the pallet. The tops of these provide foot mounts 34L, 36L, 38L and 34R, 36R, 38R.

Roughly speaking, the feet 28 to 32 and thus also the foot receptacles 34 to 38 have the shape of a hipped roof with main surfaces 40, 42 and end surfaces 44, 46. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the inner main surfaces 40 each have a shoulder 48.

The feet 28 to 32 and foot receptacles 34 to 38, which are thus asymmetrical in themselves, are now again arranged at locations on the pallet which are asymmetrical with respect to the longitudinal center plane 24 or the center axis of the pallet which is perpendicular to the drawing plane of FIG. In FIG. 3, points which identify symmetrical comparison positions for the feet 28 to 32 or the foot receptacles 34 to 38 are denoted by 50L, 52L and 54L or 50R, 52R, 54R.

As can be seen from FIG. 3, the feet 28L and 28R are offset in the outward direction by a distance X from the reference points 50L and 50R, while the feet 32L and 32R are inward at the other end of the pallet by the same distance X from the reference points 54L and 54R are offset. The center foot 30L is offset from the comparison point 52L, the center foot 30R is offset from the comparison point 52R inwards.

The pallets with one are on one of the transverse edges provided as a marking edge recess 56. Instead or in addition, you can also mark the corresponding pallet edge section with a layer of paint.

If pallets of the geometry shown in FIG. 3 are stacked one above the other in such a way that their edge recesses 56 are aligned, their feet and foot receptacles are also aligned, so that the pallets are stacked at a short distance. A corresponding pallet stack is shown in FIG. 2, Z2 denoting the large engagement distance of the feet in the foot mounts underneath. The distance between successive pallets is correspondingly small.

If, on the other hand, pallets are stacked on top of one another in such a way that a side edge provided with an edge recess 56 is flush with a recess-free side edge (ie the upper pallet is rotated by 180 ° with respect to the lower pallet), the feet of the pallet above it stand precisely on the heels 48 of the one below Pallet, ie one has the relationships shown in FIG. 4. This relationship exists between the carrying pallets 12 and the lid pallets 16 of the packaging units 10 shown in FIG. 1. Z1 denotes the small engagement distance of the feet in the foot mounts underneath. Accordingly, a large distance is obtained between the lid pallets 16 and the supporting pallets 12 of the next packaging unit lying above them.

Preferably, the taper of the feet and the material thickness of the pallets is adjusted so that even with the aligned alignment of the edge recesses 56, ie in a stack of identically aligned pallets, as shown in Figure 2, there is a distance between successive pallets that is just yet introducing the fork of a forklift enables. In practice, this distance is about 15 mm. In this way it is also possible, with special care, to separate with the forklift those packaging units in which a lid pallet or a carrier pallet was accidentally installed in the wrong orientation.

As can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 4, the upper sides of the pallets 12 and 16 have a groove 58, which is seen at the edge of the pallet in order to receive lower ends of an edge wall arrangement 14. The undersides have an aligned groove 60 for receiving upper ends of an edge wall arrangement 14 The walls of the grooves 58, 60 are slightly inclined to facilitate the introduction of the corrugated cardboard material.

The diagrammatically represented exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 5 differs from that according to FIGS. 3 and 4 in that the distance X is chosen so large that the shoulder 48 lies outside the feet 28 to 32 and the bottom of separate flat foot mounts 62L, 62R, 64L, 64R, 66L and 66R forms.

If one were to fold the pallet according to FIG. 5 at the longitudinal center plane 24, the pairs of foot receptacles 62L, 62R etc. would not overlap, nor would the pairs of feet 28L, 28R etc. overlap. However, there is an overlap between one foot and one Foot intake, e.g. 28L and 62R.

In the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 6, four pallet feet 28L, 28R and 32L and 32R, which are offset somewhat inwards from the corners, are provided. Their tops again form foot mounts 34L, 34R and 38L, 38R, in which Feet of an overlying pallet can largely be accommodated, so that the pallets can be stacked into a stack again, as shown in FIG.

Further flat foot receptacles 62L, 62R, 64L, 64R are again formed in the top of the pallets and can accommodate a lowermost section of feet 28 and 32 when the upper pallet is rotated through 90 °. The foot mounts 52 and 64 are flat compared to the foot mounts 34 and 38. Using the pallets shown in Figure 6, similar packaging units as shown in Figure 1 are assembled. For stacking the different packaging units on top of each other, they are rotated by 90 °, so that larger gaps are again obtained between the packaging units, into which the forks of a forklift can be easily inserted.

It goes without saying that further flat foot mounts such as foot mounts 62 and 64 from FIG. 6 can also be provided at a smaller angular distance, but in larger numbers. The packaging units 10-i are then stacked one above the other at these smaller angles, so that a helical stack is obtained.

The following properties of the packaging unit according to the invention become clear from the above description of exemplary embodiments:

The assembled packaging unit encloses a large volume and can also accommodate heavy objects. Their only two different elements (pallet, edge wall arrangement) are easily stackable and compact for reuse to send back.

Since the base part and cover part are identical, the storage is simplified; due to the higher quantities, a lower unit price for this part is possible.

The goods received are particularly well protected against falling objects, since the cover part is also a pallet and therefore has high mechanical strength.

The high mechanical strength of the lid part (just as good as that of the carrying pallet) allows a large number of packaging units to be stacked on top of one another, which in practice can weigh approx. 1t with content. In contrast to packaging units with cardboard cover parts, no stiffening in the form of support beams or the like need be provided in the interior of the packaging unit in order to achieve such stacking properties. The full interior is available to the user.

The gaps between stacked packaging units, in which forklift tines engage for storage and retrieval or for transport, are bounded by hard material at the top and bottom, namely by a pallet. Compared to packaging units that include a pallet and a box attached to it, the risk of damage to the packaging is reduced, which exists when the forklift tines are not set exactly vertically on the underside of the pallet or when the fork guide is tilted, a pressure on the top of the is exercised under the packaging unit to be moved. Packaging units damaged in this way give the consumer an unfavorable result Image of the manufacturer and also lead to concerns about invisible transport damage.

Due to the mechanically firm upper closure of the packaging unit and the greatly reduced risk of even visually disadvantageous damage to the edge wall arrangement, which is often made of corrugated cardboard in practice, the edge wall arrangement can also be reused more frequently. Edge wall arrangements, which are no longer optically perfect, are largely not accepted with regard to the company image.

The packaging unit according to the invention also consists of elements which, in practice (pressboard pallets and corrugated cardboard edge wall arrangement) with Euro pallet dimensions and approximately 1m in height, all weigh only about 5 to 10 kg in size and are therefore easy to move by hand without aids.

The pallets and the edge wall arrangement are each inexpensive parts. In the event of any damage, they can also be easily recycled or disposed of themselves.

Although in the exemplary embodiments described above, the pallets were molded parts made of pressboard material (machined residual wood bound by condensed urea resin), it is understood that the advantages described with regard to the stacking of the packaging units and the pallets can be obtained equally if the pallets are made of another resistant one Material e.g. Sheet metal can be made of steel or aluminum.

Honeycomb cardboard material or metal, wood or plastic honeycomb material can also be used for the edge wall arrangement instead of single or multi-layer corrugated cardboard. It is only important that the edge wall material has sufficient kink resistance and weather resistance.

Claims (5)

1. A stackable packaging unit with a lower pallet (12), a marginal wall arrangement (14) borne by this and a cover part borne by the latter, pallet (12) for its part being a stackable moulded part which has foot receptors (34 to 38) in its upper side into which the feet of a pallet lying on top may be introduced, characterised in that the lid part is formed by an upper pallet (16) which has the same shape as the lower pallet (12) and which is placed on top of the marginal wall arrangement (14) with feet (28 to 32) which hang downwards; and in that the feet (28 to 32) of the pallets (12, 16) and/or the foot receptors (34 to 38) of the pallets (12, 16) are formed asymmetrically with respect to a plane of symmetry (24) of the pallets (12, 16) or with respect to the pallet central axis standing perpendicular to the plane of the pallet such that the feet (28 to 32) of a first pallet (12) engage into the foot receptors (34 to 38) of a second pallet (16) lying below it in a first relative position of the two pallets by a first distance (Z1) and in a second relative position by a second distance (Z2) which differs from the first distance.
2. Packaging unit according to Claim 1, characterised in that the upper sides and lower sides of the pallets (12, 16) are provided with aligning means (58, 60) for positioning and fixing of the upper and lower ends of the marginal wall arrangement (14), respectively.
3. Packaging unit according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the feet (28 to 32) and the foot receptors (34 to 38) of the pallets (12, 16) have ledges (48) which in pairs exhibit different distances (X) from the central plane of the pallet (24).
4. Packaging unit according to one of the Claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the pallets (12, 16) have foot receptors (34, 38, 62, 64) angularly offset with respect to the pallet axis and of differing depths.
5. Packaging unit according to Claim 3 or 4, characterised in that at least one of the pallet edges is provided with a marking (56).

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