EP3683163B1 - Container with bumper - Google Patents

Description

technical field

The present disclosure relates to a container, in particular a large load carrier that can be nested or nested, with a base and side walls which widen conically and/or in steps, in particular from the base to a peripheral container edge.

State of the art

Nestable containers are known from the prior art, which have side walls that widen towards the container opening and thus allow a plurality of unfilled containers to be nested to reduce the transport volume when transported empty.

Investigations by the applicant into the tipping kinematics of a stack of such nested containers have shown that when tipping over onto a level floor, the upper edge of the lowermost container of the stack hits the ground first. Especially in the case of large load carriers that are handled with forklifts or comparable industrial trucks, such a tipping over of a stack of containers occurs comparatively frequently. In particular when forming stacks and when separating containers from such a stack, it often happens that the fork tines do not hit the intended engagement recesses and the stack is knocked over. Especially with high stacks of such large containers, very large impact forces occur when they tip over a single container rim, often resulting in rupture of the container rim of said lowermost container. A conical container with a broken rim is usually unusable due to the load-bearing effect of the rim and must be sorted out.

The relevant prior art results from the DE 202 15 449 U1 , the GB 2 075 462 A and the WO 2007/128 043 A1 .

Disclosure of Invention

Against this background, the object of the present invention is to provide a container with a more robust construction.

This object is solved by the features of independent claim 1. Advantageous developments are the subject of the subclaims.

According to the invention, a container is provided which has a particularly rectangular base and side walls which extend from the base to a container edge. At least one of the side walls of the container has a bumper or shock absorber on its outside, which is arranged below the container edge and preferably at a distance from it when viewed in the direction of container height and protrudes from said outside at least so far that it forms a plane between an outer edge of the bottom and an, in particular lower, outer edge of the container edge which is stretched over at least one side wall, touches or intersects. Due to such a constructive design, when the container tilts about the associated outer edge of the base, the bumper hits a flat base in front of the edge of the container. In addition, the bumper is hollow, in particular in the form of a hollow profile, or there is a clear width between the bumper and the outer surface of the associated side wall, which is shielded from it. Furthermore, the bumper tapers or is rounded towards the outside of the container and is structurally designed and adapted to withstand a lateral impact on the container To dissipate elastic and / or plastic deformation at least partially, ie the bumper is adapted in its structure and / or its choice of materials to energy occurring in an impact, for example, by internal friction losses.

The provision of a hollow space or a clear space between the bumper and the side wall shielded by it makes it possible to define a specific deformation path or a crumple zone on which the bumper can deform and thus dissipate impact energy.

According to a further preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention, the at least one bumper can be arranged in the upper third of the container, viewed in the container height direction, in particular at a distance of 180 to 240 mm from the upper container edge.

According to a preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention, the side walls can widen out from the bottom in the direction of the container edge, in particular extending conically and/or in steps. The container cross-section, which widens in the container height direction, enables nesting or nesting of several containers of the same construction. A bumper is particularly advantageous in such nestable containers, since the edge is particularly exposed due to the conical shape of the walls.

According to a preferred embodiment, the bumper can be designed so that it does not protrude further in a direction parallel to the floor than the outer edge of the container edge of the container side protected/shielded by it, in order not to increase the external dimensions of the container. Preferably, the bumper after terminate flush with said outer edge of the container rim on the outside or be arranged flush with this in the container height direction.

According to a preferred embodiment, the container can have four side walls and four bumpers can be arranged in each corner area of the container. In this way, impact forces can be introduced well into the already reinforced corner areas of a container. The bumpers can preferably be arranged on two opposite side walls of the container. It is advisable, for example in the case of containers with an essentially rectangular base, to provide bumpers on the longer side walls, since the containers tend to tip over the longer bottom edge. In the case of large load carriers, there is often a predetermined engagement direction or engagement sides for forklifts and the like. In this case, it is advantageous to arrange the bumpers on side walls remote from the engagement sides, since a stack of nested containers will tend to tip away from the forklift.

According to a further preferred aspect of the invention, the bumper can have a predetermined impact absorption or crumple section which is designed to dissipate impact energy in the event of an impact with elastic and/or plastic deformation. Various embodiments of such impact absorption sections are conceivable. According to a preferred embodiment, the impact absorbing portion may be a folded portion of the bumper. According to a further exemplary embodiment, the impact absorption section can be a predetermined breaking point which is introduced in a targeted manner and which dampens the force of the impact. According to a further exemplary embodiment, the bumper can have an elastomer section for better shock absorption.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the bumper can be suspended from the container via an elastic spring section, for example an integral plastic leaf spring section, and can thus be arranged on the container in a spring-biased manner so that it can move relative to the container side wall.

The bumper tapers towards the outside of the container or in the direction away from the container. In this way, impact forces can be absorbed at a predetermined comparatively small-area section of the bumper and distributed over a larger area of the container.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the bumper can have a projection on the outside of the container for the defined application of impact forces, which protrudes obliquely away from the container and downwards (towards the ground) from the bumper.

According to a further preferred aspect of the invention, the edge of the container can be designed to protrude towards the outside of the container. More preferably, the projecting edge of the container can project at least on two opposite sides by more than 10 mm, so that said projecting edge is adapted to be engaged by a fork of a lift truck or other industrial truck from one side.

Particularly preferably, the container can be a large load carrier with a pallet-shaped base part that is adapted for engaging a fork of a lift truck or other industrial truck. In such containers, large forces act when stacks of containers placed on top of one another tip over, so that a bumper according to the invention is particularly advantageous.

According to an alternative embodiment, the bumper can be designed as a bumper bar arranged on the outside of the associated side wall.

According to a further preferred aspect of the invention, the container can be made of plastic, in particular in an injection molding or rotomoulding process. Particularly preferably, the container can be made of one piece of material and the bumper can be molded integrally onto it.

Brief description of the figures

• Figures 1A and 1B are perspective views of a container according to a first embodiment of the invention from different sides;
• Figures 2A, 2B and 2C are representations to illustrate the tumbling kinematics of a stack of identical nested containers according to the first embodiment;
• 3 Fig. 12 is a side view of a container according to the first embodiment of the invention;
• 4 Figure 12 is a detailed view of a first embodiment of a bumper;
• figure 5 Figure 12 is a detailed view of a second embodiment of a bumper;
• 6 Figure 12 is a detailed view of a third embodiment of a bumper;
• 7 Figure 12 is a detailed view of a fourth embodiment of a bumper; and
• 8 Figure 12 is a detailed view of a fifth embodiment of a bumper.

Description of the exemplary embodiments

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below based on the accompanying figures.

Figures 1A and 1B show a perspective view of a container 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. The container 1 shown is a large load carrier made of plastic with a pallet-shaped base 2 with recesses 3 for engaging the fork of a lifting truck and four side walls 4, 6, 8, 10. The container 1 shown is designed as a nestable container 1, ie the four side walls 4, 6, 8, 10 widen conically towards the container opening in order to enable identical containers 1 to be nested (see e.g. Figure 2A ). To put it more precisely, the container 1 shown is a so-called rotary stacking container, which can either be stacked or nested with an identical container, depending on the relative rotation of the two identical containers to one another.

The container 1 shown has a cantilever defining its container opening and is structurally reinforced with a circumferential rim of ribs

Container rim 12. The ribbed structure of container rim 12 forms recessed areas (not described in more detail here) that allow one or more containers 1 to be lifted out of a stack of nested containers 1 for separation using a fork lift truck. Precisely in the case of such separating operations with fork lift trucks, it often happens that stacks of containers 1 placed one inside the other are knocked over.

The container 1 of Figures 1A and 1B also has horizontal or floor-parallel projections or ribs 13 in its corner areas, which are arranged lower than the surrounding rib rings of the container edge 12 and serve as a stop to limit the nest depth when stacking several identical containers 1.

the Figures 2A, 2B and 2C illustrate the behavior of a stack of nested large load carriers 1.1' when tipping over. Applicant has found that due to inertia and play between the individual nested containers 1, the lower edge of the projecting container edge 12' of the bottommost container 1' of the stack often forms the first point of impact of such a stack of containers. As a rule, this is not designed for such loads, as a result of which the container edge 12' breaks and the container 1' becomes unusable.

As in Figure 2B As can be seen, the containers 1 arranged further up in the stack tend to hit the ground with their container edge 12 rather flat when tipping over. Figure 2C shows an end position in which the stack comes to rest on the container edges 12 of the container 1.

In summary, the rim 12 of the bottommost container 1 of a tipping stack of nested containers 1 receives a disproportionate portion of the impact force and the precise impact point of each container 1 varies with its position in the container stack. As a result, it is difficult to design the container rim 12 for this load.

Due to the problems described above, the container 1 according to the preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention has an impact absorbing structure or a bumper 14 . Like e.g. in Figure 2A is clearly visible, the bumper 14' is designed to project below the container edge 12' and far enough out of the side wall that when a stack of nested containers 1 tips over, the bumper 14' of the lowest container 1' hits the ground in front of its container edge 12A . The same applies to the containers 1 arranged somewhat further up in the stack. The container 1 according to the preferred exemplary embodiment has four such bumpers 14 which are each arranged in corner regions and essentially shield or protect two opposite side walls 4, 6 of the container 1 project this (cf. Figure 1A ).

As for example in the side view of the figure 3 As can be seen clearly, the bumper 14 is designed as a shock absorbing structure which is spaced from the edge 12 of the container towards the underside of the container and protrudes in profile over the side wall 4, 6. To be more precise, the bumper protrudes so far from the associated outside of the container that it forms an imaginary plane E that spans between the lower outer edge 24, 26, 28, 30 of the projecting container edge 12 and the outer edge 16, 18, 20, 22 of the base 2 is, pierces. In other words, the bumper 14 protrudes so far from the outside of the associated side wall 4, 6, 8, 10 that it protrudes beyond the imaginary plane E and thus if it tips over (with the outer edge 16, 18, 20, 22 of the floor 2 as the instantaneous pole) in front of the lower outer edge 24, 26, 28, 30 of the projecting container edge 12 hits the ground.

Like in the figure 3 It is easy to see that the bumper 14 is spaced downwards from the container edge 12 in the container height direction and projects so far in a direction parallel to the ground that it ends flush with a projection A of the outer surface of the container edge 12 . On the one hand, this fulfills the purpose that the bumper does not unnecessarily increase the external dimensions of the container 1 and, on the other hand, the outer surface of the container edge 12 and the bumper 14 can both serve as support points in a stack of containers that has fallen over (see also Figure 2C ).

A number of preferred embodiments of bumpers 14 in accordance with the present invention will now be discussed. What all of these embodiments have in common is that their overall structure or predetermined impact absorption sections 32 are designed to at least partially absorb or dissipate impacts. Mechanisms for such dissipation of impact energy are mainly internal friction losses during elastic deformation and/or during plastic deformation of components.

The in the Figures 3 and 4 The basic structure of the bumper 14 shown is designed as a hollow profile and is arranged in each of the corner areas of the container 1 . The said hollow profile shape encloses a hollow space or a clear space R between the side wall and the bumper 14 . The bumper 14 in the form of a hollow profile is integrally formed on the container 1 and exhibits elasticity and a defined spring deflection/a defined crumple zone for absorbing impact forces due to its overall structure or due to the clear space R enclosed towards the wall. The hollow profile shape of the bumper 14 forms a defined impact section 15 at its end (seen from the shielded side wall 4) on the outside of the container, in this case a flattened end section. Seen from this impact section 15, the structure of the bumper 14 (the hollow profile) widens in the direction of the container or in the direction of a central plane M of the container. This has the advantage that impact forces at the impact section 15 can be introduced into the bumper 14 in a defined manner and then distributed over a larger area and introduced into the container 1 . In addition, the widening hollow profile structure supports a defined elastic deformation of the bumper 14.

The bumper 14 in the form of a hollow profile is molded onto the container 1 in such a way that the hollow profile is open in the direction of the side wall 8 , 10 adjoining the shielded side wall 4 , 6 . This enables good demouldability during manufacture in a plastic casting process. A lower section of the bumper 14 (or its hollow profile shape) running essentially horizontally or parallel to the ground is formed by the rib 13, which also serves to limit the nest depth.

figure 5 1 shows a detailed view of a bumper 14 in the form of a hollow profile according to a second exemplary embodiment, which is similar in its form and function to the bumper 14 according to the first exemplary embodiment. The main distinguishing feature of the bumper 14 according to the second embodiment from the first embodiment is the rounded or essentially semicircular hollow profile shaped impact section 15. Compared to the flattened curved impact section 15 according to the embodiment of FIG figure 4 the semicircular profile shape generates a higher impact point in the event of a tipping over and thus an advantageous introduction of force into the hollow profile structure of the bumper 14, which widens in the direction of the container center plane M.

the inside 6 The bumper 14 shown according to a third exemplary embodiment of the invention has a round/rounded impact section 15 like the bumper 14 according to the second exemplary embodiment. In addition, according to a third exemplary embodiment, the bumper 14 has on the lower half of its semicircular impact section 15 a projection 34 pointing obliquely away from the interior of the container and pointing downwards for a defined introduction of force into the bumper 14 . The semi-circular abutting section 15 is designed with a reduced material thickness above the projection 34 in order to provide a defined predetermined breaking point 35 in this area. In addition, the bumper 14 according to in figure 6 shown third embodiment on a spring portion 36, via which it is suspended on the container 1 (here on the container edge 12), on. Due to the resilient suspension already provided by the spring section 36, the bumper 14 according to the third exemplary embodiment can be designed with a hollow profile structure that widens less.

7 shows a fourth embodiment of a bumper 14 according to the invention. This has an impact absorption section 38 in the form of a folded section 38 . Similar to comparable structures in passenger cars, the folded structure enables a defined deformation with increased energy dissipation per compressed section. In the exemplary embodiment shown, the folded section 38 is in the horizontally extending section or the rib 13 of the bumper 14 and in the form of a hollow profile arranged adjacent to the impact section 15 in order to absorb impact forces occurring on impact as directly as possible.

8 shows a fifth preferred embodiment of a bumper 14, which is manufactured in a 2-component injection molding process. In this embodiment variant, the impact section 15 of the bumper 14, which projects away from the interior of the container, is coated with an elastomer section 40, which cushions the forces occurring on impact. In other words, an elastomer pad 40 is molded onto the bumper 14 on the outside of the container for better shock absorption. Thus, in this embodiment, the impact portion 15 per se forms the impact absorbing portion 32 .

Reference sign

1

large load carriers;

2

Floor;

3

recess;

4, 6, 8, 10

Side wall;

12

container rim;

13

Rib for forklift engagement surfaces or underside of bumper;

14

bumper;

15

shock section;

16, 18, 20, 22

outer edge of the floor;

24, 26, 28, 30

(lower) outer edge of the container rim;

32

impact absorption section;

34

Head Start;

35

predetermined breaking point;

36

spring section;

38

folded section;

40

elastomer section;

A

projection of the outer surface; and

E

level

M

container center plane;

R

light room.

Claims (12)

1. A container (1), in particular a nestable container, having a bottom (2) and side walls (4, 6, 8, 10) which extend from the bottom (2) towards a circumferential container rim (12), in particular conically and/or widening in steps,

   wherein at least one of the side walls (4, 6, 8, 10) has a shock absorber (14) on its outer side, which is arranged in the container height direction below the container rim (12) and preferably at a distance therefrom, and projects from said outer side at least to such an extent that it is tangent to or intersects a plane spanned between an outer edge (16, 18, 20, 22) of the bottom (2) and an outer edge (24, 26, 28, 30) of the container rim (20) of the at least one side wall (4, 6, 8, 10), so that in the event of a tilting movement of the container (1) about the associated outer edges (16, 18, 20, 22) of the bottom (2), the shock absorber (14) hits a flat bottom before the container rim (12),

   characterized in that

   the shock absorber (14) is hollow, in particular in the form of a hollow profile, or in that a clearance is formed between the shock absorber (14) and the outer surface of the associated side wall (4, 6, 8, 10) shielded by the latter, and

   the shock absorber (14) tapers in the direction away from the container interior, so that

   the shock absorber (14) is configured and adapted to at least partially dissipate an impact acting laterally on the container (1) while undergoing elastic and/or plastic deformation.
2. The container (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the shock absorber (14) does not project further in the direction parallel to the bottom than the outer edge (24, 26, 28, 30) of the container rim (12), and in particular ends flush with it.
3. The container (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the at least one shock absorber (14) is arranged in the upper third of the container, viewed in the container height direction.
4. The container (1) according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the container has four side walls (4, 6, 8, 10) and comprises four shock absorbers (14) arranged in corner regions of the container, respectively.
5. The container (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the shock absorber (14) comprises a predetermined impact absorbing section (32), which is a folded portion (38), an elastomer portion (40) or a predetermined breaking point (35) and which is adapted to at least partially dissipate impact energy upon impact while undergoing elastic and/or plastic deformation.
6. The container (1) according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the shock absorber (14) is suspended from or connected to the container (1) via an elastic spring portion (40).
7. The container (1) according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that an underside (13) of the at least one shock absorber (14) runs parallel to the container rim (12) and said underside (13) forms a stop for limiting a nest depth when nesting several identically constructed containers (1).
8. The container (1) according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the shock absorber (14) has a projection (34) on the outside of the container for the defined introduction of impact forces, said projection being oriented in the direction obliquely away from the container interior and downwards from the shock absorber.
9. The container (1) according to one of claim 1 to 8, characterized in that the circumferential container rim (12) is designed to cantilever outwards, in particular by at least 50 mm, in order to allow engagement of a fork of a lift truck or another industrial truck.
10. The container (1) according to claim 9, characterized in that the cantilevered container rim is formed as a ribbed structure or a number of ribbed wreaths.
11. The container (1) according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the container (1) is a large load carrier (1) with a pallet-shaped bottom part (2) adapted for engagement of a fork of a lift truck or another industrial truck.
12. The container (1) according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the container (1) is made of plastic, in particular in an injection molding or rotomolding process.

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