GB2058178A - Transporting Hot Road-making Material - Google Patents

Abstract

A demountable insulated container primarily for transporting hot bituminous road-making material includes a base (10) and side walls (12), each comprising inner and outer panels sandwiching a thermal insulating material such as glass fibre. The container, which may be in the form of a tippable skip, has a tail gate (14) to enable tipping while on the transporter vehicle, and a pair of centrally opening, vertically pivoted side doors, Figure 2 (not shown), to permit mechanical unloading of the contents when the skip has been deposited on site. An alternative form of container comprises a tipping semi- trailer. The container system enables the material to be kept in good condition on site for a prolonged period. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements Relating to the Transportation of Heated Materials This invention relates to the transportation of heated materials such as bituminous road-making materials for example.

Bituminous road-making materials are usually mixed at a supplier's depot and then transported by road in a tipper lorry to the delivery site, which may be a depot where the material is subdivided or may be a road-making site where the material is tipped directly into a road-making machine for laying.

Because the usability of bituminous roadmaking materials depends on weather conditions, and because there may be site delays due to the weather, delay in preceding operations, and organisational problems, the transport cost involved in supplying heated bituminous materials is greatly increased. A lorry arriving on a delivery site may be held waiting for a considerabie time before its load can be used, resulting in the working capacity of both the driver and the lorry being under-utilised.

Simply tipping the contents from the lorry and leaving them on the site is not usually a satisfactory solution to this problem, since the material very rapidly cools and becomes unusabie.

There is a temperature range within which each type of road-making material may properly be laid, and the more sophisticated modern wearing courses tend to require mixing and laying at higher temperatures than hitherto, which are governed by the relevant British Standard.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a transportation container for heated materials which overcomes these supply problems.

According to the invention there is provided a container comprising a body, having a load space within which a heated material may be loaded, the body being thermally insulated and the container being adapted to co-operate for transportation with a motive unit and being readily detachable therefrom at a delivery site.

Preferably, the body comprises a base and a surrounding wall or walls, the base and walls each having an inner panel defining part of the load space, thermal insulation adjacent the inner panel and an outer panel concealing the insulation.

The container may be a semi-trailer having road wheels and being adapted to be connected for towing behind the motive unit.

Alternatively, the container may be a wheelless skip which is adapted to be loaded onto and off a transporter.

The container may be of elongate generally rectangular shape in plan view and may be provided with a rear door which may be a tipping' tail gate.

Alternatively, or in addition, the container may have one or more side doors and preferably has a pair of centrally opening doors, pivotable about respective vertical axes and having a width sufficient to permit access by a mechanical handling machine to unload the contents.

A preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a skip adapted to be mounted for tipping movement and for on-off loadiny movement on a transporter motive unit.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a skip which is shown being tipped: Figure 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the skip showing the door positioning.

The skip shown in the drawings is of a generally rectangular shape in plan and has a base 10 which is constructed of reinforcing members 11 and steel sheet. The containing walls 12 are also constructed in the same manner and the skip is strengthened by strong upright corner posts 13. The walls and base each comprise inner and outer panels.

At the rear end of the skip, there is provided a tipping tail-gate of generally known type, shown at 14. This is pivoted at its top edge about horizontally disposed hinges, indicated at 1 5. The lower part of the tail-gate is also pivoted horizontally to the remainder at 1 6 in known manner, so that tipping can start with only the lower part of the gate open and the rest can be opened when the load has been reduced in size, for free movement of the material.

The tipping operation can be seen in Figure 1, with the skip mounted on the deck of the motive unit of a transporter 17 and being tipped by means of a hydraulic ram 18.

The skip can be removed entirely from the transporter motive unit and left on the delivery site for later use of the contents. In order that the contents should not deteriorate through loss of the necessary temperature for laying, the container is insulated throughout with any suitable high-temperature insulating material such as a thick layer of glass fibre, which is inserted between the reinforcing members 11 and between the inner panel 9 and outer facing panel 1 9 of sheet steel. The top of the skip may be provided with any form of cover which is capable of reducing loss of heat from the surface of the material contained in the skip, such as an insulated close-fitting tarpaulin.

The material in the skip must be accessible to material handling machinery to empty it when required for use. The tipping facilities of the transporter are no longer available, since it will have been removed from the site to transport another load. The skip is therefore provided with a pair of side doors 20 which are pivoted about a vertical mounting on the respective reinforcing members 11 of the side wall of the skip. The doors extend for the full height of the skip and allow access by not only the bucket of a mechanical shovel, for example, but also by the body of the machine, to fully unload the contents of the skip. The rear door or tail-gate is closed during this unloading process.It is not possible to use a rear door for the mechanical unloading of the skip unless some special handling equipment is used, since all conventionally used such equipment is too wide to gain access. The maximum width of the skip is controlled by the requirement that it must be transportable by road and by the "Construction and Use" Regulations.

The construction of the side doors is similar to that of the rest of the skip and these doors are also insulated with glass fibre or some similar material. A suitable locking device is fitted to the doors to prevent their opening in transit.

It shouid be possible using this type of skip to transport bituminous road-making materials and to leave them on site for several hours and in the case of some materials for several days, before they become unusable through heat loss.

A modified container (not shown) may also be used in the manner described above. The container in this case comprises a semi-trailer, adapted to be towed on its own road wheels behind a "tractor" unit to form an articulated vehicle. The semi-trailer may be uncoupled from the tractor and left on site. The walls are insulated, as described above, with glass fibre and there is also provided some suitable form of cover, to reduce heat loss from the surface. In this case, the semi-trailer may have its own tipping gear and may not need the side access door described in relation to a skip.

It will be appreciated that, by use of the apparatus of the invention, a supplier of heated materials may be able to use his men and motive units to greater advantage than has been possible previously, since the delay on site is reduced to the time taken either to discharge the contents of the container or to uncouple or unload the container from the motive unit, after which the motive unit can be driven off for another load of material or to another site.

Furthermore, the loss of material due to the reduction of its temperature below an acceptable level is unlikely to occur because of the insulation which keeps the material warm.

Although the invention is especially designed for use with bituminous road-making materials, it may be useful in other fields. The details of the container and its insulation may be altered without departing from the scope of the invention

Claims (13)

Claims

1. A container comprising a body having a load space within which a heated material may be loaded, the body being thermally insulated and the container being adapted to cooperate for transportation with a motive unit and being readily detachable therefrom at a delivery site.

2. A container according to claim 1 and comprising a base and a surrounding wall or walls, the base and walls each having an inner panel defining part of the load space, thermal insulation adjacent the inner panel and an outer cladding panel concealing the insulation.

3. A container according to claim 1 or claim 2 and comprising a semi-trailer having road wheels and being adapted to be connected for towing behind the motive unit.

4. A container according to claim 1 or claim 2 and comprising a wheel-less skip which is adapted to be loaded onto and off a transporter.

5. A container according to any preceding claim which is of elongate generally rectangular shape in plan view and which is provided with a rear door.

6. A container according to claim 5 wherein the rear door comprises a tipping tail gate.

7. A container according to any one of claims 1 to 4 of elongate generally rectangular shape in plan view and having one or more side doors.

8. A container according to claim 7 having a pair of centrally opening side doors pivotable about respective vertical axes and having a width sufficient to permit access by a mechanical handling machine to unload the contents.

9. A container according to any preceding claim and having an insulated cover.

10. A transporter for heated material comprising, in combination, a motive unit and a container according to any preceding claim.

11. A transporter according to claim 10 wherein the container comprises a skip and the motive unit includes means for tipping the skip angularly to discharge its load and for off-loading the skip from the motive unit.

12. A container substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

13. A transporter substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.