GB2439170A

GB2439170A - Collapsible box pallet with strip hinges

Info

Publication number: GB2439170A
Application number: GB0709473A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Craig Douglas Stanton; Niels Rosenfeldt
Original assignee: ELB TIMBER PRODUCTS
Current assignee: ELB TIMBER PRODUCTS
Priority date: 2006-06-14
Filing date: 2007-05-17
Publication date: 2007-12-19
Also published as: ZA200703727B; GB0709473D0

Abstract

A collapsible box, preferably in the form of a box pallet, consists of wall assembly 14 which includes four wall panels 16, 18, 20 which are arranged in a square or rectangle, with a pair of opposite panels each being vertically divided into two equally dimensioned sub-panels 18, 20. The panels 16, 18, 20 are connected together via hinges 22, 24 provided at the corners of the panels 16 and the sub-panels 18, 20. The hinged edges of the sub-panels 18, 20 are movable towards each other until the sub-panels 18,20 of each divided wall panel are superimposed on each other and sandwiched between the pair of undivided panels 16, thus collapsing the box. The hinges 22, 24 are preferably in the form a threaded strip or tape 34, which is threaded through slots provided in the panels 16, 18, 20.

Description

CONTAINER BOX WALL ASSEMBLY

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to a knock-down wall assembly for use with a base to provide a container box for the bulk storage and transportation of goods such as, but not exclusively, fruit and the like.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

[0002] Known boxes of the above type generally include forklift pallet bases which, after the box has served its purpose, are returned with the wall components in a secured stack to the sender of the goods.

[0003] The stacked box components are, principally because of the pallet, heavy and occupy more shipping container space than is necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] A container box wall assembly according to the invention includes four wall panels which are arranged in a square or rectangle in plan with a pair of opposite panels each being vertically divided into two equally dimensioned sub-panels and hinges which connect the panels at the corners of the box and the sub-panels together so that the hinged edges of the sub-panels are movable inwardly towards each other until the sub-panels of each divided wall panel are superimposed on each other and sandwiched between the pair of undivided panels.

Page 2 [0005] The panel hinges may be made from a strip of flexible material which is anchored, adjacent the abutting panel vertical edges to extend across the join between the panels on the side of the join towards which the panels are to be hinged towards each other and to restrain the panels from being hinged outwardly from each other when the wall assembly is erected.

[0006] In one form of the invention the corner hinge arrangements of the wall assembly may each include a pair of apertures through each of the panels with a first of the apertures of each pair being adjacent the corner join in the panels and the second spaced from it away from the join and the hinge strip may be anchored at one end to one end of the panels and threaded through the four apertures to extend between the first and second apertures on each panel on the outside of the corner and between the first apertures of one of the panels and the second aperture of the second panel and vice versa on the inside of the corner, with the free end of the strip being anchored to one of panels.

[0007] The hinge arrangements between the two pairs of secondary panels may include an aperture which passes through both panels across the join between them and each panel may include a second aperture which is spaced from the composite aperture between them with the three apertures being aligned on a line which is substantially perpendicular to the join between the panels and the hinge strip may be anchored at one end to one of the panels and threaded through the composite aperture back through the second aperture of a first of the sub-panels, across the join in the panels on the side of the panels against the Page 3 hinging direction of the panels and through the second aperture of the second panel with its free end then fastened to one of the panels.

[0008] In both the corner and sub-panel hinge arrangements the apertures in the panels are elongated slots which are parallel to the vertical edges of the panels which the hinges are to connect.

[0009] The sub-panel hinge arrangements may, in addition to the above strip wrapping include a second strip wrapping adjacent the common series of three slots with the second wrapping being anchored at one end to one of the panels and threaded through the composite slot back through the second aperture of a first of the panels, back through the composite slot to cross the portion of strip already in the slot with its free end then being anchored to the second panel.

[0010] The strip of flexible material may preferably be an elongated tape which has a significantly greater width than its thickness. Conveniently, the tape is made from a suitably robust woven material and is wrapped through the slots in a plurality of threaded configurations as described above which together extend over a substantial length of the slots.

[0011] Conveniently, the hinge arrangements between each pair of panel edges which are joined by the arrangements includes on their joined edges a plurality of the hinge arrangements which are spaced from each other over the vertical length of the joined edges.

Page 4 [0012] The upper and lower edges of the panels of the wall assembly may each include locator formations at the corners of the assembly which may be engaged with a forklift pallet.

[0013] The locator formations may each be in the form of a length of channel section with the base of the channel overlying the panel edge on which it is located and the sides of which embrace the panel surfaces on each side of the panel with the outer channel side extending above the outer surface of the channel base so that in use the outer surface of a pallet base having the same outer dimension as the erected wall assembly will be restrained by the upwardly projecting formation against horizontal dislocation from the pallet.

[0014] The location formations may be fixed in any suitable manner to the wall assembly panels.

[0015] The locator formations at each corner of the wall assembly may include flexible safety cables or the like which are engaged with and extend between the edges of the channel formations which are remote from the panel corner adjacent which they are located.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] An embodiment of the container box wall assembly is now described by way of a non-limiting example only with reference to the drawings in which Figure 1 is an isometric view from above of the box wall assembly of the invention, Page 5 Figures 2, 3 and 4 are partially diagrammatic fragmentary plan views of the wall panels of the wall assembly of Figure 1 shown sectioned across the two types of hinge used in the assembly, Figure 5 is an isometric view of a partially collapsed box wall assembly of Figure 1, Figure 6 is an end elevation of the totally collapsed wall assembly of Figure 5, Figure 7 is an isometric view of one of the pallet locator formations used in the wall assembly of the invention, and Figure 8 is a fragmentary isometric view of a corner of the wall assembly of the invention illustrating the pallet locator formations of Figure 6, in use.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT

[0017] The container box wall assembly 14 is shown in Figure 1 to include two panels 16, composite panels which each comprise a narrow sub-panel 18, and an equally narrow sub-panel 20, hinge arrangements 22 and 24 which hingedly join the panels together and pallet locators 25 which are located on the wall panels at the upper and lower corner edges of the panels. The wall panels, in this embodiment, are made from a suitably robust timber laminate.

[0018] The panels 16 and the composite sub-panels 18 and 20 are, in this embodiment, equally dimensioned to form a wall assembly which is square in plan.

Page 6 [0019] As seen in Figure 2 one of the vertical edges of a panel at the corners of the wall assembly is rebated at the connection points of the panels to prevent inward collapse of the panels in use.

[0020] The hinge arrangements 22 at the corners of the wall assembly 14 are more clearly illustrated in Figures 2, and 8.

[0021] Each of the corner hinge arrangements 22 includes four slots 26, 28, 30 and 32 with the slots 26 and 28 located in one panel at a corner of the box and the slots 30 and 32 in the abutting panel at a common corner of the box. The slots pass through the panels with the openings of the slots 28 and 30 on the inside of the box being located closely adjacent the internal corner of the box as shown in Figure 2.

[0022] The hinge assembly 22 additionally includes a length of tape 34 which is preferably a woven tape which is made from a non-stretchable natural fabric or plastics material.

[0023] The tape 34 is threaded or wrapped through the slots 26 to 32 as illustrated in Figure 2 where it is shown that an end of the tape is fixed to the panel 16 by means of a heavy duty staple or the like and threaded in order through the slots 32, 28, 26, 30 and back through the slots 32 and 28 with its free end to be anchored to the panel 20 as shown in the drawing. During threading of the hinge arrangement it is important that the wall assembly 12 is erected as shown in Figure 1 and that the tape is tensioned while being threaded through the various slots. For simplicity of illustration the tape 34 in Figure 2 is shown diagrammatically as only a single wrap but in practice the tape would be wrapped Page 7 a number of times through the slots in the same configuration as illustrated in Figure 2 with the tape sections overlapping and passing across one another at the joins so that the entire length of the slots accommodate the wrappings. In Figure 1 only single or partial double corner wraps are shown for simplicity of illustration.

[0024] As will be appreciated from Figure 2 the panels 16 and 20 may now be folded inwardly towards one another on the hinge 22 with the lengths of tape extending between the slots on the inside of the box between the apertures 26 and 30 and 32 and 28 being slackened in the hinging process. Conversely, if an attempt is made to hinge the panels outwardly away from one another the lengths of tape on the inside of the box would be tensioned to inhibit the outward hinging of the panels.

[0025] The hinge arrangements 24 of the sub-panels 18 and 20 which lie in a common plane, in the erected wall assembly, are illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 of the drawings. This hinge arrangement of the invention is shown to include three slots 36, 38 and 40 in the panels 18 and 20. The slot 38 is a composite slot which extends across the join between the two panels as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. The slots 36 and 40 are located respectively in the sub-panels 18 and 20 on the outside of the composite slot 38. With this hinge arrangement it is intended that the panels should be able to fold inwardly at their join and resist outwardly folding. To achieve this one end of a first tape 42 is attached to one of the panels 18 or 20 and is threaded through the composite aperture, back through the apertures 36 or 40 of the panel to which it is fixed, across the join on the outside of the box to the remaining slot 36 or 40, back through the composite Page 8 slot and may be fastened to either the panel 18 or 20 as is convenient. As with the hinge arrangements 22, Figure 3 shows, for clarity of illustration, only one wrap whereas in practice there would be multiple identical wraps. In other words the free ends of the tape illustrated in Figure 3 would each be passed from the ends shown in the drawing back through the slots 36 and 40 with this and subsequent wraps following the Figure 3 configurations so that the wrapped length of the first tape 42 extends over a half of the length of each of the slots from one end. The hinges 24 which join the sub-panels 18 and 20 may simply be moved inwardly towards each other, as shown in Figure 5, with the tape portions extending across the inside of the join slackening to allow for hinging in this direction while restraining hinging in the opposite outward direction. A second tape 43 is now wrapped through the slots, either below or above the wrapped first tape 42 in the wrapping configuration shown in Figure 4 in which the tape 43 is shown wrapped in a Figure 8 configuration across the join between the panels 18 and 20. As with the Figure 2 wrapping the free end of the tape 43 would not terminate where shown in Figure 3 but would for a number of wraps follow the illustrated configuration and then be anchored to either panel. The purpose of the second wrap is to hold the panels together at the hinge when the tape 42 of the Figure 3 tape slackens during the folding of the panels.

[0026] It is now a simple matter to hinge the panels 18 and 20 on their hinges 22 and 24 to bring the panels 16 towards each other, as shown in Figure 5, and eventually at the completion of the hinging process, as shown in Figure 6, to rest on the inner surfaces of the panels 18 and 20 in a compact stack.

Page 9 [0027] The pallet locators 25 are h-shaped in cross-section to provide a channel formation 44 and an upstanding locator formation 46 which is coplanar with the rear side of the channel 44, as shown in Figure 7. The inner surfaces of the side walls 44 of the locator are spaced from each other by a dimension which will enable the channel 44 to be a nice fit over the channel edges, as shown in Figure 8.

[0028] The pallet locators 25 are, as shown in Figures 1 and 8, spaced a little distance from the upper and lower corner edges of the panels of the wall assembly.

[0029] A plastic sheathed safety steel cable which is formed into a loop with its free ends solidly connected by means of a competent crimp lug 50 is located in the channel 44 portions of a pair of pallet locators 25 prior to the location of the locators on the wall panel edges at the corners of the wall assembly. With the safety cable 48 located in the channels the pair of locators are pressed down over the upper edges of the panels as shown in Figure 8 with the cable 48 being tensioned between the edges of the channels remote from the corners of the panels as shown in the drawing. The locators 25 are then secured to the panels by suitable rivets 52 or the like with the portions of the cable 48 which are located in the channels 44 of the locators being firmly squeezed onto or even into the edge surfaces of the panels between the panel edge surfaces and the inner surface of the channels.

[0030] The container box wall assembly 14 of the invention is intended for use with a conventional forklift pallet 54 which is dimensioned so that the outer Page 10 surfaces of the pallet, when the wail assembly 14 is located on it, are flush with the outer surfaces of the panels of the erected wall assembly. With the wall assembly located on the pallet the inner surfaces of the locator formations 46 on the pallet locators 25 will bear up against the outer surfaces of the corner plinths 55 of the pallet 54 adjacent its corners to locate the wall assembly firmly on the pallet against dislocation from the pallet in a horizontal direction.

[0031] With the wall assembly located on the pallet the box so formed is filled with the goods, such as oranges or the like, to the upper edges of the panels of the wall assembly 14. Robust tapes, not shown, are then passed through opposite holes 56 in the wall assembly panels and tensioned and fastened in one way or another to the panels to prevent the panels from bowing outwardly under the horizontal component of the load of the goods in the box. The pallet is then strapped to the box by suitable tapes which pass over the underside of the pallet and the upper surface of the box on either side of the bow preventing tapes to hold the wall assembly firmly down on the pallet 54. If required a second filled box as just described could be lowered onto the lower box with its pallet then resting on the upper surfaces of the pallet locators 25 with the locator formations 46 holding the pallet of the upper box on the lower box against horizontal dislocation from the lower box. The purpose of the safety cables 48 is to ensure that should the upper box be lowered onto the lower box and be a little out of alignment with the upper edges of the lower box the safety cables will catch and so prevent a misaligned corner of the upper container from crashing onto the load in the lower container.

Page 11 [0032] The container or stacks of the containers are then loaded into a shipping container for transport to their destination. At the destination of the boxes the oranges or other goods which the containers may contain are emptied from the container boxes and the strapping holding the wall assembly 14 to the pallet 54 are cut to release the wall assembly from the pallet to enable the wall assembly 14 to be knocked down to its Figure 6 configuration for transport back to the sender without the conventional pallet 54 accompanying the knock-down container wall assembly. In this way considerable space and weight is economically saved in returning the wall assembly to the sender who then merely re-erects the wall assembly on a second pallet for transport to its next destination.

[0033] The invention is not limited to the precise details as herein described. For example in a second embodiment of the wall assembly of the invention the panels of the assembly could be hinged, with the exception of one corner of the assembly, in the manner described with reference to the drawings. The two panel edges at the corner which does not include the hinge arrangements 22 could be locked together by means of releasable metal clips so that the panels could merely be folded one onto another when the clips are removed from the corner. Yet further, the taped hinge assemblies 22 and 24 could be replaced by any suitable hinge arrangements which will serve the same purpose as those of the assemblies 11 and 24. Alternatively the corner edges without the hinging arrangements 22 could include Velcro straps on the outside of the panels for holding the panels together at the corner at which the panels are to be released.

Additionally, although the wall assembly of the invention is described above as being square in plan it could be made to be slightly rectangular i.e. 1 x 1.2 meters Page 12 with a wall height of anything between 300 mm to 900 mm to be Euro pallet standard compatible.

Claims

Page 13

CLAIMS

1. A container box wall assembly including four wall panels which are arranged in a square or rectangle in plan with a pair of opposite panels each being vertically divided into two equally dimensioned sub-panels and hinges which connect corners of the panels and the sub-panels together so that the hinged edges of the sub-panels are movable towards each other until the sub-panels of each divided wall panel are superimposed on each other and sandwiched between the pair of undivided panels.

2. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein each panel hinge is made from a strip of flexible material which is anchored, adjacent the abutting panel vertical edges to extend across the join between the panels on the side of the join towards which the panels are to be hinged towards each other and to restrain the panels from being hinged outwardly from each other when the wall assembly is erected.

3. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 2 wherein the hinges are hinge arrangements with the corner hinge arrangements of the wall assembly including a pair of apertures through each of the panels with a first of the apertures of each pair being adjacent each other at the corner join in the panels and the second spaced from it away from the join with the hinge strip anchored at one end to one end of the panels and threaded through the four apertures to extend between the first and second apertures on each panel on the outside of the corner and between the first apertures of one of the panels and the second aperture of the second Page 14 panel and vice versa on the inside of the corner, with the free end of the strip anchored to one of panels.

4. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 2 wherein the hinge arrangements between the two pairs of sub-panels include an aperture which passes through both panels across the join between them and each panel includes a second aperture which is spaced from the composite aperture between them with the three apertures being aligned on a line which is substantially perpendicular to the join between the panels with the hinge strip anchored at one end to a first of the panels and threaded through the composite aperture back through the second aperture of the first sub-panel, across the join in the panels on the side of the panels against the hinging direction of the panels and through the second aperture of the second panel with its free end fastened to the second panel.

5. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 4 wherein each of the sub-panel hinge arrangements includes a second strip wrapping in the common series of three apertures with the second wrapping anchored at one end to a first of the panels and threaded through the composite aperture and through the second aperture of the second panel, back through the composite aperture to cross the portion of strip already in the aperture with its free end then being anchored to the first panel with the second wrapping preventing separation of the edges of the sub-panels at the join during hinging of the panels.

Page 15 6. A container box wall assembly as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein in both the corner and sub-panel hinge arrangements the apertures in the panels are elongated slots which are parallel to the vertical edges of the panels which the hinges are to connect.

7. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 6 wherein the strip of flexible hinge material is an elongated tape which has a greater width than its thickness.

8. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein the tape is made from a suitably robust woven non-stretch material.

9. A container box wall assembly according to claim 8 wherein the hinge arrangements between each pair of panel edges which are joined by hinge arrangements includes on their joined edges a plurality of the hinge arrangements which are spaced from each other over the vertical length of the joined edges.

10. A container box wall assembly as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein the upper and lower edges of the panels of the wall assembly may each include locator formations adjacent the corners of the assembly which may be engaged with a forklift pallet.

11. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 10 wherein the locator formations may each be in the form of a length of channel section with the base of the channel overlying the panel edge on which it is located and the sides of which embrace the panel opposite surfaces and are fixed to the Page 16 panel with the outer channel side extending above the outer surface of the channel base so that in use the outer surface of a pallet base having the same outer dimension as the erected wall assembly will be restrained by the upwardly projecting locator formations against horizontal dislocation from the pallet.

12. A container box wall assembly as claimed in claim 11 wherein the locator formations at each corner of the wall assembly may include flexible safety cables or the like which are engaged with and extend between the edges of the channel formations which are remote from the panel corner adjacent which they are located.

13. A container box wall assembly as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein the vertical edge of one of the panels of each of the corner hinge assemblies is rebated over its length for engagement with the edge portion of the remaining panel of the hinge assembly.