KR20090110260A - Packing of glass sheets - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A packing of a glass sheet is provided to reduce installation cost, and to offer good storability by stacking the packing neatly while improving density of a warehouse. CONSTITUTION: A packing of a glass sheet includes a horizontal pedestal(5), a back support(7), and an edge guide(15). The horizontal pedestal supports a container on a horizontal plane. The back support is mounted on the horizontal pedestal. An angle of the back support is extended to a range of about 3° ~ 15°. The back support supports one or more sheet(3). The edge guide is extended to a lower edge of the back support.

Description

Packing of glass sheet {PACKING OF GLASS SHEETS}

The present invention claims priority to US Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 124,374, filed April 16, 2008, entitled "Packing of Glass Sheet."

The present invention relates to a container, such as a material plate or for packing, storing and shipping a sheet of material. In particular, the present invention relates to a container for packing multiple glass sheets, such as glass sheets for use as LCD glass substrates, in a nearly horizontal position.

Until recently, various sizes of full sheet glass for display technology have been stored vertically packed in a wooden box after completion of the melting, forming and cutting process. These crates can be used to move the entire sheet from the glass forming area to the glass finish area within the factory, to ship glass sheets in the country, or to ship smaller glass sheets internationally. However, typical wooden boxes for relatively large glass sheets are too large for international transport. The size of the typical crates may create problems for equipment and equipment placement in glasshouses. Crate is also typically not reusable, resulting in waste and excess material costs.

In recent processes, special containers and / or pallets made of metal that are made smaller and reusable have been developed to store and transport glass sheets in the factory. Likewise, other special containers and / or pallets have been developed for shipping or transporting glass both domestically and internationally outside the glass factory. Such a device needs glass to be unloaded from the factory container and loaded into the shipping container for shipment from the glass factory to the glass customer's facility, and then loaded from the shipping container to the glass customer's facility and loaded into the glass customer's facility container. Shall be. In addition to reducing the potential for contaminating or damaging the glass sheet, reducing the throughput of the glass sheet, for example by eliminating one or more unloading and reloading steps, in order to increase efficiency and reduce costs. desirable.

US Patent Application Publication Nos. 2007/0017841 and 2007/0131574 describe containers for packing plate materials, such as LCD glass substrates. The containers disclosed therein include placing the glass substrate in a substantially vertical manner (2007/0017841); Lack of flexibility in loading and unloading; There are various shortcomings such as complexity. In addition, there is a need to store and transport the LCD glass substrates in an almost horizontal position. The present invention addresses these and other needs.

Disclosed herein is a container capable of holding a stack of multiple sheets of material. According to certain embodiments, the container comprises a pedestal for supporting the container on a horizontal plane; A rear support mounted to the bearing, extending substantially at an angle in the range of about 3 ° to about 15 ° relative to a horizontal plane, a substantially flat planar support plane for supporting one or more sheets of material lying flat on the rear support; Back support defined by; A bottom edge guide extending upward adjacent the lower edge of the back support to engage the bottom edge of the seat on the back support; A top edge guide extending upward adjacent the top edge of the back support to engage the top edge of the seat on the back support; And a pair of opposing lateral sides on each side of the rear support, the pair of opposing lateral sides extending upwardly adjacent the side edges of the rear support to engage the side edges of the seat on the rear support. edge guides). The rear support may extend at an angle of about 3 ° to about 12 °, about 3 ° to about 10 °, about 5 ° to about 15 °, about 5 ° to about 12 °, or about 5 ° to about 10 °. have.

According to certain embodiments, the container may comprise an upper edge guide and an edge guide on the side. The edge guide is movably mounted to (a) the container for movement between (i) a vertical shipping position and (ii) a lower load / unload position below the support plane, and (b) the rear support or bearing It may be to be detachably fixed to.

According to certain embodiments, the container is secured to the rear support or the bearing and has a plurality of stackings extending upwards with respect to a horizontal plane positioned over the upper edge of the sheet of top of the plurality of sheets loaded on the rear support. And staking columns, where there is one said scanning column extending up from each corner of the bearing.

According to a particular embodiment, the container may include a retainer bar removably attached to a fraudulent back support extending across the plurality of seats to retain the plurality of seats on the back support. . A cinching mechanism can pull the retainer bar down against the seat on the back support.

According to certain embodiments, the container may comprise a pair of locating posts, one of which locating posts extends up from each side edge of the back support. Each end of the retainer bar may have one of a recess or through hole therein for slidably receiving a corresponding one of the position posts, whereby the retainer bar may It can slide down over the position post when pulled down against the seat by a cinch mechanism.

According to certain embodiments, the container may include a shock absorbing liner positioned between the upper retainer bar and the seat on the rear support. A shock absorber liner may also be located between the back support and the seat. The liner between the back support and the sheet may be formed of a friction material such as high density ethylene vinyl acetate polymer to prevent the sheet of material on the back from sliding on the back.

According to certain embodiments, the container may include a shock absorbing pad on surfaces of the bottom edge guide, side edge guide and top edge guide. The shock absorbing pad may be formed of ethylene-propylene polymer or ethylene propylene diene polymethylene elastomer.

According to certain embodiments, the container may include a fork hole pair on at least one side of the bearing. Fork hole pairs may be present on each side of the bearing.

The material sheet may be a glass sheet such as glass for use as an LCD display substrate.

According to certain embodiments, the container comprises a bearing for supporting the container on a horizontal plane; A rear support mounted on the bearing, the rear support being generally defined as a horizontal flat support plane for supporting one or more sheets of material laid flat on the rear support; A lower edge guide extending upward adjacent the lower edge of the rear support to engage the lower edge of the seat on the rear support; A pair of side edge guides on opposite sides extending upwardly adjacent the side edges of the back support to engage one side edge of the seat on the back support; And a plurality of stack columns extending to a position above the upper edge of the sheet on top of the plurality of sheets on the rear support at each corner of the bearing, such that the second container is at the top of the stacking column. Can be stacked on.

According to certain embodiments, the stacking column is (a) removable from the bearing for loading and unloading the seat on the rear support, and (b) a vertical stacking position and a lower seat loading / unloading position below the support plane. The bearing can be hinged for pivotal movement therebetween.

According to certain embodiments, the side edge guides are movably mounted to (a) the container for movement between (i) a vertical shipping position and (ii) a lower load / unload position below the rear support, (b) may be removable for loading and unloading the seat on the rear support.

According to certain embodiments, the retainer bar may be removably attached to the back support extending across the plurality of seats to retain the plurality of seats on the back support.

According to certain embodiments, the container may include a box for storing at least one of the upper edge guide, the bottom edge guide, the side edge guide, the stacking column, and the retainer bar.

The design of a pack of vertical stacks of material plates has several advantages, among others:

A fork truck driver can handle a pack without having his limited vision.

The containers can be stacked one after the other, such as three to four high stacks when fully loaded with glass or five high stacks when empty, to improve warehouse density.

● Unloading installation costs are less than with vertical stacks.

Unless otherwise indicated, all such numbers, such as indicating the weight, dimensions, and values for a particular physical property used in the specification and claims, are to be understood as being temporarily changed by the term "about." Also, it is to be understood that the precise numerical values used in the specification and claims form a further embodiment of the invention. Efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the numerical values disclosed in the examples. However, any measurement value may be inherently specific error due to the reference deviation found in its respective measurement technique. In addition, the use of the indefinite article "a" or "an", as described and claimed in the present invention, means "at least one", and "1" unless otherwise indicated. (only one) ". Thus, for example, reference to "fork holes" includes embodiments having two or more such holes unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Now an embodiment of a packing and shipping container 1 capable of holding a plurality of plates or sheets of material 3, such as glass sheets, in a generally horizontal position, is described by way of example or example with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Will be. The container 1 comprises a horizontal pedestal 5 for supporting the container on a floor or other horizontal plane; And a back support 7 fixed to the bearing at a slight inclination in a substantially horizontal direction to support a plurality of plates or sheet of material 3 in a slight inclination in a substantially horizontal direction. The angle A of the rear support relative to the horizontal is about 3 ° to about 15 °, about 3 ° to about 12 °, about 3 ° to about 10 °, about 5 ° to about 15 °, about 5 ° to about 12 °, About 5 ° to about 10 °, or 8 °. The rear support 7 can be formed of a single material sheet or plate (not shown) or a plurality of parallel rear supports defined by a flat support surface in the rear support plane which is slightly inclined at an angle A from horizontal as described above. It may be formed of a beam (7). A flexible mat, pad or liner 9 of shock absorbing material prevents the transmission of shock and vibration from the rear support to the sheet of material during loading and unloading of the container 1 and during loading and handling of the loaded container. It may be located between the rear support 7 and the plurality of plates 3 to minimize it.

One or more bottom edge guides 11 (see FIGS. 3 and 4) extend upwards from the front or lower edge of the rear support 7 which is substantially perpendicular to the rear support. The bottom edge guide 11 guides the bottom edge of the material plate 3 when loading the plate on the rear support and the front or lower edge of the plate 3 during the loading and processing of the loaded container. To interlock. With this structure, the bottom edge guide 11 cooperates with the inclined back support 7 to hold the material plate on the container by gravity, the material plate against the back support and the bottom edge support. Pull down.

The bottom edge guide 11 can be permanently fixed to the bearing 5 or the rear support 7 and does not need to be removed during loading and unloading of the container. Alternatively, the bottom edge guide may allow the bearing and / or the rear surface to be removed or moved under the rear support (eg under the support plane) so that it does not interfere with loading and unloading the plate on the container. It may be mounted detachably, slidably or pivotally to a support (not shown). The bottom edge guide may be a single flange that extends substantially the entire width of the rear support 7 as shown in FIG. 4, or may be a plurality of flanges or a plurality of posts as shown in FIG. posts) (not shown). Sheets, pads or mats 12 of shock absorbing material may be used to chip the edges of material plates or sheets while minimizing the transmission of shock and vibration from the edge guides to the material plates during shipping and handling of loaded containers. It can be located between the bottom edge guide and the plate stack 3 to prevent damage otherwise. The shock absorbing material 12 may be mounted or attached to a face of the bottom edge guide 11 facing the edge of the material plate.

A number of upper edge guides 13 (see FIGS. 2 and 3) and side edge guides 15 (see FIGS. 1 and 4) on the sides of the material plate 3 when loading the plate on the rear support 7. Guide the upper and side side edges, engage the edges of the plate, and prevent the plate from moving relative to the rear support during shipping and processing of the loaded container 1, respectively, the upper edge and side From the side edge of the top, it may extend, perpendicular to the rear support 7. A sheet or mat 17 of shock absorbing material minimizes the transmission of shock and vibration from the edge guide to the material plate during shipping and handling of the loaded container and prevents damage to the edge of the material plate or sheet. It may be mounted or attached to the surface of the edge guides 13 and 15 facing the edge of the plate.

The edge guides 11, 13 and 15 may be, for example, bolts as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, wing nut 19, and clamps as shown in FIG. 2. the rear support 7 or bearing 5 by any suitable releasable fastening means, such as by clasps 21, lock pins, clips, Velcro, etc. Can be removably attached thereto. With this structure, the edge guides 11, 13 and 15, in particular the top 13 and side 15 edge guides, have a rear surface for loading and unloading a material plate on the rear support as shown in FIG. 5. By being able to be removed from the support 7, work such as hitting and damaging the edge guides during loading and unloading of the material plate 3 will be greatly reduced. Alternatively, the edge guides 11, 13 and 15, in particular the top 13 and side 15 edge guides may be mounted to be hinged or slidable to the rear support so that the edge guides ( 11, 13 and 15 may be pivoted or slideed under the rear support (eg below the support plane) so as not to interfere with loading and unloading the container (not shown).

One or more retainer bars 23, best shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, may be releasably attached to the container 1 to hold the stack of material plates 3 in place on the back support 7. . The retainer bars 23 are optionally attached to the loaded container 1 such that they extend transversely across the stack of material plates 3 loaded on the back support (best shown in FIG. 3). . The container holds the retainer bar 7 in place and presses or tightens the retainer bar down on a stack of material plates, for example a retaining belt 25 and a clamp 41, or Other suitable mechanisms may be further included. Retainer bar 23 thereby squeezes the plate 3 against the rear support 7 and prevents the plate from bouncing up and down on the rear support during shipping and processing of the loaded container. Shock absorbing flexible liners or pads (not shown) are plate stacks 3 and retainer bars loaded on the rear support 7 to minimize the transfer of shock and vibration from the retainer bar to the material plate during shipping and processing. It can be inserted between the (23). Alternatively, the retainer bar 23 may have a layer of shock absorbing material 27 on at least one side of the retainer bar facing the material plate, or on all sides of the retainer bar.

Soft flexible covers (not shown), such as plastic or canvas repellent, polyvinylchloride sheeting, or shrink wrap, or rigid covers or covers (not shown) are then packed from contamination and damage. It can be placed on the material plate stack 3 or over the entire container 1 to protect the plate. The cover may only cover the upper surface of the stack 3 of material sheets, or may also cover the side edges of the material stack to provide additional protection from dirt, accidental price and impact on the material stack. Velcro, ties or other suitable fastening means can be used to securely and removably attach the cover to the container.

As best shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the retainer bar positioning post 29 may extend upward from the rear support 7. The retainer bar 23 may have bifurcated ends 31 as shown in FIG. 5, or through holes through which each end thereof is received to receive a position post therethrough. May have). The retainer bar slides down over the position post until the retainer bar is caught on the plate stack 3 loaded on the rear support 7. The position post 29 is below the rear support (eg under the support plane), as shown in FIG. 5, for the location post to load and unload the material plate 3 on the rear support. It can be pivotally mounted on a pivot pin 32 which extends out from the side edge of the rear support 7 so that it can be folded into.

A retainer belt 25 having one end thereof fixed to the rear support can be used to secure the retainer bar 23. The retainer belt 25 is strapped or looped over the ends of the retainer bar. The retainer bar may have recesses or grooves 39 adjacent to the end to receive the retainer belt and to prevent the retainer belt from slipping off at the end of the retainer bar. The predetermined end of the retainer belt is passed through a pull over the central belt fastener 41 in order to squeeze the retainer bar 23 safely below the material stack 30. By holding the retainer belt against the belt fastener when the tension on the end of the retainer belt is relaxed, theeths (not shown) of the belt fastener securely lock the retainer belt in place in a known manner. Engage the retainer belt such that the belt buckles squeeze or tighten down onto the retainer belt. Ratcheting belt cinches, buckles, or other suitable belt safety devices may alternatively be used where appropriate as described and illustrated for the central belt fastener 41.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4 according to a particular embodiment, the container may be arranged in order to facilitate stacking of another container 1 ′ in multiple containers 1 in a warehouse, truck or shipping container. 7) or a plurality of stacking columns 51 fixed to the bearing 5. As best shown in FIGS. 3 and 6, a stacking column 51 is placed over the upper edge of the top plate in the plate stack 3 loaded on the rear support 7 at each corner of the bearing 5. Can be extended. The upper end of each stacking column has a corresponding female stacking recess 55 at the lower surface of each corner of the bearing 5 when the container 1 is stacked on top of another container 1 '. ) (See FIG. 1) may have a male stacking nub 53 extending upwards. In this way, the stacked containers 1 and 1 'are securely locked horizontally to each other by preventing the stacked containers from moving horizontally with respect to each other during shipping and processing of the stacked containers. The shock absorbing pad 58 may be provided on a horizontal surface surrounding the stacking nub 53 on top of the stacking column 51. The containers 1 and 1 ′ may also be stacked on a shock absorber pallet 57 for shipment.

According to a particular embodiment of the container shown, the stacking column 51 is coupled to the bearing 5 or the rear support 7 by a hinge 59 (best shown in FIGS. 4 and 5), thereby. The stacking column 51 is loaded or loaded and lowered as shown in FIG. 5 to load the plate 3 on the rear support 7 and to unload the plate 3 from the rear support 7. It may be folded under the rear support (eg under the support plane) so as not to be disturbed in the unloading position. With this structure, the material plate 3 being loaded or unloaded will be greatly reduced in the amount of damage to the stacking column by hitting it. This means that only the stacking column 51 adjacent to the lower edge of the rear support is hinged to fold down, with the stacking column adjacent to the upper edge of the rear support during loading and unloading of the container, The stacking column adjacent the lower edge of the rear support may not extend far above the rear support. A locking pin 61, or other suitable locking or latching device, may be used to prevent accidental folding of the stacking column during stacking of containers 1 and 1 'or during shipping and processing of stacked containers 1 and 1'. To prevent this, it can be provided to lock the stacking column 51 in their vertical locked state or stacking position as shown in FIGS. 4 and 6. The hinge pin 63 on the hinge 59 is also removable, so that the stacking column 51 can be removed by removing both the locking pin and the hinge pin for replacing, loading and unloading the container or for other purposes. have.

The bearing 5 carries the forks of a fork lift for lifting and transporting the containers 1 and 1 'around the facility and for loading and loading the containers from trucks, shipping containers and other forms of transport. To unload, it may have a fork hole pair 65 on at least one side thereof. A fork hole pair can be formed on all four sides of the bearing so that the container can receive the fork of the fork lift from all four directions.

The container 1 is stored on storage bins 45 as shown in FIG. 1 for storing the retainer bar 23 when it is not mounted on the retainer bar position post 29. It can have a storage partition or box such as Alternatively, for storing the retainer bar, hooks and bins may be provided on one side of the bearing, such as the hook 47 on the back of the container 1 as shown in FIG. 5. Can be. The container 1 is also partitioned to store one or more of a soft cover, an upper edge guide 13, the bottom edge guide 11, the side edge guide 15, and / or the retainer belt 25. Or a box.

In order to load or unload the plate 3 on the container 1, the belt fastener 41 is disassembled by pulling up on the fastener release tab 43 to remove the retainer belt 25 from the belt fastener. The retainer belt is then released from the retainer bar 23, and the retainer bar is removed from the retainer bar position post 29. The edge guides (11, 13 and 15), in particular the side (15 and 13) edge guides, can be removed from the rear support (7) or moved under the rear support (7); The retainer bar positioning post 29 can be removed or pivoted under and below the rear support; The stacking column 51, in particular the stacking column adjacent to the lower edge of the rear support, can be removed or pivoted under the rear support. The retainer bar, retainer belt, edge guide and stacking column, if removable, may be stored in a box provided on the bearing or rear support. Material plates or sheets can now be loaded and unloaded without the risk of being impacted or damaged by the edge guides, stacking columns or position posts.

Flexible or shock absorbing materials 9, 12, 17, 27, and 58 for the rear support 7, the retainer bar 23, the stacking column 51 and the edge guides 11, 13 and 15. Silver may be any suitable rubber, foam, sponge rubber, or ethylene-propylene polymer (EPP), high density ethylene vinyl acetate polymer (EVA) and ethylene propylene diene polymethylene elastomer (EPDM) It may be formed of an elastic polymer material such as. The liner 9 on the back support must provide sufficient friction to the sheets stacked thereon such that the sheet does not slide horizontally around on the back support during processing and transportation. The high density sponge EVA material may form a liner 9 on the back support 7. Softer, more resilient EPP or EDPM can be used to form shock absorbing pads or liners on the side edge guides 11, 13 and 15 and on the retainer bar 23. The bearing 5, the rear support 7, the edge guides 11, 13 and 15 and the support column 51 are made of steel so that the container 1 can be strong, light, hard and reusable. Or metals such as aluminum, or polymers and fiber-containing materials such as glass fibers or carbon fibers, or other rigid and rigid polymers.

Before being placed into the container of the invention, each plate 3, such as a glass sheet, may be protected by a separate packaging material (not shown) such as paper, polymer film and / or coating. The packaging material may be placed or attached to each surface of each material plate. For example, the thin film protective paper or polymer film may be electrostatically bonded onto the original smooth surface of the material plate so that no adhesive is required to adhere to the paper or polymer or other surface of the plate. Alternatively, or in addition, interleaf or spacing liners made of paper and / or other material (s) may be placed between two adjacent sheets to prevent the surfaces from being integrated and scratching each other. Such packing materials are important for LCD glass substrates because inherent glass surface quality is required for LCD applications.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

The accompanying drawings are included by way of example in order to provide a better understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification.

In the accompanying drawings,

1 is a schematic side view of a container according to an embodiment of the present invention having a stack of a plurality of material plates loaded into the container.

FIG. 2 is a schematic rear perspective view showing the details of the upper edge guide on the container shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

3 is a schematic front perspective view of the fraud container shown in FIG. 1;

4 is a schematic frontal view showing details of the retractable stacking column, retainer bar mounting, and side guides of the container shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of the container shown in FIG. 1 showing the retractable (foldable) stacking column and retainer bar positioning post and an edge guide removed for loading and unloading a seat on the container. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic side view of the container pair shown in FIG. 1 stacked and stacked one on top of the shock absorbing pallet. FIG.

Claims (20)

A container capable of holding a stack of multiple sheets of material, Bearings for supporting the container on a horizontal plane; A rear support mounted to the bearing, the rear support being defined by a flat support plane for supporting one or more sheets of material lying flat on the rear support, extending at an angle in the range of about 3 ° to 15 ° with respect to the horizontal; A bottom edge guide extending upward adjacent the lower edge of the back support to engage the bottom edge of the seat on the back support; An upper edge guide extending upward adjacent the upper edge of the rear support to engage the upper edge of the seat on the rear support; And One on each side of the rear support, the pair of side edge guides on the opposite side extending upwardly adjacent the side edges of the rear support to engage the side edges of the seat on the rear support. Container. 2. The top edge guide of claim 1 wherein the top edge guide and the side edge guides are movable in (a) the container for movement between (i) a vertical shipping position and (ii) a lower load / unload position below the support plane. (B) the container is removably fixed to the rear support or the bearing. 2. The stack of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of stacking columns fixed to the rear support or the bearing and extending upwardly with respect to a horizontal plane positioned over the upper edge of the top sheet of the plurality of sheets loaded on the rear support. And one stacking column extending upwards from each corner of the bearing. The container of claim 1, further comprising a retainer bar removably attached to the back support extending across the plurality of seats to hold the plurality of seats on the back support. 5. The container of claim 4, further comprising a cinching mechanism that pulls the retainer bar down against the seat on the back support. 6. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising opposing location post pairs extending upwards from each side edge of the back support, Each end of the retainer bar has one of the recesses or through holes therein for slidably receiving a corresponding one of the position posts so that the retainer bar is pressed down against the seat by the cinch mechanism. And can slide down relative to the position post when pulled. 5. The container of claim 4, further comprising a shock absorbing liner positioned between the upper retainer bar and a sheet on the back support. The container of claim 1, further comprising a shock absorbing liner positioned between the back support and the seat. 9. The container of claim 8, wherein the liner is formed of a frictional material to prevent the sheet of material on the back side from sliding on the back side. 10. The container of claim 9, wherein the liner is formed of a high density ethylene vinyl acetate polymer. 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising a shock absorbing pad on surfaces of the bottom edge guide, side edge guides and top edge guide, wherein the shock absorbing pad is formed of ethylene-propylene polymer or ethylene propylene diene polymethylene elastomer. Container, characterized in that. The container of claim 1, further comprising a shock absorbing pad on surfaces of the bottom edge guide, side edge guides, and top edge guide. The container as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a fork hole pair on at least one side of the bearing. The container of claim 1, wherein the material sheet is a glass sheet. The method of claim 1, wherein the back support plane is about 3 ° to about 12 °, about 3 ° to about 10 °, about 5 ° to about 15 °, 5 ° to 15 °, about 5 ° to about 12 °, or And a container extending at an angle of about 5 ° to about 10 °. A container for storing or shipping a stack of sheets of material, Bearings for supporting the container on a horizontal plane; A rear support mounted to the bearing, the rear support being defined by a horizontal flat support plane for supporting one or more sheets of material laid flat on the rear support; A bottom edge guide extending upward adjacent the lower edge of the back support to engage the bottom edge of the seat on the back support; A pair of side edge guides on opposite sides extending upwardly adjacent the side edges of the back support to engage the side edges of the seat on the back support, one on each side of the back support; And A second stacking column can be stacked on the stacking column by including a plurality of stacking columns extending up to a position above the top edge of the seat of the plurality of seats on the rear support at each corner of the bearing. Container. 17. The stacking column of claim 16 wherein the stacking column is (a) removable from the bearing for loading and unloading the seat on the rear support, and (b) between the vertical stacking position and the lower seat loading / unloading position below the support plane. A container which is hinged to. 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the side edge guides are movably mounted to the container for movement between (i) a vertical shipping position and (ii) a lower load / unload position below the support plane, b) a container, removable for loading and unloading a seat on said rear support. 19. The container of claim 18, further comprising a retainer bar removably attached to the back support extending across the plurality of seats to hold the plurality of seats on the back support. 20. The container of claim 19, further comprising a box for storing at least one of the upper edge guide, the lower edge guide, the side edge guide, the stacking column, and the retainer bar.

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