NL7908710A - CRATE. - Google Patents

Description

* 7 Kif 4. 'O * STAMICARBON BV 3146

Inventor: Jan H.K. MINKHORST in Munstergelee ι -k. CL T. I7.

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CRATE

The invention relates to a stackable plastic crate with a substantially rectangular bottom and four upright side walls, each consisting of an inner wall plate and an outer wall plate, which plates are separated by an intermediate space, are arranged parallel to each other and are transverse to each other connected.

Crates whose side walls, or a part thereof, such as the corner parts, are double-walled are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,506,154 and 3,314,568.

As is usually the case with stackable, single-walled crates, the double-walled crates have a rebate or stacking edge along their bottom circumference, which cooperates with the top edges of a crate below when stacked. The vertical plane of the rebate is adapted to the internal dimensions of the top edges of the crate so that the crate can drop over the rebate height into a crate located below it and the crate with the horizontal portion of the rebate comes on top of the walls to support.

The rebate of the crate from U.S. Pat. No. 3,506,154 is accomplished in that the outer wall plate is omitted at the bottom over the rebate height. This is likewise the case with the double-walled corner sections in U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,568.

Although in these crates a centering during stacking is obtained in which the two wall plates of a wall lie in one plane with the two corresponding wall plates of a crate below, it can nevertheless be observed, especially with high stacks, that the outer wall plates are relative to each other do not remain in one plane, which has an adverse effect on the removal of forces. A further drawback of the known crates is that the outer wall plates of the bottom crate do not have a good load transfer to the ground because these wall plates end at rebate height above the ground and the forces have to be discharged via the partitions 30 and the inner wall plate. The outer wall plate is deformed under heavy loading of the bottom crate. This deformation continues in the crates stacked on the bottom crate. This deformation can, among other things, lead to the rupture of the completely invisible or poorly visible 7908710 -2- λ - * transverse bulkheads and partly because one and then the other crate serves as the bottom crate, there is a good chance that the crate file will be to a large extent consists of crates whose reliability with regard to the load transfer has been considerably affected.

The object of the invention is to provide a double-walled crate which is capable of a good load transfer to the substrate and which also ensures, during stacking, that the outer wall plates are staggered with respect to each other to a considerable extent. This is obtained according to the invention in that the inner wall plate and the outer wall plate have the same height in the case of the crate and in that the spacing from the bottom of the walls has been widened by some height to form a horizontal shoulder plane in the inner and outer wall plate such that when stacking, with a widened spacing, a crate can grip the top edge of a crate below on both sides and can rest on it with its shoulder surfaces.

In the crate according to the invention, both wall plates bear on the ground and a crate grips the walls of a crate 20 below on both sides. The advantage of this is that there is good load transfer to the ground and that the walls of crates stacked on top of each other remain in one perpendicular plane.

To obtain the widened spacing it is sufficient to allow the wall plates to stagger over their plate thickness. In this way, the outer dimensions of the crate need to be minimally increased.

It is recommended to close the gap at the top of the walls with a horizontal wall section, because this ensures better maintenance of the total wall width at the top and less contamination of the gap can occur.

To give the underside of the outer wall plate an extra support surface during stacking, the crate can be provided with a rib running horizontally around the crate with a horizontal top surface, the horizontal thickness of which is equal to the thickness of the outer wall plate and of which the distance between the top surface of the rib and the top of the wall is equal to the distance between the shoulder surfaces and the bottom of the wall. This rib, together with the spacing-widening outer wall plate section, provides additional reinforcement to the crate at a minimum of 7908710 *. * -3- increase of the outside with ingen.

To facilitate stacking somewhat, the outer wall plate can be removed by some distance along the underside of the walls from the corners. This is preferably done in that a groove formed by the shoulder surfaces and the inside of the wall plates of one wall continues in each case through the outer wall plate of an adjacent wall.

The crate is advantageously designed in such a way that the bottom surface of the crate bottom is higher than the ground surface determined by the bottom sides of the walls, because the bottom surface of the crate bottom can now be provided with bottom-reinforcing bottom elevations, without the side walls having their load-bearing function on lose the ground. The ends of the bottom elevations can reach to the ground surface, which also supports the soil better.

In order to also make the crate suitable for cross-dressing stacking, with walls that cross perpendicularly and walls that lie perpendicularly in one plane, the bottom surface of the crate bottom can be provided with bottom elevations, the ends of which are located below the plane that has been determined through the shoulder planes, the bottom elevations forming bottom grooves the bottoms of which are located in the plane through the shoulder planes, which grooves are perpendicular to the side walls of the crate and continue through the walls.

If the bottom elevations do not extend further than the plane through the shoulder surfaces, it is also possible to remove local wall sections that protrude below this plane.

The width of the bottom grooves is at least equal to twice the total wall thickness. The total wall thickness is here understood to mean the wall width including the horizontal thickness of the rib running around the crate.

If the crate wall has a horizontal wall section at the top, which closes the gap, and openings are provided in the walls serving as handles, it is for manufacturing reasons (eg when injection molding ^ the gap above the handle openings is desired). can be narrowed somewhat by moving a wall plate on site towards the intermediate space Such a crate offers the possibility of being manufactured with a mold having upright cores that extend from the bottom of the walls to approximately the top of the crate. it has been found that the installation of said 7on »7io t- * -4- wall plate section over at least its plate thickness is already sufficient to be able to use the mold cores that reach to the top edge, so that the total wall thickness decreases minimally above the handle opening, while the taper is also reduced, looking on top of the box, a visual indication 5 indicates where the handles are located.

In order to keep the outer wall as smooth as possible, the inner wall plate is preferably moved towards the interspace.

The handles, which are mainly formed by rectangular openings in the inner and outer wall plates of at least one pair of opposed sidewalls, are preferably bounded left and right by spaced vertical transverse bulkheads extending from the shoulder planes to the top of the walls, while the bottom and top of the handles communicate with the gap.

It is advantageous to provide vertical transverse partitions in the interspace at the location where the bottom grooves continue in the side walls, because in cross-stacking, in which a bottom groove engages two top edges of the crates below, load transfer can also take place through these transverse partitions.

Under certain circumstances it may prove advantageous not to choose the plate thickness of the inner wall plate and of the outer wall plate at the same time.

For example, the outer wall plate can be made thicker for crates that are exposed to impact or wear during transport in or outside the factory where the outside of the crate suffers the most. 25 The crate can be provided with a compartment divider for the transport of bottles. Preferably, a division is chosen for this in accordance with Dutch patent specification 155500.

The invention will be further elucidated on the basis of an exemplary embodiment shown in the drawing, in which: FIG. 1 shows a top view of a crate according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a bottom view of a crate according to the invention;

Fig. 3 shows a crate half in cross-section and half in side view along line III-III in fig. 1 and 35; fig. 4 shows a crate drawn half in cross-section and half in front view according to line IV-IV in fig. 1.

In the figures, 1 denotes the substantially rectangular bottom and 2, 3, 4 and 5 indicate the double upright side walls of a crate, 7908710 -5- * *

The double side walls always consist of an inner wall plate and an outer wall plate which, for wall 2 in fig. 2 ', 2 "and for wall 3 in FIG. 4 are indicated by 3', 3", respectively.

The intermediate space 6 located between the parallel inner and outer wall plates 5 is widened at the bottom in a jagged manner, forming shoulder surfaces 7 and 8 and a widened intermediate space 9.

The wall plates are staggered in the drawing over their plate thickness. The top side of the wall is provided with a horizontal wall section 10 which closes the intermediate space upwards.

Just below the top edge of the crate, a rib 11 running horizontally around the crate is arranged with a horizontal top surface 12, the horizontal width of which is equal to the plate thickness of the outer wall plate. The distance between the horizontal top surface 12 and the top edge 13 of the wall is equal to the length of the wall parts 14 and 15 projecting under the shoulder-15 surfaces 7 and 8.

When stacking crates on top of each other, an overlying crate with its wall section 14 and 15 engages around the top edge of a crate below, whereby the shoulder surfaces 7 and 8 rest on the horizontal wall section 10, while the outer wall plate also finds an extra support on the top surface 12. of the rib 11.

Because the inner and outer wall plates are of the same height, the bottom crate of a stack is able to dissipate the forces via both wall plates to the ground.

The crate shown in the drawing has a bottom 1, of which the bottom surface 16 is higher than the ground surface determined by the undersides of the walls, while this bottom surface 16 is provided with bottom elevations 17 (see Fig. 2) which extend up to the reach the base and thus support the ground on the ground.

As can be seen in Fig. 2, the groove 18 formed by the wall parts 14, 15 and the shoulder surfaces 7, 8, which corresponds to the widened intermediate openings 9 indicated in Figs. 3 and 4, settles at the corners 19, 20, 21 and 22 continue through the adjacent wall sections, as a result of which no outer wall plate section 15 is present any more near the corners below the shoulder section 8.

Searching for the correct centering during stacking is thus facilitated.

The bottom elevations 17 form three short grooves 23 and two long grooves 24, also indicated in fig. 2 by A and B. The grooves are 7908710

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-6- perpendicular to the 2 sides of the crate, with the short grooves 12 3 arranged at a distance of -, - and - from the length of the crate measured from the short side of the crate, while the long grooves at 12 of -t and - of the width of the crate are measured measured from the long side of the crate. The grooves continue through the side walls, and have a width at least equal to twice the total thickness of the side walls, so including the rib 11.

The crate provided with the bottom grooves described above can be used for tower stacking as well as for cross-bonding tape.

There are transverse bulkheads 25 between the side wall plates. Especially for crates stacked in a cross-link, it is advantageous for load transfer reasons to choose the position of the vertical bulkheads such that they are above the bottom grooves 23 and 24.

In the embodiment shown, the crate has a handle in each short side wall, which is formed by a rectangular opening 26 through both wall plates. This opening is bounded by lines and to the right by a vertical transverse bulkhead 25. The bottom and bottom of the opening are in connection with the interspace 6. The part of the interspace 6 above the opening 26 indicated by 29 is narrower than the rest of the interspace 6 in that the portion 30 of the inner wall plate 2 'is displaced towards the interspace by a distance from its plate thickness x. It is hereby possible without detracting from the double-walled concept of the crate and, while maintaining the horizontal wall part 10 over the entire top edge, to manufacture the crate by injection molding using a relatively simple mold arrangement. Namely, it is hereby possible to use a mold with cores that extend from the bottom of the walls to the top.

In order to make it suitable for transporting bottles, the crate can be provided with an internal compartment division such as the compartment division 31 for 24 bottles indicated in Fig. 1, which is indicated by dotted lines 32. The bottles are arranged in 6 parallel rows of four bottles, the bottles being staggered in two adjacent rows according to the Dutch patent 155500.

7908710

Claims (17)

1. Stackable plastic crate with a substantially rectangular bottom and four upright side walls, each consisting of an inner wall plate and an outer wall plate, which plates are separated by an interspace, arranged parallel to each other and connected by transverse partitions characterized in that the inner wall plate and the outer wall plate have an equal height and that the spacing from the bottom of the walls is widened by some height to form a horizontal shoulder plane in the inner and outer wall plate such that a crate is stacking with its widened spacing can grip the top edge of a crate below on both sides and can rest on it with its shoulder surfaces. Crate according to claim 1, characterized in that the inner and outer wall plate are offset by their plate thickness. Crate according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the intermediate space is closed at the top side of the wall by a horizontal wall section. Crate according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the outside of the crate is provided with a rib running horizontally around the crate with a horizontal top surface, the rib of which the horizontal thickness is equal to the thickness of the outer wall plate and wherein the distance between the top surface of the rib and the top side of the wall is equal to the distance between the shoulder surfaces and the bottom side of the wall. Crate according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a groove, formed by the shoulders and the inner sides of the wall plates, of a wall always extends through the outer wall plate of an adjacent wall. 6. Crate according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the bottom surface of the crate bottom is higher than the base surface determined by the undersides of the walls. Crate according to claim 6, characterized in that the bottom surface of the crate bottom bears bottom elevations. Crate according to claim 7, characterized in that the ends of the bottom elevations are situated below the plane defined by the shoulder surfaces, the bottom elevations forming bottom grooves 7908710 -8- whose bottoms are located in the plane through the shoulder surfaces, which grooves are perpendicular to the side walls of the crate and continue through the walls. 9. Crate according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the wall parts protruding below the shoulder surfaces are locally removed. Crate according to claim 8, characterized in that the width of the bottom grooves is at least equal to twice the total thickness of the side walls. 11. Crate according to claim 10, characterized in that the crate has a width / length ratio of - and the crate bottom is provided with three short and two long grooves, the center lines of which are respectively. are located 113 1 at -, - of the crate length measured from the short side and at - 4 ώ 4 'o and j of the crate width measured from the long side of the crate. 12. Crate according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that at least one pair of protruding crate walls is provided with openings serving as handles, the spacing above the openings being narrowed by locally moving towards the spacing installing at least one of the wall plates. Crate according to claim 12, characterized in that the space above a handle opening is narrowed by placing the inner wall plate inwardly at the location over a distance of its plate thickness. 14. Crate as claimed in claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the crate has substantially rectangular handle openings which communicate at the top and bottom with the interspace, the left and right sides of which are delimited by transverse partitions located in the interspace extend from the shoulder planes to the top of the wall. Crate according to any one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that there are vertical transverse partitions in the space at the location 30 where the bottom grooves continue through the side walls. Crate according to any one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that the inner and outer wall plate have an uneven thickness. 17. Crate as substantially described in the text and / or shown in the drawing. 7908710