US3813117A

US3813117A - Transport merchandise container

Info

Publication number: US3813117A
Application number: US00214690A
Authority: US
Inventors: T Hackney; G Kirwan
Original assignee: Hennessy Products Inc
Current assignee: Hennessy Products Inc
Priority date: 1972-01-03
Filing date: 1972-01-03
Publication date: 1974-05-28
Anticipated expiration: 1991-05-28
Also published as: CA965816A; BE797007A

Abstract

Transport merchandise container end framing, door and associated structure facilitating tight door closing and locking and resisting racking of the container framing by forces to which the container is subjected while being transported or, if a separable structure, when it is lifted onto or off of a barge, truck, railway car or other carrier.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Hackney, Jr. et a1.

[4 1 May 28, 1974 TRANSPORT MERCHANDISE CONTAINER Inventors: Thomas P. Hackney, .Jr.; George B. Kirwan, both of Huntington, W. Va.

Assignee: Hennessy Products Incorporated,

Chambersburg, Pa.

Filed: Jan. 3, 1972 Appl. No.: 214,690

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3/1913 Kurzwelly 292/54 1,720,726 7/1929 Geiger 292/161 1,828,912 10/1931 Tobin 1 292/259 1,900,254 3/1933 Nyslrom 292/218 3,151,898 10/1964 Olander 292]] 3,296,694 1/1967 DeMastry 292/341.l2 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 28,521 5/1907 Great Britain 292/259 Primary Examiner-Robert L. Wolfe Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Bedell and Burgess [5 7 ABSTRACT Transport merchandise container end framing, door and associated structure facilitating tight door closing and locking and resisting racking of the container framing by forces to which the container is subjected while being transported or, if a separable structure, when it is lifted onto or off of a barge, truck, railway car or other carrier.

5 Claims, 14 Drawing Figures PATENTEDMAY28 I974 SHEET 2 BF 2 FlG lO FIG8 FIG. l4

1 TRANSPORT MERCHANDISE CONTAINER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION and during transportation, such a container is subjected to racking forcestending to incline the container upright framing members from th'e vertical transversely of.

the container and to loosen locks and fastenings between the doors and the container body.

SUMMARY OF "THE INVENTION The main objects'ofthe invention are to tightly secure the doors, whenclosed, to the container body and to utilize the doors to provide increasedresistance to racking forces.

IN THEIJRAWINGS FIG. I is an elevation'ofthe rear end of a merchandise containermou'nted-on or forming the body of a highway trailer and having a pair of'doors hinged along respective upright corner posts of the body and extending from their hinges toward each other. Each door mounts a'pair of upright locking bars pivoted on the door midway of'the top and bottom thereof and normally engaging keepers onthe body sill and lintel or header.

FIG. 2 is an elevation of a portion of an actuating lever and linkage for the locking bars as shown in FIG. I

l but drawn to a larger scale.

FIG. 3 is a horizontal-section on line 33 of FIG. 2.

'FIG. 4 is a view similarto FIG. 2 but showing the parts inreleased position.

FIG. 5 is a horizontalsectionon line 55 of FIG. 4 I

FIG. 6 is a vertical section on line 6-'-6 of FIG. 2 but on a larger scale.

FIG. 7 is a front view of one of the locking bars shown in FIG. I but on a larger scale.

FIGS. 8 and'9 are horizontal sections on lines 8-8 and'9-9 respectively of FIG. 7 but on a larger scale.

FIG. 10 is a verticalsection on line'l0-l0 of FIG.

7 but on a larger scale.

FIG. 11 is a horizontal section on line 11-11 of FIG. 10.

and 13-13 respectively of FIG." 8. v FIG. 14 'is a view of the open end of one of the keepers, looking in the direction of the arrowZ in FIGS. 7,

FIGS. 12 and 13 are verticalsections on lines 12-l2 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The container includes a transverse sill l, upright corner posts or door jambs 2, a header or lintel 3 and measuring the distancefrom sill to lintel and adding 6 inches for overlap.

A pair of short face plates 8, 9 (FIGS. 7, 10) are applied to opposite faces ,of each door behind the central portion of each locking bar and are spaced apart by a bushing '10 which journals a sleeve 1] welded to cap 7 (FIG. 10). A screw S is threaded into sleeve 11 and secures the locking bar to the door but the bar is free to pivot about sleeve 11.

The pair of locking bars B on one door swing in the opposite direction to the pair of locking bars on the other door, as indicated by arrows X and Y (FIG. I).

Keepers 15 on the sill and lintel receivethe ends of the locking bars when the latter are swung to vertical position. Each keeper 15 forms a pocket (FIGS. 7, 12) which opens toward a locking bar end and has a horizontal bottom wall 16. A shoe 17 (FIGS. 8, l2, l3) fits in the outer end of each bar section 6 and has upstanding lugs 18 welded to the bar. As the locking bar moves to vertical position, a tapered toe 19 on the shoe enters a slot T in the keeper upright wall and effectively thrusts the bar and door laterally toward the sill, or lintel, respectively. This forms a pick-up feature facili' tating the tight .closing of the door because the thrust of the bar against the door begins as soon as the end of the toe enters the keeper slot although the door may then be an inch or more away from the fully closed position assumed when the bar is vertical. As the bar shoes enter the keepers, its ends slide over the horizontal walls of the keepers and the locking bars form struts between the sill and lintel intermediate the corner posts and resist racking of the frame and weakening of the hinge mountings of the door. Preferably a separate cup-like boot 18a of compressible nylon or similar materialfits over each bar end portion for tight pressure between the opposing vertical surfaces of the bar and keeper.

Each door mounts a channel section cam lever 19a (FIGS. 2-6) pivoted by an upright pin 21 at one end to a bracket 20 on the door. A channel section link 22 is pivoted at one end to each cam lever 19a by an upright pin 25 positioned a short distance from pin 21. An upright pin 24 is received in elongated slots 25 near the other end of the flanges of link 22 and is mounted in a bracket 26 on one of each pair of locking bars. Each cam lever and link may be secured against accidental or unauthorized release by a padlock P with its bow inserted through apertures in

brackets

28, 29 on the door and lever respectively (FIG. 6) or the usual car seal may be inserted through the bracket apertures.

When the right hand lever 19a is swung about its pivot 23 in a semicircle from its FIGS. 1, 2 position to its FIGS. 4, 5 position, it tilts the pair of connected locking bars from their solid-line vertical positions toward the dotted-line positions and disengages the bar shoes from the keepers. 7

When the doors are closed and the locking bars are in upright position, the doors themselves constitute rectangular immovable bulkheads across the rear of the container body with a plurality of steel bars securely locked to the sill and lintel. Either door may be released and opened independently of the other door.

The opposing elements on the bars and framing, the lever-link arrangement, the shoe with projecting toe, and the nylon boot, all contribute to the rigidity of the structure.

Crossbars or rungs connect each pair of the locking bars. Each rung comprises a tubular member 30 and end members 31 (FIG. 7) pivotally connected to the locking bars. During initial assembly of the rungs and bars the members may telescope. After their assembly with the locking bars determines the over-all length of a rung,

members

30 and 31 are welded to each other, thus assuring correct pivotal swinging of each pair of bars as a unit. Then the locking bars are swung to vertical position and keepers are applied to the bar ends and spot welded to the sill and lintel. Then the bars are swung away from the keepers and the latter are finish welded to the sill and lintel, as indicated at W in FIG. 8. This avoids heat injury to the nylon boots. These features avoid the necessity of cutting each bar to a length corresponding to the exact distance between the horizontal wall of an upper keeper and the opposite horizontal wall of the corresponding lower keeper before the bars are applied to the door.

One or more of the features described may be varied or omitted without departing from the combination of the swinging bars engaging the lintel and sill and securing the separate doors individually and resisting racking forces on the end framing, and the final forcing of the doors into closed position as effected by the lever and link members, and the exclusive use of the structures described in the accompanying claims is contemplated.

We claim: 1. A transport merchandise container comprising framing including a transverse sill, upright corner posts spaced apart transversely of the container and a transverse lintel, said sill and lintel having upwardly and downwardly facing elements respectively, a door hinged to one of said posts, a pair of elongated bars spaced apart transversely of the width of the door journaled intermediate their ends on said door to pivot parallel therewith to a vertical position or to an inclined position, means connecting said bars to maintain them in parallelism with each other, and means for holding said bars in such vertical position, each bar having downwardly and upwardly facing end surfaces spaced apart lengthwise of the bar and tightly abutting said sill and lintel elements when the door is closed and the bars are in upright position and thereby brace said framing vertically against racking distortion.

2. A transport merchandise container as described in claim 1 in which the end surfaces on the bars converge toward the respective opposing elements of the sill and lintel as the bars move toward vertical position and wedge the bars lengthwise between the sill and lintel.

3. A transport merchandise container according to claim 1 wherein each said bar comprises an elongated middle portion and separate end elements, said end elements being in lapped relation with said middle portion lengthwise thereof, and affixed in position lengthwise of said bars.

4. A transport merchandise container as described in claim 1 which includes pocket-like keepers on the sill and lintel receiving the end portions of the locking bars and holding the doors against swinging about their hinges on the framing when the bars are upright.

5. In a transport merchandise container according to claim 4, a horizontal lever fulcrumed on the door, and a horizontal link pivotally connected at one end to said lever nearits fulcrum and pivotally connected at its other end to one of said elongated bars, said lever and link being operable manually to force said locking bar into and out of engagement with said keepers at the end of door-closing movement and at the beginning of door-opening movement respectively.

Claims

1. A transport merchandise container comprising framing including a transverse sill, upright corner posts spaced apart transversely of the container and a transverse lintel, said sill and lintel having upwardly and downwardly facing elements respectively, a door hinged to one of said posts, a pair of elongated bars spaced apart transversely of the width of the door journaled intermediate their ends on said door to pivot parallel therewith to a vertical position or to an inclined position, means connecting said bars to maintain them in parallelism with each other, and means for holding said bars in such vertical position, each bar having downwardly and upwardly facing end surfaces spaced apart lengthwise of the bar and tightly abutting said sill and lintel elements when the door is closed and the bars are in upright position and thereby brace said framing vertically against racking distortion.

5. In a transport merchandise container according to claim 4, a horizontal lever fulcrumed on the door, and a horizontal link pivotally connected at one end to said lever near its fulcrum and pivotally connected at its other end to one of said elongated bars, said lever and link being operable manually to force said locking bar into and out of engagement with said keepers at the end of door-closing movement and at the beginning of door-opening movement respectively.