WO2014053668A1

WO2014053668A1 - A flat rack comprising corner posts and a method of transporting cargo using it

Info

Publication number: WO2014053668A1
Application number: PCT/EP2013/070864
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hans Christian NIELSEN
Original assignee: Nielsen Hans Christian
Priority date: 2012-10-06
Filing date: 2013-10-07
Publication date: 2014-04-10

Abstract

A flat rack (1) including a corner post (50) is disclosed. The corner post (50)extends upwards from a corner of a cargo supporting face (20) of the flat rack (1). The corner post (50) includes a body portion (51) extending above the supporting face (20) of the flat rack (1) up to a level above cargo (100) to be stowed on the supporting face (20) of the flat rack (1), and a top portion (55) configured to support overlying unitized cargo via coupling means. The body portion (51) has angular cross section defining flanges (52). The flanges (52) define in between them an interior (25) allowing for accommodation of cargo (100) essentially inside the interior (25) and along the flanges (52).

Description

A FLAT RACK COMPRISING CORNER POSTS AND A METHOD OF TRANSPORTING CARGO USING IT

The present invention relates, according to a first aspect, to a flat rack including a corner post. The corner post extends upwards from a corner of a cargo supporting face of the flat rack. The corner post includes:

- a body portion extending above the cargo supporting face of the flat rack to a level above cargo, such as pallets carrying fruit boxes, to be stowed on the supporting face of the flat rack, and

- a top portion configured to support overlying unitized cargo via

coupling means.

The flat rack according to the present invention may be configured for carrying cargo in a cargo hold compartment of a container ship or equivalent. The cargo hold compartment may include, or be connected to, reefer machinery configured to cool or refrigerate cargo accommodated in the flat rack in the cargo hold compartment.

The cargo hold in which the flat rack according to present invention may find its application may furthermore include:

- a plurality of cell guides extending essentially vertical within, or inside, the cargo hold,

- one or more optional container stoppers arranged in the cell guides.

The stoppers may be configured for maintaining the at least one flat rack in a certain height within the cell guides and above a bottom face of the cargo hold,

- means for cooling the cargo hold and cargo stowed within the cargo hold, and

- thermal insulation surrounding at least a portion of the cargo hold.

According to another aspect, the present invention relates to a method of transporting palletized cargo on a flat rack. In the field of shipping palletized cargo it is known to transport cargo by means of stowing pallets on platform based cargo carriers, or flat racks.

Flat racks comprise a platform base and the flat racks optionally comprise erect posts normally disposed at each end though sometimes toward the middle. The posts may be configured to fold down onto the base to allow the folded flat racks to be stacked one upon another for economical transport and storage. Such collapsable flat racks have been around for decades and are described in various earlier patent applications and patents.

The expression "reefer" or "refrigeration" is throughout this specification intended to denote a process or a condition wherein the temperature of a space or an item is controlled. The expression as such therefore also denotes only limited cooling, possibly to a level of only 1 °C or similar below the uncooled temperature of the space or the items. The expression

"refrigeration" may in the context of this specification therefore not be taken to denote freezing or deep-freezing only.

The expression "cell guide" is throughout this specification intended to denote a relatively strong vertical structure, preferably made of metal, installed into a ship's cargo hold. The cell guides guide containers and flat racks into well- defined rows, or vertical cells, during the loading process and provide some support for the cargo against any rolling of the ship. Background

Perishable cargo such as bananas and the like are transported over substantial distances primarily by ships. The perishable cargo is today packed in boxes and stowed on pallets stored on board a ship, either in refrigerated containers or directly on decks of dedicated reefer ships having cargo compartments configured for accurate control of climatic conditions within the space accommodating the cargo. European Patent No. 10 35 998 B (NIELSEN) discloses a refrigerated cargo ship comprising an insulated refrigerated cargo hold section arranged essentially amidships. The ship according to the disclosure further is configured for accommodating a second cargo in the form of containers. The containers are stowed vertically in cargo holds arranged aft and forward of the refrigerated cargo hold section. The refrigerated cargo hold section according to EP 10 35 998 B is configured for accommodating perishable cargoes such as bananas and the like under favourable conditions and the refrigerated cargo hold section is not configured for accommodation of containers.

A refrigerated cargo ship according to the said European Patent No. 10 35 998 B is today considered state of the art within the area of reefer ship design. This primarily is due to the facts that the design on one hand allows for excellent climatic control inside the section configured for accommodating the perishable cargo, and on the other hand because the design allows for carriage of a large number of containers, refrigerated or not, with or without simultaneous carriage of reefer cargo and/or water ballast. The excellent climatic control inside the refrigerated cargo hold section is achieved through an uncompromised ventilation and air distribution system which is superior to that of refrigerated containers as well as prior art proposals for carrying palletized reefer cargo inside a container hold. A refrigerated cargo ship having a dedicated refrigerated cargo hold section is considered a highly advanced and expensive ship, the construction of which is justified only by the mere fact that refrigerated containers as well as prior art container holds provide only limited ability to maintain optimum carriage conditions for sensitive cargoes such as bananas and the like.

Controlling the climatic conditions within a cargo space accommodating e.g. bananas is vital as the time allotted for transit of the cargo is utilized for controlled ripening of the perishable cargoes. The ripening process of some cargoes begins already during inland transport and continues while the cargo is underway by ship. Therefore, precise tuning and control of the carriage conditions together with the arrival time of the ship is very important for the sensitive logistic in perishable goods transport.

It has been proposed to stow pallets and the like on flat racks, and stow the flat racks in a cargo hold comprising cell guides configured for vertical guidance of the flat racks. The flat racks may be provided with means facilitating ventilation and cooling of the cargo stowed on the flat racks whereby the quality of the ventilation and cooling is considered to resemble that of a dedicated reefer ship.

It has been found that when unitized cargo such as palletized cargo and the like is stowed on a flat rack, the corner posts of today's flat racks takes up space on the top surface of the flat rack which could otherwise have been used for stowage of cargo.

In particular, when stowing unitised cargo such euro pallets, the area occupied by the corner posts in effect prevent perfect stowage on the flat rack leading to loss of about 10% cargo capacity. Furthermore, today's less than optimal stowage of cargo on the flat racks allow cargo such as fruit boxes stowed on pallets and resting on the flat rack, to shift or move as the cargo is not resting against juxtaposed cargo. Even further, the loosely stowed cargo defines air shortcuts which in effect may lead to unacceptable high temperature gradients when the flat rack is disposed in a reefer hold compartment.

It is an object of the present invention to set forth solutions solving the abovementioned drawbacks.

Brief description of the invention According to the present invention, the above objects are met by the provision of a corner post where the body portion of the corner post has angular cross section defining flanges. The flanges define in between them an interior allowing for accommodation of cargo essentially inside the interior and along the flanges.

According to one embodiment, the corner post may be disposed above a corner of the flat rack. Further, the flanges may extend along two sides of the flat rack defining the corner of the flat rack.

According to one embodiment, the top portion configured to support overlying unitized cargo may constitute a corner casting equivalent to those of standardized cargo containers. The corner casting may be welded to the body portion.

According to one embodiment, the flat rack may be rectangular and include four corner posts, one disposed in each corner of the flat rack. Furthermore, the flat rack may constitute a standardized forty or twenty foot flat rack. According to one embodiment, the one or more corner posts may be collapsible or pivot able about a hinge.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the method of transporting cargo includes a step of loading two pallets in-between corner posts disposed at an end of a flat rack according to the present invention is disclosed. The method further may include a step of placing, on the flat rack, short sides of two rectangular pallets, or two euro pallets, against each other and moving them in between two corner posts disposed at an end of the flat rack.

Brief description of the drawings Figure 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a flat rack according to the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a top view of prior art flat rack loaded with pallets.

Figure 3 shows a top view of a loaded flat rack according to the present invention.

Figure 4 shows a detail of figure 3.

Detailed description with reference to the figures

Figure 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a flat rack according to the present invention. As can be seen, erect and elongated corner posts 50 extend from the cargo supporting surface 20, or top surface, of the flat rack.

The corner post 50 comprises a body portion 51 and a top portion 55. The body portion 51 may, as can be seen in figures 1 , 3 and 4, be embodied as an angular profile comprising flanges 52 extending along the sides 2 of the flat rack. The body portion 51 further may be embodied as symmetrical angular profile, such as shown in the figures, or as a not shown L-shaped profile.

As can be seen in figure 4, the flanges 52 may be provided with means 53 for reinforcing the body portion 51 . The means preferably extend away from the interior 25, defined by the flanges 52, allowing for accommodation of cargo.

The corner posts may, as can be seen in figure 1 , be provided with a top portion 55 allowing for stacking of a plurality of flat racks or containers above the flat rack.

The flat rack typically may also include corner castings 56 disposed in the corners of its lower face 5. The corner castings 55 may be configured for receiving twist locks and/or be configured for engagement with a container spreader or equivalent. The corner post 50 may be connected to the flat rack in a manner allowing the corner post 50 to tilt or pivot about not shown hinges. By this, the flat rack according to the present invention may be stowed or stored in an economical manner. Figure 2 shows a top view of prior art flat rack comprising corner posts occupying space on the cargo supporting face 20 of the flat rack. As can be seen, the former posts 50' occupy enough space to prevent perfect stowage of cargo 100 on the flat rack. Figure 3 shows a top view of a flat rack according to the present invention. As can be seen, the corner posts 50 takes up only limited space on the cargo supporting surface of the flat rack. The effect of this is, as mentioned earlier in this specification, that the cargo supporting surface 20 of the flat rack according to the present invention may be utilised essentially in full.

Figure 2 shows that a prior art flat rack is able to accommodate 22

standardized pallets each with the dimensions of 1 .200 mm χ 1 .000 mm whereas the flat rack according to figure 3, and according to the present invention, is able to accommodate 24 pallets with the dimensions of 1 .200 mm χ 1 .000 mm.

Figure 4 shows a detail of figure 3. As can be seen, the flanges 52 may be reinforced by means 53 extending away from the interior 25. The reinforcing means 53 may constitute a bend or similar and the reinforcing means may be configured to clear cell guides 30.

The application and combination of features and solutions presented by the present invention is not limited to the presented embodiments. One or more features of one embodiment can and may be combined with one or more features of other embodiments, whereby not described but valid

embodiments of the present invention may be obtained. The term "comprises/comprising/comprised of" when used in this

specification incl. claims is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

Claims

Claims:

1 . A flat rack (1 ) including a corner post (50) extending upwards from a corner of a cargo supporting face (20) of said flat rack (1 ), said corner post (50) includes:

- a body portion (51 ) extending above said cargo supporting face (20) of said flat rack (1 ) to a level above cargo (100) to be stowed on the supporting face (20) of said flat rack (1 ), and

- a top portion (55) configured to support overlying unitized cargo via coupling means

characterized in that said body portion (51 ) has an angular cross section defining flanges (52) and in that said flanges (52) define in between them an interior (25) allowing for accommodation of cargo (100) essentially inside said interior (25) and along said flanges (52).

2. A flat rack according to claim 1 , wherein said corner post (50) is disposed above a corner of said flat rack (1 ) and wherein said flanges (52) extend along two sides (2) of said flat rack defining the corner of said flat rack.

3. A flat rack according to any one or more of the foregoing claims, wherein said top portion (55) configured to support overlying unitized cargo constitute a corner casting (55).

4. A flat rack according to any one or more of the foregoing claims, wherein said flat rack (1 ) is rectangular and includes four corner posts (50), one disposed in each corner of said flat rack (1 ).

5. A flat rack according to any one or more of the foregoing claims, wherein said one or more corner posts (50) are collapsible.

6. A method of transporting cargo including a step of loading two pallets in- between corner posts disposed at an end of a flat rack according to any one or more of the foregoing claims.

7. A method of transporting cargo according to claim 6, wherein said method further includes a step of placing, on a flat rack, short sides of two rectangular pallets, or two euro pallets, against each other and moving them in between two corner posts disposed at an end of a flat rack.