WO2014081273A1

WO2014081273A1 - Structurally reinforced plastic box

Info

Publication number: WO2014081273A1
Application number: PCT/MX2012/000119
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sergio Sosa Bravo
Original assignee: Sergio Sosa Bravo
Priority date: 2012-11-22
Filing date: 2012-11-22
Publication date: 2014-05-30

Abstract

The invention relates to a box for containing packagings and/or bottles, consisting of a plastic material and comprising inner dividers and corner reinforcements. The corners of the box have a hollow column structure and the hollow space is filled with foamed thermoplastic material, preferably polyolefins such as polyethylene. In this way, a combination of lightness and resistance is achieved that allows material savings, higher stacking of boxes, resistance to collisions and knocks from careless or violent handling, and the subsequent recycling of the box at the end of its service life without having to separate the materials for said recycling.

Description

STRUCTURED REINFORCED PLASTIC BOX

Field of the Invention

The present invention is in the field of products useful for transporting containers and / or bottles. Specifically, the present invention relates to a structurally reinforced plastic box that is used for loading and transporting various types of containers and / or bottles.

Background of the Invention In many industries, there is great dynamics for loading, unloading and transporting a wide variety of products, which are frequently packaged and / or bottled.

The transport of many of these products, usually packaged and / or bottled either in glass or in a plastic container, is carried out through the use of plastic boxes, which are constantly handled, stacked or stowed and transported on pallets, by forklift medium; without too much care and are exposed all the time to impacts and permanent stress of the load.

As is evident, these interactions to which the boxes are subject are very frequent and are regularly done by poorly trained personnel and at such a speed that such impacts cause often irreversible ruptures that lead to inevitable replacement of the boxes with the consequent expense for their renewal.

All this without mentioning that, due to the normal structural resistance of the conventional boxes, the stacking is limited and frequently there is a risk that the columns of the lower boxes, on which the other upper boxes are stowed as well as the weight in In general resulting from the stowage of the product, they are damaged to the degree of expiration due to the effect of the large load to which they are subjected, resulting in considerable accidents and large product losses.

In this same sense, due to the different transportation needs of the containers and / or bottles contained in the boxes, several containers or bottles are usually placed for each box having an approximate weight of between 20 and 30 kilograms, not counting the own weight of the box. In this sense, another big problem that arises is that the boxes that are intended to be stowed, need to simultaneously provide a higher resistance to the load so that they can withstand the weight of the pallets to which they are subjected, demanding the maximum structural resistance and mechanics of these boxes.

This factor is key and transcendental, because when the boxes are reinforced to give them greater structural mechanical strength, their weight is regularly increased; For example, for a box to support above 300 kilograms, its weight in plastic will surely be greater than 2 kilograms. And if external elements are used to reinforce them, the weight of the box will be superior depending on the reinforcement material used. This is counterproductive, because when determining the total load that the boxes could bear, it is also necessary to consider the weight of the upper boxes that are stowed on which they form the base, making the same weight of the box a limitation for stowage, having to carry more weight has to be loaded by the contents of the box, that is, packaging and / or product.

Moreover, in conventional plastic boxes the frequent hit to its structure due to the use of forklift nails for handling, damages the box in general and in the short term makes it unusable because the impacts generate irreparable ruptures . In addition, it is very common that the boxes fall to different heights due to their manipulation, which generates their easy break and their necessary replacement, because their structure is relatively fragile in view of the strong and constant impacts to which they are subjected.

Another factor that damages the boxes is the handling that users give them, since when subjected to heavy and heavy work, over time, often in the short term, the boxes have to be replaced, due to their low resistance, because the impacts overcome the structure of conventional boxes and do not resist the load to which they are subjected.

In this way, it is evident that the damages to the boxes are frequent and daily, which normally results in the disposal of the boxes, impacting on Largely operating costs of industries.

This problem persists in the industry and there is a need for a reinforced box that, due to its structure, can mainly withstand higher load for stowage of the same and considering both the weight of the container, the product and the box itself, but that at the same time it has a great structural support to the impacts caused by blows or broths, achieving that the box can maintain the structural stability when stowed, reducing the horizontal space for storage and taking advantage of the vertical space.

At present, there is no box that provides structural strength such that it supports higher loads than conventional boxes, that is, there is no box such that its use allows stowage more boxes than what a technician normally knows that a column Stowed can withstand unbalanced and without the lower boxes that support the entire upper load expires.

To try to solve the problems described above, various attempts have been made to provide more load-resistant boxes, so there are documents related to this type of structurally reinforced boxes, such as US 3, 997, 074 describing a open rectangular box of the upper part that is formed of a plastic material and that is internally reinforced with a continuous length reinforcement, which extends substantially along the upper edges of the two side walls opposite the box so, down adjacent to the 4 edges of the vertical corners of the box, and along the banks of the bottom of the other two opposite side walls of the box. This document indicates that this configuration of the reinforcement, which can be a metallic steel rod, has multiple advantages, such as serving as struts when the boxes are stacked one on top of the other or strengthening the overall structure of the box when it is lifted. Or it drives. However, the weight of such boxes is excessive and the manufacturing cost of the boxes can be very high due to the introduction of the metal rod. In addition, when the useful life of the box comes to an end, it cannot be recycled directly as it will require the separation of plastic and metal.

Likewise, document US 5, 417,343 discloses a stackable bottle case of plastic material, in which the side walls are reinforced by vertical columns with profiled holes extending to the upper marginal edge of the side walls of the box and together with the upper marginal edge of a circumferential stacking edge for load reduction. The object of this invention is to provide a bottle case that shows maximum rigidity with optimal weight minimization so that load transfer in the stack is possible without danger of damaging the case. However, the load that this geometry can withstand is not very high and in case of any blow, whether caused by the forklift or the fall to the floor during handling, the structure would be damaged and its load capacity lost.

Also, US 4,548,320 refers to a box for containers that is composed of a plurality of vertical columns that extend from the top to the bottom of the box, each having a pair of members protruding outward. In the box according to the present invention, in such a way that the walls supported by said members contribute to the structural strength of the box by providing for the transmission of compression forces directly from the upper stacking edge to the bottom of the box when it is under forces derived from stacking. However, the weight of this box is also excessive, therefore increasing the cost of the box by the amount of plastic material needed and consequently the molding cycle would be very high, also greatly influencing the rise in manufacturing cost.

On the other hand, US 6,367,630 describes a container with high strength especially suitable for stacking when stacked with another similar when full and for nesting with another similar when empty. The container includes a conical receptacle that has vertical walls that are covered by a lid. The receptacle has an abruptly enlarged upper perimeter joined to a lower perimeter by a horizontal shelf, which resists buckling of the walls under heavy loads. The lid has grooves in the support surfaces of stacking in which the reinforcing members are arranged. The reinforcement members may include winged mounts arranged in slits in the lid that are designed to better distribute the shells through the receptacle. However, this type of box is extremely heavy and therefore expensive and even worse when inserting the structural elements in the box, the weight increases considerably. Depending on the material used to reinforce the structure, recycling the box may not be efficient and quite expensive.

Moreover, in US 2, 634,021 it refers to boxes for containing bottled products, which are strongly reinforced in a safe and hygienic manner. The boxes according to this document have reinforcement elements which facilitate stacking while preventing the box from being deformed or broken despite the hard use to which this type of boxes are subjected. It is also indicated that the means for strongly reinforcing this type of boxes are arranged in each of them in such a way that the projection of the walls of the box towards the interior is avoided and prevents parts of said elements from coming into contact with the contents. of the box and damage it. However, this type of design requires several plastic parts that then have to be joined or glued in a certain way; in this case with rims or rivets, which makes the manufacturing process really complicated and also complicates the problem of efficiently recycling the box at the end of its useful life, depending on the material that is used for such trims or rivets.

In view of the above, there is still a need to provide a box with high structural resistance to load and impact, which is light and therefore provides a shorter production cycle compared to conventional boxes and thus decreases the cost of production; also that it is 100% recyclable without any separation of the materials. Summary of the Invention

One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a structurally reinforced plastic box, to contain containers and / or bottles that has high resistance and structural support to the load, thus providing greater stacking capacity, thereby achieving optimum use of the vertical space, thereby reducing the use of space intended for horizontal storage.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a structurally reinforced plastic box, to contain containers and / or bottles, which is lighter compared to conventional boxes and without this affecting its mechanical properties in terms of strength, stiffness and stability mainly.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide a structurally reinforced plastic box, to contain containers and / or bottles, which provides greater resistance to the impacts caused by blows or falls, which occur during the mobilization or transport of plastic boxes.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a structurally reinforced plastic box, to contain containers and / or bottles that, due to its structural and reinforcing characteristics, can be produced by a smaller amount of plastic material and therefore achieve a shorter cycle, to in order to optimize its manufacturing and reduce costs.

Moreover, another objective of the present invention is to provide a structurally reinforced plastic box, to contain containers and / or bottles, that is completely recyclable without any separation of the different materials that make up said box and with a useful life far superior to the boxes conventional.

These and other objectives are achieved by the structurally reinforced plastic box according to the present invention, in which the reinforcing characteristics are achieved from the strategic injection of a foamed thermoplastic material into specific areas of the structure of said box.

Brief Description of the Figures of the Invention Figure 1A shows a perspective view of the plastic box according to the present invention. Figure IB shows a perspective view from the bottom surface of the plastic box according to the present invention.

Figure 2A shows a front view of the plastic box according to the present invention. Figure 2B shows a right side view of the plastic box according to the present invention.

Figure 3A is a detailed view of the section of the columns of the plastic box according to the present invention, showing the strategic space of the structure of the box that will be injected with foamed thermoplastic material. Figure 3B is a detailed view of the section of the columns of the plastic box according to the present invention, showing the same column after injecting the foamed thermoplastic material.

Figure 4 is a detailed view of the upper part of one of the columns of the structurally reinforced plastic box according to the present invention, where the hole is shown to facilitate the exit of air and gases when injecting the foamed thermoplastic material.

Figure 5 illustrates the stacking of structurally reinforced plastic boxes according to the present invention.

Figure 6A shows the effect of the loading force on the stacked structure formed by the structurally reinforced plastic boxes according to the present invention, when stowed. Figure 6B shows the areas where the structural resistance effect of the strategic injection of the foamed thermoplastic material is presented when the structurally reinforced plastic boxes according to the present invention are stacked. Detailed description of the invention

The present invention relates to a structurally reinforced plastic box for containing containers and / or bottles that has high resistance and structural support to the load, thus providing greater stacking capacity, thereby achieving optimum utilization of the vertical space. In turn, the structurally reinforced plastic box turns out to be lighter compared to conventional boxes without affecting its mechanical properties and is produced by a smaller amount of plastic material and therefore a shorter cycle is achieved, in order to optimize its manufacturing and reduce costs.

According to the present invention, the plastic box as shown in Figure 1A, is made by a plastic injection process. Said plastic box comprises long parallel side walls (1), short parallel side walls (2), as well as a base (3) and an open surface (4) and a compartment that has separation elements by means of cross walls (5) which is between said parallel side walls (1) and (2) that serves to contain a plurality of packages and / or bottles. Also, figure IB shows a perspective view from the bottom surface of the plastic box according to the present.

The long parallel side walls (1), as shown in Figure 2A, have at least one horizontal rectangular hole (6) in its central upper part and vertical rectangular gaps along its length. structure, as well as holes at the ends (7) and below the at least one horizontal rectangular hole

(8). The short parallel side walls (2), as shown in Figure 2B, also have a horizontal rectangular hole (9) in its central upper part and vertical rectangular holes in the ends of its structure (7) as well as at least one horizontal rectangular hole (8) below the horizontal rectangular hole

(9).

The long parallel side walls (1) are connected to the short parallel side walls (2) by means of columns (10) projecting in each of the corners of the base (3), said columns (10) have a hollow in the lower part and a hole (11) in the upper part.

In Figures 3A and 3B, according to the present invention, said columns (10) are injected with a foamed thermoplastic material (12), which is regularly composed of a polyolefin such as PE (polyethylene) and a foaming agent, which gives greater resistance to the structure of the box. Also, Figure 3A shows the hollow of the columns (10) of the plastic box that will be injected with the foamed thermoplastic material (12), specifically in Figure 3B the same column (10) is shown after injecting the foamed thermoplastic material ( 12). Each of the hollow columns (10) of the box has a volume which is injected with the foamed thermoplastic material (12).

In this sense, when the foamed thermoplastic material (12) is injected into the gaps formed in the columns (10), the air and process gases present, are expelled through the hole (11) that is located in the upper part of said columns (10) as shown in Figure 4.

The plastic box, once it has been reinforced from the injection of the foamed thermoplastic material (12), obtains a high resistance and structural support to the load, which is greater than 500 kilograms, thus allowing greater stacking capacity, it is that is to say, from 4 to 5 stowage of height achieving an optimum use of the vertical space contributing a saving in the warehouse space. Figure 5 shows an example of the stacking of 2 structurally reinforced plastic boxes according to the present invention and Figure 6A shows the effect of the loading force on the stacked structure (13) formed by the structurally reinforced plastic boxes according to the present invention when they are stowed. When the plastic boxes are stacked, the columns (10) reinforced with the foamed thermoplastic material (12) form a structural support column that allows stacking, providing great load resistance to the integral structure that is formed, this can be seen in figure 6B where a cross-section of the structural column (14) formed from the columns (10) of the structurally reinforced plastic boxes according to the present invention is shown.

Conventional plastic boxes which weigh more than 2000 grams have been described in the state of the art. On the other hand, the box plastic of the present invention has an approximate weight of 1400 grams without the injection of the foamed thermoplastic material (12), once said material has been injected, the structurally reinforced plastic box increases in weight by approximately 1600 grams By reducing the weight compared to the boxes Conventionally, a lighter structure is obtained, without affecting its mechanical properties in terms of strength, stiffness and stability, in turn, the plastic box of the present invention is easy to handle by users and by multiple means of transportation and storage.

In this sense, in order to optimize its manufacturing, the structurally reinforced plastic box can be produced with less raw material and therefore a shorter cycle is achieved compared to traditional boxes; While traditional boxes are produced in a cycle of between 40 to 50 seconds, the structurally reinforced plastic box is produced in a cycle of between 30 and 35 seconds. With this, the cost is reduced through the reduction of the molding time, which allows to obtain a higher production rate.

Moreover, the improvements made in the structurally reinforced plastic box of the present invention, give it greater resistance to impacts caused by blows or falls and in general to the rough and intense handling thereof; therefore, there is an increase in storage security since, for example, if a forklift hits the structure of the box, it does not break unlike the boxes conventional avoiding the accidents that can be generated.

On the other hand, the structurally reinforced plastic box of the present invention, obtains a longer useful life compared to conventional boxes and at the end of it, can be recycled without the need to separate the materials.

In turn, the structurally reinforced plastic box of the present invention has greater sustainability due to the use of higher recycling percentages, thereby reducing the ecological impact caused by disposal of these boxes.

Example

In order to verify the advantages of the structurally reinforced plastic box strategically injected with foamed thermoplastic material (12) according to the present invention, it was subjected to mechanical tests of compressive stresses allowing to verify the effect and the change in its properties that occurs by injecting the foamed thermoplastic material (12) which is composed of PE (polyethylene) and a foaming agent.

Structural strength and mechanical behavior tests were performed to demonstrate the advantages of the structurally reinforced plastic box according to the present invention: two boxes were taken, as described in the figures of this invention, one without foamed thermoplastic material and another with the thermoplastic material foamed (12) already injected.

In the first test, a single box was placed without Foamed thermoplastic material in a laboratory equipment for compression and loading was applied until the case collapsed; The result was 23,100 Newtons. On the other hand, a single structurally reinforced plastic box was now placed that was strategically injected into the columns with the foamed thermoplastic material (12), such as that described in the present invention, and likewise was subjected to a compression effort until it collapses; obtaining a result of 27,200 Newtons. As can be seen, the strategic injection of the thermoplastic foam in the columns of the box managed to increase the load capacity of the box by 17.75%.

In a second test, two boxes without foamed thermoplastic material, one envelope from another, were placed in the same laboratory equipment for compression; a load was applied until the first box collapsed, (which in this case was the one in the upper position), with a result of 20,100 Newtons. Subsequently, two structurally reinforced boxes were placed with the injection of thermoplastic foam in the columns according to the present invention, one on top of the other, and a load was applied until the first box collapsed, (which in this case was also the one in the top position), with a result of 24,300 Newtons. As observed in this second test, the strategic injection of thermoplastic foam in the columns of the box managed to increase the load capacity of the boxes by 20.9%.

With these laboratory tests you can conclude that in the daily work, when stowage several levels of boxes according to the present invention with product by pallet and several pallets with boxes, one on top of the other, the distribution of the load will allow to achieve towers of four or five levels of pallets with boxes according to the Present invention and product. As a reference, conventional boxes are stowed only at 2.5 to 3.0 levels.

Therefore, the objectives set for this invention are achieved by having an injected plastic box which, being structurally reinforced with thermoplastic foam in the columns, higher stacks are achieved, to take full advantage of the warehouse spaces; with a box weight less and with a lower production cycle, thereby achieving a significant reduction in manufacturing cost.

Claims

1. A structurally reinforced plastic box manufactured by plastic injection, characterized in that it comprises long parallel side walls (1), short parallel side walls (2), as well as a base (3), an open surface (4) and a compartment that it presents separation elements by means of crossed walls (5) which is between said parallel side walls (1) and (2) which serves to contain a plurality of containers and / or bottles, in which the columns (10) are injected with a foamed thermoplastic material (12) in the gaps at the bottom of said columns (10) providing the integral structure of the box with high resistance (13) and superior load bearing capacity (14).

2. The structurally reinforced plastic box according to claim 1, characterized in that the foamed thermoplastic material (12) is composed of a polyolefin such as PE (polyethylene) and a foaming agent.

3. The structurally reinforced plastic box according to claim 1, characterized in that the strategic structural reinforcement provided by the injection of the thermoplastic material makes the box capable of providing greater stacking capacity, thereby achieving optimum use of the vertical space In the stores.

4. The structurally reinforced plastic box according to claim 1, characterized in that it turns out to be much lighter compared to conventional boxes and even against other conventionally reinforced boxes, without this affecting their properties on structural and mechanical resistance of said boxes.

5. The structurally reinforced plastic box according to claim 1, further characterized in that the strategic structural reinforcement provided by the injection of the thermoplastic material causes the box to have much greater resistance to impacts caused by shocks or falls that occur during mobilization or transport of these, managing to provide the box with a useful life far superior to conventional boxes.

6. The structurally reinforced plastic box according to claim 1, characterized in that a smaller amount of plastic material is required for its production and therefore a shorter cycle is achieved, in order to optimize its manufacturing and reduce costs.

7. The structurally reinforced plastic box according to claim 1, characterized in that it is completely and easily recyclable as there is no need to separate the different materials that compose it.