The invention relates to components of a large scale and rigid collapsible receptacle, and particularly relates to components used for a collapsible box, and especially relates to a bi-directional foldable hinge used for a collapsible box.
The present invention also relates to a collapsible container utilizing this bi-directional foldable hinge
The platform container and the platform based container are more and more widely used in multimodal transport of freight due to the convenience of loading and unloading a freight and a large loading capacity, the structure of which mainly comprises a floor 1′, a loading platform and end structures provided at two ends of the floor, which can be divided into two kinds of structure, i.e. fixed end structure and foldable end structure.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
However, during the container transporting, it is usually to transport some special products, such as motor vehicles etc, and for these products, a ramp is often need to load and unload these products. The present existing solutions is to use a removed end wall of the collapsible container as a ramp, namely, the end wall is removed from the floor at first and is placed horizontally in a direction opposite to its initial direction, then one end of the end wall is placed on the floor, and the other end of the end wall is placed on the ground, and the end wall is needed to orient and fix. It is necessary to use auxiliary equipments such as a crane or a forklift to carry out the above method, which is neither safe nor convenient, and cause the high-cost of freight load and time-consuming.
In view of the deficiencies of prior art, the main objection of the present invention is to provide a hinge used for a collapsible container which can be bi-directional folded.
Another objection of the present invention is to provide a collapsible container, an end wall of which can be safely folded in two-direction. When the collapsible container employs the bi-directional foldable hinge, the end wall can be used as a ramp when folded towards outside of the container body.
In order to achieve the above objection, the present invention provides a hinge used for a collapsible container comprising: an inner hinge comprising two inner hinge plates parallel to each other, the two inner hinge plates being aligned with each other separately to be fixedly connected to corresponding bottom corner fitting and end transverse member of the collapsible container, the two inner hinge plates being provided with two pivoting holes respectively, the locations of which correspond to each other, and hoisting holes used for craning being provided at the upper middle positions of the two inner hinge plates, respectively; an outer hinge disposed outside of the inner hinge and fixedly connected to the lower end of corresponding corner post of an end wall of the collapsible container, the outer hinge comprising two outer hinge plates parallel to each other, and the two outer hinge plates being provided with two pivoting holes which are corresponding to the pivoting holes located on the two inner hinge plates, respectively, limiting step in a shape of step being provided on the two outer hinge plates where close to corresponding bottom corner fitting thereof, which are matched up with the bottom corner fitting for limiting and fixing the end wall in position; a first pivoting pin being inserted into or disengaged from the pivoting holes of the inner and outer hinge plates corresponding to each other to enable the inner and outer hinges to be pivotally connected or disconnected; a second pivoting pin which is configured to run parallel to the first pivoting pin and operate in conjunction with the first pivoting pin, the second pivoting pin being disengaged from or inserted into the pivoting holes of the outer and inner hinge plates corresponding to each other to enable the inner and outer hinges to be pivotally connected or disconnected; wherein when one of the first and second pivoting pins is pulled out, the outer hinge is overturned around the other pivoting pin to make the end wall overturn and fold towards inside or outside of the container body; when the first and second pivoting pins are simultaneously located in the pivoting holes of the inner and outer hinges corresponding to each other, the end wall of the collapsible container is fixed to the vertical state.
In the hinge used for a collapsible container, wherein in order to ensure that the collapsible container employing the hinge of the present invention also can meet the requirement of hoisting and stacking of a general purpose collapsible container, an inner hinge top plate is perpendicularly provided on top of the two inner hinge plates parallel to each other, and a U-shaped notch is disposed in the inner hinge top plate, which is used for craning the collapsible container. The inner hinge can be a casting or a welded part integrally formed by the two inner hinge plates and the inner hinge top plate.
In the hinge used for a collapsible container, wherein an outer hinge top plate is perpendicularly provided on top of the two outer hinge plates parallel to each other, and protrusions are provided on top ends of the two outer hinge plate which are connected to the corner post of the end wall, the protrusions being fittingly connected with the corner post of the end wall; the outer hinge can be a casting or a welded part integrally formed by the two outer hinge plates and the outer hinge top plate.
In the hinge used for a collapsible container, wherein the inner hinge plates are L-shaped plates, and two pivoting holes located on the inner hinge plates are formed on two extended ends of the inner hinge plate respectively; the outer hinge plates are L-shaped plates, and two pivoting holes located on the outer hinge plates are formed on two extended ends of the outer hinge plate respectively.
In order to achieve the above objection, the present invention also provides a collapsible container employing the above hinge structure, which comprises a floor, an end wall, a hinge pivotally connected between the end wall and the floor, a corner fittings installed on the floor and the end wall; the hinge comprises: an inner hinge comprising two inner hinge plates parallel to each other, the bottom portion of the two inner hinge plates being fixedly connected to the bottom corner fittings and the end transverse member of the collapsible container, the two inner hinge plates being provided with two pivoting holes respectively, and hoisting holes used for craning being provided at the upper middle positions of the two inner hinge plates, respectively; an outer hinge disposed outside of the inner hinge and fixedly connected to a lower end of a corner post of the end wall of the collapsible container, the outer hinge comprising two outer hinge plates parallel to each other, the two outer hinge plates being provided with two pivoting holes corresponding to the pivoting holes located on the two inner hinge plates, respectively; limiting step in a shape of step being provided at the two outer hinge plates where close to the bottom corner fittings, which is used to limit and fix the end wall in position; a first pivoting pin being inserted into or disengaged from the pivoting holes of the inner and outer hinge plates corresponding to each other to enable the inner and outer hinges to be pivotally connected or disconnected; and a second pivoting pin which is configured to run parallel to the first pivoting pin and operate in conjunction with the first pivoting pin, the second pivoting pin being disengaged from or inserted into the pivoting holes of the inner and outer hinge plates corresponding to each other to enable the inner and outer hinges to be disengaged or pivotally connected; wherein when one of the first and second pivoting pins is pulled out, the outer hinge is overturned around the other pivoting pin to make the end wall overturn and fold towards inside or outside of the container body; when the first and second pivoting pins are simultaneously located in the pivoting holes of the inner and outer hinges corresponding to each other, the end wall is fixed to the vertical state.
In the hinge used for a collapsible container, wherein in order to ensure that the collapsible container can meet the requirement of hoisting and stacking of a general purpose collapsible container, an inner hinge top plate is perpendicularly provided on top of the two inner hinge plates parallel to each other, a U-shaped notch for craning the collapsible container is provided in the inner hinge top plate; the inner hinge can be a casting or a welded part integrally formed by the two inner hinge plates and the inner hinge top plate.
In the hinge used for a collapsible container, wherein an outer hinge top plate is perpendicularly provided on top of the two outer hinge plates parallel to each other, and protrusions are provided on top ends of the two outer hinge top plates which are connected to the corner post of the end wall, the protrusions being fittingly connected with the corner post of the end wall. The outer hinge can be a casting or a welded part integrally formed by the two outer hinge plates and the outer hinge top plate.
In the hinge used for a collapsible container, wherein the inner hinge plates are L-shaped plates, and two pivoting holes located on the inner hinge plates are formed onto two extended ends of the inner hinge plate respectively; the outer hinge plates are L-shaped plates, and two pivoting holes located on the outer hinge plates are formed onto two extended ends of the outer hinge plate respectively.
The present invention develops a bi-directional foldable hinge structure, which can be bi-directional folded without removing the end wall and without using a crane or a forklift, and after the end wall is folded towards outside of the container body, the end wall can be used as a ramp, thereby providing a convenient and fast approach for loading special products such as motor vehicles. On the other hand, the collapsible container of the present invention remains the feature that the existing hinge can be folded towards inside of the container body and meets the size requirement of standard collapsible container, thereby satisfying hoisting and stocking requirements according to ISO standard at the same time. Therefore, as for some special products such as motor vehicles etc, they can be directly driven onto or off the floor platform of the container through the ramp which is formed by the end wall folding towards outside of the container body, without the help of a hoisting apparatus, thereby the time of loading a cargo is shortened and the cost of loading a cargo is decreased.
The technical solution and other advantageous effects of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description of the particular embodiment of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The hinge of the present invention is pivotally connected between the floor and the corner post of the end wall, so as to realize the function of folding between the vertical state and the lay-down state relative to the floor like the freight container hinge of prior art, at the same time to realize the function that the end wall is overturned and folded towards outside of the container body. The characteristic feature of the present invention is in that structure of the hinge used for a collapsible container, and the structure of other components of the collapsible container will be omitted herein.
In the above-described structure of the inner hinge, from the point of theory, if the two hoisting side holes 3113, 3123 are provided on the two inner hinge plates respectively, the inner hinge top plate 313 may not be provided separately, and then the space between the two inner hinge plates is used as the top hole of the top corner fitting, so as to ensure that the container can be hoisted after the end wall is folded towards inside of the container body.
In the above-described structure of the outer hinge, from the point of theory, if the two outer hinge plates are connected to the corner post of the end wall directly, the outer hinge top plate 303 may not be provided separately. Whereas, a protrusion portion 3015 provided on top end of the outer hinge plate 301 as shown in
Referring to
As illustrated in
The operation process of the hinge of the present invention is showed as in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Furthermore, as illustrated in
Similarly, the second outer hinge plate 302 of the outer hinge 30 is provided with limiting step correspondingly (not shown in the figures), the operation principle of which is identical with that of the limiting step of the first outer hinge plate 301, therefore detained description thereof will be omitted herein.
It can be understood from the technical knowledge that the present invention can be carried out by other embodiments without departing from the substantial spirit or essential feature thereof. Therefore, the above disclosed embodiment is merely illustrative explanation and not exclusive in all aspects. All modifications falling within the scope of the present invention or that equal to the scope of the present invention are included in the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007 1 0197038 | Dec 2007 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CN2008/001384 | 7/28/2008 | WO | 00 | 6/2/2010 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2009/070956 | 6/11/2009 | WO | A |
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4638744 | Clive-Smith | Jan 1987 | A |
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20080244864 | Yi | Oct 2008 | A1 |
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1798897 | Jul 2006 | CN |
1923082 | Mar 2007 | CN |
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2295381 | May 1996 | GB |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20100270298 A1 | Oct 2010 | US |