The present application claims priority from Australian provisional patent application no 2020902914 filed on 17 Aug. 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates generally to a luggage system, and in particular, to a luggage system and luggage items used with the system to provide for standardised handling and storage of items in an efficient and cost effective manner.
In recent times, national and international travel has become commonplace within most societies. This has largely been due to the ability of airlines to offer fares at affordable prices. As such, the airline industry has undergone considerable change over the years to increase operating efficiencies and reduce operating costs in order to maintain air fares at such an affordable price.
Due to the popularity of air travel, airlines have become adept at processing large numbers of passengers at check-in points to minimise waiting times and maximise throughput. Larger aircrafts have made it possible to maximise the number of passengers that can be accommodated on flights and with increased competition, many airlines are beginning to realise that in order to continue to offer discount air fares, their profit margins are becoming reduced.
Whilst new technology has made it possible to automate the processing of large volumes of passengers through the use of electronic check-ins and self check-in facilities, the handling of passenger luggage still requires considerable manual intervention, and thus cost. Baggage handlers are generally required by airlines to manually load and unload passenger luggage onto/from the aircraft at the commencement and conclusion of flights. As passenger luggage is not regulated and comes in a variety of different shapes and sizes, each piece of luggage must be manually packed into a unit load device (ULD) for storage in the cargo-hold of the aircraft. This can become difficult to manage and control, especially when the size and weight of the individual luggage items differs considerably between passengers. Such an issue becomes a particular problem in relation to ensuring that the cargo weight of the aircraft is properly distributed throughout the aircraft.
As a result, there are considerable labour factors associated with handling and managing luggage, including cost and time, both of which can have a negative effect on an airlines profit margin. Thus, there is a need to provide for a luggage system and luggage items that offer a more automated means for handling luggage at an airport, both prior to departure and after landing.
The above references to and descriptions of prior proposals or products are not intended to be, and are not to be construed as, statements or admissions of common general knowledge in the art. In particular, the above prior art discussion does not relate to what is commonly or well known by the person skilled in the art, but assists in the understanding of the inventive step of the present invention of which the identification of pertinent prior art proposals is but one part.
The invention according to one or more aspects is as defined in the independent claims. Some optional and/or preferred features of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.
Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention there is provided a luggage unit comprising:
The luggage unit may be configured to be vertically stacked on another luggage unit configured according to the first aspect of the invention, such that the or each rail member of the second portion of an upper luggage unit is received within a channel formed in the first portion of a lower luggage unit.
The at least one channel formed in the first portion may have a locking ridge extending orthogonally therein and the at least one rail member formed in the second portion has a recess extending orthogonally therein, such that when the upper luggage unit is mounted on the lower luggage unit the locking ridge of the lower luggage unit engages with the recess formed in the upper luggage unit to prevent sliding movement and to act as a locating mechanism between the upper luggage unit and the lower luggage unit
A handle member may be retractably mounted to the second portion so as to be received within a recess formed between each rail member.
At least two wheels may be mounted to the body to facilitate movement of the luggage unit
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a luggage system comprising:
In accordance with yet another aspect, the present invention provides a stackable luggage system comprising: a plurality of luggage units, each luggage unit comprising a body orientated to have an upper surface and a lower surface, wherein a leading edge of the lower surface and a trailing edge of the upper surface is chamfered to facilitate sliding movement of an upper luggage unit over a lower luggage unit when the luggage units are arranged in a vertical stack.
In one embodiment, the upper surface of each luggage unit is configured to mate with a lower surface of the upper luggage unit in the vertical stack. One of the upper or lower surface of each luggage unit may have one or more rail members formed therein and the other of the upper or lower surface of each luggage member may have one or more channels formed therein.
The one or more channels may be configured to conform to the one or more rail members such that when the upper luggage unit is positioned on a lower luggage unit, at least one rail member of the upper or lower luggage unit may be received within the channel member of the upper or lower luggage unit to provide for interengagement between the stacked luggage units.
In one form, each luggage unit may be arranged in the vertical stack such that an upper luggage unit may be supported on a lower luggage unit. In another form, each luggage unit may be arranged in the vertical stack such that an upper luggage unit may be supported between a pair of lower luggage units.
The invention may be better understood from the following non-limiting description of preferred embodiments, in which:
Preferred features of the present invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it is to be understood that the features illustrated in and described with reference to the drawings are not to be construed as limiting on the scope of the invention.
Whilst the system of the present invention will be described below in relation to luggage for loading onto an aircraft ULD, it will be appreciated that the luggage system and individual luggage items of the present invention could be used in any transport situation, including rail, bus, car, air and interstellar/space transport.
Referring to
Referring to
The case 20 is intended to come in standardised sizes for use by all passengers on a flight. In this regard, case 20 may come in two or more standardised sizes that is consistent and intended to be used as a standard luggage item for all passenger use. In a preferred from, the case 20 may come in an extra-small, small, medium and large sizes to accommodate the different luggage requirements of passengers, as is depicted in
The case 20 is preferably made from a robust material, such as polypropylene or similar plastic material, to form a hard shell about the contents of the case, to protect the contents contained therein. The case 20 has a first body portion 22 that is attached to a second body portion 24 by way of a zipper 25, hinges, or similar device, to facilitate opening of the case 20 to access the internal storage compartment of the case 20. The first body portion 22 has an external surface 23, which is shown more clearly in
As discussed above, the second body portion 24 is configured to mate with the first body portion 22 to store items therein and to facilitate separation of the first body portion 22 from the second body portion 24 so as to provide access to the internal storage compartment of the case 20. As can be seen more clearly in
Wheels 28 are located on an end of the case 20. In the embodiment as depicted in
A handle 35 may be retractably mounted to the surface 26 of the second body portion 24 as is shown in
As can be more clearly seen in
As shown in
As is shown in
As is depicted in
Referring to
The ULD 10 can be mounted on a scissor lift arrangement 15 that can be raised and lowed by robotic control in accordance with the level of cases 20 present within the ULD 10. The cases 20 to be loaded are positioned on a conveyor system 12 for delivery to the ULD 10. The conveyor system 12 may also, or may alternatively, be configured to be raised/lowered as required to deliver the cases into the ULD. Each of the cases 20 are aligned upon the conveyor system 12 such that they are supported on the outer surface 26 of the second body portion 24 and the outer surface 23 of the first body portion 22 is arranged uppermost. In such a configuration, the angled edge 32 of the first body portion 22 is positioned in a rearward manner such that the angled edge 30 of the second body portion is located toward the ULD 10 on the underside of the case 20.
The base of the ULD will be configured to have channels 17 formed therein to replicate the channels formed in the upper surface of the cases 20. To achieve this a liner may be provided to extend over the inner surface of the base of the ULD 10. In this regard, the cases can be simply slid into position into the ULD such that the rails 29 formed in the undersurface of each case 20 are received within the channels 17 formed in the base of the ULD.
In such a configuration, due to the width of the cases 20 being the same, an upper layer of cases 20 to be loaded can be simply slid onto the external surface 23 of an already loaded case in the manner as previously discussed in relation to
Each case 20 may have a readable data card (not shown) mounted in the body. The data card may be moulded into the internal or external surfaces 23, 26 such that they can be simply read by an appropriate reader as they pass along the conveyor system. As such, a manifest of the cases 20 loaded into the ULD can be automatically taken with minimum manual input required and can also pinpoint the exact location of an individual item of luggage stored within the ULD. The data card may take any variety of known forms, including an RFID chip or similar readable technology.
It will be appreciated that, because each case 20 is of a standardised form and structure, security and customs personnel are able to simply access the case 20 and bypass the lock of the case 20 using a standard unlocking system to check and inspect the contents being carried by the case 20. This significantly improves the efficiency of the security procedures in the airport, as the officials responsible for performing such checks do not have to handle different locks and security settings associated with a myriad of different types of luggage cases as is common in existing arrangements. Further, as the cases share a similar construction and are made from the same hard surface material, the cases can be easily sanitised or undergo BIO hazard cleaning as part of the handling process.
It will be appreciated that by providing a case 20 that has a standardised shape and size, as well as a standard construction and configuration, a traveller can simply enter the airport and once checked-in to their flight their luggage can be delivered to the appropriate collection and loading area in a conventional manner. The cases collected for loading can be simply loaded into a desired ULD or similar cargo storage system where they are designed to inter-engage and fit together to maximise storage space. The cases 20 are configured to easily slide over each other and share the same dimensions, greatly reducing the manual requirements on personnel associated with handling and loading various sized and shaped luggage items.
It will also be appreciated that at the arrival terminal, once the ULD has been removed from the cargo hold of the airplane, the individual cases 20 can be easily unloaded from the ULD and delivered to the collection point for collection by the passenger. This can be done in a simple and efficient manner and due to the consistent shape and size of the cases, Storage devices, carriage vehicles and other handling equipment can be easily adapted to be used with such cases.
It will be appreciated that due to the configuration of the cases 20, the manner in which they can be loaded/unloaded from the ULDs could vary. As the cases are configured to slide over the other cases in a stacked manner, the cases could also be gravity fed, belt fed or power fed into the ULDs in a linear manner.
Irrespective of the manner in which the cases are loaded/unloaded from the ULD, due to the interlocking and standardized size and shape of the cases of the present invention, airlines are able to optimise the luggage space for each flight, well before the flight departs. The standardized nature of the luggage items enables the airlines to identify, at ticket purchase, the number of luggage items each passenger will be carrying. Therefore, airlines are able to plan cargo capacity with a high degree of certainty, opening up the possibility for passenger airlines to utilise their luggage space for other commercial cargo applications. This can offer additional revenue streams for airlines to pursue, which has previously been difficult due to the random nature of the size and volume of conventional luggage.
Throughout the specification and claims the word “comprise” and its derivatives are intended to have an inclusive rather than exclusive meaning unless the contrary is expressly stated or the context requires otherwise. That is, the word “comprise” and its derivatives will be taken to indicate the inclusion of not only the listed components, steps or features that it directly references, but also other components, steps or features not specifically listed, unless the contrary is expressly stated or the context requires otherwise.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations may be made to the methods of the invention described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2020902914 | Aug 2020 | AU | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/AU2021/050905 | 8/17/2021 | WO |