The invention relates to a storage and transport unit for foil rolls and the like according to the preamble of patent claim 1.
In order to transport plastic foil and other material webs from the manufacturer to the user or processor, continuously produced foil webs are wound onto rolls at the manufacturer, mostly paper rolls, so-called winding cores, into a coil. Depending on the width of the foil web, such coils have different axial lengths, wherein axial lengths of 1700 mm are quite possible. Depending on the width of the foil web, the winding length, plastic material and material thickness, such coils can have a mass of up to 600 kg and above.
In order to transport such coils safely and without damages from the manufacturer to the user, therefore, suitable transportation packaging is required, which shall prevent a tilting or roll off of the coil, depending on the transport position or transport orientation of the coil. For this purpose, transport units with wooden pallets are known wherein upward oriented plywood sheets are mounted at a distance from one another at the narrow sides or long sides of said wooden pallets, which serve as support walls for the coils. Said plywood sheets, which are substantially configured square, typically comprise a circular opening or insertion opening. Between said two square plywood sheets, the coil is subsequently disposed in axial direction, so that the ends of its roll type winding core match the openings in the plywood sheets, and are held by retaining sleeves for the rolls, which are run through the openings of the plywood plates from the outside. The coil is thus secured by the plywood sheets at its two axial ends in axial direction, and secured in radial direction by the sleeves, engaging its winding core. By placing the respective plywood sheets on top of one another, transport units with several coils disposed on top of one another can be configured.
In order to mount the plywood sheets to the wooden pallets, preferably steel U-profiles are being used, which are fixated to the wood pallets with their bases nailed down or screwed down, wherein their arms are oriented upward with reference to the pallet loading surface, so that the respective sheet metal plate can be inserted between said arms and secured by nails, bolts or similar. For securing several plywood plates next to one another or above one another, double-U-profiles can be used in a similar manner. Quite frequently, such a packaging for coils is eventually enclosed with a shrink foil or with straps, in order to further increase the stability of the transport unit.
A substantial disadvantage of said transport units is that the various single elements of the transport unit, these are the pallets, the plywood sheets, the insertion sleeves, the U-profiles, the rolls (winding cores) and various small fastening means for assembly have to be disposed of at the user. The reason is among others that the wood components of the packaging are mostly not configured for multiple-use. For the manufacturer of the foil web, this means a tremendous logistical effort, in order to continuously provide the single components for producing the transport units or packaging units, which also comes at a high cost. On the other hand, such throw-away solutions are non-satisfactory from an environmental point of view.
Furthermore, there is the problem that the packaging components formed from wood, in particular the plywood sheets, can absorb moisture, and thereby then lose their strength. Therefore, said transport units mostly cannot be stored over a longer period of time. This basic problem also occurs when the transport units are exposed to rain, e.g. on an uncovered truck bed.
It is the object of the invention to provide a storage and transport unit for wound-up plastic foil webs (coils) and similar with simple and robust construction, which provides a simple assembly of the transport unit, and a safe reception of the coil, while reusing the unit several times. Simultaneously, a space saving return of the transport unit shall be facilitated.
The object is accomplished by a storage and transport unit according to the features of patent claim 1. Advantageous embodiments are objects of the dependent claims.
It is provided according to the invention to provide a storage and transport unit, which is substantially configured, so that its modules can be combined among one another, depending on the respective storage or transportation requirement. Simultaneously, the modules, however, are adjusted to one another and configured, so that a space saving retrieval transport of the modules is possible. Through the design configuration of the modules forming the storage and transport unit, thus a space saving retrieval and the reuse of said components is facilitated, so that said modules can be used for a long time for forming respective transport units.
The components of the storage and transport unit are advantageously made of plastic, in particular, however, from recycled plastic. This takes environmental considerations into account. By forming the components, and thus also, the storage and transport unit assembled thereof from plastic, a resistance against moisture, in particular rainwater, is advantageously provided.
Through the subsequently described measures, the support walls and also the support skids are configured very stable, and simultaneously weight saving. In particular, the latter also takes the idea of retrieval into account.
Through the stable configuration of the support skids and of the support walls as hollow components with a closed surface, which is advantageous for cleaning purposes, or as components flat closed surfaces at the visible side with ribs or support bars disposed on the back wall, and a simpler support assembly and mounting technology of the components forming the storage and transport unit, the best stability is provided for the coils to be transported, which improves safety, in particular, when loading such storage and transport units. This is important, in particular, due to the sometimes high masses of such coils of up to 600 kg and more.
According to the invention, the support walls are held by a form locked engagement of engagement members into a corresponding recess in the support skids or vice versa, and additionally they are mounted with plural mounting mechanisms (e.g. clamping elements), whereby compared to current solutions, a very stable configuration for the coil receiver is provided.
Simultaneously, the distance of the support walls, offset parallel from one another, can be adjusted, so that the coil (or the coils, if several coils are to be received in a storage and transport unit) can be exactly inserted according to the length of its winding core or even with a slight oversize, whereby overall an additional stabilization of the storage and transport unit is provided, so that the overall configuration of such a storage and transport unit has a stability, which has not been reached in the state of the art so far.
Additional advantages can be derived from the embodiments described in the figures. It is shown in:
a a storage and transport unit according to the invention;
b a storage and transport unit according to
c a storage and transport unit according to
d a storage and transport unit according to
a an alternative storage and transport unit for two coils, in which the support walls are disposed in longitudinal direction and resting on the support skids;
b a storage and transport unit according to
a a first option for a combined arrangement of the components for the storage and transport unit for storage or for retrieval transport;
b the assembly of
c an alternative assembly of the modular components for storage or for the retrieval transport;
a shows a storage and transport unit, designated 1 for a wound-up foil web (coil) 2. The coil 2 is held in axial longitudinal extension between two lateral components and two support walls 3, so that the longitudinal axis of the coil substantially corresponds to an orthogonal of the main plane of extension of the support wall 3. The main surface of the support walls 3 is substantially configured square, but can also be configured rectangular.
A support wall 3 comprises a thickness which is small compared to the lateral dimensions of the main surface. Preferably, a lateral length corresponds to an integer multiple of the thickness. The support wall 3 comprises plural pass-through openings or insertion openings 4, which extend from the forward main plane, substantially perpendicular through the support component 3, and which are circular, wherein an insertion opening 4a is disposed in the center of gravity of the main surface, so that the axis of said central pass-through opening 4a substantially extends through the intersection of the diagonals of the main surface. The support wall 3 is provided with recesses or indentations 5 at least at one lateral surface or rim surface, whose function is described in more detail infra. Said indentations or recesses can be configured so they pass through or with interruptions.
A centering or mounting sleeve 6 at each respective axial end of the coil 2 holds said coil in its position. For this purpose the mounting sleeve 6 is inserted or turned in or similar from the easily accessible main side (front side) of the support wall 3 through an insertion opening 4 or 4a (as illustrated in
The support walls or holder components 3 are disposed on two skid type base components, so-called support skids 7, wherein the lateral components 3 span the support skids disposed parallel relative to one another in the assembly according to
The support skids 7 comprise an axial longitudinal extension, which substantially corresponds to a multiple of the width or of the height of their cross section. Preferably, the length corresponds to an integer multiple of a side length of the support walls 3. Similar to the support walls 3, also the skid shaped bottom components 7 comprise at least one recess or indentation 8 on their upper side. Furthermore, the support skids 7 can be provided with recesses 9, which facilitate the engagement of a lifting tool (e.g. the forks of a forklift). For reasons of stability, said recesses 9 are preferably completely enclosed, this means surrounded by material towards all lateral side surfaces, so that there still is a bar of material above and below the recesses 9.
When preparing the transport unit according to
The advantage of said configuration of a transport unit for foil rolls and similar is that an optimum utilization of an available transport volume, e.g. in a freight container or on a truck bed, can be accomplished. In the transport units according to the state of the art, such an arrangement of coils on top of one another is mostly problematic, since the plywood side pieces held by a double U-profile only have a small contact surface (force transfer surface), with respect to one another, which makes the overall assembly shaky and prone to collapsing, so that a transport unit thus prepared generally has to be stabilized by an additional shrink foil or by a tightening strap.
d shows two storage and transport units according to
a shows the elements already known from
b shows an improvement of the configuration of the storage and transport unit according to
In this embodiment, the coils of the lowest layer reach with their downward facing winding core ends into the insertion openings 4 of the lateral components 3 or 3a, which are disposed lying flat on the support skids 7a. Thus, also adapters in the form of reduction or centering sleeves can be provided (not shown). In order to support and stabilize the entire storage or transport unit, support walls 3 or 3a can also be placed on the coils 2a of the uppermost layer or level. As illustrated, the two levels can be separated by intermediary layers made of wood and/or plastic, or other suitable materials, which can simultaneously also form a lower or upper termination for the support walls 3 or 3a. The axial alignment of the coils 2a, disposed in a vertical row on top of one another, can be performed by the intermediary layers, but also by connection adapters or by other suitable measures. After preparing such storage or transport unit, it is furthermore possible to apply tightening straps and/or a shrink foil eventually, in order to stabilize the entire assembly.
From the description of the previous embodiments, this means form the disposition and assembly embodiments for the components or modules, it is evident that also within a storage or transport unit, different disposition concepts can be combined with one another, so that it is entirely possible to combine longitudinally and transversally lying coils with standing coils in a storage or transport unit.
a-4c show combination options for so-called storage and/or retrieval transport units of the particular modules described supra for the retrieval transport. The components of a storage or transport unit are configured so that they can be assembled or combined in an optimum manner for the retrieval transport, in order to utilize, on the one hand storage volume, and on the other hand, an available transport volume in an optimum manner. According to
According to the illustration in
b shows the assembly according to
c illustrates a retrieval unit, in which the support walls are disposed lying flat on the support skids, wherein in turn, the centering members of a support wall engage the centering recesses 14 of the backside of a support wall disposed above it, thus stabilizing the packet type stacked combination. As described above, winding cores can be inserted again into the respective tunnel shaped cavities, which are in turn formed by the insertion openings of the support walls.
a-4c are only examples for the configuration of a retrieval unit. A retrieval unit can certainly also be combined in another manner, e.g. by combining the previously described embodiments. In order to stabilize a retrieval unit, it is furthermore possible to use additional tightening straps and/or a shrink foil or similar.
In
In the right section of
In the explosion drawing of
An exemplary mounting mechanism for the support walls on the support skids is described in
Such a clamping element 15 can certainly also be disposed at other locations of the support skids or for example also in the support walls. Alternatively, it is possible to provide such clamping elements as loose components, which are then inserted at the respective connection locations into the recesses provided only when needed.
From the description of the embodiments given supra, the modular concept becomes evident in particular, which provides that the respective components can be provided in different dimensions, and can still be combined among one another for providing a storage or transport unit or a retrieval transport unit, this means they can be arranged and mounted relative to one another.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2006 007 332.0 | Feb 2006 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2007/000885 | 2/1/2007 | WO | 00 | 8/15/2008 |