Claims
- 1. A hollow pallet comprising a unified deck wall, an underside supporting the deck wall, the underside including a plurality of legs, at least one leg of the plurality of legs having an inwardly inclined structure having a portion that contacts the deck wall to provide support, the structure forming a section of a wall of at least one leg having the structure and includes at least ten percent of the area of the bottom of the leg, wherein the deck wall is integral with the rest of the pallet.
- 2. A hollow pallet comprising a deck wall, an underside supporting the deck wall, the underside including a plurality of legs, at least one leg of the plurality of legs having an inwardly inclined structure having a portion that contacts the deck wall to provide support, the structure forming a section of a wall of at least one leg having the structure and includes at least ten percent of the area of the bottom of the leg wherein the leg having the structure has a side wall and the structure also includes a substantially V-shaped rounded vertex adjacent an inner surface of the side wall of the leg that has the structure to provide side impact resistance.
- 3. The pallet of claim 2 wherein the plurality of legs includes a set of three outer legs along each opposing side of the pallet and three middle legs between the two sets of three outer legs with a diamond kiss-off depression in at least four of the six outer legs, and a floral kiss-off structure in each of the three middle legs.
- 4. The pallet of claim 3 further comprising nubbins that rise above the deck wall above the outer legs.
- 5. The pallet of claim 4 further comprising corresponding recesses in the outer legs of the pallet adapted to receive nubbins of another pallet.
- 6. A hollow pallet comprising a deck wall, an underside supporting the deck wall, the underside including a plurality of legs, at least one leg of the plurality of legs having an inwardly inclined structure having a portion that contacts the deck wall to provide support, the structure forming a section of a wall of at least one leg having the structure and includes at least ten percent of the area of the bottom of the leg wherein the inwardly inclined structure is a diamond kiss-off depression.
- 7. A hollow pallet comprising a deck wall, an underside supporting the deck wall, the underside including a plurality of legs, at least one leg of the plurality of legs having an inwardly inclined structure having a portion that contacts the deck wall to provide support, the structure forming a section of a wall of at least one leg having the structure and includes at least ten percent of the area of the bottom of the leg wherein the inwardly inclined structure is a floral kiss-off structure.
- 8. The pallet of claim 7 wherein the inwardly inclined structure is a star kiss-off structure.
- 9. The pallet of claim 7 wherein the portion that contacts the deck wall is a series of concave kiss-off structures that extend toward and are in contact with the deck wall.
- 10. The pallet of claim 7 wherein the deck wall includes ribbing.
- 11. The pallet of claim 10 wherein the deck wall includes a dual entry rib configuration having a plurality of ribs.
- 12. The pallet of claim 11 wherein at least one of the plurality of ribs includes a dimple in contact with the underside.
- 13. A hollow pallet comprising a deck wall, an underside supporting the deck wall, the underside including a plurality of legs, at least one leg of the plurality of legs having an inwardly inclined structure having a portion that contacts the deck wall to provide support, the structure forming a section of a wall of at least one leg having the structure and includes at least ten percent of the area of the bottom of the leg wherein the structure includes a kiss-off depression as the portion that contacts the deck wall.
- 14. The pallet of claim 13 wherein the structure is free of right angles, sharp edges, and corners.
- 15. A hollow pallet comprising a deck wall, an underside supporting the deck wall, the underside including a plurality of legs, at least one leg of the plurality of legs having an inwardly inclined structure having a portion that contacts the deck wall to provide support, the structure forming a section of a wall of at least one leg having the structure and includes at least ten percent of the area of the bottom of the leg wherein the pallet is formed of a unitary, one-piece, continuous wall of plastic.
- 16. The pallet of claim 15 having a uniform wall thickness.
- 17. The pallet of claim 15 further comprising partially planar wall sections on the underside between the plurality of legs including cavities adapted to accommodate reinforcement bars.
- 18. A hollow pallet comprising a unified deck wall, an underside supporting the deck wall, the underside including a plurality of legs, at least one leg of the plurality of legs having an inwardly inclined structure having a portion that contacts the deck wall to provide support, the structure forming a section of a wall of at least one leg having the structure and includes at least ten percent of the area of the bottom of the leg further comprising a metal bar inserted between the deck wall and the underside.
- 19. A continuous surface, hollow pallet having a deck wall and a plurality of legs beneath the deck wall, including four corner legs each having a wall with an inner and an outer surface, the four corner legs including at least two side walls, each corner leg having a structure with a substantially V-shaped rounded vertex adjacent the inner surface of each side wall of each corner leg.
- 20. A continuous surface, hollow pallet having a deck wall and a plurality of legs beneath the deck wall, each having a wall with an inner and an outer surface, at least one of the plurality of legs including a side wall and a structure with a substantially V-shaped rounded vertex adjacent the inner surface of the side wall of the leg having the structure wherein the structure is a substantially diamond-shaped structure in at least one of the plurality of legs, the structure having a rounded vertex adjacent the inner surface of at least two side walls of the leg with the structure.
- 21. The pallet of claim 20 wherein the pallet is rectangular, the pallet having diamond-shaped structures in at least two legs so that there are four diamond-shaped structures, one in each corner of the rectangular pallet.
- 22. The pallet of claim 20 having a uniform wall thickness.
- 23. The pallet of claim 20 wherein the deck wall includes ribbing.
- 24. The pallet of claim 23 wherein the deck wall includes a dual entry rib configuration having a plurality of ribs.
- 25. A plastic one-piece, hollow, continuous wall pallet, the pallet comprising a substantially flat deck wall with ribbing having ribs and channels, a plurality of legs, and partially planar wall sections between the legs on an underside of the pallet, wherein a portion of the underside is in contact with the channels of the ribbing to provide support, wherein the deck wall has a dual entry rib configuration, the channels extend completely across the deck wall in both the lateral and longitudinal directions, and wherein the ribs do not extend across the deck wall in either the lateral or longitudinal directions, and each rib has a channel on at least two sides intersecting at a rounded vertex.
- 26. The pallet of claim 25 wherein the portion of the underside in contact with the channels is one of the partially planar wall sections.
- 27. The pallet of claim 25 wherein the portion of the underside in contact with the channels is a structure in one of the plurality of legs.
- 28. A plastic one-piece, hollow, continuous wall pallet, the pallet comprising a substantially flat deck wall with ribbing having ribs and channels, a plurality of legs, and partially planar wall sections between the legs on an underside of the pallet, wherein a portion of the underside is in contact with the channels of the ribbing to provide supports, wherein the ribs do not extend across the deck and each rib has a channel on at least two sides, wherein the channels extend completely across the deck in both lateral and longitudinal directions.
- 29. The pallet of 28 wherein at least three sets of ribs are aligned in the lateral and longitudinal directions across the pallet.
- 30. The pallet of claim 28 further comprising cavities in the partially planar wall sections adapted to accommodate reinforcement bars.
- 31. The pallet of claim 28 further comprising a bar inserted between the deck wall and at least one of the partially planar wall sections.
- 32. A deck of a pallet having dual entry rib configuration with ribbing having ribs and channels, the channels extend completely across the deck in both the lateral and longitudinal directions, and wherein the ribs do not extend across the deck in either the lateral or longitudinal directions, and each rib has a channel on at least two sides intersecting at a rounded vertex.
- 33. The pallet of claim 32 wherein at least five sets of ribs are aligned in the lateral direction across the pallet and at least five sets of ribs are aligned in the longitudinal direction across the pallet.
RELATED APPLICATION DATA
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/821,475, filed Mar. 29, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,118.
US Referenced Citations (41)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
8911445 |
Nov 1989 |
DE |
WO 0112509 |
Feb 2001 |
EP |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
Stratis Corporation, Stratis Plastic Pallets—4-Way Entry Deck-Lok Stacking System, dated Jun. 5, 1996. |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/821475 |
Mar 2001 |
US |
Child |
10/144627 |
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US |