Patent Application
20130186309
The present disclosure relates to pallets, and more particularly relates to pallets made substantially from paper-based materials.
Pallets are widely used for supporting items in a manner enabling the palletized items to be moved about with the aid of a forklift or lift truck. The vast majority of pallets in use at present are constructed from wood and accordingly are quite heavy, sometimes exceeding the weight of the items being supported (e.g., when supporting cartons of toilet paper or the like). Wooden pallets are expensive to ship because of their substantial weight. It has been recognized that the weight of a pallet could be substantially reduced by constructing the pallet from paper-based materials, and various designers have endeavored to develop such a paper-based pallet, with varying degrees of success.
The present application relates to improvements in paper-based pallets.
The present disclosure in particular describes a paper-based pallet capable of achieving a high supported load-to-weight ratio and/or other advantages. In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, a paper-based pallet is described herein, comprising:
a top deck comprising a first sheet of paper-based material;
a bottom deck comprising a second sheet of paper-based material; and
a plurality of spacers disposed between and affixed to the first and second sheets such that a vertical space is defined between the top and bottom decks;
wherein at one side of the pallet the first sheet defines a first flap comprising an integral portion of the first sheet extending from an edge of the top deck and the second sheet defines a second flap comprising an integral portion of the second sheet extending from an edge of the bottom deck, the first and second flaps being folded down and up, respectively, to extend vertically, and the first and second flaps overlapping and being secured to each other.
In one embodiment, there are a plurality of first flaps from the first sheet spaced apart along said one side of the pallet and a plurality of second flaps from the second sheet spaced apart along said one side, the flaps forming pairs each comprising a first flap overlapped with a second flap and having the flaps secured to each other. Optionally, there can be overlapping first and second flaps at two or more sides of the pallet.
In a particular embodiment, there are three said pairs of first and second flaps at said one side of the pallet. The pairs are spaced apart so as to define two spaced tine-receiving openings at said one side for receiving tines of a forklift.
In a further embodiment, the first sheet defines reinforcing flaps at the locations of the two openings at said one side of the pallet, said reinforcing flaps being folded 180 degrees relative to the top deck so as to contact the top deck and being secured to the top deck to form a double-layer edge portion of the top deck adjacent each of the openings at said one side of the pallet.
Pallets in accordance with the invention can be formed either using two separate pieces of paper-based material (i.e., one piece for the top deck and another piece for the bottom deck) or by using a single piece of paper-based material folded in a generally C-shaped manner to form the top and bottom decks.
In the case of the single-piece design, where the first and second sheets are portions of a single continuous piece of paper-based material, the piece of paper-based material can be folded at another side of the pallet opposite from said one side so as to form a side wall at said other side, the side wall extending between and connecting the top deck to the bottom deck at said other side. The one side of the pallet has overlapping first and second flaps (which extend from the free ends of the single piece of paper-based material), and can have double-layer portions at the tine-receiving openings, as previously described.
With the single-piece embodiment of the pallet, tine-receiving openings at said other side (i.e., the side having the side wall) can be created by two spaced reinforcing flaps cut out from the side wall and hingedly connected to the top deck, said reinforcing flaps being folded 180 degrees relative to the top deck so as to contact the top deck and being secured to the top deck to form a double-layer edge portion adjacent each of the openings at said other side of the pallet.
In any of the various embodiments described herein, the spacers between the top and bottom decks can comprise wound paperboard tubes each oriented with an axis of the tube extending vertically. The tubes can be glued to the decks.
Pallets as described herein have enhanced resistance to impact and shear loading and other wear and tear experienced by the pallets in use, in part because of the overlapping flaps that are secured to each other. Additionally, when the double-layer edge portions are present, these edge portions can greatly reduce the tendency of the top deck to be torn by banding that is frequently wrapped around the top deck and around the supported load to stabilize the load.
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which some but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, and thus the relative proportions of various elements suggested by the drawings is not necessarily indicative of the actual relative proportions.
With reference to
The spacers 40 preferably also comprise substantially paper-based spacers. In the illustrated embodiment of
The first sheet 20 is generally planer and generally rectangular (which term includes square or non-square quadrilaterals), as is the second sheet 30. The sheets 20 and 30 have the same or substantially the same lengths and the same or substantially the same widths. The spacers 40 are arranged between the sheets to space them apart vertically. The spacers 40 are arranged in an array configuration such that there are openings between them for receiving the tines of a forklift, as further described below. When the spacers comprise wound paperboard tubes, the tubes have their longitudinal axes oriented vertically and the opposite ends of the tubes engage the underside of the first sheet 20 and the upper side of the second sheet 30. The spacers are securely fastened to the sheets, such as by gluing. Suitable adhesive or glue materials for this purpose include hot melt glues, although the invention is not limited in terms of adhesive type.
The first sheet 20 forms a top deck 20A of the pallet and the second sheet 30 forms a bottom deck 30A of the pallet. Items to be palletized are supported atop the top deck 20A and the bottom deck 30A rests on the floor or ground. In some cases, the user may employ straps or bands (not shown) that are passed through the space between the top and bottom decks and over the tops of the items on the pallet and are tightened about the items to stabilize them.
Paper-based pallets having the features described thus far possess advantages over wooden pallets, especially when used for supporting items that are relatively light in weight, such as trays of corrugated boxes, toilet tissue, or paper towels. A wooden pallet is over-designed for such lightweight items, and using wooden pallets in that context is wasteful of raw materials and also leads to increased costs for shipping as well as for disposal of the pallets when they have reached the end of their useful lives. Furthermore, wooden pallets can harbor wood-boring parasites.
A possible drawback of paper-based pallets having the features described thus far is that the abuse-resistance of the pallet depends entirely upon the integrity of the glue bonds between the ends of the spacers 40 and the top and bottom decks 20A and 30A. If those glue bonds should fail, then the integrity of the pallet is completely compromised. A further possible drawback relates to the use of bands for stabilizing palletized items as noted above. The bands can tend to cut into the top sheet 20 and cause tearing of the sheet as well as damage the palletized items adjacent the perimeter of the top deck.
The further features to be described below are aimed at alleviating or reducing these potential drawbacks. Abuse-resistance of the pallet 10 is enhanced by providing a further connection between the first sheet 20 and the second sheet 30 so that the glue bonds between the sheets and the spacers 40 are not the sole connection between the decks. In particular, in the embodiment of
The first flaps 22 are folded down, about fold or crease lines, such that the first flaps 22 extend vertically. The second flaps 32 are folded up, about fold or crease lines, such that the second flaps 32 extend vertically. Each first flap 22 overlaps a corresponding second flap 32, and the two flaps in each pair of overlapping flaps are secured to each other such as by staples 24 or alternatively by glue. There is thus a strong connection between the first sheet 20 and the second sheet 30 at each of the two opposite sides having the flaps, which greatly enhances the abuse-resistance of the pallet.
With reference to
In a further (non-illustrated) embodiment, there are overlapping flaps 22, 32 and reinforcing flaps 26 on all four sides of the pallet.
The invention is not limited to four-way-entry pallets such as the pallet 10 described above.
The pallets 10 and 110 described thus far can be denoted as “two-piece” designs, in that the top deck 120A and the bottom deck 130A are respectively formed by two separate pieces 120 and 130 of sheet material. The present application, however, also relates to what can be denoted as a “one-piece” design such as illustrated in
The one-piece pallet 210 is a two-way-entry pallet, since the side wall 223 and the flaps 222, 232 extend continuously along each of the opposite sides of the pallet. It will be apparent, however, that the one-piece pallet design described above could be modified to be a four-way-entry pallet, simply by providing three spaced flaps as in the embodiment of
In any of the pallets described above, the bottom deck optionally can include openings to allow the wheels of a pallet jack to engage the floor.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
