The present disclosure relates to a member for supporting a rotation of a panel in a foldable container, and more specifically, to a technology for supporting a rotation operation of a front panel and a rear panel, which have a large load among the panels of the container, to enable stable stand-up of the front panel and the rear panel and also a smooth folding rotation operation.
In general, a container has a shape of a large box formed of metal plates and is mainly used for cargo transportation. Such a container is sized according to a certain standard and is widely used for its advantage that it not only allows ease of cargo storage and transport, but also can protect the cargo loaded therein. Containers are transported individually by dedicated large cargo vehicles or transported in large quantities by a dedicated train or a dedicated vessel. However, when transported by the modes of transport, whether the containers are loaded with cargo or empty without cargo therein, they occupy the same space of transport.
Therefore, when the containers without the cargo loaded therein are transferred to another place or stored in a certain place, the containers in their fixed volume cause a problem that they unnecessarily occupy a large volume, thus taking a large amount of transportation space and transportation costs. In other words, after the containers loaded with the cargo have transported the cargo, when they are stored or retrieved in empty state, the containers with such invariable volume take up a large amount of space and costs for storage and transportation.
In particular, when transferring a container using a large cargo vehicle, since one container is mounted on one cargo vehicle and transported, transportation efficiency may decrease and transportation cost may greatly increase. In addition, since the container occupies a very large amount of space, when several containers are stacked, there is a risk of an accident due to the height of the stacked containers.
In order to improve this, in the related art, a foldable container that can save stacking space and can be folded for easy and convenient transportation of empty containers has been disclosed.
A foldable container according to the related art has been disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-1064803, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-1439073, and Korean Patent Publication No. 10-1489626. Referring to these, both side plates between the bottom plate and the roof plate are configured as an upper plate and a bottom plate, in which the upper plate and the bottom plate, the upper plate and the roof plate, and the bottom plate and the bottom plate are pivotally coupled to each other by a plurality of hinge devices so as to be folded to each other. Such a hinge device is configured to include hinge blocks provided on each of the plates folded to each other, and connection blocks for connecting these hinge blocks, in which the hinge blocks and the connection blocks are hingedly coupled through hinge pins respectively.
However, since the foldable container according to the related art includes, for the hinge device, the hinge blocks installed on each of the plates to be folded to each other, the connecting blocks connecting the respective hinge blocks, and the hinge pins that hingedly couple the respective hinge blocks and the connecting blocks, there are shortcomings that the entire structure of the hinge device is complex, heavy, and not easy to manufacture and mount.
In order to solve the problems of the related art described above, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a structure that allows the side walls of a foldable container to be easily folded by manpower.
In addition, another object of the present disclosure is to provide a structure for folding a side wall of a container, in which, while a top plate is removed, a torsion bar is placed at a lower end of the side wall panel and the torque of the torsion bar is utilized to allow the side wall to be smoothly folded.
In addition, an object of the present disclosure is to facilitate the folding and unfolding of the side wall by accumulating elastic force in the torsion bar during the process of folding the side wall of the container and utilizing the accumulated elastic energy in the process of unfolding the side wall of the container.
In addition, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide a method for improving the lifespan of the torsion bar by developing a technology capable of reducing twist angle of the torsion bar involved in rotations of a front panel and a rear panel since these have a considerably greater load.
The present disclosure provides a rotation support member for supporting a rotation operation of a front panel and a rear panel in a container including the front panel and the rear panel rotatably coupled to a bottom plate, and third and fourth torsion bars serving as reference axes of rotation for the front panel and the rear panel, in which the rotation support member includes: a first rotation support member including one end fixedly coupled to a post coupling point 220 of the front panel which is spaced apart by a predetermined distance from a lower end of the front panel, and the other end positioned at a bottom plate coupling point 210 positioned on a side spaced apart by a predetermined distance from a front end of the bottom plate; and a first rotation support member including one end fixedly coupled to a post coupling point 220 of the rear panel which is spaced apart by a predetermined distance from the lower end of the rear panel, and the other end positioned at a bottom plate coupling point 210 positioned on a side spaced apart by a predetermined distance from a rear end of the bottom plate, in which the other end of the first rotation support member is coupled to the third torsion bar at the bottom plate coupling point 210 such that the front panel is rotated with respect to the third torsion bar, and the other end of the second rotation support member is coupled to the fourth torsion bar at the bottom plate coupling point 210 such that the rear panel is rotated with respect to the fourth torsion bar.
The first rotation support member is coupled to and rotated integrally with the front panel at the post coupling point, and the second rotation support member is coupled to and rotated integrally with the rear panel at the post coupling point.
The first rotation support member has an L-shape including a parallel member 200a parallel to a ground and a vertical member 200b perpendicular to the ground when the front panel is in a stand-up state, and the second rotation support member has an L-shape including a parallel member 200a parallel to a ground and a vertical member 200b perpendicular to the ground when the rear panel is in a stand-up state.
The parallel member has a length L such that a height of the container in a folded state is ¼ of a height of the container in an unfolded state.
According to the present disclosure, with the structure described above, after the top plate of the container is removed with a forklift, the side wall panel can be easily folded simply by manpower and the height can be reduced by ¼ in the folded state such that four containers can be folded and stacked, and thus the effects of easy storage and movement of the containers are provided.
In addition, with the structure of the rotation support member, the front panel and the rear panel can stand up stably even when no additional preliminary torque is applied to the torsion bar, and the twist angle of the torsion bar in the folded state can be reduced, resulting in a beneficial effect on the torsion bar lifespan.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that, in adding reference numerals to the constituent elements of the drawings, the same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals even if they are illustrated in different drawings. In the following description of the present disclosure, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present disclosure rather unclear.
The objectives, specific advantages and novel features of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description and the preferred embodiments, which are associated with the accompanying drawings. In addition, terms described herein are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, which may vary according to the intention or convention of a user or an operator. Therefore, definitions of these terms should be made based on the contents throughout the present specification.
[Foldable Container Structure and Folding Method]
A foldable container of the present disclosure (hereinafter, it may be referred to as “container”) has a bottom plate 110, a top plate 120 spaced apart above the bottom plate 110, and side wall panels 130 installed on both sides between the bottom plate 110 and the top plate 120. The side wall panel 130 includes four vertically-arranged panels, which will be referred to as a front panel 131, a rear panel 135, a first side panel 137, and a second side panel 139, respectively. Posts P for bearing the load of the container in the vertical direction are provided on edges of the rectangles of the front panel 131 and the rear panel 135, respectively.
The feature of the foldable container according to the present disclosure is that the four side wall panels 130 can be simply folded by manpower using a torsion bar provided at the lower end, while the top plate 120 is completely removed using a forklift. That is, when the side wall panel is folded by the moment due to its self weight, the torque generated from the twisting torsion bar applies a rotational force opposite to the moment due to self weight, thereby allowing the it to be folded smoothly.
First, a method for folding a container according to the present disclosure will be described.
For the container of the present disclosure, the process of lifting the top plate 120 using a forklift is performed first. A plurality of coupling members 125, to which the forks of the forklift are inserted and coupled, are provided on the top plate, that is, on an upper surface of the top plate of the container in a transverse direction. Hereinafter, the transverse direction of the container refers to the width direction of the container, and the longitudinal direction of the container refers to the direction from the front panel toward the rear panel. In addition,
Then, the first side panel 137 is folded as illustrated in
Referring to
The principle of the rotation of the first side panel, the torque of the first torsion bar, and the like will be separately described in detail in the [Rotation Operation of Side Panel and Torsion Bar] provided below.
According to the present disclosure, in order to fold the front and rear panels, third and fourth torsion bars T3 and T4 are positioned under the front and rear panels. Since the third torsion bar positioned under the front panel and the fourth torsion bar positioned under the rear panel have the same principle of operation during rotation, and the third torsion bar and the fourth torsion bar are the same that two are arranged along the transverse direction of the container, only the process of folding the rear panel 135 will be described below as an example. Meanwhile, the principle of the rotation of the rear panel, the torque of the fourth torsion bar, and the like will be separately described in detail in the [Rotation Operation of Rear Panel and Torsion Bar] provided below.
Referring to
[Rotation Operation of Side Panel and Torsion Bar]
The structure of the torsion bar of
Section A is a process of starting the folding operation of the side wall of the container, and in this section, the torsion bar torque T is formed to be greater than the moment M generated by the self weight of the container. This can be achieved by mounting the first torsion bar T1 that is twisted at a predetermined angle in advance, with the first side panel 137 being in stand-up position. That is, the first torsion bar is twisted by a predetermined angle (about 7° in the present disclosure) in advance in the direction in which the first torsion bar will be twisted when the first side panel is rotated (This will be referred to herein as “preliminary torque” for convenience). The reason for doing this is to ensure the stability of the folding process. That is, this is to prevent the first side panel 137 from being suddenly rotated and collapsed from the stand-up state. In this example, in order to fold the first side panel, it is necessary to apply a force from the outside, and to be specific, the force needs to be applied up to an angle corresponding to the point X in the graph. In the present disclosure, by selecting a torsion bar of an appropriate specification, and the like, the amount of necessary force is appropriately adjusted so as to allow a rotation up to the X point by pushing only with human force.
Section B is a section in which the moment M due to the self weight of the first side panel is greater than the torsion bar torque T, and is a section in which the folding operation is performed by the self weight without requiring a separate external torque. However, the smaller the difference between the moment M and the torsion bar torque T in this section (the smaller the size of the arrow in the B section of the graph), the smoother the first side panel folds.
Section C is a process in which the rotation operation of the first side panel is finished, and in this section, the torsion bar torque T is slightly larger than the moment M generated by the self weight. That is, while it requires additional external force to achieve the fully folded state, because the additional external force is small, it is sufficient for a human to press the first side panel from above.
According to the present disclosure, the torque value of the torsion bar is appropriately selected in consideration of the magnitude of the moment value generated by the self weight of the side wall panel, such that the external power (torque) is required only at the beginning and the end of the folding operation, and the size of the required external power is also sufficiently adjustable by human power.
According to the present disclosure, with the top plate removed, the first side panel maintains the vertical position in a self-supporting state due to the preliminary torque of the torsion bar itself. Then, it requires only a little external force to rotate it to the X point, after which the rotation operation is automatically performed by the self weight of the side panel. Then, it requires a human to apply the external force only in the last predetermined section of the rotation operation to make the folded state. In the present disclosure, the points X and Y were appropriately selected in order to provide the necessary preliminary torque while reducing Section B, that is, reducing the size of the arrow.
[Rotation Operation of Rear Panel and Torsion Bar]
In general, since most of the vertical load of the container is born by the post (P in
Two of the fourth torsion bars T4 are arranged side by side on the bottom plate 110 of the container in the transverse direction, and only one of them is illustrated in
The rotation support member is an L-shaped member, with one end being coupled to a post coupling point 220 at the post P spaced apart from the lower end of the rear panel by a predetermined distance, and the other end being coupled to the fourth torsion bar T4 at a bottom plate coupling point 210 located on the side spaced apart from the end of the bottom plate by a predetermined distance (it is fixedly coupled using a separate connecting member between the fourth torsion bar and the other end). The corner of the post P is supported from the outside by the corner support member 150.
As described above, the rear panel and the front panel are subjected to a greater load than the side panel, while the width of the container in the transverse direction is smaller than the length in the longitudinal direction, and accordingly, since the third and fourth torsion bars must have higher torsional torque, in consideration of the lifespan of the third and fourth torsion bars and also the load of the front panel and the rear panel, the present disclosure adopts the L-shaped rotation support member for their rotation operation.
Referring to the rotation operation of the rear panel 135, the rotation operation is performed based on the third torsion bar located on the side spaced apart from the end of the bottom plate by a predetermined distance as the reference axis, which is different from the rotation of the side panel that is performed based on the axis located immediately thereunder. The rotation support member has the following roles and functions.
<Ensuring Stability>
In the description of the rotation operation of the side panel, it is described that the first and second torsion bars twisted by a predetermined angle in advance are mounted to provide the “preliminary torque” in order to ensure stability (to prevent the side panel from being suddenly rotated and collapsed from the stand-up state).
However, stability is ensured by the rotation support member 200 without requiring the “preliminary torque” to be applied to the fourth torsion bar T4 involved in the rotation of the rear panel.
That is, in
<Ensuring Durability of Torsion Bar>
Since it is difficult to expect the effect of torsional elastic energy any more when the twist angle of the torsion bar exceeds the point where plastic deformation occurs, the torsion bar should be twisted only at an angle below which plastic deformation does not occur, and even at an angle at which plastic deformation does not occur, it is still advantageous to prevent excessive twisting in consideration of the lifespan.
It has been described that according to the present disclosure, stability is ensured by the rotation support member 200 even without the “preliminary torque” applied to the fourth torsion bar of the container. This has the effect of reducing the amount of twist of the fourth torsion bar as a result. For example, when a 7° torsion angle is provided in the initial state (side panel stand-up state) to provide the preliminary torque to the side panel, in the folded state in which the side panel is completely rotated by 90°, there is the effect that the first and second torsion bars have a torsion angle of 97°.
Meanwhile, according to the present disclosure, the fourth torsion bar of the rear panel does not have a preliminary torque due to the existence of the rotation support member 200, and the fourth torsion bar is in a state where there is no torsion in the state illustrated in
The rotation support member is provided equally on the front panel and the rear panel, and includes a first rotation support member coupled to the front panel and a second rotation support member coupled to the rear panel.
The present disclosure has been described in detail. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the disclosure, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the scope of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2019-0008558 | Jan 2019 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/KR2019/005775 | 5/14/2019 | WO | 00 |