The present application claims the benefit of German Patent Application No. 10 2011 075 266.8 filed May 4, 2011, which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
Not applicable.
The instant invention relates to a skid pallet in particular for transport and storage containers for liquids, comprising an inner container made of plastic, comprising a lockable filler neck and a discharge nozzle for connecting a removal fitting as well as an outer jacket made of a metal lattice or metal plate, wherein the skid pallet is equipped to be handled by means of forklifts, a storage and retrieval machine or similar transport means and is equipped with a pallet floor, which is supported on support feet of a central skid and two outer skids, for supporting the inner container.
In the case of the ready-to-use production of transport and storage containers, skid pallets of the afore-mentioned type, which are provided with a pallet floor comprising skids, which are arranged thereon and which are embodied as a central skid and outer skids, are provided in a preassembled form, are provided with the outer jack and are subsequently assembled with the inner container made of plastic. In the jack and are subsequently assembled with the inner container made of plastic. In the case of the known transport and storage containers, connecting processes, which are independent from one another, are carried out for producing the skid pallet as well as for connecting the outer jacket to the finished skid pallet. In particular, the pallet floor is initially connected to the skids on one side so as to then be connected to the outer jacket in a connecting process, which is independent from the first connecting process. As a rule, such connections are carried out as screw connections, so that a screw connection of the pallet skids to the pallet floor is carried out first and a screw connection of the pallet floor to the outer jacket is carried out subsequently. The production of the known ready-to-use transport and storage containers thus turns out to be accordingly extensive.
Finally, a skid pallet of the afore-mentioned type also has the object of providing a manageable platform for storing and for transporting the inner containers, which are made of plastic and which are thus comparatively fragile, by means of suitable forklift devices, so that such skid pallets, in combination with the outer jacket, serve to protect the inner container against damages. The base frames, which are embodied as skid pallets, are to take into account thereby in a special manner the fact that a considerable risk of being damaged exists for the inner containers due to the handling of the transport and storage containers. The pallet-like base frame thus represents a protective shield or protector, which is to absorb in particular impact loads, which can impact the inner container, for example when the transport and storage container hits the floor due to improper handling of the transport and storage container. For this purpose, the base frame must be able to accommodate corresponding applied loads and to still work as handling platform for the liquid container, even after a loading has occurred.
The instant invention is based on the object of simplifying the ready-to-use production of transport and storage containers, which furthermore encompass base frames for a transport and storage container for liquids that are embodied as skid pallets, which encompass an increased stability, and to thus make it possible to provide for transport and storage containers for liquids, which ensure an increased safety against storage breakdown caused by a lack of stability of the base frame and which are thus particularly suitable for transporting and storing hazardous material.
To solve this object, the skid pallet according to the invention includes a pallet floor, support feet of a central skid and two outer skids supporting the pallet floor. The central skid and the outer skids are connected to one another by means of a skid bridge forming a pallet base, which can be handled independent from the pallet floor. For establishing a non-positive plug-in connection with the pallet base, the pallet floor furthermore encompasses engagement devices, which are assigned to the support feet and which interact with assigned engagement devices of the support feet.
Due to the embodiment of the skid pallet according to the invention, it is possible, for the ready-to-use production of a transport and storage container, to provide a skid pallet, which encompasses the pallet base, which is formed from the central skid and the outer skids, in a mechanical bond with the pallet floor, without requiring the set-up of a connection while handling additional connecting elements for this purpose. Instead, it is possible to establish the mechanically assembled bond between the pallet base and the pallet floor in that the pallet floor is placed onto the pallet base in a defined relative arrangement and a plug-in connection is established between the pallet floor and the pallet base to secure the mechanical bond between the pallet base and the pallet floor. This plug-in connection is carried out by the engagement of the engagement devices of the pallet floor with the corresponding or assigned engagement devices, respectively, of the support feet of the pallet base.
The simple production of a stack arrangement between the pallet floor and the pallet base is thus sufficient to provide for a skid pallet, which can be managed for the further ready-to-use production of the transport and storage container.
In particular, the plug-in connection is sufficient to secure the mechanical bond of the pallet floor to the pallet base during the further assembly, thus for the subsequent arrangement of the outer jacket on the pallet floor. The final, permanent fixation of the pallet floor on the pallet base is then simultaneously carried out with the establishment of the connection between the pallet floor and the outer jacket, for example in that connecting screws, which penetrate through the pallet floor into the support feet of the pallet base, for screw-connecting the outer jacket to the pallet floor. As a whole, a connection is thus created in the case of which the pallet floor is accommodated in a sandwich-like manner between the outer jacket and the support feet, which are connected to one another through the pallet floor to the outer jacket via connecting elements. The plug-in connection also leads to an increase of the inherent stability of the skid pallet.
The particular advantage of the skid pallet according to the invention is thus that a preassembly of the skid pallet is virtually attained by means of the embodiment according to the invention, which secures the bond between the pallet base and the pallet floor at least until a final connection between the pallet base and the pallet floor has been established via the connecting elements, which connect the outer jacket to the support feet of the pallet base.
When the pallet floor encompasses engagement bodies, which are assigned to the support feet of the pallet base and which engage with recesses of the support feet such that a clamping force is created between a peripheral surface of the engagement bodies and a surface of the recess, a space, which is defined by the support feet bodies, can advantageously be used for spatially arranging or embodying, respectively, the plug-in connection between the pallet floor and the pallet base.
It is particularly advantageous when the engagement bodies of the pallet floor encompass a conical body comprising an elliptical cross section, which engages with the recesses of the support feet such that a linear contact area results between the peripheral surface of the engagement body and a contact surface of the recesses, wherein the contact area runs through the intersection point of the long elliptical axis of the elliptical cross section with the contact surface. On the one hand, the conically embodied engagement body of the pallet floor provides for an embodiment of a force fit between the engagement body of the pallet floor and the recess of the support foot such that the holding force, which is required to establish the mechanical bond between the pallet floor and the pallet base, is already created due to gravity, and, if applicable, at best a small repressing is necessary to sufficiently secure the mechanical bond for the subsequent assembly. In addition, the linear embodiment of the contact area between the peripheral surface of the engagement body and the contact surface of the recess provides for the creation of large holding forces. A similarly advantageous effect is also attained—albeit possibly to a lesser extent—when the conical engagement body encompasses a round or rounded cross section. The embodiment of a linear contact area is essential in any case.
In the event that at least one engagement body of the pallet floor is embodied as a centering appendage, which engages with a recess of the pallet base, an accurate relative positioning of the pallet base relative to the pallet floor can be realized in the connection plane between the pallet base and the pallet floor simultaneously with the establishment of the plug-in connection between the pallet floor and the pallet base. In particular, the engagement body, which is used as a centering appendage, can be embodied independent from the engagement bodies, which serve to establish the mechanical bond, thus for the plug-in connection, so that the centering process does not have an impact on the embodiment of the holding forces and can thus also not impact the embodiment of sufficient holding forces.
In the case of a particularly preferred embodiment of the skid pallet, the pallet floor and the pallet base are produced as plastic parts, so that a parallel production of the pallet base and of the pallet floor is possible in a particularly advantageous manner in a simultaneous shaping process, in particular an injection molding process, and that the skid pallet can be produced as intermediate product for the further ready-to-use production of the transport and storage container immediately following the parallel production of the pallet floor and of the pallet base by producing a stack arrangement between the pallet floor and the pallet base. In particular a separate storing of pallet floors and pallet bases is thus no longer necessary. Instead, the combination thereof to form the skid pallet according to the invention takes place immediately after the creation of the pallet floors and the pallet base.
In particular in the case of an embodiment of the pallet floor and of the pallet base from plastic, it appears to be advantageous when the skid bridge of the pallet base is provided with a reinforcement insert for reinforcing the pallet floor. Possibly existing stability deficits of the pallet floor can be compensated with this, without an impairment of the above-described assembly process of the pallet floor and of the pallet base being impaired by producing a stack arrangement. Instead, the reinforcement insert can be inserted as intermediate layer between the pallet base and the pallet floor when establishing the bond.
It is particularly advantageous thereby when the reinforcement insert consist of a floor cross member, which is preferably made of metal and which is arranged on a support surface of the skid bridge, which connects the outer skids to one another and which faces a bottom side of the pallet floor. The insertion of the reinforcement insert during the assembly process can thus take place by simply placing the reinforcement insert onto the skid bridge.
It is particularly advantageous when the floor cross member is positively connected to the skid bridge for the relative positioning and when it is non-positively connected to the pallet floor for stiffening the pallet floor. The establishing of the positive connection thereby takes place simultaneously with the placement of the floor cross member and, on the other hand, it is ensured that the intended stiffening effect on the pallet floor is actually attained via the non-positive connection to the pallet floor.
In the event that the recesses, which are embodied in the support feet of the pallet base and which serve to accommodate the engagement bodies of the pallet floor, are provided with a bottom wall for embodying a contact area of the support feet with a bottom wall, it is possible to reduce the surface pressure, which is exerted onto the ground by the support feet, in particular in the case of an inner container of the transport and storage container, which is filled with liquid.
It would also appear to be particularly advantageous when, in response to the same width as the central feet, the corner feet of the pallet base encompass a larger length than the central feet, so that a further reinforcement of the pallet floor is attained via the increased length of the corner feet.
With reference to the embodiment of the pallet floor, it would also appear to be advantageous when the pallet floor encompasses a central section and a front and rear edge section, wherein longitudinal seams are embodied in a support surface of the pallet floor in the central section and cross seams, which run parallel to the edges of the pallet floor, are embodied in the edge sections, wherein, to form an increased stiffness, the cross sectional height of the cross seams is embodied so as to be larger than the cross sectional height of the longitudinal seams in the central section and a corresponding overhang of the cross seams is embodied opposite to the bottom side of the central section. It is attained here that the bottom sides of the cross seams and of the skid bridge, which face the ground, are arranged in a common plane, so that, in response to the accommodation of the skid pallet by means of a forklift device, the teeth of the forklift device abut against the bottom side of the cross seams in the same manner as against the bottom side of the skid bridge, and the surface pressure, which acts in each case in the contact areas, is reduced advantageously.
This is the case in particular when the overhang is advantageously dimensioned such that it corresponds to the distance of the support surface of the skid bridge from the bottom side of the central section.
When the central skid encompasses a skid base, which connects the support feet of the central skid to one another and the height of which is embodied so as to be smaller than the height of the skid base, which connects the support feet of the outer skids to one another, it is attained that a clear distance, which is still sufficient, is present between the bottom side of the pallet floor and the skid base even in the case of a pallet floor, which is deflected downwards due to the weight load by means of an inner container in the central section, which is filled with liquid, so that the risk of a collision of the lift truck teeth with the skid pallet, is reduced even when the teeth of a forklift device drive under the pallet floor at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the transport and storage container.
A preferred embodiment of the skid pallet will be defined in more detail below by means of the enclosed drawings.
The inner container 21 is arranged with its lower bottom wall 26 on a pallet floor 33 of a base frame, which is embodied as a skid pallet 34. To support the pallet floor 33, the skid pallet 34 encompasses a central skid 35 and two outer skids 36, 37. For protection, the inner container 21, which is arranged on the pallet floor 33, is accommodated in an outer jacket 38, which is embodied herein as a lattice jacket and which encompasses intersecting horizontal and vertical lattice bars 39 and 40. To connect the outer jacket 38 to the skid pallet 34, a lower edge 65 of the outer jacket 38, which is embodied in a frame-like manner from horizontal lattice bars 39, is connected to the central skid 35 and the outer skids 36, 37 by means of connecting elements, which are embodied as screws 66, for example, wherein a peripheral edge 67 of the pallet floor 33 is accommodated in a sandwich-like manner between the central skid 35 and the outer skids 36, 37.
In the case of the illustrated exemplary embodiment, as follows from
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With this, the final mechanical bond between the pallet base 41 and the pallet floor 33 can be established in a common assembly step by establishing the bond between the skid pallet 34 and the outer jacket 38. For this purpose, the connecting elements, which are preferably embodied as screws 66, are then screwed into the corner feet 49 after arranging the outer jacket 38 with its bottom edge 65 on the peripheral edge 67 of the pallet floor 33, which is arranged on the pallet base 41, by means of fastening openings 62, 63, 64, which are arranged so as to be aligned with one another and which are arranged in the bottom edge 65 of the outer jacket 38, the peripheral edge 67 of the pallet floor 33 and the corner feet 49 of the pallet base 41, as becomes clear from a combined view of
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To attain an inherent stiffness, which is as large as possible, while using as little material as possible, the pallet floor 33 encompasses a structure, which encompasses longitudinal seams 71 in a central section 70, and cross seams 74 in edge sections 72, 73, which, in response to an arrangement of an inner container 21 on the pallet floor 33, run parallel to the front wall 22 or the rear wall 23, respectively, of the inner container 21 (
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Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2011 075 266.8 | May 2011 | DE | national |