Patent Application
20050133514
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transport and storage containers for liquids. The transport and storage containers comprise an exchangeable inner container of plastic material supported on the bottom of a pallet-like support frame and having four walls, each wall having a continuously smooth outer surface, and a bottom and a top wall, and a filling spout and a drainage spout to be connected to a drainage fixture. The transport and storage containers further comprise an outer jacket of metal for receiving the inner container wherein the outer jacket is formed as a sheet metal jacket or grid jacket.
2. Description of the Related Art
When reconditioning transport and storage containers of the aforementioned kind that are used as reusable containers and described in DE 202 18 766.7 U1, there is the risk that the original container of plastic material is exchanged for a container of lower quality.
It is an object of the present invention to develop a transport and storage container of the aforementioned kind that prevents the exchange of the original plastic container for a container of a different manufacturer.
In accordance with the present invention, this object is achieved in that the bottom of the support frame has a tamperproofing device framed by at least one projection that engages a matching depression or recess of the lower bottom area of the inner container.
The tamperproofing device of the transport and storage containers according to the invention is characterized by a simple function and an inexpensive manufacture, both based on the feature that the functional elements of the tamperproofing device in the form of projections of the bottom of the pallet-like support frame and matching recesses of the inner container bottom are formed directly (as unitary elements) on the parts to be tamperproofed of the transport and storage container and, in this way, no separate components or parts are required for the tamperproofing device. Moreover, the projections of the support frame bottom that is preferably manufactured of sheet metal material also improve the stiffness or strength of the support frame bottom.
In the drawing:
The transport and storage container 1 for liquids, used as a disposable or reusable container, has as a main component an exchangeable, parallelepipedal inner container 2 made of plastic material that comprises two sidewalls 3, 4, a front wall 5, and a back wall 6, a bottom 7, and a top wall 8. The top wall 8 is provided with a filling spout 9 formed as a unitary part of the top wall and closable by a lid 10. A drainage spout 11 is provided as a unitary part on the lower portion of the front wall 5 and has a drainage fixture 12 connected thereto. The transport and storage container further comprises an outer grid jacket 13 comprised of crossing metal bars 14, 15 for receiving the inner container 2, wherein the ends 16, 17 of the vertical metal bars 15 are welded to lower and upper circumferential edge sections 18, 19 of the grid jacket 13. The transport and storage container further comprises a pallet-type support frame 20 made of metal and having length and width measurements that conform to Euronorm standards.
The bottom 7 of the inner container 2 that is configured as a drainage bottom is provided with a drainage groove 21 that is arranged centrally and extends with a downward slope from the back wall 6 to the drainage socket 11 in the front wall 5 of the container. Moreover, the bottom 7 drops from the two sidewalls 3, 4 to the central drainage groove 21 and from the back wall 6 to the front wall 5 of the inner container 2; the inner container 2 is positioned with its bottom 7 on the bottom 22 of the support frame 20 which bottom 22 is matched to the lower bottom 7 and is made of sheet metal.
The bottom 22 of the support frame 20, that is designed to be manipulated by means of forklifts, storage shelf operating devices and similar transport means, is supported on four corner legs 23-26, a rear central leg 27, a front central leg 28 formed out of the bottom 22 and arranged underneath the drainage fixture 12 of the transport and storage container 1, as well as two lateral central legs 29, 30 that are formed by the outer ends of a bridge-shaped reinforcement sheet metal 31 for the bottom 22.
The bottom 22 of the tub-shaped support frame 20 that is matched to the lower bottom 7 of the inner container 3 and reinforced by embossed grooves 32, 33 drops from the two longitudinal edges 34, 35 to the central longitudinal axis 36-36 of the bottom 22 and from the rear bottom edge 37 to the front bottom edge 38 and has a central groove 39 that drops from the rear bottom edge 37 to the front bottom edge 38.
The transport and storage container 1 is provided with a tamperproofing device that is comprised of two upwardly oriented projections 40, 41 of the support-frame bottom 22; the two projections 40, 41 engage recesses 42, 43 of the bottom 7 of the inner container 2 that are matched with regard to their shape to the shape of the projections 40, 41.
The two opposed projections 40, 41 that extend from the longitudinal edges 34, 35 of the support frame bottom 22 transversely to the central longitudinal axis 36-36 are wedge-shaped and taper in the direction toward the central longitudinal axis 36-36 of the support frame bottom 22.
A matching wedge-shape is provided for the two recesses 42, 43 of the bottom 7 of the inner container 2; the recesses 42, 43 extend from the two sidewalls 3; 4 transversely toward the drainage groove 21 of the inner container 2.
In deviating from the described configuration of a tamperproofing device, the two projections 40, 41 of the bottom 22 of the support frame 20 and the matching recesses 42, 43 in the bottom 7 of the inner container 2 can be displaced relative to one another. Moreover, there is the possibility that the projections 40, 41 of the support frame bottom 22 extend from the rear bottom edge 37 or front bottom edge 38 parallel to the central longitudinal axis 36-36 of the bottom 22 and that the bottom 7 of the inner container 2 has matching recesses 42, 43. Moreover, the configuration of the projections of the support frame bottom and of the recesses of the inner container bottom can be limited to the bottom surface. Also, the number of the projections of the support frame bottom and the number of recesses of the inner container bottom are not limited to two. Finally, the tamperproofing device is also suitable for transport and storage containers having an inner container that has a flat bottom and that is resting on a matching flat support frame bottom.
In another embodiment of the tamperproofing device for a transport and storage container according to the present invention, the outer wall has at least one indentation or at least one securing element mounted on the indentation, wherein the at least one securing element engages in a corresponding perpendicular groove of the wall of the inner container.
While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described in detail to illustrate the inventive principles, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without departing from such principles.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 103 59 330.6 | Dec 2003 | DE | national |
