Receptacles – Freight containers
Patent
1990-02-09
1991-03-12
Pollard, Steven M.
Receptacles
Freight containers
220323, 220344, B65D 9700
Patent
active
049986341
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a container door seals for containers of the type which meet ISO standard requirements and are generally of a length between 20 (6095 mm) 40 ft. (12190 mm) and 8.0 ft. (2440 mm) wide. In particular "Euro boxes" are now being employed which are 2500 mm external width and 2440 mm internal width to suit 1200 mm wide "Europallets".
Known containers are generally provided with access through doors which form the whole of one end of the container, the doors open to allow the full width of the inside of the container to be available for loading goods into the container. When the doors are closed they are sealed against the container door frame with a rubber seal which extends around the edges of the door adjacent the frame. The seal itself is of a generally U-shaped configuration in cross-section with one arm slightly longer than the other to form an overlapping type contact seal while the smaller of the arms forms a wiping type contact seal which in its sealing position is generally bent inwardly towards the longer arm whilst being in contact with the door frame of the container.
The doors are locked in the closed position by a locking bar which extends vertically on the external surface of the doors beyond the top and bottom edges of the doors so that, upon rotation of the locking bar, locking elements at the distal ends of the locking bar are moved into engagement with suitable locking means on the container frame thus drawing the door towards the door frame and assisting sealing.
When applying such containers to railway wagons there is no access to the ends of the containers and therefore the containers used on the railway wagons are provided with doors which are located in the longitudinal sides of the container and situated anywhere between the ends thereof. The doors which have been previously used at the ends of the containers have been found to be unsatisfactory for use on the longitudinal sides of the container because the locking bars extend outwardly from the side of the container thus causing an obstruction which may result in accidental damage to the locking bar and the door during transportation. It is essential that the doors be the same thickness as the walls of the container so that the inside of the doors when closed do not protrude into the loading space within the container and also that the outside of the door does not extend outwardly beyond the line of the container as set by ISO standards.
The mounting of the locking bar outside the door proves to be an unwarranted intrusion on the space within the container and restricts loading capabilities of the container. Whilst the locking bars can be mounted within the door profile the locking bar must pass through the seal around the outer edge of the door and thus effectively provides a break in the seal which reduces the effectiveness of the seal and leads to damage of goods within the container.
It is therefore desirable to provide a door for a container in which these disadvantages are substantially eliminated.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a door for a container comprising two major opposed sides between which extends an outer peripheral edge surface, locking means mounted on the door within the profile of the door so that the locking means extends beyond the outer peripheral edge surface of the door and seal means located on the door for sealing the door within a door frame of the container, characterized in that the seal means extends around the outer peripheral edge surface of the door for engagement with the container door frame for sealing the door relative to the container, the seal means and locking means lying substantially in the same plane extending through the door parallel to the two major sides, and where the locking means extends beyond the outer peripheral surface the seal means is offset relative to the locking means thereby to minimize the effective door thickness.
In one embodiment of a container door according to the present invention the locking means extends v
REFERENCES:
patent: 3032227 (1962-05-01), Guralnick et al.
patent: 3891112 (1975-06-01), Lycett et al.
patent: 4057170 (1977-11-01), Dougherty
patent: 4212405 (1980-07-01), Schmidt
Pollard Steven M.
Sea Containers Ltd
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