Receptacles – Freight containers – Including inner bag liner
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-26
2002-06-04
Pollard, Steven (Department: 3727)
Receptacles
Freight containers
Including inner bag liner
C601S001000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06398053
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to cargo container liners , a coupling device as claimed in the dependent claim 7 and an method of unloading a container liner according to the invention.
Standardised containers or boxes extensively used for shipment of freight by land and sea, and the many advantages of such containers have made it extremely desirable to adapt them for use as many types of cargo as possible. Accordingly, there have been attempts, with varying degree of success, to use such standardised containers to carry bulk cargo such as dry bulk chemicals, powdered and pelletised resins, flour, coffee, cocoa and grains or other kinds of granular material.
When cargo containers are used to carry such bulk cargo, it is important that the container itself either be kept clean or be cleaned after each load of cargo is unloaded from the container, so that the container can subsequently be used for another load of cargo. Moreover, it is important to protect the bulk cargo from contamination and from undesirable exposure to the natural elements.
For these reasons, large plastic removable liners are often used to line the interior walls of surfaces in cargo containers that are used to carry bulk cargo. The liners protect the cargo during shipment, and after the container is delivered, the liner can be removed so that the container may be reused to carry other cargo without significant cleaning.
As it may be well understood, such liners are disposable. Consequently, the choice of materials used for the manufacture of the liners is critical with respect to e.g. costs of raw materials, environmental considerations with respect to the choice of raw materials, requirements from the human resources handling such liners in their daily work, etc.
One of the advantages and great potentials of such liners is that extensive hygiene requirements can be met in a simple and very effective way as cleaning can be effected very fast and relatively cheap. Thus, the process may be realised simply by disposing of an old liner and mounting of a new.
A serious drawback of the known liner systems is nevertheless that the great potential of the container lining concept has never been utilised optimally with respect to above mentioned possibilities. This may be acknowledged by a closer examination of the prior art liner concepts which primarily disclose so-called “open” systems with respect to the filling and discharging of such container liners. An “open” system is, according to the terms of the invention, a system wherein the filling or the discharge of the liners requires that the liners has to be opened and exposed to e.g. dirt, dust and other particles from the environment.
So far, the problems related to especially the discharge of the liners have been ignored.
Some attempts have been made to establish “closed” systems addressing the discharge of the liners, as some liner types have been provided with integrated solid discharge tubes which are tailored to specially designed discharge pipe systems. One of the problems related to such containers is very heavy manufacturing costs. Another drawback of such liners is that the connection between the flexible liner and the tube tends to break when the discharging is effected, as the discharge of the liner creates very high stress and pressure levels on the weld seams. It should be noted that the weight of the materials to be unloaded through the discharge pipe might be several tonnes.
Another disadvantage of the above mentioned disposable liners having built-in discharge tubes is that the transport of the unused liners to the customers requires relatively high transport capacity, and, even more importantly, the collection and recycling becomes more complicated. Consequently, a huge unorganised accumulation of such container liners can be found at unloading locations.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
A collapsible container liner comprising side walls defines an interior space, said liner having an upper and a lower portion, at least one of said walls comprising an opening communicating with at least one discharge tube being incorporated in the lower portion of said liner, said discharge tube or discharge tubes being fitted with releasable sealing means, said sealing means being accessible and releasable from the outside of said discharge tube,
said sealing means surrounding and tightening said discharge tube in its closed position, said sealing means providing access to the interior of the liner when released, a very advantageous container liner has been obtained.
Thus, the relatively simple technical provisions of the embodiment of the invention provide the possibility of utilising a closed-system discharge of a loaded liner. Thus, a simple release of the releasable sealing means blocking the discharge tube provides an opening of the liner, resulting in no physical contact with the interior of the container, as the discharge tube communicates with an opening to the interior of the container. Known discharge tubes are closed in the sense that the prefabricated opening has to be established manually by means of e.g. a knife, and thus implies contact with the interior of the container. Moreover, it should be noted that the opening system method results in a risk of adding dust, dirt etc. from e.g. the aforementioned knife to the unloaded material. This problem has effectively been dealt with due to the provisions of the invention.
A further important aspect of the invention is that the container liner may be incorporated in a very safe and reliable unloading system. This is due to the fact that the necessary strength of the end wall and the discharge tube of the liner may be provided with external support which is only added to the liner during the unloading process.
A further aspect of the invention is that the container liner may be conveniently pre-established by a qualified trained staff in such a way that the possibility of crucial breaking or leaking may not arise.
Said sealing means comprise a clamp or a string, a further advantageous embodiment of the invention has been obtained.
A string may thus be fitted onto the liner during the manufacturing process, and the string may be released and removed in a very simple way.
Said at least one discharge tube is closed by means of a permanent sealing, preferably at least one weld seam, at the outer end of said at least one tube, said sealing being breakable, a further advantageous embodiment of the invention has been achieved.
The use of permanent sealing at the outer end of the discharge tube provides additional security if the releasable sealing should accidentally break or leak during transport. The permanent sealing may easily be removed, e.g. by cutting away the part of the discharge tube being fitted with the sealing before initiating the unload procedure.
A container liner, according to the invention, may conveniently be arranged with the appropriate number of filling tubes. According to a preferred embodiment, the liner further comprises one filling tube and one ventilation tube arranged in the upper portion of the container liner, thus ensuring that the container liner can be operated in an overall loading and unloading closed system
A collapsible container liner comprises side walls defining an interior space
said liner having an upper and a lower portion,
at least one of said walls comprising an opening communicating with at least one discharge tube being incorporated in the lower portion of said liner,
at least one of said discharge tubes being closed by means of a permanent sealing, preferably at least one weld seam, at the end portion of said tube(s), said sealing being breakable, a further advantageous embodiment of the invention has been obtained.
The use of permanent sealing at the outer end of the discharge tube provides additional security if the releasable sealing should accidentally break or leak under transport. The permanent sealing may easily be removed, e.g. by cutting away the part of the discharge tube being fitted with the sealing before initiating the unloading
Caretex A/S
Merchant & Gould P.C.
Pollard Steven
LandOfFree
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