Receptacles – Freight containers
Patent
1996-04-10
1998-05-26
Castellano, Stephen J.
Receptacles
Freight containers
220671, B65D 8812
Patent
active
057553491
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to freight containers. Such containers conventionally have a respective corner fitting at each corner by means of which the containers can both be engaged by container handling apparatus when being loaded or unloaded from a wheeled vehicle or ship and be held in position on such a vehicle or ship.
In EP 0 206 542, a freight container is described that is of generally cuboidal shape including a pair of sides which define the lateral extremities of the container. Exterior surfaces of the pair of sides are spaced apart by a greater distance along their middle portions than along their end portions whereby the overall width of the container is less at the end portions than at the middle portions. With a freight container according to EP 0 206 542 the spacing of the end portions of the sides can be made such that the ends of the container can just be fitted between the cell guides of a container ship, while away from the cell guides the sides are spaced further apart and the internal width of the container can be increased. It is suggested that the difference in spacing between the middle and end portions may be in the range of 20 to 100 mm.
In a particular example of a container described and shown in EP 0 206 542 the exterior surfaces of the pair of sides are spaced apart at their ends by 2438 mm and, at their middle portions by 2500 mm allowing for an internal width of 2444 mm. Such an internal width is adequate to accommodate two metric pallets of standard size, namely 1.2 m.times.1.0 m, side-by-side with their major dimensions (1.2 m) extending across the container. Although notionally an internal width of 2400 mm would enable two metric pallets to be accommodated across the width in the same way, that is not feasible in practice because of tolerances and irregularities in the packing of goods on the pallets.
A container in accordance with EP 0 206 542 has proved very successful in practice because in terms of its load carrying capacity it is comparable to a container of 2500 mm overall width, yet it is able to fit in cell guides in a ship that are positioned for containers of 2438 mm width. There are, however, some occasions where the increased width of the container is a disadvantage, as will now be described. One common conventional form of container has an overall width of 2438 mm and on occasions arrangements are made to locate such containers side-by-side without leaving any space for cell guides or the like; in that case, of course, there is a problem if the container is as described above and has a maximum width of 2500 mm rather than 2438 mm. If the maximum width were reduced from 2500 mm to 2438 mm in order to try to solve that problem, then the correspondingly reduced internal width would be well below that needed to accommodate two metric pallets side-by-side with their major dimensions extending across the container.
It is an object of the invention to provide a container which overcomes or mitigates the disadvantage referred to above of the container shown and described in EP 0 206 542.
According to the invention there is provided a freight container of generally cuboidal shape including a pair of sides which define lateral extremities of the container and extend between ends of the container, the exterior surfaces of the pair of sides being spaced apart by a greater distance along their middle portions than along their end portions which are joined to the ends of the container, whereby the overall exterior width of the container is less at the end portions than at the middle portions of the sides, wherein the internal width measured between the middle portions of the sides is more than 2400 mm but the overall thickness of each of the middle portions of the sides is less than 25 mm and the overall exterior width measured at the middle portions of the sides is less than 2470 mm.
The use of such an unusually thin wall to form the middle portion of each side of the container, combined with the appreciation of certain other matters, makes it possible to overcome the problem
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Cargo Unit Containers Ltd.
Castellano Stephen J.
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