Horizontally supported planar surfaces – Industrial platform – Having plastic load-contacting surface
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-29
2001-02-13
Brown, Peter R. (Department: 3636)
Horizontally supported planar surfaces
Industrial platform
Having plastic load-contacting surface
C108S055100, C248S346020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06186078
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTIONS MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Present invention relates to material handling platform in general, and more particularly to reduced height load supports.
Shipping and Storage are significant cost components of any product which must make its way from a manufacturer to an end user. The bundling of multiple items into uniform loads with associated structure for engagement by material handling equipment such as forklift trucks has permitted a degree of automation and repeatability in the transportation of goods.
For many years uniform or “palletized” loads were built upon wooden pallets. The wooden pallet is very stiff, is manufactured from commonly available low cost material, and provides a large vertical clearance to receive the metal tines of a forklift truck or the wheeled tines of a hand truck. More recently, plastic pallets have been substituted for wooden ones in view of their greater consistency, usable life, and nestability.
For some loads, however, the high profile of the wooden or plastic pallet, approximately 4-5 inches, represents an unacceptable increase in the shipping volume of the product. This is a particular concern in automated loading applications, such as on railway freight cars, where excessive vertical height of the palletized load of even a few inches might limit the number of stackable units to two levels, rather than three. To minimize support height, loads may be placed on narrow slip sheets, which provide no clearance for fork tines. The conventional slip sheet may be formed of corrugated paperboard, or an extruded or molded plastic sheet, which may have a corrugated paperboard sheet adhesively attached thereto. The slip sheet is typically wider than the load supported thereon, extending outwardly in an upwardly extending lip. In addition to being of lower volume, slip sheets are usually of lower cost than a full height pallet.
Where slip sheet mounted loads are widely used, material handling facilities are outfitted with specialized forklift trucks which have mechanisms for clamping on to the slip sheet lip and dragging the load onto the forklift tines. The slip sheet supported load is usually discharged from the truck by a vertical panel actuated by a scissors joint linkage which pushes the load off the tines.
The conventional slip sheet has several limitations. First, because of its very low-profile, generally from ⅛ in. to ¼ in., its rigidity is low, and its resistance to warping, twisting, bending, and folding is correspondingly low. This susceptibility to damage in shipping makes re-use problematic. Second, the narrow sheet provides minimal isolation of the supported load from support surface irregularities such as gouges, cracks, loose hardware, splinters and the like commonly found in semi truck trailers, rail cars, and factory floors. The nonrigid slip sheet also provides minimal load distribution of the lifting fork tines. The load is thus open to damage from the concentrated impact of the material handling equipment. Third, facilities which handle primarily loads on high-profile pallets or skids may not be equipped with specialized slip sheet handling equipment. In some situations a slip sheet supported load may be engaged by conventional powered forklift trucks by ramming the tapered tines beneath the slip sheet lip. This approach offers significant opportunity for product damage.
What is needed is a low-profile load support which provides some protection for the load from support surface irregularities and load handling impact, and which is readily engaged by conventional fork lift equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The material handling support platform of this invention has structure permitting it to be manipulated by fork lift trucks which are outfitted with conventional slip sheet engaging accessories, or by fork lift trucks with bare tines without such accessories. The platform is of much lower profile than a conventional wooden pallet or a conventional nine leg plastic pallet. The platform may be manufactured as a single sheet thermoformed thermoplastic part having a deck defined by closely spaced molded ribs. Pairs of ramped tine entry openings are molded adjacent each edge of the platform. The tine entry ramps are tapered to provide maximum clearance at the edge. However, the maximum height of the opening is less than the maximum thickness of a forklift tine. A narrow lip extends at an angle upwardly from each edge, permitting the platform to be engaged and manipulated by conventional slip sheet handling equipment. The tine entry ramps, however, permit a powered forklift truck to engage its fork tines beneath the platform. To facilitate deflection of the platform ribs on entry of the forklift tines, the ribs in the path of the tines may have curved valleys, while ribs not in the path may have generally square valleys.
The platform may also be constructed through alternative manufacturing processes, such as twin sheet thermoforming, foam molding, corrugated paperboard assembly, or others. In general, the platform has a horizontal load support deck with side walls which extend downwardly. Two tine inlet access openings are defined in each side wall, with the height of each access opening being less than the maximum height of a forklift tine. Downwardly opening channels extend between each pair of tine access openings on the opposite side walls and are separated by downwardly extending support pads. A lip extends upwardly and outwardly from the support pads on each side of the platform, and each lip has a clearance opening in front of an access opening to permit the forklift times to pass through the lip and into engagement with the channels. The platform may also be inverted to serve as a load cap. As a load cap, the platform pads may be provided with projections which engage with recesses on an overlying platform. In such an application the height of the tine access openings would be selected such that a forklift tine could be fully received between the two overlying access openings and channels to permit an overlying loaded platform to be removed by a forklift vehicle without disturbing the underlying load.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a material handling support platform which can be readily engaged by a forklift truck with or without slip sheet handling attachments.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a low profile material handling support platform which is reusable and recyclable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a low-cost material handling support platform.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a low-profile material handling support platform which is adapted to manipulation by automated equipment.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a material handling support platform which can be manipulated by slip sheet handling equipment, yet which minimizes disturbance of the supported goods.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a material handling support platform which isolates the supported load from irregularities in the shipping or storage support surface.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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Alltrista Corporation
Brown Peter R.
Fisher Michael J.
Lathrop & Clark LLP
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