Horizontally supported planar surfaces – Industrial platform – Formed from folded semirigid material
Patent
1986-05-27
1987-10-06
Dorner, Kenneth J.
Horizontally supported planar surfaces
Industrial platform
Formed from folded semirigid material
108 513, B65D 1928
Patent
active
046975292
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a pallet assembled of one or several thin sheet metal blanks and comprising a load-carrying plane provided with reinforcing grooves and at least two lateral pieces provided with recesses or openings so arranged that the pallet is accessible from all sides for lifting means inserted beneath the pallet. The method also relates to a method of manufacturing a pallet.
A very great number of the pallets used today are made of wood. These wooden pallets have several shortcomings. They are insanitary, easily damaged, have a relatively high weight and are in spite of low initial cost uneconomic, due to short service life.
A study of known art shows that many attempts have been made to produce a pallet made of metal, which satisfactorily can replace the wooden pallet. Such a pallet, however, cannot be found in the patent literature, and to our knowledge such a pallet is not commercially available, either.
There are several reasons why known pallets of sheet metal could not compete with wooden pallets. The metal pallets, for example, usually were not suitable for massproduction. A usual disadvantage, moreover, of known sheet metal pallets has been their insufficient strength, rigidity and/or elasticity.
It is generally known that pallets normally are subjected to rough treatment. It was found that known pallets of sheet metal do not quite withstand this treatment, but have a tendency to buckle or be deformed by said treatment.
One imaginable reason why known pallets made of sheet metal blanks do not maintain their shape satisfactorily should be, that they do not comprise reinforcing edge box beams in connection to all lateral edges of the load-carrying plane. The reinforcing beams of known pallets, preferably made of one-piece sheet metal blanks, usually have V- or U-shaped cross-section. which means they are not designed as box beams. They are, furthermore, not formed by folding material sections from the sheet metal blank, but bent outward of the same.
A further disadvantage of known pallets is the accessibility from all sides for lifting means. Some of these sheet metal pallets are accessible only from two opposed sides which, of course, is an obvious shortcoming from a handling point of view.
When the sheet metal pallets are accessible for lifting means from all sides, however, certain structural concessions had to be made. At one known pallet of sheet metal the depth of the reinforcing grooves in the plane of the pallet in the area of engagement of the lifting forks has been reduced. This reduction in height of the reinforcing grooves implies a decrease in their reinforcing effect.
At another known sheet metal pallet certain portions of the reinforcing grooves have been removed in order to provide space for the lifting means. The remaining groove portions are suitably interconnected, for example by stay members or the like.
The present invention has the object to produce a pallet of the kind referred to above in the introductory portion, which pallet is reinforced in a satisfactory way in respect of both the load-carrying plane and the lateral pieces.
An optimum reinforcing configuration also permits the use of a relatively small material thickness, preferably 1-1.5 mm, which, of course, contributes in that the pallet according to the present invention is economically of interest.
A further object of the invention is to produce a pallet, which is accessible for lifting means from all sides, and this accessibility is realized without reducing the load-carrying capacity to an unacceptable level.
Still another object of the present invention is to utilize to optimum degree the one-piece sheet metal blank, of which the pallet is manufactured, i.e. to make use of the greater part of the material of the sheet metal blank which is folded aside in connection with the formation of the openings or recesses. This is effected in that said material folded aside is comprised in box beams, which reinforce both the load-carrying plane and the lateral pieces, and in that the circumference for the openin
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Gustafsson Erik
Kero Ernst
Brown Peter R.
Dorner Kenneth J.
Plannja AB
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