Special receptacle or package – With pallet feature
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-18
2003-09-16
Bui, Luan K. (Department: 3728)
Special receptacle or package
With pallet feature
C217S04300R, C206S599000, C220S001500, C229S199100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06619477
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a pallet and transportation container for use in transporting cargo.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional pallets and transportation containers have a general structure made of metallic materials, plastic materials, corrugated cardboards, woods or the like. In usual applications, they have been typically made of woods. Metal products involve undesirably increased weight and inferior operation performance. In addition, these metal products leads to increased transport cost, particularly in dealing with air cargo. In plastic products, it is necessary to prepare an expensive molding die for fabricating such pallets or transporting containers. This increases their manufacturing cost, and imposes a restriction on providing various sizes of pallets or transporting containers, resulting in restricted application. In products made of corrugated cardboards, the corrugated cardboards inevitably include a space therewithin. This space undesirably allows moisture to flow in therethrough, and provides low strength of the products and deteriorated operation performance of nailing, screw clamping or bolting. Thus, it is not easy to assemble the pallets or transportation containers made of corrugated cardboards by means of nailing, screw clamping or bolting.
On the other hand, for cargos transporting from United States, Japan and other countries to China, a duty of undergoing plant quarantine and a ban on using wooden materials for packing may be put in force for preventing an invasion of pest insects. In the event of using transportation containers made of woods, it is require to subject to appropriate heat treatments for pest control and to have an official certification as to a proof of such heat treatments. Thus, a lot of cost, time and labor will be imposed to take the heat treatments and acquiring the certification. Particularly, in view of time scale, it will be difficult to adequately handle transportations with urgency such as air cargos. However, plywood (veneer plywood or veneered wood) has no requirement for the above heat treatments and the certification as to a proof of such heat treatments because the plywood never includes pest insects therewithin and thereby has no necessity of pest control.
Further, it has heretofore been necessary to take a long time for an assembling or disassembling operation of the transportation container, and it has often been the case that the transportation container was damaged during opening the package.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above problems, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a pallet and a transportation container capable of eliminating the need of heat treatments, readily dealing with various sizes of cargos, and allowing an easy assembling operation.
In order to achieve this object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pallet comprising a mount panel made of plywood or hardboard, and a metal pipe leg having a substantially rectangular profile and for providing a space under the mount panel to allow a fork of a forklift truck to be inserted therein. The metal pipe leg has a substantially horizontal axis and is nailed to the mount panel by a screw-type nail.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pallet comprising a substantially rectangular mount panel made of plywood or hardboard, a metal pipe leg having a substantially rectangular profile and for providing a space under the mount panel to allow a fork of a forklift truck to be inserted therein, and a resin material filled in the interior space of the leg. The leg has a substantially horizontal axis and is nailed to the mount panel by a screw-type nail. Further, the front end of the nail is struck into the resin material.
In the above pallet according to the present invention, the mount panel is made of plywood or hardboard, and the leg is made of metal. Thus, differently from conventional wooden pallets, the pallet of the present invention has no need of pest control, and thereby no requirements of heat treatments, the certification as to a proof of such heat treatments and the like. The mount panel made of plywood or hardboard may provide a sufficient strength. Plywood or hardboard may be readily cutoff to fabricate various sizes of pallets, and may provide lower manufacturing cost than that in aluminum. Differently from aluminum products, the mount panel made of plywood or hardboard may be readily assembled with nails, and its weight reduction may be more effectively facilitated than metal panels such as steel panels. In addition, the leg composed of a metal pipe may be readily fabricated by cutting off a long metal pipe and fabricated in various sizes of pallets. Such leg may be more reliably assembled with high strength as compared to plastic or paper products, and may readily assure an adequate height required as a distance retainer. Further, using screw-type nails may prevent the nails from coming off despite of forming the leg from a metal pipe. Thus, various sizes of pallet may be readily fabricate on site of an operation for loading a cargo, and may eliminate the requirements, such as heat treatments, the certification as to a proof of the heat treatments to cope with various cargos. This is advantageous particularly for air cargo.
As described above, when the metal pipe leg is nailed, the front end of the nail can undesirably project into the interior space of the metal pipe. In the pallet of the present invention, the interior space is filled with the leg resin material. This may prevent the front end of the nail from accidentally coming into contact with an object. Further, the front end of the nail is struck into the leg resin material to prevent the leg resin material from getting out of the leg.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transportation container comprising: a substantially rectangular mount panel made of plywood or hardboard; a metal pipe leg, having a substantially rectangular profile, disposed under the mount panel, and including light and left sections each along corresponding one of the right and left sides of the mount panel with placing each side face of the light and left sections on substantially the same plane as that of corresponding one of the end faces of the mount panel; front and rear vertical-panel support members, each of which is mounted on the upper face of the mount panel and is disposed along corresponding one of front and rear sides of the mount panel with keeping a given distance from corresponding one of the end faces of the mount panel; right and left vertical-panel support members, each of which is mounted on the upper face of the mount panel and is disposed along corresponding one of the right and left sides of the mount panel with placing each side face of the right and left vertical-panel support members on substantially the same plane as that of corresponding one of the end faces of the mount panel; front and rear vertical panels, each of which is made of plywood or solid hardboard and has a lower edge mounted onto a mounting face in the outer side face of corresponding one of the front and rear vertical-panel support members by means of either one of nailing, screw clamping and bolting from outside; right and left vertical panels, each of which is made of plywood or solid hardboard and has a lower edge mounted onto the leg from outside by means of either one of nailing, screw clamping and bolting and mounted onto a mounting face in the outer side face of corresponding one of the right and left vertical-panel support members by means of either one of nailing, screw clamping and bolting from outside; a beam made of a metal pipe or paper pipe and disposed along the upper side of each inner face of the vertical panels; a substantially rectangular top panel made of plywood or solid hardboard and supportedly positioned on the upper end face of the beam; and a column made of a metal pipe or paper pipe and disposed on the inside of eac
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