Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Repairing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-07
2001-10-09
Stodola, Daniel P. (Department: 3634)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Repairing
C029S402110, C029S402120, C211S189000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06298537
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to pallet racking arrangements and more particularly, relates to a method system for repair of pallet racks.
Pallet racks originally received wide usage in warehouses wherein typically they would extend in a plurality of rows for substantially the height of the building with space being provided between the rows for forklift trucks to move. The forklift trucks would then remove stock from the shelves for the shipping of quantities thereon or for further processing.
More recently, the opening of large warehouse stores to the public have utilized such pallet racks for direct access by the consumer. In this arrangement, the warehouse and retail functions are combined.
Inherently, there are dangers in such a system and safeguards against collapse must be provided. To date, most of the safety concerns have centered around the various design criteria to ensure that the pallet racks are capable of accepting the loads to which they are subjected. Normally, the pallet racks are of a knock down design wherein the shelves or beams are hooked onto a post. The posts are generally perforated to receive the hook elements and various designs of the post have been proposed in the art. One may, for example, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,996 illustrating such a post structure.
While the use of pallet racks achieves substantial economies for the user, they are very susceptible to damage. Inherently, the loaded pallets must be lifted onto the racks by fork lift trucks. Due to the sometimes limited spaces, accidents are quite frequent wherein the fork lift truck will accidentally collide with one of the support posts. With the very high loads which the pallet racks carry, this is a dangerous situation and any post even slightly damaged must be replaced.
In order to replace the damaged post, the loaded pallets must be removed from the structure and the rack disassembled. After repair, the pallets must then be reloaded on the structure.
The above process is both an expensive and time consuming one. Frequently, once the post has been damaged, the forces acting on the structure will then cause damage to some of the bracing and beams. For safety reasons, it frequently becomes necessary to replace a substantial portion of the structure.
Although it has been proposed in the art to provide post protectors—see U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,110, such post protectors do not assist in preventing damage to the post at a height above the protector.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for the repair of pallet racks, which method minimizes the downtime when repairing a damaged post.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a repair system for the repair of damaged pallet racks.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a repair assembly for pallet racks comprising a tubular post having an upper end and a lower end, a floor bearing plate secured to the tubular post at the lower end thereof, a horizontal support plate secured to the tubular post at the upper end thereof, a connecting member secured to the upper end of the tubular post, a horizontal brace extending perpendicularly outwardly from a wall of the tubular post, a horizontal brace clamping member located at a distal end of the horizontal brace, a diagonal brace extending upwardly and outwardly from the wall of the tubular post, and a diagonal brace clamping member located at a distal end of the diagonal brace.
In a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of repairing a pallet rack having a front post with a damaged lower portion and an undamaged upper portion, the method comprising the steps of supplying a repair assembly comprising a tubular post having an upper end and a lower end, a floor bearing plate secured to the tubular post at the lower end thereof, a support plate secured to the tubular post at the upper end thereof, a connecting member secured to the upper end of the tubular post, a horizontal brace extending perpendicularly outwardly from a wall of the tubular post, a horizontal brace clamping member located at a distal end of the horizontal brace, a diagonal brace extending upwardly and outwardly from the wall of the tubular post, and a diagonal brace clamping member located at a distal end of the diagonal brace, placing a lifting mechanism adjacent the post, the lifting mechanism having means to engage and hold the undamaged upper portion of the post, lifting the post a sufficient distance to transfer all weight bearing on the damaged portion to the lifting mechanism, cutting and removing the damaged lower portion and associated horizontal brace and diagonal brace, placing the repair assembly defined above such that the tubular post replaces the damaged lower portion of the front post, lowering the undamaged upper portion of the front post on the support plate, and attaching the connecting member secured to the upper end of the tubular post to the undamaged upper portion of the front post, and securing the clamping means located at the distal ends of the horizontal brace and the diagonal brace to a rear post of the pallet rack.
In greater detail, the repair assembly of the present invention is designed to work with all standard pallet racks. In this respect, it will be understood that different pallet racks will have different dimensions and the repair assembly will be configured accordingly.
The repair assembly of the present invention is designed to be sufficiently sturdy to permanently replace the damaged portion of the pallet rack and to withstand any further damage from lift trucks and the like. Accordingly, it is constructed of sufficiently robust material and in preferred embodiments, the post and braces are made of steel between ¼ and {fraction (3/16)} inch thick. The same material will be used for the connecting members.
As previously mentioned, damage frequently occurs when a portion of the forklift truck hits the upright post. To the best of Applicant's knowledge, all of the horizontal and diagonal braces are located at a relatively low height and particularly in the case of the diagonal brace, the low height can lead to the danger of the whole structure crumpling. In the present invention, the diagonal brace is situated at least 40 cm and preferably 45 cm above the floor bearing plate. This has been found to be significant as it is above all portions of commercially available forklift trucks which would be likely to make contact with the post.
It is also preferred that the diagonal post form an angle of between 20 and 30 degrees with respect to the horizontal and more preferably, between 25 and 28 degrees. This angle is important in ensuring the overall rigidity of the structure.
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Fincham Eric
Stodola Daniel P.
Tran Khoa
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