Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Body shell
Reexamination Certificate
2003-07-18
2004-09-21
Dayoan, D. Glenn (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Body shell
C296S191000, C105S396000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06793271
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to cargo containers, and in particular, to a transparent cargo container offering the ability to visually inspect the contents without opening the container.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Since the dawn of the industrial age, manufacturers, distributors and shippers have strived to develop efficient and cost effective ways to transport goods. Sailing ships, horse and ox drawn carts gave way to ocean freighters, trains, trucks and eventually, the airplane.
Where transported goods were once stowed individually within the transport vehicle, today, the goods are often prepackaged within containers prior to transport. Such containers include, but are not limited to, intermodal transport carriers, semi-trailers and air cargo containers.
Products for inter-country shipment are usually loaded into an intermodal freight container at a site of manufacturer and shipped to a seaport by rail transportation. The intermodal freight container is then loaded into an ocean-going ship for transport between continents. Upon arrival at the destination continent, the intermodal freight container is removed from the ship and loaded onto a railroad transport car for delivery to a particular city where the container can be loaded onto a truck transport for delivery to a local destination.
The modern semi-trailer is removable from its tractor unit (used for hauling), generally attached by a “fifth wheel”. More recently, a second truck trailer may be removably attached to the first truck trailer.
The modern air cargo container is a monocoque structure comprising a rigid frame to which a sheet material, generally referred to as the “skin” is attached to the frame. The ideal air cargo container is light in weight, low in cost and capable of withstanding both inflight stresses and the day to day rigors of service without being damaged.
In the past, the side walls of containers and container structures have generally been manufactured from opaque materials, such as aluminum, sheet metal and fiberglass. Side panels used to form the side walls have been attached to the container frame most often using a bolt or rivet that passed through the panel. Transparent side panels have been attempted in the past to aid cargo handlers in determining how or to what extent the cargo container has been loaded. Transparent side panels have also been contemplated to help discourage undesired acts of pilferage.
As governmental authorities have become more concerned with terrorist and other security threats, a higher percentage of sealed opaque containers are being opened for visual inspection, adding both delay and increased cost to shipping. Transparent side panels have the ability to allow easy and efficient visual access to security personnel to assist them in determining whether the container contents have been altered since their original loading or pose some other security risk.
Polycarbonate sheet material has often been considered for use as transparent container side walls. It is transparent, can be struck heavily without being dented, torn or broken, it is light in weight, and is only slightly more costly than the aluminum alloys currently in use.
However, polycarbonate sheet material also has some distinct disadvantages for use as a container side wall material. It has a very high coefficient of thermal expansion, 0.000037 inches per inch per degree Fahrenheit, compared to 0.000013 for aluminum or 0.0000063 for steel. Conventional wisdom has held that for containers encountering wide ranges in temperature variation, mounting holes would have to be oversize in diameter or slotted on each side of the panel. The resultant looseness or “slop” of the panel would reduce the load bearing capability of the panel, requiring heavier and more costly supporting frames.
Polycarbonate sheet material also has the disadvantage of being susceptible to stress induced and crazing agent induced cracking or crazing. When residual stresses remain in polycarbonate, the material is subject to cracking, particularly in the presence of crazing agents, such as hydrocarbons and jet fuel cleaning materials. Once cracked, the cracks spread very easily.
Prior attempts at utilizing plastic side wall materials have included the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,078 to Looker, directed to an air cargo container in which a polycarbonate sheet material is used as the skin of the structure. The attachment assembly includes a significant area of overlap between the polycarbonate and metal components as well as an attachment strip which substantially covers the attachment area. Rivets or bolts are inserted through oversized holes in the metal, polycarbonate, and attachment strip and then torqued, creating a rigid joint.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,292 to Korzeniowski is directed to an intermodal freight container constructed substantially of reinforced plastic composite material. The container includes a space frame structure which contains a reinforced plastic composite brace extending between and secured to the roof and sidewall, forming a somewhat tri-angularly shaped main upper composite frame beam in the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,477 to King et al. is directed to a cargo container which includes a number of elongated frame members each having an elongated channel and an elongated recess, and a number of coupling members removably engageable with the ends of the frame members. A number of panels are removably engageable within the elongated channels in the frame members. Each of the panels has an elongated recess around a perimeter which, together with the elongated recess in each of the frame members, forms an elongated slot. A locking element is removably insertable into the slots formed by the panel recesses and the frame member recesses when the panels are in engagement with the channels, to lock the frame members, panels and coupling members into a substantially rigid assembly. The panel is glued around its perimeter to a rigid perimeter edge.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,714 to Matsuura et al. is directed to a cargo container where the sidewalls are made of fiber reinforced plastic plates. Other parts of the container, such as the frame and door are made of any conventional metallic material. The mount portions containing the holes for the rivets or bolts are made thicker than other portions of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,892 to Dunwoodie is directed to a container using interlocking corner joints. At least one nut and bolt combination is inserted through aligned holes in an outer and inner corner molding strips and tightened to compress and retain the outer and inner corner molding strips to an outer side skin inserted between them in a releasable lengthwise relation. An inner side skin forms an interior wall of the container in similar fashion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,806 to Korzeniowski et al. is directed to a reinforced plastic composite intermodal vehicle hauler. Aligned and interconnected panels which include integrally formed ribs form the sidewalls. The walls are made of a reinforced plastic composite material.
In the previous attempts at creating plastic sidewalls, significant effort is required to replace a damaged side panel. Removal of the panel requires disassembly of numerous nut and bolt combinations, or shearing of numerous rivets, often requiring special tools.
Accordingly, there remains a continuing need for improved methods to attach clear polycarbonate and other sheet material to a structural element to be used as a transparent side panel for a shipping container. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The novel attachment of a polycarbonate or other plastic sheet material to a structural frame described by this invention allows for non-slip placement of the side wall, easy and economical replacement of a damaged side wall, and does not induce cracking or crazing of the plastic sheet material.
A structural frame is channeled to receive an edge of the sheet material. Contained within the channel is a weather resistant
Blankenship Greg
Dayoan D. Glenn
Smolow Mitchell A.
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