Abstract: A passive locking system is used to attach molded plastic bottom and cover members to the bottom and top edges of a four-sided sleeve to create a container that can be handled by a forklift and knocked down for storage and/or return shipment. The locks comprise molded tabs and receiver slots and allow for easy attachment and removal of the sleeve to the bottom and top members without the need for tools or manipulation of slide latches. In the preferred embodiment, foldable clips are attached to the sleeve edges to provide tabs on the sleeve. The clip tabs enter into apertures in the outside rim of the pallet and cover only when the sleeve edges are fully inserted into the pallet and cover.

Abstract: A twin sheet core structure made up of two sheets of plastic that have been thermoformed to define arrays of cavities having floors opening to surfaces defined by orthogonally intersecting ribs wherein the sheets are fused together to form a single structure with hollow areas between sheets.

Abstract: A twin-sheet, thermoformed pallet is configured with a bottom-opening recess shaped to receive and hold in place a signal transmitting device. The recess has undercuts that allow the device to be snapped in and held against the floor of the recess and well above the bottom surface of the pallet body. The recess is provided with access for a tool to pry the device out for replacement or servicing.

Abstract: A molded plastic stacking device is placed between stacked containers of the type having a pallet bottom supporting a container body or sleeve. The device fits onto the top of one container and provides receptacles that receive and stabilize the legs of an upper pallet that is part of another container.

Abstract: A molded plastic core structure acceptable to numerous uses and characterized by high structural strength to weight ratio. The structure typically comprises a two-sided array of cell-like receptacles having inwardly sloping walls that form floors. Receptacles in one side are inverted relative to receptacles in the opposite side and are inter-nested between one another to minimize the volume of plastic used. The walls and floors can be circular, square or triangular in plan view. Where square or triangular, the walls include both major and minor wall sections alternatingly interspersed with one another. Two or more core structures can be joined to one another with the receptacles of one panel being aligned with the receptacles of the joined other panel to form closed, syntactic cells that give the resulting structure high enclosed volume to surface area and weight ratios.

Abstract: A single sheet unitary molded plastic pallet has nine open top molded plastic leg structures extending to a common floor plane wherein the leg structures are arranged in three columns and three rows and include a center leg structure. The pallet also has connector structures arranged between the leg structures and having corner ribs extending therefrom to the leg structures so as to provide a floor plane which is substantially continuous in all directions, and a load plane which is substantially continuous in all directions. The side surfaces of the connector structures having opening for forklift tangs. The pallet has a continuous peripheral lip which can accept an elasticized load cover.

Abstract: A shipping container comprising a bottom pallet, a sleeve and a top. At least the pallet and sleeve are octagonal in shape and the pallet has a floor engaging leg for support at each of the eight corners of the pallet. The ninth leg is located at the center of the pallet and all legs are located to allow forklift entry from any of multiple approach directions. The legs are preferably of crescentoid shape.

Abstract: A molded plastic structure, preferably formed by compression molding, having on each side a continuous geometry of regularly arranged receptacles separated from one another by a continuous outer surface. The receptacles on opposite sides are polygonal in shape and joined at the corners thereof. The receptacles have floors on one side and top surfaces on the other side of the structures. The structures may be laminated or fused to one another, or to flat panels to create plastic structures of great strength and rigidity, suitable, for example, for building temporary road structures as well as door, wall, ceiling, and floor panels.

Abstract: A reinforced plastic pallet comprises a twin sheet deck structure and three twin sheet runner structures which are fused to the underside of the deck to create three parallel spaced-apart footprints, the spacing between them forming one set of forklift openings. The deck is fabricated from two thermoformed plastic sheets which are peripherally joined together. The lower sheet is formed with upwardly extending spacer knobs which are fused to the under surface of the top sheet to further join the two sheets together. A frame of reinforcing beams is encapsulated into the interior space of the upper deck. The runner structures are also of twin sheet construction and some of them contain reinforcing rods. The runner structures, although they have flat footprints, are generally “W” shaped to provide two additional forklift openings at 90° from the primary forklift openings between the runner structures.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for increasing the volumetric efficiency with which automotive vehicle frames are stacked on a carrier such as a railroad flat car. Frames are alternately reversed end-for-end and/or laterally offset from one another and may be longitudinally angled and internested between adjacent stacks. Twin sheet molded HDPE spacers are used.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for increasing the volumetric efficiency with which automotive vehicle frames are stacked on a carrier such as a railroad flat car. Frames are alternately reversed end-for-end and/or laterally offset from one another and may be longitudinally angled and internested between adjacent stacks. Twin sheet molded HDPE spacers are used.

Abstract: A plastic pallet comprising an upper plastic sheet and a lower plastic sheet. The lower sheet has a generally rectangular configuration, including sidewalls and end walls, and includes a plurality of separate parallel upwardly opening longitudinally extending U-shaped grooves extending from end to end of the sheet and a plurality of downwardly opening U-shaped grooves interspersed between the upwardly opening grooves and opening in the end walls of the sheet. The upper sheet defines a top wall and a plurality of upwardly opening U-shaped protrusions extending downwardly from the top wall and sized to nest within the upwardly opening grooves of the lower sheet, whereby the sheets may be fused together to form double thickness U-shaped wall structures at the interfaces of the protrusions and the upwardly opening grooves. The pallet further includes a pair of longitudinally extending metallic beams positioned between the upper and lower sheets.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for increasing the volumetric efficiency with which automotive vehicle frames are stacked on a carrier such as a railroad flat car. Frames are alternately reversed end-for-end and/or laterally offset from one another and may be longitudinally angled and internested between adjacent stacks. Twin sheet molded HDPE spacers are used.