Shipping container
The present invention disclosed a shipping container comprising a pair of side walls, a rear end, a front end, a roof, a floor and a base frame; said base frame further comprising two longitudinal bottom side rails and numbers of parallel bottom cross members, wherein said floor is made up of corrugated steel floor. On the premise of passing ISO test, it provides a container which is lighter in tare weight, less in material consumed and lower in production cost.
The present application is a Divisional Application of parent application Ser. No. 10/200,786 filed on Jul. 22, 2002 entitled A SHIPPING CONTAINER.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a shipping container, and more particularly, to the floor of a container.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONContainers were first used in cargo transportation in U.S.A in 1956. After more than 40 years' development, containers have been used worldwide. In the course of the development of the container, designers and manufacturers are devoted to improvements on its structure, so as to improve the functions of the container, reduce the material consumed and the production cost.
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To pass the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) test for containers, the cross members need to be arranged in high density with quantities of beams, and the bottom cross members should be made of thick steel plates to satisfy the strength requirement, therefore, large quantity of material is consumed. In addition, the floor is made of special hard wood. On one hand, there exist several shortcomings such as: a great diversity in quality, expensive price, high cost, and easily influenced by possible shortage of plywood floor supplies. On the other hand, since it is thicker (28 mm) in thickness, the plywood floor is heavier in weight, and the tare weight of the container is heavier accordingly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe main object of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional container, and by making improvements on its floor, to provide a container which is lighter in tare weight, less in material consumed and lower in production cost.
The aim of the present invention can be achieved as follows:
A shipping container comprising a pair of side walls, a rear end, a front end, a roof, a floor and a base frame; said base frame further comprising two longitudinal bottom side rails and numbers of parallel bottom cross members, wherein said floor is made up of corrugated steel floor.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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Since steel is much better in synthetic mechanics performance than wood, and corrugated floor has good bending resistant capability, which are specially advantageous for satisfying loading requirements and application features of container floor, the corrugated steel floor 530 is better in mechanics performance and has higher load bearing strength than the prior art plywood floor. With the corrugated steel floor 530 adopted, thinner steel sheet and less material are required to achieve high bending resistant capability. Besides, the welding of the corrugated steel floor 530 with the bottom cross members 632 enhances the bending resistant strength of bottom cross members 632, reduces cross sectional dimension, weight and cost. The corrugated floor 530 according to this embodiment made of 2mm thick steel sheet is good enough to meet strength requirement.
In the above base assembly, bottom cross members 632 and the corrugated steel floor 530 can be joined by many ways, and the two preferred ways are given below:
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In above structures, the cross sectional form of the bottom cross members 632 can be L-shape, I-shape, T-shape, U-shape, C-shape or rectangle shape to suit the demands of various base frames.
Compared to the prior art, the base assembly of this embodiment possesses following advantages:
(a) By substituting the prior art plywood floor with the corrugated steel floor, the rigidity and strength of the floor is enhanced, and thereby the load bearing capability of the base assembly is enhanced.
(b) Since the rigidity and strength of the corrugated steel floor is enhanced, the space between cross members are widened, and thereby the quantity and amount of cross members are reduced.
(c). Since the steel floor and cross members are welded into an integrated entity, the material around the welding spot will greatly enhance the bending resistant strength of the cross members.
Therefore, on the premise of passing ISO test, the thickness of the bottom cross member according to this embodiment is 3 mm thick, while it has to be 4˜4.5 mm thick for bottom cross members of the prior art base assembly. The use of corrugated steel floor improves the bending resistant capability of bottom cross members, that is why the amount and weight of bottom cross members in this embodiment is much smaller than that of the prior art base assembly.
To further meet the demands of various applications, make the surface of the corrugated floor as plain as the plywood floor for the ease of cargo loading, the floor structure of this embodiment can be improved in following ways:
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Said non metallic stuffing filled in the grooves of the corrugated steel floor may be either continuously or incontinuously distributed along the grooves.
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In order to fasten the cargoes in the container, some pieces of wood or other non-metallic materials may be retained on the floor 530. Following improvements on the structure of the floor may be adopted:
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The grooves with non metallic stuffing filled in may be or not be in a certain proportion to the grooves without non metallic stuffing filled in.
Alternatively, the steel floor according to this embodiment may be common uniform corrugated steel floor, namely, the wavelength of each corrugation is equal to each other, where the grooves of the corrugated steel floor are made of the concavities of the corrugated steel floor itself, and the non metallic stuffing may be installed at intervals within the predetermined concavities.
Claims
1. A shipping container, comprising a pair of side walls, a rear end, a front end, a roof, a floor and a base frame; said base frame further comprising two longitudinal bottom side rails and numbers of parallel bottom cross members, wherein said floor is made up of corrugated steel floor.
2. A shipping container according to claim 1, wherein said floor is made up of corrugated steel floor which is directly paved on said bottom cross members, and welded to the external side of the bottom cross members, constituting an integral rigid structure.
3. A shipping container according to claim 2, wherein said bottom cross members may be made of steel bars of C-shape cross sectional form.
4. A shipping container according to claim 2, wherein the cross sectional form of the bottom cross members is L-shaped, at the edge of the bottom cross member, there installed many convex teeth matching with the concave grooves of the corrugated floor, helping the bottom cross members to be welded to the corrugated steel floor.
5. A shipping container according to claim 2, wherein there are non metallic stuffing filled within all the grooves of the corrugated steel floor.
6. A shipping container according to claim 5, wherein said non metallic stuffing may be made of wood, or foam, or plastics.
7. A shipping container according to claim 2, wherein thin plate is paved on the corrugated steel floor.
8. A shipping container according to claim 7, wherein said thin plate may be made of thin wooden plate, composite plate or steel plate.
9. A shipping container according to claim 2, wherein said non metallic stuffing is filled within some of the grooves of the corrugated steel floor.
10. A shipping container according to claim 9, wherein the grooves with non metallic stuffing filled in are in a certain proportion to the grooves without non metallic stuffing filled in.
11. A shipping container according to claim 9, wherein said non metallic stuffing may be made of wood, or foam, or plastics.
12. A shipping container according to claim 5, wherein the non metallic stuffing filled in the grooves of the corrugated steel floor is continuously distributed along the grooves.
13. A shipping container according to claim 9, wherein the non metallic stuffing filled in the grooves of the corrugated steel floor is continuously distributed along the grooves.
14 A shipping container according to claim 5, wherein the non metallic stuffing filled in the grooves of the corrugated steel floor is incontinuously distributed along the grooves.
15 A shipping container according to claim 9, wherein the non metallic stuffing filled in the grooves of the corrugated steel floor is incontinuously distributed along the grooves.
16. A shipping container according to claim 5, wherein said corrugated steel floor may be continuous, the non metallic stuffing completely filled in the grooves of the corrugated steel floor.
17. A shipping container according to claim 9, wherein said corrugated steel floor may be continuous, the non metallic stuffing completely filled in the grooves of the corrugated steel floor.
18. A shipping container according to claim 5, wherein said corrugated steel floor is disconnected at the position where the non metallic stuffing is filled, said non metallic stuffing is held within a concavity which is formed by two adjacent disconnected corrugated floors and has an opening at its bottom.
19. A shipping container according to claim 9, wherein said corrugated steel floor is disconnected at the position where the non metallic stuffing is filled, said non metallic stuffing is held within a concavity which is formed by two adjacent disconnected corrugated floors and has an opening at its bottom.
20. A shipping container according to claim 2, wherein the wavelength of each corrugation of the steel floor is not equal to each other, and said non metallic stuffing is filled in the wider grooves.
21. A shipping container according to claim 2, wherein the wavelength of each corrugation of the corrugated steel floor is equal to each other.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 10, 2004
Publication Date: Feb 10, 2005
Inventors: Qiao-feng Chen (Shenzhen), Shi-sheng Wang (Shenzhen), Si-dong He (Shenzhen), Gu Yao (Shenzhen)
Application Number: 10/939,173