Steel pallet having paper top plate

Abstract

Disclosed is a steel pallet having a paper top plate which can be conveniently exchanged, easily carried with its light weight, and can be mass-produced, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost, by forming the top plate so as to have a three layer structure of an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board. The steel pallet comprises: a paper top plate in which a plurality of corrugated boards are stacked; an upper steel support plate supporting an lower portion of the paper top plate, in which a plurality of first transverse members and a plurality of first longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns; a plurality of rectangular steel column members bonded to the bottom surface of the upper steel support plate; and a lower steel support plate bonded to bottom surfaces of the column members, in which a plurality of second transverse members and a plurality of second longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns. The paper top plate has a structure in which an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board are sequentially stacked, and the upper and lower corrugated boards use double wall corrugated boards.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a steel pallet having a paper top plate, and more particularly to a steel pallet having a paper top plate which can be conveniently exchanged, easily carried with its light weight, and can be mass-produced, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost, by forming the top plate so as to have a three layer structure of an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Generally, pallets are used as means for supporting lower portions of freight when the freight is loaded or stored for transporting the freight between manufacturing lines and warehouses or between manufacturing lines in a factory. The pallets should be compatible with freight transportation means such as railroads, freight vehicles, containers, and the like to transport freight promptly. However, since the pallets are not actually compatible with those transportation means, there are occasions in which some enterprises incorrectly use pallets which are intended only for enterprise use or for separate disposable pallets. Therefore, recently, efforts have been made to inform the field and supply the pallets, and ultimately for standardization. Further, enterprises are also finding ways to decrease inefficiency due to differences in the number of pallets used in high and low demand seasons and to decrease the stored number of empty pallets.

The pallet material currently used in Korea can be classified into four categories of wool, plastic, steel, and paper, which are also provided in Korean Industrial Standards. However, most of the pallet materials used in Korea are wood and plastic, and steel pallets are used extremely rarely.

However, the structural strength of the wood pallet is so vulnerable that when the weight of the loaded freight is excessive, the wood pallet is apt to be broken. Further, the plastic pallet needs a large mold to be manufactured, the cost thereof is high, and the plastic pallet does not have a satisfactory structure.

In order to supplement the above-mentioned problems, a steel pallet in which metal plates having predetermined widths and bent so as to have prominences and depressions are supported by a plurality of beams and are engaged at the upper and lower portions thereof by welding or bolts, has been suggested. On the other hand, a paper pallet, which is useful for environment protection, can be reused with collected corrugated boards, and is light, has been suggested.

However, the conventional steel pallet is too heavy compared with the paper pallet, and the paper pallet is so vulnerable to moisture or the like that the overall strength thereof is weak.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a steel pallet having a paper top plate wherein since only the paper top plate thereof uses a three layer structure with the corrugated boards stacked, the paper top plate can be easily exchanged or reused and can be easily carried with its light weight.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a steel pallet having a paper top plate wherein since support plates are formed of steel coated with melt zinc, the durability thereof is excellent and the environment can be kept sanitary.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a steel pallet having a paper top plate wherein the quality thereof is uniform due to automatic manufacture and which can be mass-produced, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost and can be reused.

In order to accomplish these objects, there is provided a steel pallet comprising: a paper top plate in which a plurality of corrugated boards are stacked; an upper steel support plate supporting a lower portion of the paper top plate, in which a plurality of first transverse members and a plurality of first longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns; a plurality of rectangular steel column members bonded to the bottom surface of the upper steel support plate; and a lower steel support plate bonded to bottom surfaces of the column members, in which a plurality of second transverse members and a plurality of second longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns.

Preferably, the paper top plate has a structure in which an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board are sequentially stacked.

Preferably, the upper and lower corrugated boards use double wall corrugated boards formed by attaching single-faced corrugated boards to double-faced corrugated boards.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for showing a steel pallet having a paper top plate according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a paper top plate according to the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a view for showing the engaged state of a paper top plate according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for showing a steel pallet having a paper top plate according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a paper top plate according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a view for showing the engaged state of a paper top plate according to the present invention. For convenience sake, FIGS. 1 to 3 will be referred to together in the following description.

First, a steel pallet 1 according to the present invention includes a paper top plate 10 formed by stacking paper materials such as corrugated boards or the like. Although it is preferable that upper and lower steel support plates 20 and 40 supporting the top plate 10 and rectangular column members 30 are formed of steel coated with melt zinc, the material thereof is not limited in the present invention and any steel material can be used. The column members 30 preferably have rectangular cross-sections, but can have circular or any polygonal cross-sections and the shapes of the column members 30 are not limited in the present invention. The upper and lower steel support plates 20 and 40 and the rectangular column members 30 are formed by bending rectangular zinc-coated steel plates with a forming machine, and are engaged by a engaging means such as rivets or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the steel pallet 1 having the paper top plate 10 according to the present invention includes the paper top plate 10 in which corrugated boards are stacked so as to have multi-layers, the upper steel support plate 20 supporting the lower portion of the paper top plate 10, in which a plurality of first transverse members (not provided with a reference numeral) and a plurality of first longitudinal members (not provided with a reference numeral) are formed in rows and columns, a plurality of rectangular steel column members 30 bonded to the bottom surface of the upper steel support plate 20, and the lower steel support plate 40 bonded to the bottom surfaces of the column members 30, in which a plurality of second transverse members (not provided with a reference numeral) and a plurality of second longitudinal members (not provided with a reference numeral) are formed in rows and columns.

The paper top plate 10 is bonded by an adhesive to the upper steel support plate 20 including the first transverse members and the first longitudinal members. The paper top plate 10 has a structure in which an upper corrugated board 11, a honeycomb panel 12, and a lower corrugated board 13 are sequentially stacked. Although the present invention suggests that the top plate have a stacked structure of three layers, the top plate can have more than or less than three layers and are not restricted to the stacked structure.

Preferably, the upper and lower corrugated boards 11 and 13 use double wall corrugated boards (a thickness of about 5 mm) formed by attaching single-faced corrugated boards to double-faced corrugated boards, and, for example, are formed of corrugated boards of a combination of A flute and B flute, a combination of B flute and B flute, or a combination of E flute and B flute. Although the present invention preferably employs double wall corrugated boards of the combination of B flute and B flute, the corrugated boards are not restricted in the present invention and double-faced corrugated boards or triple wall corrugated boards can be used.

Further, the honeycomb panel 12 formed between the upper and lower corrugated boards 11 and 13 is named after its shape similar to a hexagonal honeycomb. The honeycomb panel 12 has a finite continuous structure of hexagonal hollow columns, and is formed of cells and cores. A sandwich panel using the honeycomb structure is formed so as to have several ten times the strength of and about ten times the bending strength of a conventional panel. In other words, the honeycomb panel is formed by bonding a standard paper sheet with a common adhesive so as to have a structure of honeycomb shape. Such a honeycomb panel is well known in the art, further detailed description thereof will be omitted.

When the steel pallet including the top plate in which the plurality of corrugated boards are stacked is actually used, after freight, electronic appliances, or the like are loaded on the paper top plate, they are bound by a binding means to be carried or preserved.

According to the steel pallet having the paper top plate according to the present invention, since only the top plate of the steel pallet uses a three layer structure in which the corrugated boards are stacked, the top plate can be easily exchanged or reused and can be carried easily with its light weight.

Further, since the support plates are formed of steel coated with the melt zinc, the durability thereof is excellent and the environment can be kept sanitary.

Furthermore, the quality of the product is uniform due to automatic manufacture, and the products can be mass-produced, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost and can be reused.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

1. A steel pallet comprising:

a paper top plate in which a plurality of corrugated boards are stacked;

an upper steel support plate supporting a lower portion of the paper top plate, in which a plurality of first transverse members and a plurality of first longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns;

a plurality of rectangular steel column members bonded to the bottom surface of the upper steel support plate; and

a lower steel support plate bonded to bottom surfaces of the column members, in which a plurality of second transverse members and a plurality of second longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns.

2. A steel pallet according to claim 1, wherein the paper top plate has a structure in which an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board are sequentially stacked.

3. A steel pallet according to claim 2, wherein the upper and lower corrugated boards use double wall corrugated boards formed by attaching single-faced corrugated boards to double-faced corrugated boards.