PALLET WITH FLOOR CLEARANCE
A pallet may include a deck having a load carrying surface and a lower surface, and at least two spaced apart support legs. The legs may have one or more passages formed therethrough at a level beneath the lower surface of the deck to enable receipt of packaging material through the legs and beneath the deck to facilitate securing an object to the deck. The legs and deck may be made out of plastic materials, and may be formed in one-piece or in separate pieces connected together by complementary and mated connection features. The deck may include a plurality of friction elements adapted to engage an object on the deck to, for example, reduce slippage of the object relative to the deck.
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This application claims the benefit of, and incorporates by reference in its entirety, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/106,975 filed Oct. 20, 2008.
TECHNICAL FIELDThe present invention relates generally to pallets, and more particularly to a pallet with floor clearance.
BACKGROUNDWood pallets have been used in the handling and transport of various bulk goods and materials. Typical pallets have a lower surface defined by horizontal slats of wood that rest mostly flat on the ground, with minimal or no floor clearance, and provide openings of relatively small width and height to receive the tines of a forklift truck or the like.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSUREA pallet may include a deck having a load carrying surface and a lower surface, and at least two spaced apart support legs. The legs may have one or more passages formed therethrough at a level beneath the lower surface of the deck to enable receipt of packaging material through the legs and beneath the deck to facilitate securing an object to the deck. The legs and deck may be made out of plastic materials, and may be formed in one-piece or in separate pieces connected together by complementary and mated connection features. The deck may include a plurality of friction elements adapted to engage an object on the deck to, for example, reduce slippage of the object relative to the deck.
In another implementation, a pallet may include a deck having a load carrying surface, a lower surface, at least one stop surface extending from the lower surface to define a minimum clearance between the deck and the ground when the pallet is on the ground, and at least one friction element removably carried by the deck and having an upper surface engageable by an object on the load carrying surface of the deck. The pallet may also include at least two spaced apart support legs each coupled to the deck and having one or more passages formed through the legs at a level beneath the lower surface of the deck to enable receipt of packaging material through the legs and beneath the deck to facilitate securing an object to the deck.
The following detailed description of preferred embodiments and best mode will be set forth with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring in more detail to the drawings,
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In one implementation, the connection features of the support legs 14 may include upper and lower fingers 34, 36 that may be spaced apart to define a slot in which one of the flanges 18 of the deck 12 may be received. A plurality of the pairs of upper and lower fingers 34, 36 may be provided, with one pair of fingers for each flange 18. As best shown in
In assembly, the fingers 34, 36 of a support leg 14 may be slid into the side openings 17 of respective pockets 16 in the deck 12. The flanges 18 in each pocket 16 may each be received between the upper and lower fingers 34, 36 of an aligned pair of fingers 34, 36, and the projections 44 of the deck 12 located between the pockets 16 may be received in the gaps 42 between adjacent pairs of fingers 34, 36 on the support leg 14. A fastener, such as a bolt 48, may be inserted through the aligned openings in each set of mated fingers 34, 36 and flanges 18, as shown in
Referring to
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Accordingly, forces tending to displace a leg 14 inwardly or outwardly relative to the deck 12 may be offset by engagement of the fingers with the deck as well as the resistance of the flange 18 to rotation. This may provide increased rigidity of the interconnection between the legs 14 and the deck 12, and avoid undue twisting of the mated flanges 18 and fingers 34, 36. Providing pockets 16 of relatively short length, and offsetting or alternating the pockets 16 that include flanges 18 connected to the inside wall 19 and pockets 16 that include flanges 18 not connected to the inside wall 19, may provide a construction wherein no continuous or significant length of a support leg 14 may be more susceptible to deflection due to a force that may be applied in one direction. This may improve the overall rigidity and stability of the pallet 10.
The support legs 14 and/or deck 12 may also include one or more slots 56. The slots 56 may receive and retain a portion of packaging material, such as plastic wrap, that may be provided around a product stacked on the pallet 10 to retain the product on the pallet 10. The retaining slots 56 facilitate application of the plastic wrap, or other packaging material, to the pallet 10 and product thereon.
In one implementation, the legs 14 are longer than an individual deck section. More than one deck section may be provided on each leg, as shown in
The deck 12 may also have reliefs formed therein to improve the stability of stacked pallets 10. The deck 12 could also have an upper surface of relatively high frictional material (e.g. rubber or a relatively rough surface) to reduce product slippage on the pallet 10. Also, reliefs, such as grooves, could be formed in the deck 12 to receive strips of higher friction material. The inside surface of the legs 14 and the areas including and surrounding the fingers 34, 36 of the legs 14 are shown in
Referring to
The legs 114 or the deck may carry one or more spaced apart catches 155 to provide a location upon which packaging materials such as shrink wrapping, a cord or cover may be anchored or attached so that those materials may, for example, secure a product to the pallet 110 or instead may secure a tower of stacked pallets together. Each catch 155 in this implementation may have a slot 156 located at a respective corner of the pallet 110 to receive packaging materials. The slots 156 may extend below the load carrying surface of the deck and may be downwardly oriented or open facing the ground. Of course, more or less than four catches may be arranged in various configurations on the legs 114 and/or deck 112, and each catch may include other openings, detents, hook or other fasteners to attach or receive packaging material. As shown in
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Finally, the protuberances 196 in one implementation may be made of resilient material having a suitable coefficient of friction which may differ from the coefficient of friction of the deck. The protuberances 196 may be arranged in any suitable tread or pattern on the upper surface 190 of the body 188. The upper surface 190 or protuberances 196 may be arranged at the same height as or raised higher than the load carrying surface of the deck so that the upper surface 190 or protuberances 196 are engageable by an object on the load carrying surface of the deck. The protuberances 196 may deform or compress under the weight of a product placed on the pallet 110, to provide a generally high friction interface between the product and the friction elements 184 to prevent or limit slip of the product during its transport. Of course, the friction element 184 may have friction surfaces on its upper surface 190 in replacement of or in combination with the protuberances 196.
It is contemplated that the pallet 110 may not include separate friction elements carried on its deck, but rather include a deck with a textured or patterned load carrying surface, with or without one or more abutments to limit movement of products on the deck during transport of the product. In at least certain implementations, the lowest portion of the deck, which may include one or more stop surfaces 119, is at least 9 inches off of the ground when the pallet is received on the ground. Preferably, the lowest portion of the deck may be about 10-12 inches off the ground. Further, the space between inside surfaces of the legs may be about 14-24 inches or more to facilitate receiving a cart or other transport device between the legs and beneath the deck. A minimum open area defined between the legs, the deck and the ground may be about 125 sq.in. to 140 sq.in. An exemplary pallet 10, 110 may be about 18 inches wide, about 13 inches tall and over 37 inches long, with further exemplary lengths including between 42 and 55 inches. The relative tall height of the pallet facilitates receipt beneath the deck of a cart or other device for transporting the pallets. The relatively narrow width of the pallet facilitates maneuvering the pallet in relatively tight spaces such as narrow aisles in a store or warehouse. And the relatively long length of the pallet facilitates loading the pallet with more product without having to stack the product as high, and therefore, can improve the sight lines or vision above and around the pallet and product.
While the forms of the invention herein disclosed constitute presently preferred embodiments, many others are possible. Features identified with regard to one embodiment may also, where possible, be employed in other embodiments. As just one example, stop surfaces 119 could also be employed with the pallet 10. It is not intended herein to mention all the possible equivalent forms or ramifications of the invention. It is understood that the terms used herein are merely descriptive, rather than limiting, and that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.
Claims
1. A pallet, comprising:
- a deck having a load carrying surface and a lower surface; and
- at least two spaced apart support legs each coupled to the deck, the legs being spaced apart to enable receipt of a cart between the legs and having one or more passages formed through the legs at a level beneath the lower surface of the deck to enable receipt of packaging material through the legs and beneath the deck to facilitate securing an object to the deck.
2. The pallet of claim 1 wherein the legs are formed in one-piece with the deck out of a plastic material, and the passages are openings formed through the legs.
3. The pallet of claim 1 which also includes at least one catch formed in at least one of the legs or the deck, the catches providing a location upon which packaging material may be anchored relative to the deck.
4. The pallet of claim 3 wherein said at least one catch includes a slot formed in at least one of the legs or the deck.
5. The pallet of claim 1 wherein the deck includes at least one projection and at least one leg includes at least one socket sized to receive said at least one projection of an adjacent pallet when one pallet is stacked upon another pallet with the legs of one pallet disposed on the deck of another pallet.
6. The pallet of claim 5 wherein each leg includes at least one socket and the deck includes a like number and arrangement of projections.
7. The pallet of claim 1 which also includes a plurality of spaced apart seats formed in the load carrying surface of the deck, and a friction element disposed in each seat and having a surface engageable by an object on the load carrying surface of the deck.
8. The pallet of claim 7 wherein the friction elements are releasably received in the seats so that the friction elements may be removed from the deck.
9. The pallet of claim 7 wherein said surface of the friction elements are formed of a material having a hardness that is less than the hardness of the material of the deck.
10. The pallet of claim 7 wherein at least one seat includes at least two openings therethrough and a friction element disposed in said at least one seat includes a separate post extending into each opening.
11. The pallet of claim 10 wherein at least one post includes a head with one or more outwardly extending flanges defining a portion of the head that is larger than both the cross-sectional size of the post and the cross-sectional size of the opening in which said at least one post is received, and said head is pushed through the opening in assembly so that the flange overlies the opening and retains the friction element in the seat.
12. The pallet of claim 1 wherein the deck includes a stop surface adjacent to the lower surface that defines a minimum clearance between the deck and the ground, and the stop surface is arranged to engage a portion of a cart inserted between the legs to limit lateral movement of the pallet relative to the cart.
13. The pallet of claim 12 wherein more than one stop surface is provided extending from the lower surface and a space is provided between the stop surfaces.
14. The pallet of claim 1 wherein the legs are not formed in one piece with the deck and are coupled to the deck by interlocking fingers and flanges.
15. A pallet, comprising:
- a deck having a load carrying surface, a lower surface, at least one stop surface extending from the lower surface to define a minimum clearance between the deck and the ground when the pallet is on the ground, and at least one friction element removably carried by the deck and having an upper surface engageable by an object on the load carrying surface of the deck; and
- at least two spaced apart support legs each coupled to the deck and having one or more passages formed through the legs at a level beneath the lower surface of the deck to enable receipt of packaging material through the legs and beneath the deck to facilitate securing an object to the deck.
16. The pallet of claim 15 wherein the deck includes a separate seat for each friction element and a plurality of friction elements are provided spaced apart along the load carrying surface of the deck.
17. The pallet of claim 15 which also includes at least one catch formed in at least one of the legs or the deck, the catches providing a location upon which packaging material may be anchored relative to the deck.
18. The pallet of claim 17 wherein said at least one catch includes a slot formed in at least one of the legs or the deck.
19. The pallet of claim 15 wherein the deck includes at least one projection and at least one leg includes at least one socket sized to receive said at least one projection of an adjacent pallet when one pallet is stacked upon another pallet with the legs of one pallet disposed on the deck of another pallet.
20. The pallet of claim 19 wherein each leg includes at least one socket and the deck includes a like number and arrangement of projections.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 14, 2009
Publication Date: Apr 22, 2010
Applicant: Magline, Inc. (Pinconning, MI)
Inventors: Bruce L. Hailston (Midland, MI), Andrew P. Richard (Gladwin, MI)
Application Number: 12/578,834
International Classification: B65D 19/38 (20060101); B65D 19/00 (20060101);