APPARATUS FOR MOUNTING A LOAD
A deck (10) for mounting a load which may be thin and disposable or returnable. The edge (11) of the deck is adapted (by means of a concave section, for example) so as to engage with shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film need be wound around the underside of the deck. In this way the plastic film is kept out of contact with, for example, the roller of a roller conveyor.
The present invention relates to a means for mounting a load.
Conventionally pallets are used to mount a load and enable a forklift truck to engage under the load to lift the load. The forklift truck may be motorised or may be a hand operated forklift truck ie a so called pallet truck. The pallets which are often of wood comprise a top deck and a lower deck spaced from and connected to one another by blocks of wood, the top and lower decks being spaced so as to allow the forks of a forklift truck to enter between the top and lower decks so as to lift the top deck and hence a load mounted on the top deck. Pallets are sometimes made of other materials such as steel.
Pallets when loaded at a factory are then transported bearing the load in trucks to the customer. Once they have been unloaded and the goods removed from the load, the empty pallets have to be returned to the factory. In view of the weight of the pallets, this can be a considerable environmental cost
Substantial number of pallets are required and although they are intended to be returnable, in practice a manufacturer of goods has to provide many pallets and the customer tends to be left with large numbers of pallets which have to be returned to the manufacturer if they can be identified. In practice, retail outlets often collect large numbers of pallets which take up a considerable amount of room and are generally inconvenient.
Another problem is that the loads are commonly held down to the pallets by means of plastic sheeting in the form of shrink wrap sheeting, or stretch wrap sheeting. In the case of shrink wrap sheeting, the sheeting is wound around the pallet and the load and heat is applied to the sheet which shrinks to firmly hold the load down to the pallet. In the case of stretch wrap sheeting, once again, a film of the plastic is passed around the pallet and the load under tension and this holds the load to the pallet.
A problem with the use of plastic sheeting in this way is that if the pallet passes over a roller conveyor system, then the plastic can get caught up in the rollers and this is highly detrimental in that it may require the roller conveyor to be stopped and repaired or cleaned.
The present invention reduces or removes these problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides, according to a first aspect, a deck for mounting the load which may be thin and disposable or returnable. In place of the pallet with two spaced decks, a single deck is used and this requires that when the deck and load is to be stored at the factory before dispatch, or is stacked in a truck for transportation, or is stored at its destination (e.g. customer), then suitable racking means must be provided which enables the forks of a forklift truck or other similar means to be able to engage the under surface of the deck to lift it.
In addition, the edge of the deck is adapted so as to engage with shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film is wound around the underside of the deck. In this way the plastic sheeting is kept out of contact with, for example, the roller of a roller conveyor.
Thus the invention comprises a deck for mounting a load comprising a single layer having edges, each edge of the deck being adapted so as to engage with an edge of shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film is wound around the underside of the deck.
Preferably each edge of the deck may be provided in the form of a groove which may be in the form of a concave channel or V shaped channel, and in a preferred arrangement the channel may include teeth means to engage with the plastic sheet. The channels may include means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another which would otherwise cause problems in lifting one deck at a time.
It will also be understood that by replacing the pallet with a single deck, the weight and indeed volume of the decks to be returned from the retailer to the manufacturer is considerably reduced.
Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:—
Referring to
The deck may have dimensions appropriate to its use which is typically 1200 mm×1000 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in the UK, typically 1200 mm×800 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in Europe, typically 1220 mm×1016 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in the US and typically 1100 mm×1100 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in Japan. The thickness may vary depending on the load to be mounted on the deck.
The arrangement shown in
In a preferred arrangement, the surface of the concave section 12 includes studs or teeth 18, the studs or teeth 18 being provided in two rows running parallel to and adjacent the upper surface 13 and lower surface 14.
The deck 10 shown in
Shrink wrap plastic film is a material usually of polymer plastic film. When heat is applied to the shrink wrap plastic film material, it shrinks tightly over what ever it is covering. Shrink wrap plastic film is commonly used to over wrap many types of packaging. The most commonly used shrink wrap is polyolefin. Other shrink films include PVC.
Stretch wrap or stretch film is a highly stretchable plastic film that is wrapped around items under tension. The elastic recovery property inherent in the material keeps the items tightly bound. The most commonly used stretch wrap material are linear low density polyethylene or LLDPE. Many films have about 500% stretch at break but are usually only stretched to about 100-300% in use. Once stretched the elastic recovery is used to keep the load tight.
In use, to hold the load to the deck, a roll of stretch wrap film is held with its axis vertical, and with the lower edge 31 of the film 30 adjacent the edge of the deck. The roll is then moved around the load under tension to stretch the film and in that way the lower edge of the stretch wrap film engages with the edge of the deck 10 and, in particular, engages in the concave section 12. As shown in
In the case of using shrink wrap plastic film, the plastic film may be applied from a vertical roll with its lower edge 31 engaging in the concave section 12 of the deck and the shrink wrap film is then shrunk by the application of heat, either through a hand held blower or alternatively by passing the deck and load through a heated tunnel.
In this way it is possible to securely attach the load to the deck 10 without any of the shrink or stretch wrap film extending below the deck 10 where it might engage with rollers on a conveyor roller if the deck 10 and load are moved along such a conveyor roller. The concave section 12 and the teeth securely engage the lower edge of the plastic film and keep the film away from the lower surface of the deck.
The teeth 18 are arranged to be of a shape which engages the plastic film securely without tearing it. Thus the height of the teeth should be chosen to aid engagement with the film and the shape and smoothness of the tip of each tooth should be chosen so as not to tear the plastic film.
The arrangement of
Returning to
Whilst the arrangements of deck 10 so far described are very efficient and useful, a problem can sometimes occur in that when the decks are arranged side-by-side, for example, when being stacked during transportation, the concave sections 12 of adjacent edges 11 of adjacent decks may engage with one another. When one of the decks is to be lifted, then this engagement of the two edges of adjacent decks will prevent one deck being lifted without the other.
It is therefore desirable to provide an arrangement whereby to prevent the concave sections 12 of the edges of adjacent decks 10 from engaging with one another and such an arrangement is shown in
The raised areas 50 are shown in
As is clear from
In this way, it is not possible for the edges of adjacent decks to overlap and their concave sections inter-engage.
Although not shown in
The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing example.
Claims
1. A deck for mounting a load comprising a single layer having edges, each edge of the deck being adapted so as to engage with an edge of shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film is wound around the underside of the deck.
2. The deck of claim 1 in which each edge of the deck includes a channel.
3. The deck of claim 1 in which each edge of the deck includes a concave channel.
4. The deck of claim 1 in which each edge of the deck includes a V section channel.
5. The deck of claim 2 in which each channel includes shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet.
6. The deck of claim 3 in which each channel includes shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet.
7. The deck of claim 4 in which each channel includes shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet.
8. The deck of claim 5 in which the shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet comprises teeth shaped means.
9. The deck of claim 2 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
10. The deck of claim 3 in which each concave channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
11. The deck of claim 4 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
12. The deck of claim 5 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
13. The deck of claim 6 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
14. The deck of claim 9 in which the means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another comprises raised areas in the concave channels.
15. The deck of claim 1 wherein the deck comprises a rectangular shape.
16. The deck of claim 1 in which the deck comprises plastic material.
17. The deck of claim 16 in which the deck is of injection moulded plastic.
18. The deck of claim 1 in which the deck comprises wood.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 20, 2008
Publication Date: Dec 2, 2010
Inventor: Garry Shepherd (East Sussex)
Application Number: 12/739,571
International Classification: B65D 19/38 (20060101); B65D 19/00 (20060101);