DE8707224U1 - Transport pallet with a substantially rectangular base made of foldable material such as corrugated cardboard provided in cut form - Google Patents

Abstract

The pallet (1) comprises a pallet surface (2), receiving the loading goods, a pallet stand surface (base surface) (30, 40), and support elements (3, 4) which space said stand surfaces apart and between which at least one loading channel is arranged in at least one of the two main dimensions of the rectangle for engagement on loading bars of floor conveyors. In order to provide an inexpensive small pallet of this type which guarantees secure transportation with the aid of floor conveyors (lifting trucks, fork lift trucks) despite the reduced dimensions, the centre line (L) of the loading channel (5) is offset relative to the parallel centre line (M) of the pallet surface and, along the free edge of the half of the pallet surface facing away from the centre line of the channel, a lateral, free flange or web (6) is provided, under which a loading bar can grip from the stand surface and which extends beyond the lateral boundary (31) of the support element. <IMAGE>

Description

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Europa Carton Aktiengesellschaft, Spitaler Str. 11, 2000 Hamburg 1

Transport pallet with a substantially rectangular base made of foldable corrugated cardboard material provided in cut form

The invention relates to a transport pallet that can be driven under and has a substantially rectangular floor plan made of foldable material such as corrugated cardboard provided in cut form, with a pallet surface that accommodates the load, with a pallet support surface (bottom surface) and with support elements that are spaced apart from one another between the top and support surface, between which at least one loading channel for engaging the loading beams of floor conveyors is arranged in at least one of the two main dimensions of the rectangle.

For transport pallets of the type described, which can be driven under and are made of corrugated cardboard or similar foldable material, where the surface is loaded with goods to be transported like conventional pallets made of wood, pressed plastic or similar, two rectangular material cuts are generally used today. In a known object of this type (DE-OI3 34 42 439), one cut each is provided for the pallet surface and one cut which determines a support beam construction, which are assigned to one another in terms of their folding and support measures in such a way that a highly load-bearing corrugated cardboard transport pallet is produced. Such pallets are particularly suitable as stable, inexpensive disposable pallets with Euro pallet dimensions (800 x 1 200 mm). However, their construction is only suitable if only smaller pallets with 1/2 Euro dimensions (600 x 800 mm)

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�iacgr; or l/4^Euromaß (400 &khgr; 600 mnO are required, in all

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only lower strengths are required.

5 For smaller dimensions, a pallet made from a rectangular one-piece cut of cardboard, corrugated fiberboard or equivalent material has become known (DE-OS 14 81 413). However, this serves only as a cover for the goods to be transported on the pallet and has a wide channel between two side support bars with a flat, horizontal rectangular base and a support surface arranged parallel to it. This channel, which is open on two sides, can be filled with goods to be transported - either after folding up the plate forming the surface or by pushing it in from the open sides. In order to ensure that the top plate is firmly attached and securely fastened to the side support bars, a side attachment surface is arranged on each of them. The base forms the contact surface of the pallet. With this pallet, the goods to be transported are therefore completely covered by the pallet material, except for the open sides. The transport volume of the known pallet is therefore limited to the space of the channel. Loading the pallet from the surface is not intended; this object does not have sufficient strength or load-bearing capacity for this. Driving under the pallet with a floor conveyor is also neither intended nor conceivable in a sensible way, since on the one hand the width of the channel, if one wanted to reach under the side support bars with the forks or loading beams of a floor conveyor, would have to correspond to the distance between the loading beams and the pallet would therefore be limited in its loading capacity, and on the other hand the side attachment surfaces are not sufficient to support the entire load weight of the pallet between them despite the double layer of the material.

Loading the surface of the known pallet is not intended; the wide, unsupported top plate is not suitable for this. This known object is therefore limited to the purpose of a disposable wrapping pallet, i.e. practically to a stackable trough-shaped box.

The invention is based - in particular in comparison with the described prior art - on the object of creating a transport pallet of the type described at the beginning that can be driven under and which is specifically designed as a small pallet (1/4 or 1/2 Euro pallet size), preferably for disposable use .

and is therefore inexpensive in terms of material and production, but at the same time ensures safe transport using industrial trucks (pallet trucks, forklifts) despite the reduced dimensions.

This object is achieved according to the invention in that the center line of the loading channel is offset from the parallel center line of the pallet surface and ; that along the free edge of the half of the pallet surface facing away from the channel center line a lateral free flange or web is provided which can be gripped from the support surface by a ; loading beam, which extends over the lateral support element boundary (

This allows you to achieve in a simple and

It makes sense to shift the load centre of gravity of the pallet when it is evenly loaded so that this load centre of gravity is between the loading bars or forks of the industrial truck. The width of the loading trough is naturally chosen so that it can comfortably accommodate a loading bar of a forklift truck with sufficient play, but with the possibility of easy lateral centring, while the web supported by the second loading bar is in a suitable position.

In order to achieve this type of easy centering particularly easily and thus to ensure that, on the one hand, no unnecessary damage occurs during rapid, careless transport and loading operations and, on the other hand, that too much care and precision is _not required when inserting the floor conveyors, it is advisable to provide the width of the support element on the side of the web in accordance with the currently standardized distances between the loading beams of lifting trucks, while with forklift trucks the distance between the loading beams, which are narrower than those of lifting trucks, is usually variable and can therefore be adjusted to the corresponding width of the support element.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the transport pallet can be unfolded from a single piece of blank. This will be essentially rectangular, which results in optimal use of space during production due to practically no waste, as maximum use can be made of the running corrugated cardboard web and the external dimensions of the blank correspond to the external edges of the unfolded pallet.

Preferably, the support elements extend essentially parallel to the channel center line and are designed as hollow-body-like support beams. This results in a pallet with clear boundaries on the one hand and high rigidity and safety when driving under it on the other.

In order to ensure the above-mentioned precise storage of the pallet on the support beams of a floor conveyor with the specified center of gravity ratios with an evenly loaded pallet, the support elements

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be arranged asymmetrically to the center line of the pallet surface containing the center of gravity in such a way that a first support beam is offset inwards by the width of the lateral overhang and a second support beam, narrower than the first, parallel to it forms the opposite lateral pallet boundary.

By folding it out accordingly, the loading trough is preferably open in the direction of the contact surface, while in the area on the surface the cut material can be connected in two layers. This makes it easy to drive under it with floor conveyors without the risk of hitting a material web that limits the trough at the bottom, which is particularly advantageous for the often low loading weights of small pallets, as the pallet cannot be pushed away by the impacting loading trough. In addition, the double layering of the trough ceiling, i.e. in the area of the trough that is not supported vertically by the load-bearing elements or beams, significantly increases the overall load-bearing capacity of the pallet.

A further improvement and increase in the load-bearing capacity of the pallet can be achieved by making the support elements or beams cuboid-shaped and the channel in the form of a ü that is open at the bottom. In this way, the edge of the pallet opposite the web can also be advantageously formed by the vertical support element wall, so that there is a clear, closed boundary of the pallet.

It is also possible to form the transport pallet according to the invention from two cut parts, by advantageously designing the support elements as at least two beam-like supports with a vertical axis to the center line of the loader.

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course, whereby they are broken through by the loading channel and between them form at least one second loading channel running coaxially parallel to the second pallet main axis in such a way that narrower cuboid feet are formed in one half of the offset channel center line and wider cuboid feet in the other half and the free flange or web is on the side of the wider feet. Such a pallet is more complex in terms of material than one formed from a single-piece cut, but results in a higher load-bearing capacity and thus the possibility of use with high transport weights for small pallets, whereby the two cut parts are preferably arranged with the corrugation direction running perpendicular to one another and the material is provided in double layers in the area of the second loading channel and along the outer walls perpendicular to the offset loading channel.

In order to further increase the strength of the pallet according to the invention, support tabs can be provided in the area of the support elements, which are punched out of the surface in a foldable manner, can be folded into the interior of the support element and rest against the contact surface of the support elements. These support tabs* can preferably be secured inside the support element. Their width and height can correspond to the inner cross section of the support elements and can be secured in them with a force fit. For the purpose of this easy securing, the lower edges of the support tabs resting against the bottom surface of the support elements can have locking lugs for engaging in corresponding locking slots in the contact surface.

In the case of a transport pallet according to the invention made from a one-piece blank, the latter can consist of corrugated cardboard with the corrugation aligned perpendicularly to the support elements or support beams, and the support tabs

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can be designed as cross supports to the load-bearing elements * Standing wave In vertical wall elements of load-bearing structures is known per se/ but in conjunction with the horizontal wave-bearing cross supports of the locking tabs that fold down from the surface, a significant overall increase in strength is achieved, as the standing wave absorbs the pressure from above, while the cross supports benefit from increasing the lateral shear strength.

Particularly with a view to achieving high load-bearing capacities, the transport pallets according to the invention can expediently be made of double-layer corrugated cardboard material with a highly tear-resistant cover layer (KraftÜner), i.e. can be folded out.

In order to achieve good stability and thus load-bearing capacity of the pallets, the contact areas of the support elements can be at least 50%, preferably around 60% of the total area of the pallet, which also results in high shear strength.

Of course, it is also conceivable to use other suitable, foldable material instead of corrugated cardboard, e.g. cardboard with sufficient load-bearing capacity, for the manufacture of the pallets according to the invention, in which case the advantages achievable with corrugated cardboard with a predetermined corrugation direction can be achieved at least to a certain extent by aligning the main fiber path of the cardboard material accordingly.

The overall advantages that can be achieved with the invention are that smaller pallet formats can be made available at low cost, which can be safely lifted and transported using conventional industrial trucks, as their load

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The centre of gravity is located between the forks or loading bars of such devices in the standard version when the pallet is loaded sufficiently evenly and the free edge of the pallet can be safely grasped thanks to the web design and stored on a loading bar without there being a risk that the lifted pallet will tip over to the other side and fall down.

Further advantages and embodiments or possibilities of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments shown in the schematic drawing* It shows

Fig. 1 in plan view a one-piece corrugated cardboard blank for producing an inventive

transport pallet designed in accordance with the requirements and

Fig. 2 a transport pallet folded from the blank of Fig. 1 to-2ö in axonometric

sical representation. |

To produce a transport pallet 1 equipped with the features according to the invention, as shown in Fig. 2, in this embodiment, a one-piece corrugated cardboard blank 10 is used, which has the shape of an elongated rectangle and can thus be produced without waste with several panels next to each other.

a running sheet of corrugated cardboard* can be cut out. The corrugation pattern can be seen at A.

The blank comprises, each separated from one another by dashed fold lines 11 and counter fold lines (counter crease) 12, viewed in sequence from the right, a field for the creation of a pallet surface 2,

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then three fields for forming a cuboid-shaped second support beam 4 in the form of an outer wall 41, a support surface 40 and an inner wall 42, then for a loading channel 5 a channel cover 51, then for forming a wider, first cuboid-shaped support beam 3 an inner wall 32, a support surface 30 and an outer wall 31, and finally a web base 61 for forming a

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Exterior wall jj. aes «ühucu iiayuumra > ■■"■«&bull;»' flange or web 6. Support tabs 21 and 22 are punched into the pallet surface 2, also foldable around fold lines 11, of which the wider support tabs 21 essentially correspond in width to the width of the contact surface 30 of the first, wider support beam 3 and the support tabs 22 correspond to the width of the contact surface 40 of the narrower second support beam 4. These support tabs lie in their width extension in the course of the wave (see A) and have locking lugs 23 on their lower free edges. The height of the support tabs 21 corresponds to the height of the wall parts 31, 32 or 41, 42. At the opposite points in the contact surfaces 30, 40 corresponding to the locking lugs 23, Locking slots 33 and 43 are formed so that the locking lugs 23 can be fixed in the locking slots when the pallet is erected in order to serve as cross supports for increasing the lateral load capacity (shear strength and bending strength) in particular in the cuboid structure of the support beams 3 shown in Fig. 2.

In Fig. 1 and 2, the center line of the pallet surface is indicated by a dash-dotted line M, while the center of the loading trough 5 is indicated by a double dash-dotted line L. The center line M runs with a uniform loading of the pallet surface 2 through the (theoretical) load center of gravity, so that when supported by a lens-shaped lifting device in the

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Line M equilibrium should prevail. However, since this can rarely be achieved in practice with reasonable means, the arrangement of the loading channels 5, into which a loading beam of a floor conveyor can engage, in relation to the support beams and thus the offset of the channel center line L compared to the surface center line M has been achieved so that when the pallet is gripped under the middle of the loading channel 5, the pallet has a counterclockwise rotation relative to the channel center line L.

Xu moment. The width of the loading channel 5 is somewhat larger than the largely standardized width of individual loading beams of lifting trucks, while the width of the first support beam 3 and thus also of the contact surface 30 is somewhat narrower than the also largely standardized distance width between the two support beams of a lifting truck. The pallet surface 2 on the side of the first support beam 3 does not end with its outer wall 31, but protrudes a little beyond it in accordance with the width of the web base 61, so that a free edge flange or web 6 is formed. In this way it is possible that when a lifting truck drives under the pallet, one of its loading beams is inserted into the channel 5 and comes to rest against the channel ceiling 51 when it is lifted, while its second loading beam grips under the flange 6 or the web base 61. The pallet is therefore centered by the width dimensions of the loading trough 5 and the first support beam 3. - While the width of the loading beams and their distance are usually fixed and standardized on pallet trucks, the distance between the possibly narrower loading beams on forklifts can be regularly changed and thus adjusted to the corresponding width dimensions of the pallet, so that the left-turning moment around the loading beam engaging in the loading trough 5 and the gripping under of the flange 6 by the loading beam located on the outside are still guaranteed.

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This means that the pallet, which in the example shown is a 1/4 Euro pallet, can be safely lifted and transported using standard industrial trucks. The same applies to larger pallets of a similar design, up to pallets with 1/2 Euro dimensions.

As can be seen from the illustration, the pallet is constructed in two layers in the areas that are mainly subject to stress when being lifted by a floor conveyor, namely in the ceiling area of the loading trough 5 and on the web 6, so that a high load resistance results here. The strength of the pallet as a whole is determined by the different i

lockable support tabs 21, 22 and, if necessary, by the jj

Choice of double-layer corrugated cardboard material increased, so 1

that you get a 1/4 Euro pallet that can be erected from a single piece, which is |

similar pallet made from a two-piece cut |

about 70 to 80% of the load-bearing capacity. This is sufficient for a very wide range of applications for the purposes of such small pallets, which are often loaded with goods that are not as heavy as large pallets, so that the material savings resulting from the use of only one blank, despite possibly higher-quality corrugated cardboard material, result in significant savings, especially when taking into account the mass use of such pallets, especially from the point of view of the simple unfolding of the blank 10.

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Claims (17)

a&bgr;&bgr; ·· «aal aa a · * a &igr; ill * « a a a &bull; · a * a a &igr; - 12 - Protection claims: 1. Transport pallet that can be driven under with a substantially rectangular floor plan made of foldable material such as corrugated cardboard provided in cut form, with a pallet surface that accommodates the load, with a pallet support surface (undersurface) and with support elements that are spaced apart from the top and support surface, between which at least one loading channel for engaging the loading bars of industrial trucks is arranged in at least one of the two main dimensions of the rectangle, characterized in that the center line (L) of the loading channel (5) is offset from the parallel line (M) of the pallet surface (2) and that along the free edge of the half of the pallet surface facing away from the channel center line (L) a lateral free flange or web (6) is provided that can be gripped from the support surface (30, 40) by the loading bar, which extends beyond the lateral support element boundary (31). 2. Transport pallet according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of a one-piece, essentially rectangular blank (10) is unfolded,
30 3. Transport pallet according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the support elements (3, 4) extend substantially parallel to the channel center line (L). 4. Transport pallet according to claim 3, characterized - 13 - &bull; IHl till &igr; - 13 - characterized in that the support elements are designed as hollow-body-like support beams (3, 4). 5. Transport pallet according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the supporting lines (3, 4) are arranged asymmetrically to the center line (M) of the pallet surface (2) in such a way that a first support beam (3) is offset inwards by the width of the lateral projection (6) and a second support beam (4) which is narrower than the first and parallel to it forms the opposite lateral pallet boundary. 6. Transport pallet according to one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that the loading channel (5) is open in the direction of the support surface (30, 40), while in its surface-side region (51) the cut material is double-layered. 20 can be connected to each other. ' 7. Transport pallet according to claims 3 to 6, characterized in that \ the supporting elements or supporting beams (3,4) are cuboid-shaped ' 25 and the channel (5) has the shape of a has a U that is open at the bottom. 8. Transport pallet according to one of claims 3 to 7, characterized in that the pallet edge opposite the web (6) formed by the outer wall (41) of the second support element (49). l| 9i Transport pallet according to claim 1 consisting of two blank 35 parts/ characterized by &iacgr; &eegr; et t that the supporting elements as» at least two &bull;t 9· ·
it · III beam-like supports are designed to run perpendicular to the center line of the loading channel, whereby they are penetrated by the loading channel and form between them at least one second loading channel running coaxially parallel to the second main pallet axis, such that narrower cuboid feet are formed in half of the offset channel center line and wider cuboid feet in the other half .«..«· j rt&mdash;ii J__ u&mdash;&ldquor;<*-.=> v-^rv jriiRa AaV free And they are also called "exuc""ei. u*. <= -«· «<=.*»" - «·&mdash; flange or web. 10. Transport pallet according to claim 9 with the corrugation direction of the two blanks running perpendicular to each other, characterized in that the material in the area of the second loading channel and along the outer walls running perpendicular to the offset loading channel is double-layered. 11. Transport pallet according to one of claims 3 to 10, characterized in that in the area of the support elements (3, 4) there are provided support tabs (21, 22) which are punched out of the surface (2) in a foldable manner, can be folded into the interior of the support element and are supported against the contact surface (30, 40) of the support elements. 12. Transport pallet according to claim 11, characterized in that the support tabs 0 (21, 22) can be fixed in the interior of the support element. 13. Transport pallet according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that the supporting tabs (21, 22) correspond in width and height to the inner cross section of the support elements (3, 4) and can be fixed in them in a force-fitting manner. - 15 - &bull; I « > » &bgr; « ■» r · &bull;I* ■ lit ■ »4«· »a &bull; · ·«·«·* tit * i &bull; 11 «&igr; ■ &kgr;&igr;«&bgr;»-&eegr; egg · &bull;-&bgr; rl · - 15 - 14. Transport pallet according to one of claims 11 to 13/ characterized in that the lower edges of the support tabs (21, 22) lying against the surface of the support elements (3, 4) have locking lugs (23) for engaging in corresponding locking slots (33f 43) in the support element base (30, 40). 15. Transport pallet according to one of claims 11 to 14 when unfolded from a one-piece blank, characterized in that the blank consists of corrugated cardboard with a corrugation aligned normal to the support elements or support beams (3, 4) and the support tabs are designed as cross supports (21, 22) to the support elements. 16. Transport pallet according to one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that it is made of double-layered corrugated cardboard material with a highly tear-resistant cover layer (Kraftuner). 17. Transport pallet according to one of claims 1 to 16, characterized in that the contact surfaces (30, 40) of the support elements (3, 4) amount to at least 50%, preferably 60% of the pallet surface (2).