WO2023139266A1

WO2023139266A1 - Hook device for lifting an intermodal container

Info

Publication number: WO2023139266A1
Application number: PCT/EP2023/051588
Authority: WO
Inventors: Joël ARCHER
Original assignee: Societe D'applications Electriques Et Mecaniques (Sapem)
Priority date: 2022-01-24
Filing date: 2023-01-23
Publication date: 2023-07-27
Also published as: FR3132090A1; FR3132090B1

Abstract

The invention relates to a hook (1) for lifting an intermodal container fitted with an ISO corner, comprising a pin (4) and a bearing plate (3), the pin comprising a shank, means for attaching a shackle (2) to the pin in order to attach slings to the shackle, and a gib for holding the pin in engagement with the bearing plate, said plate being provided for introduction into an internal housing of the corner and comprising a passage (37) for forming a pivot with a free portion (20A) of the shank, and a locking element (31) for securing the plate to the spindle.

Description

Title: Hook device for lifting a multimodal container.

The present invention relates to the field of handling multimodal containers equipped with corners meeting the ISO 1161 standard. More particularly, the aim is to propose means for lifting such a container by hanging on to its upper corners, using slings and without necessarily needing a lifting beam.

An upper corner according to the ISO 1161 standard is a substantially parallelepipedal hollow block and comprises three orifices:

- an "upper" hole, formed in its upper wall and elongated in the direction of elongation of the container;

- a "pear" hole, formed in its front wall, parallel to a transverse wall of the container and elongated vertically; And,

- an "oval" hole, formed in its longitudinal wall, parallel to a longitudinal wall of the container and elongated vertically.

In the case of a lower ISO corner, the upper hole is replaced by a "lower" hole formed in its lower wall and elongated according to the direction of elongation of the container

In particular, three types of lifting hooks are known, comprising, on the one hand, gripping means with lifting slings, and, on the other hand, gripping means with a wedge:

- the HM/C3 type, which is inserted through the upper hole of an upper corner;

- types C2 and C5, which are designed to be inserted into an oblong hole in a lower corner. Hooks of types C2 and C5 are designed to be hung at the bottom corners, and they project laterally, increasing the transverse bulk of the container they equip. They require the use of a crosspiece or a lifting beam; they cannot be used with simple slings. The C5 type hook has a low level of safety, and accidents have already occurred. The type C2 hook can be fitted with an anti-unhooking option. In these two cases, the security of the attachment of the hook to the container is mainly ensured by the tension of the lifting slings; there is therefore a risk of unhooking when a sling becomes slack.

The HM/C3 type hook also has many disadvantages; notably :

- it has a very long vertical rod which works in bending, both in a transverse plane and in a longitudinal plane of the container;

- the sling attachment shackle undergoes significant twisting;

- it damages the ISO corner, in particular by punching the interior housing and the edges of the upper hole; And,

- he's heavy.

The object of the invention is to provide a lifting device:

- that can be easily adapted to a position of a sling attached to it;

- whose attachment is guaranteed even when the sling is slack;

- which is substantially harmless to the corner to which it is fixed; And,

- to which we can leave a sling or a strap, hung on standby.

To solve this problem, the invention proposes a device for lifting a container, in particular a multimodal container equipped with an ISO corner, which comprises a spindle and a support plate, the spindle comprising:

- a stem, extending along a stem axis;

- Means for hooking, at least indirectly, lifting means such as slings; And, - Means for engaging the support plate; the support plate being intended to be introduced into an interior housing of the corner and comprising:

- a passage to form a pivot with a free portion of the rod, between the hooking means and the gripping means; And,

- Means for securing and disengaging the plate from the spindle.

The attachment means advantageously comprise an axis hole formed in a plane substantially perpendicular to the rod axis and spaced from the rod axis by a clearly non-zero distance, in one direction, this hole being close to a first end of the rod and provided for attaching a shackle thereto.

The gripping means may comprise a gib which extends radially in the same direction from a second end of the rod opposite the first end. The gripping means may further comprise a heel which extends in a direction substantially opposite to the direction of extension of the gib.

The attachment means may comprise a first surface and the gripping means comprise a second surface, facing each other and substantially perpendicular to the stem axis. Advantageously, the free portion extends axially between the first and the second surface.

Preferably, the plate comprises a body and a latch, the body and the latch together forming the passage, the latch being able to assume an open position in which the free portion can be introduced radially into the passage and a closed position, in which the passage and the free portion form the pivot.

The plate advantageously comprises a surface intended to bear against an upper wall of the corner. Several embodiments of the invention will be described below, by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the appended drawings in which:

[Fig. 1] is a schematic view in elevation and perspective, of a lifting device according to the invention, equipped with a shackle;

[Fig. 2] is a schematic view in elevation and perspective, of the device of Figure 1, in position in an ISO corner, part of which has been cut to reveal part of the device inside this corner;

[Fig. 3] is a view similar to Figure 2, from another angle, in which the corner has been cut longitudinally; And,

[Fig. 4] is an exploded schematic view of the lifting device of Figure 1.

The terms vertical and horizontal apply arbitrarily to the position of the device in Figure 1 and a container assumed to be resting on a horizontal plane. For a corner of the container, we call longitudinal what extends along the length of the container and we call transverse what extends along the width of the container.

Figure 1 illustrates a device 1 for lifting a multimodal container meeting the ISO 668 and ISO 1496 standards and equipped with so-called "ISO" corners meeting the ISO 1161 standard, without this being considered limiting.

The device 1 of Figure 1 is equipped with a shackle 2 which makes it possible to attach a sling of a lifting device to it; this machine can be a crane. The device comprises a plate 3 and a pin 4. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the device is designed to come into engagement with an upper corner 6 of a container; in the figures, only corner 6 is shown, the rest of the container is not.

The corner 6 has a substantially parallelepipedal outer shape, the walls of which define a housing 7, also substantially parallelepipedal. THE corner comprises an upper wall 11, in which is formed an upper oblong hole 12 elongated in the longitudinal direction SL, a transverse wall 13, in which is formed a front hole 14, called "pear" hole and a longitudinal wall 15, in which is formed a side hole 16, called "oval" hole. The upper wall bound a substantially constant thickness El i.

The other three walls of corner 6 are blind and facing the inside of the container.

As illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, the plate 3 is provided to be arranged in the housing 7 and to retain the pin 4 in engagement with the wedge 6. The plate is separable from the pin and its dimensions are such that it can be introduced separately into the housing 7 through one of the holes 12, 14, 16, then coupled with the pin, so that thus coupled, the pin is kept in engagement with the wedge 6.

As illustrated in Figure 4, the spindle 4 comprises a substantially cylindrical rod 20, a yoke 21 and a gib 22. The rod 20 is substantially cylindrical around a rod axis X20. The yoke 21 has the shape of a plate which extends radially, in a direction D4, from an upper part of the rod 20, that is to say at a first end of the rod. The gib 22 extends radially, substantially in the same direction D4, from the base of the rod 20, that is to say at a second end of the rod opposite the first.

A hole 23 is formed through the clevis 21, to fix the shackle 2 there. The hole is cylindrical around a horizontal axis X23; this axis is formed in a plane perpendicular to the stem axis X20 and separated from the stem axis X20 by a non-zero distance E23. The yoke forms a lower surface 26 and the gib 22 forms an upper surface 27, facing each other, both perpendicular to the stem axis X20 and separated from each other by a distance The support plate 3 has a substantially constant thickness E3, measured between an upper face 28 and a lower face 29. As illustrated in Figure 4, it comprises a body 30, a lock 31 and a pivot 32. The body is open in a longitudinal face 41 of the plate 3. The pivot is provided to articulate the lock with the body, around a vertical axis X32.

The plate further comprises a screw 33; it is screwed into a thread 34 formed in a distal end of the lock and passes through a bore 36 fitted and formed in a transverse face 42 of the body 30. In the example illustrated, the screw is a cylindrical head screw having a hexagonal socket socket. When the screw passes through the bore 36 and is screwed into the thread 34, it maintains the bearing plate 3 in a closed position, particularly illustrated in FIG. 1. In the closed position, the lock makes it possible to ensure continuity of the longitudinal face 41 of the bearing plate.

In the configuration of Figure 1, the plate is mounted closed around a free portion 20A of the rod 20, axially located between the lower face 26 of the yoke 21 and the upper face 27 of the gib 22 (see Figure 4). In the closed position, the body 30 and the lock 31 together form a cylindrical passage 37 for the free portion 20A; the passage and the portion together form a pivot function for the pin 4 in the support plate 3. The body and the lock each comprise a respective complementary part 37A, 37B of the passage 37.

In an open position, the plate makes it possible to introduce through the longitudinal face 41 thus opened, transversely to the stem axis X20, the portion 20A in the passage 37A against the part 37A.

The plate 3 further comprises a pin 38 which extends from the transverse face

42 and perpendicular to this face 42. In the position of use illustrated in figures, the pin 38 penetrates the pear hole 14, it makes it possible to limit the lateral displacement of the device 1. In this position, the head of the screw 33 is easily accessible and the screw can be screwed or unscrewed, through the pear hole, using an Allen key.

It is noted that the distance E4 between the facing faces 26 and 27 is substantially equal to the sum of the thickness El i of the upper wall 11 of the corner 6 and the thickness E3 of the support plate 3, with sufficient clearance to allow the manufacturing tolerances of the device 1 and the dimensional variations of the corner 6 to be taken into account. deformations, in particular a risk of punching the corner.

The gib, bearing against the lower face 29 of the support plate, tends to press the upper face 28 against the upper wall 11 of the wedge 6. Thus, the rod axis XI is maintained in a substantially vertical position, in which the pin can move substantially freely around the rod axis X20, under the action of a sling which is fixed there, due to the gap E23 between the shackle hole 23 and the rod axis X20, without risk of buttressing of rod 20 in passage 37.

As illustrated in dotted lines in Figure 4, the pin 4 may also include a heel 44 which extends radially from the base of the rod, in a direction opposite to the direction D4, in the extension of the gib 22. This heel makes it possible to maintain an optimal position of the device, even when the sling exerts an action including a horizontal component in the direction opposite to the direction D4. This allows the pin to rotate 180 degrees, of course, to align the clevis 21 with the sling.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the examples which have just been described.

On the contrary, the invention is defined by the following claims. It will indeed appear to those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the embodiments described above, in the light of the teaching which has just been disclosed to them. Thus, the support plate can have a circular shape instead of a rectangular shape; in particular in this case, the lock may have an annular shape that can rotate around the rod axis between an open position and a closed position. A device also has the advantage of being able to attach slings to it and let them hang along the walls of the container, which facilitates the attachment of the lifting slings, while being assured that the device will position itself correctly, when the slings are tensioned.

Claims

1. Device (1) for lifting a container, in particular a multimodal container equipped with an ISO wedge (6), characterized in that it comprises a pin (4) and a support plate (3), said pin comprising:

- a rod (20), extending along a rod axis (X20);

- Means (21) for attaching, at least indirectly, lifting means such as slings; And,

- means (22) for engaging said support plate (3); said support plate (3) being intended to be introduced into an interior housing (7) of the corner and comprising:

- a passage (37) to form a pivot with a free portion (20A) of said rod (20), between said hooking means (21) and said gripping means (22); And,

- Means (31) for securing and detaching said plate from said pin (4).

2. Device (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the attachment means (21) comprise a hole (23) of axis (X23) formed in a plane substantially perpendicular to the rod axis (X20) and separated from said rod axis (X20) by a distance (E23) clearly non-zero, in a direction (D4), said hole being close to a first end of said rod and provided for fixing a shackle (2) thereto.

3. Device (1) according to claim 2, characterized in that the gripping means comprise a gib (22) which extends radially in the direction (D4) from a second end of the rod opposite the first end. Device (1) according to Claim 3, characterized in that the gripping means (22) further comprise a heel (44) which extends in a direction substantially opposite to the direction of extension (D4) of the gib (22). Device (1) according to Claim 3, characterized in that the hooking means (21) comprise a first surface (26) and the gripping means (22) comprise a second surface (27), opposite one another and substantially perpendicular to the rod axis (X20). Device (1) according to Claim 3, characterized in that the free portion (2OA) extends axially between the first surface (26) and the second surface (27). Device (1) according to one of Claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the plate comprises a body (30) and a bolt (31), said body and said bolt together forming the passage (37), said bolt being able to assume an open position in which the free portion (20 A) can be introduced radially into said passage and a closed position, in which the passage and the free portion form the pivot. Device (1) according to one of Claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the plate comprises a surface (28) designed to bear against an upper wall (15) of the wedge (6).