Container bulkhead assembly

A bulkhead assembly, for use with a cargo container (10) within which is provided a liner (15) for the bulk transport of flowable materials, has a plurality of elongate members (20) which extend upwardly from the floor (11) of the container, but with a central region (25) adjacent the container floor (11) free from obstruction. A flexible sheet (26) is folded to form two overlying layers (27, 28) joined together to define pockets in which are positioned two pairs of rigid plates (29, 30), the inner pair of plates (29) being spaced apart. In use, the sheet (26) is arranged adjacent the container floor, so as to extend over the central region (25), and also to provide corner fillets for the container, the lower region of the liner when in use being supported by the sheet (26) and the plates (29, 30).

This invention relates to a bulkhead assembly for use within a container 
and in conjunction with a liner, for the bulk transport of flowable 
particulate products. The invention further relates to such a bulkhead 
assembly in combination with a container and a container liner, for the 
transport of such products. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Containers of standardised sizes are ever more being used for the transport 
of products. The products may be packaged appropriately and then the 
packages loaded into the container, or--depending upon the nature of the 
products--those products may be loaded directly into the container. In 
order to allow the direct loading of particulate products, such as 
powders, granules or the like, it is known to fit within a container a 
bag-like flexible liner for example of polyethylene which liner is 
provided with an inlet accessible when the liner has been fitted into a 
container, whereby a bulk product may be loaded into the liner for 
transport. A wide variety of particulate materials may be carried in bulk 
in this way, and in view of the isolation of the product from the ambient, 
even food products may conveniently be transported. 
The conventional way of discharging a powder-like material carried in a 
liner within a container is to allow the material to run under gravity out 
of a discharge provided at one end of the liner, by tipping the container. 
The wall of the container in the region of the discharge may be provided 
with a hatch having a door which, when opened, gives access to the 
discharge of the liner. In an alternative arrangement, within the end of 
the container having conventional doors, there is provided a bulkhead 
assembly to retain the load and liner in position,, the assembly having an 
aperture giving access to the liner discharge. When the container is to be 
discharged, the container doors are opened and then access is gained to 
the discharge through the aperture in the bulkhead assembly. Examples of 
the above arrangements are described in GB-A-2 264 695 and U.S. Pat. No. 5 
152 735. 
There have been several proposals for bulkhead assemblies suitable for use 
in the above-described manner. Such a bulkhead assembly should be 
relatively cheap to manufacture since it usually is used only once, and 
frequently such structures are manufactured on site from lengths of timber 
appropriately cut to size. In an attempt to reduce the manufacturing time 
and also the cost of such a assembly, it is known to provide as few 
structural members as possible extending both vertically from the floor to 
the top of the container and horizontally from side to side, and then to 
use those members to support a rigid board--for example of plywood or 
blackboard--which extends across the width of the container. However, a 
certain amount of cutting and fabrication of the board is required with 
this arrangement, in order to allow access to the discharge of the liner. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a bulkhead assembly 
suitable for use in a container in conjunction with a liner for the bulk 
transport of particulate product, which assembly is relatively quick and 
easy to install and yet which gives adequate support to a loaded liner 
within the container. 
According to the present invention, there is provided a bulkhead assembly 
for use within a container in conjunction with a liner for the bulk 
transport of flowable particulate products in the container, which 
bulkhead assembly comprises a plurality of elongate members which extend, 
when installed in a container, upwardly from the floor of the container at 
the doored end thereof, the members being arranged to leave a central 
region adjacent the floor of the container free from obstruction by the 
members, a flexible severable sheet extending across said central region 
and bearing on surfaces of said members facing the interior of the 
container, and at least one substantially rigid liner-supporting plate 
secured to the severable sheet and disposed with respect to the members so 
as not to obstruct said central region, the liner-supporting plate bearing 
on at least one member, whereby a liner in the form of a bag fabricated 
from a flexible plastics sheet may be located within the container with an 
outlet area of the liner being supported in use by said flexible severable 
sheet and by the plate 
In the present invention, a bulkhead assembly has a plurality of elongate 
members which advantageously are interconnected to form a framework, much 
as is already known in this art, and at least the lower central region of 
that framework is left clear to give access to the discharge region of a 
liner suspended within a container in which the bulkhead assembly is 
installed. To give adequate support to that liner when loaded in the lower 
central region, a flexible relatively strong but severable sheet is 
arranged across that lower central region, and at least one 
liner-supporting plate is secured to that sheet at such a location that 
the central region is not obstructed thereby. In use, the liner may bear 
on and be supported by that sheet and also by the supporting plate, but 
the liner may still be discharged in the usual way by an operator slashing 
with a knife through the sheet, as well as through the liner itself. Of 
course, in practice both the sheet and the liner will be slit with the 
knife at the same time. Alternatively, for a case where the liner is 
provided with a discharge tube, the severable sheet may be precut and then 
that cut closed for example with adhesive tape, a clasp fastener or other 
suitable closure means. Then, when the liner is to be discharged, the cut 
may be opened to gain access to the liner discharge tube. Yet another 
possibility is for the severable sheet to have lines of weakness, such as 
perforations, whereby the sheet may easily be torn open along those lines. 
Though only one substantially rigid plate, of a suitable shape, could be 
secured to the sheet, in a particularly preferred form of this invention a 
pair of liner-supporting plates are secured to the sheet, each plate being 
of generally triangular form and secured to the sheet at locations such 
that when in use in a container the plates extend diagonally across the 
two lower corner regions at the bulkhead end of the container. Such plates 
may thus take the form of corner fillets for the container, known per se, 
but by securing the plates to the sheet before the sheet is fitted to the 
upright members, the provision of corner fillets in the container may be 
achieved rapidly without the need to attach the corner fillets to the 
container. 
In addition to said pair of plates serving as corner fillets, or perhaps 
alternatively, a pair of substantially rigid upright plates may be secured 
to the sheet, one such plate to each side of the central region, 
respectively. Each upright plate could be essentially rectangular and 
extend to the respective side of the container, but where a pair of corner 
fillet plates are provided, each upright plate may be of substantially 
right-angle triangular shape arranged with one edge extending vertically, 
adjacent said central region, and with another edge extending immediately 
adjacent a diagonal edge of the respective corner fillet plate. In either 
case, each upright plate is preferably attached to the members over which 
the respective plate is disposed. In turn, this will serve to secure the 
sheet to those members.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
In FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional container 10 having a floor 11, a 
pair of side walls 12 and a top 13. The further end of the container is 
closed but the end shown in the drawings is provided with a pair of doors 
(not shown). Suspended within the container, by means of tapes 14, is a 
bag-like liner 15 fabricated from flexible plastics material sheet. That 
liner forms no part of the present invention. 
In order to retain the liner when loaded within the container, even should 
the doors of the container be opened, there is provided across the doored 
end of the container a bulkhead assembly. This assembly is fabricated from 
four upright wooden members 20 (only two of which are shown in FIG. 1) and 
one upper cross member 21 extending across all four upright members 20, 
from one side of the container to the other. Adjacent the lower end of the 
container, there are provided on each side two short cross members 22, 
extending between the pairs of upright members, to each side of the 
centre-line. The wooden members typically should be cut to size on site to 
suit the container to be loaded, and the members nailed together and 
secured to the containers in the conventional way. 
The lower central region 25 between the two inner upright members 20 is 
covered by a flexible sheet 26 having two distinct layers 27 and 28. Such 
a sheet may be formed by appropriately shaping a piece of relatively thick 
gauge polyethylene, folding that sheet to form two overlying layers and 
welding together adjacent edges. Prior to completing the welds, two pairs 
of triangular rigid boards 29 and 30, for example of plywood, may be 
located between the sheets, as shown in FIG. 3. The boards are 
appropriately dimensioned such that the complete sheet may be fitted to 
the upright members 20 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, with the inner boards 29 
extending vertically against the upright members 20 and the outer boards 
30 forming corner fillets for the container. The sheet 26 may be secured 
in position by means of nails or staples extending through the layer 28, 
boards 29, layer 27 and into the members 20. The sheet 26 serves to locate 
the boards 30 in the appropriate positions as corner fillets, without the 
need separately to secure those boards to the container, though those 
boards may be secured to the container, if desired. 
Once the bulkhead assembly has been fabricated as described above, the 
liner 15 may be located within the container, using the tapes 14 as 
mentioned above. Then, a further board 32, for example of plywood or 
cardboard, is located within the container, resting on the upper edges of 
the boards 29 and bearing against the inside faces of the members 20. That 
board may lightly be held in position, for example by means of a 
double-sided adhesive tape between the upright members 20 and the board 
itself. There is no need for the board to be securely held in position, 
since the weight of the product within the liner, when loaded, will serve 
to press that board against the members 20. 
It will be appreciated that the bulkhead assembly described above is 
relatively cheap and simple to fabricate on-site, to fit a given 
container. The component parts of the bulkhead assembly are common 
materials which may be re-used or used only once and then disposed of, 
though perhaps salvaged for re-use for other purposes.