A CONTAINER BASE ASSEMBLY

Abstract: A container base assembly has walls (13, 14, 15) and (16) coupled to a base member (1) in a manner allowing them to fold down over the base member (1) and be erected around the base member (1). The walls (13) to (16) are erected sequentially by a part rotational movement followed by a rectilinear movement in which lips at the lower edges of the wall members are entered into a trough (12) in the base member (1). The walls include hook elements which are interlocked when the walls are in the erected condition to provide a continuous wall system around the base member (1).

Description: "A OONTAIITER BASE ASSEMBLY" This invention relates containers for the transport of liquids which containers are of the type comprising a base and a number of external walls with a plastic film bag inside the walls to contain liquid. Shock and other loads applied to a filled container of the above type can, when extreme in nature, cause bag rupture. It has been found that ruptures occur most frequently because of the failure of the walls adjacent the base of the container. • * *. This invention has been devised to reinforce the vulnerable zone by providing a container base with several unique features which will overcome at least the type of failure referred to above. The base when combined with external walls in the conventional manner will provide a container for liquids which will withstand very severe operating conditions. The present invention can be broadly said to comprise a container base assembly comprising a four sided base member and four substantially rectangular wall members with first edges of the wall members respectively permanently coupled to the base member at the four sides thereof in a manner allowing the wall members to be raised to an upright erected condition and to be lowered to a position where they overlie the base member, co-operating positioning means on the base member and on first edges of the wall members to releasably maintain the wall members in an erected condition and - interlocking means along opposed second and third edges of each wall member adjacent the first edge thereof whereby the wall members when erected are interlocked to provide a continuous four sided wall system. A presently preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in whic :- Fig.l is a plan view of the container base when in a wall folded condition, Fig.2 is an elevation from one side of the container base of Fig.l, Fig.3 is a sectional elevation along the section line 3-3 of Fig.l, Fig.4 is a view similar to Fig.3 of the container base when in a wall erected condition. Fig.5 is a view similar to Fig.4 with panels mounted on the container base. Fig.6 is an elevation of a container comprised of the container base of Fig.l and panels and a lid. Fig.7 is is a fragmentary plan view of one form of an interloek arrangement between adjacent edges of wall members of the container base. Fig.8' is a view similar to Fig.7 of an alternate form of interlock, Fig.9 is a perspective view of the interlock of Fig.7, Fig.10 is a view similar to Fig.7 showing a variant of the interlock of Fig.7, Fig.11 is a view illustrating the appearance of the Fig.10 interlock when complete. Fig.12 is a plan view showing the interlocks between the upright edges of the wall members using the Fig.7 arrangement, Fig.13 is an enlarged fragmentary view of portion of the container base and a wall member when in a folded condition, Fig.14 is a view similar to Fig.13 showing an initial stage in the erection of the wall member, Fig.15 illustrates a later stage in the wall member erection and with the wall members upright, Fig.16 illustrates the locking of the wall member in the- erected condition, and Fig.17 illustrates to an enlarged scale the interconnection of a panel with a container base. The container base as illustrated comprises a base member 1 having sides 2,3,4 and 5 with front and rear openings 6 to allow for entry under the base by the tynes of a fork lift or other truck. Around the lower edges of the sides 2 to 5 there is a foot flange 7. Fig.3 shows additional under members 8 to assist with the support of downloads and lateral members 9 tie the members 8 to the sides 3 and 5. Around the load supporting surface central portion 10 of the container base there is a peripheral ring-like flange 11. A box section trough 12 is located below a gap 13 between the - peripheral edge of the surface 10 and the inner perimeter of tne flange 11. The form of the trough 12 is best seen in Fig.13. It is to be noted that the top surface of the flange 11 is at an elevation above the load supporting surface 10. Figs.1,3,4 and 12 show the wall members of the container ■ base. There are four wall members identified 13 to 16, each has a height less than half the width of the load supporting surface 10 so they can fold down as shown in Fig.l and 3. As illustrated the wall members 15 and 16 lie on top of the load supporting surface 10 and the wall members 13 and 14 overlie the wall members 15 and 16. The manner of erection of the wall members is 15 and 16 first followed by the wall members 13 and 14 which are raised into interlocking engagement with the wall members 15 and 16. The combined thickness of the two layers of wall members when in the folded condition is substantially the same as the height of the flange 11 above the load supporting surface 10. Each wall member has along an edge which will be lowermost when erected a lip 17 which, when the wall member is in the folded condition is entered into the gap 13 and which when the wall member is in the erected condition is entered into the trough 12. The thickness of the lip 17 is such that it will pass through the gap 13 to disengage the lip from the base member and it has a width such that when the wall members is erected it will pass into the trough 12. The significance of this can be seen from Fig.4 and Figs.13 to 16. Fig.4 shows the wall members erected. There are lugs 18 on the underface of each lip and when the wall members are erected the lugs 18 rest on the bottoms of the troughs 12* with the lips 17 positioned in the troughs and the outer faces of the bodies of the wall members bearing on the inner edges of the flange 11. The wall members are thus anchored at their lower edges and braced against outward deflection by engagement against the flange 11. The lugs 18, as can be seen from Figs.4 and 13 to 16, increase the thickness of the lips 17 to the extent that if removal of a wall member was attempted when in the folded position the lugs would prevent this by engagement on the underface of the flange 11, see Figs . 3 and 13 . The wall members when erected are interlocked at their ' adjacent upright edges for strength. Referring to Fig. 7, which is a preferred form of inter-locking, the wall members 13 and 14 have hooks provided by inturned edge flanges 19 and bars 20. The wall members 15 have hook-like arrangements comprised of bars 21 on edge portions 22 of the wall members 15 which are joggled as at 23 relative to the plane of the body of the wall member 15. The interlocking is as shown in Fig.9. An alternative arrangement is shown in Fig.8. Figs.10 and 11 illustrate the use of a cap cover 24 on the arrangement as shown in Fig.9 to ensure there are no plastic bag damaging nip points at the tops of the wall members where they are hooked together. The wall members when so erected and interconnected form a continuous four sided wall system. Figs.13 to 16 illustrate the part rotary and rectilinear movement technique required for the insertion of the wall member lower edges into the troughs 12. In this regard it is to be noted that there is an undercut zone 25 in the outer wall of the trough to accomodate the. lip 17 during the operation of tilting the wall members from the folded condition to the erected condition and vice versa. There are holes 26 in the walls of the trough undercut zones to allow access to the abutments 18, in the form of screws, whereby those screws can be inserted during the assembly of the container base and removed when a wall members needs to be removed from the container base. The purpose of the container base is of course to co-operate with panel members to form a container. Such an assembly is shown in Figs.5 and 6 where panels 27 to 30 are shown mounted on the container base. Figs.5 and 6 should be read in conjunction with Fig.17. Each panel 27 to 30 and the lid 39 comprises a metal frame made up of uprights and cross bars with an inner lining of plywood 31. Each panel has a bottom rail 32. The panels 28 and 29 are locking panels and each has a cleat pair 33 fixed to its lower rail 32. The cleats 33 include a downwardly extending portion 34 fixed to the rail 32 which rests upon the top of the flange 11 and an inwardly extending portion 35 with a down turned lug end 36. Tne cleat portions 35 pass through apertures 37 in the base sides 3 and 5 and through apertures 38 in the wall members 15 and 16 adjacent the lips 17 thereof. This is best seen in Fig.17. The cleats serve to hold the panels to the container base and also to prevent the vertical movement of the wall members so engaged, which is a first movement in d the disengagement sequence of a wall member from the container base. As will be readily understood the apertures 37 can also serve the same purpose as the holes 26 in the appropriate sides of the base assembly. The other two panels 30 and 31 are hingedly connected upright-to-upright to first uprights of the panels 28 and.19 and the remaining uprights are interlocked by, for example, bolts, so as to form a four sided panel system as is commercially already known. It is envisaged that the various parts of the container base would be fabricated from metal of suitable gauges. The members 2 to 4 and 8 could be preferably fabricated from a gauge or be constructed in such a manner that in the event a container filled with liquid was dropped the members 2 to .4 and 8 would provide a cushion effect by crumpling in a progressive manner when a predetermined load limit for those members was exceeded.

Claims: I claim :- 1. A container base assembly comprising a four sided base member and four substantially rectangular wall members with first edges of the wall members respectively permanently coupled to the base member at the four sides thereof in a manner allowing the wall members to be raised to an upright erected condition and to be lowered to a position where they overlie the base member, co-operating positioning means on the base member and on first edges of the wall members to releasably maintain the wall members in an erected condition and interlocking means along opposed second and third edges of each wall member adjacent the first edge thereof whereby the wall members when erected are interlocked to provide a continuous four sided wall system. 2. A container base as claimed in claim 1 wherein each wall member has first abutment means on its first edge projecting inwardly from an inner face of the wall member, and the base member includes a rectangular load supporting surface and a surrounding flange having an inner edge spaced from the outer edge of the load supporting surface by a gap sufficient to allow a wall member to pass therethrough but insufficient to allow the wall member first edge with its abutment means to pass therethrough when the wall member is in the erected condition, second abutment means located beneath the load supporting surface, said wall members when in the erected condition being supported in that condition against divergent movement by engagement of the several first and second abutment means and the engagement of the outer faces of the wall members against the inner edge of said flange. 3. A container base as claimed in claim 2 wherein said flange lies in a plane parallel to but spaced above that occupied by the load supporting surface of the base member. 4. - A container base as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the second abutment means has a thickness less than said gap so enabling disengagement of a wall member from the base member by passage of the second abutment means of a wall member through said gap when the associated wall member is in a position overlying the load carrying surface, and security means to increase the thickness of said second abutment means to engage under said flange to prevent such disengagement if attempted. 5. A container base as claimed in claim 4 wherein the security means is removable. 6. A container base as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 5 wherein the height of opposed walls of the container base is-less than half the width of the load supporting surface between those opposed walls and the couplings between the base member and the wall members allows to opposed walls when folded into overlying relationship with the load supporting surface to be co-planar and the other walls to adopt a co-planar overlying relationship therewith. 7. A container base as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 6 wherein the second and third edges of a primary pair of opposed wall members are of hook profile with terminal portions which are directed towards each other and the second and third edges of the other two wall members which comprise a secondary pair are complementarily hooked so that with the primary wall pair erected the second and third edges of the primary pair will be engaged during the erection of the secondary wall pair by the second and third edges thereof. 8. A container base as claimed in claim 7 when dependent on claim 6 wherein the secondary pair of wall members when folded over the the load supporting surface lie between the load supporting surface and the primary pair of wall members. 9. A container base as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 8 wherein the base members includes ground engaging sides with apertures in at least two opposing sides to allow the forks of a fork lift truck to engage the container base. 10. A container base as claimed in anyomne of claims 1 to--9 including lug apertures in at least two opposing sides of the base member and lug apertures in the wall members adjacent those sides aligned with the lug apertures therein, the lug apertures in the wall members being located below the load supporting surface when the wall members are in the erected condition. 11. A container base as claimed in claim 10 in combination with four rectangular panels, two panels being locking panels each having a lower edge adapted to rest upon the base member and lugs projecting downwardly from the lower edge and laterally to the lower edge and adapted to pass through the lug apertures of one of the base member sides and its adjacent erected wall member to retain the locking panel to the base member and prevent said adjacent wall member being moved from the erected to a lowered position,- and two panels being door panels respectively hingedly connected at first upright edges to first upright edges of the locking panels and being respectively releasably connected at second upright edges opposite the first upright edges to second upright edges of the locking panels opposite the first edges thereof so as to form a continuous panel system around said continuous wall system. 12. A container base as claimed in anyone of claims 1 to 11 wheren the base member is supported upon ground engaging support means which is designed to progressively collapse when subjected to a predetermined shock load.

Inventors: KARPISEK LADISLAV STEPHAN, KARPISEK, LADISLAV, STEPHAN
Applicants: KARPISEK LADISLAV STEPHAN, KARPISEK, LADISLAV, STEPHAN
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B65D19
IPC codes: B65D19, B65D77