Abstract:
An intermediate bulk container includes a flexible storage container, a rigid rectangular base member including a plurality of pole engaging formations on its upper surface which are arranged about its periphery, a plurality of poles, the lower end of each of which is releasably engageable with a pole engaging formation on the base so that the poles collectively provide a support cage for the storage container, a rigid pole location member ( 10 ) which includes a central opening through which the support container may be filled and a plurality of pole engaging formations with which the upper ends of the poles are releasably engageable, and bracing elements connecting a pair of poles on at least two adjacent sides of the cage to each other for holding the poles, in the planes in which they are located in the assembled container, perpendicular to the base and pole locating member.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a knock-down intermediate bulk container of the type which comprises a bulk storage bag which is made from a flexible material for containing particulate material, discrete objects or liquid and a support structure in which the bag is located to inhibit lateral bulging of the loaded bag in use. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An intermediate bulk container comprising a storage container which is made from a suitable flexible material, a rigid substantially rectangular base member including a plurality of pole engaging formations on its upper surface which are arranged in a spaced relationship about its periphery, a plurality of poles, the lower end of each of which is releasably engageable with a pole engaging formation on the base to be perpendicular to the general plane of the upper surface of the base so that the poles collectively provide a support cage for the storage container, a rigid pole location member which includes a central opening through which the support container may be filled and a plurality of pole engaging formations with which the upper ends of the poles are releasably engageable, and bracing means connecting a pair of poles on at least two adjacent sides of the cage to each other for holding the poles, in the planes in which they are located in the assembled container, perpendicular to the base and pole locating member. 
     The pole bracing means may consist of two elongated tension resisting members which are each attached to and extend diagonally between the upper and lower end portions of the pair of poles to which they are connected. 
     In a preferred form of the invention the tension resisting members are flexible. Conveniently the tension resisting members are made from stranded metal cable. 
     The base member is preferably a forklift pallet. 
     The underside of the pallet base member and the upper surface of the pole locating member may both include interengageable formations which are releasably engageable with compatible formations on intermediate bulk containers of the invention above and below it in a stack to prevent horizontally transverse dislocation of one container from another in a stack. 
     The pallet base may in one form of the invention be square or rectangular in plan and is moulded from a suitable plastics material. The pole locating member may have the same shape in plan as the pallet base and is moulded from plastic material. Preferably both the pallet base and the pole locating member are moulded to be substantially hollow. 
     The pole engaging formations on the pallet base and the pole location member are preferably sockets in which the end portions of the poles are frictionally engaged, in use, to inhibit skewing of the poles in the plane in which they are located relatively to the components with which they are engaged. 
     The upper surface of the pallet base may include, between the pole sockets, elongated recesses in which poles may be stored and trapped when the pole location member is placed on the pallet base. 
     The pallet base and the pole location member conveniently each include sixteen pole engaging sockets which are arranged in sets of five alongside each of their four outer edges with the corner sockets each being common to two sets of sockets. The central socket of each of the four sets of sockets may be positioned closer to the centre of the pallet base and pole location member with the remaining sockets in each set being aligned and parallel to an outer edge of the pallet base and pole location member outwardly of its central socket. 
     The poles could be made from metal with their upper and lower ends being rounded with the bases of the sockets in the pallet base and pole location member in which they are located, in use, being complementally shaped to the rounded pole ends. 
     When a plurality of loaded bulk containers are stacked vertically one on the other with their dislocation preventing formations engaged with those of a vertically adjacent container in the stack their posts are preferably in axial alignment with their ends separated from each other by solid material from which the pallet bases and the pole locating members are made so that the mass of the loaded containers above the base container of the stack is conveniently transmitted from their pallet bases only through the axially aligned poles to the surface on which the containers are stacked and not through the material in their storage containers. 
     The pallet base conveniently carries a central load discharge aperture. The pallet base may further include a plug for closing the discharge aperture from the underside of the pallet with the side of the plug including formations which are releasably engageable in formations in the wall of the pallet base aperture releasably to lock the plug in the aperture. 
     The pallet base may include in its underside two pairs of parallel sided forklift tine recesses with one pair of recesses extending across the pallet base from opposite sides of the base and the other pair from the remaining opposite sides to define four corner load supporting plinths and a single elongated plinth between each pair of corner plinths. The dislocation preventing formations on the pallet base are preferably elongated recesses in the undersides of the elongated load support plinths. 
     The dislocation preventing formations on the pole location member may be formations which project upwardly from the upper surface of the member and are substantially complementally shaped to the pallet base recesses so that when the bulk containers are stacked one on the other the formations on the pole locating members are releasably engaged in the recesses of the pallet bases of containers above them in the stack. 
     The pallet base and pole locating member dislocation preventing formations may have rectangular bases with each of the four sides of each formation tapering inwardly towards the opposite side of the formation. 
     The pole locating member may be a ring beam. 
     In one form of the invention the storage container may be a bag which is made from a suitable plastics film material. The thickness gauge of the film may lie in the range of between 90 and 120 microns. 
     The storage bag may be made from a woven plastics material. The woven bag material may in certain applications be internally laminated with a suitable plastic film for containing a liquid or highly hydroscopic particulate material. 
     The storage bag in yet a further version may be made from a netting material. 
     In another form of the invention the storage container may be moulded from a suitable flexible plastic material and include a closable filling aperture and if required an outlet aperture. 
     A passive programmable microchip which is information accessible from an external electronic source may be embedded in a component of the bulk container. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       An embodiment of the invention is now described by way of example only with reference to the drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view from above of the intermediate bulk container of the invention, 
         FIG. 2  is a side elevation of the container of  FIG. 1 , 
         FIG. 3  is a partially diagrammatic sectioned side elevation of two braced poles of the container, 
         FIGS. 4 and 5  are respectively a plan view and an under plan view of the ring beam of the container, 
         FIGS. 6 and 7  are respectively a plan view and an under plan view of the pallet base of the container, 
         FIG. 8  is a side elevation of one embodiment of the bulk storage bag for use with the container of the invention, and 
         FIGS. 9 and 10  are side elevations of yet further embodiments of bags for use with the container of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The intermediate bulk container  10  of the invention is shown in the drawings to include a forklift pallet base  12 , restraining poles  14  and a pole locating member or ring beam  16  which together provide a support cage for a storage container. 
     The pallet base  12  is rotor moulded, to be substantially hollow, from a suitable plastics material such as linear low density polyethylene and is most clearly shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 ,  6  and  7  to include a flat upper surface  15  into which a series of pole locating grooves  17  are moulded, an upstanding peripheral rim  18  and a centrally located circular discharge aperture  20 . The pole locating grooves  17  have been omitted from  FIG. 6  for clarity of illustration. 
     The underside of the pallet base, as seen in  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and  7 , includes two pairs of parallel sided recesses  22  and  24  with each pair of recesses being dimensioned and spaced to provide forklift tine recesses which are accessible from any one of the four sides of the pallet base. The pairs of recesses  22  and  24  define between them four substantially square corner support plinths  26 , elongated support plinths  28  between the corner plinths and a shallower central protuberance  30  which carries the discharge outlet  20 . The elongated intermediate support plinths  28  each carry an elongated recess  32 . 
     Returning to the upper surface of the pallet, it is shown in  FIG. 6  that the pallet, in this embodiment of the invention, includes 16 pole sockets which are arranged in the upper surface as shown in the drawing with each of the pole sockets including a counter-sunk upper mouth portion  36  which surrounds the pole  14  locating socket  34 . Also, as shown in  FIG. 1 , each of the pallet base sockets  34  are located in the plinth supports  26  or  28  to provide the sockets with adequate depth solidly to frictionally engage the lower end of the poles  14  against skewing. The lower ends of the sockets are located in solid material at the undersides of the plinth supports for competent load transfer between the ends of the poles and the underside of the plinths in which they are located. 
     The ring beam  16 , as shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2   4  and  5 , is moulded in the same manner as the pallet base  12  and includes on its underside sixteen sockets  40  which are arranged in exactly the same configuration as the sockets  34  on the pallet base  12 . The sockets  40  extend, as shown in  FIG. 2 , into the ring beam through formations  42  which project from the underside of the beam  16  towards the pallet base. The upper surface of the ring beam carries four upwardly projecting formations  44  which are releasably engageable in the recesses  32  in the undersides of the intermediate pallet base plinths  28 , as shown in  FIG. 7 . As seen in  FIGS. 2 ,  4  and  7  the ring beam formations  44  and the pallet base recesses  32  are elongated and include four sides which are inclined towards their opposite sides for ease of engagement and release from one another in a stack of the containers. 
     The poles  14  are made from mild steel tubing which is suitably galvanised or otherwise coated against atmospheric degradation and importantly their upper and lower ends are smoothly rounded, as are the bases of the sockets  34  and  40 , in which they are located in use. The rounded pole ends spread what could be substantial loads which are imposed on them in their axial direction, in use, into the pallet material surrounding the sockets in which they are intimately seated to minimise punching or other damage to the sockets and the material surrounding them. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2  the poles of a pair of poles  14  on each side of the cage are connected together by diagonal tension resisting bracing tendons  45  and  46 . The tendons, in this embodiment of the invention, are cables made from stranded stainless steel wire and have a diameter of about 3 mm. The tends, which are cut to exact length, are anchored to the poles  14  as shown in  FIG. 3 , by having their ends passed through holes  14   a  in their side walls adjacent their ends and, with the two poles closer together than they would be in the assembled container, from larger diameter holes  14   b  in their rounded ends, as shown in  FIG. 3 . Steel ferrules  47  are then swaged to the ends of the tendons. With the poles  14  then spaced from each other by exactly the distance separating their locating sockets  34  and  40  in the pallet and ring beam the ferrules  47  will be pulled into the pole tubes to abut their inner walls around the side wall holes through which the cables pass and with this pole spacing the tendons are under very slight tension but could be very slightly slack with this slack rapidly being taken up by the slightest tilting movement of the poles to which the tendons are fixed in the direction of the plane in which they are located. 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  show the bracing tendons  45  and  46  extending between a pair of central poles on each side of the twelve pole cage. With a four pole cage the tendons will extend from corner to corner of the side of the cage which carries them. To increase the lateral support of the container bag in the illustrated twelve pole or even a sixteen pole cage the tendons could extend between the corner poles behind the poles, on the same side of the container, between them. 
     In use, with reference to  FIG. 2 , it will be appreciated that any tendency for either the pallet  12  or the ring beam  16  to move horizontally relatively to the other by a tilting of the poles  14  will be arrested by one or the other of the tendons becoming tensioned against whatever force is attempting to cause the perpendicularity of the poles relatively to the pallet and ring beam, in a plane including the braced poles, to be upset. The fact that the cage is braced on at least two adjacent and in this case all four of its sides similarly ensures that neither the pallet nor the ring beam are capable of rotating about the vertical axis of the container relatively to each other regardless of whatever usual dynamic loads are imposed, in use, on a stack of the containers when fully loaded. 
     To accommodate the poles  14  in the knocked-down condition of the container framework the pallet grooves  17 , as shown in  FIG. 1 , have rounded undersides and depth sufficient to contain the poles with their upper surfaces below the upper surface of the pallet with the bracing cables  45  and  46  on the poles which carry them, passing over the groove separating walls. Also, as shown in  FIGS. 6 and 7 , the pallet base includes a closure plug  48  which includes two or four diametrically opposite locking formations, shown in dotted lines in the drawings, which project radially from its circumferential periphery to be releasably engageable in bayonet-type slots in the wall of the aperture  20  to enable the plug to be releasably locked into the aperture  20  from the underside of the pallet by upward and then rotational movement of the plug  48  by means of a handle, not shown, which could be moulded into the underside of the plug. 
     The pallet base  12  of the container additionally includes a passive programmable microchip, not shown, which is embedded in its plastic material, after moulding, and which is programmed to provide its identity, storage information and the like on electronic interrogation. 
     The container bags of the invention for use with the support structure thus far described may be flexible bags which are made from a suitable plastics film material such as polyethylene with the gauge of the film being dependent on the nature of the material which the bag is to contain but will typically lie in a range of between 90 and 120 microns. Alternatively, again in dependence of the nature of the material which is to be loaded into the bag, the bag could be made from a suitably woven or net material or a combination of these materials. For example, in the transportation and storage of fresh produce such as oranges, mangoes, apples, pears and the like the bags would be made from a suitable netting to permit adequate ventilation through the fruit in the bag. Additionally, if the container is to contain liquid or particulate material, such as fertilizer, which is highly hydroscopic, the bag could be made from a robust woven plastics material which is laminated on its inner surface with an air impervious polypropylene film or if the bag is to be used to carry processed frozen vegetables it could be made from a suitable air impervious polyethylene. 
     The examples of the bags  50 , shown in  FIGS. 8 to 10 , are made to be initially tubular. The bags could include only upper reduced diameter inlet tubes  52  as shown in  FIG. 8  in which case their inwardly folded bases would need to be cut out or at least slit through the pallet base aperture  20  for bottom discharge. Alternatively, the bag  50  could, as shown in  FIG. 9 , have, in addition to the inlet tube  52 , a reduced diameter outlet tube  54  which is inwardly folded to close over the closed plug  48  on the pallet base  12  with the tube merely unfolding to discharge when the plug  48  is removed. In its simplest form the bag  50 , as shown in  FIG. 10 , could be made to include an outlet tube  54  and an upwardly extended side wall portion  56  which is open at the top and which, during loading of the bag in the support structure, is merely folded down over the ring beam  16  onto the outside side wall of the bag to be filled with the extended portion  56  of the bag then being folded back over the upper surface of the material loaded in it. The side walls of the bags could include circumferentially spaced vertical tubular sleeves  58  which may be made to receive a single pole  14  or the sleeves  60 , as shown in  FIG. 9 , could be sized to receive two adjacent poles. The sleeves are made integral with the bag material by stitching or heat welding in dependence on the nature of the material from which the bag is made. Alternatively, the bags could include horizontal slits which are arranged in vertical rows about the periphery of the bag to suit a desired pole configuration when they are to be loaded with a low density particulate material which is not very flowable. In this case the poles are fed from the outside of the bag into and out of the horizontal slits in a row so that the bag will be supported by the material between the slits on the outside of the poles. 
     An important feature of the intermediate bulk container of this invention is that with the simple and relatively lightweight support structure of  FIGS. 1 to 7  and its various pole arrangements and suitable bulk container bags  50  the user of the intermediate bulk container of the invention has a wide range of choices as to the type of container support structure required to transport and store a wide variety of discreet objects or types of particulate material. 
     As an example of the versatility of the container of the invention, assuming it is desired to transport and store discreet objects such as low density table tennis or ping pong balls a simple four corner pole structure may well suffice in minimising the outward bulging of the container bags from between the poles  14 . On the other hand, assuming that far denser golf balls were to be loaded into the containers a more robust and more closely spaced pole structure together with a heavier bag material would be required to minimise the outward bulging of the bag material from between the poles. In this case the eight pole configuration would probably suffice. For very high density particulate material such as fertilizer and even grain or rice it may be required that the full sixteen pole configuration is employed to inhibit excessive bag bulging. 
     With the above versatility of the container of the invention an organisation which is required to load a number of different materials into the containers of the invention need only keep suitable relatively cheap bags in stock to cater for the various materials for use with a compatible container support structure of the invention. 
     Yet another important feature of the container of this invention is the capability of a forklift being able, safely and without additional forklift lateral support, to convey three and at a push four loaded containers which are stacked one on the other. This is made possible by the interengagement of the pallet base and ring beam formations  32  and  44  respectively and the vertical rigidity of the support structure due to the depths of the pole  14  sockets  34  and  40  and the bracing tendons  45  and  46  which ensure that the stacked containers form a cohesive, stable structure. 
     Perhaps more importantly is the fact that eight containers may with absolute stability be stacked one on the other in a refrigerated or storage facility. This feat is achievable by the load of the individual bags  50  of the stacked containers being fully supported on the pallet bases  12  of the containers and being transferred through the stack from the pallet bases to the axially aligned poles  14  of the containers in the stack and from the poles to the surface on which the stack rests through the solid material of the pallet plinths  26  and  28 . This load transfer is, at all times, without the load of the individual bags in the stack bearing on one another to unduly stress and further bulge the flexible material from which the bags are made. 
     After use, when the material in a container  10  of the invention has been emptied at its destination the ring beam  16  is lifted from the upper ends of the poles  14  and the poles are then lifted from their sockets  40  in the pallet base. The container bag is then removed from the pallet base. the poles  14  are placed in the grooves  46  in the pallet base, see  FIG. 1 , and the ring beam is placed over the pole ends in the grooves with its socket projections  42  pressed into the flared mouths  36  of the pallet base sockets  34  to effectively trap the poles in the pallet base grooves  17 . A number of knocked-down pallets may be placed one on the other in a stack with the ring beam formations  44  located in the pallet base recesses  32  of the containers above them. The stacked containers may be strapped for shipping and the bottom pallet base in the stack will still be available for forklift handling.