Abstract:
A cart for filling intermodal shipping containers with a bulk particulate material, such as grain, includes a hopper to receive the bulk material and a belt conveyor to deliver the material to the container. The conveyor is positioned external of the container and throws the material along an arcuate path to the opposite end of the container whereby the container is substantially filled without the need to extend the conveyor into the container. The cart is supported on wheels to be moved where needed. The cart can straddle a standard truck trailer carrying a container so that the container need not be removed from the trailer for filling. The conveyor height is variable to reach a container on a truck trailer or on the ground. The cart width can also be reduced for road transport.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to a cart for bulk filling intermodal containers and in particular for filling containers with agricultural produce, such as grain, beans, seed, etc., either in the field as the crop is harvested or from storage.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Current grain production, transportation and handling systems are largely based on a bulk commodity approach. Many crops are harvested by a combine or similar machines which, in addition to harvesting the crop, separates the grain, bean, seed, etc. from the remainder of the plant material. The crop is off-loaded from the harvester into a grain cart, truck trailer, etc. and transported to a farm storage facility, local grain elevator, a processor, etc. At the farm storage facility, the grain may be dried and stored in a bin for later transport from the farm. If delivered directly to a local elevator, the grain may be dried, cleaned, etc. and stored there. The crop is later transported by truck, rail or barge to a food processor or to a terminal elevator for transport overseas. The bulk commodity system is highly efficient at moving large quantities of crops. One draw back of the bulk commodity approach is the limited ability to differentiate crops based on various crop characteristics. For the most part, crops are graded and classified according to a board of trade classification. For example, much corn is sold or graded as number two yellow corn and meets the minimum characteristics established by the board of trade for that classification.  
           [0003]    Crop processors and food producers have characteristics other than those used by the board of trade that they seek to utilize in food or other product production processes. Recent advances in plant science have produced crops having differentiated output traits such as high oil crops. Other crops have been developed for certain pharmaceutical or nutriceutical properties. Biotechnology has used genetic modification to produce crops having certain specialized agronomic properties. While these genetically modified (GMO) crops provide benefits to the producer, some consumers prefer to avoid genetically modified food products. In response, many regulators have adopted or are considering regulations that require food products to be labeled to indicate the presence and/or absence of GMO ingredients. Other consumers desire food products that are produced organically. Organic food production largely avoids the bulk systems due to small volumes and the inability to properly segregate the organic products from the non-organically produced products.  
           [0004]    For the various reasons described above, it is desirable to provide an alternative to the bulk commodity system. There is a need for a system that allows for segregation of crops having different characteristics while still providing efficient transportation of these products.  
           [0005]    One way to segregate crops and maintain the segregation throughout the transportation system is to ship crops in containers, such as an intermodal shipping container. Once containerized, the products can be shipped to the processor without additional handling of the crop or opportunity for commingling with other crops. In addition to maintaining the segregation, containerized crops are handled fewer times, reducing handling induced grain damage. Currently, some crops are shipped in bulk containers. Most of these crops are placed in containers at elevators or processing facilities. While some crops have been containerized at the farm site, the lack of efficient and economical means for filling and handling containers on the farm site prevents wide spread use of containers for transporting grain and other agricultural products.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    The present invention provides a cart for use in bulk filling a shipping container at the point of harvest or at a storage facility. The cart preferably has a wheeled chassis so as to be portable. In a preferred embodiment, the cart is used in combination with an agricultural tractor and utilizes power from the tractor. The cart includes a main frame supported by the wheels. The frame supports a hopper for receiving a crop (hereinafter “grain”) and a conveyor that moves the grain from the hopper and into a container. The container is filled through either an upper door at the nose end of the container or through the container rear doors with a bulkhead installed inside the container. The bulkhead is open at the top, allowing the container to be filled over the bulkhead.  
           [0007]    The hopper receives grain either from a combine, grain cart or from a discharge port of a storage facility. The container remains on a truck trailer while it is filled. The height of the cart is adjustable to meet with a container on trailers of various heights. The cart can also be lowered to meet a container that has been placed on the ground. The wheels on the cart are extendable laterally to straddle a truck trailer such that a rear portion of a trailer can be backed under the cart until the conveyor meets the container door. The wheels can be retracted to reduce the width of the cart to meet transport width requirements for moving the cart.  
           [0008]    The conveyor is a belt conveyor having a width of about 24 inches. The belt is supported on a trough shaped metal base between the conveyor ends. Cleats on the belt engage the grain to accelerate the grain to the belt speed. The belt is inclined at an angle and operated at a speed necessary to throw the grain into the container at one end and travel along an arcuate trajectory to the opposite end of the container preferably without striking the top of the container. This allows the container to be substantially filled without extending the conveyor into the container. By not extending the conveyor into the container, the need to coordinate withdrawal of the conveyor as the container is filled is eliminated. In a preferred embodiment, the conveyor inclined at approximately a 15 degree angle and the belt is operated at about 2200 feet per second. This angle and speed allows a twenty foot intermodal container to be filled in less than five minutes. Depending on the grain and moisture, the container will reach its weight limit before it is filled by volume. The weight limit may not be the container weight limit but the weight limit for road transport of the filled container. The road weight limit depends on various factors including the number and spacing of axles supporting the container. As used herein, the term “substantially filled” is either by weight or by volume. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the cart of the present invention.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 is a rear view of the cart of the present invention.  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 is a side view of the cart shown together with a tractor illustrating the filling of an intermodal container on a flatbed trailer.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the rear of a container showing a bulkhead installed therein.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the conveyor upper end. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0014]    The cart of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 and designated generally at  10 . The cart  10  includes a frame  12  that supports a hopper  14  and a belt conveyor  16 . The frame has a lower portion  18  and an upper portion  20  connected to the hopper and conveyor. The upper portion  20  is removably attached to the lower portion through removable fasteners, such as nut and bolt assemblies  22 . The removable fasteners allow the frame upper portion  20  to be removed from the frame lower portion  18  for use of the hopper and conveyor elsewhere. A series of apertures  23  in the frame legs allows the position of the frame upper portion to be adjusted relative to the frame lower portion.  
         [0015]    The frame lower portion  18  carries a transverse member  24  with left and right telescoping tubes  26  extend laterally outward from the member  24  in opposite directions. The transverse member  24  is rotatably mounted to the frame  12  by bearing blocks  30 . Left and right wheel arms  32  are fixed at the outboard ends of the left and right telescoping tubes  26 . Each wheel arm carries a wheel and tire assembly  28 . A hydraulic cylinder  34  is coupled at one end to the frame  12  by a bracket  36  and has a rod  38  coupled to a crank  40  extending from the transverse member  24 . Extension and retraction of the cylinder rod  38  thus causes rotation of the transverse member  24 . This changes the height of the conveyor  16 , the need for which is described below. Any of a variety of known lift or extension mechanisms can be used to raise and lower the conveyor including telescoping tubes, scissors mechanism, linkages, etc.  
         [0016]    The telescoping tubes  26  are movable in and out of the transverse member  24  by hydraulic cylinders  43 , only one of which is shown. One cylinder  43  is provided for each telescoping tube  26 . The extension of the tubes  26  allows the tread width of the cart to be varied. When the tubes  26  are extended, the cart is wide enough to straddle a truck trailer such as the flatbed trailer  44  shown in FIG. 3. When retracted, the cart is narrow enough to met road transport width limits, such as the three meter width limit in Europe. Other mechanisms can be used to adjust the width as well, including linkages, scissors mechanisms, etc. Alternatively, the tubes  26  can be manually moved in and out and bolted to the center transverse member  24  in either an extended position to straddle a trailer or a retracted position for highway transport. The height and width adjustability allows the cart to straddle a flatbed truck trailer as shown in FIG. 3. A standard flatbed trailer can have a height of 60 inches and a width of more than eight feet that must be straddled by the cart.  
         [0017]    The cart  10  is shown in FIG. 3 coupled to an agricultural tractor  46 . The cart  10  includes a tongue  48  coupled to the drawbar  50  of the tractor and attached to the frame  12 . In a preferred embodiment, the tongue  48  is a self leveling tongue having a linkage  49  to maintain the conveyor at a predetermined angle of inclination regardless of the vertical position of the hopper and conveyor. The conveyor  16  is driven by a hydraulic motor  52  powered by the hydraulic system of the tractor  46  through standard hydraulic connections on the tractor. The tractor hydraulic system also operates the cylinders  38  to raise and lower the cart and the cylinders  43  varying the tread width. The conveyor can also be driven by an electric motor at the farm site or other location where electric power is available or driven mechanically by a tractor PTO.  
         [0018]    With reference again to FIG. 3, the cart is used to fill an intermodal shipping container  60  shown on the flatbed trailer  44  although other containers can be used. The container  60  preferably meets ISO standards for intermodal freight containers. The trailer is shown connected to the fifth wheel hitch of a semi-tractor  62 . With the wheel and tire assemblies  18  of the cart spread apart, the trailer  44  is backed underneath the cart  10  until the upper end of the conveyor  16  reaches the fill opening  64  at the nose end  66  of the container. A door  68  for the fill opening is shown in an open position. The trailer  44  is a standard highway transport trailer equipped to carry an intermodal shipping container. As an alternative to the fill opening  64  in the nose end of the container, the container can be filled through the rear as shown in FIG. 4. A bulkhead  70  is installed in the container, immediately inside the container rear doors  72 . The bulkhead  70  does not extend completely to the top of the container, leaving an opening  74  at the top of the bulkhead through which the container can be filled. Bulkheads of this type are known devices. One such bulkhead is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,623 B1.  
         [0019]    The conveyor  16  is a belt conveyor with a belt  80 . The conveyor has lower and upper ends  82 ,  84  respectively and is driven at the lower end by the motor  52 . The hopper outlet  86  is disposed above the conveyor near the lower end  82  and drops grain onto the belt  80 . The belt  80  carries the grain to the conveyor upper end  84 . Between the conveyor ends, the belt is supported on an expanded metal trough  88  (FIG. 5). The trough allows more grain to be piled onto the belt without spilling off the belt side edges as compared to a flat belt. The belt flattens to travel over rollers  89  at the conveyor ends. The belt has upstanding cleats  90  that engage the grain to move the grain pile along with the belt. The cleats have side portions  98  parallel to the sides of the belt to keep grain on the belt. Cleat portions  100  are inclined rearward and inward from the belt edges to engage the grain.  
         [0020]    The conveyor is inclined and operated at a speed sufficient to throw the grain along an arcuate path  92  into the container through either the fill opening  64  or  74  and through the container to the opposite end. The path  92  allows the grain to reach the opposite end of the container preferably without the grain striking the top of the container. If a substantial amount of grain strikes the top of the container, the grain will fall and form a pile in the middle of the container. This will prevent the container from being filled. Substantial filling of the container is shown in FIG. 3 with only small spaces  94 ,  96  not filled in the front and the rear of the container. Complete volumetric filling of the container will likely result in the container exceeding weight limits for road transport. Testing has indicated that it may be possible to fill the container with belt speeds in the range of 1700-2300 feet per minute. In a preferred embodiment, the conveyor is inclined at approximately a 15 degree angle and is operated at a speed of about 2200 feet per second. This provides the necessary grain speed and trajectory to fill a twenty foot container with most, if not all of the grain, avoiding contact with the top of the container. With a 24 inch wide belt, a twenty foot container can be filled in less than five minutes. The fill rate can be increased by increasing the belt width. Since the belt rides in a trough, a fifty percent increase in belt width will produce more than a fifty percent increase in the fill rate.  
         [0021]    Other types of conveyors may be used, such as a pneumatic conveyor. However, a belt conveyor is preferred as a pneumatic conveyor will require more power to operate at the desired fill rate as compared to the belt conveyor.  
         [0022]    The cart  10  can be used in or adjacent an agricultural field during harvesting and receive grain into the hopper  14  from a grain cart that in turn has been filled from a harvester, such as a combine, during the harvest operation. The combine can also be moved to the cart  10  for unloading the combine directly into the hopper  14 . Preferably, the cart is used to fill containers while the containers are still on transport trailers. Alternatively, multiple containers  60  can be delivered to a field and placed on the ground surrounding the field. After the containers have been filled using the cart  10 , the containers may be loaded on trailers for transport from the field. In this case, the cart  10  is lowered to reach the fill opening of the containers on the ground.  
         [0023]    As an alternative to filling containers at harvest, the cart  10  can be used at a grain storage facility to load containers with stored grain. This can be at the farm site or elsewhere. In the preferred method of operation, the container  60  remains on the trailer  44  during the filling operation to avoid the need to handle the container at the storage site.  
         [0024]    The cart  10  provides the grain producer with a means to readily fill shipping containers on the farm, either in the field or at a storage site. With the use of cart  10 , greater utilization of intermodal shipping containers for the transport of grain can be achieved. The cart of the present invention is not limited to use in filling intermodal shipping containers but can be used to fill other types of containers such as truck trailers, either open top trailers or closed trailers, etc. with grain.  
         [0025]    Having described the preferred embodiment, it will become apparent that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.