Patent Publication Number: US-6668735-B2

Title: Pallet with a plastic platform

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to loading trays, commonly known by the term “pallets”, which can be used for transporting containers of liquids and, more particularly, to a pallet with a plastics platform. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A known palletized container for liquids or for granular materials is constituted substantially by a plastics vessel, by a cage made of profiled metal sections surrounding the vessel, and by a quadrangular steel or plastics platform on which the vessel bears and to which the cage made of profiled metal sections is fixed. 
     The platform has stiffening ribs and, if it is made of plastics material, is formed by a moulding process, preferably by injection. Suitable support elements are formed on or applied to the four corners and to the centre of the lower surface of the platform. 
     A plastics platform of this type, however, can be produced only with plastics material of relatively low molecular weight and therefore has inadequate mechanical characteristics for certain applications. Moreover, it is quite expensive since it requires specific manufacturing tooling, in particular, an injection mould. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An object of the present invention is to propose a pallet with a plastics platform which is stronger and less expensive than known pallets. 
     This object is achieved in accordance with the present invention by a pallet comprising a plastics platform formed by a unitary hollow body having two major walls which are disposed opposite one another and at least one of which has protuberances which extend towards the interior of the hollow body so far as to contact the opposite major wall. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The invention will be understood better from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, given by way of non-limiting example with reference to the appended drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a palletized container which uses a pallet according to the invention, 
     FIG. 2 shows a pallet according to the invention in perspective and with parts separated, 
     FIGS. 3 and 4 are perspective views of the platform which constitutes the main part of the pallet according to the invention, from above and from below, respectively, 
     FIG. 5 is a section taken on the line V—V of FIG. 3, and 
     FIG. 6 is a section taken on the line VI—VI of FIG.  2 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     As is shown in FIG. 1, the palletized container comprises a right-angled parallelepipedal vessel  10  with rounded corners, a cage formed by a peripheral framework  11  made of profiled metal sections arranged in a grid and welded at the points of intersection, and a pallet formed by a quadrangular plastics platform  12  on which the vessel  10  bears, and by base elements  13  fixed to the bottom of the platform. 
     The body of the vessel  10  is preferably made of plastics material, for example, polyethylene, by a blowing process. In the centre of its upper portion, the body has a hole which, in the drawing, is closed by a lid  14  and, at the bottom of a side wall, the body has a hole in which an outlet valve  15  is fixed. 
     The framework  11  is fixed to the platform  12  by suitable means, not shown, for example, by U-shaped bent sheet-metal strips extending around the lower peripheral section of the framework and fixed to the platform by bolts or by screws extending directly through the lower peripheral section and the underlying platform. Two cross-members  9  are fixed removably to the upper peripheral profiled section of the framework in order to hold the vessel in position. As can be seen in FIG. 2 in particular, the upper surface of the platform  12  is shaped so as to have, in the vicinity of its edge, a seat  8  for the lower peripheral section of the framework  11 . 
     The platform  12  is constituted by a flattened, quadrangular, hollow body made of plastics material, for example, high-density polyethylene, preferably formed by an extrusion-blowing process. The blowing takes place in a mould shaped so as to create, in at least one of the main walls of the hollow body, protuberances which extend inwardly so far as to contact the opposite wall. In the embodiment shown, the protuberances are ribs which correspond to channels  16  in the outer surfaces of the hollow body, and which are formed in corresponding positions on both of the major walls. The ribs are preferably welded to one another throughout their length, inside the hollow body. The welding takes place during the blowing when the plastics material is still in the molten state. 
     The ribs have the function of stiffening the structure and of distributing the load throughout the surface of the platform. In this embodiment, some of the ribs extend like rays from a central region of the platform; more precisely, four ribs extend along the diagonals and four ribs extend parallel to the sides of the platform; some ribs extend as branches of the diagonal ribs in directions parallel to the sides; the ribs could, however, be arranged in a different pattern which satisfies the structural stiffening requirements and those of the blowing process equally well. 
     In order to stiffen the structure further, as shown in FIG. 2, a strip  7  of sheet metal may be applied to the upper surface of the platform, the strip  7  having bent ends which can be fitted in corresponding seats  6  formed centrally on two opposite sides of the platform. 
     The lower wall of the platform is shaped so as to have nine outwardly-projecting, that is, downwardly-projecting portions; more precisely, it has a central portion  17  (FIG.  4 ), four portions, indicated  18 , in the vicinity of the corners, and four portions, indicated  19 , in the centres of the sides. These projecting portions form nine coplanar bearing surfaces. An area (indicated  20  in FIGS. 4 and 5) of the lower surface of the platform is defined within each projecting portion. The upper wall is shaped so as to have corresponding portions  21  projecting towards the interior of the hollow body and in contact with the above-mentioned areas  20 . The contact areas are preferably welded together. In the embodiment shown, the contact areas defined by the peripheral projecting portions  18  and  19  are connected to the contact area defined by the central projecting portion  17  by diagonal and median ribs, respectively. Greater stiffness of the structure is thus achieved. 
     According to the preferred embodiment of the invention, the base elements  13  (FIGS. 2 and 6) on which the platform  12  bears, are connected in threes by cross-members  30 . Each set of three elements  13  is constituted by a hollow body formed by extrusion-blowing, that is, by the same technique which is used to form the platform  12 . In fact, the hollow bodies for forming the base elements and that for forming the platform can be formed by the same extrusion-blowing cycle. 
     As can be seen in FIG. 6, each base element  13  is shaped so as to have a recessed region in which two opposite walls of the hollow body are welded to one another internally to ensure greater stiffness of the support structure. 
     The base elements  13  can advantageously be fixed to the platform  12  by hot plate welding, that is, by placing the two portions on a plate heated to the softening temperature of the plastics and immediately afterwards bringing the surfaces to be welded into contact with one another. 
     The outwardly-projecting portions  17 ,  18 ,  19  and the base elements  13  together define two channels  31  (FIG. 1) for the insertion of the forks of a conventional lift truck. 
     The cross-members  30 , together with the lower surfaces of the base elements  13 , define a stable support surface which is particularly suitable for the sliding of the pallet on roller conveyors of automatic plants. 
     The lower surfaces of the peripheral base elements  13  advantageously have chamfers  35  (FIGS. 2 and 6) which define a peripheral seat in which the upper profiled section of the framework of a palletized container identical to that described can be fitted. This facilitates stable stacking of several containers. 
     The pallet according to the invention is a structure which is light and at the same time strong and which can be produced by a blowing mould which, as is known, is much less expensive than an injection mould such as those required by the prior art. This structure is produced with the use of plastics material, possibly recycled material, with a high molecular weight and therefore stronger than the plastics material which has to be used with the injection-moulding technique, which is more fluid and hence weaker when in the solid state. 
     A further important advantage is achieved when the pallet is intended for a palletized container in which the vessel is also made of plastics material. In this case, the overall economy permitted by the invention is particularly notable since the same apparatus which is used for the manufacture of the vessel can also be used to manufacture the pallet. 
     Although only one embodiment of the invention has been described and illustrated, it will be clear to an expert in the art that many variations and modifications are possible within the scope of the same inventive concept.