Flexible container for transport and storage of bulk goods

Abstract

 The invention concerns a flexible container (10) for transport and storage of bulk goods and comprises a jacket and bottom and a filling aperture (12), said container being liftable by its upper part, and the bottom of said container having been formed of flap-like parts which have been mutually connected by means of connecting seams (20, 21), said connecting seams of the flap-like parts have been disposed to run at a substantial distance from the central area of the bottom, with this flexible containerthe bottom structure in reliable manner withstands all those major stresses which may act on the bottom of the container under practical _ conditions.

Description

[0001] The present invention concerns a flexible container for transport and storage of bulk goods, comprising a jacket and bottom and a filling aperture, said container being liftable by its upper end, and the bottom of the container being formed of flap-like parts which have been connected to each other by connecting seams.

[0002] In the Finnish patent application No. 771681 is disclosed a flexible transport and storage container for bulk goods. Such a container is preferably provided with an inner bag consisting of impermeable material and composed substantially of one piece of material having in its upper part lifting loops and in the centre a filling aperture. The bottom part of the container is composed of not less than four flaps of equal size two and two, constituting direct elongated extensions of the container's jacket and which have been joined two and two at the lower margin so that the connecting lines intersect in one point. Similar large-size bags are also disclosed by the Swiss Patent No. 362, 970 and the German publicizing print No. 1,126,795. The drawback encountered in these large-size bags of prior art is that the bottom of the bag cannot tolerate any high stresses acting substantially on the central area of the bag's bottom, when the bag is filled with bulk goods. This drawback arises from the fuct that the connectiong lines in the bottom of the bag intersect at the centre of the bag, where the highest peak stresses also occur. The occurrence of the peak stresses in the central area of the bottom, again, is due to the fact that when full of bulk goods, the large-size bag tends, as of its bottom portion, to assume a round shape.

[0003] The object of the invention is to achieve an improvement in lexible containers of prior art intended for transport and storage of bulk goods. The more detailed object of the invention is: to provide a flexible container of which the bottom structure in reliable manner withstands all those major stresses which may act on the bottom of the container under practical conditions.

[0004] The object of the invention is attained by the aid of a flexible container which is mainly characterized in that the connecting seams of the flap-like parts forming the bottom of the container have been disposed to run at a substantial distance from the central area of the bottom. The rest of the characteristic features of the container of the invention are presented in claims 2 through 10.

[0005] In the flexible container of the invention, the bottom withstands with positive reliability all those stresses which may act on the bottom of the container in conditions of practice, because the substantially central area of the container's bottom presents no connecting seams at all which would detract from the strength. Furthermore, the advantageous bottom structure of the invention has been achieved in a comparatively simple way and in one that is favourable with a view to manufacturing techniques. The bottom design of the invention may be equally applied to containers provided in their upper part with lifting loops and to those containers which have no lifting loops. Such so-called open bags are sealed at the filling aperture, and an open bag may be lifted e.g. with a suitable lifting hook.

[0006] The invention shall be described in detail with reference to certain advantageous embodiments of the invention presented in the figures of the attached drawings, but to which the invention is not meant to be exclusively confined.

[0007] 

Fig. 1 displays the blank for a flexible container according to the invention.

Fig. 2 shows a flexible container made of the blank of Fig. 1, in axonometric view.

Fig. 3 presents an alternative design for the bottom of the flexible container of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 shows a blank shaped like a hose cut-off, where the upper aperture constitutes the filling aperture of the container.

Fig. 5a presents an alternative bottom design for the container of the invention.

Fig. 5b presents another alternative design for the bottom of the container of the invention.

Fig. 6a presents a third advantageous embodiment of the bottom of the container of the invention.

Fig. 6b presents still one favourable embodiment of the bottom of the container of the invention.

[0008] In the embodiment of Fig. 1, the flexible container 10 is formed of a blank 11 consisting of one piece of material and which is first folded double along the centre-line 13. A cut has been made in the blank 11 for the filling aperture 12. In order to form the jacket, the lateral margins bent to meet are connected by seams 14. The blank 11 has furthermore been provided with cuts 15, which define the flap-like parts 16, 17, 18 and 19. In Fig. 1, the flap-like parts 16-19 nave been indicated with hatching for greater lucidity.

[0009] Of the blank 11 as shown in fig. 1 the flexible container 10 of Fig. 2 is produced by folding the flap-like parts 16 and 19 to overlap and by connecting the lower margin of the flap-like part 16 to the upper margin of the flap-like part 19 by a connecting seam 20. Hereafter, the flap-like parts 17 and 18 are folded to overlap and the lower margin of the flap-like part 17 is connected to the upper margin of the flap-like part 18 with the connecting seam 21. Hereby a double bottom structure is formed, where the connecting seams 20 and 21 are located at a substantial distance from the central area of the container bottom. In this embodiment, the connecting seams 20 and 21 intersect at one point close to a given corner of the container bottom.

[0010] If desired, the upper margin of the flap-like part 16 may be connected with the lower margin of the flap-like part 19 by another connecting seam 20 and, similarly, the upper margin of the flap-like part 17 with the lower margin of the flap-like part 18 by another connecting seam 21, whereby then the bottom of the container presents four connecting seams, whereof the connecting seams 20 are mutually substantially parallel and similarly the connecting seams 21 are mutually substantially parallel. Hereby the connecting seams 20 and 21 intersect at four points in the immediate vicinity of each corner of the container bottom, as depicted in Fig. 3.

[0011] In the embodiment of Fig. 4, the flexible container is formed of a hose-like blank, of which the upper part 42 constitutes the filling aperture of the container. A container of this type may be closed or sealed at the filling aperture 42 e.g. with the aid of a rope 42a. A container of this type may be attached for lifting e.g. to a suitable lifting hook. On the lower end of the hose-like blank, cuts 45 have been made which define the flap-like parts 46,47,48,49. The flap-like parts 46,49 may be connected together either in the way shown in Fig. 2 or in that of Fig. 3, whereby the container will as its bottom have the bottom structure of Fig. 2 or Fig. 3, respectively.

[0012] In the embodiment of Fig. 5a, the bottom of the container has been formed of three flap-like parts 51,52,53 having a length substantially less than the length of the container bottom and one flap-like part 54 having a length susbtantially equal to that of the container bottom. Thus, in this case the flap-like parts 51-54 are direct elongated extensions of the container jacket. The opposite flap-like parts 52 and 53 are mutually conected by the aid of the flap-like part 51 by making the connecting seam 55 run close to the lower margin of the flap-like part 51. Thereafter, the long flap-like part 54 is folded over the flap-like parts 51-53 and the margins of the flap-like parts 52 and 53 which are still free are connected to the flap-like part 54 by the connecting seams 56 and 57. The connecting seams 55, 56 and 57 will hereby intersect at two points. If desired, the flap-like part 51 may be connected by its lower margin to the lower margin of the flap-like part 54 with a connecting seam.

[0013] The embodiment of Fig. 5b is otherwise as that of Fig. 5a, except that in this embodiment the opposite flap-like parts 52 and 53 are connected together with the aid of the flap-like part 51 in that the two corners which the flap-like parts 51, 52 and 53 have in common are connecetd by mutually substantially parallel short connecting seams 58. Thereafter, the flap-like part 51 is folded over the flap-like pirts 51-53 and the remaining part of the flap-like parts 51, 52 and 53 is connected to the flap-like part 54 with the aid of the connecting seams 59. Hereby then the connecting seams 58 and 59 do not at any point.

[0014] In the embodiment of Fig. 6a, the bottom of the flexible container is advantareously formed of four flap-like parts 61,62,63,64 with a length less than the length of the bottom and which are direct elongeted extensions of the container's jacket. Hereafter, upon the flap-like parts 61-64 is placed a detached flap-like part having substantially the size of the container bottom. The separate flap-like part 65 is connected to the flap-like parts 61-64 with the aid of the connecting seam 66, which runs in the immediate vicinity of the outer margins of the container's bottom, whereby the connecting seam 66 is advantageously an uninterrupted connecting seam with no intersecting connecting seams.

[0015] The embodiment of Fig. 6b is substantially the same as that of Fig. 6a, but in this embodiment the separate flap-like part 65 has been connected to the flap-like parts 61-64 by mutually substantially parallel seams 67 and similarly mutually substantially parallel seams 68, the seams 67 and 68 intersecting at four points. The connecting seams 67 and 68 may naturally also run so that they intersect e.g. at one, two or three points.

[0016] In the foregoing only a few advantageous embodiments of the invention have been presented, and it is obvious to a person skilled in the art that numerous modifications of the embodiments presented are possible within the scope of the inventive idea presented in the claims following below.

Claims

1. Flexible container for transport and storage of bulk goods, said container (10,40) comprising a jacket and bottom and a filling aperture (12,42), said container being liftable by its upper part, and the bottom of said container (10,40) having been formed of flap-like parts (16-19,46-49,51-54,61-65) which have been mutually connected by means of connecting seams (20-21, 55-57,58-59,66,67-68), characterized in that the connecting seams (20-21,55-57,58-59,66,67-68) of the flap-like parts (16-19,46-49,51-54,61-65) have been disposed to run at a substantial distance from the central area of the bottom.

2. Container according to claim 1, characterized in that the flap-like parts (16-19,46-49) are direct elongated extensions of the jacket of the container (10,40), that said flap-like parts have been disposed to overlap two and two, and that in each overlapping pair the lower margin of one flap-like part (16; 17; 46; 47, respectively) has been connected by a connecting seam (20; 21, respectively) to the upper margin of the other flap-like part (19; 18; 49; 48, respectively).

3. Container according to claim 2, characterized in that the upper margin of the first-mentioned flap-like parts (16; 17; 46; 47, respectively) has furthermore been connected to the lower margin of the second-mentioned other flap-like parts (19; 18; 49; 48, respectively).

4. Container according to claim 1, characterized in that the bottom of the container has been formed of at least three flap-like parts (51-53) which have a length substantially less than the length of the bottom and of at least one flap-like part (54) having a length substantially equalling that of the bottom, and that two opposite said flaps (52,53) with short length have been connected by connecting seams (55,58) to the third flap-like part (51) of small length, and that said longer flap-like part (54) has been connected by connecting seams (56,57,59) to the remaining part of said mutually opposing flaps (52,53).

5. Container according to cluim 4, characterized in that said connecting seams (55,56,57) intersect at two points at least.

6. Container according to claim 4, characterized in that said connecting seams (58,59) do not intersect at any point.

7. Container according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one flap-like part (65) is a separate flap-like part which is not a direct extension of the container's jacket.

8. Container according to claim 7, characterized in that the bottom of the container consists of flap-like parts (61-64) which are direct extensions of the container's jacket and have a length substantially less than the length of the bottom, and that the flap-like parts (61-64) constituting direct extensions of the jacket have been connected by connecting seams (66,67,68) to said separate flap-like part (65).

9. Container according to claim 8, characterized in that the connecting seams (66) do not intersect at any point.

10. Container according to claim 8, characterized in that the connecting seams (67,68) intersect at one point at least.

Drawing