Roller container having an innovative hook assembly

Abstract

 The present invention relates to, on the one hand, a roller container (1) for transporting and storing loose goods, comprising a front wall (4) provided with a hook assembly (10) for pulling the container (1) onto and off a lorry, in which said hook assembly (10) comprises two supporting plates (11a; 11b), each of which is provided with an opening for accommodating an end of a hook member (12), a rectangular box profile (13) being provided as buffer element between said supporting plates (11a; 11b) and as connecting element between the two said supporting plates. On the other hand, the present invention relates to a method for producing such a container (1).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates, on the one hand, to a roller container for transporting and storing loose goods, comprising a front wall provided with a hook assembly for pulling the container onto and off a lorry. On the other hand, the present invention relates to a method for producing such a roller container.

[0002] In the present patent application, a roller container is understood to mean a container for transporting and storing bulk materials. Such containers are available in different kinds, such as for example: standard open containers for various types of rubbish materials, scrap metal containers, hardcore containers, containers which are provided with a hydraulic cover, etc.

[0003] Roller containers are essentially composed of a bottom, supported by cross beams and two longitudinal beams (standard IPN180), a front wall, two side walls and a rear wall which may optionally be configured as a door system having one or two so-called rear doors. In order to pull the container onto and off a lorry, the front wall thereof is provided with a so-called hook assembly.

[0004] Until now, the construction and method of fitting such a hook assembly has been virtually identical for all containers. In particular, two slots are made in the front wall by flame-cutting and supporting plates for the hook member are fitted into these. On the rear side of the front wall (in the interior of the container), a U-profile is provided which is prefitted with the supporting plates so that the supporting plates in question project through the slots. Behind the hook member, against the front of the front wall, a buffer plate of approximately 8 mm is provided in order, for example, to absorb any impacts which may occur during loading and unloading of the container. However, such a hook assembly has a number of drawbacks, for example it is very heavy, as a result of which the tare weight of the container increases. In addition, installation thereof is very laborious, particularly as slots have to be produced by flame-cutting, resulting in a high cost price of the container.

[0005] It is now an object of the present invention to provide a roller container which is provided with an alternative hook assembly that is furthermore easier to install.

[0006] The object of the invention is achieved by providing a roller container for transporting and storing loose goods, comprising a front wall provided with a hook assembly for pulling the container onto and off a lorry, said hook assembly comprising two supporting plates, each of which is provided with an opening for accommodating an end of a hook member, a rectangular box profile being provided as buffer element between the said supporting plates and as connecting element for the two said supporting plates. Said box profile is preferably hollow.

[0007] In a preferred embodiment of the roller container according to the invention, said hook assembly furthermore comprises two closing plates and two square profiles with a top wall, in which the first profile extends between the one closing plate and supporting plate, while the second profile extends between the other supporting plate and closing plate. In this case, the abovementioned box profile also serves as a connecting element. More particularly, the top wall of each profile forms an angle with the surface of the front wall. The presence of such tilted profiles prevents rubbish from remaining behind thereon and makes the container lighter. This is in contrast with the known containers which use U-shaped profiles instead of tilted profiles, often resulting in rubbish remaining behind thereon.

[0008] In a more preferred embodiment of the roller container according to the invention, the front wall is composed of two wall sections, with the hook assembly being provided between said wall sections. The hook assembly is fastened to the two front wall sections in its entirety by means of welding. Due to the fact that the square profiles are fitted in a tilted manner, they form, together with the front wall, an advantageous angle for providing a strong robot weld.

[0009] According to a particular embodiment of the container according to the invention, said container also comprises a bottom, a rear wall, two side walls, each provided with a number of vertical reinforcement profiles, one reinforcement profile of each side wall being formed by a lateral edge of the front wall, which lateral edge has been folded into a C-shape or U-shape. By configuring a reinforcement profile in this way, in each case one individual reinforcement profile per side wall can be omitted, while retaining the desired strength/rigidity of the side wall. In addition, this results in a saving in weight and cost price. In the case of a standard container (40 m³ with a front wall of 2300 x 2400 mm), this may result in a saving in weight of approximately 40 kg. Moreover, a container configured in this way can be assembled more easily and has fewer flat welds which often cause problems for the welding robot.

[0010] In a preferred embodiment of the roller container according to the invention, the bottom comprises a number of transverse profiles for reinforcement purposes, in which case one transverse profile is formed by a bottom edge of the front wall, which bottom edge has been folded into a C-shape or U-shape. In this way, the folded-over bottom edge replaces the first transverse profile.

[0011] According to a specific embodiment of the roller container according to the invention, the bottom is provided with two longitudinal beams in the form of a T-profile in order to place the container on and remove it from a lorry. This T-profile offers two significant advantages, in particular support of the floor along the entire length and greater stiffness due to the increased profile height. Preferably, said T-profile is provided with a number of recesses which are capable of accommodating a transverse profile.

[0012] In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the roller container according to the invention, said roller container has an effective capacity of between 6 and 50 m³.

[0013] Another subject of the present invention relates to a method for producing a roller container for transporting and storing loose goods, comprising a bottom, two side walls and a front wall and rear wall, the front wall being provided with a hook assembly for pulling the container onto and off a lorry, and the method comprising the following steps:

• producing the bottom of the container;
• placing the side walls against the bottom of the container;
• attaching a front wall to the positioned side walls;
• installing a hook assembly comprising a rectangular box profile and two supporting plates, each of which is provided with an opening for accommodating an end of a hook member, on the front wall of the container in such a way that the supporting plates and the box profile partly extend into the interior of the container which has been produced;
• attaching a rear wall to the roller container.

[0014] With a particular method according to the invention, said side walls comprise a number of vertical reinforcement profiles and the front wall comprises C-shaped or U-shaped lateral edges for forming in each case one reinforcement profile of the side wall.

[0015] According to a more preferred method in accordance with the present invention, the bottom comprises a number of transverse profiles for reinforcement purposes and said front wall comprises a bottom edge which has been folded into a C-shape or U-shape in order to form one transverse profile.

[0016] First of all, by using a front wall with folded-over lateral edges and bottom edge, fewer components are needed. This is mainly due to the fact that separate (front) reinforcement profiles and transverse profile are no longer required at the location of the front wall. The reason for this is that the reinforcement profiles and the transverse profile are formed by the folded-over lateral edges and the folded-over bottom edge of the front wall, respectively.

[0017] Furthermore, in contrast to the prior art, the various components of the container are much lighter and can be handled much more easily, largely due to the use of folded-over elements instead of flat components. In addition, the renewed method requires fewer workstations, as a result of which the number of manipulations is reduced, leading to the assembly time for a container being shortened. In addition, the (folded-over) front wall may be regarded as a standard element which can be used for containers of different side wall height.

[0018] The new method makes it possible to produce a container by means of modular construction, in which case the front wall or a part thereof can already be produced beforehand, if desired in large quantities, in order to be assembled at a later point in time and, if desired, at a different location.

[0019] With a particular method according to the invention, the side walls of the roller container are provided with vertical reinforcement profiles. Preferably, the reinforcement profiles are U-profiles. However, it is also possible to design these reinforcement profiles in the form of a so-called obelisk, as described, inter alia, in Belgian patent BE 1016364.

[0020] Below, a more detailed description of the roller container according to the invention and the method for producing it is given in order to further explain the properties of the present invention and to indicate additional advantages and features. It will be clear that nothing in the following description can be interpreted as a limitation of the protection of the present invention defined in the claims.

[0021] In this description, reference numerals are used to refer to the attached drawings, in which:

• Figures 1 to 3 show a number of perspective views of a roller container according to the present invention, the front wall of which is composed of two wall sections;
• Figure 4 shows a perspective view of a roller container according to the present invention of the low type having a front wall comprising one wall section;
• Figure 5 shows a view of a front wall comprising two wall sections;
• Figure 6 shows a view of a front wall comprising one wall section;
• Figure 7 shows a perspective view of a front wall for a roller container according to the present invention;
• Figure 8 shows a detail view of the area A circled in Figure 7;
• Figure 9 shows a detail view of the area B circled in Figure 7;
• Figure 10 shows an exploded view of the front wall illustrated in Figure 5;
• Figure 11 shows an exploded view of the front wall illustrated in Figure 6;
• Figure 12 shows a view of a bottom of the roller container according to the invention;
• Figure 13 shows an exploded view of the bottom illustrated in Figure 12;
• Figure 14 shows a view of a side wall provided with vertically extending reinforcement profiles;
• Figure 15 shows a view of a rear wall of the roller container according to the invention.

[0022] The roller container (1) according to the invention and as illustrated, inter alia, in Figures 1 to 4, comprises the following components: a bottom (2), a first (3a) and a second (3b) side wall, a front wall (4) and a rear wall (5), the rear wall (5) being composed of two folding rear doors. In order to make it possible to pull the container (1) onto and off a lorry, the front wall (4) thereof is provided with a so-called hook assembly (10). The container (1) may furthermore be provided with, inter alia, a step ladder and/or hooks for a tarpaulin.

[0023] The container (1) is suitable for transporting and storing loose goods. In order to easily load a container (1) onto and remove it from a lorry, it is provided with two longitudinal beams (19). These longitudinal beams, as can be seen in, inter alia, Figure 13, are T-profiles which have been cut to size and are provided with recesses for cross beams by means of, for example, a laser device (e.g. by means of a known industrial laser of 100 watts) or plasma burner. Such recesses make it possible to quickly preassemble the bottom (2) of the container (1), since the assembler does not have to measure anything in order to position the transverse profiles.

[0024] The cross beams are formed by transverse profiles (8) and/or transverse reinforcements (20). The transverse profiles (8) used are standard cold-rolled U-profiles (140 x 70 x 3 mm), whereas the transverse reinforcements (20) are in the form of a flat piece of steel, for example having the following dimensions: 60 x 8 mm. For the sake of clarity, the dimensions given in the text of this description only serve as an illustration and may differ, depending on the type and size of the container which is to be produced.

[0025] Compared to the known containers, the container (1) according to the invention will have at least one U-profile (cross beam) less due to the more even distribution of the cross beams. In the illustrated figures, the rear cross beam is a sigma profile having a thickness of 5 mm, is made of steel S355 and is provided with openings for the door closure and the roller supports. A flat floor panel (21) is placed on the combination of longitudinal beams (19) and cross beams (8, 20).

[0026] Manufacturing the bottom (2) in this way results in a number of advantages:

• the T-profile extends up to the underside of the floor panel (21) and thus offers support along the entire length of the container;
• due to the recesses, the cross beams can be positioned more quickly, thus reducing the number of working hours spent on assembly;
• the components making up the T-profile can be ordered to the exact length and shape required, thus reducing loss of material;
• a weight saving of approximately 40 kg;
• due to the T-profile being 40 mm higher than an IPN-profile, it is also more rigid.

[0027] The side walls (3a,3b) of the container, as illustrated in Figure 14, are produced by connecting a number of plate parts (made of steel) to one another by means of a welding device until the desired length (generally varying between 4.5 and 7 metres) has been reached. The underside is folded over (by an angle of 90°), so that a lip of approximately 60 mm is produced. For reinforcement purposes, the side walls (3a, 3b) are provided with vertical reinforcement profiles (6), in the form of a so-called obelisk, as described, inter alia, in Belgian patent BE 1016364, in the form of U-profiles or a combination of both. It is evident that other suitable forms of the reinforcement profile are also possible.

[0028] In the case of the illustrated container (1), the rear reinforcement profile (at the location of the rear wall) is a box profile. On this profile, the hinges for the doors of the rear wall (5) are provided. As can be seen in Figure 15, the rear wall (5) of the container (1) is composed of a door system comprising two rear doors.

[0029] Once both side walls (3a, 3b) of the produced bottom (2) have been attached to one another, the finishing of the container (1) continues with, on the one hand, the fitting of the front wall (4) and, on the other hand, the fitting of rear doors which will form the rear wall (5) of the container (1).

[0030] In a preferred embodiment and as illustrated in Figure 10, the front wall (4) is composed of two wall sections (18a and 18b), in particular a bottom (18a) and top (18b) wall section. The hook assembly (10) is fixedly secured between the two wall sections. This hook assembly (10) is an innovation compared to existing systems. With the existing containers, two slots are made into the front wall by flame-cutting and the supporting plates for the hook member are fitted into these. On the rear side of the front wall (in the interior of the container), a U-profile is provided which is prefitted with the supporting plates so that the supporting plates project through the slots. Behind the hook member, against the front of the front wall, a buffer plate of approximately 8 mm is provided to absorb any impacts.

[0031] The special feature of this container (1) is the design of the hook assembly (10). This assembly (10) comprises two supporting plates (11a and 11b), each of which is provided with an opening for accommodating an end of a hook member (12). Between said supporting plates (11a, 11b), a rectangular box profile (13) (300x100x10x300 mm) is provided. This box profile (13) replaces the buffer plate used previously. Furthermore, said hook assembly (10) comprises two closing plates (14a and 14b) at its ends which also serve as a connecting piece to the side walls (3 a, 3b) and two square profiles (15 and 16) (150x150x5x2000 mm) with top wall (17). In this case, the first profile (15) extends between the one closing plate (14a) and supporting plate (11a), whereas the second profile (16) extends between the other supporting plate (11b) and closing plate (14b). Here, the box profile (13) also serves as a connecting piece between the two square lateral profiles (15 and 16). As can clearly be seen in the attached figures, the respective (square) profiles (15, 16) are attached in such a manner that their top wall is tilted with respect to the surface of the front wall (4). This results in a downwardly directed oblique surface, as a result of which the rubbish which falls onto it, for example, when the container is being filled, no longer remains behind. With the known containers, rubbish often remained behind, due to the fact that U-profiles were used instead of tilted profiles.

[0032] In Figure 10, the front wall (4) is composed of two wall sections (18a and 18b), with the hook assembly (10) being arranged between these wall sections. The attachment of the various components to one another is effected by means of welding. As the welds used are corner welds, they can be produced more easily and are of better quality. With a front wall (4) which is produced in this way, the bottom and the two upright edges of the bottom wall section (18a) are folded over, so that they form a C-profile. This wall section (18a) is identical for all types of containers. With the top wall section (18b), the top and the two upright edges are folded over, so that they form a C-profile. The height of this wall section varies, depending on the height of the container or may even be omitted completely (see, for example, Figures 4 and 11) for containers of the low type (up to 1250 mm high).

[0033] Furthermore, the two upright lateral edges (7a and 7b) of the front wall (4) may be folded over, thus producing a C-profile. This can clearly be seen in Figures 8 and 9. In the assembled state of the container (1), the folded-over edges (7a and 7b) form the two front reinforcement profiles, so that the container (1) according to the invention in any case comprises two fewer (one on each side wall) standard reinforcement profiles compared to the known containers. The bottom edge (9) of the front wall (4) is also folded over. This folded-over bottom edge (9) is used to form the front cross beam in the assembled state of the container. In addition, the top edge of the front wall (4) can also be folded over in order thus to form a top edge (22), as it were.

[0034] The roller containers (1) according to the present invention generally have the following dimensions: width: 1.8 - 2.4 m; height: 0.6 - 2.5 m and a length of between 4 and 7.5 metres. Depending on the chosen length, the effective capacity of the roller container (1) according to the invention is between 6 and 50 m³.

Claims

1. Roller container (1) for transporting and storing loose goods, comprising a front wall (4) provided with a hook assembly (10) for pulling the container (1) onto and off a lorry, characterized in that said hook assembly (10) comprises two supporting plates (11a; 11b), each of which is provided with an opening for accommodating an end of a hook member (12), a rectangular box profile (13) being provided as buffer element between said supporting plates and as connecting element for the two said supporting plates (11a;11b).

2. Roller container (1) according to Claim 1, characterized in that said hook assembly (10) furthermore comprises two closing plates (14a; 14b) and two square profiles (15, 16) with a top wall (17), in which the first profile (15) extends between the one closing plate (14a) and supporting plate (11a), while the second profile (15) extends between the other supporting plate (11b) and closing plate (14b).

3. Roller container (1) according to Claim 2, characterized in that the top wall (17) of each profile (15, 16) forms an angle with the surface of the front wall (4).

4. Roller container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the front wall (4) is composed of two wall sections (18a, 18b), with the hook assembly (10) being provided between said wall sections (18a, 18b).

5. Roller container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said container also comprises a bottom (2), a rear wall (5), two side walls (3a;3b) each provided with a number of vertical reinforcement profiles (6), in which case one reinforcement profile of each side wall (3a;3b) is formed by a lateral edge (7a; 7b) of the front wall (4), which lateral edge has been folded into a C-shape or U-shape.

6. Roller container (1) according to Claim 5, characterized in that the bottom (2) comprises a number of transverse profiles (8) for reinforcement purposes, in which case one transverse profile is formed by a bottom edge (9) of the front wall (4), which bottom edge (9) has been folded into a C-shape or U-shape.

7. Roller container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bottom (2) is provided with two longitudinal beams (19) in the form of a T-profile in order to place the container on and remove it from a lorry.

8. Roller container (1) according to Claim 7, characterized in that said T-profile is provided with a number of recesses which are capable of accommodating a transverse profile (8).

9. Roller container (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said roller container (1) has an effective capacity of between 6 and 50 m³.

10. Method for producing a roller container (1) for transporting and storing loose goods, comprising a bottom (2), two side walls (3a, 3b) and a front wall (4) and rear wall (5), the front wall (4) being provided with a hook assembly (10) for pulling the container (1) onto and off a lorry, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

- producing the bottom (2) of the container (1);

- placing the side walls (3a, 3b) against the bottom (2) of the container (1);

- attaching a front wall (4) to the positioned side walls (3a, 3b);

- installing a hook assembly (10) comprising a rectangular box profile (13) and two supporting plates (11a;11b), each of which is provided with an opening for accommodating an end of a hook member (12), on the front wall (4) of the container in such a way that the supporting plates (11a;11b) and the box profile (13) partly extend into the interior of the container which has been produced;

- attaching a rear wall (5) to the roller container (1).

11. Method according to Claim 10, characterized in that said side walls comprise a number of vertical reinforcement profiles and in that the front wall comprises C-shaped or U-shaped lateral edges for forming in each case one reinforcement profile of the side wall.

12. Method according to Claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the bottom (2) comprises a number of transverse profiles (8) for reinforcement purposes and in that said front wall (4) comprises a bottom edge (9) which has been folded into a C-shape or U-shape in order to form one transverse profile.

Drawing