Beveled block pallet

Abstract

A beveled block pallet is disclosed, the pallet being stringers supporting blocks, the blocks supporting stringers. The blocks are tapered to form a trapezoid shape to permit more strength with less weight.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTIONBackground of the Invention[0001]Pallets of various types are known in the art for use in shipping and warehousing of material. Typical pallets are constructed of wood and include parallel stringers to which transverse deck boards are then nailed or otherwise secured with metal fastener devices to form the pallet. Pallets need to have sufficient strength to withstand the weight of objects loaded thereon and other impact forces to which the pallets are subjected when objects are loaded onto them and when the pallets are moved, as by a fork-lift truck or the like. In addition pallets must carry loads when placed in storage racks where they are only supported at their ends in either direction.[0002]In many pallets, damage can occur at their lead boards. As a fork lift or other mechanism is brought to engage a pallet, it will often impact the lead board of the pallet with significant force. This impact force may disengage the lead board or otherwise damage it, yielding...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]The use of beveled blocks in the manufacturing of stringer pallets allows for designing for maximum strength of the blocks with regard to shear resistance while reducing the weight of the pallet due to the block size reductions. The beveled block also allows for narrow top stringers and wider bottom boards. The wider bottom face of the block provides for improved shear capacity between the bottom stringers and the blocks and the bottom lead boards and the blocks. It also allows the placement of additional wood dowels while maintaining proper spacing of the dowels between each other, between edges both loaded and unloaded and vertically through the block.

[0010]The use of beveled blocks in the manufacturing of stringer pallets allows for wider bottom boards to decrease surface loading when the pallets are self stacked. The block is beveled or tapered with a narrow top to support the width of the top stringer and a wide bottom to allow for maximum support of the bottom board to keep unsupported portions from splitting and breaking off in the cantilever created between the inside edge of the block and the inside edge of the bottom stringer. The individual beveling of these blocks allows maximum support and a minimum amount of weight in the blocks. This allows for overall reduced weight of the final pallet. There is weight saving in the ability to use a narrower top stringer as well as reduced material in the block. The total weight saving in these areas allow for a larger amount of product being shipped for the same number of pallets. The blocks may also be inverted such that the grain of the wood is vertical. In addition the blocks can be manufactured from glued laminated wood where the laminations are vertical grain. Another way to achieve vertical grain for increased resistance to applied horizontal shear stresses is by using horizontal laminations and rotating the glue lines 90 degrees by turning the block stock, thereby the block laminations are orientated vertically in the pallet through the thickness of the pallet. The laminated blocks can have laminations that are not end jointed as the blocks generally resist horizontal shear loads only, not bending moment loads. Another method of making the blocks to reduce the weight is to space the laminations side to side and end to end.

Problems solved by technology

In many pallets, damage can occur at their lead boards.

As a fork lift or other mechanism is brought to engage a pallet, it will often impact the lead board of the pallet with significant force.

This impact force may disengage the lead board or otherwise damage it, yielding a worn or damaged pallet that may not work as well and may be dangerous to users and merchandise.

Also, as pallets are used, they can become worn and weakened, causing some of the stringers or deck boards to break or become at least partially detached, rendering the pallet inoperable or in a dangerous condition.

The use of nails or other metal fastener devices can also render pallets dangerous.

Many times, the damage to a pallet occurs where the metal nail goes into the wood.

The use of metal fasteners can cause splitting in the stringers, lead boards or deck boards.

Further faults of the typical metal fastener approach include product damage or personal injury caused by exposed fasteners and inadequate joint stiffeners.

Also, when a nailed pallet is loaded and moved in service the nails tend to pop up or withdraw partially leaving exposed nail heads called “nail pops” which damage product.

When the wood dries out it often cleaves or further splits at nail locations.

Since the wood piece has no other method to hold it to the adjacent wood element it falls off the pallet causing the pallet to degrade and become unacceptable.

Further, in nailed pallets the connections become loose and sloppy due to how the nails work in the nail track and oval out the nail trace along the grain lines.

These sloppy connections lead to permanent deformation in the pallet such that they do not lay flat on the floor and stack horizontally in the pallet racks.

In addition the pallet loses its stiffness due to these factors which means that under load the pallet deforms excessively (creeps in bending) and this potentially leads to failure from the pallets slipping out of the racks, a dangerous situation.

The creep deflection also damages product that is supported by the pallet.

However, many of these methods require costly machinery or a great deal of time and effort and put workers at significant safety risk.

Nails and other metallic fasteners can be a great hindrance in efforts to disassemble pallets.

Further, if the pallets are chipped the metallic fasteners increase the cost of processing the chips as the fasteners (or parts of fasteners) have to be removed from the chips or sawdust.

The presence of, for example, nails, prevents the use of standard saws or similar devices, which do not effectively cut through nails.

First, they are often large, unwieldy and expensive.

Second, oftentimes the nails remain in the stringers or deck boards after disassembly.

In order to reuse the boards in optimal condition, the nails need be removed, requiring additional time with attendant increased cost and expense.

However, there have been problems implementing RFID systems.

One problem that faces RFID technology is that metal can prevent RFID readers from operating properly.

Further, liquid inside of objects can absorb RF signals, making reading more difficult.

However, nails and other metallic fasteners often cannot be used to construct a pallet with dry wood because they will cause checking and damage to the wood during construction.

Another problem that exists with the current metal fastener green wood pallets in the marketplace is that the blocks within a pallet are often found to split due to the use of solid sawn blocks that are green.

However, there are numerous disadvantages to such a pallet.

A second disadvantage to such a pallet is the required use of external clamps or similar devices to hold the pieces together in position while the glue sets.

A third disadvantage of this technique is the excessive amount of time between initial alignment and ultimate formation of the pallet.

This waste of time stems from the requirement of waiting for the glue to set before use of the pallet.

In a metal fastener type pallet the components will fall off the pallet when the failure separates the piece from any one metal fastener.

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