Transport and storage container for fluids

Abstract

The invention relates to a transport and storage container for fluids with an inner container (17) made of plastic, an outer casing preferably in the form of a grid structure and made of metal and a pallet-type base frame which is designed for handling by means of a forklift truck or similar means of transport, and has a supporting base (15) made of sheet metal for supporting the inner container (17) provided with at least one filling neck on its upper side, wherein an intermediate container made of sheet metal is formed between the inner container (17) and the outer casing and accommodates the inner container (17) on all sides and has a casing shell (16), a container lid connected to the casing shell (16) and a container base connected to the casing shell (16) in a fluid-tight manner and formed by the supporting base (15) of the base frame, wherein, in overlapping an outlet opening formed as a base outlet (18) on the inner container (17), the casing shell (16) has an access opening which is closed in a fluid-tight manner by means of a front cover (19) made of metal.

Description

[0001] Transport and storage containers for liquids

[0002] The invention relates to a transport and storage container for liquids with an inner container made of plastic, an outer shell made of metal, preferably designed as a grid, and a pallet-like underframe which is designed for handling by means of a forklift truck or similar means of transport, and has a support base made of sheet metal for supporting the inner container provided with at least one filler neck on its upper side, wherein an intermediate container made of sheet metal is formed between the inner container and the outer shell and receives the inner container on all sides, which intermediate container has a shell, a container lid connected to the shell and a container base connected to the shell in a liquid-tight manner and formed by the support base of the underframe.

[0003] Known transport and storage containers of the type mentioned above are predominantly used for the transport of liquids, which, within the framework of corresponding regulations in the sense of a fire protection ordinance, also allow the liquids to be stored in the same container after the liquids have been filled and transported into the container.

[0004] In order to comply with the relevant fire protection regulations and to prevent highly flammable liquids contained in the container from escaping into the container environment in the event of failure of the plastic inner container as a result of thermal overload, it is known from WO 2017 / 108288 A1 to connect the jacket surrounding the inner container in a liquid-tight manner to the container base formed by the support base of the underframe in order to form a liquid-tight tray which prevents the flammable liquid from the inner container from escaping into the environment of the transport and storage container in the event of failure of the plastic inner container as a result of thermal overload.

[0005] To enable both filling and emptying of the inner container accommodated in the shell, the transport and storage container known from WO 2017 / 108288 A1 provides that the inner container has both a filling opening and a removal opening on its upper side, so that both filling with and removal of liquids can occur from above. However, the arrangement of the removal opening on the upper side of the inner container also makes it necessary to provide special removal devices for removing liquids from the inner container. These devices extend inside the inner container from the top to the bottom of the inner container and require special pumping devices for their operation.

[0006] Conventional discharge devices, which are used in an inner container equipped with a bottom outlet and are characterized by a particularly simple design and enable purely gravimetric emptying of the container without the use of pumps, are therefore not suitable for the known fireproof transport and storage container. This proves to be particularly disadvantageous when the inner container contains highly viscous liquids, which require particularly high pumping power for discharge through a discharge opening provided on the top of the inner container.

[0007] The present invention is therefore based on the object of proposing a fire-resistant or, in the event of a fire, leak-proof transport and storage container which enables the use of a conventional extraction fitting provided for connection to a bottom outlet of the inner container to extract the liquid contained in the inner container.

[0008] To achieve this object, the transport and storage container according to the invention has the features of claim 1.

[0009] According to the invention, the jacket has an access opening that is sealed in a liquid-tight manner by means of a metal container lid and overlaps a bottom outlet formed on the inner container.

[0010] The access opening enables access to an outlet fitting arranged at the bottom outlet of the inner container, so that in combination with the jacket surrounding the inner container, inner containers can also be used which have a bottom outlet for connecting an outlet fitting and thus enable gravimetric emptying of the inner container arranged in the jacket, without this impairing the suitability of the transport and storage container for the safe storage of flammable liquids in accordance with the fire protection regulations applicable at the storage location.Rather, the transport and storage container according to the invention offers, in addition to the known advantage of preventing the liquid contained in the inner container from escaping into the surroundings of the transport and storage container as a result of a container failure, the further advantage of enabling gravimetric liquid removal even with such a fire-resistant transport and storage container. To form a liquid-tight, closable access opening by means of a front cover, the front cover is preferably connected to the casing by means of a clamping ring closure.

[0011] The seal between the front cover and the edge of the access opening, which is essentially created by the surface pressure generated by the clamping ring, can be further enhanced by additional sealants, particularly to increase the creep strength of the seal between the front cover and the access opening under extreme temperature loads. Therefore, it may be advantageous to additionally provide the sealing area with suitable thermal insulation on the outside. This can be, for example, an intumescent coating, such as an intumescent varnish, a protective cap with thermal insulation, textile-based thermal insulation, or a combination of the above options.

[0012] In order to achieve a reliable sealing effect even with relatively low clamping forces, the access opening for forming the clamping ring closure can have a flanged edge which is encompassed by a complementary flanged edge of the front cover.

[0013] In addition, this makes it possible for any shape or dimensional tolerances between the contact surfaces formed on the front cover and the opening edge of the access opening to be compensated for by appropriate deformation of the flanged edges.

[0014] It is particularly advantageous if the front cover covers an outlet fitting arranged at the outlet opening, so that the transport and storage container already has the outlet fitting in its fire-resistant configuration, i.e. with the container lid, and the liquid can be removed from the inner container by means of the conventional outlet fitting immediately after the container lid has been removed.

[0015] In order to enable particularly easy removal of the front cover from the access opening provided in the casing, a removal opening for removing the front cover from the access opening is formed opposite the front cover in the outer casing of the transport and storage container.

[0016] If the extraction opening is defined by the distance between adjacent continuously formed horizontal bars or vertical bars of the outer shell designed as a lattice structure, the extraction opening is already predetermined by the lattice structure, so that special measures on the lattice structure are obsolete.

[0017] In the event that the regular grid structure of the outer shell does not already form a removal opening that allows the front cover to be removed from the transport and storage container, it is advantageous if the grid structure of the outer shell has a defect to form the removal opening, such that a horizontal bar or a vertical bar of the grid structure overlapping with the front cover has a bar gap through which the front cover can be removed from the access opening formed in the shell.

[0018] In order to ensure a minimum accumulation height within the transport and storage container even when the access opening in the casing is open, regardless of the arrangement of the front cover, it is advantageous if the front cover is arranged above a materially bonded connection between the casing and the support base.

[0019] A preferred embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0020] Shown are: Fig. 1 An isometric representation of the transport and storage container with a front cover arranged on a front side in the area of ​​a floor outlet;

[0021] Fig. 2 is a front view of the transport and storage container shown in Fig. 1 with the access opening open after the front cover has been removed;

[0022] Fig. 3 is a partial sectional view of the transport and storage container shown in Fig. 1 along section plane III in Fig. 1, showing a withdrawal fitting connected to the bottom outlet of the inner container of the transport and storage container;

[0023] Fig. 4 is an enlarged partial view of the sectional view shown in Fig. 3;

[0024] Fig. 5 is an enlarged detailed view of a clamping ring closure shown in Fig. 4.

[0025] Fig. 1 shows a transport and storage container 10, which has a pallet-like base frame 11 with an outer shell 12, designed here as a grid structure, which consists of horizontal bars 13 and vertical bars

[0026] 14 and is connected via the continuously rotating lower horizontal bar 13 to a supporting floor shown in particular in Fig. 3

[0027] 15 of the base frame 1 1. Also connected to the support base 15 is a jacket shell 16, which is arranged inside the outer shell 12, such that the jacket shell 16 is located between the outer shell 12 and an inner container 17 made of plastic arranged on the support base 15, wherein the jacket shell 16 made of metal is connected at its lower edge in a liquid-tight manner to the support base 15, which is also made of sheet metal, and together with the support base 15 forms a fire-resistant trough in which the inner container 17 is received, so that in the event of container failure, in particular due to thermal overload of the plastic material of the inner container 17, a liquid received in the inner container 17 can escape from the inner container 17, but cannot get into the environment of the transport and storage container 10.In order to form the liquid-tight connection between the jacket shell 16 and the support base 15, a liquid-material connection designed as a welded connection is provided in the present case.

[0028] 1 to 3, the jacket 16 has, on a front side in the region of a bottom outlet 18 formed on the inner container 17, an access opening 20 provided with a front cover 19. The access opening 20 is located in an arrangement covering the bottom outlet 18 or a dispensing fitting 21 connected to the bottom outlet 18, so that, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the access opening 20, which is opened after the front cover 19 has been removed, allows access to the dispensing fitting 21 connected to the bottom outlet 18 of the inner container 17, so that by actuating the dispensing fitting 21 by means of a valve handle 22 formed on the dispensing fitting 21, the dispensing fitting 21 can be moved into an open or closed position in order to be able to withdraw liquid from the inner container 17 in a defined manner.

[0029] As is particularly clear from a comparison of Figs. 3 to 5, in the illustrated embodiment, the front cover 19 is connected to the casing 16 by means of a clamping ring closure 23 in its position sealing the access opening 20. For this purpose, an opening edge of the access opening 20 is designed as a flanged edge 24, which is encompassed by a complementarily designed flanged edge 25 of the front cover 19. In this embodiment, particularly in Fig.5, a groove-shaped clamping ring 26 engages around both the flanged edge 25 of the front cover 19 and the flanged edge 24 of the access opening 20, so that after turning a clamping lever 27 connecting the ends of the clamping ring 26 to one another, a sufficiently large radial contact force is exerted on the flanged edge 25 of the front cover 19 in order to achieve a sealing fit of the flanged edge 25 against the flanged edge 24 of the access opening 20.

[0030] Furthermore, it may prove necessary, particularly after repeated use of the clamping ring closure, to provide an additional seal (not shown in detail here) between the overlapping flanged edges 24, 25. As Figs. 1 to 3 show, a defect is formed in the lattice structure of the outer casing 12 in the area of ​​the access opening 20, such that a horizontal bar 13 covering the access opening 20 or the front cover 19 arranged on the access opening 20 in a continuous design has a bar gap 28, so that a removal opening 29 is formed in the lattice structure which is sufficiently large to be able to remove the front cover 19 from the access opening 20 formed in the casing sleeve 16 without being hindered by the lattice structure of the outer casing 12, and thus to enable access to the removal fitting 21.

Claims

Patent claims 1. Transport and storage container (10) for liquids with an inner container (17) made of plastic, an outer shell (12) made of metal, preferably designed as a grid structure, and a pallet-like base frame (11) which is designed for handling by means of a forklift truck or similar transport means, and a support base (15) made of sheet metal for supporting the inner container (17) provided with at least one filler neck on its upper side, wherein between the inner container (17) and the outer shell (12) an intermediate container made of sheet metal is formed which receives the inner container (17) on all sides and has a shell cover (16), a container lid connected to the shell cover (16) and a container base which is connected to the shell cover (16) in a liquid-tight manner and is formed by the support base (15) of the base frame (11), characterized in thatthat the jacket (16) has an access opening (20) which is sealed in a liquid-tight manner by means of a front cover (19) made of metal and which overlaps with an outlet opening formed on the inner container (17) as a bottom outlet (18).

2. Transport and storage container according to claim 1, characterized in that the front cover (19) is connected to the casing (16) by means of a clamping ring closure (23).

3. Transport and storage container according to claim 2, characterized in that, in order to form the clamping ring closure (23), the access opening (20) has a flanged edge (24) which is encompassed by a complementarily formed flanged edge (25) of the front cover (19).

4. Transport and storage container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the front cover (19) covers an outlet fitting (21) arranged at the outlet opening.

5. Transport and storage container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that opposite the front cover (19) in the outer casing (12) of the transport and storage container there is formed a removal opening (29) for removing the front cover (19) from the access opening (20).

6. Transport and storage container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the removal opening (29) is defined by the distance between adjacent continuously formed horizontal bars (13) or vertical bars (14) of the outer shell (12) designed as a lattice structure.

7. Transport and storage container according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the grid structure of the outer shell (12) for forming the Removal opening (29) has a defect such that a horizontal bar (13) or a vertical bar (14) of the grid structure has a bar gap (28) in overlap with the front cover (19).

8. Transport and storage container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the front cover (19) is arranged above a space formed between the casing (16) and the support base (15) is arranged.

9. Transport and storage container according to claim 8, characterized in that the material connection is designed as a welded connection.

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