Mini container

Abstract

A mini container for transport of goods, inside a standard sea container that is 233 cm wide, by trucks, by railroad wagons, or by other means, the mini container having a bottom plate having a pallet section open for lift from all sides by blades of a trasporter; a flat top configured to receive another identically configured mini container thereon; four walls; a door on at least one of six sides thereof connected to at least one of the walls with a hinge to rotate at least 270 degrees; and openings or protrusions in all four top comers for grip by a lifter; wherein the mini container has external dimensions that allows the mini container to be packed into the standard sea container with other identically dimensioned mini containers in a 1x2 or a 1x3 fashion with a minimum of dead space, the external dimensions being 75 cm wide, 115 cm long, and 195 cm high.

Description

MINI CONTAINERBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The transport of goods and materials in containers has increased in volume since the first attempts by Malcolm McLean in the USA in 1950.

[0002] Malcolm McLean started building boxes that were transported by trucks, trains and boats. His business expanded and in 1967 the company SEALAND was founded and later sold to MAERSK.

[0003] Since then an exponential growth in container transport has taken place worldwide and today container transport is completely dominant. The old-fashioned, so called general handling (hoisting boxes and sacks and other things on board ships stacked below deck) is almost completely gone.

[0004] Containers have been standardized over the years for obvious reasons.

[0005] Containers must be 1) easy and cheap to build, 2) easy to lift and stack (up to15 containers on big ships), 3) strong especially at the comers where the containers areinterconnected or fixed to chassis on trucks or railway wagons. Comers are also the place where lifting is applied.

[0006] There are today approximately 30 million containers worldwide. The 40 foot long container is the most common, and may be just as many outranged ones used for all types of purposes.

[0007] Container dimensions have been standardized from the early days. The internal dimension of a 40 footer, for example, is Width: 233 cm. Length 1222 cm. Height 239 cm.

[0008] Goods are normally transported into the containers on pallets in order to facilitate lifting and the transport of goods in and out of the containers.

[0009] There are many types and sizes of pallets on the market. Below is a table demonstrating the most common pallets, although many other odd-sized pallets exist.

[0010] Table 1.

[0011] Pallet name Pallet size

[0012] EU pallets (Europe pallet) 120 x 80 cm

[0013] Standard US pallets 1.016 x 1.219 meters, or 1.067 x 1.067 meters

[0014] Finland pallets 100 x 120 cm or 120 x 120 cm

[0015] Asia (China. Japan Australia). 110 x 110 cm

[0016] Small sized pallets 80 x 60 cm

[0017] No conventional pallet is specifically dimensioned for use with a sea container. Rather, the dimensions of conventional pallets have other origins. For example, the EU pallets were designed for railway wagons, which are 10 cm wider than containers. So EU pallets do not fit inside of sea containers. Trucks were 250 cm widefifty years ago but now have an interior that is 250 cm wide. So pallets suited for trucks do not fit inside of a conventional sea container.

[0018] Conventional sea containers have not grown wider, and will probably not change in size for the foreseeable future.

[0019] Since a lot of goods are transported from railroad wagons to trucks and then to containers, proper spacing may become a big problem.

[0020] Despite billions, if not trillions of handlings of goods on pallets for the last fifty years no one has changed the pallet system to a more appropriate one. Thus, there is a long felt need for an appropriately sized pallet to be used for sea containers.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0021] It is an object of the present invention to provide a container for transporting goods, which has a pallet with a footprint that is configured to maximize space usage inside of a conventional sea container.

[0022] A container according to one embodiment will have a pallet with a short side that is 75 cm, and a long side that is 115 cm.

[0023] A container according to one embodiment may be 195 cm high.

[0024] Containers according to this embodiment are intended to be filled with goods to be transported by any means but especially inside sea containers. The 75x115x195 cm container may be received inside of a conventional sea container three by three if arranged side by side, or two by two if arranged end to end with a minimum of wasted dead space inside of the sea container (approximately 4%).

[0025] It is self-evident that it is an advantage if not a necessity to computerize every container handling and every location inside and outside the sea containers in order to facilitate the logistics.

[0026] It should also be mentioned that the width of a container according to the one embodiment (75 cm) will allow the container to pass through doorways 80 cm wide ormore in buildings and into elevators. The same consideration applies to the height of the container (195 cm) according to the one embodiment.

[0027] A container according to the present invention can be produced with 1) door or doors attached with hinges at one or both long sides, 2) door or doors attached with hinges at one or both short sides, and 3) an opening, like a hatch, at the top side and / or the bottom side.

[0028] The pallet part of a container according to the present invention is located at the bottom of the container and is configured to permit lifting by fork lifts.

[0029] A container according to the present invention has fixation points at the top so that it may be lifted with a crane.

[0030] A container according to the present invention will have a flat top, and feet that have flat bottoms for stacking.

[0031] Identification of a container according to the present invention may be provided on the outside of the container (but not on the doors, in case the doors are replaced). Normal numbering system, bar coding, electronic transponder systems or similar systems can be used and provided on more than one side, preferably even on the top for identification when lifted by a crane.

[0032] Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] Fig. 1 illustrates a top view of a container according to an embodiment of the present invention demonstrating the footprint of the container defined by its pallet part.

[0034] Fig. 2 illustrates a top view of containers according to the present invention arranged inside of a conventional sea container.

[0035] Fig. 3 shows a front, side, and top perspective view of a container according to the present invention with its doors in a closed state.

[0036] Fig. 4 shows a front view of a container according to the present invention with its doors in a closed state.

[0037] Fig. 5 shows a rear, side and top view of a container according to the present invention.

[0038] Fig. 6 shows an interior view of a container according to the present invention with the doors and the top panel of the container removed from view.

[0039] Fig. 7 shows a front, bottom, and side perspective view of a container according to the present invention showing the locations of the support feet of the pallet part of the container.

[0040] Fig. 8 shows an interior view of a container according to the present invention with the doors and the top panel of the container removed from view, and shows a number plate located in the container.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, the present invention is concerned with a container 10, having a pallet 12, which defines the footprint of the container 10.

[0042] In one embodiment, the pallet has a width 14, and a length 16. The width (short side) 14 may be 75 cm, and the length (long side) 16 may be 115 cm, which permit the pallet to be arranged inside of a larger container 18 with conventional interior dimensions along with identical pallets 10 with a minimum of wasted dead space (approximately 4%).

[0043] The dimensions of the pallets 10 permit the pallets 10 to be arranged inside the container 18 such that their long sides 16 are aligned (e.g. parallel) with the long side 20 of the container 18 (Fig. 1), or arranged inside the container 18 such that their short sides 14 are aligned (e.g. parallel) with the long side 20 of the container 18, or both.

[0044] The height of the container 10 may be 195 cm.

[0045] The 75 cm width of the container 10 advantageously permits its passage through an 80 cm wide doorway, which is typical for buildings and elevators. The same applies to the height of the container 10.

[0046] While a container according to the present invention may be 75 cm wide, 115 cm long, and 195 cm high, it could be devised with other dimensions if needed or wanted by having a short side that is a multiple of 75 cm or a long side that is a multiple of 115 cm. The term multiple means the product of the short side dimension and / or the long side dimension with an integer.

[0047] Referring to Figs. 3-8, the container 10 may have tw o doors 22, constituting one of its side walls when closed. The doors 22 extend along a long side 16 of its pallet 12 when closed. The hinges 24 of the doors 22 are located at the most extreme edge of the comers 28 of the container 10 in order to allow the doors 22 to rotate around the hinge axes 270 degrees. Thus, when the doors 22 are open completely, the bottom edge of each door may be parallel to a respective short side 14 of the pallet 12, whereby a plurality of containers 10 can be parked near each other with open doors, for example, for loading.

[0048] The container 10 has a rear wall 25 opposite the doors 22 and extending along a long side 16 of the pallet 12, and two sidewalls 26 extending between the doors 22 and the rear wall 25 each along a respective short side 14. The walls 25, 26 may be made from corrugated sheet metal, for example trapetz-corrugated sheet in order to make the sides 25, 26 strong enough to withstand destruction by forces from the inside (e.g. due to moving cargo inside of the container) or from the outside (e.g. due to stacking). It is needless to say that the necessary strength will be a matter of design choice, and any standards that apply. The comer sections 28 of the container are form-pressed to the shape of a tower for additional strength and for increasing the compressive strength of the container 10 to permit stacking of the containers 10 (or other types of goods) on top of each other.

[0049] The top 30 of the container 10 may be flat with interior reinforcements to ensure it remains flat.

[0050] At the upper end of each comer 28, reinforcements 32 are provided, which extend above the top 30 to steer the containers 10 in place when stacking the containers 10 on top of each other.

[0051] The reinforcements 32 may also have at least one opening each serving as a grip-point for hoisting frames.

[0052] Referring to Fig. 4, the container 10 may have a lock mechanism 34 between the doors 22 to fix the doors to the frame of the container 10. The lock mechanism 34 is located in one of the depressions of the corrugated sheet metal in order to be protected against external interference.

[0053] Referring to Fig. 6, the container 10 may have interior reinforcements 36, which can serve as fixation points for shelves if needed.

[0054] Referring to Fig. 7, the pallet 12 of the container 10 is made of a support plate 38 which is also the bottom plate of the container 10. The support plate 38 is supported by a plurality (in this case nine) spaced support feet 40. The support feet 40 are integrated with (attached to) the support plate 38 by welding or any other suitable means. Each support foot 40 may be 12 cm x 12 cm and 10 cm high, leaving 18 cm of spacing between the rows in transverse direction (along the direction of the short sides 14), for receiving forks of a lift truck. In the longitudinal direction (along the long sides 16) 30.5 cm are available as free space in between the row s of support feet 40. In contrast to standard pallets made of w ood no longitudinal bars are needed underneath, leaving open space for lifting the container 10 from all four sides.

[0055] Fig. 8 shows a front view of the container 10 with open doors and a number plate 42 for the container 10, which is like a license plate of a car.

[0056] For obvious reasons, goods must be loaded or unloaded to / from the correct container 10. When the containers 10 are parked with fully open doors 22 near each other it may be difficult to see the numbers of the containers 10 located on the sides. With the number plate 42 located, for example, at the top of the door opening the container 10 may be identified without interfering with the handling of the goods. The number plate 42 should be arranged so that it may be folded into the container 10 and fixed there w hen the doors 22 are closed.

[0057] The number appearing on each plate 42 should be unique for each container 10 and could be arranged as follows:

[0058] ABC 000 000 000 000

[0059] The three first letters provide the identity of the container 10 as desired by the user. The three letters allow for 15,625 identities and the twelve following numbers allow for the possibility for individual numbers up to a trillion of containers 10, which is far more than needed for a fleet of containers 10.

[0060] By using a combination of letters and numbers mistakes are minimized and by arranging the numbers in "blocks" of 3 and 3 mistakes are even further minimized.

[0061] Arranging letters in “blocks” is a well-known and safe method, known, for example, from credit cards.

[0062] The number on the plate 42 should be painted using a reflective paint for easy identification in the dark.

[0063] Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS1. A mini container for transport of goods, inside a standard sea container that is 233 cm wide, by trucks, by railroad wagons, or by other means, the mini container comprising: a bottom plate having a pallet section open for lift from all sides by blades of a trasporter; a flat top configured to receive another identically configured mini container thereon; four walls; a door on at least one of six sides thereof connected to at least one of the walls with a hinge to rotate at least 270 degrees; and openings or protrusions in all four top comers for grip by a lifter; wherein the mini container has external dimensions that allows the mini container to be packed into the standard sea container with other identically dimensioned mini containers in a 1x2 or a 1x3 fashion with a minimum of dead space, the external dimensions being 75 cm wide, 115 cm long, and 195 cm high.

2. The mini container according to claim 1, configured to transport goods in solid form, in liquid form, or in gas form.

3. The mini container according to claim 1, configured for storage of goods in solid form, in liquid form, or in gas form.

4. The mini container according to claim 1, configured to transport or for handling of living creatures.

5. The mini container according to claim 1, configured for education, advertisement or similar intellectual activities.

6. The mini container according to claim 1, configured for military purpose.

7. The mini container according to claim 1, wherein the mini container is water-tight so that it may be submerged in water or other liquids, or alternatively not water-tightallowing liquid or gas to enter the interior of the mini container when submerged in a liquid or when surrounded by a specified gas.

8. The mini container according to claim 1, configured to house humans or animals.

9. The mini container according to claim 1, further comprising a number plate positioned to be clearly visible at the front side and at the top of the mini -container, the number plate being painted with a light-reflecting agent, the number plate being arranged to be folded into the mini container when the door is closed, and the number plate bearing an identifier that uniquely identifies the mini container.

10. The mini container of claim 9, wherein the identifier is a unique sequence of numbers or a unique sequence of letters and numbers from a numbering system for container identification.

11. The mini container of claim 9, wherein the identifier includes a bar code.

12. The mini container of claim 1, further comprising a transponder that having stored thereon a code that uniquely identifies the mini container.

13. The mini container of claim 1, further comprising a hatch on at least one of six sides thereof, the hatch being connected by a hinge to rotate at least 270 degrees.

14. The mini container of claim 1, further comprising gaskets to secure the mini container tightly against entry of unwanted insects, rodents, birds, snakes, seeds, other vermin or the like.

15. A transport system, comprising a plurality of mini containers each configured according to one of claims 1-14.

16. A method of transporting goods comprising transporting a sea container having stored therein a plurality of mini containers each configured according to one of claims

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