Foldable Pallet Collar With Interlocking Protrusions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pallet collars are difficult to assemble and disassemble, requiring significant effort and often necessitating ergonomic unfavorable postures, especially when handling multiple collars or adjusting their height for different loads.
Innovation Solution
The pallet collar design features interconnected elements with hinges and pivots, allowing for folding and featuring protrusions and recesses that enable secure stacking and easy handling, allowing for single-person operation without the need for unfolding before positioning or removing collars.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If pallet collars are designed with traditional connection methods, then structural stability is achieved, but assembly and disassembly require significant effort and ergonomic unfavorable postures
Solution Approach 1:
The pallet collar elements are designed with hinges that allow dynamic movement between connected elements. This enables the collar to transition between a stable rectangular configuration during use and a folded configuration for easy assembly and disassembly, resolving the contradiction between structural stability and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The pallet collar is divided into multiple separate elements (front wall, rear wall, side walls) that can be independently handled and assembled. This segmentation allows workers to assemble the collar piece by piece without needing to lift or position entire large structures, improving ease of operation while maintaining structural integrity through the connection of segments.
2Ease of operation
If pallet collars are designed as rigid structures, then load-bearing capacity is maintained, but handling and positioning become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The collar elements incorporate hinges that allow the structure to be flexible during handling (folded state) but rigid during use (rectangular configuration). This dynamic design enables easy handling and positioning while maintaining load-bearing capacity when assembled, resolving the contradiction between handling ease and structural strength.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple pallet collars are stacked for height adjustment, then versatility is improved, but assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pallet collar is segmented into multiple elements that can be independently assembled and stacked. This segmentation, combined with standardized hinge connections, allows multiple collars to be stacked for height adjustment without proportionally increasing assembly complexity, as each element follows the same connection pattern.
Solution Approach 2:
The hinge connection design is universal across all collar elements, allowing the same assembly method to be used regardless of the number of collars stacked. This universality maintains assembly simplicity while enabling versatile height adjustment configurations.
4Productivity
If pallet collars require unfolding before positioning, then proper alignment is achieved, but assembly time and effort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The collar elements are designed to be flexible during assembly, allowing them to be positioned and aligned before final securing. This dynamic positioning capability enables proper alignment to be achieved during the assembly process itself, eliminating the need for pre-unfolding and maintaining alignment precision while improving assembly speed.
Data Source
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AI summary
A pallet collar (12) for a pallet (1 1 ), comprising a first element (13), a second element (14), a third element (15) and a fourth element (16), wherein the pal¬ let collar (12) is foldable, and wherein a bottom side and a top side (21 ) of the elements (13-16) is provided with protrusions (22) and recesses (20), respec¬ tively, which recesses (20) are arranged for receiving protrusions (22) of an adjacent pallet collar. The first element (13) and the second element (14) comprise inner protrusions (22a) outer protrusions (22b), wherein a height of the outer protrusions (22b) is arranged so that they are disengaged from cor- responding recesses (20) of an adjacent pallet collar when the third element (15) is lifted from an underlying pallet collar to disengage the inner protru¬ sions (22a) while the fourth element (16) simultaneously engages the under¬ lying pallet collar. The invention is also related to a goods support with such pallet collars and methods for assembly and disassembly thereof.