Pallet Container Flat Metal Deck Tubular Frame
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pallet containers for transporting dangerous liquids experience significant stress and deformation during transport due to dynamic vibrations, leading to sagging of the floor pan and impaired residue emptying, necessitating additional reinforcement which complicates construction and increases costs.
Innovation Solution
A pallet container design featuring a flat, rectangular metal top deck with right-angled folds and a tubular lattice frame support structure that distributes load evenly across corner and middle feet, eliminating the need for additional reinforcement and ensuring stable transport and efficient residue emptying.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a solid crossbeam is added under the floor pan to ensure transport safety, then transport safety is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the solid crossbeam reinforcement from the design and replaces it with a tubular lattice frame structure. This lattice frame provides the necessary structural support through its geometric configuration rather than through solid material, thereby maintaining transport safety while reducing construction complexity and manufacturing cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs a composite structure combining the floor pan with a tubular lattice frame made of different materials (steel tubes). This composite construction achieves the required strength and rigidity for transport safety while being more economical and simpler to manufacture than a solid crossbeam reinforcement would be.
2Strength
If outer wall elevations are added to the floor pan, then structural support is improved, but sagging increases due to accordion-like deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the flat floor pan with outer wall elevations (which deform like an accordion) with a curved or domed floor pan design. This curved geometry inherently resists the vertical loads from liquid weight and forklift traffic, distributing stresses more evenly and preventing the localized sagging that occurs with flat panels and rigid elevations.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the geometric parameters of the floor pan from a flat configuration with elevations to a curved/domed configuration. This parameter change fundamentally alters how the floor pan responds to loads, eliminating the accordion-like deformation mechanism while maintaining or improving structural support capabilities.
3Ease of operation
If the floor pan is made flat and even, then residue emptying is improved, but transport safety deteriorates due to sagging under load
Solution Approach 1:
The invention adds a third dimension to the floor pan design by creating a curved or domed shape instead of a flat surface. This dimensional change allows the floor to maintain a smooth, sag-free surface that facilitates residue emptying while the curved geometry itself provides the structural reinforcement needed for transport safety, eliminating the need for separate elevation structures.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a pallet container (10) for storing and transporting especially hazardous liquid products, comprising a replaceable plastic inner receptacle (16) and a supporting jacket (14) which consists of a tube grid frame, tightly surrounds the plastic inner receptacle, and is secured to the upper outer edge of the pallet. The rectangular pallet has a flat top deck (18) as a support for the inserted plastic inner receptacle and an understructure that includes four corner legs, four central legs therebetween, and a horizontal peripheral base ring (34). According to the invention, the top deck (18) of the pallet consists of a flat, planar, rectangular metal plate which has no upward-protruding shapes such as reinforcement beads on the surface and no elevations on the external faces, and has a short, downward-facing edge (20) on each of the four external faces of the metal plate. Said edges, which extend along the external faces of the metal plate, are pressed against the corner legs and central legs below the metal plate, into an edge-adapted recess (28) in the corner legs and central legs by the lowest horizontal peripheral frame tube (22) of the tube grid frame that is put in place from above. The edges of the metal plate are thus secured in such a way that the four external faces of the planar rectangular metal plate are linearly mounted on the understructure of the pallet.