Corner piece for forming a corner of a container, container provided with such corner piece, and gripper arm and gripper which can cooperate with such corner pieces

Abstract

A corner piece for forming a corner of a container, with a hold which can be grabbed by external gripping device, stacking elements in the shape of a solid protrusion and coupling elements which can be activated and deactivated and which includes a movable coupling element which can be moved between an activated position and a deactivated position, as well as an activator mechanism for activating and deactivating the coupling elements, which activator mechanism can be coupled to external driving elements.

Claims

1. An improved corner piece for forming a corner of a container, which corner piece comprises: a body to be provided between ribs of a container, having a corner piece comprising at least the following elements: a hold opening formed in the body having a shape which can be grabbed by an external gripping means; stacking means containing a fixed part protruding from the body along a vertical axis A so as to form a static protrusion adjacent to and parallel the hold opening; coupling means which can be activated and deactivated and which includes a movable coupling element which can be moved relative to the stacking means between an activated position and a deactivated position; and an activator mechanism for activating and deactivating the movable coupling element of the coupling means, which activator mechanism can be coupled to external driving means.

2. The improved corner piece according to claim 1, wherein the hold opening has the shape of an oval opening on a hollow part in the body of the corner piece according to an oval opening in an ISO-standardised corner piece, in which oval opening can mesh a gripping means in the shape of a twist lock.

3. The improved corner piece according to claim 1, wherein an aforesaid hold opening on the corner piece is formed of an undercut on the static protrusion on the body of the corner piece.

4. The improved corner piece according to claim 1, wherein the activator mechanism is formed of a worm and worm wheel, whereby the worm extends in a direction parallel to the direction in which the solid protrusion extends and whereby the worm wheel makes the coupling element move up or down depending on the sense of rotation according to which the worm is rotated.

5. The gripper arm which can cooperate with an improved corner piece according to claim 1, wherein the gripper arm at least comprises: gripping means which can grab the hold opening of the improved corner piece; and, driving means which can be coupled to the activator mechanism of such an improved corner piece and with which such activator mechanism can be driven.

6. The gripper arm according to claim 5, wherein the driving means drive a shaft so as to make this shaft carry out a rotational movement in both its rotational directions on the one hand, and so as to make this shaft carry out a translational movement to and fro according to the direction of the shaft and whereby the shaft can be coupled to a worm of the drive mechanism of an aforesaid corner piece.

7. The gripper arm according to claim 5, wherein the gripping means comprise at least a twist-lock which can mesh in a hold opening formed of an oval opening on a hollow part in the body of an aforesaid corner piece.

8. The gripper arm according to claim 5, wherein the gripping means are provided with a shape which is complementary to an undercut on a solid protrusion on the body of the corner piece so as to be able to grab the protrusion.

9. The gripper arm according to claim 5, wherein the gripper arm is provided with multiple gripping means with which different hold openings on corner pieces can be grabbed.

10. An improved corner piece for forming a corner of a container, which corner piece comprises a body designed to be provided between ribs of the container, wherein the corner piece additionally contains at least the following elements: a hold having a shape which can be grabbed by external gripping means; stacking means containing a fixed part protruding from the body so as to form a static protrusion; and, coupling means which can be activated and deactivated and which contain a movable coupling element which can be moved between an activated position and a deactivated position, as well as an activator mechanism for activating and deactivating the coupling means, which activator mechanism can be coupled to external driving means; wherein the coupling element can be moved between an activated, extended position, whereby the coupling element extends at least partly over a certain height from the body, and a deactivated, retracted position, whereby the coupling element is at least partly retracted within the contours of the body in relation to the activated position.

11. The improved corner piece according to claim 10, wherein the coupling element of the coupling means is provided with a longitudinal protrusion with which the actual coupling can be performed, having a free far end provided with a laterally protruding part forming a nose, whereby the coupling element can be moved up and down in the body of the corner piece between an activated, upright position, whereby the longitudinal protrusion forms an upright portion on the body of the corner piece, and a deactivated, retracted position, whereby the longitudinal protrusion is entirely retracted within the body of the corner piece.

12. The improved corner piece according to claim 10, wherein the static protrusion forms an upright portion on the body, which upright portion is provided on one side with a slot provided centrally in said side, in which the coupling element is provided such that it can be moved up and down.

13. The container comprising at least a bottom framework, a roof framework and at least four corner posts, which corner posts reach as of the roof framework to the bottom framework, and whereby every corner post is provided with a roof corner piece on one of its far ends which is part of the roof framework, and with a bottom corner piece on the other far end which is part of the bottom framework, wherein the four roof corner pieces comprises a body designed to be provided between ribs of the container, wherein the corner piece additionally contains at least the following elements: a hold opening having a shape which can be grabbed by external gripping means; stacking means containing a fixed part protruding from the body so as to form a static protrusion; and, coupling means which can be activated and deactivated and which contain a movable coupling element which can be moved between an activated position and a deactivated position, as well as an activator mechanism for activating and deactivating the coupling means, which activator mechanism can be coupled to external driving means; wherein the coupling element of the coupling means is provided with a longitudinal protrusion with which the actual coupling can be performed, having a free far end provided with a laterally protruding part forming a nose, whereby the coupling element can be moved up and down in the body of the corner piece between an activated, upright position, whereby the longitudinal protrusion forms an upright portion on the body of the corner piece, and a deactivated, retracted position, whereby the longitudinal protrusion is entirely retracted within the body of the corner piece; wherein the two laterally protruding noses on the coupling elements of the roof corner pieces on a first end face of the container are both directed in a first given direction and the two laterally protruding noses on the coupling elements of the roof corner pieces on the opposite end face of the container are both directed in an opposite direction.

14. The container according to claim 13, wherein the four bottom corner pieces are each provided with an opening so as to form a bottom framework of the container which, at the four bottom corner pieces, is complementary to the four protrusions provided on the four roof corner pieces of the container, in such a way that several such containers of the same type can be stacked in a fitting manner.

15. The container according to claim 14, wherein the four bottom corner pieces are ISO-standardised corner pieces.

16. The container according to claim 13, wherein the coupling elements of the roof corner pieces, in their activated position, and the openings in the ISO-standardised bottom pieces are aligned, such that these identical containers can be stacked and coupled to one another and detached again by performing a combined movement with one of the containers consisting of an upward or downward movement and a rotational movement, without any manual intervention.

17. The gripper for manipulating a container according to claim 13, wherein the gripper is provided with four gripper arms whereby every gripper arm can cooperate with a corresponding roof corner piece of the container.

18. The gripper according to claim 17, wherein the gripper arms are slidably mounted in the gripper so as to be able to adjust the distance between the gripper arms as a function of the dimensions of the roof framework of the container.

Description

(1) In order to better explain the characteristics of the invention, the following preferred embodiments of a corner piece, a container, a gripper arm and gripper according to the invention are described by way of example only, without being limitative in any way, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a corner piece according to the invention, seen in perspective, whereby the coupling means are activated;

(3) FIG. 2, analogous to FIG. 1, shows the same corner piece in perspective, whereby the coupling means are deactivated;

(4) FIGS. 3 and 4 show sections through the corner piece, according to lines III-III and IV-IV respectively as indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2;

(5) FIG. 5 shows a possible embodiment of a container according to the invention seen in perspective;

(6) FIG. 6 shows a side elevation of the container according to arrow F6 indicated in FIG. 5, whereby a gripper according to the invention is represented above the container;

(7) FIG. 7 shows a bottom view according to arrow F7 in FIG. 6 on a gripper arm according to the invention which is part of the gripper, in perspective and to a larger scale;

(8) FIG. 8 shows the gripper from FIG. 6 in a more unfolded state;

(9) FIGS. 9 and 10 show another embodiment of a corner piece according to the invention seen in perspective, with the coupling means in the activated and in the deactivated position respectively;

(10) FIG. 11 shows an alternative embodiment of a gripper according to the invention seen in perspective, which gripper can cooperate with a corner piece according to FIGS. 9 and 10, as well as with an ISO-standardised corner piece;

(11) FIGS. 12 and 13 shows a side elevation of a gripper arm of the gripper from FIG. 11 in different positions, when gripping an ISO-standardised corner piece and a corner piece according to the invention respectively; and,

(12) FIGS. 14 to 16, in a manner analogous to that in FIGS. 11 to 13, show yet another embodiment of a gripper according to the invention.

(13) The improved corner piece 1 according to the invention, represented in FIGS. 1 to 4, is intended for forming a corner 2 of a container 3, as is represented in FIGS. 5 and 6.

(14) The improved corner piece 1 is mainly formed of a metal body 4 which in the given embodiment consists of a beam-shaped element 4 with two legs 5 and 6 standing at right angles in relation to one another so as to form a beam-shaped L-shape 4.

(15) The L-shaped body 4 has two parallel L-shaped side surfaces 7 which are connected by means of two outer surfaces 8 and 9 forming the outer corner of the L-shaped body 4, as well as two inner surfaces 10 and 11 forming the inner corner of the L-shaped body 4.

(16) The L-shaped body 4 is designed to be provided between ribs of the container 3, whereby two ribs 12 extend in the prolongation of the legs 5 and 6 and a third rib 13 is provided perpendicular to the other two ribs 12.

(17) According to the invention it is not excluded, however, to carry out the body 4 of an improved corner piece 1 with a different shape, for example in the shape of a cube or beam.

(18) An improved corner piece 1 according to the invention is further provided with a static protrusion 14 in the shape of a substantially pin-shaped protrusion 14 extending in the direction AA in the prolongation of one of the legs 5 and 6 of the L-shaped body 4, more or less in the middle of the leg 5.

(19) The protrusion 14 forms a standing part extending transversely to the outer surface 8 of the L-shaped body 4 standing transversely to the aforesaid leg 5.

(20) Said protrusion 14 on the improved corner piece 1 is designed among others as a guide when stacking containers 3 which are provided with such improved corner pieces 1, such that the protrusion 14 can be regarded as a tool when stacking containers 3 or thus as a stacking means 14.

(21) Note that, thanks to a protrusion 14, a mutual shifting of stacked containers as a result of horizontal forces can be prevented as well.

(22) Another major characteristic of an improved corner piece 1 according to the invention is that the improved corner piece 1 is provided with coupling means 15 which can be activated and deactivated.

(23) More specifically, the coupling means 15 comprise a movable coupling element 16 which can be moved between an activated, extended position, as is represented in FIG. 1, whereby the coupling element 16 protrudes at a certain height H from the body 4, and a deactivated, retracted position, as is represented in FIG. 2, whereby the coupling element 16 is situated within the contours of the body 4.

(24) In the given example of FIGS. 1 to 4, the coupling element 16 of the coupling means 15 comprises a predominantly block-shaped housing 17 in which has been provided a part of an activator mechanism 18, as well as a longitudinal protrusion 19 which is fixed to one side 20 of said housing 17 and with which the actual coupling can be achieved.

(25) This longitudinal protrusion 19 has a free far end 21 with a laterally protruding part 22 forming a nose 22 to that end.

(26) The coupling element 16 can be moved up and down in the body 4 of the corner piece 1, whereby in the given embodiment, the longitudinal protrusion 19 of the coupling element 16 cooperates with the protrusion 14.

(27) The static protrusion 14 is hereby provided on one side 23 with a slot 24 provided centrally in this side 23, whereby the coupling element 16, in particular the longitudinal protrusion 19 with its nose 22, can be moved up and down in said slot 24.

(28) Moreover, the protrusion 14 and the nose 22 of the coupling element 16 are both bevelled on the side 23, such that in the activated position of the coupling element 16, the whole formed of the protrusion 14 and the longitudinal protrusion 19 forms a bevelled portion 25 extending in the direction of the lateral edge 26 of the corner piece 1.

(29) Naturally, the orientation of the nose 22 in relation to the body 4 of the corner piece 1 may be different according to the invention, depending in what way one wishes to integrate the corner piece 1 in a container 3.

(30) In the given embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 4, the activator mechanism 18 is formed of a worm 27 with an external screw thread 27 which is rotatably mounted in the body 4 and which is provided in an opening 28 in the coupling element 16.

(31) The opening 28 is provided with a complementary internal screw thread 28 which can cooperate with the external screw thread 27 of the worm 27.

(32) The worm 27 extends in the direction BB parallel to the direction AA in which the static protrusion 14 extends.

(33) Depending on the direction of rotation according to which the worm 27 is rotated, the coupling element 16 is thus moved up or down.

(34) The worm 27 extends with one far end 29 up to the outer surface 8 of the corner piece 1.

(35) This far end 29 is provided with a recess 30, for example a hexagonal or square recess 30 making it possible to couple the activator mechanism 18 to external driving means, which will be discussed further on.

(36) Further, the corner piece 1 is largely made hollow, whereby in this case openings are provided in the outer surfaces 8 and 9 on the hollow part 31, opening 32 and opening 33 respectively, which can serve as a hold with which external gripping means can grab the corner piece 1.

(37) The opening 32 in the outer surface 8 is oval, fully in accordance with an oval opening as provided in a known ISO-standardised corner piece, such that the improved corner piece 1 can also be grabbed by a gripping means in the shape of a twist-lock as is customary with the existing containers.

(38) In this embodiment of a corner piece 1 according to the invention, the protrusion 14 and the hold in the shape of an opening 32 are positioned next to one another, but this does not necessarily have to be the case according to the invention, as will be further demonstrated by means of another example.

(39) FIG. 5 represents a container 3 according to the invention which is provided with improved corner pieces 1 according to the invention.

(40) The container 3 hereby has a rectangular roof framework 34 formed of four ribs 12 of 13 which are connected by means of roof corner pieces 35, which roof corner pieces 35 are improved corner pieces 1 according to the invention.

(41) The corner pieces 1 according to the invention, which are used as roof corner pieces 35, differ somewhat from the corner pieces 1 represented in the preceding FIGS. 1 to 4, whereby the protrusion 14 and the coupling means 15 are rotated a quarter turn in relation to the body 4 of the corner piece 1, but this does not change anything essential, as will become clear from the figures.

(42) The container 3 also includes a rectangular bottom framework 36, also formed of four ribs 37 which are connected via corner pieces 38, which corner pieces 38 are of the ISO-standardised type however, as known according to the present state of the art.

(43) The roof framework 34 and the bottom framework 36 are connected by means of four corner posts 39, and the container 3 is further sealed on all sides by means of panels 40 provided between the ribs 12, 13 or 36 concerned and the corner posts 39.

(44) Another major characteristic of a container 3 according to the invention is that the four bottom corner pieces 38 are each provided with an opening so as to form a bottom framework 36 of the container 3 which, at the location of the four bottom corner pieces 38, is complementary to the four protrusions 14 provided on the four roof corner pieces 35 of the container 3, and in such a manner that several such containers 3 of the same type can be stacked in a fitting manner by making the protrusions 14 of a roof framework 34 of a bottom container 3 fit in the openings of the bottom corner pieces 38 of a top container 3.

(45) In the given example of FIG. 5, this is effected by means of four bottom corner pieces 38 which are ISO-standardised corner pieces.

(46) In order to be able to couple several containers 3 of the same type according to the invention during the stacking and to also detach them again without any manual intervention, it is further made sure that the coupling elements 16 of the roof corner pieces 35 in the activated position and the openings in the ISO-standardised bottom pieces 38 are also aligned in a certain way.

(47) To this end, the roof corner pieces 35 of the roof framework 34 are not placed randomly oriented between the ribs of the container.

(48) On the contrary, it is made sure that the two laterally protruding noses 22 on the coupling elements 16 of the roof corner pieces 35 at a first end face 41 of the container 3 are both oriented in a first given direction and the two laterally protruding noses 22 on the coupling elements 22 of the roof corner pieces 35 at the opposite end face 42 of the container 3 are both oriented in an opposite direction.

(49) The aim here is that a similar arrangement is obtained as that which is applied when coupling means in the shape of the known fully automatic, self-latching, intermediary twist-locks are used for coupling containers, which is often the case now, as was explained in the introduction to the description of the state of the art.

(50) In this way, a bottom container 3 according to the invention whose coupling means 15 have been put in the activated position can be coupled to an identical container 3 placed on top of it, by carrying out a combined movement with the top container 3 consisting of a downward movement and a rotational movement and without any manual intervention, entirely in accordance with a movement used with the known containers which are coupled with the fully automatic, self-latching, intermediary twist-locks.

(51) Vice versa, the same is true when disconnecting the containers 3.

(52) A major difference, however, is that with a container 3 according to the invention, the coupling means 15 themselves no longer require any manual operation, since they can be activated or deactivated entirely automatically and, as a result, no longer need to be installed or removed manually depending on whether the containers should be either or not coupled.

(53) In order to manipulate a container 3 according to the invention, use can be made of a gripper 43, an example of which is schematically represented in FIGS. 6 to 8.

(54) The gripper 43 as shown is provided with four gripper arms 44 according to the invention, whereby every gripper arm 44 can cooperate with a corresponding roof corner piece 35 of a container 3 according to the invention.

(55) To this end, such a gripper arm 44 first of all has gripping means 45 which can grab the hold 32 of such a roof corner piece 35 or improved corner piece 1 according to the invention.

(56) In the given embodiment, this is effected by a hold 32 in the shape of an oval opening 32 in conformity with the openings in an ISO-standardised corner piece and by a twist-lock 45 which can be controlled by the gripper 43 and which can cooperate with the opening 32 and the cavity 31 in the roof corner pieces 35.

(57) It is understood that in this embodiment, the grabbing of a container 3 according to the invention is entirely analogous to what is known from the ISO-standardised containers, so that in this case, the gripper 43 according to the invention or its gripper arms 44 can smoothly move existing ISO-standardised containers.

(58) However, a gripper arm 43 according to the invention also has driving means 46 which can be coupled to the activator mechanism 18 of the coupling means 15 of an improved corner piece 1 according to the invention, with which this activator mechanism 18 can be driven so as to activate or deactivate the coupling means 15 of the corner piece 1 concerned.

(59) In particular, the driving means 46 can rotatingly drive a shaft 47 so as to make this shaft 47 rotate around its centre in both directions of rotation, as well as to make this shaft 47 carry out a translational movement to and fro in relation to the gripper arm 44 according to the direction of the shaft 47.

(60) Said shaft 47 can be coupled to the activator mechanism 18 of a corner piece 1 according to the invention, which in this case is effected by means of a square head 48 provided at the free far end 49 of the shaft 47, which head 48 can be provided in a fitting manner in the recess 30 at the far end 29 of the worm 27 of the activator mechanism 18 of the corner piece 1.

(61) By coupling the shaft 47 to the worm 27 via a translational movement performed with the driving means 46 and by rotating the coupled shaft 47 with the driving means 46, the part 19 with the nose 22 can be moved up or down in relation to the body 4 of the corner piece 1, depending on the rotational direction of the shaft 47, in other words the coupling means 15 can thus be activated or deactivated.

(62) It is clear that the transport system which is suggested according to the invention is very easy to use.

(63) For example, when containers 3 according to the invention should be stacked without any mutual coupling, which is often the case, for example with containers 3 which are stacked in the hold of a ship as they are secured between guide rails, one only has to deactivate the coupling means 15 of each of the roof corner pieces 35 of the container 3 via the driving means 46 on the gripper arms 44 of the gripper 43, which can be simply done as of the cab of the crane operator.

(64) The same applies when placing containers on the quay or on a transport vehicle such as a truck or the like, whereby the conventional solid twist-locks can still be used by anchoring them in the oval openings 32.

(65) On the other hand, when during the stacking of containers 3, the containers 3 must be coupled, this can be done by activating the coupling means 15 of every roof corner piece 35 of a container via the driving means 46 on the gripper arms 44 of the gripper 3 before placing another container 3 on the aforesaid container 3 by means of a combined descending motion and rotational motion of the top container 3.

(66) Disconnecting them is simply done in an analogous manner.

(67) According to a preferred embodiment of a gripper 43 according to the invention, the gripper arms 44 are slidably mounted in the gripper 43 so as to be able to adjust the distance between the gripper arms 44 as a function of the dimensions of the roof framework 34 of the container 3, which is illustrated in FIG. 8.

(68) Thus, containers 3 with very different dimensions can be easily manipulated.

(69) FIGS. 9 and 10 show yet another possible embodiment of a corner piece 1 according to the invention, in which the various functional components are somewhat more integrated.

(70) More specifically, the protrusion 14 on the corner piece 1 in this case not only serves to simplify the stacking, but it also serves as a hold for a gripping means of an external gripper 43.

(71) The hold on the corner piece 1 is now formed of an undercut 50 on the solid protrusion 14 on the body 4 of the corner piece 1.

(72) The gripper arms 44 of a gripper 43 which can cooperate with such corner pieces 1 are preferably provided with gripping means to this end having a shape which is substantially complementary to the undercut 50 on the solid protrusion 14 on the body 4 of the corner piece 1 so as to be able to optimally grab the protrusion 14.

(73) FIGS. 11 to 16 show some more possibilities of grippers 43 which could cooperate with a corner piece according to FIGS. 9 and 10.

(74) The gripper arms 43 are hereby provided with multiple gripping means 51 with which different types of holds provided on corner pieces 1 can be grabbed, more specifically a twist-lock 45 for grabbing a hold in the shape of an oval opening 32 in conformity with the ISO-standardised corner pieces, as is the case for example in FIGS. 12 and 15, as well as a head 52 with a complementary shape for grabbing a protrusion 14 via an undercut 50.

(75) In the embodiment of FIGS. 11 to 13 one can switch between the two modes of operation by means of a rotation of the head 52 in relation to the twist-lock 45, whereas in the embodiment of FIGS. 14 to 16 one can switch by means of a relative translation between the head 52 and the twist-lock 45.

(76) In this manner it can be ensured once more that the known ISO-standardised containers can be used without any problems, which is also an objective of the present invention.

(77) Of course, many other embodiments according to the invention are not excluded.

(78) The present invention is by no means restricted to the embodiments of an improved corner piece 1, a container 3, a gripper arm 44 and a gripper 43 according to the invention described by way of example; on the contrary, such improved corner pieces 1, containers 3, gripper arms 44 and grippers 43 can be made in all sorts of shapes and dimensions while still remaining within the scope of the invention.