AU2005200499B2 - Bulk Container - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 CONVENTION STANDARD PATENT APPLICATION Invention Title: "Bulk container" Applicants: China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd and Nantong CIMC Special Transportation Equipment Manufacture Co., Ltd 4 February 2005 BULK CONTAINER FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a bulk container, and more particularly, 5 to a bulk container having a lid. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Generally, the conventional bulk container is provided with 2-3 portholes on the roof and a porthole of funnel shape on either the hopper base or the end door 10 for unloading the bulk goods, thus forming a type of closed container. When goods are loaded, they can be filled in from the portholes on the roof; and when unloaded, they can be exsufflated from the portholes or will flow out automatically from the unloading port on the hopper base or the end door when the other side of the container is lifted by using a vehicle with tiltable chassis frame. The bulk container is suitable 15 for shipment of bulk grains such as rice, wheat, soja, etc.; meanwhile it is also suitable for shipment of goods such as all kinds of feed, resin, borax, cement, sandstone etc.. At this point, when such bulk goods are loaded, in general the angle of repose is rather big. The angle of repose refers to the angle which is formed between the ground level and the surface of the deposit such as soil, stone and so on when it is stable after 20 sinking down. For the requirement of quarantine, when the grain is loaded, an attached device to suffocate the grain is provided on the roof of some bulk container. Figs. 1A, 1B, IC are schematic views illustrating the structure of a lid of a bulk container according to prior art, the top of which is provided with an integral lid 10a. Although this type of bulk container is convenient for loading bulk goods with a large single volume or a large angle of repose, it requires additional equipment to lift and lay down the eye ring 11a on the lid 10a for hoisting operation, and then it 5 can be formed to have a closed body by fixing the lid 10a thereto, which is inconvenient for operation. Figs. 2A, 2B illustrate the structure of the lid of another bulk container according to prior art, the lid 20a of which is a round lid with a diameter of <D 500 <D 600 disposed on the roof. For the bulk container with such structure, when bulk 10 goods with a large angle of repose are loaded, a number of lids should be provided or some other apparatus is required to shake the container in order to hold more goods, however it still can not be filled up at a time. As shown in Figs. 3A, 3B, illustrating the lid structure of further another bulk container according to prior art, the lid 30a is a rather big rectangle lid, but the 15 size of the aperture of such lid is still too small, which affects loading and unloading some goods. Also, it can only be locked after each of numerous bolts is locked and thus it takes more time. Moreover, there is yet another type of lid, which is disposed on a rather big rectangle hole and the size of aperture of which is bigger, but it needs intermediate 20 beams between the rectangle holes, which therefore in fact splits a rather big rectangle hole into two rather small rectangle holes. Besides, these intermediate beams affect loading goods and the sealing performance of the lid will be affected by 2 the intermediate beams or the beam deformation caused by goods or other improper loading operations. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a type of bulk 5 container having folio rectangle lids on the roof, which thus has larger open areas and when goods are loaded from the roof, it does not need the help of external mechanical equipments and can be filled up at a time, even if the goods have a larger single volume or a larger angle of repose. To achieve the object, the present invention provides a bulk container, 10 wherein the container has an underframe, sideboards, end doors, a roof defining a container opening, and access means disposed on the roof for closing the opening, and wherein the access means has a first rectangle lid and a second rectangle lid which are in a folio arrangement and fixed on the roof by hinges at a respective hinged end thereof, with an open end of the first rectangle lid overlapping that of the second 15 rectangle lid; and the access means further includes a locking device disposed at overlapping parts of the first and second rectangle lids to lock the first and second rectangle lids, wherein an undersurface of the open end of the first rectangle lid is concaved downward to form a seal groove which is provided with a sealing joint strip therein; and 20 the open end of the second rectangle lid is concaved downward to form a joint groove, and the edge of the open end of the second rectangle lid is provided therealong with a folded sealing strip which is nested with the sealing joint strip correspondingly, 3 forming an integrated sealing assembly. Specially, the profile connecting the joint groove and the upper surface of the open end of the second rectangle lid is a tilted plane. The locking base of the locking device is mounted on the back surface of the joint groove. Furthermore, the undersurface of the periphery of the first rectangle lid 5 and the second rectangle lid is provided with a sealing groove, which is provided with a sealing joint strip therein; and, accordingly, the laterals at the opening of the roof is provided with a folded sealing strip which is nested with the sealing joint strip, thereby forming an integrated sealing assembly. Moreover, in the middle of overlapping parts of the first rectangle lid and 10 the second rectangle lid and at the hinged ends of the periphery of the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid, the nested surface of the sealing joint strip and corresponding folded sealing strip is formed into a nesting groove holding the corresponding folded sealing strip. And, the sealing groove on the terminal of the two free ends of the periphery of the second rectangle lid is provided along the back of the 15 terminal of the free ends, the tilted plane, the joint groove and the folded sealing strip. The sealing joint strip disposed in the sealing groove at the terminals of the two free ends of the second rectangle lid, together with the nested surface of the corresponding folded sealing strip on the roof, forms a nesting groove holding the corresponding the folded sealing strip. Further, the undersurface along the edge of the two free ends of 20 the periphery of the first rectangle lid is formed into the sealing groove provided with the sealing joint strip therein, which is a tabular sealing joint strip at two ends of the overlapping part of the first rectangle lid and at other position along the terminal of 4 the two free ends, the nested surface of which corresponding to the fold sealing strip is shaped into a nesting groove holding the corresponding fold sealing strip. The roof of the bulk container is correspondingly provided with at least one set of locking bars, mounted through the fixing base and able to rotate in the 5 fixing base, with one side provided with a press plate which can press and release the free ends of the first rectangle lid and the second rectangle with the rotation of the locking bar and the other side connected with a hand knob. Each locking bar has two press plates which are disposed apart by a predetermined distance corresponding to the two sides of overlapping part of the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid. 10 Corresponding to the inner surface of the each free end of the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid, a cross-pin locking device is provided to lock the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid and is disposed on the roof of the bulk container, comprising a cross-pin fixing base mounted on the roof of the bulk container; a locking base with a cross-pin lockhole mounted on the first rectangle lid and second 15 rectangle lid; and a cross-pin fixed in the cross-pin fixing base and locked in the cross-pin lockhole. Besides, the first rectangle lid and the second rectangle lid are provided with suspension links. The structure of the present invention is reasonable and when loading goods with a large single volume or a large angle of repose, it can be filled up without 20 the help of external mechanical equipments at a time, which ensures the largest space for goods and eliminates the bad influence on loading and sealing caused by the deformation or the like of the rectangle lid with cross beams; furthermore, it is 5 convenient to open and close and achieves a good sealing performance; meanwhile, the structure of internal cross-pins is adopted to make it possible for the bulk container to be used as a common container, which thus has flexible functional options and by which, when the bulk goods are loaded, the internal cross-pins will not 5 be used; otherwise, when common goods are loaded, the internal cross-pins can be used to lock the roof from inside to prevent being stolen. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 10 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 15 Fig. 1A is a schematic view illustrating the structure of an integral lid of a bulk container according to prior art; Fig. 1B is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along A-A direction of Fig. IA; Fig. 1C is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along B-B 20 direction of Fig. 1 A; Fig. 2A is a schematic view illustrating the structure of a round lid of another bulk container according to prior art; 6 Fig. 2B is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along A-A direction of Fig. 2A; Fig. 3A is a schematic view illustrating the structure of a big rectangle lid of further another bulk container according to prior art; 5 Fig. 3B is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along A-A direction of Fig. 3A; Fig. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the structure of a folio rectangle lid of a bulk container according to the present invention; Fig. 5 is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along A-A direction 10 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along B-B direction of Fig. 4; Fig. 7 is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along C-C direction of Fig. 4. 15 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numeral will be used throughout the 20 drawings to refer to the same or like parts. A bulk container according to the present invention comprises an underframe, sideboards, end doors, a roof and one or more lids disposed on the roof, 7 all of which together form a closed body for the bulk container. Fig. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the structure of a folio rectangle lid of a bulk container according to the present invention. As shown in Fig.4, the folio rectangle lid 10 disposed on the roof 13 comprises a first rectangle lid 11 and a second 5 rectangle lid 12, which are respectively mounted on the roof 13 by hinges 14 at hinged ends 118,128 and overlap each other in the middle thereof. The open end 117 of the first rectangle lid 11 overlaps the open end 127 of the second rectangle lid 12 and a rotatory locking device 15 is provided in the middle of the overlapping parts to ensure the safety of the container. Meanwhile, the middle overlapping parts and the 10 periphery open parts of the rectangle lids 11, 12 are provided with a sealing assembly to improve the sealing performance of the container. The two free ends 119 of the first rectangle lid 11 and the two free ends 129 of the second rectangle 12 are provided with plurality of suspension links 18 for opening and closing the first rectangle lid 11 and second rectangle lid 12. Specially, in order to solve the problems of loading bulk 15 goods with a large angle of repose properly, the lid 10 including the first rectangle lid 11 and the second rectangle lid 12 can be designed to cover more than half of the entire area of the roof 13 or plurality of folio rectangle lids can be provided on the roof 13. The rectangle lids 11, 12 are connected with the roof 13 by hinge, which makes it convenient to rotate the two rectangle lids 11, 12 to be opened and closed by 20 a single person. As shown in Fig. 4, according to the present invention, at the outer side of the two free ends 119, 129, i.e. the two ends except hinged ends 118, 128 and 8 overlapped open ends 117, 127, of the first rectangle lid 11 and/or second rectangle lid 12, the roof 13 is provided with at least one set of locking bars 16 correspondingly. Furthermore, the locking bars 16 are mounted on the roof 13 through fixing bases 164, and can rotate in the fixing bases 164. One end of each locking bar 16 is provided 5 with a press plate 161 which can press or release the free ends 119, 129 of the first rectangle lid 11 and the second rectangle lid 12 with the rotation of the locking bar 16, and the other side of the locking bar 16 is provided with a hand knob 162 which can drive the locking bar 16 to rotate when it is turned. When the locking bar 16 is turned to the position where the press plate 161 presses the free ends 119,129 of the rectangle 10 lids 11, 12 firmly, the hand knob 162 can be fixed in a corresponding fixing base 166 disposed at a predetermined position on the roof 13 to prevent the hand knob 162 from rotating freely. In Fig. 4, each side of the roof 13 at the two free ends 129 of the second rectangle lid 12 is provided with a locking bar 16, and the locking bar 16 is provided with two press plates 161 which are disposed separately at the two sides 15 respectively corresponding to the overlapping parts of the first rectangle lid 11 and second rectangle lid 12. When the lid 10 is closed, the hand knob 162 is turned to rotate the locking bar 16 and further to drive the press plate 161 to rotate, thereby the two rectangle lids 11, 12 can be pressed firmly simultaneously and conveniently, which makes the lids and sealing assembly steadily sealed. 20 Moreover, at each outer side of the two free ends 119, 129 of the first rectangle lid 11 and the second rectangle lid 12, a pair of corresponding locking bars can be provided on the roof 13, and one side of each locking bar is provided with a 9 press plate. In the same way of locking bar 16, the press plates are separately pressed on the free ends 119, 129 at the two sides of the overlapping parts of the first rectangle 11 and second rectangle lid 12 respectively, to steadily press and seal the first rectangle lid 11 and the second rectangle lid 12. The foregoing description is within 5 the scope of the present invention as claimed but not limit to the present invention. Furthermore, in the present invention, the inner surface of the container at outer side of each rectangle lid 11, 12 is provided with two cross-pin locking devices 17. Specifically, a cross-pin 173 is mounted on the inner surface of the roof 13 through a cross-pin fixing base 171 and locked in cross-pin locking bases 172 10 disposed on the rectangle lids 11, 12, thereby locking the lids 11, 12 and the roof 13 from inside of container, which can prevent goods from being stolen when the bulk container transports common goods. Fig. 5 is an enlarged schematic sectional view taken along A-A direction of Fig. 4, illustrating the structure of the middle of the container. Fig. 5 clearly 15 illustrates the hermetically sealing assembly at the middle overlapping part of the first rectangle lid 11 and the second rectangle lid 12 and at the two hinged ends 118, 128. In the present invention, the inner surface of the open end 117 of the first rectangle lid 11 placed above the overlapping part has a seal groove 115, which is provided with a sealing joint strip 116 therein; and the open end 127 of the second rectangle lid 12 20 placed under the overlapping part has a specific type tilted concave structure, i.e. with a tilted plane transition the upper surface of the terminal of open end 127 is turned downward into a joint groove structure butted with the seal groove 115 concave (see 10 Fig. 7 for details), and the locking bed of the locking device 15 can be placed inside the groove and a fold sealing strip 125 is provide at the end side of the open end 127, for instance, the outside edge of the joint groove can be used as the fold sealing strip 125, which is nested into corresponding sealing joint strip 116 to form an integral 5 hermetically sealing assembly. The sealing joint strip 116 in the middle of overlapping part of the two rectangle lids 11, 12 may be a U-shaped strip, i.e. in the sealing joint strip 116, on one surface nested with the fold sealing strip 125, a nesting groove 1161 is formed and the fold sealing strip 125 is actually nested into the nesting groove 1161, thereby a well hermetically sealing assembly is fulfilled at the middle of overlapping 10 part of two rectangle lids 11, 12. Meanwhile, the sealing assembly at hinged ends 118, 128 of the first rectangle lid 11 and second rectangle lid 12 has a similar structure with that at the middle of overlapping part, and the roof 13 located at the opening edge touching with hinged ends 118, 128 is provided with a fold sealing strip 131. And the undersurfaces of the hinged end 118 of the first rectangle lid 11 and the hinged end 15 128 of the first rectangle lid 12 are provided with sealing grooves 111, 121 respectively, in which U-shaped strips 112, 122 are provided respectively. The fold sealing strip 131 may be nested into the nesting grooves 1121, 1221 of the U-shaped strips 112, 122, thereby a better sealing assembly is fulfilled at hinged ends 118, 128 of two rectangle lid 11, 12. 20 Fig. 6 illustrates the cross-sectional structure of the B-B direction in Fig. 4, in which the structure of the cross-pin locking device 17 and the sealing assembly at the two free ends 119, 129 of the first rectangle lid 11 and second rectangle lid 12 11 are clearly illustrated. In the present invention, the cross-pin locking device 17 comprises the cross-pin fixing base 171 which is fixed on the roof 13 at the free ends 119,129 of the first rectangle lid 11 and second rectangle lid 12; the cross-pin locking base 172 with a cross-pin lockhole provided at the free end 119, 129 of the rectangle 5 lid, corresponding to the cross-pin fixing base 171; the cross-pin 173 mounted rotatablely in the cross-pin fixing base 171 and locked in the cross-pin lockhole of the cross-pin locking base 172, connecting and locking the first rectangle lid 11 and second rectangle lid 12 to the roof 13 from inside of the container. The sealing assembly at the free ends 119, 129 is similar to that at hinged ends 118,128 illustrated 10 in Fig. 5. That is, the undersurface of the free end 119,129 is provided with a sealing groove which is therein provided with a U-shaped sealing joint strip 122, and correspondingly a folded sealing strip 131 is disposed on the adjacent roof 13, which is nested into the sealing joint strip 122, thereby forming the entire sealing assembly. Also, the locking bar 16 is mounted on the roof 13 through the locking bar fixing base 15 164 and the press plate 161 thereon can press the free ends 119, 129 firmly by clamping the suspension link 18 to make the folded sealing strip 131 well nested into the sealing joint strip 122. Fig. 7 illustrates the cross-sectional structure of C-C direction in Fig. 4, which further clearly illustrates the specific tilted concave structure at the open end 20 127 of the second rectangle lid 12, and the sealing assembly in the middle overlapping parts of the two rectangle lid 11, 12. As shown in Fig. 7, with a tilted plane 1271 transition, the upper surface of the terminal of the open end 127 of the second 12 rectangle lid 12 is concaved downward to form a groove structure 1272, which is butted with the sealing groove 115 of the open end 117 of the first rectangle lid 117, and further, the edge of the terminal is shaped into a folded sealing strip 125, thereby forming a specific tilted concave structure. Accordingly, at the ends of the middle 5 overlapping parts of the two rectangle lids 11, 12, the sealing assembly at the two free ends 129 of the second rectangle lid 12 is corresponded to the specific tilted concave structure at the open end 127 of the second rectangle lid 12, i.e. the sealing groove 123 at the the two free ends 129 of the second rectangle lid 12 is disposed along the back of the terminal of free ends 129 of the rectangle lid 12, the tilted plane 1271, the 10 groove 1272 and the folded sealing strip 125, and is shaped into the specific tilted concave structure at the two ends of the middle overlapping parts. The sealing groove 123 is provided with a sealing joint strip 124 therein which is nested with the corresponding folded sealing strip 131 placed on the roof 13 (Fig. 6 clearly illustrates the sealing joint strip 124 is nested with the folded sealing strip 131.). The sealing 15 joint strip 124 at the middle overlapping parts is formed to match with the specific tilted concave structure. Similarly, the folded sealing strip 131 on the two sides of the middle overlapping parts is also formed to match with the specific tilted concave structure, in order to cooperate with the sealing joint strip 124 to form a better and integrated sealing assembly. Referring to Fig. 7, the terminal of the two free ends 119 20 of the first rectangle lid 11 is formed into a sealing groove 123 where the sealing joint strip is provided. The sealing joint strip at the two ends of the overlapping parts of the open ends 117 is a tabular sealing joint strip 114, and the terminal of the tabular 13 sealing joint strip 114 can further folded downward to form a L-shape. The downward-folded part 1141 fills up the space between the folded sealing strip 125 and the outside surface of the sealing groove 123, thereby forming an integrated sealing assembly. The parts of the sealing assembly at other positions at the free ends of the 5 first rectangle lid 11, not illustrated in Fig. 7, can be seen clearly in Fig. 6, in which, the sealing joint strip 124 in the sealing groove 123 has also a nesting groove 1241 on the surface which is nested with the corresponding folded sealing strip 131, and the groove 1241 can accommodate the folded sealing strip 131 and form a well sealing arrangement thereby. 10 In the present invention, the sealing joint strip can also be softer foam joint strip, so that when relatively harder folded sealing strip is pressed, the nesting groove can be formed accordingly thereby. And the nesting groove is jointed with the folded sealing strip to form a well sealing arrangement. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications 15 and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. 14

Claims (13)

1. A bulk container, wherein the container has an underframe, sideboards, end doors, a roof defining a container opening, and access means disposed on the roof for closing the opening, and wherein the access means has a first rectangle lid and a second 5 rectangle lid which are in a folio arrangement and fixed on the roof by hinges at a respective hinged end thereof, with an open end of the first rectangle lid overlapping that of the second rectangle lid; and the access means further includes a locking device disposed at overlapping parts of the first and second rectangle lids to lock the first and second rectangle lids, 10 wherein an undersurface of the open end of the first rectangle lid is concaved downward to form a seal groove which is provided with a sealing joint strip therein; and the open end of the second rectangle lid is concaved downward to form a joint groove, and the edge of the open end of the second rectangle lid is provided therealong with a folded sealing strip which is nested with the sealing joint strip correspondingly, forming 15 an integrated sealing assembly.

2. The bulk container according to Claim 1, wherein a profile connecting the joint groove and an upper surface of the open end of the second rectangle lid is in a tilted plane.

3. The bulk container according to Claim I or Claim 2, wherein a locking 20 base of the locking device is mounted on a back surface of the joint groove.

4. The bulk container according to any one of Claims I to 3, wherein an undersurface of the periphery of the first rectangle lid and the second rectangle lid is provided with a scaling groove, which is provided with a sealing joint strip therein; and 15 laterals at the opening of the roof are provided with a folded sealing strip which is nested with the sealing joint strip, thereby forming an integrated sealing assembly.

5. The bulk container according to Claim 4, wherein in the middle of overlapping parts of the first rectangle lid and the second rectangle lid and at the hinged 5 ends of the periphery of the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid, the nested surface of the sealing joint strip and folded sealing strip is formed into a nesting groove holding the corresponding folded scaling strip.

6. The bulk container according to Claim 5 when appended to Claim 3, wherein the sealing groove at the terminal of the two free ends at the periphery of the 10 second rectangle lid is provided along the back of the terminal of the free ends, the tilted plane, the joint groove and the folded sealing strip.

7. The bulk container according to Claim 6, wherein the sealing joint strip disposed in the sealing groove at the terminals of the two free ends of the second rectangle lid, together with the nested surface of the corresponding folded sealing strip 15 on the roof, forms a nesting groove holding the corresponding folded sealing strip.

8. The bulk container according to Claim 7, wherein the undersurface along the edge of the two free ends of the periphery of the first rectangle lid is formed into the sealing groove provided with the sealing joint strip therein, which is a tabular sealing joint strip at two ends of the overlapping part of the first rectangle lid and at the other 20 position along the terminal of the two free ends, the nested surface of which corresponding to the fold scaling strip is shaped into a nesting groove holding the corresponding fold sealing strip. 16

9. The bulk container according to Claim 1, wherein the roof of the bulk container is correspondingly provided with at least one set of locking bars, mounted through the fixing base and able to rotate in the fixing base, with one side provided with a press plate which can press and release the free ends of the first rectangle lid and the 5 second rectangle with the rotation of the locking bar and the other side connected with a hand knob.

10. The bulk container according to Claim 9, wherein each locking bar has two press plates which are disposed apart by a predetermined distance corresponding to the two sides of overlapping part of the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid. t0

11. The bulk container according to Claim 1, wherein corresponding to the inner surface of the each free end of the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid, a cross-pin locking device is provided to lock the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid and is disposed on the roof of the bulk container, including a cross-pin fixing base mounted on the roof of the bulk container; 15 a locking base with a cross-pin lockhole mounted on the first rectangle lid and second rectangle lid; and a cross-pin fixed in the cross-pin fixing base and locked in the cross-pin lockhole.

12. The bulk container according to Claim 1, wherein the first rectangle lid 20 and the second rectangle lid are provided with suspension links.

13. A bulk container, substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 4 to 7 of the accompanying drawings. 17