EP2628686B1

EP2628686B1 - Plastic pallet formed of two half pallet members and method for assembling and disassembling said pallet

Info

Publication number: EP2628686B1
Application number: EP12001093.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Francis Isenborghs
Original assignee: Dw Plastics Nv
Current assignee: Dw Plastics Nv
Priority date: 2012-02-20
Filing date: 2012-02-20
Publication date: 2016-04-13
Anticipated expiration: 2032-02-20
Also published as: ES2576287T3; HRP20160769T1; EP2628686A1

Description

The present invention concerns a pallet formed of two plastic material half pallet members to be assembled to each other in a face to face relationship by interlocking snap-fit latches.
It is also related to a method for assembling and disassembling such pallet.
The invention is more particularly but not exclusively related to the domain of wine transport and/or the transport of bottle crates for breweries.
It is known pallets formed from upper and lower elements or decks preferably of identical construction so that both elements can be formed in a single mold, and in which two such identical elements can be assembled to each other in a face to face relationship.
Examples of pallets of this general type are disclosed in EP 0 429 498 or EP 1 914 172 .
Such pallet allows cheaper moulds because the pallet having two symmetrical parts, such parts are manufactured with the same mould, therefore less heavy and less expensive.
Furthermore because the two separate parts are smaller than a complete pallet, it is possible to use an injection machine with a smaller clamping force.
However in order to be sufficiently solid such pallets involve connecting parts between the two halves which should be strong enough to avoid disconnection and to warranty that such connection will be reliable.
This is the reason why the prior art had generally proposed separate connectors between each deck i.e. the upper deck and the lower deck allowing good connection and reliable one.
Other types of two parts pallets such as in US 4,597,338 are connected to each other sufficiently strongly to avoid disconnection but then in a way that the pallet becomes integral and non-disconnectable.
It is also known ( EP 1 829 787 ) pallets with two structural different half parts, which are disconnectable from each other after first use. However they do not authorize easy disconnection and/or optimization of the use of a same mould.
It is a main object of the present invention to provide an improved pallet formed of two halves and a method to assemble and disassemble such pallet in a way that the two separate parts are easily separable or disconnectable.
This authorizes a possibility to change parts of the pallet without changing the whole pallet, for example in case only half of the pallet is damaged.
Therefore the entire pallet does not become obsolete.
Of course as one half of the pallet is older and/or with a different history than the other one, to connect them between each other, involves a very good reliability and standardization of the connection.
In other words the connecting parts of the oldest element should not be deformed due to its previous use otherwise it will not be possible to reconnect it with another one for example a new one.
Furthermore, with the invention, it will be possible to provide a pallet formed of two half pallets injected in two different colors.
The two colors create a very clean separation of both halves, which renders the middle of the pallet openings very visible for the fork lift driver.
This leads to less damages caused by the forks of the fork lift.
The present invention therefore authorizes a greater longitivity for the pallets at a lower cost.
It will also be possible, for example, to use half pallet members in 100% recycled material, without jeopardizing the strength and/or load supporting ability of the pallet, for instance one half member being in recycled material and the other connected to the recycled one being made from a virgin plastic material and/or in a stronger material by adding, for example, glass fibers.
For these purposes, the invention proposes a method according to claim 1 and a pallet according to claim 5.
Advantageously the protruding parts are integral and disposed on the support legs.
In another advantageous embodiment the protruding parts are integral and disposed on the hollow posts.
The two half pallet members are easily disconnectable with a tool at least partially in a form of a knife blade.
In a specific embodiment, the snap-fit latches include guiding trenches, i.e. for instance a biased trench provided on the superior face of the protruding part disposed in alignment with an access trench disposed on at least a lateral face of one of said corresponding hollow posts or support legs, said trenches being arranged to guide a tool on and along said biased trench for pressing the protruding part out of the corresponding hole, wherein the protruding part is disconnected from the corresponding hollow for separating the two half pallet members from each other.
Advantageously the protruding parts and the corresponding holes are cylindrical.
In another embodiment the two half elements are of different colours.
Advantageously each half pallet member comprises a substantially planar top deck of the main panel for carrying articles and friction elements being mounted in openings in the top deck for increasing the friction between the pallet and any prongs of a fork lift.
In another advantageous embodiment each friction element extends below the top deck, comprises a top portion forming an upper collar, a bottom portion forming a lower collar and a relatively narrow middle portion between said top portion and said bottom portion.
Advantageously the main panel is a grating.
The present invention will be better understood from reading the following description of a particular embodiment given by way of non limitating example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein :

Figure 1 is a schematic axonometric view of two half members to be assembled to each other in face to face relationship.
Figure 2 shows the pallet in perspective formed by the two half pallet members of figure 1 after assembling.
Figure 3 is an enlarged view of the snap-fit latches of the embodiment of the invention more particularly described here, before connection.
Figure 4 shows the elements of figure 3 after connection, with a disconnecting tool starting to be engaged.
Figure 4A is an enlarged view of a section of the snap-fit latches of figure 4.
Figure 5 is a perspective view of a tool to be used with one embodiment of the invention.
Figure 6 is a perspective view of such tool in place after disconnection, of the two half pallet members of figure 1.

Figure 1 shows a pallet 1 formed of two plastic half pallet members 2, 3 to be assembled to each other in face to face relationship by interlocking snap-fit latches 4 each of said half pallet members comprising a rigid rectangular main panel 5 having a first lateral side 6 and a second lateral side 7 opposite to said first lateral side with regard to a central axis 8 of the pallet.
Each half pallet comprises a plurality of support legs 9, 10 and a plurality of corresponding hollow posts 11, 12, said support legs and hollow posts being integral with and projecting from the inner side 13 of the main panel. More particularly each half pallet comprises a first row of for example three hollow posts 11 disposed on the first lateral side 6 and a second row of three corresponding support legs 9 disposed on its second lateral side 7 and a third central row of three half hollow posts 12 integral with three half support legs 10 disposed opposite to said half hollow posts 12 with regard to the central axis 8 of the pallet.
The snap-fit latches 4 are formed by protruding parts 14 arranged to snap in corresponding holes 15, the protruding parts 14 being (on the example of figure 1) disposed on the support legs 9 and 10, and more particularly on one or two (in the corners) of the external faces with regard to the interior of the pallet of such support legs, in their upper part or distal end 16 arranged to cooperate with the inner part 17 of a corresponding hollow post 11 and 12.
The holes 15 are also disposed on the external face 18 of the hollow posts 11 or 12, with regard to the interior of the pallet, and arranged to snap with corresponding protruding parts 14.
In such case, the holes between the two half pallets for instance of two different colours, allows an easy identification for the fork drivers.
Friction elements (not represented) for instance diagonally disposed allong a diagonal, i.e. six friction elements regularly disposed along said diagonals, allows a better prehension of the pallet by the fork driver, avoiding slippering.
Such friction elements are advantageously inserted in corresponding holes of the decks, with a mushroom form presenting an upper collar, a narrow middle and a bottom portion to be inamovibly plugged in the decks.
Figure 2 shows the pallet where the two half pallets are connected together after snap-fitting.
Figure 3 shows more precisely the snap-fit latch 4 between the upper half pallet 2 and the lower half pallet 3.
The support leg 9 comprises an upper part 16 which is parallelepipedic, for instance with a section which is squared and comprises interior rigidification panels in order to provide a strong and good supporting leg, said upper part 16 having an external surface 20 arranged to slide along and within the opening 21 of the corresponding hollow post 11, said opening 21 being therefore slidably connected with said lower part 16 of the support leg 9.
The opening 21 comprises on its two external corner panels 22, respectively on each panel, two circular holes 15 which are connected to the above periphery 23 of the opening hole by trenches 24 of small thickness, for example of a third or half of the thickness of the panels 22.
This trench goes all along the whole height of the panel across the hole and will serve as guiding rail as it will be explained later.
On the corresponding surface 20 of the support legs and more particularly on its upper part 16 are disposed protruding parts 14 which are cylindrical pills and arranged to match with the holes 15 when the support leg is introduced in the opening 21, and pushed until when the edge 25 of the upper periphery of the upper part 16 enters in contact with the periphery 23 of the opening 21 of the hollow post 11.
Meanwhile the protruding parts will slide along the trench 24 until they snap with the corresponding holes 15.
The protruding parts are disposed on guiding ramps 26 with a slope which helps to reach holes in order to obtain the connection.
Such ramps are also arranged to cooperate with the corresponding trenches 24 in the opening 21.
It will now be explained more particularly the way the separation is obtained.
When the half pallet 2 is connected to the other half pallet 3 as represented on figure 4, the holes 15 are occupied by the protruding parts 14.
For disconnecting the tool 28, comprising a blade 29 having an extremity 30 terminated at the end by a small rectangular lamella 31 (parallelepipedic), is introduced within the trench 24 of the opening 21 between the external panel 20 of the leg 9 and the internal panel of the opening.
The extremity of the blade 29 is slightly sloped in order to favorize its introduction within the trench 24.
It is introduced in the direction of the protruding part until the extremity also slightly sloped or biased of the lamella 31 arrives in contact and then pushes such protruding part out of the hole 15, therefore authorizing the disconnection.
This is more clearly appearing on figure 4A which shows in section how the extremity 32 of the lamella 31 is on the merge to push the protruding part 14 away from the internal panel 32 of the corresponding opening.
Figure 5 shows a tool to be used in order to make the disconnection according to the present invention.
It will be remarked that such tool was to be designed specifically in order to allow the easy disconnection.
Such tool can be used in several exemplars in order to put out the different protruding parts all together, therefore allowing a complete disconnection of all the hollow posts from the support legs in one time.
As it can be seen, it comprises a plate support 33 which can be manually manipulated easily on which in the illustrated embodiment are fixed four tool poles 34 comprising the blade 30 with an extremity which is sloped 35 and which is terminated by the lamella 31 also terminated by an extremity 36 which is sloped.
All these poles can be put in place simultaneously in order to disconnect entirely in one shot one hollow post from its corresponding support legs.
Figure 6 shows in particular schematically the use of the tool 29 with a pallet of the invention which allows an easy disconnection of the hollow post 11 from the support leg 9.
It will now be more particularly described a method of assembling and disassembling two half members 2 and 3 forming a pallet as described earlier, in view of figures 3, 4 and figure 6.
For assembling the half members of the distal ends or upper parts 16 of the support legs 9 of one half pallet 3 are placed in front of the corresponding hollow posts and pressed against such hollow post in order to engage their extremities and then come in sliding contact with the interior of the corresponding opening 21 until the snap-fit latches function and the respective peripheries 23 and 25 come in contact.
For disassembling the half members one from the other, the snap-fit latches being formed by protruding part, the blades 29 of the tool are introduced in the corresponding trenches and then are pressed, therefore pushing via their lamellas on the surface of the protruding parts and ejecting said protruding parts from the corresponding holes, and therefore obtaining the disconnection by separating the two half pallet members from each other accordingly.
The tool as described is then used in order to allow a disconnection of all the protruding parts from all the holes.
The different panels are then progressively pushed away from each other and a change of the damaged half member can then for instance be undertaken.
The present invention is not limitated to the more particularly described embodiment but concerns all other equivalent embodiments and for instance embodiment having support legs and hollow posts which are not parallelepipedic but cylindrical, and/or holes and corresponding protruding parts which are not cylindrical, but rectangular or triangular.

Claims

A method for assembling and disassembling a pallet formed of two plastic material half pallet members (2, 3), said half pallet members comprising a rigid rectangular main panel (5) having a first lateral side (6) and a second lateral side (7) opposite to said first lateral side around a central axis (8) of the pallet, said half pallet members (2, 3) having identical sets of interlocking snap-fit latches (4) between each other, each of said half pallet members comprising a plurality of support legs (9, 10) having distal ends and external panels and a plurality of corresponding hollow posts (11, 12) presenting corresponding openings (21) having internal panels, said support legs and hollow posts having said snap-fit latches on their respectively external and internal panels, said snap-fit latches comprising protruding parts (14) and corresponding holes (15) disposed on each of said support legs (9,10) and hollow posts (11,12), respectively, wherein the two half pallet members are assembled together by snap-fitting of said support legs of one half pallet member with the hollow posts of the other half pallet member, said support legs and said hollow posts being integral with and projecting from the inner side of said main panel,
wherein for assembling said half pallet members (2, 3), the distal ends of the support legs (9, 10) of one half pallet are engaged with the corresponding hollow posts (11, 12) of the other half pallet by said snap-fit latches,
wherein for disassembling said half pallet members, a tool is used for pressing the protruding parts out of the corresponding holes, in order to disconnect from the corresponding hollow posts said support legs,
wherein for this purpose said snap-fit latches include guiding trenches (24), arranged to guide said tool on and along said trench for pressing the protruding parts out of the corresponding holes, said tool being introduced along said respective external and internal panels between said support legs (9, 10) and corresponding hollow posts (11, 12) for disconnection,
wherein all the holes or protruding parts of a same hollow post are disconnected from the corresponding protruding parts or holes of the corresponding support leg simultaneously using said tool at least partially in a form of a knife blade (29),
and wherein said disconnection is repeated at each support leg
and corresponding hollow post in order to disconnect entirely the two half pallet members from each other.
Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it is used a tool comprising a blade (29) having an extremity slightly sloped and terminated at the end by a small rectangular lamella (31).
Method according to claim 1, characterized in that said tool comprises a plate support (33) on which are fixed tool poles adapted to disconnect simultaneously said holes and corresponding protruding parts, each pole (34) comprising a blade (30) with an extremity (35) which is sloped and which is terminated by a lamella (31) also terminated by an extremity (36) which is sloped.
Method according to anyone of the claims 1 to 3, characterized in that each snap-fit latch includes guiding trenches (24) formed by a biased trench provided on the superior face of the protruding part disposed in alignment with an access trench disposed on at least a lateral face of one of said corresponding hollow posts or support legs, said trenches (24) is arranged to guide said tool (28) on and along said biased trench for pressing the protruding part (14) out of the corresponding hole (15).
A pallet (1) formed of two plastic material half pallet members (2, 3) to be assembled to each other in face to face relationship by identical sets of interlocking snap-fit latches (4), each of said half pallet members (2, 3) comprising a rigid rectangular main panel (5) having a first lateral side (6) and a second lateral side (7) opposite to said first lateral side around a central axis (8) of the pallet, a plurality of support legs (9, 10) and a plurality of corresponding hollow posts (11, 12), said hollow posts (11, 12) having internal panels, said support legs and said hollow posts being integral with and projecting from the inner side (13) of said main panel, wherein each half pallet comprises a first row of hollow posts (11) disposed on its first lateral side (6), a second row of support legs (9) disposed on its secondlateral side (7) and a third central row of half hollow posts (12) integral with half support legs (10) disposed opposite to said half hollow posts with regard to said central axis (8) of the pallet, the distal ends (16) of the support legs (9, 10) of one half pallet (2) being engaged with the corresponding hollow posts (11, 12) of the other half pallet (3) by said snap-fit latches (4), said snap-fit latches (4) being formed by protruding parts (14) arranged to snap in corresponding holes (15) to allow the half pallet members (2,3) to be assembled and disassembled to each other according to any of claims 1 to 4.
The pallet according to claim 5, characterized in that the protruding parts (14) are integral and disposed on the support legs (9, 10) and the holes (14) are disposed on corresponding hollow posts (11, 12).
The pallet according to claim 5, characterized in that the protruding parts are integral and disposed on the hollow posts and the holes on corresponding support legs.
The pallet according to any of the claims 6 and 7, characterized in that the protruding parts (14) and the corresponding holes (15) are cylindrical.
The pallet according to any of the claims 5 to 8, characterized in that the two half elements are of different colours.
The pallet according to any of the claims 5 to 9, characterized in that each half pallet member comprises a substantially planar top deck of the main panel for carrying articles and friction elements being mounted in openings in the top deck for increasing the friction between the pallet and any prongs of a fork lift.
The pallet according to claim 10, characterized in that each friction element extends below the top deck, comprises a top portion forming an upper collar, a bottom portion forming a lower collar and a relatively narrow middle portion between said top portion and said bottom portion.
The pallet according to any of the claims 5 to 11 characterized in that the surface of the main panel is a grating.