Pallet constructed of sheet material
AssigneeGeorgia-Pacific Corporation
InventorStephen E. Moorman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pallet is formed of sheet material such as corrugated paperboard and has as its primary components a platform or upper deck upon which materials may be placed and a plurality of runners depending from the platform for elevating the platform and providing load-bearing strength. Only two types of blanks of sheet material are required to assemble a completed pallet. A first blank forms an upper deck or platform layer as well as a first set of runners formed of adjacent panels secured together in face-to-face relation. A second blank forms a second set of runners formed of adjacent panels secured together in face-to-face relation and, in one preferred embodiment, additional underlayers of the platform.
Claims11
A pallet for storing and transporting material thereon, comprising:
- two first sheet members which cooperate to form an upper deck top layer and a first set of spaced runners depending from said upper deck and extending in a first direction;
- and
- two second sheet members which cooperate to form at least one upper deck lower layer and a second set of spaced runners depending from said upper deck and extending in a second direction perpendicular to said first direction.
A blank of sheet material for forming a plurality of layers of a pallet platform and a plurality of runners depending therefrom, said blank comprising:
- a first platform layer forming panel and a second platform layer forming panel movably connected with said first platform layer panel through a plurality of series of runner-forming panels connected to each other and to the first and second platform layer forming panels along respective hinged edges thereof, whereby when said runner-forming panels within a series are folded against each other in an accordion-like manner, said first and second platform layers at least partially overlap with each other to form multiple platform layers, and said runner-forming panels form a plurality runners depending therefrom.
A set of blanks of sheet material for forming a pallet, said set of blanks comprising a first blank and a second blank,
- said first blank comprising a platform upper layer-forming panel and a plurality of runner-forming panels hingedly attached to opposite edges of the platform-forming panel, said runner-forming panels including pairs of panels hingedly connected at adjacent edges thereof and a plurality of spaced-apart cut-outs extending across said adjacent edges for forming cross-runner receiving slots when the runner-forming panels are folded together in an accordion-like manner,
- said second blank comprising a first platform underlayer forming panel and a second platform underlayer forming panel movably connected with said first platform underlayer forming panel through a plurality of series of cross-runner forming panels connected to each other and to the first and second platform underlayer forming panels along respective hinged edges thereof, whereby when said cross-runner forming panels within a series are folded against each other in an accordion-like manner, said first and second platform underlayer forming panels at least partially overlap with each other to form multiple platform layers, and said cross-runner-forming panels form a plurality of cross-runners depending therefrom.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.