Load bearing structure for composite ecological shipping pallet
AssigneeConrad Herring
InventorRichard A. Halavais
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Abstract
A shipping pallet offers significant advantage over the prior art, in that it is stronger, lighter, stiffer and more rigid, more economical, and ecologically sound. The pallet for shipping materials includes a deck that has a plurality of arch elements situated adjacent to each other and wherein each of the arch elements is situated such that a load applied to the deck will transmit forces through each of the arch elements and towards adjacent arch elements, such that forces from adjacent arch elements intersect each other at an intersection point. One advantage of this structural design is that the intersecting forces create a countervailing compressive stress to fully or partially offset the forces from the applied load by laterally redirecting the stress inducing forces.
Claims28
A pallet for shipping materials comprising:
- a rigid deck that has a plurality of adjacent arch elements arranged in an intersecting configuration including a plurality of adjacent arch elements arranged in a configuration in which a downward force from the applied load of the shipping materials is translated laterally by said adjacent arches to provide lateral compressive forces between said adjacent arches to strengthen said deck;
- and
- a plurality of legs extending from said lower surface of said deck for supporting said deck.
A pallet for shipping materials comprising a rigid deck that has an upper and a lower surface and a plurality of arch elements configured with their top peaks proximate to the upper surface, said deck including a plurality of adjacent arch elements situated in an intersecting configuration such that downward forces from a load applied to the upper surface of said deck are distributed from the top of said arches downwardly through each of said arch elements and laterally towards adjacent arch elements, such that forces from adjacent arch elements intersect each other to provide lateral compressive forces to strengthen said deck.
A load bearing structure including a deck for supporting a load that applies downward forces that imposes tensile stresses on said deck, said deck comprising a plurality of arch elements situated in an adjacent intersecting configuration to generate compressive forces between adjacent arch elements responsive to an applied load, said compressive forces generated proximate to said tensile stresses to at least partially offset said tensile stresses, thereby strengthening said deck.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.