Environment friendly reusable pallet wrap

FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention relates to field of packaging of goods for transport using a pallet wrap which is made of fabric which is reusable and is environment friendly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

In commercial as well as industrial establishments, goods need to be packed and sent from one place to another. Packaging refers to enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale and use wherein goods are prepared for transport, warehousing, logistics, sale and end use. The most common method of bulk handling of goods, warehouse storage and transport shipping is palletizing wherein goods are packed in boxes or cartons, stacked on a pallet. A pallet is a plastic or wooden, flat transport structure, having two or four side fork entries for lifting, which supports goods in a stable manner while being lifted or moved by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device or an erect crane. During such transfers, goods on the pallets tend to shift or fell down due to movement or turning of forklift or due to jerks or bumps on the surface. To prevent such falling or shifting, goods on the pallet are wrapped with plastic stretch or shrink wrap by applying optimum amount of tension on the wrap in order to avoid felling of goods from the pallet. This makes movement of goods easier. The handling and storage of unit loads becomes more efficient due to pallet wrapping. Moreover it provides dust protection, moisture protection, tamper resistance, resistance to package pilferage, sun protection etc.

The two most commonly used pallet wrapping techniques are stretch wrap and shrink wrap. Stretch wrap or stretch film is a highly stretchable plastic film that is wrapped around items, the elastic recovery of which keeps the items tightly bound on the pallet. In contrast shrink wrap is a loosely applied plastic film around a load, which shrinks tightly with heat. Both these wrapping techniques of pallets are used worldwide and involve the use of plastic films which are discarded after a single use. US Patent 6050419 provides an adjustable-length, reusable, recyclable pallet wrap for constraining a lading while displaying high-impact graphics. The pallet wrap preferably has a set of horizontally-spaced, vertically-oriented, preformed lines of reduced resistance to bending at each of four regions to facilitate providing a snug fit around typical pallets or ladings of various sizes. In one embodiment, a dual-function pallet wrap is provided which can function as a pallet skirt for in-store displays in addition to functioning as a constraint for the lading.

US Patent 10093780 features a shrink film having a desirable balance of properties manufactured from a polyethylene blend composition having a fractional melt index and a molecular weight distribution of from about 2.5 to about 7. The blend composition comprises a first blend component that is made with a single site catalyst and has a molecular weight of greater than about 140,000 and a first density, d.sub. l . The blend composition also contains a second blend component having a lower molecular weight and a second density, d.sub.2, that is greater than the density of d.sub. l in an amount of from about 0.018 to about 0.032 g/cc. The films of this disclosure may be used, for example, as an overwrap or pallet wrap to protect goods during shipping and in food packaging applications (such as shrink wrap for frozen poultry).

US Patent Application 20020189507 discloses a low-cost, strong, and ecological pallet with pallet blocks having honeycomb cores. The honeycomb cores provide strength in the vertical direction, and their integrity is protected by a honeycomb material overwrap. The honeycomb material wrap provides exceptional strength against lateral forces. The pallet and pallet blocks may be manufactured of kraft material or other sturdy materials.

US Patent Application 20190001649 gives a prestretched polyethylene film having a longitudinal degree of pre -stretching above 70% and a remaining longitudinal elongation capability of at least 300% as determined according to ASTM D882, wherein said film is a coextruded blown film comprising at least one core layer arranged between two exterior layers, wherein the thickness of the film is in the range of 10-30 .mu.m, and wherein the film comprises at least 25% by weight of a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) substantially free from long chain branching (LCB) produced using a Ziegler Natta catalyst and hexene, heptene or octene as comonomer and having a density of between 910 and 915 kg/m.sup.3. Use of the prestretched polyethylene film as an agricultural balewrap film or silage film, pallet wrapping film, or waste wrap film.

WO 2017108965 describes a a method for the tamper-proof sealing of packaged goods on a pallet, by pulling a shrink-wrap cover over the packaged goods and irreversibly welding the cover to a base film. Another object of the invention is a device for the tamper-proof sealing of packaged goods on a pallet. The method and device according to the invention allow the provision of tamper-proof packaging of packaged goods on a pallet. The receiver of the goods and other participants in the transport chain, such as forwarding agents, authorities and security forces at airports can evaluate the integrity of the shipment, when the goods are received, by the individual, contoured weld seam and by checking that the encapsulation of the packaged goods in the film is intact.

AU 2012200832 relates to the "Reusable Pallet Wrap" which is a roll of fabric designed to wrap a pallet of goods and can be retrieved and reused several times. A cost saving initiative in high volume usage environments where it is possible to retrieve the wraps used. JP 2002-028177 provides a pallet and a method for conveying an article, in which an extensible fdm is hardly detached when an article to be placed is packed by an extensible fdm in a polygonal pallet made of a synthetic resin. The pallet made of synthetic resin is constituted of a top plate part, a plurality of girder parts supporting the top plate part, and a bottom plate part 13 connecting the girder parts. Further, a satin surface is formed above the comer outer portion S on the girder portion 12 C disposed at the comer of the pallet. Therefore, when the wrap is wound together with the pallet and the article, the wrap is wound so as to cover the satin surface N. Accordingly, when the wrap shrinks after winding, the wrap is locked to the satin surface, so that it hardly comes off from the pallet.

CN 104528163 provides an abrasion-resisting packing material. The abrasion-resisting packing material comprises a base material, a protection layer and abrasion-resisting bars. The protection layer evenly wraps the outer surface of the base material. The abrasion- resisting bars are arranged on the side edges of the base material and arranged on the outer layer of the protection layer. The base material is made of a paperboard. The protection layer is made of one or more of non-woven fabrics, Dacron, nylon, polypropylene fibers and vinalon, and the abrasion-resisting bars are made of mbber. By means of the mode, the abrasion-resisting packing material has the advantages of being firm, durable, economical, environmentally friendly, easy and convenient to manufacture, wide in application, resistant to abrasion, high in strength, safe, reliable and the like, and the abrasion-resisting packing material has wide market prospects in popularization.

Indian Patent Application 1840/CHE/2014 discusses a drive-in storage system which has rails (3) supported by uprights (2a) and support brackets (2b) for positioning items (la) on rails (3). A specially designed entry guide (1) is fixed at each rail end for alignment of items during storing and retrieval. Entry guide (1) has two flanged nuts (4b), around which Nylon 6 with 25% glass filling is moulded to form its body it is bolted to bracket (2b) and aligned to rail ends (3). Entry guide (1) is a rib based plastic structure provided with a plurality of ribs (5) and a plurality of planar surfaces (6) adjoining these ribs at multiple planes which together impart necessary guide angles to the entry guide (1 ) for guiding the pallet at all planes while entry.

Although a number of pallet wraps are available in the prior art, most of them involve the use of plastic sheets which are discarded after use, resulting in BPA poisoning and hazardous impact on the environment. Moreover manual wrapping of pallets available in the prior art requires more energy, poor postures and movements like frequent bending, holding heavy stretch film roll and applying high force which affects the backside of warehouse workers and cause various musculoskeletal diseases. Hand-wrapping a pallet takes around 3- 4 minutes, and for each such pallet, the worker has to strain his body a lot. Stretch wrap pallets can cling with each other and puncturing of the plastic films may occur at the comers due to sharp edges. During transit or movement of the load, abrupt starting and stopping of vehicles, vibrations and sharp turns may lead to shifting of the load causing damages to the goods. Manual wrapping of pallets is easier at the middle part of the load as compared to the top and bottom parts due to which the middle part gets tightly wrapped by the workmen while the top and bottom parts are weakly bound leading to non-uniform containment force. Over stretching of the wraps can lead to film breakage, causing alteration in containment force. Even during the dispatch or loading of goods on trucks or trailers, the stretch or shrink film wraps are tom off and thrown away as wastage. Recycling of such films is very rarely observed due to which the plastic pollution increases. In developing countries like India, plastic pollution is increasing day by day as limited recycling options are available.

So a pallet wrap, which is made of environment friendly material, which is reusable, which reduces plastic waste generation, which is easy to wrap manually without compromising the health of the warehouse worker, which serves the purpose of load holding and prevents load shifting from the pallet and which is economical, is the need of the day.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION:

The main object of the invention is to provide for environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which produces zero environmental waste providing a clean and green technology for pallet wrapping which can be used to hold and protect the load of varied size and dimensions, laden on the pallet, such that the goods do not shift or fall from the pallet during transfers or storage.

Another object of the invention is to provide for environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which can be reused for up to 18 to 24 months or even more depending upon the handling and usage and can be washed as and when required.

Still another object of the invention is to provide for environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which is quick and easy to wrap and unwrap with the help of adjustable straps, thereby saving time.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide for environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which is made of strong heavy-duty weather resistant see-through fabric mesh providing it greater strength, weather stability as well as ventilation.

A further object of the invention is to provide for environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which reduces the annual cost of pallet wrapping by 60-70% and doesn’t require additional wrapping instrument for proper wrapping.

A still further object of the invention is to provide for environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which provides a consistent method of securing a pallet load with uniform containment force, preventing the chances of load shifting. A yet further object of the invention is to provide for environment friendly reusable pallet wrap with a handy in-built document pouch for securing the identification documents or other such documents of the goods on the pallet. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention is related to environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which is basically made of nylon mesh fabric stitched with heavy duty industrial threads. Vertical plastic rods are placed at intervals on the fabric to maintain the stability of the pallet load. Adjustable straps having hook and loop fasteners stitched on them, are stitched on the fabric using industrial threads. Metal steel buckles too are stitched on the fabric through which the adjustable straps are passed and optimum tension is applied for fixing and tightening the wrap after placing the required goods on the pallet. Moreover, a protection is provided at the bottom side of the wrap to prevent the load shifting from the pallet. The size of the pallet wraps is according to all standard pallet dimensions available internationally. However customized pallet wraps are made as per requirement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING:

Fig. 1 gives the design of the pallet wrap mainly comprising of fabric mesh and straps.

Fig. 2 gives the drawing of the pallet wrap applied on goods loaded on a pallet.

Fig. 3 gives the drawing of a sectional view of the wrap tightened with straps on the load placed on the pallet with one method.

Fig. 4 gives the drawing of a sectional view of the wrap tightened with straps on the load placed on the pallet with second method.

Fig. 5 gives the drawing of a sectional view of the wrap tightened with straps on the load placed on the pallet with third method. DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

The nature of the invention and the manner in which it is performed is clearly described in the specification. The invention has various components and they are clearly described in the detailed description.

Throughout the world, goods need to be stored and transported from one place to another. For this storage and transportation, they are packed in cartons or boxes. For the movement of these cartons or boxes, they are stacked on wooden or plastic pallets and transferred using forklift or other such transferring equipments. During such transfer, the boxes or cartons on the pallet may shift or fall down. To prevent such shifting or falling, the pallets are wrapped around by applying optimum amount of tension on the wrap, such that the goods are tightly bound and cant move or fell down.

The present invention describes an environment friendly reusable pallet wrap which serves the purpose of load holding as well as prevents load shifting from the pallet. These environment friendly pallet wraps are made of fabric mesh and are reusable for a long time reducing the quantity of plastic waste generated from conventionally available single use pallet wraps. Moreover, wrapping of pallets using the wrap of the present invention is quick and easy leading to fester wrapping and minimal strain to the worker wrapping the pallet. Such sustainable solution reduces the pallet wrapping cost of commercial establishments.

The pallet wrap of the present invention can hold and protect the load of various sizes and dimensions, laden on the pallet such that the load doesn’t shift or fell off the pallet during transfer or storage. It is available in all standard sizes of international markets and can be made of any other size as per the requirement. Being fast and easy to wrap, it saves time due to which more pallets can be wrapped by a single worker in a short time. The pallet wrap has adjustable straps made of hook and loop fasteners which are flexible and can be adjusted to apply optimum tension required to tightly bind the pallet. Protection is also provided at the bottom of the wrap to prevent load shifting from the pallet. The straps are locked or removably attached for tightening the wrap and pallet.

In one embodiment of the invention, the fabric of the pallet wrap is made of nylon mesh fabric 15. However, the fabric can also be composed of polypropylene, polyester or any similar kind of synthetic material. Similarly, the webbing straps of the wrap can also be made of polypropylene, nylon or any other synthetic mixtures. The present invention is described in detail as follows, with the help of the drawings.

Fig. 1 shows the detailed design of the pallet wrap of the present invention wherein the rectangular fabric mesh of the wrap includes two ends 4 and 9 with one upper end 16 and one lower end 6. This rectangular panel has various components which make pallet wrapping easier and hold the laden goods tightly. The first end 4 and the second end 9 have an adjacent vertically sewn-in pocket 1 1 of webbing straps, made of one among polypropylene, nylon or any other synthetic mixture. In this pocket is placed a rigid rod like structure 1 and 12, which can be a UPVC pipe (3/4”, Sch 80) or a similar structure made of any other material and the required dimensions, which provides rigidity to the wrap and prevents the wrap from buckling up. Depending on the type of the pallet load, the wrap may consist of two or three such pockets with similar rigid rod like pipes which can be removably inserted in the pockets to provide rigidity to the wrap. Multiple such pockets 11 can be sewn in from both the upper as well as lower ends to insert the rigid structure, as per the requirement. These pockets are closed by sewing or by any other method of locking of pockets. Multiple straps of hook and loop fastener tape 5 are sewn on the pallet wrap panel. Half part of these straps, having loop fastener tape, is sewn on the pallet wrap panel while the rest of the strap having hook fastener tape is not sewed on the wrap and is kept free for fastening purposes. For passing these straps through, multiple rectangular metal buckles 8 are sewn on the pallet wrap panel adjacent to the pocket 1 1. During wrapping, from the one end 4, the unstitched free part of the plurality of straps 5, having hook fasteners are passed through the buckles 8 and then after applying required tension, the straps are attached to their loop part. A second set 7 of rectangular metal buckles can be provided on the wrap panel to cater to loads having longer as well as shorter peripheral length. To keep the metal buckles steady and durable, a webbing strap 13 is vertically sewn onto the buckles, from the upper end 16 to the lower end 6. A flexible pocket 3, preferably made up of flexible PVC tubing or similar transparent material, is sewn on the pallet wrap panel, to secure documents or articles, related to the laden goods, such that they can be easily and immediately procured, when asked for. A webbing strap 2 is provided on the top of the pallet wrap panel having hook or loop fastener tape stitched onto it, which is partially stitched on the top end 16 of the pallet wrap panel while the rest of the unstitched part of this strap 2 is received at the distal part of the pallet wrap panel by the hook or loop fastener tape 14, stitched at the top end 16 of the pallet wrap panel. When not in use, in an unwrapped state, the pallet wrap is kept locked as a roll with the help of hook and loop fastener tapes 10, sewn on the pallet wrap panel.

Fig. 2 shows the environment friendly reusable pallet wrap of the present invention wrapped around the load on the pallet and bound tightly with the help of straps. The two ends of the wrap, 4 and 9 are pulled together around the load and tightened with the help of straps 2 and 5, fastened through metal buckles 8 which can alternately be fastened to the farther metal buckles 7 as required. Vertical webbing strap 13, sewn from the upper end 16 upto the lower end 6, on the metal buckles keeps them steady and durable. Transparent pocket 3 is provided to hold the documents or articles related to the load.

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 show different locking systems at the bottom part of the pallet comers to prevent the wrapped pallet load from shifting off the pallet.

Fig. 3 shows webbing straps sewn on the bottom part of the pallet wrap panel which are sewn on hook or loop fastener tapes. As shown in the fig., the sewn strap A travels from the bottom part of the pallet, where an entry for the lifting fork is provided, and is received by the hook or loop fastener tape B sewn on the distal bottom part of the pallet wrap panel. Two or four sets of such bottom straps can be provided for attaching the laden goods to the pallet itself and preventing them from shifting.

Fig. 4 shows a similar locking system, wherein the sewn on the hook or loop fastener tape C, is received by the sewn on rectangular metal buckle D. After applying optimum tension, the strap C is attached to itself to the corresponding hook or loop fastener tape.

Fig. 5 shows a similar locking system, wherein two rectangular metal buckles E are sewn on the bottom part of the pallet wrap panel by keeping an optimum distance between the two buckles E. An additional loose webbing strap F, having sewn-in hook and loop fastener tape, is provided to pass through the two buckles E. After passing through the buckles, an optimum amount of tension is applied by pulling the strap F in order to attach the pallet load to the pallet itself.

The pallet wrap is made of nylon mesh fabric which can alternatively be made of polypropylene, polyester or similar synthetic material having good tensile strength. The webbing straps of the wrap are made of nylon or polypropylene or any other synthetic material. The hook and loop material is made of nylon and polyester. The thread used for stitching of all the components of the pallet wrap is industrial thread which is thick and strong. The metal buckles provided in the wrap are made of MS steel. The pallet wrap of the present invention is available in different sizes as per all international standards pallet dimensions but can be customized as per the requirement.

The environment friendly reusable pallet wrap of the present invention is highly advantageous. As it is made of strong fabric material, it can be reused again and again for 1-2 years or even longer and can even be washed whenever required. This makes the wrap environment friendly in contrast to the existing pallet wraps most of which are made of plastic films which are discarded after single use and add to the plastic pollution on the earth. The wrapping of goods on the pallet using the wrap of the present invention can be easily done manually and doesn’t require additional wrapping equipment. As the wrapping as well as unwrapping is quick and easy, much time and energy is saved, decreasing load on the manpower as well as reducing the pallet wrapping cost. Moreover, the worker wrapping the pallet doesn’t have to strain his body during the wrapping making it safe without any damages or injuries to his body. As the pallet is secured with a uniform containment force, the present invention provides enhanced security and prevents the chances of load shifting. This wrap involves the use of industrial grade high tensile strength fabric with ventilation, which is stable in both frozen and normal conditions thereby reducing the chances of moisture build-up or food spoilage in the packing. The present invention also has a transparent document pouch which can hold documents or articles related to the goods packed on the pallet for handy reference. Thus the pallet wrap of the present invention is highly advantageous.

Although the preferred embodiment as well as the construction and use have been specifically described, it should be understood that variations in the preferred embodiment could be achieved by a person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. The invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments which are merely illustrative and not intended to limit the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.