CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a national stage entry of International Patent Application No. PCT/HU2018/050018, filed on May 9, 2018, which claims priority to Hungarian Patent Application No. P1700398, filed on Sep. 28, 2017.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING

Not applicable.

STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR A JOINT INVENTOR

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a foldable frame for containers having a polygonal base mount made of studs, and a polygonal upper mount parallel to the base mount made of studs and having a number of angles equal to those of the base mount, and said mounts are connected together by means of columns of equal length attached with hinges to corner blocks provided at connections of the studs, and the columns are formed of at least two sections of the same length and the adjacent sections are joined together by a hinged member, and a hinged member formed with a first bushing connected to a sliding block, a second bushing having common axle with the first bushing and secured to the sliding block, and a hinge pin provided in the bushings, and a sliding guide is provided on at least one sliding block.

Brief Description of Related Art

In recent decades, the use of containers has been almost exclusively made by sea, rail and, therefore, partly in road freight as the costs of commercial transportation can be drastically reduced by avoiding intermediate loading costs. Transferring the freight container from one vehicle to another is a cheap and fast solution. Containers can be transported directly from the harbor on trucks and/or trains. Containers are suitable for transporting of long distance and large mass freight, regardless of the type of goods, so their use is widespread and standardized.

As a result of the rapid increase in the use of containers, storing spaces had to be built for empty containers. The temporary storage of a large number of empty containers required new investments in the ports, while the transport of empty containers reduced the efficiency of container transport, because it had the same transport capacity as the container fully loaded with goods.

In the past decades, several attempts have been made to solve the problem. As a result, foldable containers have been created, the volume of which in collapsed condition significantly reduces the space requirement of the transport and thus the specific cost thereof.

For example such a solution is disclosed by the patent document US 20160039603A1. The folding containers according to the solution can be stacked after collapsing. The container contains floor plate, roof plate, back plate, front plate and longitudinal sidewalls split in half along with their lengths that are joined to each other along their common edges, with pivoted hinges. When the container is collapsed, the back plate and the element forming the front plate are first folded to the floor plate and the longitudinal side walls tend to align to the floor plate by their central hinges, while the roof plate retained by a lifting device is lowered. The container is set in reverse order. The disadvantage of the solution primarily is that a solid and reliable fixing of the longitudinal sidewall bands of the set container requires complicated and cumbersome fastening means that forms separate elements.

Publication document WO9928215A1 discloses a similar solution but it does not require complicated fasteners for solid and reliable mounting of longitudinal sidewall bands of the mounted container. However, the disadvantage of the solution is that the fasteners of the container set up are readily accessible by unauthorized persons and therefore unsafe.

For container according to document U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,618, means for fastening the longitudinal foldable sidewall is, therefore, inside the container and thus makes it impossible unauthorized access, if the container is properly closed. The disadvantage of the solution is, firstly, that for opening of the fastener one must enter the container to be folded, which can be dangerous even proper precautionary measures are taken.

With the widespread use of the transport containers made from load-bearing frame, sidewalls and freight doors arranged usually on the short sidewalls, other use of the containers beside the freight transport has also begun to be utilized. Containers having traditional frame but equipped with doors, windows on the side walls and with other auxiliary devices, which are customized for work or even residential space, are suitable for creating temporary installations, installing parade buildings, creating temporary or permanent residence systems. By combining such containers one can even build container assemblies for quick installations. Also with containers for such purposes it is important as well that the transport of empty containers and the storage of unused containers can be achieved in a collapsed state, which greatly increases the efficiency of use. However, for these containers technical solutions according to the state of the art cannot be considered achievable, since the basic requirement is not only to allow the container to be set up quickly and safely, but also to prevent unauthorized persons from being able to access to and dismantle the hinges and fixing means of the container frame by hand either from the outside or inside the container.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a foldable container frame, whose fixing and hinged elements are inaccessible to the user of the installed container and can be detached only by mechanical force. The container frame may be equipped for different purposes, for example with solid shell that is sidewalls, roof and floor plates and cargo doors for carriage of goods, or with side walls provided with doors and windows or other openings in addition to the roof and floor panels for work and residential installations, but the frame itself it can be used without side walls, roof and floor plates e.g. for transport and storage of vessels or for applications that do not require any shell on the frame.

In addition, our further object is to provide a container frame that can be installed and latched quickly and easily and both dismantling and folding of the container frame would be quick, simple, economic and safe at the same time.

Above objects can be achieved by providing a foldable frame for containers having a polygonal base mount made of studs, and a polygonal upper mount parallel to the base mount made of studs and having a number of angles equal to those of the base mount, and said mounts are connected together by means of columns of equal length attached with hinges to corner blocks provided at connections of the studs, and the columns are formed of at least two sections of the same length and the adjacent sections are joined together by a hinged member, and at least one of adjacent sections is provided with an inner cavity, and the hinged member contains: a first bushing connected to a sliding block movably disposed in the cavity of the first section, a second bushing having common axle with the first bushing and secured to a locking member arranged at least in part in the inner cavity of the adjacent second section, and a hinge pin provided in the bushings.

The sliding block arranged in the inner cavity of the second section is secured to the second section of the column.

A guide for restricting the displacement of the sliding block is fixed in the inner cavity of at least one section, and a stopper is formed on the sliding block.

There is such a relative angular position of the hinged member and the column around the axis, at which a smallest distance of the outer walls of the sections is smaller than the distance of the shaft and the axis of the hinge pin.

Our aim can also be achieved by providing a hinged member formed with a first bushing connected to a sliding block, a second bushing having common axle with the first bushing and secured to the sliding block, and a hinge pin provided in the bushings, and a sliding guide is provided on at least one sliding block.

At least one sliding block is provided with a stopper.

The sliding block is provided with a latch head.

