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Plastic pallet

  • US 4,879,956 A
  • Filed: 01/14/1988
  • Issued: 11/14/1989
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/14/1988
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A plastic pallet comprising:

  • (A) an upper generally flat polygonal plastic sheet having an upper surface and having a series of downwardly extending hollow upwardly opening protuberances each opening in said upper surface of said sheet and having a bottom wall portion;

    (B) a lower generally flat polygonal plastic sheet having a series of upwardly extending hollow downwardly opening protuberances generally corresponding in size, number, shape and distribution pattern to said downwardly extending protuberances and each having a top wall portion;

    (C) said bottom wall portion of each downwardly extending protuberance being fused to said top wall portion of the respective upwardly extending protuberance to form integral solid wall portions at the interface of each downwardly and upwardly extending set of protuberances so as to position said sheets in fixed parallel spaced relation to each other to define a substantially planar polygonal load bearing platform structure, said load bearing structure having an upper face;

    (D) said pallet further including a plurality of legs spaced circumferentially about the periphery of said load bearing member and depending downwardly from said load bearing platform structure to elevate said platform structure above a support surface by a distance to allow the entry of forklifts;

    (E) each of said legs being formed of a downwardly extending portion of each of said sheets and forming an upwardly opening pocket opening in the upper face of said load bearing member structure to allow nesting of said pallet with other pallets of similar construction;

    (F) said protuberances comprising bosses having generally cylindrical side walls so as to each coact with the matching boss to form a generally cylindrical column extending vertically between said upper and lower sheets;

    (G) said bosses being arranged in generally parallel rows on each sheet with each row, except where interrupted by said pockets, extending from a location proximate a first edge of said platform structure to a location proximate a second edge of said platform structure opposite said first edge;

    (H) said bosses being substantially equally spaced along each row for the entire length of each row;

    (I) said rows being substantially equally spaced and extending from a first row proximate a third edge of said platform structure to a final row proximate a fourth edge of said platform structure opposite said third edge;

    (J) the distance between successive bosses in each row and the distance between adjacent rows being selected to provide a plurality of bosses between adjacent pocket openings as measured between said first and second edges as well as measured between said third and fourth edges so as to form a series of tightly spaced columns between said sheets in all major areas of said platform structure not occupied by said legs.

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