US1988513A - Method of shipping sheet metal - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 22, 1935.- E. s. RICKETTS ET AL 1,983,513

METHOD OF SHIPPING SHEET METAL Filed Oct. 27, 1931 INVENTOR-S, ErHsLwvBJF/c/re'rra, BY 44/. VA hi Moo/v.

wd/Y'M ATTORNE Y5- Patented. Jan. 22,1935

-; UNITED STATES "PATENT OFFICE msrnon or misf s; sneer I Ethelyn B. Bicketts and Alva'ffl. Moon,Middletown, Ohio, assignors to The American Boiling Mill Company, Middleton, Ohio, a corporation of om 1 Application cement, 1931, Serial No. 571,468

column.

This invention relates to the preparation and handling of sheet metal. particularly strip, sheet, or bar steel, or other articles of merchandise, for the purpose ofwsh'ipping the same in railroad cars, motor, trucks, ships, carriers, and the like; an object of the invention being to provide a new and more eflicient method of loading and trans porting .metal,. steel sheets, or merchandise in unit loads, free'to move as units, but, such movement counteracted in part by retarding means.

In customary practice sheets have been arranged for loading in packs or stacks, suitably bound and placed on the freight car floor and transported to destination. Each pack, or stack of sheets, weighing frequently as much as five to ten tons, has been supported either directly or through the medium of wood members, platforms, or skids on the car floor with the individual sheets piled flatwise and held in the stacks by means of binding elements, such as steel bands or wire. Moreover, according to conventional practices, the stacks have either been 'braced or anchored to the car floor against movement, or

I freely supported to permit. the stack or packto shift as a whole, as a result of shocks or jolts to which the caris subjected in transit.

. The prevailing practice in'shipping sheet metal is to use flexible steel bands, or wire, and where these are used to bind the unit pack. The free movement or sliding on the car door of the pack, to take up the shocks, has been considered advantageous in order to minimize the relative sliding of the sheets (which are usually oiled) or to prevent the'breaking of the binders and the scattering of the sheetsover the car fioor. This modern system reduces the amount of dunnage by eliminating a substantial amount oi wood bracing formerly used. J

The unit packs of sheet metal may be made upon the shipping room floor of the rolling mill and to prevent the bundle from shifting sidewise in transit. i L.

heretofore, by this unit method of shipping, we have, in some cases where severe shocks ocour in transit, found that the sheet metal units,

weighing as much as ten tons, had shifted or moved from their original position in the car, in front of the doorway, where it was practically impossibleto take them from the car as a unit by truck or lifting device.

An object of this invention is, while allowing or permitting the unit pack of sheet metal to move as a unit on the car floor, to resist or retard excessive movement under extreme heavy shocks,

so as to keep the pack of sheet metalin as near 10 its original location in the car as possible.

In shipping sheet, steel, the number of bundles or packs to be placed in a car'varies with the length and width of the sheets, weight of the bundle, and capacity of car. In some cases, it is 15 desired to place fouror flve fiac ksin a box or gondola car, that is, one in each corner and one in the center. In other cases, where the sheets are extremely wide and long, and the bundles heavy, it is only feasible to place two such packs, go

one in each end of the car. In other cases, where a short sheets are involved, it is sometimes customary ,iirst to make up three or more separate units, place them in the car and then-bindthe separate units into one composite unit, having 3 one unit in each endo'f the car. In cases of this kind anygreat amount of shifting or moving of either unit; towards the center of the car generally consumes the entire-space before the door .tion. 9

The unit method of shipping sheet steel has 35 been found to be satisfactory, economical and practical, except for this one diiliculty, viz., of too much shifting or moving of the unit. out of its original position and, inmost cases, towards center of. car while in transit{ also the bundles sometimes bump into the ends of the car, causing damage to both sheets and car. In some cases the bundles bump into each other causing sheet damage.

In the past, various means have'been resorted 4 to to control the movement of thispack, such as guiding means (which are generally 1" x 3" wood strips nailed to theiioor of car. running longitudinally of car parallel with'and against the pack or skids) and bumpers (lumber nailed to ly nailed to the door, on excem ive' shocks when the bumpers are strong enough to resist. the bindas ers break and the bundle falls to pieces in transit scattering the sheets throughput the car. In other cases, an excessive bump of the pack against the bumper breaks it loose from the car floor and the pack moves beyond its allotted space, and in some cases, in front of the doorway of the car.

Various means have heretofore been devised for retarding movement of packs, such as caulks of various kinds; spikes projecting through skids; sharp ridges on bottom of skids or channels, acting as skids; wedges set under ends of pack to permit pack to slide upward instead of longitudinally; guide rails set'and nailed to floor of car in such manner to pinch or squeeze the skids when longitudinal movement occurs.

Also sheets have been set on edge to obtain the benefit of the additional friction obtained on edges. This method is effective only under light impacts and can be unloaded only by special means. All means used which set up a gouging or dragging effect are undesirable because of their destructive nature to the car floors. g

. Wedges, as commonly used, are effective only on light impacts because as the pack slides up the incline of the wedges at one end, they slide down the incline at the other end, with the result that the horizontal retarding effect of the wedges is almost nothing.

stood from the following specification taken with the accompanying drawing, in which, for purposes of illustration, but one embodiment is illustrated.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 represents a medium for frictional resistance, to be placed on the car floor under the entire .unit pack and binders.

Fig. 2 shows supporting members for a unit bundle of sheets, together with four of the resisting means, shown in Fig. I placed on the car floor.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a completed unit of sheet steel.

Fig. 4 shows a side view of the completed unit of sheet metal shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 represents an end view of the unit shown in Fig. 3.

Before explaining in detail the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawing, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways.

Itis to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description, and not of limitation, as it is not intended to limit the invention beyond the requirements of the prior art.

It is also to be understood that this invention may be applied to any form of modern unit sliding pack of strip, sheet, or bar metal, or article of merchandise, or any commodity, when shipped in unit packs, that is, when transported in form other than what is commonly known as American Railway Association rigid blocking or solid bracing a load-unit made up of a plurality of flat sheets, such as sheets of steel, or the like, whereby a unit is obtained of suflicient size and weight to retain itself against substantial displacement in the car under ordinary shocks in transit by at a plurality of interspaced points. The binders may run both crosswiseand lengthwise of the pack, or, in the case of dry sheets, we have found that crosswise bands are suflicient. When wire is used, it is generally the practice to use two strands, as shown in the drawings, but in a case where a narrow steel band is used, one will answer the purpose.

It is advisable in some cases to use wide strips of; reinforcing metal 4 beneath the bands or wire so that the edges of the sheets will be protected.

In making up one of these unit packs, we first provide a sumcient number of skids or members 5,-as shown in Fig. 2, although in some cases, skids, or means interposed between stack ,of metal and car floor, are not used. We then attach the reinforcing metal 4 to skids, placing wires or bands 3 under the reinforcing metal 4. We then lay the wires or bands, which we propose to use as bind- The nature of the invention will be under-' ing, sidewise members, on top of the skids and then place the stack of metal, two or three sheets at a time, or lift the entire pack in position on top of the skeleton composed of skids, binders,

- and reinforcing members. After this, we tie the binders, at the same time pulling them under tension, by means of tools now upon the market which are found to be commercially satisfactory and practical. The skids are generally fastened to the unit pack, although in our illustration it is proposed to make them a part of the pack.

We then place upon the floor of the freght car or carrier a tenacious, elastic or gummy substance, such as pure asphalt, or asphaltic compounds, such as asphalt mixed with toluol, benzine, turpentine, painters naphtha, torch oil, gasolene,'a carbonaceous or bituminous compound, or, in fact, any substance to produce the desired degree of resistivity when used .as a retarding or counteracting medium. This tenacious material may be of any size, but we have found in actual practice overthe railroads from mills to customers that four cakes of pure asphalt coated or uncoat ed may be placed under a unit pack, as shown by the numeral 6 in Fig. 2, these cakes being as small as 3." x 5"-x A" thick, but more or less asphalt may be used if desired. In warm climates, it is found unnecessary to mix anything with the asphalt, but in cooler climates the asphalt may be softened by the addition of toluol, or any of the above mentioned asphaltic mixtures, in any quantities.

We have found that in rolling mill practice, a grease in cake form is used on the neck of rolling mills known throughout the industry as hot or cold neck grease.

As this hard grease is of a consistency equal to asphalt,'we desire to include it specifically as a retarding means. It may be used in cakes about 3!!x5!!x1/2!!. I

Asphalt, grease, or other tenacious and adhesive materials when coated with soapstone mixed with glycerine, or soapstone alone, talcum powder, or

the like, are free of a condition of adhesiveness on their surfaces which permits the use of these 1,998,518 I 1 .materials without smearing, or sticking to surfaces in contact threwith. At the same time,

soapstone or talcum powder does not sufficiently diminish the adhesive qualities to cause a slippery condition and the full degree of tenacity of the asphalt or grease is maintained.

Two. cakes, strips, or blocks of asphalt, particularly strips, when placed one above the other .on the'car floor with other material, .such as glycerlne, soapstone, soft grease, oil, or the like,

interposed between the cakes, will produce a condition whereby friction may be increased or decreased. as desired. By coating the faces in con tact with a lubricating Tagent', such as soft oil, friction may be reduced a point of smoothness or a slippery condition and by changing this coating a, a soft elastic or adhesive agent, such as soft grease, glue, tar,pitch, or'the like, friction' may be increased to any desired-point.

Cakes, slabs, or patches of rubber placed under a unit sliding pack of sheet metal, is another satisfactory device to eliminateexces'sive slidi ng f the pack. we have also found that old rubber automobile tire casings, parts of casings, and inner tubes of automobile tires, placed under a flve i or ten-ton" pack of sheet metal will be found suitable for this purpose. 1

. e we have described asphalt, asphaltic compositions, hard cold grease, and rubber, as being'variousmeans for retarding and restricting the movement of a modern unit sliding pack of sheet metal, it is to be understood that-the invention herein contained is not to be limited to these specific means, as other means, or other. compositions of matter may be usedwithout departing from the spirit of this invention. The particular material employed will be such as will frictionally engage the pack and the floor or other support, and it will be tenacious inthe sense that it will offer internal resistance -to deformation, and will cohere even though deformed. It may be elastically deformable, as rubber, or it may have the ability to undergo more or less permanent internal deformation, as asphalt. In other words, it may have a degree of plasticity, and this qual-.

' ity is valuable in some circumstances.

It .is also within the scope of our invention to fasten a mass oftenacious substance either to the pack, to the skids, or to the floor or shipping surface.

We have tried our invention inactual practice, over the railroads, long distance hauls from the mills to customers, andin no case have we found it unsatisfactory.

While the method and apparatus herein shown v and described is admirably adapted to fulfill the der horizontal stress,

objects primarily stated, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific form shown, but that it is susceptible of embodiment in various forms,-with-or without guidingand/or other retarding means, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patcut, is: 1

1. A method (if preparing articles for shipment which comprises binding said articles into a heavy unit load, adapted to shift upon a support: ing surface under impact encountered in ship-.- ment, and supporting said load on a shipping frictional substance, deformable untenacious,

interposed between said load and said surface, said beingrelatively small with respect to,the load supported thereon, contacting both the load and,the shipping surface, and acting to minimize the degree of shifting under a given stress.

2. A methodof preparing sheet metal for shipment. which comprises stacking the sheets one upon the other until a heavy load is built up, which load, when unbraced, is adapted to shift under impact stress on a shippingsurface, placing the load on members 'to permit movement upon a shipping surface, whereby the unit area of contact of said load and a supporting surface is small in proportion to the weight, binding the stack of sheets and members together asa unit, and interposing between each of said members and said surface a localized mass of tenacious, frictional substance, deformable under horizontal stress, small in area relatively to said load, contacting both "said members and said surface, and having the property of restricting the extent of shifting ofsaid load under a given stress.

3. A method of preparing sheet metal for shipment which comprises stacking the sheets one upon the other until a heavy load is built up,

-which load, when unbraced, is adapted to shift under impactstress on.a shipping surfa'ce, placing the load on members to permit movement upon a shipping surface, binding the stack of sheets and members together as a unit, and interposing between each of said members and said surface a localized mass containing rubber, said mass contacting both said surface and said memupon the other until a heavy load is built up,

which load, when unbraced, is adapted to shift under impact stress on a shipping surface, placing the load on members to permit movement upon a shipping surface, binding the stack of sheets and members together as a'unit, and interposing between said members and said surface a localized mass containing bitumen, said mass contacting both said surface and said member, said massbeing small in area relatively to said load, being deformable under horizontal stress, and having the property of restricting the extent of shifting of said load under a given strms.

5. A shipping unit comprising, in combination, a series of articles bound together intoa unitload of such weight as will cause shifting of said load, when unbraced, uponthe floor ofa vehicle for transportation, and sliding means upon which said load rests, whereby the unit area of contact of said load with a supporting surface is small in relation to the weight, means for securing said sliding means to said load, and a plurality of masses of tenacious, frictional substance, deformable under horizontal stress, located beneath said sliding means, contacting both said surface and said means, and having the property of permitting some shifting while greatly restricting the extent thereof,"'said masses being small in area relatively to said load.

6. A method of limiting the movement ofunit loads of material on impact upon a supporting surface, which comprises forming a load unit of material, said load unit being of relatively small volume in proportion to its weight, and normally adapted when unbraced to shift its position with respect to a supporting'surfaceupon impact un- T der shipping conditions,placing said load upon the floor of a movable vehicle ina' position to shift thereon understress, and interposingbetween said unit load and said floor a localized mass of tenacious, deformable, frictional substance of a character to permit a controlled derespect to a supporting surface upon impact un-' der shipping conditions, placing said load upon the floor of a movable vehicle in a position to shift thereon under stress, and interposing between said unit load and said floor a localized mass of tenacious, frictional substance which is stifily plastic and which'will deform under horizontal stress and permit some shifting while greatly limiting the extent thereof, said mass being-small in area relatively to said load, and

contacting both said load and said floor.

8. In combination, an unbraced unit load of material of a mass high in-proportion to the bulk of the load and 'suflicient to shift its position upon the floor of a'transportation vehicle under impacts normally to be expected in shipment, said unit load being adapted for such shifting without disruption or disintegration, and a localized mass of material, small in area relatively to said load located between said unit load and the floor of a vehicle, and directly contacting both, which mass of material is deformable and, in connection with its deformation under horizontal stress, is adapted to vary the extent of such shifting under a given stress.

9. In combination, a mass of material of great weight in proportion to its bulk bound together so' as to be movable as a unit under impacts to be expected in shipment, without disintegration, at least one sliding member located beneath said mass and movable therewith, and a localized mass of deformable substance between said sliding member and the floor of a vehicle upon which said load rests, and directly contacting both, said deformable substance in connection with its deformation under horizontal stress having the property of permitting shifting under impact but of greatly restricting the extent thereof, and being not substantially larger in area than the corresponding area measurement of, said load.

E'I'HELYN B. RICKETTS. ALVA H. MOON.

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