Great Dane Trailers

Great Dane Limited Partnership

Michael I Thomas

Charles R Fetz

Daniel J McCormack

John M Jones

Raymond Augustus McDonald, Jr

James T Colling

Richard S Durke

Composite floor for an insulated or semi-insulated trailer including a unitary subfloor member and a unitary top floor member with a rigid foam core being located therebetween. The foam core has sufficient strength to transfer a cargo load from the top floor member to the bottom floor member without additional floor sills being located therebetween. The invention is further embodied in an improved method of manufacturing a floor as set forth above.

Composite floor

A relatively thin side wall panel is formed of an array of sheet metal riveted sections formed from an aluminum coil to form inner and outer panel skins which are placed in a mold and used to form with the skins an injected thermoset plastic rigid foam core panel which is 48 foot by 9 foot and is about 0.9 inches thick. The panel is cut into three side panels for each container side. The roof is also formed similarly into a single panel of about 1.1 inches thick with an array of recesses which reinforce the roof panels and allow for thermal expression, the recesses containing the rivets of the adjoining skin sections. The panel is then cut to form three roof panels. A frame is formed of lower and upper extruded aluminum rails and lower steel rails at the front and rear, front and rear corner posts and two pairs of intermediate posts to which posts and rails the side panels are attached. The posts are interconnected to headers to which with the upper rails the roof panels are attached. A front wall containing fiberglass insulation between an outer metal skin and an inner plywood layer is secured to the front posts and a lower sill and upper header. The entire container weighs no more than a conventional all metal container without the heavier foam core panels and structurally resists bowing at the lower side rails.

Thermally insulated cargo container

A pair of main beams, a plurality of diagonal cross braces and transverse beams having a beam height of about 75% of prior art main beam heights provide a relatively flexible chassis. A clamp assembly central of the chassis clamps a cubicle cargo container central region to the chassis to rigidify the chassis. The cargo container is connected to the chassis front and rear by conventional bolster pin and twist lock assemblies. An upper container casting has an opening for receiving an interbox twist lock connector aligned on an axis closely spaced to the side panels of upper and lower containers on a rail car to minimize bending loads on lower container intermediate support posts. Lower castings at the base of each of the intermediate posts mate with a lower container upper castings in a stacked arrangement on a rail car. The chassis has a bogie assembly receiving channel for slidably receiving a bogie locked to the chassis by a conventional retractable pin mechanism. The container tunnel has a trapezoidal transverse section which mates with a chassis goose neck which is 10% narrower than and about 50% the vertical height of prior goose necks.

Lightweight chassis-container construction

A container sidewall comprises a plurality of sections each section comprising an extruded aluminum post formed of a tubular rectangular tube having a pair of oppositely extending flanges coplanar with one of the tube broad sides and an aluminum plate riveted to each flange. An identical post interconnects the plates of adjacent sections. A reinforcing hat shaped rib is riveted to each plate midway between posts. The outer wall of the post tube is thicker than the inner wall which is the same thickness as the plates. The tube sides are thinnest to save weight. The plates are relatively thick to preclude damage during normal use. The tube is dimensioned to withstand transverse bending loads and bowing of the sidewalls to preclude damage in a rail car well.

Post construction and sidewall for cargo container

Two parallel main steel beams extend from front to rear of a trailer which beams terminate at their upper web edges with aligned aluminum-extruded H-shaped beams having a depending leg which is bolted to a steel beam web. A plurality of aluminum-extruded upper floor sections including a floor member and depending beams are interlocked and welded to one another at their edges to form a floor assembly. Side rails extend from front to rear of the trailer and have an upper leg interlocked with and welded to the upper floor assembly. A lower side rail leg is glued to a bottom aluminum sheet skin member. A rigid polyurethane foam layer is within each of the volumes formed by the bottom skin layers, the side rails, the H-beams and the upper floor assembly to form a composite platform structure which resists bending and shear loads. Braces further support the steel beams and platform assembly.

Growing community of inventors

Savannah, GA, United States of America

Michael I Thomas