Method, container, and transport vehicle for preparation and transportation of shipments of goods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11829936-B2
Application number	US-202117178982-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2021
Priority date	Feb 18, 2020
Publication date	Nov 28, 2023
Grant date	Nov 28, 2023

Abstract

A method, a palletizing sleeve, and a hand truck are provided for preparing a plurality of shipments of goods and transporting each shipment to one of a plurality of delivery destinations. The method includes determining the goods for the shipment, virtually building an optimized stacking configuration of those goods, physically building the stack based on the optimized configuration, transporting the shipment to a pre-determined delivery destination, and unloading the shipment at the delivery destination. The palletizing sleeve includes a base and a vertical wall that cooperate to support and stabilize a stack of goods that make up a portion of the shipment. Standoffs on the sleeve base provide openings to accept forks from the hand truck so that the hand truck can engage the sleeve from underneath the base. A fork height adjustment system selectively adjusts the fork height relative to the bottom of the hand truck.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A method for preparing shipments of goods and transporting the shipments to delivery destinations; said method comprising:
determining an inventory of goods to be delivered to a delivery destination;
virtually building an optimized virtual build for the inventory of goods to be delivered on a palletizing sleeve, the optimized virtual build providing a stable arrangement of the inventory of goods based on the dimensions of the palletizing sleeve; and
physically building a stack of the inventory of goods based on the optimized virtual build of the inventory of goods on a palletizing sleeve;
wherein the palletizing sleeve comprises a base having a plurality of sides defining a perimeter of the base, and comprises at least one vertical wall extending upwardly from at least one side of the base, and wherein the base comprises at least one side without an upwardly extending wall to define a side opening in the palletizing sleeve and the at least one vertical wall defines an upper opening in the transport sleeve that remains open for transporting the shipments to the delivery destinations.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transporting the palletizing sleeve to a delivery destination and unloading the palletizing sleeve at the delivery destination.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising arranging a plurality of the palletizing sleeves with goods on a pallet, transporting the pallet to a delivery destination, and unloading a required one of the palletizing sleeves from the pallet at the delivery destination.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining an inventory of goods is performed by an automated order fulfilment management system.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtually building an optimized build is performed by an automated build optimizer.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physically building the optimized build is performed by a palletizer comprising an automated mixed case palletizing system that is configured to physically build the stack of the inventory of goods without raising the goods above the upwardly extending wall.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the automated mixed case palletizing system comprises a robotic palletizer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the palletizing sleeve further comprises a plurality of support blocks spaced along a lower portion of the rectangular base and configured to provide openings to receive forks of a hand truck between a surface supporting the palletizing sleeve and the rectangular base.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the transporting the palletizing sleeve comprises placing the palletizing sleeve onto a pallet, transporting that pallet to a delivery truck, driving the delivery truck to the delivery destination, and unloading the palletizing sleeve from the pallet with a forked transport vehicle having forks that are insertable into the openings between the support blocks of the rectangular base.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the unloading the palletizing sleeve is performed by a human operator using a forked hand truck having forks that are insertable into the openings between the support blocks of the rectangular base and configured to engage a lower portion of the rectangular base of the palletizing sleeve.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of shipments for different destinations are prepared by said method and the inventory of goods for a particular palletizing sleeve include goods for only a particular one of the different destinations.

12. A container for transporting goods, said container comprising:
a base portion having a plurality of sides defining a perimeter of the base, said base portion configured to support a plurality of goods thereon;
at least one vertical wall extending upwardly from at least one side of said base portion, said base portion comprising at least one side without an upwardly extending wall to define a side opening in said container and said at least one vertical wall defining an upper opening in the palletizing sleeve that remains open; and
a vertical spacing element disposed at a lower portion of said base portion and configured to receive a fork of a hand truck between a portion of said base portion and a surface supporting said container;
said base portion and said vertical wall cooperate to support a plurality of goods stacked on said container and stabilize the stack of goods.

13. The container of claim 12 , wherein said base portion comprises a rectangular perimeter and wherein said at least one vertical wall comprises two vertical walls extending from two sides of said rectangular perimeter of said base portion.

14. The container of claim 12 , wherein said vertical spacing element comprises a plurality of lower support blocks spaced along a bottom portion of said base portion to provide standoff between said base portion and the surface supporting said container, wherein said plurality of lower support blocks are located in spaced arrangement on the bottom portion of said base portion such that forks of a hand truck are insertable underneath a portion of said base portion.

15. The container of claim 14 , further comprising a goods riser defined by a plurality of upper support blocks spaced along an upper portion of said base portion to provide standoff between said base portion and the goods supported thereon, and to define elongated channels spanning the majority of said base portion between said base portion and the goods supported thereon, wherein said plurality of upper support blocks are located in spaced arrangement on the upper portion of said base portion such that forks of a hand truck are insertable into said elongated channels underneath a portion of the goods supported on said base portion.

16. The container of claim 12 , wherein said vertical wall and said support base are configured such that a plurality of said containers are nestable and stackable with one another when not supporting goods thereon with the base of one said container disposed on the base of another said container.

17. The container of claim 12 , further comprising a machine readable identification label.

18. A palletizing sleeve comprising:
a support base having a plurality of sides defining a perimeter of said support base, and comprising a rectangular grid of a plurality of standoff support blocks and a plurality of receiver channels defined by openings between adjacent ones of said standoff support blocks, said receiver channels configured such that a fork portion of a transport vehicle is insertable into said receiver channels to engage said palletizing sleeve from underneath a portion of said support base; and
a vertical wall extending upwardly from at least one side of said support base and defining an upper opening in the palletizing sleeve that remains open, wherein said support base comprises at least one side without an upwardly extending wall to define a side opening in said palletizing sleeve, and wherein said vertical wall is configured to confine a portion of goods supported at said support base.

19. The palletizing sleeve of claim 18 , wherein said rectangular grid defines receiver channels perpendicular to each side of said rectangular grid such that a plurality of said receiver channels are accessible from any of the sides of said perpendicular grid.

20. The palletizing sleeve of claim 18 , further comprising a goods riser defined by a plurality of upper support

Assignees

• Dematic Corp

Inventors

• Boer William R
• Vance Ed

Classifications

• G06Q10/0835 Primary

  Relationships between shipper or supplier and carriers · CPC title

• B07C1/18

  Orientating articles other than in a stream {, e.g. turning, deflecting or changing direction} · CPC title

• B62B1/145

  Unloading equipment for pushing the load from the carrier platform · CPC title

• B65G59/00

  De-stacking of articles (B65G60/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B65G61/00

  Use of pick-up or transfer devices or of manipulators for stacking or de-stacking articles not otherwise provided for · CPC title