Bulk binding

Application filed September 22, 1926. Serial No. 137,034.

Our invention relates to improved methods of loading freight cars with cargo, such as barrels, boxes, containers, or any objects of bulk capable of being bound together by com5 paratively few tension members.

In the loading of freight cars for shipment it is necessary to provide some means for holding boxes, barrels, etc., in place in the car, as the shocks of transportation exerted on 10 the car cause such sudden movements of the car that the barrels or boxes tend to slide, due to their inertia from their position in the car into impact with each other and with the walls of the car, causing excessive breakage ¹⁵ of containers and resultant loss or damage to their contents. It has long been the custom . to use wooden blocking fastened to the floor or walls of the car for maintaining the shipment in place against the shocks of trans²⁰ portation, but each successive shock moving the parts of the load a little, throws the weight of the entire load against the blocking and the major part of the load against the end containers, which are frequently ²⁵ broken.

Our invention contemplates a novel method for obviating the foregoing difficulties and others, and among its important objects are: First, the provision of a novel method of ³⁰ binding a large part of the bulk or containers of a car shipment together into a group or groups with metal tension members, separated by novel spacing stays, by means of which the separate parts of the load are bound ³⁵ together to form one or more large bulks. These bulks which may move as a unit within the car when the car is subjected to extreme shocks, provide a combined frictional and inertia resistance’against sliding on the floor so that the position of the bulk is not affected by small impacts and moved only slightly by large shocks.

Second, the provision of a novel bulk binding stay for maintaining such tension members in proper spaced relation, both before loading the ear preparatory to binding the load into bulk, groups or units and after the bulk is bound.

Third, the provision of an improved bulk ⁵⁰ binding stay of flexible material adapted to conform to the shape of the bulk bound together.

Fourth, provision of a bulk binding stay easy to manufacture, economical and capable °f nesting together, to be.bound in bundles 55 and threaded on the tension members as a unit.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will appear more fully from the following description and accompanying drawings, go in which similar characters of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views. In the drawings

Fig. 1 is a view showing a shipment or cargo of barrels grouped and bound by our 65 system of bulk binding;

Fig. 2 is a view showing a plurality of our bulk binding stays threaded on the tension members and being placed or draped in a car preparatory to receiving the cargo. to

Fig. 3 shows one end of a railway car equipped with binding members and stays temporarily arranged about its walls to receive a group or unit of cargo.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail view of our 75 novel bulk binding stay;

Fig. 5 is an end view of the same.

. Referring to Figs. 4 and 5, 10 indicates our novel bulk binding stay comprising a spacing member of ordinary metal strap, so preferably steel, of such dimensions as to provide sufficient columnar strength to maintain the tension members in spaced relation, yet sufficiently flexible <to conform to the contour of the walls of the containers bound. 85 This stay is stamped from regular steel strap stock, and is provided at each end with stamped longitudinal ribs 14 and 15, extending down to its central portion below the strap holes 20. It will be noted that by the 90 provision of the ribs 14—15, the stay has two relatively stiff end portions 12 and 13, and a central flexible portion 11 permitting it, when bound, to conform to the shape of the bulk.

The strap holes 20 are formed by punching «5 out substantially rectangular holes near each end of the stay 10 between the edge and the ribs 14 and 15, and by pressing that portion of the stay 21 between the said hole and the edge out of the plane of the stay 10 to form

1,773,902 a strap holder loop 21, with a hole 20 large enough to permit steel strap to be inserted therethrough at a large range of angles to the surface of the stay 10, and to permit the steel ₅ strap to lie over the ribs 14 and 15 parallel to the stay surface, although passing through the same. The stay 10 is likewise provided with a plurality of transverse spurs 16, 17, 18 and 19 formed by cutting into its edges at jo an angle to said edge at a plurality of points, preferably in the stiff portions of the stay and turning up the resulting spurs at substantially a right angle to the stay. By the cutting of said spurs all from the same direction, j₅ we provide a bulk binding stay which may be packed with the spurs of each successive stay behind the other, and which will nest together with the holes 20 aligned somewhat diagonally, so that a whole bundle of stays 20 may be threaded on the binding strap at once.

The stays may be provided in bundles of any convenient number nesting together with the holes 20 substantially aligned, thereby gaining a substantial saving in time in the thread25 operation. By providing a plurality of spurs on each side and at each end and by offsetting the spurs from each other at each end, we provide prongs which '-ensure holding engagement, because if one prong meets a crack 30 between boards, the other will engage a board.

In Fig. 4 the bottom or base end, which is the right end in the figure, is provided with a longer ribbed portion 28 below the strap hole 20, m order to automatically space the bind35 ing straps from the floor on the bulk bound.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 3, we have shown therein our novel method of assembling the stays previously described with the binding strap and the bulk to be bound. In Fig. 2, 25 40 indicates a truck of any convenient type, having a plurality of reels 26 and 27 of steel strap, which we find it convenient to dispose with one strap unreeling at the top and the other at the bottom. A small portion of the 45 straps 23 and 24 are unreeled, and for binding a shipment in the end of the car a bundle of bulk binding stays, of a number depending on the size and character of the bulk to be bound, preferably about 10 in number for 50 half a car of barrels, is threaded on the straps 23 and 24 by passing the respective straps through the holes 20 of a plurality of stays simultaneously. The bundle ties are then broken and the operator then takes a hammer 55 and starting with the> second stay from the strap end nails each stay by means of the spurs 16,17,18 and 19 in upright position on . the car walls, its end resting on the floor, beginning on the car Avail at the opposite door 60 edge.29. Unreeling the strap as he proceeds, he slides the remainder of the stays along the strap, spacing them about the car, preferably at such points that the barrels or other objects will be placed adjacent the stays, for reasons which will appear hereinafter, and the straps 23—24 are fixed to the car walls by nailing a plurality of stays about the walk as shoAvn in Fig. 3. Referring to this figure, it will be seen that the straps have been cut off to a length estimated to be sufficient to ₇₀bind the bulk and a plurality of extra stays 10 are left on the ends of the straps to be later disposed across the front pf the bulk bound group or unit.

With the binder bands thus draped about ₇₅the walls of the car and supported in spaced relation by .the stays, the cargo elements, such as barrels, of a group or unit are loaded into the space that is partly surrounded by the bands. The ends of the respective straps _co23 and 24 are then brought together, placed in a strap stretcher in such manner that the end of the strap is gripped by the tool with sufficient strap projecting.past the tool to lie adjacent that part of the other end of the 35 strap beyond the tool, these parts to be later joined together as described hereinafter. By means of a stretching tool, the straps are then drawn up taut, pulling the spurs of the stays from the car wall and making the stays so lie against the bulk bound. In this operation the ribs of our bulk binding stay, extending past the strap holes and spurs at each end, provide relatively stiff portions adjacent these parts Avhich permit the straps to draw 95 the spurs out of the car wall without substantially deforming the stay.

In order to properly space the stays to lie on the barrels or other bulk, the operator may then inspect them, a few taps of a ham- 100 mer being sufficient to change any spacing, and sufficient stretching is then applied to draw all component parts of the bulk together, and press the stays against the bulk, causing the stays to conform at their central ₁₀₅flexible portions to the bulk bound, as, for instance, to the bulge of a barrel. The adjacent parts of the strap beyond the tool are then fixed together and firmly sealed, preferably Avith the well known “Signode” seal, no one form of which is shown and described in Flora Patent No. 1,252,680 dated January 8, 1918, and the stretching tool is removed by releasing the same and slipping it out from under the strap. The. shipment with 115 the complete binding is shown in Fig. 1, the stays 10 being draAvn flatly up against the barrels conforming to their shape.

It will be observed that our bulk binding stay, having closed loops about the tension 120 members or holes through which the tension members pass, cannot become detached from the stay during the tensioning operation or during transportation, as in the case of open loops. 125

From the foregoing it will be seen that we have provided a novel method of bulk binding, including a novel bulk binding stay which involves a short series of steps in its application greatly decreasing the labor 133 i,77M°^a > necessary in its operation, and having a new and useful cooperation with the bulk bound, in that all the binding elements conform to the shape of the bulk bound in a plurality of directions.

While we have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying our invention into effect, this is capable of modification without departing from the 10 spirit of the invention, and we do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail ourselves of all changes «within the scope of the appended claims.