Bulk material container

Abstract

A bulk material container includes a cuboid support structure having floor and roof frames supporting sheet metal cladding with floor wall, side walls and end walls completely closed, without loading and unloading openings. The roof frame delimits a roof opening for loading and unloading bulk material. The floor frame has a forklift pocket formed of tubular cross supports with a closed cross section and outwardly open ends in a container transverse direction. Unloading includes engaging a forklift in the pocket for tilting the container until bulk material falls out of the open roof. To increase container rigidity during unloading, the forklift pocket is a component of a U-shaped hollow support reinforcement, at which the pocket transitions into vertical reinforcement hollow supports at floor reinforcement nodes on both sides in the container transverse direction. The vertical reinforcement hollow supports are attached to the roof frame, forming roof reinforcement nodes.

1 - 10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . A bulk material container, comprising:
 a sheet-metal cladding including a sheet-metal floor wall, sheet-metal side walls and sheet-metal end walls;   a cuboid support structure supporting said sheet-metal cladding, said cuboid support structure including a floor frame and a roof frame;   said roof frame delimiting a container roof opening for loading or unloading bulk material and said floor frame having at least one forklift pocket configured as a tubular hollow cross support having a hollow profile being closed in cross section and outwardly open in a container transverse direction;   said at least one forklift pocket configured for engagement of a forklift truck for tilting the bulk material container in an unloading procedure until the bulk material drops out of said open container roof or another opened unloading opening of the bulk material container; and   said at least one forklift pocket being a component part of a U-shaped hollow support reinforcement for increasing container stiffness during the unloading procedure, said at least one forklift pocket forming floor-proximal reinforcement nodes in said container transverse direction and transitioning on both sides directly to vertical reinforcement hollow supports, and said vertical reinforcement hollow supports forming roof-proximal reinforcement nodes and being attached in a force-transmitting manner to said roof frame.   
     
     
         12 . The bulk material container according to  claim 11 , wherein said cuboid support structure includes at least one of:
 floor longitudinal supports and floor cross supports connected to one another at floor corner fittings and forming said floor frame, or   roof longitudinal supports and roof cross supports connected to one another at roof corner fittings and forming said roof frame, or   corner vertical supports each disposed at a respective corner of the bulk material container for interconnecting said floor and roof corner fittings lying on top of one another, or   tubular hollow supports having a hollow profile being closed in cross section and forming all of said longitudinal, cross, and vertical supports of said support structure.   
     
     
         13 . The bulk material container according to  claim 12 , wherein each of said floor longitudinal supports is at least one of:
 subdivided into two longitudinal support external parts and one longitudinal support central part disposed behind one another and in alignment with a container longitudinal direction, said at least one forklift pocket being disposed between one of said longitudinal support external parts and said longitudinal support central part, or   formed of one longitudinal support external part, a longitudinal support central part, said vertical reinforcement hollow support and said at least one forklift pocket converging in a force-transmitting manner at said floor-proximal reinforcement node.   
     
     
         14 . The bulk material container according to  claim 13 , wherein said at least one forklift pocket forms a support base at least one of:
 attached to said longitudinal support central part and said longitudinal support external part in front and rear narrow sides oriented in the container longitudinal direction, or   attached at an upper flat side of said support base to said reinforcement hollow support or an outwardly open C-profile part of said reinforcement hollow support.   
     
     
         15 . The bulk material container according to  claim 11 , which further comprises:
 a sheet-metal angular profile part having a horizontal floor leg and a vertical lateral leg enclosing a lower longitudinal support external edge for further stiffening said floor-proximal reinforcement node;   said horizontal floor leg being attached to a lower forklift pocket flat side and to a longitudinal support lower side;   said vertical lateral leg being attached to a longitudinal support external side and to said vertical reinforcement hollow support; and   said vertical lateral leg of said sheet-metal angular profile part having a clearance, said clearance having an opening rim delimiting a forklift pocket opening.   
     
     
         16 . The bulk material container according to  claim 11 , wherein:
 said cuboid support structure includes corner vertical supports;   said sheet metal cladding is configured to have at least one of:
 said sheet-metal side walls run between said corner vertical supports without interruption in a completely continuous manner in a container longitudinal direction, or 
 said sheet-metal end walls run between said corner vertical supports without interruption in a completely continuous manner in said container transverse direction; 
   in an event of stress in the unloading procedure, said sheet-metal end walls and said sheet-metal side walls at least one of:
 form thrust fields transmitting force between said corner vertical supports, or 
 run in a completely continuous manner in a vertical plane without any lateral convexities in said sheet-metal side walls; and 
   said vertical reinforcement hollow support or a C-profile part of said vertical reinforcement hollow support is configured as a linear elongate extruded profile having a cross section running so as to be continuously constant in a direction of manufacture.   
     
     
         17 . The bulk material container according to  claim 11 , wherein said reinforcement hollow support is constructed from a C-profile part being outwardly open in said container transverse direction, said C-profile part having profile flanks forming a closed hollow profile and being attached to an internal side of said sheet-metal side walls or to a planar assembly portion of said sheet-metal side walls. 
     
     
         18 . The bulk material container according to  claim 12 , wherein said roof longitudinal supports extend in a completely continuous manner between said roof corner fittings in said container longitudinal direction, and said reinforcement hollow support forming said roof-proximal reinforcement node is attached to said roof longitudinal support. 
     
     
         19 . The bulk material container according to  claim 12 , wherein said at least one forklift pocket in said floor frame acts as an additional cross support subdividing a floor frame opening into two end-side sub-openings and one central sub-opening disposed between said two end-side sub-openings, said sub-openings are spanned by three floor wall segments, said three floor wall segments are spaced apart in a container longitudinal direction and said at least one forklift pocket is disposed between said three floor wall segments. 
     
     
         20 . A bulk material container, comprising:
 a sheet-metal cladding including a sheet-metal floor wall, sheet-metal side walls and sheet-metal end walls;   a cuboid support structure supporting said sheet-metal cladding, said cuboid support structure including a floor frame and a roof frame;   said roof frame delimiting a container roof opening for loading or unloading bulk material and said floor frame having at least one forklift pocket configured as a tubular hollow cross support having a hollow profile being closed in cross section and outwardly open in a container transverse direction;   said at least one forklift pocket configured for engagement of a forklift truck for tilting the bulk material container in an unloading procedure until the bulk material drops out of said open container roof or another opened unloading opening of the bulk material container; and   said at least one forklift pocket being a component part of a hollow support reinforcement for increasing a container stiffness in the unloading procedure, said at least one forklift pocket, in said container transverse direction, at least on one side on a floor-proximal reinforcement node, transitioning directly to a vertical reinforcement hollow support, and said vertical reinforcement hollow support forming a roof-proximal reinforcement node and being attached in a force-transmitting manner to said roof frame.