The present invention is directed to a cradle unit, or supporting member, for supporting and storing coils, such as wound rolls or coils of long lengths of thin flat material made of steel, other metal, paper, or the like, which are processed, handled, stored and transported with the longitudinal axis of the coil oriented in the horizontal direction. When stored in their semi-finished, in-process stage between operations, in their finished state awaiting shipment, or during actual shipment and final storage during actual use, these coils are placed in designated staging areas by supporting them on the floor, since allowing these coils to rest directly on the floor or other flat surface would produce highly-stressed loading at the tangential contact points. Even though these coils may be made of metal, they are relatively soft or pliable, and susceptible to damage from scratching, denting or surface-marking when they impinge upon debris on the floor or on another hard storage surface.
Many locations where coils are stored are on floors that are not flat, tending to misshape or deform the coil over time. Coils may also be damaged from flattening or denting when set down during handling operations, or from excessive pressure or weight while sitting in storage due to single-point tangential and high surface-loading. This situation is exacerbated when coils are stacked during storage, which is common in the metals industries. Therefore, significant expense is incurred from the lost metal and rework of the damaged coils. Additionally, stacked coils, when stored on flat floors, represent a safety hazard from roll out of the bottom tier of the stack. This situation is hazardous to personnel, the facilities and the coils that would be affected by such a collapse of the stack.
There have been used a number of various techniques in an attempt to address the above-mentioned problems. Some of these techniques include: setting coils on rubber or fabric belting; using rubber or polyurethane pads with slight indentations to cradle the coil; using “V”-shaped blocks made of polyurethane, plastic, wood or metal; and unitized skids of plastic, wood or metal, or other similarly constructed devices to contain or protect the coils.
Polyurethane, rubber and plastic coil-support devices possess the ability to cushion the coil during set-down. These devices are typically molded or formed into a single unit, and do not provide suitable strength or structural integrity to support stacks of coils without the use of additional, independent, and separate support structures. Wood supports are not resilient or durable, while metal fabricated supports do not cushion and offer a surface that has is basically the same as a bare floor. Unitized fabrications of wood, plastic or steel are expensive to build, do not offer the durability and protection of a resilient support, and do not conform or adapt to uneven floor conditions.
An example of a prior-art support is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,978—Smit, et al., and discloses a support for rolled coils made of polyethylene. The supports of this patent do not generally provide adequate structural support, and, therefore, are typically supported by U-shaped steel channels bolted to the floor, or other supporting surfaces, and are generally not conformable to a support under-structure.