1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for transporting and delivering articles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Apparatuses manufactured in factories transported and delivered to distributors or customers. For example, products like image forming apparatuses, such as copying machines, printers, and facsimile machines, are precious and delicate and need to be handled carefully during their transportation. The articles may be transported by trucks, freight trains, or ships. During transportation, the articles may be lifted many times or temporarily stored in warehouses. Therefore, some articles are designed so that they do not get damaged during transportation
Some products are once stored in a warehouse and then delivered to users. Others are directly delivered to a user from a factory. In any case, it is an important issue to protect the article from various external impacts and transporting environments, which the article undergoes during the transportation until it is delivered to the user and installed, and to deliver the article to the user without degrading its quality. That is, in the physical distribution process of the manufactured goods, it is desired to maintain the quality of the manufactured goods against vibrations and impacts generated when the goods are transported by transportation such as a truck, and external hazards (inertia and tilt due to a shift) generated by handling the goods at the time of reloading and storage performed at respective warehouse bases and working locations, and desired to provide package varieties having an effective function with respect to the transportability and loading/unloading work efficiency.
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses and the like are packed in a packaging material such as a cardboard box and delivered to users. This packaging material is opened by the user and stored as necessary, or disposed as a waste when it is not necessary.
In recent years, for resources saving, the packaging materials of various kinds of products such as image forming apparatuses are recycled. However, the conventional packaging material such as cardboard boxes has low durability, and is not suitable for using repeatedly for the transportation and storage of the products.
Furthermore, the conventional packaging material has to be prepared according to shapes and sizes different for each model, thereby causing a cost increase due to troublesome designing and management. In the case of a product such as an image forming apparatus, in which even in the same type, the size and the external shape become different due to the presence of optional devices, it is difficult to handle the product by a single type of a packaging material. Therefore, it can be considered to load the image forming apparatus on a pallet or a rack as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-264815, and transport and deliver the apparatus.
The pallet and the rack can be reused, and can load thereon various types of products having different shapes and sizes. However, in the case of loading a heavy product such as a large-scale copying machine, the bottom plate of the pallet or the rack can be bent or deformed due to the impact when the product is loaded.
On the other hand, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) has an excellent impact resistance, and is light and used as a general-purpose plastic for industrial and household containers or the like. It is used as a familiar container known as “PET bottle”, and the production thereof is increasing as containers having the capacity of 500 milliliters, 350 milliliters, 330 milliliters, 200 milliliters, and the like. On the other hand, there is an issue of increasing plastic waste year after year, and the same is true for PET bottles. In other words, when the waste PET bottle is burnt, toxic substances are left in the burnt ashes after incineration.
Materials can be recycled in various ways. In material recycle, pellets are formed by crushing or grinding the waste without causing any chemical change, and are reused as a raw material. In thermal recycle, the waste is reused as a fuel for power generation combined with refuse incinerator. In chemical recycle, a resin is melted and dissolved to be returned to a chemical material, and is reused as a material. However, the recycling rate is not so high, and when the waste is finally disposed, the above problem will happen.
Another way is to wash the collected PET bottles reuse them. However, the time and trouble have to be taken for washing the bottles and the like, and with the continuously increasing number of PET bottles currently being used, this measure is not good enough for the waste PET bottles.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-002813 discloses a cushioning material for packaging arranged between an article to be packed and a case, to absorb impacts and an external force due to a pressing force. This cushioning material is arranged in a plurality of numbers on a flat board with cylindrical portions being parallel with each other, and includes a first bending groove provided on the flat board substantially in parallel with the cylindrical portion, at a position where the cushioning material is bent according to the size of the article to be packed, and a second bending groove with a V-shaped slit provided substantially at right angles to the cylindrical portion at a position where the cushioning material is bent according to the size of the article. The first and the second bending grooves are bent to cover the article, so that at least two cylindrical portions are brought into contact with each side of the article.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-335024 discloses another cushioning material for packaging configured such that necks of plastic bottles are inserted into a plurality of recesses of thin molded plastic materials, so that the thin molded plastic materials and the plastic bottles are fixed together and arranged between a to-be-packed member and a box.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-261179 discloses still another cushioning material for packaging arranged between a cardboard box and an article, and including paper sheet materials, and a plurality of paper pipes attached only to the surface of the peak of a fold of the sheet material. This cushioning material has paper pipes attached to a plurality of pipe mounting regions arranged via the folds.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H9-267866 discloses a packaging body formed of laminated paper made of a material that can be easily disposed and has high recyclability, and using a cushioning member having a function of buffering effect. The cushioning member is attached to both sides of a container as a single piece or in a continuous block form corresponding to the gap between the container and the article.
Under such circumstances, the article to be transported is packed generally by forming the cushioning member according to the shape of the article, and under the current circumstances, the cost and time for the investment for equipment and the designing for the packaging material are required for each article. Furthermore, to perform such designing and management, the kinds of parts are increased, and the parts control is complicated accordingly.
Therefore, it is desired to handle various articles having different shapes with fewer types of cushioning materials, which can be used repeatedly. That is, such a form is desired that after the article is delivered to the user, the packaging device is returned to the factory or the like and used repeatedly.