Apparatus for handling articles

Claim 1

In combination, a fork lift truck having a pair of laterally spaced forwardly projecting fork members each having an upwardly facing tote pan supporting edge, an article-carrying generally rectangularly shaped tote pan adapted to carry small but relatively heavy articles, said pan having a bottom and two pairs of opposed side walls joined at their side edges to form the four corners of the tote pan, said pairs of opposed side walls sloping upwardly and outwardly from said bottom and each having an outwardly projecting continuous flange along its upper edge, reinforcing means secured to the side walls and to the flanges along the length thereof, such flanges being adapted to seat respectively over the said tote pan supporting edges of the spaced fork members of the fork lift truck, each flange having a lateral width at least slightly greater than the tote pan supporting edge of the fork member upon which it seats, each flange of at least one of said two pairs of opposed side walls having an elongate aperture therethrough disposed intermediate the opposite ends thereof and said fork members having upwardly projecting lugs registrable with and receivable through said apertures and being of such a height as to project upwardly above the flanges when fully received in said apertures, said fork members being laterally spaced apart a distance greater than the width oF the bottom of the tote pan and substantially equal to the width of the pan measured between the opposed longitudinally extending side walls of the pan adjacent to their respective flanges, said flanges having their undersides unobstructed throughout their respective lengths including their opposed ends whereby said fork members are receivable linearly through said two opposed open unobstructed ends of the flange portions and whereby such fork members are shiftable upwardly against the flanges into seating position thereunder to support the tote pan, with the upwardly projecting lugs received within said flange apertures with which they register and visibly projecting thereabove, said sloping side walls of the pan engagingly cooperating with the fork members to align the latter with the flanges during such upward shifting of the fork members, the transverse width of each fork member not exceeding the width of the flange supported thereon so that the pans may be assembled in side-by-side relationship with their adjacent flanges in abutting contact with one another,and said lugs being upstanding from said fork members and having their side surfaces and their front and rear surfaces respectively in sloping convergence upwardly toward one another to guide the lugs into the apertures of the flanges whereby the pan is positioned longitudinally and transversely relative to the fork members as the fork members engage and lift the pan.