Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100326145 | FLOATING J-HOOKS BETWEEN TWO BUSHINGS IN HOUSING WITH A SINGLE PISTON - A lock mechanism for locking at least one door of a container in a closed position includes first and second members slidably coupled to each other to move relative to each other, a latching mechanism configured to prevent the two members from moving relative to each other in at least one direction when the latching mechanism is in a locked state, and first and second lock members, each of the lock members including a first end and a second end. The first ends of the first and second lock members protrude through the body. The second end of the first lock member is coupled to the first member of the locking mechanism and the second end of the second lock member being coupled to the second member of the locking mechanism. The first ends of the first and second lock members are configured to engage portions of the container to lock the at least one container door in a closed position. The body is sized and disposed to support the first and second lock members to prevent rotation of the first and second lock members about points where the first and second lock members are attached to the first and second members of the latching mechanism. The lock mechanism further includes a lock circuit at least partially enclosed within the body. The lock circuit includes a lock controller coupled to the latching mechanism and configured to receive commands related to the operation of the lock mechanism, wherein the lock controller is configured to cause the latching mechanism to be in the locked state in response to the received commands. | 12-30-2010 |
20100326146 | SHIPPING CONTAINER ACTIVE LOCK RELEASE FAILSAFE - A lock mechanism to lock at least one door of a container in a closed position includes a housing enclosing at least a portion of the lock mechanism, and a lock circuit at least partially enclosed within the housing. The lock circuit includes a main power supply, a backup power supply, a plurality of subsystems, and a lock controller coupled to the main power supply and the backup power supply. The lock controller is configured to receive commands related to operation of the lock mechanism, determine a battery level remaining in the main power supply, determine if the remaining battery level is below a threshold level, and cause the lock circuit to enter a lower power mode upon determining that the remaining battery level is below the threshold level. When in the lower power mode, at least a portion of the subsystems of the lock circuit are not powered, the lock controller receives power from the main power supply, and the lock controller monitors an interface to detect a command to unlock the lock mechanism. | 12-30-2010 |
20100332359 | ACTIVE CONTAINER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A system for monitoring chain of custody of contents of a container includes a lock mechanism configured to lock at least one door of the container in a closed position, a housing enclosing at least a portion of the lock mechanism, and a lock circuit at least partially enclosed within the housing. The lock circuit includes a memory, a lock controller, a wireless module configured to receive information from at least one sensor associated with the container, the information regarding at least one property of the contents of the container, wherein the wireless module is configured to store the information in memory, wherein at least one of the wireless module or the sensor is powered wirelessly, and a lock controller configured to receive commands related to operation of the lock mechanism, to monitor the stored information to identify a change of state of the at least one sensor, and to generate chain of custody data to be transmitted to a remote location via the wireless module. The chain of custody data includes at least two of sensor data, an authentication code associated with the sensor, and/or an authentication code associated with the lock mechanism. | 12-30-2010 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110010005 | SYSTEM FOR ASSOCIATING INVENTORY WITH HANDLING EQUIPMENT IN SHIPPING CONTAINER YARD INVENTORY TRANSACTIONS - A system is provided to associate containers with handling equipment (HE) in a container storage facility. In the system an operation detector, such as a twistlock sensor that indicates when a container is picked up or dropped off, is installed on a first HE which is a piece of container handling equipment (CHE) that can lift the container. An event detector, such as a vibration sensor or distance measuring radar, is further installed on a second HE that is a tractor with an attached chassis for receiving and transporting a container. The event detector indicates when a container-operation-related event, such as a container pick up or drop off, occurred on the tractor chassis. The two detectors (operation and event) are used by a processor to associate the container with either the CHE or the tractor. The operation and event detectors can further be used in conjunction with position sensors such as a GPS sensor to accurately determine the position of the tractor and the CHE in a container yard. When the position sensors degrade in performance, an additional motion detector such as a speed sensor can be used to determine the tractor's distance from the CHE to locate an appropriate tractor involved in the operation. | 01-13-2011 |
20110052001 | AUTOMATIC ERROR DETECTION FOR INVENTORY TRACKING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS USED AT A SHIPPING CONTAINER YARD - A method automatically detects errors in a container inventory database associated with a container inventory tracking system of a container storage facility. A processor in the inventory tracking system performs a method that: obtains a first data record, identifies an event (e.g., pickup, drop-off, or movement) associated with the first record, provides a list of error types based on the identified event, and determines whether a data error has occurred through a checking process. In each of the checking steps, the processor selects an error type from the list of error types, determines a search criterion based on the selected error type and the first data record, queries the database using the search criterion, compares query results with the first data record to detect data conflicts between them, and upon the detection of the data conflicts, reports that a data error of the selected error type has been detected. | 03-03-2011 |
20110055172 | AUTOMATIC ERROR CORRECTION FOR INVENTORY TRACKING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS USED AT A SHIPPING CONTAINER YARD - A method automatically detects and corrects errors in a container inventory database associated with a container inventory tracking system of a container storage facility. A processor in the inventory tracking system performs a method to detect errors; this method of error detection obtains a first data record, identifies an event (e.g., pickup or drop-off of a container, or movement of handing equipment) associated with the first record, provides a list of error types based on the identified event, and determines whether a data error has occurred through a checking process. To correct the errors, this method further sets search criteria based on the error detection results, queries the inventory tracking database using the set criteria, determines error candidates based on the query results, evaluates the error candidates to identify a match or matches among the error candidates, and corrects the error(s) by modifying the error detection results together with the identified match or matches. | 03-03-2011 |
20120089320 | METHOD OF AUTOMATIC POSITIONING FOR LOADING AND UNLOADING OF CONTAINER SHIPS IN CONTAINER TERMINALS - A method is provided for automatically locating a container in a stowage location of a container ship for loading and unloading of the container ship in container terminals. The method includes the following steps: obtaining the position information of the container ship from container ship positioning units, obtaining the position information of the container from container positioning units when the container is in its stowage location, and determining the stowage location of the container in the container ship by first computing a relative position of the container in the container ship based on both the position information of the container ship and the position information of the container and then correlating the relative position with a stowage plan of the container ship. | 04-12-2012 |