Appeal No. 2002-2084 Page 6
Application No. 09/016,740
10 also includes a plurality of cross braces 34a, 34b, 34c, 34d and 34e which are
placed perpendicular to support members 16 and 18.
Loeber
Loeber's invention relates to highway trailers, and more particularly to a
relatively low-weight and high-strength trailer bed. Loeber's invention provides a
highway trailer having a load-support bed of orthotropic design which is extremely low in
weight and easily fabricated from a few similar parts.
Figure 1 shows a highway trailer 20 supported on a conventional rear running
gear 22. During use of the trailer, a king pin 25 (see Figure 7) at the front of the trailer
is connected to a conventional highway tractor (not shown). Trailer 20 has a
high-strength, low-weight load supporting bed 26 of orthotropic design. The bed
includes a pair of longitudinally extending, parallel open-section inverted T-beams 28,
each T-beam having a vertical web 30 and a horizontal bottom flange 32. The T-beams
comprise the main load-carrying structural members of the trailer bed.
A series of side-by-side elongated transverse load-support members or
pans 34 are mounted on the top edges of webs 30 of the T-beams. The pans are
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