AU4017301A - A shelving system - Google Patents

Description

'2605F TRIMARANT PTY LIMITED

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR THE INVENTION ENTITLED: A SHELVING SYSTEM The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- 2'605F The present invention relates to shelving systems such as shelving systems intended for use in cool rooms and like environments. In particular, the present invention discloses a reverse locatable nestable shelving modules for such systems.

In cool rooms and like environments, plastic shelves are provided on which foodstuffs and like products are stored in refrigerated conditions. These are preferred to steel shelving because of corrosion from food acids which corrodes steel shelves.

Various systems of shelving exist and the most advantageous systems are modular systems where a plurality of like shelf modules can be placed side by side together in various i configurations in order to provide the desired extensive shelving area. Known shelving S:systems of this type suffer from the problem that they are not nestable and/or that in their adjacent position unwanted large apertures are created at various locations in the plane of the ooee.

shelf.

It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved shelving system which reduces or ameliorates at least one of the above mentioned disadvantages.

In accordance with the first aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a reverse locatable nestable shelving system comprising a plurality of like substantially rectangular shelf modules, each of said shelf modules comprising a substantially flat upper surface having a depending skirt extending around three edges of the shelf, the remaining edge being scalloped to provide a sequence of semi-recesses, and said shelf module having a series of spaced-apart longitudinal ridges extending from the underside of said upper surface and a series of spaced-apart tranverse ribs extending from said underside of said upper surface, each S2605F of said transverse ribs extending away from said upper surface by an amount substantially less than said longitudinal ribs, wherein at least one corner of said shelf module is provided with a frangibly removable portion of said upper surface and skirt, wherein a pair of said shelf modules are nestable by abutting the longitudinal ribs of one shelf module against the transverse ribs of the other shelf module, and a pair of said shelf modules are able to be located in co-planar fashion either with said scalloped edges abutting to inter-digitate the fingers formed between said pairs of said semi-recesses, or with said scalloped edge abutting said skirt.

o In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, the above described shelf module Sis also disclosed.

•o o In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention a method of arranging shelf modules to form a shelf is also disclosed.

prior art system, and the preferred embodiment of the present invention, will now be described with reference to the drawings in which:- "Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the upper surface of a prior art shelf, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the lower surface of the shelf of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 shows the shelves of the type of Fig. 1 arranged in co-planar fashion to provide an extensive shelving surface, Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the upper surface of the shelf of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the underside of the shelf of Fig. 4, '2605F Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but illustrating two of the shelf modules of Fig. 4 arranged to form a coextensive shelving area, Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 but illustrating four modules, Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 6 but illustrating two and one half modules, and Fig. 9 shows two of the shelves of Fig. 4 in nested configuration.

As seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the shelf module of the prior art arrangement consists of an upper surface having an array of rectangularly spaced apertures and four depending skirts (4) which extend downwardly from the upper surface at the edges of the shelf S S o At each corner of the shelf is provided a recess and from the underside of the upper 555o surface extend a series of longitudinal ribs and a single transverse rib The ribs (6) and adjacent the skirts are of a reduced height tapering into the underside of the upper ooooo3 surface however, elsewhere away from the skirts the ribs and are of uniform Sdepth with the depth of the skirts and ribs 7) being substantially identical.

Fig. 3 illustrates in plan form a number of the shelf modules arranged together in abutting co-planar relationship so as to form an extensive shelf surface. It will be seen that the recesses at the corners of the shelves form a large hole which is very much larger than the apertures [not illustrated in Fig. It is intended that the recesses provide for four vertical posts which support horizontally extending members which in turn support the shelf modules Such members [not illustrated in Fig. 3] lie adjacent to the skirts Whilst this arrangement is very convenient at the four corners where a post is located, it is most inconvenient at locations where no post is located since the hole enables foodstuffs which would not fall through the apertures to fall through the holes 12605F In addition, in order to make the shelves easily able to be manipulated on the supporting members, each of the shelf modules has an overall dimension which is slightly less than the nominal shelf modular dimension. As a consequence, after n shelves have been placed side by side, the total length of the shelf X as illustrated in Fig. 3 is X n Y where Y is the actual width of the shelf module Because of the slight tolerance to penrmit manipulation of the shelf modules as n increases so the discrepancy between the actual length-of the shelf and the nominal length of the shelf increases. This gives rise to problems in installation as the number of modules increases.

Turning to Figs. 4 and 5, the shelf module (20) of the preferred embodiment is illustrated S therein having an upper surface (22) in which a rectangularly arranged array of apertures (23) is formed. On three edges the shelf (20) is provided with a depending skirt (24) and at two oo.ooi S corners a perforated (or otherwise formed) line of weakness (21) is provided so that the user of the shelf may optionally break away the comer of the shelf along the line of weakness (21) Sso as to form none, or two corner recesses (25) [see Fig. 6] as desired.

That edge of the shelf module (20) not having a skirt (24) is scalloped so as to create a plurality of semi-recesses (26) which define protruding fingers (27).

As seen in Fig. 5, the shelf module (20) is provided with a series of longitudinal ribs (36) and a series of transverse ribs All the longitudinal ribs (36) are of substantially the same depth and are substantially flush with the skirt At the centre of the shelf module are two adjacent longitudinal ribs (36) which are very closely spaced. Whilst this substantially ,2605F increases the bending moment of the shelf module it also provides a saw guide to enable the shelf module (20) to be cut in two.

This enables the shelf module (20) to be sawn in half if a narrow module should be required.

The transverse ribs (37) are not as deep as the longitudinal ribs This enables a pair of the shelf modules (20) to be nested as will be explained hereafter in relation to Fig. 7.

In Figs. 6-8, a number of the shelf modules (20) are located together in co-planar arrangement in a manner generally similar to that of Fig. 3, however, two differences will be immediately apparent. Firstly, only in those locations where there is a post are the corners of the shelf module (20) broken away so as to provide a corner recess (25) which accommodates the post o o: Secondly, depending upon whether the orientation of the shelf module (20) is north-south or south-north, so the overall length of the created shelf may be adjusted. The two left hand shelf modules (20) as seen in Fig. 6 are arranged one north-west and one south-west so that :oooi the protruding fingers (27) are inter-digitated. As a consequence, the distance along the shelf created by these two shelf modules (20) is less than the nominal width (600mm) of the two shelf modules (typically by 15mm or so). This enables the two shelf modules (20) to be easily installed.

Alternatively, if the orientation of the shelves is maintained the same, then as seen in Fig. 7 the protruding fingers (27) abut against the skirt (24) thereby ensuring that the spacing in the shelf direction of the adjacent shelf modules (20) is at a maximum. In this way an appreciable 2605F final shelf length can be accommodated 4 x 300 1200mm) but by reversing the orientation of only the last module (20) as in Fig. 6, a constant variation less than nominal (of preferably) is maintained, irrespective of the number of shelf modules (20) in the shelf.

In Fig. 8, another shelf arrangement is shown. Here longer shelf modules are used so that the shelf is deeper having a longer front to rear dimension. In addition, the shelf is required to be less extensive, so only two and one half modules are used, the centre "half' module being centrally cut in two as explained above. Thus the shelf is nominally 300+150+300 750mm long (less of course than 15mm created by the inter-digitated fingers 27).

Turning now to Fig. 9, it will be seen that two of the shelf modules (20) are able to be nested 0 (with one inverted) by engaging the longitudinal ribs (36) of one shelf module (20) with the transverse ribs (37) of the other shelf module In this way, two shelf modules o0••0 occupy approximately 120% of the height of the single shelf (20) thereby resulting in considerable savings in space for storage and transport prior to installation.

*0 The foregoing describes only one embodiment of the present invention and modification, S obvious skilled in the art, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A reverse locatable nestable shelving system comprising a plurality of like substantially rectangular shelf modules, each of said shelf modules comprising a substantially flat upper surface having a depending skirt extending around three edges of the shelf, the remaining edge being scalloped to provide a sequence of semi- recesses, and said shelf module having a series of spaced-apart longitudinal ridges extending from the underside of said upper surface and a series of spaced-apart tranverse ribs extending from said underside of said upper surface, each of said transverse ribs extending away from said upper surface by an amount substantially ••go less than said longitudinal ribs, wherein at least one comer of said shelf module is provided with a frangibly removable portion of said upper surface and skirt, wherein a pair of said shelf modules are nestable by abutting the longitudinal ribs of one shelf module against the transverse ribs of the other shelf module, and a pair of said shelf modules are able to be located in co-planar fashion either with said scalloped edges abutting to inter-digitate the fingers formed between said pairs of said semi-recesses, or with said scalloped edge abutting said skirt.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein said skirt extends around three adjoining edges of said module.

3. The system according to claims 1 or 2 wherein said ribs and skirt have substantially the same extent in a direction away from said upper surface. 2605F

4. The system according to any one of claims 1-3 wherein said fingers are substantially identical.

The system according to any one of claims 1-4 wherein said longitudinal ribs include a pair of closely spaced apart ribs.

6. The system according to claim 5 wherein said pair of closely spaced apart longitudinal ribs are substantially centrally located.

7. The system according to claims 5 or 6 wherein said pair of closely spaced apart ribs form a saw guide.

8. A shelf module substantially as described with reference to Figs. 4-7 of the drawings. S

9. A method of arranging shelf modules substantially as described with reference to Figs. 6-8 of the drawings. to

10. A method of storing and transporting said shelf modules substantially as described with reference to Fig. 9 of the drawings. Dated this 1 st day of May 2001. TRIMARANT PTY LIMITED BY: HODGKINSON OLD McINNES Patent Attorneys for the Applicant