AU613894B2 - A storage assembly - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Form

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE Short Title: 613894 Int. Cl: Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification-Lodged: Accepted: Lapsed: Published: Priority: Related Art: TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT Name of Applicant: Bernard John HAYES Address of Applicant: 14 CLIFTON STREET EUROA 3666

VICTORIA

AUSTRALIA

Actual Inventor: Bernard John Hayes Address for Service: CLEMENT HACK CO., 601 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia.

Complete Specification for the invention entitled: A STORAGE ASSEMBLY The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me:- 2 A STORAGE ASSEMBLY The present invention relates to a storage assembly in general, and to a storage assembly for bottles or bottle-shaped containers, in particular. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to a wine rack or wine storage assembly capable of holding from a few bottles up to a large number of wine bottles.

Although the present invention will be described with particular reference to a large capacity wine storage rack it is to be noted that the scope of the present invention is not so restricted by being limited to wine racks but may extend to include other applications, such as for storing similar containers, or may take any number of different forms 3 for storing wine bottles. Additionally, the actual number of wine bottles stored may vary from a small number such as in the case of a domestic model or to an extremely large number as in the case of commercial storage. The wine racks may be modular in that two or more may be joined together to form an array of units or the rack may be designed to stand alone.

Some of the problems with existing wine storage assemblies include the following; many assemblies are bulky; occupy a large amount of floor or wall space; are inconvenient to use in order to select a single bottle of wine of the desired variety or type; do not allow the labels on all of the bottles to be readily seen without disturbing the bottles including the desired bottles and adjacent bottles; in some cases do not allow bottles to be individually stored but rather require bottles to be stored in groups or collectively such as for example in stacks such as in bins or the like; and are very expensive when storage for large numbers of bottles is provided.

Therefore, it is an aim of the present invention to alleviate at least one of the problems of existing wine storage assemblies by providing a wine rack that provides for individual storage of large numbers of bottles at moderate cost in a small space.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a storage assembly suitable for storing a bottle or bottle-shaped container having an elongate neck portion of a reduced diameter compared to the diameter of the body portion, comprising at least one member having a first surface spaced apart from an opposed second surface, said first surface being provided with at least one first aperture and said second surface being provided with at least one second aperture, said first and second apertures being located with respect to each other so that the centre of the first aperture is located off-centre with respect to the centre of the second aperture thereby forming a spaced apart partially overlapping pair of off-centre apertures, so that when the neck portion of the bottle or container is received through the opposed pair of off-centre apertures the bottle 3Aor container is retained in place in the apertures with the body portion extending substantially outwardly from the member thereby providing storage for the bottle or container 4 outwardly from the membe ir-u--se-of-fh-e assembly thereby Typically, said first surface of the elongate member is provided with a multitude or a plurality of first apertures. Typically, said second surface of the elongate member is provided with a multitude or plurality of second apertures. Typically, the number of first apertures corresponds to the number of second apertures. More typically, the plurality of first apertures are arranged in a row extending along the length of the elongate member in pairs such that the spacing between the two apertures forming the pair is less than the spacing between the closer aperturesof the adjacent pair of apertures. Typically, the plurality of second apertures are arranged in a similar row to that of the first apertures and that more typically all of the first set of apertures is off-axis with respect to all of the corresponding apertures of the second set of apertures.

Typically, the plurality of opposed pairs of apertures are located alternately off-axis whereby ones of the first apertures are off-set or set off-axis from respective ones of the corresponding opposed second apertures in a first direction and others of the first apertures are off-set or located off-axis from respective ones of the corresponding opposed second apertures in a second direction. Typically, the said first direction is opposite to the said second direction, and said ones of the first or second apertures are arranged alternately with respect to the others of the first or second apertures. Typically, the first and second directions are along the lengthwise extending direction or the longitudinal axis of the elongate member.

Typically, the bottles are located in the opposed aperture pairs so that the neck is received in the apertures and the bottles are retained by the weight of the contents in their bodies. Typically, the bottles extend outwardly alternately. More typically, the bottles extend at an angle 5 to the elongate member, preferably substantially at right angles to the member, although the bottles can extend at any angle.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a storage assembly suitable for storing bottles or bottle-shaped containers comprising at least one elongate member having a plurality of first apertures located at spaced apart locations along a first side of the member and having a plurality of corresponding second apertures located at spaced apart locations along an opposed second side of the elongate member, said first apertures being located off-axis with respect to said respective corresponding second apertures such that a suitably shaped container received through the opposed pair of apertures is retained in place to extend substantially outwardly from the member in use.

The elongate member may be solid or it may be tubular. Preferably, the elongate member is tubular more preferably square section. Typically, there may be one, two, three, four or more similar elongate hollow tubular members having two rows of opposed off-axis apertures arranged side by side at spaced apart intervals to form an array. Typically, the or each elongate member is positioned in use such that the side surfaces of the hollow tube are provided with apertures so that the bottles extend outwardly from each side. More typically, the front (and optionally the rear) surface are solid.

Typically, the elongate member is made from metal.

The present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a side elevation view of a section of the storage assembly made in accordance with the present invention showing the alternately arranged opposed pair of apertures; Figure 2 is a front elevation view of the embodiment shown in Figure 1 in its normal in use position but without storing any bottles; 6 Figure 3 is the other side elevation view of the embodiment shown in Figure 1; Figure 4 is a horizontal cross-section taken through the line 4-4 of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a fragmentary view of a small portion of one of the elongate members encircled by circle 5 of Figure 1; and Figure 6 is a vertical cross-section taken along the line 6-6 of Figure 1 additionally showing wine bottles in phantom located in the elongate member.

In the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in the drawings there is a wine rack generally denoted as 2 which comprises three elongate hollow square-section tubes 4 held together by three transverse cross members 6 which are securely fastened to the tubes 4, such as by welding. In use of this embodiment the elongate members are arranged with their longitudinal axis located substantially vertically and the cross members are located horizontally. Thus, the elongate members 4 are all arranged to be substantially parallel. The respective free ends of cross members 6 are each provided with a flange 8 to facilitate fastening of the wine rack to a wall or similar solid support (not shown). Flanges 8 which are welded to the ends of the cross-members 6 are each provided with two bores 10 through which suitable fastening means (not shown) are received to securely attach the wine rack to the wall or other solid support. It is to be noted that in other embodiments the tubes 4 may be horizontal and the cross-members 6 may be vertical in use, whilst in still other embodiments the wine rack may adopt any position, such as being located obliquely against a wall or similar.

Each tube 4 is provided with a row of first apertures 12 located along one of its side surfaces 13 in use, and a row of second apertures 14 located along the opposed side surface 15 so that there are pairs of opposed apertures.

The pairing and spatial relationship of the apertures will be described in more detail below. In addition to the opposed 7 apertures being paired the apertures located in each side face 13, are also arranged in pairs and the apertures located on the opposite side face 15 are arranged in pairs. However, the opposed pairs of apertures are not aligned with each other by being coaxial but rather are located slightly off-centre or off-axis with respect to each other so that when viewed perpendicularly one aperture is not directly superposed over the other aperture but is slightly off-set with a major portion of each aperture overlapping. The offset or eccentrically opposed apertures are slightly spaced apart from being co-axial so as to allow the necks of wine bottles to be located therethrough whilst retaining the wine bottles to assume a substantially horizontal position as shown in Figure 6.

The diameter of all of the apertures of the wine rack of the present invention are all substantially the same.

The arrangement of the apertures will now be described in more detail with reference to the small number of apertures illustrated in Figures 5 and 6. Although the relationship between a small number of apertures only will be fully described it is to be noted that the same relationship extends throughout the wine storage rack and can include all of the apertures of the wine rack.

One pair of opposed apertures comprises aperture 16 of the row of first apertures 12 and aperture 17 of the row of second apertures 14. Aperture 16 is located slightly more towards the lower end of tube 4 in use with respect to aperture 17, and of course aperture 17 is located vice versa with respect to aperture 16. Another pair of opposed apertures comprises aperture 18 of the row of first apertures 12 and aperture 19 of the row of second apertures 14.

Aperture 18 is located more towards the upper end of tube 4 in use with respect to aperture 19 and of course aperture 19 is arranged vice versa with respect to aperture 18. Thus, the web 24 of material of tube 4 existing between apertures 16 and 18 is relatively thinner than the web 25 existing between apertures 17 and 19.

8 As a result of aperture pair 16, 17 and of aperture pair 18, 19 not being located coaxially, but being located relatively staggedly, the apertures of the row of first apertures 12 are arranged in pairs, such as for example pair 16, 18 and pair 20, 22 and the apertures of the row of second apertures 14 are also arranged in pairs, such as for example pair 17, 19 and pair 21, 23. Thus, the width of web 24 between apertures 16 and 18 (belonging to one pair of apertures) is smaller than the width of web 26 between aperture 18 and aperture 20 which each belong to adjacent pairs respectively and not to the same pair. The width of web 28 between apertures 20 and 22 is also smaller than that of web 26. Similarly, the width of web 25 between aperture 17 and aperture 19 which belong to adjacent pairs respectively and not to a single pair is greater than the width of web 27 between aperture 19 and aperture 21 which belong to the same pair. The width of web 29 between apertures 21 and 23 is greater than that of web 27. The width of web 24 is the same as that of web 27 and of web 28 and the width of webs 25, 26, 29 are all the same.

Thus, the plurality of opposed pairs of first apertures and second apertures are arranged alternately at spaced apart locations along the length of the two side surfaces 13, 15 of tube 4 with apertures 16, 20 and so on being equivalent, apertures 18, 22 and so on being equivalent and their respective corresponding apertures are also equivalent; apertures 17, 21 and so on being the same and apertures 19, 23 and so on being the same.

In use, the wine rack of the present invention assumes as its normal in use position, a position as shown in Figure 2 with flanges 8 abutting against a side wall which is located directly behind the wine rack 2 and the three tubes 4 extending vertically and spaced apart from the wall and from each other to project outwardly from the wall so that the first apertures 12 are located to one side which is the left hand side in Figure 2, whereas the second apertures 14 are located on the opposite side which is the right hand side of 9 Figure 2. Wine bottles 30, 50, 62, 64 shown in phantom in Figure 6, are stacked in wine rack 2 to project outwardly from the sides of tube 4 by having their respective necks 32, 52, 66, 68 received through an opposed pair of apertures and their bodies (not shown) extending distally from the tube 4. The wine bottles extend outwardly to either side. As can be seen from Figure 6 the central axis of aperture 16 is located slightly offset from the central axis of aperture 17 by being located slightly below it. When the neck 32 of wine bottle is inserted into the opposed pair of apertures 16, 17 it can be seen that the upper surface 34 of the distal end of the neck portion 32 of the wine bottle bears against the upper portion 36 of the circumference of aperture 16 whereas the lower portion 38 of the circumference of the proximal portion of the neck 32 bears against the lower portion 40 of the circumference of aperture 17 as shown in Figure 6.

Additionally, there is a clearance between the lower portion 42 of the circumference of aperture 16 and the lower portion 44 of the circumference of the distal end of the neck portion 32 of bottle 20 and a clearance between the upper portion 46 of the circumference of the proximal portion of neck 32 and the upper part 48 of the circumference of aperture 17. Thus, in this way bottle 30 is set to lie substantially horizontally with the longitudinal central axis of the bottle being arranged substantially parallel to the central axes of the respective apertures 16 and 17 which are also parallel to each other.

Turning now to the next opposed pair of apertures 18, 19 it can be seen that the wine bottle 50 is located in the opposed pair of apertures 18, 19 in a direction opposite to that of the wine bottle 30. The upper portion 54 of the circumference of the distal portion of the neck 52 of wine bottle 50 bears against the underside of the upper part 56 of the circumference of aperture 19 whereas the lower portion 58 of the circumference of the proximal portion of neck 52 of wine bottle 50 bears against the lower portion 60 of the circumference of aperture 18 to retain bottle 50 substantially 10 horizontal with the longitudinal axis of bottle 50 arranged substantially parallel to the parallely arranged central axes of apertures 18 and 19.

Bottle 62 is arranged similarly to bottle 30 and extends from tube 4 to the same side as bottle 30 and bottle 64 is similarly arranged to bottle 50 and extends outwardly from tube 4 to the same side as bottle 50. Thus, bottles stored in contiguous pairs of opposed apertures extend in opposite directions to define an alternate pattern for storage of the wine bottles. This allows more bottles to be stored in a given length of tube 4 since there is no need to provide clearance between the bodies of adjacent bottles.

The alternate arrangement of bottles continues over the entire length of tube 4 and also continues over each of the tubes of the wine rack.

Modules of wine racks, each having one, two, three, four or more tubes may be located together and suitably or conventionally braced together to define a very large wine storage rack.

Typically, all of the apertures provided in the wine rack of the present invention are of the order of 35 mm but can vary in size from about 25 to 50 mm including all sizes within these limits. Typically, the spacing between the centres of adjacent apertures can vary from about 40 mm up to any size, preferably from about 40 to 70 mm, more preferably from about 50 to 60 mm. Typically the distance between the centres of aperture 16 and aperture 18 is about 50 mm whereas the distance between the centres of apertures 18 and 20 is about 60 mm.

Typically, the off-set between the two apertures of an opposed pair is from about 5 mm to 20 mm, preferably about mm including all values within the limits.

It is to be noted that the number of elongate members comprising a wine rack may vary considerably according to requirements from as low as a single member to two, three, four or more members in a single module. The length of the 11 elongate member can extend to any length which is desired, suitable or convenient and the number of cross members can be varied to suit the application.

The advantages of the present invention are that the wine rack occupies much less floor space than conventional with racks, extends outwardly from the wall surface to a small degree only, being in the order of, in a preferred embodiment, of about 3 bottle diameters and in the preferred embodiment less than the length of a single bottle. Floor to ceiling storage is available by extending the tube 4 between these two. Each bottle is in view so that its label may be read without disturbing the others. The bottles can remain horizontal if desired which aids in aging of the wine, or the bottles can be arranged to extend from tube 4 of an angle if desired.

The described example has been advanced by way of explanation and many modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which includes every novel feature and/or novel combination of features hereindisclosed.

One such modification is to provide the apertures with gaskets, grummets or the like to protect the neck of the bottles when received through the opposed pair of apertures.

Another modification is to extend or reduce the amount the central axes of the opposed pair of apertures are off-set or arranged off-axis so that the bottles may be stored obliquely at an angle to tube 4 with their respective neck portions located lower than the body portions, such as for example in a herring bone like pattern or arrow-head like pattern.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention described herein is susceptible to variations and modifications other than those specifically described. It is understood that the invention includes such variations and modifications which fall within its scope and spirit.

Claims (17)

1. A storage assembly suitable for storing a bottle or bottle-shaped container having an elongate neck portion of a reduced diameter compa,:ed to the diameter of the body portion, comprising at least one member arranged to extend substantially vertically having a first surface spaced apart from an opposed second surface, said first surface being provided with at least one first aperture and said second surface being provided with at least one second aperture, said first and second apertures being substantially the same diameter and being located with respect to each other so that the centre of the first aperture is located substantially vertically off-centre in an amount from 5 to 20 mm with respect to the centre of the second aperture thereby forming a spaced apart partially overlapping pair of off-centre apertures, so that when the neck portion of the bottle or container is received through the opposed pair of off-centre apertures the bottle or container is retained in place in the apertures with the body portion extending substantially 2( outwardly from the member thereby providing storage for the bottle or container.

2. A storage assembly according to claim 1 in which the first surface is provided with a plurality of first apertures located at spaced apart locations and the second surface is provided with a plurality of corresponding second apertures located at spaced apart locations wherein each of the first apertures is arranged with respect to a corresponding second aperture to form a pair of spaced apart partially overlapping off-centre apertures in which the centre of the first aperture of the pair is located off- centre with respect to the centre of the corresponding second aperture of the pair so as to form a plurality of opposed pairs of off-centre apertures.

3. A storage assembly according to claim 1 or 2 in which the member is a substantially elongate member. re 13

4. A storage assembly according to claim 3 in which the elongate member is an elongate square section tube in which the plurality of first apertures are located in one side surface and the plurality of second apertures are located in an opposed side surface of the tube.

A storage assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 4 in which the pairs of first apertures and second apertures extend substantially over the entire length of the member.

6. A storage assembly according any one of claims 3 to in which the plurality of first apertures are arranged in a row extending along the length of the elongate member in pairs such that the spacing between the two apertures forming a single pair is less than the spacing between adjacent apertures of contiguous pairs.

7. A storage assembly according to any one of claims 2 to 6 wherein one aperture of a first pair of first apertures is located substantially vertically off-centre with a corresponding one aperture of a first pair of second apertures in one direction and a second aperture of the first pair of first apertures is located off-centre with corresponding second aperture of the first pair of second apertures in the opposite direction.

8. A storage assembly according to any preceding claim in which within a single pair of opposed off-centred apertures the centre of the first aperture is located off- centre with respect to the centre of the corresponding opposed second aperture in a first direction and in an adjacent pair of opposed off-centre apertures the centre of the first aperture is located off-centre from the centre of the corresponding second aperture in a second direction to define a plurality of pairs of opposed apertures with centres vertically off-centre in alternately opposite directions over the length of the members. 'n 14

9. A storage assembly according to claim 7 or 8 in which the first direction is opposite to that of the second direction and said first and second directions are along the lengthwise extending axis of the elongate member.

10. A storage assembly according to any preceding claim in which the plurality of first apertures have substantially the same diameter as the plurality of second apertures.

11. A storage assembly according to any preceding claim in which the member comprises at least two substantially similar elongate hollow square-section tubes maintained at spaced apart locations by at least one transverse member extending therebetween and securely fastened thereto, said transverse member being provided with means to facilitate fastening of the assembly to a solid support, each of said tubes having a row of first apertures extending substantially over the first surface along the length of the tube and a row of second apertures extending over the second surface along the length of the tube.

12. A storage assembly according to claim 11 in which there are one, two, three, four or more substantially parallel square-section hollow tubes maintained in spaced apart relationship by a multiplicity of transverse members in connecting the tubes, said transverse members being arranged substantially at right angles to the lengthwise extending axes of the tubes.

13. A storage assembly according to any preceding claim in which the bottle or container extends outwardly substantially at right angles to the plane of the first or second surfaces of the member from the member.

14. A storage assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 13 in which the amount of off-centre is about 10 mm.

A storage assembly according to any preceding claim oe 15 in which the bottle or container is a wine bottle.

16. A storage assembly according to any preceding claim in the form of a storage rack for wine bottles.

17. A storage assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Dated this 12th day of June, 1991 BERNARD JOHN HAYES By their Patent Attorneys: GRIFFITH HACK CO. Fellows Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia. 2% 0