AU651447B2 - Collapsible trolley - Google Patents

Description

1 "COLLAPSIBLE TROLLEY" This invention relates to collapsible trolleys. This application is associated with my earlier Provisional Patent Application No. PK5572 filed 11 April, 1991.

This invention has particular application to collapsible trolleys suitable for carriage and/or storage of plants and horticultural products and for illustrative purposes the collapsible trolley of this application hereinafter will be described in relation to such application. Of course this invention is not limited to such application and it may be used for storage or transportation of other articles including machinery, manufactured goods and the like, or used in office or domestic situations. The current arrangement suffers from the disadvantage that transport and storage of empty trolleys 15 represent a significant cost burden in the transport and storage of horticultural industry.

This invention has particular application to collapsible trolleys of standard size, such as for the accommodation of Australian standard pot-plant trays, and for illustrative purposes the collapsible trolley of this invention will be described in relation to such standard size. Of course this invention is not limited to such sizes and it may be of relatively small size such as for domestic applications or larger sizes such as for bulk material.

At present when pot plants and horticultural products are transported from one place to another, they are frequently placed in trolleys. Such trolleys are commonly made to accept a plurality of standard sized pot-plant trays, usually three in number, on each shelf for convenience.

This invention aims to alleviate the abovementioned and other disadvantages and to provide a collapsible trolley which will be reliable and efficient in use. Other objects and advantages of this invention will hereinafter become apparent.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, this invention in one aspect resides broadly in a multi-shelf trolley assembly including:a mobile base assembly having wheels extending from the underside thereof; a plurality of shelves, and demountable supports for supporting said shelves in vertically spaced relationship above said mobile base assembly, wherein said mobile base assembly has a base frame, mounting posts arranged on a rectangular plan on and extending upwardly from said base frame and wheel mounting 04 006.° means for said wheels spaced inwardly from said mounting posts, and wherein said mounting posts are formed with 0 complementary engagement means at opposite ends thereof whereby a corresponding mobile base assembly may be stacked *000 in interlocking relationship on top of said mobile base 44. assembly by engaging the complementary engagement means of j4 25 said mobile base assembly with complementary engagement means of the corresponding mobile base assembly.

of the corresponding mobile base assembly.

7 Preferably, the mounting posts are integral with the base frame and the upper ends of the mounting posts are engagable with the lower ends of respective demountable supports, and/or the posts form the corner boundaries of a rectilinear space having a lower space portion which accommodates the shelves and an upper space portion into which the wheels of a corresponding mobile base assembly stacked thereabove may extend. Preferably, the demountable support for each the shelf includes a set of posts each formed with respective shelf engaging means whereby respective sets of the posts arf; braced by operative engagement of a respective the shelf therewith.

The base assembly may be any desired shape, but in a preferred form, the base assembly is substantially rectangular and of similar external dimensions of the rectangular arrangement of the support posts. The engagement means may be constituted by any means such as pins inserted in apertures, lugs, ledges, rungs or such like. In a preferred embodiment, the engagement means is constituted by tongue means adapted to retain a complementary edge portion Sof a the shelf.

The supports may be telescopic, folding, or such like.

oAlternatively, the opposite ends may include complementary connecting means. In a preferred embodiment, the opposite ends of the supports include complementary socket and spigot connections whereby one support may be releasably connected to another in a lengthwise fashion.

4 The mobile base assembly includes mobility means such as wheels, glides, runners or such like. Preferably, the mobility means is constituted by a removable castor assembly inwardly of each corner portion of the base assembly. The arrangement of each castor assemblies inwardly of each corner, and the inclusion of a spigot or socket connection in each corner affords that the trolleys are stackable whereby a plurality of the trolleys may be placed on top of one another in either the collapsed or the essembled state.

In another aspect, this invention resides in a method of transporting pot-plants and/or horticultural products including:providing a trolley assembly as hereinbefore described; loading at least some of the removable shelves therein with pot-plants and/or horticultural products for transport and/or storage; unloading the removable shelves; dismantling the trolley assembly for transport and/or storage of the empty trolley whereby the collapsed trolley may be returned for re-loading.

The support base and removable shelves may be adapted to accommodate a plurality standard pot-plant trays, preferably in adjacent relationship, and preferably, the support base and removable shelves accommodate three pot-plant trays with the longer sides of such trays adjacent.

In a preferred embodiment, the extension members and the support members are of tubular construction and include a rod or tube of smaller dimension as the upper end portion whereby the inner diameter of the extension members fits over the smaller dimension of upper portion. Of course, any number of extension members may be attached to the upper portion of the members below, and a top brace means may be provided to fit such smaller dimension of upper portion in similar manner, whereby the assembled trolley is held substantially rigid.

Preferably, however, the assembled shelves are adapted to brace the supports by operative placement on the engagement means.

The mobility means may be wheels and/or castors or tracks disposed at each corner of a rectangular base, or alternatively, two wheels are provided at the adjacent corners of and coaxial with one short side, and castors be provided at the adjacent corners of the other short side.

Preferably, however, there are provided castors on all four corners of the base assembly. Furthermore, the wheels and/or castors may be lockable to prevent the trolley rolling.

In an alternative embodiment, the engagement means are provided by a plurality of regularly spaced apertures along the respective length of each support and the shelves are provided with retractable pin assemblies adapted to engage with the apertures in the supports whereby selected ones of the shelves may be located at the desired height and spacing.

If supports of a circular section are used, then the spigot and complementary socket connections may also include S locating means for the rotational orientation of the supports 4444 *o 4 0 0 C. 44 o 0c 0 4 *i I 7 for operational alignment of the apertures for locating the removable shelves. The retractable pins may be spring biased whereby the pins are held in the apertures.

The removable shelves may be trays constructed from angle or flat metal and are of an open frame type construction. The top shelf may be used as the bracing means and in one preferred embodiment may be adapted to storage of high stock that would not fit on lower shelves. The edge or side portions of the shelves may be used to carry messages, such as contents of the shelves, advertising and such like.

Preferably, the shelves are in the form of a basket.

Suitably, the basket is constructed from a plurality of spaced wires in an open grid.

Preferably, the trolley is constructed from galvanised steel, however, any appropriate material of construction may be used, such as but not limited to aluminium, stainless steel, wood, mild steel, and the like. The wheels may also be made from any suitable material, however, rubber or similar tyres are preferred.

The trolley or any number of them may be assembled and dismantled repeatedly as desired for transportation and/or for accommodating fluctuations in stock levels or storage requirements.

In order that this invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate the 4* o At

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1)..1 Nf invention, wherein:- 7 7 FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a trolley according to the present invention in its assembled state; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a trolley according to the present invention in a partly assembled state; FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a trolley according to the present invention in its disassembled state, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a preferred form of trolley according to the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a trolley 10 comprises a base 11 having support members 12, a plurality of extension members 14, a plurality of removable shelves 16 and a top brace 18. The base 11 also has non-pivoting wheels 17 at and coaxial with one end thereof and castors 19 at the other end thereof.

The base 11 and the removable shelves 16 each have a pair of cross-bars 15 extending across the smaller dimension thereof at equally spaced intervals whereby three standard sized pot-plant trays may be placed thereon for transport and/or storage.

The apparatus of FIG. 1 may be disassembled by removing the top brace 18, the shelves 16 and dismantling the extension members 14 from the support members 12.

Referring to FIG. 2, the base 11 is adapted to store the extension members 14, and referring to FIG. 3, to store also the removable shelves 16 and the top brace 18. The end portions of the support members 12 and extension members 14 are provided with reduced diameter locating means 13 whereby I I I

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AIT 0~ r I, rn 8 successive extension members 14 may be detachably located upon the locating means 13 to assemble the trolley apparatus The support members 12 and the extension members 14 are also provided with apertures 20 which act as locating means for the complementary locating means on the shelves 16.

Referring to FIG. 4, a trolley 10 comprises a base 11 having rectangular hollow section support members 12, a plurality of rectangular hollow section extension members 14 and a plurality of basket shelves 26. The extension members 14 have shelf support lugs 21 spaced along one side thereof for supporting the basket shelves 26. The base 11 also has castors 19 at each corner portion thereof.

The basket shelves 26 serve to brace the extension members 14 by operative placement on the support lugs 21.

The apparatus of FIG. 4 may be disassembled by removing the basket shelves 26 and dismantling the extension members 26 inside one another and placing the stacked basket shelves l 26 and dismantled extension members 14 inside the base 11.

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If desired, a plurality of disassembled trolleys 10 may be stacked for ease of transport.

The trolley of this invention may be used to transport and/or store pot-plants, horticultural products and such like. Loaded or empty trolleys may be rolled onto a truck for transport from a suitable loading bay, or may be lifted one or more at a time by a fork lift onto or into a truck or wagon. When not required, the assembly is dismantled by 9 removing the shelves, detaching the top brace and disconnecting the extension members from each other and the £support members. The extension members are placed in the frame of the support base which may have retaining means to prevent the extension members dislodging. The shelves are stacke& uipon the support base within the upright support members and may be secured in place using their locating means. Alternatively, the top shelf may be secured in place to hold the remaining shelves beneath. The top brace frame is finally attached to the upper end portion of the support members, thereby rendering the trolley to its collapsed state. The collapsed trolleys may be stacked upon one another to reduce the amount of floor space. It will be seen from the figures and the description that the collapsed trolley has much reduced volume for more efficient storage and/or transport of the empty trolleys.

Furthermore, the collapsible trolley of this invention may be used as a sales stand, wherein stock is displayed for sale. As the stock is removed and/or sold from a trolley and the trolley is emptied of such stock, it may be collapsed ready for return to be refilled.

From -the above it will be seen that collapsible trolleys for transport and storage of pot-plants and horticultural i products offers significant savings in volume when such trolleys are empty. Such a volume reduction would create economies in transportation due to the savings in trucking capacity, as well as creating economies in storage, especially where empty trolleys have to be kept under cover.

It will of course be realised that while the above has 4 t 30 been given by way of illustrative example of this invention, 0 t' all such and other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to the skilled practitioner in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as claimed in the following claims.

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Claims (7)

1. 2. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as claimed in claim i, t S 20 wherein the posts are integral with said base frame and the upper ends of said mounting posts are engagable with the lower ends of respective said demountable supports. K
2. 3. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said posts form the corner boundaries of a rectilinear space having a lower space portion which accommodates said plurality of shelves and an upper space -fill h.r <NT Ai portion into which the. wheels of a corresponding mobile base assembly stacked thereabove may extend.
3. 4. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as claimed in claim 3, wherein said demountable supports are of a length less than the longest length within the rectilinear space. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said demountable supports include two or more sets of demountable supports, each said set having a number of members corresponding to the number of said mounting posts, the first respective set of demountable supports being mountable upon said mounting posts, and the or each subsequent said set of demountable supports being mountable upon another set of demountable supports wihen so mounted. s
4. 6. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, and including shelf engagement means on each demountable support for engaging a plurality of shelves S t when said demountable supported are mounted on said mounting posts.
5. 7. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said demountable supports are j braced by operative engagement of said shelves with said demountable supports. 12
6. 8. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said shelves are nestable.
7. 9. A multi-shelf trolley assembly as substantially hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED THIS TWENTY-NINTH DAY OF APRIL 1994. ERROL NORMAN HARRISON by PIZZEY COMPANY PATENT ATTORNEYS ,I ABSTRACT A collapsible multi-shelf trolley assembly, having a mobile base assembly one or more shelves demountable supports (14) for suppcrting the shelves (16) in vertically spaced relationship above the base assembly (11) which is adapted to accommodate the supports (14) and the shelves (16) when demounted. The demountable support (14) for each the shelf (16) includes a set of posts each formed with respective shelf engaging means (16) whereby respective sets of the posts are braced by operative A engagement of a respective the shelf (16) therewith, the engagement means preferably being constituted by tongue means adapted to retain a complementary edge portion of a shelf (16). i 4 0 r* L r