CA2621690A1 - Storage kit - Google Patents

Abstract

A storage system or kit has components making up two or more variable height poles to be installed generally vertically on a floor. The tops of the poles are attached to a common horizontal beam abutting a ceiling. The poles may be made of multiple segments connected by a shaped plastic insert with a hollow metal core. The poles may have openings, for example slots, along their lengths to accept article-supporting elements. A shelf or tool bracket has a vertical surface to engage openings on a pole and a horizontal surface to hold tools or a shelf. A slat wall bracket has hooks to engage openings on a pole and upper and lower channels to engage a slatwall section.
A pole adapter has hooks to engage openings on a pole on one side, and openings as in the pole on another side to support a shelf bracket. A shelf bracket has an end with hooks to engage openings in a pole and an upper surface. A shelf slat has a notch at each end to admit the upper surface of the bracket. A pair of slats may support an object or a shelf, or multiple nearly adjacent slats may form a nearly continuous planar surface.

Description

= -1-TITLE: STORAGE KIT
FIELD
[0001] This specification relates to furniture, for example shelving or storage systems.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The following is not an admission that anything described below is citable as prior art or part of the common general knowledge of persons skilled in the art.

[0003] A storage system is a set of parts used to add article-supporting elements to a room. Article supporting elements may include, for example, shelves, brackets or hooks.

SUMMARY

[0004] The following summary is intended to introduce the reader to this specification. This summary is not intended to define or limit any invention.
One or more inventions may reside in any combination of one or more apparatus elements or process steps selected from a set of all elements or steps described anywhere in this document.

[0005] This specification describes a storage system or kit for a storage system.
The kit or storage system has components making up two or more variable height poles to be installed generally vertically on a lower surface, for example a floor.
The tops of poles are attached to a common horizontal beam intended to abut an upper surface, for example a ceiling. Optionally, the poles may be made of multiple segments connected by a plastic insert with a hollow metal core. The poles may have openings, for example slots, along their lengths to accept other elements. The kit may further have one or more of the article-supporting elements described below.

[0006] A shelf or tool bracket has vertical and horizontal surfaces. The vertical surface has hooks to engage openings on a pole. The horizontal surface has openings to admit tools to be stored on the bracket, or fasteners to attach the end of a shelf to the bracket.

[0007] A slat wall bracket has hooks to engage openings on a pole on one side and upper and lower channels to engage a vertical board on another side. The vertical board may be a section of a slatwall.

[0008] A poie adapter has hooks to engage openings on a pole on one side, and openings as in the pole on another side. A shelf bracket may be attached to the pole and another shelf bracket may be attached to the pole adapter. Shelves at the same elevation may extend outwardly in both directions form the two shelf brackets.

[0009] A shelf bracket has an end with hooks to engage openings in a pole and an upper surface. The upper surface may have a series of spaced holes. A shelf slat has a notch at each end to admit the upper surface of the bracket. The ends of the shelf slat may also have holes for a fastener to attach the shelf slat to the upper surface of the bracket. The holes in the upper surface of the shelf bracket may be spaced, relative to the width of the shelf slats, to accommodate multiple nearly adjacent slats forming a nearly continuous planar surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] Figure 1 is a schematic isometric representation of the components of a storage system or kit.

[0011] Figure 2 is a schematic isometric representation of an assembled storage system made from the components in Figure 1.

[0012] Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6 are schematic plan view representations of steps in the assembly of poles of the system of Figure 2.

[0013] Figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 are schematic representations of steps in the installation of poles and a beam of the system of Figure 2.

[0014] Figure 11 is a schematic isometric representation of a shelf slat being installed to a shelf bracket.

[0015] Figure 12 is a schematic isometric representation of a pole bracket adaptor of the system or kit of Figure 1.

[0016] Figure 13 is a schematic elevation view representation of a pole bracket of Figure,12 supporting a shelf.

[0017] Figure 14 is an enlargement of the circled area of Figure 13.

[0018] Figures 15, 16, 17 and 18 are an isometric front view, an isometric back view, a side view and an isometric front in use view of element H of Figure 1.

[0019] Figures 19, 20 and 21 are front, side and top views respectively of element I of Figure 1.

[0020] Figures 22 and 23 and a top view and a cut-away partial side view of element D of Figure 1.

[0021] Figure 24 is an isometric view of Element I of Figure 1.

[0022] Figure 25 is an isometric view of the bottom of element C or Figure 1 being assembled over the top of element D of Figure 1.

[0023] Figure 26 is an isometric view of an assemble of elements D, P, E and F
of Figure 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] Figure 1 shows the components, or sub-assemblies of components, of a storage system packaged as a kit. The letter to the left of each component or sub-assembly is a reference letter for that component or sub-assembly. The number to the right of each component or sub-assembly is the number of that component or sub-assembly included in the kit. Beam A is a metal C-channel shaped beam with slots in its flanges and holes in its web. Pole upper section B is a hollow square post with long (about 9 cm) slots on all for of its sides, holes on two sides at one end, and an interior plate welded across its cross section about 5 cm in from the other end. Pole middle section C is a hollow square tube with openings in the form of short (about 2 cm) slots 60 on all four sides and an inside width that accepts the outside width of pole upper section B. Pole lower section D (also shown Figures 22, 23, 25 and 26) is a hollow square tube section like pole middle section C but with a pole section connector 50 inserted in one end and a plate with a threaded hole welded across its other end. The pole section connector 50 is a section of square metal tubing 52, for example about 20 cm long, covered on its sides with a dense plastic 54 sized and shaped to fit snugly inside and against the inside surfaces of pole sections C, D. Plastic covering 54 has a flange 58 with a slot 56 to receive the ends of pole sections C, D. Shelf slat E is a metal C-channel shaped beam with a notch in each flange at each end and a hole through the web at each end in about the centre of the notches. Shelf G is a rectangular piece of coated particle board. Shelf bracket F (also shown in Figure 26) is a metal plate bent to form an upper surface with a width that fits into the slots at the end of a shelf slat E, and two sides. The ends of the sides are cut to provide hooks 36 adapted to engage the slots 60 of pole sections C, D. The sides are grooved to increase their strength. The upper surface has a series of spaced holes 62 adapted to allow connection to a fastener such as cotter pin T or a screw 64 inserted through a hole at the end of a shelf slat E.
The holes in the upper surface are spaced so that a plurality of shelf slats E
supported on the shelf bracket F form a nearly continuous planar surface. Slat wall bracket H
(shown in more detail in Figures 15-18) has a piece of metal plate 10 bent at both ends to form a c-section with a long web 12 and cupped flanges 14. The web 12 has holes 16 to admit fasteners and hooks 18 adapted to fit into the slots 60 of pole sections C, D.
A rod 20 welded to the back of the plate has a diameter greater than the depth of the hooks 18 and is bent to form an upper loop 22 and two lower hooks 24. Shelf and tool bracket I (also shown in Figures 19-21 and 24) is a piece of metal plate 30 bent to provide horizontal 32 and vertical 34 surfaces. The vertical surface 34 has hooks 36 to engage the slots of pole sections C, D. The horizontal surface 32 has holes 38 to admit a fastener for optionally fastening to an end of a shelf, larger holes 40 to optionally hold tools with shafts, such as screwdrivers, and openings 42 to hold larger tools such as wrenches or pliers. An indented groove 44 strengthens the horizontal surface 32. Slat wall section J (also shown in Figure 18) is a section of extruded plastic having a cross section that provides a groove 30 to accept the upper ends of a slat wall attachment.
Spring K is a coil spring with an outer diameter that fits inside upper pole section B.
Clip L is a bent piece of metal sized and shaped to fit through the slots of middle pole section C. Retainer M is a piece of spring steel wire bent into an open ring.
N is a bolt.
0 is a wing nut. Pole adapter P is a short section of hollow square tubing of the same size as pole sections C, D. Pole adapter P has hooks on one side to engage slots in pole sections C, D and slots as in pole sections C, D on its other three sides. Q and R
are Allen keys. Foot S has a threaded shaft for threading into the hole in the plate on the bottom of lower pole section D and a foot pad. T is a cotter pin. Figure 2 shows these components in an assembled and installed system, according to one of multiple options for assembling the kit or system.

[0025] Figures 3 to 6 show steps in assembling poles for the system. As shown in Figure 3, a foot S is threaded fully, or nearly so, into the plate at the bottom of a lower pole section D. A middle pole section C is slipped over the connector 50 at the other end of lower pole section D as shown in Figure 25. Referring to Figure 4, pole sections C, D are positioned vertically, and upper pole section B is placed next to them. Clip L is inserted through the first full slots in middle pole section C below the bottom of pole upper section B. Retainer M is inserted through a hole in the clip L to keep it in place.

Referring to Figure 4, spring K is inserted into middle pole section C to abut the clip L.
Upper pole section B is then also inserted into the end of middle pole section C. The lower end of upper pole section B fits over the other end of spring K until the end of spring K contacts the plate inside of upper pole section B. Referring to Figure 6, two more poles are assembled to have the same length.

[0026] Figures 7 to 10 show steps in installing the poles and an upper beam.
Beam sections A are laid on a floor nested together at their ends to provide a desired length. The ends of pole upper sections B are bolted to beam sections A at a spacing appropriate for shelves G or shelf slats E. The assembly is lifted and installed in rough position between a floor and ceiling. The springs K will be partially compressed with the assembly in this position and hold the assembly in place while each pole B, C, D is moved towards a vertical position. Once the poles B, C, D are in their desired location, feet S are rotated to screw them out of the bottoms of lower pole sections D
to further compress springs K. If desired, feet S can be rotated until the bottom of upper pole sections B abut clips L, or rotated even further to increase the compression between the pole B, C, D, floor and ceiling. Optionally, beam section A may be screwed to the ceiling, or to structure such as a joist located above the ceiling between the ends of poles B, C, D. This step may be unnecessary since connecting all three poles B, C, D
together through beam sections A makes each difficult to knock over.

[0027] Figure 11 shows how a shelf slat E is fitted over a shelf bracket F and held in place by a cotter pin T. If desired, other shelf slats E may be fitted into the adjacent holes in shelf bracket F. If a shelf slat E is attached to each hole in shelf bracket F, a nearly continuous planar surface is created but with gaps between the slats E
of up to about 2 or 3 cm. Figure 12 shows a pole adapter P in greater detail. As shown in Figures 13 and 14, the hooks of the pole adapter P may be inserted into the slots of a pole section C, D, and a shelf bracket F may be inserted into the slots of the pole adapter P. In this way, two shelf brackets F may be mounted at the same elevation to the same pole B, C, D. One shelf bracket F can support slats E extending to one side of the pole B, C, D while the other shelf bracket F supports slats E at the same elevation extending to the other side of the pole B, C, D as shown in Figure 26.

Claims (12)

1. A storage system or kit for a storage system comprising, a) components making up two or more variable height poles; and, b) a beam connectable to the tops of the poles.

2. The system or kit of claim 1 wherein the poles are made of multiple segments connected by a plastic insert with a hollow metal core.

3. The system or kit of claim 1 wherein the poles have openings, for example slots, along their lengths to accept other elements.

4. The system or kit of claim 3 wherein the poles have a rectangular cross section and openings on two orthogonal sides.

5. The system or kit of claim 1 further comprising any other element claimed below.

6. A shelf or tool bracket comprising, a) a vertical surface having hooks to engage openings on a vertical supporting surface; and, b) a horizontal surface to support a shelf or having openings to admit tools.

7. A slat wall bracket comprising, a) a plate having hooks to engage openings on a vertical supporting surface on one side and upper and lower flanges to engage a vertical board or section of slatwall on another side.

8. The slat wall bracket of claim 7 having a bent rod attached to the side of the plate having the hooks, the bent rod shaped to provide a hook or loop.

9. The slat wall bracket of claim 8 wherein the plate has holes to admit a fastener and the diameter of the bent rod is greater than the width of the hooks.

10. A pole adapter comprising, a) a section of rectangular tubing having hooks to engage openings on a pole on one side and openings as in the pole on an orthogonal side.

11. A shelf support system comprising, a) a shelf bracket having an end with hooks to engage openings in a pole and an upper surface; and, b) a shelf slat having a notch at each end to admit the upper surface of the bracket.

12. The shelf support system of claim 11 wherein the upper surface of the bracket has a series of spaced holes, the ends of the shelf slat has a hole for a fastener to attach the shelf slat to the upper surface of the bracket, and the holes in the upper surface of the shelf bracket are spaced, relative to the width of the shelf slat to accommodate multiple nearly adjacent slats forming a nearly continuous planar surface.