EP0639948B1 - Collapsible refrigerated cabinets - Google Patents

Abstract

PCT No. PCT/FR94/00158 Sec. 371 Date Oct. 11, 1994 Sec. 102(e) Date Oct. 11, 1994 PCT Filed Feb. 11, 1994 PCT Pub. No. WO94/17698 PCT Pub. Date Aug. 18, 1994.The present invention relates to a display cabinet for displaying food products or the like in a shop. A refrigerated cabinet for displaying products includes at least two substantially superposed shelves (1), at least one cover panel, means for guiding and circulating cool air towards the product display shelves, and includes a cover panel made of a material that is thin and lightweight and that includes card, the cover being removably mounted on a base (8) including means for guiding and circulating cool air. The technical field of the invention is that of manufacturing refrigerated cabinets.

Description

The present invention relates to a display cabinet of food or similar products in a store.

Many products need to be arranged (within sales areas) in refrigerated furniture or display cases (or cooled) by a circulation of cold air in order to maintain said produced under acceptable storage conditions.

Three main problems must be solved by this type of furniture: this furniture must allow the products on sale to be displayed in a way ensuring maximum visibility for the consumer passing in the store near the furniture and allowing the best possible enhancement of the product, in particular through a good lighting ; moreover, this type of furniture must allow the conservation of products which is generally achieved by cold air circulation (in the furniture) which is generally dynamic, that is to say provided by at least one air circulation fan cold; many pieces of furniture of this type have several shelves superimposed and have in their front facade an access zone to exposed products substantially frontal thanks to a large opening dimension provided in the front facade of said piece of furniture; said air circulation includes an air curtain to prevent or limit the penetration of hot air into said piece of furniture by said zone front access to exposed products.

Another general problem to solve for this type of device is to allow loading and unloading of products, respectively in the cabinet or out of the cabinet, quick and easy.

A piece of furniture substantially fulfilling these functions is described by example in US patent 3,719,408 (FULLINGTON), which furniture has a product display area with an area front access, which piece of furniture has a circulation circuit of cold air comprising a curtain of cold air protecting this front access opening and air cooling system in circulation; said piece of furniture is designed to receive carts mobiles comprising a plurality of superimposed shelves intended for receive and display the products for sale.

Nevertheless the known furniture described in particular in this document have many disadvantages.

Indeed, this type of furniture is very expensive and very difficult otherwise impossible to disassemble and reuse when modifying the layout or layout of a store, which operations shop fittings are being made more and more frequent so to attract customers.

It has also been described in patent application EP 296 343 (GERVAIS DANONE) a product display container kept at low temperature in sales premises; this document describes a container or box substantially parallelepiped, open by its face upper, whose side walls can in particular be produced in cardboard: this container can be placed on a pallet; the container can receive either in a cavity or cut in one side walls of the body, either placed on the upper part of the body, a cooling device such as an accumulator or a device comprising a refrigeration circuit fitted with a evaporator capable of cooling the air in an upper zone of the box containing the products displayed.

Although the device described in this document facilitates the loading and unloading of products that can be delivered in said box, this device does not allow air circulation cold in the container containing the products, and its use is therefore limited to certain types of products supporting a low cooling delivered by the cooling module provided for in this document; also a big drawback of this device is that it is not at all suitable for promoting products for sale, which products are piled up inside of the body and which body does not allow good visibility of products and easy consumer access to them.

Document US-A-4,845,957 describes a refrigerated cabinet product display on an exhibition plan, which includes means for guiding and circulating fresh air and air distribution means towards said plane; a piece of furniture has a structure removably mounted on a base which includes part of the guiding and circulation means of air.

GB-A-2,198,030 describes a refrigerated cabinet comprising two substantially overlapping exposure plans.

The problem posed therefore consists in procuring a piece of furniture or a showcase very easily removable, while meeting the general problems posed with this type of device, namely: ensuring very good conservation of products by correct circulation cold air whether static or through cold air circulation fans, allow excellent visibility of products for the consumer and allow value the products on display and give easy access to consumer products; the device must also allow very easy loading and unloading of products.

The present invention consists in providing a piece of furniture according to the claim 1.

Preferably the means for guiding cooled air comprise cladding panels which are easily removable and which essentially consist of a multi composite material layers comprising at least one layer or sheet of paper or cardboard, and which are likely to receive on their outside face a printing or screen printing advertising messages.

Advantageously, said piece of furniture has an interior panel perforated with fresh air distribution to said products and / or said shelves, and comprises a covering or superstructure substantially monobloc and semi rigid, which covering is made in a thin and light, multilayer or laminated material comprising at least one layer or sheet of paper or cardboard. Advantageously, said piece of furniture includes shelf supports and means for circulating cold air towards said shelves allowing air to be introduced at the rear or above said shelves, which piece of furniture preferably includes return means or fresh air intake at the bottom, for example in front said piece of furniture.

Said piece of furniture has an access area which is preferably substantially frontal, by a large opening provided in the front or front face of said piece of furniture, which access area or front face is preferably inclined with respect to the horizontal, by substantially vertical example, which piece of furniture may include a curtain of air aimed at limiting the hot air inlets inside said furniture through said front access area to products.

In the case of furniture of general shape substantially parallelepiped, the solution to the problem posed consists to procure refrigerated furniture, for the display and sale of products on at least two shelves substantially superimposed, comprising at least one side panel, at least one front panel, at least one rear panel, wherein said cladding includes said side and front panels and said rear panel which are connected together for example by staples and / or by bonding.

Said piece of furniture comprises a base (or base) forming a support for said piece covering, and includes means of assembly and rapid disassembly of said covering relative to said base; said skin can be assembled manually with said base forming a support by a substantially vertical movement descending so as to surround or cover said base.

Preferably, said staples are made of plastic, for example example in the shape of a point with a flat head, or in two male parts and female in the form of a "press button", so as to allow assembly of the panels together which is irremovable.

At least one of said side, front panels, or rear panel, and / or said material constituting said panels, has a density less than or equal to four hundred kilos per cubic meter, for example less than or equal to three hundred kilos per cubic meter. At least one of said panels has a thickness less than or equal to thirty millimeters for example of the order of 20 to 25 millimeters. Preferably said panels and / or said multi-layer material your constituent has a coefficient of heat transmission and relatively mechanical strength low, and include at least one outer sheet (covering) of paper, cardboard, plastic film, which is printed, screen printed ...

The invention applies to refrigerated furniture of all shapes, especially of substantially cylindrical shape of circular cross section of axis substantially vertical, as well as furniture in the general shape of a pyramid.

In an exemplary embodiment, said panels (which can constitute said covering and / or said shelves and / or said guiding and distribution panels - possibly perforated - fresh air) can consist of two (respectively three) layers of overlapping corrugated cardboard that are held together by at least three (respectively at least four) substantially planar layers of cardboard; said layers or sheets of cardboard are for example coated with paraffin.

Advantageously, said base forming a support comprises a part upper of substantially parallelepiped shape which has substantially rounded or broken corners or angles, and comprises, in a lower part of said support, support means (or stop or reach) of at least part of the lower edge of said dressing.

Advantageously, said base comprises a fin exchanger cooling air circulating in said cabinet, which exchanger may consist of an evaporator supplied with fluid refrigerant by a compression refrigeration circuit;

Alternatively, said exchanger is constituted by a battery of cooling in which a refrigerant circulates such as brine, which refrigerant can be delivered to said piece of furniture by a refrigeration unit external to said piece of furniture; said base comprises at least one circulation fan of said air cooled by said exchanger.

Advantageously at least one of said side, front panels, rear, is provided with a cutout delimiting an opening capable to be next to an opening in a side wall of said base, which openings allow the air passage to allow the cooling of a refrigerant in a condenser.

Advantageously, said piece of furniture has feet or side members which delimit at least one free space allowing the engagement of forks of a handling machine under said base forming a support and thus allowing easier handling of said base and / or said furniture.

Advantageously, said piece of furniture includes sealing means. relating to air, between said base and said covering.

Advantageously, said shelves and said internal perforated panel are made in a multi-layer material based on paper or cardboard; said piece of furniture may include a ceiling panel which is partly at least transparent, so to allow the lighting of the products placed on said shelves by a light source external to said piece of furniture.

Advantageously, said piece of furniture includes a switch for start and stop of a refrigeration unit and / or said cooling fan air circulation provided in said base, which switch is triggered by contact or by a proximity during assembly (respectively disassembly) of said covering on said base.

Thanks to said panels allowing the guiding of the air cooled to the interior of said piece of furniture and comprising on their external face a sheet capable of being printed or screen printed, said furniture are very light and easily removable and can be so easily moved inside a store when changing the layout of a store.

The furniture according to the invention is adapted to be placed inside stores by distributors of a range of products, to highlight products for which a promotion must be made, placing for a period from a few days to a few weeks of furniture at the ends of the product display shelves.

In a preferred embodiment where said piece of furniture comprises a covering or superstructure substantially entirely produced in said multilayer material by means of panels connected together by stapling and / or gluing, the entire superstructure can be almost instantly removed from its base comprising the means this cooling, and can be discarded and replaced.

said superstructure or covering can fill the support function of said shelves and said products and allows excellent visibility and good development of the products on display.

Thanks to transparent cutouts provided in the side panels covering said furniture and possibly in the ceiling panel, highlighting these products can be further improved by facilitating penetration to inside said cabinet light from light sources external to the furniture.

The sealing means provided between said covering and said base containing the means air cooling, allow cold air circulation with limited cold air loss or leakage and thus guarantee a good conservation of the products exposed.

Said material constituting said panels of said covering or superstructure contains a significant amount of cardboard, so that said covering can be discarded after a few weeks or months of use, and recycled.

When said product display shelves are made of said material multi-layers based on cardboard, said shelves can be used for packaging and transport of the exhibited products and be set up inside said piece of furniture, without unpacking products packaged and carried by said shelf.

panels and / or cladding comprising said panels and / or said complete superstructure of furniture according to the invention can be manufactured industrially at low prices, allowing their replacement at short time intervals (a few weeks or months), and thus solve the problem of maintenance of furniture that is subject to damage important and whose external appearance is (for furniture known) quickly degraded and no longer allows them to fulfill their customer attraction function.

When said covering and said shelves are made in said multi-layer material, said covering and said shelves can be factory assembled and used as packaging for the transport of the products to be exhibited, the whole covering / shelves / products constituting a semi-rigid monobloc assembly can be delivered to the store and set up in the shelves by a simple fitting on said base.

La figure 1 illustre schématiquement les principaux composants d'un meubles réfrigéré selon l'invention.

La figure 2 est une coupe transversale dans un plan sensiblement vertical d'un meuble selon l'invention qui comporte une superstructure qui peut être sensiblement entièrement réalisée dans un matériau multi couches à base de carton et qui est disposée sur un socle contenant lesdits moyens de refroidissement et de ventilation d'air frais.

La figure 3 est une coupe transversale dans un plan sensiblement vertical d'un autre mode de réalisation d'un meuble selon l'invention dans lequel ledit socle et la structure lourde (par exemple métallique) dudit meuble comporte le panneau perforé et les étagères et leur support ; sur cette figure est illustré un habillage selon l'invention lors d'une étape d'assemblage dudit habillage sur ladite structure de meuble comportant ledit socle.

The numerous advantages provided by the invention will be better understood through the following description which refers to the appended drawings, which illustrate without any limiting character, particular embodiments of display furniture according to the invention.

Figure 1 schematically illustrates the main components of refrigerated furniture according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a cross section in a substantially vertical plane of a cabinet according to the invention which comprises a superstructure which can be substantially entirely made of a multilayer material based on cardboard and which is arranged on a base containing said means cooling and ventilation of fresh air.

FIG. 3 is a cross section in a substantially vertical plane of another embodiment of a piece of furniture according to the invention in which said base and the heavy structure (for example metallic) of said piece of furniture comprises the perforated panel and the shelves and their support; in this figure is illustrated a covering according to the invention during a step of assembling said covering on said furniture structure comprising said base.

With reference to FIG. 1, a piece of furniture 17 comprises a base 8 forming a support for superstructure 11 which can be assembled with said base or mounted on this one by a movement according to the arrow marked 9, that is to say by a simple fitting of said superstructure (shaped substantially parallelepiped, bottomless, i.e. with the face lower 10 is open) that comes over said base.

Said base has a lower part 18 comprising a substantially horizontal flat plate whose edges 13 constitute means for supporting the edges 21 of the panels constituting said covering when the latter comes to cover said base 8.

Said lower part 18 of said base 8 also includes sleepers 19 on which said flat plate is mounted, which sleepers delimit these free spaces between said flat plate and the ground on which said base is placed, which free spaces 14 allow the introduction of forks 20 of a device or carriage handling this known type and thus allow handling facilitated said floor and / or said refrigerated cabinet.

Said base comprises an upper part 15 constituted by a substantially parallelepiped body with edges or 12 vertical angles located at the four corners of said parallelepiped are rounded or broken so that facilitate the fitting of said covering 11 around of said upper part 15.

Said box forming the upper part 15 of said base 8 has an opening 41 located on one of the side walls 42 of said upper part 15, and has in its upper face an opening 48 allowing entry fresh air coming from the lower front part of said cabinet as illustrated in Figures 2 and 3; the upper face of said base also comprises a panel 34 provided with sealing means with said covering superstructure 11, and an area 49 air outlet after cooling of said air by passage over a cooling coil, as also illustrated 2.

Said superstructure 11 is essentially consisting of a left side panel 2, a right side panel 3, a lower front panel 4, an upper front panel 5, a rear panel 6 which panel 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are made of said cardboard-based material and are assembled between them by gluing or stapling.

Said superstructure 11 may also include a panel 7 provided with perforations 22, located at the rear of shelves 1 substantially horizontal or slightly inclined at the front in order to facilitate visibility and access to products for the consumer; said perforated panel 7 and said shelves 1 can also be made in said multi-layer material based on cardboard.

the open frontal area or product access area is marked 50 in Figure 2.

Said left and right side panels have a transparent part 45 making it possible to improve and facilitate the lighting of the products displayed on said shelves 1.

Said left side panel 2 comprises in its lower part a cutout defining an opening 40 which, when said superstructure or covering comes to pose by its edges lower 21 on said support means 13 of said base, can coincide and be located opposite said opening 41 provided in the side wall 42 of said base, and thus allow entry and / or an air outlet in said base, which air may be necessary when using a cooling system with compression fitted with a condenser and housed in said base (figure 2).

With reference to FIG. 2, said base 8 comprises in this embodiment feet 55 delimiting with the floor 51 of spaces 14 allowing the handling of said base and / or said piece of furniture.

Said base 8 comprises in the lower part a plate or bottom 39 whose edges constitute these areas 13 of support or range of said superstructure.

Said base has a lower compartment 38 in which is located a ventilated condenser 30, a compressor 31 of a refrigerant circulating in pipes 36 connecting said compressor to said condenser, said condenser has an expansion valve 32 supplying an evaporator 28 causing the cooling of the air coming into contact with said evaporator.

the circuits of said refrigeration unit have been partially and schematically represented figure 2.

Said lower compartment 38 is separate, by a substantially horizontal wall 33, of a "cold" compartment 37 located above said compartment 38, which compartment 37 is limited by side walls 42 of said base on the one hand, by said panel 33 and by an upper panel 34 on the other hand, in the part before which is an opening 48 allowing the air intake fresh, as indicated by arrow 25, in the lower front said piece of furniture, for example by means of perforations 22 provided in the lower shelf 16 of product display forming part of said covering and / or said structure of said piece of furniture.

Said compartment 37 comprises said evaporator 28 with fins causing the cooling of the air escaping from compartment 37 by a opening 49 located at the rear of said base according to arrow 26 thanks to an air circulation fan 29; said cooled air is moving in a substantially vertical movement 23 in a sheath of air circulation 27 delimited by two panels vertical and parallel to each other and forming part of the covering and of the furniture superstructure, namely: a perforated rear panel 7 which can form shelf support 1 and is provided with a plurality of perforations 22 allowing penetration into the part before said piece of furniture (according to arrow 24) and towards the exposed products on said shelves, cooled air circulating in said duct 27; said rear sheath 27 is by elsewhere delimited by said rear panel 6 of said covering.

Said piece of furniture has an air seal 35 provided on said base and / or said covering, in the vicinity (by surrounding example) of said inlet and outlet openings 48 and 49 of fresh air from said compartment 37.

In the upper part of said cabinet are provided two 43 ceiling panels in at least transparent or translucent part so as to allow the penetration inside said cabinet of the luminous flux produced by a source 44 such as a lamp arranged above said piece of furniture.

In the upper part of said cabinet is provided a front upper front panel 5, which ceiling panels 43 and front 5 are linked to the side panels 2,3 and to said rear panel 6 preferably by gluing and / or stapling.

Said covering comprises in its lower front part a portion 16 of said lower plate comprising said perforations 22 and allowing said fresh air intake according to said arrow 25 and has an external part or lower front panel 4; the lower 4 and upper 5 front panels have an outer layer of paper or screen-printed or printed cardboard.

With reference to figure 3 said piece of furniture comprises said covering 11 constituted essentially said rear panel 6, said lower front panel 4 and side panels 2, 3 each comprising a cutout 47 (or opening) which is closed by a plate of transparent material in order to improve the visibility of the products displayed on the shelves 1.

Said covering comprises in the upper part means seal 35b to limit cold air leakage when the casing 11 has been put in place according to arrow 9.

Said covering comprises in the lower rear part said rear panel of the air sealing means 35a between said rear base and said covering.

said base 8 comprising said compartment 37 provided with said air return zone 48, includes a battery 28 powered by glycol water (thanks to a line 46) distributed by a refrigeration group (not shown) external to said furniture.

Said compartment 37 comprises said ventilator circulation of the cooled air which, after passing over said battery 28, rises in said sheath 27 essentially delimited by said rear panel 6 and said perforated panel 53 until reaching the upper part of said piece of furniture and returning by the part before this one.

In the embodiment of Figure 3, said rigid base 8 connected to a part of the superstructure which is made in rigid and durable material such as steel and which comprises said rear panel 53, said shelves 1 and a roof panel 54.

Claims (14)

1. A refrigerated cabinet for displaying products on a plurality of planes (1) or shelves for displaying said products, the cabinet including means for guiding and circulating cool air and means for distributing cool air towards said planes, with said cabinet comprising a cover which is removably mounted on a base (8) that includes a portion of said means for guiding and circulating cool air, the cabinet being characterized in that it includes at least one cover panel made of a cardboard-based material, and in which said cardboard-based panel(s) is(are) lightweight, of a density that is less than or equal to 400 kilograms per cubic meter and is(are) thin, has (have) a thickness that is less than or equal to 30 millimeters, and includes at least two substantially superposed planes (1).
2. The cabinet according to claim 1 which includes a zone for granting access to said products via an opening protected by a curtain of air.
3. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 or 2 which includes an internal panel (7) for distributing cool air which is made from a cardboard-based material.
4. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in which said display planes or shelves are made from a cardboard-based material.
5. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 4 in which said cardboard-based panel(s) mainly consist(s) of two or three layers of corrugated cardboard.
6. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 5 which includes :

   said base (8) which includes at least one fan (29) for circulating cool air, and

   a superstructure that is removably mounted on said base, with said superstructure comprising :

   said display planes or shelves for said products, and

   means for distributing cool air towards said planes, and

   said cover which mainly consists of panels made from a cardboard-based material.
7. The cabinet according to claim 6 in which said superstructure mainly consists of cardboard-based panels.
8. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 7 which is generally cylindrical, pyramidal or parallelepipedic in shape.
9. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 8 in which said base includes at least one finned heat exchanger (28) for cooling air circulating in said cabinet, which heat exchanger is constituted by an evaporator or else by a cooling battery through which a refrigerating fluid circulates that may be delivered to said cabinet by a refrigerator unit external to said cabinet, and said base includes at least one fan (29) for circulating said air cooled by said heat exchanger (28).
10. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 9 in which at least one of said cover panels is provided with an opening (40) suitable for coinciding with an opening (41) formed in a side wall (42) of said base, which openings (40, 41) allow a fluid to pass.
11. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 10 which includes legs (40) or longitudinal beams (19) delimiting at least one empty space (14) enabling the forks (20) of a handling device to be engaged beneath said base.
12. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 11 which includes air sealing means (35) between said base and said cover.
13. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 12 in which said cardboard-based panel(s) for said cover include(s) a printed or silk-screened outer covering.
14. The cabinet according to any one of claims 1 to 13 in which said base includes a top portion (15) which includes bones (12) that are substantially rounded, and said base includes support means (13) for at least one portion of the lower edge (21) of said cover.

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