FI93622C - Folding shelf - Google Patents

Description

93622

Folding shelf

The invention relates to a collapsible shelf comprising first and second substantially rectangular shelf parts connected to each other along their respective adjacent edges and collapsible between a completely non-collapsible shape in which said parts are substantially horizontal and a fully collapsible shape in which said parts are transverse -10 tain to said level. The shelf according to the invention is particularly suitable for use in trolleys. Rollers are used to transport goods, such as milk or juice packaging, from packaging facilities to retail premises, such as discount halls. The rollers can be placed in an upright position in retail premises so that customers can take the packages themselves, arranged in layers on the rollers' shelves, or the sales assistant can move the jars from the rollers to the shop shelves. Rollers often have wire mesh walls that allow customers 20 or business assistants to take packages through the nets, although they are often difficult to access or have a wall to open in one or more of these grate walls to make them easier to remove, but negligent customers or business assistants may dump 25 or tilt packages from shelves in an open gate. Roller shelves are also known which are made of a grid and fold or telescopically collapse in various ways, whereby better access to said packaging layers is provided below the top shelf. One French registered registration No. 130621 (104879) discloses a roller made mainly of grating and carrying packages. The front of the roller has a gate and four shelves, the lower shelf of which forms the bottom of the roller. The three higher shelves can be folded backwards towards the rear wall 35 of the roller. The problem with this container is that when the front gate 2 93622 is open, the front packages can fall off the front of the shelves.

FI Patent Application No. 74,243 and Dutch Patent Application No. 8,500,192 disclose a combined folding and 5 telescopic shelves for a roller for carrying packages. The shelf has three grating compartments, two of which are hinged together and a third can be telescopically placed on one of them. The problem is again that when the gate is open, the packages can fall off the shelf.

Dutch Patent Application No. 8,501,404 discloses a roller designed to be automatically filled at the rear with a vertically movable gate. The roller shelves are supported by rectangular-15, horizontal side guides. Each shelf has shelf sections connected transversely by hinges, designed to be in a horizontal position with the cover shelf fully folded. Attached to the front of each shelf is a rod-shaped U-shaped rod cover turned inwardly. The branches of the U-bar are welded or otherwise attached to the shelf and the central part of the U-bar extends horizontally above the edge of the shelf. The cover is used to support the products so that they do not fall off the shelf. The shelf is locked when not folded, two openings are formed in the front ends of its side guides for the horizontal braces of said guides and two safety hooks are arranged below the shelf so as to be at the front so as to extend into the corresponding openings when the opening shelf approaches its unfolding state.

The collapsible shelf according to the invention is characterized in that the first substantially rectangular shelf part has along its outer edge zone, substantially parallel to said sloping edges, a cargo holding wall 93622 3 moving with said first shelf part during folding and the shelf is in said completely unfolded form, and in that said goods retaining wall can be inclined with respect to said first shelf part towards said first shelf part and about said substantially parallel edges about an axis of rotation. Preferred embodiments of the invention are set out in the appended claims 2-6.

The goods retaining wall may be attached to an extension which, in the unfolded state, is substantially in said horizontal plane, said extension being connected to the first shelf portion by hinges by said pivot axis arrangement, which is thus spaced from the wall. In this way, the wall can be kept upright against undesired tilting by articles placed on said extension. For this reason, the space between the wall and the pivot axis is not substantially larger than the smallest product to be kept on the 20 shelves.

If the shelf is supported by two substantially horizontal guides substantially parallel to each other on respective opposite sides of the shelf, the shelf may have downwardly extending ul-25 machines extending downwardly behind the ends of said guides to prevent undesired folding of said shelf. This has the advantage that no special measures are required with respect to said guides, for example the formation of openings in them to prevent undesired tipping of the shelves. The shelf is collapsible in a foldable and / or telescopic manner.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily practiced, the following is illustrated by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 4,93622 is a schematic perspective view of a portion of a roller comprising a collapsible shelf in a completely non-collapsible condition; Fig. 1B is a view similar to Fig. 1; partially folded, Fig. 1C is a view similar to Fig. 1A but showing the shelf fully folded, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a part of the front of the roller with the shelf completely unfolded, Fig. 3 shows a side view of said part with the shelf completely unfolded and Fig. 4 shows a view similar to Fig. 3 , but so that the shelf has begun to fold in size.

Referring to the drawings, the foldable shelf 1 is supported on its respective opposite sides by two horizontal tubes of a respective rectangular part of the roller frame. The shelf is hingedly connected from its rear part to the rear frame of the roller (not shown) and has three rectangular shelf parts 3,4 and 5, all of which are wire frames. The shelf portions 3 and 4 are hingedly connected to each other along their respective adjacent edges at 6 and are foldable around such a hinged intermediate joint 6 in the completely unfolded state shown in Figures 1A, 2 and 3, where portions 3, 4 and 5 are substantially horizontal, and 1C, in which parts 3.4, 5 and 5 are transverse to said plane. Parts 4 and 5 are adapted to be telescopic with respect to each other. The shelf part 3 has a conventional rapid wall 7 along its outer edge 30, substantially parallel to the intermediate joint 6, which is in a vertical position when the shelf is in a completely unfolded form. The wall 7, in turn, is formed mainly of wire mesh and comprises at its lateral ends corresponding downwardly directed projections 8 which engage the front of the respective front ends of the tubes 2 93622 5 to prevent undesired telescopic connection and / or folding of the shelf.

The roller comprises a plurality of folding shelves, each of which, according to the drawings, is arranged at vertical intervals 5 above a fixed, non-collapsible shelf at the bottom of the roller.

In order to avoid that the wall 7 significantly prevents access to the goods at the rear of the shelf below the fully folded shape of the shelf shown in Figure 1C, the wall 7 is hinged to the shelf part 3. In connection with Figures 1A-1C, the connecting shaft is directly connected to the wall 7. at the bottom and at the level of the back edge of the wall. In this variant, in order to fold the shelf from its unfolded shape, shown in Fig. 1A, the wall 7 is tilted backwards by its axis of rotation.

so as to get its protrusions 8 literally out of their latch space and then the wall 7 is pushed forward to telescopically engage the part 4 inside the part 5 (see Fig. 1B) and the parts 3 and 4 are folded around the intermediate connection 6 to obtain the shelf of Fig. 1C

to the state presented. In a variation of Figures 2-4, the pivot axis (reference number 9) is not in the plane of the rear boundary of the wall 7 but is spaced backwards from said plane. In this case, the wall 7 has a short horizontal extension 25 being the height of the wall 7 in the vertical shape shown in Figures 2 and 3. The distance is preferably not greater than the width of the bottom of the smallest package the roll is to carry. A particular advantage of the variations shown in the drawings is that in the fully folded state of the shelf, the wall tends to remain in its folded form against the part 3, because in that form the protrusions 8 support the tubes 2.

In general, the variations related to the drawings facilitate the use of the rollers in shops in particular 6 93622 by ensuring the good operation of the rollers both during the distribution and transport lines and when filling machines in a dairy or the like. In particular, they avoid the need for the business assistant to have to lift the front wall 7 in the first vertical direction in a substantially vertical direction, which could be problematic for customers. When the front wall is hinged, the rearward pushing on the wall not only turns the wall 7 to detach from the attachment formed by the protrusions 10, but at the same time causes the shelf to collapse telescopically. As a result, the backs of the protrusions 8 can be made relatively steep, so that the risk of shelving coming off, for example due to collisions on the conveyor line, which could lead to the opening of the rollers and disturbances on the conveyor lines and filling machines. The wall 7, when in the completely unfolded form of the shelf, tends to remain in its closed shape until the customer decides to turn it backwards around its pivot axis 9 20.

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Claims (6)

93622 7 A collapsible shelf comprising first and second substantially rectangular shelf portions 5 (3,4) joined together along their respective adjacent edges and collapsible in a completely non-collapsible shape, wherein said portions (3,4) are in a substantially horizontal plane, and between a fully collapsible shape, said parts (3, 4) being transverse to said plane, characterized in that the first substantially rectangular shelf part (3) has, along its outer edge zone, substantially parallel to said parallel edges, a cargo holding wall (7) , which moves with said first shelf part (3) during folding and is in an upright position when said shelf (1) is in said completely unfolded form, and that said goods retaining wall (7) can be tilted to said first shelf part (3) towards said 20 a first shelf part (3) and about said substantially parallel edges about a pivot axis (9). A collapsible shelf according to claim 1, characterized in that said goods retaining wall (7) is attached to an extension (10) which in its non-collapsible form is substantially in said plane and said extension (10) is hingedly connected to said first shelf part (3). ) by means of a pivot axis (9) at a distance from said goods retaining wall (7). A collapsible shelf according to claim 2, characterized in that the distance between said pivot axis (9) and said goods retaining wall (7) is not greater than the height of the wall (7). 8,93622 A collapsible shelf according to claim 3, characterized in that said distance is not greater than the bottom width of the smallest goods which said shelf is intended to support. A collapsible shelf according to claim 1, characterized in that said pivot axis is just at the bottom of said goods retaining wall (7). A collapsible shelf according to any one of the preceding claims, supported by two substantially horizontal guides (2) which are substantially parallel to each other and which support the shelf (1) at their respective opposite ends, characterized in that said shelf (1) has said downwardly projecting protrusions (8) in the region of the bottom of the wall (7) which, in an unfolded form, extend downwards behind the respective ends of said guides (2) to prevent undesired folding of said shelf (1). 93622 9