GB2057857A - Universal holder - Google Patents

Abstract

In a wall mounted holder, of the kind having a plurality of resiliently flexible "projections" between the nips of which an article can be introduced. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Universal holder The mounting of loose objects on a wall requires some kind of holder. A simple holder is a hook from which the object is suspended. Another holder is an adhesive tape or "bear tongue" surface to which the object is made adherent. A holder is also constituted by a hole, a recess or equivalent into which some part of the object is pushed, or a spike. Fixing based on magnetism is common. Holders usually have the property that they impose requirements and limitations on the objects that can be mounted, regarding their material or shape or accessories. A towel has a strap; adhesive tape or magnetism can hold only objects having a certain kind of material. A spike will make a dent or hole in the object.

The present invention concerns a holder in which many objects in the home or environment can be fixed with ease and also removed therefrom with equal ease. The adhesive principle of the holder is one or several widely opening pairs of jaws, which gently clamp the object pushed thereinbetween and keep it immovable. The invention is characterized in that each jaw is a separate body which yields elastically extensively and thereby permits the fixing of an object of many sizes and many shapes between this body and the adjacent body. The bodies are disposed in the frame of the holder, this frame in its turn being affixed to the wall. The holders may comprise merely two jaws, or they may be long entities containing a plurality of jaws, in which case it is possible in them to fix many objects which are even difficult to fix, such as a washbowl.

The holders are appropriate for the fixing of many kinds of objects. The common feature is that in the objects or in their designing their suspendability need not be minded. It is enough if on the object one point is found which when pushed in between the jaws fixes the object on the wall or equivalent.

Among the best fixable commonplace objects are: brushes, tubes and hoses, pens and pencils, hand tools, towels, eating implements, and many other common small objects. In addition, many types of objects presenting a shoulder or stepped portion such as a long-necked bottle or a piece of clothing provided with a strap - are eminently held in the holder because the jaws also represent a kind of hook, supporting objects by their upper portion.

In Fig. 1 is displayed a holder with the frame 1 and a jaw, or body 2.

Fig. Fig. 2 shows the body 2 in the form in which it is manufactured. It is either cut out of flexible sheet material or pressed in this shape. The body is bent an placed in a slot in the frame 1, as shown in Fig. 1.

The body has shoulders 3, which prevent its detachment from the frame, which affords room for the shoulders on both sides of its slot. The bodies constitute the jaws of the holder, and their pressure may be augmented by adding more bodies in the frame 1 of the holder. It is easy enough to add or take out bodies even if the frame is fastened to the wall.

The gripping of the jaws may be enhanced by roughening the surfaces of the bodies or by covering them e.g. with a material resembling rubber. The bodies may move even far out of their original position in the slot, thus enabling even an object with great thickness to be inserted.

Fig. 3 shows a body 4 differing from the preceding.

This body is also insertable in the frame 1 of the holder, but it cannot move in the longitudinal direction of the slot like the body 2; it is instead meant to maintain its own position in the slot. The body 4 has been made entirely of a rubber-like material, e.g. by die pressing. it is meant to provide good holding of large objects in the first place. It features a thick supporting plate 5 and, around this plate, more easily bending jaw components 6. Moreover, it presents a plate-like stop plate 7, which corresponds to the model 3 of the body 2. Furthermore, the stop plate is separated from the rest of the body by a recessed neck. This structure allows the body to be affixed in the slot of the holder in its own place even if the frame of the holder is affixed to the wall.Fixing is accomplished in that the body is inserted in the slot, turned 90 degrees out of its ultimate position and, as soon as the stop plate has reached the bottom of the slot the body is turned through 90 degrees, whereby it assumes its correct position. The rubbery nature and shape of the body permit this, otherwise violent, mode of fixing. If this fixing feature is not desired, the stop plate may be directly contiguous with the rest of the body. In that case the body has no neck at all, and it may only be inserted in the frame of the holder before the holder is affixed to the wall.

The holder can be attached to the wall by screw, adhesive tape and in other ways. The material of the holder may be steel, plastic, rubber or another material which is reversibly flexible. The holder has a relatively low weight and it is easy to manufacture e.g. by die pressing, of plastic. The holder may also be positioned in other positions than the vertical position and it may serve, for instance, on a desk as a pen rack.

Modes of further developing the holder are the relieved portions provided on the body 2 as specified in claim 4, which have the effect that when the body is bent to form an arc it will not become a circular arc but wedge-shaped, whereby the insertion of objects between the jaws is facilitated. The placing of the jaw body in the frame 1 of the holder may be accomplished not only with the aid of the projecting stop shoulders but also, for instance, in that the frame presents a rail or an I section onto which the bodies are threaded by their equivalently shaped recesses and onto which they are secured with a kind of end flap or another stop element. In claim 9 has been presented a simple holder composed of bodies 4, which is manufactured in one step, e.g. by one die pressing step.In this holderthe bodies are joined with each other by a continuous, fairly thick platelike course constituting their bottom parts. For the wall attachment, this course may have a width grea ter than that of the rest of the holder or, for instance in the case of attachment by cementing, it may be equal in width. In that case the holder can be made e.g. by cross-cutting sectional material shaped like the holder, into pieces of suitable length.

It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that the different embodiments of the invention are not confined to the examples presented in the foregoing and may rather vary within the scope of the claims following below. For instance, it is not indispensable that the frame 1 has been provided with the aperture bordered by projections, shown in Fig. 1: it is conceivable that the frame component merely has a depression or another equivalent, rail-like groove in which the holder elements placed side by side are fixable. That too is possible: that the frame component comprises two parallel grooves for mutually parallel fixing shoulders located on the base of the holder elements. This naturally implies an equivalent shaping of the fixing shoulders, e.g. to resemble a letter L, whereby the holder element is fixable without impediment in the said, separate grooves.

Also, the holder elements may differ in structure and shape from the examples shown in Figs 2 and 3.

Essential is merelythefeaturethattheyare elastic enough so that the object which one desires to fix in the holder can be easily pushed in between adjacent holder elements.

Claims (10)

1. Holder for placement on a wall or equivalent, the objects to be fixed therein being pushed thereinto from the front and its gripping jaws consisting of two or several bodies, characterized in that the bodies yield elastically extensively by being compressed towards themselves when the object to be fixed, or a part thereof, is pushed in between them.

2. Holder according to claim 1, characterized in that the bodies are disposed in a slot in the frame of the holder, the prominent margins of the slot preventing their detachment from the frame, or in that the bodies have been affixed to the wall each sepa rately or in such mannerthatthe entity of a rubber like substance constituted by the bodies has been affixed to the wall.

3. Holder according to claim 1 and 2, character ized in that the bodies (2) are formed of flexible sheet material or equivalent and have been bent to an arced shape and attached to the frame e.g. with the aid of stop shoulders (3), said shoulders entering between the margins of the slot in the frame (1).

4. Body according to claim 3, characterized in that the plate has a transversal thinned-out portion in the middle or additionally one on both sides thereof, producing an angulation in the shape of the body, thus making it wedge-shaped and readily receptive for objects.

5. Body (4) according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that in the middle of the body there is a comparatively rigid supporting part (5), on both sides of which are located jaw parts (6) urged together against the frame and which consist of arced sheet material e.g. of the kind of the body in the holder of claim 3.

6. Body according to claim 5, characterized in that the end of the holder adjacent to the frame part, or its stand, has been provided with a plate component of a width narrower than the slot of the holder, or a stop plate (7) serving as stop shoulder, and with a neck (8) narrower than the slot, attachment of the body to the frame being accomplished in that the sheet part is pushed down to the bottom of the slot and the body is then turned through 90 degrees. -

7. Body according to claim 6, characterized in that it has been made of soft and resilient material to constitute one single entity.

8. Holder body according to claim 1, characterized in that it has been made of a material with high friction against the objects to be fixed, or covered therewith, or the fixing surfaces are roughened.

9. Holder made of bodies according to claim 5, characterized in that two or several mutually adjacent bodies are integrally joined by their bottom, or stand, parts.

10. A holder substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.