GB2095985A - Bottle racks - Google Patents

Abstract

Two bottle racks (10a, 10b) each comprise parallel wooden members (12) spaced by front strips (22) and rear strips (30) to form an array of cells (14). The front strips (22) are received in orthogonal slots (18) in the front ends of the members (12) and the rear strips (30) are nailed to the rear ends of the members (12). A connection arrangement for joining together the racks (10a, 10b) comprises front strips (40) received in unoccupied portions (A) of the slots (18) of outermost rows of the members (12) of the two racks to space the racks apart to define a row of cells (14') between them, and rear strips (42) releasably engaging the rear strips (30) of the racks, by means of tongues 46. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Bottle racks This invention relates to bottle racks, that is to say to racks comprising arrays of cells in which bottles or like items can be stored.

A known kind of bottle rack, hereinafter referred to as 'a bottle rack of the kind described', comprises a plurality of like longitudinal members extending parallel to one another from front to rear of the rack, said members being arranged in rows to define an array of cells and each said member having intersecting orthogonal slots therein at its front end, two orthogonal sets of front strips that lie in planes parallel to the axes of said members and are received in said slots, and two orthogonal sets of rear strips that lie in planes normal to the axes of said members and are secured to the rear ends of said members.

Bottle racks of the kind described have been in widespread use for many years. They can be made in a variety of sizes, depending upon the storage capacity required. However, it is sometime desired to stack two or more such racks. In practice, it is very inconvenient to stack one such rack on top of another. By virtue of its design, a rack of the kind described does not sit firmly on a like rack, whereby two such racks simply stacked one on another do not form a stable unit. Furthermore, if two or more such racks are stacked and some ad hoc arrangement is made to overcome the instability, storage space will nonetheless be wasted since the racks cannot be stacked so that the lowermost row of cells of the upper rack is exactly adjacent the uppermost row of cells of the lower rack.

According to the present invention there is provided a connection arrangement for joining together at least two bottle racks of the kind described, the arrangement comprising: a plurality of front strips that are receivable or received in said slots in an outermost row of said members of one said rack and in an outermost row of said members of a second said rack to space said racks one from the other to define a row of cells between the two racks, and a plurality of rear strips engagable or engaged with one or more of the rear strips of each of the racks.

The rear strips of the connection arrangemention preferably lie in planes generally parallel to those in which the rear strips of the racks lie.

With an arrangement in accordance with the invention, two or more racks can be stably connected together. Furthermore, instead of wasting storage space between the racks, a further row of cells is formed between the stacked racks.

Preferably, the front strips extend parallel to and are in alignment with one of the sets of front strips of each of the two racks. With this construction, it is hardly apparent, at least from a superficial inspection, that the front of the pair of connected racks is not in fact a single rack of larger size.

Preferably, the rear strips of the connection arrangement have tangs formed therein thereby to engage a rear strip of one of the racks between each tang and the part of the strip from which the tang is formed. Desirably, each rear strip of the connection arrangement engages at least two rear strips of each of the racks. Additionally or alternatively to at least one of the above tangs, each rear strip of the connection arrangement may have edge portions deformed out of its plate to form lugs for engaging an edge of a rear strip of one of the racks.

The invention will now be further described, by way of illustrative and non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front view of a known bottle rack; Figure 2 shows one of a plurality of like horizontal front strips forming part of the rack of Figure 1; Figure 3 shows one of a plurality of like vertical front strips forming part of the rack of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a perspective front end view, on an enlarged scale, of one of a plurality of wooden longitudinal members forming part of the rack of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a rear view of the rack of Figure 1; Figure 6 is a top plan view of the rack of Figure 6; Figure 7 is a front view of a pair of racks as shown in Figures 1 to 6, the racks being stacked by a connection arrangement embodying the invention; Figure 8 is a rear view of the structure shown in Figure 7;; Figure 9 is a detailed sectional view taken along the line IX-IX in Figure 8; Figure 70 is a detailed view on a larger scale taken in the direction of the arrow X in Figure 9 and showing two modifications that can be made to the structure shown in Figure 9; and Figure ii is a detailed view taken along the lines Xl-XI in Figure 10.

Figures 1 to 6 show a bottle rack 10 of well-known kind which has been manufactured and in use for many years. The rack 10 comprises a plurality of like longitudinal wooden members 12 extending parallel to one another from front to rear of the rack. The members 12 are of square cross-section and are arranged so that their faces are inclined by 45" to the horizontal and vertical. The members 12 are arranged in rows to define a rectangular array of cells 14 for accommodating respective bottles or the like. As can best be seen from Figure 4, each member 12 has a horizontal slot 16 and a vertical slot 18 formed in its front end, the two slots intersecting one another and lying in the axis of the member 12.

The members 12 are held in their desired relative positions at the front of the rack by a set of horizontal metal strips 20 and a set of vertical metal strips 22, the strips of each such set lying in planes parallel to the axes of the members 12. Each strip 20 is force-fitted into the horizontal slots 16 of a respective row of the members 12 and each strip 22 is force-fitted into the slots 18 of a respective column of the members 12, the strips 20 and 22 intermeshing in 'egg-crate' manner within the orthogonal intersecting slots 16, 18 of each member 12 by virtue of slots 26 and 28 formed in the members 20 and 22, respectively, as shown in Figures 2 and 3.

At the rear of the rack, the members 12 are held in their desired relative positions by virtue of a set of parallel vertical metal strips 30 and a set of horizontal metal strips 32, the strips of each of such set lying in planes generally normal to the axes of the members 12. The strips 30, 32 are secured to the end faces of the rear end of the members 12, for instance by nails 34. To minimise any tendency of the rear of the rack to deform in the manner of parallelogram, a further metal strip (not shown), also lying in a plane normal to the axes of the members 12, may be secured between the rear ends of two members 12 not in the same row.

As will be evident to those skilled in the art, although the storage rack described above is a (3 x 2) array having six of the cells 14, the number of cells can readily be changed by altering the number of the members 12 and by altering the lengths of the front strips 20, 22 and the rear strips 30,32.

A connection arrangement for connecting or uniting two of the storage racks 10 by stacking one on top of the other will now be described with reference to Figures 7 to 9.

Referring back to Figure 1, it will be seen that in the lowermost and uppermost rows of the members 12 a part A of each vertical slot 18 is not occupied, the strips 22 not being of sufficient length to extend all the way to the apices of the cross sections of the members 12. This feature is taken advantage of in the connection arrangement in that a plurality of front strips 40 are force fitted at one end into the unoccupied parts A of the vertical slots 18 in the front ends of the lowermost row of the members 12 of an upper rack 10a and are force-fitted at their other ends into the unoccupied portions A of the vertical slots 18 in the uppermost row of the members 12 of a lower rack 1 Ob. The strips 40 are parallel with and in alignment with the vertical front strips 22 of each of the racks 1ova, lOb, preferably being formed of the same strip stock of the same appearance and size whereby, from the front, it is hardly evident that the two united racks are not a single rack.

Attheir rear, the two racks 10a 10b are united or connected by a pair of rear strips 42. Each strip 42 lies in a plane generally parallel to those in which the rear strips 30,32 of the respective racks 1Oa, Ob lie.

Each strip 42 has four tangs 46 punched therein, the two tangs nearer one end of the strip pointing in the opposite direction to the two tangs near the other end of the strip. As can best be seen from Figure 9, a respective rack horizontal rear strip 32 is engaged firmly between each tang 46 and the part of the strip 42 in which the tang is formed.

The connection arrangement comprising the strips 40 and 42 thus serves to firmly unite or connect together the two racks 1 Oa and 1 Ob and, in doing so, not only avoids wastage of space between the two racks but defines between the two racks a further row of storage cells 14'. Further, as mentioned above, the appearance of the front of the united racks is such that it is scarcely apparent that it comprises two individual racks joined together rather than a single rack.

Two modifications that can be made to the strips 42 will now be described with reference to Figures 10 and 11. A first such modification comprises forming the tang 46 nearest at least one of the ends of the strip 42 such that its free end is adjacent the end of the strip 42 rather than spaced therefrom. A second modification comprises the deformation of the edges of the strip 42 to form of a pair of lugs 50 which are deformed out of the plane of the strip and which serve to provide a firm and positive location of the strip 42 with respect to the strip 32 by virtue of the lugs acting as seats against which the strip 32 is located. A pair of the lugs 50 may be associated with each of the tangs 46. Alternatively, the strip 42 could be modified by omitting both the central two tangs 46 and replacing them with two pairs of the lugs 50.

As explained above, the front strips 40 of the connection arrangement fit firmly in the slots 18 of the racks 10a, Ob and the rear strips 42 of the connection arrangement engage firmly the rear strips of the racks whereby the racks are firmly united or connected together. This being so, i.e. the connected racks forming a firmly united assembly, it is also possible to use the assembly in a condition in which the racks are arranged side-by-side, i.e. stacked horizontally, namely as shown in Figure 7 or Figure 8 but turned through 90 in the plane of the drawing. Thus, it will be appreciated that by the use of a plurality of the connection arrangements an indefinitely large plurality ofthe racks can be connected or stacked both horizontally and vertically to form a rack assembly (having the appearance of a single rack) of indefinitely large size.

Claims (8)

1. A connection arrangement for joining together at least two bottle racks of the kind described, the arrangement comprising: a plurality of front strips that are receivable or received in said slots in an outermost row of said members of one said rack and in an outermost row of said members of a second said rack to space said racks one from the other to define a row of cells between the two racks, and a plurality of rear strips engagable or engaged with one or more of the rear strips of each of the racks.

2. A connection arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the rear strips of the connection arrangement lie in planes generally parallel to those in which the rear strips of the racks lie.

3. A connection arrangement according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the front strips extend parallel to and are in alignment with one of the sets of front strips of each of the two racks.

4. A connection arrangement according to claim 1, claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the rear strips of the connection arrangement have tangs formed therein thereby to engage a rear strip of one of the racks between each tang and the part of the strip from which the tang is formed.

5. A connection arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each rear strip of the connection arrangement has edge portions deformed out of its plane to form lugs for engaging an edge of a rear strip of one of the racks.

6. A connection arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each rear strip of the connection arrangement engages at least two rear strips of each of the racks.

7. A connection arrangement for joining together at least two bottle racks of the kind described, the arrangement being substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 7 to 11 oftheaccompany- ing drawings.

8. A bottle rack assembly comprising at least two bottle racks of the kind described joined together by at least one connection arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims.