GB2207226A - Draining rack for glasses - Google Patents

Abstract

A draining structure for the support of wet glasses comprises a grid or mesh having legs so that the grid or mesh which supports the wet glasses, supports them clear of the surface on which the grid or mesh stands. A collection tray can be slid under the grid or mesh so as to catch drips from the glasses. The structure is for placing on an existing shelf, for example in a bar or public house, and the tray can be slid off the shelf for cleaning of same; the grid or mesh is free standing on the shelf. The tray and grid are approximately the same size and shape so that all drips from the grid will be caught in the tray. <IMAGE>

Description

Support Structure for Supporting Wet Articles and the like This invention relates to support structures for supporting wet articles to be drained. The invention has wide application but is of particular interest to me in connection with the draining of washed glasses which have been used in public houses for the consumption of beverages.

The washing and drying of used glasses in public houses after closing time has always been considered by Landlords as a baneful task. In an average public house after closing time, there may be of the order of 200 glasses to be washed and individually dried by hand using tea towels. With the tendency towards an increase in the size of public houses, so the task of washing and drying glasses, after closing time increases. Furthermore, when the number of glasses to be washed and dried is as large as i n d i ca t'e d, and because the people who are doing the washing and drying are invariably in a hurry to finish the evenings work having regard to the fact that normal closing rime will be 10.30 or later in the evening, it is usually the case that the glasses are imperfectly washed and dried.

More frequently, because of the increased use of washing machines, it is the drying which is performed imperfectly. Finally, the washed and dried glasses are placed on wooden surfaced shelves.

The above practice has been followed for very many years, and indeed is still followed today. The disadvantages of the practice are however numerous and extremely significant.

Firstly, there is the significant task of drying the wet glasses individually. Secondly, the use of tea towels to dry very many glasses is considered unhygienic, and indeed is a complete antithesis of the fact that the washing up liquid which must be used in public houses is required to have a detergent and a sterilizing agent, whereas there is no such limitation on the tea towels which are used. The authorities are in fact examining the question of the use of tea towels in public houses, from a hygiene point of view and it may well be that their use in the future will be prohibited.Thirdly, because many glasses will be imperfectly dried when they are placed on the wooden shelves in the normal upside down position, this leads to a number of problems including that there is little or no natural air convection to enhance the drying of the interior of the glass, the residul liquid which drains from the glass on to the wood surface causes staining of that surface, and furthermore, if a glass stands in this condition for a sufficient length of time, it will in actual fact stick to the wood surface making its removal difficult or creating a deposit on the glass rim when it is removed.Additionally the shelving which supports the glasses inevitably gathers dust, and whilst from a practical point of view it is desirable for these shelves to be cleaned frequently, because the cleaning of the shelves is such a tedious task involving the individual removal of the glasses, the steps of cleaning of the shelves and the replacement of the glasses, in actual fact are performed far too infrequently.

The problem of drying glasses is truly considerable and in my opinion there is an extremely urgent need for innovation, and improvement in the field of glass washing, handling and drying in public houses, in order that a Landlord may be saved money and time, with particular reference to time saving because Landlords are required to perform many operations outside the selling of beverages which make his working day extremely long.

I have already provided one solution to this problem and such solution, which solution is set forth in my British Patent No. 20 47 3 95 B, resides in a draining structure which is for supporting articles which are wet, and which comprises a mesh, grid or other perforated support under which is located a collection tray for collecting drips from said articles, said collection tray being slidably mounted so that it can be withdrawn by sliding from under the support for cleaning of the tray.

The said structure forms decking on a counter, but in the preferred example is in the form of a shelf, and comprises a frame defining slide tracks for the tray.

The said frame in the preferred case is provided with holes for the receipt of screws whereby the shelf unit can be readily attached to an existing support structure so that no shelving other than the tray is required.

Whilst the preferred form of support structure according to the said invention has been well received, its utilisation has to a large extent been limited to new shelf installations which are installed in either new establishments or establishments which are being refurbished and new shelving is being provided. There is however a large market of existing shelves for which an easily installed draining structure is required, and the present invention aims at providing a draining structure which has all. the main advantages of the structure disclosed in said British Patent No.

2,0#7,395B and yet can be installed easily on existing shelves.

The structure to be installed should preferably be of relatively little height so as not to rob the shelving of too much space between shelves; should be sized so as to be capable of fitting shelves of various sizes; should be such as to support glasses so that they drain hygienically; and should be capable of easy and quick cleaning.

According to the present invention there is provided a draining structure which is for supporting wet glasses, and which comprises a stand having a planar mesh, grid or other perforated support defining a glass receiving surface, adapted to be free standing on a support surface to support the glasses clear of such support surface, and-a collection tray which is substantially planar and can be slid under the support to collect drips from articles on said support, and can be withdrawn from under the support for cleaning of the tray, and wherein the support has a front edge, sides and a rear edge, and the stand has leg means at the sides of the support by which the support is--supported clear of the surface and a back stop by which the sliding of the tray under the support is limited to ensure that the tray takes up a predetermined position and said tray being substantially of the same dimensions as the support so that the leg means guides the tray and prevents it from moving laterally as it is slid into said predetermined position, and when in such position will catch liquid which drips from a glass positioned anywhere on the glass receiving surface and the tray can be engaged by the fingers at the front edge of the support so that it can easily and quickly be removed from under the support.

Preferably, the support comprises plastic coated metal wires or rods defining the article receiving surface and similar wires or rods define the leg means.

The back stop preferably is also of said plastic coated metal wires or rods.

By virtue of the invention it will now be open to Landlords to place draining structures on their exisiting wooden surface shelf units for the support of glasses. The draining structures preferably come in a variety of sizes of such dimension so that shelves of different sizes can effectively be fitted out with the draining structures. Specifically, it has been found that existing shelves generally are designed to be four or five glasses (pint size) deep, and they may be of any width from 3 glasses wide upwards.By providing a range sizes of draining structures, in particular draining structures which are four and five glasses deep, and three, four and five glasses wide, any shelf which is four or five glasses deep and at least three glasses wide can be fitted out using only draining structures from a range of six sizes namely 5x5; 5x4; 5x3; 4x5; 4x4; 4x3. The invention therefore also provides a set of draining structures of the aforesaid sizes, each structure being as aforesaid. The use of these draining structures according to the invention provides a host of advantages. Thus the Landlord can simply place the washed glasses directly on the draining structures. No drying is necessary, and therefore it is not necessary to use any tea towels.

Thereby, there is a saving in time as no hand drying is involved, and there is a saving in expense because it is not necessary to have any tea towels; nor is it necessary to employ staff to perform the hand drying operation. There is the additional advantage that it is more hygienic to let the glasses drain naturally and avoid the use of the towels.

As the glasses drain, so the residual liquid drops directly through the support into the collection tray.

With modern detergents and sterilization agents, drying will take place in approximately two minutes. Drying of the inside of the glasses is enhanced by virtue of the fact that air can circulate through the support into the interior of the glasses as they stand on the shelf units.

Cleaning of the or each tray is extremely simple, as it simply requires to be slid out from under the screen and wiped with a cleaning cloth.

When a publican has the tray units according to the invention installed, his evening cleaning up procedure is much reduced in time and is simplified considerably.

He simply takes the glasses after washing, which may be by washing machine, of which there are several efficient machines already on the market, and places the wet glasses on the shelves. The glasses dry overnight, and in the morning he simply is required to clean the collection trays. Removal of the trays is swift and certain as the person removing same can grip the front of each tray and each tray is kept in position by the legs and back stop, which also ensure the accurate replacement of the trays to the predetermined positions. There is less collection of dust on the shelves, because the dust will settle in the collection trays, which will be cleaned every morning. The draining structures including the supports need only be cleaned for example once per month.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings; Fig. 1 shows in perspective elevation, a shelf unit according to the present invention; Fig. 2 shows an end view of the shelf unit as disclosed in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a side view of a shelf unit shown in Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, a support structure or shelf unit for supporting wet articles such as washed glasses comprises a stand defining a support in the form of a wire or rod framework coated with plastics material for example by a dip coating method The framework comprises side rails 10, 12 and front and rear rails 14, 16, these making up a rectangular or square shape.

The side rails are reinforced by a cross bar 18, and parallel grid rails 20 extending between and connected to the front and rear rails 14 and 16 make up an article supporting surface. To the side rails 10 and 12 are secured leg frames 22 and 24 each comprising a length of wire or metal rod bent at the rear end to define a rear support leg 26, 28, and bent at the front end to define a front support leg 30, 32. Each leg 30, 32 defines a U-shape bend so that the base of the U will define a supporting foot, whereas the support is provided in the case of legs 26 and 28 by the end of the wire or metal rod.

The rear rail 16 is provided with a back stop frame 34 of narrow rectangular form as shown and which lies in a vertical plane as shown clearly in Fig. 3.

It will be appreciated that the support is free standing on a support surface typically a shelf 36 by virtue of the legs 26, 28, 30 and 32 so that under the article supporting surface defined by parallel rails 20 is created a space 38. Into this space 38 neatly fits a collection tray 40 which is typically a plastics moulded article of the form shown. The size of the tray 40 is essentially the same size as the article supporting surface so that all drips of water or the like falling from a glass on the article support surface will be caught in a collection tray 40, regardless of the position of the glass on the support.

As shown in Fig. 3, the front edge 39 of the tray 40 can be gripped and the tray slid into and out of its location under the article supporting surface, the extent to which it can be inserted being limited by the back stop frame 34.

The tray 40 and support surface of the stand are essentially planar structures, and are designed so as to be of minimum height so as not to rob space between shelves, and typically in one example the height of the bars 20 above the shelf 36 will be as little as 25 mm, whilst the tray and stand may be of the order of 450 mm/sq. The height of the side leg frames 2Y above the shelf 36 may be of the order of LIS mm. It is to be appreciated that these dimensions are given only by way of example. By dimensioning the tray so-ås to be substantially equal to the size of the support, it is ensured that the tray will take up a predetermined position under the support so that regardless of the position of a wet glass thereon, drips will fall from the support into the tray.The legs 26 to 32 will keep the tray aligned as it is moved either into position under the support, or is slid out from under the support, and the back stop 34 will ensure that the tray takes up the correct predetermined position.

Installation of the supporting structure as can be appreciated is extremely simple insofar as provided the units are of the correct size to suit the particular shelf, they are simply inserted by placing in position and no positive connection is necessary.

Fig. 2 shows how the units are used. The article supporting surface defined by rails 20 supports glasses 42 which have been washed, so that drips from the wet glasses will fall through the article supporting surface defined by rails 20 and will be caught in collecting tray 40.

Only the trays 40 therefore in a particular installation need to be washed and dried except that periodically the user will no doubt wish to clean the support.

The units may be in dimension as explained herein in sets to suit shelves on which they are to be placed.

Claims (5)

1. A draining structure which is for supporting wet glasses, and which comprises a stand having a planar mesh, grid or other perforated support defining a glass receiving surface, adapted to be free standing on a support surface to support the glasses clear of such support surface, and a collection tray which is substantially planar and can be slid under the support to collect drips from articles on said support, and can be withdrawn from under the support for cleaning of the tray, and wherein the support has a front edge, sides and a rear edge, and the stand has leg means at the sides of the support by which the support is supported clear of the surface and a back stop by which the sliding of the tray under the support is limited to ensure that the tray takes up a predetermined position and said tray being substantially of the same dimensions as the support so that the leg means guides the tray and prevents it from movinglateralky as it is slid into said predetermined position, and when in such position will. catch liquid which drips from a glass positioned anywhere on the glass receiving surface and the tray can be engaged by the fingers at the front edge of the support so that it can easily and quickly be removed from under the support.

2. A draining structure according to claim 1, wherein the support and leg means are defined by plastic coated metal wires or rods.

3. A draining structure according to claim 2, wherein the back stop also comprises plastic coated metal wire or rod.

4. A draining structure substantially as hereinbefore descibed with reference to the accompanying drawings.

5. A set of draining structures each as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, said draining structures being of different depths and widths as follows: 5 units x 5 units; 5 units x LI units; 5 units x 3 units; 4 units x 5 units; 4 units x LI units; and LI units x 3 units.