GB2336522A - Rotating shelf - Google Patents

Abstract

A rotating round shelf 1 for use in refrigerators is supported peripherally on its underside by bearings 3 contained in a housing which partly surrounds the circumference of the shelf, leaving a gap (see Figs 4,5) at which a user may grasp the shelf to turn it. The top half of the bearing house is removable to give access to the bearings.

Description

1 ROTASHELF 2336522 This invention relates to a rotating shelf The shelf

does not use a centre pinnacle for support but rather a self-supporting circumference based bearing system.

This shelving system is primarily aimed at ( but not limited to) the reffigeration market. Define the use of a refrigerator: A storage device whereby objects are placed randomly in side and then randomly removed for consumption or use at a later stage. The majority of reffigerators seen today have either square or rectangular shaped shelves. As items are continually placed on the shelf, the front items are pushed to the back making a later retrieval of them difficult as the objects in the front must first be removed or moved. Another inherent problem of the conventional refrigerator is the inability of the user to easily and quickly view all the contents of the shelves, especially those shelves situated below chest height. The viewer needs to bend down and move or remove the objects placed in the front area of the lower shelves in order to see the items at the back of the shelves.

Thus, as a refrigerator is a storage device whereby objects are, for the most part, randomly placed inside it, it is therefor desirable that the storage area itself be randomly accessible without the need to remove or move unwanted objects in order to retrieve or view other objects.

This invention details the shelf with its rotation device. Please note that the rotation device can be fitted to either the shelf or the interior walls of the refrigerator.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of the shelf FIGURE 2 is across sectional view through XX FIGURE 3 is a front view of the shelf through YY FIGURE 4 is a top view showing the placements of the bearings 2 As shown in Figure 1 the shelf has an enclosed bearing system around most of its circumference. The shelf can be rotated by manually turning it at point 4 (Figure 3) Figure 2 shows the shelf 1,bearing house 2 with the bearings 3. The bearings should preferably be plastic, rubber or such the like in order to reduce noise caused by friction when turning the shelf.

Figure 3 is a front on view of the shelf showing how a portion of the shelf is not enclosed by the bearing system thus allowing area 4 to be manually turned.

Figure 4 shows the bearing layout in the bearing housing. Variations on this layout are viable. Roller bearings or pined rollers may also be used instead of spherical bearings.

3

Claims (2)

1. A rotating shelf comprising a round shelf with an attached bearing system.
2. 2 A rotating shelf as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the attached bearing system comprises of a bearing house which surrounds part of the circumference of the shelf.

   A rotating shelf as claimed in Claim I or 2, wherein the shelf rests on the bearings contained in the surrounding bearing house thus allowing the shelf to rotate freely.

   A rotating shelf as claimed in the claims above wherein the top half of the bearing housing may be removed to allow for the removal of the shelf and thus access to the bearings.

   A rotating shelf substantially as described herein with reference to figures 1-4 of the accompanying drawing.