GB2372499A - Anti-friction devices for display cabinets - Google Patents

Abstract

An anti-friction device for a display cabinet (10, fig.1), such as a refrigerated cabinet, which has slightly downwardly inclined shelves may comprise a plurality of side by side endless belts 24 supported by rolling elements 26. When a front article is removed from the shelf the rest of the products can move smoothly to the front of the shelf. Rolling elements 26 may be provided at either end of the endless belts 24 and optionally intermediate the ends. The belts 24 are of relatively narrow width, and the belts 24 supporting the articles in one row can move relative to the belts 24 supporting the articles in another row. A single belt 24 may support a single row of articles, and the belts are preferably made of rubber. An alternative embodiment shows a cabinet having a surface defined by spaced wire rods (52, fig.5) which are coated with an anti-friction material. The surface is held at an angle to allow gravity to urge the articles to the front of the shelves. The anti-friction material may be Teflon (TM).

Description

Feed Devices for Display Apparatus This invention relates to feed devices for display apparatus, and in particular relates to a display apparatus of the type wherein similar articles are arranged in a row from front to rear of the apparatus so that when one of the articles is taken from the front position, the next article moves into the front position and the whole row advances.

Typically, such apparatus will be arranged to display a plurality of different types of articles arranged side by side an on shelves one above the other. Further, a more particular form of the apparatus is a refrigerated display cabinet in which cold drinks are contained in cans and bottles.

It will be appreciated however that the invention can be applied to any form of article arranged to be displayed or even stacked or stored in this way, the object of the invention being that the person responsible for keeping the display apparatus stocked with articles will see as soon as the last article in the row of articles has been removed, and none remains in that particular row, which is an indication that the row needs to be restocked.

Conventionally, articles displayed in this manner stand on a horizontal surface such as a wire shelf, and a purchaser simply removes the front article from the row, leaving a space at the front of the row, so that when the second article in that row is removed, the purchaser must reach in further to remove the article, and so on.

Clearly, if different numbers of articles have been removed from different rows, it will be difficult for the retailer to see at a glance which rows are empty, even although he or she may be aware that some of the rows are partly empty in that one or more articles may have been removed from some rows from the front thereof.

In an effort to overcome this difficulty display apparatus has been arranged so that shelves thereof are inclined downwardly from rear to front, so that as each front article is removed, the remaining articles in the row slide down the shelf surface under gravity so that the next article in the row becomes the front article and so on.

The problem with this arrangement is that the shelves have to be arranged at such a steep angle that the articles press heavily against each other, and as the front article is removed, against the friction of the second article, the remaining articles in the row fall rapidly towards the front position, and impact against a retaining bar which must be provided to prevent the articles from falling out of the display.

The present invention seeks to provide an arrangement where there will be automatic feeding of the articles to the front of the row in a smooth and controlled manner, by providing a means which is relatively simple mechanically in construction and yet achieves the objective of the invention.

It is known that decking surfaces can be defined by rollers so that articles will move relatively frictionlessly along the roller decking.

Such decking is used for example in factories and other locations where articles have to be conveyed from place to place over substantial distances. The advantage of using rollers is that they provide for a relatively frictionless sliding of articles to be conveyed down a relatively shallow end plane, and even when the decking is horizontal, the articles can be moved readily therealong using a relatively light pushing force.

The present invention aims to provide an anti-friction device in a display apparatus whereby a shallow inclined surface is defined by the device so that articles will fall by gravity towards the front of the display device as the front and each subsequent article is removed from a row.

In accordance with the invention the device comprises an antifriction decking surface defined either by a plurality of side by side endless belts supported by rolling elements at the opposite ends, and by rolling elements in between, or by spaced inclined wire rods which are of or are coated with anti-friction material. When belts are provided, they are being arranged in parallel vertical planes and are of relatively narrow width to support the articles in rows but to allow the belts supporting the articles in one row to move relative to the belts supporting the articles in an adjacent row.

A significant feature of the invention is that there should be no interference between the belt feeding of the articles under gravity by the belts of adjacent rows where the articles are not being fed. This may be achieved simply by the dimensioning and positioning of the belt, or alternatively there may be division rails between groups of belts which support a single row of articles. It is technically possible that a single belt could support a single row of articles, but it is much preferred that there should be several belts supporting a single row of articles.

In a display apparatus, the support surface defined by the belts inclines slightly downwardly from the rear to the front of the decking, and at the front there may be a stop bar to prevent the articles from falling off the end of the decking.

In a specific example, a display cabinet which may be refrigerated is provided with a plurality of shelves each defined by a decking arrangement as described above. The decking arrangement may be adapted to be a removable unit which is simply clipped into position in the display apparatus, and in addition there may be a tensioning means which causes tensioning of the belts as each unit is placed in a display apparatus.

The tensioning device may be a spring loaded jockey pulley or the like.

The pulleys which support the belt, and the belt itself may be a relatively small width e. g. in the order of a centimetre or even less, and the pulleys may be the pulleys, the belt being of appropriate similar section.

The pulleys of adjacent belts may be aligned, and the so aligned pulleys may be rotatably supported on steel spindles. The pulleys may have plastic anti-friction bearings which rotate freely on the spindles, and the spindles may be held to form the unit by being connected to end plates, adapting the units for insertion in a display apparatus.

The belts may be of rubber or plastic or other suitable material, and each unit may be adapted for cleaning and maintenance to ensure the prolonged efficient working of the units.

In the alternative arrangement, the decking comprises rods arranged in an inclined plane, and defining an anti-friction surface, so that the articles will slide downwards towards the front of the display, as each front article is removed. By providing spaced rods, a grill arrangement is created, and so that there is line contact between the product and each rod, and by making the rod surfaces of antifriction material, such as a Teflon coating, sliding will be ensured. It will be clear that the angle of inclination of the grill will be set by experiment, but will be of a nature to ensure the smooth sliding of the products down the decking, without them travelling too fast as to make them bang against and fall from the front of the cabinet.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein : Fig. 1 is a front view of a display apparatus for the dispensing of cold beverages; Fig. 2 is an enlarged view showing how each can or bottle or beverage is supported; Fig. 3 is a perspective view to an enlarged scale showing the decking for supporting the cans or bottles of beverage; Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line X-X in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an alternative form of decking according to the present invention; Fig. 6 is a side view of the decking as shown in Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a perspective view of decking according to another embodiment of the invention; Fig. 8 is a perspective view of decking according to a still further embodiment of the invention; Fig. 9 is a side view of the decking of Fig. 8 but showing the angle adjusting arrangement; and Fig. 10 is a side view of the divider used in the decking in each of the embodiments of Figs. 5,7 and 8.

Referring to the drawings, in Fig. 1 reference numeral 10 represents a display cabinet of the type commonly seen in supermarkets, garages and other outlets for the sale of cold beverages in cans 12 or bottles 14. The dispensing apparatus 10 is provided with four decks 16,18, 20 and 22, although the number of decks is not of essence to the present invention.

The cans and bottles 12 and 14 are arranged in aligned rows from front to rear of the dispensing cabinet 10, and when a purchaser requires a beverage, he or she opens the front of the cabinet and removes the first can or bottle in the row of the beverage selected.

To keep the beverages cold, the cabinet will be refrigerated.

Conventionally, the deckings 16 to 22 are horizontal, and therefore as each can or bottle is removed, so the number in the row decreases, but the front can or bottle in each row becomes displaced further back towards the rear of the cabinet until all cans or bottles in that row have been consumed.

In installations where large numbers of cans or bottles or other articles are displayed and consumed in this way, it is not always easy for the proprietor to see at a glance which supplies have been exhausted, but the present invention assists in this connection insofar as each decking 16,18, 20 and 22 is designed so that when a can or bottle is removed, the row of cans or bottles moves forward automatically and the second can or bottle becomes the first can or bottle and so on.

In accordance with the embodiment of the invention, this movement is achieved without the use of any power drives or the like, and is achieved in a simple and effective manner insofar as the decking is constituted as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 by means of a series of endless belts 24 which are arranged in parallel planes and in spaced arrangement as shown in Fig. 2. The belts 24 are supported as shown in Fig. 3 by rollers 26 supporting the ends of the belts 24, and also the intermediate reaches. As shown in Fig. 4 the belts 24 stand proud of the pulleys 26, and the belts are arranged so that the upper reaches 24 extend from rear to front of the cabinet, at a slightly downwardly inclined angle 100. By this means, the row of bottles or cans simply moves under gravity in an anti-friction manner as each bottle or can is removed from the front of the row.

To achieve the anti-friction movement, the pulleys 26 are of antifriction plastic material and are mounted on stainless steel spindles 28.

Each spindle 28 carries a plurality of front intermediate or rear rollers 26 in its extension widthways across the cabinet 10, and the ends of the spindles 28 may be supported on support plates 30,32 forming a unit which can be inserted into and removed from the cabinet 10 for cleaning and repair.

For the addition of extra tension to the belts 24 there may be a plurality of jockey pulleys 34 loaded by springs 36 mounted in the cabinet 10 so that when each unit is positioned in the cabinet, the jockey pulleys 34 will automatically tension the belts 24.

As shown in Fig. 2, each row of cans or bottles 12,14 is supported by a group of belts 24 and from this it will be understood that the belts are of relatively narrow width in the order of for example 5 or 6 mm, whilst the diameter of the pulleys 26 may be in the order of 25 mm. By grouping the belts 24 for respective rows of product, the movement of one row will not interfere with the movement of another row, but to assist in this connection there may be division wires 34 arranged as shown between the rows, and also, to prevent the articles from fa. ng from the cabinet, there may be a front rail 36 against which the front article of each row rests.

The individual belts 24 of each group are separated by providing the pulleys 26 with shoulder spacers 26A which abut the spacers of adjacent pulleys 26, the pulleys 26 on each spindle 28 and of each group of belts being butted together. The groups may be separated by spacer rings on the spindle 28.

The angle 100 can be relatively small, and yet because of the antifriction nature of the decking, the products will move forwards each time one or more of the products is removed from the front of the row.

Figs. 5 and 6 show an alternative arrangement of decking according to another embodiment of the present invention. The decking of Figs. 5 and 6 performs the same function as the decking of Figs. 1 to 4, but without the use of belts. The decking 50 shown in Figs. 5 and 6 comprises a wire rod tray made up of spaced slide rods 52 which lie in the same plane 54, which is the slide plane of the decking. At one end, the front end, of the slide plane 54 is a wire 56 forming a stop rail, this wire 56 being of shallow U shape and lying to one side, the front side, of plane 54, and substantially at right angles to the plane 54.

At the opposite and rear end of the slide plane 54 is a lift rail 58.

This rail 58 is to the rear side of the plane 54 and is bent to a configuration to keep the rear end of the slide plane higher than the front end when the decking is in use in a cabinet (as shown in Fig.

6). By this arrangement, the slide plane inclines downwards towards the front of the cabinet at an angle 100, which will be of the same order as the inclination of the belts in the previously described embodiment.

Finally, the decking has guide rails 60, which are for keeping rows of products spaced on the slide plane 54.

At least the slide rods 52 present an anti-friction surface to the products, but preferably the whole decking is of steel rods coated with an anti-friction material, such as Teflon.

The operation of the decking of Figs. 5 and 6 is similar to that described with reference to Figs. 1 to 4, except that the product slide down the decking to abut the stop rail 56, rather than travelling on belts. As the slide rods 52 are spaced, there will be minimal contact between the slide plane 54 and the products, and the use of anti-friction material ensures that the slide angle 100 can be small, ensuring that the products will not slide down the slide plane too rapidly, as each front product is removed.

The decking of either embodiment can be made to any size, and in the case of the embodiment of Figs. 5 and 6, the various rails can be arranged to be adjustable in position, especially the guide rails to accommodate products of differing sizes.

Referring now to Figs. 7 to 10, in the embodiment of the invention shown, the decking comprises an inclined tray 200 made up of parallel wire rails, and this tray is surrounded by retention walls 202, 204,206 and 208 which are in fact formed by a continuous wire loop supported on wall rods 210. The inclined decking slide surface 200 is surrounded by a wire boundary frame 212, and the decking 200 is supported at a fixed slide angle 214 by horizontal support rails 216 connected to corner post extensions 218. The hole is of a unitary welded construction and the rods are covered in plastic coating, having the correct slide characteristics to enable the products to slide down the decking 200. This fixed arrangement is an independent aspect of the present invention in that the unit can be placed simply on supports or shelves in for example a refrigerated display cabinet. The provision of a fixed slide angle is of advantage, especially with the use of the horizontal support rails 216 or similar structure, as the unit can simply be placed in position and there is no need for any angular adjustment. The angle 214 is calculated depending upon the products to be supported thereon.

This type of unit can be used in other applications, but frequently for example in the case of bar installations, the capability of adjustment of the angle 214 is desirable.

In the embodiment of Fig. 8, the adjustability is provided in the unit, in that the decking 200 with the equivalent walls 202 to 208 and wire frame 212 are provided, but the support legs 218 are replaced by an inclination adjustment means 220 whereby the angle 214 can be adjusted to suit the products being supported so that they will slide down the decking 200 in the manner hereinbefore set forth.

The horizontal support wires 216 of the Fig. 7 embodiment are replaced by a support tray 224 which comprises a stout framework adapted to receive a slidable tray 226 which can be pulled out from the frame 224 in the direction of arrow 228 in order to remove collected water which may drip from the glasses supported on the decking.

Fig. 9 illustrates the adjustment means 220 which is seen to comprise rear legs 230 held by a screw bracket 232 which can be released to allow the legs 230 to be raised and lowered as indicated by the arrow 234. The bracket 230 carries a fine adjustment screw 236 which can be adjusted to make fine adjustments to the angle 214 after the connection of the bracket 232 has been made firm to the support legs 230 insofar as the screw 236 reacts against a frame bar member 238 to provide for the fine adjustment.

At the front end, the decking 200 simply rests on the front frame member 240 so that it can rock thereon as adjustment takes place.

This embodiment of the invention also forms an independent aspect insofar as it provides a unit which comprises the base frame, the tray and the adjustable decking and the applicant reserves the right to claim this as an independent invention as he does with the embodiment of Fig. 7.

Referring finally to Fig. 10, the divider rod 242 is adapted to be positioned along with other divider rods between the front and rear wall rails 202 and 206, the hooks 244 and 246 simply engaging over these rails 202 and 206 so as to be slidable thereon in a direction laterally of the decking, as indicated by arrow 248 in Fig. 8. The hook portions 244 and 246 are provided also with plastic sleeves 250 which form grippers to grip the rods 202 and 206 to keep the dividers in adjusted position. This rod construction for the dividers also forms an independent aspect of this invention which the applicant reserves the right to claim in general terms.

All of the independent aspects of the invention can be used singly or in combination one or more other aspects, or with any other aspect of the invention, if appropriate, as described and illustrated herein.

The apparatus of each embodiment provides that the proprietor will know when the dispensing apparatus is out of stock of any particular product, because there will be now product in the first position of the row, and he can take early steps to restock. The apparatus has the added advantage that there are no drive mechanisms requiring power positioning of the product.

Claims (19)

1. CLAIMS 1. An anti-friction device for a display apparatus whereby a shallow inclined surface is defined by the device so that articles will fall by gravity towards the front of the display device as the front and each subsequent article is removed from a row, wherein said device comprises an anti-friction decking surface defined by a plurality of side by side endless belts supported by rolling elements at the opposite ends.
2. 2. An anti-friction device according to claim 1 wherein rolling elements are additionally provided between the rolling elements at either end of the endless belts to provide support therefor intermediately of said rolling elements at either end of the belt.
3. 3. An anti-friction device according to any preceding claim wherein the belts are arranged in parallel vertical planes and are of relatively narrow width to support the articles in rows but to allow the belts supporting the articles in one row to move relative to the belts supporting the articles in an adjacent row.
4. 4. An anti-friction device according to claim 3 wherein division rails are provided between groups of belts which support a single row of articles.
5. 5. An anti-friction device according to either of claims 1 or 2 wherein a single belt supports a single row of articles.
6. 6. An anti-friction device according to any preceding claim wherein a stop bar is provided at the front of the device to prevent the articles from falling off the end of said device.
7. 7. An anti-friction device according to any preceding claim wherein the device is removable and simply clipped into position.
8. 8. An anti-friction device according to any preceding claim wherein tensioning means are provided to ensure that as articles are removed from any particular row, the tension in the belts supporting articles in that row can automatically adjusted to account for the reduced weight of articles.
9. 9. An anti-friction device according to claim 8 wherein the tensioning means is a spring loaded jockey pulley.
10. 10. An anti-friction device according to any preceding claim wherein the pulleys of adjacent belts are aligned, and the so aligned pulleys are rotatably supported on steel spindles.
11. 11. An anti-friction device according to claim 10 wherein the pulleys have plastic anti-friction bearings which rotate freely on the spindles, and the spindles are held to form the unit by being connected to end plates, adapting the units for insertion in a display apparatus.
12. 12. An anti-friction device according to any preceding claim wherein the belts are of rubber.
13. 13. A refrigerated display cabinet including one or more devices as claimed in claims 1-12.
14. 14. An anti-friction device for a display apparatus whereby a shallow inclined surface is defined by the device so that articles will fall by gravity towards the front of the display device as the front and each subsequent article is removed from a row, wherein said device comprises an anti-friction decking surface defined by spaced inclined wire rods which are of or are coated with anti-friction material to define an inclined anti-friction grill-type surface down which articles can slide.
15. 15. An anti friction device according to claim 14 wherein the device is a unitary device made of wire coated with plastic material, and having horizontal stand rails which when placed on a horizontal surface, support the decking at the correct angle for the products to be held.
16. 16. An anti friction device according to claim 14 wherein the device comprises a base frame which supports the decking whereby when the base frame sits on a horizontal surface the decking is at an angle to provide for the gravity sliding of the product to be supported by the decking, and wherein there is an adjusting means between the decking and the base frame whereby the said angle can be adjusted.
17. 17. An anti friction device according to claim 16, wherein the base frame contains a tray for the collection of water from the products supported on the decking, said tray being slidable horizontally out of the frame for cleaning.
18. 18. An anti friction device according to claim 14,15 or 16, wherein the device includes wire dividers which hook onto the tops of wire walls around the decking, but which are slidable along the walls to adjust the spacing between the dividers, for the support of products of different widths on the decking.
19. 19. An anti friction device according to claim 18, wherein said dividers comprise wire rods with hooks at the ends, said hooks being covered with plastic tubes to prevent the dividers from sliding too freely on the walls. 15. An anti-friction device according to claim 14 wherein the antifriction material is Teflon@.