GB2529710A

GB2529710A - Closure apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2529710A
Application number: GB1415400.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Thomas Mcgilligan; Derek Butler; William Paterson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-09-01
Filing date: 2014-09-01
Publication date: 2016-03-02
Anticipated expiration: 2034-09-01
Also published as: GB201415400D0; GB2529710B

Abstract

Closure apparatus for opening and closing a goods receiving opening provided between first 16 and second 18 side grates of a supermarket delivery cage 10, comprising a movable protective curtain 22A, 22B retained at the first side grate when stowed, and a spanning at least partially between the grates when deployed, in order to close the goods receiving opening. A rail member 28A, 30A, 28B, 30B guides the curtain during reciprocating movement. Preferably a resilient mechanism urges the curtain towards stowed configuration and resists movement to deployed configuration; the resilient mechanism comprises a resilient cord 32 attached to the curtain and rail anchor points, the cord passes around a fulcrum pin (36, figure 3), a shock cord is sewn into a curtain edge, the rail member comprises a guide channel with u-shaped cross-section for receiving resilient material therein; the rail member has mechanism for temporary attachment to the side grate (clips); the curtain has a handle 24A, 24B; a hook 26A, 26B retains the curtain when deployed.

Description

Closure Apparatus The present invention relates to closure apparatus, particularly, but not exclusively, closure apparatus for opening and closing front and rear goods receiving openings of supermarket delivery roller cages.

Supermarkets are required to transport and store a wide variety of goods from one location to another as part of complex supply chains running from the initial producer to the end consumer. For this purpose delivery cages having a base metal platform and two vertical metal side grates are commonly loaded with goods for transportation. The side grates are often only provided on two (or sometimes three) of the four sides of the base platform such that two (or sometimes one) sides of the delivery cage are left open in order to allow staff to easily load and unload goods onto, and off of, the delivery cage. However, in order to better protect and secure goods during transit in such open sided cages, many supermarkets and distributors wrap the loaded delivery cage with a length of cellophane material which is manually wrapped around the delivery cage several times. This cellophane material is typically then torn from the delivery cage once it has arrived at its destination such that goods may then be unloaded from the delivery cage.

A number of problems are created by this practice. For instance, wrapping each delivery cage individually can be time consuming and hence expensive.

Furthermore, such delivery cages are typically arranged in long, closely packed rows in order to maximise the number of delivery cages that can be stored in a given space. This means that once an empty delivery cage has been loaded with goods, it must then be moved out of alignment with any adjacent cages, wrapped and then moved back into its original position. This can also be time consuming and awkward.

In addition to the above disadvantages, since a huge quantity of delivery cages are loaded and unloaded each day, a correspondingly high quantity of cellophane wrapping material is consumed by large supermarkets. This can be harmful to the environment as well as being costly for the supermarket.

According to the present invention there is provided closure apparatus for selectively opening and closing a goods receiving opening provided between first and second side grates of a supermarket delivery cage, the apparatus comprising a protective curtain reciprocable between a stowed configuration in which the protective curtain is retained at the first side grate of the cage, and a deployed configuration in which the protective curtain spans at least partially between the first and second side grates in order to at least partially close the goods receiving opening and wherein at least a rail member is provided to guide the protective curtain during reciprocating movement between said stowed and deployed configurations.

Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent

from the claims and the following description.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the following diagrams, in which:-Fig. 1 is a schematic side view illustration of a supermarket delivery cage where upper and lower closure apparatus of the invention is installed thereon. In this illustration both the upper and lower closures are shown in a stowed configuration; Fig. 2 is a perspective illustration of the apparatus of Fig. 1, where the lower closure is illustrated in its deployed configuration; Fig. 3 is a schematic illustration of a guide rail and resilient cord provided at an edge of the closure; and Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of the guide rail and resilient cord of Fig. 3.

With reference to Figs. 1 and 2, a supermarket cage generally designated 10 comprises a generally square base platform 12 having castors 14 provided at each corner thereof. A first side grate 16 extends upwardly from the left hand side of the base platform 12 and a second side grate 18 extends upwardly from the right hand side of the base platform 12 such that front and rear goods receiving openings are defined between the side grates 16, 18.

A first closure 20A is provided toward the bottom of the delivery cage 10 and a second closure 20B is provided toward the top of the delivery cage 10. In the embodiment illustrated, the first and second closures are identical to one another; however, one may alternatively be smaller or larger than the other depending upon user requirements.

Components of the first and second closures are identical to one another and are referenced with the suffix A in the following description for features of the first closure and the suffix B for features of the second closure.

The closure 20A has a protective curtain 22A which is provided with a cut-out handle portion 24A therein and retaining means in the form of retaining hooks 26A at a front edge thereof.

An upper guide rail 28A and a lower guide rail 30A are attached to spars of the side grate 16. As illustrated in Fig. 4 a loop of material 23 of the protective curtain 22A passes around one end of a resilient cord 32 which is retained within the guide rail by a corresponding profiled section 34. Although illustrated as an L-shaped section in Fig. 4, the profiled section 34 of the guide rail may alternatively comprise a U-shaped section.

As best illustrated in Fig. 3 one end of the resilient cord 32 is attached to the edge of the protective curtain 22A and the other passes around a fulcrum pin 36 before attaching to an anchor pin 38. The resilient cord 32 is attached to the loop of material 23 at three stitched locations 35 such that the resilient cord 32 may stretch between the stitched locations 35 but does not stretch at these locations. This also means that any tension in the portion of the cord 32 not covered by the loop of material 23 (i.e. tension in the portion extending from the end of the curtain 22A, over the fulcrum pin 36 and onto the anchor pin 38) is not transferred to the portion of cord between either edge of the curtain 22A.

In this way the protective curtain 22A is neatly suspended between the upper and lower guide rails 28A, 30A in a stowed configuration on the side of the side grate 16. It should be noted that due to the resilient nature of the resilient cord 32 and the fact that this is retained in tension over the fulcrum pin 36 (even when the protective curtain 22A is in its stowed configuration), the protective curtain is always biased toward assuming the stowed configuration depicted in Fig. 1.

In use, when empty, the supermarket delivery cage 10 may be stored and moved as normal with each of the protective curtains 22A and 22B retained in the stowed configurations illustrated in Fig. 1. If the side grates 16, 18 of the delivery cage to which the closures are attached are foldable these can be folded as normal without the closures 20A, 20B causing any interference thereto.

Once a user has loaded goods onto the base platform 16 he then grasps the handle 24A and pulls the protective curtain 22A around the front of delivery cage 10 until the retaining hooks 26A can be clipped onto an upright of the second side grate 18 at which point it assumes its deployed configuration (see bottom of Fig. 2).

The flexible material of the protective curtain 22A may slide around the forward upright 25 of the first side grate 16 as the curtain 22A is being slid from its stowed configuration toward its deployed configuration. As this occurs, the upper and lower resilient cords 32 are both tensioned and stretched by an increasing amount such that when the curtain 22A is in the deployed configuration a relatively high tension force exists in the cords 32 adjacent the side grate 16. However, since the portion of the cord 32 within the envelope of material 23 are stitched at locations 35, the portion of cord 32 within the curtain 22A is not tensioned and therefore remains able to absorb additional tension forces due to e.g. bulky items projecting or falling against the material during transport or storage.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the user may choose to load only half (or less) of the goods into the delivery cage 10 and then pull across the lower closure 20A in order to secure that load in the delivery cage 10 before then continuing to load the remainder of the delivery cage 10 with goods. Once the delivery cage 10 has been fully loaded, the upper closure 20B can then also be pulled across into its deployed position. The reverse operation can then be performed when emptying the delivery cage 10.

The described invention has numerous advantages over the use of cellophane wrapping. These include, but are not limited to, the following:- -Although the upper and lower closures 20A, 20B can be integrated into the side grates of the delivery cage 10 during manufacture, they can alternatively be retrofitted to existing delivery cages with ease and without any other modification of the existing delivery cages being required; -The ability to clip the guide rails of the closures 20A, 20B onto the delivery cages allows the closures 20, 20B to be removed or replaced with relative ease; -The closures 20A, 20B provide superior protection to goods within the delivery cage when compared to that provided by cellophane wrapping.

This also means that the closures 20A, 20B can be used on two sided delivery cages in order to replace commonly used delivery cages having three or four side grates. This has cost savings both in terms of material manufacture costs and long term transportation costs; -Unlike cellophane wrapping, once installed, the closures 20A, 20B have no or few ongoing costs associated with them; -When several delivery cages are aligned next to each other for loading and unloading, the reciprocating nature of the closures allows a user to gain access to the interior of the delivery cage without having to expend time and energy moving the cage out of line with adjacent delivery cages.

Although particular embodiments of the invention have been disclosed herein in detail, this has been done by way of example and for the purposes of illustration only. The aforementioned embodiments are not intended to be limiting with respect to the scope of the appended claims.

It is contemplated by the inventors that various substitutions, alterations, and modifications may be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims. Examples of these include the following: -The guide rails 28A, 30A, 28B, 30B of the apparatus may be attached to the side grates 16, 18 of the delivery cage 10 by any temporary, semi-permanent or permanent attachment means. This may include for example attachment clips, a hook and loop arrangement, adhesive or welds etc. Although the closures 20A and 20B are shown attached to only one side grate of the delivery cage 10, additional closures 20A, 20B may also be attached to the other side grate of the delivery cage 10 in order to allow both the front and rear openings of the delivery cage 10 to be opened and closed.

Although a pair of closures 20A and 20B are provided on one side of the delivery cage 10, numerous closures of different dimensions may be supplied in order to provide greater flexibility when loading and unloading. For example, three or more such closures could be provided to allow smaller portions of the front and rear openings of the delivery cage 10 to be opened or closed.

Claims

CLAIMS1. Closure apparatus for selectively opening and closing a goods receiving opening provided between first and second side grates of a supermarket delivery cage, the apparatus comprising:-a protective curtain reciprocable between a stowed configuration in which the protective curtain is retained at the first side grate of the cage, and a deployed configuration in which the protective curtain spans at least partially between the first and second side grates in order to at least partially close the goods receiving opening and wherein at least a rail member is provided to guide the protective curtain during reciprocating movement between said stowed and deployed configurations.
2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the or each rail member is provided with a resilient mechanism in order to resiliently urge the protective curtain towards the stowed configuration and to resiliently resist movement of the protective curtain from the stowed configuration to the deployed configuration.
3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the resilient mechanism comprises a cord of resilient material attached to the protective curtain at one or more anchor points towards one end of the cord and to a rail anchor at the other end.
4. Apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the resilient mechanism further comprises a fulcrum pin around which the cord may pass such that the cord may pass along the rail in a first direction, over the fulcrum and then along the rail in the other direction.
5. Apparatus according to any of claims 2 to 4, wherein the resilient material comprises a shock cord sewn into at least a portion of an edge of the protective curtain.B
6. Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the shock cord is fixedly attached to the protective curtain at a plurality of anchor points such that any tension applied to the shock cord between the protective curtain and the rail anchor is substantially prevented from being transferred to the portion of shock cord attached to the protective curtain, whilst any portions of the shock cord spanning between the anchor points of the protective curtain are able to resiliently stretch in response to any tension applied therebetween.
7. Apparatus according to any of claims 3 to 6, wherein the or each rail member comprises a guide channel adapted to receive and retain the resilient material therein.
8. Apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the guide channel comprises a u-shaped cross section.
9. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, comprising an upper and lower rail member such that the protective curtain is suspended between said upper and lower rail members.
10. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the or each rail member is provided with temporary attachment means which allows attachment to and removal from a side grate of the delivery cage.
11. Apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the temporary attachment means comprises a plurality of clips which engage with individual spars of the side grate.
12. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein a leading edge of the protective curtain is provided with a handle arrangement that facilitates reciprocal movement of the protective curtain between its stowed and deployed configurations.
13. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, comprising a retaining mechanism adapted to retain the protective curtain in the deployed configuration when desired.
14. Apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the retaining mechanism comprises at least a hook member which engages with an opposing side grate of the delivery cage in order to secure the protective curtain in its deployed configuration.
15. A supermarket delivery cage having a goods receiving opening provided between first and second side grates, the supermarket delivery cage comprising apparatus according to claim 1.
16. A supermarket delivery cage according to claim 15, comprising at least an upper and lower closure apparatus according to claim 1 such that at least a lower portion of the goods receiving opening may be opened and closed independently from at least an upper portion of the goods receiving opening.
17. Apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, or as illustrated in any of Figs. 1 to 4.