GB2570445A

GB2570445A - Drawer indicators

Info

Publication number: GB2570445A
Application number: GB1801051.2A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Marriott Christopher; Veiga Rafael; Benwell Christopher
Original assignee: Supply Point Systems Ltd
Current assignee: Supply Point Systems Ltd
Priority date: 2018-01-23
Filing date: 2018-01-23
Publication date: 2019-07-31
Also published as: GB201801051D0; WO2019145695A1

Abstract

A storage system comprises a plurality of drawers 200 of different sizes. Each drawer includes a drawer handle 206 and an indication means 207. In one embodiment, the indication means is adjacent the drawer handle, and the spacing between the drawer handle and the indication means is same on all drawers. This is intended to improve the usability of the storage system to better guide the user to the correct drawer, as indicated by the indication means, by having a fixed distance between the handle and the indicator. The indication means may be a window or aperture that shows an LED mounted on a panel to the side of the drawer and upon which the drawer is mounted. The LED may indicate an operational state of the drawer and may change colour to indicate that the drawer is empty. A controller mounted on a panel may control latching of the drawers. In an alternative embodiment, the drawers include tabs 500, a unit of a predetermined shape that is repeated across the front of all drawers. The smallest drawer may have at least one tab, with larger drawers having an integer multiple of the number of tabs on the smallest drawer.

Description

DRAWER INDICATORS

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to storage systems and apparatuses for supplying articles. Their use in stock control systems is well-known, for example in manufacturing facilities and medical facilities. They are also suitable for use as vending machines.

Background

In typical automated stock control systems, a housing comprises a plurality of latched drawers. Articles to be supplied to users are provided in the drawers or compartments of the drawers. Examples of such articles include cutting tools and the like used with machine tools; other manufacturing tools and components; drugs, needles and other medical items; and legal documents. A control system allows a user to access the required article by unlatching the drawer containing the required article. The drawer is then pulled out from the home position (where no compartments are exposed) to the extent that the compartment containing the article is exposed, when the drawer is latched again to prevent further opening of the drawer. Such systems require complicated mechanisms for locking drawers closed in their home position, for unlocking the correct drawer and for allowing only that drawer to be opened, and then only to the extent that the required article is accessible. To provide a visual indication to the user as to which drawer is to be opened, the control system includes an indication means which is visible through an indication hole on the top of each drawer.

In a known system, several trays are provided above one another in a housing, with each tray extending in the width direction of the housing. One or several drawers are provided on top of each tray, and a separate latch mechanism with separate control circuitry is provided in each tray for each drawer in that tray. A handle or finger hole is provided at one location on the drawer front, for example the lower left corner, and the indication means is provided at a different location, for example the upper right corner. In this system, drawers of different sizes can be accommodated. On larger drawers, the handles and the indication means are provided at corresponding positions on the drawer front to the standard drawers. This makes it difficult for the user to determine which drawer should be opened due to the geometry of the larger drawers. Especially in a large system with several drawers of different sizes, it can be confusing when the indication means does not intuitively direct the user to the right drawer handle.

Summary

The present invention has been made to address the problems of the prior art systems. According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage system comprising: a plurality of drawers of different sizes; and a drawer handle and an indication means adjacent the drawer handle, wherein the spacing between the drawer handle and the indication means is same on all drawers.

Advantageously, providing a drawer handle and an indication means adjacent to each other and having same spacing between the drawer handles and indication means on all drawers makes it easier and quicker for a user to identify which drawer needs to be pulled out irrespective of the size and layout of the drawers in the storage system.

Preferably, the indication means is configured to indicate an operational state of the drawers.

Preferably, the drawers are adapted to stack on top of one another between a pair of panels.

Preferably, at least one of the panels comprises a control means to control and monitor the movement of the drawers.

Preferably in that, the control means comprises a solenoid and a flap arrangement.

Preferably, the control means further comprises a group of sensors.

Preferably, the indication means comprises an LED provided on a side of the panel.

Preferably in that, the LED is configured to toggle state upon receiving a control signal.

Preferably, the LED is configured to change colour upon receiving a control signal.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a storage system comprising: a plurality of drawers of different sizes, wherein a front of each drawer has at least one tab including a drawer handle and an indication means.

Preferably, the front face of the smallest size drawer includes at least one tab, and the front face of each larger drawer includes an integer multiple of the number of tabs on the smallest size drawer.

Preferably, the spacing between the drawer handle and the indication means is same on all the drawers.

Preferably, the tab including the drawer handle and the indication means is provided at the same location on all the drawers.

Brief description of the drawings

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a storage system according to an aspect of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a drawer for the storage system shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side view of a support panel and the drawer according to the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a section of the storage system of Fig. 1 fitted with drawers of different sizes.

Detailed description

In the following specification, the terms front, back, rear, left, right, top, bottom, upper, lower and like terms will be used consistently with the arrangement shown in Fig. 1. In particular, the expression height corresponds to a dimension from top to bottom, width corresponds to a dimension from left to right and depth corresponds to a dimension from front to back. However, it is not limited to this orientation.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a storage system 1 according to the present invention. In the system 1, a housing 100 is provided with a frame comprising a plurality of panels 101 held upright between a plurality of support beams 102 extending in the width direction of the housing 100. The panels 101 and the support beams 102 are positioned such that several drawers (not shown) stacked on top of each other can be held between a pair of two adjacent panels 101. The system 1 has a modular design, therefore it can be configured to hold many drawers of different sizes. In the present embodiment, the panels 101 can be fixed at different points on the support beams 102 to accommodate drawers of single, double, or triple width and/or height.

The housing 100 also has a system circuit board with a system controller 104 mounted thereto. Cabling may extend from the circuit board down channels provided in the front to circuitry provided in each of the panels 101. Although not shown, side and back plates would also be mounted to the housing 100 to prevent unauthorised access to the drawers and any control electronics.

As shown in Fig. 2, a drawer 200 comprises a drawer main body 201 with a drawer front 202 mounted thereto. The drawer main body 201 is formed as a single piece from a hard-plastic material by injection moulding. In particular, the drawer main body 201 comprises a plurality of compartments 203 open to the top, the compartments 203 being separated by drawer dividers 204. A latch stop 205 is formed for each compartment 203 on the right-hand side wall of the main body 201, which is the side that is mounted adjacent the panel 101.

The drawer front 202 comprises a cut-out section formed in the bottom right-hand side to define a finger hole 206, which acts as a handle and enables a user to easily open the drawer 200 by inserting fingers in it and pulling out the drawer 200. The drawer front 202 also comprises an indication window 207 disposed on the top right-hand corner of the drawer front 202, adjacent the handle 206. The purpose of the indication window 207 is explained below with reference to Figs. 3 and 4.

Fig. 3 shows a side view of the panel 101 with the drawer 200. The panel 101 comprises a control means for each drawer 200 to control and monitor the movement of the drawers 200. In one embodiment, the control means comprises a solenoid-activated latch arrangement 301 and a group of sensors 302.

The control means monitors when the drawer is in its fully closed position, the distance the drawer moves, and the direction of movement of the drawer. The use of such control means in storage systems is well known in the art. Also, it is to be understood that any suitable mechanism other than the latch arrangement 301 and the sensors 302 may be used to monitor and control the movement of the drawers 200.

The panel 101 also has mounted thereon an indicator 303 for each drawer 200. The indicator 303 could be an LED. A control board on the panel 101 or the system controller 104 controls the indicator 303 to indicate an operational state of the drawer 200. For example, the indicator 303 corresponding to the drawer 200 to be unlatched emits light, which is visible to a user through the indicator window 207 formed in the drawer front 202. In this way, the user can see which drawer 200 is to be opened.

Fig. 4 shows a section of the storage system 1 fitted with the drawers 200 of various sizes. In the present embodiment, the storage system 1 comprises four single-width drawers 200a, three double-width drawers 200b, and three triple-width drawers 200c. Moreover, the topmost double-width and triplewidth drawers are twice the height of the other drawers. Each of the drawers 200 is held between a pair of panels 101. Also, in each drawer set 200a, 200b, 200c, the drawers are stacked on top of one another.

Each of the drawers 200 is rested on a support 401 on the left-hand side panel 101 and a corresponding guide block (not shown) on the adjacent right-hand side panel 101. The solenoid latch arrangement 301 and the sensors 302 on the panel 101 protrude through a window formed in the guide block (as shown in Fig. 3). It is to be noted that the distance between two adjacent panels 101 fitted between the support beams 102a, 102b varies with the size of the drawers 102. In the arrangement shown in Fig. 4, the distance between the panels 101 holding the drawers 200a is single-width, the distance between the panels 101 holding the drawers 200b is double-width, and the distance between the panels 101 holding the drawers 200c is triple-width.

For the single-width, single-height drawers 200a, a single-tab drawer front 202 is attached, comprising the handle 206 and the indication window 207. However, for larger drawers 200b, 200c, larger multi tab drawer fronts 202 are attached where the positioning of the handle 206 and the indication window 207 is important to ensure that the indicator 303 on the panel 101 is visible through the indication window 207 on the drawer front 202. The indication window 207 is provided in a location corresponding the indicator 303 on the panel 101. As the indicator 303 is disposed on the panel 101 on the right-hand side of the drawers 200, the indication window 207 is formed on the rightmost tab 500a of the drawer front 202 in the drawers 200. For double-height drawers (see the topmost drawers in the drawer sets 200b, 200c) fitted with a multi-tab drawer fronts 202, the indication window 207 is formed in the lower rightmost tab 500a rather than in the upper rightmost tab 500. This is to ensure uniformity with other drawers 200 in the system 1 and to offer greater convenience to the user. The handles 206 are formed adjacent to the indication window 207 on the same tab 500a in a multi-tab drawer front 202 so that the user can easily identify the right drawer handle 206 based on the status of the indicator 303 seen through the indication window 207.

In this specification, the expression tab is used to indicate a unit of a predetermined shape that is repeated across the front of the drawers. Thus, the largest size of a tab 500 is the size of the smallest drawer front, but in other embodiments the smallest drawer could have several tabs. The shape of the tabs is not particularly limited.

Alternatively expressed, in the embodiment shown in Fig. 4, the smallest drawers 200a have a drawer front 202 with one tab 500a, which includes the handle 206 and the indication window 207. The larger drawers 200b, 200c have drawer fronts 202 with one tab 500a including the handle 206 and the indication window 207, and other tabs 500, which are the same size as tab 500a but do not include the handle 206 and the indication window 207. In all drawers with more than one tab 500 in the width direction, the tab 500a including the handle 206 and the indication window 207 is as far to the right as possible. In all drawers with more than one tab 500 in the height direction, the tab 500a including the handle 206 and the indication window 207 is as far to the bottom as possible.

When the storage system 1 is in operation and a control signal is initiated to open a specific drawer 200, the indicator 303 on the panel 101 corresponding that drawer 200 is activated which the user can see through the indication window 207 on the drawer front 202. As the indication window 207 is located next to the handle 206, it is easy for the user to see which drawer he needs to pull out. By contrast, in known systems, the handle 206 was located at a varying distance from the indicator 303/indication window 207 arrangement depending on the size of the drawers, which could cause confusion to the user.

The indicator 303 can also be useful in identifying other operational states of the drawers 200. For example, if a drawer 200 is empty, the colour of the corresponding indicator 303 can be changed to indicate that it needs stock refilling. Another example is when a drawer 200 is faulty, the corresponding indicator 303 can be made to flash continuously to indicate that the drawer needs replacing.

Although in the present embodiment, the indicator 303 is provided on the panel 101, it is also possible to have the indicator 303 on the drawers 200 itself. In that case, the handle 206 and the indication window 207 need not be located on the right-hand side of the drawer 200. Moreover, the indicator 303 could be arranged inside the handles 206 to make it even easier for the user to identify which drawer 200 is to be pulled out. Furthermore, although the drawer front of larger drawers is shown to be multi-tab, they could just be single surface/shape, without tabs 500, as long as the indication window 207 and the handle 206 are located at a fixed distance from each other on all drawers irrespective of size, and preferably one of the handle 206 and the indication window 207 is located at a fixed position on all drawers, such as in the bottom right hand corner.

In the case where larger size drawers are multi-tab, it is preferred that the tab 500a including the handle 206 and the indication window 207 is provided according to a predetermined rule. In the preferred embodiment, where there is more than one tab 500 in the width and/or height direction, the tab 500a including the handle is the tab 500a furthest to the left and/or to the bottom. However, other rules, or no fixed rule, could apply. In each case, by providing tab(s) 500 of unitary size, one of which includes the handle 206 and the indicator window 207 at a fixed distance from each other, the ease of use of the system is improved.

Where the tabs 500 are used, as long as the handle 206 and the indication window 207 are always provided in the same tab 500a, it is not necessary for the handle 206 and the indicator window 207 to be a fixed distance apart, although this is preferred.

Where the tabs 500 are used, the handle 206 and the indicator window 207 can be provided in different tabs, so long as the positional relationship between the tab holding the handle 206 and the tab holding the indicator window 207 is the same for all drawers, irrespective of their size.

It is not necessary for the whole surface of the front of all drawers 200 to be covered with the tabs 500. For example, a drawer front could be provided with a smaller tab 500a and the remaining drawer front could be flat, have one or more tabs 500 of another shape, or be otherwise patterned/shaped.

Those skilled in the art will recognise that the storage system of the present invention has a wide variety of different applications, from medical and manufacturing facilities of all different sizes to simple coin-operated vending machines.

The foregoing description has been given byway of example only and it will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. In particular, the number of compartments 203 in each drawer 200, the number of drawers 200, the number of rows of drawers 200, the number of panels 101, the number of drawers 200 between a pair of panels 101 and the relative dimensions of the panels 101, the drawers 200 and the housing 100 are not limited. Moreover, the indicator 303 could be in any other form than LED and could be located at any convenient position on the drawers 200.

The foregoing description of illustrated embodiments of the present invention, including what is described in the abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed herein. While specific embodiments of the invention are described herein for illustrative purposes only, various equivalent modifications are possible within the spirit and scope of the present invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize and appreciate. As indicated, these modifications may be made to the present invention in light of the foregoing description of illustrated embodiments of the present invention and are to be included within the scope of the present invention.

CLAIMS:

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A storage system comprising:

a plurality of drawers of different sizes; and a drawer handle and an indication means adjacent the drawer handle, wherein the spacing between the drawer handle and the indication means is same on all drawers.

2. A storage system of claim 1, wherein the indication means is configured to indicate an operational state of the drawers.

3. A storage system of any preceding claim, wherein the drawers are adapted to stack on top of one another between a pair of panels.

4. A storage system of claim 3, wherein at least one of the panels comprises a control means to control and monitor the movement of the drawers.

5. A storage system of claim 4, wherein the control means comprises a solenoid-activated latch arrangement.

6. A storage system of claim 5, wherein the control means further comprises a group of sensors.

7. A storage system of any preceding claim, wherein the indication means comprises an LED provided on a side of the panel.

8. A storage system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the indication means is configured to toggle state upon receiving a control signal.

9. A storage system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the indication means is configured to change colour upon receiving a control signal.

10. A storage system comprising:

a plurality of drawers of different sizes, wherein a front of each drawer has at least one tab including a drawer handle and an indication means.

11. A storage system according to claim 10, wherein the front face of the smallest size drawer includes at least one tab, and the front face of each larger drawer includes an integer multiple of the number of tabs on the smallest size drawer.

12. A storage system according to claim 10 or claim 11, wherein the spacing between the drawer handle and the indication means is same on all the drawers.

13. A storage system according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the tab including the drawer handle and the indication means is provided at the same location on all the drawers.

Intellectual Property Office

Application No: GB1801051.2

Claims searched: 1-9