US3216584A - Hanger base - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 9, 1965 SEDO 3,216,584

HANGER BASE Filed June 25, 1963 IIHIHIHHHM V INVENTOR.

BY I

United States Patent 3,216,584 HANGER BASE Gerald H. Sedo, West Covina, Calif., assignor to M & D Store Fixtures, Inc., a corporation of California Filed June 25, 1963, Ser. No. 290,405 4 Claims. (Cl. 211-59) This invention relates to merchandise display fixtures and particularly to a hanger adapted to be hung upon a vertical wall panel covered with closely spaced rows of perforations for selectively receiving attaching lugs provided on the hanger.

The attaching lugs of such hangers are of a variety of different styles and modes of operation, the one of these in perhaps most general use comprising a pair of upturned hook lugs extending forwardly from the upper edge of the hanger base. The insertion of these lugs into a pair of horizontally spaced perforations in the panel thus requires the hanger to be first tilted upwardly to a steep angle and then rocked downwardly into an approximately horizontal position which rocks the lugs upwardly behind the material of the panel so they support the hanger on the panel. This style of hanger sufiers the drawback of not being mountable on a panel below a shelf any closer to said shelf than the distance required for clearance when initially tilting the hanger upwardly. Hangers are provided with prongs the length of which varies from three to ten inches so that the drawback mentioned constitutes a highly undesirable limitation in the use of such hangers. This limitation has been endured because no way was heretofore evident of modifying the attaching lugs on this particular style of hanger so that it could be mounted relatively close up underneath a shelf without incurring the danger of the hanger being accidently dislodged from the panel just by lifting on the hanger.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a hanger which does not require an upward tilting thereof in order to mount it on a perforated panel and can be mounted on the panel while closely spaced downwardly from a shelf, and which is locked in place when mounted anywhere on said panel so as to be reasonably secure against any inadvertent displacement from said panel.

The manner of accomplishing the foregoing objects as well as further objects and advantages will be made manifest in the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which FIG. 1 is a greatly enlarged sectional view taken on the line 1-1 of FIG. 2 so as to give an elevational face view of the mounting base of the hanger of the invention from the front, with said base mounted on a perforated wall panel.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the hanger shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and approximately to full scale.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the invention is there shown as embodied in a hanger which is provided for mounting the same in any of a wide variety of locations on a perforated wall panel 11. This wall panel is preferably made of about -gage cold rolled steel and the surface thereof is covered by horizontal rows 12 of square perforations 13 punched therefrom in a series of gang punch press operations. The perforations 13 are arranged in the rows 12 with one of the diagonals of each perforation in a row aligned with that row so that the other diagonals of said perforations are naturally disposed vertically. In the wall panel 11, the corresponding holes in adjacent rows 12 are in vertical alignment with each other and the centers of such holes are spaced apart the same distance as the centers of adjacent holes in any of the rows 12.

The hanger 10 includes a mounting base 14 which is preferably die formed from l6-gage cold rolled steel with the grain running horizontally as the base is viewed in FIG. 1. Most of the base 14 lies in a single flat plane so that the back face 15 thereof lies flat against the Wall panel 11 when the hanger is mounted on the latter. In the die forming of the base 14 the base is given a width which is slightly less than twice the horizontal distance between centers of adjacent perforations 13 in one of the rows 12 and a pair of hook lugs 16 are provided on the blank so as to extend laterally from upper portions of the side edges of the blank. These lugs are then die formed backwardly in parallel relation with each other and at right angles with the plane of the base. These hook lugs are dimensioned so that they lie in parallel planes which are spaced apart exactly twice the horizontal spacing of the centers of adjacent perforations 13 in one of the rows 12 and are thus able to be moved horizontally through a pair of alternate perforations 13 while keeping the base 14 parallel with the panel 11. After the lugs 16 have thus been moved through an alternate pair of perforations 13, the mounting base 14 may be shifted downwardly with the back face 15 thereof pressed against the panel 11, which will bring angled inner edges 17 of the lugs 16 into camming relation with edges of said pair of holes at the lower corners thereof as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 so as to draw the base 14 into tight flush contact with said panel.

In the die forming of mounting base 14, a locking tab 18 is also outstruck backwardly from the flat body of the mounting base so as to extend rearwardly at a slight angle from the back face 15 of said base as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. This locking tab is of penetrating type and is formed symmetrically with a vertical plane normal to the base and located midway between the hook lugs 16, and has a point 18a with an included angle of which faces upwardly. This tab is located on the mounting base 14 so that it is necessary to spring the metal of wall panel 11 slightly during the final downward movement of the mounting base 14 when applying this to said wall panel as above described, so as to permit the locking tab 18 to penetrate within the upper square corner of the square perforation 13 located half-way between the alternate pair of perforations 13 into which the hook lugs 16 have been inserted.

For the purpose of clearly identifying the three perforations 13 in the panel 11 which are engaged by the hook lugs 16 and the locking tab 18 these are separately identified in the drawing as perforations 13a, 13b and in the order in which these appear from left to right in FIG. 1.

After the mounting base 14 has been applied to the wall panel 11 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and above described, it may only be removed from its mounting on said panel by a slight distortion of the latter so as to remove the locking tab 18 from the upper corner of center perforation 13b, after which the hook lugs 16 may of course be shifted upwardly out of engaging relation with the lower corners of left and right perforations 13a and 130.

The hanger 10 also includes a boss 19 which is die stamped forwardly from the material of the base 14 and is centrally perforated to receive a pin 20 of reduced diameter formed on the inner end of a rod 25 and the inner end of pin 20 is swedged and/or spot welded to the inside of the boss 19 so as to rigidly mount the rod 25 on the base 14. The central portion of the boss 19 may be disposed vertically so that the rod 25 extends horizontally therefrom or the central portion of the boss may be die formed at a slight inclination from vertical so that the rod 25 will be inclined upwardly. The rod 25 performs the function of a merchandise support after 3. the hanger has been mounted on wall panel 11 and it also serves as a handle when mounting the mounting base 14 on said panel and when removing the same therefrom.

While only a single embodiment of the invention is disclosed, it is to be understood that this is for illustrative purposes only and-that various changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A mounting base adapted to be used in association with a wall panel having straight horizontal rows of uniformly spaced perforations, said base comprising: a sheet metal plate having a width capable of extending across approximately twice the spacing between centers of adjacent perforations in one of said rows and adapted to lie flat against said panel when applied thereto; a pair of down-turned hook lugs extending backwardly at right angles from said base, said hook lugs being directly horizontally insertable through a pair of alternate perforations in said row, said base then being shiftable directly downwardly to hook said hook lugs over lower edges of said alternate perforations and bear against said panel from behind to snugly hold said base against said panel; a locking tab of the penetrating type outstruck a slight distance backwardly from the material of said base on a vertical axis located midway between said hook lugs and facing upwardly, said tab being positioned on said base so as to be forced by the application of said base to said panel as aforesaid, to penetrate just within the upper portion of the perforation of said row located midway between said alternate perforations with said tab opposed to the upper edge of said middle perforation and thus retaining said hook lugs in downward hooked relation with the lower edges of said first mentioned two perforations; and merchandise support means provided on said base.

2. A mounting base as recited in claim 1 wherein said merchandise support means comprises a substantially horizontal rod on which merchandise may be hung.

3. A mounting base as recited in claim 1 wherein said locking tab is pointed.

4. A mounting base as recited in claim 3 wherein the point of said locking tab has approximately the outline of a angle.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,036,884 4/ 36 Reeves. 2,312,985 3/43 Bales. 2,614,701 10/52 Mapson. 2,790,616 4/57 Cardinal. 2,797,817 7/57 Shugarman.

CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A MOUNTING BASE ADAPTED TO BE USED IN ASSOCIATION WITH A WALL PANEL HAVING STRAIGHT HORIZONTAL ROWS OF UNIFORMLY SPACED PERFORATIONS, SAID BASE COMPRISING: A SHEET METAL PLATE HAVING A WIDTH CAPABLE OF EXTENDING ACROSS APPROXIMATELY TWICE THE SPACING BETWEEN CENTERS OF ADJACENT PERFORATIONS IN ONE OF SAID ROWS AND ADAPTED TO LIE FLAT AGAINST SAID PANEL WHEN APPLIED THERETO; A PAIR OF DOWN-TURNED HOOK LUGS EXTENDING BACKWARDLY AT RIGHT ANGLES FROM SAID BASE, SAID HOOK LUGS BEING DIRECTLY HORIZONTALLY INSERTABLE THROUGH A PAIR OF ALTERNATE PERFORATIONS IN SAID ROW, SAID BASE THEN BEING SHIFTABLE DIRECTLY DOWNWARDLY TO HOOK SAID HOOK LUGS OVER LOWER EDGES OF SAID ALTERNATE PERFORATIONS AND BEAR AGAINST SAID PANEL FROM BEHIND TO SNUGLY HOLD SAID BASE AGAINST SAID PANEL; A LOCKING TAB OF THE PENETRATING TYPE OUTSTRUCK A SLIGHT DISTANCE BACKWARDLY FROM THE MATERIAL OF SAID BASE ON A VERTICAL AXIS LOCATED MIDWAY BETWEEN SAID HOOK LUGS AND FACING UPWARDLY, SAID TAB BEING POSITIONED ON SAID BASE SO AS TO BE FORCED BY THE APPLICATION OF SAID BASE TO SAID PANEL AS AFORESAID, TO PENETRATE JUST WITHIN THE UPPER PORTION OF THE PERFORATION OF SAID ROW LOCATED MIDWAY BETWEEN SAID ALTERNATE PERFORATIONS WITH SAID TAB OPPOSED TO THE UPPER EDGE OF SAID MIDDLE PERFORATION AND THUS RETAINING SAID HOOK LUGS IN DOWNWARD HOOKED RELATION WITH THE LOWER EDGES OF SAID FIRST MENTIONED TWO PERFORATIONS; AND MERCHANDISE SUPPORT MEANS PROVIDED ON SAID BASE.

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