US3435958A - Shelf structure - Google Patents

Description

R. G. CHESLEY SHELF STRUCTURE April 1, 1969 sheet Filed June 6, 1966 [In/enter Q azkr G. CHE5LY lLsmv, 55771.5, BArcHEL u 4 k 2 o 4771-045. acme P 1969 R. G.YCHEISILEY 3,435,958 I I I SHELF STRUCTURE Filed June 6,1966

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United States Patent 3,435,958 SHELF STRUCTURE Robert G. Chesley, Farmington, Mich, assignor to Chesley Industries, Inc., Farmington, Mich, a corporation of Michigan Filed June 6, 1966, Ser. No. 555,406 Int. Cl. A47f 3/14, /13; A47]: 45/00 US. Cl. 211-133 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The basic shelf structure comprises two spaced apart side members. A plurality of shelves having upright extending rear walls cooperate with the side members to pivotally lock the same together. Locking means are provided for the pivotal connections between the upright extending rear walls of the shelves and side members with the locking means being positioned to pivotally lock each upwardly extending rear wall to the side members with vertically spaced pivotal connections to provide a sturdy structure free from distortion. Clamping means comprising laterally extending hook-type clamps lock the front of the shelf structure together by a readily releasable clamping arrangement. The two above-mentioned locking means are the sole means locking the side members and shelves together.

The shelf structure may be converted to a modular type unit wherein the shelves and rear walls are provided in different sizes to permit back-to-back and side-to-side assembly of a single shelf structure with the different sized shelf and back walls and common side members and common rear walls being utilized.

This invention relates to shelf structures for displaying retail merchandise.

It is an object of my invention to provide an improved shelf structure for the display of retail merchandise.

Another object of the invention is to provide a shelf structure having a knock-down construction to facilitate shipping and which may be readily assembled without the aid of tools or equipment.

Another object of my invention is to provide a shelf structure having spaced apart side members and a plurality of shelves having upright extending rear walls cooperating with said side members to pivotally lock the same together in a new and improved manner to provide a sturdy structure free from distortion.

A further object of my invention is to provide a modular shelf structure in which basic components of different size may be joined together to form an integral shelf structure to provide considerable flexibility in designing a shelf structure and also resulting in a reduction in the number of component parts necessary for such flexibility.

Other objects of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the shelf structure embodying features of my invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view in perspective showing the pivot connections of those shown in FIGURE 1 at the rear with the side member being pivoted away from the clamp on the front of the shelf;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view of a shelf structure having a modified form of pivotal connections;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of an end member forming part of another embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 5 is a top plan view of a back member forming a part of the FIGURE 4 embodiment;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of a shelf member forming a part of the FIGURE 4 embodiment;

FIGURE 7 is a top plan view of a shelf structure as sembled from the components of FIGURES 4, 5 and 6-;

FIGURE 8 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 8-8 of FIGURE 7 looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIGURE 9 is a view illustrating the joinder of twO end members by a single back member.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

Referring to the drawings and particularly FIGURE 1 the numeral 10 designates a shelf structure having two spaced apart side members 12 and 14. The side members 12 and 14 carry a plurality of shelves 16 Each shelf 16 comprises a bottom wire wall 18 and a front wire wall 20 and an upright rear wire wall 22. Two downwardly directed hooks 24 and 26, best shown in FIGURE 2, extend outwardly from each side of the rear wall of the shelf with hook '24 adjacent the top of wall 22 and hook 26 adjacent the lower part of wall 22.

The side members 12 and 14 support the shelves 16 and each include spaced apart vertical legs 28 and 30 with a cross bar 32 connecting the upper ends of the legs 28 and 30 and a cross bar 34 connecting the lower ends of said legs. A U-shaped wire member 38 extends between vertical legs or uprights 28 and 30 of the side members of the upper part thereof. The member 38 has a pair of eyelets 40 on the end of the legs thereof which receive hooks 24 and 26 with the hook 24 being received in the upper eyelet and the hook 26 being received in the lower eyelet to pivotally lock the rear wall 20 of the uppermost shelf 16 to the side members. A single resilient hook or clamp 42 is provided on the shelf on each side thereof adjacent the front wall 20 thereof. The clamps 42 are received in the lower wire of the member 38 to form a complete construction insofar as the top shelf is involved. The two vertically spaced pivotal connections on each end member provides a sturdy construction and prevents distortion.

Immediately below the top shelf 16 are four additional shelves 16 all of which carry the downwardly directed hooks 24 and 26. U-shaped wire members having four horizontal legs extend between the vertical legs or uprights with each having eyelets 54, 56, 58 and 60..

In FIGURE 1 it will be noted that the hook 24 is received in eyelet 56 and hook 26 is received in eyelet which places the shelf in its lowermost position on the lowermost horizontal wire of this particular U-shaped member 50, The clamp 42 lies on this lowermost wire. All the shelves are illustratively mounted in the same manner. If it is desired to vary the space between one or more shelves the user may mount one or more shelves with hooks 24 in uppermost eyelets 54 and hooks 26 in eyelets 58 so that the shelf or shelves will be mounted on the wires having eyelets 58 which wire is above the lowermost wires having eyelets 60 with the clamp 42 wire lying on the Wires having eyelets 58.

To assemble the structure the two end members 12 and 14 are placed in a position with the rear legs 30 spaced apart sufiiciently to receive the hooks of the shelves in the eyes on the end members. The front legs are spaced further apart to facilitate mounting of the shelves. The shelves may be assembled starting from the bottom and working up to the top shelf. When each shelf has its hooks positioned in the desired eyelets the end members are pivotally connected to the shelves to provide a sturdy structure free from distortion. The fronts of the end members may then be moved toward each other to engage the front clamps on the shelves to completely lock the shelf structure together. It will be noted that the assembly may take place without the use of tools or equipment of any kind. If it is desired to dismantle the structure or change the position of one or more shelves all that is necessary to pivot the end members as shown in FIGURE 2 to have access to the shelves and lift them upwardly out of their pivotal connections.

In FIGURE 3 I have shown a modified form of structure 64 which includes end members 66 and 68. A shelf 70 is provided with laterally extending downwardly di rected hook members 72. The end members 66 and 68 carry vertically spaced apart elongated tubular members 76 for receiving the hook members 72. The hook members 72 are substantially of the same depth as the upright rear wall of the shelf 70 and the tubular members 76 are substantially of the same depth as the rear wall and the hook member 72. Thus the hook member 72 and the tubular members 76 serve to pivotally lock the upright rear walls to the side members with pivotal connections adjacent the upper and lower parts of said shelves rear walls to provide a sturdy structure the same as the hooks and eyelets shown in FIGURE 1 lock the structure together to provide a sturdy structure,

In the description of the present invention, the fact that the assembled unit is free from distortion has been mentioned several times. This freedom from distortion results from the rear hook-and-eye engagement illustrated in both FIGURES l and 3. In FIGURE 1, a pair of vertically spaced hook-and-eye combinations are provided at each side of each shelf. In FIGURE 3, an elongated tubular member 76 is provided at each shelf side to receive the elongated hook member 72. In both instances there is thus vertical mechanical resistance to lateral distortion.

The contrary would be true if, for example, a single hook-and-eye combination were provided for each shelf. As will be appreciated, the resistance to distortion in such a case would be offered by what is substantially a single point engagement. By providing a two point engagement as in FIGURE 1 or an elongated straight line engagement as in FIGURE 3, the resistance to distortion is considerably increased. At the same time, the unit is easily assembled because the end members 12, 14 are easily pivoted to a position to receive the clamps 42 of the shelves after the hook-and-eye assembly at the rear of the unit is completed. Thus, even though the end members, when partially assembled with the shelves, are freely pivotable to complete the assembly, there is also considerable resistance to distortion of the unit from its box-like configuration.

Referring now to FIGURES 4-9, it should be noted that the basic principle of the knockdown shelf structure of FIGURES 1-3 is retained in a structure having modular units of different size to permit flexibility in designing a shelf structure to suit different needs.

The basic components of the modular units are illustrated in FIGURES 4, and 6. Referring first to FIG- URE 4, it will be noted that a side member 82 forms one component of the modular unit. The side member 82 is similar to the side member previously described in connection with FIGURE 1, It consists of a pair of spaced apart vertical legs 84, 86 which are connected together by U-shaped wire members 88. Each wire member 88 has a pair of eyelets 90, 91 at the rear thereof.

Referring next to FIGURE 5, it will be noted that the wire back member 92 has two spaced apart downwardly direct hooks 94, 96. The hooks 94, 96 extend outwardly from each side of the back wall and are for engagement with the eyelets 90.

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Next, referring to FIGURE 6, wire shelf element 98 is illustrated. The shelf 98 has a bottom wire wall 100 and a front wire wall 102. A pair of diagonal wire elements 104, 106 are provided on the underside of the bottom wall 189. Each element 104, 106 extends from the rear edge of the shelf diagonally towards one side edge thereof and terminates at the side edge short of the front wall 102. Downwardly extending hooks 108, 110, 112, 114 are formed on the termination points of the elements 104, 106 for engagement with, respectively, the side members 82 and rear wall 92.

Referring now to FIGURE 7, the use of the component 82, 92 and 98 may be understood. The side members 82 are provided as a uniform size for all of the modular units. However, the back walls 92 and shelves 98 are provided in different widths. For example, as illustrated in FIGURE 7, the shelf 98a is twice as wide as the shelves 98b. One convenient range of sizes is to provide the back walls and shelves in three different sizes, namely 24- inch, 36 inch and 48 inch widths. This arrangement provides for 8 different arrangements in constructing a shelf structure. FIGURE 7 has an arrangement wherein 48 inch shelves are assembled in back-to-back relationship with a pair of 2 4 inch shelves.

In FIGURE 7, a plurality of vertically spaced apart shelves 98a are mounted on a pair of spaced apart side members 82. In mounting these shelves, the hooks 108a, 110a, 112a, 114a, are received on the horizontally extending U-shaped wire members 88 of the side members 82 and horizontally extending wire elements of the back members. In the present case, a pair of back members 92b are common to both the shelves 98a and 98b.

The shorter shelves 98b are mounted in vertically spaced arrangement between three spaced apart side member 82. The center side member 82 is common to both sets of shelves 98b.

The arrangement for mounting the back walls 92b is best illustrated in FIGURES 8 and 9. As will be noted, the hooks of the left back member 92b are received in the lowermost eyelets 91 of a pair of the U-shaped wire members 88 while the hooks of the righthand back member 92b are received in the uppermost eyelets 90 of the U-shaped members. This vertical staggering permits the back members to share the common central side member 82.

The adjacent side members 82 at each end of the shelf structure are locked together by virtue of the hooks 94b. 96b extending through a pair of eyelets 90, 91 as illustrated in FIGURES 8 and 9.

Use of the modular units results in considerable flexibility in constructing shelf structures and also in a cos saving. For example, referring to FIGURE 7, if three individual shelf structures has been constructed and placed together as in FIGURE 7, additional back members would have to have been provided for the longer shelves 98a and an additional side member would have had to have been provided for the shorter shelf members 9812.

Having thus described by invention, I claim:

1. A shelf structure comprising two spaced apart side members, a plurality of shelves, each shelf having an upright extending rear wall cooperating with said side members to pivotally lock the same including means providing pivotal connections between the upright extending rear walls of the shelves and said side members with the means being positioned to piv-otally lock each upwardly extending rear wall to said side members with at least two vertically spaced points of contact at each pivotal connection to provide a sturdy structure free from distortion, and means on one of the forward portions of the side members and shelves comprising laterally extending hooktype clamps, the other of said side members and shelves having cooperating wire members in engagement therewtih locking the front of said structure together by readily releasable clamping arrangements, said first and second named means being the sole means locking said side members and shelves together.

2. A shelf structure as defined in claim 1 wherein the side members are constructed of vertical legs connected at both the upper and lower ends by cross supports.

3. A shelf structure as defined in claim 1, wherein the means providing the pivotal connections are hooks carried by one of the rear upright portion of said shelves and side members, eyelets carried by the other of said side members and rear upright portion of said shelves in vertically spaced apart relation cooperating with said hooks.

4. A shelf structure as defined in claim 2, 'wherein the means providing the pivotal connections include two downwardly directed hooks which extend outwardly on each side of the rear upright wall of the shelves and U-shaped wire members extending between the vertical legs, and the U-shaped members being provided with a pair of vertically spaced apart eyelets which receive the hooks of the shelves to pivotally lock the back wall of the shelves to the side members and single hooks positioned adjacent the front wall of the shelves with one on each side thereof and the latter hooks being received on lower wires of the U-shaped wire members on the side members.

'5. A shelf structure as defined in claim 5 wherein each of the U-shaped members includes two horizontal cross wires having eyelets on each for receiving the rear shelf hooks in the uppermost eyelets and the second eyelet therebelow for receiving said latter hooks in the first eyelets below the uppermost eyelets and the other of said hooks in the lowermost eyelet.

6. A shelf support as defined in claim 2 wherein said means include two vertically spaced and downward directed hooks which extend outwardly on each side of the back of the shelves and wire members extend between the vertical legs in vertical spaced apart relation and being provided with eyelets which receive the hooks of said shelves in said eyelets to pivotally lock all the shelves and side members together.

7. A shelf structure as defined in claim 2 wherein the means providing pivotal connections include vertically spaced apart elongated tubes on said side members and the upright extending rear walls having parts extending into said elongated tubes to pivotally lock each upright extending rear wall with pivotal connections adjacent the upper and lower parts of said rear wall.

8. A shelf structure comprising a pair of spaced apart side members, a plurality of upright rear walls cooperating with said side members to pivotally lock the same together including means providing pivotal connections between the upright extending rear walls and said side members with the means being positioned to pivotally lock each upwardly extending rear wall to said side member, a single shelf for each of the rear walls, said shelves received between the side members, each of the pivotal connections of each rear wall having at least two connecting points at vertically spaced intervals to provide a structure resistant to distortion, and means on one of the forward portions of the side members and shelf comprising laterally extending hook-type clamps, the other of said side members and shelves having cooperating wire members in engagement therewith locking the front of said structure together by a readily releasable clamping arrangement supporting the shelves, the pivotal and clamping arrangements being the sole means locking said side members, rear walls and shelves together.

9. A shelf structure as claimed in claim 8, and further characterized in that said rear walls are integral with the shelves.

10. A shelf structure as defined in claim 8 and further characterized in that the shelves and rear walls are separate components, said shelves and rear walls being provided in different sizes back-to-back and side-to-side assembly of a single shelf structure with the different sized shelves and side members utilizing common rear walls.

11. A shelf structure comprising two spaced apart oppositely disposed side wall structures, each side wall structure comprising a pair of side members in abutting relationship, an upright rear Wall structure extending between the side wall structures cooperating with said side wall structures to pivotally lock the same together and to lock each pair of abutting side members together including means providing pivotal connections between the rear wall structure and said side wall structures at the locations of abutment of the side wall members, a set of vertically spaced shelves received between each pair of oppositely disposed side wall members, and readily releasable support means including readily releasable clamp means on each of the side wall members, shelves, and the rear wall structure connecting the front of said shelf structure together and supporting the shelves.

12. A shelf structure as claimed in claim 11, and further characterized in that at least one set of shelves comprises at least two abutting shelf elements, an intermediate side member between said shelf elements, readily releasable clamp means on one of said abutting shelf elements and intermediate side member locking the front of said shelves and intermediate side member together and supporting the shelves, said rear wall structure comprising at least two abutting rear Wall elements, each rear wall element matching one of the shelf elements, and locking means providing pivotal connections between said rear wall elements and the intermediate side member at the locations of abutment of the rear wall elements.

13. The shelf structure as claimed in claim 11, and further characterized in that the means providing pivotal connections between the rear wall structure and the side wall structures comprise vertically spaced loops on the side wall members at the location of abutment thereof, the loops on adjacent side wall members overlapping, and laterally extending hook-type clamps on the rear wall structure, each of said hook-type clamps being in engagement with a pair of overlapping loops to pivotally lock the side wall structures together.

14. The shelf structure as claimed in claim 13, and further characterized in the provision of a plurality of spaced apart loops on the intermediate side member at the juncture of the rear wall elements, said rear wall elements having hook-type clamps in engagement with said loops, the clamps of one rear wall element being engaged with loops above the loops engaged by the other rear Wall element.

15. The shelf structure as claimed in claim 11, and further characterized in that the readily releasable clamp means provided on the shelves, comprising a hook member located on each side of each shelf and hook means located on the rear of each shelf in engagement with, respectively, the side wall structures and the rear wall structure.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,120,511 6/1938 Risdon 211181 XR 2,309,435 1/1943 Bitney 21 1--133 2,315,595 4/1943 Chappory 211-181 XR 3,225,719 12/1965 Marschak 21l--18l XR ROY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner.

I. FRANKLIN FOSS, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R.

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