U.S. patent number 3,589,525 [Application Number 04/805,468] was granted by the patent office on 1971-06-29 for glass case storage rack.
Invention is credited to Byron W. Allen.
United States Patent |
3,589,525 |
Allen |
June 29, 1971 |
GLASS CASE STORAGE RACK
Abstract
One or more (preferably two) floor-supported post-mounting
stringers, each comprising parallel, conventional structural steel
confronting channels, rigidly united by spanner plates welded at
their ends to the lower channel webs in abutting relation
therewith. Tubular posts have footings on their lower ends which
are insertable downwardly between the channels of a stringer and
rotatable into locking engagement with the stringer at any desired
lengthwise location on the latter. Posts are thus conveniently
spaced along each stringer to form rack bins between the posts for
holding, on edge, any desirable number of flat cases of heavy
material, such as plat glass, and the like.
Inventors: |
Allen; Byron W. (San
Bernardino, CA) |
Family
ID: |
25191643 |
Appl.
No.: |
04/805,468 |
Filed: |
March 10, 1969 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
211/162; 403/353;
52/64; 211/184; 52/710; 403/348 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65G
49/062 (20130101); Y10T 403/7005 (20150115); Y10T
403/7015 (20150115) |
Current International
Class: |
B65G
49/06 (20060101); B65G 49/05 (20060101); A47f
005/00 (); E04b 001/38 (); F16b 009/02 () |
Field of
Search: |
;211/162,184,46,45,50,51
;312/205 ;52/710,64 ;85/1H ;151/41.76 ;287/20
;248/44,38,158,188.9,188.8 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Britts; Ramon S.
Claims
I claim:
1. In an expansible storage rack for supporting above the floor
large flat cases of heavy material such as plate glass, the
combination of:
plural stringer means, resting, when in use directly on a flat
floor, each stringer thereof including a pair of conventional
parallel steel channels each of which has a vertical middle web and
upper and lower horizontal webs, said channels being held in spaced
confrontation by flat transverse spanner plates, spaced
longitudinally of the stringer, with the plate ends secured to the
lower horizontal channel webs, and
post means, each post of which has a footing on end end which is
longer than its width, said width permitting said footing to be
inserted downwardly between said channels, the depth of said
footing being such as to permit the same to be extended laterally
into both channels to snugly fit the vertical spaces between said
horizontal webs by rotating said post to lock said footing in
position in said stringer and hold said post rigidly upright.
2. An expansible storage rack as recited in claim 1 wherein said
spanner plates lie in the same plane with said lower channel webs
and in abutting relation therewith and are welded to said webs
whereby each channel can rest throughout its length directly on the
floor and support said heavy cases spaced upwardly above the floor,
and a post footing is free to be adjusted lengthwise anywhere in a
stringer including areas in which spanner plates are located.
3. An expansible storage rack as recited in claim 1 wherein
each post comprises a steel tube and
each footing comprises a steel bottom plate welded to said tube and
reinforcing skirts welded to opposite end edge portions of said
bottom plate and extending downward therefrom to give said footing
a depth to fit snugly within said channels,
two diagonally opposed corners of said footing being rounded to
facilitate the footing being rotated crosswise in a stringer,
the opposite diagonal corners providing stops against continuing
said rotation past said crosswise position.
4. An expansible storage rack as recited in claim 3 wherein
the bottom plate is centrally apertured to allow a short lower end
portion of the tube to extend therethrough after which said tube is
welded to said plate; and
a metal reinforcing strap underlying the bottom end of said tube
and welded thereto, opposite ends of said strap extending to and
being welded to said skirts.
Description
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The principal object is to provide a flat case storage rack which
will comprise an inexpensive but durable means for supporting the
stored material, packaged in wooden or fiberboard cases, upwardly
away from the moisture of the floor, and, at the same time, include
posts for holding the cases upright on edge, said posts being
readily adjustable to expand or contract the size of individual
rack bins to fit changing storage needs.
Another object is to provide such a rack including stringers which
rest directly on the floor and provide support for the racked
material to hold it upwardly off the floor and a plurality of posts
having footings at one end by which the posts may be assembled in
interlocking relation with the stringers at various points along
the stringer, said post being readily unlocked from connection with
said stringers for crating and shipping in parallel relation
therewith.
Yet another object is to provide such a storage rack in which the
stringers are made up of a pair of confronting steel channels
united in parallel spaced relation by spanner plates, the ends of
which abut the inner edges of lower webs of said channels and are
welded thereto, and in which the footings provided on lower ends of
said posts are longer than they are wide and are insertable
downwardly between said channels and rotatable to extend said
footings in opposite directions into said channels to lock the post
on the stringer.
Still another object is to provide such a storage rack which will
facilitate use of a forklift truck to deliver cases on edge to said
rack or transfer such cases from one rack to another or to a truck
for shipment .
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a preferred embodiment
of the invention including two floor-supported stringers in which a
number of vertical posts have been mounted to form a glass case
storage rack.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the posts of the
rack of the invention and gives a three-quarter bottom view of the
preferred form of footing provided on said post.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged horizontal detailed sectional view taken on
the line 3-3 of FIG. 1 and shows one of the posts of the invention
rotated 90.degree. to bring the footing thereof into interlocking
relation with the channels of one of the case supporting floor
stringers of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 and shows said footing rotated
90.degree. from the position in which it is shown in FIG. 3 to a
position in which the footing is parallel with the channels of said
stringer and, in view of the width of the footing being less than
the spacing of said channels, said footing is thus free to be
withdrawn upwardly from said stringer.
FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 3
and illustrates the manner in which the post footing interlocks
with the channels of a floor stringer when turned transversely
therein as shown in FIG. 3.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring specifically to the drawings, the invention is seen to
comprise a glass case storage rack 10 which includes at least one
but preferably two or more floor stringers 11, each of which
stringers is preferably equipped with two or more posts 12. Each
stringer 11 includes a pair of sheet steel channels 13 which are
assembled in opposed confronting parallel spaced relation by metal
spanner plates 14, opposite ends of which abut against inner edges
of lower webs 15 in said channels and are welded thereto to rigidly
unite said channels in this relationship. The floor stringers 11
lie directly on the floor 16 and the bottom faces of channels 13
and spanner plates 14 all flatly contact the floor in face-to-face
relation therewith. The thickness of spanner plates 14 is
approximately equal to the thickness of the webs 15 of the channels
13, the reason for this fact being made clear hereinafter.
Each of the posts 12 preferably comprises a thin walled steel tube
17 which is united at its lower end with a footing 18. This footing
preferably comprises a flat steel plate 19 which is rectangular in
shape and is centrally apertured to let the lower end of tube 17
extend a short distance downwardly therethrough, after which plate
19 is welded to the tube 17 with the axis of this tube and the
center of said plate in coincidence. One pair of diagonally
opposite corners 20 in said plate are allowed to retain the form of
a right angle while the material of the plate 19 at the other
diagonally opposite corner portions thereof is cut away to give
these corner portions the shape of arcs 21 generated about centers
22, 23 located on the longitudinal centerline of plate 19 close to
the tube 17. Underlying plate 19 and welded thereto to conform to
and extend downwardly from end edges of said plate are steel skirts
25. The bottom end of tube 17 is connected by a reinforcing strap
30 with skirts 25 as by welding so as to rigidify the footing
18.
The width of footing 18 is slightly less than the distance which
the channels 13 are spaced apart in the floor stringers 11 and this
permits footing 18 to be lowered between said channels as shown in
FIG. 4 when it is aligned lengthwise with said stringer. Each
footing 18 has a length which is slightly less than the distance
which the vertical walls of channels 13 are spaced apart. Due to
the rounding of two diagonally opposed corner portions of the
footing 18, the footing is adapted to be readily rotated 90.degree.
clockwise from the position in which it is shown in FIG. 4 to
extend said footing exactly crosswise of the floor stringer and
insert end portions of the footing into the respective channels 13
of the stringer so as to fit snugly between the upper and lower
horizontal flanges of said channels and thus effectively mount post
12 on that stringer. The diagonally opposite rectangular corners 20
of the footing 18 are thus brought into contact with the vertical
walls of the channels 13 so as to prevent further clockwise
rotation of the footing in this stringer.
If it is desired to lubricate the inner surfaces of the channels 13
a footing 18 may be readily slid along inside a floor stringer 11
on which it is mounted to make adjustments in the position of a
post 12 to change the sizes of the storage bins into which said
rack is divided by said posts. By virtue of the fact that spanner
plates 14 lie in the same plane with the lower webs 15 of channels
13, these plates do not interfere with footings 18 being so shifted
over and past any of these spanner plates in relocating the posts
12 on the stringers 11.
Should it be desired to maintain a relatively tight frictional
contact between the footing 18 and the stringers 11, this can
readily be done by omitting to use a lubricant between the footings
and the stringers and just apply the necessary force, as by
application of a hammer, when this is needed to shift the footings
in the stringers. Whenever it is necessary to disassemble the rack
10 of the invention, this can be readily accomplished merely by
rotating each of the posts 12 counterclockwise a quarter turn and
lifting the footing 18 of that post from between the channels 13 of
stringer with which said post has been associated.
The ease with which a post 12 can thus be disassociated from the
floor stringers 11 of the invention renders packaging or crating
the rack 10 for shipment a very simple matter as the posts are
merely removed from the stringers and laid lengthwise with the
latter so as to form a relatively compact package.
The ease with which the post 12 may be relocated in the rack 10
makes it possible to always keep the individual sections into which
the rack is divided snugged up so that the cases of plate glass,
such as are illustrated in FIG. 1, will always be held vertically
on edge while resting on the floor stringers 11. In this view,
three pairs of posts 12 are used to divide the storage space of the
rack into two separate bins. The longitudinal spaces on the rack
occupied by these pair of posts and these storage sections are
shown by the brackets in the upper right-hand corner of FIG. 1. The
first pair of posts is there indicated by the numeral 12a; the
first three glass cases are identified as C1, C2, and C3. The next
pair of posts is indicated as 12b. The next two glass cases shown
on the rack are identified as C4 and C5. The final pair of posts 12
at the back end of the rack are identified as 12c. This view is
believed to clearly illustrate how flexible the invention is in
adapting itself to providing storage bins of any desired size for
storing relatively large flat packing cases such as those used for
packing plate glass. While this is the immediate object of the
present invention it is to be understood that it is adapted for use
in a wide variety of storage fields where transversely adjustable
posts are required for maintaining flat cases containing heavy
materials stacked on edge and with the case in approximately
vertical position.
Other advantages in the present invention reside in the broad base
afforded by the floor stringers 11 for supporting the cased
material not only with the cases in vertical position but with the
lower edge of the case spaced upward above the floor and thus out
of any moisture developing on the latter short of flood
proportions. The invention also facilitates the leading posts 12
being readily dismounted from the floor stringers 11 to permit
broadside removal of cases from storage by lifting the same on a
forklift truck, after which the outside posts 12 can be readily
replaced to support the balance of the cases left in storage.
Another substantial advantage resides in the fact that the entire
rack of the present invention is free from the floor itself and it
is possible to shift the entire rack from place to the floor so as
to serve efficient use of the floor for storage purposes.
* * * * *