Keeper For Pegboard Hardware

Abstract

A keeper having supporting peg elements to fit pegboards of different thicknesses and having peg-receiving openings of different diameters.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Pegboards and pegboard hardware for supporting tools or merchandise of different varieties are well-known, pegboards being manufactured in various thicknesses and having peg-receiving openings of different diameters. The more common pegboard for household use is approximately one-eighth of an inch in thickness, having peg-receiving openings therein, these openings having a diameter of substantially three-sixteenths of an inch for freely receiving relatively light mounting peg elements having a diameter of substantially one-eight of an inch. For merchandise display purposes and for supporting heavier tools, equipment or merchandise, pegboards having a thickness of approximately one-quarter of an inch are used, these having openings therethrough that are approximately nine-thirty-seconds of an inch in diameter to receive hardware including relatively heavier supporting pegs. Still other pegboards, made from sheet metal, are known, these having substantially less thickness than the usual pegboards made from fiber board or the like. The sheet metal pegboards may be supplied with either the larger or smaller openings to fit lighter or heavier hardware as desired. Obviously, the heavier weight hardware, designed for the larger openings, does not fit the smaller openings in a lighter weight pegboard. If it is desired to use the less expensive hardware designed for lighter weight board or sheet metal board in a pegboard having the larger sized openings designed for heavier hardware, the lighter weight hardware fits so loosely therein as to be exceedingly unstable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An important object of this invention is the provision of pegboard hardware or a keeper for the same, having mounting peg elements that will securely support the pegboard hardware on pegboards of different thicknesses and having peg-receiving openings of different diameters. To this end, I provide a keeper including a body having a rear portion for engagement with the front surface of a pegboard, and pair of laterally spaced peg elements for reception in pegboard openings, peg elements having generally lower horizontal end portions extending rearwardly with respect to the body, angular intermediate portions, and generally vertical upper end portions. The lower end portions have longitudinally flat top edge surfaces disposed in a common generally horizontal plane, and are of a size including a given generally vertical dimension to enable the same to be received in pegboard openings of a given diameter. The intermediate portions have angularly forwardly and upwardly facing edge surfaces in a common plane, and the upper end portions have forwardly facing edge surfaces joining the angular edge surfaces of their respective peg elements. The top edge surfaces join their respective angular edge surfaces at points rearwardly spaced from the rear keeper portion a distance substantially equal to the vertical dimension of the lower end portion, and the angular edge surfaces join the front surfaces of their respective upper end portions at points spaced above the plane of said top edge surfaces a distance not greater than the above mentioned vertical dimension. The forwardly facing edge surfaces are spaced rearwardly of the rear keeper portion a distance substantially twice the above-mentioned vertical dimension. The lower end portions of the peg element are preferably formed to provide downwardly opening notches adjacent the rear keeper portion for reception of portions of metallic pegboards adjacent the peg-receiving openings thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a piece of pegboard hardware including the keeper of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view in front elevation of a pegboard showing the hardware of FIG. 1 mounted thereon;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section taken substantially on the line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view corresponding to FIG. 3 but showing the mounting of the pegboard hardware on a pegboard of less thickness than that of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a view corresponding to FIGS. 3 and 4 but showing the hardware of FIG. 1 being mounted on a relatively thin sheet metal pegboard;

FIG. 6 is a view in rear elevation, as seen from the line 6--6 of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken substantially on the line 7--7 of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIGS. 2-6, conventional pegboards 1, 2 and 3 are fragmentarily shown, the pegboard 1 being relatively thick, the board 2 being of intermediate thickness, and the board 3 being relatively thin. The boards 1 and 2 are usually made from wood or wood fibers, the board 3 being of sheet metal. The pegboard 1 is of the heavy duty variety and has a thickness of substantially one-quarter inch, being drilled or bored to provide a plurality of equidistantly spaced transverse openings 4 therethrough from the front wall surface 5 to the rear wall surface 6. Usually, the openings 4 have a diameter of approximately nine thirty-seconds of an inch to receive the mounting pegs of heavy duty pegboard hardware usually used in connection with the board 1. The board 2 is similar to the board 1, having front and rear wall surfaces 7 and 8 respectively and a plurality of equidistantly spaced openings 9 extending transversely through the board 2. The standard thickness of the pegboard 2 is one-eighth of an inch, the diameter of the holes 9 being approximately three-sixteenths of an inch. The thickness of the metal pegboard 3 varies and may be anywhere between 0.030 and 0.060 inches, the panel 3 having equidistantly spaced openings 10 therethrough extending transversely from the front wall surface 11 to the rear wall surface 12 of the pegboard 3.

The keeper of this invention comprises a plate-like body 13 having generally flat front and rear surfaces 14 and 15 respectively, and a pair of laterally spaced peg elements 16. The body 13 is adapted to have welded or otherwise rigidly secured to the front surface 14 thereof an article holding element of any desired configuration. One such article holding element is shown as being in the nature of an elongated hook-like hanger bar 17 welded at one end to the keeper body surface 14, as indicated at 18 and extending forwardly therefrom. The opposite end of the bar 17 being upturned, as indicated at 19.

Each of the peg elements 16 includes a lower end portion 20, an intermediate portion 21 and an upper end portion 22. Each lower end portion 20 is integrally formed with an opposite side edge of the body 13 and is bent to extend rearwardly with respect to the rear surface 15 of the keeper body 13. Adjacent the body 13, the lower end portion 20 of each peg element 16 is formed to provide a downwardly opening notch 23, and each lower end portion is provided with a longitudinally flat horizontal upper edge surface 24 preferably coplanar with the upper edge 25 of the keeper body 13. With reference to FIG. 3, it will be seen that each lower end portion 20 has a maximum vertical dimension A, this dimension being only slightly less than the diameter of the openings 9 and 10 in their respective pegboards 2 and 3. The lateral thickness of the body 13 and peg elements 16 may be assumed to be somewhat less than the vertical dimension A. The intermediate portion 21 of each peg element 16 has a longitudinally extending edge surface 26 which faces angularly forwardly and upwardly, the edge surfaces 26 being disposed in a common plane. Each intermediate edge surface 26 joins its respective upper edge surface 24 at a point rearwardly spaced from the rear surface 15 of the body 13 a distance indicated at B in FIG. 7, and substantially equal to the vertical dimension A. The edge surfaces 24 and 26 of each peg element 16 join to form a corner 27. The upper end portions 22 of the peg elements 26 extend generally vertically from the intermediate portions 21 and have front edge surfaces 28 disposed in a common vertical plane, and adapted to engage the rear wall 6 of the relatively thick pegboard 1, as shown in FIG. 3. For this purpose, the edge surfaces 28 are disposed rearwardly of the rear wall surface 15 a distance equal to substantially twice the dimension A or B, as indicated by the dimension 2A in FIG. 7. Each edge surface 28 joins its respective intermediate edge surface 26 to define a corner 29 that is upwardly spaced from the level of its respective upper edge surface 24 a distance not greater than the dimension A. It will be appreciated that the dimension A represents the greatest width of each peg element 16 throughout its length.

With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, it will be seen that, when the keeper body 13 is applied to the heavier or relatively thicker board 1 having the larger openings 4 therethrough, the rear surface 15 of the body 13 lies flat against the front surface 5 of the pegboard 1 while the edge surfaces 28 engage the rear surface 6 of the pegboard 1, thus holding the keeper body 13 flat against the front surface 5. When the keeper body 13 is applied to the relatively thinner pegboard 2, with the rear surface 15 of the body 13 lying flat against the front surface 7 of the pegboard 2, the rear surface 8 of the pegboard 2 at the openings 9 in which the peg elements 16 are received, engage the corners 27 to securely hold the keeper body 13 against the front surface 7 of the pegboard 2. When the keeper body 13 is applied to the metallic pegboard 3, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the portions of the pegboard 3 immediately below the openings 10 occupied by the elements 16 are received into the notches 23 to hold the rear surface 15 substantially against the front surface 11 of the pegboard 3.

From the above, it will be seen that the keeper of this invention may be applied to pegboards of the thicknesses and hole sizes most commonly used at the present time; and that the configuration and arrangement of the peg elements and keeper body assures a well-fitting and stable mounting of the pegboard hardware on the different pegboards in common use.

This invention has been thoroughly tested and found to be completely satisfactory for the accomplishment of the objectives set forth; and, while I have shown and described a commercial embodiment of keeper for pegboard hardware, it will be understood that the same is capable of modification without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A keeper for pegboard hardware comprising; a body having a rear portion for engagement with the front surface of a generally vertically disposed pegboard having laterally spaced peg-receiving openings therethrough; and a pair of laterally spaced peg elements each disposed to be received in a different one of said pegboard openings; said peg elements including lower end portions projecting rearwardly with respect to said body, intermediate portions inclined upwardly and rearwardly from said lower end portions, and upper end portions projecting upwardly from said intermediate portions; said lower end portions having longitudinally generally flat top edge surfaces aligned in a common generally horizontal plane; said intermediate portions having upwardly and forwardly facing edge surfaces disposed in a common plane; said upper end portions having front edge surfaces disposed in a common generally vertical plane; said lower end portions having a common predetermined vertical dimension; said top edge surfaces joining said edge surfaces of their respective intermediate portions at points rearwardly spaced from said rear body portion a distance substantially equal to said vertical dimension, said edge surfaces of the intermediate portions joining the front edge surfaces of their respective upper end portions at points spaced above said top edge surfaces a distance not greater than said vertical dimension said front edge surfaces being rearwardly spaced from said rear portion of the body a distance substantially equal to twice said vertical dimension.

2. The keeper defined in claim 1 in which said body comprises a generally flat plate-like member, said rear portion of the body comprising a flat rear surface of said plate-like member for face-to-face engagement with the front surface of said pegboard.

3. The keeper defined in claim 2, in which said plate-like member has a top edge and opposite side edges, said peg elements being integral with said body and bent to project rearwardly from said side edges adjacent said top edges of the body.

4. A keeper for pegboard hardware, said keeper comprising a normally generally vertically disposed body for engagement with the front surface of a pegboard having at least a pair of laterally spaced openings extending transversely therethrough; and a pair of laterally spaced peg elements disposed to be received in a different one of said pegboard openings; said peg elements including, lower end portions projecting generally rearwardly with respect to said body, intermediate portions inclined upwardly and rearwardly from said lower end portions, and upper end portions normally projecting generally vertically upwardly from said intermediate portions; said keeper defining a pair of downwardly opening notches one in each of said lower end peg portions adjacent said body.

5. The keeper defined in claim 4 in which said body comprises a generally flat rear surface for face-to-face engagement with the front surface of the pegboard.

6. The keeper defined in claim 5 in which said body comprises a generally flat plate-like member having a top edge and opposite side edges, said peg elements being integral with said body and bent to project rearwardly from said side edges adjacent said top edge of the body.

7. The keeper defined in claim 5 in which said lower end peg portions have longitudinally generally flat top edge surfaces disposed in a common generally horizontal plane, said intermediate portions having upwardly and forwardly facing edge surfaces disposed in a common plane, said upper end portions having front edge surfaces disposed in a common generally vertical plane, said lower end portions having a common predetermined vertical dimension, said top edge surfaces joining said edge surfaces of their respective intermediate portions at points rearwardly spaced from said rear body surface a distance substantially equal to said vertical dimension, said edge surfaces of the intermediate portions joining the front edge surfaces of their respective upper end portions at points spaced above said top edge surfaces a distance not greater than said vertical dimension, said front edge surfaces being rearwardly spaced from said rear body surface a distance substantially equal to twice said vertical dimension.