Supports – Brackets – Shelf or scaffold type
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-12
2001-09-25
King, Anita (Department: 3632)
Supports
Brackets
Shelf or scaffold type
C248S220430, C211S187000, C211S183000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293507
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to shelf hanging clips, and more particularly, to shelf hanging clips for mounting shelves on vertical columns of storage rack systems.
Storage rack systems are designed to provide for the storage of items either on storage pallets placed on the racks, or on one of a variety of types of shelves mounted between vertical columns of the storage racks. When items are to be stored on shelves, many types of mechanisms are used to hang the shelves between the vertical columns of the racks. Some of these shelf hanging mechanisms are fastened to the vertical columns through the use of nuts and bolts installed through shelf adjustment holes on the sides of the columns. While nuts and bolts work well as fasteners, they are inconvenient to install and lengthen the time required for installation for shelves while nuts are being tightened onto the bolts.
Numerous types of single case shelf hanging clips and brackets had been devised which have hooks or tabs to connect to vertical rack columns, rather than use nuts and bolts to do so. These hooks or tabs on the shelf hanging clips typically fit into adjacent shelf adjustment holes in the vertical columns to latch onto the columns and support shelves on which items are to be stored. Typical shelf hanging clips and brackets of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,180,003 Clement, 4,348,001 Baldwin, and Des. 392,551 Brady, et al.
One use of these shelf hanging clips and brackets is to support inclined gravity flow shelves which are installed on storage racks to be used for an order picking system. The inclined shelves often include tracks of rollers which enable cartons being stored to flow to the lower ends of the shelves as other cartons are removed.
Typically, shelf adjustment holes in vertical rack columns are spaced two or three inches apart. It is often desirable to give the shelf installers the option to make adjustments of less than two inches in the height of an end of shelves to adjust the angle of incline of inclined shelves being installed. Using vertical columns having shelf adjustment holes with two-inch spacing by way of illustration, shelf installers may need the flexibility of mounting shelves even with the shelf adjusting holes or one-half inch, one inch or one and one-half inches above these holes.
Shelf hanging mechanisms using nuts and bolts can make these adjustments by having a series of holes at various heights in them through which bolts can be inserted. The height at which a shelf or one end of a shelf is installed can be adjusted by changing the holes into which installation bolts are inserted in the shelf hanging mechanisms. Shelf hanging clips and brackets not using nuts and bolts to attach to rack columns normally cannot make small adjustments in the position at which they are mounted.
A universal hanger bracket shown in U.S. Pat. Des. 392,551 Brady, et al partially solves the need for a clip or bracket having flexibility in adjusting the incline of inclined shelves. A hanger bracket
20
depicted in the Brady, et al patent is show n in FIG.
1
. The hanger bracket
20
is U-shaped so that it is made up of three rectangular metallic plate sections consisting of end section
22
, middle section
24
, and end section
26
. Each of these rectangular sections
22
,
24
, and
26
is joined to an adjacent rectangular section at a corner due to the bending of the plate during the manufacture of the U-shaped hanger bracket
20
. Thus, the rectangular section
22
is connected through the corner
28
to the rectangular section
24
. The rectangular
24
, itself, is connected through a corner
30
to the rectangular section
26
.
Each of the rectangular sections
22
and
26
has a pair of tabs punched out of the plate which makes up these sections so as to extend through the outside surface of the U-shaped hanger bracket
20
. Thus, tabs
32
and
34
extend from an outside surface
35
of the rectangular section
22
, and tabs
36
and
38
extend from an outside surface
39
, only an edge of which is shown in
FIG. 1
, of the rectangular section
26
of the U-shaped hanger bracket
20
. Each of the tabs is hook-like in shape, with the ends of tabs
32
and
34
and the ends of the tabs
36
and
38
all extending in one vertically downward direction, as shown in FIG.
1
. The rectangular section
24
has a notch
40
shown in
FIG. 1
, its upper end which is proximate to tabs
32
and
36
. The purpose of the notch
40
is to receive and retain the bottom of one side of a shelf being supported by the hanger bracket
20
on bottom surface
42
of the notch
40
.
As explained above, the set of tabs
32
and
34
and the set of tabs
36
and
38
are designed to fit into vertically adjacent holes in a vertical rack column to latch the U-shaped hanger bracket
20
onto the column to enable it to support a shelf. Each of the tabs has a bearing surface, which is the flat, upper portion of the underside of the hook-like structure of the tab. The bearing surface contacts the bottom of a shelf adjustment hole into which the tab is inserted. Thus, tab
32
has a bearing surface
44
, tab
34
has a bearing surface
46
, tab
36
has a bearing surface
48
, and tab
38
has a bearing surface
50
. The tabs
32
and
34
are spaced apart at a distance equal to the distance between the adjacent shelf adjustment holes in the vertical rack columns, as are the tabs
36
and
38
. The tabs
32
,
34
,
36
and
38
all have a size which enables them to fit through the shelf adjustment holes and around the steel plate out of which the columns are manufactured. As a result the bearing surfaces
44
and
46
contact the bottom of shelf adjustment holes when the tabs
34
and
36
, respectively, are inserted into the holes, and the bearing surfaces
48
and
50
contact the bottom of shelf adjustment holes when the tabs
36
and
38
, respectively, are inserted into the holes.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, the bearing surface
44
of the tab
32
is at about the same height on rectangular section
22
as the bottom surface
42
is on rectangular section
24
. The bearing surface
46
of the tab
34
is, thus, a distance below the bottom surface
42
equal to the distance between adjacent shelf adjustment holes in the vertical column in which the hangar bracket
20
is to be mounted. As a result, when the tabs
32
and
34
are used to latch the hanger bracket
20
onto a vertical rack column, the bottom surface
42
of the notch
40
, which supports a shelf, is at the height of the shelf adjustment hole through which the tab
32
extends. The tab
34
assists in supporting the hanger bracket by latching onto a shelf adjustment hole below the hole through which the tab
32
extends.
The bearing surface
48
of the tab
36
, on the other hand, is a preselected distance below the bottom surface
42
of the notch
40
. Thus, the bearing surface
50
of the tab
38
is below the bottom surface
42
of the notch
40
by a distance equal to the preselected distance, plus the distance between the shelf adjustment holes into which the tabs
36
and
38
are to be inserted. For this reason, when the tabs
36
and
38
are used to latch the hanger bracket
20
onto a vertical column of a rack system, the bottom surface
42
is the preselected distance above the shelf adjustment hole in which tab
36
is mounted.
As a result of the structure described above, the U-shaped hanger bracket
20
can hold a shelf within the notch
40
at either of two levels: At the level of the shelf adjustment hole in which the tab
32
is mounted, or at a predetermined level above that hole when the tab
36
is mounted in it. While the U-shaped hanger bracket
20
provides two heights at which shelves can be mounted within a particular shelf adjustment hole, there are shelf installations when additional adjustments are needed. Prior to this invention the only way to obtain additional height adjustments was to provide shelf installers with separate hanger brackets having tabs set at different distances from the bottom surface o
Baxter Gwendolyn
Goebel, Jr. Edward W.
King Anita
MacDonald Illig Jones & Britton LLP
Ridg-U-Rak, Inc.
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