Foldable support rack

Details Foldable support rack Foldable support rack

2000-01-14

2001-08-07

Redman, Jerry (Department: 3634)

Supports: racks

Special article

Article includes elongated portion

C211S071010, C211S073000, C248S174000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06269961

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to racks for supporting articles. In particular, the rack of the present invention relates to a rack that is foldable from a generally flat orientation to a deployed, three-dimensional orientation that provides a stable base for supporting various selected articles. The invention is adaptable for providing a wide variety of foldable rack embodiments that can be easily adapted for holding various commonly found articles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Foldable racks of various types are currently available. Some of these folding racks can be made to hold a variety of articles. Foldable racks are available which are made wooden or plastic dowels as part of their framework.
The foldable support racks known have limitations in their use however, because they may be expensive or difficult to manufacture, or their design is not easily adapted to supporting a wide variety of articles to be supported. There remains a need in the art for a foldable support rack that can be manufactured economically, shipped flat to retail stores, stored flat on retail shelves, folded easily by a consumer to a position for use, and which also has a design that lends itself to making embodiments that can be used for supporting a wide variety of articles. The foldable support rack of the present invention as described herein meets these needs.
To overcome the shortcomings of known support racks, I have now designed a new support rack construction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly, a foldable support rack is disclosed here that can be readily deployed from a generally flat orientation to a three-dimensional orientation for use as a supporting rack for selected items. The disclosed foldable support rack is particularly useful for holding commonly used household items such as eating utensils. Cooking utensils such as carving knife and fork sets may also be supported by the new rack. Other kitchen items such as wine bottles may also be supported by certain embodiments of the inventive support rack. Commonly used office items may be readily supported on other embodiments of the inventive support rack. Such items include magnetic storage media disks, and optical storage media (compact disks) for computer data. Other embodiments may readily be adapted for holding pens and pencils.
The new foldable support rack can be manufactured by die cutting from a sheet of material such as polyethylene or polypropylene. Alternatively, the support article may be molded from a suitable polymer, such as a polyethylene or polyproplyene. The selection of a particular polymer, or of a particular polymer blend for manufacturing the rack is within the ability of a person of ordinary skill in the art of fabricating similar articles. The material used should be rigid enough for the rack to support the articles that are intended to be supported. Preferably, the material used for the foldable support rack is suited for forming a living hinge. This type of hinge is known in the art, and comprises a linear portion of an article, with reduced thickness and dimensioning that allows an article to be easily folded about the linear portion. The use of a living hinge for folding the foldable support rack is preferred, as this type of hinge reduces the cost of manufacturing the rack.
The new foldable support rack comprises a generally flat body member. The body member is preferably of a rectangular shape. The body member has first and second opposed major faces, and a peripheral edge. The edge comprises first and second opposed side edges. It also comprises first and second opposed ends. The body member has a plurality of tabs disposed along the ends of the peripheral edge. The body member also has a plurality of holes through the body member, these holed being sized and positioned to receive and engage the tabs. The foldable support rack also comprises four hinge portions that are transverse the body member, that is, extending from the first to the second opposed side edge. The hinge portions are spaced apart sufficiently to allow the body member to be folded from a first extended position, to a second supporting position.
The second supporting position is characterized by having the tabs received in and engaged by the body member holes, to secure the folded body member into two segments or portions, these segments or portions having triangular cross sections. The securing tabs should be engaged securely enough to keep the foldable support rack from unfolding easily when the rack is being manually handled and moved about.
An optional stacking member may also be used to engage the opposed sides of a pair of the new foldable support racks, to allow the pair of racks to be stacked one-above-the-other.
It is accordingly an aspect of the invention to provide a foldable support rack where the rack may be manufactured by a die cutting or a molding process.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide a foldable support rack that can be manufactured easily from a polymer material.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide a foldable support rack that is made with living hinges, to reduce the cost of manufacturing.
It is yet another aspect of the invention to provide a new foldable support rack that can be adapted easily to embodiments that are suited to supporting a wide variety of common household or office articles.
These aspects, and others set forth more fully below are achieved by the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is an illustration of a top plan view of a first embodiment of a foldable support rack according to the invention.
FIG. 2
is an illustration of a side elevation view of the first embodiment, showing how the rack may be folded.
FIG. 3
is an illustration of a side elevation view of the first embodiment, showing how articles may be supported.
FIG. 4
is an illustration of a top plan view of a second embodiment of a foldable support rack according to the invention.
FIG. 5
is an illustration of a top plan view of a third embodiment of a foldable support rack according to the invention, the rack having a different securing tab than in the second embodiment.
FIG. 6
is an illustration of an elevation view of securing tab of the embodiment of
FIG. 5
, with the securing tab engaged in a receiving hole.
FIG. 7
is an illustration of a side elevation view of the embodiment of
FIG. 5
, showing the folding of the rack, and articles being supported.
FIG. 8
is an illustration of a plan view of a fourth embodiment of a foldable support rack according to the invention.
FIG. 9
is an illustration of a side elevation view of the embodiment of
FIG. 8
, showing the folding of the rack, and how the rack holds articles.
FIG. 10
is an illustration of a plan view of a fifth embodiment of a foldable support rack according to the invention.
FIG. 11
shows a perspective view of the embodiment of FIG.
10
.
FIG. 12
is an illustration of the folding of the embodiment of FIG.
10
.
FIG. 13
is an illustration of a side view of the embodiment of
FIG. 10
, showing the supporting of a bottle article on the rack.
FIG. 14
is an illustration of a stacking member, that can be used for stacking two of the racks according to the embodiment of
FIG. 10
, above one another.
FIG. 15
is an illustration of the stacking member of
FIG. 14
used with the rack embodiment of FIG.
10
.


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