Supports: racks – Special article – Paper or textile sheet type
Patent
1994-09-26
1998-01-27
Chan, Korie
Supports: racks
Special article
Paper or textile sheet type
211 89, A47F 716
Patent
active
057114307
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
THIS INVENTION relates to a hanging rail assembly. The invention is particularly concerned with the holding and releasing in clip-like manner of flexible sheet material such as paper sheets or cards, or plastic sheets or metal sheets, but it is not limited thereto, being usable also for rigid wire frames of two-dimensional form, or rigid metal plates or the like of uniform thickness or having minimal beading or flanges. All said materials, of various thicknesses, fall within the general term "sheet-like materials" which the present invention embraces.
BACKGROUND ART
Various types of hanging rail assemblies have been devised in the past for many different purposes, particularly of the type having an elongated rail from which sheets may be suspended being held alongside one another in series, the rail housing a "floating" wedge-type catch means mounted in liftable manner for permitting the receiving of the sheet-like material through a bottom longitudinal mouth of the rail, whereafter the wedge-like catch means returns gravitationally to grasp the sheet in a wedging action. The catch means is retained in a longitudinal chamber in the rail disposed between top wall means and spaced downwardly convergent front and rear walls which define the longitudinal mouth or recess for the sheet material. The wedge-like catch means may take various forms, such as a single roller as described and illustrated in Australian patent specification No. 45,978/85 of J. M. Webber. Such a construction has severe limitations in use, and for this reason it is preferable in most cases to use constructions of the type described and illustrated in U.S. specification No. 3,168,954 of P. Von Hermann which uses a longitudinal series of separate and unconnected wedging pieces so arranged that they function independently to grip various thicknesses of sheet material inserted between the wedging pieces and one wall, without disturbing the functioning of the other wedging pieces.
Notwithstanding the usefulness of some of the prior art, we have found that there remains a need for a hanging rail assembly which may engage and grip sheet-like materials as effectively as any prior proposals but at the same time will have vastly improved release capabilities as compared with earlier forms of hanging rail assemblies. The invention aims also to provide a novel form of hanging rail assembly which may be used for a single sheet-like article if so desired, or may be used for a number of articles alongside one another in series, the articles being of different thicknesses if so required and being able to be separately released without disturbing adjoining sheets. Other objects will become apparent from the concluding discussions herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention resides broadly in an elongated hanging rail assembly of the type including a rail having spaced front and rear downwardly converging substantially rigid walls defining a longitudinal recess with an open mouth at the bottom, and a plurality of wedging pieces arranged in a longitudinal series and disposed in said recess between said walls so as to grip sheet material inserted into the mouth of the recess, characterized in that the wedging pieces are interconnected loosely in series as a wedging assembly by means of longitudinal restraining means adapted to confine the wedging assembly to a predetermined maximum overall length, while the wedging piece ends which face one another, of any two adjacent wedging pieces in the series, are permitted relative movement in the releasing or disengaging direction whereby a wedging piece may be disengaged when so desired without causing other wedging pieces to be disengaged.
Preferably the hanging rail assembly is provided with manually operable release means, operable to raise selectively part or all of the wedging assembly in disengaging action. The release means may, for example, include a lifting handle at the middle of the wedging assembly or one handle at each end. On the oth
REFERENCES:
patent: 1613354 (1927-01-01), Mathes
patent: 2590297 (1952-03-01), Curtis, II
patent: 2760288 (1956-08-01), Shoenfeld
patent: 3168954 (1965-02-01), Herrmann
patent: 3298647 (1967-01-01), Shepard
patent: 3591013 (1971-07-01), Herrmann
patent: 3675782 (1972-07-01), Dudley
patent: 4629075 (1986-12-01), Hutten
Andersen Robert Geoffrey
Houston Robert Guilford
Chan Korie
Grabtrak Pty Ltd
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