Land vehicles – Wheeled – Body with bracketed-type or nonsuspended axles
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-29
2001-03-20
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Body with bracketed-type or nonsuspended axles
C280S047350, C211S126100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06203035
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to wheeled platter carts or tray carrying racks for transporting commodities on trays or platters from one location to another, for example from a storage area or freezer to customer accessible shelving units of a grocery store. It is particularly concerned with a platter cart which is nestable for reducing storage area requirements when the cart is not in use.
Platter carts are generally large and have a vertical support frame with caster wheels at the lower end of the frame, and a plurality of spaced horizontal shelves of rectangular shape for supporting generally rectangular trays carrying food or the like. Such carts are normally not nestable, due to the shape of the frame and the closed rectangular periphery of the shelves, and therefore take up considerable amounts of storage space when not in use. It is difficult to design such carts to be nestable while still maintaining sufficient support for rectangular trays, and allowing the trays to be readily placed onto shelves and lifted off shelves as required. However, some nestable arrangements have been provided in prior art platter carts or tray racks. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,520, for example, a tray rack is provided with tray supports or shelves which are z-shaped to allow for nesting. This has the disadvantage that racks cannot be nested together in a straight line, but are offset to one side of the central axis of the first rack as they are successively nested together. This does not provide an optimum storage configuration, and also has structural problems.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,928,681 of Wilson, the tray carrying racks have generally U-shaped top and bottom members which are tapered to allow for nesting, and the tray supports are simply angle members for supporting the corners of trays. The tray supports are arranged to telescope together when the racks are nested together. This may give insufficient support to trays in some cases.
Another known alternative is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,528 of Young et al., in which the shelves of the platter cart may be tilted upwardly for nesting when not in use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved nestable platter cart.
According to the present invention, a platter cart is provided which comprises an upwardly extending support frame having a lower end, a plurality of wheels secured at the lower end of the support frame, an upper end, an open rear end, a forward end, and spaced sides, and central axis aligned with the direction of travel of the cart, a plurality of spaced horizontal shelves secured between the opposite sides of the frame, the sides of the frame being tapered outwardly from the front to the rear of the frame, and each shelf comprising a bar extending between the sides of the frame and formed into a serpentine configuration including at least a portion of generally W-shape, the serpentine configuration having a central axis of symmetry aligned with the central axis of the frame from the rear to the front end of the cart.
Each segment of the serpentine bar forming each shelf is outwardly tapered from the front to the rear end of the cart, so that the open rear end, tapered shelf segments and sides of the frame allow carts to be nested together in alignment for storage purposes. The wider rear end of the cart also allows store clerks to access the shelves more readily to place trays onto the shelves or remove trays from the shelves by lowering or lifting the tray, rather than sliding the tray in and out as in the past, which can be unstable if the tray and supported food items are relatively heavy.
Preferably, the upper end of the frame projects forwardly from the forward ends of the shelves, so that when the cart is pushed through swing doors, the frame will contact the door before any tray reaches the door, reducing the risk of trays accidentally becoming dislodged. The shelves may include two generally V-shaped sections connected at the center of the shelf to form an overall W-shape, or may have three or more V-shaped sections to provide added support beneath each tray. Tray stops may be provided at the opposite sides of each shelf, to prevent movement of the tray on the shelf during transportation.
The platter cart of this invention is readily nestable to form a straight line array of nested carts. Individual carts may be readily loaded and unloaded with trays of food or other items, and the trays will be held securely during transportation from a storage space to the inside of a store for loading freezer or other display shelves.
REFERENCES:
patent: D. 161183 (1950-12-01), Irwin
patent: 2928681 (1960-03-01), Wilson
patent: 2982422 (1961-05-01), Asproyerakas
patent: 2992010 (1961-07-01), Sides
patent: 3232442 (1966-02-01), Wilson
patent: 3272528 (1966-09-01), Young et al.
patent: 3527360 (1970-09-01), Thielking
patent: 3920258 (1975-11-01), Lundstrom et al.
patent: 4004819 (1977-01-01), Brongo
patent: 4627542 (1986-12-01), Fredrickson
patent: 4911308 (1990-03-01), Nylund
patent: 5125520 (1992-06-01), Kawasaki
patent: 5330060 (1994-07-01), Bohner
patent: 5538145 (1996-07-01), Held
Brown Martin Haller & McClain LLP
Ellis Christopher P.
Sharma Rashmi
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