Supports: racks – Special article – Recorded music type
Patent
1997-08-14
1999-02-02
Chin-Shue, Alvin
Supports: racks
Special article
Recorded music type
A47F 700
Patent
active
058653201
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND ART
This invention relates to a rack for accommodating flat articles such as floppy discs (FDs), compact discs (CDs), and video cassette tapes in a vertically or transversally aligned state.
Conventionally, there have been known racks of various types for office use or home use to accommodate a multitude of flat articles for the purpose of display and storage. A rack of such well known type is of a box type in which a frontal surface or a top surface is opened and the inside space is partitioned by shelves or partition members to accommodate articles vertically in a horizontal posture or transversally in an upright posture.
The conventional box type rack as mentioned above requires plates to cover five surfaces of a box, and a certain number of shelves or partition members as constituent elements. Accordingly, the number of parts is increased, and the area and weight for the parts is also increased, resulting in an increase of volume and weight of the rack as a whole.
Accordingly, the cost for material, production, and transportation is inevitably raised, while necessitating a large space in storage and in use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, an object of this invention is to provide a rack with a simple structure, less number of parts, reduced volume and weight as a whole, and low production cost, without the necessity of a large space.
Another object of this invention is to provide a rack capable of stably accommodating flat articles with a three-point support structure.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a rack capable of accommodating articles corresponding to the planar contour and size of the articles.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a rack capable of maximally decreasing the number of parts and assembling with ease.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above problems, the rack according to this invention has adopted the following construction.
The invention, according to one embodiment is directed to a rack for accommodating plural flat articles vertically in a horizontal posture or transversally in an upright posture. The rack comprises: at least one pair of rod members disposed in parallel with a certain distance for receiving the article therebetween; retainer means for retaining the rod members with the certain distance in parallel; and plural flange members lined up in the longitudinal direction of each rod member with a certain interval for supporting a periphery of the article to retain the article in an accommodated state.
The retainer means may be a linking plate, and a set or plural sets of three rod members may be arranged such that each end of the rod members constitutes an apex of a triangle and one rod member of the adjacent sets is common when the rack comprises the plural sets. The adjacent rod members may be linked by the linking plate at respective lengthwise ends thereof.
The linking plate may be rotatably coupled to the rod member about the longitudinal axis of the rod member.
The retainer means may be a base member and each rod member may be mounted upright on the base member.
The retainer means comprise an expandable pillar including an outer cylinder and an inner cylinder slidably fitted in the outer cylinder, the end of which is connectable to the rod member, and a fixing mechanism for fixing a relative position of the inner cylinder with respect to the outer cylinder to compressingly mount the rod member between upper and lower horizontal planes with a certain tension.
The rod member may be constructed such that a shaft is integrally formed with the plural flange members lined up in the axial direction by the certain interval along an outer circumference thereof.
The rod member may be constructed such that plural rod pieces each provided with the flange member are coupled one over another axially in such a manner that the flange members opposing to one another by the certain interval.
Each rod piece may be formed with a hollow portion, and the rod member may be constructed such that a core rod is inser
REFERENCES:
patent: 5301819 (1994-04-01), Moeken
patent: 5341943 (1994-08-01), Fraser
patent: 5358124 (1994-10-01), Mueller
patent: 5607065 (1997-03-01), Todd
patent: 5647487 (1997-07-01), Reinhard
Chin-Shue Alvin
Elecom Kabushiki Kaisha
Purol Sarah
LandOfFree
Rack does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Rack, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Rack will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1109465