Supports: cabinet structure – Show-case type – With closure
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-27
2002-10-22
Wilkens, Janet M. (Department: 3637)
Supports: cabinet structure
Show-case type
With closure
C312S140000, C016S355000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06467857
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sales counter with at least one merchandise compartment or shelf for keeping merchandise ready to be sold. The opening of the compartment located on the sales person's or service side is equipped with an actuated, plate-like closure. There is at least one component that is located along one of the longitudinal edges of the plate-like closure. The closure is engaged by at least one associated, stationary component holder located near an edge of the opening.
2. The Prior Art
Sales counters are pieces of furniture similar to cupboards or display cases, and are normally set up in sales rooms to divide it into a customer side and a service side. The customers present on the customer side can instruct the sales personnel working on the service side which merchandise is desired. The sales person then actuates a closure or door of the respective merchandise compartment in order to open it, takes out the merchandise, closes the merchandise compartment again, and subsequently packages the merchandise, hands it to the customer, and possibly also acts as the cashier.
Modern sales counters, in particular sales counters for fresh merchandise such as bread and pastries, are designed in the form of a display case, i.e. they have glass walls on the customer side in most cases, through which the merchandise displayed in the merchandise compartments can be viewed and selected by the customer.
Fresh goods require cooling in most cases. Baked goods such as pastries have to be cooled as well so that the drying-out process can be slowed down, and ornaments and coatings made of chocolate or sugar will not run or melt.
Sales counters are furniture items which are set up in the sales room more or less freely, and in which a complete cooling device is therefore installed in most cases. The cooling equipment is thus a component of the sales counter. The designated purpose of a sales counter is to receive and display merchandise, and the installations required in the sales counter for cooling purposes should require as little installation space as possible. Cooling devices for sales counters therefore do not always have the cooling capacity that would be actually required for adequately cooling the merchandise. This applies in particular to sales counters that are open on the service side. Such sales counters do offer the advantage that the merchandise can be placed in and removed from the merchandise compartments (or shelves) easily by the sales persons. However, such sales counters require high cooling capacities. open sales counters pose the additional problem that if adequate cooling capacity were available, condensation of air humidity may very quickly cause undesired icing of those areas of the sales counter that assume temperatures within near or at the frost limit because of temperature drops, which are unavoidable in the cooling process.
Furthermore, to obtain easy access to the merchandise in the individual merchandise compartments from the service side, increased operating costs are incurred for cooling.
It is known to equip the merchandise compartments of a sales counter with plate-like closures in order to be able to manage with lower cooling capacities. The merchandise compartments are in this way “bulkheaded” against the environment of the sales counter. The sales person can gain access to the desired merchandise compartment by opening the closure by hand as required before and after the merchandise has been removed.
If the time periods for keeping the merchandise compartment open are to be as short as possible, which would be useful for optimal cooling, the actuation process, i.e. the steps for opening and closing the merchandise compartment have to be carried out twice even for the same type of merchandise if it cannot be removed individually, but if a tray with individual pieces of merchandise needs to be removed from the merchandise compartment. After the closure has been actuated the first time, and the tray has subsequently been removed from the open merchandise compartment, the closure is actuated again in order to close the merchandise compartment. The sale of the merchandise from the tray can then be handled outside of the sales counter. Thereafter, the closure is then actuated a third time in order to open the merchandise compartment again, so that the tray with remaining pieces of merchandise can be pushed again into the merchandise compartment. The closure is then actuated a fourth time after the tray or the pieces of merchandise located on the tray is put back into the merchandise compartment.
These steps are repeated while the goods are sold in a retail store, for example in a bakery shop, for each piece of merchandise sold, whereby the sales person often also has to successively actuate for one customer several closures of several merchandise compartments holding different types of goods. The process of actuating the closures of the merchandise compartments therefore represents considerable part of the working hours of the sales person.
The customer expects to be serviced in the shortest possible time. It is also in the interest of the sales person to service the customer as quickly as possible so that as much merchandise as possible can be sold in the shortest possible time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a sales counter whose merchandise compartments are equipped with closures that can be actuated in order to consume as little cooling energy as possible, and where the actuation of the plate-like closures is easy, uncomplicated and therefore possible in a particularly rapid manner.
This object is accomplished in that each closure is realized in the form of a flap element, and a component of the flap element is offset by a predetermined measure against the plane of the flap, preferably toward the service side.
In conjunction with the sales counter as defined by the invention, each flap element is therefore a simple, one-piece plate element that can be folded around an axis that is defined by a stationary component holder and therefore by the component of the flap element that is actively connected with the component holder. The plate forming the flap element has a point of gravity, and because the component is a means of the folding joint that is offset against the plane of the flap, the flap element generates in predetermined folding positions a moment that folds the flap elements either into the position closing the merchandise compartment, or in a position opening the merchandise compartment. Therefore, owing to its own weight, the flap element either drops into the opening or closing position as soon as it is moved beyond a folding position conforming to a vertical plane extending through the folding axis. This component represents the function of a folding joint. Since the component is offset against the folding plane toward the service side, the flap element will preferably automatically drop in a final folding, i.e. opening or closing position as soon as the folding movement of the flap element is no longer manually influenced by the sales person.
The component acting as the means of a folding joint, with which the flap element is equipped, may be attached to or molded onto the flap element, which can be in the form of a plate. In conjunction with the sales counter as defined by the invention, the component preferably is a segment of the flap that is bent off from the plane of the flap at a predetermined angle. The angle of the bend may amount to, for example 45°, The angle is, of course, dependent upon the dimensions of the flap element or the width of the bent segment of the flap. With a wide section of the flap, an adequate offset can be obtained with a more obtuse angle as well. The greatest possible offset is obtained with a narrow, bent plate segment bent off by an angle of about 90°.
According to a particularly simple embodiment of the invention, which is useful for simple handling of the flap element as well, each component hold
Collard & Roe P.C.
Wilkens Janet M.
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