초록 ▼

A new storage and dispenser rack is provided for quasi-cylindrical containers such as bottles, wherein the ends of the containers are of different dimension but with a belly portion of the container being substantially of the same size and shape as the large end of the container. The rack is made of

A new storage and dispenser rack is provided for quasi-cylindrical containers such as bottles, wherein the ends of the containers are of different dimension but with a belly portion of the container being substantially of the same size and shape as the large end of the container. The rack is made of molded plastic parts that are constructed and designed to snap together. The rack includes a pair of upright panels that define a bay and provide thereon tiers of tracks, each for supporting one end of the quasi-cylindrical containers. A plurality of transverse spacer shafts that connect with the pair of panels operate to provide a free-standing structural grid for the rack. The spacer shafts are of an axial length selected for the size of the containers to be supported on the rack. An add-on track member is provided for support of quasi-cylindrical containers, with means provided on the underside of the track member arranged for snap-on connection with male snap-on members provided in female sockets provided on, and located intermediate the ends of, the transverse spacer shafts.

대표청구항 ▼

In a storage and dispenser rack for use in food stores and the like, for storing generally elongated, filled, cylindrical containers, and for advancing said containers by rolling or sliding to a forward selection station where a consumer is free to select a forward container, whereupon the remaining

In a storage and dispenser rack for use in food stores and the like, for storing generally elongated, filled, cylindrical containers, and for advancing said containers by rolling or sliding to a forward selection station where a consumer is free to select a forward container, whereupon the remaining containers located behind the selected container then automatically advance, by force of gravity, toward said selection station, said rack being formed by a plurality of molded upright panels, with adjacent spaced pairs of panels being interconnected by a plurality of elongated, spacer shafts whose respective ends are each constructed for axial, press-into and snap-together, fit with a complementary socket means molded integral with an upright panel, to provide a free-standing, structural grid, that provides at least one bay bounded by a pair of spaced upright panels, and at least one tier of longitudinal track pairs in each bay of the structural grid, wherein said tracks each incline downwardly from a raised track rear to a lowermost point adjacent a raised container stop that extends across the front of the track, with each track adapted to have an end edge of a container supported thereon and guided by an upright associate flange that is part of an upright panel and extends along the length of the track, with the spacing of said upright associate flanges, being slightly greater than the axial length of the container; the improvement of means for converting a bay of said free-standing structural grid to one upon which may be stored, and advanced, quasi-cylindrical containers such as capped bottles, where at least a central, belly, portion of each of the containers conforms with the shape and size of the cylindrical base of the container, and comprising in combination: the spacer shafts having an effective length between a pair of upright panels, that is commensurate with the size of bottles to be stored in said bay of the rack so that at least one of said upright associate flanges on the pair of upright panels which bound the bay will function to provide guidance for one end of the bottles; each spacer shaft having formed thereon, between the ends thereof, a transverse female-socket connector means that is bounded by a pair of spaced, oppositely facing, upright flanges provided integral with the spacer shaft, said female-socket connector means having located therein an elongated snap-onto male connector means that extends axially of the spacer shaft between said flanges of the female-socket connector means; and an elongated, add-on, track member whose upper surface is substantially of the same operative length and support shape as provided by an associated track on an upright panel of the structural grid, for providing a similar surface support as provided on said grid and so as to provide, in the bay of the grid, spaced support tracks for the base end of the container and for the belly of the container, and said add-on track member providing, on the underside thereof, a plurality of snap-connector means constructed and arranged for cooperation with at least two of the said snap-onto male connector means provided on said elongated spacer shafts of the structural grid.