Shelving structure

The invention refers to the shelving structures, essentially made of sheet metal, for displaying merchandise in sales areas, which according to the known art are mainly designed as illustrated schematically in plan view in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings, in the case where these structures are equipped for displaying merchandise on both the opposite sides. These structures comprise uprights 1 with a polygonal - usually rectangular - cross section, oriented with the larger side perpendicular to the visible front faces of the shelving and provided on their opposite front faces with vertical rows of equidistant slots 2 with which the end brackets 3 of the merchandise support surfaces 4 may be engaged in a projecting manner and to which slots the end hooks 105 of modular sheet-metal panels 5 are also fastened, said panels being arranged edgewise and forming the so-called back walls, namely the closing walls against which the merchandise placed on the surfaces may rest and which physically and aesthetically separate the opposite display sides of an intermediate or double-sided shelving, dividing the products displayed on one side from those displayed on the opposite side of the said shelving. The back walls 5, as designed in the known art, protrude slightly with respect to the visible front face of the uprights 1 or in certain cases are substantially coplanar with this front face when the latter has a flattened omega-shaped profile so as to have along the sides rows of slots slightly set back with respect to the other front slots and especially designed for supporting the back panels.

At present, a large space S present between the facing back walls 5 of each intermediate shelving, equivalent to about 5-10% of the surface area of each display surface, remains unused.

Document GB 798 106 A discloses a shelving structure in which the display surfaces have an extension to increase the loading capacity and a back panel is set back as far as possible from the front face; the back panel is not equipped with hooks.

Document GB 692 049 A discloses a fastening device for wall panels. Said device comprises uprights and panels being brought in between two uprights with the help of hooks. The panels extend on the front side of said uprights.

The invention intends solving the following technical problem: recovering, for the purposes of display of the merchandise, the largest possible part of said dead space S which is present between the facing back walls of the shelving, by arranging the said back walls so that they are set back with respect to the front face of the uprights and by designing the display surfaces so that they have a part which fits between the uprights, which is arranged adjacent to the back walls in the new set-back position and which proportionally increases the loading capacity of the said display surfaces. The invention intends solving the aforementioned problem with a solution which can be implemented on an industrial scale, is reliable and can be easily assembled, said solution not being able to be achieved using the current practice which envisages engagement of the back walls with the front slots of the uprights, since the back walls would have at the ends engaging lugs which are excessively long, flexible and therefore easily deformable during storage and transportation of the articles which form the shelving. These and other problems have been solved with the following main proposed solution. The uprights of the shelving in question are usually equipped, also along the sides, with slots which are currently used for purposes other than those in question. The idea has occurred that these slots could be formed and arranged so that they can be used, as well as for conventional purposes, also for engaging in the middle of the sides of the shelving uprights, serrated profiled parts with a U-shaped cross section or with a cross section which is related thereto, of limited depth, having rows of recesses or slots which are directed towards the opposite front faces of the shelving and to which the short end hooks of the back panels may be fastened so that said panels may be positioned, during installation, set back with respect to the front end face of the uprights and may be housed entirely between the said uprights, allowing a proportional increase in the active surface area of the display surfaces. According to a constructional variation, the said grooved and serrated structures have a cross section such that they have only one row of slots so that a single back structure can be fastened thereto, said structure being arranged substantially along the middle of the uprights and being designed with a double-sided form so that it can be used as a partition for both the opposite display surfaces, with total recovery of the space S which is unused in the known art (Fig. 1). Associated with the main abovementioned solution is the idea of a secondary solution which envisages forming the said grooved and serrated structures as one piece with the sides of the uprights, by means of suitable profiling of the said uprights during the manufacturing stage.

Further characteristic features of the invention, and the advantages arising therefrom, will emerge more clearty from the following description provided with reference to the figures of the accompanying illustrative sheets in which, in addition to the already considered Figure 1:

• Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a double-sided display shelving, with the back walls arranged set back and with the surfaces having a greater display area;
• Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a grooved and serrated structure which is mounted on the sides of the uprights for supporting the back walls in the set-back position;
• Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of a grooved and serrated structure during assembly on the side of the shelving upright;
• Figs. 5, 5a and 5b are front and sectioned views of a shelving upright with a grooved and serrated structure shown respectively during the initial and final stage of assembly on the said upright and during raising, with intervention of the anti-disengagement teeth;
• Figs. 6 and 7 show top plan views of minor variations of embodiment of back walls arranged set back and with surfaces having a greater surface area.

From Figures 2, 3 and 4 it can be seen that the uprights 1 are provided laterally with sets of slots 6 which in the example in question have the shape of a T so that they can be used not only for the new functions in question but also for usual functions, such as for receiving screws or for supporting end elements, the said slots being oriented in the direction of the height of the upright, being arranged symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal middle axis of the said upright and being distributed in two vertical and parallel rows, spaced from each other horizontally for example by about 20-30 mm and being distributed in groups of four, with vertical spacing of these groups for example at about 300-350 mm, depending on the height of the uprights 1.

Grooved and serrated structures 7 are fixed with their end hooks 107 and with any intermediate hooks into the slots 6, said structures being formed for example by means of shearing, coining (see below) and folding operations performed on sheet steel of any suitable thickness, for example with a thickness also less than that with which the uprights are formed, for example with a thickness of about 1.5 mm, these structures being provided laterally with equidistant recesses 8, preferably having a depth or width decreasing downwards, spaced by crenelations 207 which are intended to rest against the upright and some of which are formed by means of coining of the external reliefs with a semi-circular impression 9, which will be described further below. From the detail shown in Fig. 5 it can be seen that the height H of the teeth 107 is slightly less than the height H' of the part of the slots 6 able to be engaged by the said hooks, for example the head of the said T-shaped slots in question. Still from the detail shown in Figure 5 it can be seen that, above each hook 107, the sides of the grooved structure 7 have a tooth 307 which, with its rounded tip, touches laterally the upright 1 when the hook 107 has not yet passed completely beyond the slot 6 and is still co-operating with the latter with its internal rounded edge 407. Rounding of the edge 407 creates a receiving surface so that, by only longitudinally pushing the grooved structure 7 downwards, with the right amount of force, the hook 107 of this structure may pass completely beyond the slot 6 and may descend and engage with the bottom edge of this slot, while the tooth 307 slides initially with friction on the external surface of the upright 1 and then enters into the slot 6, slackening the subsequent engaging force, as illustrated in Figure 5a. If the structure 7 is accidentally raised, as illustrated in Figure 5b, the tooth 307 touches the slot 6 at the top with its rounded tip and the structure 7 remains engaged with the upright 1. In order to be able to disengage the structure 7 from the upright, it is required to push the same structure longitudinally by the correct amount and upwards so as to take advantage of the rounded form of the tip of the tooth 307 which creates a receiving surface with the top edge of the slot 6 such that the same tooth is able to come out of the slot and is able to slide with friction on the upright until the hook 107 reaches the condition shown in Figure 5 and can be easily extracted from the slot 6. The safe condition created by the parts described is obvious.

The uprights 1 are provided with slots 6 at intervals such that several grooved structures 7 of the type already mentioned may be mounted in succession on the sides of the said uprights so as to occupy practically the whole height of said uprights. Once the grooved structures 7 have been installed, they present, in the zone where they are joined to the uprights 1, a vertical row of equidistant slots which are defined by the said recesses 8 and by the upright and are open towards the front faces of the said uprights and for this reason can be easily used for engaging and disengaging the back panels 5. The slots 8 have suitable dimensions correlated to the dimensions of the hooks 105 of the back panels 5. For example, if the back panels 5 are made from sheet steel with a thickness of 1.5 mm, the slots defined by the lateral recesses 8 of the auxiliary grooved structures 7 may be characterized by the following dimensions: top width about 3.1 mm; bottom width about 1.5 mm and height about 15 mm.

From Figure 2 it is clear how it is possible to fasten easily, in the slots 8 of the grooved structures 7, the end hooks 105 of the back panels 5 which differ from the panels of the known type simply owing to their smaller length and which are characterized by the fact that they are set well back from the front face of the uprights 1 so that the display surfaces 4 may have an extension 104 in the direction of the said back walls which proportionally increases the display capacity of these surfaces 4. From Figure 2 it can be easily understood how, if the hooks 105 of the back panels are formed using the punches of the known type which designed them for engagement with the front slots 2 of the uprights, having a depth greater than that of the slots 8 of the structures 7, the external reliefs defined by the coined areas 9 are able to space the panels 5 from the structures 7 by the amount substantially equal to the difference in thickness between the material which forms the upright 1 and that which forms the structures 7, allowing stable and play-free fastening of the hooks 105 in the associated slots 8. It is understood that the scope of the invention also includes the use of back panels which are not made of sheet metal and for example made of meshing, wood, plastic and/or other suitable materials.

The holes F shown on the additional structures 7 and on the back panels 5 are usually required in order to be able to hang the products during the painting process.

The grooved structures 7 will be designed with a length which is proportional to the aforementioned spacing existing between the groups of lateral slots 6 of the uprights and may, for example, have an external width L of about 24 mm (Fig. 3) and an overall depth P1 of the hooks 107, equal to about 16-17 mm, and an inside depth P2, in the region of the crenelations 207, equal to about 8 mm, as shown in Figure 5. It is understood, however, that these dimensions may be fully modified, for example so as to be able to use the grooved structures 7 as channels for receiving electrical cables and/or for other purposes.

The scope of the invention also includes the solution shown in Figure 6, according to which the grooved structure 7' has an S-shaped, Z-shaped or other profile such that it has only one vertical row of actual slots 8' open on only one front face of the uprights 1 and arranged substantially in the middle of the said uprights, so that it is possible to fasten thereto the hooks 105' of back panels 5' of the double-sided type which can be positioned substantially in the middle of the uprights 1, which are visible on both the sides of the shelving and which eliminate entirely the dead space between the back walls of a same shelving, allowing the extension 104 of the shelf support surfaces to be designed with maximum dimensions.

The scope of the invention also includes the use of materials other than sheet metal for forming the grooved structure 7 or 7', for example the use of plastic materials containing reinforcing materials.

The same scope of the invention also includes, finally, the solution shown in Figure 7 which envisages the above grooved structure 7 formed as one piece with the uprights 1, as indicated by 101, with the slots 102 for fastening the hooks of the back panels 5 situated for example in the rounded corner zones where the said parts 101 and the side walls of the upright join together or situated on the straight and parallel or otherwise inclined sides of the said parts 101.

The improvements described here must be regarded as protected also in the case of shelving with a single display side, for example shelving mounted adjacent to a wall of the building selling the merchandise or other structure. The use of the abovementioned serrated structures 7 may be envisaged for the shelving, and it may be envisaged that the slots 6 are provided on the uprights 1 in more than two vertical rows so that, depending on requirements, the serrated structures 7 may be arranged in the middle of the uprights 1 and in a position offset and close to the non-active side of the shelving with only one display side. According to another variant it is possible to envisage using serrated structures of a specific type, able to have only one row of slots in a position very close to the rear side of the shelving, so as to support only one row of closing panels in a position set well back and close to this rear side, all of which in a manner which can be deduced and easily realized by persons skilled in the art.