Reinforced shelves for metal shelving units, for supporting on their front electronic labels and/or other peripherals and related manufacturing process |
|||||||
申请号 | US14444724 | 申请日 | 2014-07-28 | 公开(公告)号 | US09332864B2 | 公开(公告)日 | 2016-05-10 |
申请人 | CEFLA SOCIETA' COOPERATIVA; | 发明人 | Massimo Poggi; Eros Nanni; | ||||
摘要 | Reinforced shelf for metal shelving unit, particularly for the shelving units whose shelves (B1, Bn) are provided, on the side facing the public, with electronic labels and/or other peripherals, and wherein the shelf on its bottom side has plate reinforcement (T1, Tn), parallel to each other and to the front and rear side (LA, LP) of the shelf itself, characterized in that in correspondence or at the ends of the reinforcements (T1, Tn) there are provided at least a pair of apertures (1, 10) for the passage and support of wiring (D), necessary to connect means (P1) on the rear side of the shelves, to means (P2) on the front side of the shelf (B1, Bn) for supporting and displaying goods. The apertures (1, 10) are sufficiently distant from the angular bent and ribbed areas of the reinforcements (T1, Tn) so as not substantially modify the characteristics of bend strength and torsion resistance of the reinforcements. The apertures (1, 10) are preferably obtained during the manufacture of reinforcements (T1, Tn) and of relative displaying shelves (B1, Bn). | ||||||
权利要求 | What is claimed is: |
||||||
说明书全文 | The present application claims priority to Italian Patent Application No. BO2013A000414 filed Jul. 31, 2013, the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. Not Applicable. The present invention relates to reinforced shelves for metal shelving units; in particular, the present shelves support electronic labels and/or other peripherals on their front (facing the public) side; the labels are connected to electric wiring coming from the rear side of the shelf itself. The present invention tackles the manufacturing process for manufacturing said reinforced shelves, too. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,485 filed on Apr. 12, 1993, having the title “Electronic price display system with vertical rail”, a metal shelving unit for displaying goods for sale is described. Such shelving unit is provided, in correspondence of its uprights, with a vertical rail, to which, in correspondence of each displaying shelf, plugs can be connected, with relative flexible wiring, transversally extending under each shelf, while the other end of rail is connected to another fixed linear rail on the front side of the same shelf, on which electronic labels are fixed. Said flexible electric wiring is fixed to the bottom part of each shelf, or to the internal side of the bracket supporting the shelf itself, through either cable ties, or U-bolts, or adhesive raceways, or a raceway that can be hooked to the near bracket, which are unaesthetic, not reliable, and which do not sufficiently protect the wiring from the interference with the goods displayed on the shelves or other objects, in that the wiring passes always under the reinforcements of the display shelf. As the electrically supplied appliances are normally fixed to shelf, while the wiring is fixed to brackets, all the above-mentioned solutions make the mounting and demounting of a shelf difficult; as a matter of fact, in order to remove a shelf, firstly wiring must be disconnected, and afterwards the shelf must be disengaged from its brackets. The present invention aims to solve the following technical problem: Providing the reinforced shelves of metal shelving units with simple, economic, and reliable means for supporting and preferably also for containing and concealing said electric wiring, connecting said vertical rail to said horizontal rail, so that the wiring itself is in an uplifted safe and protected position, non interfering with the placing on, or the seizing of, goods from the displaying shelves of the shelving unit. The means are such as not to limit the mobility of the display shelves, even if they are provided, on their front side, with devices connected to said electric wiring. The present invention solves the present technical problem as described in the annexed claim 1 and in the other claims depending therefrom, which teach to get, in correspondence of at least one of the ends of at least a bottom reinforcements of each shelf, some small bottom and/or lateral apertures, to allow the passage of said wiring, the apertures being preferably obtained on the reinforcement during its manufacturing through punching and bending of a plate sheet. Further characteristic features of the invention and the advantages arising therefrom will emerge more clearly from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, illustrated purely by way of a non-limiting example in the figures of the three sets of drawings in which: In In order to support in the correct position said electric wiring D, the present invention provides to form in correspondence or at the ends of the bottom walls of said reinforcements T1, Tn, pairs of slits 1 having dimensions sufficient to allow the passage of the wiring D and of the optional plugs C, preassembled at the end of said wiring. The slits 1 are sufficiently distant from the bottom angle area of the reinforcements, so that their presence does not substantially modify the characteristics of bend strength and torsion resistance imparted by the reinforcement to the shelf. Advantageously, the slit 1 which can be present on one end only of the reinforcements, or on both ends of the reinforcements T1, Tn, is obtained without additional cost, when the reinforcements are manufactured with the usual operations of punching and bending of plate sheets, with a simple modification of the punching unit in order to enable it to the cut said slits 1. From The embodiment of In a further development of the present embodiment, the load resistance to nominal load was tested, by applying to the shelf itself some reinforcements having only one slit 10, rather than on the bottom wall end, as before shown with 1 in Observing The embodiment of The same embodiment of On the front side LA of shelves B1, Bn, a small aperture 4 can be obtained as shown in It is understood that reinforcements T1, Tn and shelves B1, Bn can have any profile, even different from that shown, and that the slits 1, 10 can have any desired form, more suitable for the present aims. So for instance the slits 1, 10 instead of having a U profile, may be provided with a restricted neck at their open end, so as to better restrain the wiring D inside said slits, and that the slots can replace slits, without for this departing from the underlying principle of the invention. The raceways 2, 2′ can have any form and/or composition, too. It is understood that to the present invention numerous variants and modification can be introduced, without for this departing from the underlying principle of the invention as described, illustrated and claimed in the following. In the claims, the reference numbers shown in brackets are purely indicative and do not limit the scope of protection of the claims. |