System and method for forming a header of a retail merchandising unit |
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申请号 | US11361675 | 申请日 | 2006-02-24 | 公开(公告)号 | US20070204523A1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2007-09-06 |
申请人 | Samuel Chamberlain; | 发明人 | Samuel Chamberlain; | ||||
摘要 | According to one embodiment, a RMU comprises a header. The header comprises a sidewall, and at least one coupling surface protruding from the sidewall. The header further comprises a top surface coupled to the sidewall via a through-surface coupling mechanism coupled at least partially through the at least one coupling surface. The header also comprises a bottom surface to the sidewall via a through-surface coupling mechanism coupled at least partially through the at least one coupling surface. The top surface and the bottom surface are coupled to the sidewall such that the top surface and bottom surface can each be individually uncoupled from the sidewall without requiring the other of the top surface and bottom surface to be uncoupled from the sidewall. As used herein, a through-surface coupling mechanism refers to any mechanism that inserts at least partially through a surface for coupling the surface to another part. | ||||||
权利要求 | What is claimed is: |
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说明书全文 | Not applicable. The following description relates generally to techniques for selectively widening a part to provide sufficient surface for through-surface coupling with the part, and more particularly to systems and methods for forming a header of a retail merchandising unit. Many businesses use Retail Merchandising Units (RMUs) to establish an effective storefront through which they can conduct retail sales in public areas, such as shopping malls, theme parks, sports arenas, and a wide variety of other public venues. An RMU may, for example, be implemented as a kiosk or other structure. RMUs may be employed for a vendor (e.g., retailer) to market its merchandise to prospective customers and conduct sales transactions with customers. For instance, an RMU generally includes shelves (or other display mechanisms) for displaying the vendor's merchandise to prospective customers when the RMU is open for business. RMUs also generally include at least some amount of storage space for storing the vendor's inventory of merchandise. Typically, RMUs further include a cash register and/or other equipment (e.g., computer, credit card processing equipment, etc.) for conducting point of sale (POS) transactions with customers. Thus, generally RMUs effectively provide a self-contained storefront for vendors, much like traditional retail stores. RMUs often provide a relatively low-cost alternative for a vendor to obtain a storefront in a public area. That is, an RMU may be used by a vendor to establish a storefront in a public area (which may be a highly desirable area with high visibility and customer traffic, such as a busy shopping mall) with much less overhead than is associated with traditional retail stores. For instance, while RMUs do not provide the amount of retail space that is afforded by a traditional retail store, RMUs may be arranged in walkways (e.g., halls of shopping malls, etc.) or other available space. Traditional retail stores commonly have 1000 square feet of space (and much more in many instances), while RMUs generally consume from approximately 10 square feet to approximately 150 square feet. Because RMUs generally do not consume a large amount of space (as compared to traditional retail stores) and because the RMUs can often be placed in otherwise unused areas, RMUs may incur very economical rent and utility costs. Further, an owner of a given space, such as a shopping mall, may benefit by allowing RMUs to be arranged within the otherwise unused portions of such space to increase the offerings of goods/services within the space and to realize income from the rental of such RMUs which would not otherwise be realized from such unused portions of the space. Many types of businesses can be effectively run without requiring the space afforded by a traditional retail store, and may instead be capable of effectively displaying and conducting sales of their merchandise in an RMU. RMUs thus offer such businesses a relatively low-cost alternative for establishing a storefront in a desirable area. Often, RMUs have a body with a header coupled thereto. The header may provide an aesthetically pleasing appearance and/or provide certain functionality for the RMU. For instance, the header may include a display portion for displaying the name of the vendor's business, and/or the header may house lights for illuminating the vendor's merchandise in the RMU. One type of header that is popular for RMUs is referred to as a “racetrack” header. A racetrack header is a header that resembles an oval racetrack. An example of a traditional racetrack header is described further below with An RMU manufacturer typically desires to minimize manufacturing costs, while providing a high-quality RMU for vendors. As discussed above, RMUs generally provide vendors a low-cost storefront option, and thus RMU manufacturers generally desire to minimize manufacturing costs without unduly sacrificing RMU quality in order to provide affordable RMUs to vendors. Traditionally, the manufacturing costs associated with producing a header, and particularly a racetrack header, for an RMU have been undesirably high. Further, such headers have traditionally comprised a top surface, bottom surface, and a sidewall (which may be referred to as a “spreader” because it separates the top and bottom surfaces by a desired distance) that is disposed between the top and bottom surfaces. As discussed further below with Turning to Sidewall 12 comprises tubing (e.g., steel tubing) 105 coupled (e.g., welded) to the inner and outer sidewalls at various locations. In this example, tubing 105 is disposed at various locations on the interior of the outer sidewall 120, and tubing 105 is disposed at various locations on the exterior of the inner sidewall 121. Such tubing 105 aligns with holes in the top surface 11 and bottom surface 13 when the racetrack header 10 is being assembled. A coupling mechanism, such as a nut and bolt, is used to couple the top surface 11 and bottom surface 13 to the sidewall 12 through the tubing 105. For instance, Bolt 21 comprises a head portion 21A and a shaft portion 21B. The head portion 21A is sufficiently large such that it does not fit into the hole in the bottom surface 13 through which the shaft portion 21B fits. Thus, the head portion 21A engage the bottom surface 13. Nut 22 is commonly referred to as a joint connector bolt. Nut 22 comprises a shaft portion 22B that extends from a head portion 22A. The shaft portion 22B is hollow with an opening at the end opposite the head portion 22A into which a portion of bolt 21 is received. For instance, the interior surface of the hollow shaft 22B may be threaded for threadedly engaging with a threaded portion of the bolt's shaft 21B. The head portion 22A does not fit into the hole in the top surface 11 through which the shaft portion 22B fits. Thus, the head portion 22A engage the top surface 11. Accordingly, in assembling header 10 together, bolts 21 engage nuts 22 in a known fashion to couple the top surface 11, bottom surface 13, and sidewall 12 together through tubing 105. It should be recognized that if the bolts 21 are uncoupled from nuts 22, both top surface 11 and bottom surface 13 uncouple from sidewall 12. The cost of manufacturing this traditional header is undesirably high. Such manufacturing costs are high for various reasons. First, the top and bottom are produced out of ¼″ aluminum. The top and bottom plates are counterbored underneath to allow additional clearance for the light fixtures that may be implemented within the header. The joint connector bolts are long and required a shoulder along with a special nut which are more expensive than short ¼-20 all thread type. The round steel tubing is relatively expensive (e.g., more expensive than sheet metal). The round tubing is hand cut into lengths by a person, and thus labor cost is relatively high. The tubing had to have a jig produced to align the tubes in their proper positions. The tubes require a lot of welding steps. Further, the process for assembling the traditional headers required a bolt to be inserted simultaneously with a nut from the other side, which at times required two workers or a series of clamps to be employed, thus adding difficulty and expense to the assembly process. The present invention is directed generally to techniques for selectively widening a part to provide sufficient surface for through-surface coupling with the part, and more particularly to systems and methods for forming a header of a retail merchandising unit. According to one embodiment, a RMU comprises a header. The header comprises a sidewall, and at least one coupling surface protruding from the sidewall. The header further comprises a top surface coupled to the sidewall via a through-surface coupling mechanism coupled at least partially through the at least one coupling surface. The header also comprises a bottom surface to the sidewall via a through-surface coupling mechanism coupled at least partially through the at least one coupling surface. The top surface and the bottom surface are coupled to the sidewall such that the top surface and bottom surface can each be individually uncoupled from the sidewall without requiring the other of the top surface and bottom surface to be uncoupled from the sidewall. As used herein, a through-surface coupling mechanism refers to any mechanism that inserts at least partially through a surface for coupling the surface to another part. Examples of such a through-surface coupling mechanism comprise, without limitation, a bolt, screw, rivet (e.g., traditional and/or removable nylon-type rivets), rod, and stud. According to another embodiment, a RMU comprises a body, and a header coupled to the body. The header comprises a sidewall comprising a curved portion. The header further comprises a through-surface coupling portion coupled to the curved portion of the sidewall. The through-surface coupling portion comprises a curved portion that abuts against the sidewall, wherein the through-surface coupling portion's curved portion has a curvature matching a curvature of the sidewall's curved portion. The header further comprises at least one surface coupled to the through-surface coupling portion. In certain embodiments, the through-surface coupling portion comprises a tab that protrudes from the sidewall. In certain embodiments, the through-surface coupling portion comprises a threaded tube that is coupled to the sidewall. Also, in certain embodiments, the at least one surface coupled to the through-surface coupling portion comprises a top surface and a bottom surface disposed on opposing sides of the sidewall. According to another embodiment, a method of forming a header of a RMU comprises coupling at least one through-surface coupling portion to a sidewall of the header such that the at least one through-surface coupling portion protrudes from the sidewall. The method further comprises coupling a top surface and a bottom surface to the at least one through-surface coupling portion such that the sidewall is disposed between the top surface and bottom surface. The coupling of the top surface and the bottom surface permits each of the top surface and the bottom surface to be individually uncoupled from the sidewall without requiring the other of the top surface and bottom surface to be uncoupled from the sidewall. According to another embodiment, a method of forming a header of a RMU comprises notching at least one notch into a curved portion of a sidewall of the header. The method further comprises providing at least one tab that comprises a) a curved portion having a curvature matching a curvature of the sidewall's curved portion, and b) a tongue projecting from the tab's curved portion. The method further comprises coupling the at least one tab to the sidewall such that the at least one tab's tongue resides in the at least one notch and the at least one tab's curved portion abuts against the sidewall. The method further comprises coupling at least one surface to the at least one tab. As described further herein, certain embodiments of the present invention advantageously reduce manufacturing costs associated with RMU headers, while enabling high-quality construction of such RMU headers. Further, certain embodiments of the present invention advantageously enable a header's top surface and a bottom surface to be individually uncoupled from the header's sidewall, without requiring the other of the top and bottom surface to be so uncoupled. The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention. For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which: Turning to Inner sidewall 304 and outer sidewall 303 each comprises through-surface coupling portions 305 coupled (e.g., welded) at various locations. In this example, through-surface coupling portions 305 are disposed at various locations on the interior of the outer sidewall 303, and the through-surface coupling portions 105 are disposed at various locations on the exterior of the inner sidewall 304. In this exemplary embodiment, through-surface coupling portions 305 are each tubing having a threaded interior. For instance, in certain embodiments, the threaded tubing comprises ¼-20 steel hex nuts. Such threaded tubing 305 aligns with holes in the top surface 31 and bottom surface 33 when the header 30 is being assembled. A coupling mechanism, such as a bolt or screw, is used to couple the top surface 31 and bottom surface 33 to the sidewall 32 (i.e., to the inner and outer sidewalls) via the threaded tubing 305. For instance, In this example, through-surface coupling mechanism 41 comprises a head portion 41A and a shaft portion 41B. The head portion 41A is sufficiently large such that it does not fit into the hole in the bottom surface 33 through which the shaft portion 41B fits. Thus, the head portion 41A engages the bottom surface 33. Shaft portion 41B is threaded for engaging the interior threading of tubing 305, thereby coupling with such tubing 305. Similarly, through-surface coupling mechanism 42 comprises a head portion 42A and a shaft portion 42B. The head portion 42A is sufficiently large such that it does not fit into the hole in the top surface 31 through which the shaft portion 42B fits. Thus, the head portion 42A engages the top surface 31. Shaft portion 42B is threaded for engaging the interior threading of tubing 305, thereby coupling with such tubing 305. It should be recognized that this embodiment enables the top surface 31 and bottom surface 33 to each be individually uncoupled from sidewall 32 (e.g., uncoupled from the inner and outer sidewalls in this example) without requiring the other of the top surface and bottom surface to be uncoupled from the sidewall. That is, through-surface coupling mechanisms 41 can be individually removed, thereby uncoupling only bottom surface 33 from sidewall 32, while allowing top surface 31 to remain coupled via through-surface coupling mechanisms 42 to sidewall 32. Similarly, through-surface coupling mechanisms 42 can be individually removed, thereby uncoupling only top surface 31 from sidewall 32, while allowing bottom surface 33 to remain coupled via through-surface coupling mechanisms 41 to sidewall 32. Of course, if so desired, both the through-surface coupling mechanisms 41 and 42 may be removed in order to uncouple both the bottom surface 33 and the top surface 31 from sidewall 32. In this example, the through-surface coupling mechanisms 41 provide a removably reusable coupling between the bottom surface 33 and tubing 305, whereby the coupling mechanisms can be reused to removably connect the bottom surface 33 and tubing 305. That is, through-surface coupling mechanisms 41 may be removed (e.g., unscrewed) from tubing 305, thereby uncoupling bottom surface 33, and such through-surface coupling mechanisms 41 may thereafter be reused to re-connect the bottom surface 33 to the tubing 305. Likewise, the through-surface coupling mechanisms 42 provide a removably reusable coupling between the top surface 31 and tubing 305, whereby the coupling mechanisms can be reused to removably connect the top surface 31 and tubing 305. It should be recognized that often the sidewall of a RMU header is not of sufficient width to support through-surface coupling. For instance, the width “W” of sidewall 32 (see As shown, header 50 has a bottom surface 51 and sidewall 52. In certain embodiments, a top surface, such as top surface 11 of Sidewall 52 comprises curved portions 502, and straight portions 501A-501D. In this example, sidewall 52 comprises an outer sidewall and an inner sidewall. The outer sidewall is disposed adjacent to the outer edge of bottom surface 51, while the inner sidewall is disposed adjacent to the inner edge of the bottom surface 51. The outer sidewall is formed by straight portions 501A and 501B and curved portions 502A, while the inner sidewall is formed by straight portions 501C and 501D and curved portions 502B. The inner and outer sidewalls comprise through-surface coupling portions coupled thereto at various locations. In this exemplary embodiment, the straight portions 501A-501D of sidewall 52 comprise a “c-channel”. The c-channel may be formed through a metal-bending process, for example. As shown with straight portion 501A, the c-channel includes a vertical portion 522 with an upper horizontal portion 520 and lower horizontal portion 521 protruding from such vertical portion 522. The upper horizontal portion 520 and lower horizontal portion 521 are substantially perpendicular to the vertical portion 522, and such upper and lower horizontal portions 520, 521 provide through-surface coupling portions. For instance, through-surface coupling mechanisms 510 are employed to couple bottom surface 51 to the lower horizontal portion 521, and likewise such through-surface coupling mechanisms 510 may be employed to couple a top surface (such as top surface 11 of In this example, various tabs 502-506 are employed to provide through-surface coupling portions on the curved portion 502 of sidewall 52. In certain embodiments, such tabs may be employed on the straight portions 501A-501D of sidewall 522, instead of employing the exemplary c-channel structure shown. Similarly, in certain embodiments, the c-channel structure of the straight portions 501A-501D may be employed for the curved portions 502 of sidewall 52. However, due to the cost of manufacturing a curved c-channel structure, it may be more cost-effective to employ tabs, such as tabs 502-506 on at least the curved portions 502 of sidewall 52. In this example, tabs 503 and 504 are coupled to the exterior side of inner curved portion 502B, and tabs 505 and 506 are coupled to the interior side of outer curved portion 502A. Tabs 503 and 505 may be referred to as single through-surface coupling portions, while tabs 504 and 506 may be referred to as dual through-surface coupling portions. The single through-surface coupling portions 503 and 505 accept a single through-surface coupling mechanism (e.g., bolt, PIM nut, etc.), while dual through-surface coupling portions accept two through-surface coupling mechanisms. As described further hereafter (e.g., with As shown in It should be recognized that the exemplary embodiment of header 50 enables a top surface (e.g., top surface 11 of It should be recognized that often the sidewall of a RMU header is not of sufficient width to support through-surface coupling. For instance, the width “W” of sidewall 52, shown in It should be recognized that certain embodiments of the present invention reduce manufacturing costs from those required for producing the traditional header of The above-described process for manufacturing of a RMU header provides several benefits and strategic advantages over the traditional welding techniques. First, the above-described manufacturing process reduces cost of producing the RMU by 50% over the traditional techniques. Further, the above-described manufacturing process improves quality, serviceability, and reduces lead times for manufacturing by 40% as compared to the traditional header manufacturing techniques. Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps. |