Patent Application
20100078399
The present invention relates to document and media storage and in particular large scale storage requiring periodic reallocation of storage capabilities.
Both open slot storage and container storage are commonly utilized to store documents and media at offsite vaults. Open slot storage generally comprises vertical drawers individually horizontally drawn from a common cabinet and is commonly used for storing media such as data tapes and disks. The vertical drawers are configurable to allow creation of vertically spaced apart shelves holding rows of common sized media (e.g. tape or disk) containers and the media is accessible by horizontally drawing the drawer containing the media from the cabinet. U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,317 discloses a very efficient open slot storage unit manufactured by Russ Bassett, Corp. in Whittier, Calif. under the trademark Gemtrac™. The '317 patent is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Container storage includes vertically spaced apart horizontal shelves for containers. The containers hold multiple media, for example, tapes, typically 20-40 per container. Known container storage is constructed using common pallet racks as a frame. Unfortunately, the cabinets of open slot storage are very different from the pallet racking used to support container storage and share no common structure. For example, the vertically spaced apart horizontal shelves required for known container storage are not compatible with the full height vertical drawers of the open slot storage systems. Both storage systems require major installation expenditure decisions made years in advance as to the mix of open slot or case storage which will be needed in the future. When storage needs change, costs of converting from one to another are prohibitive, resulting in inefficient use of storage space.
A need thus exists for storage allowing convenient conversion between open slot and container storage.
The present invention addresses the above and other needs by providing a convertible media and document storage system which uses elements of common pallet rack framing and is convertible between open slot and container storage. The container storage includes pilasters hanging from existing horizontal beam elements of the framing, and vertically spaced apart pairs of adjustable wireform racks engage the pilasters and provide horizontal ledges for supporting containers of various sizes. The use of hanging pilasters minimizes strength and material requirements. The open slot storage includes tall vertical drawers riding on overhead rails attachable to the same horizontal beam elements and individually horizontally drawn for access to the stored material such as data tape and disk media. The storage system optimizes utilization of space and allows large facilities to reconfigure storage between open slot and container storage when demands change.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a reconfigurable hanging storage system. The hanging storage system includes framing having upper horizontal beams and laterally spaced apart pairs of pilasters hanging from the upper horizontal beams. The pilasters are adjustable laterally for positioning on the upper horizontal beams and for different width containers. Pairs of racks are attached to the pilasters for carrying containers and the racks are independently adjustable vertically for different height containers. Using hanging pilasters reduces both material requirements, because the pilasters are in tension versus compression, and less space consumed by the pilasters, because less material is required. Using the hanging pilasters further overcomes a need for fixed shelves which would interfere with conversion to open slot storage.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a configurable storage system. The configurable storage system includes a multiplicity of rectangular frames residing in parallel facing pairs, open slot storage units attached to the frames, and container storage attached to the frames. Each pair of the frames is separated by an aisle providing spacing S between the pairs frames of approximately one frame depth D. Each frame includes uprights, horizontal beams, and end bracing. The uprights comprise four horizontally spaced apart vertical uprights, one of the uprights at each corner of the frame, the uprights forming a rectangular horizontal footprint having the width W and the depth D. The beams comprise lower and upper horizontal beams. The lower horizontal beams are attached to the uprights along the width dimension at the same height. The upper horizontal beams are vertically spaced apart above each of the at least one pairs of lower horizontal beams and are attached to the uprights along the length dimension at the same height. The pair of lower horizontal beams and the pair of upper horizontal beams separated vertically by a section height Hs. The end bracing connects the uprights along the depth dimension and the length L, the width W, and the height Hs define a section of the storage system. The open slot storage units each include a horizontal overhead rail, a bottom drawer guide, and drawers. The horizontal overhead rails are configured for clamping attachment to one of the pairs of upper horizontal beams and reaching across the pair of upper horizontal beams and across the aisle to an adjacent pair of upper horizontal beams. The bottom drawer guide configured for clamping attachment to one of the pair of lower horizontal beams and reaching across the pair of lower horizontal beams. The drawers are slidably carried by the overhead rails and guided by the bottom drawer guides and are slidable into the aisle for providing access to stored material. The container storage includes laterally spaced apart pairs of pilasters adjustably configured for clamping attachment to one of the pairs of horizontal beams and having a multiplicity of vertically spaced apart holes, and pairs of opposing wireform racks configured for attachment to the pilasters using the multiplicity of vertically spaced apart holes and having opposing ledges for receiving containers. The pilaster separation is adjustable for different width containers.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a configurable hanging storage system. The configurable hanging storage system includes at least two rectangular frames and container storage. Each frame has a width dimension with width W and a depth dimension with depth D. Pairs of the frames reside in parallel with faces along the width dimension facing each other and separated by an aisle providing spacing S between the frames. Each frame includes uprights, horizontal beams, and end bracing. The uprights comprise four horizontally spaced apart vertical uprights, one of the uprights at each corner of the frame, the uprights forming a rectangular horizontal footprint having the width W and the depth D. The beams comprise lower and upper horizontal beams. The lower horizontal beams are attached to the uprights along the width dimension at the same height. The upper horizontal beams are vertically spaced apart above each of the at least one pairs of lower horizontal beams and are attached to the uprights along the length dimension at the same height. The pair of lower horizontal beams and the pair of upper horizontal beams are separated vertically by a section height Hs. The end bracing connects the uprights along the depth dimension and the length L, the width W, and the height Hs define a section of the storage system. The container storage resides in one of the sections of the storage system and comprises pairs of laterally (i.e, along the width dimension of the frame) pilasters hanging from the upper horizontal beams and pairs of opposing racks attached to the pilasters and providing ledges receiving containers. Pilaster top bars and top clamping fingers are attached at each end of the top bars for tightly sandwiching a horizontal bottom edge of the upper horizontal beams between the top bars and top clamping fingers to attach the pilasters to the upper horizontal beams. Pilaster bottom bars reaching the length of the bottoms of the pilasters and bottom clamping fingers are attached to bottom surfaces at each end of the bottom bars. A top horizontal edge of the lower horizontal beams is sandwiched between the bottom clamping fingers and the bottom bar to attach the pilasters to the bottom horizontal beams.
The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following more particular description thereof, presented in conjunction with the following drawings wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings.
The following description is of the best mode presently contemplated for carrying out the invention. This description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of describing one or more preferred embodiments of the invention. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the claims.
A perspective view of a convertible media and document storage system 10 according to the present invention is shown in
A perspective view of a pair of side by side single level pallet rack frames 18a positioned to provide support for the convertible media and document storage system 10 according to the present invention is shown in
The upper horizontal beams 22a carry a large load and are preferably approximately eight inch high beams. The lower most lower horizontal beam 22b is preferably approximately three inches high and carries the least load of all the horizontal beams. The remaining lower horizontal beams 22b are preferably approximately five inches high and carry a moderate load due to supporting the walkway 13.
A perspective view of one of the frames 18c is shown in
The frames 18c further have a width W and a depth D, and each section has a section height Hs. The lateral dimension in the following description is aligned with the width W, and the longitudinal dimension with the depth D as viewed by a user accessing the stored material. The depth D is preferably approximately 38 inches and the width W is preferably approximately ten feet. The preferred depth D facilitates using elements of existing vertical drawer systems which are a large component of the cost of constructing a convertible media and document storage system. For example, the Gemtrac™ vertical drawer system manufactured by Russ Bassett, Corp. in Whittier, Calif. and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,317 incorporated by reference above.
A front view (i.e., as viewed from the center aisle) of the first half 10a of the document storage system 10 according to the present invention, including the top open slot storage section 12, the center empty section 16, and the bottom container storage section 14 configured for tub containers 32c is shown in
The small storage container 32a according to the present invention is shown in
A pilaster 38 of a container storage section is shown in
The clamping attachment is preferably performed by top clamping fingers 40a. The fingers 40a have a bent tab 41 which pass through a slot 36a in the top bar 36 of the pilaster 38. A tightening stud 39 is used to tightly sandwich the bottom horizontal edge 23 of the upper horizontal beam 22a between the top bar 36 and the finger 40a.
Details of a preferred bottom clamping apparatus according to the present invention are shown in
The storage system according to the present invention includes the clamping attachments described in
The racks 35 used with the pilasters 38 are shown in
A pair of vertical drawer elements 60 for use with slot storage sections according to the present invention are shown in
An end view of a storage facility including adjacent rows of the convertible media and document storage system 10 according to the present invention is shown in
The present invention thus includes storage units, either container storage, or open slot storage, supported by hanging from a frame or other overhead support structure. Substantially all of the weight of the storage is supported in tension from the overhead structure, and while the storage may be attached to a frame at the bottom of the storage unit, such bottom attachment is primarily for stabilizing the storage unit, and does not provide substantial or required vertical support. Such method of supporting from above the storage facilitates the convertible storage system of the present invention and because columns in tension require much less strength than column in compression, the weight and size of the storage units is minimized.
While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments and applications thereof, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.
The present application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/100,484 filed Sep. 26, 2008, which application is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61100484 | Sep 2008 | US |
