Patent Application
20200085212
The invention is in the field of merchandise displays and is more particularly directed to display bar assemblies for the cantilever mounting of trays for the display and dispensing merchandise.
The display of merchandise in stores and supermarkets often involves the use of trays in which products are placed in columns and continuously urged to the front by spring-driven pushers. Such trays often are mounted in a cantilever fashion, by means of display bar assemblies carried by a store's merchandising structures, such as gondolas. An advantageous form of such trays, which are in widespread use, is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 8,210,367, owned by Trion Industries, Inc. An advantageous means for the mounting of such trays is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,404,533 and 7,438,268, also owned by Trion Industries. These patents disclose mounting bar assemblies in which square, tubular tray-mounting bars are provided at opposite ends with slidably movable mounting brackets. The brackets have mounting hooks that are engagable with slotted vertical uprights mounted on gondolas or other merchandising structures in the stores. The bar-mounting brackets are slidable to accommodate spacing variations between pairs of slotted uprights, and are captured on the bars by means of flanged retaining plugs inserted into opposite ends of the bars. While the systems of above-mentioned patents have been very successful, there has been currently increasing trend by merchandizers to display heavier merchandise. This can result in overloading of the standard cantilever-mounted trays and also the display bar assemblies for mounting them. There currently is a need for more robust display structures that can be made available to the trade without significant cost increase.
The invention is directed to improvements in several aspects of the existing display bar assemblies, rendering them more able to withstand higher load levels while at the same time minimizing increases in the cost thereof. One aspect of the invention involves improved design features in the brackets by which the tubular bars are mounted to the slotted vertical uprights. In the earlier designs of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,404,533 and 7,438,268, the mounting brackets were configured such that mounting hooks, by which the brackets are engaged with the uprights, are laterally offset from the main parts of the brackets through which the tubular bar projects. The tubular bars have flanged retaining plugs at opposite ends, which prevent separation of the brackets from the bars, and the lateral offset of the mounting hooks is such that the exposed portions of the flanged retaining plugs do not project significantly beyond the mounting hooks. This enables two bars to be set at the same level in axial alignment in adjacent sets.
With increasingly heavier loading, however, the laterally offset bracket hooks became a weak point in the display. This is eliminated in accordance with the present invention by positioning the hooks within the plane of the main part of the bracket, and forming a narrow lateral offset completely surrounding the opening for the bar. The surrounding offset enables the flanged head to the retaining plug to be recessed from the primary plane of the bracket, serving the same purpose of the laterally offset hooks of the earlier design while avoiding structural weaknesses introduced by offsetting of the hooks. Additionally, the new design gives the mounting brackets a superior, cleaner looking appearance.
A further aspect of the invention is directed to the configuration of the tubular bar itself. An industry standard bar for the purpose has been a welded steel tube of one-inch square configuration, formed of 16 gauge steel. However, this has proved problematic with the heavier load requirements of some stores, and efforts have been made to utilize a heavier, stronger 13 gauge square steel tubing in place of the standard 16 gauge. However, the 13 gauge bar proved to be considerably more expensive. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, dimensional specifications for the bar, in order to properly accommodate the flanged retaining plugs, were very tight and difficult for manufacturers to meet. Thus, the 13 gauge square bar proved to be not only very costly, but often difficult to obtain at any price because of the difficulties of achieving the necessarily tight tolerances. Pursuant to the invention, these problems were solved in part by reconfiguring the tubular bar from a one-inch square to a rectangular configuration of one inch in width and approximately 1 and ½ inches in height. Because the reconfigured bar provides better support for the cantilevered trays, it is feasible to utilize the lighter 16 gauge steel, even with heavier load requirements.
Yet another aspect of the invention involves an advantageous design of flanged retaining plug for the display bar, which enables it to perform its required functions while eliminating the need to tight tolerances in the dimensions of the tubing. The costs for the rectangular tubing can thus be kept consistent with the costs for the original square tubing while achieving superior performance.
In order to assure proper support for the ends of the tubular display bar in the brackets, it is important that the end extremities of the bar project through the openings in the brackets and for a short distance beyond. To this end the flanged plugs of existing design are formed of hard plastic material, with axially projecting abutment flange portions that overlap end portions of the exterior wall of the tubing at the corners for a short distance (e.g., 0.06 inch). When the mounting brackets engage these projecting abutment flanges they are blocked against further movement toward the ends of the tubing. Pursuant to another aspect of the invention, an improved form of flanged retaining plug is formed of a softer, more resilient plastic material, which is molded with a plurality of transversely disposed friction fins to engage the interior walls of the tubular display bar to secure the retaining plug in position. While plugs with such friction fins are in themselves known, the flanged retaining plug of the invention is formed with axially extending abutment wall portions only on two opposed sides of the flange, preferably the long sides. This enables mold parts for the molding of the plug to be withdrawn laterally, from opposite sides, to release the molded part. This novel configuration of the flange enables the friction fins to be formed by a molding process while also providing for the axially projecting abutment wall portions.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred but non-limiting embodiment thereof and to the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to the drawings, and initially to
As shown in
It is desired that the outer end surfaces of the flanged retaining plugs 24 be spaced apart no more than 48 inches, so that one display bar assembly, mounted on one set of uprights, will not interfere with an adjacent display bar assembly, mounted on an adjacent set of uprights. Accordingly, in known devices it has been customary to offset the mounting hooks from the principal plane of mounting brackets such that the flanged ends of the retaining plugs 24 are substantially aligned with the upright-engaging hooks. This can be seen in, for example, the before mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,404,533. While offsetting of the mounting hooks serves the purpose of properly locating the flanged ends of the plugs, it becomes an undesirable weak point in the bracket structure, when the assembly is required to carry heavier loads.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the undesired weakness in the bracket structure is avoided by maintaining the mounting hooks 25, 26 in the principal plane of the bracket 22, 23 and offsetting a narrow portion of the bracket in a region 28 immediately surrounding the opening 27. In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention the bracket material is hard (Rockwell B 60-75) sheet steel of about 0.10 inch in thickness. The surrounding offset region 28, for a 1 inch by 1.5 inch opening may extend outward from the edges of the opening for about 0.32 inch, and the amount of the offset may equal the thickness of the bracket material of about 0.10 inch. The offset region 28 preferably is of sufficient width to provide a substantially flat margin 29 of at least about 0.05 inch in width immediately surrounding the opening 27. The surface of the flat margin 29 desirably forms a second plane parallel to the primary plane of the bracket. Except for the offset region 28, the sheet steel material of the brackets 22, 23, particularly including the mounting hooks 25, 26, is all in a common flat plane.
Preferably, the orientation of the bracket openings 27 is at a slight angle to the back edges 30 of the brackets, as reflected in
The above described design and configuration of the mounting brackets is not only structurally superior to the known brackets of the prior art but also benefits from having a neater, cleaner appearance which is more attractive to the stores and their customers.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the display bar 21, which has been in widespread use for many years in the form of a one inch square tubular steel bar, has been replaced by a tubular steel bar of one inch by one and one-half inch dimension oriented with the longer axis upright. Efforts to strengthen the standard 1 inch bar by increasing the thickness of material from the standard 16 gauge to a heavier 13 gauge, in order to withstand heavier loading desired by some stores, proved to be both difficult and unsatisfactory. Because of the practical requirement of having a minimum length of the tubing, at each end, project through and beyond the mounting brackets, the flanged retaining plugs need to be molded in a way to provide portions of the flange that extend for a distance axially inward over the exterior wall of the tubing and serve as abutments to limit axial movement of the mounting brackets in relation to end extremities of the display bar 21 The axially extending abutment portions of the flange assure that at least the desired length of tubing at each end projects outward of the bracket under all circumstances. However, with flanged retaining plugs of known design with it is necessary to hold relatively tight dimensional tolerances on both the tubing and the plugs to order to assure reliable retention of the plugs within the tubing. While this was feasible when using 16 gauge square tubing, it turned out to be a serious problem when seeking to add strength by using a heavier, 13 gauge tubing. Manufacturers found it very difficult to achieve the necessary tight tolerances with the 13 gauge material. It became very expensive at best and often difficult to obtain regardless of price. Accordingly, as a further aspect of the invention, both the tubing and the flanged plug were modified in a manner to bring the cost and availability factors back into line while at the same time providing a superior product.
By a significant redesign of both the flanged plug, and tubular display bar according to the invention, it has been possible to utilize a differently configured (1×1.5 inch) bar, and a different type of flanged plug. This in turn has made it possible to form the bar from 16 gauge steel with a strength equivalent for the purpose corresponding to that of a 13 gauge square bar. Moreover and importantly, because of the reconfigured flanged plug, to be described further, narrow tolerance requirements for the bar are not required, and it is possible to make use of commodity level ASTM tubing without sacrifice of functionality. Indeed, the cost, functionality and availability factors or the new display bar assembly are sufficiently favorable as to make it feasible to utilize the new, heavy duty design as a single standard support for trays with normal, lower weight loads as well as for trays with heavy weight load service.
For the 1×1.5 inch bar, the opening 27 in the brackets 23, 23 is configured to provide for a slight clearance at the top and sides with respect to the bar, such that the brackets 23, 23 may be moved axially along the bar as necessary to align with gondola uprights. Additionally, for the 16 gauge 1×1.5 inch tubing, it is desired to provide additional clearance in the center regions of the vertical sides. By way of example, acceptable clearance in the width direction, in the upper and lower portions of the opening 27 may range from about 0.019 inch to about 0.036 inch, while acceptable clearance in the vertical direction may range from about 0.036 inch to about 0.041 inch. In the center regions of the opening, an additional clearance of about 0.02 inch may be provided to accommodate a slight bulging of the bar 21.
Pursuant to another aspect of the invention, a new form of flanged plug 24 has been incorporated into the system, making it possible to utilize low cost tubing instead of costly and difficult-to-obtain high tolerance, “engineered” tubing needed to accommodate the requirements of known plugs. The new retaining plug, shown particularly in
Plugs with friction fins, as generally described above, are well known. The illustrated plug 24 of the invention, however is required to perform unique functions and is uniquely designed in order to be able to perform such functions. As mentioned above, it is critical that at least a small length of the display bar 21 project through and beyond the opening 27 in the mounting bracket 22, 23. Accordingly, the flange 35 is formed with axially extending abutment walls 36 (see
As a unique feature of the plug 24, the abutment walls 36 are straight and are formed on only two opposing sides of the flange 35. This can be seen best in
The unique flange configuration of the invention enables the display bar assembly to be constructed with a friction fin style of flanged plug at the end, and thus opens the assembly to the use of commodity level tubing. Such tubing is not only readily available from various sources, but is available at an attractive price. Thus while the initial design intent was to provide a special form of display bar assembly, capable of carrying loads that are heavier than those typically encountered, the cost and other advantages of the assembly of the invention are such as to make it an attractive alternative to use in connection with typical (i.e., lighter) loads, and thus suitable as “standard” for both normal and heavier loads.
It should be understood, or course, that the specific embodiments of the invention herein illustrated and described are intended to be representative of the invention and not in limitation thereof. Accordingly, reference must be made to the following claims in determining the full and proper scope of the invention.
