Patent Application
20050274682
This invention is related generally to apparatus for displaying retail goods and, more particularly, to an apparatus for displaying magnetic measuring/gaging devices.
Hardware stores and home-centers constitute a growing segment of the retail market. More homeowners are deciding to tackle a wide variety of home improvement and repair projects themselves so that they save money and add value to their homes. Competition between these retailers has increased in recent years with the customers usually patronizing the store that they find makes it easiest for them to obtain the materials needed to complete their work.
One of the reasons that a homeowner commonly travels to a hardware store is the need to purchase a certain tool or other item. Searching for this particular product at such outlets can, however, be often difficult and frustrating. The number of sales personnel available to provide help is always limited and the customer can easily become disoriented in the huge expanse of the modern home-center with its aisle after aisle of tools and building materials.
Most customers have little interest or time, however, to scour a store in order to find the various items on their list. Oftentimes, the search can even become an exercise in futility since the tool sought may be difficult to identify from the multitude of other hardware displayed on the shelves or in the bins.
A way of catching the eye of the customer to spare him or her from the needless waste of time spent hunting down the desired tool is therefore an aim of nearly all retailers. Any apparatus that prominently and openly displays a specific product has particular value in this regard. These displays not only facilitate the ability of the customer to locate these products within the store but often promote impulsive purchases of such items by other customers as well.
Many displays of this nature are designed to be mounted to only one specific type of support surface. Most also include a means of holding or securing the various items being displayed that is built into the apparatus. Certain tools are capable, however, of securing themselves to a display without the need of any assistance of this type. Moreover, the retailer may be losing an excellent opportunity for highlighting a feature of such products that would otherwise be missed by the customer. In particular, suspending magnetic levels from hooks or similar devices in the same manner as non-magnetic ones does little to call to the customer's attention the usefulness of the magnetic devices and how they are distinctive from other levels.
A display rack therefore that overcomes these disadvantages and that uses an inherent property of the tools being displayed to firmly engage them to a simple and inexpensive apparatus would be highly desirable.
It is a primary object of this invention to provide a display rack that overcomes some of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.
Another object of this invention is to provide a novel display rack that is capable of holding magnetic levels in a visible and easily accessible upright position.
Another object of this invention is to provide an exceptional apparatus that displays magnetic levels in a manner that facilitates selection and promotes sales.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an excellent display rack for presenting certain magnetic tools in a fashion that catches the eye of the customer without interfering with the overall appearance of the retail establishment.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a desirable display rack that can be mounted to a pegboard or other conventional wall surface structures and extend outward to make access to the tools displayed easier and more convenient to the customer.
Another object of the invention is to provide an exceptional apparatus that can be simple and inexpensive to construct, easy to maintain, and highly reliable to use.
This invention is for a display rack that can be used to display a number of magnetic measuring/gaging devices from a display structure by removably securing them to the rack. The display rack in one aspect of the present invention has a rigid holder made from a material that is magnetically-attractable, i.e. attracted to a magnet but not necessarily exhibiting any of the properties of a magnet itself. Highly preferred is a material that has none of the properties of a magnet. One such preferred material is ferrous metal.
The holder has two vertical surfaces that are each configured to allow the magnetic element in a lateral-edge of each device displayed to magnetically engage the rack. The rack further includes a rigid horizontal tray attached to the bottom of the holder and an attachment member on the rear of the holder that mounts the rack to the associated display structure. The rack's tray is sized to engage and support one end of each measuring/gaging device being displayed and preferably the tray extends orthogonally outward from both sides of the holder.
In some desired embodiments, the holder is contiguous from its upper edge to its lower edge, having no breaks in the rack's magnetically-attractable vertical surfaces. In other preferred embodiments, the rack includes a label-plate that can be used to set out indicia directed to the devices being displayed.
Certain desired cases find the measuring/gaging device to be an elongate frame-type level. These levels have a generally rectangular body with squared-off ends that secures one or more bubble vials used to evaluate the proper orientation of a surface to true horizontal or vertical. More preferred is where the levels are torpedo levels. Torpedo levels typically have tapered ends and a working length that is less than that of most frame levels. In a highly preferred embodiment, the torpedo levels being displayed have magnetic elements in each lateral-edge of the level.
In another desired embodiment, the attachment member on the display rack is preferably a bracket assembly for securing the rack to a cross-bar. Most preferred is where the bracket assembly includes a top-bracket and an adjustable bottom-bracket that are spaced apart from one another.
Certain other cases find a hook assembly as the attachment member for mounting the display rack to a pegboard. In these cases, it is more preferred that the hook assembly have a hook-portion and a stabilizer-portion that are spaced-apart from one another. A most highly preferred embodiment is where the holder has a support-panel disposed adjacent to its rear edge and orthogonal to its surfaces. In this embodiment, the hook-portion of the hook assembly is attached at the top of the support-panel and the stabilizer-portion is mounted at the support-panel's bottom.
In another aspect of this invention, a display rack is provided that releasably retains several magnetic levels, preferably torpedo levels, for displaying the levels from a display structure. The rack has a rigid holder formed from an integral sheet of ferrous material, preferably sheet steel. The holder includes two vertical and planar holder-surfaces, each surface being configured to be magnetically engaged by a magnetic element in the lateral edge of each level, and a vertical support-panel at a right angle to the holder-surfaces. The rack further includes a rigid horizontal tray secured to the lower edge of the holder where the tray extends outward orthogonally from both holder-surfaces and is configured to engage and support one end of each level. The rack also has an attachment member that is attached to the support-panel for mounting the display rack to the associated display structure.
In one highly preferred embodiment of this aspect of the invention, the attachment member is a bracket assembly having a top-bracket and a bottom-bracket for attaching the display rack to a cross-bar. More preferred is where the support-panel has an adjustment-slot and the bottom-bracket is secured to the support-panel by a fastener inserted through the adjustment-slot so that the bottom-bracket can be raised or lowered up to the length of the adjustment-slot.
In another desired embodiment, the attachment member is a hook assembly having a hook-portion and a stabilizer-portion for mounting the display rack to a pegboard. In this embodiment, the hook-portion is secured adjacent to the top-end of the support-panel and the stabilizer-portion is secured adjacent to the support-panel's bottom-end.
In a highly desired aspect of this invention, a display rack for multiple magnetic levels includes a rigid, magnetically-attractable holder and an attached stand member. The holder is provided with two substantially vertical holder-surfaces. Each holder-surface is configured to be magnetically engaged by the magnetic element mounted within each level. The stand member allows the rack to be mounted on a display surface.
A most preferred embodiment of this aspect of the invention, the holder has two holder-plates and a front-panel joined to the two at their front edges. More preferred is where each holder-plate is contiguous between its upper edge and lower edge. A highly desired embodiment finds the display rack having each holder-plate perpendicular to the display surface, preferably a horizontal display surface.
Certain preferred cases find the stand member to be a front-support that is secured to the front-panel. Most desired is where the front-support has a horizontal support-flange for engaging the display surface. It is highly preferred that the front-panel have a width less than the length of the support-flange.
Another desired embodiment finds the display rack having a rigid, horizontal tray as the stand member. The tray extends outward from the lower edge of each holder-plate with its upper surface configured to engage and support one end of each level and its lower surface engaging the display surface. Highly preferred is where the stand member further includes a front-support with a horizontal support-flange mounted to the front-panel.
The drawings illustrate preferred embodiments of a display rack 10 in accordance with this invention. Display rack 10 has a holder 12, a tray 14, and an attachment member 16. Attachment member 16 is provided to mount display rack 10 to a display structure. In the preferred embodiment shown in
As further illustrated in
Bottom flange 30 is seen in
Holder 12 and tray 14 are sized to define space on both sides of holder-plate 22 for displaying multiple magnetic levels 32, preferably torpedo levels as shown in
Levels 32 are held in position upon display rack 10 through the magnetic attraction of the magnetic strip 34 to either holder-surface 28. As can further be seen in
Holder-plate 22, as shown in
As seen in
A user of display rack 10 can place upon label-plate 40 an adhesive label printed or written with indicia that include such information as the make and model of the level displayed, its stock number, and its price. When there is a need for a change in this product information, the label may be peeled off and replaced with another. It will be readily understood that a card holder having a frame designed to receive a card printed with this same information could be used in place of label-plate 40 in other embodiments of this invention.
Hook member 18 and stabilizer member 20 are mounted on support-panel 46. A top-bracket 48 is rigidly fastened, preferably spot welded, to the upper end 50 of support-panel 46. Hook member 18 is firmly attached to the upper surface of the middle portion 52 of top-bracket 48. Stabilizer member 20 is secured to support-panel 46 at a position adjacent to the lower end 54 of support-panel 46. Members 18, 20 are preferably fastened to support-panel 46 by means of welding or a similarly suitable method. Both members 18, 20 are rigid, integral structures preferably formed from stainless steel wire.
As illustrated in
Stabilizer member 20 has two stabilizer-support portions 62 extending rearward from support-panel 46. Each stabilizer-support portion 62 has a distal, substantially horizontal projection 64. Stabilizer-support portions 62 are also sized and spaced apart to be received by two corresponding apertures 60 on pegboard 21.
In mounting display rack 10 onto a wall provided with pegboard 21, as illustrated in
As shown in
Bracket assembly 68 includes top-bracket 48 and bottom-bracket 76. Top-bracket 48 is C-shaped having a middle portion 52, a proximal portion 78 and a distal portion 80. Proximal portion 78 is rigidly fastened to upper end 50 of support-panel 46. Bottom-bracket 76 has an upwardly extending distal lip 82 and a downwardly extending proximal mount 84. Proximal mount 84 is provided with a bolt aperture (not shown) and weld-nut 86. Weld-nut 86 is coaxial with the bolt aperture and positioned on the surface of proximal mount 84 that faces distal lip 82.
As illustrated in
Both top-bracket 48 and bottom-bracket 76 are sized to receive upper ledge 72 and lower ledge 74 respectively. It can be readily appreciated that the location of adjustment-slot 88 on support-panel 46 and the vertical length of adjustment-slot 88 will determine the range in the vertical height of cross-bar 70 on which display rack 10 can be mounted.
Display rack 10 includes stand member 96. Stand member 96 is provided to mount display rack 10 to display surface 98. As shown in
Each tray-portion 100 is substantially horizontal and is preferably formed along with the corresponding holder-plate 22 from a single piece of sheet metal by bending the piece 90° along a line defining lower edge 24. The bottom surface of tray 14 abuts display surface 98.
As seen in
Front-support 102 extends laterally from front-panel 92 on both sides of holder 12 such that support-flange 104 has a length greater than the width of front-panel 92. One can readily appreciate that this configuration of front-support 102 provides display rack 10 with a wider base at one end of holder 12 to assist display rack 10 in staying erect.
As with the other preferred embodiments of this invention,
Although the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.
