Patent Application
20050269918
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,157 (hereinafter the “‘157’ patent”) incorporated herein by reference, it is known to provide a rotary filing cabinet system having what is known as a starter cabinet followed by one or more of what are known as adder cabinets arranged in line with the starter cabinet. In this prior art system, as shown in FIG. 1 of the '157 patent, two adder cabinets, for example, may follow to the right of the starter cabinet. Each of these two adder cabinets has a smaller front width than a front width of the starter cabinet, even though the rotor containing shelves for each filing cabinet has the same front width. Although the starter cabinet has a left and a right front panel assembly lying to the left and to the right of the rotor, the two adder cabinets only have a right front panel assembly at the right side of the rotor. In the two adder cabinets, no left front panel assemblies are provided since sufficient spacing exists for the rotor in the two adder cabinets to turn without the corners of the rotor hitting the adjacent rotor, since no internal sidewalls are provided between the starter and the first adder cabinets, or between the two adder cabinets.
With this prior art unit, floor space is saved with such an arrangement of starter plus two adder cabinets since the two adder cabinets have a narrower width than the starter cabinet.
As shown in the '157 patent, both the starter and the two adder cabinets have a same height. However, if it is desired to have a short adder cabinet lying between a tall starter cabinet and another tall adder cabinet, it was known in the prior art that all three of the short adder cabinet, the tall starter cabinet, and the tall adder cabinet must be of a full size width which is the same for all three cabinets, assuming the rotors of the three cabinets all have a same width. This has the disadvantage of requiring more floor space.
It is an object to provide a short rotary filing cabinet between two tall rotary filing cabinets, but wherein floor space occupied by the three cabinets is minimized.
The rotary filing cabinet system and method is provided wherein a short adder cabinet is provided between a tall starter cabinet and a tall adder cabinet. The short adder cabinet includes a tall right front panel assembly of a height which is the same as the height of the tall adder cabinet, and further including first and second covering panels which cover respective side openings above a top panel of the short adder cabinet at a side of the tall adder cabinet facing the short cabinet and at a right side of the tall starter cabinets facing the short cabinet.
For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.
First, the prior art
The prior art rotary filing cabinet system is generally shown at 4 in
The left front panel assembly 11A is formed of a metal face 11AA of a first front corner post flanked at one side by a metal lip 11AB of a left side lip of end panel 17 and at the other side by a vinyl strip 11AC. The right front panel assembly 11B has a front metal face 11BA of a second front corner post flanked by respective vinyl strips 11BB and 11BC. The front panel assembly 12B is formed like assembly 11B and front panel assembly 13B is formed like assembly 11A, but with the metal lip and vinyl strip reversed.
Each of the rotors 6 may have a plurality of shelves 6A and side panels 6B and 6C. Both the front and the back of the rotor 6 are open so that when the rotor is rotated 180°, files 3 from the back can be removed. A central vertical divider panel may be provided to create front and back file compartments.
A lock 8 is provided on each of the right side front metal faces. Foot pedals 9 are provided for each of the cabinets. When the pedals are depressed, the rotors can be rotated.
A pivot axis 7 for each of the rotors is shown at the top of each cabinet.
Each of the cabinets 11, 12 and 13 has a respective base 11C, 12C, and 13C.
The system also has left and right side end panels 17 and 18.
At the top of the system respective top panels 11D, 12D and 13D are provided.
Other structural details of the prior art system shown in
A front view of the prior art system of
In many installations, it is desirable to have a short center cabinet flanked by two tall cabinets. As shown in the prior art system 3 a tall starter cabinet 11 having height H1 is provided along with a middle short starter cabinet 2 having height H2 followed by another tall starter cabinet 11 of height H1. The width L1 of all of the starter cabinets 11, 2 and 11 are the same. Thus more floor space results than for system 4 shown in
With the improved rotary filing cabinet system 1 having a short adder cabinet as shown in
As indicated in
The short adder cabinet 100 has a base 100C and a top panel 100D.
The tall right front panel assembly 100B is formed of a tall front face 100BA of a front corner post 200 with a tall vinyl strip 100BC to the right of this front face. To the left of the front face is a short vinyl strip 100BB. Above the level of the top panel 100D is a lip 102B of a top-closing panel 102, on adder cabinet 13, clearly shown in the cross-sectional view of
As also shown in
Thus, when the system is sold, to create the layout shown in
Although in the foregoing preferred embodiment is was described that the tall cabinets flanking the central short cabinet were the same height, this is not required within the scope of the invention. Also additional intermediate short cabinets may be employed where those short cabinets have different heights compared to each other.
While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood that only the preferred embodiment has been shown and described and that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention are desired to be protected.
