The invention relates to a sheet material dispenser, with at least two compartments for the accommodation of sheet material, in particular in the form of brochures, in which the compartments are formed using module components for accommodating sheets staggered with respect to one another and arranged one behind the other, which can be joined by a movement directed initially perpendicular and then parallel to the rear wall of the compartments and which can be released again.
A sheet material dispenser of the above type is known, the module components of which provide accommodation for sheet material and have a rear wall and a front wall which are joined together by two side walls and an end wall. With the known sheet material dispenser the rear walls and the front walls of the module components are provided with means by which module components can be joined together. The use of module parts, which have front walls, with the described sheet material dispenser means that the material expense for its manufacture is comparatively large.
The object of the invention is to provide a sheet material dispenser which can be manufactured with little material expense. This object is solved according to the invention in that the module components used for accommodating the sheets are formed from trays, which consist of a rear wall, two side walls and an end wall forming their lower end, that each tray has in each case at least one protrusion directed to the tray interior in the region of the edges of both of its side walls facing away from its rear wall, that on the rear side of the rear wall of each tray at least two mountings are provided for the accommodation of the protrusions of a further tray which can be joined to the tray and that a limit stop is present for limiting the movement, directed parallel to the rear wall, of the trays which can in each case be joined together.
The sheet material dispenser according to the invention offers the advantage that due to the use of tray-shaped module components, i.e. with no front walls or front wall sections, the material expense for the manufacture of the module components is low. For a sheet material dispenser with for example four compartments it is sufficient to provide the front module component with a front wall, which is preferably formed by a front plate which has guide grooves that are movable over the protrusions of the respective front tray.
It has been found to be practicable if each side wall of the trays is provided in each case with at least two protrusions which are spaced from one another and point to the tray interior. Even just through the use of two pairs of protrusions and in each case a mounting assigned to a pair of protrusions, the offset between the staggered trays can be changed by an amount corresponding to the distance between the two protrusions arranged on a side wall.
The same result can be obtained if each side wall only has one protrusion to which, in each case, two mountings, spaced from one another, are assigned on the rear side of the rear wall.
In practice it is recommended for production and stability reasons that each side wall is provided with more than three protrusions and also the rear sides of the rear walls are fitted with a plurality of mountings, wherein the number of the mountings assigned to a row of protrusions does not necessarily have to be equal to the number of protrusions.
The spacing between the protrusions of the respective side wall and the mountings assigned to these protrusions is practically equally large.
The rear sides of the rear walls of the trays are provided with parallel guides in the vicinity of the side walls, of which the guides of the respectively rearmost tray can be used for the accommodation of components which facilitate setting up or hanging up the sheet material dispenser.
The use of module components in the form of trays with which front wall sections are omitted, supplies the prerequisite for combining module components with different filling volumes in order to accommodate various formats of sheet material in the sheet material dispenser. The respective tray can be divided into two or more subtrays by namely equipping the rear wall of one, several or all trays with longitudinal slots for mounting a partition wall having hooks which can be inserted into the slots.
If the partition wall is equipped with protrusions directed towards the side walls of the respective tray, then with the simultaneous use of the protrusions of the sidewalls, the connection of additional trays facilitating the accommodation of sheet material of other formats is possible, which similarly consist of a rear wall, two side walls and an end wall forming its lower end and the width of which essentially corresponds to the spacing between the partition wall and the respective side wall facing it.
Further features and details of the invention can be taken from the dependent claims and the following description of an embodiment of the invention illustrated in the enclosed drawing. The following are shown:
FIG. 1 a perspective view of a sheet material dispenser with two trays and an additional tray,
FIG. 2 the perspective front view of a tray,
FIG. 3 the perspective rear view of the tray according to FIG. 2,
FIG. 4 the insertion of a component for setting up a sheet material dispenser on a table or similar object,
FIG. 5 the insertion of the component illustrated in FIG. 4 for the case where suspension of the sheet material dispenser on a wall is desired,
FIG. 6 the insertion of a partition wall in a tray,
FIG. 7 the perspective front view of an additional tray,
FIG. 8 the rear view of the additional tray according to FIG. 7,
FIG. 9 an illustration corresponding to FIG. 4 for the case of a sheet material dispenser of additional trays,
FIG. 10 an illustration corresponding to FIG. 5 for the case of a sheet material dispenser of additional trays,
FIG. 11 the perspective view of fragments of two additional trays being joined together,
FIG. 12 the front view of a front plate,
FIG. 13 the rear view of the front plate according to FIG. 12,
FIG. 14-17 the configuration of a sheet material dispenser and
FIG. 18 a section through the sheet material dispenser according to FIG. 17.
In FIG. 1, designated with 1a and 1b, two trays are arranged staggered, of which the front tray 1a is divided by a partition wall 2 into two parts each forming one compartment for a smaller sheet format. The right side of the sheet material dispenser is also provided with a tray, which is similarly intended for the accommodation of sheet material of a smaller format and is designated as the additional tray 3 in the following to differentiate it from the larger tray 1. Details of the construction of the trays 1 can be taken from FIGS. 2 and 3, of which FIG. 2 shows the front side and FIG. 3 the rear side of a tray 1. Each tray 1 has a rear wall 4, two side walls 5 and 6 as well as an end wall 7. In the centre of the trays 1 there are longitudinal slots 8 for accepting a partition wall 2. The side walls 5 and 6 of the trays 1 are in the region of their edges facing away from the rear wall 4 provided with lug-shaped protrusions 9 which protrude into the interior of the tray 1. 10 and 11 are holes, which facilitate a direct mounting of the tray 1 on a wall.
On the rear side of its rear wall the tray 1 has receptacle-shaped mountings 12, which accommodate the protrusions 9.
The rear wall 4 is also provided with guides 13, which are formed from L-shaped protrusions arranged in pairs. For reasons of injection moulding, in the region of the guides 13 there are recesses 14 in the rear wall 4. As illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the guides 13 are used to accommodate components 15, with the aid of which the sheet material dispenser can be set up on a table or other support or also hung in a sloping position on a wall. The components 15 have two side walls 16, 17 arranged spaced from one another in the form of right-angled triangles, which are joined together in the region of the limbs of the triangles by transverse walls 18, 19 and which in the region of the hypotenuse of the triangle are provided with guide strips 20, 21, which can be pushed into the guides 13. Limit stops 22 on the rear side of the rear wall 4 together with the counter stops 23, 24 on the components 15 limit their insertion path. The arrangement of the components 15 in the vicinity of the side walls 5, 6 of the respective rearmost tray 1 increases the resistance of the set-up sheet material dispenser to tilting. Immediately below the limit stops 22 there are latching dips 25, which hold the components 15 in the inserted position. To facilitate the sloping suspension of the sheet material dispenser, the transverse wall 18 is provided with holes 26.
Details of the partition wall 2 and fitting it to the rear wall 4 of the tray 1a in FIG. 1 can be taken from FIG. 6. As can be seen, the partition wall 2 is provided at its lower edge with hooks 27 which can be inserted into the longitudinal slots 8. In the inserted state a dip 28 locks into a recess 29 in the end wall 7. On the edge facing away from the hooks 27 the partition wall 2 has lug-shaped protrusions 9, which together with the protrusions 9 on the side walls 5, 6 facilitate the connection of the additional tray 3 having a reduced filling volume for the acceptance of sheet material with a smaller format. The width of the additional trays 3 is in the illustrated case equal to half the width of the tray 1. If the rear wall 4 is provided with several rows of longitudinal slots 8, then with appropriately adapted additional trays other divisions can also be realised.
As can be seen from FIGS. 7 and 8, the construction of the additional trays 3 essentially corresponds to the construction of the tray 1. For parts corresponding to one another, the same reference numerals are therefore used. Due to the smaller dimensions of the additional trays 3 the number of protrusions 9, of mountings 12 and guides 13 of the additional trays 3 can be less than in the case of the trays 1. The dimensions of the above mentioned parts and their spacing to one another however match the dimensions of the corresponding parts of the trays 1 and their spacing to one another.
Based on the identical basic construction of the trays 1 and the additional trays 3, it is possible to configure a sheet material dispenser which only consists of additional trays 3. In a case of this nature it is recommended however that the component 15 illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 is replaced by a component 30 which has similarly reduced dimensions and which is provided with only a single hole 26.
As can be seen best in FIG. 11, the mountings 12 are open at their outer sides and their ends facing the end wall 7, whereas the ends facing away from the end wall 7 are closed and form the limit stops 31 which limit the insertion movement of the protrusions. Through a longitudinal lug 32, which practically extends over the complete height of the trays 1 or of the additional trays 3, the mountings 12 are similarly closed on their internal side. In other words, they form open pocket-like receptacles on two sides. To prevent the longitudinal lugs 32 from hitting the end wall 7 when fitting the trays 1 and the additional trays 3 together, the latter are provided with recesses 33.
Of course, each of the front trays 1 or additional trays 3 must be provided with a cover formed from a front plate 34 on their front side. As can be seen from FIGS. 12 and 13, the front plate 34 is provided with grooves 35 in the region of its side edges and at its lower edge with a transverse strip 36 which forms a limit stop, which contacts the inner side of the end wall 7 with the sheet material dispenser in the assembled state.
The assembly of a sheet material dispenser having two compartments 37 formed from two trays 1 is explained in the following based on FIGS. 14 to 17. FIG. 14 illustrates the front view of the two trays 1 and a front plate 34 as well as the sectioning line X-X of the sections illustrated in FIGS. 15 to 17. In the course of the assembly of the parts—as indicated by the arrow sequence 38—first the front plate 34 is pushed from above over the protrusions 9 of the front tray 1 until its transverse strip 36 (cf. FIGS. 12 and 13) contacts the inner side of the end wall 7. Then the front tray 1 is moved perpendicularly to the rear wall 4 of the rear tray 1 in the direction of the arrow 39 until the trays 1 take up the position illustrated in FIG. 16 in which the mountings 12 are flush with the protrusions 9. Now the front tray 1 is pushed in the direction of the arrow 40 parallel to the rear wall 4 of the rear tray 1 until the position illustrated in FIG. 17 is reached. FIG. 18 illustrates a section along the line Y-Y in FIG. 17 through the assembled parts.
Patent Application
20080099498
