Patent Application
20110220602
The present invention relates to a shelf to twin-post support assembling structure for sectional rack, which mainly includes four additional movable brackets provided at four corners of every shelf of a sectional rack, and the movable brackets are connected at upper and lower ends to between the shelves and twin-post supports of the sectional rack to provide sideward supporting strength, enabling the assembled sectional rack to withstand increased sideward external force without wobbling.
Various types of organization products are provided in homes, offices or other working places for holding or positioning different articles and items. Such organization products can be generally divided into a fixed type that could not be easily disassembled and a sectional type that can be easily disassembled and assembled again. The sectional organization products have the advantages of easy to store and transport to thereby enable reduced storing and transporting costs and accordingly upgraded market competing ability.
The sectional organization products can be further divided into two types, one of which requires tools to assemble and disassemble it while the other type can be assembled and disassembled without the need of using any tool. Among the same type of sectional organization products, the products that can be assembled using fewer tools would be accepted by more consumers.
Every shelf 11 is fixedly provided at four corners with a fastening connector 111 each. The fastening connectors 111 each are an axially extended U-shaped bracket to define a U-shaped receiving space therein. The U-shaped receiving spaces of the fastening connectors 111 located at two front corners of the shelves 11 are forward opened, while the U-shaped receiving spaces of the fastening connectors 111 located at two rear corners of the shelves 11 are rearward opened. When measuring at the same lateral side of the shelf 11, a distance between an inner end of the forward opened receiving space of the front fastening connector 111 and an inner end of the rearward opened receiving space of the rear fastening connector 111 is slightly smaller than a distance between the front posts 101 of the front twin-post support and the rear posts 102 of the rear twin-post support of the side support frame 10. The receiving spaces of the fastening connectors 111 at four corners of the shelves 11 can be engaged with corresponding front and rear posts 101, 102 of the side support frames 10, so that the shelves 11 outward push against the front posts 101 and the rear posts 102 of the side support frames 10 and are fixedly assembled to between the two side support frames 10. The above-structured sectional rack 1 has relatively low structural strength and tends to wobble sidewardly. To overcome this problem, two crossed tension braces 12 are further erected between the rear posts 102 of the two side support frames 10 to give the assembled sectional rack 1 an increased structural strength. Since the crossed tension braces 12 are not suitable for mounting to between the front posts 101 of the side support frames 10, the sectional rack 1 does not have balanced front and rear structural strength. Thus, the whole sectional rack 1 still has poor structural strength and tends to wobble sidewardly when an external force is applied thereto. In brief, the structure for assembling the shelves 11 to the side support frames 10 of the conventional sectional rack 1 is not suitable for forming a sectional rack with increased height and width.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to overcome the problems in the conventional sectional rack having twin-post supports by developing a shelf to twin-post support assembling structure for sectional rack, so that the sectional rack with the assembling structure of the present invention in a fully assembled state can have increased structural strength without wobbling under sideward external force applied thereto.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a shelf to twin-post support assembling structure for sectional rack, so that shelves and twin-post supports of the sectional rack are firmly connected to one another to give the whole assembled sectional rack an increased structural strength.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a shelf to twin-post support assembling structure for sectional rack, so that crossed metal tension braces required in the conventional sectional rack can be now omitted from the back of the sectional rack with the shelf to twin-post support assembling structure according to the present invention, enabling the sectional rack to have a neat and aesthetic appearance.
The sectional rack includes at least two side support frames and at least two shelves. The side support frames respectively includes a front twin-post support having two juxtaposed front posts and a rear twin-post support having two juxtaposed rear posts. The shelves are provided at four corners with a fastening connector each for engaging with the front and rear twin-post supports of the side support frames.
To achieve the above and other objects, the shelf to twin-post support assembling structure for sectional rack according to the present invention includes a front and a rear transverse metal bar respectively connected to lower front and lower rear end of every shelf, and a movable bracket rotatably connected to each of two lateral ends of the front and rear transverse metal bars. Each of the movable brackets has an upper end connected to the transverse metal bar of the shelf and a lower end connected to the twin-post support of the side support frame. While the fastening connectors allow a user to primarily assemble the shelves to the two side support frames, the use of the movable brackets further increases the connection strength between the shelves and the side support frames, enabling the fully assembled sectional rack to have increased structural strength without wobbling under a sideward external force applied thereto.
The fastening connectors provided at four corners of the shelves each are an axially extended U-shaped bracket to define a U-shaped receiving space therein. When the U-shaped receiving spaces of the fastening connectors are engaged with the front posts and rear posts of the side support frames on two lateral sides of the shelves by force fitting, the shelves function to outward push against the front posts and the rear posts of the twin-post front and rear supports of the two side support frames, so that the shelves are primarily assembled to the two side support frames.
In the shelf to twin-post support assembling structure for sectional rack according to the present invention, each of the movable brackets has an upper end rotatably fitted around one corresponding front or rear transverse metal bar, and a lower end formed into a U-shaped section to define a U-shaped engaging space therein. With the U-shaped engaging spaces at the lower ends of the movable brackets being correspondingly tightly engaged with the front and the rear posts of the side support frames, the movable brackets provide additional sideward supporting strength between the shelves and the side support frames to increase the overall structural strength of the fully assembled sectional rack.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
The present invention will now be described with some preferred embodiments thereof. For the purpose of easy to understand, elements that are the same in the preferred embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals.
Please refer to
Each of the side support frames 20 includes a front twin-post support having two juxtaposed front posts 21, a rear twin-post support having two juxtaposed rear posts 22, and at least two (three are shown in the drawings) vertically spaced horizontal braces 23 arranged from top to bottom. Each of the horizontal braces 23 has a front and a rear end welded to the front posts 21 and the rear posts 22, respectively. More specifically, the front ends of the horizontal braces 23 are fixedly welded to between the two juxtaposed front posts 21, and the rear ends of the horizontal braces 23 are fixedly welded to between the two juxtaposed rear posts 22.
Each of the shelves 30 is provided at a lower front and a lower rear end with a front and a rear transverse metal bar 33 and 34, respectively. The shelves 30 in the illustrated embodiment are metal shelves made of a plurality of metal bars. Every shelf 30 is fixedly provided at four corners with a fastening connector 31 each. The fastening connectors 31 are respectively an axially extended U-shaped bracket to define a U-shaped receiving space 32 therein. The U-shaped receiving spaces 32 of the fastening connectors 31 located at two front corners of the shelf 30 are forward opened, while the U-shaped receiving spaces 32 of the fastening connectors 31 located at two rear corners of the shelf 30 are rearward opened. When measuring at the same lateral side of the shelf 30, a distance between an inner end of the forward opened receiving space 32 of the front fastening connector 31 and an inner end of the rearward opened receiving space 32 of the rear fastening connector 31 is slightly smaller than a distance between the front posts 21 of the front twin-post support and the rear posts 22 of the rear twin-post support of the side support frame 20. When the fastening connectors 31 located at front corners and rear corners of the shelves 30 are engaged at their U-shaped receiving spaces 32 with front posts 21 and rear posts 22, respectively, of the side support frames 20 on two lateral sides of the shelves 30 by force fitting, the shelves 30 function to outward push against the front posts 21 and the rear posts 22 of the twin-post front and rear supports of the two side support frames 20, so that the shelves 30 are primarily assembled to the two side support frames 20, as shown in
A movable bracket 40 is rotatably connected to each of two lateral ends of the front and rear transverse metal bars 33, 34 arranged at the lower front and lower rear end of every shelf 30. The movable bracket 40 has an upper end 41 rotatably fitted around one corresponding front or rear transverse metal bar 33, 34, and a lower end formed into a U-shaped section 42 to define a U-shaped engaging space 43 therein. The U-shaped engaging spaces 43 of the movable brackets 40 provided on the front transverse metal bars 33 of the shelves 30 are forward opened, while the U-shaped engaging spaces 43 of the movable brackets 40 provided on the rear transverse metal bars 34 of the shelves 30 are rearward opened.
When the fastening connectors 31 at four corners of the shelves 30 have been connected to the left and right side support frames 20 with the receiving spaces 32 of the fastening connectors 31 engaged with corresponding front and rear posts 21, 22, the movable brackets 40 connected to the front transverse metal bars 33 of the shelves 30 can be sequentially turned forward about the front transverse metal bars 33, so that the U-shaped engaging spaces 43 at the lower ends of the movable brackets 40 are correspondingly tightly engaged with the front posts 21 of the side support frames 20; and then, the movable brackets 40 connected to the rear transverse metal bars 34 of the shelves 30 are sequentially turned rearward about the rear transverse metal bars 34, so that the U-shaped engaging spaces 43 at the lower ends of the movable brackets 40 are correspondingly tightly engaged with the rear posts 22 of the side support frames 20, as shown in
The movable brackets 40 are rotatably connected at respective upper ends 41 to the front and the rear transverse metal bars 33, 34, and can therefore be pivotally turned about the corresponding front and rear transverse metal bars 33, 34. When the U-shaped engaging spaces 43 of the movable brackets 40 are engaged with corresponding front and rear posts 21, 22, the upper ends 41 of the movable brackets 40 are respectively pressed at a lateral outer end against a stopper 35. That is, the movable brackets 40 located closer to a left side of the shelves 30 are pressed at their respective upper left end against a stopper 35, and the movable brackets 40 located closer to a right side of the shelves 30 are pressed at their respective upper right end against another stopper 35. With these arrangements, the movable brackets 40 are securely connected to and between the front and rear posts 21, 22 and the shelves 30 to pull the front and rear posts 21, 22 toward the shelves 30, ensuring a stronger and more stable connection between the shelves 30 and the side support frames 20. In practical implementation of the present invention, the stoppers 35 can be respectively fixedly coupled with one corresponding fastening connector 31 to form an integral unit, and the fastening connectors 31 are connected to the shelves 30 to form an integral unit by welding the stoppers 35 to the shelves 30.
The first embodiment of the sectional rack 2 shown in
The shelf to twin-post support assembling structure for sectional rack according to the present invention is characterized in the movable brackets 40 added to the shelves 30. With the movable brackets 40, an additional sideward supporting structure between the shelves 30 and the side support frames 20 is created, allowing the fully assembled sectional rack to withstand increased sideward external force applied thereto without wobbling. Thus, the object of providing the sectional rack with increased structural strength is successfully achieved.
The present invention has been described with some preferred embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.
