BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A more complete understanding of the present invention, and the attendant advantages and features thereof, will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a display cabinet in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2A is a top view of a typical embodiment of the display cabinet, showing a drawer in sectional view;
FIG. 2B is a side view of the display cabinet showing a drawer in an open position;
FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a detail of the eyeglass display unit and a drawer;
FIG. 4 is a top sectional view of a drawer within a cabinet having the drawer in the open position; and
FIG. 5 is a cut-away top view of a means for moving the drawer into and out of an accessible condition.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a display for eyeglasses 10 in accordance with the present invention. Display 10 includes an enclosure 12 having a top 14 and a bottom 16. An eyeglass display unit 18 is disposed within the enclosure 12, between the top 14 and the bottom 16. The display unit 18 may be rotatable within enclosure 12. As shown in FIG. 1, a second eyeglass display unit 18A may also be disposed within the enclosure 12. Display unit 18A may also be rotatable within enclosure 12. A top, front portion 15 of display 10 may include lighting and/or indicia such as, for example, the name of the sunglass store, or logo identifying the brands of eyeglasses contained in display 10.
A vertically-disposed cabinet 20 is secured to the enclosure 12 so that at least a portion of the cabinet 20 is above the bottom 16 of the enclosure 12. A drawer 22 is slidably disposed within the cabinet 20. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the entire portion of cabinet 20 is disposed above bottom 16. The drawer 22 may include a one or more storage bins 24 within drawer 22. Storage bins 24 are sized to receive and house one or more pairs of glasses. Bins 24 may include lids as extra security for the eyeglasses stored therein. The lids may be secured by one or more hinges or fasteners to allow the lids to be swung or slid open in order to gain access to the contests of bin 24.
Furthermore, each of the bins 24 may be partitioned into one or more sections 26, wherein each section 26 is dimensioned to receive a pair of eyeglasses 28. Although the sections 26 are shown in FIG. 1 as being vertically disposed within bin 24 in a side-by-side manner, they may also be disposed in a horizontal fashion, where one section 26 is disposed on top of another. A second cabinet 20A may be secured to enclosure 12. Instead of one drawer 22, one or more drawers 22A and 22B may be disposed within a single cabinet 20A. Each of the drawers 22A and 22B may contain one or more bins 24 and the bins 24 may be partitioned into sections 26, as described above, where each section 26 may be dimensioned to receive a pair of eyeglasses 28. Also, drawer 22 may have a mirror 30 secured to it for the convenience of a prospective purchaser.
FIG. 2A is a top view of the display cabinet 10 to which second cabinet 20A is affixed. At least a portion of second cabinet 20A is also located above the bottom 16 of the enclosure 12. Drawer 22 may be withdrawn from cabinet 20 to gain access to the glasses stored within bins 24 and closed within cabinet 20, by movement in the direction of the indicator arrows. FIG. 2B is a side view of the display cabinet 10 shown in FIG. 1, showing one example of the placement of bins 24 in drawer 22.
FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a detail of eyeglass display unit 18 and drawer 22. The eyeglass display unit 18 includes one or more eyeglass receivers 32. As shown, the eyeglass receivers 32 may include a nose piece 34 and earpiece receivers 36. Other receivers known in the art are also contemplated. The eyeglass receivers 36 may include receiver indexing indicators 38. An indexing indicator may be an alphanumeric designation as shown in FIG. 1, a word, a pictograph, a color, a number, or any combination, or a similar indicator. The indexing indicator can help a person stocking the display 10 in accordance with a predetermined display plan, such a presentation by price, style, color, etc., and to perform his or her job more easily. In one configuration, an eyeglass receiver 32 has a receiver indexing indicator 38. Associated with drawer 22 is a drawer indexing indicator 40, shown in FIG. 1. Each receiver indexing indicator 38 may have a corresponding drawer indexing indicator 40, thus enabling a worker to identify and locate replacement glasses in a quick and efficient manner.
Similarly, FIG. 3 illustrates the use of receiver indexing indicators 38 with bin indexing indicators 42 located within the drawer 22. In this embodiment, the eyeglass display unit 18 includes one or more eyeglass receivers 32 having receiver indexing indicators 38. One or more bin indexing indicators 42 are associated with one or more corresponding bins 24. Each receiver indexing indicator 38 may have a corresponding bin indexing indicator 42.
The eyeglass display unit 18 can also be provided with bins 24 having partitions 26. The eyeglass display unit 18 has one or more eyeglass receivers 32 having receiver indexing indicators 38 and one or more partition indexing indicators associated with each partition 26. Each receiver indexing indicator 38 may have a corresponding partition indexing indicator. Thus, a second indexing scheme allows a worker to determine not only the bin 24 where replacement glasses may reside, but also the partition 26 within the bin 24 where one or more replacement glasses may reside.
Referring once again to FIG. 3, it can be seen that bins 24 are substantially aligned with one or more eyeglass receivers 32. Thus, in an alternate embodiment, the alignment of bins 24 with corresponding eyeglass receivers 32 may be used as an indexing scheme to allow workers to quickly and efficiently identify sold glasses, locate corresponding replacement glasses and fill an empty eyeglass receiver 32 with replacement glasses. For example, in FIG. 3, two eyeglass receivers 32 on the top row of display unit 18 are empty, indicating that two pairs of eyeglasses were sold and corresponding glasses need to be inserted into the empty slots. “Corresponding glasses” may be taken to mean glasses with similar appearance, glasses from the same manufacturer, glasses of the same or similar cost, or glasses containing any other identifiable feature that corresponds to the glasses that were sold. A worker can simply approach display 10, visually identify which glasses were sold by their empty receiver 32, withdraw drawer 22 from its cabinet 20, retrieve glasses contained in a bin 24 that is positionally aligned with the empty eyeglass receiver or receivers 32, and insert a pair of glasses on the empty eyeglass receiver 32.
The method described above can be used fill one or more empty eyeglass receivers 32 by use of the aligned bins 24 with drawer 22. Each bin 24 may be aligned with one or more eyeglass receivers 32. For example, a bin 24 within drawer 22 may be aligned with both sets of eyeglass receivers 32 in display 10, i.e., eyeglass receiver 32 within unit 18 and another eyeglass receiver 32 within unit 18A. Because the eyeglass receivers 32 within side-by-side units 18 and 18A are usually aligned with each other, one bin 24 may house replacement glasses for eyeglass receivers 32 in each unit, 18 and 18A.
Further, one bin 24 may be aligned with eyeglass receivers 32 within one display unit 18. For example, in FIG. 3, the topmost bin 24 is substantially aligned with the top tow rows of eyeglass receivers 32 in unit 18. Thus, it is easy for a worker to simply identify the empty eyeglass receivers 32 in unit 18, look to his right (or left if unit 18A is being examined for sold eyeglasses and drawer 22A and/or 22B contain replacement glasses), gain access to bin 24 which is at substantially the same level as the empty receivers 32, remove corresponding eyeglasses and insert them in the empty eyeglass receiver or receivers 32.
FIG. 4 is a top view of an open drawer 22 located within a cabinet 20. A bearing and rail system 44 for moving drawer 22 into and out of a closed position may be used to secure the eyeglasses within cabinet 20 when the drawer 22 is in a closed condition. FIG. 5 is a cut away view of the bearing and rail system 44 of FIG. 4. Other means for allowing drawer 22 to be inserted within and withdrawn from cabinet 20 are known in the art and are contemplated herein.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to what has been particularly shown and described herein above. In addition, unless mention was made above to the contrary, it should be noted that all of the accompanying drawings are not to scale. A variety of modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, which is limited only by the following claims.
Patent Application
20070267369
