Patent Application
20230172352
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The disclosure relates to shelf devices and more particularly pertains to a new shelf device for supporting a recipe book beneath a wall mounted cabinet. The device includes a panel that is mountable to an underside of the wall mounted cabinet and a shelf that is hingedly coupled to the shelf. The shelf is oriented at right angle with respect to the panel when the shelf is in the deployed position and the shelf lies on a plane that is coplanar with the panel when the shelf is in the stored position.
The prior art relates to shelf devices including a variety of cabinet mounted shelves that include a shelf that is mounted to a support panel in a cantilevered fashion. The prior art discloses an under cabinet shelf device that includes a panel and the shelf that is pivotally disposed on the panel. The shelf includes pegs which slidably engage slots in the panel for positioning the shelf between a deployed position and a stored position. The prior art discloses an under cabinet shelf that includes scissor arms that engage an underside of a cabinet. The prior art discloses an under cabinet shelf device that includes a shelf which has a slot integrated into the shelf for retaining a planar object on the shelf.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a panel that is mountable on an underside of a wall mounted cabinet. A shelf is provided and the shelf is hingedly disposed on the panel. The shelf is positionable in a deployed position having the shelf extending downwardly from the panel. In this way a recipe book can be positioned on the shelf such that the recipe book is visible to a user. The shelf is positionable in a stored position having the shelf lying against the panel. and A first magnet is coupled the panel and a second magnet is coupled to the shelf. The second magnet magnetically engages the first magnet when the shelf is in the stored position for retaining the shelf in the stored position.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
The panel 12 has a plurality of fastener apertures 36 each extending through the recessed portion 32 of the bottom surface 20 and the top surface 18 and each of the fastener apertures 36 is aligned with a respective one of four corners 38 of the panel 12. Each of the fastener apertures 36 has a first section 40 and a second section 42. The first section 40 is rounded and the second section 42 has an ovoid shape which has a width that is less than a diameter of the first section 40. In this way the first section 40 can accommodate a head 44 of a fastener 46 which engages the underside 14 of the wall mounted cabinet 16. Moreover, the head 44 of the fastener 46 is slidable into the second section 42 thereby retaining the panel 12 on the wall mounted cabinet 16 having the top surface 18 abutting the underside 14 of the wall mounted cabinet 16.
A shelf 48 is hingedly disposed on the panel 12 and the shelf 48 is positionable in a deployed position having the shelf 48 extending downwardly from the panel 12. In this way a recipe book 50 can be positioned on the shelf 48 such that the recipe book 50 is visible to a user. The recipe book 50 might be displayed on an electronic device, such as a tablet, or the recipe book 50 might be a printed book. In either case, the recipe book 50 is a planar object that can rest on the shelf 48. The shelf 48 is positionable in a stored position having the shelf 48 lying against the panel 12. The shelf 48 may be oriented at a right angle with respect to the panel 12 when the shelf 48 is in the deployed position. Additionally, the shelf 48 may travel between lying on a plane that is coplanar with the panel 12 and being oriented at a right angle with the panel 12 when the shelf 48 is moved between the deployed position and the stored position.
The shelf 48 has a first surface 52, a second surface 54 and an outer edge 56 extending between the first surface 52 and the second surface 54, and the outer edge 56 has a rear side 58, a forward side 60, a first sidelong side 62 and a second sidelong side 64. The first surface 52 has a lip 66 extending away from the first surface 52. The lip 66 is aligned with and is coextensive with the forward side 60 of the outer edge 56 to support the recipe book 50 when the recipe book 50 is positioned on the first surface 52. Each of the first sidelong side 62 and the second sidelong side 64 has a pivot point 68 that is positioned adjacent to the rear side 58 of the outer edge 56. The pivot point 68 on each of the first sidelong side 62 and the second sidelong side 64 pivotally engages a respective one of a first lateral bounding surface 70 and a second lateral bounding surface 72 of the recessed portion 32 of the bottom surface 20 of the panel 12 at point that is located adjacent to the back side 26 of the perimeter surface 22 of the panel 12. The shelf 48 is positioned in the recessed portion 32 of the bottom surface 20 of the panel 12 when the shelf 48 is in the stored position.
A pair of supports 74 is provided and each of the supports 74 has a first section 76 that is hingedly coupled to a second section 78. Each of the supports 74 has a first end 80 and a second end 82; the first end 80 is associated with the first section 76 of the supports 74 and the second end 82 is associated with the second section 78 of the supports 74. The first end 80 of each of the supports 74 is recessed into the first surface 52 of the shelf 48 having the first end 80 of each of the supports 74 pivotally engaging the shelf 48. The second end 82 of each of the supports 74 is recessed into the recessed portion 32 of the bottom surface 20 of the panel 12 having the second end 82 of each of the supports 74 pivotally engaging the panel 12. Each of the supports 74 is elongated to extend between the shelf 48 and the panel 12 when the shelf 48 is positioned in the deployed position. Additionally, the first section 76 and the second section 78 of each of the supports 74 is folded when the shelf 48 is positioned in the stored position.
A first magnet 84 is disposed on the panel 12 and the first magnet 84 is positioned on the recessed portion 32 of the bottom surface 20. The first magnet 84 is positioned adjacent to the front side 24 of the perimeter surface 22, and the first magnet 84 is centrally positioned between the first lateral side 28 and the second lateral side 30 of the perimeter surface 22 of the panel 12. A second magnet 86 is coupled to the shelf 48 and the second magnet 86 magnetically engages the first magnet 84 when the shelf 48 is in the stored position for retaining the shelf 48 in the stored position. The second magnet 86 is positioned on a distal surface 88 of the lip 66 on the first surface 52 of the shelf 48 and the second magnet 86 is centrally positioned between first sidelong side 62 and the second sidelong side 64 of the shelf 48.
In an alternative embodiment 90 as is most clearly shown in
The stem 94 includes a foot 96 that is disposed on a distal end 98 of the stem 94 with respect to the head 95. The foot 96 is spaced from the first surface 52 of the shelf 48 and the foot 96 engages an engagement point 100 that is integrated into the panel 12 when the lock 92 is rotated into a locked position for retaining the shelf 48 in the stored position. Conversely, the foot 96 disengages the engagement point 100 when the lock 92 is rotated into an unlocked position to facilitate the shelf 48 to be positioned in the deployed position.
In use, the panel 12 is mounted to the underside 14 of the wall mounted cabinet 16. The shelf 48 is positioned in the deployed position to support the recipe book 50. In this way the recipe book 50 is visible to a cook while the cook is following a recipe in the recipe book 50. Additionally, the recipe book 50 can be employed in a hands free manner while the cook is following the recipe in the recipe book 50. The shelf 48 is positioned in the stored position when the recipe book 50 is not positioned on the shelf 48.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
