WO1988001482A1

WO1988001482A1 - Shelving

Info

Publication number: WO1988001482A1
Application number: PCT/AU1987/000293
Authority: WO
Inventors: Peter Riddle
Original assignee: Peter Riddle
Priority date: 1986-08-27
Filing date: 1987-08-27
Publication date: 1988-03-10
Also published as: AU2004201879A1

Abstract

A knock-down shelving system includes a plurality of shelves (10, 11) separated by risers (16, 17, 18). The risers are either L-shaped (16), T-shaped (17) or rectangular (18), in plan and shelves and adjacent risers are connected by dowels (15) located in holes or bores (13) in the shelves and extending into corresponding bores (19) in the upper and lower edges of the risers. The shelving system is arranged to be supplied in a substantially flat knocked-down form for assembly at the point of use.

Description

"SHELVING"

The present invention relates generally to shelving systems and in particular provides an improved system of pre-fabricated modular shelving which is particularly 5 useful for storage of books, hi-fi equipment, television sets and video recorders.

The present invention consists in a pre-fabricated knock-down shelving system comprising a plurality of shelves, a plurality of risers designed to be located

10 vertically between adjacent pairs of said shelves to space said shelves apart and a plurality of dowels for locating said risers relative to said shelves, the shelves being provided with sets of holes therethrough, each set of holes comprising at least two holes placed in a predefined

15 configuration relative to one another, the holes being sized to accept said dowels and the risers having bores in their upper and lower edges, the bores in each riser being configured to co-operate with one of said sets of^"holes in a shelf and said bores being sized to accept said dowels

20 such that the bores can receive ends of dowels located in said holes to thereby locate the respective riser and shelf relative to one another.

In the preferred embodiment, the risers may be either L-shaped, T-shaped or rectangular in plan with the L & T

25 shaped risers being assembled from two rectangular components which are connected by dowels. Preferably at least one L-shaped or one T-shaped riser will be located between each pair of shelves in the shelving system. Typically, the risers will be supplied in a plurality of

30 different heights, each height corresponding to one of the nominal standard spine lengths selected by publishers of books or alternatively the standard heights selected by ^- manufacturers of modular electronic equipment. Preferably, the holes and bores in the shelves and risers

35 are sized to be a slight interference fit over said dowels. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the holes in the upper shelf does not extend completely through the shelf and the co-operating dowels located in those holes are shorter than the remainder of the dowels, such that the dowel extends only part way through the shelf and into the bore of the one riser associated with that shelf. In contrast, the dowels associated with shelves having risers on the upper and lower sides thereof are sufficiently long to extend into the bore of each of the risers adjacent the respective shelf.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which;

Figure 1 schematically illustrates a possible embodiment of the present invention in plan view; Figure 2 schematically illustrates a partial - elevation of the embodiment of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a perspective view oϊ an assembly of the components illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. Referring to the drawings, the shelving system comprises a plurality of shelves 10 and 11 located vertically above one another the lower shelf 10 of the shelving system (and also the upper shelf of Figure 3) being provided with bores 12 and the intermediate shelves 11 being provided with through holes 13 therein, for receiving dowels 14 and 15 respectively.

Adjacent pairs of shelves 10 and 11 are separated by risers which may be L-shaped 16, T-shaped 17 or rectangular 18 in plan. Each of the risers 16, 17 and 18 is provided with a plurality of bores 19 in their upper and lower edges, the bores 19 being spaced at predetermined standardised spacings and the holes 13 and bores 12 in the shelves 10 and 11 being configured to co-operate with the bores 19 in the upper and lower edges of the risers respectively. The size of the bores 19 and in the risers 16, 17 and 18 and the holes 13 and bores 12 in the shelves 10, 11 are sized to be a slight interference fit over the dowels 14 and 15.

Preferably the T-shaped and L-shaped risers 16 and 17 are themselves made up of two rectangular components 26, 27, 28 and 29 respectively, and these two components are connected by dowels 31 which are sized to be a interference fit in bores 32. This method of construction for the risers allows the risers 10 to be knocked down flat for packaging and transport while providing a rigid structure on assembly which can withstand normal abuses.

To assemble a shelving system, first the T-shaped and L-shaped risers 16 and 17 are assembled by placing the dowels 31 in the bores 32 of one half of each riser and then pressing the other half of the riser onto the respective dowels. A lower shelf 10 is then placed on the first set of risers and another set of risers are located on the upper ends of each^of the dowels 14 located in the bottom shelf 10 and another set of dowels 15 are placed in the bores 19 in the upper edges of the risers 16, 17 and 18. An intermediate shelf unit 11 is then placed over the dowels 15 in the upper edges of the first row of risers, such that the dowels 15 project through the shelf 11 enabling another row of risers to be placed on the upper ends of the dowels 15. This procedure is continued with shelves and risers alternating until the desired height of the shelving system is reached. The last set of dowels placed in the upper row of risers of the shelving system should be the shorter dowels (not shown) and the upper shelf which is placed on the last row of risers should have bores rather than holes 13 such that the top surface of the shelving system has no holes.

It will be recognised by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and modifications may be made to the invention as described above without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described.

Claims

The claims defining the invention are as follows:-

1. A pre-fabricated knock-down shelving system comprising a plurality of shelves, a plurality of risers designed to be located vertically between adjacent pairs of said shelves to space said shelves apart and a plurality of dowels for locating said risers relative to said shelves, the shelves being provided with sets of holes therethrough, each set of holes comprising at least two holes placed in a predefined configuration relative to one another, the holes being sized to accept said dowels and the risers having bores in their upper and lower edges, the bores in each riser being configured to co-operate with one of said sets of holes in a shelf and said bores being sized to accept said dowels such that the bores can receive ends of dowels located in said holes to thereby locate the respective riser and shelf relative to one another.

2. The shelving system of claim 1 wherein the risers are L-shaped, T-shaped or rectangular in plan.

3. The shelving system of claim 2 wherein at least one of said L-shaped or T-shaped risers is provided for placement between each pair of shelves.

4. The shelving system of claim 1 wherein the holes in the shelves and risers are sized to be a slight interference fit over said dowels.

5. The shelving system of claim 1 wherein lowermost and uppermost shelves are provided with bores in place of said holes, said bores extending only partly through the respective shelves.

6. The shelving system of claim 5 wherein two sizes of dowels are provided, one longer size being sufficiently long to extend through a hole in an intermediate shelf and into the corresponding bores in risers above and below the shelf respectively, and a shorter size being only long enough to extend into the bore in one of the uppermost or lowermost shelves and into a corresponding bore in an adjacent riser.

7. The shelving system of claim 3 wherein the L-shaped and T-shaped risers each comprise two riser parts each of which parts are rectangular in plan and have horizontal bores located to enable joining of the parts with dowels.

8. A kit of parts for a knock-down shelving system as claimed in claim 1, said kit comprising a plurality of shelves, a plurality of flat riser parts and a plurality of dowels, the shelves and riser parts being provided with holes and bores arranged to enable connection of the shelves and risers with dowels, such that the system can be supplied in a substantially flat package and assembled at the point of use.