EP0225568B1 - Vending furniture and merchandise compartment for such furniture - Google Patents

Abstract

A merchandise compartment (15.4, 15.5) for displaying flat merchandise is formed by plugging together single-piece merchandise troughs (19) with the aid of a compartment holding rail (25.2) and a plug-on strip (23). By assembly of several such compartments, sturdy vending furniture can be produced in a simple manner. The compartment depth can be altered by using several compartment holding rails (25.1, 25.2, 25.3). The compartment height can also be altered with the aid of an extension panel (29). <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a piece of sales furniture and a compartment for such a piece of furniture for presenting flat goods staggered in the vertical and vertical directions. Such compartments and such furniture are used for clear and easily removable arrangement of goods such. B. greeting cards, writing paper, maps or books or z. B. records, video and audio cassettes or floppy disks.

From the generic US-A 3,895,720 sales furniture and product compartments of the type mentioned are known, which are arranged one above the other and have a common rear wall. The back walls of these compartments cannot be staggered with each other. Furthermore, the lateral, front-side mounting of the compartments arranged one above the other requires side parts which must be equipped with groove-like indentations in accordance with the profile and arrangement of the front sides of the compartments. A subsequent possibility of variation in the mutual alignment of the product compartments therefore requires new side panels.

The sales furniture known from US-A 4,015,886 has mutually staircase-arranged compartments. These compartments are not intended to be clipped into the side parts of sales furniture. Rather, the mutually staircase-like compartments of goods are based on a special carrier system arranged below them.

Sales furniture is known from US Pat. No. 3,145,851, the merchandise compartments of which are provided for hanging in bolts provided on side parts of the sales furniture in question. Mutual fastening of product compartments to one another is not intended. This means that each end of a product compartment must be attached to two bolts.

From DE-OS 25 06 032 a piece of sales furniture with a continuous furniture rear wall is known, which has horizontal, continuous grooves into which L-shaped strips can be inserted. The strips each form the bottom and front wall of a goods compartment, while the back part is formed by the area of the furniture rear wall between two inserted strips. This piece of furniture is only complicated and expensive to manufacture due to the numerous continuous grooves in the back of the furniture. However, it has the advantage that the compartment height can be easily changed by repositioning the strips. However, the compartment depth cannot be changed with simple means.

From DE-OS 30 23 244 a piece of sales furniture is known, which without a special basic construction, as z. B. is given by a furniture rear wall and furniture side parts, gets along. The furniture is rather formed by plugging together L-shaped metal strips. The top sheet metal strip is attached to a wall. The long leg of each bar has on its back a holding rail that runs vertically at about half the height. The free end of a short leg of a next bar can be inserted into this holding rail. Each short leg forms the bottom of a product compartment. The front of each long leg appears as the back of a merchandise compartment. The area of the back of a long leg that lies between the holding rail and the upper end of the long leg appears as the front wall of a product compartment. The furniture built from such strips is relatively unstable. Compartment height and compartment depth cannot be varied.

Also known are sales furniture in which each product compartment is formed from a sheet metal part, a transparent part and a hardboard. The sheet metal part has an approximately U-shaped cross section; it forms the bottom of a product compartment. The transparent part, which forms the front wall of the compartment, is connected to an upstanding leg of the sheet metal part. The hardboard is riveted to the other leg of the sheet metal part and forms the back part of the compartment. The height of the fiberboard is chosen according to the desired compartment height. According to the wishes of a customer, the manufacturer first creates product compartments from the parts mentioned with u. U. different back part heights manufactured. The product compartments are then attached to the side parts of a piece of sales furniture. The manufacture of such furniture is relatively complicated. However, each product compartment and the entire furniture are more stable than the product compartments and furniture mentioned above. Another advantage is that the manufacturer can easily adjust the shelf height to customer requirements. However, changing the compartment depth is not possible in a simple manner.

The invention has for its object to provide an improved compared to the proven prior art sales furniture and compartments for such furniture, which both allow the greatest possible variation in terms of the design and arrangement of the individual compartments and have a sufficiently stable structure. Furthermore, an inexpensive manufacture of these objects and thus the simplest possible manufacture and assembly is of the utmost importance. The external impression of the product compartments or such sales furniture should still be appealing.

This object is achieved for a product compartment according to the invention by the features of patent claim 1 and for a piece of sales furniture provided with such product compartments by the features of patent claim 7.

The goods compartment according to the invention of the type known in the prior art is accordingly characterized in that the goods compartment can be clipped into bolts present on side parts of the sales furniture and that the upper edge region of the rear wall of a compartment is offset in a step-like manner to the rear wall of another to be arranged under the relevant subject Subject is to be ordered. The inventive sales furniture of the generic type known in the prior art is characterized in that at least one compartment has such a structure and that at least part of the back part of this compartment consists of an extension plate which is plugged onto a plug-in strip running in the direction of the back part.

Because the merchandise compartments can only be clipped into bolts on the side parts of the sales furniture and that the rear wall of a compartment can be attached in a stepped manner to the rear wall of a further compartment to be arranged under the subject compartment, merchandise compartments can be attached to it Assembly can be easily stacked on top of one another in a staircase and connected sufficiently firmly. A piece of sales furniture with such a connecting device between two merchandise compartments and such a fastening device for the compartments on the side walls of a piece of sales furniture can thus be produced very easily, but a high stability of this sales furniture is nevertheless given. The possibility of variation with regard to the depth of a product compartment therefore does not require any complex side part training. Only fastening bolts are required, which are to be arranged in a cantilever manner on the inner wall of the side parts. These bolts can be inserted in holes that are present on the side parts, for example as blind holes, in accordance with the respective orientation of the product compartments. The assembly of such sales furniture is very simple. Depending on the existing bolts or holes in the side panels, the product compartments can be arranged within a wide range.

It is of great advantage if the compartment connecting device is designed in such a way that it has a plurality of compartment holding rails which run parallel to that longitudinal edge and abut one another along the front wall and bottom. With this construction, if the back part of a lower compartment is pushed into the foremost holding rail of the compartment above, the compartment depth corresponds to the depth of the bottom of the individual compartment. If, on the other hand, the said back part is inserted into a holding rail located further back, the effective compartment depth is shortened by the depth by which the holding rail in question lies behind the longitudinal edge mentioned. This enables simple adjustment of the compartment depth.

The compartment height can be easily adjusted on a piece of sales furniture if an extension plate is used as an additional component for plugging onto the back part of a compartment of the aforementioned first or second type.

Particularly great advantages in terms of ease of manufacture and high stability compared to previously known sales furniture are achieved if a one-piece goods trough of the same design with a predetermined rear wall height is used for all product compartments. For compartments with a height exceeding the specified height, an extension plate is also attached to the rear wall of the trough. This embodiment takes advantage of the knowledge that over 50% of the compartments for presenting flat goods have a predetermined rear wall height of approximately 7 centimeters. If troughs with this specified back wall height are used, many complete product compartment inserts for sales furniture can be produced quickly and stably simply by plugging together such troughs. At Goods compartment inserts, in which individual compartments have a greater height, the extension plates mentioned are plugged on, which is also possible by simple manipulations and does not lead to any significant reduction in the stability of the structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Fig. 1:

Perspective view of a piece of sales furniture;

Fig. 2:

schematic cross section through the furniture according to FIG. 1;

Fig. 3:

Cross section through two composite troughs of a first embodiment;

Fig. 4:

Cross section through an extension plate, as used in the assembled troughs of FIG. 3; and

Fig. 5:

Cross section through two composite troughs of a second embodiment.

WAYS OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

1 has a base 11 with a base 12 and an attachment 13 with lighting 14. Both the substructure 11 and the attachment 13 contain product compartments 15 which are fastened to side parts 16.

As can be seen in particular from FIG. 2, adjacent compartments 15 are rotated with their respective longitudinal axes so that the front wall 17 and the back part 18 are tilted backwards from the bottom compartments 15, while overhead compartments are tilted forward. This arrangement makes it possible for a viewer with an assumed mean eye height of approximately 1.40 meters to look at a right angle at the goods presented in the product compartments.

In the construction according to FIG. 2, there are eight compartments, which are numbered from 15.1 to 15.8 from bottom to top. Of these subjects, compartment 15.4 is distinguished by a reduced compartment depth and compartment 15.6 by an extended compartment height. How these changes can be achieved will now be explained in more detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

3 shows the compartments 15.4 and 15.5 according to FIG. 2 on the original scale. Each of the two product compartments 15.4 and 15.5 has a one-piece extruded product trough 19, for example 1 meter in length. The actual length is chosen according to customer requirements. Correspondingly long troughs are cut from several meter-long extrusions. The goods trough 19 has a rear wall 20, which is part of the above-mentioned back part 18 of one of the goods compartments 15.4 or 15.5. The distance between the front wall 17 and rear wall 20, that is to say the compartment depth 21, is approximately 6.5 centimeters. In the exemplary embodiment, the front wall 17 is approximately 8 centimeters high and the rear wall 20 is approximately 6 centimeters high. The two walls are connected to one another via a floor 22, which is at an angle of approximately 115 ° to the rear wall 20 and at an angle of approximately 65 ° to the front wall 17.

The rear wall 20 is designed in its upper region as a plug-in strip 23. The plug-on strip 23 has a corrugated wall 24 on the rear of the rear wall 20. The wall corrugation 24 consists of teeth running in the longitudinal direction.

Three holding strips with a U-shaped cross-section are formed on the bottom 22, namely a front compartment holding rail 25.1, a middle compartment holding rail 25.2 and a rear compartment holding rail 25.3. All three compartment holding rails run in the direction of the height in the direction of the rear wall 20. The front compartment holding rail 25.1 is flush with the front wall 17 at the bottom. The rear compartment holding rail 25.3 starts approximately in the middle of the bottom 22. The middle shelf support rail 25.2 lies between the two other tray support rails mentioned. All three compartment holding rails run parallel to that longitudinal edge along which the front wall 17 and floor 22 abut.

The rear leg of each of the compartment holding rails 25.1, 25.2 and 25.3 has on its inner surface a rail corrugation 26 which matches the wall corrugation 24 on the rear of the upper edge region of the rear wall 20.

The base 27 of each of the compartment-holding rails 25.1, 25.2 or 25.3 is designed as a recess of part-circular cross-section running in the longitudinal direction. This recess on the base 27 of the holding rails serves to clip the goods trough 19 into a fastening bolt 28 which is attached to a side part 16 of the sales unit 10.

The goods compartments 15.4 and 15.5 assembled according to FIG. 3 also have an extension plate 29, which is shown in its original size in FIG. 4. The extension plate 29 has an extension section 30 and a plate holding rail 31 with a U-shaped cross section, which cross section coincides with that of the compartment holding rails 25.1, 25.2 and 25.3. The plate holding rail also has a rail corrugation 26, which is formed on the inner surface of its rear leg. On its front side, the extension plate 29 is continuously smooth over its entire height. On its rear side, in the area of the extension section 30, it has a plate corrugation 33 which is designed to match the rail corrugation 26 on a compartment holding rail 25.1, 25.2 or 25.3.

The assembly of the product troughs 19 and the extension plate 29 into product compartments 15.4 and 15.5 according to FIGS. 2 and 3 takes place as follows. First, fastening bolts 28 are inserted into the side parts 16 of the sales unit 10 at predetermined locations. The lower goods trough 19 for the goods compartment 15.4 with its front holding rail 15.1 is placed on a left and a right fastening bolt and then pressed down until the bolts lie in the recess with a partially circular cross-section in the base 27. In this state, the trough 19 is not yet secured against rotation (at this point in the description it is assumed that the underlying merchandise compartment 15.3 has not yet been set up). However, security against rotation is achieved by connecting to the product trough 19 of the upper product compartment 15.5. This trough is also pressed into fastening bolts 28 which engage in its front compartment holding rail 25.1. The bolts 28 are arranged accordingly in the side parts 16. At the same time, the middle compartment holding rail 25.2 of the upper trough 19 is pushed onto the plug-on bar 23 on the lower trough. The interlocking of the wall corrugation 24 on the rear wall 20 of the lower trough with the rail corrugation 26 on the compartment holding rail 25.2 results in a firm cohesion of the two troughs 19.

In this state, the back part 18 of the lower goods compartment 15.4 is given by the front leg of the compartment holding rail 25.2, further that part of the rear wall 20 of the lower trough 19 which projects downwards from the rail mentioned and by the front wall 17 of the upper trough 15.5 .

However, this back part 18 would have a staggered course, which would look unattractive. To avoid this, an extension plate 29 with its extension section 30 is inserted into the front compartment holding rail 25.1 of the upper trough 19. The height of the extension plate 29 is dimensioned by trimming the plate according to FIG. 4 in such a way that the extension plate 29 touches the bottom 22 of its plate holding rail 31 on the bottom 22 of the lower trough 19. This extension plate 29 is inserted into the middle compartment holding rail 25.2 before the upper product trough 19 is clipped onto the upper fastening bolts 28. The extension plate 29 used in the embodiment according to FIG. 3 has a kink between the holding rail 31 and the extension section, which is such that the front surface of the holding rail is flush with the front surface of the front wall 17 when the plate is inserted.

The compartments 15.1 to 15.3 as well as 15.7 and 15.8 are assembled according to compartments 15.4 and 15.5. However, the respective upper trough of a compartment is placed in such a way that the respective front compartment holding rail 25.1 engages around the upper edge of the rear wall 20 of a lower trough 19.

Commodity compartment 15.6 is a compartment with a particularly large compartment height. The large compartment height is achieved by placing an extension plate 29 according to FIG. 4 on the rear wall 20 of a product trough 19. 2, the extension plate 29 is not connected to the product trough of the product compartment 15.7 located above it. In order to nevertheless ensure a secure hold, the product trough is clamped onto two fastening bolts 28 at the left and right ends, which is indicated schematically in FIG. 2. The structure is advantageously such that the upper edge of the extension plate 29 lies behind the front compartment holding rail 25.1, so that there is no gap between the associated two compartments. The above-mentioned dimensions of the product trough 19 according to FIG. 3 are selected such that goods compartments, e.g. B. 15.1 to 15.3, the most common dimension can be achieved. This has the advantage that only a single component has to be used to build up most of the product compartments. Compartments with a reduced compartment depth, such as compartment 15.4, or compartments with an increased compartment height, such as compartment 15.6, are produced by attaching extension plates 29.

It is also possible to produce all product compartments by plugging together a profile rail 32 and an extension plate 29, as shown in FIG. 5. The profile rail 32 differs from the product trough 19 according to FIG. 3 in that, instead of a rear wall 20, only a push-on strip 23 stands up from the floor 22. An extension plate 29 of such height is plugged onto this plug-in strip 23 that the desired compartment height is achieved.

The embodiment according to FIGS. 3 and 4 is the preferred embodiment. It can be modified by numerous variants. So it is z. B. possible to use a trough instead of a one-piece extruded product trough, which is composed of individual parts. It is crucial that all goods compartments are based on the same basic element of a uniform goods trough. If necessary, the uniform trough is to be extended by an extension plate, for which purpose corresponding connecting devices are present on the plate and the trough, which do not necessarily have to be designed as holding rails 25.1, 25.2, 25.3 or 31. An important feature of another solution according to the invention is the connecting device, which is used for connecting to an adjacent trough. If both a connection device to an adjacent trough and a connection device to an extension plate are present, it is not necessary that these connection devices are provided by one and the same component, as is the case for the preferred embodiment with respect to the compartment holding rails 25.1, 25.2 and 25.3 and the plug-on strips 23 apply.

The compartments can be made of any material. However, it is particularly advantageous to use transparent plastics, e.g. B. acrylic glass or rigid PVC, especially when the product compartments are formed with the help of extruded troughs. When using extruded product troughs, it is also possible to design the front wall 17 in two layers, both layers attaching to the bottom 22. There is then a free space between the two layers, into which a sign can be inserted from above, indicating what type of goods, e.g. B. "Birthday cards with year" is on this sign. In the case of generic sales furniture previously used, the attachment of such signs was problematic. There was no special slide-in compartment like this here.

Claims (12)

1. Display shelf for the presentation of flat goods staggered in the directions of height and depth, having

   - a front wall (17),

   - a base (22) and

   - a back part (18)

   - a shelf-connecting device (25.1, 25.2, 25.3), which is configured down at the base (22) and serves for connecting to the upper edge area of the rear wall (20, 29) of a further shelf (15.4) to be disposed beneath the shelf (15.5) in question,

   - a fastening device (25.1, 25.2, 25.3; 27, 28) for fastening the shelf to the side parts (16) of a display cabinet (10),

   characterised in that

   - the display shelf can be clipped into pins (28) present on side parts (16) of the display cabinet (10),

   - the upper edge area of the rear wall (20) of a shelf is to be disposed offset in stepped form in relation to the rear wall (20) of a further shelf (15.4) to be disposed beneath the shelf (15.5) in question.
2. Display shelf according to Claim 1, characterised in that the shelf-connecting device is formed by at least one U-shaped shelf-holding rail (25.1, 25.2, 25.3) running parallel to that longitudinal edge along which the front wall (17) and the base (22) abut one another.
3. Display shelf according to Claim 2, characterised in that at least two two shelf-holding rails (25.1, 25.2) are present, of which the first runs in an extension of the front wall and the second is offset rearwards in relation to this.
4. Display shelf according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the rear arm of each U-shaped shelf-holding rail (25.1, 25.2, 25.3) exhibits on its inner surface a rail corrugation (26) and the back of the upper edge area of the back part exhibits a wall corrugation (24) which matches the rail corrugation.
5. Display shelf according to Claim 1, characterised in that the fastening device is formed by the fact that the bottom (27) of at least one of the U-shaped shelf-holding rails (25.1, 25.2, 25.3) of the connecting device is configured in cross-section to fit the clipping-in of the pin.
6. Display shelf according to one of Claims 1 or 5, characterised in that the fastening device is formed by a recess of part-circle-shaped cross-section, for the clipping-in of the pin (28).
7. Display cabinet (10) for the presentation of flat goods staggered in the directions of height and depth, having a plurality of display shelves (15.1-15.8) having in each case a front wall (17), a base (22) and a back part (18), characterised in that at least one display shelf (15.1-15.8) exhibits a construction according to one of Claims 1 to 6 and at least one part of the back part of this shelf comprises an extension board (29), which is mounted onto a mounting strip (23) running in the direction of the back part (18).
8. Display cabinet according to Claim 7, characterised in that the extension board (29) exhibits the following parts:

   - an extension section and

   - a board-connecting device (31) in the lower edge area, for connecting the extension board (29) to the mounting strip (23) on a display shelf (15.1-15.8).
9. Display cabinet according to Claim 8, characterised in that the board-connecting device is configured as a U-shaped board-holding rail (31).
10. Display cabinet according to Claim 9, characterised in that the board-holding rail (31) exhibits on the inside of its rear arm a rail corrugation (26) matching the rail corrugation (26) of the shelf-holding rail.
11. Display cabinet according to one of Claims 7 to 10, characterised by pins (28), which are inserted into the side parts (16) of the cabinet, into which pins display trays (19) can be clipped by their fastening devices (25.1, 25.2, 25.3).
12. Display cabinet according to one of Claims 7 to 11, characterised in that all display shelves (15.1-15.8) exhibit a one-piece display tray (19), the rear wall part of which corresponds to a pre-specified height, and in that shelves of a height exceeding this pre-specified height additionally exhibit an extension board (29), which is mounted onto the rear wall (20).

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