US2778505A - Shelf bracket - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 22, 1957 1. LEVlTT ETAL SHELF BRACKET Filed Sept. 18, 1953 FIG. I.

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Inventors United States Patent SHELF BRACKET Irving Levitt and Bennie Levitt, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Application September 18, 1953, Serial No. 381,023 2 Claims (Cl. 211-136) This present invention relates to improvements in shelving and appertains particularly to an assembly including a novel bracket whereby shelves may be supported in selected vertically adjusted position.

An object of the invention is to provide a shelf-supporting bracket, that may be removably positioned in a vertical pillar and is capable of securely retaining a shelf, platform or similar horizontal member without the use of bolts or other extraneous fastening devices.

A further object of the invention is to provide a shelfsupporting bracket for adjustable or knockdown metal shelving whereby the shelving may be set up or the selected vertical position of the shelves may be altered without the use of tools or the need for skilled help.

A further object of the invention is to provide a boltless, adjustable shelf support of the nature and for the purpose set forth that is characterized by structural simplicity, durability and efficiency and furthermore is capable of manufacture at reasonable cost whereby the same is rendered commercially desirable.

To the accomplishment of these and related objects as shall become apparent as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts as shall be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims hereunto appended.

The invention will be best understood and can be more clearly described when reference is had to the drawings forming a part of this disclosure wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a front elevation of a preferred form of the invention showing the shelf bracket mounted in a T- shaped pillar and supporting a removable shelf;

Figure 2 is a side elevation thereof;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the bracket mounted in the T-shaped pillar, with the shelf member removed; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the bracket.

In this adjustable or knockdown shelving, T-shaped pillars 1 are shown that may be permanently erected or subject to easy removal, according to the location and purpose of the installation. In the stem 1a of the T are spaced, vertically elongated slots 1b throughout its height.

A novel shelf-supporting bracket 2 is removably inserted in any selected adjacent pair of the slots 1b and is of such form as to retain itself in the T-shaped pillar 1 securely, against accidental displacement, and to provide rigid support for a shelf 3 or similar horizontal member removably mounted thereon. The term shelf is here used broadly and is intended to include a shelf, platform, catwalk or similar horizontal supporting surface.

The bracket 2 is formed substantially as a U with a wide base 2a and a pair of spaced parallel arms 2b and 2c at right angles to said base. Extending portions 2d and 2e run outwards from the free ends of the respective arms 2b and 20, at right angles to said arms and lying parallel with but offset from the base 2a. It is of relatively thin stock being preferably stamped from metal sheet or plate of a gauge suitable to its end use and of an overall size related to the slotted Ts in which it is to be mounted. It is used with the U turned on its side with the base 2a and the laterally offset extensions 2d and 2e running vertically and the arms 2b and 2c lying horizontally with the former arm 2b uppermost; so positioned and as seen in Figure 4, it will be noted that the upper arm 2b is longer than the lower arm 20 by approximately the thickness of the downturned flange of the shelf. It will further be seen that the upper extension 2e, the overall length of the latter being just less than the height of the elongated slots 1b in the stem of the T 1, While the spacing of the arms 2b and 20 or the length of the base 2a is such that from the underside of the lower arm 20 to the underside of the upper arm 2b corresponds with the distance between the bot-toms of two adjacent slots 1b in the T pillar 1 and further, the depending lug of the downwardly extending portion 2e beyond the underside of its arm 20 is just less than the unoccupied upper parts of the slots 1b when the bracket is positioned in the T pillars as seen in Figures 1 and 2. It will thus be clearly seen that this easily applicable and removable bracket with its non-central offset is mounted in the slotted pillar by first inserting the longer extension 2d diagonally through the upper of the two slots elected and then swinging the lower arm and its shorter depending extension so that it passes horizontally through the lower slot and then allowing the bracket to drop so that the lower arm 2c rests on the bottom of the lower slot, which drop is insufficient to permit the longer upper extension 2d to escape by horizontally repassing through its accommodating slot in the T.

It is on this upstanding extension 2d that the shelf 3 is rested, with the downturned marginal flange 3a thereof disposed between the said extension and the pillar 1. The depth of the flange 3a is preferably greater than the upward reach of the extension 2d and so a suitably located notch 3b is provided in the bottom edge of the flange to straddle the inwardly projecting arm 2b.

To disassemble or knockdown this assembly the shelves 3 are lifted off, then the brackets 2 are raised, within the limits allowed in the slots 1b, when the lower arm 20 can be retracted from the post to be followed by the angular downward withdrawal of the upper arm 2b and its trailing extension 2d. Yet, despite the ease and simplicity with which the instant shelf structure may be set up or disassembled, it is sturdy and rigid and reliable in use.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be manifest that a shelf bracket is provided that will fulfill all the necessary requirements of such a device, but as many changes could be made in the above description and many apparently widely different embodiments of the invention may be constructed within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit or scope thereof, it is intended that all matters contained in the said accompanying specification and drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitative or restrictive sense.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. For removable attachment to a vertically disposed T-shaped pillar having spaced vertically elongated perforations in one of the webs thereof, a shelf-supporting bracket comprising a flat rigid member with a non-central portion intermediate its ends in offset relation to the ends by a distance at least equal to the thickness of the perforated web of the pillar, the reach of said member on one side of the offset being longer than the reach on the other and the offsetting step thereof greater than the offsetting step of the shorter reach and wherein the shorter reach is of a length just less than the height of the vertically elongated perforations in the vertically disposed pillar, the several parts of said fiat bracket member being all in a common plane that when the bracket is applied to said pillar it is disposed vertically and extending at right angles to the perforated surface of the pillar and with the noncentral oiiset portion of the bracket on one side of said pillar and the end reaches on the other side, the longer reach extending upwardly and being spaced from the confronting side of the pillar in the form of a shelfsupporting hook because of its greater offsetting step.

2. In combination with a pillar-supported bracket as 4- set forth in claim 1, a shelf rested on the top of the longer, upwardly extending reach of said bracket and having a depending marginal flange lying between said UNITED STATES PATENTS 836,045 Melchior Nov. 13, 1906 1,537,267 Schaefer May 12, 1925 1,820,716 Vance Aug. 25, 1931 1,880,179 Onions Sept. 27, 1932

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