GB2196235A - Shelving system - Google Patents

Abstract

A shelving system comprises a shelf supported at its ends by brackets (Fig. 1) each of which includes a vertical strip (1) for attachment to a wall and a horizontal support (3) which is hollow so that a shelf (4) end can be slid into. The vertical strip (1) and horizontal support (3) are supported, for example, by an ornamental scroll (5). The support (3) may be other than horizontal. More than one support (3) may be associated with a vertical strip (1), either vertically disposed, thus forming a bracket for more than one shelf, or at right angles, thus forming a corner bracket. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Shelving system Field of the Invention This invention relates to an improved form of shelving system.

There are many different types of shelving systems available on the market today and the majority of these will be installed in the home by the home owner and not by a skilled craftsman. Therefore, most systems have been devised with a main aim of being simple and easy to install.

A popular form of shelving system uses 'L' shaped brackets. Such brackets include a first member which, in use, is mounted flat against the wall and the second member perpendicular to the first which, in use, extends outward from the wall. This outwardly extending member is the one which is used to support the shelf.

A very popular form of system including 'L' shaped brackets is one which is a variable height system. In this system all that is mounted to the wall are two parallel vertical strips, each strip including a series of spaced apart holes. The shelf supporting member comprises an elongate member having hooks at one end which engage in the holes to hold the member horizontal with respect to the strip. In order to install a shelf, an elongate rigid planar member (usually a plank of wood) is arranged so that its ends are each supported by a shelf supporting member mounted on the wall strip.

Clearly in order to hold the shelf firmly in position the shelf then has to be firmly screwed into the shelf supporting member to hold it in place. This has the disadvantage that if the shelf is to be moved, it is not possible to re-use the elongate piece of material unless it is arranged such that the strips to be mounted on the wall are mounted at exactly the same position relative to one another as they were previously which clearly is very difficult.

One shelving system which was devised in an attempt to overcome this problem was one in which a single shelf was not supported by a pair of brackets, one bracket supporting each end but in which one single bracket extended horizontally on a wall to hold the entire length of the shelf. Such a bracket consisted of a resilient upper and lower member which defined an open slot extending the length of the shelf into which a rigid piece of material is slid. The resilient members are arranged such that as pressure is applied to the shelf in a downwards direction the members hold the shelf even tighter to prevent it from falling.

Summary of the Invention According to this invention there is provided an elongate rigid piece of material having a substantially constant cross section, and two brackets, one of them supporting each end of the rigid piece of material, in which each bracket comprises a first elongate wall support member including means to attach the wall support member in a vertical position on a wall and, extending outwardly therefrom, a shelf support member, the shelf support member including a member of shape similar to and just larger than the cross section of the rigid piece of material and being hollow such that the end of the rigid piece of material can be slid inside the shelf support means to be held firmly, the bracket also including means mounted between the wall mounting means and the shelf supporting means to give added strength to the bracket.

Preferably the means extending between the wall mounting means and the shelf support means comprise scrolls of wrought iron work which are decorative as well as adding strength to the bracket. Thus, this shelving system is a very simple system in which two bradkets are mounted on a wall such that their wall mounting means are parallel, vertical and aligned with the distance between them being just less than the length of the rigid piece of material to form a shelf. Once these have been fixed in position the rigid piece of material is then slid through the hollow in the shelf supporting means on each bracket to be held firmly in position.

In practice the rigid piece of material will almost always be wood and this means that a good quality wood can be used with these brackets since if the wood has to be re-used elsewhere it will have no marks on it. In practice the customer will not buy a package of the wood and brackets but will just buy brackets and then buy wood to his required length.

Conveniently the shelf supporting member may comprise a strip of metal bent into a 'U' shape, the open ends of the 'U' being welded to the strip forming the wall support member to form a closed slot of shape similar to the shape of the rigid piece of material.

In most other shelving systems working on an 'L shaped principle the wall support member has to extend vertically beneath the shelf rather than above it. In this case, the brackets can be used either way.

In most cases the shelf support means will extend at right angles from the wall mounting member so that the shelf will be mounted horizontally. However, it is possible to provide a shelving means in which the shelf support member extends at an angle to the wall support member to allow a shelf to be mounted to be inclined downwards from the wall for display purposes, for example.

It is also possible to provide systems in which a number of different shelf supporting means are mounted on the same wall support means to allow for a series of shelves being mounted one above the other.

Most shelving systems now available are not very flexible in that adding extra shelves or lengthening the shelves can be a problem.

It is preferred that the shelving system includes special butt brackets which include shelf supporting means having a much deeper hollow slot so that two abutting ends of rigid elongate material can be inserted into the slot and both held in position. In this way, further elongate rigid pieces of material can be abutted to an existing shelf to lengthen it.

Preferably the shelving system also includes a bracket specially designed for a corner of a room for holding two shelves extending along adjoining walls of a room. in most existing shelving systems in order to achieve a meeting of such shelves, mitreing of the wood is required which is time consuming and difficult to get accurate.In this case a corner bracket is provided which includes an elongate wall support member which extends vertically in a corner of the room having two horizontal wall support members extending perpendicular to it arranged so that each lies along a respective ajoining wall in which a shelf support member extends outwardly at right angles from each horizontal member such that the shelf support members meet at right angles to each other at a distance spaced from the corner of the room, and in which support means extends at 45 degrees from the corner of the room to the point where the shelf support means adjoin. In this way one shelf can be slid into one shelf support means until it abuts the wall and the second shelf on the adjoining wall is inserted into the second shelf support member until it abuts the edge of the first shelf.In this way, although it is possible to arrange the shelves such that they are mitred, this is not necessary and therefore no cutting of the wood is required.

Brief Description of the Drawings An example of a shelving system in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side elevation of a first shelf bracket; Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of two shelf brackets supporting a shelf; Figure 3 is a schematic section through a second shelf bracket; Figure 4 is a schematic section through a third shelf bracket; Figure 5 is a schematic perspective view of a fourth shelf bracket; Figure 6 is a schematic plan view showing a fifth shelf bracket; and, Figure 7 is a schematic perspective view of the fifth shelf bracket.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments A shelving system in accordance with the invention consists of a number of brackets and a number of elongate rigid pieces of material of substantially constant cross section.

In this case the rigid pieces of material will always be lengths of wood and these will form the shelves.

Each shelf bracket is formed of iron and wrought iron.

A first shelf bracket is shown in Figure 1 and comprises an elongate strip of iron 1 forming a wall mounting means which has two screw holes 2 for attaching the wall mounting means 1 to a wall such that the wall mounting means 1 is vertical and extending outwardly from the wall mounting means 1 are shelf support means 3 which includes a member of shape similar to and larger than the cross section of the piece of wood to form the shelf and having a hollow inside 4 so that the shelf can be slid into it. Mounted between the wall mounting means 1 and the shelf support means 3 are support means consisting of wrought iron scrolls 5 which give extra rigidity to the bracket. In use the bracket may be used with the scroll work 5 above or below the shelf. In Figure 2 the scroll work is shown above the level of the shelf.As can be seen the piece of wood forming the shelf needs only to be slid into the slot formed by the hollow 4 to be held into position and no mark needs to be made on the wood at all so that it can be re-used for other purposes.

It is possible for the shelf support means 3 to support the piece of wood at a angle to the horizontal as shown in Figure 3. Here the shelf support means 6 is at an angle to the horizontal such that a shelf mounted therein will tilt downwardly away from the wall. Here the scroll work 7 is arranged slightly differently to give maximum support to the shelf support means 6. Such a shelf is ideal for display purposes. The shelving system may also include brackets as shown in Figure 4 which can support more than one shelf. Here extending from one single wall mounting means 1 are provided two shelf support means 8 and 9 having two standard wrought iron scrolls 10 extending between them and also an extra ring 11 to give added support.

The standard dimensions for the wall mounting means are 11-1/2 inches long (29.2 cm) of width 12 mm. The length of the slot 4 of the shelf support means 3 is typically 6 inches (15.24 cm) or a second standard width of shelf 9 inches (22.86 cm). In a standard bracket the depth of the slot 4 is typically 11/16 of an inch (1.75 cm). In Figure 5 is shown a fourth bracket devised for lengthening a shelf by adding a further length of wood to abut an existing shelf. In this case shelf support means 12 of extra depth is used (typically 1-1/2 inches (3.81 cm) ). This contains the ends of two adjoining shelves.

Figures 6 and 7 show a bracket which can be used to mount the ends of shelves onto adjoining walls. A vertical member 13 is situated at the corner of the room and from it extends two horizontal members 14 and 15 which are perpendicular to one another. Extending at right angles to each horizontal member 14 and 15 is a shelf support member 16 and 17 arranged such that they meet at a point 18 spaced from the corner 13. Extending between the vertical member 13 and point 18 is supporting the scroll work 19 of wrought iron. The advantage of this system is that the two adjoining shelves would not have to be mitred but a first shelf 20 as shown in Figure 6 can be passed through the first shelf support means 16 until it abuts the wall and then the second shelf 21 is passed through second shelf support means 17 until it abuts shelf 20 so that both shelves are held firmly to form a continuous shelf passing around the room.

It will be appreciated that brackets can be provided to hold shelves of increased width, for example to hold shelves of 12 inches (or even 15 inches) (38.1 cm). In this case more scrolls of wrought iron work will have to be added to the support means to give the required rigidity.

Claims (8)

1. A shelving system comprising an elongate rigid piece of material having a substantially constant cross-section, and two brackets, one of them supporting each end of the rigid piece of material, in which each bracket comprises a first elongate wall support member including means to attach the wall support member in a vertical position on a wall and, extending outwardly therefrom, a shelf support member, the shelf support member including a member of shape similar to and just larger than the cross-section of the rigid piece of material and being hollow such that the end of the rigid piece of material can be slid inside the shelf support means to be held firmly, the bracket also including means mounted between the wall mounting means and the shelf supporting means to give added strength to the bracket.

2. A shelving system according to claim 1, wherein the means extending between the wall mounting means and the shelf support means comprises scrolls of wrought ironwork which are decorative as well as adding strength to the bracket.

3. A shelving system according to claim 2, in which the shelf support means comprises a strip of metal bent into a 'U' shape, the open ends of the 'U' being welded to a strip forming the wall support member to form a closed slot of shape similar to the shape of the rigid piece of material.

4. A shelving system according to claim 1, in which the shelf support means extends at right angles to the wall mounting member.

5. A shelving system according to claim 1, in which the shelf support member extends at an angle to the wall supporting member to allow a shelf to be mounted to be inclined downwards from the wall for display purposes.

6. A shelving system according to any one of the preceding claims, in which each bracket includes a plurality of different shelf support means.

7. A shelving system according to claim 1, in which one of the two brackets is a corner bracket which includes an elongate wall support member which extends vertically and has two horizontal wall support members extending perpendicular to it and arranged so that each lies along a respective adjoining wall, and in which a shelf support member extends outwardly at right angles from each horizontal wall support member such that the shelf support members meet at right angles to each other at a distance spaced from the corner of the room, and in which each shelf support member extends at 45 degrees from the corner of the room to the point where the shelf support members adjoin.

8. A shelving system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 1 to 7 of the accompanying drawings.