US3424315A - Tilt shelf - Google Patents

Description

P. L. FARREN Jan. 28, 1969 TILT SHELF Sheet Original Filed Feb. 9. 1966 Pau/ Z Far/v 6/7 INVENIOR.

Jan. 28, 1969 P. L. FARREN 3,424,315 g TILT SHELF Original Filed Feb. 9. 1966 Sheet 2 of 5 Fau/ A. Far/en 1 N VEN7 OR.

BY QILLJW'ZDLJMW 'ATTOR/VEV Jan. 28, 1969 P. L. FARREN 3,424,315

TILT SHELF Original. Filed Feb. 9. 1966 -Sheet 3 of 5 nuunoOO- on Pau/ Z. Farr INVEN" BY PM BMK ATTO/P/VEV United States Patent 3,424,315 TILT SHELF Paul L. Farren, 5603 S. Rice Ave., Houston, Tex. 77036 Continuation of application Ser. No. 526,262, Feb. 9, 1966. This application Nov. 28, 1967, Ser. No. 686,140

US. Cl. 211-126 8 Claims Int. Cl. A47b 63/06, 53/02, 57/28 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A unit for the storage of reels, such as those storing magnetic tape. Vertically spaced shelving includes spaced inclined shelves, each shelf being of sufficient depth to accommodate two or more reels. Shelves may be downwardly inclined in opposite directions about upright supports. The entire unit may ride on wheels or rollers along prepositioned tracks.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 526,262, filed Feb. 9, 1966, now abandoned.

Background of the invention Inasmuch as modern industry gathers, requires and utilizes tremendous quantities of information, the pure volume of compiled data is daily increasing in amounts unheard of twenty years ago. This data is stored in many forms, such as in volumes, notebooks, tapes, microfilm, etc. These, in turn, may be placed in drawers, on shelves or in libraries. Such a constantly increasing volume of information, information vvhich must be retrievable, requires an ever increasing amount of space for storage. Standard practice includes the stacking of drawer upon drawer of documents, as in the Patent Office, or the common back-to-back placement common in most libraries. Such arrangements therefore require aisle space between each upright storage shelf.

This invention contemplates the storage of a plurality of containers on each shelf in a manner wherein on removing the nearest container, the immediately adjacent one may automatic-ally assume an available position. Further, the invention contemplates the transportability of entire groups of shelves so as to further conserve aisle space. Although the invention will be described in terms of the storage of tape rolls or spools, it should be realized that this example is used for ease of presentation rather than as a limitation.

Thus, this invention has as its object the storage of a high volume of information within a more limited space than heretofore possible.

A further object is the storage of a plurality of individual containers on a single shelf.

Yet another object is the conservation of unnecessary aisle space in an area where information-containers are stored.

A still further object is the rendering of mobility to individual shelves or racks.

These and other objects and uses will become obvious on considering the following appended description and drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic representation of a con-ventional storage arrangement;

FIGURE 2 is a schematic representation of a storage arrangement utilizing the tiltable shelf of this invention;

FIGURE 3 is a schematic representation of the tiltable shelf concept of this invention as 'well as the mobility concept;

FIGURE 4 is a partly broken away perspective of an individual tray;

FIGURE 5 is a side elevation of a single tray;

FIGURE '6 is an elevation of one embodiment of an adapter used in this invention;

FIGURE 7 is an elevation of a second embodiment of the adapter; and

FIGURE 8 is a perspective depicting a fully assembled rack utilizing the tiltable tray.

The representations of FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 should first be examined in order to understand the problem of, and the savings resulting from solving said problem of excessive aisle space. FIGURE 1 depicts a conventional manner of storing data including vertical stacks or arrangement of wall shelves 10, separated by individual intermediate vertical stacks .11, each stack being separated by an aisle, denominated 12, 13 and 14 respectively. By virtue of the aisle space, the retriever may have access to data stored in the wall stack or on one face of the adjacent intermediate stack. Moving now to FIGURE 2, the wall stack 10 is seen to utilize the tiltable concept, hereinafter described to increase the amount of material available on the wall. Further, each intermediate rack 11 utilizes the tilt concept so as to increase the quantity of information stored intermediate aisles such as 12 and 13. On utilizing standard '36 inch aisles between adjacent vertical racks, the arrangement of FIGURE 2 would permit 20 vertical columns of tape to be stored in the same space in which the arrangement of FIGURE 1 would permit only 14 vertical columns, an increase of approximately 43%. Moving onto FIGURE 3 where the intermediate stacks 11 are mounted on rollers which ride on rails, the wall stacks 10 may or may not be fixed. Here one aisle may suflice for an entire room, i.e., the intermediate stacks may be moved so as to gain access to the particularly desired information. Such an arrangement could permit the storage of 32 vertical columns of tape within the same area in which the arrangement of FIG- URE 1 would only permit 14 columns, an increase of almost 130%.

Consider now the perspective of FIGURE 8 which depicts a single vertically arranged storage stack 20. With the exception of the tiltable and mobility features, such stacks may be almost universally procured. Such a stack may include angled intermediate posts and corner frame members 21, secured together by reinforcing members 22 and to a base 26. Shelves 25 are afiixed to said corner pieces on either side of the center line of the stack, which center line may be defined by the juncture of center corner members 21a-21a and 21b-21b. Standard shelving oftentimes has a tray-like configuration, i.e., one surface may be flat, usually the upper, with the lower surface dished or concave, resulting from flanges associated with the rectangle sides. The lowermost shelf of FIGURE 8 is shown in the normally used position, fiat side up, while the higher shelves are reversed with the flat side down, for a purpose hereinafter described.

Shelves 25 are seen to be attached to center corner members 21a, 21b by means such as pins, weld or brackets 28 which may pass through one of a series of spaced perforations 29 standardly provided in the angled frame members. This permits the shelves to be positioned as desired. The front portion of the shelves, or that side outwardly of the center of the stack, is connected by pins, welds, brackets, or similar fasteners 28, passing through perforations 29 in frame members 21. Said front portion is connected to said frame members in such a manner or at such a position so that the shelves are tilted downwardly from rear to front. This accounts for the more or less bat-winged appearance of the shelves as viewed in FIGURE 8. The lowermost shelf 25 may be so positioned as to be flat, as shown in FIGURE 8, or may be tilted as are the upper shelves.

Consider now the individual shelf components as shown in FIGURES 4, 5, 6 and 7. The shelves 25, with the exception possibly of the lowermost one in the rack as previously mentioned, are inverted so that flat surface 30 is lowermost with sides 31, 32 extending upwardly therefrom as well as are front and rear ends 33, 34 respectively, presenting a trayed or dished appearance. Adapters or indexing members 40 and 41 are positioned in the front and rear, respectively of the tray-like shelf. Said adapters may be triangularly configured, as in FIG- URES 4 and 5, and have a series of horizontally spaced slots 45 on face 44 thereof. Said slots accommodate dividers 50 whose lowermost corners 51 may be inserted in said slots. After such insertion of said dividers, a plurality of compartments are formed whereby rolls, spools of magnetic tape, for example, such as spools 60 may be inserted therein. Obviously a plurality of compartments may be formed in each shelf by varying the position and number of dividers utilized in conjunction with slots 45 in adapters 40. As has previously been noted with respect to FIGURE 8, the front end of the shelves are normally tilted downwardly, as for example by the angle a shown in FIGURE 5. Thus on removing magnetic spool 60a, the rearward spool 60 would, by gravity move or roll forward to occupy that position previously occupied by spool 60a.

A further and extremely useful embodiment of adapter 40 is shown in FIGURE 7, and is essentially a coiled spring 70 having spaces 71 intermediate adjacent portions of the coil. On utilizing such an embodiment, a coil 70 might be placed in the front and rear of shelf 25 in the position of and in place of adapter 40. The dividers 50, then would have their ends inserted within said spaces 71 rather than in slots 45 of adapters 40. Such an embodiment, while permitting the same operation as in FIGURE 4, permits substantial savings in cost as well as provides ease of installation and provides a large number of potential positions for the dividers, thereby permitting easy variation of the width of the compartments so as to accommodate differently sized spools or rolls.

It bears reiterating that when it is desirable to store a very large volume of data in a small area, each rack may be outfitted with wheels, rollers, skids or the like 80 (see FIGURE 3), to run on tracks 81, which would be installed within the flooring of a room, library or the like. Thus, one aisle might suffice in that an entire bank of racks might be rolled to a position whereby access may be gained to the desired rack or row or racks.

Thus, in summation, mechanisms have been designed wherein a large increase in the volume of stored data has been permitted within limited confines. Such mechanisms utilize the concept of tilting the individual shelves forwardly. By virtue of such tilting, rolls may be positioned in depth within each shelf, instead of the standard back to back arrangement. On removing the most forwardly of the rolls, the remaining ones will slide or roll into a more accessible position. Further, by providing a wheel and track assembly, the individual racks may be moved, thus providing a variably located aisle and a greatly increased storage capacity.

While only limited embodiments of features of this invention have been described, it should be apparent that numerous modifications would be possible by one skilled in the art 'without departing from the spirit of the invention, the scope of which is intended to be limited only by the following appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a device for storing a plurality of reels containing retrievable data thereon, the combination of:

supporting means comprising front and rear pairs of vertical frame members, each of said frame members having spaced means thereon for permitting attachment thereto of portions of a plurality of shelf means;

a plurality of vertically spaced shelf means, each being attached to said attachment means of both the front and rear pairs of said frame members in such a manner that the front and rear of said shelf means are parallel but the shelf means bottom is inclined downwardly from rear to front; and

said plurality of shelf means each comprises front and rear vertical lips, said bottom, parallel reel-retaining sides, identical, removable and interchangeable means for receiving dividers and thereby to permit division of said shelf means into a plurality of defined parallel reel-retaining areas, one of said divider receiving means being adjacent said shelf means front lip and the other adjacent said shelf means rear lip, each of said divider receiving means includes an inclined apertured surface facing the other divider receiving means and further includes a supporting portion joined to said inclined surface, said supporting portion having a substantially vertical portion adapted to rest against the adjacent shelf means lips and resting upon but removably nonintegral with said shelf means bottom, and divider means positioned within and extending between apertures of said front and rear divider receiving means.

2. In a device for storing a plurality of reels containing retrievable data thereon, the combination of:

supporting means comprising front and rear pairs of vertical frame members, each of said frame members having spaced means thereon for permitting attachment thereto of portions of a plurality of shelf means;

a plurality of vertically spaced shelf means, each being attached to said attachment means of both the front and rear pairs of said frame members in such a manner that the front and rear of said shelf means are parallel but the shelf means bottom is inclined downwardly from rear to front; and

said plurality of shelf means each comprises front and rear vertical lips, said bottom, parallel reelretaining sides, a pair of identical removable and interchangeable pre-stretched coil springs having, without further extension being necessary, spaces intermediate each adjacent coil of sufficient width to receive dividers, one of said springs being removably adjacent and non-integral with said shelf means front lip and the other of said springs being removably adjacent and non-integral with said shelf means rear lip, and divider means positioned within and extending between said spaces in said one and said other coil springs.

3. In a device for storing a plurality of reels containing retrievable data thereon, the combination of:

supporting means comprising front and rear pairs of vertical frame members connected to a base, each of said frame members having spaced means thereon for permitting attachment thereto of portions of a plurality of shelf means;

a plurality of vertically spaced shelf means, each being attached to said attachment means of both the front and rear pairs of said frame members in such a manner that the front and rear of said shelf means are parallel but the shelf means bottom is inclined downwardly from rear to front;

said plurality of shelf means each comprises front and rear vertical lips, parallel reel-retaining sides, identical removable and interchangeable means for receiving dividers and thereby to permit division of said shelf means into a plurality of defined parallel reel-retaining areas, one of said divider receiving means being adjacent said shelf means front lip and the other adjacent said shelf means rear lip, each of said divider receiving means includes an inclined apertured surface facing the other divider receiving means and further includes a supporting portion joined to said inclined surface, said supporting portion having a substantially vertical portion adapted to rest against the adjacent shelf means lip and wardly from their rear to front, adjacent ones of said first and second shelves presenting an inverted V appearance; and

roller members provided said base of said device adapted to ride along rails on a predetermined path, and rail means, fixed with respect to a supporting surface, to receive said roller members and thereby permit said device to be moved along said path.

ing retrievable data thereon, the combination of:

supporting means comprising oppositely disposed pairs of vertical frame members, vertical post means in- 7. In a device for storing a plurality of reels contain- 10 ing retrievable data thereon, the combination of:

supporting means comprising oppositely disposed pairs termediate said oppositely disposed pairs, structural reinforcing means linking each of said pairs to said vertical post means, and spaced means on each member comprising said vertical frame members and post means for permitting attachment thereto of portions of a plurality of shelf means;

a first plurality of vertically spaced shelves, all joined at one end to said post means attachment means and at the other end to the attachment means of one of said pairs of frame members in such a manner that the front and rear edges of said first shelves are parallel but the shelf bottoms are inclined downwardly from their rear to front; and

a second plurality of vertically spaced shelves, all joined at one end to said post means attachment means, adjacent to and in side by side relationship to said one end of said first plurality of shelves, and at the other end to the attachment means of the other of said pairs of frame members in such a manner that the front and rear edges of said second shelves are parallel but the shelf bottoms are inclined downwardly from their rear to front, adjacent ones of said first and second shelves presenting an inverted V appearance.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein each shelf of said first and second plurality of shelves includes front and rear edges, a bottom, parallel reel-retaining sides, identical and interchangeable adapter means one being adjacent said front and one adjacent said rear edge, each of said adapter means possessing a plurality of spaced apertures for receiving divider means, and divider means positioned within and extending between apertures of said front and rear adapter means so as to define areas having the of vertical frame members, vertical post means intermediate said oppositely disposed pairs, structural reinforcing means linking each of said pairs to said vertical post means including a base, and spaced means on each member comprising said vertical frame members and post means for permitting attachment thereto of portions of a plurality of shelf means;

a first plurality of vertically spaced shelves, all joined at one end to said post means attachment means and at the other end to the attachment means of one of said pairs of frame members in such a manner that the front and rear edges of said first shelves are parallel but the shelf bottoms are inclined downwardly from their rear to front;

second plurality of vertically spaced shelves, all joined at one end to said post means attachment means, adjacent to and in side by side relationship to said one end of said first plurality of shelves, and at the other end to the attachment means of the other of said pairs of frame members in such a manner that the front and rear edges of said second shelves are parallel but the shelf bottoms are inclined downwardly from their rear to front, adjacent ones of said first and second shelves presenting an inverted V appearance;

each shelf of said first and second plurality of shelves includes front and rear edges, a bottom, parallel reelretaining sides, identical and interchangeable adapter means one being adjacent said front and one adjacent said rear edge, each of said adapter means possessing a plurality of spaced apertures for receiving divider means, and divider means positioned with- Width of said reels. in and extending between apertupres of said front and 6. In a device for storing a plurality of reels containrear adapter means so as to define areas having the ing retrievable data thereon, the combination of: Width of said reels; and

supporting means comprising oppositely disposed pairs roller members provided said base of said device of vertical frame members, vertical post means inadapted to ride along rails on a predetermined path, termediate said oppositely disposed pairs, structural and rail means, fixed with respect to a supporting reinforcing means linking each of said pairs to said vertical post means including a base, and spaced means on each member comprising said vertical frame members and post means for permitting attachment thereto of portions of a plurality of shelf means;

a first plurality of vertically spaced shelves, all joined surface, to receive said roller members and thereby permit said device to be moved along said path.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein said adapter means are coiled springs.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS at one end to said post means attachment means and 1,205,747 11/1916 KaWate 0 XR at the other end to the attachment means of one 2,812,069 11/1957 Trammell 211-162 of said pairs of frame members in such a manner 2,915,193 12/1959 Bromberg 211184 XR that the front and rear edges of said first shelves 5/ 1961 Handler et XR are parallel but the shelf bottoms are inclined down- 3,052,363 9/ 1962 8 X wardly from their rear to front; 3,126,101 4/ 1964 Katter ohn 211133 XR a second plurality of vertically spaced shelves, all joined 3,151,576 10/1964 Patterson 3 XR at one end to said post mean attachment means, 3,232,442 2/1966 Wilson 211-133 ad'acent to and in side b side relationship to said on e end of said first plli rality of shelves, and at CHANCELLOR HARRIS, y Examine!- the other end to the attachment means of the other U S Cl X R of said pairs of frame members in such a manner that the front and rear edges of said second shelves 108-6; 211-134, 184

are parallel but the shelf bottoms are inclined down-

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