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US 4,338,866 AGranted
Knock-down display stand
AssigneeTechplastics, Inc.
InventorKenneth F. Streit
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An injection molded, foam plastic, knock-down display stand. The display stand is formed from two major components. A V-shaped longitudinal member supports the shelves. The shelf supports have a number of open ended parallel slots. Joining two shelf supports together forms an X-shaped, free-standing shelf support column. Each shelf has an X-shaped opening to receive the shelf support column. Rotating the shelf through the slots joins the shelf to the shelf support column. Integral camming surfaces on the shelves lock the shelves and the shelf supports together to form a substantially erect display stand.
Claims21
A display stand comprising:
- (a) means for supporting shelves, said supporting means defining a longitudinal V-shaped, symmetrical structure having two intergrally formed, generally flat, transversely extending wings, each wing being identical to the other, each wing having a plurality of parallel slots having one open end, each slot being substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axes of said wings, said slots defining the thickness of the shelf to be supported, the longitudinal distance between said slots defining the space between successive tiers of said shelves, each wing having an edge substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said wing, said structure freely standing erect when resting on said edge;
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- (b) a plurality of generally flat planar shelves, each shelf having at least one X-shaped opening in the plane of said shelf, said openings being substantially the same shape as the cross section of the structure formed by mating together a pair of supporting means apex to apex, said display stand being formed by joining said pair of supporting means so as to define a generally cruciform shaped column, said pair of supporting means being held together by adding shelves to said pair of supporting means, shelves being added by inserting each of said shelves over the top side of said pair of supporting means, each shelf being aligned to a set of paired slots in said pair of supporting means and rotated in the direction away from said shelf opening, positioning said wings over a closed surface of said shelf having the effect of interlocking said shelves and said pair of supporting means to form a self-supporting vertical array of parallel shelves.
A display stand of shelves, comprising:
- (a) means for supporting shelves, said support means defining two integrally formed longitudinal flat wings and a spine, said wings spreading away from said spine, to define a generally V-shaped symmetrical structure, the longitudinal axis of said support means being defined by the line formed in the plane of the spine by the intersection of two planes each parallel to the plane of one of said wings, each wing defining a plurality of slots, each slot having one open end, said slots defining the general thickness of the shelves to be supported, the space between said slots defining the space between respective tiers of said shelfs, the closed end of said slots being adjacent said spine, the slots at one end of said support means defining the position of the base shelf, the slots at the opposite end of said support means defining the position of the top shelf, each of said slots being substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said support means, each wing having an edge substantially perpendicular to said longitudinal axis, said support means being free standing when resting against said wing edges, the cruciform structure formed by positioning together two support means spine-to-spine and defining a shelving support column;
- and
- (b) a plurality of shelves, each shelf having an opening at its center substantially conforming to the lateral cross-section of said shelving support column, each shelf receiving said shelving support column through said opening, one side of each shelf having at least one integrally formed raised camming surface extending from the surface of said shelf to a point approximately one-half the angular separation of said wings, the end of said camming surface defining a stop,
- said display stand being formed by joining said pair of shelving support means spine-side to spine-side to form said shelving support column, said shelving support column being anchored and held together by said base shelf, each shelf being added by:
- (1) inserting each of said shelves over the top of said shelving support column;
- (2) aligning said shelf opening with a set of four slots on said shelving support column;
- and (3) rotating said shelf so as to engage said camming surface, rotating said shelf past said camming surface locking said shelf support means onto a closed surface of said shelf, successive shelves interlocked to said pair of shelf support means forming a self-supporting vertical array of shelves.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.