US 5,312,177 AGranted

Oversize filing system

AssigneeXcel Industrial Group, Inc.

InventorJ. Scott Coulter

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Abstract

A filing system adaptor, to be inserted into an existing file cabinet drawer having a conventional hanging file frame with a pair of parallel side rails for supporting hanging files, is disclosed. A removable base plate made of plastic is placed at the bottom of the file cabinet drawer. A number of oversized dividers made of rigid plastic are used to keep documents organized. With a height of about eleven inches, the dividers store large, bulky documents within the same filing cabinet drawer as standard letter size and legal size documents, and the dividers fit within the closed cabinet drawer by resting at an angle of about 60 degrees. A deep cutaway in the divider allows the user to quickly identify the documents maintained in the filing system. The oversized dividers are secured into place by locking tabs at the bottom edge of the divider which lock into accommodating slots in the base plate. Tabs at the top edge of the oversize divider provide support through resting on the parallel rails of the existing file frame. The base plate is adjustable to any length cabinet drawer through perforations in the base plate located at various positions along the length of the base plate. The perforations are adapted to allow a portion or portions of the base plate to be removed to adjust the size of the base plate to fit a particular file cabinet drawer.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A removable filing system adaptor for accommodating oversized documents, and adapted to be inserted into a filing cabinet drawer within a filing cabinet, said drawer having a given overall drawer height and said filing cabinet defining a clearance orifice for receiving said drawer, said clearance orifice having a clearance height greater than said drawer height, said filing cabinet drawer having a pair of parallel hanging file side rails for supporting hanging files and having a generally horizontally oriented drawer bottom, said filing system adaptor, comprising:

(a) a base member configured and dimensioned to lie on said drawer bottom and a plurality of slots disposed in a row, said slots being defined by said base member and disposed in alignment with each other said slots being configured, dimensioned and positioned to engage a respective slot-engageable locating means;
and
(b) a plurality of generally oversized divider members, dimensioned to be greater in height than said drawer height to support in a non-vertical position documents substantially taller than a standard sized document in a conventional, standard letter size or legal size filing cabinet drawer when said divider members are oriented at a non-vertical position, said divider members each having a top edge and a bottom edge, a pair of tabs extending laterally from each of said divider members to rest on said parallel side rails, and each of said divider members having said slot-engageable locating means depending from said bottom edge to engage its respective divider member on said base member while each of said divider members rest in an upright position or in an inclined position, each said slot-engageable locating means being adapted to engage its respective one of said slots.

A removable, adjustable filing system adaptor dimensioned for accommodation of oversized documents, said oversized documents being larger than standard sized documents, said filing system adaptor adapted to be inserted into a standard size filing cabinet drawer within a filing cabinet, said filing cabinet drawer comprising a pair of parallel side rails for supporting hanging files and having a generally horizontally oriented drawer bottom, said filing system adaptor comprising:

(a) a base member configured and dimensioned to lie on said drawer bottom, said base member having a top face at least a portion of which is raised above said drawer bottom;
(b) a pair of substantially parallel rows of slots formed in said portion of said base member, disposed in alignment with each other and spaced laterally within said filing cabinet drawer in relation to each other;
and
(c) a plurality of generally oversized divider members each having a top edge and a bottom edge, a pair of tabs extending laterally from each of said divider members to rest on said parallel side rails at a position where said divider members are oriented at a non-vertical angle with respect to said base member, and said divider members each having a pair of slot-engageable locating means depending from said bottom edge to support said divider members on said base member, each said pair of slot-engageable locating means being adapted to engage in said slots and to cooperate therewith to permit pivotal movement of said divider members between an upright position and an inclined position in which said tabs engage said side rails to provide support;
and wherein said divider member and said oversized documents each have a vertical height that is greater than the total vertical height of said filing cabinet drawer, requiring said divider members to lie in an inclined position to receive and support said oversized documents within said filing cabinet drawer when said drawer is closed, and said oversized documents having, in an upright position, a height greater than the clearance for said filing cabinet drawer defined by said filing cabinet.

2 more elements

A removable, adjustable filing system adaptor to accommodate oversized documents, in combination with a filing cabinet drawer within a filing cabinet, said filing cabinet drawer having a generally horizontally oriented drawer bottom, said filing system adaptor comprising:

(a) a removable base member configured and dimensioned to lie on said drawer bottom, said base member having a top face raised above said drawer bottom;
(b) a pair of substantially parallel rows of slots, formed in said base member, disposed in alignment with each other and spaced laterally within said filing cabinet drawer in relation to each other;
and
(c) a plurality of generally oversized divider members and a plurality of oversized documents, each of said oversized divider members having a top edge and a bottom edge and having a pair of slot-engageable locating means depending from said bottom edge to support each of said divider members on said base member, each said pair of slot-engageable locating means being adapted to engage in said slots and to cooperate therewith to permit pivotal movement of each of said divider members between an upright position and an inclined position, said inclined position ranging between 53 and 63 degrees from the horizontal, in either a backward or forward orientation from a perpendicular relationship to said base member, while securing each of said divider members in said base member, and each of said divider members having a deep cutout opening into said top edge to permit identification of said oversized documents and gripping of said oversized documents filed between said divider members;
and
wherein said divider members each have a vertical height that is greater than the total vertical height of said filing cabinet drawer, requiring said divider members to lie in an inclined position to receive and support said oversized documents within said filing cabinet drawer when said drawer is closed, and said oversized documents having, in an upright position, a height greater than the clearance for said filing cabinet drawer defined by said filing cabinet.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.