Device for displaying articles

#The present invention concerns a display cabinet able to display the sale of miscellaneous items and more particularly concerns a display cabinet used in large stores and whose display racks are relatively deep, thus prohibiting or rendering it difficult for customers to gain access to the articles located at the rear portion of these racks.

#Such display cabinets are known with display racks which comprise a certain degree of slanting towards the front, this disposition having the advantage of, whenever a customer picks up articles situated at the front portion of the rack, that is those within hand's reach, enabling these articles to be located automatically and immediately replaced by those items located further back and which move via gravity to the front portion of the display rack. Accordingly, until these racks are completely empty, the articles they contain are still placed at their front portion where they can be easily picked up by customers.

#However, these display cabinets with display racks slanted forwards have one significant drawback concerning their reloading. In fact, during the reloading operation, new articles are gradually placed in the display rack and slide towards the front via gravity so that, in order to reload a column of articles in the rack, an operator needs to use one hand to push back towards the rear the articles of this column already in place so as to provide a location towards the front before placing a new article with his/her other hand. This operation is repeated until the column of articles is full and it can be readily understood that the more articles of the column are to be pushed towards the rear, the more physical effort is required (these articles may, for example, be full bottles weighing more than 1.5 kg), thus increasing the time required for the reloading operation. The operation is then repeated for each column of articles inside the display rack and then for each rack of the display cabinet which results in losing a considerable amount of time.

#So as to clearly understand the device of the invention, there now follows a non-restrictive example of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings on which:

#FIG. 1 is a front view of a display cabinet according to the invention and intended for the sale of bottles;

#FIG. 2 is a side view of the display cabinet of FIG. 1 in its display position (slanting towards the front);

#With reference to the drawing, the display cabinet of the invention includes a fixed frame constituted on each side by two rear vertical stanchions 1 and two front vertical stanchions 2 connected at their upper and lower ends by crossmembers 3 and 4 respectively. Each lower crossmember 4, used as support feet on the ground, has an elongation 5 towards the front. The rear vertical stanchions 1 are connected together by upper 6 and lower 7 side members, and similarly the front vertical stanchions 2 are connected together by upper 8 and lower 9 side members so that the fixed frame thus embodied is particularly sturdy.

#Slightly in front of the rear vertical stanchions 1 is a mobile frame inside a vertical plane parallel to the plane containing the rear stanchions 1. This mobile frame is constituted by two vertical stanchions 10 braced by upper 11, lower 12 and intermediate 13 side members. The vertical movement of the mobile frame is guided over a limited path by means of the cooperation of upper and lower guiding members 14 borne by the front face of the fixed rear stanchions 1 with corresponding upper and lower guiding members 15 borne by the rear face of the mobile vertical stanchions 10. Each guiding member 14 includes a horizontal spindle 16 parallel to the side members 6 and 7 and connecting two parallel cheeks 17 which extend the stanchion 1 towards the front, whereas each guiding member 15 includes a vertical plate 18 extending the vertical stanchion 10 towards the rear and being engaged between the cheeks 17. The plate 18 axially has an oblong slit 19 inside which the spindle 16 is able to move during a relative movement.

#Over their length, the fixed front stanchions 2 have a set of openings 20 regularly spaced opposite one another inside which the load bar ends 21 are engaged, said load bars thus being parallel and regularly spaced along the stanchions 2.