Stackable Rack

Conventional phonograph records, and record albums, are furnished in a great profusion of sizes and styles. Conventional elements of this type come in sizes such as (nominal disc diameters) 10-inch, 12-inch (and smaller) and an assemblage of such records into an album may encompass from one to six or more records.

Commercial arrangements for handling and storing such records and albums range from a mere cabinet to contain random piles of records and albums, to an assembly of inverted wire-like V's on a base, between which V's the records or albums are received on edge, as it were. Such arrangements do not conduce to efficient or systematic finding of a particular record or album, nor do they permit efficient expansion of the collection when new acquisitions are to be incorporated. Many serious collectors have a considerable number of very old-fashioned shellac pressings, and it would be desirable to make some provision for such antiques.

An object of this invention is to provide such a rack or assemblage which can readily be marketed as a knocked-down group of essentially flat planar elements and essentially cylindrical or rod-like connectors, called herein rods for simplicity.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and low-cost rack or assemblage.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rack or assemblage as described in the immediately preceding object which is suitable for phonograph records or albums of such records.

A further object of the invention is to provide a storage rack or assemblage as described in the immediately preceding object which is especially suitable for one or more of any and all objects which are essentially flat, plate-like, wafer-like or planar such as magazines, file folders, photographic plates or even the flat planar elements comprising part of the invention itself.

Regarding the two immediately preceding objects of the invention, it is understood that the dimensions of the rack will vary, depending on what it is intended to store in a compact and wieldy arrangement.

Other objects or advantages of the invention will appear as this invention proceeds.

The invention comprises flat boards or plates with suitable holes through the board, and indents in an end of the board. The holes receive rods which have notches. The rods can be inserted through the holes in the plate or board and then moved sidewise, in one simple motion, to attach the rods to the plate or board. As a result, a rack may be assembled very quickly from several inexpensive parts. A separate feature of the invention, which constitutes an improvement on the basic concept described above, is that by suitably placing indents in the ends of the plates or boards, the height of the rack may be expanded ad infinitum, assuming, of course, that additional rods and flat boards or plates are available for such purpose. Another separate feature of the invention which can be considered to constitute an improvement on the basic concept described above is that by inserting a flexible plug between the rods and the holes in the plate or board, the attachment made between the rods and the holes absolutely resists being dis-attached, pulled apart or disengaged from any and all directions.

When three or more parallel plates form a rack, it is an improvement feature of the invention to space the holes in the middle plate slightly closer together than the complimentary holes in the outer plates. The rods, which have at least some resilience therefore flex and tend to lock the three plates together.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a rack assembled in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the plates or boards used in the assemblage of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a rod used for interconnecting parallel plates such as those shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the rod of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 6--6 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 7 is an end view of the rod of FIG. 3.

FIG. 8 is an end view of a suitable plate or board which may be used in event the "vertical expansion" feature of the invention is not desired.

FIG. 9 is a view of a plug that may be used to attach the rod to the plate, in a modified form of the invention.

FIG. 10 is a side view of the plug of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 illustrates a plate held to a rod by the plug of FIGS. 9 and 10.

FIG. 12 is a side view of a further modified form of the invention.

FIG. 13 is the preferred form of the notch in the rod that may be used with the invention.

FIG. 14 is an end view of the notch and rod of FIG. 13.

FIG. 15 illustrates a suitable plate such as the one shown in FIG. 2 which is held by a rod of the form shown in FIGS. 13 and 14.

FIG. 16 is a top view of a portion of an improvement and illustrates an improvement that may be employed with any of the various rods, notches and plates described in this application.

It is necessary, for an understanding of the present invention, that the reader understand the sense in which I later use the term "notch." I use this term to refer to a cutaway portion of the cylindrical or rod-like connectors mentioned in the foregoing "Summary of the Invention." More specifically, I use it to refer to the confining or defining walls of that cutaway portion, so terminology such as "engaging the notch" really means "engaging the walls of the notch."

In FIGS. 1 and 2, plates 10 have four suitable round holes 11, and indents 12. A second set of plates 13 may also be used, and it has indents 14, and holes 15.

One form of suitable rod is shown in FIG. 3. It employs a rod 18 having an annular notch 19 near the middle thereof and two notches 20 near the opposite ends of the rod.

A suitable number of rods 18 are supplied with the plates 10 so that a rack can be assembled. Assuming that one wishes to install a single rack, he would use three plates 10 and four rods 18. The outside diameter of rod 18 is very slightly smaller than the diameter of holes 11. The width of notches 19 and 20 are about equal to the thickness of the board or plate 10. Thus, when it is desired to assemble the rack of FIG. 1, the rod 18 is inserted through hole 11 until notch 20 is at the same position as the board or plate 10. The rod 18 is then moved a slight distance so that notch 20 makes a friction fit against those particular side walls of plate 10, adjacent hole 11, to thus hold the rod 18 and plate 10 together. As a first step, the four rods 18 are placed in the four holes 11 of plate 10 and moved downward to join the four rods to the plate 10. A second plate 10 may then be installed by passing the four free ends of the four rods 18 through the four holes of the second plate 10 until the second plate 10 reaches approximately the same position as the four notches 19 in the four rods 18. The second plate is then moved relative to the four rods so that a friction fit occurs between the four notches 19 and the areas of the plate adjacent the four holes 11 of the plate 10. Finally the free ends of the four rods 18 are inserted into the four holes 11 of the third plate 10, and that third plate is moved until it is in alignment with the right-hand slots 20 (FIG. 3) of the rods 18 whereupon the third plate is then moved relative to the four rods 18 so that the slots 20 make a friction fit with the plate 10 adjacent holes 11. The lower portion (comprising plate 10 and rods 18) of FIG. 1 is thus assembled and is a complete and operative rack for storing flat objects.

One suitable material for plate 10 is so-called presdwood sold under the trade-name Marlite. A thickness of one-quarter inch is suitable. The rods 18 may be made of wood, for example, maple, or of any other suitable material. The snug fit between the rod 18 and the plates 10 is achieved, in one embodiment of the invention, by having the notches 19 and 20 about 0.006 inches wider than the thickness of the plate 10.

If it is desired to expand vertically the size of the rack a second section embodying plates 13 and rods similar to 18 may be added, as will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 8. The rods 18 for the second section are the same as for the first section except the notches 19 and 20 may be slightly displaced so that the two sections may fit together without plates 10 and 13 colliding head-on with each other.

To assemble the second section, the same general procedure is followed as for the first section, that is, in the completed rack, the three plates 13 are parallel to each other with four rods similar to 18 passing through the four holes 15 respectively. The three plates 13 are then moved with respect to the rods 18 so that the plates 13 engage the notches 19 and 20 in the rods. The second section may, therefore, be placed above the first section. The indents 14 in plate 13 make a saddle-like friction fit with the rods 18 that interact with holes 11 and this tends to hold the two sections together.

In a modified form of the invention, a plug is employed to fill the space between the rod and the holes 11. FIGS. 9 to 12 show this form of the invention. In those Figures, a plug 20', 21, 22 fills the space resulting from the notch 20 in rod 18. The space of the plug 21 is such to fill the lateral space between the wall of the notch 20 of rod 18 and the wall defining hole 11. Extension 20' on the plug 21 overlaps a limited portion of the one surface of plate 10 and extension 22 overlaps a limited, although smaller, portion of the opposite surface of plate 10. The smaller extension 22 will be distorted as the plug 21 is being inserted into the lateral space between rod 18 and the wall defining hole 11. When it is properly seated, the smaller extension 22 will spring back to its original shape to overlap a portion of the surface of plate 10 because the plug is composed of resilient material such as rubber, plastic or the like. One suitable material for the plugs is K-prene, which is the trade-name of a urethane manufactured by Di-Acro Co.

The preferred form of notched rod is shown in FIGS. 13, 14, and 15. There, the rod 18a, instead of having a simple notch with a flat surface (see FIG. 6) has a circular element 30 of smaller diameter than rod 18a, and off-center, connecting the two portions 18b and 18c of rod 18a. The notch 31, therefore, is defined by the right end wall of portion 18b, the periphery of circular element 30, and the left-end wall of portion 18c. This form of rod 18a and notch 31 may replace all of the rods 18 and notches 20 of FIGS. 1 and 3.

Therefore, the rack of this invention may consist of a kit of parts which may be assembled to make as many sections of tiers as desired. If just one section is desired one simply employs three plates 10 and four rods 18. If two or more sections are desired, one or more above another, more plates and rods are needed.

For best results, however, half of the rods 18 in the kit should have their notches 20 slightly closer together than for the others. The rods 18 whose notches 20 are closer together are used at the upper ends of the several sections so that the outer plates 13 or 10, as the case may be, taper apart as they pass downward from their upper to their lower rods 18. This facilitates stacking one section on another. Similarly the notch 19 in either the upper or the lower rods of every section may be slightly off-center to avoid the middle plates 13 and 10 of the two sections from colliding.

While the two plates 10 and 13 (FIGS. 1 and 2) bear separate reference numbers they in fact are identical in size, shape and positions of their holes 11 and 15 and their indents 12 and 14.

The indents 12 or 14 as the case may be facilitate stacking of one section on another. The indents 14, for example, of the top section in FIG. 1, make a saddle-like friction fit with the upper rods 18 of the lower section and thus tend to hold the two sections together.

The rods 18 act as supports for the contents of the rack.

Instead of being round, the holes 11 and/or 15 may be any other suitable shape such as square, rectangular, etc.

If the add-on feature shown in FIG. 1 is not required, a rectangular plate 10a (FIG. 8) may have four holes 11a, one adjacent each corner. The holes 11a receive the notches 20 in the rods 18, the same as described previously.

A further important improvement, comprising the invention, resides in making the several rods 18 at least slightly resilient and having the middle one of the three plates 10, as well as the middle one of the three plates 13, of FIG. 1, slightly modified from the other two plates 10 and the other two plates 13. This modification consists in locating the two uppermost holes 15 of the middle plate 13 slightly closer together than the corresponding holes 15 of the two outer plates 13. This modification is shown in FIG. 16 (which is a top view showing only two rods 18) where the holes 15a in the middle plate 13a are slightly out of line with their complementary holes 15 in the two outer plates 13. Since the two holes 15a in plate 13 are slightly closer together than the holes 15 in plates 13, the rods 18 are slightly flexed (this flexing being shown somewhat exaggerated in FIG. 16). This tends to lock the three plates 13 and 13a together in a rigid formation. I have explained how one set of holes 15, 15a (FIG. 16) at the very uppermost end of an assembly (such as that of FIG. 1) may be locked together by a special closer spacing of holes 15a versus holes 15. What has been explained for the uppermost holes 15 and 15a, and rods 18, of FIG. 16, is equally applicable to the corresponding holes and rods at each level. For example, in FIG. 1 there are four levels or sets of holes 15 and 11; each plate 10 and 13 having upper and lower sets of holes. The improved locking feature in which the holes in the middle plate are slightly closer together is applicable to each of the four sets (levels) and if employed on all four sets (levels) at once forms a very rigid overall structure.

While I show, in FIG. 1, a structure that is three plates wide, it is understood that the structure may be made as wide as desired. In case the structure is extended by adding two additional plates 10 and two additional plates 13, for example, the outermost plates 10 and 13 would have their holes 15 spaced apart the same as holes 15 of FIG. 16 and the remaining plates (which would be located between the right hand plates of FIG. 1 and said outermost plates) would have their holes 15a spaced slightly closer together than the complementary holes 15 of the other plates as explained in conjunction with FIG. 16.

In connection with the foregoing description, I have explained a number of different features such as (a) different notches (see FIGS. 3 to 6 and 9 to 12), (b) a plug 21, (c) a tapering feature wherein the lower rods are longer than the upper ones to permit stacking (see FIG. 1), and (d) a locking feature wherein holes 15a in a middle plate are slightly closer together than complementary holes in outer plates (see FIG. 16). It is understood that any of these features may be used in combination with any one or more of the others.