Patent ID: 6763956
Filing Date: 2004-07-20
Classification: A47B

Abstract:
An open faced wine rack for storing horizontally thereon a plurality of wine bottles which have the same or substantially the same sidewall diameter, which wine rack has as its structural elements,(a) as the sole vertical support collectivey for wine bottles stored on the wine rack, a planar rigid monolithic quadrilateral vertical support member which has parallel first and second faces and has mounted against at least the first face thereof; (b) as the sole horizontal support individually for wine bottles stored on the wine rack, a plurality of identical straight rigid round metal wine bottle support rods, a first end of each of which is threaded and has a face which is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the wine bottle support rods and each of which is cantilever-mounted at its first end on the support member equidistantly from and parallel to each other, flush and flat against the first face of the support member, in equidistantly positioned rows, each of which contain at least three of the support rods; (c) as first mounting means for the support rods, a plurality of identical round holes in the support member whose diameter is less than that of the support rods and the center of each of which is coaxial with the longitudinal axis of one of the support rods over which each hole one of the support rods is mounted: (d) as second mounting means for the support rods, a plurality of identical straight round metal solid mounting rods whose diameter is slightly less than the diameter of the round holes, whose length is at least the sum of its diameter plus the thickness of the support member, wherein one each thereof is slip fitted and positioned in one of the round holes with a first threaded end thereof projecting beyond the first face of the support member, wherein a second end of each thereof is rigidly connected to an enlarged member which (i) has a flat under face which is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the mounting rod; (ii) acts as a stop which prevents the second end of the mounting rods from entering the round hole; (iii) is pressed flush against the second face of the support member so tightly that the mounting rod cannot rotate within the hole in which it is positioned; and (iv) maintains the longitudinal axis of the mounting rod perpendicular to the first face of the support member; and wherein at least the portion of the first end of each of the mounting rods which projects beyond the first face of the support member is threaded cooperatively with respect to the threaded end portion of the metal rods and is tightly screwed connected thereto, whereby the enlarged member at the second end of the mounting rods and the threaded first end of the support rods cooperatively maintain the support rods firmly and immovably mounted against the first face of the support member, and wherein (i) the support rods are long enough and three of which when mounted on the support member side-by-side in the same row are strong enough when mounted on the support member to stably support two filled wine bottles having the same or substantially the same sidewall diameter; (ii) each row of the support rods is uniformly spaced from adjacent rows thereof at a distance such that wine bottles of a size for which the wine rack is designed which have the narrowest sidewall diameter can be stored above those which have the widest sidewall diameter on adjacent rows of the support rods without their side walls touching; (iii) the support rods in the same row are spaced uniformly from each other a distance such that wine bottles of a size for which the wine rack is designed which have the widest sidewall diameter can be stored side-by-side in the same row without their side walls touching; and (iv) the diameter of the support rods is large enough that a wine bottle of a size for which the wine rack is designed which has the narrowest sidewall diameter can be supported by two wine bottle support rods which are side-by-side in the same row.