Patent ID: 7753217
Filing Date: 2010-07-13
Classification: A47F

Abstract:
1. A retainer adapted for use in a combination with a hanger for securing to a slatwall track, said slatwall track including several parallel channels extending along its length, each of said several parallel channels incorporating a horizontal top, successively followed downwardly by an upper vertical back, a first horizontal bottom extending forwardly, a lower vertical back extending downwardly and a second horizontal bottom extending forwardly, and then a frontal vertical wall of said slatwall track connecting each said horizontal top of a lower channel with said second horizontal bottom of an upper following channel continues upwardly as a lip, a niche being formed by said lower vertical back, said lower second horizontal bottom and said lip; said hanger, being adaptable to be removably attachable to said slatwall track, comprising a bracket for suspending to said slatwall track, one or more hooks being secured to said bracket; said bracket having a substantially flat body extending into an uppermost backwardly folded segment forming an interstice adapted for engaging and partially capture, in a vertical direction, in said lip of said upper channel; and into a lowermost flat retracted segment adapted to penetrate into said niche and engage an inside surface of said lip of said lower channel; said retainer having a unitary structure that must be rigid enough for maintaining its shape after an insertion into a setting position or removal from said setting position; and must also be flexible enough to allow a deformation during its insertion and removal, said retainer incorporating a forepart that is followed inwardly and perpendicularly, at its upper end, by a top wall and inwardly, on each side by a lateral wall, said top wall extending backwardly and being adapted to penetrate into one of said channels without abutting said upper vertical back, each of said lateral walls incorporating three zones, respectively an upper, middle and a lower one, said upper zone projecting backwardly, coextensively with said top wall and incorporating a bottom edge comprising a first means for snapping adapted for easy engaging said lip, namely an inside surface of an upper channel, said first means for snapping being followed by a rounded cut-out, carved into a junction of an end of said first means for snapping and a top of said middle zone, said rounded cut-out being open towards the back and bottom of said retainer and is adapted to facilitate a pivoting of said retainer during assembling and also to lodge said lip, specifically its upper portion when set in place; said middle zones of said lateral walls being retracted with respect to said upper and lower zones, said middle zones partially capturing said bracket by flanking it and adapted to be in sliding contact with said frontal vertical wall of said slatwall track, each said middle zone terminating, at an intersection with said lower zone, into a rounded indentation having an opening towards the back of said retainer, said lower zones of said lateral walls together with said forepart encompassing a lower section of said bracket, before said lower section of said bracket terminating into said lowermost flat retracted segment; each said lower zone, starting from its exterior, being provided with a second means for snapping followed by a section having a thickness substantially equal with said forepart and said top wall; a distance between the bottom of said rounded cut-out and an upper edge of said lower zone being equal or slightly greater than a distance between an upper edge of said lip of said channel, respectively an upper one, and said horizontal top, respectively its inside surface, of another channel, respectively a lower one; whereby a distance between said first means for snapping, a most outwardly projecting part of said first means for snapping, and said upper edges of said lower zones being slightly less than a distance between an upper edge of said lip of said channel, respectively an upper one, and said horizontal top, respectively its inside surface, of another channel, respectively a lower one; and a distance between said sections of said opposite lateral walls being equal or slightly greater than a width of said bracket; and a distance between continuously widening sections of said lower zone at their maximum, being slightly less than said width of said bracket, whereby to secure said retainer in a set position to said slatwall track, said retainer is so rotated that its upper part is inclined backwardly to penetrate into one of said channels, respectively an upper one, and then capture said backwardly folded segment and engage said lip with its upper zones and by continuing the rotation a relatively narrow distance between said second means for snapping is forced to increase following the pressure of said retainer against said bracket; simultaneously a penetration of said lower zones into one of said channels, respectively a lower one, thus, a snapping, resulting from an escaping of said second means for snapping behind said bracket, takes place; and whereby said retainer being shaped and sized to accommodate within it said bracket of said hanger in order to prevent an upward, vertical translation of said bracket, followed by its pivoting and finally fall, by: using one end of said retainer for positioning and stabilizing, with respect to one of said channel, an upper one, one extremity of said bracket, while another end of sad retainer, vertically spaced from said one end of said retainer, being inserted by snapping into another parallel channel.