Stand for dispensing filamentary material from reels

A display and dispensing rack is disclosed in which reels of filamentary material are rotatably supported upon a pair of roller covered, spaced, parallel bars so that the filamentary material may be withdrawn therefrom, passed through a measuring device and cut to length. Different size reels may be accommodated and reels may be removed and replaced without disturbing adjacent reels.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a display and dispensing rack for reels of 
filamentary material. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In the prior art, racks for displaying and dispensing filamentary material 
commonly consist of frame members which support one or more horizontal 
axles upon which are rotatably mounted a plurality of reels carrying the 
filamentary material to be displayed and dispensed. 
It is to be understood that in this specification and in the appended 
claims, the term "filamentary material" is intended to mean and to include 
all such things as rope, cord, wire rope, electrical wire, chain and other 
material of that general kind that is commonly supplied on reels having a 
core and a pair of opposed circular flanges. 
The display and dispensing racks of the prior art suffer from a number of 
disadvantages. 
First, in a rack which supports a plurality of reels upon a common axle, 
replacement of any one reel requires the removal of the axle from the 
stand so that the reel may be slid axially off the axle for removal. If an 
axle carries, for example, three or five such reels of filamentary 
material and one of the central reels is empty, the entire axle must be 
removed, one or more outer but still full reels must be removed in order 
to gain access to the empty reel. Such full reels are, quite frequently 
heavy with the result that a display stand may be left with one or more 
empty reels until personnel from the stockroom are available to replace 
the empty reel with a full reel. Such a practice, of course, results in 
lost sales and in customer dissatisfaction. 
Second, a display stand which supports a plurality of reels upon one or 
more common axles makes no provision for neatly locating the free end of a 
filamentary material carried by the reel with the result that the 
assortment of ropes, wires and the like frequently hang down from the 
device in a tangled, disorderly array. This makes dispensing of the 
material awkward and presents an untidy appearance which is detrimental to 
the image presented by such users as a retail organization and, more 
importantly, may present a hazard both to store personnel and to transient 
customers. 
Thirdly, display and dispensing racks of the prior art frequently make no 
provision for measuring the length of the filamentary material which is to 
be dispensed and sold. It is common practice in some retail organizations 
for the clerk to measure the length of a piece of rope, for example, by 
laying it out on the floor and using the twelve inch floor tiles as 
measuring units to determine the length of the material requested by a 
customer. Such measurements are frequently done in a rather sloppy and 
inaccurate fashion and, in order to ensure customer satisfaction, a 
request for a length of, say, ten feet of material is frequently met by 
cutting and selling a somewhat longer length for the ten-foot price. Such 
a practice, over a period of time, results in a significant loss of 
revenue to the detriment and disadvantage of the retail organization. 
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a display 
and dispensing rack for filamentary material in which the disadvantages 
enumerated above are overcome. 
First, individual reels of filamentary material are supported by their 
flange edges upon roller bars so that any reel may be readily removed from 
the rack independently of any other reels. As a result, an empty reel can 
be readily removed and replaced by a full reel as soon as the contents of 
the reel have been exhausted. 
The display and dispensing rack of the present invention provides a neat 
and tidy appearance, provides guides and locating apertures for the free 
ends of the material to be dispensed so that there is no tangle or hanging 
material and so that hazards to personnel and transient customers are 
avoided. 
Thirdly, the display and dispensing rack of the present invention provides 
an integral counter and measuring device by means of which the requested 
length can be accurately measured and cut in a manner that avoids the 
hazardous practice of laying the material out on the floor and overcomes 
the inaccuracy inherent in that practice.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION 
Turning now to FIG. 1, the display and dispensing rack of the present 
invention is shown as comprising a pair of conventional, vertical slotted 
standards 10, each of which supports at least one forwardly extending 
horizontal arm 11. Each arm 11 is provided with hooks 12 to engage the 
slots 13 in the standards 10 as is well known and as is illustrated in 
FIG. 5. 
Extending between the arms 11 are at least two spaced, parallel rods 14 
which pass through selected apertures in the arms 11 and which are secured 
in position by nuts 15. 
Joining the ends of the arms 11 is a guide and cutter supporting bar 16. 
As can be seen in FIG. 1, there may be more than one pair of arms 11 and a 
second pair such as 11a may be provided in order to support a further 
assortment of reels. 
Referring to FIG. 2, the rods 14, as can be seen, are threaded at each end 
at 17 to receive the retaining nuts 15 and carry a plurality of closely 
spaced, separate, short rollers 18 which are freely rotatable thereon. As 
seen in FIG. 1, the rollers 18 fully occupy the entire length of the rods 
14 between the arms 11. 
The guide and cutter supporting bar 16 is provided with a plurality of 
spaced apertures 20 (see FIG. 3) into which are pressed moulded plastic 
guide elements 21. The elements 21 may conveniently be provided with 
retaining lips 22 to hold them in position and are formed with a flared 
entrance passage 23 so as to enable the filamentary material to be readily 
passed therethrough in the direction of the arrow 24. The elements 21 
avoid the abrasion of the filamentary material by the sharp edges of the 
apertures 20. In addition, the guide elements may be constructed so that 
the filamentary material can pass through only in the dispensing 
direction. 
As seen in FIG. 1, there is a plurality of guide elements 21 in the guide 
and cutter supporting bar, only some of which are in use at any one time. 
The reason for supplying the numerous elements 21 is to accommodate 
filamentary material running from an assortment of reels of different 
sizes. 
The guide and cutter supporting bar is, conveniently, a channel shaped 
member having a rear flange 25 which is secured to the forward ends of the 
arms 11 and upper and lower flanges 26 and 27. The forward edges of upper 
and lower flanges 27 are provided with inwardly facing grooved flanges 28 
and 29 which are adapted to receive a plate 30 which may be slideable 
therealong so as to be positioned at any desired point along the length of 
the guide and cutter supporting bar 16. 
The plate 30, as seen in FIG. 4, carries an upwardly opening U-shaped 
channel 31 and a pivoted measuring or counter device 32. The counter 
device 32 is a conventional apparatus provided with a rubber surfaced 
roller 33, a digital counting dial 34 and a reset button 35. 
The counting device 32 is pivotally mounted about pivot pin 36 and is 
spring loaded by means of a spring (not shown) so as to urge the rubber 
covered wheel 33 downwardly towards the bottom wall 37 of the channel 
member 31. 
The end of the channel member 31 may, conveniently, have secured thereto a 
cutting device 38 located in such a position that it may sever material 
extending through the channel 31. 
Turning now to FIGS. 1 and 4, the operation of the display and dispensing 
rack will be described in detail. 
First, a plurality of reels 40 are placed on the roller rods 14 resting on 
the edges of their circular end flanges. It is to be noted that the 
spacing between adjacent, parallel rods 14 must be smaller than the 
diameter of the smallest reel which it is intended to use in association 
with the display and dispensing rack so that the rods will support the 
reels in the manner shown in FIG. 1. 
The filamentary material from the reels is then led off the reel rearwardly 
and downwardly behind and beneath the rearward rod 14 and then forwardly 
towards the guide and cutter supporting bar, through the guide element 21 
so that the free end 41 projects a short distance through the guide 
element and is visible and available to be grasped in order to dispense 
material from the reel. 
In the event that a lower rack comprising arms 11a is employed, a further 
array of reels 40a may be carried by corresponding rods 14a and, in that 
event, the filamentary material is led off the reel below the rear rod 14a 
and upwardly over the rear rod 14 of the upper array and then forwardly 
and through the guide element 21 so as to present an end 41. 
It will be noted that each reel 40 and 40a rests upon its flanges on the 
rollers 18 carried by the rods 14 and 14a. When the filamentary material 
is grasped and pulled, the reels will tend to rotate to dispense the 
material and this rotation will be facilitated by the rollers 18 on the 
rods 14. Only the rollers 18 in contact with the flanges of the reels, 
however, will rotate and, as a result, rotation of one reel will not 
induce rotation of other reels on the same array, 
As an alternative, it may be convenient to provide the rollers 18 with low 
radial flanges such as 18a shown in FIG. 2. With this construction, there 
will be no tendency for the reels 40 to migrate laterally along the rods 
14 as the material is dispensed. 
Turning now to FIG. 4, the end 41 of the filamentary material may be laid 
into the channel 31 by moving the handle 50 attached to the counter 32 
towards the reels 40 against the action of the spring (not shown) so as to 
pivot it about the pivot pin 36. This will lift the rubber covered roller 
out of the channel 31 and permit the filamentary mateiral to be laid 
therein. When the handle is released, the roller 33 will assume the 
position shown in FIG. 4 in contact with the filamentary material so as to 
measure the length of material being withdrawn through the channel in the 
direction of the arrow 51 in FIG. 4. 
When the desired length of material has been withdrawn as indicated by the 
digital counter 34, the cutter mechanism 38 can sever the material 
accurately and conveniently. 
The counting and cutter assembly carried by the plate 30 is free to slide 
along the length of the guide and cutter supporting bar so as to position 
the channel 31 in front of a selected one of the guide elements 21 
depending upon the filamentary material to be dispensed. 
The upper surface of the upper flange 26 provides a convenient surface upon 
which to adhere labels to indicate the nature and price of the material 
issuing from the guide element immediately below. 
As can be seen from the arrangement in FIG. 1, if, for example, the center 
reel of the upper row in FIG. 1 should become empty, it can simply be 
lifted off the rods 14 and replaced without disturbing either of the other 
reels. 
From the preceding description, it can be seen that a display and 
dispensing rack has been provided which is free of the objections 
enumerated above with respect to the prior art. 
In addition, at least two further and significant advantages are achieved. 
First, the reels resting on the roller bars do not display a tendency to 
rotate unless the filamentary material is being pulled deliberately. Thus, 
the likelihood that the contents of a reel will unintentionally unwind is 
eliminated. Second, by being able to conveniently measure and cut any 
desired length of material, a retailer no longer needs to follow the 
wasteful practice of keeping an inventory of pre-cut popular sizes of 
various materials. 
The device illustrated in FIG. 1 may be arranged to embody any convenient 
number of pairs of forwardly extending arms 11 and rods 14 so as to 
support the desired number of reels. It is to be noted, however, that even 
where there are three or more pairs of arms 11 and rods 14, all the 
filamentary material may be led to the single guide and cutter supporting 
bar so that the ends of the material to be dispensed are presented at a 
single location to be measured by a single measuring and counting device 
and severed by the single cutting device. As an alternative, separate 
guide and cutter supporting bars may be used in association with separate 
arms 11, for example, when one pair of arms supports reels of rope and a 
second pair supports reels of wire. 
Replacement of empty reels has been simplified, a neat and tidy array has 
been provided and accurate counting and measuring mechanisms have been 
associated with the device to avoid the difficulties of the prior art. 
The preceding description is intended to illustrate a preferred embodiment 
of the present invention but minor modifications and variations are 
contemplated within the scope of the appended claims.