A SUPPORT ASSEMBLY

Abstract: A support assembly (11) for supporting storage means such as storage racks, mounts or shelving (13) in a vehicle or other storage area. The support assembly (11) includes a rail assembly (15) fixed in the storage area and along which a support structure (17) for the racks, mounts or shelving (13) is movable from a stowed position to an access position. In a vehicle installation the support assembly (11) may be supported in cantilever manner from the rail assembly (15) so that in the access position the storage racks, mounts or shelving (13) is accessible from outside the vehicle.

Description: A SUPPORT ASSEMBLY This invention relates to an improved support assembly suitable for supporting storage means or accessories. The support assembly may be utilized in or on vehicles or for warehouse storage or the like if desired. For illustrative purposes, particular reference will be made hereinafter to its application to vehicles such as vans and utility trucks. Service and display vans and the like are at present provided with fixed racks, usually placed along each side of the van for storage of articles. Access to these racks can be gained only from inside the vehicle. Due to the limited floor space available and lack of head room such access can be awkward. Furthermore, since the racks are fixed perm¬ anently in place and the racks are difficult to empty the vehicle's use is substantially limited to the commercial use for which it has been outfitted. Another disadvantage associated with the present arrangements is that frequently a single vehicle may be required to store different articles for different applications. Changing the contents of the vehicle's permanent storage racks is a time consuming operation. Typ: al vehicle storage racks include a plurality of detachable containers and these individual containers have to be removed and replaced with alternate containers. This is awkward and may lead to a necessary container being omitted from the racks. A further disadvantage of the presently available arrangements is that the storage racks are fixedly screwed or rivetted to the vehicle floor and side walls. The fitting of such storage racks has to be done on a one-off basis and costs are high due to the large amount of labour required. The present arrangement also imposes severe strain on the rack when the vehicle is used on rough roads. During such use the vehicle body flexes and this flexing is transferred to the racks. This frequently causes cracking due to fatigue or overstressing the rack components. In addition to the above disadvantages, vehicles fitted with fixed racks or shelving in which expensive equipment is stored provide a security problem. For example it may not be practical to park a fleet of vehicles in a warehouse each night or over a weekend in order to secure the parts and equipment therein. As a result most service vehicles are taken home by individual drivers and this results in a considerable expense to the fleet owner due to theft from the vehicles. This invention aims to alleviate these and other disadvantages associated with such prior art devices and to provide a support assembly for storage means which will be reliable and efficient in use. Other objects and advantages of this invention will hereinafter become apparent. With the foregoing and other objects in view, this invention in one aspect resides broadly in a support assembly including a guide assembly detachably securable to a supporting surface; a supporting structure supported by and movable along said guide assembly from a stowed position juxtaposed said guide assembly to an access position at which said supporting structure extends from said guide assembly and limit means adapted to retain said supporting structure in said stowed or access ' positions. The limit means may be releasable latching means, and preferably the latching means operates automatically to prevent movement of said supporting structure beyond the travelling or access positions but of course selectively engageable latching means could be provided for locking together the guide assembly and the supporting structure in any desired relative position. In one preferred form the latching means includes a spring biassed latch member mounted on the supporting structure and biassed towards engagement with stop means spaced along the guide assembly whereby the latch member engages with the respective stop means to secure the supporting structure in either the stowed po.sition or the access position. For ease of operation it is preferred that actuating means for releasing the latch member is positioned adjacent the outer end of said supporting structure whereby the latch means can be released from a position adjacent the outer end of the supporting structure for movement of the supporting structure to the stowed or access positions. It is also preferred that the latch means may be released from the access position to enable the supporting structure to be slidably disengaged from the guide assembly. The supporting structure may be used to support storage shelving or the like or ' it may be used to sunoort equipment such as a swaging machine. When utilized in a service van, for example, this would enable swaging to be carried out with the machine supported beyond the vehicle providing ready access thereto. Preferably sliding movement between the guide assembly and the supporting structure is assisted by the use of wheels mounted on one of them. In a preferred form the wheels are mounted on the supporting structure and are arranged to support the supporting structure when disposed remote from the guide assembly whereby the supporting structure may be whee ' i about. Alternatively the wheels may be provided on the i ide assembly and separate carrying means may be utilized for transporting the supporting structure remote from the guide assembly. Preferably the guide assembly includes upper and lower rails adapted to be engaged by respective wheels spaced along the supporting structure. In installations, such as vehicles in which the supporting surface may flex, the upper and lower pails are spaced apart a distance greater than the diameter of the wheels so that the supporting surface and the guide assembly attached thereto can flex without transf-: "ring the flexure or torque to the supporting structure. This arrangement prevents overstressing a rigid storage unit or other article which may be secured to the supporting structure . In a typical installation of the present invention each supporting structure may be associated with alternate guide assemblies, including a guide assembly mounted in or en a vehicle and a guide assembly mounted in a warehouse. A plurality of supporting structure and associated shelving or the like, may be supported in the warehouse in side by side relationship and access may be gained to selected shelving by moving the respective supporting assembly to an access position extending outwardly from the remaining shelving units and supported in cantilever manner from the respective guide assembly. Wheels may be provided on the supporting structure which disengage from the tracks of the guide assembly and engage the floor to further support the support structure. Preferably there are provided spaced pairs of wheels which can engage the floor when the supportin structure is fully disengaged from the guide assembly to enable the support structure and associated storage to be wheeled to and operatively engaged with a further guide assembly mounted in a vehicle for example. Thus service vans can be unloaded efficiently by transferring the support structure and associated storage to a secure storage area whic. may include if desired further guide assemblies to enaLie access to be gained to the contents thereof while permitting effective utilization of storage space. Alternatively they may be wheeled on a supporting surface to a convenient storage location. In another aspect this invention resides broadly in a van assembly including storage means utilizing a support asse oiy as defined above and supporting storage means there¬ on. Preferably the support assembly is arranged such that the guide mear.s is supported longitudinally along the van floor whereby the storage means may be moved to an access position through a rear door opening. There may be provided a plurality of storage assemblies arranged in side by side relationship together with a further storage assembly dis¬ posed transversly for movement to the access position through a side <- * oor. Of course the guide means could be elevated rails if desired and the supporting structure could be arranged to hang from the guide means. In a further aspect this invention resides in a method of outfitting a service vehicle with storage means, the method including obtaining or preforming a support assembly as defined above; preforming on said supporting structure suitable storage means; installing the guide means in or on the vehicle and subsequently engaging said supporting structure slidably on said guide assembly. In this respect it will be appreciated that the support assembly may be mass produced and held in stock so that very little time is required for actual fitting work on the vehicle which can be utilized while the storage means is being constructed. In order that the present invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred e mb odiments of t e invention, wherei :- Fig 1 is a perspective view of a typical van installation; Fig 2 is a perspective view from beneath of the rear support assembly illustrated in Fig 1 ; Fig 3 is a cress-sectional view taken along the lines 3-3 of Fig 2; Fig 4 is a cross-sectioned view taken along the lines 4-4 of Fig 2 and illustrating the latch assembly; Fig 5 is a broken away side view illustrating the relationship between the wheels and rails; Fig 6 is a perspective view of the side support assembly illustrated in Fig 1; Fig 7 is a side view illustrating a typical mobile trolley adapted to be associated with the support assembly; Fig 8 is a side view illustrating an alternate form of retaining means for the support assembly, and Fig 9 is a perspective view of a typical warehouse storage installation. Referring to Figs 1 to 5 it will be seen that a van 10 can be fitted with a plurality of support assemblies 11 and 12 each adapted to support respective storage shelving 13 and 14 for movement from an access position, as illus¬ trated, to a stowed position within the van 10. The support assembly 11 as illustrated in Fig 2 include a guide rail assembly 15 adapted to be fixed to the floor 16 of the van 10 and a supporting frame 17 slidable along the rail assembly 15. For this purpose the rail assembly 15 includes a pair of spaced parallel rails 18 connected together by transverse bar-like cross members 19 which are apertured at 20 to enable the rail assembly to be bolted to the floor 16. Each rail 18 is of open C-section member arranged with its, open face innermost to receive the wheels 21 mounted on the supporting frame 17. In order to minimise the overall height of the support assembly 11, sealed ball bearings are utilized for the wheels 21 and these mount on axles 22 which extend between and are fixed to angle- form side rails 23. The ends of the axles 22 terminate in¬ side of the outer extremity of the top flanges 24 so that the wheels 21 do not project beyond the supporting frame 17 which may include a base platform 25 upon which the shelving 13 is supported. It will be seen from Figs 2 and 5 that there are provided front and rear pairs of wheels 26 and 27 respectively adjacent the extremeties of the supporting frame 17 and intermediate pairs of wheels 28 spaced therebetween. The front and intermediate pairs of wheels 26 and 28 are arranged with their axes co-planar and for contact with the lower rail surface 30 while the rear pair of wheels 27 is supported with its axis slightly above the plane containing the remaining wheel axes and arranged for contact with the top rail surface 31. This arrangement enables the rear wheels 27 to prevent upward movement of the supporting frame 17 as it is moved outwardly to an access position in which it is supported in cantilever manner by the rail assembly 15. The outermost access position of the supporting frame corresponds to a position at which both the rear wheels 27 and the rearmost intermediate wheels 28 remain engaged in the channel shaped rails 18. Movement beyond this position is prevented by engagement of the latch member 32 of a latch assembly 33 into engagement with an outer aperture 34 in one side rail 18. As can be seen in Fig 4 the latch assembly 34 includes the latch member 32 which is carried slidably in a U-shaped bracket 35 welded to the axle 22a of the rearmost intermediate wheels. The latch member 32 also passes slidably through the vertical flange 36 of the support frame 17. A compression spring 39 is mounted between the arm 40 of the bracket 35 remote from the flange 36 and a stop 41 fixed to the member 32 so that the spring 39 urges the latch member 32 to an extended position at which its outer end passes through the aperture 34. Thus engagement will occurautomatically as the supporting frame is withdrawn to its access position and the latch member 32 moves into alignment with the aperture 34. A further aperture 42 is provided in the rail 18 at a position corresponding to the stowed position so that as the supporting frame 17 is returned to its stowed position the latch member 32 will automatically pass into this aperture 42 to hold the supporting frame 17 in the stowed attitude. A welded on stop may be fixed to the outer end of the frame 17 to prevent the storage units moving forward should the latch assembly fail. A cable 43 passes from the latch member 32 about a sheave 44 secured to the axle 22a to an actuating handle or ring 45 adjacent the handle 46 used to move the supporting assembly 17 between its access and stowed position. This provides ease of operation whereby a user may grasp the handle 46, withdraw the ring 45 and then move the supporting assembly 17 in any desired direction, including outwardly upon release of the latch member 32 from the outer¬ most aperture 34 to cause the supporting frame 17 to slide endwise beyond the rails 18. If desired the wheels 21 on the supporting frame 17 may be engaged with further rails 50 on a trolley 51 having wheels 52 carried on scissor-action legs adapted to be pivoted relative to one another for raising or lowering the rails. This is achieved by rotation of a hand wheel operated control bar 5 which extends through and is mounted for rotation only in a pivotable bearing block * 55 connected to one leg assembly 53 to engage threadedly with a bearing nut 56 mounted pivot- ally on the other leg assembly 58. As illustrated the leg assembly 53 connects pivotally at 59 to the rails 50 while the leg assembly 53 connects slidably at 57 to the rails 50. The trolley may be used to transport the supporting frame and its associated storage to any convenient location. The mounting frame 60 illustrated in Fig 6 utilizes a fixed guide frame 61 having rollers 62 thereon which engage within C-sectioned rails 63 which are connected together to form the supporting frame 64. ' A plate mounting 65 may be used for mounting a machine such as a saw or a press or the like. Furthermore as shown the support assembly is slidable through the side door of a van and it is elevated above the floor whereby the rails . 18 for the rear support assembly 11 can extend beneath the mounting frame 60 as shown in dotted outline. This enables the associated supporting frame 17 to extend beyond the storage shelving fixed thereto so that the latter can be moved to an access position at which all storage shelving is accessible beyond the rear of the vehicle. The extended portion of the supporting frame 17 is retained in the rails to provide the necessary support. Of course when both the side and rear support assemblies are moved to a stowed attitude substantially all the interior space of the van can be utilized for accessible storage. For this purpose ∑A. OMPI an additional rear support assembly may be provided beside that illustrated at 11. Fig 8 illustrates an alternate quick-release connection for connecting the rail assembly 70 to a support- ing surface such as a van floor 71. As shown the forward end 72 of the rail assembly 70 is provided with a forwardly projecting cleat 73 which is adapted to engage slidably beneath a retaining bracket 74 secured to the van floor 71. The rear end 75 of the rail assembly 70 is provided with a downwardly projecting pin 76 which is adapted to pass through a locating aperture 77 in the floor 71. The outer end of. the pin 76 is provided with a recess 78 in which the tongue 79 of a locking assembly may engage to prevent retraction of the pin 76 through the aperture 77. The tongue may be spring biassed towards its engaged position and provided with a head portion 80 which may be grasped to retract the tongue to enable the pin to be withdrawn and the rail assembly retracted from the van. Thus the rail assembly may be quickl removed from the vehicle so that it can be used for other purposes, such as carting gravel and quickly replaced when required. The support assembly or a plurality of them, may be supported in transverly extending relationship on a flat-top tray of a truck or utility. In such application it is preferred that actuating means for the latching assembly are provided at each end of the supporting frame so that it can be moved to an accessible position at either side of the truck platform. Of course the storage means used with the supporting frames will vary with the particular application and it could comprise, for example, a hanging assembly for clothes, storage racks for tools or spare parts, mountings for additional seats or mountings for machinery as aforesaid. Also a plurality of narrow assemblies may be provided to support display boards for video cassettes or the like so that many can be stored in a van and withdrawn in racks for display. The rails or tracks could be formed integrally with the vehicle and various types of holding down or securing arrangements could be provided to hold the mobile part in position during transit. Referring to Fig 9 it will be seen that a typical warehouse installation provided a plurality of rail assemblies- 80 similar to the rail assembly 15 (only one of which is shown) secured in spaced side by side arrangement on a floor so that the storage means 81 supported by the supporting assemblies which engage with the rails 81 extend in adjacent face to face relationship. * Any selected one of the storage means may be withdrawn to gain access to a particular storage compartment. The storage means may be arranged in spaced rows for economical utilization of space. Of course the supporting assembly could be slidable along a differential member slidable with respect to the guide means to provide further extensions. Also the under¬ carriage for transporting the storage means between respect¬ ive guide rails or remote therefrom may be arranged to fold down from the supporting structure. However it will be realised that all such and other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims: THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE .AS FOLLOWS:- 1. A support assembly including a guide assembly detachably securable to a supporting surface; a supporting structure supported by and movable along said guide assembly from a stowed position juxtaposed said guide assembly to an access position .at which said supporting structure extends from said guide assembly and limit means adapted to retain said supporting structure in said stowed or access positions. 2. A support assembly according to Claim 1, wherein said limit means includes selectively releasable latching means which operates automatically to prevent movement of said supporting structure beyond said stowed or access positions. 3. A support assembly according to Claim 2, wherein said latching means includes a releasable latch member mounted on one of said guide assembly or said supporting structure and co-operating with fixed stop means on the other. 4. A support assembly according to Claim 3, wherein said latch member is mounted on said supporting structure and is biassed towards engagement with stop means on said guide assembly. 5. A support assembly according to Claim 4, wherein actuating means for releasing said latch member is supported at the end of said supporting structure arranged to be supported in cantilever manner remote from said guide assembly 6. A support assembly according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said supporting structure is in the form of a supporting frame upon or by which alternate forms of holding or storage means may be supported. 7. A support assembly according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein one of said guide assembly or said supporting structure includes spaced pairs of supporting wheels and the other includes a rail assembly having a lower track assembly along which one said pair of wheels moves and an upper track assembly along which the other said pair of wheels moves. 8. A support assembly according to Claim 7, wherein the wheels which move along one said track are spaced from the opposing track. 9. A support assembly according to Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein said rail assembly includes a pair of elongate channel members disposed in parallel relationship with their open faces inwards, the adjacent upper and lower inner faces there¬ of constituting said upper and lower track assemblies and there being provided bracing means interconnecting said channel members whereby the rail assembly may be installed and removed as a single unit. 10. • A support assembly according to any of Claims 7 to 9, wherein said wheels are mounted on said supporting structure such that their lower portion extends downwardly beyond the supporting structure to enable the supporting structure to be supported on and wheeled along a substantiall flat supporting surface. 11. A support assembly according to Claim 10, wherein said wheels include a pair of wheels adjacent the opposite ends of said supporting structure. 12. A storage assembly as defined in any one of the preceding claims and including storage means mounted on said supporting structure. 13. A van assembly having a load space; an access door to said load space the latter having a supporting surface and a storage assembly as defined in Claim 12 mounted in said storage space and wherein said supporting structure is adapted to be moved to said access position through a door opening. 14. A van assembly according to Claim 13, wherein the width of said supporting structure and said storage means is less than one half the width of said access door opening. 15. A van assembly according to Claim 13, wherein said access door moves to an open position above the storage means when the latter is disposed in said access position. 16. A van assembly as defined in Claim 14 or Claim 15, O PI wherein there are provided a pair of said storage assemblies mounted in said storage space in side by side relationship and either or both of which may ' be moved to said access position through said access door opening. 17. A van assembly according to Claim 15 and 16 wherein said access door is a rear door and said van includes a side door opening to the load space remote from said access door and wherein there is provided a further storage assembly as defined in Claim 11 mounted in said storage space and movable to said access position through the side door opening. 18. A method of outfitting a service vehicle with storage means, the method including obtaining or preforming a support assembly as defined in any one of Claims 1 to 11; forming suitable storage means on said supporting structure, installing said guide means in or on the vehicle and subs¬ equently engaging said supporting structure on said guide means . 19. A method of securing selected vehicle contents in a security area including arranging the selected contents in a storage assembly as -defined in Claim 12 and during non working transferring the storage means to a security area when required. 20. A storage assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Inventors: HINDLE STUART JOHN, HINDLE, STUART, JOHN
Applicants: HINDLE STUART JOHN, HINDLE, STUART, JOHN
Application year: 1984
Main classification: A47B53
IPC codes: A47B53, B60P3, B65G1