Cross member made from a tubular section for joining the uprights of metal shelving

Abstract: At least one of the ends (3) of the section (1) of the cross member is squashed, cut and bent to form engagement hooks (14) which can be hooked into slots (24) in a first wall (20A) of the upright (20), and comprises another bend (9) to form a shoulder that abuts against a second wall (20B) of the upright (20), which is adjacent to said first wall (20A); a rigid connection is thus formed between upright and cross member.

Description: The invention relates to metal shelving comprising uprights whose profile is right-angled and generally tubular and prismatic or open like the letter omega, etc., and cross members for joining the uprights together to form a rigid unit, optionally in combination with the shelves and/or other components. These cross members are in some cases tubular and their ends are shaped for connection to the uprights. Refer for example to documents FR-A-2137035, EP-A-0063861 and FR-A-2274818. The invention relates to an especially rational and effective system for the simple and economical production of the cross members in order to create the rigid configurations of connection to the uprights. These and other objects and advantages will be clear from a perusal of the following text. Document FR-A-2137035 discloses a cross member for joining the uprights when constructing shelving has at least one of its ends squashed, cut and bent to form engagement hooks which can be hooked into slots in a first wall of the upright. According to the invention, said squashed end has three successive bends to form a shoulder that abuts against a second wall of the upright, which is adjacent to said wall; a rigid connection is thus formed between upright and cross member. The squashed end is twice the thickness of the section - which may be open or closed and of various configurations - of the cross member. For the purpose of joining to an upright having a right-angled corner, said other bend may form a shoulder that abuts against a wall of the upright perpendicular to said first wall; said shoulder may in practice be approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal line of the cross member. In a practical embodiment, the squashed end may lie approximately in a longitudinal plane through the centre of the cross member and may comprise a first 90° bend in one direction, a second bend in the opposite direction to define the shoulder and a third bend in the cut area to form at least two hooks. The hooks are slightly inclined downwards and away from the shoulder in order to engage with a correspondingly inclined edge of the hook slots. A clearer understanding of the invention will be provided by the description and accompanying drawing, the latter showing a practical, non-restricting illustrative embodiment of the invention. In the drawing: Figs. 1 and 2 show, in two mutually perpendicular views, the first stage in working one end of a tubular cross member; Fig. 3 shows, in a similar manner to Fig. 1, a second stage in the working; Figs. 4 and 5 show, in a similar way to Figs. 1 and 2, a third and final stage in working an end, and the way it fits into an upright; Figs. 6 and 7 show a first way of fitting the cross members to a tubular upright section; Figs. 8 and 9 show a second way of fitting the cross members to a tubular upright; Fig. 10 shows a section through the plane X-X marked in Fig. 8; Figs. 11 and 12 show two alternatives to Fig. 2; Fig.13 shows a modified embodiment, in a perspective view, with one end of a cross member which is about to be engaged to the upright; Figs.14 and 15 show a partial transversal section and a local section according to XV-XV of Fig.14, respectively. In the accompanying drawing, the numeral 1 indicates a tubular section for constructing a cross member, which may be a circular tube or a section of oval or rectangular or other configuration in cross section, including open rather than annular cross sections. The section 1 is, however, such that it can be press-formed, and the first stage in its forming is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 showing the shaping of one end of the cross member 1. This first stage may be carried out in a single pass or in several successive stages of forming, and is done in such a way as to squash the end to bring together its two thicknesses and thereby form a double thickness 3, which comprises a first area 3A immediately adjacent to the connection 5 between the section 1 and the area 3; this first portion 3A as shown in the drawing is approximately in a vertical plane through the centre of the cross member 1; however, it is also possible for the portion 3A to be in another position, for example level with one side of the section, as shown in Figs. 11 and 12. The numeral 7 denotes a first transverse bending and 9 a second transverse bending, in order to form between these two Z bends a shoulder 10 at right angles to the initial longitudinal portion 3A. Should its position not be in the mid plane, the bend 7 from the portion 3A may be inwards or outwards with respect to the general form of the cross member. Beyond the bend 9, a portion 12 is formed, parallel with the portion 3A and therefore parallel with the axis of the cross member 1 and at right angles to the shoulder 10. This portion 12 of the squashed part 3 of the end of the cross member is cut in a second stage, as shown in Fig. 3, to form hooked lugs 14 (numbering three in Fig. 3), by removing a portion A (in broken lines) from the double thickness of the squashed area 12. The cut is shaped as shown in Fig. 3 defining the profiles of the hooked lugs 14. Next, in a third stage as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, another bend 16 is formed on each of the hooked lugs 14 in such a way as to create from the lugs 14 the hooks for attachment to the upright, which are slightly inclined with respect to the direction of the transverse bends 7 and 9. In the course of the working stages described above, suitable deformations of the laminar material of the ends of the cross member may be introduced for stiffening purposes, for example in the form of ridges 3X and 3Y in areas 12 and 3A respectively; the latter ridges 3Y may connect with the transverse shoulder portion 10. In some places, for example in area 12, holes 3Z may also be formed for the purposes of hooking and working, as well as for housing curved retaining pins that also pass through corresponding holes in the upright, as indicated in Fig. 10 in dot-dash lines, and for other suitable purposes. The ridges 3Y may in addition continue into the area 5 connecting the section 12 of the cross member to the initial squashed part 3A. The numerals 20 and 30 respectively indicate two sorts of upright - a rectangular-sectioned tube in the drawing - which may be combined with the cross member described above, to give a rigid locking action by means of the end deformed by squashing and as described above, ensuring absolute rigidity between the upright and the cross member. On one wall 20A of the upright 20 (Figs. 6 and 7) are slots 24 with edges 24A which are slightly inclined downwards and towards each other in each of the slots 24, as clearly visible in Fig. 7. The inclination of these edges 24A is the same as the inclination of the hooks 14 when bent along the fold lines 16. The numeral 20B indicates walls of the upright 20 which are adjacent to the wall 20A in which the slots 24 are made. When a cross member 1 is fitted to the upright 20, the hooks 14 are inserted through the slots 24 and engage - with gentle forcing - with the edges 24A, whilst the shoulder 10 abuts against the wall 20B adjacent to the wall 20A. This produces a firm and very rigid locking of the cross member 1 on the upright 20, owing to the presence of the shoulder 10 and of the bend 9 which abut against the wall 20B and against the corner where the wall 20B and the already-considered wall 20A meet each other. Each slot 24 can take the hooks of two cross members in line with each other and on opposite sides of the upright 20, as clearly visible in Fig. 6. Figs. 8 and 9 show a modified form of the upright 30 in which pairs of opposing slots 32 converge towards each other, possessing edges 32A analogous in inclination and function to the edges 24A of the slots 24 - the latter being single as opposed to sub-divided like the slots 32. Once again the cross member produces a clamping action by means of its shoulder 10 between the edge 32A (of one of the slots 32) and the adjacent wall 30B, against which the already-described shoulder 10 of the cross member 1 abuts. Again, this produces a very firm locking action between the cross member and the upright; the hooks of adjacent cross members on opposite sides of an upright 30 engage in the separate slots 32 of each pair of slots. As already stated, rather than being of closed tubular section, the uprights can be open, T-shaped, omega-shaped or of other shapes, though always with longitudinal corners such as those formed by the walls 20A, 20B or 30A, 30B. The squashed areas 3 need not be in the central position and can be displaced and even flush with one side of the cross member, as can be seen in Figs. 11 and 12, where the reference numerals are those of Fig. 2 plus "100" and "200" respectively. Working the ends of a cross member 1 as described is very simple and can be done quickly and with very sturdy results because of the small amount of deformation to which the material is subjected and because of the doubling of the thickness of the squashed parts 3, which are made wider than the vertical dimensions of the cross member 1, making it possible therefore to increase the dimension of the cross member precisely at the points where the hooks meet the uprights and in the same direction as the axes of the uprights. The result is an efficient distribution of the forces between the cross member and the upright. Figs. 13 to 15 show a modified embodiment. In this embodiment a tubular section 301 forms the cross member, one or each of its ends being squashed to form a double thickness 303 immediately next to the connection area 305 for connection with section 301. Subsequent bendings at 90°, indicated by numerals 307, 309 and 311, are made which define subsequent portions 312, 314 and 316 of the double thickness 303. In the end portion 316 there are hooked lugs 318 spaced apart from bending 311. These hooked lugs 318 have two opposite inclined sections, namely an upper section 318A and a lower section 318B, the latter being adjacent to a depression 318C. The upright 320 may be open and shaped in various ways, but has, at any rate, a channel-shaped depression 322, with walls 324 and bottom 326 defined by bendings 328 and 330. The bottom 326 may have a longitudinal rib 326A. Adjacent to each wall 324, in the bottom 326 there are slots 332 extending parallel and contiguous to bendings 330. These slots 332 are spaced apart along the upright by a step that corresponds to that of the hooked lugs 318, and each slot 332 is of a length that is a little over the distance between the inclined sections 318A and 318B of hooks 318. The distance between each fold line 328 and the adjacent edge 320X of the upright 320 corresponds to the distance between walls 312 and 316 of the end sections 303 of cross member 301. By this disposition the working is more satisfactory. It is possible to make weldings of the two thicknesses of the squashed section, especially in portions 316 which form the hooked lugs 318. A bond may be made between the upright and the squashed ends of the cross member, by means of bendings 309 and 311 and portions 312, 314 and 316 of the double thickness 303, and also for the presence of portion 316 between bendings 311 and hooked lugs 318. Sections 318A, 318B of hooked lugs 318 facilitate the hooking in slots 332. Furthermore, depressions 318C engage hooked lugs 318 to the lower edge of slots 332. It will be understood that the drawing shows only an illustrative embodiment given purely by way of a practical demonstration of the invention, it being possible for the invention to vary as regards shapes and arrangements without thereby departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

Claims: A tubular cross member for joining the uprights when constructing shelving, having at least one of the ends of the cross member squashed and cut to form hooks of double thickness which can be hooked into slots formed in a wall of the upright, characterized in that it comprises three successive bends (7,9,16; 107,109,16; 207,209,16; 307,309,311) to form a shoulder (10;110;210) that abuts against a second wall (20B; 30B) of the upright, which is adjacent to the above mentioned wall (20A; 30A), therefore forming a rigid connection is formed between upright and cross member. Cross member according to Claim 1, for joining to a rectangular-sectioned tubular upright, characterized in that said other bend (9) forms a shoulder (10) that abuts against a wall (20B; 30B) of the upright perpendicular to said first wall (20A; 30A). Cross member according to one of Claims 1 and 2, characterized in that said shoulder (10) is approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal line of the cross member. Cross member according to one of the previous claims, characterized in that the squashed end (3) lies approximately in a central or non-central longitudinal plane of the cross member and comprises a first 90° bend (7) in one direction, a second bend (9) in the opposite direction to define the shoulder (10) and a third bend (16) in the cut area to form at least two hooks (14). Cross member according to at least one of the previous claims, characterized in that the hooks (14) are slightly inclined downwards and away from the shoulder in order to engage with a correspondingly inclined edge (24A; 32A) of the hook slots. Cross member according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, suitable for hook in slots (332) made in the bottom (326) of a channel-shaped depression (322) adjacent to the walls (324) of said depression, said cross member characterized in that the hooked lugs (318) are formed by the end portion (316) at a distance from the bending (311).

Inventors: BETTINI ROSSANO, BETTINI, ROSSANO
Applicants: ROSSS DEI FRATELLI BETTINI S N, ROSSS DEI FRATELLI BETTINI S.N.C.
Application year: 1995
Main classification: A47B57
IPC codes: A47B57