SHOP MERCHANDISING/DISPLAY SYSTEM

Abstract: A shop merchandising/display system which leans against an upright surface rather than being permanently attached thereto. The system comprises an upright (1) having a leg (10) extending outwardly and forwardly from the base thereof to support the upright parallel to wall (W) with its bottom (9) out of contact with the floor (F). Brackets (16) are releasably attachable to the upright (1) to support shelves (26) or merchandise thereon.

Description: SHOP MERCHANDISING/DISPLAY SYSTEM This invention relates to a shop merchandising/display system and more particularly to a system which leans against a supporting surface rather than being permanently attached thereto. A major problem of most known shop merchandising systems is that they use fixed uprights which are screwed or otherwise attached to the walls at predetermined intervals e.g. 1000mm or 1200 mm so they can be time consummg to install and, once in place, cannot be readily moved around the store. To reconfigure the system, it has to be dismantled or unscrewed and reassembled in another configuration which is time consuming and therefore expensive and also leaves unsightly holes in the walls which have to be filled. The Applicant overcame this particular problem by designing the system described in their European patent No.0521038 which dispenses with the fixed slotted uprights and instead uses an anchor rail attached to the wall in a substantially horizontal disposition from which discrete hangers are releasably mounted. The hangers are attachable to the anchor rail and removable therefrom at any location along its length so that they hang freely from the rail with no other means of support, at least a part of the hanger being in contact with the wall but unattached thereto. Because this system does not have any fixed uprights, it provides great lateral flexibility and has proved to be extremely successful. Another system is also known in which the top of each upright rests against the wall and the bottom stands on the floor spaced from the wall. Shelves or hanging rails are supported on or between the uprights to display the merchandise in known manner. The main problem with this system is that, because the uprights lean against the wall at an angle, any shelves supported on them are in a cascading formation which leaves wasted merchandising space behind uprights. Also, because the uprights lean against the wall at an angle, there is a danger that they can slit further away from the wall under the weight of the displayed merchandise or if the bottom of the upright resting on the floor is accidentally dislodged. For the foregoing reasons, this known lean-to system has found little acceptance in the market place. It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially reduce the disadvantages of the prior art discussed above. According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a freestanding shop merchandising/display system which, in use, leans against an upright surface such as a wall while standing on a substantially horizontal surface such as a floor, the system comprising a pair of connected uprights with support means therebetween to support the uprights against the wall but out of contact therewith, and a leg extending forwardly and downwardly from each upright, the arrangement being such that when the system is leant against the wall, the uprights are spaced from the wall and floor by the support means and the legs. Preferably a row of axialry aligned slots extend along the length of each upright for releasably mounting other members thereto. Preferably, each let extends outwardly from the upright at an acute angle thereto. It can however extend outwardly normal to the upright. Preferably, each leg is releasably attachable to the bottom region of the upright and has a foot which contacts the floor. In a preferred embodiment, the foot includes adjustment means which allow its vertical position relative to the leg to be adjusted. Conveniently each leg includes mounting means which releasably locate in the slots in the upright and include further means whereby vertical movement of the leg relative to the upright is prevented once the leg is fitted thereto. In a preferred embodiment, said further means comprises one or more barbed or sprung teeth. Conveniently, the upright is ubule and slotted and the leg is made of a sheet material, e.g. metal, the mounting me.ans comprising a hook shaped tooth on the leg with a first portion adapted to engage with the rear face of a front wall of the upright and a second portion adapted to engage with the inside face of the rear wall of the upright, the tooth being configured so that the bracket can be initially inserted into .an aperture in the upright at an angle thereto and then pivoted into a locked position whereby the first tooth portion engages with the rear face of the front wall of the upright and the second tooth portion engages with the rear wall of the upright with a carr iing action whereby the tongue is gripped between the front and rear walls of the upright to make a tight fit therewith. The upright can however be tubular but without slots in it, the leg being attached thereto in some convenient way e.g. by means of a clamp or a plug fitted up the end of the tube. Preferably the width of the tooth between where it engages with the front and rear walls of the upright is greater than the internal width of the upright so that when the bracket is pivoted into its locked position, the cam surface on the tooth distorts the upright to wedge the tooth in position therebetween. Preferably, the leg includes an additional split tooth which is spring biased to fit into a slot in the upright and retain the leg therein. Preferably the upright is formed of a closed box section, the rear wall thereof being deformed to provide locating means therein in the form of a continuous internal indentation extending along the length of the upright. Preferably the or each tooth is not coplanar with the remainder of the leg as a result of which the leg will extend from the upright at an acute angle relative thereto when mounted thereon. Preferably the leg includes a second portion which interfits and locks therewith to provide a cruciform section thereto. A pair of uprights are preferably connected together by connecting means to provide a generally rectangular frame. Preferably the support means comprises a spacer provided on the connecting means intermediate the spaced uprights, the spacer, in use, contacting the wall and spacing the uprights therefrom. Conveniently the connecting means comprise a pair of parallel cross members extending between the uprights adjacent the top and bottom thereof but the connecting means can be of some other configuration for instance cruciform. Preferably the spacer is mounted on the top cross member intermediate the uprights so that the system is supported on the floor and wall at three points of contact, i.e. one point of contact at the top of the system on the top cross member and the other two at the bottom of the system spaced apart from each other where the legs contact the floor. This provides the system with great stability. If necessary, more thai: one contact point can be provided at the top of the system or it can rest directly against the wall on the cross member itself. The or each spacer is preferably adjustable to aid levelling and can also have holes in them to allow permanent fixing to the wall or other support surface. Although the frame is preferably formed as an integral rigid structure, it is envisaged within the scope of the invention that the frame could be arranged to be dismantled so that the system can be flat packed. With this arrangement, the means connecting the uprights together to form the frame would be releasably attachable to the uprights. Furthermore, adjacent units can share a common adjustable foot locked together to form a continuous self spacing merchandising system or two units can be mounted back to back to provide a free standing gondola. Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side view of a shop merchandising system of the present invention; Figure 2 is a plan view of the system shown in Figure 1 ; Figure 3 is a front view of the main frame of the system shown in Figures 1 and 2; Figure 4 is a front view on a reduced scale of the frame shown in Figure 3 but with a back panel attached thereto; Figure 5 is a cross sectional view showing a leg fitted to the upright; Figure 6 is a pian view of Figure 5; Figure 7 is a side view of one form of bracket member which can be fitted to a shop merchandising/display system of the system of the invention to hang merchandise from; Figure 8 is a side view of a shelf support which can be fitted to a shop merchandising/display system of the system of the present invention; Figures 9, 9A and 10 show first and second leg sections which can be interfitted together without welding or gluing to form a cruciform cross section; and Figure 11 shows several shop merchandising systems of the present invention connected together to provide a display. Referring now to the drawings and particularly Figures 1-4, there is shown a shop merchandising system of the present invention which comprises a pair of tubular uprights 1 having a row of axially aligned slots 3 in the front face thereof. Each upright 1 is preferably welded to a second tubular member 4 (see Figure 6) and the two uprights 1 are preferably connected together e.g. by welding by an upper cross member 5 and a lower cross member 6 to provide a rigid rectangular frame. More than two cross members can be used if required. It is also not essential that they be parallel to each other as illustrated as they could be arranged in a cruciform configuration. Furthermore, the cross members 5 and 6 can be releasably attached to the uprights to allow the frame to be dismantled for packaging purposes. A leg 10 is releasably fitted in the axially aligned slots in each upright 1, at the base thereof and extends forwardly of the upright. Each leg 10 has a pad 11 at its remote end which is mounted on a threaded shaft fitted in the end of the leg whereby rotation of the pad vanes the vertical orientation of the pad relative to the leg. Each leg 10 extends downwardly and forwardly from the bottom of the upright 1 so that its bottom 9 is spaced above the ground and out of contact therewith. A spacer 7 is attached to the centre of the upper cross member 5 to space top end 8 of the upright 1 away from upright wall W (see Figures 1 and 2). The spacer 7 is threadingly attached to the cross member so rotation of the spacer 7 changes its horizontal distance from the cross member which assists in levelling the system during installation and ensuring that the frame is parallel to and spaced from the wall W. With the illustrated arrangement, when the frame is leant against wall W, the whole assembly is supported at three points of contact 11 A, 1 IB and 11C with the uprights 1 kept out of contact with the wall W by the spacer 7 but parallel thereto and their bottoms 9 spaced from and above the floor F. It will be appreciated therefore that any load that is supported by this structure will create a force that translates into a vertical and horizontal component at each point of contact with a wall or floor surface. As long as the vertical force on the point of contact with the wall and the horizontal force on the point of contact with the floor do not exceed the opposing friction forces at these points, the structure will not slide out from the wall. Secondly, no vertical force should be further from the wall than the foot/floor contact point. With the illustrated arrangement, only 1/8 of the weight of the structure or anything supported thereon is carried by the wall at the point of contact 1 lC. Most of the weight i.e. the remaining 7/8 is carried by the legs at contact points 11 A and 1 IB. This has the substantial advantage that the system can be used with partition walls and no strengthening there of is needed. The spacer 7 can be omitted if desired so that the frame leans directly against the wall. A backing board 14 may be fitted to the uprights for display purposes. This can take any convenient form such as the arrangement illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 4 where it has axially aligned slots 15 parallel to each edge thereof and spaced apart by the distance between the two uprights 1. The board 14 is positioned against the front face of the frame to provide a back or display panel for the merchandising system and the brackets 16 or other fittings can be attached to the uprights through the slots 15. The board can be made of any suitable material such as wood, chipboard, MDF or metal. Alternatively, the backing board can be fitted between the uprights with no overlap in which case it would not need any slots 15 in it. Figures 9, 9A and 10 show the two components 12,13 which make up each leg 10. Figures 9 and 9 A show the vertical component of the leg which comprises a flat blade 12 provided at one end with a hook shaped tooth 21 and a parr of teeth 20,20C on either side of a split tooth 20A,20B. The upper edge of the blade 12 has a rebate 17 formed in it with notches 18,18A at opposite ends thereof. A further notch 19 is provided at the end of the blade 12 remote from the teeth 20 for reasons to be explained. As can be seen from Fig, ure 9 A, the teeth 20,21 are not coplanar with the body of the blade 12 but instead are inclined thereto at an angle of approximately 140°. Figure 10 shows the horizontal component of the leg 10 and this comprises a flat blade 13 having a pair of spaced axially aligned slots 22A and 22B with a solid portion 23 between them. The blade 13 tapers to a narrow end 25 which has an aperture 24 to receive an adjustable pad 11 therein. To assemble the leg 10, the blade 13 is positioned transversely relative to the blade 12 and portion 22A' of the blade 12 is fitted through the slot 22 A in the blade 13. At the same time, portion 22B' of the blade 12 is located in the slot 22B in the blade 13. The blade 12 is then moved axially along the blade 13 in a direction away from its narrow end 25 so that the end region of solid portion 23 can locate in the notch 18 until protuberance 18 A on the upper surface thereof snaps into engagement in hole 23B in the blade 13 and the end of slot 22B adjacent hole 24 locates in notch 19 to locate the two blade members 12,13 together in the cruciform configuration shown in Figures 1 and 11. The cross sectional stiffness can be secured by inserting a spring or roll pin (not shown) in rebate 18B in blade 12 underneath the blade 13. As can be seen from Figures 5 and 6 the free end of both the top tooth 20 and the hook shaped bottom tooth 21 is received in indentation 2 which extends axially along the length of the rear face of the upright 1 , the barbed tooth 20A,20B and the intermediate tooth 20C not contacting the rear wall of the upright 4. It can also be seen that the main body of the vertical blade 12 is inclined at an angle to the teeth 20,20 A,20B,20C and 21 so that the leg 10 extends outwardly from the upright 1 at an acute angle thereto (see Figures 2, 6, 9A and 11) of approximately 140°. Figures 7 and 8 show examples of two types of brackets which can be releasably fitted to slots 3 in the uprights 1 to provide either a hanging member 16A or shelf supports 16B for shelf 26 (see Figures 1 and 2). It will be appreciated however that a variety of different configurations of bracket can be used depending on how the merchandise is to be displayed. As these brackets are of known type and do not form part of the invention only a brief description of the construction will be given hereafter. As can be seen from Figure 7, the bracket 16A includes a downwardly inclined main section with spaced projections 32 along its upper edge on which merchandise can be suspended using hangers 31 (see Figure 1). The bracket has a hook shaped tooth 21 at one end at the top corner thereof and a lower tooth 20 spaced therefrom. The bracket is mounted in an upright by first inserting the hook shaped tooth 21 in a slot 3 therein and then pivoting the bracket downwardly in the direction of arrow B until the bottom tooth 20 enters a slot 3 in the upright and abuts the rear wall 2 of the upright. Because the width of the hook shaped tooth 21 is slightly greater than the width of the tubular upright 1. as the bracket 16A is rotated in the direction of arrow B, the hook 21 wedges itself between the front and rear faces of the upright 1. The shelf support bracket 16B shown in Figure 8 has downwardly inclined teeth 20 at one end which are received in slots 3 in an upright 1 in known manner. Once in position, the ends of the teeth 20 locate in the recess 2 in the rear wall of the upright 1 and the bracket drops down so that the rebate 27 on the underside of each tooth 20 engages with the top of each slot 3 thereby positively locating the bracket 16B in the upright. It will be appreciated that the brackets illustrated in Figures 7 and 8 are shown by way of example only and that any other design can be used depending on its use, for instance as described and claimed in our copending UK patent application No.9708537.7. To assemble a leg 10 to an upright 1, the hook tooth 21 is first of all positioned in a slot 3 in the upright 1 and the blade member 12 of leg 10 is then pivoted upwardly in the direction of arrow A (see Figure 5) until such time as the top tooth 20 enters its respective slot 3 and locates in the recess 2 in the rear wall of the upright. Once in position, the split tooth 20A,20B engages in its slot 3 and locks the blade 12 in position. Furthermore, because the width of the hook shaped tooth 21 is slightly greater than the width of the tubular upright 1, as the blade 12 or bracket 16 is rotated in the direction of arrows A or B, the hook 21 wedges itself between the front and rear faces of the upright 1. It will be appreciated that there is no risk of the blade 12 or bracket 16 coming out of the slots 3 in the upright 1 once in position because any vertical load transmitted via the upright 1 through the leg 10 or bracket 16 will tend to rotate it in the direction of arrow A and thereby force it more firmly into contact with the rear wall 2 of the upright thereby keeping it in position. Figure 11 shows a number of shop merchandising display systems of the invention in which adjacent legs 10 are connected together at 28 by a common vertically adjustable pad 11 thereby providing self spacing of the individual shop merchandising units which can be levelled up using the adjustable pads 11 to a common datum line. Because the legs 10 extend outwardly from the frame at 140° thereto, when the units are connected together by the common adjustable pads 11 , they will automatically be at 600m centres which makes installation very easy and convenient. The adjustable pads 11 A-l IC can have holes therein to allow them to be fixed to the floor F or the supporting surface W with which they are in contact. A high friction material can be provided on the surface of the pads 11 in contact with the wall or floor if desired. If desired, two shop merchandising units of the invention can be mounted back-to-back to provide a free standing gondola.

Claims: Claims: 1. A freestanding shop merchandising/display system which, in use, leans against an upright surface such as a wall while standing on a substantially > horizontal surface such as a floor, the system comprising a pair of connected uprights with support means therebetween to support the uprights against the wall but out of contact therewith, and a leg extending forwardly and downwardly from each upright, the arrangement being such that when the system is leant against the wall, the uprights are spaced from the wall and floor by the support means and the legs. 2. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 1 wherein each upright is slotted. a 3. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a row of axially aligned slots extends along the length of each upright for releasably mounting other members thereto. 4. A shop merchandising/ display system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a 20 row of axially aligned slots extends along the length of each upright for releasably mounting other members thereto. 5. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 3 wherein each leg extends outwardly from the upright at an angle thereto other than 25 90°. 6. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in .any of claims 2-5 wherein each leg is releasably attachable to the bottom region of the upright. 7. A shop merchandising/ display system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein a foot is provided on the free end of each leg to contact the floor. 8. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the foot includes adjustment means which allow its vertical position relative to the leg to be adjusted. 9. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in any of claims 2-8 wherein each leg includes mounting means which releasably locate in the slots in the upright. 10. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 9 wherein each upright is tubu r, said mounting means comprising a hook shaped tooth at one end of the leg with a first portion adapted to engage with the inside face of the front wall of the upright and a second portion adapted to engage with the inside face of the rear wall of the upright, the tooth being configured so that it can be initially inserted into a slot in the upright at an angle thereto and then pivoted into a locked position whereby said first tooth portion engages with the rear wall of the upright with a camming action whereby the tooth is gripped between the front and rear walls of the upright to make a tight fit therewith. 11. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the width of the tooth between where it engages with the front and rear walls of the upright is greater than the internal width of said upright so that when the bracket is provided into its locked position, the cam surface on the tooth distorts said upright to wedge the tooth in position therebetween 12. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 10 or claim 11 wherein the mounting means includes an additional tooth shaped to fit into a slot in the upright. 13. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in claim 12 wherein said additional tooth is split along its length to provide a spring barbed tooth. 14. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the upright is formed of a closed box section, the rear wall of the upright being deformed to provide locating means therein in the form of a continuous internal indentation extending longitudinally of the upright. 15. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in any of claims 10-14 wherein the or each tooth is non-coplanar with the remainder of the leg so that the leg extends from the upright at an angle other than 90° when mounted thereto. 16. A shop merchandising/display system as claimed in any of claims 10-15 wherein the leg includes a second portion which interfits with the leg to provide a cruciform cross section thereto. 17. A shop merchandising/display unit as claimed in any of claims 2-16 wherein the uprights are connected together by connecting means which retain said uprights substantially parallel to each other to form a frame. 18. A unit as claimed in claim 17 wherein the connecting means comprises top and bottom cross members extending between the uprights adjacent the top and bottom thereof to provide a substantially rectangular frame. 19. A unit as claimed in claim 17 or claim 18 wherein the support means is a spacer provided on the top cross member intermediate the spaced uprights whereby the frame is supported on the floor and wall at three points of contact. 20. A unit as claimed in claim 18 or claim 19 wherein the top cross member is attached to the rear of both uprights and provides the spacer. 21. A shop merchandising/ display system or unit substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Inventors: WOODS NEIL, WOODS, NEIL
Applicants: CIL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, WOODS NEIL, WOODS, NEIL
Application year: 1998
Main classification: A47F5
IPC codes: A47B57, A47F5