Abstract:
A wall furniture mounting device includes an elongated mounting rail having a wall anchor plate, with a plurality of apertures, a hook section, and a support section. The plurality of apertures is configured into a pattern so that each aperture is uniquely identifiable quickly via visual inspection. The pattern repeats along the mounting rail at an interval equal to the distance between wall studs.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    This invention includes a mounting rail and corresponding method for installing and leveling wall furniture (e.g., shelving, cabinetry, closet organizers, and the like) quickly. The invention greatly simplifies ensuring that shelves, cabinets, modular units, and other wall furniture is both level and securely fixed to the wall studs. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
       [0002]    Wall-mounted furniture, such as cabinets, shelves, modular closet organizers, and the like, are common solutions for creating additional storage space in most construction projects. In addition to its functionality, wall furniture also adds beauty to kitchens, bathrooms, closets, and the like. As noted in U.S. Pat. No. 2,521,134, it is absolutely critical that the wall furniture be arranged in rows that are in strict horizontal alignment. Misalignment is immediately perceptible and very unsightly. Likewise, it is also critical that wall furniture be securely mounted to the wall via the wall studs. For example, kitchen cabinets tend to be loaded to their full capacity with very heavy, very expensive, and fragile items such as china, glassware, and the like. The cabinets themselves can also be quite expensive, so it&#39;s important that they be attached to the wall securely. In light of these requirements (as well as the permanent nature of most wall furniture installations), a great deal of time, care, and effort is expended by installers to ensure that the furniture is both level and securely fixed to the wall studs. However, as in most fields, time is money in the construction trades. Thus, a device that enables installers to mount and level wall furniture faster would meet a long-felt and unmet need. 
         [0003]    Both residential and commercial buildings put heavy stress on shelving, cabinetry, and the like. Kitchens typically have a sets of overhead cabinets mounted on the walls. The kitchen cabinets are used for storage of heavy items such as dishes and canned food. Thus, the cabinets must be securely fastened to the wall. In residential kitchens, the aesthetic appearance is just as important as the structural strength. Even cabinets constructed with quality materials lose their appeal if they are mounted poorly on the wall. Cabinets that are not mounted level and flush detract immensely from the overall appearance of the kitchen or other room. The same is true of commercial space, such as a laboratory. In this environment, there are added risks not encountered in a residential kitchen. In a lab, the wall-mounted cabinets are used to store, among other things, liquid and solid chemicals, equipment, highly specialized glassware, etc. Thus, to ensure the safety of those using the lab, the cabinets must be level and securely mounted to the wall. 
         [0004]    Similarly, modern construction also makes wide use of wall-mounted organizing furniture, such as closet and garage organizers. These modular units typically include shelving, rods for hanging clothes, open-front and closed-front cabinets, etc. Again, for a modular organizing system to look and to function well, each unit of the system must be installed securely and on the level. 
         [0005]    Installation problems are due to the furniture itself (e.g., a large, fully-assembled wooden cabinet, with a door having glass inserts, is very heavy, cumbersome, and easily breakable). Some installation problems are due to widely standardized (and usually legally-mandated) construction practices. For example, throughout the United States and Canada, interior walls are constructed by installing the supporting studs at regularly spaced intervals, most often sixteen (16) inches on center. The studs are then covered with dry wall, sheet rock, or other types of wall board, paneling, or other similar materials to complete the wall. In contrast, cabinets, modular units, and other wall furniture are often made in custom widths. Typically, a combination of shelving, cabinets, and other wall furniture of different widths is used in a single installation. As a result, there is usually only limited alignment (width-wise) of the wall furniture with the underlying studs in the wall. As a result, it is difficult (and sometimes impossible), to secure an individual unit of wall furniture directly to a stud to obtain the required secure mounting. In those instances, the wall furniture is secured to surrounding wall furniture and/or to the relatively weak wall covering between the studs. This creates a potentially dangerous situation when the installed furniture is loaded to capacity with heavy items. 
         [0006]    As noted earlier, installing and leveling wall furniture (especially larger cabinets and long shelving units) is difficult due to the sheer size and weight of the individual furniture units. Often times, several people are required to lift and hold the wall furniture in place, while a third installer attaches the unit to the wall. A fourth installer is often required to ensure that the entire line of units is level and flush against the wall prior to the installation being finalized. 
         [0007]    There are described in the patent literature a number of bracket types designed to speed the process of installing and/or leveling well-mounting cabinetry. Most of these devices take the form of an elongated mounting rail that is first attached to the wall and leveled. The cabinets are then hung on the mounting rail. The mounting rail is typically a continuous extrusion or stamping having a cross-sectional shape which includes a planar back portion and an upwardly turned hook portion, lip, or flange on which the cabinets are suspended via a mating rail or hook on the back of each cabinet. The mounting rail generally includes a plurality of fastener openings which are uniformly spaced apart along the length of the rail to facilitate attaching the mounting rail to a wall. The cabinets to be hung have attached to them a mounting rail that opposingly corresponds to the mounting rail attached to the wall. For examples, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,733,887; 3,025,122; 3,791,709; 3,854,656; 3,050,049; 4,149,692; and 4,342,439. 
         [0008]    A typical cabinet mounting rail of this type is also described in Licciardello, U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,168. This patent describes a mounting rail with a J-shaped hook that is mounted on a wall and a corresponding upside down J-shaped extension that is mounted on the back of the cabinets. The J-shaped extension on the back of the cabinet engages the J-shaped hook on the wall. Similarly, Bauer, U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,201, describes an elongated rail attached to a wall, as well as a rail attached to the back of a cabinet. The edges of the wall rail and the cabinet rail are smooth and rounded. This design allows the cabinet rail to connect with the corresponding channel in the wall rail. 
         [0009]    While there have been improvements in the design and functionality of cabinet rails, those improvements have been limited to the interaction between the rail that is attached to the wall and the mating rail that is attached to the back of the cabinets. The prior art mounting rails do not provide a mechanism that allows the cabinets to be installed in a level fashion quickly and with only one person. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    The present invention is a mounting rail used in hanging wall furniture. The present invention improves the ease of installation of the mounting rail by eliminating the redundant steps of finding wall-studs. The present invention is secured to a wall so that a complementary rail on a piece of furniture to be hung can engage with it. The rail on the furniture engages with the mounting rail of the present invention and securely holds the wall furniture in place. 
         [0011]    The present invention is an improvement over the prior art in the way the mounting rail attaches to the wall. The mounting rail has a series of holes or apertures, which allow the installer to locate framing studs behind the wall easily and without using a measuring tape or other measuring tool. In the preferred version of the invention, the series of apertures are arranged in a visually perceivable pattern spaced at 16-inch intervals to match the standard of 16-inch on-center spacing of wall studs that is commonly used in North America. 
         [0012]    When first hanging the mounting rail, the installer must find a first stud in the wall. With the mounting rail held flush against the wall, the installer then secures the rail to the stud through a first aperture. Once the mounting rail is secured at one end, the installer adjusts the rail to be horizontally level. When the rail is in the correct position, the installer need not directly measure 16 inches from the first stud. Instead, the present invention allows the installer to simply look for the aperture that matches the pattern around the first attachment aperture. The preferred version of the present invention is designed so that the unique pattern of apertures repeats every 16 inches, in accordance with the 16-inch standard commonly used in the United States. The spacing of the apertures may be altered for other geographic locations where different standards are mandated. 
         [0013]    The present invention makes it easier and faster to install wall furniture by reducing the need to measure 16 inches (or some multiple of 16 inches) from the first found stud to a subsequent stud in order to level the mounting rail. In one embodiment, each unique pattern includes 16 individually distinguishable apertures. Along a single section of rail, the pattern may repeat several times. Once a first aperture is chosen, the second iteration of that aperture will occur 16 inches in either direction from the first aperture. The third iteration will occur another 16 inches away from the second aperture and 32 inches from the first aperture. In another embodiment, the unique pattern of 16 apertures may be comprised of a subset of patterned apertures. For example, a single 16-aperture section may be comprised of four sets of four uniquely identifiable apertures. 
         [0014]    The objects and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention made in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0015]      FIG. 1  is a transverse cross-sectional view of the present invention as it would be mounted to a wall. 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  is a front elevation view of the present invention showing a single iteration of a unique pattern of apertures. 
           [0017]      FIG. 3  is a front elevation view of the present invention showing a second iteration of the unique pattern of apertures. 
           [0018]      FIG. 4  is a front elevation view as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3  of an alternative version of the invention in which the apertures are all circular in cross-section, and are otherwise color-coded 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0019]    Referring to the drawings, and first to  FIG. 1 , a transverse cross-section of the present invention is shown. A mounting rail  10 , in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this invention, is constructed of a durable material. The material may include a light weight metal, such as aluminum, or a more robust metal like steel or iron. The material may also be made of a metallic alloy, plastic, wood, or any other suitably stiff material. 
         [0020]    The mounting rail  10  is secured to a wall with fasteners through a plurality of apertures  34 , which run through the wall anchor plate  14 . Preferred fasteners include screws, nails, and rivets (not shown in the figures). A combination of adhesives and fasteners, such as screws and nails, may also be used for securing the mounting rail  10  to a wall. The mounting rail  10  is comprised of a wall anchor plate  14  disposed between and integral with a hook section  16  and a support section  18 . The wall anchor plate  14  is planar and rests flush against the wall  90 . The front  38  of the mounting rail is opposite the wall  90 . 
         [0021]    The wall anchor plate  14  has an upper section  20  leading into the hook section  16 . The wall anchor plate  14  also has a lower section  22  leading into the support section  18 . The hook section  16  bends outwardly relative to the wall  90 . The outward bend at the lower hook section  26  as shown in  FIG. 1  is approximately 64.35° relative to the wall  90 . This is for illustration purposes only. Any suitable angle that yields a hook section dimensioned and configured for hanging wall furniture may be used. In a preferred version of the invention, the angles in the lower hook section  26  are mirror images so that the hook section  16  is parallel to the wall anchor plate  14  (as shown in  FIG. 1 ). Again, this is the preferred configuration, but is not required. A channel  28  is thus defined between the wall  90  and the hook section  16 . 
         [0022]    The lower section  22  of the wall anchor plate  14  leads to the support section  18 . The lower section  22  bends outwardly, relative to the wall  90 , at the junction of the lower section  22  and the support section  18 . In a preferred embodiment, the angle of the outward bend is 90° relative to the wall  90 . In another embodiment, the outward bend falls within the range of 30° to 150° relative to the wall  90 . In the most preferred embodiment, the front surface  41  of the hook section  16  and the front surface  43  of the support section  18  both come into flush contact with the back of a cabinet. This configuration provides the most support for the attached cabinet. (Note that it is not required the front surface  43  contact the wall furniture; many types of wall furniture include suitable spacers that make contact directly with the underlying wall to ensure proper spacing of the furniture from the wall.) 
         [0023]    Now referring to  FIG. 2 , the front  38  of the mounting rail  10  is visible.  FIG. 2  shows the left edge  44  as well as the continuing edge  46  of the mounting rail  10 .  FIG. 2  most importantly shows a plurality of wall anchor apertures  34  through the wall anchor plate  14 .  FIG. 2  shows one embodiment of the mounting rail  10  in which the plurality of wall anchor apertures  34  is divided into four sets  48 ,  50 ,  52 ,  54  of four wall anchor apertures  34  each. In this preferred embodiment, there is a first iteration  48  of a pattern A, a first iteration  50  of pattern B, a first iteration  52  of pattern C, and a first iteration  54  of pattern D. The patterns are arbitrary and visually distinct from one another. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the apertures are configured with different cross-sectional shapes (i.e., square, circle, diamond, etc.) to render them visually distinct from one another. The first iteration  48  of pattern A includes four wall anchor apertures  34  each occupying a distinct location within pattern A. For example,  48   a  occupies the first position in pattern A,  48   b  occupies the second location,  48   c  occupies the third location, and  48   d  occupies the fourth location. Each subsequent iteration  50 ,  52 ,  54  also contains four wall anchor apertures  34  uniquely positioned in the same fashion as the first pattern:  50   a ,  50   b ,  50   c ,  50   d , . . .  54   a ,  54   b ,  54   c ,  54   d , etc. In the preferred version, there is a one inch space  58  between the centers of each wall anchor aperture  34 . In this fashion, each wall anchor aperture  34  occupies a distinct and identifiable position relative to all other wall anchor apertures  34  in the rail  10 . 
         [0024]    In the preferred version of the invention, the mounting rail  10  is of a sufficient length to contain several iterations of each of the four-aperture patterns of wall anchor apertures  34 . Any number of patterns, without limitation, may be incorporated into the mounting rail, but it is preferred that fours sets of patterns be used, and that each set of four patterns repeats periodically along the length of the rail. (That is, the rail bears an overall repeating pattern of 16 apertures, sub-divided into distinct, four-aperture patterns  48 ,  50 ,  52 , and  54 , as shown in  FIG. 2 ). 
         [0025]      FIG. 3  illustrates an example of a subsequent iteration of the patterns of wall anchor apertures  34 . The mounting rail  100  of  FIG. 3  is a continuation of the mounting rail  10  of  FIG. 2  from the continuing edge  46 . The second iteration  148  of pattern A is identical to the first iteration  48  of pattern A. In the preferred version, the first wall anchor aperture  148   a  of the second iteration  148  of pattern A, is 16 inches away from the first aperture  48   a  of the first iteration  48  of pattern A. This redundancy continues along the mounting rail  100  so that the third aperture  152   c  of the second iteration  152  of pattern C is 16 inches away from the third aperture  52   c  of the first iteration  52  of pattern C, and so forth. 
         [0026]    The method for installing the mounting rail  10  comprises a series of simple steps that can be readily performed by an individual installer. The first step is to locate a first wall stud at the furthest left-hand end or right-hand end on the wall where the cabinets are go be hung. The second step is to position the mounting rail  10  at a desired height from the floor or ceiling. A fastener (nail, screw, etc.) is secured through a wall anchor aperture  34  and into the first wall stud. (This first wall stud is located by conventional means, e.g., by trial and error [not preferred, but often used], or by using a conventional magnetic stud finder tool.) The mounting rail  10  is then leveled (using a torpedo level, laser level, or any suitable leveling tool) and the installer locates the final iteration of the first wall anchor aperture  34  at the opposite end of the rail. Because the patterns are evenly spaced and visually identifiable, no measuring is needed to locate the wall stud at the far end of the mounting rail. The installer simply looks at the pattern where the first end is affixed, locates the matching pattern at the far end of the rail, and affixes the rail at the far end by passing a fastener through the matching aperture. Because the repetitive patterns  48 ,  50 ,  52 ,  54 , . . .  148 ,  150 ,  152 , and  154  are spaced 16 inches on-center, which is the same spacing conventionally used for wall studs, the fastener at the far end of the mounting rail is guaranteed to hit a wall stud. Thus, with only having to find a single stud, an installer can then level the mounting rail, and affix the far end to another wall stud without having to take any measurement from the first stud, and without having to use a stud finder to locate the wall stud at the far end of the mounting rail. 
         [0027]    At this point, the mounting rail is fixed to the wall at each end and is level. The process described above is then repeated for each recurring pattern of apertures between the two now-fixed ends of the mounting rail. A fastener is inserted through each pattern that matches the pattern at the two now-fixed ends of the mounting rail. Again, because the patterns repeat at 16-inch intervals, the installer does not need to make any further measurements to ensure that the rail is attached to the wall studs. So long as the screw or nail is passed through an aperture that matches the pattern at the two end attachments, the screw or nail will hit a stud. Thus, the mounting rail  10  can be hung, leveled, and securely fixed to wall studs along its entire length with the installer having to locate only one single wall stud. 
         [0028]    The invention is thus a boon to installers. The mounting rail can be installed by a single installer. Depending upon the size and weight of the wall furniture to be mounted, a single installer can suspend prefabricated units from the level mounting rail previously fixed to the wall. Of course, if the wall furniture to be installed is very large, a second installer might be needed to help lift the units into place. 
         [0029]    As shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the apertures themselves are visibly distinct due to their varying cross-sectional profiles. Making these different aperture profiles might prove difficult for some manufacturers. Thus, the visual distinctness of the various apertures can be accomplished by color-coding or by associating some type of visibly distinct indicia with each aperture in order to form the patterns described earlier. For example, as shown in  FIG. 4 , each aperture has a round profile. But an indicia is associated with each aperture, to thereby define patterns  248 ,  250 ,  252 , and  254 , as noted earlier. Each pattern is comprised of four individual apertures ( 248   a ,  248   b ,  248   c ,  248   d , . . .  254   a ,  254   b ,  254   c , and  254   d ), with each set of four apertures defining a visually distinct pattern. As shown in  FIG. 4 , each aperture includes a shape associated with it (e.g., square, circle, diamond, etc.) In all other respects, the version shown in  FIG. 4  functions in the same fashion as the versions shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . Any indicia, without limitation, may be used, including alphanumeric characters in any language, shape-coding, color-coding, pictograms, etc. The indicia may be formed in the mounting rail by any means now known or developed in the future, e.g. stamping, printing, engraving, screen-printing, using adhesive stickers, etc. 
         [0030]    It is understood that the invention is not confined to the particular construction and arrangement of parts herein illustrated and described, but embraces such modified forms thereof as common within the scope of the following claims.