Abstract:
A reversibly positionable shelving unit housed within a cabinet enclosure and consisting of a frame with opposed top, bottom, and intermediate supports, each with a laterally disposed support post engaging channel formed therein. An upright spine or support post is rigidly secured to and extends between the top and bottom supports, and is disposed adjacent one lateral edge surface of the supports medially between opposed front and rear edge plate surfaces, with the outer surfaces of the supports having track followers coupled thereto. Camming support means are coupled to each support, and adapted to releasably, frictionally and grippingly engage the edge of the spine to lock the shelves in cantilevered support with the spine. Matching upper and lower guide slots are formed in the enclosure for engaging the follower means, with a linear bearing secured to the lower panel and in engagement with the undersurface of the bottom-most support.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application constitutes a utility application to my Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/227,245, filed Aug. 23, 2000, entitled “REVERSIBLE SHELVING UNIT”. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to an improved reversibly positionable shelving unit of rectangular configuration adapted to be housed within a conventional shelf or cabinet enclosure, and more particularly to such reversible shelving unit which is stable, durable, and incorporates a framing spine with upper and lower support members having one or more individual shelves adjustably positionable along the framing spine. Even though the individual shelves included in the assembly are open across at least a substantial portion of their width, the shelving units are well adapted to carry heavy loads. They are adapted for use in both residential and commercial installations. 
     In the past, reversible shelving units have been utilized which typically incorporate a central panel which panel in use, effectively isolates one segment of the shelving units from the other. Such units typically incorporate a center panel which make adjustable positioning of the shelves an inconvenient task. When such a central panel is removed to permit greater open or through-access across the shelves, the resulting structures have been found to lack stability, and become susceptible to either racking and/or parallelogramming when under heavy loading. Alternatively, reversible shelving units may incorporate one or two end panels which, in turn, eliminate or substantially reduce open or through-access across the surface of the shelves. 
     Reversible shelving units typically incorporate upper and lower guide slots which are designed to engage followers coupled to parts of the reversible structure. These guide slots have typically included a central arcuate portion flanked by linear portions or segments which extend at an acute angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the unit, and terminate near the edge surfaces of the unit. The present invention provides an improved configuration for guide slots, which configuration adds and contributes to enhanced stability and rigidity for the reversible unit. In accordance with the present invention, however, the guide slots are modified so that the distal end portions each extend along an axis generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the unit. It is this configuration which provides additional stability when the unit is disposed in its normal or closed position. Additionally, an adjustable set screw which functions to control the level of the bottom-most shelf may be conveniently employed for leveling the shelving unit in order to preserve smooth actuation and operation of the entire assembly when under heavy load conditions. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One advantageous feature of the present invention is to provide a plurality of shelves which are fully, conveniently and adjustably positionable in vertically spaced relationships, one to another within the reversible unit. This feature is accomplished by means of providing the edge mounted spine or upright post, with each shelf being coupled to the spine by means of a spring biased eccentric. The eccentric releasably engages one surface, preferably an edge surface of the spine for locking the shelf in unidirectional cantilevered support along the post or spine. Each eccentric is further provided with finger actuated release levers, thus enabling the user to readily and easily reposition the shelves vertically whenever necessary and/or appropriate. 
     The assemblies prepared in accordance with the present invention incorporate a bottom or primary shelf assembly support bracket. This bracket is designed to both support a shelf unit, as well as to provide cam follower features which follow a path determined by the configuration of the lower guide slots which function in combination with the lower linear bearing or bearing assembly. Since this bracket provides primary support for the spine as well as the entire structure during the articulation of the reversible assembly, it is necessarily rugged and capable of withstanding significant forces during actual use. In order to achieve the necessary rigidity, this bracket is provided with upstanding brackets or reinforcing ribs which are conveniently configured in the form of one or more receptacles, and thus provide a convenient, ready and accessible depository for those items which are frequently referred to by the user, such as recipes and the like. 
     The under-surface of the primary support bracket necessarily includes a pair of cam or guide followers, the first one of which engages the lower guide slots and the other the linear bearing. The first one of these cam followers is positioned adjacent a lateral edge beneath the support post, and with the other being centrally located and engaged with the linear bearing assembly. In order for this support bracket to accommodate shelving of various widths, a plurality of linear bearing assembly followers are molded into the bracket. When the requirements for the bracket have been determined, those follower structures which are preformed in the assembly and which are not needed are simply removed by any convenient means, including a sawing operation, a milling operation or the like. Thus, multiple-use brackets may be formed from a single mold or tooling, and individually configured for use once the application requirements have been determined. 
     Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved reversibly positionable shelving unit housed within an enclosure, and wherein the unit is stable, rugged, and designed for convenient rotary motion, with the individual shelves being open across their depth so as to facilitate convenient loading and unloading during use. 
     It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved reversibly positionable shelving unit which is provided with a vertical spine or support post means which exposes at least a substantial portion of the shelves to open viewing across their depth, while also providing for resistance to racking and/or parallelogramming when the structure is under load. 
     It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an improved reversibly positionable shelving unit which employs an edge mounted vertical support for receiving and anchoring shelves along one edge of the assembly, and with the shelves each being provided with a spring biased eccentric for facilitating convenient adjustable positioning of the shelves along a vertical axis. 
     It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an improved reversible shelving unit arranged to be housed within an enclosure, and with the enclosure including upper and lower panels with upper and lower guide slots associated therewith, the guide slots being formed in the enclosure and being adapted to engage follower means associated with opposed top and bottom support members or plates of the reversible shelving unit. 
     It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an improved reversibly positionable shelving unit having slot follower means for controllably guiding the motion of the shelving unit through the motion path defined by matching upper and lower guide slots external to the shelving unit. 
     It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an improved reversibly positional shelving unit having a plurality of horizontally disposed shelves coupled to an edge-mounted spine, and wherein means are provided for maintaining consistent operation of the unit even when under heavy load conditions, with these means including an adjustable leveling device for adjustably leveling the lowermost shelf to preserve smooth actuation and motion of the heavily loaded assembly. 
     Other and further objects of the present invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a review of the following specification and accompanying drawings. 
     IN THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a reversible shelving unit of the invention housed within a conventional cabinet enclosure, with the doors of the enclosure being removed to expose the reversible unit as positioned normally therewithin; 
     FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1, and illustrating the reversible shelving unit intermediate its fully opened and closes dispositions; 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded front elevational view illustrating hardware components for a three shelf unit including a top support bracket, a bottom support bracket, and three intermediate shelf support brackets, with the shelf units for the bottom support and intermediate brackets being removed, with the lateral support spine or post being shown removed from the assembly, and with the cam followers being shown prior to removal of those not being required for the finished assembly; 
     FIG. 4 is a detail side elevational view of the primary support bracket, and illustrating the features of the integral guide followers formed therewith; 
     FIG. 4A is a detailed side elevational view, partially broken away, of the bottom or primary support bracket with the leveling set screw being shown in exploded form, and illustrating the features of the integral guide followers along with the level adjusting load compensating set screw adjustment device for use in connection with the present invention; 
     FIG.  4 A 1  is a view similar to FIG. 4A, partially broken away, and illustrating the level adjusting load compensating set screw in detached form and on an enlarged scale; 
     FIGS. 5 and 6 are end and top views respectively of the bracket illustrated in FIG. 4, with the guide followers being illustrated in phantom in FIG. 6; 
     FIG. 5A is a vertical sectional view taken along the line d in the direction of the arrows  5 A— 5 A of FIG. 4; 
     FIG.  5 A 1  is a vertical sectional view taken along the line and in the direction of the arrows  5 A 1 — 5 A 1  of FIG.  4 A 1 ; 
     FIG. 7 is a detail elevational view, partially broken away, of the top support bracket, and illustrating the detail of the integral guides therewith, and showing the spring biased locking eccentric associated therewith in detail form detached from the assembly of FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 8 is an end view, partially broken away, of the bracket illustrated in FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 9 is a top view of the bracket illustrated in FIG. 7 showing the configuration of the guide followers; 
     FIG. 10 is a detail elevational view, partially broken away, of the intermediate ate shelf support bracket; 
     FIGS. 11 and 12 are end and bottom plan views respectively of the bracket illustrated in FIG. 10, with FIG. 11 being partially broken away; 
     FIGS. 13 and 14 are bottom and top plan views of the bottom and top guide channels respectively, and showing these guide channels as configured on the upper and lower panels of the cabinet enclosure; 
     FIG. 13A is a plan view of a lower panel of the cabinet enclosure utilizing a pair of laterally disposed linear support bearings; 
     FIG. 15 is a front perspective view of a modified embodiment of the present invention incorporating a modified post; and 
     FIGS. 16 and 17 are top plan views of the top guide channels illustrating the modified configurations utilized for accommodating cabinet enclosures of different widths. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and with particular attention being directed to FIGS. 1-3, the assembly generally designated  10  comprises a reversibly positionable shelving unit generally at  11  housed within enclosure  12 . Means generally designated  15  are provided for rotatably mounting the shelving unit within the enclosure  12 . Enclosure  12  includes upper and lower panels  16  and  17  respectively along with laterally disposed end panels  18 — 18 . 
     With attention now being directed to the reversible shelving unit  11 , mounting means  15  consists of a frame with opposed top and bottom supports  20  and  21  respectively, each including top and bottom support brackets such as at  22  and  23  respectively. Also, as is illustrated in FIG. 1, an upright spine or support post  24  is provided laterally of the reversible assembly  11 , with the spine  24  being rigidly secured to and extending between the opposed top and bottom supports  20  and  21  respectively. Preferably, spine or support post  24  is arranged generally medially of the shelf assembly, and hence medially of supports  20  and  21  and is received in box-like openings or receivers as at  15 A— 15 A, with upper and lower supports having support cups as at  15 B and  15 C. Both top and bottom supports  20  and  21  have followers coupled thereto, with the followers being designated generally at  25  and  26 , with details of these followers being disclosed in greater detail hereinafter. 
     It will be appreciated that the shelving unit of the present invention may be fabricated on a mass-production basis while utilizing a standard length spine or support post  24 . Since the structures have applicability for shelf assemblies of a variety of heights, the spine or support post  24  can be provided in a length which is suited for typical units of the greatest height, and cut to length at assembly. 
     A plurality of shelves such as those designated  28 ,  29  and  30  are coupled to support members  31 ,  32  and  33  respectively by fasteners such as screws through screw receiving bores  31 C— 31 C for example (FIG.  12 ). For securing the individual shelf unit in further engagement with the bracket, shelf receiving flanges  22 A and  22 B are provided (see FIG.  6 ), with mating flange receiving grooves being formed along the base of each of the individual shelves. Additionally, shelf  34  is preferably mounted on bottom support  21 , and serves the function of a conventional shelf, as do shelves  28 ,  29  and  30 . In order to lockingly couple or engage the shelves  28 ,  29  and  30  to the support post  24 , a spring biased eccentric assembly generally designated  35  is provided for each. A spring biased cam or eccentric  36 , in turn, releasably, frictionally, and grippingly engages post  24  about its outer eccentric peripheral surface as at  37 . In order to provide for appropriate rotary motion of eccentric camming elements  36 , lever or pin  38  is provided for convenient finger gripping engagement. Also, in order to provide a rotary spring bias force, a spring means  39  is provided as illustrated in FIG.  7 . Spring  39  is accordingly coupled between camming eccentric  38  and bracket or housing  40  of the shelf support bracket such as illustrated at  31 - 33 , each being in combination with a shelf such as shelf  28 . 
     Attention is now directed to FIGS. 13 and 14 where upper and lower guide slots generally at  41 — 41  are formed in operative relationship on upper and lower panels  16  and  17 . These slots incorporate a centrally positioned arcuate segment as at  42 , along with laterally extending linear segments  43  and  44 , with segments  43  and  44  terminating at and along distally positioned straight segments  45 — 45 . Each of the segments  45 — 45  is arranged substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the shelving assembly, and provides for substantial added transverse stability of the reversible unit when in its normal or closed disposition. 
     Upper and lower guide slots are each adapted to be coupled to and engage the followers  25  and  26  which are in a the form of a boss and integrally coupled to opposed top and bottom supports  20  and  21  respectively. With attention being directed to top support  20 , a pair of follower means are utilized, with centrally disposed followers as at  47 — 47 , and a laterally disposed follower as at  48 . In those applications where a linear bearing is employed along the top surface, the outermost follower  47 A will be configured so as to engage a stud protruding from the upper linear bearing similarly to those followers  55 - 58  inclusive of the bracket illustrated in FIG.  4 . With the followers being engaged in the guide slots and/or linear bearing, the reversible motion for the shelving unit is facilitated and otherwise made possible. 
     Bottom support  21  is provided with a centrally disposed linear bearing follower means such as at  50 , with follower means  50  being disposed generally centrally of support  21 . Linear bearing  51  is, in turn, secured to lower panel  17  and provides primary support for the reversibly positionable shelving unit  11  in its rotary articulated motion. For accommodating heavier loads, such as may be encountered in certain applications, such as the magnitude of the width, and with attention being directed to FIG. 13A of the drawings, a pair of linear bearings  51 — 51  are secured to the lower panel  17  and are linked together by cross-piece or cross-member  51 B having a centrally located mounting point as indicated hereinbelow. With the configuration of the guide slots  41  together with the followers, rotational motion of the reversible shelf unit  11  is accomplished, with lower linear bearing means  51  being telescopically extended outwardly in coordinated motion from the lower or bottom panel  17 . 
     In the configuration of FIG. 13, a single linear bearing  51  is shown for supporting the base forwardly of the cabinet structure as it swivels and/or moves through its reversing arc. As the length of the shelving arrangement increases, the load to be supported by the linear bearing assembly such as at  51  increases substantially. Accordingly, in those instances where the cabinetry and shelf assembly extends to a width of about  21 ″ or greater and as shown in FIG. 13A, a pair of parallelly arranged linear bearings sharing a centrally located common mounting point such as at  51 A to be received in and engage follower  26 . Thus, those commonly and traditionally utilized shelving units having widths of, for example, 15″, 18″, 21-, or 24″ can all be accommodated with the reversible assembly of the present invention, with the loads from the wider widths being accommodated by a pair of linear bearings (see FIG.  13 A). 
     In order to enhance the rigidity and strength of primary support  21 , a pair of laterally extending support ribs are provided as at  21 A and  21 B respectively (see FIG.  6 ). These reinforcing ribs are preferably arranged in equally and oppositely disposed relationship to the central axis of support  21 , and together form a receptacle, pocket, or other enclosure for convenient storage of items such as documents representing recipes, daily reminders, or other items which may be conveniently stored and retrieved in the shelf unit  11 . 
     In certain instances, such as in a wider cabinet, it may be desirable to employ a matching linear bearing along the upper panel, with this bearing being positioned immediately and in vertical axial alignment with lower linear bearing  51 . Appropriate follower means are provided on top support  20  to achieve matching coordinated and appropriate motion of the shelving unit  11 . 
     In order to accommodate a variety of sizes of reversible shelf units, a plurality of followers are provided along the surfaces of top and bottom supports  20  and  21  respectively. These individual follower means are illustrated for example at  55 ,  56 ,  57  and  58  (see FIG. 4) and  47  and  47 A (see FIG.  7 ). Each of these individual follower means is designed to accommodate a particular width shelving assembly, for example, shelving assemblies having the widths identified hereinabove as 15″, 18″, 21″, or 24″. When the dimensional configuration of the application for the support is known or ascertained, the appropriate follower element to be retained is defined and designated, and then it becomes necessary to remove those followers which are not needed. For example, in a cabinet assembly having a dimension which utilizes follower designated  58 , the remaining followers including followers  55 ,  56  and  57  are removed by milling, cutting, or other suitable operation so as to render the guide slot contacting surface free of followers except for the follower actually employed. 
     FIGS. 16 and 17 are plan views of guide channels for the upper panels of cabinet enclosures of different widths. With attention being directed to FIG. 16, guide slot  41  is formed in upper panel  16  with the centrally positioned arcuate segment  42  having a radius which generates appropriate rotary motion in the reversible shelving unit as it is moved and/or repositioned. As illustrated in FIG. 17, the centrally positioned arcuate segment  42  is generated with a longer radius in order to accommodate rotary motion of a reversible shelving unit of greater width than that of FIG.  16 . 
     As has been indicated hereinabove, smooth operation of the reversible assembly generally requires that the bottom-most or base shelf  34  and its support bracket  21  must rest along a horizontal plane, parallel to the plane of lower panel  17 . However, as the loading increases on the individual superimposed shelves, bottom shelf  15  and its support  21  tend to pivot or move in a counter-clockwise direction from the view of FIG.  4 A. The imposition of the load from spine  24  rests upon linear bearing  51 . This load will normally tend to rack the assembly, thus interfering with the horizontal relationship with the bottom panel  17 . In order to accommodate this racking motion, a slotted zone such as shown at  21 D is formed in spine-receiving receptacle  21 E in order to accommodate flange nut and set screw adjustment means. Adjustable set screw means  70  is in the form of a screw engaging flange nut  71 . This portion of the assembly is utilized to accommodate leveling of the bottom support such as bottom support  21 , with the level being controlled by the position of the set screw. 
     With attention now being directed to FIG. 15 of the drawings, an alternate embodiment of the invention is disclosed. In this embodiment, upright support spine  24  is replaced by upright support spine generally designated  60  which is generally in the form of a wide post. In this alternative embodiment, individual shelves such as illustrated at  61 ,  62 ,  63  and  64  are provided, with these shelves being grooved to accommodate and be held in place by the supports extending through spine support  60 . It will be observed that a substantial portion or linear extent of the width of the shelving units is accessible from both sides due to the dimensional configuration of support spine  60 . The operation of the alternative embodiment of this FIG. 15 is the same as that previously discussed in connection with the embodiments of FIGS. 1-14 inclusive. 
     It will be appreciated that the specific examples given herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not to be construed as a limitation upon the scope of coverage to which this invention is otherwise entitled.