Abstract:
A retaining apparatus including a flexible sheet for deployment in blocking relationship with the front edge a horizontal shelf to retain containers from escaping therefrom.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This is a non-provisional application claiming priority to provisional application No. 60/872,295, entitled Christar&#39;s Net, filed on Dec. 4, 2006 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to retainers for retaining products on a shelf against ejection movement under influence of acceleration and deceleration forces. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0005]    With the growth of population in modern society and added leisure time, the attraction to recreational vehicles for quality transportation and relaxation has come to the fore. The quality of the experience is often enhanced by easy access to food stuffs and beverages. To minimize deterioration in food stuffs and add to the attraction of beverages, it is important that the RV users have access to cold storage. Initially, it was popular to utilize so called coolers which could receive blocks or cubes of ice to maintain the beverage and food stuff cooled during the outings. These devices had the shortcoming that the food stuffs could only be maintained cold for a limited period of time and that the melting ice would often have deleterious affects on the food stuff and create an untidy situation within the confines of the boat, van or motor home. 
         [0006]    In more recent times compact coolers have gained popularity. Coolers were initially cooled by heat exchange systems incorporating liquid or gaseous fluids. More recently, such refrigerators are powered by electrical power, either direct current or alternating current. 
         [0007]    Inherent in the use of recreational vehicles are moving forces caused by the momentum of the vehicle during linier acceleration and deceleration, angular acceleration, and even tilting of the vehicle or of the road or marine vehicle during turns, tacking or jibbing. Recreational vehicle refrigerators typically incorporate a limited number of horizontal shelves on which containers of food or beverages are stored. Barring any change in acceleration the containers tend to maintain the original direction of motion for the vehicle. When the vehicle carries the refrigerator through a change in magnitude or directional of velocity containers on the shelves tend to be accelerated by their own momentum to new locations on the shelving typically crashing against one another and against the sidewalls of the refrigeration or against the closed door or, if open, outwardly onto the floor of the trailer or boat. This then often times results in crashing of the containers into one another and sometimes leading to spillage of food stuff and beverages or even breakage of fragile containers thereby to a great degree detracting from the quality of enjoyment. It is this problem to which is addressed by the present invention. 
         [0008]    It is already been recognized that there is a need for containing articles from escape over the front edge of a horizontal shelf of cabinetry, refrigerators, medicine cabinets and the like. Examples of prior art work in this area includes snap-on guards for children&#39;s high chair including tray portions for holding the food. The guards can be attached or detached from the tray and act as a guard to retain food, dishes, toys or the like on the tray. The guard is manufactured from a flexible transparent sheet of thin plastic material and must be of sufficient thickness to be self supporting. Snap-on fasteners are provided for securing the guard to the high chair. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,807,312 to Florian. 
         [0009]    Other efforts have led to a proposal of a network of welded wire construction incorporating a peripheral frame and a plurality of transversely extending wire like rods. A shelf is provided with a guard assembly with up and lower rod members having integral legs. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,137,249 to Postula. 
         [0010]    Other work has led to the proposal of a magnetic guard rail for medicine chest cabinets to prevent accidental breakage contained on the cabinet shelves. This device includes a complex array of components including plastic front posts, and integrally formed connecting rib, body members, a magnetizable shelf, cup shaped circular shelves and permanent magnets of a circular shape. The body members are held in the position on the shelf by the attracted force of the attached magnets. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,755 to Liss. 
         [0011]    Hagerman in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,872 recognized the fact that the movement of recreational vehicles had a deleterious effect on items stored on the shelves of refrigerators of campers, vans, trailers, mobile homes and various sailing or cruising boats. His solution was to provide a shelf retainer in the form of a plurality of elastic bands forming a network over the front edge of the shelves and carried from telescopical rods having their opposite ends biased longitudinally outwardly against the opposite sides of the refrigerator. 
         [0012]    U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,574 to Craig shows a removable shelf edge and a plurality of clips extending from the lower edge of the shelf to hold a fence in place. 
         [0013]    U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,324 to Moser shows a refrigerator shelf guard including a rigid fence-like arrangement of wires having a plurality of hooks hooked into spaces within the wire shelves of a refrigerator. 
         [0014]    Other proposals have been made to provide laterally spaced upstanding posts on the front of shelving with hooks onto which a fence like retainer may be mounted. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,501 to Baldwin. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0015]    The retaining device of the present invention includes a net to be deployed in blocking relationship over the front edge of a shelf to be held in place by tethers to opposed walls. 
         [0016]    Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the features of the invention. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0017]      FIG. 1  is a front view of a container retaining device embodying the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 2  is a vertical sectional view taken along the line  2 - 2  in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0019]      FIG. 3  is a cross sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along the line  3 - 3  in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0020]      FIG. 4  is a front view retainer device of  FIG. 1  installed in a recreational vehicle refrigerator; and 
           [0021]      FIG. 5  is a vertical sectional view, in enlarged scale, taken along the line  5 - 5  of  FIG. 4 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0022]    The retaining device of the present invention includes, generally, a net device  11  including a sheet or mesh net  13  which may be reinforced about its border by means of a nylon reinforcing belt  15 . The net device includes a plurality of tethers  17  connected on their respective one ends in spaced relationship about the border for attachment at their free extremities to respective fasteners, such as suction cups  19 , which may be attached to the walls of a refrigerator  21  ( FIG. 4 ). The mesh net  13  includes a slit longitudinally down the middle thereof and a closure device in a form of a zipper, generally designated  27 , for closing the slit. Consequently, the suction cup fasteners  19  may be attached about the periphery of the interior wall of a refrigerator to dispose the net of blocking arrangement in front of a shelf  31 . 
         [0023]    Recreational vehicle refrigerators  21  are in common usage in mobile homes, campers, and all different types power and sailing boats. An important aspect of enjoyment for RV users is the selection, planning, use and consumption of food stuffs and beverages during the recreational outing. Many such beverages must be chilled to enhance the flavor and food stuffs should have the heat removed therefrom for health reasons and often times to enhance flavor. Every experienced owner and operator of an RV is aware of the fact that containers of food stuffs on the shelves of the refrigerator shift under influence of acceleration forces often times slamming against the door of the refrigerator or, if open, being ejected all too often resulting in spillage or fragmentation of fragile containers. The device of the present invention is intended to constrain such containers from slamming against the refrigerator door under the influence of acceleration and deceleration forces. 
         [0024]    The sheet  13  is conveniently constructed of course, nylon or plastic mesh to minimize absorption of fluids and food stuffs and to provide for viewing of the food stuffs through the interstices of the webbing of the net while providing flexibility for folding an storage. 
         [0025]    The sheet  13  is conveniently made up of two separate flexible panels abutting one another along the center line and, in some embodiments, joined together by a releasable fastener such as, for instance, stiffening cords incorporated in the edges along the slit to, in their normal configuration, hold the net stretched taught and hold the slit closed. Other examples include hook and pile fasteners, snap fasteners and the zipper type construction shown in the preferred embodiment. 
         [0026]    The border may take many different forms, such as folded over strips or heat treated marginal edges of the mesh, reinforcing belting heat sealed or bonded to the mesh or, as in the preferred embodiment, the belting folded over longitudinally on its self to sandwich the marginal edges of the mesh between layers of the belting and secured in position by double stretching the longitudinal lengths thereof. 
         [0027]    The tethers  17  may be constructed of elastic cord and, in the preferred embodiment, are received at their proximate extremities through openings formed in the edges of the folded over belting and captured within the stitching of such belting. The tethers are, in the preferred embodiment, constructed with knots  41  on the interior extremities to abut against the interior edges of the belting to limit withdrawal thereof under tension. The distal extremities of the tethers are received through cross bores in the necks  18  of the respective fastener cups  19  ( FIG. 3 ) so respective knots  20  may be formed in the distal ends thereof to adjust the lengths of such tethers. In some embodiments, the tethers are inelastic. In even other embodiments, the mesh defining the sheet  13  itself is constructed of elastic or undulating shaped plastic threads to add elasticity thereto. 
         [0028]    In use, the retaining device of the present invention may typically be folded and packaged in a package including the suction cup fastener devices  19  and may be distributed through recreational vehicle rental and sales establishments, marine supply stores or general distribution outlets. When not in use the device may be stored in a convenient drawer or cupboard to be available when the recreation vehicle is to be underway. For instance, when a boat is to get underway, the suction cup devices  19  may be easily installed along the interior walls on the opposite sides and top and bottom walls of the refrigerator  21 . In this regard, the user has the option of either leaving the suction devices installed on such sidewalls and merely unknotting the selected knots  20  when the device is to be removed or, in some instances will reattach the suction cups  19  each time the device is to be utilized. Once the suction cups are installed, the tethers may be drawn up from one end or the other and the selected knots, for instance  20 , tied to maintain the tethers  17  under tension applied by the elastic force of the respective tethers hold the net in blocking engagement in front of the shelves. Then, as the recreational vehicle gets underway, and, for instance, makes a turn or tilts to one side or the other, the containers will be held firmly and securely against drifting. 
         [0029]    The user has the option of leaving the restraining device installed as described and when the vehicle stops for a snack break, the refrigerator may be opened and the zipper  27  opened for access to the containers  33  so the user may reach through the open zipper and access the containers selected. Once the stop is complete, the user may then insert the container or containers back through the open zipper and the zipper closed to thereby maintain the containers constrained as the vehicle again gets underway. 
         [0030]    As will be appreciated, when the subject retaining device is to be used to retain objects in a cupboard where the bottom wall defines a shelf, the suction cups may be attached to the side wall as such or to the fascia wall spaced on either side of the cupboard. In some embodiments the fasteners will be in the form of hooks attached to the fascia or side walls. 
         [0031]    From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the retaining device of the present invention is inexpensive to manufacture and convenient to use for positively retaining containers in place on a refrigerator shelf or the like.