EP0454586A1 - Display device for a row of objects - Google Patents

Abstract

A channel is adapted to receive partly nested objects in a queue which a clamp/pusher member associated with a return spring urges towards an anterior abutment wall, the pusher member is associated with a slide member sliding in a central guide corridor, while the return spring forms at least one outward run in each of the two side passages between at least one direction-changer pulley wheel and an anchor point. A plurality of merchandisers may be mounted on a strip member for the purposes of aligning the merchandisers with the shelving and securing them to it.

Description

The present invention relates to displays of objects in line, of the kind comprising a channel capable of receiving by partial interlocking a line of objects, the channel being equipped with a file-holding pushbutton secured to a foot adapted to slide in a guide slot and associated with a return spring urging it towards a front abutment wall.

Displays of this kind are finding an increasingly widespread use on so-called linear shelving, in particular in big box stores. However, it turns out that the displays currently available on the market have certain drawbacks.

A problem results from the amplitude of the required displacements of the file-holding pusher between the loading position at full capacity of the display stand and the empty position, this stroke having to be able to be achieved while avoiding an excessive variation of the clamping force exerted on the articles presented. This force must remain, in fact, sufficient to ensure good maintenance of the articles, but limited so as not to risk damaging these articles and not to impose on the barges an excessive effort for the removal of an object in order to its review and for its replacement in case the decision is finally made not to buy it.

It also frequently happens that the barge neglecting to replace the object removed in a queue, places this object in any available location, which is a source of annoying disorder for the keeping of the store.

Current devices for guiding and restoring the push-button pusher carried by a slide have various drawbacks.

These devices lack flexibility first of all by limiting the possibilities of extending the length of the fitted displays: the spring making about a single one-way trip between the slide and its attachment system.

Furthermore, the presence of the locking spring in a central corridor constitutes a source of risk of jamming. of the slide.

The present invention generally aims to provide a remedy to these sources of difficulty, thanks to a set of improvements relating to the conditions of manufacture as well as the use of displays of the type in question, and more particularly flexibility. 'increased use while reducing the risk of jamming between the spring and the slide when moving the latter.

According to an improvement proposed for this purpose, the foot of the file-holding pusher is secured to a slide arranged in a central guide corridor formed below a bottom of the channel, the return spring being coupled to the slide, while fitted on either side of the central corridor two lateral corridors, the return spring making at least one outward journey in each of the lateral corridors between at least one return pulley and an attachment point.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the central corridor and the lateral corridors are materialized by intermediate side walls or partitions. Such walls or partitions are optional and in no way essential to obtain the results and advantages of the present invention.

According to one embodiment, said return spring travels back and forth in each of said lateral corridors.

Whatever the embodiment, the flexibility of operation is improved thanks to the paths of the spring in each of the two lateral corridors. Likewise, the risks of jamming are reduced thanks to the paths of the spring in the lateral corridors and therefore laterally away from the central corridor.

Preferably the return pulley of the return spring in each of the lateral corridors is arranged horizontally, that is to say that it is journalled on a vertical axis. We can thus benefit from a reduction in the overall height of the system thanks to the flat arrangement of the assembly. of the spring and its return pulleys in a general horizontal plane which also contains the coupling member of the carriage.

The slide is advantageously mounted, according to a particular embodiment of the invention, on balls or rollers adapted to cooperate with the intermediate side walls forming the central guide corridor to thereby ensure good sliding.

According to another simplified embodiment, said slide is provided with angles adapted to cooperate with slides made on the walls of said central corridor to ensure sliding. In such a case, it goes without saying that the tolerances are chosen in order to avoid any jamming of said slide in the guide slot.

Another source of difficulties for display stands known to date lies in the great variations that can be observed between the depth or width of the shelving or other supports to be fitted, with the consequence of the frequent need to produce display models adapted to each type of display. 'application.

The present invention provides a modular design of the display characterized by the combination of a base module and a variable number of extension modules.

An arrangement according to the invention also consists in providing in front of the front wall of the display channel, a reserve location adapted to receive an object separated from the queue.

This extremely simple arrangement has the notable advantage of offering to the customer who has taken an object from the queue, the great ease of replacing it in an extremely convenient and suitable location, convenient because this location is immediately accessible to him and because the object can land there without the need for any manipulation, suitable also because the object comes naturally to place itself there at the head of his fellows who have remained held tight in their file.

Finally, according to an advantageous embodiment, said central corridor has at its rear end a recess by tilting to extract the carriage that constitutes the slide and pusher assembly for possible replacement, while allowing the movement of the carriage to the rear wall of the display without risk of spontaneous release of said carriage.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a set of displays further comprising a strip adapted to be fixed on a rack and comprising a wing adapted to cooperate with a slot formed in the front part of the display. Each display has a pawl on one side of the slot, adapted to snap into a groove formed in said wing of the strip.

• la figure 1 est une vue en perspective d'un présentoir;
• la figure 2 est une vue en coupe selon le plan II-II de la figure 1 ;
• la figure 3 est une vue en coupe selon le plan III-III de la figure 2 ;
• la figure 3A montre le chariot en bout de course en l'absence d'objets dans le canal du présentoir ;
• la figure 4 est une vue en coupe selon le plan IV-IV de la figure 3 ;
• la figure 5 est une vue en coupe selon le plan V-V de la figure 3 ;
• la figure 6 est une vue en perspective agrandie de deux modules séparés du module de base ;
• la figure 7 est une vue semblable à celle de la figure 2 relative à une variante ;
• la figure 8 est une vue en coupe selon le plan VIII-VIII de la figure 7 ;
• la figure 9 est une vue en coupe selon le plan IX-IX de la figure 7;
• la figure 10 est une vue semblable à celle de la figure 1 relative à une variante ;
• la figure 11 est une vue de dessous de la variante illustrée à la figure 10 ;
• la figure 12 est une vue en coupe suivant XII-XII de la figure 10 ;
• la figure 13 est une vue agrandie suivant la flèche XIII de la figure 11;
• la figure 14 est une vue suivant XIV-XIV de la figure 13, et
• les figures 15A, 15B et 15C sont des vues montrant schématiquement l'extraction du chariot de la fente de guidage du présentoir par étapes successives.

The characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description which follows, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

• Figure 1 is a perspective view of a display;
• Figure 2 is a sectional view along the plane II-II of Figure 1;
• Figure 3 is a sectional view along the plane III-III of Figure 2;
• FIG. 3A shows the carriage at the end of its travel in the absence of objects in the display channel;
• Figure 4 is a sectional view along the plane IV-IV of Figure 3;
• Figure 5 is a sectional view along the plane VV of Figure 3;
• Figure 6 is an enlarged perspective view of two modules separate from the base module;
• Figure 7 is a view similar to that of Figure 2 relating to a variant;
• Figure 8 is a sectional view along the plane VIII-VIII of Figure 7;
• Figure 9 is a sectional view along the plane IX-IX of Figure 7;
• Figure 10 is a view similar to that of Figure 1 relating to a variant;
• Figure 11 is a bottom view of the variant illustrated in Figure 10;
• Figure 12 is a sectional view along XII-XII of Figure 10;
• Figure 13 is an enlarged view along arrow XIII of Figure 11;
• FIG. 14 is a view along XIV-XIV of FIG. 13, and
• Figures 15A, 15B and 15C are views schematically showing the extraction of the carriage from the guide slot of the display rack in successive stages.

Figure 16 is a perspective view of two displays according to Figures 10 to 15, one of which is engaged on a strip and the other being put in place.

FIG. 17 is an exploded view to illustrate the front part of one of the displays in FIG. 16.

Figure 18 is an enlarged sectional view along line XVIII-XVIII of Figure 16.

According to the first embodiment chosen and shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, a display unit according to the invention is composed of a housing constituted by a base module 10 and a variable number of extension modules such as 11, 12, each extension module having a length corresponding to a fraction, one third for example, of the basic module.

The main part of each of the modules comprises, as is most clearly visible in FIG. 6, a useful part in the form of a channel delimited by two side walls 21, 22 above a bottom 23, for articles like those indicated in phantom in A0, A1, A2 ... for example of parallelepiped shape which can partially fit one behind the other.

The line of articles thus formed remains pushed back by a file pusher 24 against a front wall 25 forming a stopper and irremovable in this case, in front of which is provided, according to an arrangement of the invention, a location 26 for an article such that A2 that a barge may have extracted from the display and not want to give itself trouble to put back behind the anterior wall. This location is directly just behind an inclined signaling plane 27, conventionally formed on the front of the display.

The pusher 24 is carried by a foot 28 adapted to slide freely in a central slot called guide 29 extending in the middle of the bottom 23 of the channel to the rear end of the display from an origin 30 located near the abutment wall 25. The foot 28 of the pusher is secured to a slide 31 adapted to slide freely in a central corridor 32 materialized by two intermediate side walls 33, 34, surmounting a lower wall 35. The slide 31 constitutes in this form of production of a carriage adapted to roll on four balls 36 and comprising a hook 37 to which a return spring 38 is coupled. This spring here performs outside of a pair of return pulleys 41, 42, arranged near the anterior end of the display, a round trip on each side, in each of two lateral corridors 43, 44, passing over two posterior return pulleys 45, 46, to join two anterior attachment points 47, 48. These attachment points 47, 48 and the anterior return pulleys 41, 42 can advantageously be arranged below the location 26 for receiving an isolated article.

The total length at rest of the spring 38 thus formed can therefore reach substantially four times the length of the base module 10, so that its rate of elongation corresponding to a location of the pusher 24 from the front to the rear of the module base does not exceed 25% of the length at rest. However, its elongation rate can easily go to 100% and beyond, this results in the possibility of a continuation of the displacement up to a multiple of the length of the basic module. This possibility is exploited according to the invention by the arrangement at the end of the basic module of a variable number of extension modules such as 11, 12.

Opposite each of the lateral corridors 43, 44 of the basic module is provided, for this purpose, a retaining tab 51, 52, each of these bearing opposite the corridor corresponding to a protruding tenon 53, 54. Each extension module has, for its part at the front of its two lateral corridors, partition elements 55, 56, respectively adapted to engage behind the legs 51, 52 with notches 57, 58 adapted to fit onto the corresponding pins 53, 54.

Similar retaining tabs 51, 52 with tenons being provided at the rear of each of the extension modules, these are therefore likely to extend the base module to a variable extent.

The rear end of the display thus formed is closed by an end plate 59 adapted to close off and the channel 23 and the corridors 32, 43 and 44 and to fit onto the tenon tabs of the last module of the display.

Figures 7 to 9 show a simplified embodiment with regard to the structure of the slide 31 ′. This slide 31 ′ is constituted here by a trolley plate equipped with four rollers 36 ′ mounted free in rotation on axes each constituted by a screw cooperating with a thread formed for this purpose in the plate 31 ′. Covering the open sides of the four casters, domed plugs are adapted to cooperate with the side walls of the central corridor.

In this embodiment, the return spring 38 ′ is fixed at its ends to the two fixed points 47 ′ and 48 ′ provided in the respective corresponding lateral passages near their rear wall (not shown), return pulleys 41 ′ and 42 ′ being interposed between the coupling to the carriage 31 ′ and the fixed points 47 ′ and 48 ′ in alignment with the intermediate side walls 33, 34. Thus, a simple one-way path is defined in each of these lateral corridors between said sides fixed points near the rear wall and said pulleys beyond the front wall 25 and near a signaling compartment covered by the signaling plate 29.

In such an embodiment, the total length at rest of the return spring 38 ′ thus formed is substantially double the length of the base module which in this case constitutes in itself the display case, so that the elongation rate corresponding to a pusher location at the rear of the single module does not exceed about 50% of the length at rest. Such an elongation rate is sufficient to obtain the desired operating flexibility, in particular when the display case is made up of a single module.

Referring now to the embodiment of Figures 10 to 15, this slide 31A of the pusher 24A is constituted by a profile having angles 36A opening laterally outward and intended to cooperate with the slides 29A, 29B of the central corridor 32.

The underside of the slide 31A carries a semi-circular deflection guide with peripheral groove 37A, said guide having the general shape of a half-pulley and provides the connection between the slide 31A and the return spring 38A which is fixed to its two ends at two fixed attachment points 48A, 48B provided close to the rear wall of the display and opposite of pulleys 41A, 41B provided near the front abutment wall 25A. An attachment point 48A, 48B and the corresponding return pulley 41A, 41B are located in each of the two lateral passages 43A, 44A.

The front abutment wall 25A constitutes a removable plate which is engaged in grooves formed in the interior surfaces of the side walls 21A, 22A. This abutment wall has a part which extends well beyond the upper edge of the display case and is thus able to prevent accidental tilting of the article at the head of the file in the illustrated case where the article A3 is large. height.

The semi-circular configuration has the advantage of providing the return spring 38A with respect to the coupling means illustrated in FIG. 8, which includes two much more marked changes in direction.

On either side of the semicircular return guide 37A are symmetrically arranged lateral retaining stops 37B and 37C. Each of these retaining stops 37B, 37C comprises, on the one hand, a straight rear zone parallel to the longitudinal axis of the display unit spaced from the external periphery of the semi-circular guide by a lateral distance less than the diameter of the return spring 38A and, on the other hand, a zone front tilted laterally outward from the rear area. Thanks to the arrangement of the rear zones of the retaining stops, the spring cannot be released from the slide in normal operation. During assembly, the technician must forcely insert parts of the return spring between the reduced space separating the semi-circular guide from the retaining stops.

The pulleys 41A or 41B comprise, as illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14, flats 41C in each of their flanges, which facilitate the mounting of the spring 38A, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, allow the mounting of the pulley itself on its fixed axis 41F in one direction or the other.

It is easily understood that with such an arrangement and such a mounting of the spring, it is possible to exert restoring forces dosed directly as a function of the length at rest of the spring used.

Each of the pulleys 41A, 41B is freely mounted on its fixed axis 41C extending downward from the bottom of the display. A retaining plate 41E has orifices 41G capable of receiving fixed axes 41F. The retaining plate comprising at its lateral ends latching means constituted by elastic tongues 41H adapted to snap into complementary recesses 41J which are located respectively in the middle of the recesses of the internal face of the external lateral wall 21A, 22A . When the retaining plate 41E is fitted into external lateral walls, it is flush with the lower edge of the display. This retaining plate can be removed in order to access the pulleys 41A, 41B in order to release the return spring 38A but normally serves to keep the pulleys 41A, 41B in place on the axes 41D.

The invention further provides the possibility of extracting the pusher 24A and its slide 31A to replace the pusher 24 and its slide 31A, and / or the return spring 38A. For this purpose the slider forms the two branches of an L (as seen in FIGS. 15A to 15C) and by leaving a light P at the rear end of the guide slot 29A at the bottom of the central corridor 32 an area clearance R in the bottom of the display. In this way, it suffices to bring the assembly 24A, 31A to the rear end of the guide slot 29A, in line with these lights (FIG. 15A) to rotate it in the direction of the arrow F ( figure 15B) then extract it upwards (figure 15C). The spring is then easily detached at each of its ends and the slide with its pusher can be changed. The same goes for the return spring if necessary.

It can be seen that in the end of travel position illustrated in FIG. 15A, the slide is in abutment against the rear wall of the module, the front branch of the wing of the slide 31A is located under the bottom of the central corridor of the display. Thanks to this arrangement, it avoids any untimely removal in particular by an unauthorized customer or employee of the pusher-slide assembly of the display case. Indeed, to release the push-slide assembly, the user must know the tilting maneuver described above.

According to the embodiment of Figures 16 to 18, there is provided a set of displays of objects in line, two of which are illustrated, arranged next to each other. For this purpose, there are provided on the external surface of one of the side walls 21A of each of the display stands, which are for example of the type illustrated in FIGS. 10 to 15, ribs 60 spaced apart longitudinally, three in number as illustrated, and on the external surface of the other side wall 22A, grooves 61 adapted to receive ribs and having, of course, the same spacing as that of the ribs. The interlocking of the ribs 60 and the grooves 61 allows good alignment of the plurality of displays, but without holding on the shelving. Such arrangements are known per se.

According to this embodiment, is also provided, at the front end of each of the displays, a pawl 62 disposed in a central recess 63 of a front wall 64 of the display arranged in a cantilevered relation to the prorement said housing. The pawl is formed in the thickness of the wall before. On each side of the front wall 64 are provided hooks 65 in the form of an angle iron, extending vertically and opposite one another, adapted to receive between them and the front wall 64, the rear wall 67 of a signaling compartment 66 of a type known per se.

The signaling compartment 66 comprises a removable front wall having a dihedral thus defining an inclined upper zone adapted to display a signaling plate for the product intended to be placed in line in the display, not shown, and a lower zone slightly inclined with respect to the vertical connected to the upper area. Notches are formed in the side edges of the rear wall 67 of the compartment 66 adapted to receive free wings of the hooks 65 in order to allow the compartment to fit and slide along the front wall 64 until the part compartment is at the upper edge of the front end of the display. To this end, there are provided shoulders 68 defining the upper end of each of the lateral notches formed in the rear wall 67 of the signaling compartment.

A strip 70, of general L-shaped section, comprises a horizontal wing 71 adapted to be glued or fixed by any means to the front edge of the shelving of the linear type and extending over at least a part, or preferably its entire width. The strip 70 comprises a vertical wing 72 having at mid-height a horizontal groove 73 opening inside and extending over the entire length of the vertical wing. The upper part 74 of the vertical wing of the strip tapers from an area just above the groove towards its upper end.

Each of the displays is therefore adapted to fit onto the vertical wing 72 by inserting the vertical wing 72 into the slot 69 defined behind the front wall 64 which is cantilevered at the front of the display case and by moving the display down in the direction indicated by the arrow F1 in Figure 16, so that the pawl 61 of reduced thickness tends to open, i.e. to flex forward thanks to the downward flaring of the upper part of the vertical wing until it engages in the groove 73 of this vertical wing. The ribs 60 of a display can be guided in grooves 61 of an adjacent display during engagement on the strip 70 as illustrated in FIG. 16 or away from the display (s) already in place on the strip. Once fitted on the strip the display (s) can be moved to their desired position on the shelving.

Normally the client does not have access to the pawl 61 in the recess 63, since the signaling compartment 66 completely covers the recess 63 in the front wall 64 of the display. On the other hand, the employee in charge of organizing the shelving, can modify the arrangement of one or more display units, thanks to an opening 67A made in the upper edge of the front end of the display unit, giving on the rear face of the pawl. 61.

By introducing a screwdriver or lamella into the opening 67A, the free end of the latter descends the slope of the upper part 74 of the vertical wing 72 and then is inserted between the pawl 61 and said upper part in order to flex the pawl forward to release it from its engagement with the upper flank of the groove 73 formed in the vertical wing, so that the employee can remove the display in order to store or put, for example between two other displays on the same or another shelving.

The set of displays associated with the strip are preferably of the type illustrated in the embodiment of Figures 10 to 15. It goes without saying that the advantages of using such a strip with a set of displays do not depend of the type of the queue-locking mechanism, or even the implementation of any queue-locking mechanism. Indeed, the set of displays must have a slot for hanging on the vertical wing of the strip, but its housing can also be of any construction known per se.

It goes without saying that the present invention has only been described by way of example and in no way limitative and that any modification may be made thereto without departing from its scope.

Claims (14)

1) Display of objects in file of the kind comprising a channel (23) capable of receiving by partial interlocking a file of objects, this channel being equipped with a file-holding pusher (24) secured to a foot adapted to slide in a guide slot (29) and associated with a return spring (38) urging it in the direction of a front abutment wall (25), characterized in that the foot of the line-up pusher is secured to a slide ( 31) disposed in a central guide corridor (32) formed below a bottom (22) of the channel (23), the return spring (38) being coupled to the slide (31) and in that are arranged on either side of the central corridor two lateral corridors, the return spring making at least one outward journey in each of the lateral corridors between at least one return pulley (41, 45; 42, 46; 41 ′) and a point d 'fastener (47, 48; 47 ′). 2) Display according to claim 1, characterized in that said return spring goes back and forth in each of said lateral corridors. 3) Display according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the return pulleys (41, 42, 45, 46) of the return spring are with vertical axes, thus maintaining the whole of the spring (38) in a general plane horizontal defined by the coupling member (37) of the carriage (31). 4) Display according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the slide constitutes a carriage (31) mounted on balls (36) adapted to bear on three walls of the central guide corridor. 5) Display according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the slide constitutes a carriage (31 ′) mounted on casters (36 ′). 6) Display according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said slide comprises a profile with angles (36A) cooperating with slides (29A, 29B) of said central corridor 32. 7) Display according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that being composed of a module base and a variable number of extension modules, each extension module is suitable for coupling to any previous module by fitting anterior partition elements (55, 56) behind studs (51, 52 ) later in the previous module. 8) display unit according to claim 7, characterized in that the front partition elements (55, 56) of each extension module condemn the lateral corridors extending therein, and in that an end plate (59) is suitable for closing the channel (23) at the rear of the last extension module. 9) Display according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by the arrangement in front of the front abutment wall (25) of a reserve location (26) adapted to receive an object separated from the queue. 10) Display according to any one of claims 1 or 6, characterized in that a return guide (37A) is arranged under the slide (31A) to guide and change the direction of the return spring (38A) in the central corridor . 11) Display according to claim 10, characterized in that it further comprises at least one retaining stop (37B, 37C) disposed laterally away from the return guide (37A), the distance between the return guide and each retaining stop being less than the diameter of the return spring over at least part of the longitudinal length of said return stop. 12) set of displays according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it further comprises a strip (70) adapted to be fixed on a shelf and comprising a wing (72) adapted to cooperate with a slot (69 ) formed in the front part of each display. 13) display unit according to claim 12, characterized in that each display further comprises a pawl (62), on one side of the slot, adapted to snap into a groove (73) formed in said wing of the strip. 14) set of displays according to claim 13 characterized in that a signaling compartment (66) is adapted to be mounted on the front end of each display unit and hides the pawl (62), and in that an access opening (67A) is made in each display to the right of the pawl to allow it to be released from the groove and remove the display from the strip.

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