WO1983000008A1

WO1983000008A1 - Load support arrangement

Info

Publication number: WO1983000008A1
Application number: PCT/GB1982/000184
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hancock Structures Limited Keith; Leslie John Chapman
Original assignee: Hancock Keith Structures
Priority date: 1981-06-23
Filing date: 1982-06-23
Publication date: 1983-01-06
Also published as: AU8462982A; CA1189834A; DE3273436D1; JPS58500977A; IN156921B; MX155016A; AU8528382A; ATE22393T1; ZA824189B; AU559846B2; NO830547L; GB2102278A; GB2102278B; DK75783D0; EP0068812B1; EP0068812A1; JPH0366881B2; US4447029A; DK75783A

Abstract

A load support arrangement, more especially a shelving system for storage purposes, comprises a main upright (1) and a relatively adjustable cantilever arm (7, 8) held by means (11, 12) for frictionally engaging the upright at vertically spaced positions on opposite sides of a part of the upright, under load applied to the cantilever arm. In addition, in order to prevent slippage of thecantilever arm when lightly loaded, the arm has engagement means (11a, 12a) for engaging opposite sides of a portion (4, 5) of theupright at positions spaced horizontally, and locking means (9, 14) is provided for canting the cantilever arm in a horizontal plane to urge the latter engagement means into pressure contact with said upright. Preferably, a common load support includes two such cantilever arms arranged symmetrically about a vertical plane, and said locking means is arranged to cause relative movement of the cantilever arms at right angles to the vertical plane.

Description

LOAD SUPPORT ARRANGEMENT

This invention relates to a load support arrangement and is particularly though not exclusively applicable to shelf storage systems based on a cantilever support principle.

In the provision of shelving systems for storage purposes, in order to provide flexibility of the system, there are provided upright members to which a cantilever unit is secured so as to be adjustable. With a cantilever system, it is necessary for the cantilever arms to be secured at the support end and these have been made adjustable by providing either a finite number of different positions at which the cantilever arms can be fixed or, where completely variable adjustment is required, the fixing has relied upon various forms of clamping arrangement to hold it in place.

The clamping systems providing completely variahle adjustment rely, for security of the cantilever arm under load, either solely upon frictional clamping of the arm in place or upon some form of permanent deformation of the upright at the arbitrarily located position of the cantilever arm. The latter arrangement is difficult to apply effectively in the case of heavy duty storage systems and is unsuited for use in cases where readjustment of the position of a cantilever arm may he desired after an initial installation, whilst the former one generally requires the use of very strong clamps or complicated wedging devices, which increase the cost of the system.

When the load is applied to a cantilever arm which is located upon an upright in such a manner that vertically spaced areas of the cantilever arm engage upon opposite sides of a portion of the upright, the torsional forces applied to the cantilever arm have the effect of increasing the pressure of engagement of the areas of the arm against the corresponding portions of the upright. In most lαiown clamping systems, this effect may he present but is negligible in relation to the clamping forces already applied to the upright, or is positively disadvantageous in causing permanent distortion of the counter surfaces of the upright. However, by careful design of the relevant surfaces of the cantilever arm it is possible to utilise such torsional forces in order to provide the effective clamping forces necessary to support the cantilever arm under load, without the need for very heavy duty clamping devices or complicated and expensive wedging systems. The corresponding disadvantage of such a system is that when the cantilever arm is lightly loaded it may he insufficiently secure to prevent undesired displacement of the cantilever arm, particularly under impact loads in a region close to the upright.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a cantilever support arrangement which provides effective support under loading of the cantilever arm, without the need for heavy duty or compli cated clamping devices, and which also provides security against displacement of the cantilever arm when unloaded or lightly loaded.

According to the invention there is provided a support arrangement comprising a main upright provided with a slideway, and a cantilever arm having means for cooperating with the slideway to guide the arm along the slideway, said means including engagement surfaces for engaging the upright in opposite directions at two posi tions spaced vertically and arranged to he urged into engagement with the upright under increased pressure as a result of load on the cantilever arm, whereby the frictional forces on said engagement surfaces provide effective support for the loaded cantilever arm, charac terised in that engagement surfaces are also provided for engaging the upright in opposite directions at two portions spaced horizontally and that means is provided for canting the engagement surfaces in a horizontal plane relatively to the upright to increase the pres sure on said surfaces and thus to provide frictional support for the cantilever arm when in an unloaded condition.

Preferably the said means for cooperating with said slideway comprises a first engagement element to the rear of the arm for engagement with a first vertical surface on one side of said slideway and a second engagement element spaced forwardly of the first engagement element for engagement with a second vertical surface on the opposite side of said slideway, the arrangement being such that, in use, said second engagement element is vertically below the first. In a preferred form of the invention, the upright comprises an I-section bar, two adjacent flanges of which form the slideway for the cantilever arm. The cantilever arm is provided with two pairs of right-angled brackets each pair being welded or otherwise fastened to the cantilever arm in back to back relationship by a first arm leaving the other arms extending parallel to each other and spaced by a distance related to the thickness of the flange from the I-section upright, the said two adjacent flanges on the upright being slidable between the two angled brackets of each pair, the rear angled brackets extending upwardly from the cantilever arm and the front angled brackets extending downwards from the cantilever arm.

In a particular form of this arrangement, the cantilever arm may be formed of two members, one on each side of the I-section beam, each member carrying a pair of angled brackets. The two cantilever members are connected together at their outer ends in an adjustable manner whereby the spacing at their outer ends is adjustable between a first position of the arm members for sliding up and down the I-section bar and a second position of the arm members in which the angled brackets are canted to grip the I-section bar.

The invention will now be described in greater detail, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a side view of an upright carrying a number of cantilever supports on both sides;

Figure 2 is a side elevation of a cantilever support arm in position on the upright in greater detail, and

Figure 3 is a plan view of the arm with the upright section for clarity.

Referring firstly to Figure 1, there is shown an end view of a load support arrangement in accordance with the invention. This comprises an I-section upright 1 which is supported on a similar I-beam 2 extending horizontally at the bottom. Positioned at intervals vertically of the upright 1 are eight cantilever support elements 3, four to each side of the upright. In υse these cantilever supports will be associated with further uprights and cantilever supports which in combination act to support articles to be stored, either directly on the beam of the cantilever elements or of the shelving placed thereon.

The more detailed construction of the cantilever support elements can be seen from Figures 2 and 3.

As mentioned the cantilever arm 3 is supported on the I-section upright 1 (suitably of a rolled steel beam 1), and its two flanges 4 and 5 which are adjacent to each other provide guide elements for the cantilever element 3.

The cantilever arm 3 suitably comprises two an elements 7 and 8 which may be of channel shape as shown or may be angled, the arm elements being connected spaced apart at one end by a channel section bracket 9 and at the other end by a clamping bolt 10.

At the upright end, each arm element 7 or 8 is provided with a pair of angled members 11 and 12 forming torsion brackets which may suitably be welded to the arm elements 7 or 8. As can be seen particularly from Figure 3, these angled brackets 11 and 12 are mounted back to back leaving a spacing therebetween which is of the order of the thickness of the flanges 4 and 5. As particularly seen from Figure 2, the outer angled bracket 12 extends below the arm elements while the inner angled bracket 11 extends above the arm elements. From Figure 3 it will be seen that while the two arm elements 7 and 8 are substantially parallel, they are in fact, in use, inclined towards each other by twice the angle α for a purpose which will be described hereafter.

A better understanding of the arrangement can be obtained from the following description of the operation of the assembly of the arm elements 7 and 8 onto the upright 1.

Two or more uprights 1 are located in the required position and are connected together by means of suitable cross bracing (not shown) and are then ready for assembly of the cantilever arm 3. The two arm elements 7 and 8 of each cantilever arm are initially separate and one element is placed on each side of the I-beam 1 so that the flanges 4 and 5 of the I-beam are located within the channel formed by the two angled brackets 11 and 12. The position of the cantilever arm 3 is then adjusted up and down the upright 1 to the required position, where necessary, and in this position the free ends of the arm elements 7 and 8 are brought towards each other by a small amount so that they make an angle of α with the otherwise parallel lines which they would take up. This angle is not in itself critical and will be determined by the size of the bracket 9 which is used to connect the free ends together. An angle of between 0.5 and 6 has been found to be suffi cient. With the free ends of the arm elements 7 and 8 pressed towards each other, the bracket 9 is inserted into the channel portions of the arm elements 7 and 8 and secured by means of a nut and bolt arrangement 14 .as shown particularly in Figure 3. The effect of the angled position of the arm elements 7 and 8 causes a canting of the right-angled brackets 10 and 11 in relation to the flanges 4 and 5 of the upright 1 and will cause the cantilever arm to be firmly wedged in position. This wedging effect is due to the interaction of the surface 12a. of the bracket 12 towards the outer end of the intermediate channel and the surface 11a towards the base of the channel. The horizontal spacing of these surfaces causes the pressure contact thereof upon the flanges 4 or 5 to be substantially increased when the arm 7 or 8 is canted horizontally. The positioning of the angled brackets 11 and 12 provides load locking of the cantilevers since the weight of the cantilever and also any load thereon will cause torsion of the cantilever 3 and increase the pressure of the outer ends 15 of the torsion brackets 11 and 12 on the guide flanges 4 and 5 of the upright thus maintaining the cantilever arms in position. The canting of the brackets 11 and 12 causes firm wedging which is sufficient to withstand any possible tendency of the cantilever to slip down the upright when lightly loaded, even in the case of substantial impact loads on the cantilever. It will be noted that the effect of the surfaces 11a, 12a is similar to that of the surfaces 15 but is independent of the load on the cantilever arm. The bolt 10 provided at the upright end of the cantilever arm 3 may be used to ensure that the flanges 4 and 5 abut the arms 7 and 8 at the bottom of the grooves between the brackets 11 and 12. This provides additional security. Also the bolt can be used to hold the arm elements in position on the upright while the angle adjustment is taking place.

The cantilever arms may themselves be used to support the load or shelving, such as that indicated at 16 maybe placed thereon.

It will be appreciated that various modifications may be made to the above described embodiment without departing from the scope of the invention. For example the torsion brackets 11, 12 may be spaced entirely apart longitudinally on the upright so that they do not have any overlap, provided that additional means are included to replace the wedging surfaces 11a, 12a. The horizontal canting of the arms 7, 8 could provide the locking effect by the arms being spread apart instead of pinched together. Although the torsion brackets have been described as being welded these may in fact be secured by other means such as bolting. While the arrangement described in connection with Figures 2 and 3 has related to the attachment of the single arm on one side of the upright, arms may be provided on one or both sides of the upright as shown in Figure 1.

As can be seen from Figure 1, it may be described for the cantilever arms, when in the unloaded state to be angled slightly in an upward direction. This enables the cantilever to take up the effect of the load placed thereon without this causing the downward angling of the cantilever arms and thus successfully ensuring that the goods being stored thereon do not slip off. Furthermore this will act as an indicator in that when the cantilever arms approach the horizontal, the maximum rated load has been reached.

Various additional elements may be provided for use with the above described embodiment. For example upright members may be provided on the brackets 9 to retain a load, such as pipes or tubes, in position. Cross members may also be provided between cantilever arms on adjacent uprights to support the front and/or rear of shelving placed thereon.

Claims

1. A support arrangement comprising a main upright provided with a slideway, and a cantilever arm having means for cooperating with the slideway to guide the arm along the slideway, said means including engagement surfaces for engaging the upright in opposite directions at two portions spaced vertically and arranged to be urged into engagement with the upright under increased pressure as a result of load on the cantilever arm, whereby the frictional forces on said engagement surfaces provide effective support for the loaded cantilever arm, characterised in that engagement surfaces (11a, 12a.) are also provided for engaging the upright in opposite directions at two portions spaced horizontally and that means (9, 14) is provided for canting the engagement surfaces (11a, 12a) in a horizontal plane relatively to the upright to increase the pressure on said surfaces and thus to provide frictional support for the cantilever arm when in an unloaded condition.

2. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 1, characterized in that the said means cooperating with said slideway comprises a first engagement element (11) to the rear of the arm for engagement with a first vertical surface on one side of said slideway (4, 5) and a second engagement element (12) spaced forwardly of the first engagement element for engagement with a second vertical surface on the opposite side of said slideway, the arrangement being such that, in use, said second engagement element is vertically below the first.

3. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the upright comprises an I-section bar (1), two adjacent flanges (4, 5) of which form the slideway for the cantilever arm.

4. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 3, characterized in that the cantilever arm is provided with two pairs of right angled brackets (11, 12), each pair being attached to the cantilever arm in back to back relationship by a first arm leaving the other arms extending parallel to each other and spaced by a distance related to the thickness of the flange of the I-section upright, the said two adjacent flanges (4, 5) on the upright being slidable between the two angled brackets (11, 12) of each pair, the angled brackets (11) furthest from the free end of the cantilever arm extending upwardly from the cantilever arm and the angled brackets (12) nearest to the free end of the cantilever arm extending downwardly from the cantilever arm.

5. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 4, characterized in that the cantilever arm comprises two arm members (7, 8) extending the longitudinal length of the arm and one positioned on each side of the I- section bar (1), each of the two arm members (7, 8) carrying a pair of angled brackets (11, 12) and wherein the arm members (7, 8) are connected together at their outer ends in an adjustable manner whereby their spacing at their outer ends is adjustable between a first position of the arm members (7, 8) for sliding up and down the I-section bar and a second position in which the angled brackets (11, 12) are canted to grip the I-section bar (1).

6. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 5, characterized in that in the first position, the arm members (7, 8) are parallel.

7. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the arm members (7, 8) are connected at their outer ends by a nut and bolt connection (14).

8. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 5, 6 or 7, characterized in that a connecting piece (9) is provided for connecting the arm members (7, 8) at their outer ends which provides a stop for determining the spacing in the said second position.