Support System for Shelves

This application is a Continuation-In-Part of non-provisional patent application U.S. Ser. No. 17/437,471, filed Sep. 9, 2022, entitled SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SHELVES, which is a national phase of PCT application PCT/CA2020/050319, filed Mar. 10, 2020, entitled SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SHELVES, which claims priority to, or benefit of, provisional patent application U.S. 62/816,359, filed Mar. 11, 2019, entitled SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SHELVES, the specifications of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The subject matter disclosed generally relates to mounting solutions. More particularly, the subject matter disclosed relates to solutions and systems adapted to mount shelves and other horizontal components on walls, cabinet walls and other vertical mounting components.

In the field of cabinet enclosure and space management in general, numerous solutions have been developed and are continuously developed to provide solutions for mounting shelves to walls, such as cabinet walls, in a modifiable manner.

Examples of such solutions comprise the use of normally-oriented holes distributed along two lines on opposite walls, wherein pins or another type of mounting components are inserted, with the mounting components extending out of the wall. The shelves are set down on four such pins.

Other available solutions comprise 90-degree structures mounted to the walls with screws or alike, with the shelf being set down a plurality of these structures and affixed to the structures using screws or alternative fixing methods.

Other available solutions comprise rack rails comprising regular mounting holes that are affixed to the back wall of the cabinet. Mounting arms are mounted thereto using finger-like projections or alike inserted in the mounting holes. Therefore, substantially parallel mounting arms extend from the back wall providing the support for a shelf to be set down thereon.

Other available solutions comprise side-wall mounted rack rails comprising mounting holes. Mounting components comprising insertable components are inserted in the rack rails to provide support close to the side wall. Thus, a number of supports are provided to set the shelf down thereon.

Nevertheless, there is a need for solutions to install shelves in cabinet that is less visually intrusive than the foregoing solutions requiring either a series of apparent holes scattered on the walls or rack rails mounted to the wall(s) in an apparent manner over a substantial portion of the mounting wall(s).

There is therefore a need for improvements in the field of shelf mounting solutions, and more particularly in the field of cabinet shelf mounting solutions.

According to an embodiment, there is provided a support system for mounting of a shelf to cabinet walls, the support system comprising: a rack rail extending vertically and comprising arched channels disposed above each other; and a mounting component having: a support face; an arched arm; and an abutting face, wherein, once the mounting component is mounted to the rack rail: the arched arm is inserted into one of the arched channels, the abutting face abuts the rack rail thereby limiting an upward course of the arm in the one of the arched channels, and the support face extends outwardly from the rack rail and is ready to support the shelf.

According to an aspect, the rack rail and the mounting component each have two flat sides whereby a distance between the two flat sides defines a respective thickness wherein both the rack rail and the mounting component have a similar respective thickness.

According to an aspect, the support face and the abutting face are perpendicular to the flat sides.

According to an aspect, the rack rail has a length, and wherein the rack rail is bendable along its length.

According to an aspect, the rack rail has a front face and the arched channels extend from the front face.

According to an aspect, the front face is straight about the arched channels and wherein the abutting face is straight.

According to an aspect, the rack rail and the mounting component are substantially flat.

According to an aspect, the rack rail and the mounting component comprise electrically conductive material and whereby an electrical contact exists between the rack rail and the mounting component to form part of an electrical circuit.

According to an embodiment, there is provided a shelf system comprising: a shelf comprising two edges; cabinet side walls facing each other and having vertical slots; rack rails for insertion in the vertical slots, each one of the rack rails comprising a series of arched channels; and mounting components for mounting to the rack rails at similar heights, each one of the mounting components comprising a support face for supporting the shelf, wherein the mounting components are mounted to the rack rails and the support faces extend outwardly from the rack rails, further wherein the shelf is supported by the mounting components.

According to an aspect, the mounting components further comprise an arched arm for insertion in one of the series of arched channels; and an abutting face to contact the rack rail to which the mounting component is mounted thereby limiting an upward course of the arched arm in the one of the series of arched channels.

According to an aspect, the abutting face of the mounting components mounted to the rack rails contact the rack rails under the arched channels to which the mounting components are mounted.

According to an aspect, the arched channels have a first length and the arched arms have a second length smaller than the first length.

According to an aspect, the racks rails comprise a front face that is straight between the arched channels, and wherein the abutting face is straight.

According to an aspect, the arched arms are rigid.

According to an aspect, the slots have side walls and wherein the arched channels are limited sideways by the side walls of the slot in which they are inserted.

According to an aspect, the rack rails have a thickness, a depth and a length, and wherein the thickness is smaller than the depth.

According to an aspect, the rack rails and the mounting components each have two flat sides whereby a distance between the two flat sides defines a respective thickness wherein both the rack rails and the mounting components have a similar respective thickness.

According to an aspect, the rack rails have a length, and wherein the rack rails are bendable along their length.

According to an aspect, the rack rails and the mounting components comprise electrically conductive material and whereby an electrical contact exists between the rack rails and the mounting components to form part of an electrical circuit.

According to an aspect, the shelf has a width and comprises a slot wherein the slot extends over the width of the shelf.

According to an aspect, the shelf comprises slots near the edges, wherein the shelf is supported by setting the slots on the support faces whereby the mounting components are thus substantially hidden from view.

According to an aspect, the shelf extends between the cabinet side walls, wherein the support system further comprise inserts mounted in the slots of the shelf, wherein the inserts are set down over the support face of each of the mounting components.

According to an aspect, the inserts, the rack rails and the mounting components comprise electrically conductive material and whereby an electrical contact exists between the inserts, the rack rails and the mounting components to form part of an electrical circuit.

According to an aspect, the shelf system further comprises a lighting element inserted in one of the slots, the lighting element being powered by the electrical circuit.

Features and advantages of the subject matter hereof will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of selected embodiments, as illustrated in the accompanying figures. As will be realized, the subject matter disclosed and claimed is capable of modifications in various respects, all without departing from the scope of the claims. Accordingly, the drawings and the description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive and the full scope of the subject matter is set forth in the claims.

It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.

The realizations will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying figures, in which realizations are illustrated. The foregoing may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the illustrated realizations set forth herein.

With respect to the present description, references to items in the singular should be understood to include items in the plural, and vice versa, unless explicitly stated otherwise or clear from the text. Grammatical conjunctions are intended to express any and all disjunctive and conjunctive combinations of conjoined clauses, sentences, words, and the like, unless otherwise stated or clear from the context. Thus, the term “or” should generally be understood to mean “and/or” and so forth.

Recitation of ranges of values and of values herein or on the drawings are not intended to be limiting, referring instead individually to any and all values falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value within such a range is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. The words “about,” “approximately,” or the like, when accompanying a numerical value, are to be construed as indicating a deviation as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art to operate satisfactorily for an intended purpose. Ranges of values and/or numeric values are provided herein as examples only, and do not constitute a limitation on the scope of the described realizations. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (“e.g.,” “such as,” or the like) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the exemplary realizations and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the realizations. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any unclaimed element as essential to the practice of the realizations.

In the following description, it is understood that terms such as “first”, “second”, “top”, “bottom”, “above”, “below”, and the like, are words of convenience and are not to be construed as limiting terms.

The terms “top”, “up”, “upper”, “bottom”, “lower”, “down”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “interior” and “exterior” and the like are intended to be construed in their normal meaning in relation with normal installation of the product, with indication of normal orientation of the components being provided on.

In realizations, there are disclosed components of a support systemfor shelves, and more particularly for cabinet shelves.

It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to, the support systemfor shelves comprises a set of rack railsand mounting members(aka mounting components) to be mounted thereon.

Referring additionally to, the rack railcomprises a front faceand a rear facedefining therebetween a rack rail depth. The rack railhas a rack rail length(that is inserted in a slot of a wall when mounted for operation) of about or longer that the height of the cabinet wall(see) to be mounted thereto. The rack railis usually manufactured in lengths extending largely beyond the normal heights of cabinet walls. The rack railfinally has a rack rail thickness, a.k.a. width, of a relatively small value, for instance smaller or about the thickness of a saw cut (e.g. about three (3) mm). Therefore, the small thickness of the rack railallows to limit visual intrusiveness of the support system.

Communicating with the front faceand evenly distributed over the rack rail lengthare channels(aka arched channels or upwardly arched channels), extending over the whole widthof the rack rail, and extending from the front facetoward the back of the rack rail. The channelsextend along an arch-shaped channel axisextending upwardly from the channel entranceat the front face. The channeltherefore has a channel widthlimiting the size of the inset, with a channel bottom wall, a channel top walland channel end wall. Since the channelsextend over the whole widthof the rack rail, the channelsdo not have side walls, the wall(see) to be mounted thereto operating as side walls as will be explained thereinafter.

The rack railsfurther comprise holesregularly distributed over the rack rail length. According to a realization, the holesare regularly distributed between the channels. The holesare located about mid-distance between channels. The holesare further located about mid-depth of the rack rails.

Referring additionally to, a mounting membercomprises a bodyfrom which extends an arch-shaped arm(aka arched arm) following arm axis. The armextends upwardly. The armis configured with a shape and dimensions, a.k.a. arm width(aka arm thickness) and arm length, providing the armwith faces, namely an arm bottom face, an arm top faceand an arm extremity. The mounting member, and particularly the arm, is made of rigid material maintaining its shape when exerting external forces.

The armsand channelsare further configured with shapes and dimensions that substantially correspond to each other, allowing coupling of the mounting memberto the rack railby inserting the armof the mounting memberin a channel.

The mounting memberhas, according to a realization, a mounting member thicknessthat is about or slightly smaller than the rack rail thickness. Accordingly, the mounting memberis thin enough to be inserted into any location the rack railmay be inserted in.

According to alternative realizations (not shown), only a portion of the mounting member, at least the arm, has a thickness similar to the rack rail thickness. The remaining part of the mounting member, e.g., the body, may feature a different thickness, such as a greater thickness, thereby provided increased surface to support the shelf(see).