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• US 6,026,984 A
• Filed: 04/23/1998
• Issued: 02/22/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mechtronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mechtronics Corporation
• Inventors: Perrin, Kim D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Noland, Kenneth W.
• Application Number:
  US09/065,329
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• Field of Search: 221/132, 221/131, 221/123, 221/112, 221/92, 221/103, 221/251, 221/252, 221/289, 221/299
• US Class Current: 221/132
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 5/02 Rotary display stands rotary show-cases A47F3/10
• CPC Class Codes: A47F 7/022 for watches or for bracelets therefor A47F7/03 takes precedence

Abstract

A device for displaying and dispensing articles above a horizontal surface includes a turntable for engaging the surface and supporting the device. A base is held above the turntable for rotation about a central vertical axis. A top is held above the base. A stack of article-holding tiers is positioned between the base and the top. Each tier has a plurality of groups of elongate stalls, each stall in a group configured to hold one article. The stalls in each group are arrayed generally side-by-side with each other and each stall has an open outboard end for removal of articles from the stall. A corresponding plurality of groups of blocking members are each associated with a corresponding group of stalls. Each blocking member is associated with one stall in the associated group of stalls. Either the group of blocking members or its associated group of stalls is a moveable group, movable as a unit between a first position wherein the blocking members substantially prevent removal of the articles held by the associated stalls and a second position wherein extraction of such articles past the blocking members is possible. The movable group is biased toward the first position.

Claims

1. A device for displaying and dispensing elongate articles above a horizontal surface, comprising:

a turntable for engaging the surface and supporting the device;

a base, held above the turntable for rotation about a central vertical axis;

a top, held above the base; and

a stack of article-holding tiers positioned between the base and the top, each of said tiers having;

a plurality of groups of elongate stalls, each of said stalls being configured to hold one of the articles, each of said stalls in each of said groups being situated in a side-by-side array, and each of said stalls having an outboard end; and

a plurality of groups of blocking members, each group of blocking members being associated with a corresponding one of said plurality of groups of elongate stalls and each of said blocking members being associated with one of said stalls in said associated group of stalls, either each group of blocking members or said group of stalls associated therewith being a moveable group, said movable group being slideably moveable as a unit from a first position wherein the blocking members effectively prevent removal of the articles held by the associated stalls to a second position to permit extraction of the articles from said stalls, the moveable group being biased toward the first position.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the horizontal surface is a countertop.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the groups of stalls are the moveable groups and in each group of stalls, the stalls are arrayed from an outboard stall to an inboard stall, the outboard stall extending generally along a perimeter of the associated tier.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein each stall has a bottom face, an outboard side face, an inboard side face, and an inboard end face.

5. The device of claim 3 wherein in each tier there are four such groups of stalls and four such groups of blocking members, each tier having a substantially octagonal perimeter and wherein the stalls in each group of stalls are staggered so that outboard ends of articles held by such stalls fall along a line proximate one side of such octagonal perimeter and the outboard stall falls generally along an adjacent side of such octagonal perimeter.

6. The device of claim 3 wherein for each tier:

there is an associated unitarily molded plastic shelf;

each group of stalls is formed by a unitarily molded tray, slidably carried atop the associated shelf for translation between the associated first and second positions; and

each group of blocking members comprises a plurality of upwardly extending fingers of the associated shelf.

7. The device of claim 6 wherein of each given tier of a lowermost such tier to a penultimate such tier, each group of blocking members further comprises a plurality of fingers depending from an underside of the shelf associated with the tier above the given tier.

8. The device of claim 6 wherein each tier includes at least one latch moveable between:

a locked condition in which the latch prevents movement of an associated one of the trays of such tier to such tray'"'"'s second position; and

an unlocked condition in which the latch does not prevent movement of such tray to such tray'"'"'s second position.

9. The device of claim 8 wherein of each given tier of a lowermost such tier to a penultimate such tier, each such latch is coupled to a latch of the tier above the given tier so as to be driveable between the locked and unlocked conditions via the latch of the tier above the given tier.

10. The device of claim 9 wherein each such latch of an uppermost tier is coupled to an associated lock carried by the top.

11. The device of claim 3 wherein the base consists essentially of a first molded piece, and the top consists essentially of a second molded piece, substantially identical to the first molded piece.

12. The device of claim 3 configured to so display and dispense such articles being 0.435 inches wide by 0.980 inches high by 5.35 inches long.

13. The device of claim 3 displaying a plurality of boxed watchbands.