SILL WITH INTEGRAL BUMPER SUPPORT

Abstract

A sill with integral bumper support. The sill consists of an elongated body having an exterior face and an interior face. The interior face is adapted to overlay a sill portion of a cooler display case. A bumper retaining profile is integrally formed with and extends outwardly from the exterior face of the body.

Description

FIELD

The present application relates to a sill with an integral bumper support, specifically, a sill of a cooler display case.

BACKGROUND

Cooler display cases are commonly used to display food that needs to be maintained at a lower temperature, such as meats and dairy products. Sills are positioned along an upper front edge of the display cases. To protect sills from damage caused by impacts with shopping carts, bumper retainers are secured by fasteners to either the sills or the tank panels. Shock absorbing bumpers are then retained by the bumper retainers.

SUMMARY

There is provided a sill with integral bumper support. The sill comprises an elongated body having an exterior face and an interior face. The interior face is adapted to overlay a sill portion of a cooler display case. A bumper retaining profile is integrally formed with and extends outwardly from the exterior face of the body.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to be in any way limiting, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the sill with integral bumper support.

FIG. 2 is an end elevation view of the sill of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the sill of FIG. 1 supporting a bumper.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A sill with integral bumper support generally identified by reference numeral 10, will now be described with reference to FIG. 1 through 3.

Structure and Relationship of Parts:

Referring to FIG. 3 sill with integral bumper support 10 includes am elongated body 12, preferably formed of molded plastic, having an exterior face 14 and an interior face 16. Interior face 16 is adapted to overlay a sill portion of a cooler display case (not shown). As the sill portion may come in a variety of shapes and sizes, it will be understood that elongated body 12 may be adapted from the size and shape shown accordingly. Referring to FIG. 2, a bumper retaining profile 18, is integrally formed with, and extends outwardly from, exterior face 14 of body 12. Preferably, bumper retaining profile 18 includes an upper appendage 20 and a lower appendage 22. Both upper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22 comprise a convex surface 24 and 26, respectively, directed away from the other. It will be appreciated that upper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22 can be in alternative configurations, bumper retainers known in the prior art provide numerous examples of alternative configurations. The present invention is not intended to be limited in any way to a particular configuration. Referring to FIG. 1, upper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22 engage an interior surface 28 of a bumper 30.

Operation:

Referring to FIG. 2, interior face 16 body 12 is adapted to overlay a sill portion of a cooler display case (not shown). Once securely installed, bumper 30 is supported by bumper retaining profile 18, which is integrally formed with exterior face 14. This is done by sliding bumper 30 over upper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22, such that upper appendage 20 and lower appendage 22 engage interior surface 28 of bumper 30.

Advantages:

By providing a retaining profile 18 that is integrally formed with body 12, the installation of such a sill covering becomes faster, and less expensive. The need to install separate bumper retainers is avoided, resulting in a considerable saving in both materials and labour. In addition, alignment problems which may occur when connecting separate components are completely avoided.

In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements.

It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope defined in the Claims.

Claims

1. A sill with integral bumper support, comprising:

an elongated body having an exterior face and an interior face, the interior face being adapted to overlay a sill portion of a cooler display case;

a bumper retaining profile integrally formed with and extending outwardly from the exterior face of the body.

2. The sill of claim 1, wherein the bumper retaining profile includes an upper appendage and a lower appendage adapted to engage an interior surface of a bumper.

3. The sill of claim 2, wherein each of the upper appendage and the lower appendage comprising a convex surface for engaging an interior surface of a bumper, the convex surface of each of the upper appendage and the lower appendage being directed away from each other.

4. The sill of claim 1, wherein the body is formed of molded plastic.