Sink With Storage Rack Assembly

Abstract

A combined sink and storage rack assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes a sink basin, a work area integral with the sink basin, and a wire rack hung underneath the work area at a side of the basin. Spring clips mounted on the sink basin and work area hook the rack. Sections of the rack's wire that insert into the spring clips are coated with an elastomer, such as silicone rubber, in order to dampen vibrations transmitted from the sink.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority based on U.S. provisional application 61/174,003 filed Apr. 30, 2009.

STATEMENT OF FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to sinks having a storage rack depending there from for holding varied accessories useful with the sink. More particularly, it relates to such assemblies provided with means to dampen vibrations transmitted through the sink basin.

Typically sinks have a basin for holding water, with a drainage hole for draining the water at the bottom. Sinks additionally contain upper rims extending outward. There sometimes is also a substantially flat work/drain area integral with the basin at its side.

The drainage hole at the bottom of the basin is connected to a sewer pipe. Often, a garbage disposal is installed between the drainage hole and sewer pipe to grind up waste. Garbage disposals can be a significant source of vibration transmitted through the sink assembly.

Sinks are often used with accessories such as bowls, cutting boards, trays, colanders and the like. It is desirable to store such items near the sink between uses, while leaving the option of having a given sink design be used without any such storage.

The idea of associating a sink with a storage rack for the convenient adjacent storage of kitchen articles is known in the art. See e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,330, disclosing an extendable rack positioned in cabinetry above a sink basin.

Further, many kitchen sinks are mounted (somewhat like a vanity sink) over a cabinet in which items can be stored. However, the floor space of these cabinets is often needed for other purposes such as storing sponges, dishwashing powder, and scrubbers.

In unrelated work it was disclosed to hang a storage rack underneath a refrigerator shelf. See e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,964, disclosing a beverage rack installed hanging from a shelf.

In any event a need still exists for a storage system usable with a sink that better addresses these problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a sink assembly. It has a sink basin, a work area linked to the basin and extending outward from an upper portion of the basin, and a storage rack mounted under the work area and supported thereby. The rack can also be supported by a side wall of the basin, and the work area can be integrally formed with the basin.

In preferred forms there is a first hook mounted to a lower surface of the work area and a second hook mounted to an outside side surface of the basin. The rack is preferably a metal wire rack having wire portions that can be hooked by the hooks so as to hang the rack there from. An elastomer such as silicone rubber is positioned over the wire portions to deaden vibrations.

In some forms there may be at least four such hooks, two of which are mounted on the outside side surface of the basin and two of which are mounted to a lower surface of the work area. Also, the hooks can be spring clips.

Other refinements are:

(a) the rack has a shelf having a raised lip at a front portion to help prevent items from falling off the rack; and

(b) the rack has a shelf having a cut out area at a front portion to facilitate removal of items from the rack.

Although the sink and rack may be made of a variety of materials, metal is a preferred material for the sink, and also a preferred base material for the rack. However, especially when the base material for the rack is a metal it is preferred that those portions of the rack to be contacted by a hook be coated with an elastomer. Such a coating allows the wires of the rack to snugly fit into fasteners such as spring clips, while at the same time dampening any vibrations transmitted from the sink to the rack.

In certain such embodiments the elastomer may form one or more sections of elastomeric isolation tubing around the circumference of the metal wires. The sections of elastomeric isolation tubing are preferably formed around the circumference of the top side wires of the rack, so that the lengths of the rack wires that are inserted into the hook fasteners include such tubing sections. Although the sections of elastomeric isolation tubing may extend along the complete length of a rack wire, they may be substantially limited to the portions of the rack wire that are inserted into the hook fasteners.

Thus, a consumer is provided with an option to affix an accessory storage rack without using up valuable storage space on the floor of the sink cabinet. Otherwise wasted space can now be used for storage when desired, at relatively little additional cost.

These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description below and the accompanying drawings. While a preferred embodiment is described and depicted, it should be understood that these disclosures are not made by way of limitation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sink useful with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the sink shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a left side view of the sink shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cutaway perspective view of the upper front left corner of the sink assembly shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a side view of one of the spring clip fasteners of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the spring clip fastener shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a cutaway perspective view of the lower front left corner of the sink assembly shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a side view of another of the spring clip fasteners of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a front view of the spring clip fastener shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a front view of the left side of a combined sink and rack assembly of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a view similar to FIG. 3, but with a wire rack hanging below the work space;

FIG. 12 is a view similar to FIG. 4, but additionally showing a portion of the wire rack about to be inserted into the spring clip fastener;

FIG. 13 is a partial sectional view showing the rack being installed;

FIG. 14 is a view similar to FIG. 13, but with the rack fully installed; and

FIG. 15 is similar to FIG. 14, but using the FIG. 8 clip.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring first to FIGS. 1-3, there is shown a sink 18 of the present invention which contains a sink basin 22 that is substantially rectangular in shape. The sink basin has a bottom surface 23 containing the usual drainage hole 24 for draining liquids and other materials held in the sink basin 23. A garbage disposal (not shown) may be installed underneath the drainage hole 24 to grind up any waste materials held in the sink basin 22.

A work/drain area 20 is integral to the sink basin 22 and extends (in this embodiment) to the left of the sink basin 22. The surface of the work area 21 is substantially flat and is substantially higher than the bottom surface of the sink basin 23, facilitating the easy transfer of liquids and waste materials from the work area 20 to the sink basin 22.

The sink 18 further has four spring clips 26, 28 mounted on the assembly 18. Two of the spring clips are side mounted spring clips 26, which are mounted to the left side exterior surface of the sink basin 34. The remaining two spring clips are bottom mounted spring clips 28, which are mounted to the exterior bottom surface of the work area 32.

Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 4-6, a bottom mounted spring clip 28 is shown mounted on the top front left corner of the assembly 36. A spring clip 28 contains a rigid vertical extension 40 and a rigid horizontal extension 42 for mounting the clip to a bottom surface of the work area. The spring clip 28 extends downward to a somewhat flexible u-shaped section 44.

Referring next more particularly to FIGS. 7-9, a side mounted spring clip 26 is shown mounted on the bottom front left corner of the assembly 38. A side mounted spring clip contains a rigid vertical extension 40 for mounting the clip to a side surface. The spring clip 26 extends downward to a somewhat flexible u-shaped section 44 that is designed for the insertion of a rod-shaped object or section of an object.

Referring next to FIG. 10, a storage rack 50 is designed to be removably hung from the work area 32 (e.g. a frame of the work area). Rod-shaped sections of the rack 50 are inserted into the spring clips 26, 28 and held in place therein. The storage rack is suitable for the convenient concealed storage of a wide variety of items as illustrated by the dotted lines of FIG. 10. For easy grasping of stored items, the front of the rack shelves 51 may contain a cutaway section 52. The front and back of the rack shelves 51 may additionally contain a lip to prevent stored items from falling off the shelf.

Referring next to FIG. 11, which includes a more detailed side view of the top section of the storage rack 50, the storage rack 50 is made up substantially of metal wire 53. The top left rack wire 54 is removably inserted into the bottom mounted spring clips 28, and the top right top wire 56 is removably inserted into the side mounted spring clips 26. The top left and top right rack wires 54, 56 are held in place within the spring clips 26, 28, keeping the rack 50 suspended underneath the work area 20.

Referring more particularly to FIG. 12, substantially along the section where the top wire 54 is to be inserted into spring clip 28, the top rack wire 54 contains sections of elastomeric isolation tubing 60 formed around the circumference of the metal wire 54. The elastomeric isolation tubing 60 is made of silicon rubber, and it facilitates the easy and secure insertion of the top rack wire 54 into the spring clip 28.

Referring to FIGS. 13-15, the left top rack wire 54 and the right top rack wire 56 can both be coated with a section of elastomeric isolation tubing 60 around the circumference of the wire 54, 56 at the portion of the wire 54, 56 to be inserted into the spring clip 26, 28. This part of the structure is identical both for the top left wire 54 inserted into a bottom mounted spring clip 28 and for the top right wire 56 inserted into a side mounted spring clip 26.

FIGS. 13-14 further illustrate how the elastomeric isolation tubing 60 assures a snug fit for the top rack wires 54, 56. FIG. 13 shows the insertion of the top left rack wire 54 into a bottom mounted spring clip 28, where the elastomeric isolation tubing 60 can compress as it is inserted into the u-shaped section 44 of the spring clip 28. FIG. 14 shows that, once inserted, the elastomeric isolation tubing 60 provides additional volume that expands to fill the u-shaped section 44 of the spring clip 28, providing a secure and snug attachment of the rack to the spring clips, and thus to the sink assembly.

As shown in FIG. 15, the same process occurs when the top right rack wire 56 containing an elastomeric isolation tubing is inserted into the u-shaped section 44 of a side mounted spring clip 26.

In addition to providing an easy, snug, and secure attachment of the rack wires 54, 56 to the spring clips 26, 28, the elastomeric isolation tubing 60 effectively dampens the transfer of vibrations from the sink basin (as caused, for example, by a garbage disposal) to the storage rack 50. Without the elastomeric isolation tubing 60, metal on metal contact could lead to annoying rattling within the sink assembly and excess vibration of the storage rack and items stored therein.

Thus, the invention achieves the desired advantages of providing a concealed and convenient storage rack below the work area of the sink assembly, while additionally providing a means of easily and securely attaching the storage rack to the sink and/or work area in a way that effectively dampens the transfer of vibrations from the sink basin to the storage rack.

The present invention is not limited to the described preferred embodiment. Instead, there are many additional variations within the full scope of the invention, as set forth in the claims which follow.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention provides sink assemblies including one or more storage racks installed underneath the work surface.

Claims

1. A sink assembly, comprising:

a sink basin;

a work area linked to the basin and extending outward from an upper portion of the basin; and

a storage rack mounted under the work area and supported thereby.

2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the rack is also supported by a side wall of the basin.

3. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the work area is integrally formed with the basin.

4. The assembly of claim 1, wherein there is a first hook mounted to a lower surface of the work area and a second hook mounted to an outside side surface of the basin.

5. The assembly of claim 4, wherein the rack is a wire rack having wire portions that can be hooked by the hooks so as to hang the rack there from.

6. The assembly of claim 5, wherein an elastomer is positioned over the wire portions.

7. The assembly of claim 6, wherein the elastomer is silicone rubber.

8. The sink assembly of claim 4, wherein there are at least four such hooks, two of which are mounted on the outside side surface of the basin and two of which are mounted to a lower surface of the work area.

9. The sink assembly of claim 4, wherein the hooks comprise spring clips.