Tall portable locker table with embedded peg hanger
A folding table is shown that fits into a locker and rests on two leg-members that are longer than its shelf is wide, allowing relatively tall objects to fit under the shelf. The erect table can stack with tables of the same or similar design. The table is lightweight and will collapse flat to make it portable. The two leg-members of the table contain embedded hangers that allow the table to hang neatly from a retail display device arm by either leg-member.
The invention presented in this application pertains generally to locker appliances. More particularly, the present invention relates to a lightweight collapsible table that fits into a locker, has a height exceeding its width, and contains an integral hanger that allows the table to be hung from a peg or retail display device arm when collapsed.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONA locker, of the kind commonly found in schools and athletic facilities, only provides the user with limited space to keep possessions. The inside of a locker is often a tall narrow space, with at most one shelf. A small table that fits into a locker can furnish an additional shelf. Such a shelf reduces wasted space and facilitates organization of the contents. If the tables are stackable within the locker, then the user has even more options, particularly if the tables are available in multiple height configurations. A well-designed locker table will minimize its obstruction of the user's access to the space beneath its shelf. A mesh or grid design for the shelf surface is useful in helping moist things to dry out, while also reducing the weight of the table. To be portable, in addition to being lightweight, the table should collapse into a compact configuration. The collapsed table is likely to be carried on occasion in a gym bag or a backpack, possibly by a person walking or riding a bicycle. On the other hand, the table should be sufficiently strong, durable, and stable to withstand usage by an athlete returning from a rough practice session or venting emotion after a competition, or to hold a stack of a law student's casebooks.
Collapsible locker tables are already being sold commercially. One such prior art table is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,107, which is incorporated herein by this reference and is available from LockerMate Corporation, the assignee of the present invention. This prior art table is fabricated of plastic-coated rigid metal wire and has a mesh surface. The table has two leg-members. Each leg-member is bent from a single strand of such wire into the shape of a rectilinear letter ‘U’. The tines of the leg-members are attached to the shelf along its left and right edges (from the perspective of an observer looking into a locker in which the table is installed) by pivot/lock devices. Below the shelf's left edge, for example, are two pivot/lock devices (one front and one rear), to which the left leg-member connects by the ends of its tines. Each leg-member is secured in its fully upright and locked position by its two pivot/lock devices. The leg-members are made of rigid wire, which is quite thin yet durable. When open, the leg-members are vertical and nearly flush against the sides of the locker, leaving essentially all of the space beneath the shelf usable and accessible. The shelves are adapted to being stacked on top of each other. The lock of a pivot/lock device is convenient to release manually (but resistant to accidental release), allowing each leg-member to pivot under its respective shelf edge inwardly under the shelf to collapse the table into a flat, compact form. Because of the wire construction and the mesh surface of the shelf, the table is both lightweight and durable.
To date, however, the consumer has had relatively few options about the height of the table. In particular, due to various constraints in the prior art, the height of the folding table in its erect configuration has always been less than or equal to the width (left to right dimension) of the shelf. A need exists for a more flexible locker design that allows greater height in a collapsible locker table.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThis need met by the collapsible locker table or locker shelf invention presented in this application. The table has three functional configurations: erect or open when installed and operational within a locker; collapsed, closed, or folded when being carried or stored; and a-hanging configuration when it is collapsed and suspended from a peg-hanger embedded integrally within the table.
When the table is erect, the height of the table exceeds the shelf width. The table has two leg-members pivotally attaching to the left and right edges of the shelf. A problem that is encountered when one of the leg-members obstructs the other from closing is solved by at least one of the leg-members containing a cavity close to the shelf that is sufficiently large for the other leg-member to fold inside it. In addition, at least one leg-member contains an integrated peg-hanger that includes a hanging notch from which the table is suspended when collapsed while hanging on a peg or display arm.
The preferred embodiment has a wire mesh shelf and has two identical leg-members, each leg-member bent from a strand of wire into approximately a rectilinear U-shape, the leg-member snapping into the shelf at its rotation axis by its two free ends. The flat ground-engaging section of the leg-member has a middle portion bent to form a peg-hanger containing a hanging notch, so that the table hangs with the notch resting upon the peg, with the remainder of the table below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Identification of Problem
When the height of a foldable locker table exceeds its width, a technical challenge is presented to the designer because leg-members shaped as in the prior art would prevent each other from folding under the table during the collapsing process. A common width for lockers is about 1 foot (about 30.5 centimeters). Many personal items that an occupant typically wants to put into a locker, such as tall boots or standard-sized three-ring binders, will not stand up under a locker table subject to the constraint that the height be no greater than the width (i.e., the height must be less 1 foot). What is needed is a taller locker table that retains all the advantages already described (e.g., lightweight, compact, mesh shelf, narrow flush leg-members, stackable), while solving the problem of leg-members that obstruct each other in the process of collapsing the table.
Because of their compactness and lightweight design, collapsible locker tables can be hung for sale in retail stores on racks and other devices. The display of an inventory of several tables on retail display arms would be facilitated if a more convenient hanger for the tables were available. A hanger integrated into the table itself would serve such a merchandising purpose. Being integrated into the table rather than mere disposable packaging material, the consumer/user would also benefit by being able to handily store the table in a variety of contexts, such as on a garage pegboard or on a hook within the locker itself. Because the leg-members of a locker table taller than the prior art (i.e., having a height in excess of its width) will protrude beyond its shelf when collapsed, what is needed are leg-members, each incorporating a peg-hanger integrated into its protruding part, so that the table can hang from one or either of them. The hanger design should also keep several tables that are hung on the same peg or arm neatly aligned. The hanger should maintain the alignment of the suspended tables even when the tables are subjected to some degree of jostling, such as they might experience when bumped or when a rack on which they are being displayed is revolved by a customer.
Preferred Embodiment
The locker table 10 has three operational configurations: the erect configuration 100 (shown in
The width of the shelf 200 is the distance from the left edge 230 to the right edge 240; the depth of the shelf 200 is the distance from the front edge 210 to the rear edge 220. In the preferred embodiment, the shelf 200 is a rectangular grid formed from rigid wire that is durable, lightweight, and air-permeable. The height in the erect configuration 100 is the distance from the ground 40 (i.e., when the locker table 10 is installed at the bottom of a locker 20, the “ground” is the locker floor 30, as shown in
Each leg-member 400 is attached to the shelf 200 in a manner such that it can rotate from the erect configuration 100 to the collapsed configuration 110 of
As shown in
As shown in
The invention does not require that the leg-members 400 be vertical when erect. However, in the preferred embodiment, they are vertical (i.e., perpendicular to the shelf 200 and to the ground 40) to enhance stability and, in combination with the thinness of the wire frame leg-members 400, to maximize the usability of and access to the space beneath the shelf (
One problem solved by the invention is how to design a tall collapsing locker table 10 so that the leg-members 400 do not significantly obstruct each other during the process of folding them flat. The solution is to give one leg a female adaptation region 500 and the other leg a male adaptation region 520 as shown in
The invention requires only that one leg-member 400 have a female adaptation region 500 and the other have a male adaptation region 520. It is not inconsistent, as in the preferred embodiment, for each leg-member 400 to have both a female adaptation region 500 and a male adaptation region 520, making the process of collapsing the locker table 10 indifferent to which leg-member 400 is closed first.
If D is the distance 150 between the rotation axes 120 of the leg-members 400 (
In one embodiment, the invention does not require that the locker table 10 height exceed its width, but rather that the distance 150 between the rotation axes 120 (which are parallel to each other) of its leg-members 400 be less than the distance from the rotation axis 120 of one leg-member 400, containing the male adaptation region 520, to its ground-engaging portion 450. Except in esoteric examples, in an embodiment such as the preferred one in which (a) the leg-members 400 are vertical when erect, (b) the shelf 200 is thin, and (c) the rotation axes 120 are positioned close to the left edge 230 and right edge 240 of the shelf 200, the locker table 10 height will, in fact, exceed the shelf 200 width. In the preferred embodiment, the shelf 200 is approximately 11.4 inches (29 cm) wide to fit snugly into many lockers commonly found in the United States (
In any case, when the shelf 200 is taller than it is wide, then the left leg-member 400 will protrude beyond the right edge 240 of the shelf 200, and the right leg-member 400 protrude beyond the left edge 230 of the shelf 200 when the locker table 10 is collapsed. (
The invention solves the problem of hanging the collapsed locker table 10 on a peg 600 or retail display device arm by configuring the protruding portion 470 of the leg-member 400 in its collapsed configuration 110 to include an integrated peg-hanger 700 (
Consistent with the invention, the hanging notch 710 can have a variety of shapes, such as angular, rounded, or rectilinear (
The hanging notch 710 is a part of a larger structure, a peg-hanger 700. The peg-hanger 700 can also have a variety of configurations consistent with the invention (
Regardless of the details, the configuration of the integrated peg-hanger 700 must not make the locker table 10 unstable when it is erect. This requirement allows for variation in the detailed structure of the leg-members 400. For example, one of the leg-members 400 might be formed from bent wire into the shape of a triangle, with a vertex of the triangle serving the dual purpose as the base of the locker table 10 when erect and peg-hanger 700 when collapsed (
In the preferred embodiment, each leg-member 400 is split symmetrically in half by the front/rear centerplane 130 of the locker table 10 (
In the preferred embodiment shown in
The invention is not to be taken as limited to all the above details, as modifications and variations may be made without departing from the intent or scope of the invention. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing future products that incorporate the methods, systems, and purposes of the present. For example, the shelf 200 might not be designed as a mesh, or the leg-members 400 might be bent in different ways as yet unimagined. A locker table 10 consistent with the invention could be fabricated from metal, fiberglass, plastic, wood or any other rigid material, or some combination thereof. In short, the invention should not be limited by the specifics of the above description, but rather should be limited only by the following claims and equivalent constructions.
Claims
1. A folding table for a locker, comprising:
- a) a shelf;
- b) a first leg-member attached to the shelf containing a female region proximal to the shelf;
- c) a second leg-member attached to the shelf, capable of folding flat against the shelf, and containing a male region distal from the shelf, such that when the first leg-member is folded against the shelf, the male region of the second leg-member extends into the female region of the first leg-member; and
- d) a first peg-hanger integrated into the male region of the second leg-member.
2. The folding table of claim 1, wherein the first leg-member folds flat against the shelf and contains a male region distal from the shelf, and the second leg-member contains a female region proximal to the shelf, such that when the first leg-member is folded against the shelf, the male region of the first leg-member extends into the female region of the second leg-member.
3. The folding table of claim 2, further comprising:
- e) a second peg-hanger integrated into the male region of the first leg-member.
4. The folding table of claim 1, wherein the first leg-member is fabricated from wire.
5. The folding table of claim 1, wherein the first leg-member is formed from a single strand of wire bent into an approximately coplanar rectilinear U-shape, comprising a base segment, a first side tine segment, and a second side tine segment.
6. The folding table of claim 5, wherein the base segment of the first leg-member comprises a left section, a middle section containing the first peg-hanger, and a right section, such that the left and right sections contain ground-engaging points when the table is erect.
7. The folding table of claim 6, wherein the first peg-hanger has the shape of a sinusoidal letter ‘W’ from the perspective of an observer viewing the table when it is suspended by the first peg-hanger.
8. The folding table of claim 1, wherein the first peg-hanger lies approximately in a plane and contains a hanging notch whose structure is determined by three distinct points a, b, and c such that:
- (i) points a, b, and c are contained within the material of the first leg-member;
- (ii) points a, b, and c are located within the plane of the first peg-hanger;
- (iii) the perpendicular projection of point b onto the rotation axis of the first leg-member is strictly between the perpendicular projections of points a and c onto the rotation axis of the first leg-member;
- (iv) point b is further from the first rotation axis than points a and c; and
- (v) when the table is in a collapsed configuration, the projection of the unique triangle formed by points a, b, and c perpendicular to the plane of said triangle is empty of material composing the table.
9. The folding table of claim 6, wherein each side tine segment of the first leg-member contains a dogleg bend whereby the distance between the tines distal from the shelf is narrower than the distance between the tines proximal to the shelf, the resulting narrower region of the leg composing its male region.
10. The folding table of claim 6, wherein the first side tine segment of the first leg-member contains a flange whereby it pivotally connects to the bottom of the shelf at a first pivot/lock device and the second side tine segment contains a flange whereby it pivotally connects to the bottom of the shelf at a second pivot/lock device, and wherein the flanges are aligned to form a rotation axis of the first leg-member, about which the first leg-member rotates when it folds.
11. The folding table of claim 10, wherein each side tine of the first leg- member is secured within its respective pivot/lock device by tension in the tines themselves.
12. The folding table of claim 6, wherein the table when it is erect is symmetrical about a front/back centerplane and a left/right centerplane.
13. A folding table having
- a) a shelf;
- b) a first folding leg-member attached to the shelf, the first folding leg-member having a male region distal from the shelf; and
- c) a second folding leg-member attached to the shelf, the second folding leg-member having a female region proximal to the shelf, the female region having an inner width that is greater than the outer width of the male region of the first folding leg-member; and
- wherein when the first folding leg-member is folded against the shelf, the male region of the first folding leg-member extends into the female region of the second folding leg-member.
14. A folding table having
- a) a shelf;
- b) a first folding leg-member folding about an axis of rotation, the leg-member having a first position supporting the shelf away from the ground surface and a second position folded against the shelf, the first folding leg-member having a length such that the first folding leg-member extends beyond the shelf in the second position;
- c) two ground engaging points on the first folding leg-member; and
- d) a hanging notch integrated into the first folding leg-member between the two ground-engaging points, the notch having (i) two relative minima that are closer to the axis of rotation than the two ground engaging points; and (ii) a relative maximum between the two relative minima that is further from the axis of rotation than the two relative minima, but is not further from the axis of rotation than the ground engaging points.
15. A folding table for a locker, comprising:
- a) a shelf;
- b) a first and second leg attached to the shelf, the first leg folding about a rotation axis proximal to the shelf;
- c) a peg-hanger integrated into the first leg whose structure is determined by three distinct points a, b, and c such that: (i) points a, b, and c are contained within the material of the first leg; (ii) the perpendicular projection of point b onto the rotation axis of the first leg is strictly between the perpendicular projections of points a and c onto the rotation axis of the first leg; (iii) point b is further from the rotation axis of the first leg than points a and c; and (iv) the unique triangle formed by points a, b, and c is empty of material composing the first leg.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 22, 2005
Publication Date: Dec 28, 2006
Inventor: George Wood (Minneapolis, MN)
Application Number: 11/158,483
International Classification: A47B 3/00 (20060101);