The present invention relates to a shelving system, particularly for use as shop fitting, comprising a num¬ ber of vertical wall mounted or floor supported carrier posts with holes or slots for accommodating carrier hooks at the rear edge of protruding carrier brackets for carrying shelf units. The known systems of this kind are fairly adequate, but according to the invention it is realized, however, that they can be modified in order to obtain significant advantages of both constructive, commercial and esthetical kind.

Traditionally, the carrier posts are shaped with a single, vertical row of carrier slots, into which can be accommodated retention hooks on the rear edge of pro¬ truding, sheet formed carrier brackets shaped with shelf supporting carrier parts at the one or both sides, though it is also known that in the same carrier slots two sheet formed carrier brackets can be accommodated, which may then have unilateral shelf carrier parts, typically in the shape of outwardly and upwardly bent longitudinal edge parts. It is thus typical that the shelf plates at their rear edges stretch between the front sides of the carrier posts and that an open rear edge space towards a rear wall is thereby left behind, whereby it is natural to design the shelves with an upright rear edge part, which may prohibit small objects to be pushed backwards on the shelf to be dropped to an underlying shelf or on the floor. For this reason the shelf units are usually designed with an upright rear edge part, which will preclude a such extreme throw back of the objects on the shelf.

It will be possibile for the shelves to be designed with the rear corners cut in order to extend all the way to the wall, but this possibility is not particularly attractive as it is to be preferred that the shelf plates are simple rectangular units.

Besides, the shelves are usually self supporting, which demands relatively sturdy shelf constructions.

With the invention a new shelf concept is provided, in which use is made of carrier brackets appearing as voluminous units, viz. as U-shaped plate units with a width adapted to the width of the carrier posts, the brackets at the rear being designed with the necessary engagement hooks. In principle, this could be done by use of a single row of hooks for cooperation with the usual carrier posts with a single central row of holes, by centered positions of the hooks, e.g. on an inwardly bent, inner side part of the bracket, but according to the invention it is preferred to work with carrier posts designed with a double row of holding slots, so that also the brackets are designed with double hook equip¬ ment. The hooks may hereby be provided on opposite side parts, which are only slightly inwardly bent at the rear edge of the bracket, and thus an extra stable engagement between the carrier posts and the brackets is achiev¬ able. The box-like brackets filling in the width of the carrier rods, the associated shelves will eo ipso be able to extend all the way rearwards to the back wall without incisions of the corners and thus without need of any upstanding rear edge.

As the sides of the brackets are mutually sepa¬ rated, it is possible to provide such notches in their upper side edge areas that the ends of respective girder irons can be placed in these notches, said girder irons stretching horizontally between the successive brackets. Thus the shelves may be supported by these irons, where¬ by the shelves themselves can be designed as relatively slender elements, e.g. also as light wooden plates, which would be a welcome sight in the shops.

Due to their noticeable width the brackets will be well suited for holding at their outer ends the ends of horizontal rod or rail pieces, which in a laid open way stretch along the front edge of the shelves. This can be

used to the effect that the front edges of the shelves can be consealed by these rod or rail pieces, whereby it will be more permissible for the shelves and/or the said girder iron to be so weakly dimensioned that they will actually curve downwards when loaded to a normal, ac¬ ceptable degree. It is desired to avoid the sight of this, whereas it is of minor significance if such a downward curving actually occurs, and this feature of the invention implies that all shelves can be dimen¬ sioned additionally weakly, which obviously has great significance as to costs.

Said rod pieces in front of the shelf front edges can be used for carrying product and price information, and e.g. by use of tubular rods these will be turnable in such a way that the said information is easy to read from a normal reading position, no matter if the shelf is placed high or low.

The U-shaped brackets can be designed such that their open side turns upwards or downwards as desired. If the opening turns upwards, the brackets will be po- tentionally dirt colleting, but it will then also be easier to provide the said notches for accommodation of the girder irons. As to the disadvantages it applies that an open top side of the brackets will cause a less attractive sight of these dirt collecting and ineffici¬ ent top side portions of the shelf system, but neverthe¬ less, according to the invention this design will be the preferred one. However, it should be strongly emphasized that in return the open top side of the brackets should be covered by means of suitable cover elements, which both prevent the dirt collection in the brackets and form a visually smooth junction between the shelves on both sides of the carrier posts.

It is mentioned above that between the front edges of the brackets separate, freely carried rod units may stretch in front of the shelf front, but it is to be understood that these rod units with the same result can

stretch between protruding front edge parts of the said cover elements, whereby the brackets may project only to the front edge of the shelves, while it will then be the cover elements, which with a suitable design of their outer, protruding ends will be suited to hold the ends of the front rods in question.

In the following the invention is described in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective exploded view of the essen¬ tial parts of a shelving system according to the inven¬ tion;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the rear end of a shelf bracket used therein;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the bracket with con¬ nected shelves;

Fig. 4 is a side view of the end of a girder iron;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a wire shelf;

Fig. 6 is a side view of an elaborated embodiment of the system according to the invention, and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view for further exposure of this.

The shelving system shown in fig. 1 comprises in a usual manner a number of vertical wall mounted or floor supported carrier posts 2, shown here as a square tube with two vertical rows of holding slots 4 in the front side of the tube, and, insertable therein, shelf brackets 6 shown as upwardly open, U-shaped units having approximately the same width as the carrier post 2. At the rear edge of these units, see also fig. 2, there is at each side an inwardly bent plate portion 8, which at its rear end is shaped with holding hooks 10 for inser¬ tion into the slots 4. Hereby an extraordinary stable fixation of the brackets on the carrier posts 2 is achieved.

In the opposite top edges of the U-shaped brackets notches 12 are formed, which can receive end parts of longitudinal, upright standing girder irons 14, which.

very close to their ends, may have notches 16 for inter¬ locking with said bracket edge, down in the notches 12 thereof. The top edge of the girder irons 14 can hereby stretch in a level below the top side of the brackets 6.

The associated shelves 18 can thus be placed car¬ ried on the irons 14 and with their top sides flush with the top side of the brackets 6. However, on top of the brackets, after the mounting of the irons 14, there is placed a lid 20 with side flanges 22 downwardly project¬ ing at the outsides of the bracket, the proportions being so adapted that the top sides of the shelves will flush with the top side of said lids 20, while the lid flanges 22 will fill in the remaining distance to the sides of the posts 2, see fig. 3. The shelves can thus extend completely to the outsides of the lids 20 and from there straight back to the rear wall along the sides of the posts 2, as illustrated lowermost in fig. 1.

If the shelves 18 are of wood or of a corresponding material, they can be provided with cut grooves 24 in their bottom side, fitting down over the irons 14, whereby the shelves will lie most stable and with adapt¬ ed hight to flush with the top sides of the lids 18.

The ends of the girder irons 14 can be designed as shown in fig. 4, with a relatively deep notch 16 as used in fig. 1 and with an opposite, less deep notch 26. The iron 14 can then be turned as desired, and with the orientation of the notches 16 and 26 shown in fig. 4, the iron will be carried in a higher position than in fig. 1. Thereby for instance a glass plate can be used as a shelf, still with the top side flush with the top side of the console lids 20, and same girder irons 14 can thus be used for different thicknesses of shelves.

When using shelves of metal wire, it can, as frag¬ mentary shown in fig. 5, be a matter of the wires 28 being welded to underlying girder irons 30, which may then, by a relevant system adaption, replace the sepa-

rate girder irons 14. As indicated in dotted lines, further elements shaped as baskets or trays can be used.

It is shown in fig. 1 that the console lids 20 may be designed with a foremost, downwardly protruding plate part 32 for covering of the open front ends of the brackets 6. However, according to the invention it is yet another possibility that this front plate part can be designed to protrude in front of the end of the con¬ sole, whereby, according to fig. 6, it will be possible for a such protruding end part to be shaped with side parts 34, in which there are holes 36 for receiving the ends of the connection bars, tubes or rails 38 directly between the outer ends of the lids, see fig. 7. These junction units will extend straightly between the con¬ sole ends, as they are independent of the shelves 18 and thus neither dependent of the weight on the shelves forcing these to take a slightly downwardly bending form. It is undesired that such a form becomes visible, as it clearly signals deliberately under-sizing and cheapening and thus a risk that the shop in question is not so well functioning that a proper shop fitting is affordable. The front edge bar 38, by its covering of the shelf front edge and its straight shape, will weaken the said disadvantageous visual impression, so that shelves can be used which are not exactly over-dimen¬ sioned to remain horizontal at any large load whatso¬ ever.

Said covering bars 38 can also be used for carrying pricelists or other relevant information about the pro¬ ducts on the single shelves, and if or when the bars are turnable in the holes 36 this information could be placed and be oriented in such a way that it is easily readable by the customers, whether the shelf is mounted in a high or a low placed position.

As mentioned, the invention is not limited to the consoles 6 being upwardly open, as they might just as well be open downwardly, whereby the need for the pre-

sence of the lids 20 is eliminated. Only, it thus be¬ comes a little more complicated to provide the notches 12 in the outer top sides of the consoles, especially if it is desired that these notches should not reveal them¬ selves as transverse slots in the top side of the con¬ soles. Ideally, the top sides of the consoles should form an uninterrupted connection between the top sides of the shelves, with quite invisible slot formations.

As indicated to the right in fig. 7 it will be a possibility that between to or more neighbouring con¬ soles 6 there is placed only partly outfilling shelf units 18, whereas in the remaining space, if any, there may appear open girding irons 14, which may be used, for instance, for accommodation of carrier hooks for hooks on hangers for carrying downhanging garments, without presence of any overlying shelf plate part at this place. A shelf plate with reduced depth can be arranged inside or outside this place. The shelf plates can appear with half of the full shelf depth, whereby these elements, which are relatively easy to handle, also may be combined for formation of shelves with full depth.

For achieving an extra 'clean' appearance of the system, it can optionally be chosen to dim the visible holes 4 in the carrier posts 2, for instance by means of tailored, adhesive tapes of sheet or foil.