Field of the I nvention

[1] This invention relates generally to a racking system for augmenting postal sorting racks.

Background of the Invention

[2] Postal sorting racks (com monly referred to as "B-sort" racks) com prise shelves having a pl urality of com partments therealong, each arranged according to street addresses and into which letters are sorted prior del ivery.

[3] The present invention seeks to provide a way to conveniently sort parcels too using these conventional postal sorting racks, which will overcome or substantial ly ameliorate at least some of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to at least provide an alternative.

[4] It is to be understood that, if a ny prior art information i s referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an adm ission that the information forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Austral ia or any other country.

Summa ry of the Disclosure

[5] There is provided herein a racking system for aug menting postal sorting racks. The system com prises a rack stand com prising a fra mework supported from a floor plate. The framework has a rear and sides enclosing shelves therebetween and front edges of the sides are spaced apart to allow access to the shel ves.

[6] Forward portions of the sides are planar and converges inwardly towards the front edges of the sides to thereby define orthogonal outer facing sides.

[7] As such, the rack stand is able to fit tightly between ends of an orthogonal arrangement of adjacent conventional postal sorting racks wherein the orthogonal outer facing sides of the rack stand meet face on against the ends of the postal sorting racks in the manner shown in Figure 5. Rearward portions of the sides extend behind the orthogonal outer facing sides, thereby increasing the holding capacity between the shelves.

[8] As such, sorting floors of various configurations may be formed with orthogonal arrangement of postal sorting racks wherein the present rack stand conveniently interfaces adjacent orthogonal rack stands for the storage of bulkier items such as parcels.

[9] Front edges of each shelf may extend beyond the front edges of the sides of the framework and, in em bodiments, the front edge of the floor plate so as to extend accessibly from between the orthogonal adjacent postal sorting racks. [10] Furthermore, the floor plate may extend rearward from the rear of the framework, thereby providing backward stabil ity.

[11] The shelves may be non-equidistantly spaced, thereby defining racks of differing sizes for different sized parcels. Furthermore, the uppermost shelf may be non-enclosed from above but may yet be surrounded by upper portions of the side and rear such that especial ly bulky parcels can be placed atop the top shelf.

[12] The rack stand may define a rectangu lar floor basket having orthogonal sides and a front extending up from corresponding side and front edges of the floor plate. Whereas the floor basket is rectangular, the floor basket can fit underneath the lowermost shelf of the postal sorting rack thereby having larger vol ume for holding items therein.

[13] Furthermore, the front edge of the shelf above the floor basket may not extend as far as the others in em bodiments, thereby not hindering access to the floor basket there underneath.

[14] In em bodiments, the racking system further com prises a further rack stand in a sim ilar configuration except that the sides are planar and orthogonal . As such, the further rack stand defines paral lel sides which can therefore interface between adjacent postal rack stands in pa ral lel face on .

[15] As such, with the aforedescribed rack stand s, postal sorting floors of various configurations may be formed in the manner illustrated in Figure 5 wherein the present racks are able to tightly and conveniently interface against ends of orthogonal and paral lel postal sorting racks and provide convenient storage for parcels.

[16] Other aspects of the invention are also disclosed.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[17] Notwithstanding any other forms which may fal l within the scope of the present invention, preferred em bodiments of the disclosure wil l now be described, by way of exam ple only, with reference to the accom panying drawings in which :

[18] Figure 1 shows a front perspective view of a rack stand for augmenting postal sorting racks in accordance with a n em bodiment;

[19] Figure 2 shows a side perspective view of the rack stand;

[20] Figure 3 ill ustrates the rack stand interfacing an orthogonal arrangement of postal sorting racks;

[21] Figure 4 shows a top plan view of the rack stand; [22] Figure 5 il lustrates a postal sorti ng floor formed by an arrangement of postal sorting racks and rack stands in accordance with an em bodiment;

[23] Figure 6 shows a front perspective view of rack stand in accordance with a further em bodiment; and

[24] Figure 7 shows a side perspective view of the rack stand of Figure 6.

Description of Em bodiments

[25] A racking system for augmenting conventional postal sorting racks 101 com prises a rack stand 102 com prising a framework standing from a floor plate 103.

[26] With reference to Figure 4, the framework has a rear 104 and sides 105 enclosing shelves 106 therebetween. Front edges 107 of the sides 105 are spaced apart to allow access to the shelves 106 therebetween.

[27] Forward portions 108 of the sides 105 are planar and converge inwardly towards the front edges 107 to define orthogonal outer facing sides 109 for abutting flush against a n orthogonal arrangement of postal sorting racks 101 in the manner shown in Figure 5.

[28] Rearward portions 120 of the sides 105 may be paral lel and orthogonal with the rear 104.

[29] Figure 5 shows a sorting floor 110 surrounded on three sides by conventional postal sorting racks 101. Rack stands 102 interface the corners of the sorting floor 110 between orthogonal postal sorting racks 101. The orthogonal side faces 109 of the rack stands 102 meet the corresponding ends of the adjacent orthogonal postal sorting racks 101 face on.

[30] Figure 3 sim ilarly shows the rack stand 102 interfacing an orthogonal arrangement of postal sorting racks 101.

[31] With reference to Figure 4, the front edge 111 of the s helf 106 may extend beyond the front edges 107 of the sides 105 such as by approximately 50 mm . As such, in the manner shown in Figure 5, the front edges 111 may extend accessibly from between the orthogonal adjacent postal sorting racks 101. Further with reference to Figure 4, the front edge 111 of the shelf 106 may extend beyond a front edge 112 of the floor plate 103.

[32] With reference to Figure 2, the floor plate 103 may extend beyond the rear 104 of the framework for providing rearward stability.

[33] Further with reference to Figure 2, the framework may com prise vertical spines 113 extending perpendicu larly from side edges of the floor plate 103. Lower ends of each spin e 113 may be supported by an inverted T-bracket attached to the sides of the floor plate 103. [34] With reference to Figure 4, the rack stand 102 com prises five shelves although differing num bers thereof are envisaged. Furthermore, the shelves 106 may be non - equidistantly vertically space, thereby defining racks of different vol umes.

[35] The racks 106 may slope downwardly slightly towards the rear to prevent circular or spheroidal parcels from rol ling therefrom .

[36] As is further shown in Figure 1, the uppermost shelf 106 may be non-enclosed from above yet enclosed by the sides 105 and rear 104, thereby able to accommodate particularly large parcels.

[37] Whereas the em bodiment shown shows the framework comprising wire mesh, in alternative em bodiments, the framework, or at least some portions thereof may com prise non-perforated metal lic sheeting.

[38] With reference to Figures 1 and 2, the framework may have a floor basket 114 defined by orthogonal floor basket sides 115 and front 116 extending up from the side and front of the floor plate 103 respectively. With reference to Figure 2, top edges 117 of the floor basket sides may rise rearwardly.

[39] With reference to Figu re 2, the front edges 111 of the uppermost shelves 106 may extend beyond the front edges 106 of the sides 105 or the front edge 112 of the floor plate 103 yet the shelf 106 adjacent the floor b asket 114 may not, thereby not hindering access to the basket.

[40] In em bodiments, the racking system may further com prise the further rack stand 118 shown in Figures 6 and 7.

[41] The further rack stand 118 is sim ilar in that it com prises a framework standing from a floor plate 103 defining a rear 104 and sides 105 , except that the sides 104 are parallel such that the framework is rectangular in cross section , thereby defining parallel sides 119.

[42] As such, in the manner shown in Figure 10, the further rack stand 118 may be used to interface adjacent postal racks 101 in parallel. Furthermore, as is further shown in Figure 5, the further rack stand 118 may term inate the end of a single postal rack 101.

[43] With reference to Figure 7, the further rack stand 118 may sim ilarly com prise the vertical spines 113 extending from sides of the planar floor plate 103. Further with reference to Figure 5, the floor plate 103 may extend beyond the rear 104 of the furthe r rack stand 118 for rearward stability.

[44] With reference to Figure 4, in accordance with an em bodiment, the shelf 106 may com prise a depth of approximately 325 m m from front to back and the rearward portions of the sides may extend approximately 150 m m from the rear 104. Furthermore, the shelf 106 may com prise a width of approximately 740 m m . The front edge 111 may extend beyond the front edge 107 of the sides or the front edge 112 of the floor plate 103 by approximately 50 m m .

[45] The front edge 111 may com prise a width of approximately 400 m m .

[46] With reference to Figure 2, the rack stand 102 may com prise a height of approximately 1740 m m or more. Furthermore, each shelf 106 may be spaced apart by approximately 300 mm .

[47] The floor basket front 116 may have a height of approximately 165 m m and leave a gap of approximately 200 m m to the front edge 111 of the shelf 106 thereabove.

[48] The foregoing description, for purposes of expla nation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough u nderstanding of the invention. Flowever, it wil l be apparent to one skil led in the art that specific details are not required in order to practi se the invention. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of specific em bodiments of the invention are presented for purposes of ill ustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to lim it the invention to the precise forms disclosed as obviously many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The em bodiments were chosen and described in order to best expla in the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to best util ize the invention and various em bodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contem plated. It is intended that the fol lowing claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.

[49] The term "approximately" or sim ilar as used herein should be construed as being within 10% of the value stated unless otherwise indicated.