Mitel Knowledge Corporation

Peter Craig Mathieson

Chris Gorman

A support unit is provided that can be stacked with a similar, second support unit and that permits stacking of different electronic components. The support unit has a vertical outer panel which has a lower horizontal edge. An inner panel is connected to the outer panel and includes first and second horizontal contact planes. The first contact plane abuts a bottom wall of a first one of a pair of stacked items. A flange extends from the inner panel. The flange has a top surface offset from the first and second horizontal contact planes by an equal distance. The flange mates with a substantially identical flange of a second, similar support unit such that the top surface of the flange abuts with a substantially identical top surface of the substantially identical flange, and the first contact plane is coplanar with the second contact plane of the similar, second support unit.

Support unit for stacked items

A support unit includes an outer panel intended to lie in a vertical plane when in use, the outer panel having a straight, horizontal lower edge. The support unit further includes an inner panel extending generally at right angles to the outer panel and connected thereto along a portion of the lower edge of the outer panel which is adjacent one end of that edge. The inner panel has structure defining a first horizontal contact plane on the upper side of the inner panel, and a second horizontal contact plane on the lower side of the inner panel. These two planes are substantially parallel. The preferred embodiment further includes a flange adjacent the mid-region of the outer panel and extending generally parallel with the two contact planes. In the preferred embodiment, the flange is flat and has a top surface which contains a hypothetical line extending at right angles to the outer panel. The support unit is such that a pair of them, with one rotated about the hypothetical line through 180&deg; with respect to the other, can be fitted together with the hypothetical lines coincident, the flanges in surface contact, the lower edges of the outer panel in aligned contact, and the first contact plane of each support unit coplanar with the second contact plane of the other support unit, whereby a single support unit alone can provide a load-bearing foot with which to support at least part of the overall weight of a stack of such items, while a pair of support units in rotated juxtaposition about their hypothetical lines can provide an interstitial spacer between two stacked items. The flange has a detent which interacts with a further detent on the outer panel of the second support unit, in such a way as to restrain the support units from disengaging.

Growing community of inventors

Kanata, Canada

Peter Craig Mathieson