A transportable harp rack for panels

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to the field of transportable racks for panels and particularly to a transportable rack for transporting multiple glass panels. The transport of a commercial number of glass sheets or panels has one primary concern, namely keeping the glass intact until it is delivered and / or installed. It is known in the prior art that sheet glass is normally tilted during loading, unloading and transportation of the glass. If stacked vertically, perpendicular to the ground, such glass can easily can tip and fall over. Therefore, glass products tend to fall out during loading or unloading. This obviously leads to the problem of breakage. The deficiencies in the typical prior art shipping arrangements are evident in that the vehicle glass industry allows for 3 percent breakage as a standard during the shipping of glass products. The present invention includes a transportable harp rack for a plurality of panels, whereby the harp rack includes a frame including at least one base member; and at least a pair of spaced apart upright members extending at an angle relative to the at least one base member. The harp rack also includes at least two securing assemblies mounted on the frame, wherein a first securing assembly from said at least two securing assemblies is mounted on the at least one base member, and a second securing assembly from said at least two securing assemblies is mounted on a corresponding pair of spaced apart upright members from said at least a pair of spaced apart upright members. Each securing assembly includes a plurality of panel tongues arranged in pairs, whereby the panel tongues in each pair are spaced from one another by a respective receiving gap configured to receive a portion of a corresponding panel therein. At least one of the panel tongues in each pair is provided with a resilient block therein whereby each resilient block includes at least one opening therein. At least one shaped spigot is mounted relative to a drive mechanism. The drive mechanism selectively moves each shaped spigot relative to the at least one opening in each resilient block between a rest condition in which each panel can be inserted into or removed from each respective receiving gap and an expanded clamping condition in which each shaped spigot is inserted within the at least one opening of each resilient block which deforms and expands a thickness of each resilient block to clamp each respective panel within each respective receiving gap.

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