Stock rack with pivoted trays

Claim 1

In a stock rack with pivoted trays of the type used in tire plants for transporting tire tread forming blanks, the stock rack having a pair of end upright supports and at least one intermediate upright support, and a plurality of superposed trays each mounted on the upright supports for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis adjacent a rear edge of the tray from a lowered position to a raised position, the improvement wherein each tray has at least two axially aligned rolled rim sections of substantially circular cross-section extending along the rear edge of the tray, said rolled rim sections being dimensioned to extend between adjacent ones of said upright supports and having adjacent ends spaced apart a distance to receive an intermediate one of upright supports therebetween, said end upright supports and said intermediate upright support each having a plurality of vertically spaced hinge rod receiving openings therein with respective ones of the openings in the end and intermediate upright supports being arranged in horizontally aligned sets, a plurality of hinge rods each having a length to extend from one end support to the other end support and each extending through a respective one of the horizontally aligned sets of hinge rod receiving openings in the end and intermediate upright supports and through the axially aligned rim sections on the rear edge of a respective one of the trays, means securing the hinge rods against turning relative to upright supports, the rolled rim sections on the tray having an internal cross-section sufficiently larger than the hinge rod to loosely receive the hinge rod whereby the rolled rim sections on the rear edge of each tray turn on the hinge rod as the trays are moved between their lowered and raised positions.