1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hangers of the type having a receptacle for an article, such as a pot for foliage, which hanger can be suspended from an upright support element, such as an upright post and/or rail.
2. Background Art
There has been a growing trend towards decorating around private homes, commercial buildings, apartments, and condominiums using hanging, potted plants. This concept is particularly popular around pool and patio decks. This type of hanger comes in a variety of different styles, ranging from a simple string-type cradle for the pots to more elaborate formed wire hangers which straddle, and are supported on, an upper edge of a support element, such as an upright post and/or a horizontally extending rail.
One commercially successful hanger design of the latter type is show in U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,443. In that patent, various configurations of hanger are shown, each defined by formed and welded, plastic-coated wire. Each of these hangers has a frame defining the receptacle and an integrally formed bracket, defining in conjunction with the frame, an inverted, U-shaped seat, with one leg and the base of the "U" defined by the bracket, and the other leg of the "U" defined by the frame. In a display position, the base of the "U" bears upon an upwardly facing surface of a support element, with the legs of the "U" each confronting one oppositely facing vertical surface on the support element.
This fixed construction, while highly commercially successful, has a number of inherent drawbacks. First of all, each bracket is configured to optimally cooperate with a single predetermined width for the support element surface. Since the surface of the support element may have a nominal width of 2 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches, 8 inches, 10 inches, etc., hangers with a wide range of bracket widths must be kept on hand to meet customer needs.
By reason of the receptacle size being fixed, the purveyor of these article hangers may also be required to keep on hand a large volume of article hangers having frames defining a significant range of different receptacle sizes. As the number of available bracket sizes and receptacle sizes increase, the potential combinations of these features that may be desired by the consumer increase dramatically. The purveyor thus has the option of keeping on hand a wide range of different hanger configurations or special ordering on a demand basis. The latter is not practical in that these hangers are generally relatively low cost items which may be considered "impulse" purchase items. Consumers are unlikely to wait any significant period of time for a special order and as a consequence sales may be lost by reason of not having the desired hanger configuration in stock.
Stocking the wide range of available configurations also has a number of drawbacks. A very significant problem with this type of hanger is that while the hangers are relatively light in weight, in an assembled state, the perimeter volume thereof is quite large. Individual boxing of the hangers often produces a bulky shape that takes up valuable warehouse and display space in the stores. Additionally, these boxes become difficult and oft times expensive to ship.
A further problem with keeping on hand so many different configurations of hanger is that stock control is complicated. A reasonable inventory may require the assigning of a relatively large number of SKU numbers.
From a manufacturing standpoint, dedicated lines, or diversions from lines, may be required to make the multiple different configurations for the hangers. This may add to the ultimate cost to the end user.
A further problem with the fixed configuration is that the consumer, after purchase, may determine that the purchased configuration is inappropriate, necessitating a return. This may only be discovered after an attempted setup. Returns are an obvious inconvenience to any business.
A number of the above problems have been overcome by the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,502, entitled "Article Hanger". The invention therein concerns a variable bracket configuration which permits a universal bracket construction for a wide range of bracket capacities.
However, while the bracket configuration may be varied, the receptacle size defined by the frame is fixed. Thus, assuming different receptacle capacity is desired, the purveyor employing the variable bracket configuration must nonetheless keep on hand hangers with a number of different frame configurations, thus forcing the manufacturer and purveyors to contend with the problems noted above.