Laboratory glassware rack for seismic safety

摘要

A rack (10) for laboratory bottles and jars for chemicals and medicines has been designed to provide the maximum strength and security to the glassware in the event of a significant earthquake. The rack (10) preferably is rectangular and may be made of a variety of chemically resistant materials including polypropylene, polycarbonate, and stainless steel. It comprises a first plurality of parallel vertical walls (14, 32, 33, 16, etc.), and a second plurality of parallel vertical walls (18, 30, 31, 20, etc.) perpendicular to the first plurality of walls. These intersecting vertical walls comprise a self-supporting structure without a bottom which sits on four legs. The top surface of the rack is formed by the top edges of all the vertical walls, which are not parallel but are skewed in three dimensions. These top edges form a grid matrix having a number of intersections (22, 24, etc.) of the vertical walls which define a number of rectangular compartments having varying widths and lengths and varying heights. The distribution of sizes and heights for the compartments (26, 28, 38, etc.) is based on a mathematical analysis and the generation of several lines on a graph which were matrixed against each other to generate a grid on a hyperbolic-paraboloid curved surface. The rack design which corresponded closely to the actual dimensions of typical laboratory glassware resulted in a one fourth section of a hyperbolic-paraboloid "umbrella." The rack can be subdivided along latitudinal or longitudinal middle partition lines so that shelf top or counter top "half modules" can be provided.