BACKGROUND For many years, grocery stores have commonly used refrigerating or freezing storage units of the above-mentioned kind, which are accessible from the top along both sides of the unit to allow for an overview of the contents of the storage unit and for free and unhindered access from the top by the customers and the staff.

The refrigerating or freezing merchandising storage unit may be covered with insulation mats during periods in which the grocery store or a similar store is closed in order to reduce energy consumption when storing the goods in the storage unit.

The use of open refrigerating and freezing merchandising storage unit results in extensive losses of energy and it may therefore be provided with an essentially transparent cover. Several examples of covers are known which may be used during opening hours. Thus, refrigerating and freezing storage units provided with a cover by the manufacturer are known. Alternatively, the cover may be retrofitted onto an existing storage unit.

Known covers for refrigerating and freezing merchandising storage units may be divided into two different types. A sliding lid type and a"lift-up"type.

The sliding lid type is of the kind where a cover in the longitudinal direction of the storage unit is typically divided into an appropriate number of plane plates, typically approx. 62.5 cm of width. The individual plates are arranged in two planes so that

they may be displaced in the longitudinal direction of the storage unit over, respectively under each other. Examples hereof are known from EP 0 769 262 A2.

The plates are transparent which provides for the possibility of examining the goods in the storage unit without having to open it. However, this design only allows for access to the storage compartment in a maximum of half of the longitudinal direction, which limits access to the goods in the storage unit and makes refilling and cleaning of the storage unit difficult since it cannot be opened in the entire longitudinal direction at the same time.

US-A-2,793, 925 discloses a cover with sliding lids that are arranged in two planes and may be displaced in the transversal direction of the storage unit over, respectively under each other. However, the access to the storage compartment is similarly limited to a maximum of half of the top opening area.

The"lift-up"type is of the kind where a cover in the longitudinal direction of the storage unit is divided into an appropriate number of plates, typically 62.5 cm in width. In the width, the lift-up type is divided into two plane plates hinged to a centre console extending in the longitudinal direction so that the individual parts of the 24- hour cover along the longer side of the storage unit may be lifted up and thereby opened. However, operating this type is difficult for little people such as for example children. In addition, a pumping effect is created during opening and closing so that when opened, warm air from the surroundings is sucked into the storage unit and cool air is pumped out into the surroundings when it is closed. This results in an undesirable energy loss.

On this background, it is the object of the invention is to create a cover for a merchandising storage unit of the initially mentioned kind which provides for simultaneous or unhindered access to the storage compartment of the merchandising unit in its entire longitudinal direction along both longer sides without the disadvantages mentioned above, and in particular, it is an object of the invention to avoid unnecessary energy loss when operating the cover of a refrigerated storage unit. Moreover, it is an object of the invention to provide a cover for a merchandising

unit, which ensures good access to the contents of the merchandising unit from the top on both sides and which allows the customers and staff to examine the contents of the storage unit without having their vision compromised.

The invention comprises a cover of the initially mentioned kind, said cover has a stationary cover plate extending parallel to said sides along a mid section of the storage unit and a rail system with a number of parallel transverse rails between the two longer sides, and that the lids are displaceable mounted between two adjacent rails of the rail system, said rails comprising separate tracks for the lids in each of the rows, whereby the lids in the rows are displaceable in a direction perpendicular to the longer sides. The lids are preferably essentially transparent.

Hereby, the objects of the invention are obtained since the lids of a cover according to the invention may be opened by displacement towards the centre of the merchandising unit under or over the stationary cover plate. Hereby, access may be provided along the entire length at both sides without creating a pump effect by operating the lids. In addition, good visual access is provided for easy examination of the contents of the merchandising unit, since the cover according to the invention provides for the possibility of simultaneous opening of a large percentage of the total top of the merchandising unit. By transparent lids, a good possibility of immediate visual examination of the contents is also ensured without having to open the cover and thereby initiate the unavoidable extra energy loss which this inevitably causes.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the rails are provided with three tracks, where the cover plate is arranged in a separate track, which is preferably the uppermost of the three tracks. By using three tracks and having the centre plate stationary arranged in the middle of the uppermost track, a cover is provided with each of the lids covering approx. 1/3 of the width of the top opening. Hereby, a total potential opening area of up to 2/3 of the entire opening of the merchandising unit offers unhindered access to the contents of the storage unit.

By designing the rails as profiles with three tracks, arrangement of the cover in three parallelly extending planes is allowed for. The two rows of lids are placed in the lower and the middle track, respectively, of the profiles. Hereby, the lids may be displaced independently of each other, not just in relation to the other lids in the same row, but also independently of the lids in the opposite row.

In a preferred embodiment of a cover according to the invention, the cover is plane.

In this embodiment, the rails are straight.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the covers is provided with a curved shape as the rails are designed with a convex curvature whereby"free space" is provided above the goods in the storage compartment of the merchandising unit.

The lids may be designed in an easily bendable plate material whereby the curvature does not necessarily have to be a circular curvature since the lids hereby would be able to adjust to the curvature of the rail sections which they at any given time are present in, once they are displaced back and forth between open and closed position.

The invention also refers to a merchandising storage unit for display of goods comprising a storage compartment having an essentially rectangular top opening which provides access to the storage compartment from both longer sides of the storage unit and a cover according to the first aspect described above. The storage compartment may be divided into two sections by means of a wall member arranged parallel to the longer sides, whereby the merchandising unit may be used for several groups of goods separated so that there is access to the groups of goods from both sides of the merchandising unit.

The invention is described in detail in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which fig. 1 is a perspective drawing of a merchandising unit displaying goods with a cover according to a first preferred embodiment of the invention,

fig. 2 is a perspective drawing of a merchandising unit displaying goods with a cover according to a second preferred embodiment of the invention, fig. 3 is a cross-section of a merchandising unit displaying goods with a cover according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, and fig. 4 is a detailed drawing of the embodiment of a cover in a corresponding end storage unit.

In figures 1 to 3 are shown a merchandising unit for display and sale of refrigerated or frozen goods in a supermarket store or a similar store. As it is shown, the contents of the merchandising unit for display of goods are accessible from both longer sides 2,4. These two longer sides, a first side 2 and a second side 4, respectively, are parallel and the merchandising unit 1 has an essentially rectangular basic shape. The merchandising unit 1 has a storage compartment 8, which may be divided into two sections by a partition wall 3 as shown in fig. 3. The storage compartment 8 has a top opening 7 over which the cover in mounted.

The cover comprises a number of rails 5 arranged in parallel between the first and the second longer sides 2,4 at a certain predetermined and preferably equal distance.

The rails 5 have three substantially parallel tracks, in which the cover plates 6,9, 10 are displaceably arranged. In the upper track, a centre plate 6 is permanently arranged. In each of the other tracks, a number of displaceable lids 9 are arranged so that they cover the opening between the centre plate 6 and the side edge 2, and in the third track on the rails 5 a number of displaceable lids 10 for covering the opening between the centre plate 6 and the second side 4 are correspondingly arranged.

The lids 9,10 are arranged in two rows in such a way that they may be shifted between an open position, where they are completely or partially shifted in underneath the centre plate 6 from each side, and a closed position, where the lids 9, 10 abut the first and the second side edges of the sides 2,4, respectively. The width of the two sets of lids 9,10 is preferably substantially the same as the width of the centre plate 6. Hereby, the possibility of simultaneous opening of approx. 2/3 of the top opening 7 of the storage unit 1 is achieved. As is apparent from figs. 2 and 3, the

lids 9,10 and the centre plate 6 are transparent so that there is unhindered access for visual orientation of the kinds of goods and their location in the merchandising unit 1.

On the centre plate 6, a display device 11 may be mounted, on which signs with e. g. price tags, special offers, etc. relating to the goods in the storage unit may be displayed.

As shown in fig. 1, the cover of the storage unit 1 may be designed as a flat cover according to a first embodiment of the invention, since the rails 5 are straight and the cover plates 6,9, 10 are plane.

In a second embodiment of the invention, the cover is designed with a curvature as shown in fig. 2. The rails 5 are curved, so that the two rows of lids 9,10 along both longer sides 2,4 of the merchandising unit 1 and the centre plate 6 have a convex cover of the merchandising unit 1.

In fig. 4 is shown an embodiment of the cover in an accompanying end storage unit which is located at the end of a merchandising unit of the type shown in figs. 1 and 2.

The cover of the end storage unit is also divided into three sections so that a simultaneous opening of 2/3 of the top is possible. A fixed plate 6a is arranged at the back. Two displaceable plates 10a and 10b are arranged in a track 5a in front of the plate. The outermost plate 10a may be provided with a handle for operation of the cover.

The invention is described above with reference to two preferred embodiments.

However, it is realised by the invention that the cover may be carried out in other variants than these without departing from the scope of the invention as specified in the accompanying claims.