The dish drying rack is a very well known item in the housewares industry and has been known for many years in various forms. Essentially, the goal of a dish drying rack is to provide a structure which will support in a somewhat vertical orientation plates, flatware, cups, cookware, silverware, cutlery and utensils after these items have been washed in a sink or tub. In many households, the dish drying rack occupies a nearly permanent station on the countertop beside the kitchen sink. In other households, especially where counterspace is at a premium, the dish drying rack is stored away between periods of use. Even with the advent of the dishwashing machine, most households have a dish drying rack as a standard piece for a properly equipped kitchen.
Typically, plates which are to be dried are held at about vertical orientation and slightly spaced apart to allow air to circulate between the plates thereby decreasing the drying time. The dish drying racks which are most commonly known are made from plastic -coated wire, wood or a moldable thermoplastic resin such as rubberized polypropylene copolymer. Most known dish drying racks take one or a combination of the following general forms. One form, most commonly made from plastic-coated wire and thermoplastic resins, has a framework that takes the overall appearance of a basin, i.e., having four nearly vertical walls surrounding a generally planar floor. The floor is often comprised of a series of parallel crossmembers. In a particular region of these crossmembers there are plate support members vertically extending therefrom, between which users are expected to insert flatware. The plate support members usually have an inverted U-shape or V-shape against which plates and bowls can be leaned. Many of this type of dish drying rack are provided with at least one and usually three or so cup-holding tongues which project slightly outwards from the vertical walls of which they are an integral part. Unfortunately, many cups, bowls and other .items which one may wish to support from cup-holding tongues will not fit therein and must occupy other valuable floor space. The remainder of the floor is devoted to those articles which fit neither between the plate support members nor in the utensil holders.
Another known structure for holding plates in a vertical orientation includes spaced apart ridges, each one describing a concave arc, arranged parallel to one another. The user is required to insert the edge of a plate into the space between two of the concave ridges. The concave ridge design suffers from the disadvantage that the spacing between the ridges cannot accomodate a significant number of flatware conformations. In particular, bowls must have at least a portion of the rim which is substantially planar, which planar rim portion could possibly be inserted between the concave ridges. Any bowl not having a planar rim portion could not efficiently be stored in this second type of dish holding structure.