AU2005100122B4 - Adjusting device for a castor - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR AN INNOVATION PATENT APPLICATION NO:

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COMPLETE SPECIFICATION LODGED:

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RELATED ART: NAME OF APPLICANT: ACTUAL INVENTOR: ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: INVENTION TITLE: Hope Industrial Corporation William Chuang LORD AND COMPANY, Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, of 4 Douro Place, West Perth, Western Australia, 6005, AUSTRALIA.

ADJUSTING DEVICE FOR A CASTOR The following Statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me/us: 2 ADJUSTING DEVICE FOR A CASTOR 1. Field of the Utility Model The present utility model relates to an adjusting device, and more particularly to the adjusting device for a castor so that the castor is able to fit to different frame dimensions.

2. Description of Related Art Before fitting a door to a door frame or a window to a window frame, the door or the window made in accordance with the designer's instruction may not be appropriately fitted to the dimension of the door frame or the window frame. Besides, nowadays, the door or the window is equipped with castors so that the user is able to easily move the door within the door frame or the window within the window frame.

How to easily fit the door with the castors or the window with the castors to the door frame or the window frame becomes a major problem for the designers and the contractors.

An adjusting device is developed to solve the dilemma. With reference to Fig. the conventional adjusting device includes an outer casing and an inner casing (6) movably received in the outer casing The outer casing is hollow and has an open end through which the inner casing is inserted and a closed end. The inner casing (6) is hollow and has an open through which a castor (61) is inserted and securely received inside the inner casing end and a closed end.

The outer casing further has a rod (51) extended through two opposite sides of the outer casing and having multiple first teeth (511) formed on an outer periphery of the rod A sliding block (52) is sandwiched between the rod (51) and a top face of the inner casing The sliding block (52) has multiple second teeth (521) formed on a 3 first side thereof to correspond to and mate with the first teeth (511) of the rod (51) and multiple third teeth (522) formed on a second side thereof. The inner casing has an inclined top side (60) and multiple fourth teeth (62) formed on an outer side of the inclined top side (60) to correspond to and mate with the third teeth (522).

When the rod (51) is rotated to a first direction, due to the mating between the first teeth (511) and the second teeth (521) of the sliding block the sliding block (52) is moved. Furthermore, because the third teeth (522) and the fourth teeth (62) are mated with each other, movement of the sliding block (52) will force the inner casing to move inside the outer casing When the rod (51) is rotated to a second direction, the inner casing is forced to move back to its original position by a recovery force from a recoil device such as a spring (not numbered).

The conventional adjusting device does have the effect to fit to different door frame dimensions. However, the structure of the conventional adjusting device is complex and thus fabrication cost is high, as is the chance of malfunction.

To overcome the shortcomings, the present utility model tends to provide an improved adjusting device to mitigate the aforementioned problems.

The primary objective of the present utility model is to provide an adjusting device to easily adjust a castor position to fit to different frame dimensions.

In order to accomplish the above objective, the adjusting device includes an outer casing and an inner casing movably received inside the outer casing. The outer casing has an elliptical rocking ring movably received in the outer casing and having teeth formed on a top face and a bottom face of the rocking ring to respectively correspond to and mate with first teeth of a rod, and two projections each formed on an end of the rocking ring to selectively engage with a top face of the inner casing-such that 4 rocking movement of the rocking ring will drive the inner casing to move relative to the outer casing and thus position of the castor is adjusted.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the utility model will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the adjusting device of the present utility model; Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view showing the assembled adjusting device in Fig.

1; Figs. 3 and 4 are schematic views showing that the inner casing is moved by the rocking movement of the rocking ring; and Fig. 5 is a schematic cross sectional view showing a conventional adjusting device for a castor.

With reference to Fig. 1, the adjusting device in accordance with the present utility model includes an outer casing and an inner casing movably received in the outer casing Both the outer casing and the inner casing have an open end and a closed end. The outer casing has an arcuate cutout (10) defined to communicate with its open end, two stops (101) respectively formed on opposite sides defining the arcuate cutout (10) and a through hole (103) defined through two opposite sides of the outer casing The outer casing further has a rod (11) having multiple first teeth (111) formed on an outer periphery of the rod The rod (11) corresponds to the through hole (103) of the outer casing An elliptical rocking ring (13) is movably received in the outer casing (1) through the open end of the outer casing The rocking ring (13) has multiple-second teeth (131) formed on a top inner side of the rocking ring (13) and multiple third teeth (132) formed on a bottom inner side of the rocking ring (13) to respectively correspond to and mate with the first teeth (111) of the rod That is, the rod (11) is extended through the rocking ring (13) so as to have the first teeth (111) to respectively mate with the second teeth (131) and the second teeth (132). The rocking ring (13) further has two projections (133) each formed on an end of the rocking ring (13).

The inner casing has two positioning recesses (21) respectively defined in two opposite ends of the top face of the inner casing and two arcuate lips (22) respectively formed on two opposite sides of the inner casing A castor is securely and rotatably received inside the inner casing How the castor is securely and rotatably received inside the inner casing is conventional in the art and thus detailed description thereof is omitted for brevity.

With reference to Figs. 3 and 4, when the adjusting device of the present utility model is assembled, it is noted that the rod (11) is extended through the through hole (103) and the rocking ring (13) after the rocking ring (13) is received in the outer casing Therefore, the first teeth (111) are mated with the second teeth (131) and the second teeth (132) of the rocking ring Then after the castor is securely and rotatably received in the inner casing the combination of the inner casing and the castor (3) is received in the outer casing via the open end of the outer casing Because the dimension of the arcuate lip (22) is larger than that of a gap between the two stops (101), extension of the arcuate lip (22) into the arcuate cutout (10) will force the two stops (101) to expand so as to allow the arcuate lips (22) to extend into the arcuate cutouts After the extension of each arcuate lip (22) into the corresponding arcuate cutout the returning of the two stops (101) restrains the arcuate lips (22) inside the-arcuate 6 cutouts Thus the inner casing as well as the castor is securely received inside the outer casing When the rod (11) is rotated in a first direction, due to the mutual mating among the first teeth (111), the second teeth (131) and the third teeth (132), one of the projections (133) is forced to engage with a top face of the inner casing to push the inner casing to move inside the outer casing When the movement of the inner casing reaches a predetermined position, the user is able to mount the adjusting device onto the door or the window to accommodate different frame dimensions.

Furthermore, at least one recovery device is provided between the outer casing and the inner casing The outer casing further has a positioning rod (105) formed on two opposite inner sides of the outer casing so that a proximal end of the recovery device is able to be mounted around the positioning rod (105) and a distal end of the recovery device is securely received in the positioning recess (21) of the inner casing Therefore, when the rod (11) is rotated in a second direction to allow the inner casing to have more space to travel when compared with the situation where the rod (11) is rotated in the first direction, the inner casing will be pulled backward to its original position by the recovery device due to the retraction of the projection (133). In this preferred embodiment, the recovery device is two springs.

Not only can the third teeth (132) function as a driving element to move the rocking ring, but also, after the adjusting device is mounted on the frame, due to the weight of the door or the window onto the adjusting device, the first teeth (111) will securely and firmly engage with the third teeth (132), which functions as a stop to not allow the rocking ring (13) to move. That is, after the adjusting device is mounted on the window or the door, the weight of the window or the door forces the third teeth (-132) to 7 securely made with the first teeth (111) which securely mates with the second teeth (131). Thus, the weight from the window or the door forces the rocking ring (13) to rotate in a clockwise direction. However, due to the interrelationship between the first teeth (111) and the third teeth (132), the clockwise rotation of the rocking ring (13) is stopped so that the rocking ring (13) is secured by the formation of the third teeth (132).

This stop mechanism is not provided in any of the conventional structure so that improvement of the present utility model application is non-obvious over the prior art.

It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present utility model have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the utility model, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the utility model to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.

Claims (4)

1. An adjusting device for a castor in a window or the like, the adjusting device comprising: a hollow outer casing having an open end and a closed end, the outer casing provided with two arcuate cutouts respectively defined in two opposite side walls of the outer casing, two stops formed on two opposite sides of each of the arcuate cutouts and a through hole defined through the two opposite side walls of the outer casing to rotatably receive therein a rod which has multiple first teeth formed on an outer periphery of the rod; a hollow inner casing having an open end through which the castor is securely and rotatably received inside the inner casing and a closed end, the inner casing being movably received inside the outer casing and provided with two arcuate lips respectively formed on two opposite side walls of the inner casing to correspond to and be restrained by the respective two stops after each arcuate lip is extended into the respective cutout; and an elliptical driving ring having second teeth formed on a top of an inner face of the driving ring, third teeth formed on a bottom of the inner face of the driving ring, both the second teeth and the third teeth engaged with the first teeth such that rotation of the rod drives the driving ring to move and two projections respectively formed two ends of the driving ring selectively engage with a top face of the inner casing so as to force the inner casing to move inside the outer casing thereby allowing adjustment of a position of the castor relative to the outer casing.

2. The adjusting device as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a recovery device sandwiched between the outer casing and the inner casing to return the inner 9 casing to its original position after being displaced by the driving ring.

3. The adjusting device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the recovery device is at least one spring.

4. The adjusting device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the outer casing has at least one positioning rod formed on an inner face of the outer casing, the inner casing has at least one positioning recess so that a first end of the at least one spring is securely engaged with the at least one positioning rod and a second end of the at least one spring is securely received in the at least one positioning recess to provide a recovery force to the inner casing after the inner casing is moved inside the outer casing.