EP0331220B1 - Latch for the door of a household appliance or the like - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a door lock for household appliances or the like. With a striker and a locking member, which can alternately be connected to a housing part or a door and engage in one another in a closed position.

In a known door lock used in automatic dishwashers, the striker is a part stamped out of sheet metal and can be connected to a housing part via a screw connection. The use of such a locking bracket is complex to manufacture and assemble.

The assembly effort can be further increased in that manufacturing-related tolerances between the door and the housing part must be compensated for manually by changing the shape of the striker. This may be necessary to ensure that when the locking position is reached, the locking member and the locking bracket engage each other.

The invention has for its object to provide a door lock of the type mentioned so that it is easy to manufacture and assemble.

This object is achieved in a generic door lock in that the striker according to the invention has one or more fastening sections for a plug connection with the housing part or the door.

Because the striker can be connected to the housing part or the door via a plug connection, connections for a screw connection need not be provided. Manufacture and assembly of the striker are thus simplified. Cooperation with the locking member can be made possible with reduced or essentially no adjustment effort by a correspondingly elastic design of the locking bracket.

In a preferred embodiment, the fastening section is pivotally supported by the plug connection and / or the plug connection is assigned a latching connection between the fastening section and the housing part or door.

Due to the pivotable design of the plug connection, it is possible for the striker to self-adjust after assembly, upon first contact with a locking member in the pivoting direction. As a result, the striker is arranged relative to the locking member so that both parts engage securely in the closed position, without any manual assembly effort in this regard. Manufacturing-related tolerances between the housing part and the door can thus be automatically compensated. The plug connection is preferably designed to be pivotable in the direction in which manufacturing tolerances can have the greatest effect.

The pivoting mobility can be made possible in a known manner, for example by regions of the plug connection which are designed to be resilient in the predeterminable direction or in the manner of ball joints. Through such areas leading to frictional or positive connections, the striker can also be fixed in its longitudinal direction.

An unintentional loosening of the striker is prevented by the snap connection in a simple manner and essentially without additional assembly effort. At the same time, the position of the built-in striker can be predetermined via the snap-in connection. For an adjustment possibility in the longitudinal direction of the striker, a plurality of means, arranged in a row in this direction, can be provided on the fastening section for the production of snap-in connections.

Simultaneously pivoting and via a snap connection holding the fastening section leads in a simple manner to a door lock which can be assembled easily and with reduced adjustment effort.

In a preferred embodiment, the plug-in connection has a first and spaced-apart second bearing, each of which is designed in the manner of a transverse bearing and at least one of the bearings has an enlarged area for pivoting mobility of the fastening section substantially perpendicular to its longitudinal axis.

As a result, a safe and maintenance-free swiveling plug connection can be produced easily. The enlarged area can be configured, for example, in the form of an elongated hole, in order to enable the fastening section to be displaced in a predeterminable direction. A sufficiently large swiveling movement of the fastening section can be easily specified via the distance between the two bearings and the length of the enlarged area.

In a further preferred embodiment, the fastening section can be pretensioned with respect to at least one of the bearings by its shape and / or spring elements that can be connected to it. Through such an easy to generate, Preload can be brought into a favorable position before the adjustment. For this purpose, for example, a spring element can be connected to the fastening section at an area facing away from the locking member. In the case of an elastic design, the fastening section can also be shaped in such a way that it is pretensioned on both bearings after the plug connection has been made.

The prestressing can also generate normal forces leading to frictional forces between the fastening section and the bearings. This frictional force ensures that the striker essentially maintains its automatically adjusted position for further use of the door lock after the first contact with the locking member.

In a further preferred embodiment, the first and / or second bearing has a through opening in a wall of the housing part or the door. The bearing or bearings can thus be manufactured in a particularly simple manner.

It is furthermore advantageous that the fastening section for a snap-in connection has at least one receptacle for a region of the wall delimiting a through opening. This makes snap-in connections particularly easy to produce; No additional measures are required on the part of the housing or the door. On the fastening section, receptacles can be produced simply as groove-shaped recesses or as approaches which are adjacent at a distance and can be produced, for example, by notches, to form groove-shaped spaces. By means of receptacles arranged adjacent in the longitudinal direction, latching connections are of different lengths of the fastening section producible. This provides a simple way of adjusting the length over which the striker protrudes from the plug connection to the locking member.

In a further preferred embodiment, the striker is essentially U-shaped, a fastening section for a plug connection being formed on each leg. This makes locking straps particularly easy to manufacture and easy to install for each fastening section using a plug connection. The connecting piece between the two legs can be designed, without additional effort, as a holding element for holding a locking member during the closed position. Furthermore, twisting of the striker, in an axis parallel to its longitudinal axis, is easily and securely prevented by fastening it via two plug connections.

In this embodiment, it is particularly advantageous that the fastening sections can be preloaded relative to at least one bearing by their mutual position arrangement. The easy-to-apply pretension remains essentially unchanged even after the striker has been adjusted; the adjusted position is thus safely maintained during the subsequent use of the door lock.

It is also advantageous to provide a striker with a holding element for a locking member or a hook for engaging in a locking member, which has one or more fastening sections according to one or more of the features mentioned above.

It is also advantageous to have such a striker to be formed in one piece as a plastic or wire molded part. A striker is particularly easy to produce with predeterminable properties, for generating a pretension and for producing snap-in connections.

Two exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail with reference to the drawing.

• Figur 1 eine vereinfacht dargestellte, teilweise geschnittene, Seitenansicht eines ersten Ausführungsbeispiels eines erfindungsgemäßen Türverschlusses und
• Figur 2 eine unvollständige perspektivische Darstellung eines zweiten Ausführungsbeispiels.

Show it:

• Figure 1 is a simplified, partially sectioned, side view of a first embodiment of a door lock according to the invention and
• Figure 2 is an incomplete perspective view of a second embodiment.

A first exemplary embodiment of a door lock according to the invention has a locking bracket, designated overall by 1 in FIG. 1, which cooperates with a locking member 2 in a closed position. The locking member 2 is held in a closed position until it is released from the striker 1 via an actuating device, not shown, for opening the door lock. The striker 1 is connected according to the invention via a pivotable plug connection to a housing part 3 of a domestic appliance, not shown, such as a dishwasher, a washing machine or the like.

The plug connection has a first bearing 4 and a second bearing 5 arranged at a distance therefrom. Each bearing 4, 5 is designed in the manner of a transverse bearing and in a vertical wall 6 or 7 of the housing part 3 arranged. The bearings 4, 5 can, for example, be punched into walls 6, 7 consisting of sheet metal; the contact surfaces of the bearings 4, 5 can be enlarged in a manner not shown, for example by bent sections of the walls 6, 7.

For the plug connection, the striker 1 has a fastening section 8 which is guided through the two bearings 4, 5. At the fastening portion 8 connects in the direction of the locking member 2 via an offset 10, an annular region 9 with a holding element 9 'for the locking member 2. In the present exemplary embodiment, the closing bracket 1, which has the fastening section 8, the annular region 9 and the offset 10, has a circular cross section and can be produced in one piece, for example as a molded plastic part or as a bent wire part.

The first bearing 4 has a circular through opening adapted to receive the fastening section 8; it thus enables a pivoting or tilting movement of the fastening section 8 in the manner of a cutting edge bearing. In order to enable such a pivoting movement of the fastening section 8 and thus of the entire striker 1 even when the fastening section is guided through both bearings 4, 5, the bearing has 5 shows an area 11 enlarged in the form of a slot in the vertical direction. The enlarged area 11 extends essentially in the direction in which the striker 1 is to be pivotable to compensate for possible manufacturing deviations.

In order to hold the striker 1 in its longitudinal direction, the fastening section 8 has receptacles 12, 13 for the bearing 5 delimiting parts of the wall 7. In order to a snap connection between the locking bracket 1 and the housing part 3 can be produced in a simple manner. On the housing side, only a sufficient elasticity of the region of the wall 7 delimiting the bearing 5 is required. The receptacles 12, 13 are formed as mutually opposite, vertically running, groove-shaped recesses; this prevents twisting of the striker 1 after it snaps into place. In Fig. 1, a snap connection between edge regions of the wall 7 and the receptacle 12 is shown. An adjustment of the striker 1 in the longitudinal direction relative to the locking member 2 is possible in that a latching connection can also be made between the receptacle 13 and edge regions of the wall 7. Due to the adjustment, a position arrangement of the striker 1 relative to the locking member 2 is possible, in which both parts can interlock securely for closing. By means of receptacles (not shown) which can be formed in a stepwise manner in the longitudinal direction, a fine-stage adjustment possibility for the locking bracket 1 in the longitudinal direction can be made possible. Instead of forming the receptacles 12, 13 as groove-shaped recesses, receptacles can be formed in a manner not shown, for example also by gaps between projections formed on the fastening section 8.

To form a door lock, the locking member 2 can be pivotally connected to a door 15 in a known manner. The door 15 can be pivoted open in the direction of arrow 16. In a closed position, a locking lug 17 of the locking member 2 engages the holding element 9 '. In Fig. 1, the locking member 2 is drawn in a position before closing or after opening the door lock. To open the locking member 2 in a known manner via an actuator, not shown pivoted so that the locking lug 17 releases the holding element 9 'again.

For the safe functioning of the door lock, the position of the striker 1 must be aligned relative to that of the locking member 2. In the longitudinal direction, there is a simple possibility of adjusting the striker 1 via the selection of receptacles 12, 13 described for producing a snap-in connection. In a direction perpendicular to this, the pivoting design of the plug connection according to the invention enables automatic adjustment of the striker 1. Any vertical manufacturing deviations between the housing part 3 and door 15 can be compensated for by the first and second bearings 4, 5 via the pivotable mounting of the fastening section 8. With this adjustment of the striker 1, the holding element 9 'is moved by the locking member 2 in a position enabling a door lock. The protruding from the second bearing 5, the holding element 9 'opposite free end 19 of the fastening portion 8 in the direction of arrow 20, substantially in the vertical direction, is moved. In order to support this movement and to bring the striker 1 into a defined position before the start of the adjustment, one end of a spring 21 is connected to the free end 19, the other end of which is connected to a wall 7, supports horizontal bottom wall 22.

By the distance between the first and second bearings 4, 5 and the extension of the enlarged area 11, the pivoting direction and the limit positions indicated by dash-dotted lines 23, 23 'and thus also the entire pivoting range of the striker 1 can be predetermined. About the point of application and the characteristic of the spring 22 is Furthermore, the pretension of the striker 1 and thus also its setting position after inserting the striker 1 into the bearings 4, 5 and before an adjustment via the locking member 2, which takes place during a first closing operation, can be predetermined. By coordinating the characteristic of the spring 21 with the coefficient of friction between the receptacles 12, 13 and the edge regions of the wall 7 that can be placed on them, it can be ensured that after the adjustment has been made, the position of the striker 1 remains essentially unchanged for the further use of the door lock.

The second exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 2 differs from the first exemplary embodiment essentially only in that the closing bracket, designated as a whole by 30, is U-shaped. It has two fastening sections 38, 38 ', one of which is formed on one leg. Unchanged components relating to the housing part 3 are identified by the same reference numerals. In the first embodiment, in a comparable manner, both fastening sections 38, 38 'are guided through first bearings 34, 34' and spaced-apart second bearings 35, 35 'to form plug connections. The first and second bearings 34, 34 'and 35, 35' are also in the form of through openings in vertical walls 6, 7 of the housing part 3. For a pivoting movement of the striker 30 in a substantially vertical direction 20, the second bearings 35, 35 'enlarged oblong areas 41, 41'. For an adjustment of the striker 30 in its longitudinal direction indicated by an arrow 50, the fastening sections 38, 38 'receptacles 42, 43, 44 and 42', 43 ', 44', each formed on opposite sides of the fastening sections 38, 38 ' are. At 2 engage portions of the enlarged areas 41, 41 'delimiting wall 7 in receptacles 42, 42' of the striker 30th

The first bearings 34, 34 'have elongated holes 55, 55' in the horizontal direction. A pivoting movement of the striker 30 is thus also possible in this direction.

Via a mutual position arrangement of the fastening sections 38, 38 'to one another, a prestress can be produced after the production of plug connections, in each case with respect to a second bearing 35, 35'. Without it being necessary to use external springs, in the present exemplary embodiment the fastening sections 38, 38 'with their receptacles 42, 42' are pretensioned in areas of the wall 7; the fastening sections 38, 38 'are arranged so that the distance between them in the rest position before installation is greater than after establishing the plug connection. The way in which a preload is applied is not limited to the example given; For example, the mutually facing sides of the fastening sections 38, 38 ', with a correspondingly changed arrangement of receptacles, are pretensioned on mutually facing sides of the second bearing 45, 45'. The bias prevents unintentional loosening of the locking connections between the fastening sections 38, 38 'and the wall 7. Normal forces that can be generated by the preload furthermore lead to frictional forces between the fastening sections 38, 38 'and corresponding contact areas of the bearings 35, 35', so that after an automatic adjustment of the striker 30, in the manner described for the first exemplary embodiment, the position of the striker 30 remains essentially unchanged for further use of the door lock.

A holding element 39 to be engaged in the closed position of the door lock by a latching lug of a locking element, not shown, is given by the intermediate piece connecting the two legs due to the U-shaped design of the locking bracket 30. Here, the holding element 39 in the present case - like the holding element 9 'according to the first embodiment - by means of bends 40, 40' to the fastening sections 38, 38 '.

Claims (10)

1. A door fastener for household equipment or the like with a closure loop (1,30) and a blocking element (2), which are mutually connectable with a housing part (3) or with a door (15) and engage into each other in a closed position,
   characterised in that
   the closure loop (1, 30) has one or more attachment sections (8, 38, 38') for a plug connection with the housing part (3) or with the door (15).
2. A door fastener according to Claim 1,
   characterised in that
   the attachment section (8, 38, 38') is secured by the plug connection so as to be movable in a swivelling manner and/or a detent connection between the attachment section (8, 38, 38') and the housing part (3) or door (15) is associated with the plug connection.
3. A door fastener according to Claim 1 or 2,
   characterised in that
   the plug connection has a first bearing (4, 34, 34') and a second bearing (5, 35, 35') arranged at a distance therefrom, each of which is constructed in the manner of a transverse bearing and at least one of the bearings (5, 34, 34', 35, 35') has an enlarged region for a swivelling mobility of the attachment section (8, 38, 38') substantially vertically to its longitudinal axis.
4. A door fastener according to one of Claims 1 to 3,
   characterised in that
   the attachment section (8, 38, 38') through its shape and/or through spring elements (21) connectable with it, is able to be prestressed with respect to at least one of the bearings (4, 34, 34').
5. A door fastener according to one of Claims 1 to 4,
   characterised in that
   the first (4, 34, 34') and/or second bearing (5, 35, 35') has a through opening in a wall (6, 7) of the housing part (3) or of the door (15).
6. A door fastener according to Claim 5,
   characterised in that
   the attachment section (8, 38, 38') for a detent connection has at least one mounting (12, 13, 42, 43, 44, 42', 43', 44') for a region of the wall (7) delimiting a through opening.
7. A door fastener according to one of Claims 1 to 6,
   characterised in that
   the closure loop (30) is substantially U-shaped, in which an attachment section (38, 38') for a plug connection is constructed on each shank.
8. A door fastener according to Claim 7
   characterised in that
   the attachment sections (38, 38') through their reciprocal position arrangement are in each case able to be prestressed with respect to at least one bearing (35, 35').
9. A door fastener according to one of Claims 1 to 8,
   characterised in that
   the closure loop (1, 30) is provided with a holding element (9, 39) for the blocking element (2) or is provided with a hook for engagement into the blocking element (2).
10. A door fastener according to Claim 9,
    characterised in that
    the closure loop (1, 30) is constructed as a shaped part, in one piece, made of plastics or wire.

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