EP0356405A1

EP0356405A1 - Rotating chest of drawers

Info

Publication number: EP0356405A1
Application number: EP89830357A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Giuseppe Bonasera
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1988-08-05
Filing date: 1989-08-04
Publication date: 1990-02-28
Also published as: IT8848271A0

Abstract

A chest of drawers is provided comprising an assembly of prismatic drawers arranged like the segments of an orange to form a rotating drum and containing an ordered arrangement of different items. The drawers are slideable on guide rails radially mounted on the opposite surfaces of two vertical supporting discs which are rotatbly integral with a horizontal axis journalled between the outer side wall of the chest. Placed within each drawer is at least a thrust member elastically urged so as to keep the items contained in the drawer adjacent to the front wall of the latter.

Description

The present invention relates to a rotating chest of drawers which can be used wherever a considerable number of different items of small size have to be stored in order that they can be arranged according to their different types within user's reach.
Storage problems are of particular interest in pharmacies and drug-stores where medicines are arranged according to precise criteria of classification within vertical chests of drawers in which, however, the high levels can be hardly reached by the salesmen and make it necessary the use of stools, folding ladders etc. This is a serious drawback because of the long time needed to take medicines out so that the service is impaired.
The object of the present invention is to solve this problem by means of a piece of furniture in form of a chest of rotating, prismatic drawers which are distributed like the segments of an orange. The drawers are slideable on guide rails radially arranged on the opposite surfaces of two supporting discs which are rotatably integral with a rotating axis journalled between the two side walls of the chest of drawers. By rotating the chest of drawers it is possible to bring the drawer to be opened at user's reach, preferably at a height of 1,2 m from the floor, so that one can check at sight the content of the drawer and take easily out the items of use.
To this end each drawer is closed at the upper side by a transparent cover or sheet of plexiglas or like material which ran be pivotally rotated and locked at the front side by a magnetic means or snap-locked. In this way a better preservation of the products as well as a suitable protection against the environmental agents is provided.
In order that the items contained in the drawers do not mix confusedly, thrust members, preferably urged by a spring, are provided in each drawer so that a constant pressure is exerted on the goods which are kept adjacent to the front wall of each rotating drawer.
The present invention will be more readily apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings illustrating by way of a non-limitative example a preferred embodiment.
In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an elevation front view of the chest of drawers;
Fig. 2 is a side elevation view of the rotating chest of drawers partially sectioned;
Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a rotating drawer with the thrust members.

Referring to the figures the invention relates to a piece of furniture or container 5 within which a chest of rotating drawers 6 is provided having the form of a drum rotating about a horizontal axis and formed of prismatic drawers 8 arranged like the segments of an orange. The lower volume of the furniture is taken up by further drawers 20 having the conventional parallelepiped form.
The prismatic drawers 8 have a rectangular, sloped bottom 8C and two side tapered walls 8D connecting the higher front wall 8A to the lower rear wall 8B. Consequently the available room is gradually decreasing to the inside of the drawer.
In the illustrated embodiment all drawers 8 are sidewise provided with strips or slider 10 which slide in guide grooves 11 radially arranged in the opposite surfaces of two parallel discs 14 mounted on a rotating axis 16 journalled between the side walls 18 of the chest. Of course, the same guide grooves 11 can be considered as a supporting construction so that the two parallel discs are made useless.
As can be seen the depth of the piece of furniture essentially corresponds to the diameter of the rotating chest of drawers, i.e. the depth of two drawers.
Each drawer is blocked in the locked position by a common elastic retainer or snap-lock, for instance, formed of a pawl 22 urged by a spring and engaging a hollow seat formed in the side wall 8D of each drawer.
Each drawer is divided in sectors by partitions 24.
The goods are kept against the front wall 8A of the drawer by thrust means 26 formed of strips urged by springs 27 abuting against the rear wall 8B of the drawer.
In order to prevent goods from falling down during the rotation of the drawers, each drawer is closed at the upper side by a transparent cover 28, for example, a sheet of plexiglas allowing the goods to be inspected from the outside. Preferably the cover ir rearwardly hinged so that it can be completely turned over once the drawer has been drawn out.
The piece of furniture 5 containing the chest of drawers is open at the front side. In order to allow the drawers to be drawn out only in the desired position a side frame 32 vertically extending essentially to the whole height of the rotating chest of drawers is interrupted only by a length corresponding to the height of a drawer. This is carry out preferably at a height of about 1,20 m from the floor.
As can be seen in the figures, the supporting discs with the drawers take up only the upper part of the piece of furniture. As mentioned above, the lower room of the piece of furniture is taken up by two or more conventional drawers 20 where the heavier goods can be stored.
From what above described the advantages of the present invention are made apparent: the drawers arranged like the segments of an orange are used more rationally; the different depth of the drawers from the front side to the rear side does not cause any problems as the goods can be easily inspected and reached by rotating the drawers and without the use of stool or the like. It should be appreciated that the same number of conventional drawers would reach the height of 2 m.
A preferred embodiment has been herein described only by way of example. Alternatively a chest of drawers can be provided which is like that of this invention but equipped with spring means of different type in order to store documents, paper, invoices lying on the bottom of each drawer. This and many other modifications and changes may be made by the skilled in the art without parting from the scope of the present industrial invention when they provide the same or similar results at which this invention is aiming.

Claims

1. A chest of drawers, in particular for separately storing a plurality of different articles, characterized in that it is formed of a piece of furniture (5) with a rotating assembly (6) of drawers wherein the drawers (8) have a prismatic form and are arranged like the segments of an orange, each drawer (8) being slideable on guide rails (11) radially mounted on the opposite surfaces of two vertical supporting discs (14) which are rotatably integral with a horizontal rotation axis (16) journalled between the outer side walls (18) of the piece of furniture (5).

2. The chest of drawers of claim 1, characterized in that the depth of each drawer (8) is gradually decreasing from the front wall (8A) to the rear wall (8B).

3. The chest of drawers of the preceding claims, characterized in that within each drawer (8) at least one thrust means (26) is placed which is elastically urged so as to keep the content of the drawer adjacent to the front wall (8A) of the latter.

4. The chest of drawers of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that in each drawer (8) at least a thrust means is placed which is elastically urged so as to keep paper, documents or the like adjacent to the bottom of the drawer.

5. The chest of drawers of the preceding claims, characterized in that each drawer is closed at the upper side by a cover of transparent material which can be locked.

6. The chest of drawers of the preceding claims, characterized in that tha drawing out of the drawers ad a desired height is allowed by a side frame against which the drawers are abuting , said frame being mounted on the front side of the piece of furniture and having at said desired height a slot, the height of which corresponds to the height of a drawer.

7. The chest of drawers of the preceding claims, characterized in that each drawer is kept closed by a snap-lock and/or a spring-lock.

8. The chest of drawers as substantially described and illustrated in the annexed drawings.