EP0684359A1

EP0684359A1 - Quick fastening hinge and fastening element

Info

Publication number: EP0684359A1
Application number: EP95201355A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Franco Ferrari; Carlo Migli
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1994-05-25
Filing date: 1995-05-23
Publication date: 1995-11-29
Also published as: ITMI940380V0; ITMI940380U1; IT233450Y1

Abstract

A furniture hinge is provided with fastening elements to fasten it to one part of the furniture unit (19); said elements consist of at least one expansion plug (20) radially expansible by rotation therein of a pin (25) inserted into its axial housing (24) and rotatable betweeen a first position of non-expansion of the expansion plug (20) for its insertion into a hole (23) in the furniture unit and a second position of expansion of the expansion plug for its anchorage in the hole. The pin (25) of the expansion plug (20) is provided with a head which extends into a control tab (27) protruding radially to the axis of the pin itself.

Description

This invention refers to a hinge with a quick fastening, by means of an expansion plug, to furniture units. The invention also refers to a fastening element.
In the furniture manufacturing technology use is made of expansion plugs for securing hinges to the panels of furniture units.
They generally consist of an external element made of plastic material which expands elastically inside a hole in the furniture, to ensure anchorage, following rotation therein of a cam-shaped pin or a screw.
Whenever necessary, by subsequently rotating the pin in the opposite direction, the expansion plug can return to its initial dimensions due to the elasticity of the material, thereby enabling it to be removed from the hole.
This fastening system for example enables the door to be rapidly fitted onto the piece of furniture directly on the premises of the end user.
The pin is usually shifted from the position in which the expansion plug is inserted to the position in which it is secured in place (and vice versa) by inserting a screwdriver into the head of the pin provided with a normal linear slot or a cross.
Pins with this type of head however have the drawback of not allowing their angular position inside the expansion plug to be visually recognizable, and consequently it is not possible to know for certain the exact condition (expanded or contracted) of the latter.
In fact, it is not unusual, especially when fitting a large number of hinges, for one or more expansion plugs to be secured incorrectly, resulting in the detachment of the hinge from the door during use.
The general scope of this invention is to obviate the aforementioned problems by providing a hinge with expansion plug type fastening elements which is easy to fit in place without tools and which renders its blocked condition inside the cavity in the furniture unit immediately visible, so as to enable the hardware element to be quickly and firmly secured.
A further scope of this invention is to obtain a hinge with expansion plugs, which has its opening and closing movements inhibited unless it is correctly secured, to prevent the possibility of unintentional incorrect fastening of the hinge itself.
These scopes are achieved according to the invention by providing a furniture hinge provided with elements for fastening it to a furniture unit, said elements being composed of at least one expansion plug radially expansible by rotation therein of a pin inserted in its axial housing and rotatable between a first position in which the expansion plug is not expanded to enable it to be fitted in a hole in the furniture unit and a second position in which the expansion plug is expanded to anchor it in the hole, characterized by the fact that the pin of the expansion plug is provided with a head which extends into a control tab protruding radially to the axis of the pin itself.
According to the invention, a fastening element is also provided for fastening hardware elements to furniture units, comprising an expansion plug which expands radially by rotation therein of a pin inserted in its axial housing and rotatable between a position in which the expansion plug is not expanded to enable it to he fitted in a hole in the furniture unit and a position in which the expansion plug is expanded to anchor it in the hole, characterized by the fact that the pin of the expansion plug is provided with a head which extends into a control tab protruding radially to the axis of the pin itself.
The innovative principles of this invention and its advantages with respect to the known technique will be more clearly evident from the following description of a possible exemplificative embodiment applying such principles, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Fig. 1 shows a partial cutaway front view of a hinge, in the closed position, provided with fastening elements according to the invention;
- Fig. 2 shows a cross-sectional view along the line II-II of Fig. 1;
- Fig. 3 shows a front view similar to the one in Fig. 1, but with the hinge in the open position;
- Fig. 4 shows an enlarged, partial cutaway front view of an expansion plug according to the invention, in the expanded position.

With reference to Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, a hinge 10 of the otherwise known type, for example of the four-bar linkage type, comprises two fastening elements, for example a known cup-shaped element 11 to be flush-mounted in the thickness of a door 19 and a wing-type element 12 to be secured by known means to a furniture unit, not shown here.
The two elements 11, 12 are hinged together in a wholly known way, for example by means of a four-bar linkage composed of two connecting rod elements 13, 14 hinged to the cup 11 and to the wing 12 by means of the pins 15, 16 and 17, 18, respectively. In Fig. 3 the same hinge 10 is shown in the open position.
The hinge comprises expansion plugs 20 secured, in correspondence with apertures 21, in lateral protrusions or casings 22 of the cup, to be inserted in holes 23 made in the thickness of the door 19, as can be clearly seen in Fig. 1.
The expansion plug advantageously comprises a rectangular protruding upper edge 26 which is received in a lower cavity in the protrusion 22 so as to rest on the edge of the cavity and prevent rotation of the expansion plug with respect to the cup 11.
Inserted inside an axial housing 24 in each expansion plug 20 is a cam-shaped pin 25 for expansion of the plug by rotation. The pin is provided, according to the teaching of this invention, with a head which extends through the corresponding hole 21 and protrudes above the casing 22 of the cup with a control tab 27 protruding radially to the axis of the pin itself so as to be disposed parallel to the area of the casing 22 forming two wings for fastening the hinge.
The tab 27 can be made in one piece with the pin 25 or be moulded separately (for example, from plastic) and rendered integral with the pin by glueing or by other methods known to the expert in the art. The tab 27 offers easy manual control to rotate the pin between a non-operative or non-expanded position (shown by the continuous line in Fig. 3) and an operative or expanded position (shown by the broken line in Fig. 3). Moreover, the expanded and non-expanded conditions of the expansion plugs are immediately recognizable.
In hinges such as the one shown here, in which the fastening is achieved by expansion plugs disposed on both sides of the hinge itself, the expanded and non-expanded positions can advantageously be made according to a specular conformation with respect to the centre line of the hinge and with a size contained within the dimensions of the cup, so as to avoid elements protruding beyond the contours of the casing of the cup.
In particular, in the non-expanded position of the expansion plug, the tabs 27 extend towards each other for such a distance as to interfere, as can be clearly seen in Fig. 1 and in Fig. 3, with the movement of a portion of the hinge (for example the hinge pin 16 of the wing 12, made protruding laterally) from the position housed inside the cup 11 (hinge closed) to the external position (hinge open) and vice versa.
This embodiment offers a dual advantage. First and foremost it prevents a hinge fitted, in the closed position, onto a door, but not secured correctly by means of expansion plugs, from being shifted to the open position to be fitted onto the furniture unit. Moreover, the tabs hinder the closing of a fitted door, whose hinge has an expansion plug which has been accidentally or intentionally loosened.
The tabs 27 can also advantageously be provided with means for locking them in the position in which the plug is expanded, for the purpose of preventing accidental rotation of the pins in the direction of contraction of the expansion plugs, with the consequent danger of detachment of the hinge from the door.
Said means can for example consist of protrusions 28 on the tabs, which can be removably made to snap-fit into corresponding holes 29 in the casing 22 of the cup by exploiting the flexibility of the tabs 27.
Fig. 4 shows an expansion plug 20 fitted, in the expanded position, with the pin 25 provided with tabs 27 according to the invention.
In order to achieve radial expansion of the expansion plug, the pin 25 can be advantageously provided with a shank 30 widened in a crosswise direction to the axis to define a portion with side walls 32 diverging towards its free end.
Correspondingly, the axial housing 24 of the expansion plug 20 has walls diverging in the same direction to constitute contact surfaces 31 with the side walls of the pin 25 when the latter is in the position in which the expansion plug is expanded.
Advantageously, the contact surfaces of the pin and the expansion plug have substantially the same angle of inclination with respect to the axis of the expansion plug itself when the expansion plug is expanded.
Such conformation of the pin-expansion plug coupling makes it possible, by rotating the pin, to give the pin a further component of thrust towards the inside of the hole in the door, thereby eliminating the possibility of end play between the cup and the door of the furniture unit.
The foregoing description of an embodiment applying the innovative principles of this invention is obviously given by way of example in order to illustrate such innovative principles and should not therefore be understood as a limitation to the sphere of the invention claimed herein.
For example, the number and position of the expansion plugs securing the hinge may differ from that described herein.
Moreover, the fastening elements described herein may be used for fastening different types of hinges from the ones generically represented.
Lastly, the conformation of the pin and housing in the expansion plug to generate expansion upon rotation of the pin can differ from the one shown.

Claims

1. Furniture hinge provided with elements for fastening it to a furniture unit (19), said elements being composed of at least one expansion plug (20) radially expansible by rotation therein of a pin (25) inserted in its axial housing (24) and rotatable between a first position in which the expansion plug (20) is not expanded to enable it to be fitted in a hole (23) in the furniture unit and a second position in which the expansion plug is expanded to anchor it in the hole, characterized by the fact that the pin (25) of the expansion plug (20) is provided with a head which extends into a control tab (27) protruding radially to the axis of the pin itself.

2. Hinge as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that the tab (27), in the first position of non-expansion of the expansion plug (20), impedes the movement of the hinge from an open position to a closed position.

3. Hinge as claimed in claim 2, characterized by the fact of comprising a cup-shaped portion (11) and a wing-shaped portion (12) hinged to each other, the cup-shaped portion having lateral protrusions (22) from one side of which protrude the expansion plugs, the corresponding control tabs (27) being disposed on the opposite side, the tabs in the first position having an end protruding over the cup to interfere with the path of a portion of the hinge, in particular a portion (16) of the wing (12), between a position in which it is housed in the cup (11), when the hinge is closed, and an extracted position, when the hinge is open, while when the expansion plug is in the expanded position, it does not hamper said movements.

4. Hinge as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that the tab (27) is provided with locking means (28) to reversibly lock it in the second position.

5. Hinge as claimed in claim 4, characterized by the fact that the locking means consist of at least one protrusion (28) on the tab (27), which fits into a corresponding housing (29) in the hinge.

6. Hinge as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that the reciprocal contact surfaces (31), in the expanded position between the pin (25) and the axial housing (24) in the expansion plug (20) diverge in the direction of insertion of the expansion plug into the hole (23).

7. Hinge as claimed in claim 3, characterized by the fact that the portion (16) consists of ends of a pivot protruding laterally from the wing (12).

8. Hinge as claimed in claim 3, characterized by the fact that the lateral protrusions (22) of the cup (11) inferiorly define cavities for receiving an edge (26) radially protruding from the expansion plug (20), the radially protruding edge interfering with part of the edge of the cavity receiving it in order to prevent axial rotation of the expansion plug.

9. Element for fastening hardware elements (10) to furniture units, comprising an expansion plug (20) radially expansible by rotation therein of a pin (25) inserted in its axial housing (24) and rotatable between a position in which the expansion plug (20) is not expanded to enable it to be fitted in a hole (23) in the furniture unit and a position in which the expansion plug is expanded to anchor it in the hole, characterized by the fact that the pin (25) is provided with a head which extends into a control tab (27) protruding radially to the axis of the pin itself.