EP2466047B1

EP2466047B1 - Decelerator for roll guides of sliding units

Info

Publication number: EP2466047B1
Application number: EP11193160.6A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Angelo Muzzin
Original assignee: Muzzin SpA
Current assignee: Muzzin SpA
Priority date: 2010-12-20
Filing date: 2011-12-13
Publication date: 2016-03-09
Anticipated expiration: 2031-12-13
Also published as: ITMI20102320A1; IT1403268B1; SMT201600160B; ES2575087T3; EP2466047A1

Description

The present invention relates to a roll guide with a deceleration device for sliding units, such as drawers and the like, according to the pre-characterizing portion of clam 1.
Such a roll guide is known from AT 507 186 A4 . Deceleration devices are known from DE 203 15124 U1 and from US 2007/0114896 A1 .
Closing devices equipped with decelerating systems for damping the speed of the parts of a piece of furniture immediately before its closing, are known and used in the furniture industry. This is aimed at avoiding both noise and impact and also preventing the latter from rapidly breaking the closing device.
Examples of these devices are provided in EP 1188397 and EP 391221 , applied to box-like sectional slides, whereas for roll guides a similar solution is under study.
Deceleration systems for roll guides have currently been proposed, which consist of a mechanism, divided into two parts, a first part applied to the frame of the piece of furniture and the other part to the drawer. This type of arrangement slows down the closing run in its last approximately 50 mm, but the device has a main drawback in its assembly.
The user, in fact, must fix the mechanism onto the frame of the piece of furniture with two screws, and also 25 a separate plastic element, which acts as actuator, on the drawer with a further two screws.
In other systems under implementation, attempts have been made to install the mechanism directly onto the movable part of the guide and weld an iron blade on the fixed part which acts as actuator.
This method is certainly more practical than the previous one, but still has various limitations:

the guide which houses this type of mechanism is a special guide, as it has various folds for fixing the piece and it has a welded part on the movable guide. These guides cannot be used without a mechanism. The installer must therefore have two storage departments for guides, one for standard guides and the other for guides of the decelerated type;
most installers would prefer that the mechanism be assembled on the guide not at the exact moment of assembly, but subsequently, i.e. when all the characteristics of the piece of furniture have been defined.

A general objective of the present invention is therefore to solve all of the above drawbacks of the known art, in an extremely simple, economical and particularly functional way.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a roll guide with a decelerating device for sliding parts, such as drawers and the like, which consists of parts which are simple and can be easily assembled.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a roll guide with a decelerating device for sliding parts, such as drawers and the like, which minimizes the necessity of having to store various specific elements for the assembly of guides with or without the device.
Yet another objective is to provide a roll guide with a decelerating device for sliding parts, such as drawers and the like, which decelerating device can be assembled on the guide directly in the final phase, once the characteristics of the piece of furniture have been defined.
In view of the above objectives, according to the present invention, a roll guide with a decelerator for sliding units, such as drawers and the like, has been conceived, having the characteristics specified in the enclosed claims.
The structural and functional characteristics of the present invention and its advantages with respect to the known art will appear more evident from the following description, referring to the enclosed drawings which show an embodiment of a roll guide with decelerating device for sliding units, produced according to the same invention.
In the drawings:

figure 1 is a raised side view of a roll guide to which a deceleration device is applied, according to the present invention, in the position in which a drawer is half open;
figure 2 is a raised view similar to that of figure 1, in which the arrangement of the parts is shown when the drawer is closed;
figures 3 and 4 are enlarged views of details shown in figures 1 and 2, which provide a better understanding of the device of the invention;
figure 5 is an enlarged perspective view from below of what is shown in figures 1 and 3, in which the

With reference to the figures, these show a roll guide with a decelerating device for sliding units, such as drawers or similar, the decelerating device indicated as 11.
The decelerating device 11 is provided, associated with parts of fixed guides constrained to a frame of a piece of furniture and parts of movable guides constrained to respective sides of a drawer (both not illustrated).
The provision of roll guides comprising a first fixed portion 12 of the guide, constrained to the piece of furniture, and a second moveable portion 13 of the guide, constrained to the drawer is, in fact, envisaged at each side of the drawer. For each side, the first fixed portion 12 of the guide comprises a straight section 14 followed by a final shaped section 15 in which a wheel 16 is positioned, which is constrained to the end of the second movable portion 13 of the guide, once the drawer is completely closed.
The final shaped section which guarantees the closing of the drawer can alternatively be either a section 15 sloping downwards or a final convexity on the low fin of the fixed portion of the guide, whereas the high fin of the fixed part of the guide remains rectilinear.
The decelerator 11 comprises a supporting plate 17 constrained to the piece of furniture by means of a screw (not shown) inserted into a hole 18 of the plate.
The plate 17 carries a slidingly guided hook cursor 19 which is inserted in the slit 20 situated in a longtudinal flap 21 of the fixed portion 12 of the guide in which the wheel 16 slides. The wheel 16 cooperates with the hook cursor 19 and acts on it, being housed in the same.
The slit 20 extends to an area comprising the final portion of the straight section 14 and, in succession, the final sloping section 15, forming the first fixed portion 12 of the guide.
The hook cursor 19 is connected by means of a pin 22 to a first end of a slide 23. The slide 23 has, at its opposite end, a buffer 24 for the piston 25 of a decelerating damping cylinder 26 integral with the plate 17 in a suitable seat 27.
Ends of a spiral spring 30, which cooperates in bringing the slide 23 to a closed-drawer position, shown in figures 2 and 4, are constrained, on one side, to an eyelet 28 integral with the slide 23 near the buffer 24 and, at the other side, to an eyelet 29 integral with the plate 17, in an almost opposite position. The spring 30 therefore defines elastic elements which oppose the action of the decelerating damping cylinder 26.
Figures 1 and 3 show how the open or half-open drawer, i.e. the second movable part of the guide 13, is higher (by about 2 mm in the example) with respect to the position of the closed drawer, as shown in figures 2 and 4. In the latter figures, in fact, it can be clearly observed that the wheels 16, by sliding in the final sloping section 15 of the first fixed portion 12 of the guide, cause a lowering of the second movable portion 13 of the guide and consequently of the drawer constrained to the same.
In this movement, moreover, the wheels 16 act on the respective hook cursor 19, connected to the slide 23, causing the sliding of the slide 23 and the action of the buffer 24 on the piston 25 of the decelerating damping cylinder 26 which is compelled to withdraw into the cylinder.
At the same time, the spiral spring 30, charged and moving the slide 23 according to the arrow 31, by discharging itself, cooperates in bringing the slide 23 to the closed-drawer position shown in figures 2 and 4.
The subsequent opening of the drawer, with a consequent withdrawal of the wheel 16 inside the sloping section 15 of the first fixed portion 12 of the guide, allows the recharging of the spring 30 and the release of the piston 25 of the cylinder 26.
This decelerating device of the roll guide is extremely simple and only requires the production of a slit 20 in the longitudinal flap 21 of the fixed portion 12 of the guide in which the wheel 16 slides.
The guide, in the remaining part, is completely that of a normal drawer with a roll guide, envisaging as the only further addition, a hole 18 for fixing the fixed portion 12 of the guide, i.e. the plate 17 of the device 11, to the piece of furniture.
The wheel 16, constrained to the end of the second movable portion 13 of the guide, acts as actuator of the decelerating device of the present invention, by acting on the cursor 19 of said device.
The decelerating device of the invention is hooked to the fixed portion 12 of the guide and then fixed by means of this screw to the frame of the piece of furniture. The actuator of the system is the wheel, for example generally having a diameter of 19 mm, integral with the movable portion 13 of the guide.
These modifications do not lead to any variation in the resistance and functioning of the guide and they can therefore be applied to the whole normal production.
Furthermore, they have no cost as there are only shearings to be effected on line, modifying the existing moulds for the production of the roll guides.
The elimination of the blade to be welded to the movable portion of the slide, for example, which, as already mentioned, is currently used in some applications of roll guides, should decrease the costs by eliminating the cost of said spot welding.
It should also be pointed out that the positioning of the deceleration device at the end of the fixed guide 12, i.e. in the innermost part of the piece of furniture, allows the device to be positioned so that it is invisible even when the drawer is open, see figure 1.
The objective mentioned in the preamble of the description has therefore been achieved.
The forms of the structure for producing a deceleration device for roll guides of sliding parts of the invention, as also the materials and the assembly modes, can obviously differ from those shown for purely illustrative and non-limiting purposes in the drawings.
The protection scope of the invention is therefore delimited by the enclosed claims.

Claims

A roll guide with a deceleration device (11) for sliding units, such as drawers or the like, wherein said roll guide comprises a first fixed portion (12) of the guide, constrained in use to a piece of furniture, and a second movable portion (13) of the guide, constrained in use to a drawer, wherein the first fixed portion (12) of the guide has a first straight section (14) followed by a final shaped section (15) in which a wheel (16) is positioned, constrained to the end of the second movable portion (13) of the guide, when the drawer is completely closed, wherein said device (11) comprises a plate (17) carrying a decelerating damping cylinder (26) whose piston (25) interacts with a buffer (24) connected to a hook cursor (19), in turn cooperating with said wheel (16) and sliding on said plate (17), said plate (17) also carrying elastic elements (30), which oppose the action of said decelerating damping cylinder (26) and which consist of a spiral spring, said hook cursor (19) having a limited run inside a slit (20) situated in said first fixed portion (12) of the guide, characterized in that said plate (17) is constrained to the piece of furniture by means of a screw, said elastic elements (30) are positioned exclusively on the same side of the first fixed portion (12) as said decelerating damping cylinder (26) and the elastic elements (30), the damping cylinder (26) and the slit (20) are all arranged side by side regarding their longitudinal extensions.
The roll guide with a decelaration device (11) according to claim 1, characterized in that said slit (20) is situated in a longitudinal flap (21) of the fixed portion (12) of the guide where the wheel (16) slides.
The roll guide with a deceleration device (11) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said slit (20) extends into an area comprising the final portion of said straight section (14) and in succession, said final shaped section (15) forming the first fixed portion (12) of the guide.
The roll guide with a deceleration device (11) according to one or more of the previous claims, characterized in that said hook cursor (19) is connected by means of a pin (22) to a first end of a slide (23) which, at its opposite end, has said buffer (24) for said piston (25) of the decelerating damping cylinder (26).
The roll guide with a deceleration device (11) according to one or more of the previous claims, characterized in that said elastic elements consist of a spiral spring (30) which is constrained, at one side, to an eyelet (28) integral with a slide (23) near said buffer (24) and on the other side, to an eyelet (29), integral with the plate (17) in an almost opposite position.
The roll guide with a deceleration device (11) according to one or more of the previous claims, characterized in that said final shaped section of the first fixed portion (12) of the guide in which a wheel (16) is positioned, is a final section sloping downwards (15).