EP2615230A1

EP2615230A1 - Wardrobe with sliding doors

Info

Publication number: EP2615230A1
Application number: EP12425006.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Davide Geremia
Original assignee: System Holz SpA
Current assignee: SYSTEM HOLZ S.R.L.
Priority date: 2012-01-16
Filing date: 2012-01-16
Publication date: 2013-07-17

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wardrobe with sliding doors, which have a bracket (20, 21) at the upper edge for supporting rollers (30, 32) engaging a guide (4, 8,9).

The rollers (30, 32) have a rolling axis substantially perpendicular to the wall (P) upon which the guide is applied and are arranged staggered with respect to the sliding direction of the door (2, 3).

Thus a regular and accurate sliding of the doors is obtained, in addition to effectively applying braking devices into the guide grooves (4, 8, 9) of the rollers.

Description

The present invention, in its most general aspect, relates to movement systems for sliding doors of wardrobes, mainly intended, but not exclusively, for cloth storage or for big furniture.
As it is known, in these applications the doors slide in front of the wardrobe structure, along guides arranged at the top and bottom with respect to such structure; the doors slide on spaced apart parallel planes, such that they do not interfere with each other during the movement.
The sliding guides for the doors substantially are rails made by means of metal profile members, along which rollers fitted on the doors move; to this end the latter are provided at the top with brackets that essentially have a square-like configuration, with a portion projecting from the upper edge of the door, which supports a corresponding idle roller.
The latter, with the door in the condition fitted to the wardrobe, rolls along a respective guide rail and it therefore helps the smooth sliding of the door; moreover, according to a trend already established in the art, brakes can be optionally arranged at the limit stops of the doors, thereby preventing the wardrobe structure from being impacted by slowing the speed of the doors by means of springs and dampers.
In the lower part of the doors there are provided sliding skids moving along guides arranged at the bottom of the wardrobe, performing a similar function as the upper ones.
An example of wardrobe with sliding doors consistent with what just explained is known from international patent applications WO2008/125975 and WO2008/125973 , which relate to a bracket and a sliding skid for sliding doors of wardrobes respectively.
According to this prior art, the weight of the door essentially rests on the upper brackets while the lower skids mainly act for stabilizing the sliding motion, by guiding the lower part of the doors.
This solution is effective since it provides a device adjusting the door orientation, which balances the irregularities, if any, in the structure of the door and/or of the wardrobe caused by the assembling or by the (non flat) floor upon which it rests, the humidity that deforms the doors or other factors; however this is not always possible, since there are wardrobes with such a shape or size that do not allow the weight of the doors to be rested mainly at the top wherein upper brackets are provided, or do not allow devices adjusting the door orientation to be installed.
These devices need a certain space that not always is available, since they are located in the gap between the upper edge of the door where the brackets are applied and the upper plane of the wardrobe structure (also called as "top" by those skilled in the art).
Morevoer, the provision of the door adjustment device not always is favourable for applying means for braking it as mentioned above.
The present invention aims at overcoming such prior art; that is to say, it intends to solve the technical problem of providing a piece of furniture with sliding doors such as a wardrobe, a cloth storage or the like, with such structural and functional features to guarantee a regular smooth and precise movement of the doors, even when the wardrobe structure can have defects due to assembling, or to the irregular supporting floor or to any other reasons.
The idea for solving this problem is to arrange a wardrobe with a sliding system for the doors, wherein an edge of a door is guided in a balanced manner with respect to stresses acting transversaly thereto; this is particularly valid in case of stresses that tend to tilt or rotate it with respect to its ideal operating (vertical) condition, such as those caused by deformations or small failures of the wardrobe structure mentioned above, or caused by the braking force applied by the devices that slow the door at the limit stops.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the wardrobe has a sliding system for a door with rollers arranged in a staggered manner with respect to the sliding direction of the door.
Thus it is possible to balance situations (for instance due to structural defects of the wardrobe) that tend to deviate or rotate the door from its straight sliding direction, since the staggered rollers allow the clearances to be recovered with respect to the guide along which they move.
The force exerted by the door braking means is preferably applied substantially in the same plane as the rollers, such to be balanced with respect thereto.
The characterizing features of the invention are set forth in the claims annexed to this description; such features, the effects deriving therefrom and the advantages of the invention will be more clear from the description below, of an exemplary and nonlimiting embodiment shown in the annexed drawings wherein:

fig.1 is an axonometric view of a sliding system for wardrobe doors according to the present invention;
fig.2 is a view taken from another angle of a detail of the sliding system of fig.1;
fig.3 is a side view of the sliding system of the previous figures;
fig.4 is an exploded view of a second detail of the previous sliding system;
figs. 5 and 6 are views taken from respective angles of a third detail of the previous sliding system;
fig.7 is a further detail of the sliding system of the previous figures;
fig.8 is an axonometric projection view of a second embodiment of the sliding system according to the invention;
fig.9 is a detail of the system of fig.8.

With reference to the above listed drawings and particularly to figures 1 to 7, a sliding system for wardrobe doors according to the invention is designated by I as a whole.
For simplicity, in the figures the panels of the doors 2, 3 have not been depicted in proportions with respect to the members of the sliding system; however, as it will be appreciated better below, this does not affect the comprehension of the invention. The sliding system 1 comprises a pair of upper guides 4 and lower guides 5, along which the doors 2, 3 move according to respective parallel straight directions.
The pair of upper guides 4 is fastened to the upper wall P (or "top") of the wardrobe and it is composed of two grooves 8, 9 defined by corresponding parallel walls 10, 11 and 12, extending from a base 13; the latter is preferably made as one piece with the walls 10, 11, 12 in a single profile member with (reversed) "E"-shaped section made of aluminium, steel or other suitable material, not necessarily metal material (e.g. the guides 4 can be made of strong plastic material with good sliding properties, such as Teflon, polycarbonate, PVC, ABS and the like).
However the grooves 8, 9 may be made in a separate manner with respective profile members having a "C"-shaped section; moreover, as it will be better understood below, the upper guides 4 can be in the form of rails, that is a male profile member (like the one of the train rails) and therefore different from the grooves (that on the contrary have a female profile) of this example.
However the solution with grooves 8, 9 is advantageous since braking devices 14, 15 respectively may be housed therein which allow the travel of the doors 2, 3 to be slowed down at the limit stop points; the devices 14, 15 (equal to each other) are of the type known per se and each of them comprises a gas damping piston, with a rod (not shown in the drawings) that is connected to a bracket 20, 21 applied to a respective door 2, 3.
The brackets 20, 21 are fastened to the outer sliding door 2 and to the inner door 3 of the wardrobe respectively, by means of screws 22; they further have substantially a square shape, with a portion 20a, 21a projecting from the door, and a fastening portion 20b, 21 b where holes for the screws are arranged.
Each door is preferably supported by at least a pair of brackets 20, 21 even if in case of big wardrobes three or more brackets can be provided.
The brackets 20 located on the outer door 2 have greater dimensions, as regards the projecting portion 20a, which, according to a preferred embodiment, is length adjustable.
To this end on such portion a roller-holder support 24 is secured, in an adjustable manner, by means of a series of holes 23 and 25 arranged on the projecting portion 20b of the bracket and on the support 24 respectively: the holes 23 and 25 are arranged in not-rectilinear patterns, such that it is possible to adjust the position of the support 24 with respect to the bracket 20 by superimposing the holes 25 of the former on those on the latter and by securing them by means of screws 26, even by changing the angle orientation of the support 24.
The latter is provided with two idle rollers 30 arranged in a staggered manner with respect to the plane of the door 2, that is having different distances therefrom such that when the door is fitted on the wardrobe, they slide into the groove 8 rolling on the walls 10 and 11 thereof respectively.
The staggered arrangement of the rollers 30 allows them to be kept in contact with the walls 10 and 11 of the groove 8, even in case of defects of the wardrobe or of the door 2, in case of deformations, failures or any other things that can change the orientation thereof from the normal condition with the plane of the door parallel to the sliding direction.
In particular the staggered arrangement of the rollers 30 allow the clearances with the groove 8 to be recovered, keeping the door 2 in its vertical plane parallel to the sliding direction (defined by the guide 4) preventing it from rotating with respect to a vertical axis.
That is to say, the staggered rollers 30 prevent the door 2 from being positioned in a inclined position with respect to the sliding direction, since they do not allow it to rotate as on the contrary is the case of only one roller according to what occurs in the prior art.
This is very important if the sliding system provides braking devices.
To this end the bracket 20 is provided with an appendage 31 arranged in a position intermediate between the rollers 30; to such appendage a movable end of the damping device 14 is connected, that, as already said, is of the type known per se, for example as those produced by the same applicant of the present application which have one movable rod associated to a cylinder wherein a fluid (air or gas) is provided that viscously slows down the travel thereof.
One end of the rod extends out from the cylinder of the device 14 and is connected to the appendage 31 upon which it exerts the braking force: since the appendage 31 is in a central position with respect to the support 24 and the rollers 30, the force applied thereon is balanced and therefore it minimizes the stresses in the several components of the bracket 20 and of the guide 4.
It has to be noted that the central position of the appendage 31 is possible thanks to the rollers 30 being staggered, since should the latter be aligned the appendage would not be connectable to the braking device 14 and therefore it should be situated in a side or front area with respect to the bracket, such that the force applied by the device 14 would be inevitably unbalanced.
This is just the case to point out that in this case force components would be generated which tend to rotate the support 24, and therefore the bracket 20 such to adversely stress them.
Similar considerations are also valid for the brackets 21 secured to the inner door 3: the fact that they are shorter than the previous ones (that are arranged thereon as a bridge as it can be seen in figure 3) does not change the essence of things.
Even the brackets 21 have a square shape with a projecting portion 21a and a fastening one 21b with the holes for the screws 22; according to a preferred embodiment the bracket 21 is obtained by the support 24, where the fastening portion 21b is obtained by a moulding bending or other suitable mechanical treatment.
Thus the advantages obtained as regards manufacturing costs are clear, since by the same piece two separate components of the door sliding system according to the invention can be obtained.
Even the brackets 21 are provided with a pair of staggered rollers 32, with the relevant effects already explained above; the rollers 32 engage the groove 9 by rolling on the walls 11, 12 that laterally delimit it, such to assist the sliding of the inner door 3 of the wardrobe.
An appendage 33 is further provided on the bracket 21 to which the braking device 15 is connected, with the same results achieved by the other bracket 20 mentioned above.
In the sliding system of the invention the weight of the doors 2 and 3 rests on the pair of lower guides 5, that comprise grooves 38, 39 as well along which the rollers 40 of the carriages 41 provided at the lower edge of the doors 2 and 3 can move.
The carriages 41 are all equal to each other and comprise an outer structure or case 42 wherein the roller 40 is housed in an idle manner; the structure 42 of the carriage is fitted into a corresponding seat formed in the doors in a manner known per se.
In the sliding system described above, in the lower part the doors rest on the guides 5 while their upper edge with the brackets 20, 21 engages the upper guides 4 essentially for assisting their motion.
Therefore, the installation of the doors 2, 3 is quite easy since starting firstly from the innermost one, the carriages 41 are engaged into the lower guides 5 and the rollers 30, 32 are fitted into the upper guides 4.
Once this is made the position of the support 24 of the brackets 20 can be adjusted by the screws 26 in the holes 23; thus also the orientation of the outer door 2 is adjusted as desired, such to eliminate possible situations of interference with the inner door 3. In this phase the provision of the staggered rollers 30, 32 on the brackets 20, 21 allow the clearances along the grooves 8 and 9 to be recovered, such that the sliding of the doors is made more regular even considering that their travel is slowed down by the devices 14, 15.
As set forth, the latter act on the appendages 31, 33 of the brackets 20, 21 that have a central position with respect thereto, such to limit the structural stresses resulting from braking forces: it results that the motion of the doors 2, 3 is more regular and reliable even over time, since the forces applied on the brackets 20, 21 are more balanced.
In this context the respective pairs of staggered rollers 30, 32 of the brackets 20, 21, in addition to recovering the clearances with the guides 4 and 5 constitute also a constraint for their free end that transmits also a momentum, which opposes the one that tends to stress the brackets after the braking action.
From what described above it is possible to understand how the sliding system according to the invention solves the technical problem at the base thereof, stated hereinbefore.
By the particular configuration of the brackets 20, 21 with the staggered rollers 30, 32 the motion of the doors 2, 3 is regular, accurate and reliable; moreover, the force of the braking devices 8, 9 applied at the centre with respect to the brackets 20, 21 guarantees a better braking action.
In this context it has to be noted that according to the invention, the braking devices 14, 15 can be advantageously housed into the grooves 8, 9 along which the rollers 30, 32 move.
Thus a double positive effect is achieved: that of avoiding devices mounted on the outside on the wall P of the wardrobe to be provided, and that of aligning the devices 14, 15 with the rollers 30, 32 and with the grooves 8, 9 respectively; it is easy to understand that the alignment of the braking devices 14, 15 with the rollers 30, 32 causes the forces acting on the system I to be coplanar and therefore more balanced. Obviously variants of the invention with respect to what described above with reference to the drawings are possible.
For instance the number of the brackets can be different than the pair shown in the figures; even if this is the preferred solution, in principle by the presence of the staggered rollers the use of only one bracket for one door could be enough, since they allow the rotations of the door with respect to the vertical axis to be limited anyway.
Moreover it can be envisaged to have more than two rollers 30, 32 for a bracket 20, 21: for instance it may be possible to have three (or more) of them arranged in a staggered manner (quincunx) such to increase the stability of the support of the door in the relevant guide 4, 8, 9.
It has to be further reminded that the shape of the rollers and of the guides 4, 8, 9 can be different than the shown one, which however is advantageous since it allows guides with hollow grooves 8, 9 to be provided suitable for housing the braking devices 14, 15.
However the guides can be configured as rails instead of grooves, and consequently even the rollers shall have a different profile (e.g. like the one of the train rails). These variants fall within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

Sliding doors wardrobe, wherein a door (2, 3) comprises a bracket (20, 21) at an upper edge for supporting a roller (30, 32), a guide (4, 8, 9) applied on an upper wall (P) of the wardrobe along which the roller (30, 32) moves, characterized in that the door (2, 3) slidably rests on a lower guide (5, 38, 39) and the roller (30, 32) of the bracket (20, 21) has a rolling axis substantially perpendicular to the wall (P) upon which the guide is applied.
Wardrobe according to claim 1, wherein on the bracket (20, 21) there are provided at least two rollers (30, 32) arranged staggered with respect to the sliding direction of the door (2, 3).
Wardrobe according to claim 2, wherein the guide (4) comprises a groove (8, 9) engaged by the rollers (30, 32) of the bracket (20, 21).
Wardrobe according to any claims 1 to 3, comprising a braking device (14, 15) connected to the bracket (20, 21) for slowing down the travel of the door (2, 3), housed into the guide (4, 8, 9) where the roller moves.
Wardrobe according to any of the preceding claims, comprising an appendage (30, 31) in a median position to which a braking device (14, 15) is connected.
Wardrobe according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the length of the bracket (20) is adjustable.
Wardrobe according to claim 6, wherein the bracket (20) comprises a support (24) upon which the rollers (30, 32) are arranged, which is adjustably secured by means of holes (23, 35) arranged on the projecting portion (20) of the bracket and on the support (24) respectively, arranged in superimposable patterns.
Wardrobe according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the bracket (20) of the outer door (2) comprises a support (24) upon which the rollers (30, 32) are arranged, adjustably secured to a projecting portion (20a) of the bracket, from which support the bracket (21) of the inner door (3) is obtained by bending or other mechanical treatment.
Bracket for sliding doors of wardrobes, characterized in that it comprises a pair of rollers (30, 32) arranged staggered with respect to the sliding direction of the doors.
Bracket according to claim 9, comprising a projecting portion (20a) and one (20b) for fastening to the door, a support (24) for the rollers (30) adjustably secured with respect to the projecting portion (20a).
Bracket according to claim 10, wherein the projecting portion (20a) and the support (24) comprise respective holes (23, 25) superimposable on each other for adjustably fastening the support.
Bracket according to one of the claims 10 or 11, obtained by bending the support (24) or a part thereof.