ES2767277T3 - Industrial storage cabinet with at least one drawer - Google Patents

Abstract

Industrial storage furniture, especially a chest of drawers (1), which has a body (2) or a frame for receiving at least one drawer (3) of the industrial storage furniture, providing guide elements with which the drawers can be connected extracting and inserting and providing at least one optical indicator by means of which a control system of the industrial storage furniture can optically indicate the signals provided in relation to the information on the state of the drawers, providing at least one operatively connected light emitter to the control system of the industrial storage furniture for the supply of signals, which is arranged in the frame or the body (2) of the industrial storage furniture, being able to connect and disconnect the at least one light emitter from at least one drawer ( 3) by means of the signals provided by the control system, providing as optical indication elements some box indication elements in which the light transmitted / emitted without contact by the light emitter in the direction of the drawer (3) can be displayed in the drawer, characterized in that the light emitter is arranged on two opposite faces of the body opening in the frame or in the body (2) of the industrial storage cabinet.

Description

DESCRIPTION

Industrial storage cabinet with at least one drawer

The invention relates to an industrial storage unit, especially a drawer unit, which has a body or a frame for receiving drawers, providing guide elements with which the drawers can be removed and inserted and providing at least one optical indicator by means of which an industrial storage furniture control system can optically indicate the signals provided in relation to the information on the state of the drawers.

Especially in the industrial production sector there is often a need for intermediate storage of high value items. These may be tools, measuring equipment, components and the like, the value of which can easily represent a four or even five digit euro amount. However, there is a tendency for these objects to be stolen more and more from storage facilities, for example, storage cabinets, and even from factories and factory premises where access is restricted to certain groups of people. This causes considerable financial damage to companies. This is one of the reasons why tool cabinets whose access is controlled by an access or access authorization system have already been developed. This means that the complete cabinets and individual drawers can be locked or released from a central point. Since the drawers are usually divided by partitioning means and the individual drawer compartments can contain different storage objects with different access authorizations, frames are also offered to cover the drawers whose size corresponds exactly to the surface of the respective drawer. The frame must be placed from above on the drawer and attached to it. It has a matrix structure and has an opening for each compartment of the respective drawer that is accessible from above and can be closed and opened with a tilting flap. Each flap is assigned in the frame an open request key with which a top-level access opening device can request an unlock to open the flap in question or open a flap. Depending on the settings stored in the access authorization device in relation to the authorization of access of each user to the different compartments, the locking device of the corresponding drawer and the corresponding cover of the drawer is unlocked or the lock is maintained.

The applicant company already has drawers and other drawer-based industrial storage equipment in its product program, where status information or status information for each drawer is displayed on the front panel. In the case of this status information, it may be particularly, but not exclusively, release information on the drawer and the corresponding compartments within this drawer. However, the previous solution has the disadvantage of a high technical effort due to the necessary wiring work, since the cables and / or sliding contacts have to be placed inside the drawers in order to have energy and signals available in the drawers.

From document US 2005/0113970 A1 a drawer unit provided by the front part of its body with LED lamps also appears. The LEDs are arranged in a vertical row, with a direction of irradiation forward, mainly perpendicular to the front of the cabinet and drawers, and have the function of indicating information on the state of the drawer when lighting up in the body.

Therefore, the invention has for its object to create a possibility for industrial storage furniture of the type initially described by means of which the information on the situation and / or the state in the drawers can be visualized with less technical effort than the which has been used so far.

In the case of an industrial element of the type initially mentioned, this task is solved according to the invention by means of the features of claim 1, which comprise at least one light emitter operatively connected to the control system of the industrial storage furniture for the signal supply and arranged in the frame or body of the industrial storage furniture, being able to connect and disconnect the at least one light emitter of at least one drawer by means of the signals provided by the control system and providing in the drawers elements of indication with which the light transferred / emitted without contact by the light emitter in the direction of at least one drawer can be indicated in the drawer, light emitters being arranged on two opposite sides of the body opening in the frame or body of the furniture industrial storage.

In this way, it is possible to provide each drawer, with little technical effort and independently of the other drawers, information signs and / or status signs for the optical perception by people, without the need to arrange the light emitters in one of the drawers.

It is further preferred that at least one light emitter arranged on the frame or on the body is directed towards at least one indicating element arranged on one of the drawers so that the light emitted by the light emitter on the light element can be indicated. drawer indication as an optically perceptible signal.

A preferred improved variant of the invention can provide for the light emitters to be arranged at least approximately vertically one behind the other. Such a solution can be realized, for example, by means of a low cost LED strip in which the individual LEDs are combined into one component and can be activated by the control system as independently as possible. However, LEDs as emitters Light bulbs are also suitable in connection with the present invention regardless of the embodiments in which multiple light emitters are combined into one LED strip. Therefore, the invention also includes preferred embodiments with several LEDs or several light emitters arranged separately from each other.

A particularly advantageous short distance for a contactless transmission between the at least one light emitter and a suitable point of the respective drawer for the at least one indicating element in the drawer can be achieved, for example, by arranging the at least one emitter of light in the area of a front opening of the frame or body through which drawers can be removed or inserted from or into the frame or body. The same advantage is obtained in an advantageously improved variant of the invention, in which the light emitters are directly opposite the front faces of some drawer handles when the drawers occupy their insertion position. In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, provision can be made for the light from the at least one light emitter to be directed directly to the front of the drawer or indirectly, via light conductors, to the front of the drawer. In this sense, a holding element, for example a handle, arranged for manipulation of the drawer by a user during the extraction or insertion of the drawer from or into the cabinet body, should be considered as part of the front of the drawer, even if the handle constitutes a separate component or assembly. Information on or in relation to the corresponding drawer thus indicated by the light emitter as a consequence of the contactless transmission of light or light signals can be read on the respective drawer front as optically perceptible information.

At least a duplication of the information and optical signals transmissible to the drawers can be achieved according to the invention by arranging the light emitters on two different, especially opposite, sides of the opening in the frame or body of the industrial storage unit.

An increase in the amount of different optical information that can be represented in one of the drawers respectively can also be achieved using light emitters that may be capable of emitting light in different colors. Different optical information can also be obtained especially in another variant embodiment according to the invention, either alternative or complementary to the possibilities described above, with the same light emitter by means of different flash sequences generated by said light emitter.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, elements can be provided in at least one drawer with which the optical signals transferred to the drawer can be conducted without contact from one point of reception of the optical signal in the drawer to another point in the drawer. especially by means of a light conductor arranged in the drawer or on its handle. A preferred embodiment such as this of the invention may especially have a transparent handle, the light emitting light being directed, in the inserted state of the drawer or in the connected state of the light emitter, towards at least one of its front faces and introducing the especially contactless light on the handle. In this way it is possible to reproduce the light at any point of the shooter and thus display the corresponding information. Obviously, instead of transparent handles, it is also possible to provide partially transparent or non-transparent handles.

Other preferred embodiments of the invention result from the claims, the description and the drawing. The invention is explained in greater detail in view of exemplary embodiments represented purely schematically in the figures showing:

Figure 1 a perspective view of a drawer unit according to the invention;

Figure 2 a sectioned representation of the drawer unit of figure 1;

FIG. 3 shows a partially sectioned representation of a corner area of the drawer unit in FIG. 1.

Figure 1 shows a drawer 1 as it is usually used to a large extent for the storage of production elements, as well as for tools in the production or craft sector. The drawer unit 1 has a body 2 made of metal sheets. Each of the drawers 3 is provided with extraction elements 4, for example, of the so-called full extraction telescopic elements. By means of the known drawer extraction elements it is possible to remove individual drawers 3 from the body 2 and insert them back into the body 2. The drawer unit 1 can be provided with an access authorization device, as well as a security system for individual extraction. With the individual extraction safety system, it is possible to avoid the simultaneous extraction of more than one drawer and, consequently, a risk of overturning due to an excessive number of drawers removed 3. By means of the access authorization device, it is possible to determine, preferably variably, which are the drawers 3 that are released for removal from the body 2 and which of the drawers 3 are locked for removal. Different access authorizations can be provided and preferably set for different users and / or user groups. The respective data of the access authorizations are stored in a variable way in a control system of the drawer unit 1 and / or in a common control system for several drawer units 1. Both the access authorization device and the extraction security element individually they can use the same closing mechanism with which a drawer 3 and / or a group of drawers 3 of the drawer unit 1 can be locked separately from other drawers 3 against extraction. For this, a flap located in the area of the rear of the respective drawer can interact, for example, with a closure profile located in the area of the rear wall of the body (not shown in the figures). A drawer 3 inserted in the body 2 fits into the closing profile and, according to the position of the closing profile, this can hold or be located behind or release the flap in such a way that the flap and the drawer belonging to the respective flap are blocked against extraction. The present invention is not limited to this type of mechanical seal or release by an individual removal safety device described herein. In principle, the invention can be used with any individual extraction security device and any access authorization device. Furthermore, it is also possible to use the invention without an individual extraction safety device.

As shown in Figures 1-3, a vertically oriented row 8 of light-emitting diodes 9 is arranged in the body 2, in the region of the front ends of the two side walls 6, 7, respectively. In the exemplary embodiment, the light-emitting diodes 9 arranged on each side of the drawers 3 are respectively designed as a one-piece LED strip 10 or an LED strip, preferably located in a tube or in a protective cover to protect it from damage. Instead of the light-emitting diodes 9 as light emitters, any other type of light emitters can also be provided, for example incandescent lamps and / or light foils. The light-emitting diodes 9 are located on the inner faces of the edges 14 of the opening of the body 2, with which the body 2 surrounds the front faces 3a of the inserted drawers 3. In each of the two rows 8 of aligned light-emitting diodes Vertically and fundamentally parallel to each other, each light diode 9 can be switched on and off independently of the other light diodes 9 in this row 8 by means of a control system of the drawer unit 1 by means of corresponding signals. Each light diode 9 of each of the two rows of LEDs 8 is assigned to a single drawer 3 and is therefore directly opposite a front face of the drawer that has been assigned to it 3. Therefore, the al minus two light-emitting diodes 9 per drawer 3 (one light-emitting diode on each front face 20 of handle 21) can also be activated independently of each other. In this way it is possible to signal two different information on or in relation to the drawer by means of the two LEDs for each drawer 3 at the same time, for example, "access not possible" or "outside of service hours". In other exemplary embodiments, a single row 8 of light emitters or even on one or both sides respectively several rows 8 of light emitters can be provided together.

Likewise, in other embodiments of the invention a different number of light emitters per drawer can also be provided, especially at least two light emitters on at least one or both front faces of the drawers. On the other hand, in the embodiments according to the invention, provision can also be made for the fact that at least one light emitter is respectively provided on only one of the front faces of the drawers. In each conceivable embodiment of the invention, other light emitters than LEDs can also be provided, it being possible to use different types of light emitters, for example, incandescent lamps and / or light strips.

According to the preferred embodiment of figure 3, the LED strip 10 is arranged in an undercut 22 of the front frame of the body 2, so that the LED strip 10 is largely hidden from the outside and is not visible or barely visible. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the LEDs 9 of the LED strip are directly opposite the front faces 20 of the drawer handle 21. On each front face 20 of the handle 21 a handle cover 23 is provided. The handle cover 23 can have a surface 24 facing the corresponding LED and arranged a short distance from the LED, such that the LED assigned to the handle cover 23 emit and radiate its light at least in the direction of the surface 24 of the handle cover 23. The surface 24 of the handle cover 23 radiated by the corresponding LED is illuminated and can be recognized as such by a user of the drawer unit . In this exemplary embodiment, the drawer pull covers 23 have the function of drawer indication elements, which show the light emitted in the respective drawer. Since the corresponding LED indicates certain information, such as an existing access right for this drawer, or a "failure" or "expiration of the access time", the user can read or collect this optically perceptible information on the corresponding face front 20 of the handle 21. To improve the recognition of the optical signal on the front face 20 of the corresponding handle 21, the front face 20 can be provided with reflective material (especially strong). In the same way, an inclination or curvature of the surface 24 of the front face 20 could be provided so that the light emitted by the respective LED to the front face does not hit it along an optical axis orthogonal to the surface of the front face and that the incident light is reflected, in relation to the front face 3a of the drawer 3, towards the front of the drawer 3.

In another embodiment of the invention not shown, LEDs or other light emitters are arranged in the region of the opening of the body. Also in this case, the LEDs radiate light towards the front faces of the drawer handles that have been assigned to them, so the light emitters are activated, that is, connected and disconnected, by the corresponding control system . Contrary to the previously described embodiment of the invention, the light that falls on the respective handle is not reflected, but is introduced from the front face of the handle to the handle. The handle can be transparent, at least in part of it, so that the light introduced into the handle can be recognized from the outside or perceived optically. Furthermore, it is possible to provide that inside or in the handle there are light conductors outside so that the light can be brought to an area in the direction of the center or to the opposite front face of the respective drawer so that it can be seen at any point, but Default handle or drawer front on the handle strap or drawer front. In this way, the light generated by the light emitter can be transmitted without contact and even be shown at points far away from the respective light emitter in the drawer or on its handle. In your case, you can even light the handle to its full length.

In other embodiments according to the invention, instead of a front face of the handle, another element of the drawer, especially the front of the drawer, can be illuminated by means of at least one light emitter arranged next to the body frame. Instead of introducing light into a handle, light can also be introduced into another element arranged in the drawer, so that the respective light can be recognized from outside as corresponding to the respective drawer. In the same way, instead of introducing the light into a handle, the light can also be introduced into another element arranged in the drawer, through which the respective light can be recognized from the outside as belonging to the respective drawer. In addition, instead of providing the light conductor inside or on the handle, it can also be mounted on the front face for the non-contact reception of light from the light emitter not mounted in the drawer and its transmission to any point in front of the drawer in order to indicate it there. Finally, light from one or more light emitters can also be transmitted to the front face of the respective drawer there to provide optically perceptible signals there for the transmission of information about the respective drawer.

In each of the embodiments of the invention, especially in the previously described embodiments, more than a single light emitter can be provided if necessary. In particular, at least one or several or all of the drawers can assign at least two or more light conductors to respectively one drawer. Different light information can be assigned to each light conductor, such as "out of service time". For a better differentiation of the different information, the different light conductors of a drawer can emit light in different colors. Additionally or alternatively it can be provided that for the indication of different information one of the light conductors shows different light signals, for example, flashing sequences with different on and / or off times and / or different brightness levels, levels of variable brightness, color changes, in particular continuous and / or strong color changes.

In other exemplary embodiments according to the invention, instead of the body, a single frame can be provided, for example, a frame belonging to a shelf.

Reference list

1 chest of drawers

2 Body

3 Drawer

3rd front face

4 Drawer extraction element

6 Side wall

7 Side wall

8 Row

9 light-emitting diodes (LEDs)

10 LED strips

14 Edge

20 Front face

21 Shooter

22 Undercut

23 Handle cover

24 Surface

Claims (14)

1. Industrial storage furniture, especially a drawer (1), which has a body (2) or a frame for receiving at least one drawer (3) of the industrial storage furniture, providing guide elements with which the drawers at least one optical indicator by means of which an industrial storage furniture control system can optically indicate the signals provided in relation to the information on the state of the drawers, can be extracted and introduced and provided, at least one light emitter being provided operatively connected to the control system of the industrial storage cabinet for the supply of signals, which is arranged in the frame or body (2) of the industrial storage cabinet, being able to connect and disconnect the at least one light emitter of at least one drawer (3) by means of the signals provided by the control system, providing indication elements for indicating drawer with which the light transmitted / emitted without contact by the light emitter in the direction of the drawer (3) can be displayed in the drawer, characterized in that the light emitter is arranged on two opposite sides of the opening of the body in the frame or body (2) of industrial storage furniture. 2. Industrial storage cabinet according to claim 1, characterized by several light emitters arranged in the frame or body (2) of the industrial storage cabinet, which are respectively assigned to one of several drawers (3). Industrial storage cabinet according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one light emitter arranged on the frame or body (3) is directed towards at least one drawer indicating element arranged in one of the drawers (3) so that the light emitted by the light emitter in the drawer (3) can be shown as an optically perceptible signal. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the light emitters are arranged at least approximately vertically one behind the other. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the light emitters are arranged in the area of a front opening of the frame or body (2), from which the drawers (3) can be removed of the frame or body (2) into which they can be inserted again. 6. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the light emitters are, when the drawers (3) are in their inserted position, directly in front of the front faces of the handles (21) of the drawers. 7. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the light from at least one light emitter can be led as light emitted to the front of the drawer assigned to the light emitter or, through light conductors , on the front face of the drawer (3). 8. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the light emitters are configured as LEDs (9). 9. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized by several light emitters configured as an LED strip (10), the LED strip (10) being arranged in the frame or body (3) and extending the same in a vertical direction along several overlapping drawers (3), preferably along all the drawers. 10. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized by at least one light conductor assigned to a drawer (3), preferably to a single drawer, and provided for the introduction of light emitted by one of the emitters light on a drawer front and / or on a handle (21). 11. Industrial storage cabinet according to claim 10, characterized in that another light conductor is arranged on the drawer front and / or on the handle. 12. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized by a transparent handle (21), to which at least one front face the light is directed in the state of introduction of the drawer (3) and in the state of connection of the light emitter. 13. Industrial storage cabinet according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the drawers (3) are respectively assigned light emitters with which light can be emitted in different colors to indicate different information by means of different colors. 14. Industrial storage furniture according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized by light emitters that, for the transmission of information, can be activated in at least one flashing mode, preferably in different flashing modes.