GB2482352A

GB2482352A - Self closing door assembly

Info

Publication number: GB2482352A
Application number: GB201012973A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Gary Souter; Philip Toovey
Original assignee: Maxim Design Group Ltd
Current assignee: Maxim Design Group Ltd
Priority date: 2010-07-31
Filing date: 2010-07-31
Publication date: 2012-02-01
Also published as: GB201012973D0

Abstract

A self closing door assembly (11, Fig.1) for fronting a cabinet or cupboard and comprising a frame having at least one pair of sliding doors 18, 19 in sliding engagement with respective upper and lower tracks 12, (13, Fig.1) respectively which are arranged to hold the two sliding doors 18, 19 in two substantially vertical planes offset one behind the other. The two doors 18, 19 are suspended from the upper track 12 by respective spaced apart bearing wheels 25, 26, 27 rotatable about respective axes and guided for movement by the lower track (13, Fig.1). Each door 18, 19 is biased to a closed condition by a spiral return spring 36 mounted on a wheel axle with its free end anchored to the upper track 12 for a bearing wheel.

Description

A Display Cabinet and Front therefor

Field

This invention relates to sales display cabinets and in particular but not exclusively to point of sale display cabinets for the sales of tobacco products.

Background of the Invention

Display units are frequently used in retail outlets behind the pay counter, and in order to maximise the display area the shelves are as closely stacked one on another as is possible. Modern shelving, especially for display and sale of cigarettes, is typically divided into stock trays provided with spring loaded pack pushers which feed a row of packs towards the front of the tray. In this condition, the packs are easy to access for sale and when the shelves are viewed from the front, the front packs in their respective trays can be easi'y viewed.

In some countries, the legislature may deem that it is undesirable for cigarette packets to be on permanent view to prospective customers. It is therefore necessary to provide a means for easy access to the goods, allow sight of the goods for selection to the sales person and which masks the goods from view at other times. Typically the maxim area of temporary view of the tobacco product is limited to around 7500 cms2 and the doors should be closed when no sales are taking place.

The present invention provides a door assembly for a cabinet which is a solution to the above problem.

Statements of Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a self closing door assembly for fronting a cabinet or cupboard, in partiöular a display cabinet for tobacco products, and comprising a frame having at least one pair of sliding doors in sliding engagement with respective upper and lower tracks arranged to hold the two sliding doors in two substantially vertical planes off-set one behind the other, the two doors being suspended from their respective upper tracks by spaced apart rotatable bearing means and guided by the lower track, each door being biased to a closed condition by a return spring acting between the upper track and an ax'e of one of said bearing means.

The closed doors mask the goods displayed within the cabinet and when pushed manually to open against the spring bias to facilitate access to goods adjacent the front of the cabinet, the door will close automatically when released. The doors of each pair open in opposite directions of travel.

The bearing means may comprise spaced apart wheels mounted on the doors and which run along paths on the upper track, preferably three wheels, a first wheel mounted at one end portion of the door on one side thereof and a pair of wheels mounted coaxially with each other on both sides of the door at the other end portion thereof. The sliding movement of one door relative to the other door may be maximised by cut-outs in the respective doors accommodating wheels on the other door.

The return spring acts between the axle for the pair of wheels and the upper track and is preferably a spiral spring mounted on the wheel axle of said pair of wheels and located between said pair of wheels with its free end connected to the upper track.

The upper track corn prises an extrude track having two paths either side of a central cavity, the two paths providing support surfaces for the wheels of a respective door and the central cavity accommodating the return spring. The free end of the spiral spring is connected to a retention clip housed in the central cavity and anchored to the track.

The doors may be locked to the lower track in their closed condition.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a cabinet or cupboard having a self closing door assembly according to the first aspect of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Drawings

The Invention will be described by way of Example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a tobacco sales unit having a self closing door assembly according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is an isometric view of a pair of doors mounted in an upper track with both doors in a closed condition in Fig. 2A and with the left hand door open in Fig. 2B, Fig. 3 is an enlarged portion of Fig.2B, Fig. 4 is an end on view in the direction of arrow A in Fig.3, and S Fig.5 is a section through a door and lower track on the line V-VinFigl.

Detailed Description of the Present Invention

With reference to Fig 1, there is shown a point of sale cabinet 10 for tobacco products having a self closing door assembly 11. The door assembly 11 comprises a plurality of doors, in this example six doors, 1 4-1 9 in sliding engagement with respective upper and lower tracks 1 2 & 13. The doors 14-19 are arranged in pairs 14 & 15, 16 & 17, 18 & 1 9 with the upper and lower tracks 12 & 1 3 arranged to hold the two sliding doors in each pair of doors in two substantially vertical planes off-set one behind the other in each respective pair. Othe arrangements of doors in different widths and heights can be utilised as is desired for the particular shelving arrangement within the cabinet. Each pair of doors 14&15, 16 & 17, 18 & 19 may locked in a closed condition by key operable push locks 21 located in the overlapping bottom portions of the respective pairs of doors.

The door assembly 11 is arranged in a rectangular frame comprising the upper and lower tracks 12 & 13 and substantially vertical sides 23,24. The frame may be formed integrally with the cabinet 10 or may be separate therefrom and mounted to the cabinet. The pairs of doors are substantially identical to each other and therefore only one pair of doors 18 & 19 will be described in detail.

With reference to Figs. 2 to 4, the two doors 18 and 19 are suspended from their respective upper track 1 2 on a plurality of spaced apart bearing wheels, in this example each door 18 or 19 is mounted on three bearing wheels 25,26 and 27 but other numbers of wheels may be used.

The wheels are arranged as a first wheel 27 rotatably mounted to one side of the door at one end portion of the door nearest the other door when closed (Fig. 2A), and a pair of wheels 25 & 26 rotatably mounted coaxially with each other on both sides of the door at the other end portion of the door furthest from the other door when closed, (see Fig 2A). The two wheels 25 & 26 are arranged with one wheel 26 adjacent the respective door and the other wheel 25 spaced apart from the door on a axle 28 with a gap 29 therebetween.

As can be seen in Fig. 4 the upper track 12 is an extruded track having two paths 31, 32 for the bearing wheels either side of a central cavity 33.

The two paths 31,32 providing support surfaces for suspending the doors 18 and 1 9 from the track. The wheels 25A, 26 A & 27A for the left hand door 1 8 (when closed) are arranged so that the wheels 26A & 27A run along path 31 and the wheel 25A on the other side of the door runs along path 32. The wheels 25B,26B and 27B for the right hand door (when closed) are arranged so that wheel 26B runs along path 31 and wheels 25B & 27B run along path 32. The respective doors 18 19 are suspended from the respective wheel axle 28 and hang down through the central cavity 33 with the door 1 8 off-set in front of the door 1 9.

Starting from the closed condition shown in Fig. 2A,when the left hand door 18 is moved rightwards to a fully open position in front of door 19 as shown in Fig. 2B, the maximum length of movement for the wheels 25B & 26B on door 1 9 along the track is accommodated by a cut-out 34 in the upper adjacent portion of door 1 8 and the wheels 25A & 26b are accommodated in like cut-out 35 in the door 1 9. The two cut-outs also accommodate movement of the right hand door 19 leftwards to a fully open position behind door 1 8 Each door 1 8 & 19 is biased to its closed condition by a return spring 36 acting between a respective retaining clip 37 anchored to the upper track 1 2 and the axle 28 for the respective the pair of wheels 25,26. The spring 36 is preferably a spiral spring which when coiled is mounted on the respective axle 28 in the gap 29 between respective wheel 25 and the door. The coil spring extends when a door 1 8 or 1 9 is opened with the central cavity 33 accommodating the extended return spring with the free end 39 of the return spring being held in the clip 37. The spring is a constant force spring which shuts the door at a steady rate. Alternativey, a variable rate spring may be used to that the spring load acting on the sliding door reduces as the door approaches the fully closed condition.

With reference to Fig. 5, there is shown the lower track 1 3 which is also an extruded track having two side by side grooves 41 & 42 which in use receive the bottom portions of the doors 18 & 19. The grooves 41 & 42 guide the doors 18 & 19 for sliding movement and retain the doors in the substantially vertical condition. The two doors 18 & 19 can be locked together by the push lock 21 The doors are arranged so that when any one dooi is open the area of tobacco product that can be viewed does not exceed 7500 square cms.

The number of pairs of doors per cabinet can be varied as desired and doors can be arranged with a first set of sliding doors located above a second set of sliding doors depending upon the height of the cabinet and the relative height of the doors.