GB2594444A

GB2594444A - Tilting Drawer System

Info

Publication number: GB2594444A
Application number: GB2003518.4A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Glass Michael
Original assignee: Stirling Medical and Scientific Ltd
Current assignee: Stirling Medical and Scientific Ltd
Priority date: 2020-03-11
Filing date: 2020-03-11
Publication date: 2021-11-03
Anticipated expiration: 2040-03-11
Also published as: GB2594444B; GB202003518D0

Abstract

A tilting drawer system 100 comprising: a drawer, and two pairs of pivot hinge assemblies 122,124, each hinge assembly comprising: a cabinet hinge member (221, Figure 2) for fixing to an interior surface of a sidewall 151 of a cabinet 150, a drawer hinge member (222, Figure 2) fixed to an outer surface of a side wall of the drawer, and a pivot arm (230, Figure 2) pivotally connected at respective ends to the cabinet hinge member and the drawer hinge member; the first pair of assemblies symmetrically mounted on opposing side walls toward a front of the drawer and the second pair of assemblies symmetrically mounted on opposing side walls towards a rear of the drawer; wherein, in use, the drawer hinge 10 members are caused by their respective hinge arms to follow an arcuate path about the respective cabinet hinge members, between a closed position and an open position. The system is suitable for use in a medical wall cabinet. The arcuate paths followed by each drawer hinge member may pass above its respective cabinet hinge member.

Description

Tilting Drawer System [1] The present invention relates to a tilting drawer. In particular it relates to a tilting drawer system for use in medical treatment environments. Even more particularly it relates to hinge assemblies for mounting a tilting draw at the bottom 5 of medical wall cabinets.

Background of the Invention

[2] Storage is essential in medical facilities. Medical practitioners need to maintain a clean, clutter free space for treating patients. But they also need to have easily and quickly to hand anything required for treating any variety of medical issues and emergencies. Therefore, high quality storage solutions are a foundation of any smoothly running medical facility.

[003] Drawers are a staple of storage. Standard horizontally extending drawers are good, but have drawbacks in some situations. One of the main drawbacks of standard horizontally extending drawers is they often do not provide easy access to the whole storage area of the drawer; the "back" of the drawer compartment is often obscured by the frame and/or walls of the cabinet it is mounted in. And even with drawers which can fully extend outwards, in a busy medical treatment environment a fully extended drawer (often extending into walkways and work areas) can create a hazard.

[004] One solution to this is to use tilting drawers which open horizontally and then tilt downwards. This both allows easy access to the whole storage space of the drawer and reduces the horizontal footprint of the drawers when in the extended position.

[005] Tilting drawers have their own drawbacks. Often, the mechanisms for actuating the tilting drawers are complex and fragile Furthermore, tilting drawers often require a catch-like mechanism to hold the drawer in the dosed position.

[006] Tt is an object of the current invention to provide a tilting drawer for mounting at the bottom of a wall mounted cabinet, the drawer having a simple durable actuation mechanism which naturally holds the drawer in the closed position.

Statement of Invention

[7] According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a tilting drawer system comprising a drawer, and two pairs of pivot hinge assemblies, each hinge assembly comprising: a cabinet hinge member for fixing to an interior surface of a sidewall of a cabinet, a drawer hinge member fixed to an outer surface of a side wall of the drawer, and a pivot arm pivotally connected at respective ends to the cabinet hinge member and the drawer hinge member; the first pair of assemblies symmetrically mounted on opposing side walls toward a front of the drawer and the second pair of assemblies symmetrically mounted on opposing side walls towards a rear of the drawer; wherein, in use, the drawer hinge members are caused by their respective hinge anus to follow an arcuate path about the respective cabinet hinge members, between a closed position and an open position.

[8] An embodiment of the invention wherein the arcuate paths followed by 25 each drawer hinge member between the closed and open positions passes above its respective cabinet hinge member.

[009] An embodiment of the invention wherein drawer hinge members of the first pair of hinge assemblies, when in the open position, are vertically lower than their respective cabinet hinge members.

[010] An embodiment of the invention wherein, when in use in the open position, the drawer is supported by at least one angle stop mounted on an internal surface of a side wall of the cabinet between two cabinet hinge members.

[11] An embodiment of the invention wherein, in use, the drawer in the open 10 position is supported by the least one angle stop, via at least one damping means mounted to an outer surface of a sidewall of the drawer between two drawer hinge members.

[12] An embodiment of the invention wherein the at least one damping means is 15 in the form of a soft close piston.

[13] An embodiment of the invention wherein the pivotal connections at the respective cabinet and draw ends of the hinge arms are so related to one another that when in the closed position the drawer end pivotal connection is above and further towards the back of the cabinet than the cabinet pivotal connection, such that the weight transmitted to the hinge arms by the tilting drawer acts to bias the tilting drawer in the direction of its closed position until an external force is applied in the opposite direction.

[014] An embodiment of the invention wherein, in use, the hinge arms mounted to the same side of the tilting drawer are never parallel in any shared planes.

Brief Description of the drawings

[015] Figure lA depicts a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the invention in a closed position; [016] Figure 1B depicts a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the invention in a predominantly closed position; [17] Figure 1C depicts a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the invention in a predominantly open position; [18] Figure 11) depicts a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the invention 15 in an open position; [19] Figure 2 depicts a schematic view of a pivot hinge assembly. Detailed Description [20] Definition of terms. The invention will be discussed using a frame of reference fixed with respect to a wall mounted cabinet. The terms 'back', 'rear' etc. will refer to a direction towards the wall the cabinet is mounted on from the centre of the cabinet. 'Front', 'forward' etc. will refer to a direction opposite to that meant by 'back', 'rear' etc. 'Up', 'top' etc. will refer to the direction towards the top of the cabinet from the centre of the cabinet. 'Bottom', 'down' etc. will refer to a direction opposite to the direction meant by 'up', 'top' etc. 'Side' will be used to refer to a direction substantially perpendicular to the plane defined by the front-back and top-bottom directions. 'Inward', 'inner' etc. will refer to a direction

S

travelling substantially toward the centre of the cabinet. 'Outer 'outside will refer to a direction substantially traveling away from a centre of the cabinet.

[21] Figure 1 depicts a cross section of an embodiment of the invention transitioning from a dosed position (figure 1A) to an open position (figure 1D).

There is the tilting drawer 100, mounted to the bottom of a wall cabinet 150. The wall cabinet 150 has side wall 151 and side wall 152 (not shown). The tilting drawer 100 is mounted to the inner surfaces of the side walls 151, 152 by two pairs of pivot hinge assemblies, the front pair of pivot hinges 122 and 121 (not shown) are symmetrically mounted on opposing side surfaces of the drawer 100 towards the front. The rear pair of pivot hinges 124 and 123 (not shown) are symmetrically mounted on opposing side surfaces of the tilting drawer 100 towards the rear.

[22] The pivot hinge assemblies, an example of which can be seen in figure 2, each consist of a cabinet hinge member 221, a drawer hinge member 222, and a pivot arm 230, pivotally connected to both the cabinet hinge member 221 and the drawer hinge member 222 at respective opposing ends. The cabinet hinge member 221 is for securing to an internal side surface 151 of a wall mounted cabinet 150, and the drawer hinge member 222 is for connecting to an outer side surface 112 of the tilting drawer 100. The drawer hinge member 222 is supported by the cabinet hinge member 221 via the pivot arm 230. The drawer hinge member 222 moves in relation to the cabinet hinge member 221 in a curved path (best shown by figures 1A-D). In figure 2 only one hinge assembly is shown and the cabinet 150 and drawer 100 are not shown in complete detail so as to show the hinge assembly more clearly.

[23] It is to be particularly noted that \nth the construction of the hinge assemblies, the movement of any point on any of drawer nim-te members 22: is confined to a single arc, as represented for example by figures 1A--D, where the tilting drawer moves in its own curved path between the dosed position (figure d the fully open position (figure 11)).

[24] The pivotal connections 231,232 at the respective cabinet and draw ends of the hinge arms 230 are so related to one another that when in the closed position the drawer end pivotal connection 232 is above and further towards the back of the cabinet than the cabinet pivotal connection 231. Such that the weight transmitted to the hinge arms 230 by the tilting drawer 100 acts to bias the tilting drawer 100 in the direction of its closed position until an external force is applied in the opposite direction.

[25] When in the open position the tilting drawer 100 is held in position by at least one angle stop (not shown) mounted to an internal side surface of the cabinet side walls 151 or 152, and a damping element (not shown) mounted on an external side surface of the tilting drawer 112 in between the pairs of hinge arms 230. When moving from the closed position to the open position the damping element comes into contact with a surface of the angle stop and dampens the movement of the tilting drawer 100 until it is in the fully open position and the damping means is fully abutted against the surface of the angle stop.

[26] The damping means can be any suitable damping means known to the person skilled in the art. For example the damping means could be foam rubber, a spring under tension, a soft close piston etc. [027] The invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment The description is intended to enable a skilled person to make the invention, not to limit the scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims.

Claims

Claims 1 A tilting drawer system comprising a drawer, and two pairs of pivot hinge assemblies, each hinge assembly comprising: a cabinet hinge member for fixing to an interior surface of a sidewall of a cabinet, a drawer hinge member fixed to an outer surface of a side wall of the drawer, and a pivot arm pivotally connected at respective ends to the cabinet hinge member and the drawer hinge member; the first pair of assemblies symmetrically mounted on opposing side walls toward a front of the drawer and the second pair of assemblies symmetrically mounted on opposing side walls towards a rear of the drawer; wherein, in use, the drawer hinge members are caused by their respective hinge arms to follow an arcuate path about the respective cabinet hinge members, between a closed position and an open position. 2. 4. 5.
A tilting drawer according to claim 1 wherein the arcuate paths followed by each drawer hinge member between the closed and open positions passes above its respective cabinet hinge member.
A tilting drawer according to any preceding claim wherein drawer hinge members of the first pair of hinge assemblies, when in the open position, are vertically lower than their respective cabinet hinge members.
A tilting drawer according to any preceding claim wherein, when in use in the open position, the drawer is supported by at least one angle stop mounted on an internal surface of a side wall of the cabinet between two cabinet hinge members.
A tilting drawer according to claim 4 wherein, in use, the drawer in the open position is supported by the least one angle stop, via at least one damping means fixed to an outer surface of a sidcwall of the drawer between two drawer hinge members.
6. A tilting drawer according to claim 5 wherein the at least one damping means is in the form of a soft close piston
7 A tilting drawer according to any preceding claim wherein the pivotal connections at the respective cabinet and draw ends of the hinge arms are so related to one another that when in the dosed position the drawer end pivotal connection is above and further towards the back of the cabinet than the cabinet pivotal connection, such that the weight transmitted to the hinge arms by the tilting drawer acts to bias the tilting drawer in the direction of its closed position until an external force is applied in the opposite direction.
8. A tilting drawer system according to any preceding claim wherein, in use, hinge arms mounted to the same side of the tilting drawer are never parallel in any shared planes.