ITMI20090197A1 - RELEASE HINGE WITH DAMPERS. - Google Patents

Description

"Snap hinge with damper"

The present invention refers to a snap hinge, in accordance with the preamble of claim 1, particularly but not exclusively a snap hinge to be used in furniture to ensure the correct opening and closing movement of the doors.

More particularly, the present invention relates to a snap hinge for allowing the opening and closing of furniture doors and doors comprising a cup-shaped part to be fixed recessed in the door, a hinge wing intended to be fixed to the shoulder of a piece of furniture, articulation means for connecting the hinge wing and the hinge cup to each other in an operatively connected way, elastic means for ensuring the snap closure of the hinge.

In the furniture sector, the need is increasingly felt to have hinges with standard shapes and sizes, able to correctly support the doors and, at the same time, to guarantee an effective snap closure of the doors even after a high and repeated number of drives.

In addition to the aforementioned need, which is now an essential requirement, the further need to prevent the flapping of the doors during their closure is strongly felt. To this end, the solution of providing, in combination with the hinges, suitable dampers able to dampen and slow down the closing movement of the doors has been popular for some time. Basically we want the furniture door to have a snap closure movement due to the action exerted on it by a spring during the closing movement and, at the same time, we want the closing movement of the door to be braked , ie slowed down, by the action of a damper.

Generally, the dampers used are of the damped piston type and can be fixed to the cabinet in such positions that they can be directly operated by the doors during the last stretch of their closing movement. This solution, although simple and effective, is penalized by the negative aesthetic impact due to the presence of the dampers which remain visible, even if inside the cabinet. Moreover, the application of these dampers to the cabinet involves the need to carry out further drilling and assembly operations compared to those generally required.

To overcome the aforementioned problems, an attempt was made to integrate the dampers into the hinge, fixing the fluid dampers directly to the hinge wing, for example as described and illustrated in the document US 2004/0205935.

Although appreciable in terms of the damping that can be achieved, fixing the damper on the hinge wing is not practical, as it requires shaping the hinge wing so as to make it suitable for fixing with the damper, as well as © not very firm as it offers a fixing point which is necessarily spaced from the fixing base through which the hinge wing is fixed to the piece of furniture.

The problem underlying the present invention is that of devising a snap hinge which has structural and functional characteristics such as to allow firm fixing of the shock absorber to the hinge, to satisfy the aforementioned requirements and to obviate the drawbacks mentioned above. said with reference to the known art.

This problem is solved by a snap hinge for furniture with a damper applied in accordance with claim 1.

The solution idea underlying the present invention is that of operatively associating to the articulated connection means of the hinge the damper device suitable for braking the reciprocal approaching movement between the hinge cup and the hinge wing during the last stretch of the closing movement of the hinge from the open hinge configuration to the closed hinge configuration, so that the damper device is directly supported by said connection means.

Further characteristics and advantages of the furniture hinge according to the present invention will emerge from the description given below of some of its preferred embodiment examples, given by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the attached figures, in which:

- figure 1 represents a perspective view of a hinge according to the invention in open configuration;

figure 2 represents a plan view in longitudinal section of the hinge of figure 1;

- figure 3 represents a perspective view of the hinge according to the invention in closed configuration;

figure 4 represents a plan view in longitudinal section of the hinge of figure 3;

figure 5 represents a perspective view of the hinge of figure 1 with the damper device shown in exploded view;

figure 6 represents a plan view in longitudinal section of the hinge of figure 5;

Figure 7 is an exploded plan view in longitudinal section of the damper device of the hinge of Figure 1;

- figure 8 represents a plan view in longitudinal section of the hinge according to the invention in an intermediate phase of the closing movement of the hinge and - figure 8 represents a perspective view of the hinge according to the invention in an intermediate phase of the movement zipper closure.

With reference to the aforementioned figures, 1 generally indicates a snap hinge for opening and closing a door D of a piece of furniture F.

Hinge 1 includes:

- a hinge cup 3 intended to be recessed fixed in a circular hole made in the internal part of the door D,

- a hinge wing 4 to be fixed to a shoulder of the piece of furniture F,

- articulated connection means adapted to connect the rear end 8 of the cup 3 in an articulated manner to a first end 5 of the hinge wing 4, so that the cup 3 and the hinge wing 4 are mutually articulated with respect to to the other to pass from a closed hinge configuration (Figures 3 and 4) to an open hinge configuration (Figures 1 and 2), and vice versa, in which the door D is closed and, respectively, open with respect to the rest part of the piece of furniture F, and - elastic means (not shown for simplicity of representation) adapted to act between said cup 3 and said hinge wing 4 to push the hinge 1 towards the aforementioned closed hinge configuration (Figures 3 and 4) during a last stretch of movement from the open hinge configuration (Figure 1,2) to the closed hinge configuration (Figure 4).

The hinge is made integral with the shoulder of the cabinet F by means of a base plate 7, to which the hinge wing 4 is fixed by interposition of an intermediate base 31.

The intermediate base 31 is equipped with engagement means suitable for hooking onto the base plate 7, in a per se conventional manner, and with centering and adjustment elements by means of which it is possible to ensure the fastening and correct positioning of the hinge wing 4 with respect to the underlying base plate 7, as well as allowing to adjust the position of the hinge wing 4 with respect to the base plate 7 in the longitudinal direction X-X along which the hinge wing itself extends. Since the aforesaid engagement means and the centering and adjustment elements are well known to those skilled in the art, it is avoided in the context of the present description to proceed with a detailed description of them.

In the example, the hinge wing 4 takes the form of a â € œCâ € profile, with a predetermined longitudinal axis X-X, formed by an upper flat wall from which two respective sides extend. When the hinge wing 4 is in engagement with the underlying base plate 7 by means of the intermediate base 31, the open side of the "C" faces towards the base plate itself. This conformation of the hinge wing 4 is completely conventional for a person skilled in the art.

The intermediate base 31 is shaped in such a way as to fit into the identified â € œCâ € of the hinge wing 4, forming with it a coupling of a suitable shape to allow the hinge wing 4 to be able to perform a limited relative movement in the longitudinal direction X-X with respect to the intermediate base 31. In accordance with what has been previously described, the correct positioning of the hinge wing 4 with respect to the underlying base plate 7 is obtained by suitably acting on the aforementioned centering and adjustment elements of the intermediate base 31.

A release button 26 is associated with the intermediate base 31, acting on which it is possible to release the intermediate base 31 and the hinge wing 4 from the base plate 7.

The cup-shaped part 3 extends as an extension of the hinge wing 4 in the aforementioned axial direction X-X starting from the rear end 8 and is identified by a bottom 9 from which a side wall extends. According to a standard of construction, the cup 3 has a size such that it can be housed in a hole having a diameter of 35 mm or, alternatively, it is possible that the cup has such dimensions that it can be housed in a hole with a diameter of 26. mm, the values of the diameters of the holes equal to 26 mm or 35 mm being values universally used today. More particularly, the cup 3 has along the X-X axis a length equal to the measure indicated above while in the transverse Y-Y direction it has an internal width defined between two opposite side walls 17 substantially arranged parallel to the X-X axis.

The hinge cup 3 has at its front end (i.e. the opposite end to the rear end where the hinge wing 4 is hinged) a front wall 23 extending between the two aforesaid opposite side walls 17.

In the examples illustrated, the cup 3 is equipped with an upper fixing flange 6 which surpasses the part shaped like a real cup and is equipped with holes, in the example two in number, each suitable for accommodating a respective fixing means, for example a screw or an expansion plug, to ensure the fixing of the cup 3 to the internal wall of the door D. It should be pointed out that, in some embodiments, the hinge cup can be without the fixing flange 6. Furthermore, the shape of the cup 3 may differ from that of the example described above.

In the embodiments illustrated, the aforementioned articulated connection means comprise an upper connecting rod 11 and a lower connecting rod 12 respectively pivoted at 13 and 14 to the hinge wing 4 and respectively pivoted at 15 and 16 to the cup 3. As can be seen from the figures, the pins 13 and 14 extend in the transverse direction Y-Y between the opposite sides of the hinge wing 4, while the pins 15 and 16 extend in the transverse direction Y-Y between the opposite side walls 17 of the cup 3.

According to the present invention, the hinge 1 is equipped with a damper device 2 adapted to be operated during the last stretch of the closing movement of the hinge 1, from the open hinge configuration (Figures 1 and 2) to the closed hinge configuration (figures 3 and 4), to slow the reciprocal approaching movement of the cup 3 with respect to the hinge wing 4.

In the example considered, the damper device 2 comprises a body 18 and an actuation element 19 which are operatively associated in such a way as to be mutually movable against each other in contrast to a damping braking action which opposes the relative movement of the element of actuation 19 with respect to the body 18.

With reference to the damper device 2, it should be noted that it is operatively associated with the aforementioned articulated connection means in order to be supported by them.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment illustrated, the damper device 2 is associated with the articulated connection means of the hinge so that the body 18 is substantially aligned with the hinge wing 4 in the aforementioned longitudinal X-X direction and, at the same time, is oriented so that the actuation element 19 protrudes from the body 18 in the direction of the cup 3.

As a consequence of the structure, arrangement and orientation described above of the damper device 2, an end portion 20 of the actuating element 19 protrudes from the body 18 and interferes with the cup 3 during the last portion of the closing movement of the hinge 1, passing from an advanced end-of-stroke position (Figures 1 and 2) to an end-of-stroke position further back (Figures 3 and 4) with respect to the body 18.

As an alternative to what has been described above, during the last stretch of the closing movement of the hinge 1, the end portion 20 of the actuation element 19 can interfere directly with the internal part of the door D which is The cup 3 is fixed or, in accordance with a further variant, it can interfere partly with the door and partly with the cup 3.

The damper device 2 comprises elastic means (not shown) which act on the actuation element 19 to push it with a predetermined elastic load towards the aforementioned advanced end stroke position. In this regard, it should be noted that the aforementioned predetermined elastic load is suitable for overcoming the damping braking action that is generated in the damper device 2 between the actuating element 19 and the body 18 during the relative movement of the actuating element. 19 with respect to the body 18, from the aforesaid one, a more rearward stroke end position (Figures 3 and 4) towards the forward stroke end position (Figures 1 and 2).

In the illustrated embodiment, the damper device 2 is operatively associated with the articulated connection means thanks to the fact that the body 18 of the damper device 2, more precisely a front appendix 21 thereof, is directly fixed to the aforementioned articulated connection means of the hinge 1 so as to be able to effectively counteract the action exerted on it by the actuation element 19 during its retraction from the advanced end stroke position to the rear end stroke position. Basically, the damper device is fixed to the aforementioned articulated connection means of the hinge 1 to prevent the body 18 of the damper device from retracting in the aforementioned axial direction X-X, during the last phase of the closing movement of the hinge, that is to say when the operating element 19 is pushed towards the rear position by the cup 3 and / or by the door D of the cabinet F.

More specifically, the body 18 has an end portion 21, in this case a tab, which is shaped so as to be directly fixed in a removable way to the upper connecting rod 11, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2.

In accordance with the illustrated embodiment, the tongue 21 has an extension and a conformation such as to substantially marry the shape of the upper connecting rod 11, so as to adhere to it, and has front 22 and rear 24 hooking elements thanks to which à ̈ able to snap onto the upper connecting rod 11.

In the illustrated embodiment, the tongue 21 and the body 18 of the damper device are made in a single piece obtained by blanking, bending and possible further processing by cold plastic deformation starting from a sheet of metallic material. In particular, the tubular portion of the body 18 is obtained by bending two fins of the lamina substantially in a semicircumference or, alternatively, by bending a fin to substantially form a complete circumference.

With respect to the part that forms the tubular body, the front portion of the damper device, that is to say the tongue 21 is therefore shaped in such a way as to substantially marry the profile of the upper connecting rod 11.

As an alternative to what has been described above, the tongue 21 can be made as a separate piece from the tubular body 18 of the damper device 2, as well as it can be made integrally, at least apparently, with the upper connecting rod 11.

It should be noted that, in accordance with the preferred embodiment illustrated in the figures, when the damper device 2 is operatively associated with the articulation means, that is to say when the tongue 21 is hooked to the upper connecting rod 11, the tubular portion of the body 18 which substantially extends the tongue 21 is substantially supported in a cantilever manner above the hinge wing 4, without however coming into contact with it.

Moreover, with reference to the operation of the hinge 1, it was found that, during the last stretch of the hinge closing movement, the damper device performs, with respect to the hinge wing 4, a relative movement of substantial oscillation in the plane of the hinge wing itself, since the distance between the hinge wing 4 and the rear part of the damping device 2, i.e. the end of the tubular body 18 distal from the tongue 21, temporarily increases (as illustrated in figures 8 and 9), and then returns to the initial value when the hinge is completely closed. This is due to the fact that, when closing the hinge 1, the angular position of the upper connecting rod 11 varies with respect to the hinge wing 4. In fact, as can be seen from the figures, the upper connecting rod 11 is more perpendicular to the hinge wing 4 when the hinge 1 is in the closed configuration (figure 4) than when the hinge is in the open configuration (figure 4). figure 2).

As a consequence of the aforementioned oscillation movement that the damping device 2 is able to perform with respect to the hinge wing 4, the overall damping effect of the closing movement of the hinge is particularly fluid and cushioned, avoiding phenomena of jamming and the like.

In accordance with different embodiments, the body 18 of the damping device 2 can have one or more portions resting on or directly fixed to the hinge wing 4, for example in correspondence with the rear part of the damping device 2.

Furthermore, the rear part of the damper device 2, that is to say the end of the tubular body 18 distal from the tongue 21, can be placed on or hooked to the aforementioned rear button 26 by acting on which it is possible to obtain the release of the intermediate base 31 and of the hinge wing 4 from the base plate 7. Indeed, the support on the button 26 made by a portion of the body 18 can constitute a safety device to prevent the inadvertent actuation of the button 26 itself. With reference to the damping device 2, it should be noted that the body 18 of the damper 2 can be replaced with a functionally equivalent guide means, that is to say an element capable of supporting and guiding the sliding of the actuating element 19 from the position advanced end of stroke to the backward one, and vice versa.

As can be appreciated from what has been described, the snap hinge for furniture to which a damper according to the present invention is applied allows to overcome the technical problem underlying the present invention, while overcoming the drawbacks referred to in the introductory part. of the present description with reference to the known art. In fact, according to the invention, the damper device 2 is directly supported by the articulation means of the hinge, in a stable manner and avoiding disadvantageous lever arms.

Another advantage of the hinge for furniture according to the present invention lies in the unusual structural and manufacturing simplicity, as well as in the possibility of using this hinge as a spare part for furniture using standard hinges.

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Claims (10)

CLAIMS 1. Snap hinge with applied damper for opening and closing furniture doors, said hinge comprising: - a hinge cup (3) adapted to be fixed recessed in the door (D) of a piece of furniture (F), - a base plate (7) adapted to be fixed to the shoulder of said piece of furniture (F), - a hinge wing (4) extended according to a predetermined longitudinal direction and fixed in an adjustable way to said base plate (7), - articulated connection means (11,12,13,14,15,16) adapted to articulate a rear end (8) of the hinge cup (3) to a first end (5) of said hinge wing ( 4), said hinge cup (3) and said hinge wing (4) being mutually articulated to be movable between a closed hinge configuration and an open hinge configuration in which the door (D) is closed and respectively open compared to the remaining part of the cabinet (F), - elastic means adapted to act to push said hinge towards the aforementioned closed hinge configuration during a last stretch of the closing movement of the hinge from the open hinge configuration to the closed hinge configuration, and - a damper device (2) comprising a body (18) and an actuation element (19) operatively associated so as to be mutually movable against each other in contrast to a braking action for damping the relative movement, in which said damper device is It is positioned in such a way that, during said last stretch of the closing movement of the hinge from the open hinge configuration to the closed hinge configuration, said operating element (19) is operatively operated by the hinge cup (3) and / or by the € ™ wing of the cabinet (F) to move with respect to the body (18) and brake the reciprocal movement of approach between the hinge cup (3) and the hinge wing (4), characterized in that said damper device (2) is operatively associated with said articulated connection means (11) to be supported by said articulated connection means (11). 2. Hinge according to claim 1, wherein said damper device (2) wherein said articulated connection means comprise: - an upper connecting rod (11) pivoted to the hinge wing (4) and to the cup (3) at a first pin (13) and, respectively, with a second pin (15), - a lower connecting rod (12) pivoted to the hinge wing (4) and to the cup (3) at a third pin (14) and, respectively, with a fourth pin (16), wherein said damper device (2) is operatively associated with said upper connecting rod (11) to be supported by said upper connecting rod (11). 3. Hinge according to claim 2, wherein said damper device (2) is fixed to said upper connecting rod (11). 4. Hinge according to claim 3, wherein said damper device (2) is hooked to said upper connecting rod (11). 5. Hinge in accordance with any one of claims 2 to 4, in which an end portion (21) protrudes from said body (18) of said damper device (2) shaped so as to at least partially match the profile of said upper connecting rod (11). 6. Hinge according to claim 5, wherein said end portion (21) has coupling elements (22,24) for hooking onto said upper connecting rod (11). 7. Hinge according to claim 5 or 6, wherein said end portion (21) of said damper device (2) is made in one piece with said tubular body (18). 8. Hinge according to claim 5 or 6, wherein said body (18) of said damper device (2) is supported by a support comprising said end portion (21). Hinge according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein said damper device (2) extends parallel to said hinge wing (4). 10. Hinge according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein said damper device (2) extends above said hinge wing (4) and is supported cantilevered by said articulated connection means (11) without being in contact with said hinge wing (4).