SE519509C2 - Door Fastener - Google Patents

Abstract

A closing arrangement for and method of closing a lid (4, 44) that is normally in closed position, which lid (4, 44) is pivotable about a substantially horizontal axis (5), the arrangement comprising a spring device (16, 56) acting between the lid (4, 44) and a container (1) on which the lid (4, 44) is fitted, which spring device (16, 56) is arranged to be tensioned when the lid (4, 44) is opened and to commence closing the lid (4, 44) from an open position at least as far as a position in which the lid continues the closing action on its own due to the force of gravity, a damper (8, 57) being arranged to dampen the movement of the lid (4, 44) at least during a part of the lid's (4, 44) movement from open position to closed position.

Description

20 25 30 519 509 2 ma place can be up to approx. 200 st. In addition, each customer who opens the door must deform the device in order for it to function as intended, which is perceived by the customers as an annoying moment when opening.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a lid closing device which enables an automatic closing of an upwardly openable door to a container for primarily food but which is also applicable to other types of containers, for e.g. medicines, health products and the like, to protect the contents of the container from the surrounding atmosphere by keeping the door closed.

A further object of the present invention is to provide, in a more hygienic manner, an automatic closing of a door to such a container in the past.

A further object is to enable a closing of a door divided into an initiation phase during which the door is affected by a closing force and a closing phase during which the door is closed by its own weight and the force changes to braking action.

In addition, the object of the present invention is to provide a cheap solution to the above-mentioned problem, which solution also entails improved closing properties of a door to a container.

In addition, the purpose is to significantly reduce the noise level when the door is closed.

Summary of the Invention By the present invention, as set forth in the independent claims 1 and 10, the above objects are fulfilled in which said disadvantages have been eliminated. Suitable embodiments of the invention are set out in the dependent claims.

The door according to the invention is provided with a closing device comprising spring means and damping means. These parts can be designed as separate units or consist of only one unit in which both the capercaillie function and the damping function have been combined. The spring device is arranged to start with its spring force on a closing movement of the door from open position and the damping device is arranged to either continuously or at least during a part of the movement of the door dampen the movement of the door either in both directions or only closing or opening.

The spring device also acts as a brake on the movement of the door just before closing to avoid disturbing noises. The spring force is determined to be zero at an opening of the door at an angle of between 20 ° -40 ° upwards from the horizontal plane. With a further opening of the door, the spring is tightened to initiate closing when the door is momentarily released, and with a smaller opening than these 20 ° -40 °, the spring is tightened in the other direction to brake and balance the weight of the door to a soft closing.

During the entire movement of the door, the damping device, which is preferably of the silicone grease type, acts as a means of balancing and controlling the speed of the movement.

The damper is selected to operate in the temperature range 18 ° -25 ° C for goods at room temperature and in the range -8 ° to 0 ° C for refrigerators and freezers.

The number of springs is one or more with different capercaillie characteristics for each damper. The dampers preferably consist of standard components, e.g. Silicon Damper from lTW Produx, whereby the spring / springs are selected and connected to the damper depending on the weight of the door.

The use of the present invention is i.a. as a door closing device in the food industry and then especially to containers for picking sweets or other self-service products as the following described embodiments show. Separate phases when closing doors for different uses can with the present invention be determined in time with high accuracy by selecting the constituent parts.

Balancing means for achieving a soft closing of the door are achieved in the embodiments shown below by tightening the cylindrical torsion springs in the opposite direction, but can also be designed with leaf springs, counterweights or other. Brief description of the drawings drawing figures to be described in more detail. Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a first embodiment according to the present invention.

Figure 2 shows an exploded view of a hatch with fi springs and dampers according to the embodiment in figure 1.

Figure 3 shows a section through the axis of rotation of a hatch, both sides of which hatch are provided with a spring device and a damping device according to Figure 2.

Figure 4 shows a perspective view of a second embodiment according to the present invention.

Figure 5 shows an exploded view of a door with a closing device according to the embodiment of Figure 4.

Figure 6 shows an exploded view of a closing device with damping devices and spring devices according to the embodiment in Figure 5.

Description of the invention Figure 1 shows a transparent container 1 for so-called pick candy which container is provided with a vertical filling part 2 and an picking part 3 extending outwards from the filling part. The pick part 3 is limited upwards, either completely or partially, by a flat transparent door 4 which is foldably mounted around a substantially horizontal axis 5 near the filling part 2. The filling part 2 is also provided with a lid, not shown. As can be seen from the figure, the distance between the shaft and the vertical filling part 2 means that the door in the fully raised position assumes an angle which means that the door is kept open by its own weight if it is not affected by any forces other than its own weight. In the embodiment shown, the door in the closed position assumes an angle inclined downwards from the filling part. The angle of movement ot between fully raised position and fully closed position is between 90-170 °. The angle of movement ot is divided into three sub-angles, oc, ot ", if, where oi, denotes an initialization phase extending from fully open (raised) position to a position where the gravity of the door takes over continued closing, where oin denotes a first closing phase which extends from the position of gravity transfer to an imaginary horizontal plane HP through the axis 5 and oem, denotes the angle between the horizontal plane and a position where the door is completely closed. All these positions are indicated by dashed lines in the figure. . Between the door 4 and the picking part 3 of the container, a closing device 6 is mounted on each side of the door 10 on each side of the door. The closing device is mounted in cavities in the rear edge of the door, which cavities extend inwards towards the center of the door along its axis 5.

Figure 2 shows a disassembled non-transparent door 4 provided with said cavities 7 for the closing device 6 in the rear edge of the door. In the bottom of the cavity there is a groove in which the end of the cooperating spirit of the outer casing 9 of the damping device 8 is arranged to be inserted to secure the outer casing 9 against the lid 4. The other end of the damping device 8 is provided with a rotating body 10 inserted into the outer casing 9 and provided with , not shown, carrying surfaces intended to carry silicone grease in the damping device when the rotating body 10 is rotated relative to the outer casing 9. The end of the rotating body 10 is further provided with a square hole 11 in which a cooperating square pin 12 is inserted. The pin is fixedly mounted on a bearing plate 13 which on the opposite side is provided with a mounting button 14 for fitting into a corresponding recess in the side wall of the container during mounting. In addition, the bearing plate is rotatably mounted on the container through an edge 15 cooperating with the container.

Furthermore, a spring device 16, in the form of a cylindrical torsion spring, is mounted around the outer casing of the damping device at its outer end, one end of the spring device 16 being clamped in the bearing plate 13 while its other end is clamped in the door 4 or in the door cavity 7.

The spring device 16 is so clamped between the door and the container that it is unloaded at an opening angle of 20 ° -40 ° up from the horizontal plane HP when the door is mounted.

Figure 3 shows the door with mounted closing device in a section through the shaft 5, the damping devices 8 being mounted in both cavities 7 of the door 4. In addition, the figure shows how the bearing plates 13 are pivotally secured through the edge 15 towards the container 1.

Figure 4 shows a second embodiment of the invention in which a closing device 46 is arranged to act between the door 44 and the container 1.

The closing device 46 comprises a sleeve 47 which is fitted in a recess 48 in the door 44. Figure 5 shows that the sleeve is provided with a groove 49 with which the sleeve 47 is secured against rotation against the door 44. The closing device 46 also includes a working body 50 which is either pressed or glued into the sleeve 47.

Figure 6 shows the actuating body 50 in Figure 5 disassembled, showing a spring member 56 and two damper halves 57a, 57b in a damper 57. In this embodiment of the closing device the above-mentioned entraining surfaces 58. Also included in the damping device 57 also appear. The carrier member 61 engages in one of the damper halves 57a which is rotated together with the rotary member 59. in this case a relative movement is produced between the damper halves. An end 62 provided with locking shackles 63 is arranged to be snapped onto a damper housing 65 provided with projections 64. Around the damper halves 57a, 57b the spring member 56 in the form of a cylindrical rotating spring is mounted. One end of the spring is fixed in the rotary device 59 and its other end is fixed in the damper housing 65. Thus, the spring is clamped depending on the rotation of the pivot pin 60, which in turn depends on the position of the door corresponding to the embodiment according to Fig. 1.

The function of the door closing device according to the embodiments shown in connection with the use in a candy dispenser is the following: In the normal mode the door is closed, ie. in the lowered position. When a customer then wants to pick sweets from the picking part 3 of the container 1, he opens the door 4 to a completely open position, ie. the door folds upwards until it receives the filling part 2 of the container, ie. the dashed position shown in figure 1. When the customer releases the door, the der spring device 6 causes the door to return to the normal position, ie. fi the spring device slowly turns the door back past an upper dead center position during the initialization phase ot, which is determined in time to a suitable value in the interval 2-30 s, e.g. 20 seconds, so that the customer has time to pick the desired amount of candy. Thereafter, the gap of its own weight continues the movement faster down to the normal position during the closing phase d ", damped by the damping device 8, 57. The time for the closing phase is considerably shorter than during the initialization phase.

The appropriate length of the closing phase is approx. 2 seconds. In particular, just before closing the door 4, the damper acts in combination with the fi spring device, which is tensioned in the other direction, in order to avoid disturbing noises when the door is closed. Within the scope of the invention, it is also possible to vary the spring means to both type and location. For example, a cylindrical tension spring can be mounted tangentially to the periphery of the damper. The dampers can also be selected or adapted to the type of hatch that is currently relevant.

Claims (9)

lO 15 20 25 30 t "t; 519 509 8 PATE NTKRAV Closing device for a normally closed door (4, 44), which door (4, 44) is foldably movable about a substantially horizontal axis (5), the device comprising, a spring means (16, 56), acting between the door (4, 44) and a container (1) on which the door (4, 44) is mounted, which spring device (16, 56) is arranged to be tightened when the door (4, 44) is opened, and to start a closing of the door ( 4, 44) from an open position at least up to a position at which the door of its weight continues to close by itself, characterized in that the device further comprises a damping device (8, 57) arranged to damp the door (4, 44 ) movement during an initial part of the movement of the door (4, 44) from open position to closed position. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that a balancing device is furthermore arranged to be activated before the closing of the door (4, 44) in order to obtain a braking force when the door (4, 44) is closed. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the balancing device consists of the spring device (16, 56) which is arranged to be tensioned in the opposite direction of the dead weight (4, 44) dead weight when it is closed. Device according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the spring device (16, 56) is clamped unloaded between the door (4, 44) and the container (1) in an angular position of the door (4, 44) in the interval 20 ° -40 ° up from a horizontal plane (HP) through the axis (5). Device according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the spring device (16, 56) and the damping device (8, 57) are mounted on or in direct connection with the shaft (s). Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the spring device (16, 56) is mounted on one side of the shaft (5) and that the damping device (8, 57) is mounted on the other side of the shaft (5). 10 519 509 9 Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the spring device (16, 56) consists of a cylindrical screw spring mounted around the damping device (8, 57) which consists of a cylindrical torsion damper, wherein the spring device (16, 56) and the damping device (8, 57) are mounted at the same end of the shaft (5). Device according to one of Claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the time from the start of the spring device (16, 56) by closing the door (4, 44) from the fully open position to a position where gravity takes over the continued closing is 2-30. s. Device according to one of Claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the capercaillie (16, 56) is arranged to momentarily start closing the door (4, 44) when it is released from its open position.