US1721301A - Compensating caster, slide, or the like - Google Patents

Description

' July- 16, 1929- w. HEROLD I 1,721,301

COMPENSATING CASTER, SLIDE, OR THE LIKE Filed A ril 21, 1927 E .5. n INVENTOR. i L /fun FHERULD.

A TTORNEY Patented July 16, 1929.

WALTER F. HEROLD, OF UPPER MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE BAS-. SICK COMPANY, OF BRIDGEPOBT, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

COMPENSATING CASTER, SLIDE, OR THE LIKE.

Application filed April 21, 1927. Serial No. 185,511.

The present invention relates to improvements in compensating casters, slides, or the like, an object being to providea support for articles of furniture which will compensate for irregularities or unevenness'in the floor, or in the furniture, to the end that the several points of support are at all times firmly engaged with the floor. It is particularly proposed, in the present embodiment, to provide a device of this character in which the caster is adapted to have free swiveling action in any position of deflection, and which may be readily inserted and removed in the same manner as the ordinary detachable caster. Another object is to provide such a device which may be inserted in the standard drill holes provided in furniture, without change in their shape or dimensions.

A further object is to provide compensating means of very simple and inexpensive construction, that may be easily assembled, and which will have a resistance action proportionate to the load imposed thereon, and further in which this resistance may be varied to suit different uses by a change in the degree of inclination of one of the elements.

Ajstill further object is to provide a device having a predetermined limit of deflection, and which will provide a rigid support when such limit is reached, so that, irrespective of the load imposed, an excess strain will not be placed upon the compensating means.

It is also an object to provide a device which will act as a means for absorbing vibrations and shocks, this function being especially desirable in the use of the devices on motor driven machines, as washing, refrigerating, adding machines and the like, and on delicate instruments, as radio apparatus, phonographs, dictating machines, and the like, and in this respect, it is particularly proposed to provide compensating means free from springs, or vibratory parts, that might have periodic vibrations set up in them.

With the above and other obj ects' in view, an embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, and this embodiment will be hereinafter more fully described with reference thereto, and the invention will be finally pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a table, having its four legs equipped with casters, ac-' cording to the invention, and showing the gooperative relation with an uneven floor sur ace;

bodiment of the invention, and showing the" relation of the parts in the no-load position;

Fig. 3 is a similar view, and showing the parts in the extreme load position;

Fig; 4 is a front elevational view thereof;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view, taken along the line 5--5 of Fig. 2; V

Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view, taken along the line 6-6 of Fig. 3;

Figs. 7 and 8 are perspective views of the compensating and top bearing elements employed in the disclosed embodiment; and

Fig. 9 is a sectional view of a modified form.

Referring to the drawings, the caster, according to the present embodiment of the invention, comprises a tubular socket 10, closed at its top and provided upon its lower end with a base ring 11 secured by fianging over the lower edge of the tube, as at 12. This tube may be formed from solid drawn stock, or it may be formed from sheet metal pressed to shape and folded upon itself, in which case longitudinal seams extend at opposite "sides, as shown at 13, Fig. 4. Obviously this socket is adapted to be inserted in the usual mannerrin the standard drill hole provided in the furniture. I

The compensating means is inserted and retained in the upper end of the socket, and comprises a tubular plug 1&, of rubber, or the like, having its outer surface of polygonalshape, hexagonal as shown in Fig. 5. \Vithin the central passage of the plug there is engaged a top bearing plunger element comprising a cylindrical stem portion 15 slidably engaged in said passage, and an enlarged button-like base portion, having a pintle bearing bottom surface 16, and a'dome-shape'd peripheral surface 17 inclined inwardly to the base of the stem portion. The surface 17, it will be noted, is normallydisposed beneath the bottom surface of the plug member, and as upward pressure is exerted on it, the rubber is pressed. upwardly and outwardly, the heX-' agonal outer surface pressing outwardly against and substantially conforming to the cylindrical socket wall, as shown in Fig. 6, and as the upward pressure is increased the compression resistance of the plug is proportionately increased. Upon, the limit of de- Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a sock- .et, and caster, according to the presentemflection being reached the plunger element abuts the upper end of the socket, so that further increase in the load upon the caster is directly and soliding supported, and excess strain upon thecompensating means is prevented. Upon release of upward pressure the expansion of the plug element exerts a downward force upon the inclined surrace of the plunger and projects it to its normal position. By increasing the inclination of the surface 17 the resistance to pressure is reduced, while decrease of the inclination will increase the resistance, and in this way thedevice may be designed for widely dii'l'erent load conditions by merely changing the plunger element.

The caster comprises the usual horn l8, having a wheel 19 rotatably supported upon an axle shaft 20, and a pintle 21 secured at its lower end to the horn top, and provided adjacent said horn top with a base flange 22. The upper end of the pintle is rounded, or otherwise suitably formed to have swivel top bearing contact. with the base surface 16 of the plunger element. An annular groove 22-3 is formed in the pintle in spaced relation to its upper end inwhich a split spring ring 2% is disposed, this ring having loose engagement in the groove in both its expanded position, when the pintle is removed from the socket, and in its contracted position within the socket, in which latter position it grips the wall of the socket to retain the pint-lo. The groove 23 is wider in its vertical dimension than the spring ring to an extent substantially equal to the maximum deflection of the compensating means, so that the deflection takes place throughfree vertical movement of the pintle, without frictional resistance from the ring, which remains in a substantially fixed position. Then first inserting the pintle the ring will occupy a position against the lower wall of the groove. By then compressing the compensating means to the full limit, as shown in Fig. 3, the ring is forced upwardly, sothat upon release of pressure it engages the upper wallof the groove, as shown in Fig. 2, this being the normal operative position in which itremains under any degree of deflection, thereby permitting free vertical movement of the pintle between the deflection limits. Under full load conditions, the parts will occupy the relative positions shown in Fig. 3, but should any of the points of support encounter an uneven surface the compensating means will exert an expelling action on the plunger element and the freely movable pintle, and thereby compensate for such unevenness. Under certain conditions where it may be desired to resiliently support the furniture at all points, at the same time compensatingfor irregularities and unevenness, the. resistance will. be designed so that the load desired to be supported will not be sufficient to press the parts to the limit position, as shown in Fig. 3, but they will occupy an intermediate position in which the compensating means constitutes a cushion support, constantly exerting an expelling action to compensate for uneveness, however.

In additionto the compensating function, 'he device will absorb shocks and vibrations, and without setting up periodic vibrations withinitself, this being due in part to the insulating support provided by the rubber plug element, and in part to the vertical movement of the pintle without frictional. resistance from the retaining ring.

In the modified form of the invention shown in Fig. 9, the stem portion 15 ofthe flange element is provided at its upper end with a head 25 seated in a shouldered recess 26 in the tubular plug I l, and is adapted to limit the expelling movement of the plunger 7 compensating furniture support,

comprising a socket element having a top bearing, a removable floor engaging element including a pintle adapted to be inserted and removed with respect to said socket element and having non-resilient cooperative relation w'ith said top bearing under a predetermined load, and non-metallic resilient means within said socket elementadapted to exert an expelling force on said floor engaging element.

2. A compensating furniture support, comprising a socket element, a floor engaging element including a pintle, a vertically movable top bearing element adapted to be engaged by said pintle, resilient means interposed between said tog bearing element and said socket element a pted to exert an expelling force on said top bearing element and said floor engaging element, and means for positively limiting the movement of said top bearing element independently of said resilient means.

3. A compensating furniture support, comprising a socket element having a closed top, a floor engaging element including a pintle, a vertically movable top bearing ele-- ment adapted to be engaged by said pintle, resilient means interposed between said top bearing element and said socket element adapted to exert an expelling force on said top bearing elementandsaid floor engaging. I

element, said closed top adapted to'be engaged by and limit the movement. of said top bearing elementunder a predetermined.

load.

4s. A compensating furniture support,

comprising a socket element having a closed top, a floor engaging element including a pintle, top bearing means having a predetermined yielding movement, said closed top adapted to rigidly support said top bearing means at the limit of said yielding movement. v

5. A compensating furniture support, comprising a socket element, a floor engaging element including a pintle, movable top bearing means adapted to solidly support said pintle under a predetermined load, and non-metallic means adapted to exert an expelling force on said top bearing means and said floor engaging element.

6. A compensating furniture support, comprising a socket element, a floor engaging element including a pintle, a tubular compensating element of resilient material carried by said socket'element, and a vertically movable top bearing element adapted to be engaged by said pintle and including a stem portion engaged in the passage of said tubular element and an enlarged base disposed beneath said tubular element and engaged by said pintle.

7. The invention as claimed in claim 6, further characterized by said enlarged base having an inclined peripheral wall engaged beneath the tubular element.

8. A compensating furniture support, comprising a socket element, a fioor engaging element including a pintle, a vertically movable top bearing element adapted to be engagedby said pintle, a compensating element of resilient material, engaged by said top bearing element having its outer periphery provided with spaced portions engaging the inner wall of said socket element and formlng alr spaces between sa d spaced engaging portions to permit outward deflection of said element, said tubular element adapted to exert an expelling force on said top bearing element and said floor engaging element.

7 9. A compensating furniture support, comprising a socket element, a floor engaging element including a pintle adapted to be inserted and removed with respect to said socket element, resilient means cooperating between said socket element and said floor engaging element adapted to be compressed under a load on said support and to exert an expelling force on said floor engaging ele ment, said pintle having a relative inward movement with respect to said socket element under said compression,said pintle having an annular groove, a spring ring loosely disposed in said groove and being relatively narrower than said groove to an extent substantially corresponding to the relative compression movement of said pintle, said ring adapted to frictionally grip the inner surface of said socket element and permit free axial and rotary movement between said elements, said ring abutting the lower Wall of said groove during insertion of the pintle in the socket, and adapted upon the initial compression after insertion to be moved to'its normal pintle retaining position in relation to the upper Wall of said groove.

Signed at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield, and State of Connecticut, this 16th day of February, 1927.

WALTER F. HEROLD.

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