WO2008065689A1

WO2008065689A1 - Plastic base for household appliances

Info

Publication number: WO2008065689A1
Application number: PCT/IT2007/000828
Authority: WO
Inventors: Simone Pardini; Giuseppe Perticara'
Original assignee: Meccanica Generale S.R.L.
Priority date: 2006-11-28
Filing date: 2007-11-27
Publication date: 2008-06-05
Also published as: ITMC20060163A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a plastic base for household appliances, of the type composed of a parallelepiped box-shaped body that houses a pull-out drawer, characterised by the fact that it is provided with a lock that is completely made of plastic materials and mounted on the front of the drawer, provided with a special latch, whose end is designed to be exactly engages inside a corresponding housing provided on one of the front borders of the box-shaped body.

Description

Plastic base for household appliances.

The present patent application for industrial invention relates to a plastic base for household appliances.

As it is known, household appliances (such as washers, washer dryers, and similar appliances) are normally mounted on preferably parallelepiped bases in order to maintain them at a certain height from the ground.

This is also done to favour the user's operation, especially when loading and unloading the household appliances.

The said bases are normally provided with a box-shaped structure with a drawer used to contain the products (such as detergents, soap, chlorine bleach and similar products) used to operate the appliances.

Considering that the said drawers housed in the bases for household appliances are situated at ground level, it appears evident that they can be reached by small children who can open them and come in contact with dangerous detergent products.

In view of the toxicity of the products container in such a base (with reference to detergents, soap, chlorine bleach, etc.), it appears evident that small children should be prohibited from opening and searching the drawer provided in the base. Such a requirement would be less urgent if the products were stored in a drawer at a certain height from the ground (that is in a location that cannot be reached by children). Instead, it is absolutely necessary in case of the drawers housed in the said bases for household appliances, which are situated at floor height. In view of the above, the present invention intends to achieve a series of interesting purposes from the technical-functional viewpoint.

The first purpose is to provide the base of the invention, including the relevant drawer, with a structure completely made of moulded plastic materials, characterised by light weight and inexpensive price.

Another purpose of the present invention is to provide the said drawer of a "safety" lock characterised by simple, yet very efficient structure and operation to prevent attempts to open the drawer. The high inventive value of the lock must be noted, being completely made of plastic materials, without metal parts.

In fact, traditional locks are include some basic parts consisting in a revolving pin with horizontal axis (designed to be actuated with a key or a handle), a latch that rotates together with the revolving pin, and an elastic return element for the latter.

So far, the aforementioned parts of a lock, with special reference to the return spring, are made of metal.

This determines high production costs and causes compatibility problems between a lock that is completely or partially made of metal and a product made of moulded plastic materials (of the type of base claimed in the present patent application) that is not provided with a sturdy structure.

On the contrary, the plastic lock of the base of the invention is able to solve the aforementioned problem, and is therefore perfectly compatible with the plastic structure of the same base. More precisely, it can be stated that the use of plastic materials for the parts of the lock used in the base of the invention has permitted to reduce production time and costs, avoiding at the same time excessive weight or stress for the plastic structure of the product on which it is mounted.

It must be noted that the lock of the invention is made of only one "independent" part, that is produced separately from the base and relevant drawer.

This part can be easily installed in the drawer and is designed to cooperate with suitable friction and retention means obtained during the moulding of plastic materials directly on the structure of the drawer and of the relevant box-shaped base.

Moreover, the lock of the invention is provided with a specific actuation system that, while maintaining a simple general structure, prevents non- authorised users, such as small children, from opening the lock.

In particular, it can be said that the lock of the invention is not provided with control levers or knobs, which could be actuated freely by children, thus vanishing the presence of the lock. For purposes of clarity, the description of the invention continues with reference to the enclosed drawings, which only have an illustrative, not limiting purposes, whereby:

- fig. 1 is an partially exploded axonometric view of the base for household appliances of the invention; - fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a part of fig. 1 used to check the structure of the lock provided in the base of the invention;

- fig. 3 is an axonometric view of the lock in locked position;

- fig. 4 is a front view of fig. 3;

- fig. 4 is the same as fig. 5, except for the fact that it shows the same lock in opened position.

With reference to fig. 1 , the invention relates to a base for household appliances (1 ), consisting in a box-shaped body (1a) with basically parallelepiped shape, designed to house a corresponding sliding drawer (2) that is usually provided with a vertical front panel (2a) to cover the opening of the box-shaped body (1a) when it is closed.

The drawer (2) is designed to be provided with a lock (S) mounted on the front towards the lower end of the front panel (2a).

With reference to fig. 2 and following figures, the main part of the lock consists in a hollow pin (10) designed to be exactly inserted, with possibility of rotation, externally on a short stem (100) that protrudes horizontally from the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2) on the lower longitudinal border.

A special latch (20) with hooked end (20a) and an elastically deformable catch (30) radially protrude from the pin (10) with angular stagger (α); it being provided that the said angular stagger (α) is approximately 90°. The catch (30) is designed to cooperate with a curved rib (110) obtained on the front of the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2) near the horizontal stem (100). The rib (110) develops for approximately one fourth of circumference and is provided at the two ends with two rounded sections (110a, 110b) that can be configured as two small ramps for connection with the front surface of the panel (2a). The cooperation of the rib (110) with the flexible catch (30) of the pin

(10) of the lock (S) of the invention is used to define the two stops for the possible alternate rotations of the pin (10).

In particular, as illustrated below, the two stops are designed to hold the pin (10) firmly in two different positions that respectively correspond to the opening and closing positions of the lock (S).

When the pin (10) is inserted externally on the stem (100) that protrudes from the panel (2a), alternate rotations can be determined by means of the front end (10a) that is simply provided with a front diameter notch (10b) designed to permit the exact insertion of a coin or screwdriver tip, as shown in the "safety" version illustrated in the enclosed figures.

Alternate rotations can be imposed to the pin (10) by means of the said notch to bring the entire lock from the opening to the closing position (and vice versa); in particular, in case of the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in the enclosed figures, the rotation angle is 90°. In particular, fig. 5 shows the pin (10) in opened position (in which the drawer (2) is able to slide freely); in such a case, the elastic catch (30) is placed in a basically horizontal position with the pointed end situated downstream the lower ramp (110a) of the curved rib (110).

In this position, the latch (20) that protrudes from the pin (10) is freely facing the top of the drawer (2).

In such a condition, the pointed end of the catch (30) is designed to be firmly locked externally on the lower ramp (110a) of the rib (110), in view of the obstacle imposed by the ramp (110a) to the free uncontrolled upward rotation. Evidently, the rotation of the pin (10) and relevant catch (30) is actuated by energetically actuating the pin (10) by means of the "tool" engaged in the front notch (10b). This is because the energetic rotation imposed to the pin (10), together with the intrinsic flexibility of the catch (30), ensures that the catch (30) can overcome the interference of the lower ramp (110a) of the rib (110), by means of a progressive gradual forward flexion so that it can slide along the entire front without any other impediment.

At the end of the rotation of the pin (10), the catch (30) assumes a basically vertical external position on the upper ramp (110b) of the rib (110); it must be noted that the catch (30) is spontaneously brought backwards, having lost the interference with the rib (110). In this way, it assumes a position in which the upper ramp (110b) of the rib (110) is imposed as obstacle for the free backward rotation.

As shown in figs. 3 and 4, which illustrate this specific position of the pin (10) and relevant catch (30), in this situation the hooked end (20a) of the latch (20) has a downward direction in order to be inserted through a window (40a) provided on a horizontal edge (40) that protrudes on the front of the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2) and is successively engaged in a housing (50a) obtained above a shelf (50) that protrudes from the lower front border of the box-shaped body (1 a) that houses the drawer (2).

The special position of the hooked end (20a) of the latch (20) is designed to prevent the free sliding of the drawer (2) with respect to the box- shaped body (1a) that contains it.

Regardless of this specific constructive solution, alternative functionally equivalent modes are possible to make the latch (20) of the drawer (2) engage with a housing in lower position on the box-shaped body (1a) of the base (1 ).

The possibility to open a similar drawer can be easily recovered by imposing an inverse rotation to the pin (10) as to guarantee the extraction of the hooked end (20a) of the latch (20) from the housing (50a) of the shelf (50) of the base (1 ). A new interference between the rib (110) of the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2) and the catch (30) of the pin (10) is determined during the inverse rotation, which causes a short forward flexion of the catch (30) that will be spontaneously "recovered" when the said interference ends, that is to say when the catch (30) is brought again in external position on the lower ramp (110a) of the groove (110), as shown in fig. 5.

Moreover, the drawer (2) used in the base of the invention (1 ) is designed to be covered with a front box-shaped lid (3) fitted on the front of the front panel (2a) by means of the screws (V) shown in fig. 2.

The lid (3) is designed to optimise the front of the drawer (2) from the aesthetic and functional viewpoint; it is designed to hide the anti-aesthetic panel (2a) and the lock (S) and is also provided with a large central shaped opening (3a) that acts as handle used to open the drawer (2).

The lid (3) is also provided with a small circular through hole (3b) in which the front end (10a) with diameter notch (10b) of the pin (10) of the lock (S) is exactly inserted, protruding outwards.

This allows to actuate the lock (S) from outside the box-shaped body (3).

It must be noted that the front end (10a) of the pin (10) has a reduced cross-section compared to the rest of the pin (10) in order to form a perimeter step (10c) in rear position that is specifically designed to prevent the occasional release of the entire pin (10) from the hole (3b) of the lid (3). In this way, only the front thinned end (10a) of the pin (10) protrudes externally from the hole (3b) of the lid (3), and the same possibility is excluded for the remaining section of the pin (10) because of the interference produced by the perimeter step (10c) against the internal side of the lid (3) all around the hole (3b). Finally, it must be noted that the lack of a knob or small handle at the front end of the pin (10) - which could be easily provided - is justified by the need to prevent children from directly actuating the lock of the invention (S) by hand and having free access to the dangerous products contained in the drawer (2).

Claims

1 ) Plastic base for household appliances, of the type composed of a parallelepiped box-shaped body (1a) that houses a pull-out drawer (2), characterised by the fact that it is provided with a lock (S) that is completely made of plastic materials, with a revolving pin (10) mounted in horizontal position on the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2), from which a latch (20) radially protrudes, whose end (20a) is exactly engaged into a corresponding housing (50a) provided on one of the front borders of the box-shaped body (1a).

2) Base for household appliances as claimed in claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2) is covered by a corresponding box-shaped lid (3) with a large handle (3a) and with a small through hole (3b) designed to be exactly and shortly crossed by the front end (10a) of the pin (IO) of the lock (S).

3) Base for household appliances as claimed in claim 1 , characterised by the fact that the pin (10) of the lock (S), which is inserted in external position on a stem (100) that protrudes horizontally from the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2), is able to make alternate rotations with respect to two stops obtained by means of the interference between a flexible catch (30) that protrudes radially from the pin (10) with an angular stagger (α) with respect to the latch (20) and the small ramps (110a, 110b) provided at the ends of a curved rib (110) that forms in the centre an angle that is basically equal to the angular stagger (α) and is provided on the front of the drawer (2) near the pivoting stem (100) of the pin (10) of the lock (S); it being provided that the catch (20) has a hooked end (20a) designed to be situated in opposite position compared to the flexible catch (30) with respect to a plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the pin (10).

4) Base for household appliances as claimed in claim 3, characterised by the fact that the angular stagger (α) is approximately 90°.

5) Base for household appliances as claimed in one or more of the preceding claims, characterised by the fact that the revolving pin (10) of the lock (S) is provided with a diameter notch (10b) at the front end.

6) Base for household appliances as claimed in one or more of the preceding claims, characterised by the fact that the front end (10a) of the revolving pin (10) has a smaller diameter than the rest of the pin (10) so that to form a perimeter step (10c) in rear position on the front end (10a).

7) Base for household appliances as claimed in one or more of the preceding claims, characterised by the fact that the pivoting stem (100) of the pin (10) of the lock (S) is situated near the lower border of the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2), so that by rotating downwards together with the pin (10) the hooked end (20a) of the latch (20) is exactly engaged into a corresponding housing (50a) obtained on the upper side of a shelf (50) that protrudes frontally from the lower border of the box-shaped body (1 ).

8) Base for household appliances as claimed in claim 7, characterised by the fact that a short edge with horizontal direction (40) protrudes from the lower border of the front panel (2a) of the drawer (2), provided with an opening (40a) designed to be crossed by the hooked end (20a) of the latch (20) when the same rotates towards the housing (50a).