US20080061663A1

US20080061663A1 - Drawer slide module structure

Info

Publication number: US20080061663A1
Application number: US11/517,510
Authority: US
Inventors: Tsung-Che Wu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-09-08
Filing date: 2006-09-08
Publication date: 2008-03-13

Abstract

A drawer slide module structure is composed of an inner slide and an outer slide. The inner slide includes a latch body installed therein, and an indent and an end portion disposed at innermost positions on both sides of the inner slide. The outer slide includes a resuming base disposed at a position corresponding to the latch body of the inner slide, and a locking base installed at a rear side of the resuming base. With the design of a driving member in the resuming base swung with a link member as an axle point, the driving member and the link member will not be damaged, when the drawer is pushed back; if one of the drawers in the whole cabinet is pulled open, the locking base will latch the inner slides of other drawers, so that other drawers will not fall out freely.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drawer slide module structure, and its slide module is comprised of an inner slide and an outer slide, such that when a plurality of slide modules are installed to the drawers of a cabinet, the drawers will not damage a driving member and a link member when the drawers are pushed back into the cabinet, or when one of the drawers is pulled open, the rest of the drawers will not fall out freely.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C for a structural design of automatically resuming a drawer to its original position after the drawer is pulled open, a right-angled sliding groove A1 is disposed separately on both sides of an inner slide A for allowing a spring C to drive a chunk body B in the inner slide A, such that when an outer slide D of the drawer is pulled outward, an indent D1 of the outer slide D will push a protrusion B1 of the chunk body B to move accordingly. After a transversal latch portion B2 on the chunk body B is shifted along the sliding groove A1 and positioned at the right-angled bent position A11, the indent D1 on the outer slide D will be separated from the protrusion B1 of the chunk body B and moved to a predetermined position (as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C). On the other hand, if the drawer is pushed back to its original position, the indent D1 of the outer slide D is engaged with the protrusion B1 on the chunk body B again, and the drawer will be pushed back by the resilience of the spring C. However, when the drawer is pushed back, a transversal latch portion B2 on the chunk body B will be separated from the right-angled bent position A11 of the sliding groove A1 first, and then its protrusion B1 is engaged by the indent D1 on the outer slide D. Now, the outer slide D is found to be in contact with the chunk body B, but the transversal latch portion B2 on the chunk body B gets stuck in the right-angled bent position A11 of the sliding groove A1 and cannot be separated (as shown in FIG. 1D), so that the whole chunk body B will be deformed if further pushing force is applied (as shown in FIG. 1E). As a result, the deformed protrusion B1 of the chunk body B no longer can be engaged by the indent D1 of the outer slide D to resume the drawer to its original position.
To overcome the existing shortcomings of the prior art, the inventor of the present invention based on years of professional manufacturing experience in the related industry to conduct extensive researches and developments, and finally invented a drawer slide module structure in accordance with the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a drawer slide module structure, and its slide module is comprised of an inner slide and an outer slide, such that after a plurality of slide modules are installed to the drawer, a link member can be swung with respect to an axle point of a driving member of a resuming base, so as to make sure that the driving member and the link member will not be damaged when the drawer is pushed back to its original position. If one of the drawers of the whole cabinet is pulled open, a retarding member of its locking base can stop the retarding members connected to other locking bases, such that the other drawers will not slide out freely from the cabinet.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a drawer slide module structure, wherein the inner slide includes a latch body installed therein, and an indent and an end portion disposed at innermost positions on both sides of the inner slide; and the outer slide includes a resuming base disposed at a position corresponding to a latch body of the inner slide, a section of a rectangular protruding top disposed in an internal concave space of the resuming base. The rear side of the rectangular protruding top is an indent for placing a link member, and a swayable resilient plate is disposed above the indent, and the front side of the link member has a pivotal axle to be latched by a curved hook that is disposed at a lower back side of the driving member, and the front side of the curved hook is a hook to be latched with a spring module that is installed in the internal concave space of the resuming base, and the top of another driving member has an inclined plane and a groove.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a drawer slide module structure, wherein a locking base is disposed at a rear side of a resuming base, a cross groove disposed on the locking base, a sunken groove disposed in a vertical groove of the cross groove for separately installing two sets of retarding members and springs, an inclined plane disposed on a side of a transversal groove of the cross groove for disposing a curved and bent long spring, such that both upper and lower ends of the long spring presses against the lateral sides of the retarding members, and a through groove disposed on another side of the transversal groove for passing a top plate, such that the rear end of the top plate props at the curved and bent position of the long spring and the front end is limited by the distal surface of the link member of the resuming base.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a schematic view of a prior art structure;

FIG. 1B is a schematic view of an example of a prior art;

FIG. 1C is a schematic view of another example of a prior art;

FIG. 1D is a schematic view of an example of a prior art with an abnormal condition;

FIG. 1E is a schematic view of another example of a prior art with an abnormal condition;

FIG. 2A is an exploded view of a structure of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a perspective view of a structure of the present invention;

FIG. 3A is a top view of an assembled structure of the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a side view of an assembled structure of the present invention;

FIG. 4A is a side view of a structure being pulled out in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4B is another side view of a structure being pulled out in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4C is a side view of a structure resuming its original position in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5A is a schematic view of abnormal movements occurred when a structure resumes its original position in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5B is another schematic view of abnormal movements occurred when a structure resumes its original position in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of connecting several structures together in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of several structures being connected with each other having no movement yet in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of one of the drawers being drawn out in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawing.
Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B for a drawer slide module structure of the invention, a slide module is comprised of an inner slide 1 and an outer slide 2. The inner slide 1 includes a latch body 1A installed therein, and an indent 11 and an end portion 12 disposed at each side of the innermost positions. The outer slide 2 includes a resuming base 3 disposed at a position corresponding to a latch body 1A of the inner slide 11, a locking base 6 installed at a rear side of the resuming base 3, a section of rectangular protruding top 32 disposed in an internal concave space 31 of the resuming base 3, an indent 33 at a rear side of the rectangular protruding top 32 for disposing a link member 4, and a swayable resilient plate 34 disposed on the indent 33. The front side of the link member 4 has a pivotal axle 41 for latching a curved hook 51 at the lower back side of the driving member 5, and a hook 52 at the front side of the curved hook 51 is latched by a spring module 3A installed in the internal concave space 31 of the resuming base 3, and the top of another driving member 5 has an inclined plane 54 and a groove 53; and the locking base 6 has a cross groove thereon, a sunken groove 611 disposed in a vertical groove 61 of the cross groove for disposing two retarding members 7, and the sunken groove 611 is provided for disposing a spring 6A, and one side of a transversal groove 62 of the cross groove is an inclined plane 621, for disposing a curved and bent long spring 6B, and both upper and lower ends of the long spring 6B press against a lateral surface of the retarding member 7 (as shown in FIG. 7), and another side of the transversal groove 62 has a through groove 622, for passing a top plate 8, and a rear end of the top plate 8 props the curved and bent position of the long spring 6B, and a front end is propped and restricted by a distal surface of the link member 4 on the resuming base 3 (as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B).
After the slide modules are installed to a cabinet, a buckle 1A1 of the latch body 1A of the outer slide 1 is latched into a groove 53 on a driving member 5 of the resuming base 3. Since the driving member 5 and the link member 4 are connected with each other, the driving member 5 drives the link member 4 to displace (as shown in FIG. 4A) when the outer slide together with the drawer are pulled out. Now, the link member 4 slides along the sliding groove 42 at the bottom to the rectangular protruding top 32. Till the link member 4 slides to the distal end of the rectangular protruding top 32, the driving member 5 will be pulled downward due to the resilience of the spring module 3A in the hook 52, such that the driving member 5 uses a pivotal axle 41 of the link member 4 as an axle center and stops at the distal edge of the rectangular protruding top 32. Now, the rear end of the driving member 5 will be raised (as shown in FIG. 4B) due to the pivotal axle 41 of the link member 4 being an axle center, and the buckle 1A1 of the latch body 1A in the outer slide 1 will not longer drive the driving member 5 due to the rotation of the driving member 5, and thus the link member 4 can be pulled out.
When the drawer is pushed back to its original position, the buckle 1A1 of the latch body 1A in the outer slide 1 is moved to the top of the groove 53 of the driving member 5 (as shown in FIG. 4C). Since the driving member 5 uses the pivotal axle 41 of the link member 4 as an axle center, the whole driving member 5 will be separated from the distal edge of the rectangular protruding top 32 and return to its horizontal status, and thus the buckle lAl of the latch body 1A in the outer slide 1 will be latched into the groove 53 of the driving member 5, and the pulling force of the spring module 3A will resume the link members 4, 5 and the outer slide 1 into their positions automatically.
If the link members 4, 5 are pulled back to their positions by the spring module 3A due to vibrations, then when the buckle 1A1 of the latch body 1A in the outer slide 1 is pushed back to the inclined plane 54 adjacent to the groove 53 of the driving member 5 (as shown in FIG. 5A), the driving member 5 uses the pivotal axle 41 of the link member 4 as an axle center to raise the rear end of the whole driving member 5, while the resilient plate 34 pressing the indent 33 of the resuming base 3 for the lift (as shown in FIG. 5B). After the buckle 1A1 of the latch body 1A in the outer slide 1 is latched into a groove 53 of the driving member 5, the resilient plate 34 applies a force on the driving member 5 to resume its original position (as shown in FIG. 3B); such that even if the link members 4, 5 do not resume their positions normally, the link members 5, 4 will not be deformed or damaged when the outer slide 1 resumes its position again.
After the slide modules are installed separately to a plurality of drawers in a cabinet, a link rod 6C is used to connect the locking bases 6 at the back of the resuming base 3 (as shown in FIG. 6). In other words, the front ends of the retarding members 7 disposed on both sides in the vertical groove 61 on each locking base 6 are embedded into the indents 11 of the inner slide 1 (as shown in FIG. 7) if all drawers of the whole cabinet are closed. The top plate 8 of the locking base 6 is no longer pressed by a distal surface of the link member 4 due to the front end and the bent long spring 6B at the rear end will be sprung towards the resuming base 3 to displace the top plate 8, if one of the drawers is pulled open. In the meantime, an end portion 12 of the inner slide 1 is moved to push the retarding member 7 in the vertical groove 61 of the locking base 6 outward by the resilience of the spring 6A. Since a link rod 6C is used to connect the retarding members 7, therefore the indents 11 of the inner slides 1 in other drawers are retarded and stopped by the retarding members 7 of their respective locking bases 6 (as shown in FIG. 8). As a result, if only one drawer of the whole cabinet is pulled open, all other drawers will be locked. Only if the opened drawer resumes its original position, the other drawer can be opened. The invention can achieve the effect of preventing the drawers from falling out freely.
In summation of the above description, the present invention herein enhances the performance than the conventional structure and further complies with the patent application requirements and thus submitted to the Patent and Trademark Office for review and granting of the commensurate patent rights.
While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.

Claims

1. A drawer slide module structure, with its slide module comprised of an inner slide and an outer slide, characterized in that:

said inner slide, installing a latch body, and having an indent and an end portion disposed at innermost positions on both sides in said inner slide;

said outer slide, having a resuming base disposed at a position corresponding to said latch body of said inner slide, a locking base disposed on a rear side of said resuming base, a section of rectangular protruding top disposed in an internal concave space of said resuming base, an indent disposed at a rear side of said rectangular protruding top for receiving a link member, a swayable resilient plate disposed above said indent, a pivotal axle disposed at the front of said link member and hooked by a curved hook at the lower back side of said driving member, a hook disposed at the front of said curved hook which is latched with a spring module inside an internal concave space of the resuming base; an inclined plane and a groove disposed above another driving member; a cross groove disposed on said locking base; a sunken groove disposed in a vertical groove of said cross groove for separately installing two sets of retarding members and springs; an inclined plane disposed on a side of a transversal groove of said cross groove, for placing a bent and curved long spring and both upper and lower ends of said long spring pressing against a lateral surface of said retarding member; a through groove disposed on another side of said transversal groove, for passing a top plate, and a rear end of said top plate pressing against the bent and curved position of said long spring, and a front end of said top plate being propped and restricted by a link member on said resuming base; such that after a plurality of slide modules are installed to a cabinet, said link member is swung with respect to said link member in said resuming base by an axle point, so as to make sure that when the drawer is pushed back, said link members will not be damaged, and if one of said drawers of said cabinet is pulled open, said retarding member of said locking base retards and stops said retarding members coupled to other locking bases, and thereby other drawers will not fall out freely.