Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
335~
Title: _ATCHES
Description
The invention concerns catches and particularly
but not exclusive~y safety catches which prevent drawers,
doors and the like being easily fully opened to enable
access to be made, by infants, to potentially ha~ardous
articles and materials stored therein
Catches are known which enable a drawer or door to
be par-tially opened and which then require further
manipulation by an opener ko enable the drawer to be fully
opened. The purpose of such ~ catch is to prevent access
to potentially dangerous articles and/or materials being
made by infants who, it is assumed, will have neither the
mental ability nor physical dexterity to both manîpulate
the catch into a releasing position and open the drawer
or door on which the catch is operably mounted.
Ma~y catches of this type provide a catch including
a flexible element which, once the drawer or door has
been partially opened, may be manually pushed by an
opener, to a door or drawer releasing position and then
held in that position whilst the door or drawer is fully
opened.
One major difficulty found with such a catch arises
when a drawer or door -fitted with such a catch is located
adjacent another drawer, door or other item of furniture;
the partial opening of the drawer or door fitted with the
catch may often be insufficient to permit ready access,
of an adults finger for example, to a positivn at which
one can manipulate and push the flexible element of the
catch to a drawer or door releasing position.
Clearly one solution to this problem is to provide
an arrangement in which the elongate flexible element is
longer, but such a solution has the ~isadYantage that
when such a catch is fitted to a drawer or door not in
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close proximity to another article of furniture the drawer
or door fitted with the catch may be sufficiently openable
lor an inlant to insert his wrist and arm in the partially
opened drawer or door and so gain acoess to the content
thereof.
Alternative proposals would be to provide a plurality
of catches having different lengths of flexible elements
or that the elongate flexible element of a single size catch
be provided, at that end of it mounted on the drawer or
door, with a spacer element in selected circumstances
Such proposals however add hoth to the cost and complexity
of the catch and, perhaps more importantly, to the
difficulty in fitting the catch.
An aim of the invention is the provision of a catch
meeting or substantially alleviating the noted problems
of the known catches and proposals for catches.
In accordance with the invention there is provided
a catch co~prising a stop element and a hooked element
which elements are mountable on parts of a piece of
furniture movable relative to one another and are when so
mounted engageable one with the other to prevent extended
relative movement of those parts, the hooked element
comprising an elongate member having a first hook portion
formed at one end thereof and at least one second hooked
portion formed part way along the length thereof, the
fixst hook portion and each of said at least one second
hook portions extending in different directions from the
axis of the elongate member, the other end of said elongate
member being adapted for mounting on one of said parts in
a number of differing predetermined orientations such as
to enable the stop means to engage one of said first and
at least one second hook portions to prevent extended
movement of said two parts by more than a predetermined
amount determined by the mounting orientation o~ the
hooked element
Preferably the hooked element and the stop means
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are made of a moulded plastics material, for example
nylon
One embodiment of the invention provides that the
hooked element i5 formed with two hook portions on an
extended elongate flexible part thereof, the hooked
portions facing in mutually opposite directions
Embodiments of the invention will now be described
with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of two elements of
the catch embodying the invention,
Figure 2 is a partially exposed side view of an
article of furnit~re in which catches described with
reference to Figure 1 are fitted, and
Figure 3 i5 a perspective view o~ another form of
catch embodying the invention
Th0 catch shown in Figure 1 comprises a body 10
formed with apertures 12 through which screws (not shown
in Figure 1) may pass to fix the body to a piece of
~urniture. Body 1O includes a triangular tongue portion
13 having a stop ~ace 14. Surface 15 of body 10 and
the stop surface 14 may each be roughened, for example
by the formation thereon of a series of ridges or serrat-
ions 16 whilst the body is being formed
~igure 1 also shows a hooked element 20 comprising
a base 21 slokted at 22 to enable the passage of scxews
(not shown in Figure 1) there-through to fix the element
onto a piece of furniture on which the catch is to be
mounted. Element 20 including a ~lexible elongate member
23 carried on base21~-~ormed at ~heend thereof spaced from
base 21 with the first hook 24 having a fac~ 25 which can
cooperate with stop face 14 of element 10. Par-t-way
along the length o-~ member 23 element 20 is formed with
a second hook 26 having a face 27 is also, in certain --
circumstances engage the face 14 o~ element 10.
With advantage the faces 25 and 27 are provided
with ridges or serrations 28 for cooperating with the
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ridges 16 on stop face 14~
The elements lV and 20 are preferably formed by
moulding from a fiexible plastics material ( for example
nylon) which enables the elongate portion 23 of element
5 20 to be readily pushed away frcm the position which it
normally adopts in use by the application pressure there-
to by, for example an adults finger,
Figure 2 shows a three-drawer cabinet 30 having
drawers 31, 32 and 33, A stop element 10 such as shown
in Figure 1 is fixed to the undersurface 34 of the top
element 35 of the furniture unit 30 by screws 36~ A
hooked element 20 is mounted on the rear surface 37 of
the front of drawer 31 by serews 38. The elements 10
and 20 associated with the drawer 31 unit are so
monnted that the hook 26 is uppermost and the elements
10 and 20 are aligned such that the face 27 engages with
the face 14 of member 10 when the drawer 31 is partially
opened. The catch provides that the drawer 31 is openable
to the extent shown but cannot be opened further unless
the drawer is closed slightly (that i5 to say pushed
slightly in the direction of the arrow C) and the flex- ;
ible element 23 depressed suc:h that the face 27 is moved
below - out of alignment with - the ~ace 14 of element
10. Whilst holding the flexible element 23 in the
depressed position the drawer 31 may be fully opened.
Drawers 32 and 33 have elements 20 mounted thereon
as shown, that is to say with the element 20 rotated . . .
through a 180 with respect to the position adopted by
the element 20 attached to the drawer 31. It will be
appreciated that if the elements 20 were positioned with
the same orientation as that attached to the drawer 31
*he space between the fronts o~ drawers 31 and 32 ~or 32
and 33) when lower most drawer is opened as far as is
enabled by the catch would be significantly less than
that pro~ided when the front of drawer 31 is partially
opened between the drawer front 31 and the element 35.
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357
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The elements 20 are therefore mounted on the backs
of the fronts of drawers 32 and 33 with their hooks 24
uppermost such the surfaces 25 are engageable with the
faces 14 of the elements 10 attached as shown to struct-
ural members 39 within the drawer unit 30, The elements
10 are attached to the structural members 39 by scre~s
40.
With the arrangement described the gap between the
drawers 31 and 32 (or 32 and 33) when a drawer 32 or 33
0 i5 opened, is considerabl~y extended by an amount which
is substantially equal to that sho~n existing between the
drawer front 31 and element 35 in Figure 2,
To fully open a drawer 32 or 33 the drawer ( for
example drawer 33) must be slightly closed - that is to
say p~shed in the directi~n of the arrow C and the
flexible element depressed to move face 25 out of
alignment with ~ace 14, The drawer 33 may then be opened
whilst the element 26 is held in depressed by a person
opening the drawer.
As noted above the elements 10 and 20 are preferably
moulded from a plastics material such as nylon,
As described the element 20 is provided with two
hooks 24 and 26 enabling the efficient use of the catch
in two orientations namely with the drawer to which it
is being fixed uppermost (the arrangement of drawer 31)
or with a drawer to which it is being fi~ed below one
or more similar drawers (the arrangement of drawers 32
and 33) in Figure 2, The spacing between the hooks 24
a~ld 26 along the elongate element 23 is such as to
take account of the average thickness of drawer fronts
in use in furniture units produced today - say 20 mm,
An advantage the first portion 23' of member 20
running from the base 21 to the hook 26 diverges from
the normal to the base 21 through a small angle
(approxima~ely 1 degree) to increase the height of the
hook 26 to the base 21. The further extension 23'' of
the member 20 from the hook 26 to the hook 24 preferably
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runs at an angle of 16 to the axis of the portion 23'.
This means that the hook 24, when the member 20 is attached
as shown to the dra~er fronts 32 and 33 of Figure 2 lies
slightly above the normal to the base 21 of the member 20,
Within the scope of the invention it is possible that
further hook members may be provided on the flexible
element at varying distances from the base 16 at mutually
different orientations to provide that the hook member 20
is applicable for use in a variety of different situations.
A modified form of hook member usable in such an
arrangement is as shown in Figure 3. In the arrangement of
Figure 3 both parts of the hook member corresponding to the
hook member shown in Figures 1 and 2 are given the same
reference numerals. With the arrangement of Figure 3 the
hook member 20 is provided at four locations at predetermined
spacings along the length of the flexible member 23 for
hook members 50, Each hook member 50 having a face 51
for cooperating with the stop face 14 o-f the element 10.
With the arrangement of Figure 3 the hook member 2Q may
be positioned in any one o~ four different orientations
to enable a drawer to which it is attached to be opened
partially by any one of four dif'ferent mounts enabling
the insertion of a users finger through the gap so proposed
to push down the elongate membex 23 and enable the further
opening of the drawer.
Although a specific description of this invention
has been made with reference to drawers i-t will be
appreciated that the elements 10 and 20 may be loca$ed
on other parts of a piece of furniture which are movable
3Q relative to one another and which it is wished to secure~
for example the units may be fitted with sliding and/or
hinged doors, windows and the like.
. .,
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