Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Description
MAGNETIC LATCH FOR MOVABLE RECEPTACLE
[0001] The present invention relates to a cabinet apparatus provided with
means
adapted to effect outwardly movement of one or more receptacles
movably mounted in a compartment of the cabinet.
[0002] US Patent No. 4,087,140 discloses a cabinet having a receptacle mounted
on guide means in a storage compartment for movement along a
horizontal path. A main door is movable about a main axis for exposing
and closing the general opening to the compartment itself. Mounted on
and forming part of this main door is a secondary door movable about its
own axis with the axes of the two doors being asymmetric with and non-
parallel to each other. Magnetic means are provided , including an
elongated magnet and an elongated armature that are in full engagement
when the secondary door is closed and throughout the extent of its
movement when it alone is moved, but which become substantially
immediately and progressively disengaged when the main access door is
opened.
[0003] A drawback of the cabinet disclosed in US 4,087,140 consists in that a
double door arrangement is required to perform the extraction of the
receptacle and the accessing to the compartment. In fact, in such solution
a single door is dedicated to a single function. This embodiment is not only
complicated to be made but it cannot guarantee, with a sufficient grade of
reliability, that the receptacle is not moved when the main door is opened.
This is due to the fact that the magnetic latch always engages the
receptacle when the doors are closed. When the main door is opened for
accessing the compartment, the rapidity with which the magnetic
connection is disengaged depends on how quick the opening movement
is, therefore a limited but not completely null extent of the movement
imparted to the receptacle by the main door opening always exists.
[0004] Such solution cannot be efficiently applied when the cabinet door
cannot
be opened quickly as, for example, when the door is particularly heavy to
be moved or when fragile material is supported by the door on its back. In
addition the solution proposed in US 4,087,140 is particularly cumbersome
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because it requires to apply a double door in a cabinet which is not always
possible or useful as in the case of an oven door or in the case of a
dishwasher door. According to the teachings of US 4,087,140 particularly
complicated arrangements providing a secondary door for each receptacle
should be made when the cabinet has several receptacles.
[0005] The aim of the present invention is therefore to solve the noted
problems,
eliminating the drawbacks of the cited known art and thus providing a
cabinet apparatus that allows the user to customarily set which
receptacles have to be moved when opening the door or setting the
cabinet to simply open the door for accessing the compartment without
moving any movable receptacle provided in the compartment.
[0006] A further object of the present invention is to provide a cabinet
apparatus
simple to be made and provided with means for effecting movement of one
or more receptacles that can be applied not only in the cabinet of the
present invention but also able to be applied on already existing cabinets
having movable receptacles.
[0007] Another object of the present invention is to provide a cabinet
apparatus
having a magnetic latch of improved reliability compared to latches of
known types, the apparatus according to the invention being able to
ensure that a receptacle is not moved at all if desired.
[0008] Advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in
part
in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those
having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be
learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the
invention may be realised and attained as particularly pointed out in the
appended claims.
[0009] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further
understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a
part of this specification, illustrate possible embodiments of the invention
and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the
invention.
[0010] In the drawings:
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[0011] Figure 1 shows a schematic view of a cabinet apparatus according to the
present invention;
[0012] Figure 2 shows an perspective view of a receptacle having means to
interconnect the receptacle to a closure member;
[0013] Figure 3 shows a perspective view of a closure member provided with
magnetic means;
[0014] Figure 4 shows a plan view of the operating means for moving the
magnetic means;
[0015] Figure 5 shows a sectional view taken along line 5-5 of Fig. 4;
[0016] Figure 6 shows a sectional view taken along line 6-6 of Fig. 4;
[0017] With reference to Fig. 1 there is provided a cabinet apparatus 1
embodied,
as a mere example, in a dishwashing machine. The apparatus 1
comprises a compartment 2 in which receptacles 3 are movably mounted
on side tracks 4 such that they can slide along the track path. The
arrangement of the mounting means allowing the receptacles 3 to slide is
known per se and can consist, for example, in two parallel channels each
of which has flanges to guide side wheels placed on the receptacles 3.
[0018] The compartment 2 has an access opening 6 that is closed by a closure
member or door 7. This door 7 is mounted on the cabinet 1 for opening
movement in a horizontal direction by a conventional hinge that is
positioned for door movement about a horizontal axis.
[0019] The forward portion 8 of each receptacle 3 is provided with a bracket 9
as
shown in Figure 2 in which the receptacle 3 is in the form of a dish rack.
The bracket 9 is connected to the receptacle 3 so that it can rotate and
translate. A tubular ferromagnetic element 10 is carried by the bracket 9
and can engage magnetic means 11 located on the rear surface of the
closure member 7 in a position facing the receptacle 3 when the door 7 is
in a closed position.
[0020] When it is desired to remove the content of the receptacle 3 or simply
accessing the compartment 2, the door 7 is moved from its closed position
to an outwardly extending position. If a magnetic connection of the tubular
element 10 to the magnetic means 11 mounted on the door 7 is
established, the receptacle 3 slides out to a forward extended position as
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shown in Fig. 1. The magnetic connection of the bracket 9 to the magnetic
means 11 remairis unbroken for a first portion of the door aperture rotation
and then it breaks as a consequence of the arched trajectory of the
magnetic means 11 driven by the door movement and the linear trajectory
of the receptacle. When the magnetic connection has broken, the moved
receptacle 3 remains in a forward position so as to make easier for the
user to access it.
[0021] In order to allow the user to decide whether moving the receptacles 3
when opening the door 7 and which receptacle 3 has to move outwardly,
magnetic means 11 are movable between a first operative position in
which they effect movement of said receptacle 3 and a second resting
position in which the position of the receptacle remains unchanged when
the door 7 is opened.
[0022] When the magnetic means 11 are placed in the operative position and the
door 7 is closed, they contact the tubular element 10 so as to pull it when
the door opening movement starts. On the contrary, if the magnetic means
11 are placed in the resting position they are spaced apart from the tubular
element 10 and therefore the door movement does not effect the
receptacle movement so its position remains unchanged.
[0023] Advantageously, if the vertical position of the receptacles 3 within
the
compartment 2 can be adjusted at different levels, for example to receive
dishes of different size, the position of magnetic means 11 can be
correspondingly adjusted vertically by the user to follow the displacement
of the receptacle 3. In this way the possibility to effect the receptacle
movement when the door 7 is opened is maintained also when the vertical
level of the receptacle is changed.
[0024] The movement of the magnetic means 11 between the operative and the
resting position can be a rotation or a translation or even a combination
thereof, as preferred. In addition, the magnetic means 11 can be arranged
on the door 7 by means of linear guiding means or pivotally fixing a portion
of said magnetic means and allowing a second portion to freely rotate
about the pivotal connection.
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[0025] Said magnetic means 11 can be arranged on the closure member 7 by
way of operating means 12 that allows the magnetic means 11 to be
movable between the operative position and the rest position.
[0026] In Fig. 3 operating means 12 are in the preferred form.of a knob 13
placed
on the back surface of the cabinet door 7, in a position facing the forward
portion 8 of the receptacle 3 as shown in Fig. 1.
[0027] In Figures 4 to 6 details of the knob 13 are shown. The knob 13, on its
back side 15 facing the back surface of the door 7, has a housing 14 that
receives the magnetic means 11 such that the front side 16 of the knob
can be manually engaged by the user. To this aim a pair of spaced apart
cavities 17 are formed on the front side 16 of the knob 13.
Advantageously, the magnetic means 11 has an elongated shape
extending perpendicularly to the hinge axis of the door 7 when they are
placed in the operative position. In this way a magnetic connection
between the magnetic means 11 and the bracket 9 through the
ferromagnetic element 10 can be established when the door 7 is closed.
Said connection can be broken after the door 7 has turned an angle a, that
can be less or equal to 45 .
[0028] When the user wants the receptacle 3 to remain inside the compartment
without the door 7 effecting the receptacle movement, he has only to turn
the knob 13 so as to place the magnetic means 11 in a resting position not
engaging the bracket 9.
[0029] Conclusively it can be stated that a cabinet apparatus according to the
present invention allows the user to set whether and what receptacles
have to be moved in order to fully customise the cabinet.
[0030] As the present invention may be embodied in several forms without
departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, it should also
be understood that the above-described embodiments are not limited by
any of the details of the foregoing description, but rather should be
construed broadly within its spirit and scope as defined in the appended
claims, and therefore all changes and modifications that fall within the
meets and bounds of the claims, or equivalence of such meets and
bounds are therefore intended to be embraced by the appended claims.
