Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
CA 02354971 2001-08-13
DRAWER GLID$ FOR
DRAWER BLIDB ASSEMBLY
10 gield of the Invention
This invention relates generally to furniture drawer
slide assemblies and, more specifically, to an improved drawer
glide that can be used with a variety of lengths of drawer
slides, thereby reducing the number of different lengths of
drawer slides required for use with drawers of various lengths,
and which ensures better securement between the drawer glide and
the drawer slide.
In order to improve the ease of sliding of wood
drawers, many furniture manufacturers have adopted the use of
metal drawer slide assemblies, which utilize an elongated
stationary lower metal drawer guide, also known as a case guide,
secured to the inside structure of the furniture article, an
elongated upper metal drawer slide secured to the bottom of a
drawer at the front and rear ends of the drawer, and a plastic
drawer glide mounted to the rear wall of a drawer to facilitate
movement of the drawer along the lower metal drawer guide. In
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most conventional drawer slide assemblies, the lower metal drawer
guide consists of a generally U-shaped (or T-shaped) metal rail
in cross-section, having flanges projecting horizontally
outwardly from the upper ends thereof. Each of these
horizontally projecting flanges is typically folded over along
its length, so that the effective thickness of each horizontal
flange is twice the thickness of the metal used to fabricate the
metal rail. The upper metal drawer slide found in the prior art
is generally C-shaped in cross-section and has an integral,
upwardly-extending metal tab member at the rear end thereof that
is secured to the rear wall of the drawer. A typical arrangement
of such conventional drawer slide assemblies is shown in co-owned
U.S. Patent Nos. Re. 32,134 and 4,501,452.
A plastic stop member, referred to by many in the art
as a case glide, is also provided at or near the front end of the
elongated lower metal drawer guide that serves to prevent the
drawer from being prematurely or inadvertently pulled out of the
associated furniture unit. The plastic drawer glide is provided
with a pair of opposing ways or runners that provide plastic-to-
metal, as opposed to metal-to-metal, bearing surface to
facilitate movement of the drawer along the elongated lower
drawer guide. The opposing ways receive and ride along the
outwardly projecting horizontal flanges of the drawer guide. A
gap in the drawer glide just above the opposing ways can
desirably barely accommodate the horizontal projections of the
plastic stop member with no interference, so that the drawer can
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be inserted in the furniture unit with the stop and the drawer
glide already installed. This gap also allows the drawer to be
removed from the furniture unit, but only upon the use of
sufficient force to squeeze the horizontal projections of the
stop member into the gap of the drawer glide. Thus, the stop
provides a warning to a user that the drawer is about to be
pulled out of the furniture unit, and application of additional
force will cause the drawer glide to pass beyond the stop.
A major shortcoming of the conventional drawer slide
assembly is the need to provide drawer length-specific sizes of
drawer slides. One reason that drawer length-specific sizes of
drawer slides are required is that the upwardly-extending tab
member at the rear end of the drawer slide provides the primary
means for securing the~rear.end of the drawer slide to the bottom
of the drawer. As a result, the drawer slide could not have a
length that would cause the tab member to extend past the rear
wall of the drawer.
The drawer glide of many conventional drawer slide
assemblies is a plastic part that utilizes an elongated integral
plastic male extension that is received inside the rear end of
the C-shaped drawer slide. The plastic extension of the drawer
glide is inserted into the rear end of the C-shaped drawer slide
until a front face of the drawer glide lies flush against the
upwardly-extending tab member at the rear end of the drawer
slide. Screws or other suitable fasteners are used to secure
both the drawer glide and the upwardly-extending tab member to
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the rear wall of the drawer. While the plastic extension of the
drawer glide may provide some incidental support to the drawer
slide, the primary purpose of the plastic extension is to provide
a plastic bearing surface to facilitate movement of the drawer
along the drawer guide.
By only being able to match a specific length of drawer
slide with a given drawer length, a large array of drawer slides
having various lengths must be manufactured to meet the demands
of the furniture industry. This increases the number of stock-
keeping units ("SKU's") that must be provided by the supplier of
drawer slide assemblies.
The upwardly-extending tab portion at the rear of the
drawer slide also requires additional working of the metal during
manufacture of the drawer slide, which adds to production time
and cost. Similarly, there are disadvantages of conventional
metal drawer slides due to the cost of complicated tooling for
stamping manufacturing processes, or alternatively, where the
metal drawer slides are roll formed, not only is complicated
tooling~required, but also, production time is detrimentally
slowed down. The present invention overcomes these shortcomings
by eliminating the upwardly-extending tab portion of the metal
drawer slide and changing the manner in which the drawer glide
couples with the rear end of the drawer slide and the rear wall
of the drawer.
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Silb~l~RY OP THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a
drawer slide assembly that can be used on a variety of lengths of
drawers, so as to significantly reduce the number of SKU's, or
different lengths of drawer slides, required to meet the demands
of the furniture industry. Instead of having a drawer slide that
terminates at an upwardly-extending tab member at the rear end of
the metal drawer slide, the present invention requires the drawer
slide to extend past the rear wall of the drawer.
This object of the present invention is achieved by
means of an improved drawer glide, wherein instead of a male
plastic forwardly-projecting extension of the drawer glide, the
drawer glide is provided with a female recess in its front face.
The metal drawer slide projects rearwardly beyond the rear wall
of the drawer and is received in the female recess of the drawer .
glide. In a first embodiment of the improved drawer glide, the
female recess is present instead of the male plastic extension.
The female recess is of sufficient depth to accommodate a length
of a drawer slide that extends as much as 1/4 inch beyond the
rear wall of the drawer. According to this embodiment, the
drawer slides can thus be provided with a manufacturing tolerance
of 1/16", as opposed to needing more exact drawer-length specific
drawer slides.
In a most preferred embodiment, the recess of the
plastic drawer glide is elongated, having sufficient depth to
accommodate a length of drawer slide that extends as much as s
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inch beyond the rear wall of the drawer, whereby a greater
variety of lengths of drawers can be used with a given drawer
slide. The drawer slides can vary in 1/4" increments, resulting
in fewer drawer slide SKU's than the first embodiment of the
~ present invention.
A need exists to reinforce the walls of the female
recess and a wall member forming the main vertical body portion
of the plastic drawer glide. This need arises from the fact that
a rear-most portion of the drawer slide is received within the
female recess of the drawer glide, and the drawer slide transfers
internal stresses, direct forces, and torque, for example from
the weight of the drawer and the weight of the contents of the
drawer, to the drawer glide. The drawer slide receiving area of
the female recess also may be slightly smaller than the cross-
sectional dimension of the rear-most portion of the drawer slide,
so the drawer slide may have a tendency to bias opposing ways of
the drawer glide away from one another, tending to weaken or
crack the drawer glide. Reinforcement of the drawer glide is
therefore desirable to compensate for these factors. One form of
such reinforcement is the use of a metal insert plate imbedded
within the plastic drawer glide. The metal insert plate provides
internal rigidity and strength to_the drawer glide.
Another form of reinforcement, which has several
benefits from a manufacturing standpoint, is the use of integral
flanges or gussets between the outer walls defining the female
recess and the wall member forming the main vertical body portion
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of the drawer glide. These integral flanges or gussets are
preferably wedge-shaped, i.e. pie-shaped, and are spaced along
the sidewalls and top wall forming the female recess of the
drawer glide.
Another improvement incorporated into the drawer glide
of the present invention is a locking mechanism to ensure
securement of the rear-most end of the drawer slide within the
female recess of the drawer glide. This locking mechanism
preferably takes the form of a ramped locking tab extending
downwardly from the upper wall of the female recess of the drawer
glide. A complementary aperture spaced inwardly from the extreme
rear end of the drawer slide receives the locking tab once the
drawer slide has been inserted a sufficient distance into the
drawer glide.
Advantageously, this locking mechanism allows for easy
preassembly of the drawer slide and drawer glide prior to
attachment to a drawer, which assists in obtaining proper
perpendicular alignment of the drawer slide relative to the rear
wall of the drawer once the drawer slide and drawer glide are
2o attached to the drawer. By extending from the upper wall of the
female recess of the drawer glide, the integral plastic locking
tab also beneficially avoids the need for any metal back bent
tabs along the length of the drawer slide, which allows for less
difficult and less expensive roll-forming or stamping of the
drawer slide.
The drawer glide also has opposing ways that extend
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forwardly of the main wall member of the drawer glide, resulting
in a longer gliding surface, i.e. a longer region of sliding
contact between the opposing ways of the drawer glide and the
metal drawer slide.
Further features and benefits of the present invention
will be appreciated by reference to the drawings and in the
following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
l0 FIG. 1 is a fragmentary exploded front perspective view
of a conventional prior art drawer glide and drawer slide
combination;
FIG. 2 is a partially exploded rear perspective view,
broken away, of a conventional prior art drawer slide assembly:
1~ FIG. 3 is a cross-section taken along lines 3-3 of FIG.
2 of the prior art drawer slide assembly shown in FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a rear perspective view, broken away, of a
drawer slide assembly incorporating a first embodiment of a.
drawer glide having an imbedded reinforcement member therein;
20 FIG. 5 is a rear plan view of the drawer glide shown in
FIG. 4i
FIG. 6 is a front perspective view of the drawer glide
shown in FIG. 4:
FIG. 7 is a rear perspective view of a metal insert
25 plate used as the imbedded reinforcement member in the drawer
glide shown in FIG. 5:
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FIG. 8 is a front perspective view of the metal insert
plate shown in FIG. 7:
FIG. 9 is an enlarged cross-section taken along lines
9-9 of FIG. 4:
FIG. 10 is an enlarged cross-section, similar to the
view shown in FIG. 9, but showing an alternate embodiment of the
drawer glide shown in FIG. 5, taken along lines 10-10 of FIG. 4;
FIG. il is an exploded view of a drawer slide assembly
using a drawer glide of the present invention;
FIG. 12 is a front cross-sectional view, taken along
line 12-12 of FIG. 11:
FIG. 13 is a rear perspective view of the drawer glide
of the present invention;
FIG. 14 is a front perspective view of the drawer glide
shown in FIG. 13;
FIG. 15 is a rear plan view of the drawer glide shown
in FIG. 13:
FIG. 16 is a cross-sectional view, taken along lines
16-16 of FIG. 15:
FIG. 17 is a rear perspective view of an alternate
embodiment of the drawer glide shown in FIGS. 13-16, wherein the
female recess is deeper to accommodate a longer rear-most portion
of the drawer slide;
FIG. 18 is a front perspective view of the drawer glide
shown in FIG. 17;
FIG. 19 is a rear plan view of the drawer glide shown
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in FIG. 17:
FIG. 20 is a cross-sectional view, taken along lines
20-20 of FIG. 19:
FIG. 21 is an exploded view, with most of the drawer
slide cut away, showing the drawer slide just before it is
received within the drawer glide: and
FIG. 22 is an enlarged view, similar to FIG. 21, and
showing the locking tab within the drawer glide.
DETAI~ED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
sonvent~onal Drawer Slide Assemblies
Referring first.to FIGS. 1-3, a conventional drawer
slide assembly 10 is shown to represent what exists in the prior
art. The conventional drawer slide assembly 10 includes a '
stationary elongated lower metal drawer guide 12, also known as a
case guide, or as a case runner, that is comprised of a rail
having a substantially U-shaped cross-section, with horizontal,
outwardly projecting flanges 14, 16. Although not shown in FIG.
1, the horizontal, outwardly-projecting flanges 14, 16 are
preferably folded over along substantially their entire length,
so that the flanges are essentially twice the thickness of the
metal material used to form the metal drawer guide 12 (see, e.g.,
FIGS. il and 12). The drawer guide 12 is secured, for example by
wood screws 18, 20, to the front drawer aperture cross support
22, and rear drawer aperture cross support 24, of a furniture
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unit. An elongated metal drawer slide 26 is secured to the front
wall 28 and rear wall 30 of a drawer 32 along the bottom wall 34
of the drawer 32. The drawer slide 26 is C-shaped in cross-
section, having vertical side walls 36, 38 and inwardly-directed
~ horizontal flanges 40, 42.
The prior~art drawer slide 26 is also equipped with an
integral flange or tab 44 that extends vertically up the rear
wall panel 30 of the drawer 32. A wood screw 46 or a similar
fastening means is used to secure the drawer slide 26 to the
front wall 28 of the drawer 32 at the corner of the front wall 28
and the bottom panel 34. The rear end of the prior art drawer
slide 26 is secured to the rear wall panel 30 by wood screws 46,
48, 50 (or similar fastening means) that pass through screw-
receiving apertures 52, 54, 56 in the integral tab 44.
In order to prevent direct, metal-to-metal contact of
the drawer slide 26 along the drawer guide 12, a plastic drawer
glide 58 is provided in the prior art drawer slide assembly 10 at
the rear wall panel 30 of the drawer 32. The drawer glide 58
consists of a wall member 60, a rearward integral extension 62,
and a pair of forwardly extending opposing ways 64, 66. The
opposing ways 64, 66 are essentially question mark shaped in
cross section. The drawer glide 58 is secured to the rear wall
by wood screws 46, 48, 50 (or by similar fastening means).
The wood screws 46, 48, 50 pass through screw receiving apertures
25 68, 70, 72 in the wall member 60, with the screw receiving
apertures 68, 70, 72 being axially aligned with the screw
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receiving apertures 52, 54, 56 in the integral tab 44 of the
drawer slide 26.
The opposing ways 64, 66 of the drawer glide 58 receive
the horizontal flanges 14, 16 of the drawer guide 12 and ride
along the drawer guide 12. A gap or opening 74 in the drawer
glide 58 located immediately above the opposing ways 64, 66
permits the drawer glide to pass over a plastic stop member (not
shown), located near the front of the drawer guide 12. A pair of
opposing, inwardly-directed stops 75 are provided on the vertical
side walls 36, 38 of the drawer slide 26, which serve to
temporarily stop the drawer glide 58, so the user has some
warning or resistance before the drawer 32 is completely removed
from the furniture unit, but removal of the drawer is still
possible by applying sufficient pulling force to the drawer 32 so
as to pull the stop member through the gap 74, and thus pull the
drawer glide 58 and drawer slide 26 past the stop member. In
other words, the stops 75 in the side walls 36, 38 the drawer
slide 26 provide resistance to warn the user that the drawer 32
is approaching the front end of the drawer slide 26. In order to
provide some strength to conventional the drawer glide 58, there
are integral plastic rigidifying wall members, for example wall
members 76, 78, on the exterior thereof.
Because the drawer slide 26 incorporates an integral
tab 44 fastened to the rear wall panel 30 as the primary means of
securing the drawer slide 26 to the drawer 32, conventional
drawer slides have had to be drawer-length specific. Relatively
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high tolerances are required to ensure that the length of the
drawer slide 26 corresponds to the length of the drawer 32 so
that the tab 44 lies flush along the rear wall panel 30.
Although the forwardly-extending opposing ways 64, 66 of the
plastic drawer glide 58 extend into a rear end of the drawer
slide 26, the opposing ways 64, 66 do not provide a substantial
means of securing the rear end of the drawer slide 26 to the
drawer 32. Instead, wood screws 46, 48, 50 must be used.
Reinforced Drawer Glides for Drawer Slide Assemblies
. Turning now to FIGS. 4-10, the drawer slide assembly
100 originally disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No.
09/348,934 can accommodate a range of lengths of drawer slides
15~ for a given drawer length, resulting in a significant reduction
in SKU's for suppliers of drawer slide assemblies, inasmuch as
the present invention permits the use of a single drawer slide
length to fit drawers in an array of specific given drawer
lengths. The drawer slide assembly utilizes an improved drawer
glide 158, and still utilizes an elongated U-shaped metal drawer
guide 112 having horizontal outwardly-projecting flanges 114,
116. A drawer slide 126 is also provided.
The drawer slide 126 is an elongated metal rail that is
C-shaped in cross-section, having vertical side walls 136, 138
and inwardly projecting flanges 140, 142. Notably, the drawer
slide 126 lacks an integral upwardly-extending tab at the rear
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end thereof. Instead, the drawer slide 126 has a rear-most
portion 127 that extends rearwardly past the rear wall panel 130
of the drawer 132, as best shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. The drawer
glide 158 has screw-receiving apertures 168, 172 in a wall member
160, through which wood screws 146, 150 (or similar fastening
means) pass to secure the drawer glide 158 directly to the rear
wall 130 of the drawer 132. Counter-sunk screw-head receiving
circular bores 171 in a rear side of the drawer glide 158 are
provided immediately about the screw-receiving apertures 168, 172
to provide a more flush exterior surface to the drawer glide 158
when the wood screws 146, 150 are in place. There is no integral
tab at the rear end of the drawer slide 126, thus the front face
159 of the drawer glide 158 lies flush against the rear wall 130,
without any intermediate metal tab portion.
The front end of the drawer slide 126 is secured in a
conventional manner by a screw 146 or similar fastening means to
the bottom wall 13'4 of the drawer 132, preferably at the corner
of the bottom wall 134 and the front wall 128 of the drawer 132.
The improved drawer guide 158 advantageously provides a means for
securing the rear-most portion 127 of the drawer slide 126 to the
drawer 132 without the need for an integral tab on the drawer
slide 126. The securement means of the improved drawer glide 158
advantageously includes a C-shaped, downwardly-open aperture 165
that accommodates the rear-most portion 127 of the C-shaped
drawer slide 126, which extends past the rear wall 130 of the
drawer 132, thus solving the problem of the prior art wherein
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drawer slides had to be drawer-length specific. Most preferably,
the entire cross-section of the drawer slide 126 extends past the
rear wall 130 of the drawer 132.
A recess R1 (see FIG. 9) is provided within the drawer
glide 158. The recess R1 extends rearwardly from the front face
159 and securely receives, preferably in a press fit, the portion
127 of the drawer slide 126 that extends rearwardly of the rear
wall 130. Advantageously, the recess Rl is shaped to accommodate
the rearmost portion 127 that is an extension of the entire
cross-section of the drawer slide 126. By so accommodating the
entire C-shaped cross-section of the drawer slide 126, the recess
R1 allows for the drawer slide 126 to be manufactured without
special additional.cutting, rolling, or stamping operations to
form any rearwardly extending adapter or tab portion at the rear
end of the drawer slide 126.
The combination of the securement of this rear-most
portion 127 of the drawer slide 126 in the recess R1, and the
securement of the drawer glide 158 to the rear wall 130 via wood
screws 146, 150 (or similar fastening means) effectively secures
the rear of the drawer slide 126 to the bottom panel 134 of the
drawer 132. As a result, a given drawer slide 126 can be used on
a variety of lengths of drawers.
Production time in the shaping of drawer slides 126 is
also advantageously reduced, because there is no need to form the
integral tab members found in the drawer slide assemblies of the
prior art. By way of example only, a suitable depth for the
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recess R1, i.e. the distance from the forward wall 167 of the
opposing ways 164, 166 and a front face 159 of the drawer glide
158, is approximately 1/4 inch. The maximum depth for the recess
R1 is limited by the depth of the space behind the drawer 132 in
5~ the associated furniture unit when the drawer 132 is completely
closed. Thus, the longest the recess R1 can suitably be in a
particular drawer is a dimension such that the drawer glide 158
would not prevent complete closure of the drawer 132.
The drawer glide 126 is also advantageously internally
reinforced by a metal plate 180 imbedded within the drawer glide,
shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. The drawer glide 126 is preferably
manufactured by overmolding of the plastic exterior directly over
the metal plate 180. The metal plate 180 is provided with
apertures 169, 173 that align coaxially with screw-receiving
apertures 168, 172, so the screws 146, 150 do not have to pierce
through the metal plate 180 to secure the drawer glide 158 to the
rear wall 130. The metal plate 180 is provided with a generally
C-shaped, downwardly-open aperture 183 that serves to reinforce
the generally C-shaped aperture 165 of the drawer glide 158.
Advantageously, the metal plate 180 eliminates the need for
rigidifying wall members on the exterior of the drawer glide 158.
The drawer glide 158 further includes opposing ways
164, 166 that are essentially question mark shaped in cross-
section and extend inwardly from side walls of the C-shaped
aperture 165. The forward-most, vertical end wall 167 of each of
the opposing ways 164, 166 terminates rearwardly of the front
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face 159 of the drawer glide 158, and defines the rear end of the
recess R1. Importantly, this means the rear-most portion 127 of
the drawer slide 126 does not extend past the forward-most end
wall 167 of the opposing ways 164, 166.
The opposing ways 164, 166 prevent direct metal-to-
metal contact between the drawer slide 126 and the drawer guide
112. The opposing ways 164, 166 receive the horizontal,
outwardly projecting flanges 114, 116 of the drawer guide 112,
providing plastic-to-metal contact with the drawer guide 112,
thereby facilitating movement of the drawer 132 along the drawer
guide 112. The metal plate 180 has lower portions 181, 182 that
are S-shaped in cross-section, which provide internal
reinforcement to the opposing ways 164, 166. Advantageously, the
lower portions 181, 182 also provide enhanced support to the
drawer slide 126, which is important to accommodate the weight of
the contents of the drawer 132.
A gap 174 in the drawer glide 158 immediately above the
top surface of the opposing ways 164, 166 allows the drawer glide
158 to pass over a preferably plastic stop member (see Fig. 11)
located near the front end of the drawer guide 112 without
resistance.
In another embodiment, shown in FIG. 10, the recess R2
is an elongated recess, to accept a greater variety of lengths of
drawer slides. In this embodiment, the opposing ways 166a have a
forward wall 167a that is more remote in a rearward direction
from the rear wall panel 130 of the drawer 132 than in the
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previous embodiment. As a result, the drawer slide 126 can have
a rear-most portion 127a that extends farther past the rear wall
panel 130 than the previous embodiment.
Preferably, the depth of this elongated or deeper
recess is at least 's inch, which allows for use of 1/4"
increments in the sizing of drawer slides. Again, the maximum
suitable depth for the recess R2 would be a depth such that the
drawer glide 158 does not prevent complete closure of the drawer
132 in its associated furniture unit. This embodiment results a
significant reduction in the amount of SKU's, because the recess
R2 makes it unnecessary for the drawer slide to be drawer-length
specific.
F~rt~prnally Reinforced and Interlocking Drawer Glides
The embodiments of the drawer glide just described
15~ included internal reinforcement in the form of an imbedded metal
plate 180. While such a drawer glide has many advantages over
drawer slide assemblies found in the prior art, there are still
several disadvantages. There is additional cost and increased
complexity involved in manufacturing a plastic drawer glide that
is overmolded on the metal plate 180. Also, while the recesses
R1 and R2 in the drawer glides described above do provide a high
level of securement of the drawer slide 126, the drawer glide can
still be fairly easily pulled off the end of the drawer slide 126
during assembly. As a result, those persons assembling a
furniture article are not assured that the drawer slide 126 and
drawer glide will remain together as a unit until the securement
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screws 150 are used to secure the drawer glide to the rear wall
130 of the drawer.
Thus, the latest embodiments of the present invention,
as shown in FIGS. 11-23, include locking means, discussed in
greater detail below, for reliably securing the drawer slide 226
within the drawer glide 258. Where possible, reference numbers
in FIGS. il-23 correspond to similar elements in the drawer slide
assembly of FIGS. 4-10, with the reference numbers increased by a
factor of 100. For example, there is a drawer slide 126 in the
drawer slide assembly of FIG. 4, and there is a drawer slide 226
in the drawer slide assembly of FIG. 11.
The drawer glide 258 of the present invention has a
main wall member 260 with a front face that abuts the rear wall
230 of the drawer 232. A case runner, also called a drawer guide
212, is secured by wood screws 213 to a front cross rail 215 and
a rear cross rail 217 of the furniture article, preferably in
such a manner that the drawer guide 212 is centrally disposed in
the bottom of a drawer-receiving cavity within the furniture
article. The drawer guide 212 is generally U-shaped in cross-
section, with outwardly-projecting horizontal flanges 214, 216,
which are preferably folded over along substantially their entire
length, so that the effective thickness of the flanges 214, 216
is twice the thickness of the material used to form the drawer
guide 212.
A plastic case glide or stop member 219, having a
generally rectangular integral base portion 221, is securably
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seated between the sidewalls of the U-shaped drawer guide 212,
and has a pair of tapering horizontal flanges 223, 225 at the top
thereof. The tapering horizontal flanges 223, 225 are spaced a
short distance, preferably approximately 0.403 inch, from the
tops of the outwardly-projecting horizontal flanges 214, 216 of
the drawer guide 212. Advantageously, this leaves gaps 227, 229
on either side of the rectangular integral base portion 221
between the two pairs of flanges.
Turning to FIGS. 13-16 and 22-23, the drawer glide 258
includes a recess 8201 that accommodates a rear-most portion of
the drawer guide 226 extending past the rear wall 230 of a
drawer. The recess 8201 is delimited by a pair of sidewalls 284,
286 and a top wall 288. There are also horizontal inwardly-
projecting floors 287, 289 at the bottom of the recess 8201.
The drawer glide 258 has opposing ways 264, 266 that -
are essentially question mark shaped in cross-section and extend
inwardly from side walls 284, 286 of the recess 8201. Supporting
struts 300, 302 may be provided instead of having solid material
between the opposing ways 264, 266 and the respective side walls
284, 286, in order to save material, without significantly
detracting from the strength of the opposing ways 264, 266.
As best shown in FIGS. 16 and 23, the drawer glide 258
advantageously is equipped with a securing mechanism in the form
of a ramped tab member 290, which is preferably centrally located
on an underside of the top wall 288 of the recess 8201. The
ramped tab member 290 has an inclined or sloped portion 291, and
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a generally vertical locking wall surface 292. The rear most
portion of the drawer slide 226 is provided with a corresponding
aperture 293, sized to accommodate the ramped tab member 290.
The dimensions of the C-shaped drawer slide 226 and the recess
5~ R201 are such that the drawer slide 226 fits tightly within the
recess 8201, with the horizontal flanges 240, 242 of the drawer
slide 226 seated on the floors 287, 289 of the drawer glide 258.
Thus, as the drawer slide 226 is inserted into the glide 258, a
portion 294 at a rear end of the aperture 293 is pressed
downwardly as the portion 294 rides along the inclined portion of
the ramped tab member 290 until the portion 294 clears the ramped
tab member 290, at which time an audible "snap" sound is detected
as the portion 294 snaps into locking engagement behind the
locking wall surface 292. This beneficially achieves a secure
engagement of the drawer slide 226 and drawer glide 258, and
ensures perpendicularity between the main wall member 260 of the
drawer glide 258, and the drawer slide 226.
The snap locking mechanism also facilitates pre-
assembly of the drawer slide 226 and drawer glide 258, which can
speed up the furniture assembly process. The ramped tab member
290 is spaced rearwardly of the main wall member 260 for greater
securement of the drawer slide 226.
Another advantage of the present invention is the
extension of the opposing ways 264, 266 forwardly of the main
wall member 260. By extending the opposing ways 264, 266, there
is a greater gliding surface achieved between the drawer glide
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258 and the horizontal flanges 214, 216 of the U-shaped drawer
guide 212. This results in added stability when sliding the
drawer 232 along the drawer guide 212, which reduces undesirable
side-to-side play or movement of the drawer 232.
When inserting the drawer 232 into a drawer-receiving
cavity (not shown) of a furniture article, such that the drawer
glide 258 will be in sliding engagement with the case runner 212,
the upper portion 304 of the opposing way 266 passes between the
horizontal flange 216 of the case runner 212 and the tapering
flange 225 of the stop member 219, while the upper portion 306 of
opposing way 264 passes between the horizontal flange 214 and the
tapering flange 223.
Because the C-shaped drawer slide 226 essentially
surrounds the outer sides of the forwardly-projecting portions of
the opposing ways 264, 266, the drawer slide 226 provides
additional reinforcement to the opposing ways 264, 266.
Another feature of the drawer glide 258 is the use of
gussets 333 that are generally pie-shaped, or web-shaped, between
the top 288 and side walls 284, 286 of the recess 8201, and the
rear of the main wall member 260. These integral gussets 333
avoid the need for internal, imbedded reinforcement, but still
provide added strength and stability to the drawer glide 258.
FIGS. 17-21 demonstrate an alternate embodiment of the
drawer glide 458. The drawer glide 458 is essentially the same
as the drawer glide 258 of the previous embodiment, but with an
elongated recess 8401. This arrangement allows for a greater
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CA 02354971 2001-08-13
range of lengths of drawer slides that can be accommodated by the
drawer glide, because the main wall member 460 can still lie
flush against a rear wall 230 of a drawer 232 with a greater
length of drawer slide extending rearwardly of the rear wall 230.
As a result, the drawer manufacturer can produce fewer varieties
of lengths of drawer slides, while still achieving the other
benefits of the present invention.
While the present invention has been described with
respect to various embodiments thereof, it will be appreciated by
those of ordinary skill in the art that modifications may be made
thereto that are still within the scope of the appended claims.
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