Self closing drawer assembly with dual-cam closing mechanism
AssigneeCIS Global LLC
InventorsWade A. Clarke, Karl Klaus Dittus
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A self-close drawer mechanism includes a housing, a slidable self-close latch selectively positionable within the housing, a rotatable cam element in the housing, a flexible link system extending around the cam element, and a spring applying stored force to the sliding self-close latch through the flexible link. Dual cam surfaces in the cam elements realize a decreasing pull force as the user opens the drawer and provides smoother opening and closing operations with an improved user experience.
Claims17
A self-close drawer mechanism comprising:
- a housing;
- a slidable self-close latch selectively positionable within the housing;
- a rotatable cam element in the housing, wherein the rotatable cam element comprises integrally formed first and second cam surfaces of similar shape but different size;
- a flexible link extending around the cam element;
- and
- a spring applying stored force to the slidable self-close latch through the flexible link;
- wherein the flexible link comprises a first flexible link attached to the first cam surface at a first end thereof and wrapping around the first cam surface, the first flexible link further attaching to an end of the spring at a second end thereof.
A self-close drawer mechanism comprising:
- a housing;
- a slidable self-close latch selectively positionable within the housing along a guided path;
- a rotating dual-cam force loading element in the housing;
- first and second flexible links extending around different portions of the rotating dual-cam force loading element;
- and
- a spring attached to the first flexible link, and the second flexible link being attached to the self-close latch, wherein the spring applies stored force to the sliding self-close latch through the first and second flexible links with a gradually reducing pulling force as the self-close drawer mechanism is unlatched.
A self-closing drawer assembly comprising:
- a drawer having a catch latch;
- and
- an integrated self-close assembly interfacing with the catch latch, wherein the integrated self-close assembly comprises:
- a housing
- a slidable self-close latch selectively positionable within the housing along a guided path by the catch latch in an opening operation of the drawer;
- a rotatable dual-cam force loading element in the housing;
- first and second flexible links extending around respectively different portions of the rotatable dual-cam force loading element;
- and
- a spring attached to the first flexible link and the second flexible link being attached to the self-close latch, wherein the spring applies stored force to the sliding self-close latch through the first and second flexible links with a gradually reduced pulling force as the self-close assembly is unlatched in the opening operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.