Galley cart bay door latch
AssigneeB/E Aerospace, Inc.
InventorPeter John Leslie Burd
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A galley cart bay door latch system serves to secure catering or galley carts, as are used on commercial aircraft, within the aircraft's galley. The system relies on two substantially horizontally disposed latch levers to secure the galley door which in turn restrains a galley cart in position within the galley. The ends of the latch levers are received in a recess formed in the door to secure the door. Raising the latch lever releases the door and positively pushes the door outwardly. The latching configuration allows the doors to be slammed shut without the need to further manipulate the latch levers.
Claims9
A latching system for latching and unlatching a galley cart bay door of a galley cart bay of an aircraft galley, the galley cart bay door having an interior side, and the galley cart bay door being movably mounted to the galley cart bay so as to be movable between a closed position closing the galley cart bay for retaining the aircraft galley cart within the galley cart bay and an open position for releasing the aircraft galley cart for removal from the galley cart bay, the latching system comprising:
- a latch lever having an inner and an outer end, said inner end including a cam slot, and said inner end being pivotally mounted to the aircraft galley, said outer end including a lever retainer member releasably engageable with a portion of the galley cart bay door, and said outer end of said at least one latch lever being pivotally movable between a door engaging position engaging said galley cart bay door and retaining said galley cart bay door in the closed position and a door releasing position releasing said galley cart bay door to move to the open position;
- a cam operated rod slidably mounted between said cam slot and the interior side of the galley cart bay door, said cam operated rod being releasably engageable with said cam slot;
- a compression spring disposed intermediate said cam slot and said cam operated rod, said compression spring being biased to cause said cam operated rod to push outwardly against said cart bay door when said cart bay door is in the closed position and when said at least one latch lever is moved to said open position;
- and
- at least one positive location nub provided on the galley cart bay door extending outwardly from the galley cart bay door, said lever retainer member being releasably engageable with said at least one positive location nub in said door engaging position of said outer end of said latch lever.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.