US 5,172,969 AGranted

Overhead cabinet with rotating door

AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.

InventorsRobert Reuter, Wallace C. Bullwinkle, Larry L. Hoff, Robert E. Anderson, Arkady Golynsky, Al Schmidt

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A cabinet is provided with a curved, upwardly-swinging door and interior shelves. The curved shelf door is mounted on a pair of opposed arms which rotate on a horizontal axis. Each arm is provided with two opposed, circularly arcuate slots and a central ellipsoidal slot, each slot engaging a fixed stud at the side of the cabinet. The ellipsoidal slot and its corresponding stud provide a center pivot for each of the arms. The arms are mounted inside the cabinet on opposed interior side walls. Lighting can be provided in a formed recess in the bottom of the cabinet. The cabinet can also be provided with plural internal shelves supported on planar brackets. The cabinet further can be provided with a pair of side-by-side doors and a center wall. Arms are mounted on each side of the center wall and adjacent the interior side walls of the cabinet, for separately mounting the doors.

Claims30

Dependent claims

An article of furniture comprising:

first and second opposed, parallel walls;
a door;
first and second mounting means rotatably mounted adjacent said first and second walls, respectively, for moving said door between an open position and a closed position, each of said first and second mounting means comprising:
a disk portion at least a portion of which has a substantially circular circumference and a center and
a tangential arm portion extending outwardly from said disk portion;
said arm portion having a first side tangent to said circumference of said disk portion, a second side spaced apart from said first side, an outer end connecting said first and second sides, and an inner end at least partially coextensive with said circumference of said disk portion;
and
said disk portion having an elongate central slot axially aligned along a diameter of said disk portion, a first circularly arcuate slot inset from said circumference of said disk portion and having a first radius, and a second circularly arcuate slot having a second radius which is smaller than said first radius, said first and second arcuate slots each having first and second ends, and said first and second arcuate slots being concentric with said disk portion;
pivot means providing a pivot point for rotation of said elongate central slot about a horizontal axis extending therethrough;
and
first and second guide means received respectively in said first and second arcuate slots for guiding said disk portion as said elongate central slot rotates about said pivot means.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.