U.S. patent application number 10/738391 was filed with the patent office on 2005-06-16 for drawer rail structure allowing adjusting of vertical position of drawer front panel.
Invention is credited to Chen, Henry.
Application Number | 20050127803 10/738391 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34620626 |
Filed Date | 2005-06-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050127803 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chen, Henry |
June 16, 2005 |
DRAWER RAIL STRUCTURE ALLOWING ADJUSTING OF VERTICAL POSITION OF
DRAWER FRONT PANEL
Abstract
A drawer rail structure includes two guide rails mounted to a
piece of furniture, and two slide rails mounted to a drawer. Each
of the guide rails is provided at a front end with a first roller,
and each of the slide rails at a rear end with a second roller and
at an upper edge with an inward stop plate. The stop plates press
against tops of the first rollers when the second rollers rotate
along the guide rails, guiding the drawer to slide in correct
directions. An adjusting screw is provided at an outer end of each
stop plate, and a spring plate is located below the adjusting screw
to press against the top of the first roller. When the adjusting
screw is turned to push the spring plate to a different height, a
front panel of the drawer may be adjusted to a different vertical
position.
Inventors: |
Chen, Henry; (Taipei,
TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
LAW OFFICE OF LIAUH & ASSOC.
4224 WAIALAE AVE
STE 5-388
HONOLULU
HI
96816
|
Family ID: |
34620626 |
Appl. No.: |
10/738391 |
Filed: |
December 15, 2003 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
312/334.12 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47B 88/956
20170101 |
Class at
Publication: |
312/334.12 |
International
Class: |
A47B 088/00 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A drawer rail structure allowing adjusting of vertical position
of drawer front panel, comprising a pair of guide rails fixedly
mounted to predetermined positions on a piece of furniture, and a
pair of slide rails fixedly mounted to predetermined positions on
two side panels of a drawer; each of said guide rails being
provided at a front end with a first roller; each of said slide
rails being provided at an upper edge with a laterally inward
extended stop plate, and at a rear end with a second roller; said
second roller on said slide rails being adapted to rotate along
said guide rails, and said stop plates on the upper edges of said
slide rails being adapted to press against tops of said first
rollers on the front ends of said guide rails, so that said drawer
is guided by said guide and said slide rails to slide into and out
of said piece of furniture in correct directions; said drawer rail
structure being characterized in that each of said stop plates on
the upper edges of said slide rails is provided at an outer end
with a downward screwed adjusting screw, and a spring plate below
said adjusting screw; said spring plate having an inner end fixed
to said stop plate and an outer end located immediately below a
lower end of said adjusting screw in a freely movable state; and
said spring plates being adapted to press against tops of said
first rollers on the front ends of said guide rails.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to a drawer rail structure
allowing adjusting of a vertical position of a drawer front panel.
With the present invention, a front panel of a drawer may be easily
adjusted in vertical position and side inclination, so as to locate
in a fully horizontal state. Moreover, a space between two
vertically adjacent drawer front panels may also be adjusted
through the present invention to give the furniture using the
drawers a quality appearance.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a conventional rail structure 12
for a drawer 11. The rail structure 12 mainly includes a pair of
guide rails 13 for fixedly mounting to predetermined positions on a
piece of furniture 10, and a pair of slide rails 14 for fixedly
mounting to predetermined positions on two side panels of the
drawer 11. Each of the guide rails 13 is provided at a front end
with a first roller 15, and each of the slide rails 14 is provided
at an upper edge with an inward stop plate 17, and at a rear end
with a second roller 16. The second rollers 16 on the slide rails
14 are adapted to rotate along the guide rails 13 for the drawer 11
to move in correct directions, and the stop plates 17 are adapted
to press against tops of the first rollers 15, so that the drawer
11 may slide smoothly.
[0003] The drawer 11 includes a front panel 18 that has a width
larger than an overall width of an inlet on the furniture 10 for
the drawer 11, so that the rail structure 12 could not be seen
behind the front panel 18 when the drawer 11 is in a closed
position. The front panel 18 also prevents the drawer 11 from being
completely pushed into the inlet. Usually, the front panel 18 has a
vertical position decided according to heights of outer ends of the
stop plates 17 relative to the front panel 18. In the event the
front panel 18 has two lateral ends located at different heights, a
common solution is to dismount and remount the guide rails 13 to
corrected positions. When the height difference between the two
lateral ends of the front panel 18 is small, it might be neglected
or ignored by a worker to save the trouble of remounting the guide
rails 13. And, in the event the guide rails 13 could not be
adjusted to desired height or inclination, the slide rails 14 must
be dismounted and remounted to suitable positions for compensating
errors in the positions of the guide rails 13.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] A primary object of the present invention is to provide a
drawer rail structure that allows easy adjusting of a vertical
position of a front panel of the drawer, so that the front panel
always has two lateral ends located at the same horizontal
position.
[0005] Another object of the present invention is to provide a
drawer rail structure that allows easy adjusting of a vertical
position of a front panel of the drawer, so that a uniform space
may be produced between the front panels of two vertically adjacent
drawers to give a beautiful appearance to a piece of furniture on
which the drawers are mounted.
[0006] To achieve the above and other objects, the drawer rail
structure of the present invention includes a pair of guide rails
fixedly mounted to predetermined positions on a piece of furniture,
and a pair of slide rails fixedly mounted to predetermined
positions on two side panels of a drawer. Each of the guide rails
is provided at a front end with a first roller, and each of the
slide rails is provided at an upper edge with an inward stop plate,
and at a rear end with a second roller. The second rollers are
adapted to rotate along the guide rails, and the stop plates are
adapted to press against tops of the first rollers, so that the
drawer is guided by the guide and slide rails to slide in correct
directions. An adjusting screw is downward screwed into each stop
plate at an outer end thereof, and a spring plate is located below
the adjusting screw to press against the top of the first roller.
When the adjusting screw is screwed into the stop plate to move the
spring plate to a different height, a front panel of the drawer may
be adjusted to a different vertical position.
[0007] The adjusting screw may be very easily operated to achieve
the purpose of adjusting the drawer front panel. Moreover, the
adjusting screw may be steplessly turned to allow fine adjustment
thereof, so that the front panel of the drawer may be finely
adjusted for the two lateral ends thereof to locate at almost the
same horizontal position.
[0008] By separately adjusting the two lateral ends of the front
panel of the drawer, the space between two vertical adjacent
drawers may be changed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The structure and the technical means adopted by the present
invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best
understood by referring to the following detailed description of
the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings,
wherein
[0010] FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a
conventional rail structure for drawer;
[0011] FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the rail structure for drawer
shown in FIG. 1;
[0012] FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing a drawer rail
structure allowing adjusting of vertical position of drawer front
panel according to the present invention;
[0013] FIG. 3-1 is an enlarged view of the circled area of FIG.
3;
[0014] FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the drawer rail structure of
FIG. 3; and
[0015] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a cabinet with drawers.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0016] Please refer to FIGS. 3, 3-1, and 4 in which a drawer rail
structure 20 allowing adjusting of vertical position of a drawer
front panel according to the present invention is shown. As shown,
the drawer rail structure 20 is provided for guiding a drawer 30 to
slide correctly and mainly includes a pair of guide rails 21
fixedly mounted to predetermined positions in a piece of furniture,
such as a cabinet 40, and a pair of slide rails 22 fixedly mounted
to predetermined positions on two side panels of the drawer 30.
Each of the guide rails 21 is provided at a front end with a first
roller 211. And, each of the slide rails 22 is provided at an upper
edge with a laterally inward extended stop plate 222, and at a rear
end with a second roller 221. When the drawer 30 is guided into the
cabinet 40 by the guide rails 21, the second rollers 221 on the
pair of slide rails 22 rotates in the guide rails 21, and the stop
plates 222 on the upper edges of the two slide rails 22 are pressed
against a top of the first rollers 211 at the front end of the
guide rails 21, so that the drawer 30 slides in correct
directions.
[0017] Please refer to FIG. 3-1. Each of the two stop plates 222 at
the upper edges of the two slide rails 22 is provided at an outer
end with a downward screwed adjusting screw 223 and a spring plate
224 below the adjusting screw 223. The spring plate 224 has an
outer end located immediately below a lower end of the adjusting
screw 223 and an inner end fixedly connected to the stop plate 222,
such that the outer end of the spring plate 224 is in a freely
movable state. When the drawer 30 is fully pushed into the cabinet
40 along the guide rails 21, the spring plates 224 are pressed
against tops of the first rollers 211 on the outer ends of the
guide rails 21. When the adjusting screw 223 is downward screwed,
the corresponding spring plate 224 is pushed by the lower end of
the adjusting screw 223 to move downward. At this point, a lateral
end of a front panel 31 of the drawer 30 corresponding to the slide
rail 22 having the downward pushed spring plate 224 is lifted to a
higher position. Reversely, when the adjusting screw 223 is turned
in an opposite direction to move upward relative to the stop plate
222, the outer end of the spring plate 224 is allowed to spring
upward, and thereby allows the front panel 31 of the drawer 30 to
locate at a lower position. In this manner, a user may conveniently
change the vertical position of the front panel 31 of the drawer 30
simply by screwing the adjusting screw 223 into the stop plate 222
by different depths.
[0018] To adjust the vertical position of the front panel 31 of the
drawer 30, the user needs not to remove the drawer 30 from the
cabinet 40, but simply pulls out the drawer 30 by a small distance
to show the outer ends of the two slide rails 22. The user may then
use a suitable tool (not shown) to change the screwing depth of the
adjusting screw 223 into the stop plate 222, and thereby change a
vertical position of the outer end of the spring plate 224 relative
to the stop plate 222. The two adjusting screws 223 may be
separately turned to adjust the vertical positions of the two
lateral ends of the front panel 31.
[0019] FIG. 5 shows an example of cabinet 40 having more than two
or more drawers 30. A user may adjust the vertical positions of two
lateral ends of each front panel 31, so that the front panels 31 of
the drawers 30 on the cabinet 40 are horizontally spaced at equal
distance, giving the whole cabinet 40 a quality appearance.
[0020] In brief, the present invention employs simple structure to
enable adjusting of vertical position of the drawer front panel
without the need of dismounting any part of the drawer rail
structure, and is therefore very practical for use.
* * * * *