US3575483A

US3575483A - Drop front cabinet having tiltable bin with adjustable tensioning and stop device

Info

Publication number: US3575483A
Application number: US854929A
Authority: US
Inventors: Warren C Church; Calvin E Brown
Original assignee: Lane Co Inc
Current assignee: Lane Co Inc
Priority date: 1969-09-03
Filing date: 1969-09-03
Publication date: 1971-04-20
Anticipated expiration: 1988-04-20

Abstract

A cabinet having a bin tiltable forwardly and downwardly from the front thereof, the front of at least part of the cabinet being the front of the bin. The bin is attached to the inside faces of two opposed sidewalls of the cabinet by two hinges each of which includes a first elongated hinge plate for preattachment to the bin, two elongated arms each having on end pivotally attached to an end of the first hinge plate, the two elongated arms crossing, scissor fashion intermediate their length and being pivotally secured at spaced points to a second hinge plate having at least two elongated holes therethrough and at least an additional circular hole therethrough for securement of the hinge to the cabinet which allows adjustment of the bin with respect to the cabinet during installation. The hinge assemblies further include devices for offering a desired resistance to tilting the bin, in order to prevent unexpectedly rapid tilting thereof and for limiting tilting of the bin.

Description

United States Patent Warren C. Church Hurt;

Calvin E. Brown, Altavista, Va. 854,929

Sept. 3, 1969 Apr. 20, 1971 The Lane Company, Inc. Altavista, Va.

[72] Inventors [2 I Appl. No. [22] Filed [45] Patented [73] Assignee [54] DROP FRONT CABINET HAVING TILTABLE BIN WITH ADJUSTABLE TENSIONING AND STOP Primary Examiner-James T. McCall Attorney-Cushman, Darby & Cushman ABSTRACT: A cabinet having a bin tiltable forwardly and downwardly from the front thereof, the front of at least part of the cabinet being the front of the bin. The bin is attached to the inside faces of two opposed sidewalls of the cabinet by two hinges each of which includes a first elongated hinge plate for preattachment to the bin, two elongated arms each having on end pivotally attached to an end of the first hinge plate, the two elongated arms crossing, scissor fashion intermediate their length and being pivotally secured at spaced points to a second hinge plate having at least two elongated holes therethrough and at least an additional circular hole therethrough for securement of the hinge to the cabinet which allows adjustment of the bin with respect to the cabinet during installation. The hinge assemblies further include devices for offering a desired resistance to tilting the bin, in order to prevent unexpectedly rapid tilting thereof and for limiting tilting of the bin.

DROP FRONT CABINET IIIAVEWG TILTABILE BIN WITH ADJUSTABLE TENSIONING AND STOIP DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Cabinets having bins which tilt out from the cabinet fronts are commonly used for the storage of phonographic records and office files for convenient access, as soiled clothes hampers and for other purposes. Generally, the cabinet front forms the front of the bin, or is secured to the front of a separately constructed bin. The bin including the front is secured in a case or cabinet in such a manner that when the front is tilted out and down, for instance 30-90 from the vertical, what was the open top of the bin, hidden from view by the top and front of the case or cabinet, is tilted forwardly exposing the contents of the bin for selective removal, or for deposit of additional articles in the bin.

Even with the assembly-line production of such cabinets, using mass production techniques such as the jig predrilling of fastener receiving openings, precutting of boards from dimensionally stable materials such as those comprising exterior veneers adhesively bonded under pressure to a multiple-ply core, a certain amount of difficulty can be expected in what is usually one of the last assembly operations, installing and hing'ng the bin to the cabinet. This final operation is of prime importance, since no matter how well finished and handsome such a cabinet is, and no matter that its individual parts are of high quality, it will not meet with consumer acceptance when the bin and cabinet front are skewed with respect to the remainder of the cabinet. Who has not heard a variant of look how much it costs, and the door isn't even on straight?" Additionally, a skewed bin and cabinet front can cause sticking during tilting, which may become progressively worse due to stress relief of unevenly stressed hinges or warping of wooden parts. Especially where the cabinet is made of veneered wood, skewed mounting of a bin and cabinet front can result in chipping and marring of the veneer as veneered parts catch on one another during tilting of the bin forwardly and rearwardly.

When heavy items such as records are stored in a tilting bin, their weight, shifting forwardly as the bin is opened and rearwardly as the bin is closed tends to cause unexpectedly rapid tilting toward the extremes of movement of the bin. This is undesirable from a noise standpoint and because it can result in an unstable condition in which articles contained in the bin are dumped therefrom onto the tloor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention seeks to overcome the problems just outlined, by providing an improved hinge assembly including an adjustable tensioning and stop device and method of installing the assembly. The hinge has afirst elongated hinge plate for preattachment to the bin, two elongated arms each having one end pivotally attached to an end of the first hinge plate, -the two elongated arms crossing, scissor fashion intermediate their length and being pivotally secured at space points to a second hinge plate having at least two elongated holes therethrough and at least an additional circular hole therethrough. The first hinge plates of two of the hinges are secured to opposite sides of the bin. Before the tilt-front bin is attached to the inside face wall of the cabinet, the two swinging arms of each hinge are crossed, and then two screws are placed in the elongated holes of the second hinge plate of each and attached to predrilled holes in the inside face wall of the cabinet. These two screws are run up loose and then the tilt-front bin is adjusted in the cabinet, for proper backward or forward fitting. When this is done, the screws in the elongated holes are run up tight and then screws are put in the round holes of the second hinge plates and run up tight to give extra strength and to hold it in positive position. The reason for the hinge swinging arms being crossed and having spaced connections at the plate, is when opening and closing the cabinet either empty or loaded, these hinge arms move with a counterbalanced action which distributes the heavy load on the hinge arms at all times, making the opening and closing of this cabinet easy, and allowing the tilt-front of the cabinet to stop at any position from closed, down to completely open at a position.

However, it is often desired to prevent the bin from tilting down so much as 90 and to prevent the bin from tilting rapidly when nearly closed and when nearly tilted out to its limit. These objects are accomplished by providing a slide arm pivoted at one end to the bin-secured hinge plate and a slide secured to the case sidewall. An adjustable tension fastener secures the slide arm to the slide and, by engaging an edge of the bin acts as a stop to prevent tilting of the bin past a desired extent.

The principles of the invention will be further hereinafter discussed with reference to the drawings wherein a preferred embodiment is shown. The specifics illustrated in the drawings are intended to exemplify, rather than limit aspects of the invention as defined in the claims.

/ BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS about 50, parts being broken away to expose hidden detail;

1 FIG. 2 is an elevation view of the left hinge assembly of FIG. 1, shown by itself in an orientation corresponding to about a 15 tilt-out of the bin;

FIG. 3 is an elevation view, on a scale intermediate that of FIGS. I and 3 of the outside face of the right end of the bin and respective hinge, showing orientation of these elements when the bin is tilted to a fully closed condition; and

FIG. 4 is an elevation view similar to FIG. 3 but illustrating orientation of the hinge and bin end when the bin is tilted out to a limit provided by the stops;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of the region between one end of the bin and the case showing the hinge assembly from above.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The cabinet 10 is, for instance, a phonographic record storage cabinet having a base 12, opposed sidewalls M, 16 and a top 18 which together define an opening 20 for receiving a bin 22.

The bin 22 includes a pair of generally triangular sidewalls 24 respectively having front edges 26, bottom edges 28, upper inclined edges 30, rear corners 32 and top comers 3d. The bin ZZfurther includes a bottom as and a front 38, which, in the instance depicted, is also the cabinet front and extends above and laterally slightly beyond the remainder of the bin.

To illustrate the scale of the FIGS., in the embodiment, the front edges 26 are about 13.5 inches long, the bottom edges 28 are about l2.75 inches long and the sidewalls 24 are each provided with a generally square cutout or opening 40 about 4 inches across located about 2.5 inches above the respective bottom edge 28 and 0.875 inch back from the respective front edge 26.

Three holes 42 are predrilled through the bin sidewalls 24 about 0.6 inch from each inclined edge 30 for mounting the first hinge plate M of each of the two preassembled hinges 46. The first hinge plates 44 are secured to the exteriors of the respective walls 2.4, for instance via rivets 48 or nut and bolt assemblies, screws or the like secured through the holes 42 and through corresponding holes 50 in the first hinge plates dd.

Each hinge as first hinge plate dd extends beyond the holes M and is provided near each end with

further holes

52, 54. Each hinge do also includes a second hinge plate 56, shown being generally rectangular and having a truncated lower front corner 58. In the embodiment shown, this assures that the second hinge plate will not interfere with the 'rear surface of the cabinet and bin front 3% as the bin is tilted out and back,

and further to assist assemblers in initially correctly choosing and securing left or right hinges to corresponding bin sidewall outsides.

Each second hinge plate 56 includes a upper and a lower horizontal row of openings. With reference to FIG. 2, which illustrates the face of the second hinge plate which is presented toward the respective bin sidewall, the top row of openings is shown including, from the front end thereof, a horizontally elongated opening 60, and three

circular openings

62, 64, 66. These openings are all spaced horizontally from one another, the opening 64 being counterbored from the face confronting the viewer of FIG. 2 and the

openings

60, 62 and 66 being counterbored from the opposite face. Similarly, the bottom row of openings is shown including, from the front end thereof, two circular openings 70, 72 and a horizontally elongated opening 74. These openings are all spaced horizontally from one another, the opening 70 being counterbored from the face confronting the view of FIG. 2 and the openings 72 and 74 being counterbored from the opposite face. Thus the horizontal slots 60 and 74 are at diagonally opposite comers of the second hinge plate.

The hinges 46 each further include a first elongated arm 76 having openings 78, 80 formed therethrough near opposite ends thereof and a second elongated arm 82 having

openings

84, 86 formed therethrough near opposite ends thereof. The

arms

76 and 82 are pivotally secured to the first and second hinge plates by means such as

rivets

88, 90, 92, 94. Continuing the description from the viewpoint of Flg. 2, the opening 80 of the arm 76 is superimposed upon the opening 64 of the second hinge plate and a rivet 88 installed therethrough having its head received in the counterbore of the opening 64. The opening 52 of the first hinge plate is superimposed upon the opening 78 of the arm 76 and a rivet 90 installed therethrough. The opening 86 of the arm 82 is superimposed upon the opening 70 of the second hinge plate and a rivet 92 installed therethrough, head in counterbore. The opening 54 of the first hinge plate is superimposed upon the opening 84 of the arm 82 and a rivet )4 installed therethrough.

It should be noted, with reference to FIGS. 3-4, that the second hinge plate is framed by the opening 40 at all times, so that the openings through the second hinge plate are accessible from within the bin.

The horizontally elongated holes 60, 74 in the second hinge plates provide for adjustment of the bin when installing the bin in the cabinet. When variations in the machining or assembly of the bin unit or the cabinet occur, and there is usually some variation when cabinet or bin parts are made of wood, these elongated holes allow adjustment of alignment of the front of the bin during installation.

A plate 44 may be first attached to each of the bin outsides. This securement locates all eight of the

pivot points

88, 90, 92, 94 with respect to the bin. In the preferred assembly, the bin is then hinged to the case insides by placing screws through the slots 60, 74 and corresponding predrilled holes in the case insides, adjusting the bin to align it with the case, and tightening those screws. Thereafter, screws are run into the case insides through the

holes

62, 66, 72.

It should be noted that, in the construction shown, some changes of degree of tilting of the bin may be needed in order to fully uncover for easy access all of the

holes

60, 74, 62, 66, 72 during this assembly operation. Such tilting is accommodated in the construction, by so configuring the openings 40 that no matter how much the bin is tilted, the plate 56 remains accessible.

Prior to installment, circular holes corresponding in position to the holes 60 and 74 are drilled in the facing interior surfaces of the two

sidewalls

14, 16 of the cabinet. The hinges 46 having already been secured to the bin as aforementioned, the bin is next inserted in the cabinet and a screw is placed in each elongated opening 60, 74 and advanced part way into the aforementioned predrilled holes in the cabinet sidewalls. The bin is then adjusted in the cabinet for proper backward forward fitting. This done, the screws in the openings 60, 74 are tightened and other screws are put in each of the round holes 62, 68, 72 and run up tight into the cabinet sidewalls to give extra strength and to positively hold the hinges in the selected position.

Again referring to FIG. 2, it should be noted that between 96 and 98 the hinge arm 82 is displaced away from the viewer, in the region 100, a distance equal to about twice the thickness of the arm 82 in order to accommodate movement of the arm 76 beside the arm 82 as the hinge moves between its FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 orientations. A moment's reflection will cause the realization that, since the arm 82 displaced portion 100 engages the outside of the respective bin sidewall, and is displaced a greater distance than the thickness of the first hinge plate, there is a slight binding of the hinge pivot 94. This assures a desired tightness of the hinge assembly which assists the counterbalancing action of the scissored

arms

76, 82 in maintaining the bin at any angle of tilt between fully closed and fully open at which it is placed by the user.

At least one of the hinge assemblies is further provided with an adjustable tensioning and stop device 120. This is shown including an elongated slide arm 122 having one end thereof pivotally secured to the first hinge plate 44 by the aforementioned rivet 88 passing through an opening 124 therein. The slide arm 122 is provided with a longitudinally elongated slot 126 extending along nearly the full length thereof. The device further includes a slide 128 in the form of a plate 130 having holes 131 via which it is attached to the inside of the case sidewall, for instance, using screws 132. The holes in the case sidewall for accommodating the screws 132 may be prelocated and predrilled using a jig or template. A threaded shank 134 protrudes from the plate 130 toward the bin and passes through the slot 126. A slide cover 136 is provided against the side of the slide arm which faces the bin. The slide cover 136 has a central opening 138 by which it is received upon the shank 134 and a flange 140 which angles out to slide along an edge of the slide arm to maintain the slide cover aligned with the slide arm. A coil spring 142 is received upon the shank 134 so tat its base abuts the slide cover peripherally of the opening 138. A wing nut 144 or similarly adjustable securement device is received on the shank 134 to provide adjustable compression of the coil spring 142 and thus control resistance to tilting of the bin. Item 146 is a washer. When the bin contains a heavy load, the wing nut may be tightened to offer more effective resistance. Preferably, the wing nut is so adjusted that the bin will remain at any angle to which it is tilted, neither tending to tilt further out, nor tending to tilt back in.

.Advantages are offered by making the assemblies 46 ,unitary. Important among the advantages are that assembly line workers may be more efficiently supplied with all that is necessary to mount the bins; need for independently mounting the bin end of the slide arm is avoided with consequent savings in time and money and a stronger assembly is provided since the first hinge plate 44 tends to spread out stresses acting upon the slide arm. The latter is especially important when the slide assembly also provides a positive stop to limit tilting of the bin. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, further tilting of the bin is positively stopped by engagement of the shank 134 with the end of the elongated slot 126.

The structure described herein represents an improvement upon that described in the copending US. application of Brown, Ser. No. 668,053, filed Sept. I5, 1967. now US. Pat. No. 3,510,188.

In the preferred embodiment, the hinges are constructed, for instance, of 0. l 0 inch thick steel plate.

It should now be apparent that the dropfront cabinet having tiltable bin with adjustable tensioning and stop device as described hereinabove possesses each of the attributes set forth in the specification under the heading Summary of the Invention" hereinbefore. Because the dropfront cabinet having tiltable bin with adjustable tensioning and stop device of the invention can be modified to some extent without departing from the principles of the invention as they have been outlined and explained in this specification, the present invention should be understood as encompassing all such modifications as are within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. A dropfront cabinet having dropfront and a tilting bin secured to the rear face of said cabinet front so as to move therewith; said cabinet including opposed sidewalls defining a bin receiving opening between them, said bin having opposed sidewalls, said bin being received in said opening and being hinged to said both sidewalls by two hinges, one mounted on each of the bin opposed sidewalls; each of said hinge comprising: a first hinge plate having means thereon for securing the first hinge plate to the outside of one of said bin opposed sidewalls; a second hinge plate having two horizontally and vertically spaced, horizontally elongated openings therethrough and at least one circular opening therethrough all for receiving screws or the like for securing the second hinge plate to the inside of the corresponding one of said cabinet sidewalls; a first hinge arm; first means pivotally securing the first hinge arm to the first hinge plate near one end of each; second means pivotally securing the opposite end of the first hinge arm to the second hinge plate; a second hinge arm; third means pivotally securing one end of the second hinge arm to the first hinge plate near the opposite end of the first hinge plate from said one end thereof; and fourth means pivotally securing the opposite end of the second hinge arm to the second hinge plate;-all of said pivotally securing means having generally parallel pivot axes generally parallel to the longitudinal axes of said horizontally elongated openings and circular opening; means defining an opening through each sidewall of said bin, said opening being constructed and arranged to frame the respective second hinge plate irrespective of tilting of the bin, whereby the second hinge plates are accessible from interiorly of the bin for establishing securement of the second hinge plates to the cabinet opposed sidewalls and an elongated slide arm pivotally secured at one end thereof to said first hinge plate; a slide; means securing said slide to the inside of one of said cabinet sidewalls above said bin; and adjustable securement means securing said slide arm to said slide for mutual sliding movement for tensioning tilting of said bin; said slide arm having means defining an elongated slot therethrough; said slide including a shank protruding through said slot; and the adjustable securement means including a slide cover received on said shank and bearing against said slide arm, a coil spring having the base thereof abutting said side cover and a threaded nut on said shank providing adjustable compression for said spring to regulate the ease with which said slide arm may be slid with respect to the slide.

2. The cabinet of claim 1 wherein said shank abuts an end of said slot upon tilting out of said bin a predetermined amount, for positively stopping further tilting out of said bin.

3. The cabinet of claim 1 wherein the first hinge arm extends between the forward end of the first hinge plate and the upper rear region of the second hinge plate; wherein the second hinge arm extends between the rearward end of the first hinge plate and the lower front region of the second hinge plate; and wherein the two horizontally elongated openings through the second hinge plate are respectively located in the upper front and lower rear regions of the second hinge plate; said at least one circular opening comprising three circular openings arranged in a triangular pattern on the second hinge plate, and wherein said slide arm one end is pivotally secured to said first hinge plate by said first pivotally securing means.

Claims

1. A dropfront cabinet having dropfront and a tilting bin secured to the rear face of said cabinet front so as to move therewith; said cabinet including opposed sidewalls defining a bin receiving opening between them, said bin having opposed sidewalls, said bin being received in said opening and being hinged to said both sidewalls by two hinges, one mounted on each of the bin opposed sidewalls; each of said hinge comprising: a first hinge plate having means thereon for securing the first hinge plate to the outside of one of said bin opposed sidewalls; a second hinge plate having two horizontally and vertically spaced, horizontally elongated openings therethrough and at least one circular opening therethrough all for receiving screws or the like for securing the second hinge plate to the inside of the corresponding one of said cabinet sidewalls; a first hinge arm; first means pivotally securing the first hinge arm to the first hinge plate near one end of each; second means pivotally securing the opposite end of the first hinge arm to the second hinge plate; a second hinge arm; third means pivotally securing one end of the second hinge arm to the first hinge plate near the opposite end of the first hinge plate from said one end thereof; and fourth means pivotally securing the opposite end of the second hinge arm to the second hinge plate; all of said pivotally securing means having generally parallel pivot axes generally parallel to the longitudinal axes of said horizontally elongated openings and circular opening; means defining an opening through each sidewall of said bin, said opening being constructed and aRranged to frame the respective second hinge plate irrespective of tilting of the bin, whereby the second hinge plates are accessible from interiorly of the bin for establishing securement of the second hinge plates to the cabinet opposed sidewalls and an elongated slide arm pivotally secured at one end thereof to said first hinge plate; a slide; means securing said slide to the inside of one of said cabinet sidewalls above said bin; and adjustable securement means securing said slide arm to said slide for mutual sliding movement for tensioning tilting of said bin; said slide arm having means defining an elongated slot therethrough; said slide including a shank protruding through said slot; and the adjustable securement means including a slide cover received on said shank and bearing against said slide arm, a coil spring having the base thereof abutting said side cover and a threaded nut on said shank providing adjustable compression for said spring to regulate the ease with which said slide arm may be slid with respect to the slide.