Movable or removable closures – Mounted for optional movements – On alternative axes
Patent
1996-02-12
1997-10-14
Dorner, Kenneth J.
Movable or removable closures
Mounted for optional movements
On alternative axes
16232, 16DIG23, E05D 1550
Patent
active
056759347
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an opening/closing device for use in a door, and more particularly to an opening/closing device of a door by which the door can be opened/closed optionally at either desired side thereof.
BACKGROUND ART
A door is a useful structure in a human life which is necessarily installed in buildings, furniture, electric home appliances such as a refrigerator or a microwave oven, automobiles and so forth. The door generally has hinges disposed only at one of the right and left sides and a grip disposed at the other side of the door, and thereby is designed to be opened or closed at one side of the door.
Accordingly, it may be inconvenient for a user to use the door according as he is left-handed or right-handed, because the opening direction of the door is limited to only the predetermined direction as described above. There is a further disadvantage, by which the effective utilization of space is largely limited, that a user must always select a place, in which an appliance having a door as described above is placed, in consideration of the opening direction of the door.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,064,555 issued to Yoshio Inui et al. discloses an opening/closing device of a door as a proposal to avoid such inconveniences as described above. The device, which enables a door to be opened/closed at either side thereof and is particularly suitable to be used for a refrigerator, has hinge pins 102A, 102B disposed at the left and right end portions of one of a door and a body to which the door is assembled, a fixing plate 104B provided at the other of the door and the body and having grooves 107A, 107B in which the hinge pins 102A, 102B can be detachably engaged from the opening side of the door, and latch plates 105A, 105B rotatably disposed at the left and right ends of the fixing plate 104B and having latch grooves 108A, 108B in which the hinge pins 102A, 102B can be engaged, as shown in FIGS. 14 and 15. Links 106A, 106B are respectively mounted on each of the latch plates 105A, 105B, one end of each link being pivotally fixed at the end of each of shafts 113A, 111B protruding from the fixing plate 104B, and the other ends of the links 106A, 106B being connected with each other via a coupling link 106C. The latch plates 105A, 105B have lock pins 115A, 115B, and the links 106A, 106B on the latch plates 105A, 105B have lock holes 114A, 114B having slide guide sections 114A1, 114B1 and stopper sections 114A2, 114B extending not in alignment with each other in which the lock pins 115A, 115B are engaged.
In the opening/closing device of a door, when a user pulls out the left side of the door in a closed state as shown in FIG. 24, the hinge pin 102B escapes from the groove 107B and the latch plate 105B rotates clockwise, and thereby the door is opened as shown in FIG. 25. At this moment, the lock pin 115B of the latch plate 105B moves along the slide guide section 114B of the link 106B, so that the link 106B is slanted to one side and the link 106A is slanted accordingly through the coupling link 106C. Thus, the lock pin 115A of the right latch plate 105A comes into the stopper portion 114A2 of the lock hole 114A so as to prevent the right latch plate 105A from rotating even when a force for separating the hinge pin 102A is applied, and thereby can perform its hinge function safely.
When the left side of the door is being closed from the opened state thereof, the latch plate 105B is rotated and returned to the initial closed state by the hinge pin 102B. Toggle-type springs 110A, 110B are provided so as to ensure the rotating operation of the latch plates 105A, 105B between the opened and closed positions thereof.
Necessary conditions for double-side operation in a opening/closing device for a door are as follow:
1) Hinge pins at each side of the door must be maintained so that the hinge pins can be inserted into a certain object and escaped from it,
2) When the latch member of the side is in the opened state thereof, the latch member of the other side must secure a hinge pin firmly,
REFERENCES:
patent: 3889419 (1975-06-01), Maleck
patent: 4495673 (1985-01-01), Khan
patent: 4503582 (1985-03-01), Gurubatham
patent: 4503583 (1985-03-01), Frohbieter
patent: 4811518 (1989-03-01), Ladisa
patent: 5064255 (1991-11-01), Inui et al.
Cohen Curtis
Dorner Kenneth J.
Lee Hong Il
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