Miscellaneous hardware (e.g. – bushing – carpet fastener – caster – Hinge – Having cover
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-29
2001-10-30
Mah, Chuck Y. (Department: 3626)
Miscellaneous hardware (e.g., bushing, carpet fastener, caster,
Hinge
Having cover
C016S366000, C016S370000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308376
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hinge to be used to allow a furniture door to swing open and closed. More particularly, it relates to a hinge comprising a plurality of movable arms and a safety shield plate unit adapted to prevent part of the clothes or a finger of the user that is inadvertently put into the hazardous space with a variable volume defined by the moving arms of the hinge from being damaged or, in the worst case, cut by the moving arms.
2. Prior Art
There are known hinges designed to prevent part of the clothes or a finger of the user that is inadvertently put into the hazardous space with a variable volume defined by the moving arms of the hinge from being damaged.
FIGS. 14 through 16
of the accompanying drawings schematically illustrate a known hinge of the type under consideration (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-2287). It comprises a fixing member
1
to be rigidly fitted to the inside surface of an anchor plate A, which may be a lateral plate of the main body of a piece of furniture, a cup-shaped fixing member
2
to be rigidly fitted to the inner surface of a movable plate B, which may be the door of the piece of furniture, and engaged with the fixing member
1
and four movable arms including a movable link arm
3
, a movable rear arm
4
, an movable intermediary arm
5
and a movable front arm
6
.
The movable link arm
3
and the movable rear arm
4
are arranged respectively to pivot on a fixed front shaft
1
a
and a fixed rear shaft
1
b
and the movable rear arm
4
pivots on an intermediary rear shaft
5
b
arranged at the (intermediary) rear end
5
a
of the movable intermediary arm
5
.
Additionally, said movable intermediary arm
5
pivots at the (intermediary) front end
5
c
thereof on an intermediary cup-side shaft
5
d
located inside the cup-shaped space
2
a
of said cup-shaped fixing member
2
and hence close to said fixing member
1
so that said movable link arm
3
and the movable intermediary arm
5
are linked together at respective middle parts thereof by means of an intermediary shaft
3
e.
Furthermore, linking front shaft
3
b
at the (linking) front end
3
a
of said movable link arm
3
and cup-side shaft
6
a
located near the outside in said cup-shaped space
2
a
of said cup-shaped fixing member
2
are linked together by the movable front shaft
6
.
With the above described arrangement, the movable plate B is fitted to the fixed plate A and apt to swing open by 90 to 180 degrees relative to the furniture main body and then closed as seen from
FIGS. 14
,
15
and
16
.
Thus, with a hinge having a configuration as described above, no space is produced by the fixed plate
1
, the cup-shaped fixing member
2
, the movable link arm
3
, the movable rear arm
4
, the movable intermediary arm
5
and the movable front arm
6
when the movable plate B is closed as shown in FIG.
14
. However, there will be produced not only space S
1
defined by the fixing member
1
, the movable rear arm
4
, the movable intermediary arm
5
and the movable link arm
3
and but also relatively large hazardous space S
2
defined by the cup-shaped fixing member
2
, the movable intermediary arm
5
, the movable link arm
3
and the Movable front arm
6
as the movable plate B is moved to its open position along arrow OP in FIG.
15
.
Then, as pointed out above, part of the clothes or a finger of the user can be inadvertently put into the space S
1
and/or the hazardous space S
1
having a variable volume to become damaged. In order to avoid such an accident, a hinge cover C comprising a cover main body C
1
and a movable cover member C
2
fitted to the cover main body so as to pivot on pivot pin P is fitted typically to the movable intermediary arm
5
so that the space Si and the hazardous space S
2
may be hidden by the cover main body C
1
.
Then, as the member plate B is swung open along arrow OP from the position in
FIG. 14
to the position in
FIG. 15
, the movable cover member C
2
is driven to rotate and extend from the cover main body C
1
because the front end of flexible link belt C
3
extending from the movable cover member C
2
is fitted at the front end thereof to the movable front arm
6
. As a result, the growing hazardous space S
2
is hidden by the movable cover member C
2
.
However, since the distance by which the movable cover member C
2
can extend from the cover main body C
1
is limited by the dimensions of the latter, the hazardous space S
2
can become exposed to a considerable extent when the movable plate B is moved to its open position as shown in FIG.
15
. Additionally, when the movable plate B is opened by 90 degrees relative to the fixed plate A as shown in
FIG. 16
, the hazardous space S
2
is mostly exposed although its size is reduced slightly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
With the known technology of using a hinge cover C, the cover C can hide space S
1
satisfactorily but cannot satisfactorily cover hazardous space S
2
although the hinge cover C are dimensioned to be considerably large in an attempt to completely cover the hinge.
Such a hinge cover C limits the space available for storing goods in the furniture and can obstruct the operation of taking out an article from and putting it back into the furniture, although the hinge cover C is rather costly.
In view of the above identified problem of the known technology, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a hinge with a safety shield plate unit designed not to cover the hinge but to be rotatably fitted to the fixed front shaft of the hinge and resiliently urged toward the cup-shaped fixing member of the hinge by means of a resilient member in such a way that said safety shield plate unit is prevented from unnecessarily moving toward the cup-shaped fixing member by causing the anchoring sections of the movable link arm to abut the respective anchored sections of the safety shield plate unit.
With such an arrangement, when the movable plate will be swung open from or closed relative to the fixed plate, the safety shield plate unit is reliably rotated in order to hide the hazardous space and prevent any unexpected accident from happening. Additionally, such a safety shield plate unit will not be expensive but will be sized relatively small so that it will not reduce the available space of the furniture to which it is fitted. Still additionally, the free end of the safety shield plate unit will be prevented from unduly entering the cup-shaped space of the cup-shaped fixing member to obstruct a smooth opening or closing motion of the movable member.
Preferably, the above resilient member for resiliently urging said safety shield plate unit toward said cup-shaped fixing member is arranged between the resilient member receiving section of the safety shield plate unit and the engaging hole of the movable link arm in order to make the safety shield plate unit operate reliably.
Preferably, the safety shield plate unit is prevented from moving unintentionally in order to make it operate reliably to cover the hazardous space by allowing the anchoring projections arranged at the opposite lateral sides of the movable link arm to freely abut the receiving end of the space within the safety shield plate unit so as to improve the relationship between the anchoring sections and the anchored sections.
Preferably, the resilient member is not a coil spring but a helical spring held in engagement with the fixed front shaft and having its opposite ends held respectively to the resilient member receiving section and the fixing member. Alternatively, the helical spring may be held in engagement with a lateral shaft arranged on the fixing member at a position close to the fixed plate and having one end thereof held to the base section of the safety shield plate unit and the other end held to the fixing member.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a hinge with a safety shield plate unit that is different from the above described hinge for achieving the first object in that the safety shield pla
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
Mah Chuck Y.
Sugatsune Industrial Co. Ltd.
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