Background
The drawer related to the middle and high-end refrigerator in the market generally has a larger volume, the drawer with the large volume can store more articles, and the smoothness of opening the drawer by a user is gradually reduced along with the increase of the weight of the articles stored in the drawer. Based on this, the industry has searched for a drawer with an automatic ejection function, but in the prior art, the drawer with the automatic ejection function is pushed out by being driven by a motor, and therefore, the problems of power consumption, large noise, small pushing stroke, large difficulty in stopping the drawer during pushing out, and the like exist in the working process.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to solve the technical problems in the prior art, and in order to achieve the aim, the invention provides a drawer assembly which is specifically designed as follows.
A drawer assembly comprises a drawer body and an opening mechanism, wherein the drawer body is matched with a box body in an advancing and retreating mode, the opening mechanism is arranged between the drawer body and the box body in a matched mode, the opening mechanism comprises a force storage unit and a switch unit, the switch unit is used for limiting the position of the drawer body when the drawer body is closed into the box body, the force storage unit is provided with a torsion spring, the torsion spring absorbs the pushing force of the drawer body in the process that the drawer body enters the box body, and the torsion spring automatically releases the stored energy after the switch unit is opened so that the drawer body can automatically exit the box body.
The power storage unit further comprises a rack with the extending direction consistent with the advancing and retreating direction of the drawer body and a gear meshed with the rack to rotate when the drawer body enters or retreats from the box body, the torsion spring is provided with a fixed end and a torsion end, and the torsion end is fixedly connected with the gear and rotates relative to the fixed end along with the gear when the drawer body enters or retreats from the box body; and in the process that the drawer body enters the box body from the outside, the elastic force accumulated by torsion of the torsion spring is gradually increased.
Further, in the width direction of the drawer body, the power storage unit comprises two racks arranged at intervals and two gears which are respectively meshed with the two racks and synchronously rotate when the drawer body enters or exits the box body.
Furthermore, a connecting rod for connecting the two gears is fixed between the two gears, and the torsion spring is sleeved on the connecting rod.
Furthermore, the power storage unit comprises two torsion springs which are symmetrically sleeved on the connecting rod in a bilateral mode, and the torsion ends of the two torsion springs are fixedly connected with the two gears respectively.
Further, the rack is fixedly arranged on one of the box body and the drawer body, and the gear is rotatably arranged on the other of the box body and the drawer body.
Further, the switch unit comprises a switch body and a trigger piece for triggering the switch body to be opened so as to release the drawer body; in the direction that the drawer body exits the box body, the switch body comprises a shifting piece which is arranged at the front end of the drawer body along a left-right direction rotating shaft, and the shifting piece is provided with a first extending section and a second extending section which respectively extend towards the front side and the rear side of the drawer body from the rotating shaft; the trigger is a first button exposed at the front side of the drawer body, and the first button has an original state which is not pressed down and a trigger state which is pressed down from the original state; the switch body further comprises a first elastic piece which drives one end, far away from the rotating shaft, of the first extension section to elastically abut against the back surface of the first button so as to keep the first button to have a trend of resetting from the trigger state to the original state; the second extension section is kept away from the one end of pivot is formed with the couple, the switch body is still including being fixed in the box with the drawer body closes extremely in the box time supplies the couple hook and locking the couple cooperation portion of drawer body, first button is in during the trigger state, the couple breaks away from couple cooperation portion.
Further, the switch unit comprises a switch body and a trigger piece for triggering the switch body to be opened so as to release the drawer body; in the direction that the drawer body exits from the box body, the switch body comprises a limiting piece arranged at the front end of the drawer body and a clamping rod which is fixed relative to the box body and extends towards the direction of the limiting piece, a clamping groove is formed at the front end of the clamping rod in the circumferential direction, a clamping hole for inserting the front end of the clamping rod when the drawer body enters the box body is formed in the limiting piece, and the limiting piece is provided with a first position for inserting the clamping rod into the clamping hole from the outside and a second position for clamping the clamping groove when the clamping groove reaches the position of the clamping hole; the limiting piece is connected with a second elastic piece which drives the limiting piece to move from the first position to the second position, and the triggering piece is a second button which is exposed at the front side of the drawer body and drives the limiting piece to move from the second position to the first position when pressed down; the switch body is characterized in that the switch body further comprises a retaining rod arranged at the front end of the drawer body and positioned on the same horizontal straight line with the clamping rod, and the retaining rod is connected with a third elastic piece which drives the retaining rod to move towards the limiting piece and is inserted into the clamping hole to keep the limiting piece positioned at the first position after the clamping rod is separated from the clamping hole.
Further, after the trigger piece triggers and releases the drawer body, in the process that the retaining rod moves towards the limiting piece, the rear end of the retaining rod is always abutted to the front end of the clamping rod until the retaining rod is inserted into the clamping hole.
Further, the drawer assembly is also provided with a damping piece which applies damping force to the drawer body when the drawer body automatically withdraws from the box body.
The invention has the beneficial effects that: the drawer assembly disclosed by the invention realizes automatic opening of the drawer body through energy release of the power storage unit of the opening mechanism, does not need to be driven by a motor in the working process, is energy-saving and reliable, has a simple structure, and is suitable for batch production.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, and reference is made to fig. 1 to 16, which are some preferred embodiments of the present invention.
Referring to fig. 1, the drawer assembly according to the present invention includes a drawer body 100 which is fitted into and removed from a cabinet 20. In an implementation process, in order to facilitate a user to clean a space of the drawer body 100 for storing articles, referring to fig. 5, the drawer body 100 includes a bracket 11 and a receiving box 12 detachably mounted above the bracket 11 for receiving articles; it is understood that, in other embodiments of the present invention, the bracket 11 and the accommodating box 12 may be integrally formed, and will not be described in detail herein.
In the present invention, the box body 20 has a receiving cavity 200 for receiving the drawer body 100, and the entering or exiting of the drawer body 100 into or out of the box body 20 means the entering or exiting of the drawer body 100 into or out of the receiving cavity 200 of the box body 20; the structure of the box 20 shown in the figures is only a schematic form, and in other embodiments of the present invention, the specific structure of the box 20 may be other than the one shown in the figures.
The drawer assembly of the present invention further comprises an opening mechanism cooperatively disposed between the drawer body 100 and the box body 20, wherein the opening mechanism comprises a power storage unit and an opening and closing unit for limiting the position of the drawer body 100 when the drawer body 100 is closed into the box body 20. Referring to fig. 2 to 5, the power accumulating unit has a torsion spring 15 absorbing a pushing force of the drawer body 100 during the drawer body 100 enters the inside of the cabinet 20, and the torsion spring 15 automatically releases the accumulated energy after the opening and closing unit is opened to automatically withdraw the drawer body 100 from the cabinet 20.
The drawer assembly disclosed by the invention realizes automatic opening of the drawer body 100 through energy release of the power storage unit of the opening mechanism, does not need to be driven by a motor in the working process, is energy-saving and reliable, has a simple structure, and is suitable for batch production. In addition, it is easy to understand that, based on the characteristics of the torsion spring structure, the change of the spatial form of the torsion spring 15 is small during the energy accumulation and release processes of the torsion spring 15, so that the assembly requirement of the drawer assembly can be effectively reduced.
More specifically, the power accumulating unit further includes a rack 14 extending in a direction coinciding with the advancing and retreating direction of the drawer body 100, and a gear 14 engaged with the rack 14 to rotate when the drawer body 100 enters or exits the casing. The torsion spring 15 has a fixed end and a torsion end, wherein the torsion end is fixedly connected with the gear 14 and rotates with the gear 14 relative to the fixed end when the drawer body 100 enters or exits the box 20; during the process that the drawer body 100 enters the cabinet 20 from the outside, the elastic force accumulated by the torsion of the torsion spring 15 gradually increases. In other words, during the process that the drawer body 100 enters the box body 20, the rotation of the gear 14 can enable the torsion end of the torsion spring 15 to rotate relative to the fixed end, so that the energy accumulation is realized; after the opening and closing mechanism is opened, the energy accumulated in the torsion spring 15 is released, and at this time, the twisted end of the torsion spring 15 automatically twists relative to the fixed end and drives the gear 14 to rotate, so that the drawer body 100 automatically exits from the accommodating cavity 200 of the box body 20.
Referring to fig. 2 to 5, in the present embodiment, the power accumulating unit includes two racks 14 spaced apart from each other in the width direction of the drawer body 100, and two gears 13 engaged with the two racks 14 and synchronously rotated when the drawer body 100 enters or exits the casing 20. In other embodiments of the present invention, the number of the sets of the gears 13 and the racks 14 engaged with each other can be adjusted according to requirements.
More specifically, the two gears 13 in the present embodiment include a first gear 131 and a second gear 132 disposed at the left and right ends of the rear side of the bracket 11, and the two racks 14 include a first rack 141 and a second rack 142 fixed on the bottom wall 201 of the box 20 and respectively engaged with the first gear 131 and the second gear 132.
In the implementation of the present embodiment, referring to fig. 4, the bracket 11 is fixed with a first rotating head 111 and a second rotating head 112 respectively rotatably engaged with the first gear 131 and the second gear 132.
Based on the engagement manner of the gear 13 and the rack 14 in this embodiment, when the drawer body 100 enters or exits the accommodating cavity 200, the left and right sides of the drawer body 100 can move synchronously with respect to the accommodating cavity 200, so that the drawer body 100 can be ensured to be opened or closed smoothly.
In the implementation of the present embodiment, referring to fig. 4, a connecting link 130 is fixed between the first gear 131 and the second gear 132, and the connecting link 130 can ensure that the first gear 131 and the second gear 132 rotate synchronously.
As a preferred structure, the power storage unit in the present embodiment includes two first torsion springs 151 and two second torsion springs 152, which are symmetrically sleeved outside the connecting rod 130, wherein the torsion ends of the first torsion springs 151 and the second torsion springs 152 are two ends of the two torsion springs, which are relatively far away from each other, and are respectively and fixedly connected to the first gear 131 and the second gear 132. Because the first torsion spring 151 and the second torsion spring 152 are symmetrically arranged, the elastic force of the force storage unit is relatively uniform on the left and right sides of the drawer body 100 in the opening or closing process of the drawer body 100, so that the stability of the moving process of the drawer body 100 is ensured.
In this embodiment, as shown in fig. 2 and 4, the bracket 12 is provided with a circular rotation hole (not shown) for the link 130 to pass through and support the rotation of the link, the rotation hole is formed on the first protrusion 110 protruding outward from the bottom of the bracket 12, and the middle of the link 130 is formed with an engaging key 1300 rotatably engaged with the rotation hole of the first protrusion 110. In this embodiment, two fixing ends of the first torsion spring 151 and the second torsion spring 152 close to each other are fixedly connected to the first protrusion 110, so as to prevent the fixing ends from rotating with the torsion end.
In other embodiments of the present invention, the gear 13 may be rotatably disposed on the box 20, and the rack 14 may be fixed on the drawer body 100. Referring to fig. 16, in the present embodiment, the rack 14 is fixed to the bottom (not shown) of the drawer body 100, and the gear 13 is rotatably disposed on the bottom wall 201 of the box 20; at this time, the two fixed ends of the first torsion spring 151 and the second torsion spring 152 are both fixed to the case 20. Specifically, the gear 13 is rotatably disposed at the front side of the case 20, the bottom wall 201 of the case 20 is upwardly protruded to form a second protrusion 2010, the engagement key of the connecting rod 130 is rotatably engaged in the rotation hole of the second protrusion 2010, and the fixed end of the torsion spring 15 is connected to the second protrusion 2010 to form a fixed connection with respect to the case 20.
In other embodiments of the invention, the number of torsion springs 15 may be other numbers. As shown in fig. 1 and 3, the drawer assembly according to the present invention further includes a slide rail 16 provided in the casing 20 for allowing the drawer body 100 to move forward and backward in the casing 20. The specific structure of the slide rail 16 can refer to the existing design, and is not described in detail herein.
The switch unit according to the present invention can lock the drawer body 100 after the drawer body 100 enters the box 20, wherein the switch unit specifically includes a switch body and a trigger for triggering the switch body to open to release the drawer body.
Referring to fig. 6, 7, 8 and 9, in the first structure of the switch unit of the present invention, in the present embodiment, the switch body includes a moving plate rotatably disposed at the front end of the drawer body 100 in a left-right direction toward the rotation shaft 170 in a direction in which the drawer body 100 is withdrawn from the cabinet 20. Specifically, in the present embodiment, the front end of the bracket 11 constituting the drawer body 100 has a fixing beam 113, a mounting cavity 1130 is formed inside the fixing beam 113, and the rotating shaft 170 is rotatably disposed in the mounting cavity 1130.
Referring to the drawings, the shifting piece has a first extension 171 and a second extension 172 extending from the rotation axis 170 toward the front and back sides of the drawer body 11; the trigger is a first button 173 exposed at the front side of the drawer body 11, and the first button 173 has an original state where it is not pressed and a triggered state where it is pressed from the original state. Specifically, in the present embodiment, a first through hole (not labeled) is formed in the front side wall of the fixing beam 113, and the first button 173 is exposed to the front side of the drawer body 11 through the first through hole for being pressed by a user.
The switch body further includes a first elastic member 174 for urging one end of the first extending portion 171 away from the rotating shaft 170 to elastically abut against the back surface of the first button 173 to keep the first button 173 having a tendency of returning from the triggered state to the original state. In this embodiment, referring to fig. 9, the first elastic element 174 is a torsion spring sleeved on the rotating shaft 170 to drive the poke piece to rotate around the rotating shaft 170.
The end of the second extension 172 away from the rotating shaft 170 is formed with a hook 1720, and the switch body further includes a hook fitting portion fixed in the box body 20 for the hook 1720 to hook and lock the drawer body 100 when the drawer body 100 is closed into the box body 20. Referring to fig. 8, the hook engaging portion in this embodiment is a protrusion 2011 protruding upward from the bottom wall 201 of the housing 20, and a slope (not shown) for slidably inserting the hook 1720 is formed at the front side of the protrusion 2011. In this embodiment, when the first button 173 is in the triggered state, the hook 1720 is disengaged from the hook engaging portion, i.e. the hook 1720 is separated from the protrusion 2011, and at this time, under the action of the power accumulating unit, the drawer body 100 can automatically exit from the box body 20, so that the user can conveniently take and place articles in the storage box.
A second configuration of the switch unit according to the present invention is shown with reference to fig. 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. In this embodiment, in the direction that the drawer body 100 withdraws from the box body 20, the switch body includes a limiting piece 181 disposed at the front end of the drawer body and a clamping rod 182 fixed to the box body 20 and extending toward the limiting piece 181.
Referring to fig. 11 and 13, the latch bar 182 is fixed to the bottom wall 201 of the housing 20, and a latch 1820 is formed at a front end of the latch bar in a circumferential direction. In the embodiment, the limiting plate 181 has a clamping hole 1810, and as shown in fig. 15, the clamping hole 1810 can allow the front end of the clamping rod to be inserted into the clamping hole 1810 when the drawer body enters the receiving cavity.
Specifically, the position-limiting piece 181 has a first position at which the engaging rod 182 is inserted into the engaging hole 1810 from the outside and a second position at which the engaging groove 1820 is engaged when the engaging groove 1820 reaches the position of the engaging hole 1810, the position-limiting piece 181 is connected to a second elastic member 183 for driving the position-limiting piece 181 to move from the first position to the second position, and the trigger member is a second button 184 exposed to the front side of the drawer body 100 for driving the position-limiting piece 181 to move from the second position to the first position when pressed.
Referring to fig. 14, at this time, the position-limiting piece 181 is in the first position, and if the drawer body 100 is pushed to enter the box body 20, the clamping rod 182 can be smoothly inserted into the clamping hole 1810 of the position-limiting piece 181; referring to fig. 15, when the locking groove 1820 of the locking bar 182 reaches the position of the locking hole 1810, the second elastic element 183 drives the limiting piece 181 to switch from the first position to the second position to form a locking connection with the locking bar 182, and at this time, the edge of the locking hole 1810 of the limiting piece 181 is locked to the locking groove 1820, so as to lock the drawer body 100 inside the box 20.
More specifically, the second elastic element 183 is a spring, and the second elastic element 183 and the second button 184 are respectively located at two ends of the limiting plate 181 in the moving direction to cooperate with each other. When the second button 184 is pressed, the spring constituting the second elastic member 183 contracts, and the stopper 181 in the second position can be switched from the current position to the first position, thereby releasing the catch lever 182; at this time, the drawer body 100 can be automatically withdrawn from the inside of the cabinet 20 by the power accumulating unit.
In order to allow the drawer body 100 to enter and lock in the box 20 again after exiting from the inside of the box 20, the limiting piece 181 needs to be maintained at the first position after exiting the drawer body 100 from the inside of the box 20. Therefore, the switch body according to the present embodiment further includes a holding rod 185 disposed at the front end of the drawer body 100 and on the same horizontal straight line with the latching rod 182, and the holding rod 185 is connected with a third elastic member 186 that drives the holding rod 185 to move toward the position-limiting piece 181 and inserts into the latching hole 1810 after the latching rod 182 is separated from the latching hole 1810 to hold the position-limiting piece 181 at the first position.
Referring to fig. 13, the retaining bar 185 is circumferentially formed with an annular groove 1850, a snap ring 187 having an edge protruding beyond the circumferential surface of the retaining bar 185 is engaged in the annular groove 1850, and the third elastic member 186 is a spring fitted over the retaining bar 185 and abutting against the front end surface of the snap ring 187. The spring constituting the third elastic member 186 is located at the front side of the limiting piece 181 to make the holding rod 185 have a tendency to move toward the limiting piece 181, and can drive the holding rod 185 into the catching hole 1810 of the limiting piece 181 after the catching rod 182 exits the catching hole 1810.
In combination with the above-mentioned structure of the holding rod 185, when the drawer body 100 enters the box body 20, the front end of the clamping rod 182 may abut against the rear end of the holding rod 185 and push the clamping rod 185 to move forward until the clamping hole 1810 forms a clamping connection with the clamping rod 182, and in the whole process, the front end of the clamping rod 182 always abuts against the rear end of the holding rod 185.
In this embodiment, the switch body further includes an assembly box fixed on the fixed beam 113, and the assembly box includes a box body 180 with an opening at the lower part and a bottom plate 188 covering the opening. Referring to the drawings, the top wall of the box body 180 is provided with a second through hole 1801 for the second button 184 to be inserted into, and the second button 184 is exposed to the front side of the drawer body 11 through the second through hole 1801 for the user to press; the front side wall of the box body 180 is formed with a third through hole 1802 for the holding rod 185 to pass through, and the box body 180 is also formed with a limiting portion 1800 for limiting the movement of the snap ring 187 further toward the limiting plate 181, the limiting portion 1800 cooperating with the second through hole 1801 to limit the movement of the holding rod 185 in the front-rear direction. In addition, a guiding groove (labeled in the figure) for switching the position-limiting piece 185 between the first position and the second position is further disposed in the box body 180. In practice, base plate 188 provides upward support for the springs that comprise second resilient member 183.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, after the trigger triggers the release of the drawer body 100, the rear end of the holding rod 185 is always abutted to the front end of the catching rod 182 until the holding rod 185 is inserted into the catching hole 1810 while the holding rod 185 moves toward the stopper 181. In particular, in the present embodiment, the third elastic member 186 provides an elastic force large enough to drive the retaining rod 185 to move backward, so as to avoid the situation that the clamping rod 182 has exited the clamping hole 1810 and the retaining rod 185 has not entered the clamping hole 1810 during the automatic ejection process of the drawer body 100.
The triggering pieces are all realized in a button form, the required triggering force in the actual operation process is small, the size of the button is small, and the problem of false triggering of a user in the use process can be solved.
In addition, in some embodiments of the present invention, which are not shown, in order to prevent the drawer body 100 from being withdrawn from the receiving cavity 200 too fast, in some preferred embodiments of the present invention, the drawer assembly further has a damping member for applying a damping force to the drawer body 100 when the drawer body 100 is automatically withdrawn from the cabinet 20. As a specific implementation manner, the mating key 1300 on the connecting rod 130 according to the above embodiment of the present invention may be a damping bearing, wherein the damping bearing provides a damping force when the drawer body 100 exits the box 20 that is greater than a damping force provided when the drawer body 100 enters the box 20; more specifically, the damping bearing may be a one-way damping bearing. In other embodiments of the present invention, the damping member may also be a device capable of providing a damping force when being engaged with the sliding rail 16, the gear 13 or other structures, and is not further developed herein.
The drawer assembly according to the present invention may be assembled in a refrigerator cabinet, i.e. the cabinet 20 shown in the drawings may form part of a refrigerator cabinet.
It should be understood that although the present description refers to embodiments, not every embodiment contains only a single technical solution, and such description is for clarity only, and those skilled in the art should make the description as a whole, and the technical solutions in the embodiments can also be combined appropriately to form other embodiments understood by those skilled in the art.
The above-listed detailed description is only a specific description of a possible embodiment of the present invention, and they are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and equivalent embodiments or modifications made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.