US20110074262A1

US20110074262A1 - Tool box

Info

Publication number: US20110074262A1
Application number: US12/568,681
Authority: US
Inventors: Yi-feng Liu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2009-09-29
Filing date: 2009-09-29
Publication date: 2011-03-31

Abstract

A tool box includes a cabinet which has a rear board. The cabinet is partitioned inside to form multiple housing compartments to hold multiple drawers. The rear board has an attraction element located thereon. Each drawer has a trough and a lid. The trough has a holding space and a front plate with a drawing means located thereon. The lid is closed on the trough and has anchor holes latchable by the drawing means and a magnetic element at the rear end corresponding to the attraction element. The drawing means can be turned to latch in the anchor holes to make the drawer to be served as a portable tool kit. When the drawer is held in the cabinet, the trunk can be drawn without turning the drawing means to keep the lid in the cabinet, and the drawer can hold tools and spare parts like an ordinary tool box.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a tool box to stow tools or spare parts and particularly to a tool box that also serves as a portable tool kit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Making right kinds of tools ready for use is essential to improve work efficiency, either for professionals or people who like to fix things by themselves. Having a great number of tools or spare parts scattering around working environments could make selecting and fetching the right kind of tools or spare parts baffling. Hence most professionals and DIY fans often carry a tool box or tool kit to hold and organize the tools and spare parts and other miscellaneous elements to make operation easier and more efficient. A conventional tool box generally contains several drawers which are partitioned to hold tools and spare parts in a desirable manner according to their different types so that they can be readily fetched and stowed without creating confusion.
While the conventional tool box makes organizing of the tools or spare parts easier, it is inconvenient to carry to different work sites. Hence most workers have to prepare a separated portable tool kit to hold necessary tools and spare parts for a specific task. This means that the workers have to select and fetch the needed tools and spare parts from the tool box, and put them into another tool kit. After the task is finished, the tools and spare parts have to be placed back into the tool box again. It is not an efficient way of time management or using the tools.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the primary object of the present invention is to overcome the aforesaid disadvantages of the conventional tool box or tool kit that requires more time and efforts to arrange tools or spare parts before and after doing works. The invention provides a tool box that can hold tools or spare parts, and also can serve as a portable tool kit to improve usability and convenience.
To achieve the foregoing object, the tool box according to the present invention includes a cabinet and a plurality of drawers. The cabinet has an upper board, a lower board, a left board and a right board that correspond to each other and a rear board. The cabinet is partitioned inside to form a plurality of housing compartments to hold the drawers. The rear board has an attraction element corresponding to each drawer. Each drawer is located in each housing compartment of the cabinet. Each drawer has a trough and a lid. The trough has a holding space inside and a front plate with a drawing means located thereon. The drawing means has a handle located in a recess formed on the front plate and two corresponding anchor bars coupled respectively with an elastic element on an outer side. The front plate has an indented portion on the top end with through holes formed thereon communicating to the recess. The through holes correspond to distal ends of turning ends of the handle to hold the anchor bars. Each anchor bar has a jutting wall at one end butting one distal end of the turning end of the handle. By turning the distal end of the handle, the anchor bar is pushed upwards to latch the lid. Incorporating with a latch means located at two sides of the indented portion, the lid can be latched in a fixing state. Returning the handle, the elastic element provides a returning force to lower the anchor bar so that the lid does not latch the trough. The trough further has a sliding track on each of two opposite side plates to allow the drawer to slide freely forwards and rearwards in the housing compartment, and a wedge portion located above the sliding track. The lid has a protrusive portion at a front end with an anchor hole mating the through hole of the trough and notches at two ends corresponding to the latch means so that a latched condition can be formed by turning the latch means. The lid further has a grip portion at a rear end and a magnetic element located at the rear edge. The lid also has an L-shaped wedge flute formed at each of two lateral sides extended downwards and the rear edge corresponding to the wedge portion so that it can slide on the trough to cover thereof. In the covered condition, the protrusive portion of the lid is latched on the indented portion of the trough.
The tool box thus constructed provides many benefits, notably:
1. It can be served as a portable tool kit:

- The cabinet of the present invention can hold a number of drawers to facilitate centralized management. Each drawer can slide freely in the cabinet through the sliding tracks, and can be fully drawn out and separated from the cabinet. By turning the handle, the anchor bars can latch on the lid, and by turning the latch means, the lid can be securely and closely latched on the trough so that the drawer can also be served as a portable tool kit to be carried around easily.

2. The tool box can stow and hold tools and spare parts:

- After use is finished, the drawer can be reloaded into the cabinet. By turning and leveling the handle at the recess and drawing the trough, the magnetic element at the rear edge of the lid is attracted by the attraction element of the cabinet so that the lid remains in the cabinet and the drawer can hold the tools and spare parts as an ordinary tool box does.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the present invention with the tool box and a drawer separated.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the drawer according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the drawer with the lid in a closing condition.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the drawer with the lid in a closed condition.

FIG. 5A is a schematic view of the drawer with the handle turned in operating condition-1.

FIG. 5B is a schematic view of the drawer with the handle turned in operating condition-2.

FIG. 5C is a schematic view of the drawer with the handle turned in operating condition-3.

FIG. 5D is a schematic view of the drawer with the handle turned in operating condition-4.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the drawer drawn without turning the handle.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the present invention showing the attraction element and magnetic element in an attracting condition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Please refer to FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 5A and 6, the present invention provides a tool box 10 which includes a cabinet 20 and a plurality of drawers 30.
The cabinet 20 consists of an upper board 21, a lower board 22, a left board 23 and a right board 24 that correspond to each other, and a rear board 25. Its interior is partitioned into a number of housing compartments 26 to hold the drawers 30. The rear board 25 has a plurality of attraction elements 27 located thereon corresponding to the drawers 30. The attraction elements 27 are iron pins.
Each of the drawers 30 is held in each housing compartment 26, and has a trough 31 and a lid 32. The trough 31 has a holding space 311 inside and a front plate 312 with a drawing means 310 located thereon to move the drawer 30 and latch the lid 32 in an integrated manner. The drawing means 310 has a handle 313 located on a recess 3121 formed on the front plate 312 and two corresponding anchor bars 315 each coupled with an elastic element 316 on an outer side. The handle 313 can be positioned and leveled at the recess 3121. The front plate 312 has an indented portion 3122 on a top end with through holes 3123 formed thereon communicating to the recess 3121 to hold the anchor bars 315. The through holes 3123 correspond to distal ends 3131 of turning ends of the handle 313. Each anchor bar 315 has the elastic element 316, such as a spring, at the outer side. Each anchor bar 315 has a jutting wall 3151 at one end to butt the distal end 3131 of the turning end of the handle 313. By turning the handle 313, the distal end 3131 also turns to push the anchor bar 315 upwards to latch on the lid 32 in an integrated manner. Incorporating with a latch means 317 located at two sides of the indented portion 3122, the lid 32 can be latched in a fixing state. The handle 313 can be moved back and returned, and the elastic element 316 provides a returning force to lower the anchor bar 315 so that the lid 32 is unlatched from the trough 31. The trough 31 further has a sliding track 318 on each of two corresponding side plates to allow the drawer 30 to slide freely forwards and rearwards in the housing compartments 26. The trough 31 also has a wedge portion 319 located above the sliding track 318 to facilitate sliding of the lid 32. The lid 32 has a protrusive portion 321 at a front end with anchor holes 322 formed thereon mating the through holes 3123 of the trough 31. The protrusive portion 321 further has notches 323 at two opposite ends corresponding to the latch means 317. The latch means 317 can be turned to latch the notches 323. The lid 32 also has a grip portion 3231 at a rear end formed like an opening and a magnetic element 325 located at the rear edge thereof. The magnetic element 325 is a magnet. The lid 32 further has an L-shaped wedge flute 324 formed at each of two corresponding lateral sides extended downwards and the rear edge corresponding to the wedge portion 319 so that the lid 32 can slide on the trough 31 and close thereon. When the lid 32 is closed, the protrusive portion 321 is latched in the indented portion 3122 of the trough 31 with the wedge flute 324 at the rear edge butting the rear end of the trough 31.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 3, the cabinet 20 can hold the drawers 30 inside to provide centralized management. Each drawer 30 can be freely slid in the cabinet 20 through the sliding track 318, and also be fully drawn out and separated from the cabinet 20. The holding space 311 of the drawer 30 can hold various tools or spare parts. After the drawer 30 is be drawn out and separated from the cabinet 20 by gripping the handle 313, the handle 313 also is turned (referring to FIG. 5A); the distal ends 3131 of the turning ends of the handle 313 are turned to move the anchor bars 315 forwards to latch the anchor holes 322 of the protrusive portion 321 of the lid 32 (referring to FIGS. 5B, 5C and 5D); then the latch means 317 can be turned to latch the lid 32 securely on the trough 31. Thereby the drawer 30 with the trough 31 and the lid 32 latched together can be carried around like an ordinary portable tool kit (referring to FIG. 4). To fetch the tools or spare parts in the drawer 30, turn the latch means 317 to unlatch the lid 32; next, turn the handle 313 to be leveled at the recess 3121, the anchor bars 315 are moved back and returned to their original positions by turning the distal ends 3131 of the turning ends of the handle 313 so that the anchor bars 315 no longer latch with the anchor holes 322 of the protrusive portion 321 of the lid 32, and the lid 32 can be slid and moved rearwards through the grip portion 3231 to open the drawer 30. After use is finished, the drawer 30 can be reloaded into the cabinet 20. Thus time for organizing and managing the tools or spare parts can be saved. Also referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, after the drawer 30 is held in the cabinet 20, turn and level the handle 313 at the recess 3121, draw the trough 31, the magnetic element 325 at the rear edge of the lid 32 is attracted to the attraction element 27 to keep the lid 32 in the cabinet 20. The drawer 30 can be served as an ordinary tool box to hold the tools and spare parts.

Claims

1. A tool box, comprising:

a cabinet having an upper board, a lower board, a left board and a right board that correspond to each other and a rear board, and being partitioned inside to form a plurality of housing compartments, the rear board having an attraction element located thereon; and

a plurality of drawers held in the housing compartments, each of the drawers having a trough and a lid, the trough having a holding space and a front plate which has a drawing means to move the drawer to latch on the lid in an integrated manner, the lid covering the trough on an upper side and having an anchor hole latchable by the drawing means and a magnetic element located at a rear end corresponding to and attractable by the attraction element.

2. The tool box of claim 1, wherein the front plate of the trough has a recess and a through hole on a top end communicating to the recess, the drawing means having a turning end which has a distal end corresponding to the through hole.

3. The tool box of claim 2, wherein the drawing means has a handle located in the recess of the front plate and two corresponding anchor bars each coupled with an elastic element on an outer side and held in the through hole and having a jutting wall at one end to butt the distal end of the turning end of the handle.

4. The tool box of claim 1, wherein the front plate of the trough has an indented portion at the top end, the lid having a protrusive portion at a front end latchable with the indented portion.

5. The tool box of claim 1, wherein the trough has corresponding side plates each having a sliding track and a wedge portion located above the sliding track, the lid having a wedge flute extended downwards from corresponding lateral sides to mate the wedge portion.

6. The tool box of claim 1, wherein the attraction element is an iron pin.

7. The tool box of claim 1, wherein the magnetic element is a magnet.

8. The tool box of claim 1, wherein the lid further has a grip portion.

9. The tool box of claim 8, wherein the grip portion is an opening.

10. The tool box of claim 1, wherein the front plate of the trough has a latch means latchable with the lid for positioning therewith.