The present disclosure relates to a door hinge of a household appliance, for example, an oven, a dishwasher or the like. A door is movable about a lower horizontal axis from an approximately vertical closed position into an approximately horizontal open position. The door hinge includes a door lever mountable on the door, a housing fastenable to a body of the household appliance, to which housing the door lever is connected so as to be pivotable about a main shaft. Further included is a weight compensation spring as well as a closing spring, the weight compensation spring holding the door approximately in a position of equilibrium when the door is opened and the closing spring applying a self-closing force shortly before the door reaches a closed position and subsequently applying a closure maintaining force.
Door hinges of the above-mentioned type are known.
In the case of such door hinges, the weight compensation springs have the purpose of largely absorbing the gravitational forces occurring when a door is opened about a horizontal lower axis and preventing an uncontrolled swinging-open of the door. Conversely, the weight compensation spring will clearly facilitate the lifting-up of the door from an opened position.
The closing spring has the purpose of acting upon the door shortly before it reaches the final closed position by a spring force acting in the closing direction and thus initiating a self-closure. In addition, the closing spring has the effect that, in the closed condition, the door is maintained in the closed position by the force of the closing spring.
The present disclosure provides for a door hinge of the above-mentioned type but which causes an improvement of the movement sequences when opening or closing a door, particularly in final position ranges.
According to the present disclosure, a damping device is provided which counteracts the closing forces shortly before the final closed position of the door is reached and/or the opening forces shortly before the final opened position of the door is reached.
By a damping device of this type, a damping force is opposed to the closing and/or opening forces acting in the closing and/or opening direction upon the door. Such a damping force is slightly lower than the respective closing and/or opening force, so that, although the closing and/or opening of the door is not hindered, it is clearly damped in the final positions.
The movement sequences during the opening and/or closing of a corresponding door are thereby clearly improved. Likewise, impact noises when reaching the closed and/or opened position are largely prevented.
According to the present disclosure, it is provided that the damping device includes a damping cylinder that can be acted upon on both sides.
In the case of a comparatively simple and cost-effective construction, according to the present disclosure, when the closed position is reached or the opened position is reached, the damping cylinder is loaded from its opposite faces, with the result that the damping forces are the same in the closing direction as well as in the opening direction.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it is provided that the damping device includes two damping cylinders, one damping cylinder being provided for the damping of the closing forces and the other damping cylinder being provided for the damping of the opening forces.
Such a slightly more expensive construction has the advantage that, during the closing operation, the damping forces can be adjusted independently of the damping forces during the opening operation.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
a to 3e are a composite exploded view of the door hinge of
a to e are a composite exploded view of the door hinge of
a to e are a composite exploded view of the door hinge of
a to e are a composite exploded view of the door hinge of
a to e are a composite exploded view of the door hinge of
In
Various embodiments of door hinges 3 are described therein.
With reference to
A door hinge 3 comprises a door lever 5 mountable on the door 2 and a housing 6 mountable on a body 4 of an oven 1. In accordance with the present disclosure, door hinge 3 is mountable on, for example, a comparable household appliance. A door lever 5 is connected with the housing 6 so as to be pivotable about a main shaft 7. The main shaft 7 corresponds to the axis about which the door 2 is pivoted with respect to the body 4.
Furthermore, the hinge 3 includes a weight compensation spring 8 which has a purpose of maintaining the door 1 approximately in a position of equilibrium. Spring characteristics described so far may be generally known. A closing spring 50 is shown in
A linkage of bars or bar linkage 9 extends through the weight compensation spring 8, which weight compensation spring 8 is supported by one of its ends on a stop 10 of the linkage of bars 9 and, by way of its other end, on a supporting lug 11 of the housing 6.
The end of the linkage of bars 9 facing the door lever 5 is connected with a transmission lever 12 which, in a known manner, is pivotable about a secondary axis offset with respect to the main shaft 7 connected to the door lever 5. This has the result that, during the opening of the door 2, the linkage of bars 9 is pulled by way of the transmission lever 12 in the direction of the face of the body 4, whereby the weight compensation spring 8 is shortened, thus preventing an uncontrolled dropping-down of the door 2.
Conversely, during the closing of the door 2, the external force required for lifting and closing the door 2 will be reduced by the weight compensation spring 8.
Shortly before the final closed position has been reached, the above-mentioned closing spring 50 will be activated in a known manner, by which closing spring 50, before the final closed position, the door 2 is moved in the last angular area into its closed position solely by the force of the above-mentioned closing spring 50. Furthermore, the door 2 is also held in the closed position by the force of the closing spring 50.
In addition, to this known method of operation, which all embodiments according to the present disclosure have in common, each door hinge 3, according to the present disclosure, is equipped with a damping device 13.
The damping device 13, as shown, for example, in an embodiment according to
A construction and function of the damping arrangement or device 13 is further described below.
In the embodiment according to
At the free end of the piston rod 14a of the damping cylinder 14, a piston stop 14b is fastened whose base is larger than the base of the piston rod 14a.
When the door 2 of a household appliance is in an intermediate opening position with an opening angle of approximately 44°, as suggested or represented, for example, in
When the door 2 is now moved from this intermediate position in the closing direction, the linkage of bars 9 will be moved toward the left by way of the transmission lever 12. As a result, the front bevel 17 of the linkage of bars 9 facing the door side is caused to contact the piston stop 14b and presses the piston rod 14 into the damping cylinder 14. The closing movement is thereby damped corresponding to the design of the damping cylinder 14.
When the door 2 is moved farther from the intermediate position, which is illustrated in
In the embodiment of the present disclosure according to
On its rearward end facing away from the door 2, the linkage of bars 9 is provided with a beveled driving lug 18 which projects into the housing 6 and is disposed between the mutually opposite piston rods 14a of the damping cylinders 14.
Starting from an intermediate opening position of the door 2, for example, at approximately 44°, corresponding to that shown in
When the door 2 is now moved out of this intermediate position into the closing direction, the linkage of bars 9 will move to the left to an end position, as shown in
When the door 2 is moved from the intermediate position according to
Although this construction requires slightly higher expenditures and also becomes somewhat more expensive because of the use of two damping cylinders 14, it offers the advantage of being able to use damping cylinders 14 with different damping characteristics, which advantage should not be underestimated. Thus, the damping effect for the closing movement can be designed independently of the damping effect for the opening movement.
Another advantage is the fact that, when one damping cylinder 14 fails, the effect of the remaining other damping cylinder 14 will not be impaired so that, as required, the damping effect will fail only during the closing or the opening of the door 2.
In the embodiments of the present disclosure described so far, only the displacement path of the linkage of bars 9 is available as the damping path.
The damping effect may be improved by an enlargement of the effective damping path, a description of which follows.
Furthermore, the upper housing 19 is provided with two lateral guide ribs 20 which engage in lateral guide grooves 21 of the housing 6 and thereby permit a longitudinal displacement of the upper housing 19 relative to the housing 6.
Toothed-rack-type areas 20a are arranged on the underside of the guide ribs 20.
Furthermore, a lower housing 22 is provided which, by way of lateral guide webs 23, is longitudinally displaceably guided in guide slots 24 of the housing 6. As on the opposite underside of the upper housing 19, toothed areas 23a are arranged on the top side of the guide webs 23. The lower housing 22 is spaced from the upper housing 19 and is provided with a guide groove 25 on its underside, into which guide groove 25 the linkage of bars 9 engages in the area of a recess 9a. At its forward end facing the door 2, the lower housing 22 is equipped with a face wall 26 which extends into the displacement area of the piston rod 14a of the damping cylinder 14.
Between the upper housing 19 and the lower housing 22, gears 27 are provided on both sides which, by way of an axis of rotation fastened to the housing 6, are rotatably disposed in the housing 6. These two gears 27 mesh with the toothed areas 20a of the upper housing 19 and 23a of the lower housing 22.
The recess 9a of the linkage of bars 9 is bounded on the face side by stop edges 9b.
In an intermediate opening position of the door 2 at approximately 44°, corresponding to the position of the hinge 3 as shown in
When the door 2 is now moved from this intermediate opening position upward in the closing direction, the linkage of bars 9 will be displaced to the left from the position shown in
When the door 2 is further pivoted from the intermediate opening position in the opening direction, the linkage of bars 9 is correspondingly displaced to the right. In this case, the stop edge 9b, which is in the rear facing away from the door, first will come to rest against the rear wall 19a of the upper housing 19 and, as a result of a further displacement of the linkage of bars 9 in the same direction, again while simultaneously carrying out a relative displacement between the upper housing 19 and the lower housing 22, the piston rod 14a supported on the face wall 26 will be pushed into the housing of the damping cylinder 14, and the opening movement is correspondingly damped.
Because of the relative displacement between the upper housing 19 and the lower housing 22, a doubling of the damping path is achieved.
As shown in
The piston rod 14a includes a lever gripper 14d which allows the coupling with the forward rotary lever 30 facing the door side.
The rotary levers 30 extend through an oblong-hole-type opening 32 of the linkage of bars 9 whose rearward area having the opening 32 is longitudinally displaceably guided in guide slots 33 of the housing 6. The clear width of the opening 32 is selected such that the rotary levers 30 can extend through this opening 32.
Above the guide slots 33, stop rivets 34 are provided in the housing 6, on which stop rivets 34 the two rotary levers 30 are supported in an approximately perpendicular position in the intermediate opening position of the door 2 when the piston rod 14a has moved out, as shown in
The length of the opening 32 is greater than the distance of the rotary levers 30 from one another, so that a displacement of the linkage of bars 9 from the intermediate opening position in the closing or in the opening direction first has no effect on the damping arrangement 13. When a pivoting position has been reached in which the door is situated approximately 15° before its closing or before its final opening position, the forward or the rearward stop edge 9b of the opening 32 impacts on one of the rotary levers 30. A further displacement in the same direction will then cause a pivoting of the acted-upon rotary lever 30 and, in the case of the closing operation, will result in a pushing of the piston rod 14a into the damping cylinder 14 or, in the case of the opening, in a displacement of the damping cylinder 14 in the direction of the piston rod 14a. Optionally, the closing operation or the opening operation will thereby be damped.
In the case of this embodiment, based on the lever 30 conditions, a clear enlargement of the damping path can be achieved, such as, for example, 2½ times in comparison with the pure or sole displacement path of the linkage of bars 9.
Without influence on the function, in comparison with the installation position of the damping cylinder 14 shown in
The receiving fork 14c as well as the lever gripper 14d create a connection to the rotary levers 30 which permits a pushing as well as a pivoting motion between the above-mentioned components. As a result of the pivoting movement of the respective rotary level 30, the piston rod 14a, while the damping cylinder 14 is pivoted, can be pushed into this damping cylinder 14. Likewise, the damping cylinder 14, while being simultaneously pivoted, can be displaced in the direction of the piston rod 14a which takes place, for example, during the opening of the door 2. This applies to the present embodiment shown in
In the embodiment of the present disclosure as shown in
The damping cylinders 14 are held inside the housing 6 analogously to the embodiment shown in
In the center between the two damping cylinders 14, a U-shaped rotary lever 30 is pivotably disposed in boreholes 31 of the housing 6.
The rearward end of the linkage of bars 9 is equipped with laterally projecting arms 39 between which a contraction 40 is formed. This is more clearly seen in
The contraction 40 of the linkage of bars 9 extends through the U-shaped rotary lever 30.
The construction of the embodiment shown permits the following function or operation.
In an intermediate opening position of the door 2, corresponding, for example, to that shown in
When now, by moving the door 2 in the closing direction, the linkage of bars 9 is moved from the position as shown in
A similar operation occurs when the door 2 is moved from its intermediate opening position farther into the opening direction. Shortly before a certain opening angle is reached, by way of the rearward arms 39 of the linkage of bars 9 facing away from the door 2, the rotary lever 30 is pivoted toward the right in the manner shown in
In the embodiment shown in
The present disclosure thus relates to a variety of embodiments for a damping of a door hinge 3. It is within the scope of the present disclosure to provide for damping of the closing operation independently of the damping of the opening operation and to differently adjust the respective damping factors.
Although the present disclosure has been described and illustrated in detail, it is to be clearly understood that this is done by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation. The scope of the present disclosure is to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20 2007 012 603 U | Sep 2007 | DE | national |
This is a Divisional Application of Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 12/676,208, filed on Jul. 13, 2010, and the disclosure of that application is hereby incorporated by reference herein. application Ser. No. 12/676,208 is a §371 of PCT/EP2008/061327, filed on Aug. 28, 2008, which claims benefit of German Application Number 20 2007 012 603.4 filed on Sep. 7, 2007.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20130312217 A1 | Nov 2013 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12676208 | US | |
Child | 13934949 | US |