The invention relates to an ejection device for a folding door or a folding-sliding door having at least two door wings hingedly connected to one another, wherein the ejection device includes at least one ejection element for spreading apart the folding door or the folding-sliding door from a closed position, in which the at least two door wings are arranged in a common closing plane, towards an open position, in which the at least two door wings form an angle different from 180° relative to each other, wherein the at least one ejection element can be acted upon by an energy storage member to be manually loaded by an operator and the at least one ejection device includes at least one locking device for releasably locking the at least one ejection element against the force of the at least one loaded energy storage member, wherein the at least one locking device, when the ejection device is mounted, can be unlocked by applying pressure to the folding door or the folding-sliding door, preferably in the region where the at least two door wings are hingedly connected to one another, wherein the ejection device includes at least one movably-mounted loading element for loading the at least one energy storage member by folding together the folding door or folding-sliding door. The invention further concerns an item of furniture having a furniture carcass, at least one folding door or folding-sliding door having at least two door wings hingedly connected to one another, wherein the folding door or folding-sliding door can assume a closed position in which the at least two door wings are arranged in a common closing plane, and an open position in which the at least two door wings form an angle different from 180° relative to each other, and at least one ejection device according to the invention.
An ejection device of the described type is known from the Austrian application A 855/2014 to the applicant. The drawback of this ejection device is the fact that it is mounted to the furniture carcass and that the accessibility to the interior of the item of furniture is thereby impeded when the folding door or folding-sliding door is in an opened condition. Moreover, the ejection device affects the overall aesthetic impression. Finally, the force relations for loading the energy storage member have proven to be unfavorable.
A further ejection device is disclosed in document JP 2011-16 29 94 A. Disclosed therein is a device for spreading apart a folding door having two door wings hingedly connected to one another, starting from a closed position towards an open position. For spreading apart the door wings, an ejection element is provided which can be acted upon by an energy storage member to be loaded by an operator. The ejection device further includes a locking device for releasably locking the ejection element against the force of the loaded energy storage member, wherein the locking device, when the ejection device is mounted, can be unlocked by applying pressure to the folding door. The ejection element thereby also constitutes a movably-supported loading element for loading the energy storage member.
The object of the present invention is therefore to propose an improved ejection device with respect to the prior art and to propose an item of furniture with such an ejection device, wherein the ejection device, in particular, resolves the drawbacks discussed above.
It is thus provided that the at least one ejection element and the at least one loading element are configured as spatially separated constructional units, wherein the at least one ejection element is configured as a pivotally mounted ejection lever. In this way, the lever action of the door can be advantageously utilized for loading the at least one energy storage member. Moreover, it is possible to arrange the ejection device on one of the two door wings, so that the ejection device, when opening the folding door or folding-sliding door, disappears between the door wings when folded together and can therefore neither affect the accessibility to the interior space to the item of furniture nor the aesthetic impression.
In particular, it is provided that the ejection device is configured so as to be mirror-symmetrically. In this way, the ejection device is universally applicable both to a folding door or a folding-sliding door to be opened to the right as well as to be opened to the left.
Further details and advantages of the present invention will be further explained in the following on the basis of the description of figures with reference to the drawings, in which:
The ejection device 1 is arranged on a side of the door wing 3 facing towards the furniture carcass 16 or towards the interior of the item of furniture, respectively. The rear edge of this door wing 3 is indicted with a dotted line 30. The ejection device 1 includes an ejection element 5 for spreading apart the folding-sliding door from a closed position towards an open position in which the two door wings form an angle different from 180° relative to each other.
The ejection element 5 has a support element 14 for supporting against a front face 17 of the furniture carcass 16, more precisely to a ceiling cover of the furniture carcass, when the folding-sliding door is spread apart, wherein the support element 14 is configured as a rolling body in the form of a roller.
The distance between the rear edge 30 of the door wing 3 and the ceiling cover 17 is provided with the reference number 31 and is approximately 15 mm. The ejection device 1 further includes more components, for example 24, 25 and 13 which protrude at most approximately 45 mm into the storage or working area, respectively, of the item of furniture. This distance is provided with the reference number 32.
In
In detail, the ejection device 1 is constructed as follows: The ejection device 1 includes a base 29 by which the ejection device 1 is to be mounted to a folding door or a folding-sliding door. In the present case, the ejection device 1 is mounted to the door wing 3 of the folding-sliding door 2 via the base 29. Arranged on the base 29 are two ejection elements 5 and 6 configured as pivotally mounted ejection levers. The ejection elements 5 and 6 each include a base 54 on which a first slider 53 is displaceably arranged. With respect to the base 54, the slider 53 is acted upon by a force of a first energy storage member 9 in the form of two tension springs arranged in parallel relationship. On the free end of the displaceable slider 53, two rolling bodies in the form of rollers are arranged, namely on the one hand the support element 14 for supporting against the furniture carcass on the other hand a roller 51 configured to be supported on an inclined surface 22 for initiating the spreading-apart movement of ejection element 5. In the case of the identically-configured ejection element 6, both rollers are provided with the reference numbers 15 and 52 and the inclined surface, against which the roller 52 can be supported at the beginning of the spreading-apart movement, is provided with the reference number 23.
On the base 54 of the ejection elements 5 and 6, respectively, a further slider 56 is displaceably arranged laterally besides the slider 53, the further slider 56 can also be acted upon by a force of an energy storage member in the form of a tension spring 57 relative to the base 54. The slider 56, together with the compression spring 58 acting on a locking device 40 and a bolt 55, serve for releasably fixing the engagement angle 26 (see
The sliders 53 of the ejection elements 5 and 6 are motionally coupled to one another via a connecting element 43.
Besides the energy storage member 9, there is a further independent energy storage member 8 in the form of two tension springs for pressurizing the ejection elements 5 and 6, wherein the force-pressurizing is effected by a force deflection lever which is pivotally mounted to the slider 56 and which is constructed of a first plate-shaped component 25 and two arms 24 hingedly connected thereto. The arms 24, with their other ends, are pivotally mounted to a linearly displaceable slider 34 which is linearly displaceable on the base 29. The tension springs 8 are suspended via mountings 35 to the linear slider 34 on the one hand and to the base 29 on the other hand.
When the engagement angle 26 of the force deflection lever 24, 25 is fixed to the ejection elements 5 and 6, the force deflection lever 24, 25, seen in a side view (see
The ejection device 1 further includes two locking devices 10 and 11 for releasably locking the ejection elements 5 and 6 against the force of the loaded energy storage members 8 and 9. The construction and functionality of the locking devices 10 and 11 will be explained in more detail in connection with
Further provided is a loading element 13 movably mounted on the base 29 of the ejection device 1, wherein this loading element 13 is configured as a pivotally mounted loading lever. The loading element 13 is held relative to the base 29 by an energy storage member in the form of two leg springs 42 in the position as shown in
The ejection elements 5 and 6 and the loading element 13 are motionally coupled to one another by a synchronization device 18. The synchronization device 18 includes a tooth arrangement in the form of a gear 20 rotatably mounted to the base 29 via a housing 37, and the gear 20 meshes on the one hand with a tooth arrangement 19 arranged on a linear slider 38 and with a toothed rack 21 arranged on a linear slider 39 on the other hand. The linear slider 39 is coupled to the loading element 13 via a connecting element 41. The linear slider 38 is adapted to be coupled to the linear slider 34 by a locking pawl 36. For this purpose, the locking pawl 36 latches with a peg into an opening 67 of the linear slider 38. Details to this coupling of the sliders 34 and 38 will be explained in more detail in connection with
In the condition shown in
For unlocking the locking devices 10 and 11, an operator applies pressure to the folding-sliding door 2 (see
Because of the fact that the ejection device 1 is mounted to the folding-sliding door 2 and, at the same time, is supported against the front face 17 of the furniture carcass 16 via the supporting element 14, the ejection element 5, by the application of pressure to the folding-sliding door 2, and indirectly as a consequence, because the connecting element 43, in the locked state, engages between the two ejection elements 5 and 6 into grooves 59 of a latching wedge 44 of the locking device 10 and 11, the latching wedge 44 is being pushed downwardly, i.e. in a direction of the door wings 3 and 4 of the folding-sliding door 2.
As can be seen from
By way of the unlocking, the connecting element 43 and therewith the ejection elements 5 and 6 are being released. As a consequence, the linear slider 53 can move out relative to the base 54 under the release of the energy stored in the energy storage member 9 (see
In connection with
The ejection elements 5 and 6 and the pivotally-mounted loading element 13 are motionally coupled by the synchronization device 18, namely in such a way that a pivoting movement of the ejection elements 5 and 6 leads to a contrary pivoting movement of the loading element 13, and vice versa. This is indicated in
As soon as the sliders 53 are moved out at least over a region from the basis 54 and, as a result, the ejection elements 5 and 6 have been pivoted via the inclined surfaces 22 and 23, the energy stored in the force storage member 8 can become operative via the force deflection lever 24 and 25. This means that while initiating the spreading-apart movement of the ejection elements 5 and 6, initially mainly the energy stored in the force storage member 9 is being released and, subsequently, mainly the energy stored in the independent force storage member 8 is being released upon the full extension of the sliders 53 which leads to a further pivoting movement of the ejection elements 5 and 6 and therewith to a further spreading-apart movement of the folding-sliding door 2.
The energy storage members 8 and 9 are substantially unloaded, the sliders 53 maximally extended relative to the bases 54 and the linear slider 34 (see also
At the same time, also the loading element 13 has been maximally pivoted, namely to such an extent that it comes to rest against the door wing 4. This position of the ejection device 1 therefore also marks the beginning of the loading process.
More specifically, an operator now starts to further open the folding-sliding door 2 which, at the same time, leads to a displacement of the door wing 3 and to a folding-together movement of the door wings 3 and 4, i.e. to a reduction of the angle which form the door wings 3 and 4 to one another. This force exertion by an operator is indicated with the arrow shown in
The folding together of the folding-sliding door 2 leads, due to the fact that the loading element 13 rests against the door wing 4, to a pivoting movement of the loading element 13 in a direction towards its initial position which it has been adopted in the closed position of the folding-sliding door 2 (see
Subsequently, the ejection elements 5 and 6 engage the inclined surfaces 22 and 23 via the rollers 51 and 52, respectively, whereby the energy storage member 9 is being additionally loaded.
In all previously described positions of the ejection device 1, the engagement angle 26 of the force deflection lever 24, 25 is fixed to the ejection elements 5 and 6 (see
If a person wants the folding-sliding door 2 to be fully folded together, i.e. to be moved into a position in which the door wings 3 and 4 are aligned substantially parallel to one another, the fixing of the engagement angle of the force deflection lever 24, 25 needs to be released (see
It is further to be noted that when the ejection device 1 reaches the position shown in
Because also the energy storage member 8 is loaded, the loading element 13, however, needs to be tilted onto the base 29, just like the force deflection lever 24, 25, in order for the parallel position of the door wings 3 and 4 to be obtained (see
As shown in
In order to transfer the folding-sliding door 2 starting from the condition shown in
Further, the two linear sliders 34 and 38 are again being connected to one another by way of the locking pawl 36 (see
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/AT2016/050191 | Jun 2016 | US |
Child | 15856624 | US |