This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2003-39757, filed Jun. 19, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge device for a storage container and a storage container including the hinge device, and, more particularly, to a hinge device for a storage container, which is easily mounted on the storage container and enables a door of the storage container to be smoothly closed, and a storage container including the hinge device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, there is known a typical kimchi storage container, as a top opening-type storage container, which has a top cover attached to a container body and is adapted to swingably open and close on the container body. The kimchi storage container includes the container body including a receptacle chamber defined therein, with a top thereof being opened, a door to close the top opening of the receptacle chamber, and a hinge device to swingably couple the door to the container body and to allow the door to swingably open and close.
Korean Registered Utility Model Publication No. 20-0298042 discloses a conventional hinge device for a kimchi storage container. The conventional hinge device includes a cylindrical housing mounted on a top of a container body to couple a rear end of a door to the container body. The cylindrical housing includes a pair of hinge units received in respective ends thereof, and shafts outwardly extending from the pair of hinge units and fitting in respective ends of the rear end of the door, so as to allow the rear end of the door to swingably couple to the container body.
In the above-mentioned conventional hinge device for the kimchi storage container, the housing mounted on the container body and the pair of hinge units received in respective ends of the housing are separately manufactured. Accordingly, since a number of components is increased due to a manufacturing of the components being divided, manufacturing costs are increased, and an operation of coupling the door to the container body is complicated and cumbersome.
Further, since the door of the conventional kimchi storage container is relatively heavy, the door tends to close by a weight of the door when a user closes the door. However, since the hinge device does not have sufficient shock-absorbing ability, an impact of the door generates a shock at a time of closing the door.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a hinge device for a storage container and the storage container including the hinge device, in which hinge units are integrated into a single hinge device to reduce a number of components, thereby simplifying an assembly process of the hinge device, and thus reducing manufacturing costs.
It is another aspect to provide a hinge device for a storage container and the storage container including the hinge device, which enables a door to be smoothly closed to prevent a generation of a shock.
Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The above and/or other aspects are achieved by providing a hinge device for a storage container, which enables a door of the storage container to swingably couple to a container body, the hinge device comprising a housing mounted on any one of the door and the container body, a pair of hinge shafts rotatably fitting in respective ends of the housing, each of the pair of hinge shafts including a cam shaft part with a first cam provided on an outer circumferential surface of the cam shaft part, and an extension shaft part outwardly extending from a respective one of the cam shaft parts to be coupled to a remaining one of the door and the container body, a pair of movable members, which are received in the respective ends of the housing and fitting on corresponding ones of the cam shaft parts of the hinge shafts so as not to rotate with respect to the housing, each of the pair of movable members having a second cam to engage with a respective one of the first cam, and a pair of compression springs disposed in the respective ends of the housing to bias the pair of movable members toward a pair of the first cams.
The housing may include a housing body, which is opened at respective ends thereof and receives the pair of movable members and the pair of compression springs in the respective ends thereof, and a pair of plugs coupled to the respective opened ends of the housing body, each of the pair of plugs having a shaft hole, through which an extension shaft part of a corresponding hinge shaft passes.
The housing body may include a guide rail longitudinally provided on an inner surface of the housing body to assure a stable movement of each of the movable members in the housing body while preventing a rotation of each of the movable members, and each of the pair of movable members may include a guide groove corresponding to the guide rail of the housing body.
The first and second cams facing each other may include tooth-shaped cam surfaces corresponding to each other, each of the cam surfaces having an opening-guide surface inclined with respect to an axis of the hinge shaft, so as to cause the hinge shaft to rotate in an opening direction of the door when the door is opened, and a closing-guide surface perpendicular to the axis of the hinge shaft, so as to allow the hinge shaft to rotate in a closing direction of the door by a weight of the door when the door is closed.
The hinge device may further comprise a shock-absorbing unit, which increases a resistance to a rotation of the hinge shaft when the door is closed, the shock-absorbing unit including a protrusion provided on an outer surface of the hinge shaft and disposed in an inner circumferential surface of each of the plugs, and a shock-absorbing spring attached to the inner circumferential surface of each of the plugs and disposed outside of the protrusion, so as to press the protrusion when the door is closed.
The shock-absorbing spring may include an arch leaf spring.
The hinge device may further comprise a shock-absorbing unit, which increases a resistance to a rotation of the hinge shaft when the door is closed, the shock-absorbing unit including a teeth portion provided on an outer surface of the hinge shaft and disposed in an inner circumferential surface of each of the plugs, a gear rotatably held on the inner circumferential surface of each of the plugs, so as to engage with the teeth portion when the door rotates to where the door is almost closed, and a torsion spring disposed on a shaft of the gear to provide the gear with the resistance to the rotation.
Furthermore, the above and/or other aspects are achieved by providing a hinge device for a storage container, which enables a door of the storage container to swingably couple to a container body, the hinge device comprising a housing mounted on any one of the door and the container body, a hinge shaft rotatably fitting at one end thereof in an end of the housing, and outwardly extending at another end thereof from the housing to couple to a remaining one of the door and the container body, and a shock-absorbing unit provided between an inner surface of the housing and an outer surface of the hinge shaft, so as to increase a resistance to a rotation of the hinge shaft when the door is closed.
The above and/or other aspects are achieved by providing a storage container including a container body having a storage chamber with a top thereof being opened, a door to close the container body, and a hinge device to enable the door to swingably couple to the container body, the hinge device comprising a housing mounted on any one of the door and the container body, a pair of hinge shafts rotatably fitting in respective ends of the housing, each of the pair of hinge shaft including a cam shaft part with a first cam provided on an outer circumferential surface a respective one of the cam shaft parts, and an extension shaft part outwardly extending from the respective one of the cam shaft parts to couple to a remaining one of the door and the container body, a pair of movable members, which are received in the respective ends of the housing and fitting on corresponding ones of the cam shaft parts of the hinge shafts so as not to rotate with respect to the housing, each of the pair of movable members having a second cam to engage with a respective one of the first cam, and a pair of compression springs disposed in the respective ends of the housing to bias the pair of movable members toward the pair of first cams.
The above and/or other aspects are achieved by providing a storage container including a container body having a storage chamber with a top thereof being opened, a door to close the container body, and a hinge device to enable the door to swingably couple to the container body, the hinge device comprising a housing mounted on any one of the door and the container body, a hinge shaft rotatably fitting at one end thereof in an end of the housing, and outwardly extending at another end thereof from the housing to couple to the other of the door and the container body, and a shock-absorbing unit provided between an inner surface of the housing and an outer surface of the hinge shaft, so as to increase a resistance to a rotation of the hinge shaft when the door is closed.
These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The housing 40 includes a housing body 41 having two reception spaces 45 at respective ends thereof, and two plugs 43 fitting in the respective openings of the housing body 41 to close the reception spaces 45. Each of the two reception spaces 45 receives one of the rotatable hinge shafts 50, one of the movable members 60 and one of the compression springs 70, and is opened at an outer end thereof. Each of the two plugs 43 is formed with a shaft hole 44 through which one of the hinge shafts 50 passes. Each of the reception spaces 45 has a substantially rectangular section to permit the respective movable member 60 to longitudinally move in the reception space 45 while preventing a rotation of the movable member 60.
The housing body 41 includes two internal support pipes 46 at inner ends of the two reception spaces 45, so as to support inner ends of the rotatable hinge shafts 50 and the two compression springs 70 while permitting the rotatable hinge shafts 50 to rotate. The two plugs 43 are joined to respective ends of the housing body 41 by a plurality of set screws 47.
Each of the rotatable hinge shafts 50 includes a cam shaft part 51 received in the housing body 41 of the housing 40 and including the first cams 53, and an extension shaft part 52 integrally formed with the cam shaft part 51 and outwardly extends from the housing 40 through the shaft hole 44 of the plug 43 by a predetermined distance. The cam shaft part 51 includes a support flange 54 at an outer end thereof adjacent to the first cam 53. The cam shaft part 51 of the rotatable hinge shaft 50 is rotatably supported at an inner end thereof by the internal support pipe 46, and is further supported at the support flange 54 thereof by an inner side surface of the plug 43, thereby preventing a longitudinal movement of the hinge rotatable shaft 50. The extension shaft part 52 of the rotatable hinge shaft 50 includes flat surfaces 52a formed at diametrically opposite sides of an outer circumferential surface thereof so as to allow the extension shaft part 52 to couple to the door 20 without a relative rotation with respect to the door 20.
As shown in
The second cam 62 is provided on an outer side surface of the movable member 60 facing the first cam 53, so as to cause the rotatable hinge shaft 50 to rotate by a linear movement of the movable member 60. The compression spring 70 fits on the cam shaft part 51 of the rotatable hinge shaft 50 received in the housing 40 to bias the movable member 60 toward the first cam 53. Consequently, a cam surface 64 of the second cam 62 of the movable member 60 normally engages with a cam surface 55 of the first cam 53 of the cam shaft part 51, and is forcibly pressed thereby.
As shown in
Furthermore, the cam surfaces 55 and 64 of the first and second cams 53 and 62 include closing-guide surfaces 55b and 64b, respectively, which are formed over predetermined sections of the cam surfaces 55 and 64 perpendicular to an axis of the rotatable hinge shaft 50, so that the door 20 is closed by the weight of the door when the door 20 is opened by the predetermined angle or less than the predetermined angle. Accordingly, even though the movable member 60 is subjected to the elasticity of the compression spring 70 while the closing-guide surfaces 55b of the first cam 53 engages with the closing-guide surfaces 64b of the second cam 62, the rotatable hinge shaft 50 is not affected by the elasticity of the compression spring 70, thereby allowing the door 20 to close by the weight thereof.
As shown in
Operations of the rotatable hinge shaft device 50 or 150 for a storage container, will now be described.
When a user opens or closes the door 20 of the storage container, the hinge shaft 50 or 150 fitting in the door 20 rotates together with the door 20, and thus the first cam 53 or 153 is provided at the cam shaft part 51 or 151 is also rotated together with the rotatable hinge shaft 50 or 150. At this point, since the movable member 60 is biased toward the first cam 53 or 153 by the compression spring 70, and the second cam 62 of the movable member 60 is in contact with the first cam 53 or 153, the second cam 62 of the movable member 60 is outwardly or inwardly moved while being pressed by the first cam 53 or 153 of the rotatable hinge shaft 50 or 150, when the rotatable hinge shaft 50 or 150 rotates (as the door is opened or closed). On the contrary, since the rotatable hinge shaft 50 or 150 rotates by the second cam 62 moving along the housing body 41 by the compression spring 70, the door 20 is easily opened and closed. That is, since the rotatable hinge shaft 50 or 150 tends to rotate in the opening direction of the door 20 when the door 20 of the storage container is positioned in an “opening section,” for example, as shown in
More specifically, when the door 20 rotates beyond a predetermined angle and thus is positioned in the “opening section”, the inclined opening-guide surfaces 64a of the second cam 62 are in contact with the inclined opening-guide surfaces 55a or 155a of the first cam 53 or 153, as shown, for example, in
When the door 20 rotates below the predetermined angle and is positioned in the “closing section”, the closing-guide surfaces 64b of the second cam 62 are in contact with the closing-guide surfaces 55b or 155b of the first cam 53 or 153, as shown, for example, in
Further, for the first embodiment of the shock absorbing unit 80, when the door 20 rotates to be near a completely closed point, the door 20 is smoothly closed without the shock, by the shock-absorbing unit 80. That is, when the door 20 is closing, the door smoothly closes without the shock because the protrusions 81 of the rotatable hinge shaft 50 are pressed by the shock-absorbing springs 82 and the rotatable hinge shaft 50 is subjected to the resistance to the rotation, as shown in
When the door 20 is opened, the protrusions 81 are released from an engagement with the shock-absorbing springs 82, and then the shock-absorbing springs 82 are restored to rest positions thereof due to an elasticity thereof, as shown in
The second embodiment shown in
When the door 20 is positioned near the completely closed position, the teeth portions 191 of the rotatable hinge shaft 150 begin to engage with the gears 192, thereby causing the gears 192 to rotate, as shown in
When the door 20 is opened, the teeth portions 191 are released from the engagement with the gears 192, as shown in
As is apparent from the above description, a hinge device for a storage container is provided, which is constructed into a single unit, unlike that of a conventional hinge device comprising two or more units. Accordingly, since the hinge device is constructed by a reduced number of components, compared to that of the conventional hinge device, an operation of coupling a door to a container body is simplified, and thus manufacturing costs thereof are reduced.
Further, since a hinge shaft of the hinge device is subjected to a resistance to a rotation by a cushioning action of a shock-absorbing unit, the door smoothly closes, thereby preventing a generation of the shock.
Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.
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