1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slide braking apparatus, and more particularly to a simple linking structure provided for users to control the locking or pushing of a slide in a simple, easy and effort-saving manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a traditional cabinet for installing computers and related equipments comes with detachable drawers on different decks of the cabinet and a slide disposed between the drawer and the cabinet for guiding the drawer to slide into or out of the cabinet. The structure of the slide sequentially comprises a bottom rail, a middle rail for sliding on the bottom rail, and an inner rail for sliding on the middle rail, wherein the bottom rail is fixed onto an internal side of the cabinet, and the inner rail is installed on a lateral side of the drawer, and the middle rail and the inner rail slide are coupled on a track, such that the drawer can slide into or out of the cabinet successfully.
Although the foregoing slide structure is convenient to operate and maintain, yet its application is not very safe since the slide structure does not have any braking or stopping device, so that the machine on the drawer may slide into the cabinet due to inertia or slide into the cabinet accidentally during maintenance. As a result, strong forces impact the expensive industrial computer and related machines, or even turn the whole cabinet over by the unstable center of gravity of the cabinet.
To solve the aforementioned problem, manufacturers install a locking device on the slide, so that the slide can be locked at an appropriate position to provide a positioning effect, and control the timing of sliding the drawer. A typical structure was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,685 entitled “Release mechanism for drawer slide latches” as shown in
Although the aforementioned structure can achieve the braking effect to effectively limit the inner rail of its sliding out of the middle rail, yet the application requires further improvements, since the direction of releasing the braking is in the same direction of sliding the first element 40 into the second element 50 in the prior art structure of the shifting mechanism, such that if a user pushes the shifting mechanism 42 to release the braking, the shifting mechanism 42 will push the first element 40 to slide into the second element 50, and the door latch 41 will get stuck in the plate 51 of the second element 50, and the door latch 41 will not be retracted from the plate 51 easily. Further, a friction is used to provide a link between components. In other words, the user must apply a larger moment of force to push the shifting mechanism to release the brake.
In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, the present invention provides a slide braking apparatus to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional braking structure.
Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a slide braking apparatus installed on two corresponding lateral sides of a middle rail and an inner rail the slide for controlling the timing of sliding the inner rail into the middle rail. The apparatus comprises a guide bump, a hook and a control handle, wherein the hook and the control handle are installed at the inner rail, and the guide bump is disposed on a lateral side of the middle rail, and the hook is elastically and pivotally coupled to a lateral side of the inner rail, and a side of the hook has a rib with a protruded guide bump disposed on an edge of the rib and guided by the front end of the guide bump to drive the hook to turn and press against the rear end of the guide bump, so as to produce a braking effect to the inner rail, and a control handle installed on the inner rail produces a linking effect with the hook by a link element for controlling the hook to turn and separate from the rear end of the guide bump, and successfully push the inner rail into the middle rail. With the linking structural design, users may apply a moment of force from different directions in order to release the action of sliding the inner rail into the middle rail in a convenient and effort-saving manner.
a is an enlarged view of a portion of
a is a schematic view of the structure of a slide braking apparatus in accordance with the present invention, showing that a rib of a hook is in contact with the guide bump and its status of being guided by the guide bump;
a a schematic view of the structure of a slide braking apparatus in accordance with the present invention, showing that a control handle links with a hook to turn and its status of releasing an inner rail from being braked;
a is an enlarged view of a portion of
b is an enlarged view of a portion of
The objective, technical measures and performance of the present invention will become apparent in the detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings as follows:
Referring to
The front end of the guide bump 10 has a guide plane 11 for guiding the hook 20, and the rear end of the guide bump 10 has a braking plane 12 for pressing against the hook 20.
The hook 20 is pivotally coupled onto a lateral side of the inner rail L3 and elastically turned to an appropriate range on the inner rail L3, and a side of the hook 20 has a resilient element 22, and an end of the resilient element 22 is fixed onto the inner rail L3, and another end of the resilient element 22 is fixed to the hook 20 for supplying a resilience to the hook 20, and the hook 20 has a rib 21 extended perpendicularly towards the middle rail L2, and the rear end of the rib 21 corresponds to the guide plane 11 at the front end of the guide bump 10, and the front end of the rib 21 is provided for pressing against the braking plane 12 at the front end of the guide bump 10.
Similar to the hook 20, the control handle 30 is pivotally coupled to the same side of the inner rail L3 and elastically turned to an appropriate range on the inner rail L3, and the front end of the control handle 30 has a link element 31, and another end of the link element 31 is coupled to the hook 20, so that the control handle 30 links with the hook 20 to turn and control the hook 20 to retract from the braking plane 12 at an appropriate time, so as to release the braking effect of the inner rail L3.
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While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.