Patent Application
20150108771
The field to which the disclosure generally relates includes electromechanical latches.
Electromechanical latches have many uses, for example, to latch drawers to cabinets. Conventional latches typically include complex mechanical parts and kinematics, and costly electrical devices and configurations. Also, although conventional latches may be used to latch and unlatch objects, they are not used to eject the objects.
The present disclosure is directed to a solenoid-driven latch and ejector to latch and selectively unlatch and eject an object.
Illustrative embodiments of the invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description of the embodiment(s) is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.
The content of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0018505 is assigned to the assignee hereof and is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The present disclosure includes any combination of any of the embodiments herein with any of the embodiments of the aforementioned 2013/0018505 publication.
The device 22 may include a mounting bracket 24 that may have a backplane flange 26 that may be mounted to a rear surface of the backplane 12 and a device flange 28 extending from the backplane flange 26 for supporting other portions of the apparatus as described below. The flanges 26, 28 may be one piece, as illustrated, or may be of multiple pieces. The bracket 24 also may have a tab 27, as described below.
The device 22 also includes an electromechanical solenoid 30 that produces linear motion and includes a housing 32, and a plunger 34 carried by the housing 32 and that moves linearly with respect thereto. The solenoid 30 also may include a rear plunger extension 35 for manual activation of the device 22, for example, to manually unlatch and eject the drawer 16. The solenoid 30 further may include an electrical connector 36 of any suitable type for receiving power and control signals. Also, the solenoid housing 32 may be coupled directly to the device flange 28 of the mounting bracket 24 in any suitable manner, or may be coupled via a solenoid bracket 38, which, in turn, may be coupled to the mounting bracket 24 in any suitable manner. The solenoid 30 may include a low power, high pull, long stroke, closed frame solenoid available from ByTec Inc., of Clinton Township, Mich.
The device 22 also includes a latch and ejector arm 40 coupled to the solenoid 30 for pivotal movement about a pivot axis A of the arm 40. The arm 40 may be unitary and includes a hub 42 through which the pivot axis A extends. The hub 42 may be pivotably coupled to the mounting bracket 24 via a pivot element 43. The pivot element 43 may be an integral portion of the hub 42 that is pivotably carried by the bracket 24 in any suitable manner, or a separate component pivotably coupled between the bracket 24 and the hub 42 in any suitable manner. The arm 40 further includes a latch 44 extending in a direction away from the hub 42 and having a bayonet end 46 to latch an object, for example, the drawer 16. The latch 44 may extend radially straight away from the hub 42. The bayonet end 46 may be of any suitable geometry that allows the drawer or other object to engage the end 46 and raise the latch 44, and that allows the end 46 to catch behind a portion of the drawer or other object when the latch 44 lowers. As illustrated, the bayonet end 46 includes a barb-like geometry, but any other suitable geometry for latching to the other object may be used.
The arm 40 also includes an ejector 48 extending in another direction away from the hub 42 and having an ejection end 50 to eject the object. The ejector 48 may extend radially straight away from the hub 42 and at an acute angle with respect to the latch 44, for example, wherein the arm is shaped like the numeral “7” when viewed from the side. In any case, the solenoid plunger 34 may be coupled to the ejection end 50 of the ejector 48 (at a location along the length of the ejector 48 more than halfway between the axis A and the extreme end of the ejector 48) to pivot the arm 40 about the axis A. More specifically, the plunger 34 may be coupled to the ejector 48 at a location along the last 20% of its length, distal with respect to the pivot axis A. The plunger 34 may be pivotably coupled to the ejector 48 via a pin 33 that may extend through the end of the plunger 34 and the end 50 of the ejector 48 for pushing and pulling on the ejector 48.
The device further may include a spring 52 to bias the arm 40 toward the solenoid 30 to a home or latched position, as illustrated wherein the ejector 48 has moved toward the solenoid 30. The spring 52 may directly bias the arm 40 and may be a tension spring having one end coupled to the ejector 48 and another end coupled to the device flange 28 of the mounting bracket 24, either directly via the bracket tab 27 or any other suitable portion of the bracket 24 or via a pin or any other suitable intermediate element(s). Although not separately shown, the solenoid 30 itself may include a return spring instead or in addition to the spring 52 to indirectly bias the arm 40 to its latched position. Such a solenoid spring may be internal to the solenoid housing or may be external with respect thereto, for example, between a rear end of the solenoid housing and a rear end of the solenoid plunger. In any event, any suitable portion of the apparatus 10 may provide protection for an exposed rear end of the solenoid plungers, for example, a rear cover of the cabinet or cart, or the like.
In operation, the solenoid 30 is activated to displace the plunger 34 toward the arm 40 to thereby pivot the arm 40 about the axis A from its home or latched position. Consequently, the drawer 16 is unlatched by raising of the latch 44 and the drawer 16 is ejected away from the backplane 12 by outward displacement of the ejector 48 against the rear of the drawer 16. Thereafter, the solenoid 30 is deactivated and the arm pivots back to its home position. A user may reinsert the drawer 16 toward the backplane 12 so that the drawer 16 engages the latch 48 to raise the latch 48 until it drops into latched engagement behind a corresponding portion of the drawer 16 to lock the drawer 16 with respect to the backplane 12 and other portions of the apparatus 10.
The device 122 includes a mounting bracket 124 having a backplane flange 126, device flange 124, and spring tab 127. Also, the device includes a solenoid 130 that may include a housing 132, a plunger 134, a rear plunger extension 135, and an electrical connector 136. The solenoid housing 132 may be coupled indirectly to the device flange 128 of the mounting bracket 124 via a solenoid bracket 138 coupled to the solenoid 130 and may be coupled to the mounting bracket 124 in any suitable manner.
The device 122 also includes a latch and ejector arm 140 that may be unitary and that is coupled to the solenoid 130 and including a hub 142, a latch 144, and an ejector 148. The solenoid plunger 134 (
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As used in the sections above and claims below, the terms “for example,” “for instance,” and “such as,” and the verbs “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and their other verb forms, when used in conjunction with a listing of one or more components or other items, are each to be construed as open-ended, meaning that the listing is not to be considered as excluding other, additional components, elements, or items. Similarly, when introducing elements of the invention or the example embodiments thereof, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. Moreover, directional words such as front, rear, top, bottom, upper, lower, radial, circumferential, axial, lateral, longitudinal, vertical, horizontal, transverse, and/or the like are employed by way of description and not limitation. Other terms are to be construed using their broadest reasonable meaning unless they are used in a context that requires a different interpretation.
Finally, the foregoing description is not a definition of the invention, but is a description of one or more examples of exemplary embodiments of the invention. The statements contained in the foregoing description relate to the particular examples and are not to be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention as claimed below or on the definition of terminology used in the claims, except where terminology is expressly defined above. And although the present invention has been disclosed using a limited number of examples, many other examples are possible and it is not intended herein to mention all of the possible manifestations of the invention. In fact, other modifications, variations, forms, ramifications, substitutions, and/or equivalents will become apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the foregoing description. The present invention is intended to embrace such forms, ramifications, modifications, variations, substitutions, and/or equivalents as fall within the spirit and broad scope of the following claims. In other words, the present invention encompasses many substitutions or equivalents of limitations recited in the following claims. For example, the materials, sizes, and shapes, described above could be readily modified or substituted with other similar materials, sizes, shapes, and/or the like. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the particular examples of exemplary embodiments disclosed herein, but instead is defined solely by the claims below.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61894463 | Oct 2013 | US |
