TWI867361B - Freely swingable slide rail - Google Patents

Abstract

A freely swingable slide rail device includes a first slide rail. The first slide rail includes a connecting wall extending in a longitudinal direction along a sliding direction, the connecting wall having a plurality of mounting portions and a plurality of reinforcing portions formed on the mounting portions, each of the mounting portions defining at least one through hole, an opening which is not closed and surrounds the at least one through hole and has two tail seam sections, and at least one gap hole located between the tail seam sections, each of the mounting portions having a wing surrounded by the opening frame and formed by the at least one through hole, and each of the reinforcing portions having at least one reinforcing structure arranged on the wing. The first slide rail strengthens the wing by means of the at least one reinforcement structure, so that the wing will not be twisted and deformed when swinging, and the at least one gap hole is provided so that the wing has flexibility to bend more easily when swinging, and the use effect is excellent.

Description

Freely swingable slide rail

The present invention relates to a slide rail device, in particular to a slide rail device which can swing freely.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a known slide rail device 1 is suitable for installation between a cabinet 21 and a drawer 22. The slide rail device 1 comprises an outer rail 11 fixedly connected to the cabinet 21, an inner rail 12 fixedly connected to the drawer 22, and a middle rail 13 movably arranged between the outer rail 11 and the inner rail 12. The outer rail 11 has a plurality of spaced mounting portions 111, each of which defines a lateral U-shaped slit 112, and each of which has a wing 113 framed by the slit 112, and the wing 113 is screwed to the cabinet 21. When in use, the drawer 22 is driven to open or close relative to the cabinet body 21, and at the same time, the slide rail device 1 is also driven to extend forward or backward or overlap.

However, during assembly, if the outer rail 11 or the inner rail 12 is offset or skewed, the drawer 22 will pull the outer rail 11 when sliding, causing the wing pieces 113 to deviate at an angle. In addition, the load of the drawer 22 will cause the wing pieces 113 to be twisted and deformed due to shear force, resulting in tearing damage at both ends of the slits 112, thereby affecting the overall use effect, so it is necessary to improve it.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a freely swingable slide rail device which can at least overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.

Therefore, the freely swingable slide rail device of the present invention includes a first slide rail. The first slide rail includes a connecting wall extending in a longitudinal direction along a sliding direction, the connecting wall having a plurality of mounting portions and a plurality of reinforcing portions respectively formed on the mounting portions, each of the mounting portions defining at least one through-hole, an opening which is not closed and surrounds the at least one through-hole and has two spaced-apart tail seam sections, and at least one gap hole located between two opposite tail seam sections, the opening also having two connecting sections respectively connected to the tail seam sections, each of the mounting portions having a wing surrounded by the opening frame and formed by the at least one through-hole, and each of the reinforcing portions having at least one reinforcing structure arranged on the wing and located between two opposite connecting seam sections.

The effect of the present invention is that the structure of the wing is strengthened by the at least one reinforcement structure, so that the wing can maintain a flat shape without distortion when swinging, and the provision of the at least one gap hole can make the wing easier to bend and swing, thereby preventing the two ends of the slit from being torn and damaged due to pulling.

Referring to Figs. 3, 4 and 5, an embodiment of the freely swingable slide rail device 4 of the present invention is suitable for installation in a cabinet 3, the cabinet 3 comprising a hollow cabinet body 31 and a drawer 32 movably accommodated in the cabinet body 31, but in actual implementation, the slide rail device 4 can also be arranged on other objects moving along a sliding direction 40, such as door panels, windows, furniture, etc. The cabinet body 31 has two left-right opposite side walls 311, and the drawer 32 has two left-right opposite side panels 321 corresponding to the side walls 311 respectively. The cabinet 3 is further provided with two slide rail devices 4 respectively disposed between the side walls 311 and the side panels 321, so that the drawer 32 can slide smoothly in and out of the cabinet body 31 along the sliding direction 40 to be opened or closed relative to the cabinet body 31. In the following description, the direction toward opening the drawer 32 is referred to as the front, and the direction toward closing the drawer 32 is referred to as the rear.

The slide rail device 4 includes a first slide rail 5, a second slide rail 6 that can slide relative to the first slide rail 5, and a third slide rail 7 that can be movably connected and slidably arranged between the first slide rail 5 and the second slide rail 6. One of the first slide rail 5 and the second slide rail 6 is fixed and the other can slide relatively. In this embodiment, the first slide rail 5 is an outer rail fixed on an inner wall surface 312 of the side wall 311 corresponding to the cabinet 31 and is fixed, the second slide rail 6 is an inner rail fixed on an outer wall surface 322 of the side panel 321 corresponding to the drawer 32 and can slide relatively, and the third slide rail 7 is a middle rail that can extend the moving path of the inner rail (i.e., the second slide rail 6) in the sliding direction 40. Of course, in practice, the design of the slide rail device 4 can also be changed, so that the second slide rail 6 is a fixed outer rail, the first slide rail 5 is a relatively slidable inner rail, and the third slide rail 7 is also a middle rail driven by the inner rail. Of course, the third slide rail 7 can also be omitted, or a plurality of rollers not shown in the figure can be added to facilitate sliding.

The following mainly describes the structure of the first slide rail 5. The first slide rail 5 includes a connecting wall 51 extending in the longitudinal direction of the sliding direction 40, and two track walls 52 that are bent and protruded from the upper and lower side edges of the connecting wall 51 toward the second slide rail 6. The connecting wall 51 has a plurality of mounting portions 53 arranged at intervals along the sliding direction 40, and a plurality of reinforcement portions 54 formed on the mounting portions 53. For the sake of convenience, the following only takes one of the mounting portions 53 and the corresponding one of the reinforcement portions 54 as an example for description.

The mounting portion 53 defines a through hole 55 suitable for being locked on the side wall 311 by a fixing member (not shown) passing through, and an opening 56 which is not closed and surrounds the through hole 55. The shape of the through hole 55 can be circular, elliptical, slotted or rectangular. It should be noted that the number of the through holes 55 is not limited to one, and can also be two, three, etc. according to actual needs. The slit 56 is generally U-shaped in a lateral direction and has two flat seam sections 561 arranged in parallel along the sliding direction 40, a head seam section 562 connected to one end of the flat seam sections 561, two tail seam sections 563 arranged in parallel along the sliding direction 40 at one side of the flat seam sections 561 away from the head seam section 562 and with a spacing greater than the spacing of the flat seam sections 561, and two connecting seam sections 564 obliquely connected to the tail seam sections 563 from the other end of the flat seam sections 561. In this embodiment, the head seam section 562 is located at the front side, and the tail seam sections 563 are located at the rear side, but the direction or shape of the slit 56 may also be changed in other embodiments, and is not limited to this embodiment.

Importantly, the mounting portion 53 further defines at least one gap hole 57 spaced between the tail seam segments 563, and the at least one gap hole 57 is disposed on a straight line 50 passing through the end edges of the tail seam segments 563 and perpendicular to the sliding direction 40. The number of gap holes 57 defined by each mounting portion 53 may be one or more, for example, the mounting portion 53 located on the left side of FIG. 5 defines three gap holes 57 spaced along the straight line 50, and the mounting portion 53 located on the right side of FIG. 5 defines one gap hole 57 extending along the length direction of the straight line 50, and the shape of the gap hole 57 may be circular, elliptical, elongated, etc., which is not limited to the present embodiment. It is worth mentioning that the number of the gap holes 57 of the mounting parts 53 on the connecting wall 51 can be the same or different, for example, there is only one gap hole 57, or there are several gap holes 57, or different numbers of gap holes 57 are arranged in combination as in the present embodiment.

From the perspective of structure, the mounting portion 53 has a frame piece 531 that is approximately U-shaped in the side, a wing piece 532 that is spaced apart in the frame piece 531 and cooperates with the frame piece 531 to define the slit 56, a base piece 533 that is spaced apart from the frame piece 531 and the wing piece 532, and a connecting piece 534 that is connected between the wing piece 532 and the base piece 533 and is located between the tail seam sections 563 to form a plane for the wing piece 532 to swing vertically. The wing piece 532 is framed by the slit 56 and the through hole 55 is provided on one side adjacent to the head seam section 562. The wing piece 532 can swing inwards and outwards with the straight line 50 of the sliding direction 40 as the center. The connecting piece 534 is interrupted by the at least one gap hole 57 and has a plurality of bridge portions 535 arranged at intervals along the straight line 50 , that is, the bridge portions 535 are formed between the tail seam sections 563 and the at least one gap hole 57 .

The reinforcing portion 54 has two reinforcing structures 541 arranged between the connecting sections 564 in parallel and extending along the sliding direction 40, and two reinforcing structures 542 arranged at intervals behind the reinforcing structures 541 in parallel and extending along the sliding direction 40. Each of the reinforcing structures 541 is a strip-shaped rib embossed on the wing 532, and has a concave surface 543 (see FIG. 6 ) recessed into one side of the wing 532, and a convex surface 544 (see FIG. 6 ) protruding from the other side of the wing 532. Each of the reinforcing structures 542 is located on the same horizontal line (not shown) as the corresponding reinforcing structure 541, and is located on both sides of the gap 57 with the straight line 50 as the boundary. Each of the reinforcing structures 542 is a rib embossed on the substrate 533, and has the same structure as the reinforcing structure 541. It should be noted that the number of the reinforcing structures 541 and 542 in this embodiment is not limited to two, and can also be one, three, etc. according to actual needs.

3, 4, and 5, when in use, the drawer 32 is driven to slide forward and backward relative to the cabinet 31 along the sliding direction 40, and at the same time, the slide rail device 4 is also driven to pull and change the overlapping length, so as to smoothly open or close the drawer 32. It should be noted that in a normal state, the inner wall surface 312 of the side wall 311 is parallel to the outer wall surface 322 of the side plate 321, so the slide rail device 4 located between the inner wall surface 312 and the outer wall surface 322 can slide smoothly when in use. However, when the first slide rail 5 or the second slide rail 6 is skewed or tilted during assembly, causing the inner wall surface 312 of the side wall 311 to be non-parallel to the outer wall surface 322 of the side plate 321, the first slide rail 5 will be pulled during the process of the drawer 32 being loaded and sliding, causing the wing 532 to deviate at an angle relative to the frame 531. The wing 532, through the reinforcement design of the reinforcement structure 541, can freely deflect vertically in a plane with the straight line 50 as the center without twisting and deformation. In addition, the reinforcement structure 542 also helps to reinforce the structural strength of the base sheet 533, which can further keep the base sheet 533 flat and not deformed due to pulling. Therefore, the slit 56 can remain intact without being torn at both ends.

The biggest difference between this structure used in the prior art for plane reinforcement and reinforcement of metal plates and the present invention is that the reinforcement structure 541 and the reinforcement structure 542 of the present invention are limited to the two sides of the connecting piece 534 that allows the wing 532 to swing freely, and the reinforcement structure 541 provided on one side of the wing 532 is to prevent the wing 532 from twisting and deforming so that it can swing freely, thereby avoiding the tail seam section 563 from being torn due to the reduction of the shear force of the load-bearing. In common knowledge, metal plates are used as plane reinforcement and reinforcement structures for the purpose of generally strengthening the entire plane, and there is no planar connecting piece 534 reserved between the reinforcement structure 541 and the reinforcement structure 542 to allow the wing 532 to have the function of free vertical swing.

On the other hand, the connecting piece 534 of the present embodiment is further divided into a plurality of the bridge portions 535 by the at least one gap hole 57, so that the wing 532 can be more easily swung when it is subjected to force and wants to bend and deflect at the connecting piece 534, thereby avoiding stress concentration and tearing, and allowing the slide rail device 4 to slide more smoothly.

In summary, the freely swingable slide rail device 4 of the present invention can enhance the structural strength of the winglets 532 by means of the provision of the reinforcing structures 541, so that the winglets 532 can maintain a planar shape when swinging without distortion and deformation, and can avoid the two ends of the slit 56 from being torn and damaged due to pulling, which can effectively solve the problem of the winglets 113 of the known slide rail device 1 in FIG. 1 being torsionally deformed and tearing the slit 112, and can relatively extend the service life. In addition, the crease line design of the at least one gap hole 57 can make the winglets 532 easier and more labor-saving to bend and swing, and the use effect is excellent, so the purpose of the present invention can be achieved.

However, the above is only an example of the implementation of the present invention, and it should not be used to limit the scope of the implementation of the present invention. All simple equivalent changes and modifications made according to the scope of the patent application of the present invention and the content of the patent specification are still within the scope of the patent of the present invention.

3: Cabinet 31: Cabinet 311: Side wall 312: Inner wall 32: Drawer 321: Side panel 322: Outer wall 4: Slide rail device 40: Sliding direction 5: First slide rail 50: Straight line 51: Connecting wall 52: Track wall 53: Mounting part 531: Frame 532: Wing 533: Base 534: Connecting piece 535: Bridge part 54: Reinforcement part 541: Reinforcement structure 542: Reinforcement structure 543: Concave surface 544: Convex surface 55: Perforation 56: Slit 561: Flat seam section 562: Head seam 563: Tail seam 564: Connecting seam 57: Clearance hole 6: Second slide rail 7: Third slide rail

Other features and effects of the present invention will be clearly presented in the embodiments with reference to the drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional diagram illustrating a known slide rail device; FIG. 2 is an incomplete side view enlarged diagram illustrating an outer rail of the known slide rail device; FIG. 3 is a three-dimensional diagram illustrating an embodiment of the freely swingable slide rail device of the present invention; FIG. 4 is an incomplete three-dimensional enlarged diagram illustrating a first slide rail of the embodiment; FIG. 5 is an incomplete side view enlarged diagram illustrating the first slide rail of the embodiment; and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line VI-VI in FIG. 5.

40: Slide direction

5: First slide rail

50: Straight line

51: Connecting wall

52: Track wall

53: Installation Department

531: Frame piece

532: Wings

533: Substrate

534: Continuous

535: Bridge section

54: Strengthening Department

541: Strengthening structure

542: Reinforcement structure

55:Piercing

56: Seam opening

561: Flat seam section

562: Head seam section

563: Tail seam section

564: Connecting segment

57: gap hole

Claims (10)

A freely swingable slide rail device comprises: A first slide rail, comprising a connecting wall extending longitudinally along a sliding direction, the connecting wall having a plurality of mounting parts, and a plurality of reinforcing parts respectively formed on the mounting parts, each of the mounting parts defines at least one through hole, an opening which is not closed and surrounds the at least one through hole and has two spaced tail seam sections, and at least one gap hole located between two opposite tail seam sections, the opening also has two connecting sections respectively connected to the tail seam sections, each of the mounting parts has a wing surrounded by the opening frame and formed by the at least one through hole, and each of the reinforcing parts has at least one reinforcing structure arranged on the wing and located between two opposite connecting sections. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 1, wherein the at least one gap hole is arranged on a straight line passing through the end edges of the tail seam sections, and each of the reinforcement portions also has at least one reinforcement structure arranged on the other side opposite to the wing with the straight line as the boundary, and the at least one reinforcement structure corresponds to the at least one reinforcement structure and is spaced on both sides of the at least one gap hole. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 2, wherein each of the mounting portions defines a plurality of gap holes arranged at intervals along the straight line. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 2, wherein each mounting portion defines a gap hole extending along the length of the straight line. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 2, wherein each mounting portion also has a base plate spaced apart from the wing and on which the at least one reinforcement structure is arranged, and a connecting piece connecting the wing and the base plate and located between the tail seam segments to form a plane for the wing to swing vertically, the connecting piece having a plurality of bridge portions spaced apart along the straight line and formed between the tail seam segments and the at least one gap hole. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 1, wherein the slit of each mounting portion is approximately lateral U-shaped, and the tail seam sections are arranged in parallel, the slit also has two parallel flat seam sections with a spacing smaller than the spacing of the tail seam sections, and a head seam section connected to one end of the flat seam sections, and the connecting seam sections are respectively inclined from the other end of the flat seam sections to the tail seam sections. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 1, wherein each of the reinforcement portions has two parallel reinforcement structures extending longitudinally along the sliding direction, and each of the reinforcement structures is a rib embossed on the wing. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 5, wherein each of the reinforcement portions has two parallel reinforcement structures extending longitudinally along the sliding direction, and each of the reinforcement structures is a rib embossed on the substrate. A freely swingable sliding rail device as described in claim 1, wherein the sliding rail device also includes a second sliding rail that can slide relative to the first sliding rail, and one of the second sliding rail and the first sliding rail is fixed and the other can slide relative to each other. A freely swingable slide rail device as described in claim 9, wherein the slide rail device further comprises a third slide rail that is movably and linkably arranged between the first slide rail and the second slide rail, which can correspond to extending the moving path.

Images