Assortment cabinet

Abstract

 An assortment cabinet (100) is described, comprising a housing (20) with at least one rolling drawer (30) carried by a corresponding support plate (27; 23),
wherein the rolling drawer (30) in a rest position is entirely within the housing (20),
wherein the rolling drawer (30) from this rest position with respect to its corresponding support plate (27; 23) can be horizontally displaced to an operational position partly projecting out of the housing (20),
and wherein the rolling drawer (30) at least in its operational position is rotatable around a vertical rotation axis (33).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates in general to assortment cabinets.

[0002] Assortment cabinets are commonly known, for orderly storing a supply of parts, for instance an assortment of screws and nuts. Figure 1A schematically shows a perspective view of a known assortment cabinet 10. The known cabinet comprises a rectangular housing 1 with a plurality of sliding drawers 2 accommodated therein. The sliding drawers may all have mutually equal sizes, as shown, but that is not necessary. Usually, the sliding drawers 2 are arranged in multiple levels, in which case the sliding drawers of each level have mutually equal height.

[0003] In principle, an assortment cabinet can be implemented arbitrarily large. Usually, however, assortment cabinets are available in standard sizes, in which case they can be arranged next to each other and on top of each other in a modular manner to thus form a cabinet of arbitrary size in a modular manner.

[0004] For a user having a relatively small assortment, a combination of one or a limited number of assortment cabinets of the above-described type will be sufficient. However, especially for professional users, having a substantial assortment, it may be necessary to provide a large number of storage drawers, to which end a large number of assortment cabinets must be arranged next to each other and on top of each other. Consequently, the assortment cabinets will quickly occupy a fairly large wall surface area. When a further extension is desired, it becomes necessary to set up a new rack with assortments cabinets, wherein it is possible to arrange the second rack with assortment cabinets opposite the first rack, that is to say with the front sides directed towards each other, in which case an aisle must be kept free between the two racks, or the two racks with assortment cabinets can be arranged with their backsides against each other, in which case it is necessary to keep an aisle free on both sides of this combination.

[0005] A further disadvantage of the known assortment cabinet is that the sliding drawers have a relatively small depth, that is to say the dimension from the front side of the sliding drawer to the back side of the sliding drawer. Consequently, the available storage volume is fairly small in comparison to the wall surface area occupied.

[0006] In order to use the available wall surface area as well as possible, it is not uncommon to stack the assortment cabinets from the floor to the ceiling. However, it is then a problem that the objects present in the sliding drawers are not all equally well-visible for the user. Figure 1B schematically illustrates a cross-section of the assortment cabinet 10 with two sliding drawers 2A and 2B partly pulled out. The sliding drawers may not be pulled out further, because then there is the chance that they fall out of the cabinet. The sliding drawer 2A is representative for a sliding drawer located at a fairly high level, namely above eyelevel of a user. It may be clear that it is very difficult for this user to see objects located in the rear part of the sliding drawer 2A, that is to say the part of the sliding drawer still located within the housing 1. The lower sliding drawer 2B is representative for a sliding drawer located at a very low level, for instance near the floor surface. A user who wants to see the possible objects located at the rear side of the sliding drawer 2B must for this purpose sit down on his knees and bend over.

[0007] The present invention aims to provide an assortment cabinet in which the above-mentioned disadvantages are eliminated or at least substantially reduced. To that end, the present invention provides an assortment cabinet of which a drawer can both slide inwards and outwards and can rotate around a vertical axis, the drawer resting on balls.

[0008] It is noted that German patent application 10120023 describes a rotatable drawer, lying on an extendible plate. The plate can be shifted with respect to a cabinet, and the round drawer can be rotated with respect to the plate.

[0009] A similar remark applies with respect to US patent 898153. This publication further shows a drawer which itself can rotate and slide with respect to a cabinet, in which case a central pin is guided in a horizontal groove, but the bottom of this known drawers is not supported so that it is not suitable for heavy objects.

[0010] Finally, it is noted that the use of ball bearings for supporting sliding drawers is known per se from British patent 358.

[0011] These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be further clarified by the following description with reference to the drawings, in which same reference numerals indicate same or similar parts, and in which:

figure 1A schematically shows a perspective view of a known assortment cabinet;

figure 1B schematically shows a cross-section of the known assortment cabinet of figure 1A;

figure 2 schematically shows a perspective view of an assortment cabinet according to the present invention;

figure 3 schematically shows a cross-section of the assortment cabinet of figure 2;

figure 4 shows a schematic side view, partly in cross-section, of a rolling drawer in the housing of the cabinet;

figure 5 shows the rolling drawer in the condition in which it is pulled out of the housing;

figure 6 is a schematic top view of a carrier plate;

figure 7 is a schematic top view comparable to figure 6, in which also the contour of the rolling drawer is shown in the pulled out condition illustrated in figure 5;

figure 8 is a view comparable to figure 5 of a variation of the assortment cabinet;

figures 9A-9C illustrate another variation of the assortment cabinet.

[0012] Figure 2 shows a schematic perspective view of an assortment cabinet 100 according to the present invention. The cabinet 100 comprises a housing 20 with a substantially rectangular rear wall 21, substantially rectangular side walls 22, a bottom face 23 and a top face 24. The cabinet 100 has a front wall that is curved according to a part of a cylinder surface, which front wall is formed by curved side walls of drawers, as will be explained hereinafter in more detail. The top face 24 has a front edge 25 having the contour of a part of a circle in a corresponding manner. The same applies to the front edge 26 of the bottom face 23.

[0013] Figure 3 shows a schematic cross-section, in side view, of the cabinet 100. By means of horizontal carrier plates 27 attached to the rear wall 21 and to the side walls 22, the housing 20 is divided into several storeys. In the example illustrated, there are three carrier plates 27 shown, so that the housing 20 has four storeys. The number of storeys may however be larger than or smaller than four. The present invention is even embodied in an embodiment in which no carrier plates 27 are present, so that the housing 20 only has one single storey.

[0014] Each carrier plate 27 has a front edge 28 having a contour corresponding to the contour of the front edge 25 of the top surface 24.

[0015] A rolling drawer 30 is arranged in each storey of the housing 20, it is to say a drawer that can role. Each rolling drawer is supported by a plurality of supporting balls 40, which in their turn are mounted on or in the bottom 23 or the carrier plates 27, respectively. The supporting balls 40 may be implemented in the form of ball pots known per se, as will be clear to a person skilled in the art. The supporting balls 40 are distributed over the surface of the bottom 23 and the carrier plates 27 in a suitable manner, wherein the precise number of supporting balls and the pattern in which these supporting balls are distributed are not essential for the present invention. It will be clear to a person skilled in the art that the number of supporting balls will be chosen in relation to the expected weight of the rolling drawer 30 including its possible contents.

[0016] Each rolling drawer 30 has a substantially circle-shaped bottom 31 and a substantially cylindrical side wall 32. A symmetry axis of rotation of the rolling drawer 30 is indicated by the reference numeral 33. The rolling drawer 30 further comprises a system of separation walls 34, 35 directed tangentially, as well as separation walls directed substantially radially that are not shown in figure 3 for sake of simplicity. The said separation walls divide the interior of the rolling drawer 30 to a large number of storage compartments. The tangential separation walls 34, 35 may be curved according to a cylinder shape, but it is also possible that the tangential separation walls 34, 35 are straight walls.

[0017] In the example shown, there are two radial separation walls 34, 35 arranged coaxially with respect to each other, so that the rolling drawer 30 is subdivided by these separation walls 34, 35 into two ring-shaped storage compartments 36, 37 as well as a compartment 38 located centrally. In principle, this central compartment 38 can also be used, but it is also possible to leave this central compartment 38 empty. The said radial separation walls subdivide the ring-shaped storage compartments 36, 37 into a large number of storage compartments adjacent each other in circumferential sense, as will be clear to a person skilled in the art.

[0018] Although it is generally most practical if the tangential separation walls 34, 35 have a constant radius with respect to the axis 33 of rotational symmetry, it is also possible that there are tangential separation walls arranged at larger or smaller distance from the rotation axis 33 to thus be able to vary the sizes of the storage compartments. It is further noted that the number of tangential separation walls does not have to be equal to two.

[0019] Figure 3 shows the assortment cabinet 10 in a closed condition, that is to say that each rolling drawer 30 is located entirely within the housing 20, in which case each rolling drawer 30 at its upper side is covered by the upper wall 24 of the housing 20 or the carrier plates 27 located above such drawer, respectively. Thus, the rolling drawers are protected against entry of dust and the like. This position of a rolling drawer will be indicated as rest position.

[0020] Each rolling drawer 30 can individually be pulled forward out of the housing 20 to a position that will be indicated as operational position. In order to facilitate handling by a user, the side wall 32 may be provided with handles in the shape of recesses. Because the rolling drawer 30 is resting on balls 40, the said movement is relatively easy and requires little force, even when the weight of the rolling drawer plus contents is fairly large. The cabinet 100 is provided with a limitation mechanism that prevents the rolling drawer 30 from being pulled outwards too far so that it might fall out of the cabinet 20. Figures 4 and 5 illustrate a preferred embodiment of such limitation mechanism.

[0021] Figure 4 shows a schematic side view, partly in cross-section, comparable to figure 3 but at a larger scale of a single rolling drawer 30 with the carrier plate 27 located there under. For sake of simplicity, the remaining parts of the cabinet 20 are not shown. Apart from that, it is noted that in stead of a carrier plate 27, also the bottom 23 could have been shown: with respect to the lowest rolling drawer, the bottom 23 has the function of carrier plate. It is further noted that, for sake of clarity, the rolling drawer 30 in figure 4 is elevated with respect to the carrier plate 27. At the lower side of the bottom 31 of the rolling drawer 30, a ball bearing 41 is mounted, aligned with the rotation axis 33 of the rolling drawer 30. The carrier plate 27 is provided with an elongate groove 42 in which this ball bearing 41 fits. This groove 42 has a longitudinal direction directed substantially perpendicular to the rear wall 21 of the housing 20. The groove 42 has a width, that is to say perpendicular to the plane of drawing in figure 4, corresponding to the diameter of the ball bearing 41 or slightly larger. The groove 42 has a front end edge 44 located close to the front edge 28 of the carrier plate 27, and a rear end edge 43 opposite same. These end edges 43 and 44 form stops for the ball bearing 41 and thus define the extreme positions of the rolling drawer 30 within the housing 20. In the situation shown in figure 4, the ball bearing 41 is shown in the rest position in which the rear end edge 43 of the groove 42 forms a stop, in which case the rolling drawer 30 is located entirely within the housing 20, as illustrated in figure 3.

[0022] Figure 5 is a view comparable to figure 4, in which the rolling drawer 30 is now shown resting on the balls 40, and in which the rolling drawer 30 is shown in the operational position pulled out of the housing 20, wherein the ball bearing 41 is touching the front end edge 44 of the groove 42. The figure further shows that the inner tangential wall 35 in this condition is substantially aligned with the end edge 28 of the carrier plate 27 (or end edge 25 of upper plate 24), so that the ring-shaped compartments 36 and 37 are freely accessible. If desired, the central compartment 38 may also be an accessible compartment if the height of the inner separation wall 35 is smaller than the height of the side wall 32 of the rolling drawer 30, as shown. It is however also possible that the separation walls have a height corresponding to the height of the side wall 32; in that case, the central compartment 38 will remain empty.

[0023] By the limitation construction as shown, it is assured that, if the objects stored in the rolling drawer are distributed evenly, the centre of gravity of the rolling drawer 30 lies always within the cabinet 20. If the rolling drawer 30 would be loaded on one side heavier than at the other side, it might happen that the centre of gravity comes to lie beyond the end edge 28 of the carrier plate 27, in which case the rolling drawer 30 will get the tendency of tilting over forwards. In that case, the rear end of the side wall 32, indicated by A in figure 5, will touch the underside of the carrier plate 27 located above. Thereby, a further tilting is prevented. In order to assure that the roller drawer 30 can still rotate around its rotation axis 33 even in this situation, it is possible if desired to arrange guiding balls or guiding wheels 45 along the upper edge of the side wall 32, as schematically illustrated in the partial enlargement B.

[0024] The balls 40 on which the rolling drawer 30 rests allow the rolling drawer 30 to be rotated around its vertical rotation axis 33. Also the ball bearing 41 aligned with this rotation axis 33 allows this rotational movement. In the pulled out operational position of figure 5, this means that the full contents of the ring-shaped storage compartments 36 and 37 is accessible by rotating the rolling drawer 30.

[0025] Figure 6 is a schematic top view of a carrier plate 27. In this figure, the groove 42 is visible, as well as the balls 40. The figure shows an example of a pattern of distribution for the balls 40. The balls 40 may be arranged in concentrical rings, centred around the centre M, which is located centrally in the groove 42, at a distance from the rear end edge 43 corresponding to half the diameter of the ball bearing 41. In that case, it is advantageous if the outer ring of balls 40 has a ball 40P aligned with the groove 42.

[0026] Figure 7 is a schematic top view comparable to figure 6, in which also the contour of the rolling drawer 30 is shown in the pulled out operational position illustrated in figure 5. Also the position of the ball bearing 41 is shown, touching the front end edge 44 of the groove 42. As far as projecting outside the housing 20, a tangential separation wall 34 and an example of some radial partition walls 39 are also shown in order to illustrate that the ring-shaped storage compartments 36 and 37 are accessible in this condition for a fairly large part of their circumferential size. Because the rolling drawer 30 can rotate without limitation, as indicated by the arrow P, it is simply possible to quickly obtain an overview of the contents present in the roller drawer 30 end to take a searched object from the rolling drawer 30.

[0027] A large advantage of the present invention is that, in relation to the wall surface area occupied, the cabinet 100 offers a fairly large storage volume. In a suitable embodiment, the cabinet 100 has a width of 120 cm and a depth, i.e. distance between rear wall 21 and front edge 28, of 125 cm. In this suitable embodiment, the rolling drawer 30 has a diameter of approximately 120 cm, and the groove 42 can have a length of 45 cm (plus the diameter of a ball bearing 41 utilized). The two ring-shaped storage compartments 36 and 37 can then together have a radial size of 45 cm, for instance 20 and 25 cm respectively, and the central compartment can then have a diameter of 30 cm.

[0028] In the embodiment discussed before, a support plate 27 is fixed within the housing 20, and the rolling drawer 30 can both rotate and be horizontally displaced on the support plate. In an alternative embodiment, the rolling drawer 30 can only rotate with respect to the support plate, and there is no horizontal freedom of displacement. In order to partly bring the roller drawer 30 out of the housing 20 in that case, the support plate can be horizontally shifted.

[0029] Figure 8 schematically illustrates an embodiment in which the support plate 27 can be displaced horizontally with a linear movement, for instance by writing on a horizontal guide 81 by means of wheels 82. A pin 83 under the bottom of the rolling drawer 30 engages a hole 84 of the support plate 27 in order to thus only allow a rotational movement of the rolling drawer 30 with respect to the support plate. If desired, this pin 83 may be provided with a rotation bearing, comparable to 41.

[0030] Figure 9 schematically illustrates an embodiment in which the support plate 27 can be displaced horizontally by a rotational movement, for instance by hinging, using a hinge 91, around a vertical axis 92 that is fixed with respect to the housing 20 (not shown in figure 9A). Figure 9B shows a schematic top view of the support plate 27 in its rest position located within the housing 20. The hinge point 91 is located at a corner point of the support plate 27 close to the front side of the cabinet 20, the bottom right in the figure. For sake of simplicity, the rolling drawer 30 is not shown in figure 9B. A hole in the support plate 27, for receiving a central pin of the rolling drawer 30 (with or without a rotation bearing) is indicated by the reference numeral 94. Figure 9C shows a comparable top view of the support plate 27 in its outwards hinged (counter clockwise) operational position. It can clearly be seen that the hole 94 has been moved forwards with respect to its position in the rest position, which corresponds to a horizontal displacement of the roller drawer 30.

[0031] It will be clear to a person skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments discussed in the above, but that several variations and modifications are possible within the protective scope of the inventions as defined in the attached claims.

[0032] For instance, it is not necessary that the support plate is a completely solid plate: this plate can be provided with openings in places where no ball bearing are mounted. It is also possible that the plate is replaced by a system of horizontal bars or strips, which may be directed according to the longitudinal direction of the housing and/or according to the width-direction of the housing, in which case the ball bearings are mounted on these bars or strips, respectively.

[0033] A feature of a ball bearing is that the ball can rotate in all directions but is positionally secured. The same technical effect is achieved with a wheel or cylindrical bearing with a horizontal rotation axis, mounted in a holder which in turn is rotatable around a vertical axis with respect to the carrier plate or carrier bar or carrier strip, respectively. In all these cases, a supported object (i.e. the drawer) can be displaced in two dimensions with respect to the carrier construction. For this reason, the phrase "2D-bearing" will be used for these bearings as umbrella phrase.

[0034] It is further possible that the cabinet has a different outer contour than the contour described.

[0035] It is further noted that it is not necessary that the housing has closed walls.

[0036] In general, an assortment cabinet will have multiple storeys, i.e. multiple drawers above each other. The advantage offered by the present invention is however already achieved in the case of a single drawer. It is further not necessary that the present invention is implemented in a detached cabinet: it is well conceivable that one (or multiple) drawers according to the present invention are built in in a wall. It is also conceivable that one (or multiple) drawers according to the present invention are built in in a vehicle, for instance a service car, particularly in the floor of a service car.

[0037] Features that are only described for a certain embodiment are also applicable in other embodiments described.

Claims

1. Storage system, comprising:

a housing (20) with at least one horizontal support construction (27; 23) fixed with respect to the housing, which support construction is provided with a plurality of 2D-bearings (40) positionally fixed with respect to the support construction;

a drawer (30) carried by the 2D-bearings of the support construction, which drawer in a rest position is entirely within the housing, and wherein the drawer has an operational position in which the drawer partially projects out of the housing;

wherein the drawer can be displaced back and forth with respect to the support construction from its rest position to its operational position and vice versa, wherein the drawer during this shifting displacement remains supported by at least a part of the 2D-bearings;

and wherein the drawer at least in its operational position is rotatable around a vertical rotation axis (33), wherein the drawer during this rotational movement remains supported by at least a part of the 2D-bearings.

2. Storage system according to claim 1, wherein the 2D-bearings are implemented as balls or wheels.

3. Storage system according to claim 1, wherein the support construction is implemented as horizontal support plate.

4. Storage system according to claim 1, wherein a support construction is implemented as system of horizontal profiles, bars or strips.

5. Storage system according to any of the previous claims, wherein the drawer is provided with a limitation mechanism for limiting the horizontal displacement freedom of the drawer with respect to its corresponding support construction (27; 23).

6. Storage system according to claim 5, wherein the limitation mechanism comprises an elongate guide groove (42) with a rear end edge (43) and a front end edge (44), as well as a guide (41) mounted under the drawer (30), aligned with the rotation axis (33) and fitting in said groove (42).

7. Storage system according to claim 6, wherein the guide (41) is implemented as a ball bearing.

8. Storage system according to claim 6, wherein the guide groove (42) is arranged in the support construction (27; 23).

9. Storage system according to claim 6 or 7 or 8, wherein the drawer (30) has an inner cylindrical separation wall (35), of which the radius corresponds to the distance between the front end edge (44) of the elongate guide groove (42) and a front edge (28; 25) of the support plate (27; 23).

10. Storage system according to any of the previous claims, wherein the drawer (30) has a cylindrical side wall (32).

11. Storage system according to claim 10, wherein the drawer (30) at the upper edge of its cylindrical side wall (32) is provided with guide balls or guide wheels (45).

12. Assortment cabinet (100), comprising at least one storage system according to any of the previous claims.

13. Vehicle, provided with at least one storage system according to any of the previous claims.

Drawing