Drawer guide rail assembly with releaseably secured bumpers

Abstract

A guide rail assembly is used with a drawer to guide the movement of the drawer into and out of an article of furniture. The assembly has a supporting rail attached to a supporting surface and a pull-out rail attached to the drawer. At least one carriage is positioned between the supporting rail and the pull-out rail, and the supporting rail and the pull-out rail have stops for limiting movement of the pull-out rail and the carriage with respect to the supporting rail. The impact associated with closing the drawer is absorbed and suppressed by releaseably secured bumpers which engage stops controlling each of the drawers during opening and closing. The bumpers may be changed to adjust to drawers or drawer contents of varying weights.

Description

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention[0002] The present invention relates to a guide rail assembly for use with a drawer and, more particularly, to an assembly to guide the movement of the drawer into and out of an article of furniture that includes the use of releaseably secured bumpers for controlling and partially absorbing the impact of the drawer opening and closing.[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art[0004] Slidable drawer opening and closing devices are well known and conventionally utilize supporting and slidably connected guide rails and rail engaging slides to support the drawer within its frame and allow for openable and closeable movement therein. These devices are usually made of hard materials such as plastic which can cause excessive noise when the drawer is closed. Some devices have been developed to at least partially suppress such noise. Flexible buffers and yieldable stops are sometimes implemented in slide assemblies to soften the impact of the drawer closing. Somet...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] The present invention includes a guide rail assembly for use with a drawer to guide the movement of the drawer into and out of an article of furniture. The assembly is made up of a supporting rail mounted to a supporting surface such as a furniture side wall, a pull-out rail attached to the drawer and at least one carriage positioned between the supporting rail and the pull-out rail. The supporting rail and the pull-out rail have at least one stop for limiting movement of the pull-out rail and carriage with respect to the supporting rail. The at least one carriage is provided with one or more flexible bumpers to absorb the impact of drawer opening and closing and control the noise associated with that activity. The bumpers are removable and can be changed in size or capacity to adjust to changes in drawer or drawer content weight.

[0008] Another primary objective of the present invention is to provide guide rail closing assembly that suppresses noise when the drawer on which it is mounted is opened or closed.

[0009] Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a rail guide assembly having interchangeable bumpers to reduce noise associated with drawer qpening and closure.

Problems solved by technology

These devices are usually made of hard materials such as plastic which can cause excessive noise when the drawer is closed.

Even with such improvements, closure noise usually is directly related to the force used in the closing exercise and can still frequently occur unless the individual involved is very sensitive to the need to carefully and slowly close the drawer and avoid the noise.

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