Telescopic guide for drawer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Telescopic guides for drawers face issues with lateral derailing due to non-pivoted rollers, which increases the guide's overall dimension, making them unsuitable for the catering and professional kitchen sector, and require frequent maintenance and cleaning.
Innovation Solution
A telescopic guide design featuring a base support, a floating support with grooved rollers, and a bracket, where grooved rollers with horizontal rolling axes and convex sliding surfaces minimize lateral play and prevent derailing, allowing for easy disassembly and maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If opposing rollers are used to prevent lateral derailing, then the reliability of the telescopic guide is improved, but the lateral overall dimension of the guide increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using rollers that rotate vertically (axis perpendicular to sliding direction) as in conventional guides, this patent uses rollers that rotate horizontally (axis parallel to sliding direction). This inversion of the roller orientation allows the rollers to prevent lateral derailing through their groove geometry while maintaining a compact lateral dimension, as the rollers themselves do not increase the lateral width of the guide structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The rollers are equipped with peripheral grooves that create localized contact zones with the sliding surfaces. These grooves concentrate the contact area and provide lateral constraint through the groove geometry itself, rather than requiring the entire roller surface or additional structural elements. This local quality enhancement allows reliable lateral constraint with minimal lateral dimension.
2Ease of operation
If non-pivoted rollers are used to facilitate sliding, then the ease of operation is improved, but the reliability deteriorates due to lateral derailing under impact
Solution Approach 1:
The roller orientation is inverted from the conventional vertical axis to a horizontal axis parallel to the sliding direction. This allows the rollers to maintain their low-friction rolling function while the peripheral grooves and matching sliding surfaces provide lateral constraint. The rollers still facilitate sliding through rolling motion, but now also prevent derailing through their groove geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
The system combines rollers with peripheral grooves and matching convex sliding surfaces to create a composite rolling-constraint mechanism. The groove-roller interface provides both low-friction rolling contact and lateral constraint through the groove geometry, merging the functions of ease of operation and reliability in a single integrated component system.
3Volume of moving object
If the telescopic guide is designed to be compact, then the volume of the piece of furniture is reduced, but the reliability of the guide decreases due to increased risk of derailing
Solution Approach 1:
By inverting the roller orientation to have the rotation axis parallel to the sliding direction, the guide achieves reliable lateral constraint without increasing lateral dimension. The horizontal rollers with peripheral grooves provide derailing prevention while maintaining a compact guide profile that reduces the overall furniture volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the orientation parameter of the rollers from vertical to horizontal, and modifies the contact surface geometry with peripheral grooves. These parameter changes enable the same reliability function (derailing prevention) to be achieved with a more compact overall dimension, as the constraint is provided by the groove geometry rather than by increased structural size.
4Reliability
If grooved rollers with horizontal rolling axes are used, then the reliability is improved by preventing derailing, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the rolling function and the lateral constraint function into a single integrated component system. The grooved rollers and matching sliding surfaces combine friction reduction and derailing prevention in one mechanism, rather than requiring separate rollers for rolling and separate structures for lateral constraint. This merging reduces overall device complexity despite the specialized groove geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
The grooved rollers serve multiple functions simultaneously: they facilitate sliding through rolling motion, provide lateral constraint through groove geometry, and prevent derailing through the matching convex sliding surfaces. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional specialized components, thereby reducing overall device complexity while maintaining high reliability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces the risk of derailing, minimizes the guide's lateral dimension, simplifies assembly and maintenance, and enhances sliding performance while maintaining robustness and durability.
Implementation Method 1
The grooved rollers (1, 2) have respective horizontal rolling axes (H) perpendicular to a sliding direction (X) of the telescopic guide (100). A rolling of the grooved rollers (1, 2) about the respective horizontal rolling axes (H) allows relative sliding between the floating support (20) and the base support (10) in parallel with said sliding direction (X).
Implementation Method 2
Each base rail (11, 12) and each floating rail (21, 22) comprise a sliding surface (23), preferably convex, which extends in parallel with said sliding direction (X). Each grooved roller (1, 2) comprises a peripheral groove (3) which is configured to match to a respective sliding surface (23). This expedient limits a lateral play between said peripheral groove (3) and said respective sliding surface (23).
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
AI summary
Telescopic guide (100) for a drawer of a piece of furniture, comprising a base support (10) which can be fixed to the side of said piece of furniture, a floating support (20) that is sliding in a sliding direction of said telescopic guide and at least three rollers (1, 2) which are interposed between said base support (10) and said floating support (20) so that a rolling of said rollers (1, 2) allows relative sliding between said floating support and said base support in parallel with said sliding direction.