Drawer slide mounting bracket with gussetted mounting tab

A drawer slide mounting bracket with a mounting tab and horizontal flanges extending from vertical arms. The mounting tab is inserted into an aperture in a vertical web of a drawer slide member and the horizontal flanges engage the slide member to securely attach the mounting bracket to the drawer slide member. The mounting tab is provided with a gusset to increase the strength of the mounting tab and to decrease the range of movement of the mounting tab in the aperture.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to drawer slides and drawer slide accessory 
hardware. The invention specifically relates to an improved drawer slide 
and mounting bracket for mounting a drawer slide to a cabinet or 
enclosure. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Telescopic slides for file drawers and the like are often desirable for use 
in cabinets and other rack mounted applications. Such slides permit easy 
access to the interior of the drawer. The slides maintain the drawer in a 
horizontal position regardless of how far the drawer is withdrawn from the 
cabinet. A typical drawer slide has two or three slide members slidably 
connected by sets of ball bearings held by retainers riding in raceways 
formed on the slide members. Two element telescopic slides normally 
include an outer slide member and an inner slide member. For purposes of 
exposition, the outer slide member is connected to the cabinet or 
enclosure, although it is recognized that the inner slide member may 
instead be so connected. When the outer slide member is connected to the 
cabinet or enclosure, the slide member affixed to the drawer is the inner 
slide member. A three element telescopic slide will additionally normally 
include an intermediate slide member slidably connected to and between the 
outer and inner slide members. 
A typical drawer will often have two slides securing the drawer to the 
cabinet or enclosure, with slides attached to each of the outside of the 
vertical side walls of the drawer. The slides may be attached to the 
cabinet or enclosure by a variety of methods. The outer slide member may 
have screw holes in its vertical web thereby allowing attachment of the 
outer slide member to the cabinet or enclosure through the use of a screw. 
A flange may also be integrally formed on the outer slide member, the 
flange having screw holes for a similar method of attachment. A mounting 
bracket may also be welded to the outer slide member. 
The foregoing methods of mounting a outer slide member to a cabinet or 
enclosure are not free of problems. Requiring that a screw be placed 
through the vertical web may provide difficulties in accessing the screw 
hole when the slide is not extended. With the slide extended such 
difficulty may be alleviated, but the extended slide may be inadvertently 
damaged or possibly cause injury to persons due to its projecting nature. 
The screw protruding inward from the slide member may also interfere with 
the motion of other slide members. Forming an integral flange from the 
outer slide member also poses difficulties. Manufacturing costs may 
increase due to the requirement of additional operations being performed 
on the outer slide member, as well as due to extra material waste. Welding 
mounting brackets to the outer slide member also poses problems as the 
mounting brackets may not be required in all applications and the mounting 
brackets cannot be repositioned along the length of the outer slide 
member. 
Thus, there is a need for a mounting apparatus for a drawer slide that does 
not require access through the web of the slide, does not require 
additional manufacturing operations to be performed on the outer slide 
member, and is positionable along the length of the outer slide member. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention provides a drawer slide member and mounting bracket. 
The drawer slide member has a vertical web with an aperture in the web 
adapted to receive a tab extending from a mounting bracket. The mounting 
bracket has extending arms with flanges that engage the outside surfaces 
of bearing raceways of a slide member. Providing the mounting tab with a 
gusset strengthens the mounting tab and allows for more secure placement 
of the mounting bracket. Thus, a repositionable and replaceable mounting 
means for a drawer slide is provided. 
Many of the attendant features of this invention will be more readily 
appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the 
following detailed description and considered in connection with the 
accompanying drawings in which like reference symbols designate like parts 
throughout.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
A drawer slide and mounting bracket of the present invention are shown in 
FIG. 1. As viewed in FIG. 1, a drawer 11 is mounted to a cabinet 13 via 
drawer slides and mounting brackets 17. The drawer slides are comprised of 
an inner slide member 14, an intermediate slide member 12, and an outer 
slide member 15. The outer slide member 15 is secured to the cabinet with 
the use of the mounting brackets 17. The outer slide member 15 has 
U-channel bearing raceways. The inner slide member 14 is secured to the 
drawer 11. The inner, intermediate, and outer slide members 14, 12, 15 are 
slidably connected. 
Details of the mounting bracket 17 can be seen in FIG. 2. The mounting 
bracket 17 is substantially planar and C-shaped. The mounting bracket has 
a flat body portion 21. The body portion 21 is substantially rectangular 
in shape. For convenience, the substantially flat planar mounting bracket 
17 will be described as having a drawer surface 22 and a cabinet surface 
24. The drawer surface will be the surface facing in the direction of the 
drawer, and thus a slide member, when the mounting bracket is attached to 
a cabinet and a slide member. The cabinet surface will be the surface 
facing in the direction of a cabinet when a slide member is secured to the 
cabinet by the mounting bracket 17. Substantially flat vertical arms 23a,b 
extend in the same direction from the upper and lower margins of the body 
portion 21. The vertical arms 23a,b, are substantially in the same plane 
as the body portion 21. The vertical arms 23a,b and the body portion 21, 
therefore, substantially form the shape of a C, with the inner part of the 
C being of a rectangular shape. The vertical arms 23a,b have a slightjog 
26a,b, or coplanar translation, in the cabinet direction near the ends of 
the vertical arms 23a,b. Thus, the endmost portions 25a,b of the vertical 
arms 23a,b do not lie in the same plane as the previously described 
portions of the mounting bracket 17, but instead lie in a plane parallel 
and slightly offset from the plane of the body portion 21. The endmost 
portions 25a,b each have a screw hole 29a,b to allow attachment of the 
mounting bracket 17 to a cabinet. One of the screw holes 29a is larger 
than the other screw hole 29b to provide for some slight repositioning of 
the mounting bracket 17 during installation. The screw holes 29 may be 
made the same dimension if desired. The jogs 26a,b in the vertical arms 
23a,b serve as a registration surface when attaching the mounting bracket 
17 to a cabinet. The use of a registration surface is particularly 
convenient when the cabinet is of the face frame type. A face frame 
cabinet generally has thin side walls not suitable for the mounting of 
drawer slides supporting heavily loaded drawers. Instead a face frame 
cabinet will have a frame formed with sturdy support members to which both 
the drawer slides and the side walls of the cabinet are attached. Placing 
the jogs 26a,b in the vertical arms 23a,b against an edge of such a 
support member positions the screw holes 29 over the support member and 
makes attachment of the mounting bracket 17 to the support member a more 
easily accomplished task. The vertical arms 23a,b are able to flex or 
slightly bend with respect to the flat body portion 21. This flexing or 
bending ability is important because cabinet dimensions are not always 
exact, particularly in wood cabinets. 
Extending from the endmost portions 25a,b of the arms 23a,b on the inside 
of the C-shape are horizontal flanges 27a,b. The horizontal flanges 27a,b 
extend in the drawer direction. The distance between the horizontal 
flanges 27a,b is such that the horizontal flanges 27a,b engage the 
uppermost and lowermost portions of an outer slide member. The horizontal 
flanges 27a,b serve to maintain the position of the mounting bracket 17 
with respect to the outer slide member, particularly when attaching the 
mounting bracket 17 and drawer slide to a cabinet. 
A mounting tab 31 also extends from the mounting bracket 17. The mounting 
tab 31 extends from the body portion 21 approximately midway between, and 
in the same general direction, as the vertical arms 23a,b. The mounting 
tab 31, however, immediately has a jog in the drawer direction. That is 
the mounting tab 31 has an angled portion 33 extending from the body 
portion 21 at an approximately 60.degree. angle with respect to the body 
portion 21 in the drawer direction. The outer portion 35 of the mounting 
tab 31 extends from the end of the angled portion 33 and parallel to the 
vertical arms 23a,b. 
Additionally, the angled portion 33 is given a slight gusset 37. The gusset 
is formed by placing an indentation in the middle of the angled portion 
33, with the indentation forming a nub with a spine on the drawer side of 
the angled portion 33. The nub allows the mounting tab 31 to be more 
securely positioned in an aperture on a drawer slide. The nub is also 
believed to strengthen the mounting tab 31 and thereby prevent bending of 
the mounting tab 31. To increase the ease of placing the mounting tab 31 
in an aperture the tip of the outer portion 35 is slightly rounded. 
FIG. 3 shows an end view of the mounting bracket 17 attached to a drawer 
slide. The drawer slide is of the two slide member type, with an outer 
slide member 61 and an inner slide member 63. The outer slide member 61 
has a vertical web 65. Extending from the upper and lower margins of the 
web 65 of the outer slide member 61 are arcuate concave inward facing ball 
bearing raceways 67a,b. The raceways could also be U-channel raceways, as 
are the raceways of the outer slide member 15 of FIG. 1. U-channel 
raceways have generally flat horizontal arms extending from the upper and 
lower margins of the vertical web, with vertical lips extending vertically 
inward from the ends of the horizontal arms. The ball bearings ride on the 
flat horizontal arms and are constrained laterally by the vertical web and 
the vertical lips. The inner slide member 63 also has a vertical web 69 
with arcuate concave outward facing ball bearing raceways 71a,b. Ball 
bearings 73 in rolling engagement with both the inward facing raceways 
67a,b and outward facing raceways 71a,b slidably connect the inner slide 
member 63 and outer slide member 61. 
When the mounting bracket 17 is attached to the outer slide member, the 
drawer side of the body portion 21 of the mounting bracket 17 is placed 
adjacent the outer slide member 61. The mounting tab 31 is placed through 
an aperture 45 (shown in FIG. 4) in the web 65 of the outer slide member 
61, and the outer portion 35 of the mounting tab 17 is largely in contact 
with the drawer side of the web 65 of the outer slide member 61. The 
horizontal flanges 27a,b are in contact with the outer surface of the ball 
bearing raceways 67a,b of the outer slide member 61. In the embodiment 
shown, the distance between the horizontal flanges 27a,b is just slightly 
less than the distance between the outer surfaces of the ball bearing 
raceways 67a,b. The horizontal flanges 27a,b therefore are slightly 
deflected in the outward direction by the raceways 67a,b, thereby causing 
the horizontal flanges 27a,b to frictionally engage the raceways 67a,b. 
The frictional engagement of the bearing raceways by the horizontal 
flanges helps maintain the position of the mounting bracket with respect 
to the drawer slide, particularly when the jog 26a,b is being used to 
register the position of the mounting bracket with respect to a cabinet 
support member. Even without the frictional engagement the horizontal 
flanges 27a,b act to maintain the position of the mounting bracket, 
although not to as great an extent. 
The mounting tab 31 does not extend forward from the body portion 21 a 
sufficient distance such that when the mounting bracket 17 is placed 
perpendicular to the outer slide member with the mounting tab 31 inserted 
in the aperture 45 of the outer slide member 61 that the mounting tab 31 
contacts a bearing retainer 75 which retains the bearings 73. However, a 
longer mounting tab 31 could be used if apertures are also placed in the 
web of the bearing retainer. A similar concept applies in a three-member 
drawer slide, except the aperture would be placed in the intermediate 
slide member. 
In FIG. 4 the mounting bracket 17 is shown attached to the outer slide 
member 61. As the drawer slide members are considered to move 
longitudinally with respect to the other slide members, the mounting tab 
31 securely positions the mounting bracket 17 with respect to the outer 
slide member 61 in the longitudinal direction. Any movement between the 
outer slide member 61 and the mounting bracket 17 in the longitudinal 
direction is further reduced by the nub or spine formed by the gusset 37 
on the angled portion 33 of the mounting bracket 17. Movement of the 
mounting bracket 17 with respect to the outer slide member 61 is further 
restricted by the horizontal flanges 27a,b. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the 
vertical distance between the horizontal flanges 27a,b is no greater than 
the vertical distance between the top and bottom of the raceways outer 
slide member 61. Therefore, when the mounting bracket 17 is attached to 
the outer slide member, the horizontal flanges 27a,b are under tension, 
frictionally contacting the outer slide member 61 and thereby further 
restricting movement of the mounting bracket 17 with respect to the outer 
slide member 61. Even without such frictional contact, as previously 
mentioned, the horizontal flanges 27a,b still serve to maintain the 
position of the mounting bracket 17 with respect to the outer slide member 
to a certain extent. The flat planar body portion 21 also prevents the 
mounting bracket 17 from pivoting with respect to the outer slide member 
61. 
Although this invention has been described in a certain specific 
embodiment, many additional modifications and variations will be apparent 
to those skilled in the art. It is therefore to be understood that this 
invention may be practiced otherwise and as specifically described. For 
example, additional mounting apertures may be placed in the vertical arms 
or the horizontal flanges may be shaped with a contour to provide more 
secure engagement with the outer slide member. Thus, the present 
embodiments of the invention should be considered in all aspects as 
illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention to be 
indicated by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description.