Cabinet hinge

Cabinet hinge whose mounting plate serving for the adjustable attachment of the carcase-related part of the hinge to the carcase of a cabinet is composed of two parts, i.e., of a bottom plate and a top plate. The bottom plate has in its outer end adjacent the door at least one hook rising from the plane in which it is fastened to the carcase and pointing outwardly, which can engage an associated eye in the bottom of the upper plate. The confronting surfaces of engagement between the hook and the eye are of complementary configuration and at least approximately arcuate with the centers of the arcs coinciding approximately with the center of the angular displacement described by the hinge in the first part of its closing movement relative to the door-related part of the hinge. A spring catch mechanism with a handle is provided in the bottom plate for the purpose of the releasable attachment of the top and bottom plates to one another.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The invention relates to a hinge for hanging a door on a cabinet. The hinge 
has a door-related part which can be fastened to the door, and a 
carcase-related part coupled pivotingly by a linkage to the door-related 
part; the carcase-related part can be mounted adjustably on a mounting 
base assembly which can be fastened to the carcase wall and which is 
composed of two plates, separable from one another, of which the bottom 
plate, which is placed against the carcase wall, can be fastened fixedly 
thereon, and the top plate can be joined to the bottom plate by a spring 
catch mechanism. 
When very large doors, for example wardrobe doors, are to be hung with 
modern articulated hinges, at least three, but often even four or five 
hinges are required. The attachment to the carcase of the hinges 
premounted on the doors then requires that the carcase-related parts, 
which are usually in the form of elongated supporting arms, be slipped 
onto the mounting plates previously installed on the carcase. In the case 
of the known hinges, the heads of mounting screws driven into taps in the 
base plate are passed through the enlarged ends of keyhole-like slots in 
the supporting arms, the mounting screws are slid in the narrow portion of 
the keyhole slots to the correct mounting position, and then the mounting 
screws are tightened. At the same time the depth adjustment of the hinges 
is performed by means of these mounting screws and, in the case of overlap 
doors, the amount by which the door overlaps the edges of the carcase also 
requires that the mounting screws be loosened and that an adjustment be 
made by means of an additional adjusting screw. Consequently, the hanging 
of the door and the adjustment of the supporting arms, which present no 
problems in the case of doors hung with only two hinges, become difficult 
tasks in the case of the larger doors, because, until the mounting screws 
are tightened, the weight of the door, which is open while it is being 
hung and adjusted, tends to pull at least the supporting arms of the upper 
hinges forward, i.e., away from the cabinet interior, so that the danger 
is that the mounting screws will escape from the keyhole slots. As a rule, 
therefore, two persons are needed for the tasks of hanging and adjusting 
doors provided with more than two hinges, and even then the installation 
of these doors is difficult and time-consuming until the correct 
adjustment and fixation is completed. 
A simplification of the hanging of the door on the carcase of a cabinet has 
been achieved with hinges of the kind described above (DE-OS No. 31 19 
571) in which only the bottom plate of a mounting base assembly is 
fastened to the carcase, while the top plate of the base assembly, which 
can be snapped onto the bottom plate, is previously mounted on the 
carcase-related part of the hinge. Then, when the door is hung on the 
cabinet carcase, all that is needed is to snap the top base plate onto the 
corresponding bottom base plate. If the carcase-related part of the hinge 
has been correctly preadjusted on the top mounting plate, it is not even 
necessary then to perform any alignment of the door relative to the 
carcase. Despite this improvement, the mounting of a door on a cabinet 
carcase is still difficult, so that the dismounting and subsequent 
remounting of a door on a cabinet, e.g., for furniture moving operations, 
can present difficulties to untrained persons. 
The invention is therefore addressed to the problem of improving the known 
hinges such that hinges attached to the same door can be detached from or 
attached to the carcase one by one, and consequently by an unassisted 
person, without requiring difficult manipulations for this purpose. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Setting out from a hinge of the kind mentioned above, this problem is 
solved according to the invention in that the bottom plate of the mounting 
plate assembly has in its front end area adjacent the door at least one 
hook projecting upwardly from the plane of its attachment to the cabinet 
carcase and away from the carcase interior, and capable of engaging an 
associated eye in the bottom of the upper plate of the mounting base 
assembly. The surfaces of contact between hook and eye are of 
complementary and at least approximately arcuate configuration. The center 
of curvature of the arcuate engagement surface of the hook is 
approximately the same point as the center of the path of movement of the 
arcuate engagement surface of the eye at the beginning of the movement 
from the open position in closing direction of the hinge. The spring catch 
mechanism is provided with a handle for its release, this handle being 
situated deeper within the cabinet than the inner end of the wall-related 
part of the hinge. When a door that is to be hung on a cabinet with more 
than two of these hinges, first only the carcase-related parts of the 
uppermost and lowermost hinges are turned to the open position and the 
door is then set against the carcase such that the top plates of the 
uppermost and lowermost mounting plate assemblies are snapped onto the 
corresponding bottom plates previously installed on the carcase. The door 
is thus temporarily held by these two hinges in correct alignment with the 
carcase. Then all that remains is to turn the carcase-related parts of the 
rest of the hinges, together with the top plates of their mounting base 
assemblies preinstalled on them, into the open position, and they will 
automatically then be guided so that the top plates can be snapped each 
onto their corresponding bottom plates. To dismount the door the procedure 
is reversed, i.e., with the door open, first the hinges between the 
uppermost and lowermost hinges are individually unsnapped by acting on the 
handles, and the carcase-related hinge parts together with the top 
mounting plates are swung into the closed position. The final removal of 
the door is then performed by unsnapping the top mounting plates of the 
uppermost and lowermost hinges while providing, preferably, additional 
support for the door. The provision of a spring catch mechanism between 
the top and bottom plates of the mounting base assembly hs the basic 
advantage over the likewise conceivable similar arrangement between the 
carcase-related part of the hinge and a mounting plate, which could then 
even be a one-piece unit, that the top member of the mounting base 
assembly on which the carcase-related hinge part is fastened is identical 
with the conventional mounting plates, i.e., the kind that cannot be 
unsnapped, so that the hinges formerly used in conjunction with normal 
mounting plates can continue to be used without modification. 
When the mounting base assembly has the form of a wing plate having 
wing-like projections extending from opposite sides of an elongated 
central bridge, which are fastenable to the carcase, the configuration can 
be such, in an advantageous further development of the invention, that the 
top plate of the mounting base assembly overlaps the bottom plate thereof 
in the area of the wings, and that a hook projection as well as its 
corresponding eye are provided one in each of the overlapping portions of 
the top and bottom plates of the mounting base assembly. 
The bottom plate of the mounting base assembly is prolonged at its inner 
end in the direction of the carcase interior, and the handle is disposed 
in this prolonged portion and joined to a catch projection which is held 
for longitudinal displacement in the bottom plate of the mounting base 
assembly and which snaps resiliently over a catch projection on the upper 
mounting plate. The handle is thus easily accessible for disengagement. In 
an advantageous development of the invention, the handle and the catch 
projection associated with it are then disposed on a slide which is held 
for longitudinal displacement in a slot in the bottom mounting plate, but 
secured against escape therefrom, and is biased to the position of 
engagement by a spring engaging the bottom plate at one end and the slide 
itself at the other. 
Mounting plates which are provided with wings for fastening are often 
fastened by using bores sometimes provided in rows in the cabinet carcase 
for the accommodation of shelf supports and the like. In the bottom 
mounting plate a hole is then provided through each wing as well as 
through the prolongation toward the cabinet interior for a screw to be 
driven into the carcase. The screws to be driven through the holes in the 
wings of the mounting plate assembly are then driven into the bores 
sometimes provided, as mentioned above, while the screw to be driven 
through the hole additionally provided in the prolongation toward the 
cabinet interior is then driven into a bore that is to be created 
separately. The screw holes can be in the form of slots running parallel 
to the hinge axis of rotation in order thus to permit adjustment of the 
level of the mounting plate and hence of the door with respect to the 
cabinet. 
Since the top mounting plate must be detachable and removable from the 
bottom mounting plate, it must not be held against the bottom member by 
the heads of the screws. Consequently the holes or slots provided in the 
wings of the top plates in line with those in the bottom plates are made 
with a diameter larger than the heads of the corresponding screws.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The hinge shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and designated as a whole by the number 10 
serves, in conjunction with other hinges of the same design, for hanging a 
door on the wall of a cabinet carcase, such as for example a bedroom 
wardrobe with a correspondingly large door which, on account of its 
weight, has to be hung with at least three hinges 10 at different levels. 
The hinge 10 is in the form of a common four-joint hinge. Its door-related 
part, in the form of a cup 12 which can be fastened flush within a mortise 
in the back of the door, is coupled by two links 14 and 16 with the front 
end of a carcase-related hinge part which is an elongated supporting arm 
18, which in turn is adjustably mounted on a mounting base assembly 20 
(FIGS. 3 to 5) which can be fastened to the carcase. To enable it to be 
fastened for longitudinal adjustment on the mounting base assembly, the 
supporting arm has at its inside end, i.e., the end pointing into the 
interior of the carcase, an open-ended slot 22 through which passes the 
threaded shaft of a fastening screw 26 driven into a tap 24 in the 
mounting base assembly. The head of the screw, when driven all the way 
into the tap 24, presses the inner end of the supporting arm 18, whose 
inside face is provided with transverse serrations (not shown), against a 
portion provided with complementary serrations 28 of a raised, elongated 
guiding bridge 30 of the mounting base assembly 20, thus securing the 
supporting arm 18 against lengthwise displacement on the bridge 30. A 
threaded spindle 32 is set in a tap in the bridge of the supporting arm 18 
at a point offset toward the cup 12 with respect to the slot 22, and has 
at its inner, mounting base assembly end a holding head--a spherical 
holding head for example--connected to it by a neck of reduced diameter, 
which is inserted into an open-ended bore 34 of complementary cross 
sectional shape running from the end face of the bridge 30, the bore 34 
being slotted at the top to accommodate the neck. This threaded spindle 32 
serves for the adjustment of the inclination of the supporting arm 18 
relative to the carcase wall and thus for the variation of the amount of 
overlap of the door on the end of the carcase wall. 
It is apparent that, by turning the threaded spindle 32, while the 
fastening screw 26 is loosened slightly, it is possible to vary the 
angular adjustment of the supporting arm on the mounting base assembly 20. 
Except for the mounting base assembly 20, the hinge 10 is the same as the 
known four-pivot hinges, so that it will suffice hereinafter to describe 
the special configuration of the mounting base assembly and its adaptation 
to the motion of the hinge. The mounting base assembly 20 is composed of 
two pieces, namely a flat bottom plate 36 to be fastened directly to the 
wall of the carcase (FIGS. 8 to 10) and a top plate 38 snapped onto the 
bottom mounting plate 36. In the embodiment shown, the mounting base 
assembly 20 is a so-called wing base, in which a wing 40 projects from 
each side of the bridge 30 serving for the adjustable mounting of the 
supporting arm 18, and it usually serves for fastening the mounting base 
assembly to the carcase. 
The top plate 38 of the mounting base assembly is fitted over the flat 
bottom plate 36, while only the inner end 42 of the bottom plate 36 has a 
prolongation of approximately the width of the bridge 30 in the direction 
of the carcase interior, i.e., it projects from under the top plate 38. 
Plate 36 of the mounting base assembly is fastened on the carcase wall by 
means of screws 46 passed one through each of the slots 44 formed in the 
wings 40, and an additional screw 50 passed through an additional slot 
provided in the prolonged end 42, the slots 44 and 48 permitting a certain 
adjustment of the level of the bottom plate 36 and thus of the mounting 
base assembly 20 on the carcase wall. In the wing area above the slots 44, 
the upper plate 38 of the mounting base assembly is provided with slots 51 
which are larger than slots 44, so as to permit the heads of the mounting 
screws 46 to be driven through the slots 51 against the surface of the 
bottom plate 36 of the mounting base assembly. 
For the releasable attachment of the top plate 38 to the bottom plate 36, a 
hook-like projection 52 is provided at the front margin, adjacent the 
door, of each of the wings of bottom plate 36, which can engage an 
associated eye 54 in the wings of the top plate 38. The associated 
engagement surfaces 52' and 54' of the hook-like projection 52 and eye 54, 
respectively, are of complementary arcuate shape, the centers of the arcs 
coinciding at least approximately with the center of the relative angular 
movement of the supporting arm and cup. A catch projection 56 extends from 
center of the inside end, i.e., the end pointing toward the cabinet 
interior, of the top plate 38, and with it there is associated a catch 
projection 58 which can ride over it and which is longitudinally 
displaceable at the rearward end of a slide 62 which is guided within a 
slot 60 in the bottom plate 36, but secured against escaping from the 
latter. The inside end of the slide 62 lies in the prolonged portion 42 of 
the bottom plate 36 which is not covered by the upper plate 38, so that an 
upstanding handle 64 is freely accessible for the purpose of shifting the 
slide 62 and thus the catch projection 58 toward the interior of the 
cabinet, and thus releasing the catch projection 58 from the catch 
projection 56. The slide is biased to the catching position by a 
compression spring which is disposed between a projection 68 of the slide 
and a projection 70 of the bottom plate 36. 
The hanging of a door on a cabinet by means of the hinges 10 according to 
the invention is performed such that the hinges preinstalled on the door, 
except for the bottom plates 36 fastened by means of screws 46 and 50 to 
the carcase, are carried along with the door to the carcase in a position 
corresponding approximately to the open position of the door, while the 
carcase-related hinge parts, i.e., the supporting arms 18, with the top 
plates 38 fastened to them, are in the closed position or an intermediate 
position. In order to fasten each hinge to the carcase, the supporting 
arms then need only to be swung into the open-hinge position, bringing the 
hook-like projections 52 into engagement with the eyes 54. As the 
supporting arm is further rotated toward the carcase wall, the catch 
projection 56 on the top plate strikes against the resiliently biased 
catch projection 58, and displaces it against the spring bias until 
finally the catch projection 58 snaps over the catch projection 56. Thus 
the hinge in question is held fast to the carcase, the tight fastening 
together of the two plates 36 and 38 being assured by an appropriate 
angling of the overlapping surfaces of the catch projections. The hinges 
are fastened one by one in the manner described by turning them, so that 
at most at the beginning of the assembly operation a second person is 
needed to hold the door up. When disassembly becomes necessary, the 
procedure is reversed, i.e., first the catch projections 56 and 58 are 
disengaged from one another by pressing the handles 64 toward the interior 
of the cabinet and thus shifting the slide 62 against the bias of spring 
66 toward the cabinet interior. The catch projections thus become 
disengaged. Then the supporting arm 18 of the particular hinge is turned 
away from the carcase wall, which is easily possible on account of the 
selected cinematic relationship between the engaging surfaces 52' and 54' 
and the movement of the hinge, even if the door is still held on the 
cabinet by two or more other hinges. 
It is obvious that, within the scope of the invention, modifications and 
further developments of the described hinge and of the mounting base 
assembly of the hinge can be realized, which can relate to the way in 
which the bottom plate 36 is fastened to the carcase and to the manner in 
which the supporting arm 18 is adjustably mounted on the top plate 38. It 
is essential only that the mounting base assembly is composed of two 
plates which can be joined to one another or separated from one another, 
and that, in assembly and disassembly, they perform a movement which, due 
to the special formation of the elements holding them together, 
substantially coincides with the angular movement of the corresponding 
hinge.