Latch for chest of sliding drawers - uses recoil spring plunger with tab bolts securing remaining doors closed when one is open

摘要

The latch mechanism is used on a chest of stacked horizontally slidable drawers, and automatically ensures that all other drawers are secured in the closed position when one drawer is open. A vertically slidable bar (4) has cut and folded tab bolts (5) which individually engage and secure each drawer in the closed position. They are depressed to authorise the opening of a drawer, and are constrained to return by the coil spring (13) to a toothed wheel (22). Small winged 'U' section plates may each have a rectangular window which constitutes a staple for a tab-bolt (5), which is fixed on the side of a drawer. An upwardly inclined slot leads from the bottom inner corner of each window to the end of the plate to provide the escape track for a tab-bolt when the bar is depressed.