A filing cabinet (or sometimes file cabinet in American English) is a piece of office furniture usually used to store paper documents in file folders. In the most simple context, it is an enclosure for drawers in which items are stored. The two most common forms of filing cabinets are vertical files and lateral files. A vertical file cabinet has drawers that extend from the short side (typically 15 inches) of the cabinet. A lateral file cabinet has drawers that extend from the long side (various. See more of Thin Frame Metal Filing Cabinets Locking Mechanism on Facebook. Log In. or. Create New Account. See more of Thin Frame Metal Filing Cabinets Locking Mechanism on Facebook. Log In. Forgot account?. Opening up a locked filing cabinet can become a great hurdle if you are running out of time. There are a number of methods that you can still use to open the locked cabinet; however, many of these methods involve techniques that can damage your filing cabinet. Generally, people use techniques such as drilling, prying and hitting the main body of the cabinet. Contrarily, many hire locksmiths to cut a new key for your cabinet or picking the lock for you. There are many filing cabinets that Locking Mechanism On Filing Cabinet only use simple wafer locks that can be opened with the help of a paperclip or a safety pin. Though, the co.

Effective date : Year of fee payment : 4. Year of fee payment : 8. Year of fee payment : Owner name : U. Interlocks for file cabinets that prevent more than one drawer from being opened at a given time include an elongated, flexible member, such as a cable, which is changeable from a high slack condition to a low slack condition filing cabinet locking mechanism game one of a number of associated drawers is opened.

In the low slack condition, the interlocks prevent their associated drawers that are closed from being opened. In the high slack condition, which exists when the drawers are closed, the interlocks allow their associated drawers to be opened.

The interlocks may be used in conjunction with a lock that selectively changes the cable from a high slack condition to a low slack condition and vice versa. The interlocks may be constructed to exert a force on the cable that is a small fraction of the pulling force exerted on a locked drawer.

This application claims priority to commonly assigned U. Provisional Application Ser. The present invention relates to filing cabinets, and more particularly to mechanisms adapted to prevent one filing cabinet locking mechanism game more of the drawers in the filing cabinet from being opened. It has been known in the past to filing cabinet locking mechanism game interlock mechanisms on filing cabinets that prevent more than one drawer in the cabinet from being opened at a single time.

These interlock mechanisms Filing Cabinet Locking Mechanism Without are generally provided as safety features that are intended to prevent the filing cabinet from accidentally falling over, a condition that may be more likely to occur when more than one drawer in the cabinet is open. By being able to open only a single drawer at a given time, the ability to change the weight distribution of the cabinet and its contents is reduced, thereby diminishing the likelihood that the cabinet will fall over.

In addition to such interlocks, past filing cabinets have also included locks that prevent any drawers from being opened when the lock is moved to a locking position. These locks are provided to address security issues, filing cabinet locking mechanism game than safety issues. These locks override the interlocking system so that if the lock is activated, no drawers may be opened at all.

If the lock is not activated, the interlock system functions to filing cabinet locking mechanism game more than one drawer from being opened at the same time. Oftentimes the system that locks all of the drawers and the interlock system that locks all but one of the drawers are at least partially combined. The combination of the locking system with the interlocking system can provide cost reductions by utilizing common parts.

Past locking and interlocking mechanisms, however, have suffered from a number of disadvantages. Filing cabinet locking mechanism game disadvantage is the difficulty of changing the drawer configurations within a cabinet. Many filing cabinets are designed to allow different numbers of drawers to be housed within the cabinet.

For example, in the cabinet depicted in FIG. For some cabinets, it would be possible filing cabinet locking mechanism game replace these three drawers with another number of drawers having the same total height as the three original drawers. This reconfiguration of the drawers is accomplished by removing the drawer slides on each side of the drawer and either repositioning the drawer slides at the newly desired heights, or installing new drawer slides at the new heights.

Many drawer slides include bayonet features that allow the drawer slides to be easily removed and repositioned within the cabinet. For example, U. The height of these rods must be chosen to match the vertical spacing between each of the drawers in the system. If the cabinet is to be reconfigured, then new rods will have to be installed that match the height of the new drawers being installed in the cabinet. Not only does this add additional cost to the process of reconfiguring the cabinet, it complicates the reconfiguring process by requiring new parts of precise dimensions to be ordered.

Another difficulty with systems like that disclosed in the Sawatzky patent is the precise manufacturing that may be required to create these rigid rods.

These interlock systems only work if the rods have heights that fall within a certain tolerance range. This tolerance range, however, decreases as more interlocks are installed in a given cabinet. In other words, the tolerance of the heights of these rods is additive. In order to function properly, a cabinet with filing cabinet locking mechanism game drawers will therefore require smaller tolerances in the rods than a two drawer cabinet.

In order to create rods that can be universally used on different cabinets, it filing cabinet locking mechanism game therefore necessary to manufacture the rods within the tight tolerances required by the cabinet having the greatest expected number of drawers. These tight tolerances tend to increase the cost of the manufacturing process.

Another difficulty with past interlock and lock systems for file cabinets has been the expense involved in creating a locking system that will withstand high forces exerted on the drawers.

Thus, if a file cabinet does not exceed this standard, thieves can gain access to the contents of a lock drawer by pulling the drawer outwardly with more than fifty pounds of force. Many users of file cabinets, however, desire their locking system to be able to withstand much greater forces than this before failure.

Increasing the durability of the locking system often adds undesired expense to the cost filing cabinet locking mechanism game building the system. A number of prior art interlock systems have used cables or straps as part of the interlocking system. Such systems, however, have suffered from other disadvantages. The slack in the cable is decreased when a drawer is opened.

The amount of slack of the cable is carefully chosen during the installation of the drawer lock so that there is just enough in the system to allow only one drawer to be opened at a time. The interlock on whatever drawer is opened takes up this available slack in the cable, which prevents other drawers from being opened at the same time. A similar system is disclosed in U. This system uses a strap instead of a cable. Both systems suffer from the fact that excessive amounts of force may be easily transferred to either the cable or the strap.

In other words, the cable or the strap itself are what resist the pulling force that a person might exert on a closed drawer when either the lock is activated, or another drawer is opened. The tensile strength of the cable or strap therefore determines how much force must be exerted to overcome the interlock or filing cabinet locking mechanism game. In fact, in the interlock of Westwinkel, the system appears to be constructed so that the pulling force exerted by a person on a locked drawer will be amplified before being applied to the strap.

The strap must therefore have a greater tensile strength than the highest rated pulling force that the lock or interlock system can resist. Increasing the strength of the cables or straps typically tends to increase their cost, which is desirably avoided. In light of the foregoing, the desirability of an interlock and lock system that overcomes these and other disadvantages can be seen.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an interlock and lock that reduces the aforementioned difficulties, as well as other difficulties. The interlock and lock of the present invention allow relatively low-tensile strength cables or flexible members to be used in systems which provide high resistance to theft and breakdown. The system of the present invention further allows changes to cabinet configurations to be easily implemented with little or no additional work required to integrate the new cabinet configuration into the interlock or lock system.

The present invention provides a simple construction for locks and interlocks that can be easily manufactured without excessively restrictive tolerances, and which can be easily installed in cabinets. According to one aspect of the present invention, an interlock for a cabinet drawer is provided.

The drawer is movable in the cabinet is a first filing cabinet locking mechanism game toward an open position and in a second, opposite direction toward a closed position. The interlock includes an elongated, flexible member, a rotatable lever, an engagement filing cabinet locking mechanism game, and a biasing member. The lever is adapted to alter the amount of slack in the elongated, flexible member.

The lever is rotatable between a first position and a second position. The first position creates a low amount of slack in the elongated, flexible member, and the filing cabinet locking mechanism game position allows a high amount of slack to be present in the elongated, flexible member. Filing cabinet locking mechanism game engagement member is attached to the drawer and positioned to cause the rotatable lever to rotate toward the first position when the drawer is initially moved from the closed position in the first direction.

The biasing member is positioned adjacent the lever and adapted exert a biasing force that tends to prevent the lever from rotating from the first position to the second position until the drawer is moved in the second direction to the closed position.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an interlock is provided. The interlock includes a cable, a rotatable lever, an engagement member, and a retainer. The lever is adapted to change the cable between high and low slack conditions. The engagement filing cabinet locking mechanism game is attached to the drawer and positioned to cause the lever to rotate to a first position that changes the cable to a low slack condition when the drawer is initially moved in the filing cabinet locking mechanism game direction from the closed position.

The engagement member is also positioned such that a first force exerted on the drawer in Filing Cabinet Locking Mechanism Zip the first direction is translated by the lever to a second force on the cable, which is less than the first force.

The retainer is adapted to retain the rotatable lever in the first position while the drawer is moved to the open position. According to still another aspect of filing cabinet locking mechanism game present invention, a locking and interlocking system for a cabinet is provided.

The system includes a lock, a filing cabinet locking mechanism game cable, a second cable, a first interlock, and a second interlock.

The first cable filing cabinet locking mechanism game between at least a first and second drawer. The first cable is changeable from a high slack to a low slack condition.

The second cable extends between the lock and the first drawer. The lock is adapted to change the second cable from a high slack to a low slack condition. The first interlock is in communication with the first and second cables and adapted to change both said first and said second cables from the high slack to the low slack condition whenever the first drawer is opened. The first interlock is further adapted to prevent the Filing Cabinet Locking Mechanism Android first drawer from opening whenever the first or second cables are in the low slack condition.

The second interlock is in communication with the first cable and adapted to change the first cable from the high slack to the low slack condition whenever the second drawer is opened. The second interlock is further adapted to prevent filing cabinet locking mechanism game second drawer from opening whenever the first cable is in the low slack condition.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a cabinet is provided that includes at least one drawer movable within the cabinet in a first direction toward an open position and in a second, opposite direction toward a closed position. The cabinet further includes a frame adapted to support the drawer, an elongated, flexible member, an interlock, and a slack take up mechanism. The elongated, flexible member is positioned within the cabinet and changeable between a lower slack condition and a higher slack condition.

The interlock is positioned within the frame and in operative engagement with the elongated, flexible member. The interlock is adapted to prevent the drawer from moving to the open position when the elongated, flexible member is in the lower slack condition and to allow the drawer to move to the open filing cabinet locking mechanism game when the elongated, flexible member is in the higher slack condition.

The slack take up filing cabinet locking mechanism game is adapted to change the elongated, flexible member from the higher slack condition to the lower slack condition when the drawer is moved from the closed position to the open position.

The slack take up mechanism is further adapted to translate a first force exerted on the drawer in the first direction to a second force exerted on the elongated, flexible member which is less than the first force.

According to still other aspects of the present invention, the interlock may be in communication with a lock that is adapted to selectively alter the condition of the cable. The interlocks may be secured to drawer slides that are removable from the cabinet. A cable guide may be included as part of the interlock to snap-fittingly receive the cable and retain it in engagement with the interlock. The filing cabinet locking mechanism game aspect of the present invention provides an interlock and lock system that is versatile, resistant to high forces, and easily installed.

These and other benefits of the present invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art in light of the following written description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The present invention will now be described with reference to the filing cabinet locking mechanism game drawings wherein the reference numerals in the following written description correspond to like numbered elements in filing cabinet locking mechanism game several drawings.

Learn how to install a HON file cabinet lock. Flash Furniture Ergonomic 3-Drawer Mobile Locking Filing Cabinet with Anti-Tilt Mechanism and Hanging Drawer for Legal & Letter Files Flash Furniture 3 out of 5 stars with 1 reviews. First, take the entire lockable drawer out of the filing cabinet. If the drawer is locked in position, you may need to unscrew the top of the cabinet to access the inside. Now, you should be able to locate the hexagonal nut that holds the old locking mechanism on place. This is usually found at the rear central position of the filing cabinet.

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