The invention is referred to a device to be applied to tables for professional and domestic uses in order to regulate the top height and inclination.

It is well known the problem of having a working top, the height of which can be regulated as well as its inclination, applied to tables intended for domestic purposes or used in offices and more generically to the ones used in laborato¬ ries; it is sometimes necessary, in order to satisfy the ergonomic exigencies of the user, to match the height regulation with the incl ination. Many attempts have been done to resolve such problem by making use of mechanical devices using extension rods equipped with a holdfast, or spacing rods with several holes in one of which a pin is being inserted, said pin blocking the rod up to a determinated height, or by using more complex oleopneumatic systems.

Said solutions present a great deal of inconveniences referable either to their mechanical conformation or to the manoeuvres necessary for the regulation itself and the inclination of the work top. Aim of the present invention is to carry out a regulating device of height and inclination of tables tops, which has simple mechanical conformation and is easy to use.

An additional aim is to obtain a regulating device which has no particular constraints relating to the height, which has a broad range of inclination of the tops and is fully compatible with the table dimensions.

An additional aim is to allow an inclina¬ tion manoeuvre and to determine the position of height and inclina¬ tion in an easy way for the user such that the use of considerable

forces is not required even in the case when said whole device is to be removed either from the working top or from the supporting frame.

An additional aim is to allow the use of service tops in relation with the tops tables such as trays holders, papers holders, telephone holders, which are regulated by the same principle and by the same elements used to obtain the tops regula¬ tion.

Last but not least in importance is the aim to obtain a device easy to be manufactured, reproducible on an industrial scale and standardized so that it can be used in a plurality of tables conformations and work tops, for the manu¬ facturing of which and the relative assembly, particular processes of specialized workspeople are not required. These and further aims are achieved by a regulating device of height and inclination for tables characterized by comprising in combination:

- a system of sliding rods each rod having two arms of which respectively the arm having a larger length is free to slide upright inside the supporting frame of the table in which it is housed and the arm having a lesser length is free to slide with a coulisse motion underneath the top of said table said two arms being hinged allow the top inclination and through the stroke within the frame they determine the height of said top as the two movements inclina- tion/regulation of height can be combined;

- a bush housed inside the top supporting frame where said rods slide upright each in a proper passing seat said seat being adjacent to a housing where a locking device of the rod stroke is placed;

- a locking device of the stroke of said rod in the frame, said device being inside said bush is equipped with movable means of engagement to the vertical arm of said rods said arm having means fit for allowing said locking and release of the stroke in a plurality of predetermined positions and having two terminal zones through which the means of engagement to the rod move from one

position to the other allowing a hooking action and an unhooking action.

The characteristics and the advantages will more clearly arise from the detailed description of a regula- ting device of height and inclination for tables according to the invention, in a preferred embodiment described in an exemplary but not limitative way in the attached drawings in which:

- Figure 1 shows in an axonometric exploded view the regulating rod combined with the bush in which it slides and with the locking device of the height of the rod;

- Figure 2 shows in axonometry the regulating rod;

- Figure 3 shows a view from above of the bush in which the rods slide;

- Figure 4 shows a section view of the bush according to the reference axis AA relating to figure 3;

- Figure 5 shows a view from above of the bush cap;

- Figure 6 shows the locking device according to figure 1. sectioned according to a plane parallel to the vertical axis;

- Figure 7 shows the locking device sectioned orthogonally according to the vertical axis;

- Figure 8 shows a possible use of the regulating device of the inclination for working tables;

- Figure 9 shows the possible movements of a top in a table according to the invention. In figure 2 the general reference number

1 is applied to the regulating rod in its wholeness; said rod is constituted by a first arm 2 having a circular section and by a second arm 4 also having a circular section, the terminal parts 11 and 12 of said arms 2 and 4 are linked to each other in a well-known way and carry out a hinge which allows them to pivot on a transver¬ sal axis according to 8a and 8b. The arm 2 has no predetermined length but it results proportional to the due stroke which it will have in order to regulate the height of the top of the table at the maximum measure of height required; said arm 2 having a first smooth

portion at the lowest terminal part 10, approximately equal to one quarter, a second central portion equal to two quarters having a plurality of annular slots referred to with the series of numbers from 2a to 2f, in a number corresponding to the notches determining the positions of regulation of the top height, said central portion having at the connection point with the smooth portion a first narrowing 3 of the section according to an annular surface having as generatrix an arc of circumference and at the opposite terminal part a second narrowing 5 of the section nearly equal to said first narrowing, which decreases towards the head 11a.

The first arm 2 is housed in each vertical element of the front of a frame 50 of a table 44 whereas the second arm 4 slides with a coulisse motion under the lower face of the top of said table 44. Said housing in the supporting frame to the table takes place as each vertical rod pass through a hole of a corresponding measure in a bush 30 which is housed in the upper terminal part 56 of said vertical element 55 of said frame 50 and fastened to it with a well-known retaining mean not showed in the drawing.

In the example of embodiment showed, it has been considered a table having a supporting frame fit for allowing the adjacent tops to be doubled or triplicated, such doubling or triplication takes place by using a couple of rods passing through the same bush for each front of the frame, each of said bushes presenting three passing holes 13, 14, 15 the diameters of which are determined in function of the regulating rods which have to slide inside them; adjacent to said holes, back placed and equidistant from their centre two cylindrical hollows respectively 17 and 18 are present, of which the first hollow 17 is related to the holes 13 and 14 and the second hollow 18 is related to the holes 14 and 15. The two cylindrical hollows 17 and 18 constitute respectively the housing of a locking device 40 of the vertical rods and present each a couple of connecting channels 51, 52 referred to

the passing holes 13, 14 and a couple of connecting channels 53 and 54 referred to the passing holes 14, 15. The locking device 40 carried out in a material having a high mechanical resistance, which can be housed in any or both hollows 17 and 18 having the same shape, is constituted by the small cylinder 31 presenting a hollow seat 32 carried out inside it by making a blind hole coaxial to it and taking away a portion of the lateral surface for a lenght of its directrix just lesser to the total height.

Perpendicular to the axis of the small cylinder 31, at middle height and in the adjacent area where the seat 32 has been carried out, a passing hole 33 is present; in the hollow seat 32 is housed a shaped element 34 which has the aim to act in combination with the slots 2a/2f present on the vertical rod to carry out a hooking motion, said element being obtained from a plate presenting a circular crown portion 35 on which, in an intermediate position, a channel 36 is being carried out, said channel being fit for housing the extremity 37 of a helical spring 38 and the almost trapezoidal shaped remaining portion, the terminal of which comes out from the shape of the small cylinder and it is fit for pivoting within the channels 51, 52, 53, 54. The shaped element 34 is locked inside the small cylinder 31 and is allowed to pivot through a pin inserted in the passing hole 33, said pin locking at the same time the winding of the helical spring 38.

The bottom 41 of the small cylinder 31 milled according to the diameter of the passing hole 33 presents two cylindrical faces 42a and 42b in the upper extremities of which the channels 43a and 43b are being carried out where the opened extremities 39a and 39b of the helical spring are housed.

With the locking device inserted in an proper hollow in the vertical element of the frame, as showed in figure 8, a cap 20 is supposed to be placed on the bush 30 having the shape and dimensions equal to the transversal section of said bush, being excluded the angle adjacent to the hole 29 carried out to allow the passing of a screw, which is jointed with a bigger

radius obtaining in such a way the supporting protusion 27 on the external face of the frame, said cap being clamped by the screw, fastens the bush 30 to the frame.

In figure 8 two regulating rods 45 and 46 are shown of which respectively a first rod 45, passing through the hole 13, is being used to regulate the height and the inclination of a first top 60 of a table and a second rod 46, passing through the hole 15, is used to place side by side to the first top 60 a second top, not showed in the drawing, which uses the same front 55 of the frame 50. In the third passing hole 14 a third rod can be inserted said rod being the support to a further work top, or for holding service tops, trays, supports for videos and all which must be placed necessarily in the proximity of the work top; in any case the principle which regulates the working of the regulating device is to be the same.

In order to describe the working of the device applied to the frame of the table, a single rod is to be considered due to. practical descriptive exigencies, whereas the described movements take place at the same time at least for a couple of adjacent rods; the upper arm 4 of the rod, meant to a hinge rotation, slides with a coulisse motion in a seat connected to the top, whereas the vertical arm 2 of said rod is inserted through the hole 23 of the cap 20 being able to slide inside the passing hole 13 of the bush 30; during the sliding manoeuvre downwards the vertical arm 2 meets the side 47 of the shaped element 34 and pushes it towards the bottom loading the helical spring 38, said side 47 results to be in a vertical position parallel to the lateral surface of the arm of the rod; by keeping its stroke downwards said rod will come to an end of the stroke point and the narrowing 3, where the release of the spring 38 will take place, will replace the side 47 of the shaped element 34 in a horizontal position; at this point an inverse manoeuvre of the rod will be necessary, said rod with its moving up will cause a rotation of the element 34 so that the side 49 will result parallel to the lateral surface of the arm in

opposite position to the one taken while descending the rod, re¬ loading the spring; during the continuation of its stroke the terminal part 48 of the element 34 will meet depending on the wanted position, any of the annular slots 2a/2f, being constrained by the loaded spring to engage itself in said slot with a hooking motion. It is evident that the hooking position so carried out does not allow the rod to slide downwards again as the element 34 cannot turn over by rotation; it will be thus necessary, in order to release the hooking position and assume a new position, to make the inverse manoeuvre so that the element 34 can release itself again in the narrowing 3 below, and thus turn over in the upper narrowing 5.

Consequently in a table 44, the combined movements of height regulation of a couple of vertical arms 22a and 22b of a couple of rods with the inclination of a couple of horizontal coulisse arms 21a and 21b through the hinge points 16a and 16b will allow all the consequent advantages in the pivoting regulations x, xl , y, yl . z, zl of the top 60 within the position of the height regulation from P to P1 for each utilization and/or ergonomic exigency. The invention so conceived is susceptible of various modifications and variations all belonging to the same inventive concept. Furthermore all the details can be substituted with technically equivalent elements.