You might not realize it, but drawer slides are all around us. They are in the various drawers we use everyday, and help keep our belongings safe and secure in storage. There are hundreds of different uses for drawer slides depending on their specific application.
Let’s look at some of the different ways drawer slides are used and how they can continue to be valuable for various applications.
1. Dressers
Most people associate drawer slides with the drawers in dressers. This may be because you are likely to use and see the drawers in your dresser more often than other places. These horizontal drawer slides feature either ball-bearing designs or roller designs. The latter type offer lower load bearing capabilities, but they are still popular for home use.
The drawers in dressers often feature partial extension slides, meaning that they cannot extend completely. This design may seem strange at first, but it actually helps with saving space.
2. Kitchen Drawers
No kitchen is complete without drawers. After all, drawers allow you to store important kitchen tools for quick access. These drawers are typically built into cabinet interiors, and help with keeping items organized.
It’s not uncommon for people to reserve each drawer box for different kinds of kitchen items. For example, one drawer is usually reserved for cutlery, while another drawer may be reserved for specialized kitchen tools or knives.
The drawer slides in kitchen drawers should be easy to open and close. However, they should also offer enough resistance to ensure the drawer box remains in its closed position when needed.
These side mounted drawers aren’t expected to bear heavy loads, so they can be of the ball-bearing variety or even the roller variety.
3. Study Desk Drawers
Most types of desks feature drawers of some kind. These could be large heavy drawers meant for holding folders and thick sets of documents. However, some of the drawers on a desk in a study can also be incredibly lightweight.
For example, pencil drawers are an especially shallow type of drawer that often utilize a single center-mounted drawer slide. This slide type helps keep the drawer lightweight yet stable for easy opening and closing action.
4. Drawers in Retail
Many retail outlets use drawer slides in a variety of ways. These could be drawer slides for the drawers of a cash register, or the specialized drawers on a product display. The drawer slides in jewelry and watch displays are especially important as they are expected to provide smooth opening and closing action to prevent their contents from shaking or being displaced.
An unsuitable or poorly fitted drawer slide could ruin the arrangement of the products on display, causing staff to readjust them constantly.
5. Drawers for Storing Medicine
Drawer slides are also vital for drawers used to store medicines in hospitals and other medical facilities. These drawers typically utilize a special kind of drawer slide known as a telescopic slide. These slides extend outwards from their closed position similar to how a telescope extends. Such slides are ideal for drawers where space is limited.
Some drawers in the medical industry also feature two-way sliding designs in which the drawer can be pulled out in either direction. This design is great for carts containing medicines that need to be accessed from both directions due to limited space.
6. Drawers in Laboratories
Telescopic drawer slides are also essential in laboratory settings. These are typically used in laboratory transfer module drawers that need to extend outwards easily to avoid contamination. Such slides also feature two-way sliding designs for when the drawer extends between two adjacent rooms and needs to be accessed from either one.
7. Medical Beds
Another commonly overlooked application of drawer slides is in medical beds. The modern medical bed is designed to feature a variety of adjustment options for their backrests and armrests. These components typically slide along a rail or drawer slide when they are in motion.
The rails used for these tend to be heavy duty, as they must support the weight of the bed’s components as well as the patients resting on them. They also include stop locks to stop the components from moving when they do not need to.
8. Drawer Slides in Emergency Vehicles
Emergency vehicles such as police cars and ambulances also utilize a variety of drawer slides in their components. Such drawer slides allow important tools or paperwork to be stored and accessed easily in time critical situations. These drawer slides must also be able to resist vibrations without shaking up the drawer’s contents.
Some of the drawer slides in emergency vehicles are expected to open and close drawers in tilted or vertical positions. Such drawers are usually closed and secured in place using a locking mechanism which can be released using a handle or a button.
Where to Find High Quality Drawer Slides
The drawer slide applications mentioned above are just a few of the many places drawer slides are used. There are many other industrial applications for drawer slides, such as industrial storage, electrical enclosures, and mobile equipment. The truth is that wherever there are sliding parts, there is likely a need for a drawer slide or a rail.
If you intend to create an object with a drawer, it is essential to use the right drawer type. We discussed the different types of drawer slides in an earlier blog. If you would like to purchase reliable high-quality drawer slides for an upcoming project, please visit Hinge Outlet.
We offer a wide range of drawer slides for different applications and can help you find the right one for your needs. Our experts can help guide you in the selection process and ensure you are matched with the perfect drawer slide for your project. Please get in touch with us to learn more about our selection of drawer slide products.