A wooden door or panel element for indoor use.
This invention relates to wooden doors and panel elements for indoor use and primarily though not ex¬ clusively to ordinary lightweight doors. Conventinal lightweight.doors are produced as smooth door elements comprising an interior frame element serving as-,a support and spacer means for outer, relatively thin cover plates normally provided with a veneer surface layer, the inter¬ nal cavities of the door being filled with a suitable lightweight material of a certain rigidity throughout the thickness of the door, e.g. a honey comb structure.
Generally this conventional door type has replaced the oldfashioned filling type of door comprising a frame structure of full door thickness serving as a carrier framework of thin filling plate elements mounted in the openings of the framework. This type of door was not suit¬ able for modern mass production at low costs, but it now seems to be a modern tendency that many users are prepared to pay the higher price for a door having the appearance of the old-fashioned filling door, and methods have even been developed for converting a smooth door into a door having the said "filling appearance", these methods in¬ volving the steps of cutting large rectangular holes in the smooth door and remounting the cutout portions in staggered relationship with the surface planes of the door
whereby these portions imitate filling elements. With use of suitable edge cleats for framing and holding the fill¬ ing element portions the appearance of the door comes very close to that of the old filling doors, but of course the total door price will be relatively high when it should comprise both the price of the original smooth door and the costs of the said conversion work.
The present invention is based on the idea that a door or another corresponding panel element may be produced according to entirely different principles so as 0 'to show the appearance of a filling door type without being a conversion of any originally smooth door and yet so as to be produceable in an easy manner based on modern production technology. Thus, it is the purpose of the invention to provide a door or panel element which is -5 not just an imitation 'of a filling door type, but is a unique door type appearing as a filling door but being very simple to manufacture.
According to the invention there is provided a door or panel element comprising a single central plate member 0 generally showing the height and width dimensions of the door or panel element and a framework structure mounted flat against the central plate member on both sides thereof, the framework on either side comprising an outer frame structure generally following the contour of the 5 central plate member and - preferably - one or more framework portions extending across the central plate member spaced from the said contour framework pieces, the various pieces or elements of the framework strucure being secured to the respective surface portions of the 0 central plate element in any suitable manner, e.g. by glueing.
Thus, a door or panel element according to the invention is characterized by having the appearance of a filling door because what is visible from the outside is 5 the framework structure and - in the openings thereof - the surface of the central plate member, while the door
is different from the old-fashioned type in that the filling plate elements or portions are not separate portions fitted in the openings of the framework, but are surface portions of a unitary plate member used for holding the framework against invisible portions thereof. A door or panel element of this construction is very well suited for modern principles of production, and it is produceable at reduced costs even compared with conventional smooth doors, a.o. because the central plate member may have a remarkably small thickness.
While for ordinary doors between adjacent building rooms it is considered necessary to arrange for the said outer framework to be present on both sides of the door it will be possible, in connection with light doors or panels for cabinets or the like to arrange for the frame¬ work to be present on one side only of the "central" plate element. It will be appreciated that this plate element serves the primary purpose of constituting an overall partition, while the framework structures serve to add strenght to the combined structure.
In the following an embodiment of the invention is described in more detail with reference to the accompany¬ ing drawing, in which:-
Fig. 1 is a perspective exploded view of a door element according to the- invention,
Fig. 2 is a sectional end view thereof, Fig. 3 is a plan view thereof, and
Fig. 4 is a detailed perspective view of a corner portion of a door of a slightly modified design. In Figs. 1-3 is shown a door element comprising a central plate member 2 made e.g. of veneered chipboard material and being provided with edge border cleats 4 of the same thickness as the plate member 2. To either side of this central element is secured, by:, cold glueing or otherwise, a frame structure 6 made of flat boards,. e.g. solid pine boards 8, forming a circumferential frame and
an inner framework, shown as a cross frame structure 10 comprising one vertical and one horizontal frame portion, without the invention being limited to any particular pattern of the inner framework; thus, it may be chosen to arrange for two or three horizontal frame portions and no vertical portion.
The frame boards 8 and 10 may be joined in any suit¬ able manner, with or without direct interconnection. In Fig. 1 the joints are shown to be of a simple end-to- side-type, but even mitre joints may be used, as shown in the corners of Fig. 3. It will be understood that the door is not primarily an imitation of an old-fashioned filling door dype, but is in fact a type of its own, showing, the same aestethic qualities as the filling doors, but much easier to manufacture. A real imitation, however, is easily produced by framing the "filling" portions with frame members secured along the respective edge portions of the framework boards, as shown by a frame cleat 12 on the rear side of the door corner portion shown in Fig. 4. On the front side of this portion it is examplified at 14 that the frame boards may be profiled in any desired manner, whereby in end-to-side joints the respective end faces should preferably be profiled in a corresponding manner for providing a closed joint. As shown in Fig. 4 the door edge may be provided with a cover veneer 16, whereby it may be unnecessary to make use of edge cleats 4. Besides, these cleats themselves may be replaced by a veneer layer.
For an ordinary leightweight door a conventional thickness is some 30-35 mm, and with the invention it is possible to use for the plate member 2 a chipboard material only some 10 mm thick. This is fully sufficient to stabilize the door in its own plane, and the framework stabilizes it in the cross direction, even without being rigidly joined at the corners.
For a cupboard door it may be sufficient to use a
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base plate element e.g. of a 4 mm plywood.which is monolaterally provided with a circumferential frame structure on its front side. However, the main aspect of the invention is the described simple design of an ordinary full size door type and the associated simple manner of producing such a door.
It is an important aspect of the invention that the door can easily be made as a so-called fire door, viz. by selecting a suitable asbestos or similar material for the central plate member 2. Such a filling type door being at the same time a fire door seems to be an entirely new product. If in a given production the machinery is adjusted to handle a veneered 10 mm chipboard plate 2, then it will be practical to use an asbestos plate member of the same total thickness, 12 mm.