FR2619494A1 - Furniture parts that can be assembled and demountable furniture using such parts - Google Patents

Abstract

Furniture parts that can be assembled, each comprising infill units 3, 4 connected by metal sections 6. A furniture part comprises at least one infill unit 3 provided on its edge with a longitudinal notch having at least a central part with an internal shape matching the first half of a metal section 6 forming a bar to prevent flexing. A notch matching the second half of the metal section is formed in a second infill unit 4, the section being housed in the first and the second infill units and held either with adhesive or by inserts 11 forming connecting units crossing the section and engaging into holes formed in the units.

Description

ME3ao PARTS ASSEYBLABLE BETWEEN THEM AND
REMOVABLE FURNITURE USING SUCH PARTS
The present invention relates to pieces of furniture which can be assembled together, each comprising filling elements, in particular of wood, connected by metal profiles.

 The development of living spaces has developed in recent years towards the use of modular furniture allowing them to easily modify their layout and provide space savings by easy adaptation to the geography of the room to be fitted out. The use of wood in assemblable furniture has always been successful both for aesthetic reasons and for solidity reasons. Problems are linked, however, to the use of wooden parts, in particular through the use of locking accessories such as dowels or screws.

Another problem resulting from such an assembly is constituted by a deformation of the parts during a long-term installation, implying difficulties of disassembly and reassembly in a different position.

 The devices currently existing in the field of removable furniture use metal reinforcements such as profiles, placed outside the elements and ensuring stiffening. of each piece, at the expense of aesthetics, however. In addition, the current use of stiffening bars requires installation by screws involving preparation work before final installation.

 The present invention aims to produce pieces of furniture which can be assembled together comprising metal profiles cooperating with the filling parts of these pieces without it being useful to carry out preparatory work on these pieces. The present invention provides an assembly ensuring increased stiffening of the various elements which can be easily disassembled and reassembled in a different position without having undergone deformation. In addition, the particular shape of the different parts ensures easy assembly of the furniture by assembling the parts together.

 The present invention therefore relates to pieces of furniture which can be assembled together, each comprising filling elements connected by metal sections, characterized in that a part comprises at least one first filling element provided on its edge with a longitudinal notch, having at least one central part of inner shape complementary to a first half of a metal profile forming an antiflexion bar, a notch complementary to the second half of said profile being produced in a second filling element, said profile being embedded in said first and said second filling element.

 According to a first manufacturing method, the profile embedded in said notches is held by gluing in said filling elements.

 According to a second manufacturing method, the profile is held by inserts constituting connecting elements passing through the profile and engaging in holes made in said filling elements.

 According to this first mode or this second taken separately or in combination, the longitudinal notch further comprises at least one lateral part providing, when two filling elements enclose the profile, a lateral access gap to said profile.

 Advantageously, the metal profile is hollow and includes slots for receiving hooking means produced so as to be arranged in the axis of the gap, between two elements enclosing said profile.

 The present invention also includes the removable piece of furniture comprising an assembly of parts that can be assembled together, said piece of furniture being characterized in that the pieces of furniture making vertical uprights such as.

previously described, cooperate via said attachment means with shelf parts, so that said shelves are arranged orthogonally to said upright pieces.

 According to a first embodiment, the shelf parts of the cabinet comprise profiles forming anti-bending bars embedded by gluing in the same way as the profiles of the upright pieces.

 Advantageously, the hooking means consist of a hook, provided with a slot, produced in an overflow of said section projecting at each end from the filling elements of the shelf part.

 According to a second embodiment of the shelf pieces, the hooking means consist of a metal piece comprising at least one extension at a first end, cooperating with the windows of the profiles enclosed in the upright pieces, so as to be there block by pressing on said profile, and a washer disposed at a second end perpendicular to said extension.

 Advantageously according to this type of embodiment, the piece of furniture has recesses on a lower face in which engages the second end of the metal piece provided with the washer, so as to eliminate any movement of the piece of furniture shelf in position on the uprights.

An embodiment will now be described in more detail which will make it better understand the essential characteristics and the advantages, it being understood however that this embodiment is chosen by way of example and that it is in no way limiting. Its description is illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which
- Figure 1 shows a piece of furniture according to the present invention providing an amount
- Figure 2 is a view along section A / A showing a vertical upright
- Figure 3 shows an exploded view of a profile embedded in two filling parts
- Figure It represents a piece of furniture used as a shelf according to a first embodiment
- Figure 5 shows a hooking device extending beyond the filling elements
- Figure 6 shows a sectional view of the cooperation between said hooking device of a shelf and the profiles of the uprights having connecting inserts
- Figure 7 shows a front view of a piece of furniture assembled and placed against a wall
- Figure 8 shows a second method of hanging a shelf on upright parts from above
- Figure 9 shows a side view of this second method of hanging the shelves
- Figure 10 shows a device for fixing a cornice on a filling element
- Figure 11 shows a drawer hooking device on upright parts
FIG. 1 illustrates the constitution according to the present invention of a part-upright 1 of a piece of furniture shown in FIG. 7 in assembled form, and arranged against a partition 2. Various storage elements such as shelves 10, drawers 31, cupboards 30 are supported by these parts 1 constituting the uprights of the furniture. The upright piece 1 of furniture is placed perpendicularly against the partition 2 made in the form of a removable panel commonly used in the arrangement of room separation in the form of panels which can be built into each other. constitution will be discussed below, is blocked in its adjoining position against the partition by means of jacks 39 placed at the lower and upper ends of the piece-amount of furniture. The construction of these jacks will be of the type usually used in blocking a partition at ground and ceiling level. In order to ensure correct positioning of the upright, a first load-distributing pad 40 and a second pad 41 are placed between the actuator and the ceiling, limiting phonic and thermal variations by an anti-vibration action and limiting expansion. once the uprights are positioned, we will place according to an assembly described below on the lower part of the cabinet, plinths 42 and on the upper part a ledge 43 intended to hide the jacks after their blocking position.

 Figure 2 shows the constitution of the piece of furniture amount by a cross section. These amounts consist of three filling elements 3,4,5. These filling elements are made of a material that is both robust and aesthetic such as, without limitation, solid wood, plywood, pieces of chipboard or composite wood, or any other material meeting these two criteria. On the longitudinal edge of the filling element 3, a notch is formed comprising a central part in which a metal section 6 engages ensuring the functions of anti-bending bar. The second element 4 also has on its edge a longitudinal notch cooperating with the external shape of the same metal section 6, so as to come to marry the external shape of the latter.

In the same way on the edge of the other lateral face of the element 4, an identical notch is formed in which a second profile 7 is fitted which also cooperates with a notch produced in the adjacent element 5.

 In the various filling elements constituting the pieces of furniture uprights, the notch produced in the section comprises a central part previously mentioned, in which the profile, producing an anti-bending bar, is fitted, as well as a part lateral. This notch side part, produced in a filling element, is associated with another symmetrical notch side part on the adjacent element so as to create a gap a allowing access from the outside to the profile embedded in the center of the room going up when all the elements are embedded.

 Figure 3 shows a view of an upright in which we see the profiles 6,7 embedded in the parts 3,4 and 5 and the gap a allowing access to the profile. The profiles 6 and 7 are produced in the form of a hollow duct, of square cross section comprising on one of its faces windows 8 produced so that they are in coincidence with the alignment with the opening gap a when the profile is inserted between two filling elements. The windows 8 are formed regularly at different levels of the profile to ensure the attachment of the different pieces of the furniture such as shelves connecting the uprights together. The systems of cooperation and fixing of these pieces of furniture will be explained later. At the level of the upper part of the uprights, the central cavity of the profile makes it possible to fit, by the free opening, the blocking jacks previously mentioned.

Of course, in accordance with the present invention, equivalent embodiments can be adapted without departing from the scope of the invention, in particular in the shape of the profile which can be designed in different ways, of triangular, round, rectangular section. The shape of the notches made in the sections of the elements is then modified accordingly to adopt a shape complementary to the surface.
the profile and completely embed the profile in the mass of the wood.

 Equivalently, without also departing from the invention, it can be considered that the notches made on the edges of the elements may not be produced symmetrically on the two filling elements at the level of the perpendicular bisector of the profile, but offset laterally by relative to the center of the profile. In this case, a first notch made in an element will be deep and will cooperate during fitting with a first part of the outer surface of the profile. The notch of the adjacent element will then be shallower and will cooperate with the complementary part of the profile so as to achieve complete integration of the profile into the mass of the piece of furniture.

 It will also be easily understood that in the case of an upright placed in the center of the cabinet and supporting on each side of the shelves, the notch made on the edge of the element symmetrically has at its central part two lateral parts allowing two interstices to be produced on each face of this upright, these interstices allowing hooking of the shelves on each side of this upright.

 With regard to the embodiments of the uprights, the arrangement between the filling elements and the profiles is obtained by embedding the profiles in the notches to which a permanent connection action is added in a preferred embodiment.

 A first embodiment of this connection is obtained by an adhesive disposed between the profile and the notches of the filling elements. The glue must be adapted to allow a solid bond between the metal and the components of the elements, in particular wood. Such glues are currently available on the market, in particular the glue called "araldite".

 According to a second embodiment of permanent connection between the profile and the filling elements, inserts constituting connection elements are used.

Figure 6 shows such a type of assembly in which an insert 11 is constituted by a cross member made of solid material such as, for example, steel, wood or hard plastic.

 This insert 11 is engaged in the profile 6 and protrudes on either side to sink at each end into a hole made at the bottom of the central part of the notch.

 The manufacture of the element in this case is simple: the filling element 3 is placed horizontally on its edge, the inserts 11 are engaged in the holes made in this edge and then the profile 6 is introduced into the notch passing the insert 11 through orifices, then finally the upper filling element 4 is fitted into the profile, checking that the other end of the insert engages in the holes of said element. The surface of the inserts is worked so as to facilitate entry into the holes and prevent any movement of withdrawal.

 This first mode and this second embodiment of the permanent connection between the profile and the filling elements may be used separately for the manufacture of the parts or possibly jointly by a joint action of the glue and the inserts.

 In the case of the manufacture of pieces of furniture used for assemblies subjected to little pressure and weight, one could consider eliminating this permanent connection action, the embedding of the profile ensures sufficient blocking if the assembly does not support high weights.

 Figure 4 illustrates the realization of the horizontal partitions of the furniture, of the type of a shelf. According to a first embodiment of the shelves, a shelf part 10 is produced in the form of three filling elements 13, 14, 15 cooperating by their edge provided with notches, as previously mentioned, with two anti-bending bars 17. In in the case of this shelving embodiment, the bars 17 are completely embedded in the mass without any gap for access to these bars from the outside. The notch on the edge of the element therefore comprises only a central part corresponding to the half-shape of the periphery of the profile. This profile is produced in the form of a rod of circular section.

In this embodiment of the shelf, the profiles, anti-bending bars 17 have overflows at each end of the elements 13,14,15. These overflows, visible in FIG. 5, have a recess 19 so as to produce a device for hooking these shelf parts 10 to the profiles of the upright pieces 1.

 The cooperation of these two parts is visible in FIG. 6. The piece of furniture 10 serving as a shelf internally comprises the rod 17 which projects at each end so as to produce a hook 18 through the recess 19. The projection of the anti-bending bar 17 is of a length such that it coincides with the depth of the opening a gap allowing access to the profile 6 of the upright. The attachment means is simple: the hook 18 is engaged in the gap a to the profile, it passes through the window 8 and comes into the locking position when the recess 19 rests on the lower part of the window 8.

 By the use of these anti-bending bars embedded inside the shelves, one can validly use a format which until now was difficult to conceive, in particular for widths exceeding 1.50 m, the shelves currently used being deformed under the weight and can be difficult to re-use.

 The realization of these shelving pieces 10 is made in the same way as the uprights 1, that is to say by gluing and embedding of the profiles 17 inside the notches made in the edges of the different elements of filling.

 A second means of attachment of the horizontal elements of the shelf type is presented in FIGS. 8 and 9. The profile 27 of a part-upright is integrated vewtically in two wooden parts as previously mentioned.

The notches shown in FIG. 8 have two lateral parts so as to allow hooking on each side of the upright. In this type of embodiment, a hook 20 is positioned in the profile 27, before the installation of the shelf. This hook 20 has an extension 24 which is inserted in the gap a, passes through the window and comes to bear against the internal part of the profile. In order to compensate for the force which is applied to this extension 24, the part also comprises a lower protuberance 25 which provides support for the hook on the external surface of the profile. Opposite the bearing end of the two parts 24, 25 of this hook, there is a washer 26, welded to the lower edge of the hook so as to produce a horizontal bearing surface.

Cooperating with this hook 20, a piece of furniture 21 of the shelf type has on its lower surface in the support position, a recess in the wood so as to make a passage, on the one hand from the central part of the hook 20 and d 'other part of the washer 26 so that when the central portion 20 and the washer 26 are embedded in this recess, the flat surface of the washer 26 does not protrude below the shelf 21. Such a type of he recess in the wood allows positioning of the shelf canceling any possibility of travel, both from front to back and laterally.

 FIG. 10 shows the upper part of an upright piece 1 in the blocking position against a ceiling 45. In the hollow opening of the metal profile 6, a jack 39 is fitted, which performs the blocking and height adjustment function uprights against the partition on the one hand, and between the floor and the ceiling on the other. Between the jack 39 and the ceiling 45, a first shoe 40 is placed ensuring the distribution of the load forces of the whole piece of furniture against the ceiling and a second shoe 41 aimed at limiting the vibrations and expansions of the whole. On the end of the edge of the two pads slightly recessed internally with respect to the opening face of the piece of furniture, a false cornice 46 is positioned by gluing which, by tightening the jacks, perfectly matches the profile of the ceiling 45.

 Then the cornice 43 previously mentioned is joined against the opening face of the cabinet and is fixed to the front filling element 5 by means of a fixing lug 44 inserted vertically in the filling element and supporting the cornice 43 horizontally. The use of the cornice 43 and of the false cornice 46 makes it possible to overcome the problems associated with the deformed piafonds while ensuring that the upper part of the cabinet is positioned correctly.

 Figure 11 shows the integration of a drawer 52 in the entire cabinet. For its fixing, drawer slides 51 are used in which a metal attachment piece 50 is integrated and glued. This metal piece projects laterally from the slides to be fitted by its curved end into a window 38 of a profile 37 integrated in the uprights. The assembly is simple: these slides are placed at the same height level, on two upright pieces facing each other by means of the metallic pieces fitting into the lights. It then only remains to slide the drawer 52 into the slides 51.

 Referring again to Figure 7, we see that such a type of removable furniture arrangement is achieved by four uprights l, 1 ', ifl, 1 "', joined against the wall 2 and blocked by cylinders, not shown, at ground level and at ceiling level The two uprights located at the two lateral ends of the cabinet have access gaps to the profile only on one of their sides while the two central uprights have openings on the two lateral sides. After positioning and locking these four uprights, the shelves 10 are placed with hooking means according to the two variants described above. Then using known means, in furniture installations Assemblable, doors, drawers or frames can be easily inserted on the open part of the cabinet in cooperation with the uprights and shelf parts of the present invention.

At the end of assembly, plinths 42 will be placed in front of the cabinet as well as cornices 113.

 By the present invention therefore furniture is produced comprising parts which can be easily assembled together and which benefit from rapid assembly without any use of screws or nails for fixing the shelves to the uprights. The integration of antiflexion bars inside each part ensures a stiffening of the assembly providing increased solidity and allowing easy disassembly, without involving deformations which would hinder re-use of this part in a different position. Of course it will easily be understood that if one wishes to increase the depth of the piece of furniture, other anti-bending bars will be integrated between the two shelf support profiles according to the same principles mentioned above. The invention also realizes a solid and easily removable assembly, integrates all the secondary furniture elements such as drawers, doors and cornices in a simple and robust assembly.

 Naturally, the invention is in no way limited by the features which have been specified in the foregoing or by the details of the particular embodiment chosen to illustrate the invention. All kinds of variants can be made to the pafticular embodiment which has been described by way of example and to its coasting elements without departing from the scope of the invention. The latter thus includes all the means constituting technical equivalents of the means described as well as their combinations.

Claims (13)

REVNDICATI9NS  1. Furniture parts which can be assembled together, each comprising filling elements (3,4,5 13,14,15) connected by metal profiles (6,7 16,17), characterized in that a part comprises at at least a first filling element (3,4; 13,14) provided on its edge with a longitudinal notch, having at least one central part of internal shape complementary to a first half of a metal profile (6,7; 16 , 17) forming an anti-bending bar, a notch complementary to the second half of said profile being produced in a second filling element (4,5; 14,15), said profile being embedded in said first and said second filling element .  2. Furniture parts according to claim 1, characterized in that said profile (6,7; 16,17) embedded in said notches is held by gluing in said filling elements.  3. Furniture parts according to claim 1, characterized in that said profile (6,7; 16,17) is held by inserts (11) constituting connecting elements passing through the profile and engaging in holes made in said filling elements.  4. Furniture parts according to claims 2 and / or 3, characterized in that the longitudinal notch further comprises at least one lateral part providing, when two filling elements enclose the profile, a lateral access gap to said streamlined.  5. Furniture parts according to claim 4, characterized in that the metal profile (6,7) is hollow and comprises receiving lights (8) of hooking means (18,20) produced so as to be arranged in the axis of the gap, between two elements enclosing said profile.  6. Furniture pieces according to claim 5, characterized in that each end of the profile (6,7) enclosed in the elements (3,4,5) has an opening in which is embedded cylinders (39) vertical blocking of the piece of furniture (1).  7. Removable piece of furniture comprising an assembly of pieces of piece of furniture which can be assembled together, characterized in that pieces of piece of furniture (1) making vertical uprights according to claim 4, cooperate by means of said hooking means (18,20) with shelf parts (10,21), so that said shelves are arranged orthogonally to said uprights.  8. Removable piece of furniture according to claim 7, characterized in that the piece of furniture shelves (10) have profiles (16,17) forming antiflexion bars embedded by gluing in the same way as the profiles (6,7) of uprights (1).  9. removable furniture according to claim 8, characterized in that the hooking means consist of a hook (18), provided with a slot (19), produced in an overflow of said profile projecting at each end of the filling elements of the shelf piece.  10. Removable furniture according to claim 8, characterized in that the attachment means consist of a metal part (20) having at least one extension (24.25) at a first end, cooperating with the windows of the profiles ( 8) enclosed in the uprights (1), so as to be blocked therein by pressing on said profile, and a washer (26) disposed at a second end perpendicular to said extension.  11. Removable piece of furniture according to claim 10, characterized in that said piece of furniture shelf has recesses on a lower face in which engages the second end of the metal piece that (20) provided with the washer, so as to remove any movement of the piece of furniture shelf in position on the pieces-uprights.  12. Removable furniture according to any one of claims 7 to 11, characterized in that a cornice (43) is fixed to the upper part of the opening face of the furniture by means of a fixing lug (44 ) inserted into an upright (1) of the furniture.  13. Removable furniture according to any one of claims 7 to 12, characterized in that the slides (51), drawer support (52), each cooperate with a profile (37) of a part-amount through a metal attachment piece integrated in said slide and projecting laterally to come through a window 38 and lock said slide against the profile.