GB2232586A - Furniture units - Google Patents

Description

2 2 2: ES 1t3 61= - 1 DETACHABLE MOULDINGS The present invention relates

to furniture, particularly office furniture.

Furniture, such as desks, side work units, and tables are often made from veneered chipboard or similar material which can be manufactured by efficient processes and can be packaged and transported in flat form.

Furniture of this kind often suffers from the limitation that its overall shape has to be of a rather utilitarian nature, i.e surface panels have to be flat with square edges. While it is possible to provide rounded edges to such panels, if there is any variety to the shapes being offered, that limits the production runs possible as well as giving rise to excessive scrap when manufacturing problems arise.

k It is known in furniture such as tables to use extension leaves or flaps which are fitted to the square edges, for example by hinging or detachable clamps, however these extensions are normally of substantial length and the problem at the extreme edges of the table still exists.

The present invention overcomes these problems by providing a furniture unit including a surface panel having at least one pair of opposing square cut edges and attached along the edge of each opposing square cut edge a shaped defining edge extension piece which is short and has a three-dimensional form which gives a decorative overall shape to said surface panel.

By being short, i.e., of a length which makes little material difference to the overall size of the article, only a minimum of extra material is required and there is no need to provide extra supports, such as would be necessary with the leaf of a table. A maximum dimension of the order of several centimetres, for example 5 cm is normally appropriate.

1 With this arrangement a plain and standard surface panel can be manufactured and different edge extension pieces can be manufactured separately for provision of furniture with surface panels having different decorative overall shapes.

Such surface panels may be incorporated as horizontal work surfaces in tables, desks or side units such as computer tables.

The edge extension pieces may be rigidly attached by means of hidden screw locking fitments. of a kind known per se, or by means of adhesive. and to be in other respects unsupported, i.e., to have no visible means of support.

A particular feature of the invention is that the main surface panel can be of one material for example a relatively inexpensive or mass produced material such as chip board, and the extension pieces can be of a different material for example a high quality material such as teak or walnut or mahogany or other high quality hard wood, or they may be of a medium density fibre board with a surface veneer of a higher quality material. The main surface panel can have a matching or contrasting veneer.

The surface panel can also be used-as a vertical support member for such furniture.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a perspective exploded view of a table showing different possible shapes; Figures 2 to 7 show various profiles for shape defining edge extension pieces; Figure 8 shows a detail of how the pieces are fitted together; and Figures 9 and 10 show views of a plain and a modified desk respectively.

- C; - Referring to Figure 1 a desk in accordance with the invention is shown in exploded perspective, with various different shape defining edge extension pieces.

The desk consists essentially of a top work surface 1 and two vertical side support members 2. Further cross strengthening braces will be provided, but are not shown in the Figure.

Considering firstly the horizontal work surface 1, this has attached to it along a pair of opposing full side edges, which are square cut, a pair of shape defining edge extension pieces 3, which may have any selected three-dimensional profile such as those in Figures 2 to 7. Its overall width and depth should be the same as the panel to which it is to be attached, but its length should be short for example no more than centimetres in length. The shape defining edge extension piece is attached to the main surface panel 1 by means of hidden fixings such as those shown in Figure 8.

These fixings consist of a screw head 5 and a rotary slotted locking member 6. Such fixtures are known for use in knock- together furniture and are not essential, as other kinds of hidden locking units are known and can be used as alternatives. What happens-is that the screw head 5 is offered to the slot in the rotary fixing 6, the fixing 6 is then rotated by means of a scrwdriver about its axis so that the slot locks into the screw head and provides a tight and virtually invisible fixture.

With this kind of arrangement it is possible, if desired, to change the appearance of a piece of furniture by removing the shaped defining edge is extension pieces and replacing them with other shape defining edge extension pieces of different shape.

The vertical side support members have similar shape defining edge extension pieces 4 attached to their edges.

Figures 9 and 10 show how the edge extension pieces enhance the appearance of a unit of furniture.

Claims (4)

1. A furniture unit including a surface panel, for example a table top, having at least one pair of opposing square cut edges characterised in that a short shape defining edge extension piece is rigidly attached to each opposing square cut edge and has a three-dimensional form which gives an added decorative overall shape to said surface panel, without adding significantly to its overall size.

2. A furniture unit according to claim 1 in which the shape defining edge extension pieces are attached to the square cut edges of the surface panel by means of hidden screw fixtures.

3. A furniture unit according to claim 1 or claim 2 characterised in that the surface panel is of one material and the edge extension pieces are of a different and higher quality material.

4. A furniture unit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Published 1990 atThe Patent Office.St?tp- F-ouse.66"71 High Holborn. LondonWC1R4TP. Further copies maybe obtained from The Patent Office Sales Branch, St Mary Cray, Orpington, Kent BR5 3RD. Printed by Multiplex techniques ltd, St Mary Cray, Kent, Con. 1187