GB2297897A - Suspension filing drawer and components therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

A suspension filing drawer 10 has a front 12, sides 13,14, back 16 and bottom 17 plus two rails from which suspension files can be hung. The rails are each cradled on a pair of support members 22,24 mounted in the drawer opposite one another. The support members, being affixed in predetermined locations on the drawer front and back, all have several seatings enabling the rails enabling the rails to be held thereby in different pre-selected spacings suiting different standards of file formats. The rails and supports may be provided in kit form.

Description

SUSPENSION FILING DRAWER AND COMPONENTS THEREFOR This invention relates to a suspension filing drawer and components therefor.

Suspension systems for filing papers, especially in "deep" desk drawers, are of two general types. One comprises a free-standing fabricated metal support frame which simply rests in the drawer on its bottom. The other involves a suspension rail arrangement built into the drawer. This invention relates to the latter type of system.

A commonplace suspension file comprises a doubled sheet of paperboard or plastics material, having reinforcements along the adjacent top edges. The reinforcements extend beyond the ends of the sheet and are notched to rest upon a pair of suspension rails. The overall size of such a file is some 405 mm long by 235-240 mm deep, for holding foolscap-sized papers.

Assuming files are supported on rails running from the front to the back of a drawer, then the internal width of the drawer needs to be greater than 405 mm.

Its depth must be such that the distance between the tops of the rails and the drawer bottom exceeds 235/240 mm, e.g. 250 mm.

In one arrangement, the rails are formed by plastics or metal extensions or pressings which cap the top edges of the drawer sides. The sides are usually of the order of about 235/240 mm deep, and deeper if the drawer bottom is fitted into grooves in the sides. The back of the drawer is usually the same depth, or at least similar, to the depth of the sides. The drawer front is usually deeper.

Drawers of such a construction are costly to manufacture. In particular, the relatively great depths of the sides and the back, means that material costs are high.

Moreover, such drawers are usually dimensioned to receive files of one size format, e.g. foolscap size.

Not everyone wishes to use foolscap files. In the UK and elsewhere, people use A4 size and in the Netherlands there is another format in use, namely Dutch folio. This and A4 files are shorter than foolscap size. The furniture manufacturer will commonly design his drawers to accept foolscap files, and will provide accessories enabling the user to adapt the drawers to the smaller file formats.

Such accessories may simply comprise additional bars or rails, to be fitted into suitably-located holes provided in the drawer fronts and backs.

In a somewhat more cost-effective drawer arrangement, in terms of material costs, the drawer sides are only some 100 mm deep, but again the drawer back is of comparable depth to the drawer front, again of the order of 235/240 mm deep. The rails are a pair of bars which enter appropriately-located holes or pockets machined into the drawer front and back. Several alternative holes or pockets may be provided, to cater for the several different file formats in use. This system again is not ideal, since the great depth of the drawer back represents a substantial material cost.

The foregoing arrangements possess another practical drawback. The machining of holes to accept rails in different specified locations (suiting different file formats) might seem a simple operation. However, multispindle woodworking machinery used in mass production is constructed around a 32 mm centre-to-centre spindle module.

This modular distance is unsuited to the positioning of holes needed to cater for the several different file formats in use. This means that drawer fronts and backs have to be machined in two or more passes, and between them the multi-spindle machinery needs resetting. This adds to the cost of production. Ideally, of course, all holes would be produced simultaneously in a drawer panel in one pass, i.e. in a single plunge or drilling stroke of the multi-spindle drilling machine.

The systems described, despite their drawbacks, are no doubt adequate for relatively small production runs, e.g.

of the highest quality furniture.

Our object is to devise a filing drawer arrangement particularly, but not exclusively, suited to high volume production, e.g. for production runs of the order of tens, or even hundreds, of thousands drawers per annum. With such production runs, raw material costs become highly significant as do machining time and cost, and efforts to reduce these are becoming ever important.

Another object has been to devise a filing drawer arrangement suited to flat-pack supply, which is easy to assemble with a minimum of tools and skill.

In a filing drawer, the drawer front will inevitably be a sizeable object in terms of its depth. We have realised that a filing drawer does not need sides and back anywhere near so deep, and in this invention they can be substantially shallower, e.g. only 100 mm deep. This invention is able to make use of "drawer-wraps", articles which are commercially available in various sizes to suit the maker's needs. Such drawer wraps enable the two sides and back of a drawer to be produced from one piece. In essence, a drawer wrap is a timber-based product, grooved to receive drawer runner hardware and often the drawer bottom. It is notched, with 90 vee grooves, to form mitres between each side and the back, and it is enveloped within a tough plastics wrapping, e.g. of PVC.

The invention comprehends a kit of hardware, or components, for fitting to a drawer enabling the same to support suspension files e.g. of two or more different file formats.

The invention also comprehends a kit of parts from which a drawer for supporting suspension files can be readily assembled.

Still further, the invention comprehends a suspension filing drawer per se, whether or not it has been assembled from the kit of parts mentioned in the last preceding paragraph.

According to the present invention, there is provided a kit of components for making a suspension file system for fitting to a drawer, comprising a pair each of (a) suspension rails or bars, (b) first support members and (c) second support members, the support members being adapted for mounting opposite one another to appropriate parts of the drawer carcase, and each of the support members having a plurality of matching seatings to accommodate ends of the rails in a corresponding plurality of different selected positions.

The invention also provides a drawer kit for assembly into a suspension filing drawer, comprising a drawer front, drawer sides, back and bottom, and a kit of components as recited in the last preceding paragraph. The invention comprehends a drawer assembled from this drawer kit.

Further according to the invention, there is provided a suspension filing drawer comprising a drawer front, sides, back and bottom, a pair of rails or bars spanning the drawer for suspending files clear of the drawer bottom, and four support members mounted in the drawer and confronting one another in pairs, each having a plurality of matching seatings to accommodate ends of the rails in a plurality of different selected positions, whereby the rails can be disposed at different pre-selected spacings suiting different standard file size formats.

Advantageously, the support members are to support files on suspension rails which span the drawer in a frontto-back direction, and are configured to suit a drawer having sides and back significantly shallower (measured vertically) than the drawer front, the sides and back being integrally made from a drawer wrap. Such will be described in the ensuing description.

The invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is an isometric drawing of a suspension filing drawer according to this invention; Figure 2 is a front elevation of a first suspension rail support member; Figures 3 and 4 are opposite side elevations of the support member shown in Figure 2; Figure 5 is a top end view of the support member shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4; Figure 6 is a front view of a second suspension rail support member; and Figures 7 and 8 are side and top views of the support member shown in Figure 6.

The drawer 10 shown in Figure 1 comprises a deep drawer front 12, sides 13, 14, a back 16 and a drawer bottom 17. The sides and back are most conveniently formed in one piece as a "drawer wrap" to which reference has already been made. Such a wrap can be supplied as a flat board which can be "folded" into the form shown. The entire drawer can be furnished to the purchaser as a kit of parts in knock-down (KD) or flat-pack form, ready for easy assembly.

The drawer bottom 17 is received in grooves formed in the sides 13, 14 and back 16 and optionally also in the drawer front 12. Alternatively, the drawer bottom might be pinned or screwed to the bottom edges of the sides and back.

The front ends of the sides 13, 14 are joined to the drawer front 12 in any convenient way, e.g. using commercially-available KD fittings. For convenience and cost-effectiveness, however, dowel joints are preferably used between the drawer sides and front.

When assembling the drawer, glue is used at the dowel joints and at mitres at the corners between the sides 13, 14 and back 16. The said mitres are formed from 90 veegrooves machined into the drawer wrap.

As will be seen, the drawer front 12 is substantially deeper (vertically) than the sides 13, 14 and rear 16. By way of example only, the front may be 445 mm wide and 315 mm high, and be made of suitably finished (e.g. veneered) particle board 15 mm thick. The sides and back are, by way of example, only 100 mm high and 12 mm thick. The drawer width, measured externally across the sides 13, 14, may be 410 mm. From front-to-back, the drawer may measure 350-450 mm externally, depending on the cabinet or carcase to which the drawer will be fitted. So dimensioned, the drawer is able to hold foolscap suspension files.

The drawer wrap from which the sides 13, 14 and back are made is centrally grooved at 18. The grooves 18 in the sides 13, 14 accommodate drawer "side runner" hardware, not shown. Such hardware is commercially available and relatively inexpensive. If desired, the grooves 18 could be omitted. In this case, different runner hardware know as "bottom runners" would be used, but the unit cost of such hardware is some 4 to 5 times higher than side runners and thus is not preferred.

To support suspension files in the drawer, a suspension kit is provided. The kit containe a pair of rails 20 and pairs of rear and front rail support members 22, 24. The rails 20 are rods or bars, for instance of round cross-section and made of metal such as steel.

All the rail support members 22, 24 have a plurality of matching grooves or recesses 25 in their uppermost faces 26, 28 forming seatings for the ends of the rails 20. Each groove is of circular configuration if the rails 20 are round bars. Desirably, the rails 20 form an interference or snap inters it with the grooves. As shown, there are three grooves or recesses 25 in each of the members 22, 24.

When the support members are affixed in their designated positions in the drawer 10, the various grooves or recesses provide a choice of positions for the rails 20, suiting foolscap, A4 or Dutch folio suspension files.

The support members 22 are upstanding pillars which are attached to the drawer back 16 at the opposite inner corners of the drawer. They are conveniently affixed by screws passed through countersunk holes 30 and driven into the drawer back 16. A side 32 and rear face 34 of each support member is rebated to form an integral mounting tongue 36 and a shoulder 38. It is intended that the shoulder 38 should abut the top edges of the adjoining drawer sides and rear when affixed, thus to dispose the uppermost face 26 with its grooves or recesses 25 a distance some 250 mm above the drawer bottom 17. The support members 26 are dimensioned accordingly.

Each support member 24 is a small block which, as shown, has a pair of pegs or dowels 40 projecting from one face. The pegs 40 are centred 32 mm apart and are intended to enter blind receiving holes (not shown) drilled in the drawer front 12. The receiving holes are located in the drawer front such that the rails 20, when fitted, will be substantially parallel to one another, to the sides 13, 14 and to the drawer bottom 17. Again, the uppermost face 28 of each support block 24 will be some 250 mm above the bottom 17, so that suspension files mounted on the rails 20 will hang clear of the bottom. Instead of pegs 40, the blocks 24 could have countersunk holes for screw fixing to the drawer front 12.

As described and illustrated, the support pillars 22 have rebated sides 32 and hence are handed. If desired, the sides 32 are not rebated, when it will be unnecessary to provide right and left handed pillars. Handed pillars are preferred, for sturdiness and rigidity.

It is envisaged that the support members 22, 24 will be mass-produced as plastics injection mouldings.

The drawer construction shown in the drawings, particularly Figure 1, is presently considered to be the most cost-effective for large production runs. Variations are possible however. For example, the drawer back 16 could be a deep panel, nearly as deep as the drawer front 12. In such a case, the rail support block members 24 could be duplicated for fitting to the drawer back also, support pillars 22 then becoming unnecessary. Such an arrangement, though possible, is not really felt desirable in view of material costs, and because a drawer wrap cannot be used. Additional expense generating machining would be needed too, for providing cut-outs in the drawer back aligning with the grooves 18 in the drawer sides 13, 14 to permit fitting of the preferred side runner hardware.

As shown and described, the suspension rails 20 extend in a front-to-back direction so suspension files will be disposed crosswise of the drawer. If desired, the drawer could be rearranged so that the rails 20 extend crosswise adjacent the front and back of the drawer. In such a case, support pillar members 22 could be fitted to the drawer sides 13, 14 at each of the four corners of the drawer.

In the assembled drawer, the rail seatings in the mounted support members provide centre-to-centre rail spacings of 387 mm, 367 mm and 331 mm. These spacings suit foolscap, Dutch folio and A4 file formats respectively.

However, it should be noted that other spacings may be desired, e.g. for special filing purposes such as for filing computer print out of various sizes.

If desired, a tie bar (not shown) may link the two pillars 22. Such a tie bar will extend generally parallel to the drawer back and may be fitted at or adjacent the top ends of the pillars.

Finally, it should be noted that in a file suspension drawer a bottom is not absolutely essential. Accordingly the bottom 17 is to be viewed as optional.

As described above, the support members (22, 24) each have a plurality of matching seatings for the said rails.

The illustrated embodiment has two pairs of differentlyshaped support members 22,24. Not only do the seatings match one another in each support member, they do so in each of the pairs, and moreover the seatings match one another in all the support members. The seatings are in the form of upwardly-open grooves or recesses 25, e.g. of partcircular configuration.

However the seatings of all four support members need not be the same. The seatings in one pair of support members (e.g. 24) may be exactly as shown and described.

The seatings in the other pair of support members (e.g. 22) may advantageously take the form of holes instead. The holes may be blind, i.e. closed at one end thereof, but they will be appropriately shaped to match and seat, receive or accommodate the ends of the suspension rails.

Thus, in a particular embodiment, the support members 24 are as shown in the drawings. The seatings in the support members 22 take the form of circular, blind holes.

As before, the seatings are mutually disposed so as to enable the rails to be mounted at different spacings suiting the chosen file size formats.

In use, the rails are fitted thus: first, an end of a rail is inserted into a selected hole in a support member (e.g. 22) furnished with holes as seatings. Second, the other end of the rail is lowered into a selected opentopped groove or recess in the companion support member (e.g. 24) furnished with such grooves or recesses.

The modified arrangement as described here may be yet more rigid and secure than the illustrated embodiment.

In another modification, also according to the invention, the seatings in all the support members 22,24 are of the same general form, and they comprise appropriately-configured holes. Installation of the suspension rails now require the rails to be threaded into, or inserted into, the respective holes of the associated pairs of support members.

Claims (21)

1. A kit of components for making a suspension file system for fitting to a drawer, comprising a pair each of (a) suspension rails or bars, (b) two first support members and (c) two second support members, the support members being adapted for mounting opposite one another to appropriate parts of the drawer carcase, and each of the support members having a plurality of matching seatings to accommodate ends of the rails in a corresponding plurality of different selected positions, thereby on or after assembly facilitating setting the rails to spacings matching the size of the suspension file system, the seatings being selected from upwardly open recesses, and holes.

2. A kit according to claim 1, wherein the support members have pegs, dowels or screw holes for mounting them to the said parts.

3. A kit according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the support members include a pair of small support blocks each with the seatings formed in one face thereof.

4. A kit according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the support members include a pair of elongated pillars each with the seatings formed in one end face thereof.

5. A kit according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the seatings are recesses or grooves for cradling the ends of the rails.

6. A kit according to claim 5, wherein the recesses or grooves and the rails are configured to have an interference or snap inters it with one another.

7. A kit according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the support members are plastics mouldings.

8. A kit of components for making a suspension file system for a drawer, substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

9. A drawer kit for assembly into a suspension filing drawer, comprising a drawer front, drawer sides, back and optionally a bottom, and a kit of components as claimed in any of claims 1 to 8.

10. A kit according to claim 9, wherein the sides, back and a bottom form a drawer shallow relative to the depth or vertical dimension of the drawer front.

11. A kit according to claim 10, wherein the rail support members comprise one pair of support members as defined in claim 3 for attachment to the drawer front, and one pair of support members according to claim 4 for attachment to the drawer back.

12. A kit according to claim 9, wherein the rail support members comprise two pairs of support members all as defined in claim 4, for attachment to the drawer sides at the four corners of the drawer.

13. A kit according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the drawer sides and back are integrally formed as a drawer wrap.

14. A kit according to any of claims 9 to 13, further including drawer runner hardware for mounting to the drawer sides, e.g. in grooves provided therein.

15. A kit according to any of claims 9 to 14, furnished in KD or flat-pack form.

16. A drawer kit for a suspension filing system substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

17. A suspension filing drawer assembled from a kit of parts according to any of claims 9 to 16.

18. A drawer according to claim 17, wherein the rail support members are mounted at locations permitting the rails to be supported in the seatings at a plurality of rail spacings suiting suspension files of different standard file size formats.

19. A suspension filing drawer comprising a drawer front, sides, back and optionally a bottom, a pair of rails or bars spanning the drawer for suspending files, and four support members mounted in the drawer and confronting one another in pairs, each having a plurality of matching seatings to accommodate ends of the rails in a plurality of different selected positions, the seating being selected from upwardly-open recesses and holes, whereby the rail ends can be readily located in chosen seatings which establish different pre-selected spacings suiting different standard file size formats.

20. A drawer according to claim 18 or claim 19, wherein the rails can be supported at rail spacings suiting two or more of foolscap, A4 and Dutch folio suspension file sizes.

21. An assembled suspension filing drawer substantially as herein described with reference to and as particularly shown in Figure 1 of the drawings.