ITUD20100236A1 - PROCEDURE FOR THE REALIZATION OF BOMBATI FURNITURE - Google Patents

Description

"PROCEDURE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONVEX FURNITURE"

FIELD OF APPLICATION

The present invention relates to a process for the production of curved furniture, such as bedside tables, chest of drawers, chest of drawers, sideboards, desks, wardrobes, tables, coffee tables, and others, which have one or more curvatures on the outside.

STATE OF THE TECHNIQUE

Convex furniture is known, that is, furniture which has at least one external or visible surface, curved, such as to create a camber, or a bulge. With these convexities, the rounded piece of furniture is easily identifiable from an aesthetic point of view compared to other pieces of furniture with substantially flat walls.

In particular, these bulges are present on the front and side walls. Also those that have only curved or saber legs, or sinuous edges and edges, fall into the category of rounded furniture.

For the realization of these rounded furniture, wood obtained from forest essences such as beech, oak, walnut, poplar or other woods are normally used, or cheaper products such as the well-known mdf, paper, plastics or resins.

Curved furniture normally have visible surfaces painted with transparent products, which do not cover the natural color and grain of the wood, or with colored products such as lacquers or varnishes. Sometimes the rounded furniture is also covered with metallic leaves, also in gold or silver, or ennobled with decorative edges. It is known that each convex side of a piece of furniture such as that of a chest of drawers is made up of three different parts, which are two side columns, which constitute the supporting legs of the piece of furniture, and a central panel supported by the columns. These three parts are usually held together with tenons, mortises and adhesives. This manufacturing process is economically more advantageous than an older method, which involved obtaining the rounded side of the piece of furniture from a single piece of wood.

However, the aforementioned procedure has the drawback that, with the passage of time, the sides of the furniture are subject to breakage and the formation of cracks, especially at the joints between the three parts, since the latter are subject to relative displacements due to the different forces that weigh upon them.

A further drawback of the known process is represented by the fact that cracks and breaks in the wood also cause unsightly cracks on the paint or on the external finish of the furniture.

An object of the present invention is to provide a process that allows to produce a convex piece of furniture having a better structural stability and a consequent duration, without breaking or forming cracks both on the structure and in the external coatings, such as painting. , or the surface finish.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for making rounded furniture, which is also economically advantageous with respect to known methods.

In order to obviate the drawbacks of the known art and to obtain these and further objects and advantages, the Applicant has studied, tested and implemented the present invention.

EXPOSURE OF THE FOUND

The present invention is expressed and characterized in the independent claims.

The dependent claims disclose other characteristics of the present invention or variants of the main solution idea.

In accordance with the aforementioned purposes, a process for the production of convex furniture or of at least one convex element thereof, according to an aspect of the present invention, comprises a first step in which a flat structure substantially made of wood is made; a second step in which said flat structure is curved to obtain a rounded structure; a third step in which said convex structure is cut into two parts having two inclined and transversal surfaces and furthermore specular; a fourth phase in which said two parts are glued by means of said two inclined transversal surfaces, to form the rounded part of the piece of furniture, so that the junction line between the two rounded parts coincides with the corner of the piece of furniture.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, a convex piece of furniture comprises at least one convex element formed in turn by two parts joined together along an edge of the convex piece of furniture so as to make a single junction line visible from the outside.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the two parts which constitute the convex part of the convex piece of furniture together form the supporting elements and therefore the supporting structure of the piece of furniture. According to another characteristic aspect of the present invention, the rounded piece of furniture can be marketed in the form of an assembly kit.

ILLUSTRATION OF DRAWINGS

These and other characteristics of the present invention will become clear from the following description of a preferential embodiment, given by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the attached drawings in which:

- fig. 1 is an isometric view of a convex piece of furniture according to the present invention;

- fig. 2 is an isometric view of some parts of a convex piece of furniture according to the present invention;

- fig. 3 shows a partial top view of Figure 2;

- figs. 4 to 7 show in sequence the items obtained in the various stages of the production process according to the present invention;

- fig. 8 shows a top view of a convex element of a convex piece of furniture according to the present invention.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numbers have been used wherever possible to identify identical common elements in the figures. It should be understood that elements and features of one embodiment can be conveniently incorporated into other embodiments without further specification.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERENTIAL FORM OF

REALIZATION

With reference to figs. 1 and 2, a convex piece of furniture 10, according to the present invention, comprises two sides 11, a frame 17 (fig-2), four legs 14, an upper panel 16 and a rear panel 20.

Each side 11 is made up of only two pieces coupled together, that is to say advantageously made of the same material as will be described in detail below. The two walls 12 and 13 are a side wall 12 and a front wall 13, coupled together so that their junction line visible on the outside consists only of an edge, or corner, 21. In addition, the two walls 12 and 13 define, with their lower extremities, two of the four legs 14.

The front wall 13 comprises, in its internal wall, a vertical locking groove 22, while the side part 12 comprises a vertical positioning groove 24 (fig. 3) and, in its internal part, a plurality of fixing seats 23, some of which are arranged in the groove 24.

The frame 17 comprises two internal side walls 18, parallel to each other and connected by two horizontal sleepers 19 figs. 2 and 3.

The sides 11 are connected to the side walls 18 of the frame 17 by means of screws 38, screwed into the corresponding fixing seats 23 not contained in the groove 24. In particular, the side walls 18 are inserted frontally into the vertical grooves 22 of the two front walls 13 of the two sides 11.

The rear panel 20 is inserted laterally into the two grooves 24 of the two side walls 12 and is fixed thereto by means of the corresponding seats 23.

The upper panel 16 instead rests on the upper surfaces of the side wall 12 and of the front wall 13, and is locked there, possibly in a removable way, by any means known to a person skilled in the art.

The procedure for making the rounded piece of furniture 10 described up to now is as follows.

The frame 17 (fig. 2) is made separately, in any known way, using two internal walls 18 and the two sleepers 19. The sides 11 are instead made in accordance with the present invention, as follows.

In a first phase, a flat wooden structure 33 is created, placing one on the other several sheets of wood 32, or of mdf, plastic, paper, for example in number from three to twenty, and each having a thickness between 0, 15 and 4 mm, preferably obtained from a single type, or even more types, of wood and between which layers of glue are interposed, for example vinyl, urea or other types (fig. 4).

The set of sheets and glue is subsequently inserted into a hot press of a known type, having a mold appropriately shaped to give the flat wooden structure 33 the desired shape of the rounded structure 34 (Fig. 5).

In a second step, the rounded wooden structure 34 is cut, preferably with a numerical control machine, to divide it into the two parts which constitute the side wall 12 and the front wall 13 (Figs. 6 and 7).

During the cutting phase, the two surfaces 36 and 37 are also made, which mirror each other and can be superimposed. In particular, the inclined transverse surface 36 of the side wall 12 will form a determined angle a with respect to a vertical plane Pi tangent to the internal surface of the side wall 12, at the meeting point between the inclined transverse surface 36 and the internal surface of the side wall 12. The inclined transversal surface 37 of the front wall 13 will instead form a determined angle β with respect to a vertical plane P2 tangent to the internal surface of the front wall 13, at the meeting point between the inclined transversal surface 37 and the internal surface of the front wall 13 (fig. . 7). The angles a and β are preferably equal to each other, in the present case they are each of 45 °, but in many cases they can also be different from each other.

In a third phase (fig. 8), the two walls 12 and 13 are assembled together using a technique similar to the so-called "folding" technique, which consists in folding one element with respect to the other. In this case, the two walls 12 and 13 are glued along their surfaces 36 and 37, using appropriate glues, known to those skilled in the art.

With this assembly, the edge 21 remains the only part visible from the outside of the junction between the two walls 12 and 13 that make up each side 11.

The fourth and last phase consists in the realization, with techniques known to persons skilled in the art, of the vertical locking grooves 22 on the front wall 13, and of the vertical positioning groove 24 on the side wall 12. The seats are also made on the side wall 12. 23. In addition, the cabinet is finished on the visible external surfaces with paints or metal sheets, and embellished with any decorative edges.

As an alternative to painting the rounded piece of furniture after its assembly, each part can be painted or colored before being assembled with the other parts.

It is clear that modifications and / or additions of parts can be made to the convex piece of furniture described up to now, without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention.

It is also clear that, although the present invention has been described with reference to a specific example, a person skilled in the art will undoubtedly be able to realize many other equivalent forms of convex furniture, having the characteristics expressed in the claims and therefore all falling within the scope protection defined by them.

Claims (10)

CLAIMS 1. Process for making a convex piece of furniture (10) having at least one convex element (11), characterized in that it comprises: a first step in which a flat structure (33) is made, substantially in wood; a second step during which said flat structure (33) is bent to obtain a determined convex structure (34); a third step in which said convex structure (34) is cut into at least two parts (12, 13), so that each of said parts (12, 13) has an inclined transverse surface (35, 36); a fourth phase in which said parts (12, 13) are joined together along said inclined transverse surfaces (35, 36), to form said convex element (11), so that the visible seam between said parts (12 , 13) coincides with an edge (21) of said convex element (11). 2. Process as in claim 1, characterized in that said flat structure (33) comprises a plurality of wooden sheets (32) superimposed or placed side by side with interposed gluing means. 3. Process as in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that in said second step, said flat structure (33) is bent by hot pressing. 4. Process as in any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in said third phase a first of said parts (12) is cut so as to have a first transverse surface (35) inclined by a first angle (a) with respect to a vertical plane tangent to the internal surface of said first part (12), and a second of said parts (13) is cut so as to have a second transverse surface (36) inclined by a second angle (β) with respect to a vertical plane tangent to the internal surface of said second part (13). 5. Process as in claim 4, characterized in that said first and second transverse surfaces (36, 37) are specular with respect to each other and said first angle (a) is equal to said second angle (β). 6. Process as in the preceding claims, characterized in that said two parts (12, 13) are joined together by gluing means. 7. Convex furniture (10) comprising at least one convex element (11), characterized in that said convex element (11) comprises at least two parts (12, 13), also convex, which are obtained from a convex structure ( 34), and are coupled together along a common edge (21). 8. Convex furniture as in claim 7, characterized in that the two parts (12, 13), when joined, make a single joint line visible from the outside, along said edge (21). 9. Convex furniture as in claims 7 and 8, characterized in that each of said two parts (12, 13) of said convex element (11) is shaped so as to act as a load-bearing component. 10. Convex furniture as in claims 7, 8 and 9, further comprising a plurality of legs (14), characterized in that each of said two parts (12, 13) is shaped so as to form at least a part of one of said legs (14).