Nov. 15, 1966 F. w. REILLY EXTRUDED FRAME MEMBER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 1, 1965 INVENTOR,

rmznmcK w. REILLY iii/w 1966 F. w. REILLY EXTRUDED FRAME MEMBER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 1, 1965 INVENTOK F PEDEKICK W. REILLY BY M ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,285,444 EXTRUDED FRAME MEMBER Frederick William Reilly, Islington, Ontario, Canada, assignor to Beautiline Limited, Weston, Ontario, Canada Filed Mar. 1, 1965, Ser. No. 436,124 2 Claims. (Cl. 211148) This invention relates to a girder or beam for use in the manufacture of cabinets, store fixtures, showcases, bookcases, display stands and the like and in particular to a girder for combination with other components employed in such structures for assembly in the factory or shipment in the knock-down form to the site where they are to be erected and used.

The girder which is the subject matter of the present invention is particularly adapted for use in combination with the upright posts described and claimed in Frederick W. Reilly co-pending application filed in the United States Patent Office on October 23, 1963, Serial Number 318,363 now Patent 3,151,745. However, it is to be understood, that the girder of the present invention is not restricted to use with that type of post but can be used with other types of knock-down structures.

Consequently, in describing the girder of the present invention in relation to the post of the said application, that is being done for the purpose of illustration, by way of example, and is not to be considered a limitation.

The girders illustrated in that application, particularly the horizontal girders which are positioned between the top and bottom frame members, had substantially wide exposed faces which gave the appearance of a heavily constructed load bearing beam. This wide width and heavy appearance was necessary to accommodate (1) an inwardly facing U-channel in which the edges of the shelving material were received, and (2) upwardly facing and downwardly facing U-channels for the edges of the cladding material such as plywood, glass or sliding doors, as the case may be, used to complete, for example, a showcase.

A disadvantage of such girders is that the wide exposed face of the girder not only resulted in problems of construction design but also made necessary girders of much larger cross section than actually were required for the loads which the girders would be required to carry, and consequently required more material and larger extrusion dies which materially increased the cost of manufacture.

An object of the present invention is to provide a beam or girder having a new and novel cross section which will overcome the foregoing and other disadvantages of the prior beam structure.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a beam or girder which can be economically manufactured from any material such as aluminum, copper, plastic, or other material suited to extrusion forming.

Other and further advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following descriptions of a preferred embodiment which is disclosed in the accompanying drawings and in which:

FIGURE 1 is an exploded fragmentary view of a corner portion of a cabinet or showcase to illustrate the construction of the beam of the present invention and its assembly into a unit;

FIGURE 2 is a cross sectional view similar to FIG- URE 1, to show the parts assembled into a unit;

FIGURE 3 is a cross section on the line 3-3 of FIG- URE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view of another cabinet showing further modifications of the girders which employ the subject matter of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawing, the subject matter of 3,285,444 Patented Nov. 15, 1966 r. ICC

the invention is illustrated in combination with the post described and claimed in said co-pending application Number 318,363 and which post is herein indicated by the letter A. The post which is substantially rigid comprises an I-channel defined by an outwardly opening channel 21 and an inwardly opening channel 22 having a common base or web 23 separating the two channels. The parallel walls forming the channel 22 are extended to form a pair of wings 24, 25, the wings forming substantially a right angle to receive therebetween the mitred ends of a pair of girders as hereinafter described. If expressed in terms relative to the web 23 the wings are at an angle of 45 degrees to the web 23. The web 23 is provided with a series of holes as indicated at 26 at the desired modulus. A modular system of 1 /2" is satisfactory since a corner plate 48, hereinafter described, fits into that system and while is a much desired minimum for beams on small display showcases, the same A is adequate with beams up to 2" deep on long spans. In place of the corner plate, a corner connect-or D may be used, which corner connector will be more particularly described.

One form of the girder of the present invention, gen

erally indicated by the reference letter B is shown in FIG- URES 1, 2 and 3. The girder B comprises an elongated main body of substantially H-shape cross section the girder preferably being made of aluminum so that it can be fabricated by conventional extrusion methods. As seen clearly in FIGURE 1, the main body is constituted by an inner wall 27 which carries upper and lower inwardly projecting flanges 28, 29 defining an inwardly facing connector channel 30; an outer wall 31 parallel to the inner wall 27, the outer wall being relatively thin and having a relatively narrow exposed face; and a substantially thick and rigid centrally disposed web portion 32 permanently connecting the inner and outer walls. The depth of the web 32 is less than the depth of the outer wall so that upper end lower channels 33, 34 respectively are defined by the outer wall 31 and the inner wall 27.

The width and depth of the channels 30, 33, 34 will be determined by the thickness of the material which the channels are to receive. One of the features of the invention is that the depth of the front or outer wall 31 can be reduced to a minimum and remains constant even though the girder may be provided with additional channels as hereinafter described. All of the additional channels are incorporated with and carried by theflanges 28, 2'9 and are therefore hidden from view in the completed structure. In the present embodimenhthe depth of the front wall is about and the web 32 is about thick. This has been found satisfactory for most applications.

The web 32 performs the following four functions:

(a) It forms'part of the channels 33, 34 which receives the edges of the cladding material, sliding doors, etc.

(b) It provides a solid and :rigid reinforcement for the front wall 31 thereby making it possible for the front wall to be unusually thin in cross section;

(c) It provides a solid body and support for the shelving, corner plate or corner connector D and a fixing screw hereinafter described and which screw when tightened will not damage or distort the outer wall 31;

(d) It also forms a constant buffer and when the connector screw which passes therethrough is tightened it cannot compress or change its alignment and therefore damage vertical cladding such as glass or interfere with the free movement of sliding doors when used in conjunction therewith.

The girders which are used to frame the top of the unit or showcase are generally indicated by the letter C and employ the same structural features as those already described in connection with the beam construction B just described. The girders C, therefore, comprises a substantially thick web portion 35 which carries a rearwardly projecting U-shape connector channel 36, a downwardly opening U-c-hannel 3-7 and an outwardly projecting finishing rim or flange 38. In the present application, the girder C is formed with a surface recess or ledge 39 on which is supported the top 40 so that the top surface thereof is flush with the top surface of the finish rim 38.

The cladding which is employed for the sides of the showcase may be made of glass, wood or other suitable sheet material and is indicated by the panels 41, 42, 43 and 44. The structure illustrated is provided with a shelf indicated by the reference numeral 45, and supported by the girders B as hereinafter described. The girders C and the girders B are prepared for assembly by being cut into the required lengths and their ends mitered with a 45 angle as shown. As shown clearly in FIGURE 3, the mitered ends of a pair of beams B are drilled through the web 32 with horizontal convex slots 46, 47 so that when the mitered faces are brought together into the angle of the wings 24, 25 a hole is formed through which the connector screw 50 passes. It is desirable that the hole formed by the slots 46, 47 be of diameter so that the connector screw 50, when engaged therein, is supported therein with substantially no wobble. Instead of the corner connector D, the shelf corners can be provided with a threaded insert for receiving the threaded end of the connector screw 50 as shown in FIGURE 4 of said application 318,363, the threaded insert being driven into the corner of the shelf which will be positioned in and aligned with one of the holes 26. In the present application, the shelf corner is equipped with a corner plate 48 having a threaded hole 51.

The corner connector D which is similar to the corner connector described in said pending application is a small The corner connector consists of checks 52-53 and a nose 54, the thickness of the corner connector being determined by the width of the connector channel so that the corner connector D will fit therein with a substantially close fit to preclude wobbling in any plane as described in the said prior application. angle of 45 to the nose 54 and at about 90 to each other. A threaded screw hole 55- is formed centrally through the nose 54 of the corner connector to receive a connector screw 50.

Referring now to FIGURE 4, the structure therein illus- 'traited discloses a modified form of the girders B and C which modified forms have been designated B and C respectively for use with sliding doors. The elements of B and C respectively which correspond to the elements of B and C respectively have been identified .by the same numerals since the same parts are shown. It will be seen from FIGURE 4 that the flanges 2-8, 29, form U-channels 56, 57 respectively which channels receive and retain the edges of panels 58, 59 which panels may be sliding doors. The girder C is formed with a U-channel v60 carried on the underside of the bottom wall of the U-ch-annel 36. The U-channel 60 receives and engages the upper edge of the panel 58. It will be thus seen that in both of these modifications, B and C that the exposed face of the girders retain their original width as shown for girders B, C.

The assembly of the structure shown in the drawings is carried out in the same manner as described in co-pending application Serial Number 318,363.

The first step, of course, is to cut the various elements to the dimensions required for the particular structure which one has in mind. Referring first to the shelf 45 The checks 52, 53 are at an and the girders B which are associated therewith, the first step is to apply the girders to the edges of the shelf as shown in FIGURE 2. The corner of the shelf with the girders mounted thereon is brought into position between the wings 24, 25 with the hole 51 registering with one of the holes 26. The cladding which is to be fixed is also applied during the assembly by engaging the edges in the U-channels, by way of example, the upper edges of the panels 43 and 44 being placed in the channels 3434 before the corner of the shelf 45 is presented to the post A for connection thereto so that the edges of the panel will be engaged between the edge of the shelf and the wing 24, 25 respectively. The same procedure is carried out for connecting the other three corners of the shelf, panel and girder B to the post A. When corner connectors D are used, they are first loosely attached to the post A at the level desired. This is illustrated in FIGURE 1 which shows the connector D in position and held there by a connector screw 50. The upper girders C which have been previously mi-tered and formed with slot 46, 47 are brought together in the channel 36, 36 under the corner connector D engaged. The connector screw 50 is then tightened sufliciently to loosely hold the same position. It is of course obvious that the upper ends of the panels 41, 42 must be placed in the U-channel 37, 37 before the corner connectors D are brought into a position which would prevent that operation. A similar procedure is carried out at each corner until all the components are assembled and when this has been done all of the connector screws are tightened.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. For a prefabricated knock-down skeletal structure formed of a plurality of separate prefabricated components including upright posts and horizontal girders connectable to the posts to form an unitary rigid skeletal frame, said girders comprising an elongated rigid main body of substantially H-shaped cross section having:

(i) an inner wall having at least two flanges extending at right angles to said wall and forming therewith one inwardly facing U-channel;

(ii) a substantially thin and narrow outer wall parallel to and spaced from the substantial-1y wide inner wall;

(iii) a substantially thick load carrying web spacing said walls and connected thereto centrally between the upper and lower edges of said walls, said web being formed integrally with said walls;

(iv) an upwardly facing U-channel and a downwardly facing U-channel defined by said walls and said web.

2. In a girder according to claim 1, the additional elements in which said two flanges (28, 29) which extend at right angles to the inner wall each are constructed and formed to define an upwardly and a downwardly facing channel (56, 57) respectively at to said inwardly facing U-channel.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,674,769 4/1954 Ca-risi 20-92 3,027,984 4/ 1962 Dunn 52729 3,151,745 10/1964 Reilly 2.1l-148 FOREIGN PATENTS 625,223 3/ 1963 Belgium. 622,066 2/ 1927 France. 613,25 6 11/ 1948 Great Britain.

CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Primary Examiner. W. D. LOULAN, Assistant Examiner.