WO2007148961A1

WO2007148961A1 - Piece of furniture having adjustable dimensions

Info

Publication number: WO2007148961A1
Application number: PCT/NL2007/000151
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wilhelmus Johannes Joseph Callaars
Original assignee: Callaars Wilhelmus Johannes Jo
Priority date: 2006-06-19
Filing date: 2007-06-18
Publication date: 2007-12-27
Also published as: NL1032026C2

Abstract

The present invention relates to a piece of furniture having adjustable dimensions, wherein the piece of furniture is made up of a plurality of flat elements arranged adjacent to each other, wherein the flat elements are arranged adjacent to each other in such a manner that flat sides thereof extend parallel to each other, wherein the flat sides of said flat elements are at least partially positioned opposite each other, and wherein said flat elements are movable relative to each other in a direction parallel to a flat side of the flat elements.

Description

Piece of furniture having adjustable dimensions

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a piece of furniture having adjustable dimensions.

Such pieces of furniture are known per se. Examples of such piece of furniture are, for example, tables having adjustable dimensions, whose tabletop can be enlarged or reduced, for example by the insertion of an intermediate piece. Other pieces of furniture of this kind are, for example, cabinets, the shelf area of which can be increased and decreased by swinging back or extending a shelf element.

A drawback of such pieces of furniture is the fact that the dimensions of the mechanism by means of which the piece of furniture can be reduced in size generally correspond to the extent to which the piece of furniture can be enlarged or reduced in size. For example, in the above case of a table having adjustable dimensions, a part of the tabletop must frequently be connected to the existing tabletop, so that the mechanism for enlarging and reducing the table must at least comprise said part of the tabletop. Furthermore, such a mechanism usually consists of parts by means of which the part of the tabletop that is to be added can be positioned at the same level as the fixed part of the tabletop. Consequently, the adjustability of the piece of furniture imposes restrictions as regards the freedom of design of the table. In addition to that, such a mechanism adds to the weight of the piece of furniture.

In addition to the above drawback, it has furthermore appeared to be difficult to hide the mechanism by means of which the piece of furniture can be adjusted from view. Consequently, said mechanism is either exposed to view, or it can only be hidden from view by providing thickened parts in the piece of furniture, in which the mechanism is concealed.

Another drawback of most adjustable pieces of furniture is the fact that the adjustment thereof usually involves a number of operations that are inconvenient in practice. For example, when a tabletop of an adjustable table is to be enlarged, two separate parts of the existing tabletop need to be pulled apart first, for example, after which a central drop leaf portion of the table needs to be swung up. After the central portion has been swung up, the various parts of the table must be moved together again, for example, so as to form one whole. Such an operation is not only user-unfriendly, but in addition it is generally necessary to clear the tabletop before its dimensions can be adapted.

US patent US 3,450,072 discusses a cabinet provided with shelves, each of which shelves is made up of two portions. The two portions of each shelf consist of a bridge portion located on the side of the shelf and a plurality of interlocking fingers. The fingers of the shelves interlock in such a manner that the shelves can be enlarged and reduced in length by pulling the two portions apart.

A drawback of the cabinet discussed in the aforesaid US patent application is the fact that part of the rigidity of the shelves is lost when the shelves are extended, depending on the extent to which they are extended. For example, when the shelves are pulled out to their maximally extended position, this leads to a weak spot being formed in the centre of the shelf. When a relatively heavy object is placed on the shelf in the centre thereof, the shelf will sag and in the worst case even collapse completely.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a piece of furniture whose dimensions can be adjusted in a comparatively simple manner and which eliminates the above drawbacks.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a piece of furniture which hat will retain its rigidity when the dimensions thereof are changed at will.

The above and other objectives are accomplished by the present invention in that it provides a piece of furniture having adjustable dimensions, wherein the piece of furniture is made up of a plurality of flat elements arranged adjacent to each other, wherein the flat elements are arranged adjacent to each other in such a manner that flat sides thereof extend parallel to each other, characterised in that the flat sides of said flat elements are at least partially positioned opposite each other, and that said flat elements are movable relative to each other in a direction parallel to a flat side of the flat elements. A piece of furniture according to the present invention consists of a plurality of flat elements arranged adjacently parallel to each other, wherein said flat elements are at least partially positioned opposite each other with their flat sides, and wherein said flat elements are movable relative to each other. Since substantially the entire piece of furniture is made up of the flat elements arranged adjacently parallel to each other, which elements can be moved relative to each other, the rigidity and robustness of the piece of furniture is retained at all times. There is namely a relatively large area of overlap between the opposite flat sides of the flat elements at all times and in every relative position. This entire overlap area provides rigidity to the whole. In connection with the above it is noted that the flat sides are those sides that take up the largest surface area within a space (not taking into account the possible presence of openings or cuts formed in the flat elements). In the case of a plate, for example, said flat sides are not the flanks of the plate but the side that forms the working surface thereof. Another advantage is that the dimensions of the piece of furniture can be adjusted at all times, without a complicated adjusting mechanism, which may need to be concealed, being required. Furthermore, enlarging of reducing the piece of furniture in size is a simple operation, since the various adjacently parallel flat elements can be easily moved together and apart, so that they slide past each other. This single operation suffices to adjust the dimensions of piece of furniture.

According to a preferred embodiment, at least some of the flat elements are mutually fixedly connected so as to be jointly movable with respect to at least some of the other flat elements.

More in particular, and according to another preferred embodiment, the flat elements are for example subdivided into several groups, which are mutually fixedly connected to each other. In its simplest embodiment, the piece of furniture comprises two groups that can be extended relative to each other. More in particular, the mutually fixedly connected flat elements may be connected in such a manner that at least one flat element is positioned between each pair of side-by-side flat elements from the mutually connected flat elements, which at least one flat element is movable with respect to the mutually connected flat elements.

In other words, a flat element from the second group, or an individual flat element, may for example be disposed between each pair of flat elements from the first group, which flat element is movable with respect to the flat elements from the first group. If the flat elements from the first group are alternately arranged adjacent to flat elements from the second group, two extendable structures of flat elements are obtained, which can thus simply form the piece of furniture.

According to another embodiment, the piece of furniture comprises at least one further group of fixedly connected flat elements, which further group is movable with respect to the first group and the second group. In principle the flat elements can be fixedly connected to form a random number of groups.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in the above embodiment, in which at least one flat element not forming part of the first group is positioned between each pair of side-by-side flat elements from said first group such that said intermediate flat element is movable with respect to the flat elements from the first group, an opening is formed between the elements of a pair of side-by-side flat elements when said piece of furniture is in an at least partially extended position. The thickness of the flat elements as well as a number of intermediate flat elements between each pair of side-by-five flat elements from the first group must therefore be selected so that said opening will become so large that the functionality of the piece of furniture is lost. To give a fine example, when such openings are present in the shelves of a cabinet, said openings must not be so large that said shelves can no longer be used for supporting the objects for which they are (may be) intended. This must be taken into account in the design of the piece of furniture.

According to another embodiment, the flat elements are oriented substantially transversely with a flat side thereof to a support side for supporting the piece of furniture on a substratum. The supporting surface of the piece of furniture may in that case be directly formed by the sides of the flat elements which are directed towards the floor or which are to be turned towards the floor in use (which would be the bottom sides of the flat elements in that case, of course), for example. The piece of furniture would thus be supported directly on the flanks (bottom sides) of the flat elements, so that a very robust unit is provided, in which any possible risk of sagging of the piece of furniture is completely eliminated. Possibly, means for reducing or preventing frictional forces between the surface on which the piece of furniture is to be place and the bottom sides of the flat elements may be provided on the bottom sides in that case. The nature of such means will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

The flat elements may all have the same or substantially the same shape. Furthermore, all the flat elements from the same group of mutually connected flat elements may have the same shape, whilst elements from another group may have a different shape (for example being the mirror image thereof). According to another embodiment, in which the piece of furniture may be a cabinet, for example, at least one of the flat elements is an entirely or partially closed plate, so that said at least one flat element forms a separating element that separates the front and the rear side of the cabinet from each other, with both sides being separately accessible. This makes it possible for example to place the cabinet in a room, in which the cabinet divides the room into two parts, each part being provided with such a cabinet.

The thickness of the flat elements is determined by, among other factors, the strength of the material of which the flat elements are made. In general materials which are comparatively light and, in addition, strong are preferred. Those skilled in the art will appreciate, however, that in addition to that the selection of the materials used for the piece of furniture may also be based on aesthetic considerations.

According to another embodiment, the piece of furniture according to the invention may therefore also be made of, for example, a material selected from a group comprising blockboard (three-ply wood / multiply wood), medium density fibreboard (MDF), various types of wood, pressed wood, polymeric or polymer-containing materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Perspex™ (polymethyl methacrylate), Lexan™ (polycarbonate), Trespa™, Plexiglass™, extruded polystyrene foam, polyester, composite materials such as carbon (comprising carbon fibres and synthetic resin), glass fibre, ferrous (and non-ferrous) light metals (such as aluminium, other metals (such as stainless steel), and glass.

The flat elements may furthermore be made of one or more hollow components, such as hollow plate material or tubular constructions. The advantage of this is that this makes it possible to realise a robust construction of the flat elements, in which use can be made of desirable and suitable materials (such as sheet metal), whilst the weight of each of the flat elements can be kept relatively low. Thus the piece of furniture as a whole can also be comparatively light in weight.

The flat elements have a shape that has been suitably selected with a view to the intended function of the piece of furniture. If the piece of furniture is a cabinet, for example, it may consist of flat elements, in each of which flat elements one or more openings are present, which openings overlap when flat elements are arranged adjacently parallel to each other. The overlap of the openings provides the shelves of the cabinet in that case. To form a table, for example, it will suffice to use flat elements in the form of a flattened U, with the legs of the U facing downwards, and the inverted U having a flat upper side so as to form the tabletop. Another possibility is to use flat elements in the form of an E. Other suitable shapes are possible as well, of course.

In a preferred embodiment, the flat elements have a substantially two-dimensional design. The flat elements may consist of two-dimensionally shaped plates. Depending on the design, this may to a certain extent be departed from. For example, if the piece of furniture is a bench, the backrest of the bench may slightly curve back from the plane of the flat element that forms the backrest, if desired, so as to make it possible to be comfortably seated on the bench.

The piece of furniture according to the invention may be any suitable piece of furniture that needs to be adjustable for length, for example a cabinet, such as a bookcase, a shelf cabinet, a wine rack or a cd-rack, a bench, a table, a desk, a chair or a bed. Also other pieces of furniture that have not been mentioned yet are possible, of course.

The invention will now be described in more detail on the basis of specific embodiments thereof, in conjunction with the appended drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a cabinet according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a front view of a cabinet according to the invention; and

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the cabinet of figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1 shows a top plan view of a cabinet according to the invention. The cabinet 1 consist of a plurality of parallel flat elements 2 and 3 arranged adjacently parallel to each other. The flat elements may be made of plate material, for example. Said materials may have been selected from a group comprising blockboard (three-ply wood / multiply wood), medium density fibreboard (MDF), various types of wood, pressed wood, polymeric or polymer-containing materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Perspex™ (polymethyl methacrylate), Lexan™ (polycarbonate), Trespa™, Plexiglass™, extruded polystyrene foam, polyester, composite materials such as carbon (comprising carbon fibres and synthetic resin), glass fibre, ferrous (and non-ferrous) light metals (such as aluminium, other metals (such as stainless steel), and glass. In the embodiment shown in figure 1 , a plurality of plates 2 are fixedly connected with each other by means of mounting beams 5 and 6. Said mounting means 5 and 6 are fixed to the sides of the flat elements 2 by suitable fixing means. In the present example, the cabinet may for example consist of a plurality of flat wooden elements, to which the mounting beams 5 and 6 are fixed by means of screws 11. The mounting beams 5 may also be present at the bottom side of the cabinet (not shown in figure 1 ).

Similarly, a plurality of flat elements 3 are fixedly connected with each other by means of mounting beams 8 and 9. Said mounting beams are again fixed to the flat wooden elements, for example by means of screws.

Thus the flat elements 2 together form a first group of fixedly interconnected flat elements, whilst the flat elements 3 form a second group of fixedly interconnected elements. The first group of fixedly interconnected elements is movable with respect to the second group of fixedly interconnected elements. As the figures shows, the flat elements 2 can freely move with respect to the flat elements 3 in the directions indicated by the arrows 17 and 18 in figure 1.

Handles 14 and 15 may be optionally provided on the sides of the cabinet 1 for pulling the first group of flat elements 2 and the second group of flat elements 3 towards and away from each other. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such handles are optional, and that the cabinet elements can also be handled by pulling at the support beams 6 and 9 or by using another suitable handling method.

The cabinet can be adjusted for size by moving the first group of flat elements 2 with respect to the second group of flat elements 3. The partially extended cabinet 1 that is shown in plan view in figure 1 is shown in front elevation in figure 2.

Figure 2 shows a front elevation of the cabinet 1 according to the invention and as shown in figure 1. In figure 2, like parts are indicated by the same numerals as in figure 1. In the illustrated embodiment openings are formed in each of the flat elements 2 and 3, so that in principle each of the flat elements 2 and 3 merely provides a framework. The openings overlap when the flat elements 2 and 3 are placed adjacently parallel to each other. As the figure shows, the openings in each of the flat elements 2 and 3 provide spaces, such as the space 20, in the extended position, in which spaces books or other objects can be placed. The dimensions of the openings 20 can be adjusted as desired by selectively moving the flat elements 2 and 3 towards and away from each other. If the flat elements 3 are moved in the direction indicated by the arrow 18 with respect to the flat elements 2, for example, the opening indicated by the arrow 20 will become larger. Similarly, the opening adjacent thereto will become smaller. In figure 3 a group 22 of fixedly interconnected elements 23 is shown, which elements are mutually connected by means of mounting beams 29. The group shown in figure 3 is similar to, for example, the first group of flat elements 2, or the second group of flat elements 3 in figures 1 and 2. If a further group of flat elements, for example identical to the group 22 in figure 3, albeit in mirror image thereof, is moved into the group 22 in such a manner that flat elements 23 are arranged in alternating relationship with flat elements from said further group (not shown), a cabinet according to one embodiment of the invention is obtained. Such a cabinet is adjustable for length, and the shelves of the cabinet are automatically formed by overlapping openings in the flat elements, such as the openings 25 in the elements 23.

In the embodiment that is shown in figures 1 , 2 and 3, the piece of furniture according to the invention is a cabinet. The flat elements may also be suitably shaped for forming a bench or a table, for example. The invention is based on the perception that by arranging a plurality of suitably shaped, mutually movable flat elements adjacently parallel to each other, a furniture structure can be obtained whose dimensions can be readily adjusted, without having to use a complicated adjusting mechanism which, for example because of its dimensions, imposes limitations on the freedom of design. The principle can be used for a plurality of different kinds of pieces of furniture. Consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many modifications and adaptations to the illustrated embodiments are possible without departing from the principle of the invention, the scope of which is only limited by the appended claims. Those skilled in the art will realise that obvious modifications to the piece of furniture according to the invention are possible, for example the provision of doors if the piece of furniture is a cabinet.

Claims

1. A piece of furniture having adjustable dimensions, wherein the piece of furniture is made up of a plurality of flat elements arranged adjacent to each other, wherein the flat elements are arranged adjacent to each other in such a manner that flat sides thereof extend parallel to each other, characterised in that, the flat sides of said flat elements are at least partially positioned opposite each other, and in that said flat elements are movable relative to each other in a direction parallel to a flat side of the flat elements.

2. A piece of furniture according to claim 1 , wherein at least some of said flat elements are mutually fixedly connected, so as to be jointly movable with respect to at least some of the other flat elements.

3. A piece of furniture according to claim 2, wherein said mutually fixedly connected flat elements are connected such that at least one flat element is positioned between each pair of side-by-side flat elements from said mutually connected flat elements, which at least one flat element is movable with respect to the mutually connected flat elements.

4. A piece of furniture according to claim 2 or 3, comprising a first group of connected flat elements and a second group of connected flat elements, which first group is movable with respect to the second group.

5. A piece of furniture according to claim 4, further comprising at least one further group of connected flat elements, which further group is movable with respect to said first group and said second group.

6. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said flat elements are oriented substantially transversely with a flat side thereof to a support side for supporting the piece of furniture on a substratum.

7. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said flat elements have a shape suitable for the intended function of the piece of furniture.

8. A piece of furniture according to claim 7, wherein said shape of said flat elements is a two-dimensional shape.

9. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least some of the flat elements are substantially identical in shape.

10. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said piece of furniture is selected from a group comprising cabinets, such as a bookcase, a shelf cabinet, a wine rack or a CD-rack, benches, tables, desks, chairs or beds.

11. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the flat elements are comprised of a plate comprising at least one opening for forming a storage space in the cabinet when the openings in several of the plurality of flat elements at least partially overlap.

12. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the flat elements are made of a material selected from a group comprising blockboard (three-ply wood / multiply wood), medium density fibreboard (MDF), various types of wood, pressed wood, polymeric or polymer-containing materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Perspex™ (polymethyl methacrylate), Lexan™ (polycarbonate), Trespa™, Plexiglass™, extruded polystyrene foam, polyester, composite materials such as carbon (comprising carbon fibres and synthetic resin), glass fibre, ferrous (and non-ferrous) light metals (such as aluminium, other metals (such as stainless steel), and glass.

13. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the flat elements are made of one or more hollow components, such as hollow board material or tubular constructions.

14. A piece of furniture according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the piece of furniture is a cabinet, and wherein at least one of the flat elements is an entirely or partially closed plate, such that said at least one flat element forms a separating element that separates the front and the rear side of the cabinet from each other, whilst said front and said rear side remain separately accessible.