WO2008129581A2

WO2008129581A2 - Modular piece of furniture with improved structure

Info

Publication number: WO2008129581A2
Application number: PCT/IT2008/000258
Authority: WO
Inventors: Matteo Fusi; Riccardo Paolino
Original assignee: Molteni & C. S.P.A.
Priority date: 2007-04-20
Filing date: 2008-04-17
Publication date: 2008-10-30
Also published as: ITMI20070152U1; WO2008129581A3

Abstract

The modular piece of furniture (11, 12) is intended to be part of a modular assembly (10), and has a dresser or wardrobe structure provided with drawers, doors respectively composed of a piece of furniture member (13) with a front part formed by coupling a structural part (15) and a coating part (16). The structural part (15) is formed by a first rectangular plate- like member having two outwardly projecting parallel side edges (17), in a direction essentially orthogonal to such plate- like member. The coating part (16) is formed by a second rectangular plate-like member arranged contiguous and couplet to the first plate-like member forming the structural part (15), in a position sandwiched between the projecting parallel side edges (17 ) thereof. The second rectangular plate- like member forming the coating part '(16) has at least one side edge (18) having a profiling adapted to form a handling recess (19) cooperating with the first rectangular plate-like member forming the structural part.

Description

DESCRIPTION "Modular piece of furniture with improved structure"

The present finding generally relates to the furniture field, and particularly relates to a modular piece of furniture with an improved structure.

Modular pieces of furniture having a dresser or wardrobe structure are known in the art . In some of such pieces of furniture, the piece of furniture drawers or doors are formed by members having a front part which is obtained by coupling a structural part, preferably made of an inexpensive material, and a coating part, preferably made of a more or less valuable material, adapted to constitute a coating to be applied to the structural part, thereby obtaining a desired outer finishing for the same member. The front part of the member which forms the piece of furniture drawer or door . requires profiling operations in order to manufacture a handle, or it requires the application of additional elements in order to manufacture the drawer or door handles. With the current processing techniques, producing handles having a complex shape is generally troublesome or costly, for example, of the type with a handle recess in a portion which is hidden from sight, on the drawer or door front part. Object of the present finding is to obviate this drawback due to the limits of the current processing techniques . Another object of the present finding is to manufacture a modular piece of furniture with a structure characterized by a higher degree of modularity and versatility, in order to be able to meet, in this manner, even dissimilar functional and aesthetical needs when furnishing a purpose-built environment .

These objects are achieved, in accordance with the present finding, according to claim 1. In accordance with a general embodiment of. the invention, a door member for piece of furniture comprises a body having a structure . comprising a first structural member and a second coating member, said first structural member having a plate-like body with two opposite sides, from which two edge members transversally project, which form a seat with said plate-like body, said coating member having a plate- like body fitted in said first structural member seat so as to arrange the two plate-like bodies so as they are mutually adjoining, said coating member comprising a side edge thereof which is so shaped as to form a gripping or handle recess facing with an undercut relative to a coating member outer surface opposed to the structural member.

Said coating member turns out to be preferably flush- mounted in said structural member seat, advantageously by bringing an outer surface thereof to be flushed with the free ends of the edge members. In accordance with an embodiment, said gripping or handling recess is provided on a coating member third side which is not associated to said edge members.

In accordance with an embodiment, a modular piece of furniture intended to be part of a modular assembly has a dresser or wardrobe structure which is provided with drawers or doors, respectively, which are composed of a piece of furniture member with a front part formed by coupling a structural part and a coating part, in which the structural part is formed by a first rectangular plate-like member having two outwardly projecting parallel side edges, in a direction essentially orthogonal to such plate-like member, and the coating part is formed by a second rectangular plate-like member arranged contiguous and coupled to the first plate-like member forming the structural part, in a position which is sandwiched between the projecting parallel side edges thereof. The second rectangular plate-like member forming the coating part has at least one side edge having a profiling adapted to form a handling recess cooperating with the first rectangular plate-like member forming the structural part.

Now, the present finding will be described and illustrated more in detail, by way of non-limiting example, with reference to a modular piece of furniture of the dresser type, represented in the annexed drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of a modular assembly formed by a pair of modular pieces of furniture of the dresser type; Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the modular assembly taken along the line II-II of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlargement of the detail A in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is an enlargement of the detail B in Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is an axonometric, exploded view of the front member of a drawer, for example, of the modular assembly modular pieces of furniture in Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is an axonometric view of the front member of a drawer, for example, of the modular assembly modular pieces of furniture in Fig. 1; Fig. 7 is a front elevational view of the front member in Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is a sectional view of the front member taken along the line VIII-VIII in Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a sectional view of the front member taken along the line IX-IX in Fig. 8; Fig. 10 is a sectional view of a variation of the front member taken along the same line VIII-VIII of Fig. 7 ; and

Fig. 11 is a sectional view of a variation of the front member taken along the same line IX-IX of Fig. 7.

In order to illustrate the modular piece of furniture according to the present finding, reference will be made, by way of non-limiting example only, to a modular piece of furniture of the dresser type. It is meant that the characteristics of the modular piece of furniture which is described herein below will be able to be reproduced also in a modular piece of furniture of the wardrobe, bookcase, kitchen, or other furnishing member type, by employing the same inventive concept.

In Figs. 1 and 2, a modular assembly is indicated with 10 which is formed by a pair of overlapped modular pieces of furniture according to the present finding, indicated with 11 and 12. Each modular piece of furniture 11, 12 which forms the modular assembly 10 consists in a piece of furniture having one or more drawers, which are generally indicated with 13.

It shall be noted that in Figs. 3-9, each piece of furniture drawer 13 has a front part 14 which is obtained by coupling a structural part 15 and a coating part 16.

The structural part 15 is formed by a first rectangular plate-like member having two parallel side edges 17, outwardly projecting in a direction essentially orthogonal to the plate-like member. The coating part 16 is formed by a second rectangular plate-like member, arranged contiguous and coupled to the first plate-like member, in a position sandwiched between the projecting parallel side edges 17 thereof .

Structural part 15 and coating part 16 can be made of the same material, or materials which are different one from the other. The second rectangular plate-like member forming the coating part 16 has at least one side edge 18 which is so profiled as to create a gripping or handle recess 19, preferably, but not exclusively, cooperating with the first rectangular plate-like member forming the structural part 15. In a variation of the present finding, illustrated in Figs. 10 and 11, the second rectangular plate-like member forming the coating part 16 is of a composite type, and it is achieved by coupling a rectangular sheet 20 to a rectangular plate-like member 21. Since the rectangular sheet 20 has a height which is slightly higher than the rectangular plate-like member 21 height, it projects of a length indicated with "S" in the Figure, thus creating a handling recess 19 cooperating with the rectangular plate-like member 21 and the rectangular plate-like member forming the structural part 15.

Rectangular sheet 20 and rectangular plate-like member 21 can be made of the same material, or of materials which are different one from the other.

By arranging the modular pieces of furniture 11, 12 in an overlapped relationship, it is advantageously preferred, for aesthetical reasons, to create the handling recess on the adjacent edges of the drawers 13 of the lowermost and uppermost piece of furniture. In this manner, the configuration illustrated in the detail A of Fig. 2 is achieved.

Again for aesthetical reasons, it is preferable to obtain the handling recess on the adjacent edges of the drawers 13 of a same uppermost or lowermost modular piece of furniture. In this manner, the configuration illustrated in the detail B of Fig. 2 is achieved.

From what has been set forth above, it will be appreciated that the finding achieves the intended objects. Particularly, since the handling recess is created by simply bringing rectangular plate-like members together, it is not necessary to perform complex profiling operations on the front part of the drawers, or of the doors in the case of a wardrobe modular piece of furniture, to create the handling recess, because it is sufficient to profile only the outermost plate-like member, and the profiling operation which is in this case needed is relatively easier to be performed.

Furthermore, the modular piece of furniture has a structure having a higher degree of modularity and versatility, which allows meeting even dissimilar functional and aesthetical needs when furnishing a purpose-built environment.

Particularly, the modular pieces of furniture according to the present finding can be brought in a side-by-side, or overlapped, relationship in different manners and, by a suitable selection of the finishing materials, they can be integrated with other furnishing objects in a more pleasing and aesthetically elegant manner, and they can be used to furnish purpose-built environments intended to mutually different functions.

Claims

1) A door member (13) for piece of furniture comprising a body (14) having a structure comprising a first structural member (15) , and a second coating member (16) , said first structural member (15) having a plate-like body with at least two opposite sides, from which two edge members (17) transversally project, which form a seat with said plate-like body, said coating member (16) having a plate-like body fitted in said first structural member seat so as to arrange the two mutually associated plate-like bodies in an overlapped relationship, said coating member comprising a side edge thereof so shaped as to form a gripping or handle recess (19) facing with an undercut relative to a coating member outer surface opposed to the structural member.

2) The door member (13) according to claim 1, wherein said coating member (16) turns out to be flush- mounted in said structural member (15) seat, or with the outer surface thereof aligned or flushed with the edge members (17) free ends.

3) A modular piece of furniture (11, 12) comprising a door member (13) according to claim 1 or 2.

4) The modular piece of furniture (11, 12) according to claim 3, comprising a modular assembly (10) having a dresser or wardrobe structure provided with drawers, doors respectively composed of a piece of furniture member (13) with a front part (14) formed by coupling a structural part (15) and a coating part (16) , wherein the structural part (15) is formed by a first rectangular plate-like member having two parallel side edges (17) projecting outwardly to a direction essentially orthogonal to said plate-like member, and the coating part (16) is formed by a second rectangular plate-like member arranged contiguous and coupled to the first plate-like . member forming said structural part (15) , in a position sandwiched between the projecting parallel side edges (17) thereof, and in that the second rectangular plate-like member forming said coating. part (16) has at least one side edge having a profiling adapted to form a handling recess (19) cooperating with the first rectangular plate-like member forming said structural part (15) . 5) The piece of furniture according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the coating part (16) is obtained by coupling a rectangular sheet (20) and a second rectangular plate-like member (21) , and said rectangular sheet

(20) superiorly and/or inferiorly projects of a length (8) relative to said rectangular plate-like member (21) so as to form a handling recess (19) cooperating with said second plate-like member (21) and the first rectangular plate-like member forming said structural part (15) . 6) The piece of furniture according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said structural part (15) and said coating part (16) are made of the same material.

7) The piece . of furniture according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said structural part (15) and said coating part (16) are made of materials which are different one from the other.

8) The piece of furniture according to any one of the claims 3 to 7, wherein said piece of furniture consists in a modular piece of furniture of a. modular assembly (10) in combination with other similar modular pieces of furniture.

9) The piece of furniture according to claim 8, wherein the modular assembly (10) consists in a plurality of modular pieces of furniture which are overlapped and/or brought in a side-by-side relationship .

10) The piece of furniture according to claim 9, wherein the modular assembly (10) formed by a plurality of modular pieces of furniture which are overlapped and/or brought in a side-by-side relationship is of the dresser type, and the handling recess (19) are obtained on the adjacent edges of the members of piece of furniture (13) of a modular piece of furniture, for example, of an uppermost or lowermost modular piece of furniture .

11) The piece of furniture according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the handling recess (19) are obtained on adjacent edges of the piece of furniture (13) members of a same modular uppermost or lowermost piece of furniture.

12) Modular piece of furniture as described and illustrated in the drawings .