Piece of furniture

This application is a National Stage Application of PCT/EP2011/068981, filed 28 Oct. 2011, and which application is incorporated herein by reference. To the extent appropriate, a claim of priority is made to the above disclosed application.

The present invention concerns a piece of furniture. More particularly the invention concerns attachment of a sheet-like part to other parts of the piece of furniture. The invention also concerns a method of mounting a back of a cupboard.

In sale of different pieces of furniture it is common that the piece of furniture is delivered in a non assembled condition. The consumer is then to assemble the piece of furniture. In order to facilitate the assembling for the consumer it is beneficial if the mounting may be made in a simple but yet reliable way. If possible the way to assembly the piece of furniture should be more or less self-explaining. It is also positive if the piece of furniture can be assembled in only one way.

One object of the present invention is to facilitate mounting of for instance a cupboard. A person skilled in the art realises that the mounting process of the present invention may be used for different parts of different types of furniture or the like.

According to one aspect of the present invention mounting of for instance a back to a cupboard is facilitated in that the back has only to be slid a short distance. Previously, often a back has been slid a distance corresponding with the height of the back.

The present invention has been developed for attaching a back to a cupboard. However, a person skilled in the art realises that the invention may be used also for many other types of furniture. Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become obvious to a person skilled in the art from reading the detailed description below of different embodiments.

The invention will now be described further by way of examples and with reference to the enclosed drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cupboard, illustrating a back to be attached to the cupboard,

FIG. 2 is plan view of the back of FIG. 1 ,

FIG. 3 is a view from above illustrating attachment of the back of FIGS. 1 and 2 ,

FIG. 4 is a view from above of a part of the back of FIGS. 1 and 2 ,

FIG. 5 is a view from above of one end area of one side piece of the cupboard of FIG. 1 ,

FIGS. 6 to 8 schematically illustrate steps taken in attaching the back to the cupboard of FIG. 1 , and

FIG. 9 is a view corresponding to FIG. 6 of an alternative embodiment.

As used in this description the terms “vertical”, “horizontal” and the like are in view of the piece of furniture in its normal position in use.

Even though the present invention is described as a back for a cupboard, a person skilled in the art realises that the invention may be used when attaching a first piece 4 to second and third pieces 2 being perpendicular to the first piece 4 and where two opposing edges of the first piece 4 are attached to one each of the second and third pieces. As one example of attaching a relative thin plate of a piece of furniture to other parts of the furniture, a cupboard 1 is shown in the Figs. as one example. The first piece corresponds with a back 4 of the cupboard 1 and the second and third pieces correspond with two side pieces 2 of the cupboard. The back 4 is to be attached between the side pieces 2 .

Two opposing edges 5 of the back 4 are uneven in having a number of protruding parts 6 protruding outside respective edge 5 . The protruding parts 6 are placed at an even distance from each other. As seen in FIG. 2 there are no protruding parts 6 at one end of the respective edge 5 . The ends of the edges 5 having no protruding part 6 is to be placed at the bottom of the cupboard 1 . The purpose of the protruding parts 6 will be described below.

The end of each side piece 2 facing backwards has an edge 19 and a number of protruding parts 20 . The protruding parts 20 are directed inwards, i.e. towards the opposite side piece 2 . Thus, the protruding parts 20 are parallel with the back 4 . The purpose of the protruding parts 20 at one end of each side piece 2 will be described below.

In an alternative embodiment shown in FIG. 9 , a strip 21 is placed at the end of a side piece 24 . The strip 21 has an edge 22 and protruding parts 23 , corresponding with the edge 19 and protruding parts 20 of each side piece 2 , as described above. Thus, in this alternative embodiment the side piece 24 as such has no protruding parts, the protruding parts being arranged on the strip 21 in stead. In all other aspects the side piece 24 corresponds with the side pieces 2 described in connection with the first embodiment. The strip 21 is normally made of a plastic material, but a person skilled in the art realises that it could be made in other materials as well, such as wood. Even though in the further description below the alternative embodiment having strips 21 is not described explicitly, a person skilled in the art realises that the description applies correspondingly for the strips 21 .

Each side piece 2 of the cupboard 1 has an inner side 9 , to be facing the inside of the cupboard 1 , and an opposing outer side 8 . One end of each side piece 2 of the cupboard 1 is given a grooved form for receiving one end of the back 4 . The cooperation between the side pieces 2 and the back 4 will be described further below.

As seen in view from above, and as shown particularly in FIG. 5 , each side piece 2 of the cupboard 1 has a vertical groove 10 at one end for receiving one end of the back 4 . The groove 10 extends the total height of the side piece 2 . In the views of FIGS. 3 and 5 the form of the groove 10 is shown in the position of a protruding part 20 of the side piece 2 . The groove 10 and adjacent parts are formed of a number of sides 12 - 17 , where each side 12 - 17 is arranged perpendicularly to adjacent sides 12 - 17 . An end side 11 of the side piece 2 , placed at the groove 10 , is perpendicular to the outer side 8 of the side piece 2 and said end side 11 extends along a part of the overall thickness of the side piece 2 . The length of the end side 11 differs depending on if placed at a protruding part 20 or not. A first side 12 adjacent the groove 10 goes inwards, i.e. directed to the centre of the side piece 2 , from the end side 11 and a second side 13 is directed towards the outer side 8 of the side piece 2 . In the positions where there is no protruding part 20 , i.e. where there is an edge 19 , there is normally no second side 13 . As the protruding parts 20 have inclined surfaces towards the edge 19 , the extent of the second side 11 varies from no extent to the extent as shown in the Figs. A third side 14 is directed inwards and a fourth side 15 is directed towards the inner side 9 of the side piece 2 . A fifth side 16 is directed outwards and a sixth side 17 adjacent the groove 10 is directed towards the inner side 9 of the side piece 2 . The sixth side 17 ends at the inner side 9 of the side piece 2 and is perpendicular to the inner side 9 of the side piece 2 . The first side 12 is followed by the second side 13 and so until the sixth side 17 . The groove 10 as such is formed of the second side 13 , the third side 14 , the fifth side 15 and the sixth side 16 . By means of the form of the groove 10 a vertical rail 18 is formed at the inner side 9 of the side piece 2 and adjacent each groove 10 . The height of the rail 18 is a part of the thickness of the groove 10 , as seen from above in FIGS. 3 and 5 .

As seen in view from above, and as shown particularly in FIG. 4 , the back 4 has a groove 7 at each side, which grooves 7 of the back 4 are to co-operate with the rail 18 of one side piece 2 each of the cupboard, as indicated in FIG. 3 .

The protruding parts 20 on the edge 19 of each side piece 2 correspond with the first side 12 of the groove 10 , as described in connection with FIGS. 3 and 5 . In FIG. 5 the edge 19 of the side piece 2 is indicated by a dashed line. There is a protruding part 20 at the top of each edge 19 of each side piece 2 , i.e. closest to the top 3 of the cupboard 1 . The dimensions of the protruding parts 6 of the back 4 and the protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 are adapted to each other. Said adaptation is such that the protruding parts 6 of the back 4 may be received between the protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 . Thus, the vertical length of each protruding part 6 of the back 4 is smaller than the vertical distance between two adjacent protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 . Even though the protruding parts 6 , 20 of the back 4 and the side pieces 2 , respectively, are shown having an equal spacing, a person skilled in the art realises that uneven spacing may be used, as long as the uneven spacing is such that the protruding parts 6 of the back 4 may be received between corresponding protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 .

The grooves 7 of the back 4 are to be placed surrounding the rails 18 of the side pieces 2 . The grooves 10 of the side pieces 2 are to receive one edge 5 each of the back 4 .

The horizontal distance between the outer edges of two protruding parts 6 at opposite edges 5 of the back 4 is smaller than the horizontal distance between the edges 19 of respective side piece 2 , when the cupboard 1 is assembled. At the same time said horizontal distance between the outer edges of two protruding parts 6 at opposite edges 5 of the back 4 is larger than the horizontal distance between the outer edges of the protruding parts 20 at the edges of the side pieces 2 , when the cupboard 1 is assembled.

The horizontal distance between the opposing edges 5 of the back 4 is smaller than the horizontal distance between the outer edges of the protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 , when the cupboard is assembled. Thus, the protruding parts 6 of the back 4 and the protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 will be placed above each other when the cupboard 1 has been assembled. By means of the dimensions and said horizontal distances between respective protruding parts 6 , 20 and respective edges 5 , 19 , the back 4 may be pushed in between the side pieces 2 with the protruding parts 5 of the back 4 placed between the protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 .

In FIGS. 6 to 8 the way the back 4 is fixed to the cupboard 1 is shown in an illustrating way. In FIG. 6 the back 4 is shown in the position when the back 4 is first placed in the grooves 10 of the side pieces 2 . The back 4 is placed in the grooves 10 in that the protruding parts 6 of the back 4 is placed between two adjacent protruding parts 20 of the side pieces 2 . With the back 4 placed in the grooves 10 of the side pieces 2 , the rails 18 of the side pieces 2 are placed in the grooves 7 of the side pieces 2 . The back 4 is then pushed upwards as shown in FIG. 7 . The movement of the back 4 is guided by means of co-operation between the rails 18 of the side pieces 2 and the grooves 7 of the back 4 and also the edge 5 of the back 4 and the grooves 10 of the side pieces 2 . The back 4 is pushed upwards until the upper edge of the back 4 abuts the top 3 of the cupboard 1 . This final position of the back 4 is shown in FIG. 8 . The back 4 is finally fixed to the cupboard 1 in the position shown in FIG. 8 , in that nails or the like are driven in along the side pieces 2 and/or along a bottom of the cupboard 1 . The nails are normally placed in the area between the protruding parts 20 at the edges of the side pieces 2 .