Mountable storage furniture

A kit composed of a plurality of parts capable of being assembled without tools into a cubical cabinet includes four wall panels made of injection molded plastic which may be joined together to form four sides of a six sided cubical cabinet. Each of the four wall panels is formed with connecting devices extending along two of the sides of the panels with the connecting devices of each panel engaging the connect-devices of another panel to join the panels together. The panels in the kit also include securing devices formed on the same sides of the panels as the connecting devices. A torsionally rigid rear panel is adapted to engage each of the four assembled wall panels to form a real wall for the cubical cabinet and the kit is also provided with a front closure member which may be assembled to form the front of the cabinet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention refers to an easily-assembled cabinet consisting of four 
identical sides of injection moulded plastic, a torsionally rigid back and 
a front closing device. 
In homes, and to a far greater extent in offices, there is a need for 
storage furniture in the form of cabinets. Such furniture is traditionally 
made of wood and, for the needs of the latter, to some extent sheet-metal. 
The sides of wooden cabinets have been made of sheets of core-board or 
plywood joined together at the edges. For the past 20 years, the sides of 
an increasing number of cabinets have been made of chipboard. In all 
cases, problems have arisen in joining the sides together at the corners, 
the solution of which has always been costly in terms of labour. This 
applies both to the old-fashioned method of dovetailing as well as to the 
method of mortising and glueing the chipboard sides together. For the 
latter method, the chipboard sides must be of a certain thickness, usually 
19 mm, with predrilled holes for centre pins passing through the face of 
one of the chipboard elements into the edge of the other. This work calls 
for a degree of precision that can only be achieved with multi-spindle 
machines. All the above methods of joining are only suitable for use in a 
factory, since joining necessitates glueing the parts together and 
clamping them in position. 
A complement to the aforementioned methods which permits transportation of 
the kind of furniture in question in compact, i.e. knocked-down, form is 
employed. In this connection assembly screws and threaded insert sleeves 
are used for which predrilling must be carried out with the consequent 
difficulty of aligning the free edges of the sides in the same plane. 
Added to this, the person assembling the cabinets must have access to 
certain tools, usually a screwdriver or hexagonal-spanner. 
A considerable disadvantage of chipboard is that it has a coarse and 
comparatively delicate surface. Even the furniture grades have surfaces 
that require a covering coat of paint. In addition, the structure of the 
edges is such that they must always be covered with mouldings. The 
appearance and abrasion resistance of the chipboard is improved by 
veneering the surfaces. Such procedure entails an extra cost element. 
Added to this, grooves for louvres or sliding doors must be milled in the 
chipboard when manufacturing cabinets. Such grooves then have to be lined 
with plastic mouldings so that the necessary front closing devices can be 
operated without abrading the soft internal parts of the chipboard. 
The production of storage furniture in plastic is known but such furniture 
is then made in the form of volume units. They consist chiefly of 
parallelepiped units that are injection moulded in one piece with five 
surrounding sides and the front equipped with a closing device in the form 
of a door or cover. Such items of furniture require a special insert in 
order to support shelves, trays, bins and other fittings. Neither is it 
possible to make internal grooves in the cabinet material itself for a 
front closing device such as a roller shutter. However, the real 
disadvantage of this type of storage furniture is that in larger sizes the 
units require considerable manufacturing space and entail high 
transportation costs. 
The purpose of the present invention is to obviate the above-mentioned 
disadvantages and to achieve a storage cabinet made of side elements of 
injection moulded plastic which can be assembled by the user in a simple 
manner without tools. It should be possible to fit interior fittings and 
front closing devices directly to the assembled sides. 
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are 
pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part 
of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its 
operating advantages and specific objects attained by its use, reference 
should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which 
there is illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the 
invention. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Briefly, the present invention may be described as a kit composed of a 
plurality of parts which are capable of being assembled together without 
the use of tools in order to form therefrom a cubical cabinet comprising 
four wall panels made of injection molded plastic adapted to be joined 
together to form four sides of a six sided cubical cabinet; connecting 
devices extending along two sides of each of said panels, the connecting 
devices of each of said panels being adapted to engage the connecting 
devices of another panel to join said panels together; fixing securing 
devices formed on the same sides of each of said panels as said connecting 
devices adapted to be joined together simultaneously with interengagement 
of said connecting devices; a torsionally rigid rear panel adapted to 
simultaneously engage each of said four panels to form a rear wall for 
said cubical cabinet; and a front closure member for said cabinet adapted 
to be mounted in operative relationship with at least two of said four 
wall panels.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
A storage cabinet 1 consists of four identical parts 2 of injection moulded 
plastic which in the following will generally be called side elements, 
although only two of them are really sides while the other two serve as 
top and bottom respectively. Also included in cabinet 1 is a back 3, 
preferably of a torsionally rigid material such as board or chipboard, and 
a front closing device here exemplified by a roller shutter 4. Side 
elements 2 are designed with connecting devices 5, 8 along two of their 
edges, the symmetrical axes of which are oriented in two planes 
essentially at right angles to each other. The connecting devices are of 
male and female type respectively. Male connecting devices 5 may be of 
several different shapes but in the example shown a square-section tube 
with one side omitted has been chosen. This male connecting device 5 is, 
by means of spring 6, connected to the outside 7 of side element 2. Female 
connecting devices 8 are of corresponding shape to male devices 5, and in 
consequence they also are of rectangular cross section. Further, female 
devices 8 incorporate slots 9 for accepting the springs 6. Through this 
arrangement and due to the extremely good surface finish that can be 
obtained with injection moulded plastic, which also permits close 
tolerances between the male and female devices 5 and 8, excellent location 
and good stability between the assembled side elements is obtained. 
For the purpose of locking the two side elements 2 to each other when 
joined together, they are provided with lips 10 and corresponding openings 
11 in the wall tongues 12 joining the female connecting devices 8. 
Consequently, the lips 10 are situated along the edge of side element 2, 
where the male connecting devices 5 are arranged. On assembling two side 
elements 2, the lips 10 press wall tongues 12 in slightly at the same time 
as the parts of the outside 7 located between the springs 6 are pressed 
out slightly. Due to the elasticity of the plastic material, the male 
connecting devices 5 can consequently be pressed down into female 
connecting devices 8 and when they reach bottom the lips 10 snap into the 
openings 11 and lock the two side elements 2 to each other. Since the lips 
10 press against the wall tongues 12, the slots 9 are slightly expanded 
and this facilitates joining the connecting devices 5, 8 together. When 
the lips 10 have snapped into the openings 11, the slots 9 spring back and 
a press fit is obtained between female connecting devices 8 and male 
connecting devices 5. 
In order to enable interior fittings to be fastened to the inside of side 
elements 2, they incorporate a polygonal latticework 13 with preferably 
round holes 14 formed at their intersections. Fastening devices for 
shelves, glide rails for trays or drawers, or expansion fittings for 
suspension files or other fittings can be mounted in these holes with a 
sliding fit. The latticework 13 gives side elements 2 the necessary 
ridigity and results in a considerable saving of material. Specially 
profiled pockets 15 can be arranged in latticework 13 immediately adjacent 
to the connecting devices 5, 8. These pockets are designed to accept the 
ends of sheet-metal profile mouldings, which reinforce long cabinets 
horizontally. 
Along both edges of the side elements 2 with connecting devices 5, 8 and 
inside these devices and along an intermediate edge 16, which comprises 
the front edge of the element, is a groove 17. This constitutes the 
locating groove for roller shutter 4. Along the fourth edge of side 
element 2 is a groove 18 into which the rear panel 3 is fitted on assembly 
of the cabinet 1. The front edge 16 of side element 2, which is at right 
angles to its outside 7, is of the same height as latticework 13 and is 
chamfered at 45.degree. at both ends 19, 20 in order to provide cabinet 1 
with a neat front frame. 
Assembly of the cabinet is carried out by assembling the side elements 2 in 
pairs. Afterwards the rear panel 3 is inserted into the groove 18 of one 
of the side element pairs, after which the other side element pair is slid 
sideways towards and into the first pair of sides until the two rows of 
lips 10 snap into the corresponding openings 11. The roller shutter 4 is 
introduced diagonally rolled-up into the cabinet 1 as far as rear panel 3. 
Since latticework 13 is somewhat lower, the rolled-up roller shutter can 
be turned horizontally and inserted into roller shutter groove 17. 
Afterwards the interior fittings desired for various purposes can be 
fitted in holes 14. Since the fastening devices, which are not shown, are 
manufactured to make a sliding fit into holes 14, the interior fittings 
can be repositioned to suit varying requirements. 
With side elements which are of the same size, are identical and display 
bilateral symmetry, one size of cabinet can be obtained. With side 
elements of two lengths, three sizes or four versions can be assembled 
since the intermediate size may be of maximum length either horizontally 
or vertically. With side elements of three lengths, nine versions of the 
cabinets can be produced, and practically all storage furniture 
requirements in the office sector can thereby be satisfied. 
Side elements 2 can of course be made with connecting devices of male or 
female type only, whereby the top and bottom parts of cabinet 1 are 
provided with connecting devices of the opposite type only. 
While a specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described 
in detail to illustrate the application of the inventive principles, it 
will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without 
departing from such principles.