Office cabinet

An office cabinet is provided with steel end panels made by press forming and shaped to mimic chipboard slab ends with rounded corners. The end members are hollow and provided on their inner faces with arrays of apertures for mounting shelves and other fittings within the cabinet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Chipboard, a wood-based material, is frequently used in manufacturing 
office fittings and furniture. For this use the chipboard is provided with 
a decorative surface finish, for example wood vineer or plastic sheeting 
while separate edge lippings may be employed to cover the edges of the 
board. In particular, chipboard panels with rounded corners may be used to 
form the sides or ends of cupboards or desks and the edges of these panels 
may be deliberately left exposed giving a distinctive "slab-end" 
appearance. Board panels with rounded corners can be employed to give a 
distinctive design appearance. 
Although chipboard is the only material used for slab-ends to fairly large 
office cabinets where a substantial load carrying capability is required, 
it is somewhat unsatisfactory in this application. With such cabinets, 
chipboard is liable to bow outwardly, it is difficult to provide 
satisfactory concealed fastenings into the chipboard, and the large panels 
required would add substantially to the weight of such cabinets. Office 
cabinets are nowadays often required to be able to receive internal 
fittings at a variety of positions. This cannot readily be achieved with a 
chipboard end panel, except by fitting a steel inner panel spaced inwardly 
from the inside face of a chipboard end panel and thereby increasing the 
bulk of the cabinet. 
Steel has been used for cabinet ends, but it has then been customary for 
the cabinets to have right angled corners, and the slab end effect has not 
been sought. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The object of the present invention is to utilise end panels made from 
sheet metal to avoid or ameliorate the above mentioned disadvantages of 
chipboard end panels while forming the end panels in such a way as to 
mimic the appearance which can be achieved with chipboard. By means of the 
invention it becomes impossible to design an office cabinet so as to have 
continuity of styling with other office furniture and fittings which make 
extensive use of slab ends formed from chipboard panels with rounded 
corners. 
In this invention an end member of a cabinet is formed from sheet metal 
which is shaped so as to provide a plane face which is generally 
rectangular but having rounded corners, while also providing edge faces 
around at least part of the periphery of the plane face which curve around 
the rounded corners so that the end member mimics the shape of a board 
with rounded corners. These edge faces should of course be substantially 
narrower than the plane face but substantially wider than the thickness of 
the metal sheet. 
Preferably the end member is formed from a sheet metal blank having an area 
corresponding to the plane face, portions which will form the edge faces 
contiguous with this along the straight edges between the rounded corners, 
and continuations of the edge forming portions projecting beyond the 
limits of the straight edges, which form the curving portions of edge face 
which extend around the rounded corners. 
It is then preferable that fixing flanges, parallel to the plane face, but 
spaced from it, extend inwardly from the edge faces. 
A cabinet embodying this invention may be constructed as a set of parts 
suitable for shipment in KD (knocked-down) form, and subsequent assembly 
by riveting.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
As can be seen from FIG. 1, the cabinet is designed so that its end members 
12 appear to be separate slabs between which extend the top 14, base 16 
and back of the cabinet. The front of the cabinet is closed by a roller 
shutter 18, also known as a tambour, with a handle 20 at its bottom end. 
Each end member 12 consists of a press-formed outer section 21 and a planar 
inner panel 22. Each outer section has a plane face 24, which forms a side 
face of the cabinet, surrounded by edge faces 26. The face 24 is generally 
rectangular with all four corners radiussed. The edge faces extend along 
the whole periphery of the face 24 and curve smoothly around the radiussed 
corners so that the edge faces 26' at the front and back merge smoothly 
into the edge faces 26" at top and bottom. 
The outer section 21 of each end member is formed from a sheet steel blank 
as shown in FIG. 3. The outline of this includes arcs 30 which will become 
the radiussed corners of face 24. On FIG. 3 the lines along which the 
blank is eventually bent are shown chain dotted, but until the blank is 
bent these lines are not visible in any way. They will be referred to for 
convenience of description. 
The area which forms the plane face 24 is bounded by the arcs 30 and lines 
32,34. There are extensions from this area contiguous with it along the 
whole of the lines 34 and almost all of the lines 32. The outline of the 
blank includes very short sections 32' of the lines 32, though. The edge 
faces 26 are formed by the areas 36 between the lines 32,34 and the 
respective parallel lines 42,44. Projections 46 continue beyond the 
junctions of the lines 34 and the arcs 30. These form the curving edge 
faces at the radiussed corners of the face 24. 
A number of holes are made in outer areas 38,39 of the blank before it is 
formed to shape. These holes are used for rivetting at a later stage. The 
blank is formed to shape by conventional press forming. However, at least 
some of the shaping could be effected by roll-forming. When press forming 
is the only shaping operation, it accomplishes the following steps, not 
necessarily in the same order: 
(i) the edge forming areas 36 are turned at right angles to the area 
forming the face 24 so that the lines 32,34 become the horizontal and 
vertical straight edges of the plane face 24; 
(ii) the projections 46 are curved so that each forms a quarter cylinder of 
substantially the same radius as the arcs 30 and thus their edges 48 
adjoin these arcs 30. The tips of the projections 46 remain straight, 
adjoining the edge sections 32', so that the edges 50 and 52 abut; 
(iii) the areas 38,39 are taken through a further right angle about the 
lines 42,44 to form marginal flanges spaced from the face 24 but parallel 
to it; and 
(iv) the area 56 is turned through yet another right angle around the line 
58 so as to return towards the inside of the face 24. 
The outer sections 21 of the left and right hand end members are of course 
mirror images of each other. However, both can be formed from identical 
blanks by welding in opposite directions. After forming to shape, abutting 
edges 50 and 52 may be welded together, and the edges 48 welded to the 
arcs 30. 
A stiffener 60 is spot welded to the inside of each outer section 21. This 
stiffener is made by bending sheet steel to a stepped shape seen in 
section in FIG. 7. An upright support member 62, again bent from sheet 
steel, is welded to the inside of the face 24. Its shape is seen in 
section in FIG. 6. It stiffens the end member, and also serves, with the 
return 56, to define a slot 64 which guides the side edge of the roller 
shutter 18. 
The top 14, back panel 66 and base 16 are seen in section in FIG. 5. All 
are made by bending sheet steel. The top 14 is made to curve smoothly 
round into an upper front portion 68 and an upper rear portion 70. Flanges 
72 are formed at its ends. The back panel 66 is a flat rectangular panel 
with flanges 74 around its edges. The base 16 is a channel section with a 
flange 76 across each end. These parts, notably their flanges 72,74 and 
76, are all provided with holes for rivetting. 
When all the parts have been formed to shape they are painted. The cabinet 
is assembled by rivetting after painting its various parts. In consequence 
the cabinet can be shipped to a distributor in knocked down form, and 
assembled by him. 
The various parts of the cabinet are held together by rivets as follows: 
Rivets 80 through holes 80' hold the flanges 72 of the top onto flanges 
38,39 of each end's outer section 21. Rivets 82 through holes 82' hold the 
flanges 76 to the stiffeners 60 welded to the ends. Rivets 84 secure the 
top flange 74 of the back panel to a horizontal flange inturned from the 
upper rear portion 70, and rivets 86 secure the bottom flange 74 to the 
base 16. The back panel 66 is set in slightly from the rear of the cabinet 
giving a recess in which a pinboard can be held. The rivets 84 and 86 also 
secure a pair of angle section members 88 to hold the top and bottom of 
such a pinboard. 
Rivets 90 through holes 90' hold the inner panel of each end to the back 
flange 38 of its outer section 21, with a vertical flange 74 of the back 
panel sandwiched between. Rivets 92 through holes 92' hold the inner panel 
of each end to the upright support member 62 welded to the outer section 
21. 
Each of the inner panels is punched before assembly to form two upright 
columns of closely spaced slots 93 which can be used to attach shelves and 
other fittings in a multitude of different positions. Suitable fittings 
are the Flexiform range from Flexiform, Leeds, England. 
The roller shutter is of conventional construction. It passes over a guide 
roller 94, and winds onto a spring loaded roller 96. Both rollers are 
carried on brackets 98 welded onto the outer sections of the end members. 
The "slab-ended" appearance of the cabinet can be accentuated by use of a 
paint finish on the end members which contrasts with that on the top, back 
and base. For example a dark, matt paint on the ends and a light coloured 
gloss elsewhere. 
The cabinet described can be included in a range of office furniture which 
employs slab-ends formed from chipboard panels with radiussed corners and 
surfaced with plastics laminate on both face and edges. Unity of design 
styling is preserved, yet as compared with a cabinet with chipboard end 
members the following advantages accrue: 
(1) lighter weight; 
(2) the rivets give secure fastening of the end members, without 
penetrating the faces 24. (Equally concealed fastenings into chipboard 
tend to be less secure and/or more bulky and do not readily permit 
shipment in knocked down condition.) 
(3) greater load bearing capacity and avoidance of the bowing encountered 
with chipboard supporting a heavy load. 
(4) an undesirable increase of thickness of the ends is avoided in that the 
slots 93 for fittings could not be provided in chipboard, and would 
require provision of a slotted panel spaced inwardly from a chipboard end 
(5) the hollow interior of the steel end members can accomodate a guide 
slot for a side of the roller shutter. 
By way of example only, a cabinet embodying this invention may have an 
overall height of either 1575 or 2030 mm and a front to back width of 500 
mm. The edge faces can then be 19 mm across and the corners can have a 
radius of 12 mm (so that the radius of the corners is more than half the 
width of the edge faces). 
All the parts of the cabinet can be made from steel sheet approximately 1 
mm thick. Thus the width of the edge faces 26 is more than ten times the 
thickness of the steel sheet, and the width of the plane face is more than 
ten times (indeed more than twenty times) the width of the plane face 24.