Drawer with its four sides made of an extruded aluminium draw piece

Abstract: The drawer consists of four side panels (4, 4', 4a, 4a') made from a single extruded aluminium draw piece, whose work­ ing profile has a substantially C-shaped section, whilst the upper and lower portions corresponding to both curv­ ed sections of the C are substantially shaped as hollow rectangular parallelepipeds. The four sides are coupled to one another by four angled elements of stiff plastic material (1, 2), provided with right angle extensions inserting into the said hollow parallelepipedal portions. The sliding (5, 6) of the two side panels of the draw­ er takes place on angle slide guides secured to the ins­ ide of the lateral walls of the piece of furniture in which the drawer is housed. The sliding is made easier by pairs of ball bearings (13) pivoted on the drawer and on the side guide, respectively.

Description: The present invention relates to drawers for furniture, having the side panels made each of a single extruded aluminium draw piece according to the preamble of claim 1. There are known wooden drawers the sliding of which within the seat which houses them is made easier by metal guides being applied to both sides thereof and designed to slide between two rollers, the lateral guides being provided at their ends with removable clamping devices suitable to impede that the drawer is involuntarily taken out of its seat. Because of the presence of these clamping devices consisting generally of levers with detents, which levers are consideraby bulky, these wooden drawers cannot be wholly pulled out in the customary utilization, so as to show the entire contents thereof. The drawer rear part comprised between the said detent and the rear side remains in fact inside the seat, compelling the user to almost blindly search in the drawer with his hands to take out the contents of that portion. These wooden drawers, moreover, have a reduced working width because of the presence of the metal lateral slide guides, extending into both side spaces designed to receive them. There are also known metal drawers obtained through the shaping of sheet irons, which are provided, at their longitudinal sides, with one or more ribs suitable to run in corresponding grooves made on the inner walls of the piece of furniture, made of metal too. These metal drawers have however, among other things, the inconvenience of being very heavy, besides sliding sometimes with difficulty, in consideration of the absence of rotating elements and of the relative deformability thereof as a consequence of blows or clumsy handling. EP-A-0 254 883 relates to a drawer having two lateral aluminium sides provided with bearing rollers for sliding movement along supporting guides in a corresponding piece of furniture. The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a drawer of limited weight, dimensionally stable, having an optimal capacity with respect to its sizes. The drawer according to the present invention consists of four side panels all cut out from a single aluminium draw piece. The panels are reciprocally coupled at their ends by four angled elements made of a stiff plastic material, which are provided with orthogonal extensions to fit corresponding seats consisting of longitudinal through holes provided in the upper and lower portions of the extruded aluminium draw piece, the middle part of the draw piece itself being C-shaped and outwardly open. The middle portion of the C-shaped aluminium draw piece slides, thanks to ball bearings being put in between, on a guide integral with the furniture seat and wholly received inside the C-shaped portion. The present invention will now be illustrated in more detail on the basis of the accompanying drawings of two preferred embodiments, in which: FIGURE 1 shows an exploded view of a first embodiment of a drawer according to the present invention and of the corresponding lateral slides; FIGURE 2 shows a schematic perspective view of the drawer of figure 1, in the assembled state; FIGURE 3 is the cutaway view of a first aluminium draw piece; FIGURE 4 is the cut away view of a second aluminium draw piece; FIGURE 5 is the cross section of a first lateral slide guide; FIGURE 6 is a partially cut away view of a ball bearing provided with a circumferential groove for running along the guide of figure 5; FIGURE 7 is a partially cut away view of a second type of ball bearing; FIGURES 8, 8a, b and c are four views, namely front, side, back and plan view, respectively, of an angled front element to be assembled with the draw piece of Fig. 3; FIGURE 9 is a perspective view of an angled element to be assembled with the draw piece of figure 4; FIGURES 9a, b and c are three views, namely front, side and plan view, respectively, of the angled element of figure 9; FIGURES 10, 10a, b and c are four views, namely front, side, back and plan view, respectively, of an angled rear element to be assembled with the draw piece of Fig. 3; FIGURE 11 is a perspective view of a rear angled element to be assembled with the draw piece of figure 4; FIGURES 11a, b and c are three views, namely front, side and plan view, respectively, of the angled element of figure 11. As can be seen in figures 1 and 2, the drawer according to the present invention consists of four portions 4, 4′, 4a, 4a′ of extruded aluminium draw piece, kept together by two front angled elements 1 and two rear angled elements 2, as well as by a bottom support and closure plane surface 7. The drawer sides 4 and 4′ run on two guides 5 and 6 respectively, screwed onto the inner walls (not shown) of the piece of furniture of which the drawer is part. As can be seen in figures 3 and 4, relating to two different embodiments of the draw piece according to the present invention, but based nonetheless on the same working principle, the draw piece comprises three distinct parts, namely an upper part 8, 8′ of a closed box-like shape, a lower part 9, 9′ which, according to the embodiment of figure 3, is of closed box-like shape too (9), whilst in the embodiment of figure 4 it merely consists of an L-shaped extension 24, as well as a substantially C-shaped middle part 10, 10′ . Between the upper parts 8, 8′ and the lower parts 9, 9′, respectively, and the middle parts 10, 10′, there are provided two rectangular apertures 11 of the same shape, whilst below the lower part 9, 9′ there is an L-shaped extension 24. Figure 5 shows the section of an angle, still made of extruded aluminium, forming side supporting and sliding guides 5, 6 designed to be secured to the inner side walls of the drawer-holding hollow made in a piece of furniture. Guides 5, 6 are provided, at their shorter side, with an inner roundish jut 12 whose function will be explained hereinafter. Figures 6 and 7 show, partially cutaway, the side profiles of the two ball bearings 13, 14 intended to facilitate the reciprocal sliding of the draw pieces 4 and the side guides 5 and 6. In the drawings, the ball bearings 13, 14 are shown pivotally mounted on pins 15. The ball bearing 13 has a circumferential groove 16 designed to engage the roundish jut 12 of the side guides 5 and 6. Figures 8 to 8c and 9 to 9c show different views of angled elements of rigid plastic material intended to engage the hollow box-like upper and lower parts 8, 8′, and 9, 9′, respectively, of draw pieces 4 to form the front corners of the drawers according to the invention. These angled elements 1 have each four extensions 17, 17′ having substantially a double T-shaped section and are suitable to be forced into the box-like hollows 8, 8′, 9, 9′ of draw pieces 4. The angled element of figure 9 has also other four extensions 18 with rectangular section, intended to be forced through between vertical projections 19 and the vertical wall of the C-shaped middle wall 10′ in the draw piece of figure 4. The rear angled elements 2 shown in figures 10 to 10c and 11 to 11c are structured substantially as the front angled elements of figures 8 to 8c and 9 to 9c, with the difference that they further have a rear flat extension 20 on which is pivoted one of the ball bearings of figures 6 and 8 as well as a lower contrast roller and that, in the angled element 2 of figure 11, to the pairs of extensions 18 of the element of figure 9 there correspond wider single extensions 18, whilst extensions 17′ are missing. A ball bearing 13 with circumferiential groove is outwardly mounted in the proximity to the outermost end edge of the rear extension 20, and a second ball bearing 14 is inwardly mounted, still by means of a pin for pivoting, in the proximity to the forward end of the lateral guide 5. Another pair of ball bearings 13,14 is mounted at the opposite corresponding positions of the rear extension 20 of the second angled element 2 and of the angle slide guide 6. The mounting of the different pieces, carried out in the way as previously described and illustrated by the exploded representation of figure 1, allows to obtain a drawer such as the one schematically sketched in figure 2. The circumferential grooves 16 of the ball bearings 13, 14 pivoted on the rear extension 20 of the angled elements 2 and on the front end of the side guides 5 and 6, respectively, pivotally engage, at one side, the roundish jut 12 of the guides and, at the other side, hooked elements 23 made at the ends of the C-shaped central part 10, 10′ . Likewise, a pair of ball bearings 13, 14, mounted exactly opposite the ball bearings 13, 14 on the rear extension 20 of the second angled element 2 and on the side angle 6, pivotally engage, at one side, the shorter side of angle 6 and, at the other side, the said hooked elements 23 of the draw piece 4′ . To the purpose of avoiding that an abrupt removal of the drawer from its seat, whereby the pairs of ball bearings 13 and 14 would suddenly bumpt into each other, cause the side draw pieces 4, 4′ to slacken or detach from the rear and/or front angled elements 2, 1, respectively, there is the provision for self-tapping screws 22 to be screwed across the body of the angled elements 1, 2 onto the quadrangular apertures 11 of the draw pieces, both lengthwise and crosswise. The bottom supporting and closing plane of the drawer should be inserted, after assembling three side panels of the, drawer, in the suitable inner peripheral groove provided by the L-shaped extension 24 of draw pieces 4, 4′, 4a, 4a′, after which there is mounted the remaining draw piece section to form the fourth side of the drawer. Although the present invention has been illustrated on the basis of some preferred embodiments thereof, it is obvious that variations and/or amendments could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention itself as defined by the appended claims.

Claims: A sectional drawer for furniture comprising a bottom, at least two sides made of extruded aluminium, and ball bearings for sliding movement, characterized in that all four sides thereof (4,4';4a,4'a) consist of metal sections made from a single aluminium draw piece. The drawer according to claim 1, characterized in that the said four sides (4, 4', 4a, 4a') are joined to one another by means of angled elements (1, 2) of rigid plastic material provided with orthogonal extensions arranged according to the same direction, suitable to fit corresponding recesses (8, 8', 9) of said draw pieces (4, 4', 4a, 4a'). The drawer according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the drawer is pulled out of its seat by sliding it a long two metal guides (5, 6) secured to the side walls of the drawer seat and housed for working purposes within a substantially C-shaped middle portion (10, 10') made in the said extruded aluminium draw piece. The drawer according to claim 3, characterized in that said sliding of the two side panels (4, 4') of said drawer along said side guides (5, 6) is made easier by the pivoting movement of two pairs of ball bearings (13, 14) fixed at the back side of extensions (20) of said rear angled elements (2), and in front in an opposite position near the forward end of said side guides (5, 6). The drawer according to claim 4, characterized in that one pair of said ball bearings (13) located behind on both sides of said drawer has a circumferential groove (16) suitable to pivotally engage a roundish jut (12) located on the inside of the shorter side of said side angled guides (5), as well as hooked elements (23) in said C-shaped middle portion (10, 10') of said draw piece.

Inventors: GHEZZI GIUSEPPE SISCO SISTEM S, GHEZZI, GIUSEPPE, SISCO SISTEM S.A.S.
Applicants: SISCO SISTEM SAS, SISCO SISTEM S.A.S.
Application year: 1990
Main classification: A47B88
IPC codes: A47B88