A CUPBOARD CARCASS

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a cupboard carcass comprising a one piece open fronted plastics moulding (11) having integral side (12), back (15) and bottom walls (13, 14) and external rigid bracing means (24, 32) supporting the lower front corners of the carcass against flexing.

Description: A CUPBOARD CARCASS This invention relates to cupboard carcasses and is particularly applicable to one piece moulded plastics cupboard carcasses suitable for a "built-in" run of cupboard units. An example of the form of carcass to which the invention relates is described and illustrated in our U.K. Patent Application No. 9204611.9. This invention provides a cupboard carcass comprising a one piece open fronted plastics moulding having integral side, back and bottom walls and external rigid bracing means supporting the lower front corners of the carcass against flexing. Preferably the bracing means extend up the front ends of the side panels towards the upper ends thereof. In one embodiment of the invention each bracing means may comprise a rigid right angled metal corner plate extending around and secured to a respective lower front corner of the carcass. More specifically the carcass may have external horizontally extending integral ribs along the bottom and side walls to which the corner plates are secured. For example the bottom wall of the carcass may have integral ribs extending along the lower corner of the carcass between the side wall and bottom wall and further ribs spaced inwardly of the corners and the corner plates are rigidly secured to said ribs. Preferably the open front of the carcass has an encircling outwardly extending integral moulded plastics flange and the vertical limb of the angled corner plate has an integral out-turned flange which is secured to the flange of the carcass. The bracing means may further comprise elongate rigid metal members secured to the portions of the peripheral flange on the side walls of the carcass and said members are secured through the flange to the out-turned flanges on the corner plates to create a rigid structure bracing the side walls of the carcass. According to a further feature of the invention the lower limb of each corner plate may have an up-turned flange at its free end to engage and be secured to an integral rib on the underside of the bottom wall of the carcass. The elongate members extending down the flanges of the side walls of the carcass may have a width sufficient to bridge between the flanges of a pair of adjacent carcasses so that one member secures together and braces the adjacent side walls of a pair of carcasses. In addition a flexible sealing strip may be mounted over the elongate bracing member to provide a seal with a cupboard door mounted on the carcass. In a still further feature of the invention a foot for supporting the carcass off the ground may be mounted on the horizontal limb of the corner plate extending under the bottom wall of the carcass. The following is a description of some specific embodiments in the invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a "built-in" cupboard unit utilising a one piece moulded plastics cupboard carcass to which the invention is applicable; Figure 2 is a diagramatic illustration of a carcass showing the application of "racking" or lateral stresses to the carcass; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a corner reinforcing member for the carcass; Figure 4 is a vertical section through an adjacent pair of carcasses showing the installation of corner reinforcement members to the lower front corners of the perspective carcasses; and Figure 5 is a horizontal section through the lower front corners of the carcasses. Figure 6 is a perspective view of the carcass of Figure 1 illustrating the arrangement for mounting the back of the carcass and supporting an end panel on the side of the carcass; Figure 7 is a perspective view of the end panel; Figure 8 is a sectional view through the end panel and side of the carcass showing the attachment of the end panel adjacent the back of the carcass; Figure 9 is a perspective view of the carcass showing the mounting of the end panel adjacent the front of the carcass; Figure 10 is a sectional view through the carcass and end panel adjacent the front of the carcass showing the mounting of the panel to the carcass; Figure 11 is a detailed perspective view of a bracket used in mounting the rear of the end panel to the carcass; Figure 12 is a perspective view of a bracket for mounting the end panel to the front of the carcass; Figure 13 is a section view on the line 13-13 on Figure 9 illustrating a hinge mounting attached to the side of the carcass adjacant the carcass front; Figure 14 is a perspective view of the hinge mounting; Figure 15 is a perspective view of the back of the carcass showing an attachment for mounting the carcass to a wall plate; Figure 16 is a section on the line 16-16 on Figure 15 and Figure 17 is a section on the line 17-17 on Figure 16. Referring firstly to Figure l of the drawings, there is shown a "built-in" cupboard unit indicated generally at 10 comprising a one piece plastics moulded carcass indicated at 11 providing side walls 12, bottom and top walls 13, 14, a back wall 15 and an open ' front 16. The inner faces of the side walls have integral horizontally extending ribs 17 providing shelf supports and a single shelf so mounted is illustrated at 18. A door 19 is hinged along the front edge of one side wall of the cupboard using conventional lever arch changes 20. Our U.K. Patent Application No. 9204611.9 describes and illustrates a particular form of moulded plastics carcass to which the invention is applicable. The open front of the carcass has an encircling integral L section flange 21 extending along the bottom side and top walls to stiffen the open front of the carcass. The walls of the carcass are also stiffened by external spaced parallel ribs formed integrally and encircling the carcass. One set of ribs 22 extend in a vertical plane around the bottom, back and top walls of the carcass two such ribs being illustrated in Figure 4 of the drawings, one at the corner between the side wall 12 and bottom wall 13 and the other at a location spaced along the bottom wall from the corner. A further set of ribs 23 extend around the sides and back of the carcass at parallel spaced positions. The front flange 21 and stiffening ribs 22 and 23 strengthen the carcass but, nevertheless, the carcass will be subject to racking or side ways stresses as illustrated in Figure 2 particularly prior to building in to a unit or run of cupboards and the open front of the carcass as moulded will inevitably flex when subjected to such loads. The present invention is concerned with a means for stiffening the open front of the carcass against flexing and an embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to Figures 3 and 4 of the drawings. The lower front corners of the carcass are stiffened by rigid heavy metal corner brackets one of which is illustrated generally at 24 in Figure 3. The bracket has a horizontal limb 25 and a vertical limb 26 formed with integral raised stiffening ribs 25a, 26a respectively. The brackets are secured around the external side of the lower corners of the carcass immediately behind the front flange 21 with the vertical limb 26 of the bracket in abutment with the side wall 12 of the carcass and secured to the rib 22 at the corner of the carcass by means of self-tapping screws 27. The front edge of the limb 26 of the brackets has an out-turned flange 28 which is secured to the carcass flange 21 as described later. The horizontal limb 25 of the bracket extends under the bottom wall 13 of the carcass and has an up-turned end flange 29 which extend behind the first rib 22 along the bottom wall of the carcass from the corner and is secured thereto by self-tapping screws 30. The corner bracket is therefore rigidly secured to the corner of the carcass to stiffen the corner against flexing. Referring now to Figure 5 of the drawings, the joint between a pair of adjacent carcasses at the lower ends of the side walls of the carcasses. The vertical limbs 26 of the brackets can be seen with their end flanges 28 extending behind the peripheral front flanges 21 of the carcass. The joint between the front flanges 21 is covered by an elongate reinforcing plate 32 extending the length of the side walls and secured by screws 33 through the plate and flanges 21 into the flanges 28 of the brackets. The plate 32 is secured to the flanges 21 at spaced locations up the flanges 21 of the side walls to hold the side walls rigidly with respect to the corner brackets. Similar brackets may also be provided at the top corners of the carcasses to stiffen the structure further. The edges of the plate 32 are stepped outwardly of the flanges 21 as indicated at 34 and a sealing strip 35 is located over the plate with enlarged edge formations which extend around the edges of the plate and are trapped between the stepped side edges 34 of the plate and the flanges 21 to hold the seal in place on the plate. The sealing strip provides a cushion/seal with the door of the cupboard units. The lower limb 25 of the bracket has an integral boss on its underside in which a leg for supporting the front end of the carcass off the ground is mounted. Because the corner bracket provides a very rigid structure at the corner, draging the carcass across the floor will impose stresses on the legs and brackets but not on the plastics carcass itself which would distort the open front of the carcass. The legs may of course be provided with arrangements to permit levelling and fixing of the carcasses. The bridging plate securing a pair of carcasses together prevents the carcass sides from flexing above the corner brackets and provides a hidden and a hygenic fixing system for a multiple carcass. The seal strip hides the fixing points and provides a dust seal and sound damping effect for the door or draw front closing onto the front of the carcass. The brackets are shown as additional components secured to the carcass but they could be moulded into the carcass at the time of carcass manufacture. Other systems for linking a multiple of carcasses together and strengthening the end of a run of cabinets are envisaged based on the above principles. The plates 28 have been designed to allow the removal of any single carcass in the run of similar carcasses without having to disturb the surrounding carcasses. By taking off the seal 35 and plate 32 on either side of a carcass to be removed the carcass can then be extracted without affecting the carcasses to the right or left of it. This is particular important when access to services situated behind the carcass is required. Similar brackets and strengthening strips 28 may be provided at the end of a run of cabinets in which case the plate 28 for the side wall of the carcass at the end of the run may be modified to incorporate location and fixing for an end deck or panel for the end carcass. Figure 6 of the drawings shows a one piece plastics moulded carcass of the form described above and like parts have been alotted the same reference numerals. The carcass is indicated generally at 11 and the moulding provides side walls 12, bottom and top walls 13, 14, a back wall 15 and an open front 16. The open front of the carcass has an encircling integral L-section flange 21 to stiffen the front of the carcass. The walls of the carcass are also stiffened by external spaced horizontally extending ribs 22 which extend around the sides and back of the carcass and the top and bottom walls of the carcass are similarly stiffened by external ribs. Rigid heavy metal corner brackets are secured to the lower front corners of the carcass to stiffen the carcass and elongate reinforcing plates extend over the joint between adjacent flanges of a pair of carcasses. A number of further features will now be described with reference to Figures 6 to 17. At the end of a run of carcasses an end panel 50 is secured over the exposed side wall 12 of the last carcass in the run as illustrated in Figures 7, 8 and 10. In addition a scribing panel 51 is mounted betweem the rear of the carcass and the adjacent wall by means of upper and lower brackets 52 secured to the scribing panel as shown in Figures 6 and 8. Figure 11 shows the bracket 52 in greater detail. It will be seen that the bracket comprises an elongate plate 53 having an upstanding edge flange 54 towards one end, a key-hole slot 55 extending along the plate and a pair of spaced holes 56 adjacent the other end of the plate. The edges of the key-hole slot extending into the bottom of the slot are pressed out of the plane of the plate to form a ramp 57 for the head of a screw on the end panel 50 as described below. The brackets 52 are secured to the scribing panel 51 by self-tapping screws through the holes 56 and the flanges 54 of the bracket overlie and are secured by self-tapping screws to upper and lower ribs 22. Upper and lower screws 58 are located on the inside of the end panel 50 towards the rearward edge thereo " with the heads of the screws spaced from the surface of the panel. The panel is offered up to the side wall of the carcass and the heads of the screws 58 are inserted through the apertures of the key-hole slots. The panel is then moved forward slightly drawing the heads of the screws up the ramp 57 of the key-hole slot to tighten on the ramp edges 57 and hold the back of the panel suitably in place on the brackets. At the foreward end on the inside of the panel upper and lower attachment plates 60 are secured to the panel of the form illustrated in Figure 12. Each attachment 60 has a face plate 61 with an integral pair of lugs 62 which extend parallel to the surface of the plate leaving gap 62 between the lugs of the plate and having out-turned ends 64. The attachment 60 are positioned on the end panel 50 so that when the panel is slid forward to lock the bolts 58 in the brackets 52, the attachment 60 engage the parimeter flange 21 at the front of the carcass with the edge of the flange engaging between the lugs 62 and face plate 61 and the out-turned ends 64 of the attachment engaging the inside of the flange as illustrated in Figure 10. The face plate 61 is secured to the end panel 50 by screws 65 and the out-turned ends 64 of the lugs are secured to the inside of the flange by self-tapping screws 66 which also serve to secure the elongate plates 32 to the front wall of the flange. The end wall 50 is thereby securely held in place on the carcass. The attachments 60 are secured to the flange of the carcass even where an end panel is not provided as illustrated in Figure 9 to provide a location between adjacent carcasses. Reference is now made to Figures 13 and 14 which illustrate a reinforcing plate 70 which is secured to the outer side of the carcass at a location where a hinge member is to be secured to the inside of the carcass. The reinforcing plate comprises a pair of spaced elements 71 connected by a U-section bridging member 72 to extend over a rib. A hinge member 73 is secured through the wall of the carcass to the plate 71 by self-tapping screws 74. The plates 70 are provided with larger holes 75 adjacent one end to receive self-tapping screws and a smaller hole adjacent the other end to receive rivets. The plate can thus be located with appropriate size holes opposite the location where the screws or rivets holding the hinge pass through the wall of the carcass to receive the screws or rivets. Figures 16 to 17 show the arrangement for securing the back of the carcass to a wall plate 80. A plurality of horizontally extending channel section members 90 are formed with in-turned end flanges 91 to engage over a spaced pair of ribs 22 extending down the back of the carcass, the flanges being secured to the ribs by self-tapping screws 92. Each channel section member has a screw 93 mounted at the centre to project from the back of the member to be screwed into the wall plate 80 through an aperture 94 in the back wall of the carcass. Once the back wall has been secured to the wall plate, the aperture 94 is closed by a plug 95 to conceal the fixing. Further modifications are shown in Figures 18 to 27 to which reference will now be made. Figure 18 shows two carcasses joined together. The joint between the carcasses is shown in detail in Figures 19 to 22 and comprises metal support strips 101, 102 and an interlocking "T" section 103. Strip 101 has upwardly facing lugs 104 and strip 102 has downward facing lugs' 105 which interlock with one another and with which the T-section 102 is engageable. The metal support strips 101 and 102 perform two functions. Firstly, they strengthen the sides of the carcass and by rivetting or self tapping screws passing through holes 106 to fix into the front carcass corner brace (Figure 24) they resist sideways racking of the carcass. Figure 24 shows the carcass corner brace as described in earlier applications is now slightly modified to allow fixing screw to sandwich the carcass corner brace. The metal support strips are attached to the carcass by self tapping screws or rivets through holes 106, 110 and ill. Holes 110 and 111 allow for fixing to the outer rim of the carcass. Secondly, the interlocking lugs are designed to link a carcass on the left with a carcass on the right. This further strengthens the carcass on the side. The interlocking lugs are open ended so allow any individual carcass to be removed from a long run of carcasses without disturbing the others. The locking "T" section supports the trim/door seal 112 and is located on further lugs 113 on the left hand steel support strip 100 and further lugs 114 on the right hand steel support strip 101. The carcasses are interlocked by lugs 104 and 105 and the leg of the "T" strip is located in the gap between the carcasses. The lugs 104, 105 on the steel strips 100 and 101 locate in the apertures 115 in the T-section and the further lugs 113 and 114 bear against edges 116 of the apertures 115 as the T-section strip is slid .upwards. A firm upward pressure locks the "T" strip onto the face of the carcasses and thus traps the seal 112 securely. To remove a carcass from a run of other carcasses requires just a lever applied against the upper face of the locking "T" strip. To disengage it. By doing this either side of the carcass concerned it can be removed easily without disturbing the others. Figure 20 shows the locking "T" strip in its final position relative to a left hand steel support strip. Figure 25 shows yet a further arrangement. This is a front elevation of carcasses joined in a similar manner to that in the Figures 18 to 24. A mechanical link between the carcasses is formed by the open-ended interlocking lugs (as before) 120. Figure 27 shows the locking "T" section is replaced by an extrusion of U.P.V.C. or similar extruded material that is rigid in its main body and on the male part 121 which locates into a shaped aperture 122 (Figure 26) to align carcasses. The other extremities of the section as in 23 and 24 are soft U.P.V.C. so as to seal against the carcass and provide a dust seal for the door to close onto. Figure 25 also shows that the female aperture 21 does not extend along its full length but receeds to allow the interlocking lugs to operate as before. The important design features of the above arrangements are as follows: 1. Open ended interlocking lugs allow any carcass to be slid out. 2. Locking "T" section traps seal. 3. Steel support strip is assembled onto carcass before doors and drawers etc. are fitted to ensure the carcass is rigid whilst being handled in the factory. 4. Re. Figures 25 to 27, the rigid/soft U.P.V.C. strip used in this way is a very simple cost effective way of locking carcasses together.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A cupboard carcass comprising a one piece open fronted plastics moulding having integral side, back and bottom walls and external rigid bracing means supporting the lower front corners of the carcass against flexing. 2. A cupboard carcass as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the bracing means extend up the front ends of the side panels towards the upper ends thereof. 3. A cupboard carcass as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein each bracing means comprises a rigid right angled metal corner plate extending around and secured to a respective lower front corner of the carcass. 4. A cupboard carcass as claimed in Claim 3, wherein the carcass has external horizontally extending integral ribs along the bottom and side walls to which the corner plates are secured. 5. A cupboard carcass as claimed in Claim 3, wherein the bottom wall of the carcass has integral ribs extending along the lower corner of the carcass between the side wall and bottom wall and further ribs spaced inwardly of the corners and the corner plates are rigidly secured to said ribs. 6. A cupboard carcass as claimed in Claim 3 or Claim 4, wherein the open front of the carcass has an encircling outwardly extending integral moulded plastics flange and the vertical limb of the angled corner plate has an integral out-turned flange which is secured to the flange of the carcass. 7. A cupboard carcass as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the bracing means further comprise elongated rigid metal members secured to the portions of the peripheral flange on the side walls of the carcass and said members are secured through the flange to the out-turned flanges on the corner plates to create a rigid structure bracing the side walls of the carcass. 8. A cupboard carcass as claimed in any of Claims 4 or Claim 7, wherein the lower limb of each corner plate has an up-turned flange at its free end to engage and be secured to an integral rib on the underside of the bottom wall of the carcass. 9. A carcass as claimed in any of Claims 4 to 8, wherein said elongate members extending down the flanges of the side walls of the carcass have a width sufficient to bridge between the flanges of a pair of adjacent carcasses so that one member secures together and braces the adjacent side walls of a pair of carcasses. 10. A cupboard carcass as claimed in any of Claims 4 to 9, wherein a flexible sealing strip is mounted over the elongate bracing member to provide a seal with a cupboard door mounted on the carcass. 11. A cupboard carcass as claimed in any of Claims 3 to 10, wherein a foot for supporting the carcass off the ground is mounted on the horizontal limb of the corner plate extending under the bottom wall of the carcass.

Inventors: WILLIS GAVIN REX, WILLIS, GAVIN, REX
Applicants: FURNITURE TECH SYST, WILLIS GAVIN REX, FURNITURE TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS LIMITED
Application year: 1993
Main classification: A47B55
IPC codes: A47B47, A47B55, A47B87