Patent Publication Number: US-8113599-B2

Title: Cabinet with multi-compartment cabinet body

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to a cabinet with a cabinet body that has at least one vertical stack of storage compartments situated one above another that are divided by compartment bottoms and are opened and closed by compartment doors hinge-mounted to the cabinet body. 
     2. Discussion of Related Art 
     The known cabinets require a considerable number of parts and a considerable amount of assembly effort for affixing the compartment bottoms in the cabinet body and for attaching the compartment doors to the cabinet body in a pivoting fashion. This is more complex when the storage compartments must be of different heights. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One object of this invention is to provide a cabinet of the type mentioned above but in such a way that the number of parts and amount of assembly effort required for affixing the compartment bottoms in the cabinet body and for hinge-mounting the compartment bottoms to the cabinet body are significantly reduced while maintaining the possibility for creating storage compartments of different heights. 
     This object is attained according to this invention if each vertical stack of storage compartments is associated with a hinge rod extending over the height of the cabinet body. The compartment bottoms are guided by a shoulder in the hinge region and are vertically mounted onto the hinge rod with flange bushings that protrude beyond the upper side and/or the lower side of the compartment bottoms and their shoulders. The compartment doors, which are matched to the heights of the storage compartments, have recesses for the flange bushings on their back sides in the hinge region, which can be covered by a cover. With recesses oriented toward the storage compartments the compartment doors can be placed onto the flange bushings and can be attached to the flange bushings in a pivoting fashion by the covers that are then mounted onto the compartment doors. 
     The flange bushings thus perform not only the function of affixing the compartment bottoms, but simultaneously also serve as hinge elements for the compartment doors. This eliminates the need for numerous functional parts on the cabinet body and the compartment bottoms. In addition, it simplifies and facilitates the hinge-mounting of the compartment doors to the cabinet body. 
     According to one embodiment, the hinge rod is mounted and spaced apart from the front side of a wall of the cabinet body or a vertical dividing wall of the cabinet body and is fastened by support elements to the front side of the bottom wall and top wall of the cabinet body. This makes the hinge locations of the compartment doors easily accessible. 
     According to one embodiment, the connection between the compartment bottoms and the flange bushings is such that the flange bushings are inserted snugly and in nonrotating fashion into openings in the shoulders of the compartment bottoms and the flange bushings have a through bore for the hinge rod. 
     If the through bore of the flange bushings and the outer diameter of the hinge rod are also matched to produce a press fit and the flange bushings are thus secured to the hinge rod in nonrotating fashion, then the compartment door can be easily pivoted on the hinge rod. It is also easier when constructing the cabinet to adapt the storage compartments to different heights and to close the storage compartments with correspondingly adapted compartment doors. 
     The compartment doors can be structurally designed in any number of ways. The compartment doors can be in the form of solid doors with recesses on the back for the flange bushings or the compartment doors can be in the form of basic boxes that are open at the back, with filling plates inserted into the back sides. 
     According to one modification, in order to close the storage compartments, the compartment doors have a closing element on the vertical side oriented away from the hinge side and when the compartment doors are closed, the closing elements contact counterpart closing elements that are attached to a vertical wall of the cabinet body or a vertical dividing wall of the cabinet body. An extremely wide variety of closing elements and counterpart closing elements can be used, which, in addition to the pure closing function, can also perform safety functions. 
     The alignment and adjustment of the compartment doors in relation to the storage compartments can be simply achieved if the compartment doors and/or the covers have fastener recesses embodied in the form of horizontal slots. It is thus possible to move and therefore adjust the compartment doors to a limited degree in the horizontal direction. 
     After the connection between the compartment doors and the double-walled cover is produced, access to the fastening points can be prevented by stoppers or the like. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       This invention is explained in detail in view of an embodiment shown in the drawings, wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective partial front view of a cabinet with a plurality of storage compartments divided by compartment bottoms and that can be closed by hinge-mounted compartment doors; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective partial view with a hinge rod and affixed compartment bottoms; 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective partial view of a back side of a compartment door, with a cover for forming the sockets for mounting the flange bushings on the hinge rod; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective partial view of a hinge side of a compartment door with an attached cover; and 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view that shows the compartment doors on the back side that has closing elements. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The cabinet shown in a perspective, partial front view in  FIG. 1  has a cabinet body  10  comprising a vertical wall  11  and a dividing wall  12 , and includes a vertical stack of storage compartments F 1 , F 2 , . . . , Fn. The stack is enclosed at the bottom by a bottom wall and is enclosed at the top by a top wall of the cabinet body  10 . The cabinet body  10  can also have a plurality of the stacks of storage compartments F 1 , F 2 , . . . , Fn, which are then in turn enclosed on the right side with a wall  11  of the cabinet body  10 . 
     Spaced apart from the front side of the wall  11 , there is a hinge rod  20  extending over the entire height of the cabinet body  10 , which is attached spaced apart from the front side of the wall  11 . Thus, securing elements are fastened to the bottom wall and the top wall. Depending on the desired number and height, compartment bottoms  13  divide the space between the wall  11  and the dividing wall  12 . 
     As the perspective partial view according to  FIG. 2  shows in detail, the compartment bottoms  13  protrude partially out from the cabinet body  10  and are guided by shoulders  14  in the hinge region with the hinge rod  20 . The shoulders  14  have through bores  15  so that the hinge rod  20  can pass through them. Flange sleeves  16  and  17  are inserted into the through bores  15  and are preferably attached to the hinge rod  20  in a nonrotating manner or fashion. The through bores  15  of each of the compartment bottoms  13  can accommodate two respective flange bushings  16  and  17  that protrude from the upper and lower side of the compartment bottom  13 . Because the flange bushings  16  and  17  with their bores for the hinge rod  20  are adapted to the outer diameter of the hinge rod  20  so that only a press-fit is possible, the flange bushings  16  and  17  can fasten the compartment bottoms  13  to any location on the cabinet body  10  or on a dividing wall  12  without requiring additional fastening elements. The division of the stack in the cabinet body can then be easily adapted to the desired number and height of compartments, as shown by the compartment bottoms  13 . 1  and  13 . 2  in  FIG. 2 . 
     As is already clear from  FIG. 1 , the storage compartments F 1 , F 2 , . . . , Fn are closed by individual height-adapted compartment doors  25 . 1  and  25 . 2 , which are hinge-mounted to the hinge rod  20 . On the vertical side oriented away from the hinge, the compartment doors  25 . 1  and  25 . 2  have closing elements  26  that can be brought into operative connection with counterpart closing elements  22  fastened to the dividing wall  12 . It is thus possible to select any number of embodiments and to thus adapt the function and security of the closure to the desired requirements. The backs of the compartment doors  25 . 1  and  25 . 2  have recesses  29  in the region of the closing side so that they can be slid onto the flange bushings  16  and  17  that are affixed to the hinge rod  20  and protrude into a storage compartment F 1 , F 2 , or Fn. Then the recess  29  of the compartment door  25 . 1  or  25 . 2  is closed by a cover  30 , thus completing the support for the flange bushings  16  and  17 . If the cover  30  is attached to the compartment door  25 . 1  or  25 . 2 , then the cover  30  is supported in a pivoting fashion on the flange bushings  16  and  17 . 
     This is shown in the view in  FIG. 4 , although the flange bushings  16  and  17  are shown in the finished support receptacles of the compartment door  25 . 1 . 
     It should also be mentioned that the cover  30  can be embodied in the form of a profile section that can be embodied as double-walled ( 31 ,  32 ). As shown in  FIG. 3 , the addition  34  for producing the support receptacle for the flange bushings  16  and  17  is formed onto the wall  32 . The cover  30  is fastened to the back side of the compartment door  25 . 1  by the fastening points  35  of the cover  30  and the fastening points  19  of the compartment door  25 . 1 . The fastening points are embodied for cabinet connections. In the wall  31  of the cover, the fastening points  35  embodied in the form of horizontal fastening slots are situated in cup-like recesses  33  and are then covered by stoppers or the like after the connection is produced. The slot-shaped fastening points  35  can be used to horizontally align and adjust the compartment door  25 . 1 . 
     This type of hinge-mounting of the compartment doors  25 . 1  and  25 . 2  has an advantage that the hinge rod  20  and the compartment bottoms  13  can already be assembled and aligned before the hinge-mounting of the compartment doors  25 . 1  and  25 . 2 . The subsequent hinge-mounting of the compartment doors  25 . 1  and  25 . 2  onto the flange bushings  16  and  17  already affixed to the hinge rod  20  and the compartment bottoms  13  can then be carried out with little assembly effort. 
     As also shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 , this invention provides numerous possibilities for the construction of the compartment doors  25 . 1  and  25 . 2 . The compartment door can be embodied in the form of a solid door plate or can be embodied in the form of a base part, which is open at the back and which has bent edges  27 , into which a compartment plate  28  is inserted. In any case, as shown in  FIG. 5 , except for the flange bushings  16  and  17  and the cover  30 , the compartment door  25 . 1  can be a prefabricated part and can be mounted onto the hinge rod  20  and, with the fastening of the compartment door  25 . 1  to the cover  30 , can be hinge-mounted in pivoting fashion onto the flange bushings  16  and  17  affixed to the hinge rod  20 .