FURNITURE ITEM WITH A LEAF

Abstract

A method is described for building a furniture item (MC) that—in use—comprises a leaf (30, 32), a linear downwards-inclined guide (230), and a body (200) slidably mounted on the guide (230) and connected to the leaf (30, 32) to drag it to an end-of-travel position, wherein said body (200) moves on the guide (230) to drag the leaf only thanks to the force of gravity.

Claims

1. Method for building a furniture item that—in use—comprises a leaf, a linear downwards-inclined guide, and a body slidably mounted on the guide and connected to the leaf to drag it to an end-of-travel position, wherein said body moves on the guide to drag the leaf only thanks to the force of gravity.

2. Furniture item comprising in use: a leaf which is slidable and swinging to close a compartment, a linear downwards-inclined guide; a body slidably mounted on the guide and connected to the leaf to drag it to an end-of-travel position; wherein said body is configured to be able to move on the guide to drag the leaf towards an end-of-travel position only thanks to the force of gravity.

3. Furniture item according to claim 2, wherein the body is slidably mounted on two parallel and downwards-inclined guides.

4. Furniture item according to claim 1, wherein the body is slidably mounted on the guide—or on the parallel guides—by means of skids.

5. Furniture item according to claim 1, comprising: an L-shaped guide comprising two linear segments connected to each other, wherein a first segment is parallel to an edge of the opening of a compartment of the furniture, and a second segment is orthogonal to the first segment and arranged at an outer side of the compartment along the depth of the compartment; a control element which can be translated parallel to—and along—said outer side; wherein a side edge of the leaf is slidingly coupled to the L-shaped guide, and the opposite side edge of the leaf is swingingly connected to the control element so that a reciprocating linear motion of the latter moves the leaf to a first position in which it closes the compartment or to a second position in which the leaf clears the compartment and is placed side by side with said outer side, wherein the control element coincides with the aforementioned slidably mounted body or the control element is connected to the aforementioned slidably mounted body in order to be moved and displace the leaf towards the first or second position.

6. Furniture item according to claim 1, comprising a first leaf as defined above and a second leaf connected to the first leaf in an oscillating manner, the first leaf, at its side closest to the second segment, being slidably coupled to the L-shaped guide, and a side of the first leaf being hinged to the movable control element about a first axis, the opposite side of the first leaf being slidably coupled to the L-shaped guide about a second axis.

Description

[0046] The advantages of the invention will be even clearer from the following description of preferred embodiments of furniture item, referring to the attached drawing in which

[0047] FIGS. 1-2 show frontal three-dimensional views of furniture item;

[0048] FIGS. 3-4 show rear three-dimensional views of the furniture item of FIG. 1.

[0049] In the figures equal numbers indicate equal or conceptually similar parts, and the elements are described as in use.

[0050] A furniture item MC according to the invention comprises a module formed by a compartment 20 which defines a space open toward the outside delimited by a bottom 22, a ceiling 24, two vertical side walls 26 spaced from each other as the width of the compartment 20 and a rear wall 28. The compartment 20 forms a front span that can be covered by two leaves 30, 32 slidable in front of the compartment 20. The leaves 30, 32 can move like a bellows in front of the compartment 20 to close it or to leave it accessible from the outside. During the movement the leaves 30, 32 always remain vertical and vary their relative position and that with respect to compartment 20. When the compartment 20 is closed, the leaves 30, 32 are adjacent and coplanar to each other, while to uncover the compartment 20 the leaves 30, 32 are movable to pack themselves one over the other on one side of the compartment 20.

[0051] The structure of the displacement mechanism for the leaves 30, 32 is not essential, and may be e.g. that described in WO2019012435.

[0052] The furniture item MC preferably comprises a movable frame or flank or element 60, which is linearly translatable along a direction parallel to the wall 26 (or in other words, parallel to the segment 54 or orthogonal to the wall 28). The movable frame or side or element 60 is linearly translatable e.g. through linear guides mounted on the side of the compartment or other known means, e.g. via skids.

[0053] The leaves 30, 32 can then be moved in front of the compartment 20 by actuating the element 60, which avoids moving the leaves 30, 32 by hand in a difficult way or by other means. The coupling between the leaf 32 and the element 60 is advantageous because the user only needs to move the element 60 back and forth (e.g. via a handle) to move the leaves 30, 32 together, from coplanar to packed and hidden, or vice versa.

[0054] The element 60 can be moved back and forth parallel to the vertical wall 26, so that its front wall 64 rests on the front edge of the wall 26 to end up coplanar with the leaves 30, 32 when the compartment 20 is closed by them.

[0055] To start the movement of the leaves 30, 32, a traction of the element 60 is sufficient to extract it from the furniture item MC (motion towards the user, i.e. moving away from the rear wall 28). This displacement of the element 60 gives the leaf 30, through the leaf 32, an impulse that sets it in motion.

[0056] The furniture item MC comprises a return means for the element 60 to return the element 60 towards the wall 28. In this way the user is only required to pull towards himself the element 60; after which the element 60 can be released and will end its stroke, together with the leaves 30, 32, operated by the return means.

[0057] The control element 60 is integral with a vertical guide 200 in which are linearly slidable two skids 210. Each skid 210 is rigidly constrained to the other skid, e.g. via a bar 240, and is slidably constrained to a respective inclined straight bar 230 integral with the furniture frame and e.g. mounted outside the side 26. The two bars 230 are parallel, spaced apart from each other and inclined with respect to the horizon.

[0058] The bar 240 is horizontally slidable without detachment along the bars 230, and simultaneously slidable vertically on the guide 200 thanks to the skids 210.

[0059] When the element 60 moves back and forth to move the leaves 30, 32, the skids 210 slide along the bars 230, and consequently go up and down in unison along the guide 200. In this way the movement of the element 60 gets stabilized to avoid jamming or vibrations.

[0060] The weight of the bar 240 (and/or of all or some of the components integral with it) is designed so that the force of gravity alone acting on it is sufficient to drag the bar 240 and the skids 210 downwards, i.e. towards the lower end of the bars 230, together with the element 60. To this extreme there corresponds a rest position relative to one or each of the end-of-travel positions of the element 60, i.e. when it is inserted inside the furniture's frame or completely extracted from the frame.

[0061] In this way there constantly exists a return force on the element 60, constituted by the force of gravity that attracts downwards the bar 240 (and/or all or some of the components integral with it) along the guides 230.

[0062] It is clear that the return force is produced in a simple way, with few parts, without energy consumption and with almost constant intensity.