Technical Field of he Trtven -jon In a first aspect, this invention relates to a board for joineries, in particular joineries of furniture, said board having two opposite, mutually parallel large faces, the width of which are larger than the width of two likewise opposite, mutually parallel faces extending between and along the long side edges of the large faces.

Objects and Features of the I-v^ iπn

A primary object of the invention is to create a beard or board-like body by means of which pieces of furniture and other joinery products may be constructed in a flexible, easy and variable way. In particular, the board should be able to be directly connected with one or -ore analogous or similar boards while forming highly disparate construction parts of a joinery product. In other words, boards of one and the same type and dimension should be able to be used to form functionally dispa¬ rate parts of the -finished product .

According to the invention, these objects are attained by the features defined in the characterizing clause of claim 1. Preferred embodiments of the board according to the in- ^• vention are furthermore defined in the dependent claims 2 and 3.

In a second aspect, the invention also relates to a joinery product, in particular a piece of furniture, composed of a plurality of boards according to the invention. The fea¬ tures of this joinery product are evident from claim 4.

Advantageous embodiments of the joinery product accord¬ ing to the invention are furthermore defined in claims 5 and 6. In a third aspect, the invention also relates to a method for the manufacture of joinery products, in particular pieces of furniture, by means of the board according to the in¬ vention. The features of this method are evident from claim 7.

A preferred ernbodi ent of the method according to the invention is furthermore defined in claim 8.

Brief Description of the Appended Drawings

In the drawings: Fig 1 is a cut perspective view of a first embodiment of a board according to the invention,

Fig 2 is an enlarged cross-section through a board according to an alternative embodiment of the invention, Fig 3 is a perspective detail sectional view showing the use of the board according to the invention in a corner structure of a joinery product, and

Figs 4-6 are perspective views illustrating the use of the board in three, pieces of furniture given as examples.

Detailed Description of the Invention In fig 1 reference numeral 1 generally designates a board having, in a conventional way, two opposite, mutually parallel large faces 2, 3, the width of which are larger than the width of two likewise opposite, mutually parallel faces 4, 4' extending between and along the long side edges 5, 5' and 6, 6" respectively of the large faces 2, 3. When the end faces 7 of. the board are perpendicularly cut off, as shown in fig 1, the board, in this manner, forms a body having a parallelepi- pedical basic shape.

According to the invention, a groove 8, extending cen- trally along the entire length of the board, is provided in one, but not in the other one, of the two large faces 2, 3, the width of which groove, in the main, corresponds to the thick¬ ness of the board. In this way, a form-fitting reception of parts of other, analogous boards is enabled, as may be seen in the examples of pieces of furniture in figures 4 to 6. In the embodiment shown in fig 1, the groove is produced by material cutting machining, in particular milling, in a board initially having a genuine parallelepipedical form. Apart from two plane, internal side faces 9, 9', the groove 8 is delimited by a bot- torn 10 which advantageously, though not necessarily, is plane. The side faces 9, 9' may be mutually parallel, although it is also conceivable per se to allow a certain, though very small expansion of the groove inasmuch as the side faces may be some-

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what oblique in relation to the plane of the board (e.g. within the range 0,1 to 1,0°).

The depth of the groove 8 should be within the range 25 to 40 %, suitably 30 to 35 % of the thickness of the board. In practice, the groove may be made with a depth attaining 1/3 of the thickness of the board. This means that a material portion is left between the bottom face 10 and the large face 3 of the board, the thickness of which attains 2/3 of the thickness of the board. By the fact that the groove 8 is centrally located, the two part faces 2 ' , 2 ' ' delimited between the pair of long side edges and side faces 5, 9 and 5', 9' respectively will be equally wide.

As an example of a dimension of the board suitable for practical use, 16 x 70 mm may be mentioned, i.e. a thickness of 16 mm and a width of 70 mm. In such case, the two equally wide faces 2', 2' ' have a width of 27 mm and the groove 8 has a depth of about 5,3 mm. At the same width (70 mm), the board may also be made with thicknesses of e.g. 19 mm and 22 mm respec- tively, the width and the depth of the groove being modified proportionally to the thickness of the board. In practice, a certain tolerance or a certain play between the thickness of the board and the width of the groove 8 is, of course, inevi¬ table. However, in production, it should be looked after that any possibly occurring play always is kept negative so far that the width of the groove never should exceed the thickness of the board. In this way, a certain press fit is guaranteed bet¬ ween joined boards. Of course, it is also conceivable to deli¬ berately make the boards according to the invention with a cer- tain negative play to intentionally attain a press fit effect when joining the boards. In all circumstances, a negative play should not exceed one or a few tenth of a millimetre.

In fig 2 an alternative embodiment is shown, according to which the groove 8 is produced by agglutinating three sepa- rate wooden pieces 11, 12 and 13 of which the two first-men¬ tioned are thicker and wider than the last-mentioned one. More precisely, the two side wooden pieces 11, 12 are identical at the same time as the middle piece 13 has a width as large as the thickness of the side pieces 11, 12. The thickness of the

middle piece 13 should amount to about 2/3 of the width thereof. In the example according to fig 2, the three pieces of wood are thought to jointly form a board or board-like body, the width of which attains 100 mm instead of 70 mm according to the example in fig 1. Also in this case, the board may be made with thicknesses of 16 mm, 19 mm and 22 mm respectively.

In the two examples according to fig 1 and 2, the large surface 3 turned away from the groove 8, together with the side edge faces 4, 4', may be planed or otherwise machined to a great surface smoothness, while the face 2 does not necessarily need to be planed.

Reference is now made to figures 3 to 6 illustrating the practical use of the board according to the invention in con¬ nection with the manufacture of pieces of furniture or other joinery products. In fig 3 a corner structure is shown in which three boards of one and the same type are included, viz . two boards 14, 15 arranged perpendicularly to each other, and a third board 16. The end face of the board 15 is abutted against the face 2 of the board 14, more precisely in the area of the end of the last-mentioned board. The end of the board 16 is in¬ serted in the groove 8 of the board 15. At the same time, the long side portion of the board 16 is inserted in the corre¬ sponding groove 8 of the board 14. In this state, the board 16 may be connected to the boards 14, 15 in a suitable way, e.g. by glueing and/or by screws and/or nails (not shown) . By the ^" fact that the third board 16 is positioned at angles to the board 14 and abuts against and engages the two boards 14, 15, an extremely resistant corner joint is obtained between the boards 14, 15. At the same, the groove 8- in the board 16 offers a support for other boards (not shown) which may be applied in a plane perpendicular to the board 16.

In fig 4 an example of a piece of furniture is shown in the form of a shelf-construction, e.g. a bookshelf, throughout which a board according to the invention is used. Relatively long boards form standards or posts 17, the grooves 8 of which are turned in pairs towards each other so as to receive cross bars 18 in the form of shorter boards. The grooves in the cross bars 18 in turn receive boards 19 jointly forming shelf planes. In fig 4 it may be seen how one and the same type of board may

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5 be used to form all requisite structural members of the joinery product in question. Structural members of another type is thus not required. In other words, the board according to the inven¬ tion may be used in a flexible and easy way to form joinery products of a highly varying form and function. The only thing which needs to be done to finish e.g. a piece of furniture of a desired embodiment, is the simple measure of cutting off the boards in the correct lengths.

In fig 5 and 6 examples of the use of the board accord- ing to the invention are shown in a bench and a shoe-shelf res¬ pectively.

Although all examples show boards being end cut perpen¬ dicularly to the longitudinal axis of the board, it is also possible, per se. to bevel or cut obliquely the ends in a de¬ sired angle deviating from the perpendicular one. Furthermore, it should also be pointed out that the corners or the edges of the board may be made somewhat rounded instead of being sharp- edged as has been shown, for the sake of simplicity, in the drawings. The advantages of the invention are numerous. A basic advantage is that one and the same board, i.e. a board with one and the same dimension, may be used as the only structural mem¬ ber of pieces of furniture and other joinery products, the em¬ bodiment of which may be varied to a practically unlimited ex- tent according to the desires and the fantasy of the user. An¬ other advantage is that the board in a simple way enables the manufacture of extremely resistant corner joints, e.g. of the type illustrated in fig 3. Further, the central location of the groove between the side edge faces automatically guarantees a correct location of the board in mounting. Suppose e.g. that the cross bars 18 on each side of the piece of furniture accor¬ ding to fig 4 are mounted at the correct height in relation to the pair of standards 17. By the fact that the grooves 8 in the standards are centrally located, they cannot be wrongly turned but will automatically lie on the same level.

In conclusion it may be mentioned that the board accord¬ ing to the invention may, if required, either be made with pre- drilled, e.g. through holes, in its central portion in associa¬ tion with the groove, or be provided with a particular notch,

e.g. a shallow groove, on the side or face opposite to the groove. Such a notch facilitates the correct location of screws, nails or similar connection elements so that these, with certainty, will be driven through the central portion of the board and not beside the same.