The present invention relates to a cabinet, such as a two-draw or four-draw filing cabinet.

At present, filing cabinets are made by welding together a number of components and then post-painting the assembled cabinet. The necessity to weld together the components and then to post-paint the assembled cabinet makes the assembly of filing cabinets a time consuming and relatively complicated procedure. In addition, it is a procedure that can only be carried out effectively at a factory site and therefore it is not an option to market kits of the components for customers to purchase and assemble. As a consequence, it is necessary to transport assembled filing cabinets rather than kits of components from the factory to retail outlets and this is a disadvantage in terms of freight costs.

An object of the present invention is to provide a filing cabinet which alleviates the disadvantages of the -known filing cabinets described in the preceding paragraph.

According to the present invention there is provided a cabinet comprising, a cabinet housing having an open front to allow access therein, the cabinet housing being formed from side wall panels, a rear wall panel, a top wall panel, a base wall panel, and upper and lower interlocking members snap-locked at least to the side and rear wall panels and thereby releasably holding together the panels .

It is preferred that each interlocking member comprises a continuous band.

It is preferred that the side and rear wall panels each comprise a first part of a snap-lock assembly and that the bands each comprise a second part of the snap- lock assembly, and the bands are snap-locked to the side and rear walls by snap-locking the second parts to the first parts of the snap-lock assembly.

It is preferred that the first parts of the snap- lock assembly be located at the upper sections of the side and rear wall panels and at the lower section of the side and rear wall panels.

It is preferred particularly that the first parts of the snap-lock assembly comprise projections pressed from the plane of each side and rear wall panel.

With such an arrangement it is preferred that the second parts of the snap-lock assembly comprise a channel which receives the sections of the side and rear wall panels that include the projections.

It is preferred particularly that the channel comprises an opening that is narrower than the width of the sections of the side and rear wall panels that include the projections.

It is more particularly preferred that the channel comprises a side wall which in use deflects resiliently outwardly to widen the opening to allow insertion into the channel of the sections of the side and rear wall panels that include the projections.

It is preferred that each band forms a generally rectangular hoop where the corners of the hoop are chamfered.

It is preferred that the interlocking members be

snap-locked to the top and base wall panels.

It is preferred that the side edges of the side and rear wall panels comprise complementary interlocking members, and the side edges of the rear wall panels are interlocked with adjacent side edges of the side wall panels .

It is preferred that the cabinet be a filing cabinet.

According to the present invention there is also provided a kit of parts comprising, side, rear, top, and base wall panels, and upper and lower interlocking members to form the cabinet housing of the cabinet described in the preceding paragraphs.

The present invention is described further by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of two-draw filing cabinet in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of a cabinet housing of the filing cabinet shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a horizontal section of one of the side wall panels of the cabinet housing shown in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a plan view illustrating the outline of a metal sheet prior to folding along the dotted lines to form the side wall panel shown in section in Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a horizontal section of the rear wall panel of the cabinet housing shown in Figure 2;

Figure 6 is a plan view illustrating the outline of a metal sheet prior to folding along the dotted lines to form the rear wall panel shown in section in Figure 5;

Figure 7 is a perspective view of a base wall panel of the cabinet housing shown in Figure 2;

Figure 8 is a plan view of the base wall panel shown in Figure 7;

Figure 9 is a perspective view of a top wall panel of the cabinet housing shown in Figure 2;

Figure 10 is a plan view of the base wall panel shown in Figure 9;

Figure 11 is a perspective view of one of the interlocking bands of the cabinet housing shown in Figure 2; and

Figure 12 is a vertical section along the line 12-12 in Figure 11 illustrating the snap-lock profile of the band.

The two-draw filing cabinet 3 shown in Figure 1 comprises a cabinet housing, generally identified by the numeral 5, and a set of two drawers 7 received in the cabinet housing 5.

The filing cabinet 3 is generally conventional in external appearance with the exception that the corners 9 are chamfered to improve the rigidity of the unit and for aesthetic reasons.

The cabinet housing 5 of the two-draw filing cabinet 3 shown in exploded form in Figure 2 comprises, two side wall panels 11, a rear wall panel 13, a top wall panel

15, a base wall panel 17, and upper and lower interlocking members in the form of continuous bands 19.

As will be described in more detail hereinafter, the bands 19 are snap-locked to the side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13, 15, 17, and thereby hold the panels together, and thus the cabinet 5 is assembled without welding.

The side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13,

15, 17 are rolled-formed from COLORBOND sheet material. By way of example, Figures 4 and 6 illustrate the outlines of the sheet metal required to form the side and rear wall panels 11, 13. In addition, the dotted lines on the figures indicate the fold lines for forming the required profiles of the side and rear wall panels 11, 13 as shown in Figures 3 and 5, respectively.

With reference to Figures 7 to 10, the top and base wall panels 15, 17 are generally rectangular in configuration and each panel comprises a flat panel 31 and flanges 33 extending from the edges of the flat panel 31.

The snap-locking of the bands 19 to the side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13, 15, 17 is achieved by the complementary action of:

(a) a series of projections 41 pressed from:

(i) the upper and lower sections of the side wall panels 11;

(ii) the upper section of the rear wall panel 13;

(iii) the flanges 33 of the top wall panel 15; and

(iv) the front flange 31 of the base wall panel 17; and

(b) a plurality of channel members 29 formed in the bands 19 to receive the projections 41.

With regard to item (b) above, each band 19 is in the form of a generally rectangular hoop configuration with elongate sections 25 interconnected by chamfered corners 9. As can best be seen in Figure 12, the profile of the elongate sections 25 comprises a front face 27 and upper and lower channels 29 which are parallel with the front face 27 and are formed with restricted openings 45 formed by inturned flanges 51. The channels 29 are sufficiently wide to receive the increased width of the sections of the side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13, 15, 17 which include the projections 41. However, the restricted openings 45 are sufficiently narrow so that the side walls of the channels that define the restricted openings 45 must be deflected resiliently outwardly to allow the projections 41 to be inserted therethrough into the channels 29.

It can readily be appreciated that, once inserted, the restricted openings 45 prevent removal of the sections of the side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13, 15, 17 which include the projections 41 from the channels 29.

It can also readily be appreciated that the side, rear, top and base wall panels 11, 13, 15, 17 can be released from the channels 29 by forcing open the restricted openings 45.

With reference to Figures 3 and 5, each end section of the side wall panel 11 is folded to define the chamfered corners 9 of the assembled cabinet housing and to form a return flange 21 at the terminal end, and each end

section of the rear wall panel 13 is folded to form a channel 23. The assembly of the return flanges 21 and channels 23 is formed so that the return flanges 21 can be positioned to extend into the channels 23 thereby to interlock the side and rear wall panels 11, 13.

The cabinet housing 5 has a number of advantages over known filing cabinet housings.

For example, the cabinet housing 5 can be formed from pre-painted sheet metal and assembled without the necessity to weld together the components of the cabinet housing 5.

In addition, as a consequence of the foregoing, the cabinet housing 5 can be transported in a disassembled form and assembled on site.

Furthermore, the separate components of the cabinet housing 5 can be packaged to prevent damage to the outer faces of the cabinet housing 5 during transportation.

Many modifications may be made to the preferred embodiment described with reference to the drawings without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

By way of example, whilst the preferred embodiment comprises upper and lower bands 19, it can readily be appreciated that the present invention is not so limited and extends to any suitable form of interlocking members .

Furthermore, whilst the preferred embodiment comprises the use of a snap-lock assembly comprising complementary channels 29 on the bands 19 and projections 41 on the side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13, 15,

17, it can readily be appreciated that the present invention is not so limited and extends to any suitable form of snap-lock assembly. By way of example, the present invention extends to arrangements in which, rather than forming projections, the upper and lower sections of the side wall panels 11, the upper section of the rear wall panel 13, the flanges 33 of the top wall panel 15, and the front flange 31 of the base wall panel 17, are folded over to form wider sections for insertion into the channels 29. With such arrangements projections 41 are not required.

Furthermore, whilst the preferred embodiment comprises a particular arrangement of the projections 41 of the snap-lock assembly it can readily be appreciated that the present invention is not so limited and extends to any suitable arrangement of projections on the side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13, 15, 17.

Furthermore, whilst the preferred embodiment is formed from pre-painted roll-formed side, rear, top, and base wall panels 11, 13, 15, 17, it can readily be appreciated that the present invention is not so limited and could be formed from any suitable form of panel.

Finally, whilst the preferred embodiment is described in terms of a two-draw filing cabinet, it can readily be appreciated that the present invention is not so limited and extends to filing cabinets having numbers of drawers other than two and to cabinets generally.