The present invention relates to a cabinet to be joined to a wall, which cabinet comprises side walls and a back wall of the cabinet.

It is known to make cabinets and cabinet fix¬ tures where wall cabinets and floor cabinets always constitute two separate units. The back walls of these cabinets are made of 3 mm painted hard cardboard and provided with one or several binding ribs for keeping together the separate walls and serving as a fastening means for the cabinets at the same time. The wall and floor cabinets cannot be joined together to one unit. The existing system requires that the floor and wall surfaces to which the cabinets shall be mounted are perpendicular to each other. The walls shall be coated and even and comprise measured fastening means for the mounting of each separate cabinet.

The current cabinet system is associated with many drawbacks and deficiencies. In addition to the high demands on mounting surfaces, the cabinets are difficult to mount, because each of them shall be fastened sepa¬ rately. The wall cabinet shall be supported in some way, while it is fastened to the wall. If the wall surface against which the mounting takes place is not suffici¬ ently even or straight, the cabinets have to be wedged, or actually, the wall has to be straightened before the mounting can start.

By means of the present invention, the problems associated with the current cabinet system are avoided.

The invention is based on the idea that the mounting of cabinet fixtures could be made more flex¬ ible, if it were possible to eliminate or evade the problems caused by the requirement for even and perpen- dicular surfaces in some way. Additionally, it shall be

possible to make the assembly of cabinet fixtures as flexible as possible.

In the following, a cabinet fixture signifies a unity comprising a plurality of wall and/or floor cabinets as well as tall cabinets. Fitments of a cabinet are e.g. the shelves, drawers, baskets and similar racks as well as the door with which the cabinet may be pro¬ vided. On the other hand, a cabinet consists of frame portions comprising e.g. a cabinet back wall, side walls and bottom and top boards.

A cabinet according to the present invention is characterized in that the cabinet back wall extends above the cabinet so as to constitute the surface material of the wall. One or several cabinets or tall cabinets may be mounted to the back of the cabinet. It is also possi¬ ble to construct a cabinet or a cabinet fixture in such a way that the cabinet back wall consists of at least two vertically parallel portions. The sides of the cabinet back wall are provided with recesses, e.g. borings, to which recesses frames of the cabinet are fastened. The cabinets may also be joined together by means of joint strips made of plastic or wood, which are engaged into the recesses in the sides of the cabinet back wall.

The cabinet back wall is preferably manufac¬ tured of the same material as the cabinet frames so that the cabinet back walls can serve, for instance, as a surface material for a spired wall frame or as a wall surface, when the cabinet fixture is positioned to stand freely in a space.

In order that wall and floor cabinets may be positioned according to various national standards, the cabinet frames are displaceable in the recesses provided in the sides of the cabinet back.

Cabinets made according to the present inven¬ tion can be used in different manners, mainly as fix¬ tures in apartments. A fixture system can be mounted against all types of constructions without injuring the constructions. For instance, the mounting can be per¬ formed in a so-called "landscaped office", when no mounting walls at all exist, or against spired wall constructions, in which the spiring is made of wood or sheet metal and the wall has no surface coating. Uneven and oblique walls, such as log and concrete walls, do not prevent mounting. There is no need to prime the mounting surfaces before starting mounting.

The structure of a combination of wall and floor cabinets at one cabinet back wall is novel, both as far as joining together fixture units and combining cabinet units are concerned. The system starts from the fact that a fixture comprises in most cases wall and floor cabinets. The novel system, with a compact board of the same material as the rest of the frame, e.g. a 15 mm melamine board, constituting the back wall of either a combination of wall and floor cabinets or of a separate cabinet or a tall cabinet, makes the con¬ struction more solid and flexible in its technical im¬ plementation. By means of fixture units consisting of combined cabinet units, it is possible to build a self- supporting wall by joining the elements into each other laterally. The joining together occurs by means of sys¬ tematic re- cesses in the sides of the cabinet back wall, which recesses constitute fixing points for the cabinet frame portions at the same time. All outer sur¬ faces of the cabinet are unperforated and provided with a surface layer of the same material as the rest of the frame. In the combination, between the cabinets and also above the wall cabinet, is positioned a strip provided

with pins or similar fastening means as well as system¬ atic recesses for this purpose.

The main purpose of this system has been to provide as few basic components as possible, but still maintain and increase the number of different cabinets in this system. The system comprises a number of basic components as well as a joint and corner strip of wood or cast in plastic.

By means of the fixture system described in the present invention, a plurality of significant advantages are achieved compared with the current manner of build¬ ing fixtures. The invention offers possibilities of mounting a fixture to all types of wall constructions. Because the mounting of cabinets provides a covering fixture from floor to ceiling, this fixture can be used as a cover board system instead of the gypsum or par¬ ticle boards generally used. On the basis of this, a smaller quantity of building components are required, which lowers the building costs, on the other hand. Since the basic components of the system are manufac¬ tured of the same material, it is also possible to achieve a saving of up to 20 % of the number of frame portions, which means additional savings.

A whole and clean backside for cabinet fixture units is provided by the jointing system, in which the joints between the frame portions of a cabinet on the one hand and the various fixture units on the other hand are made by fastening means to the side edges of the cabinet back wall. The backside is easy to surface, e.g. paint or paper, if necessary. The utilization of fasten¬ ing means for the joints together with the high cabinet back wall make the construction solid. The cabinet or the cabinet fixture is easy to handle, there is no need to be afraid of that the construction may bend, which

risk exists in case of cabinets manufactured according to the prior art technique.

The possibility of dividing the cabinet back wall into several vertically parallel portions joined together by means of a joint strip, makes the assembly of different cabinet fixtures very flexible. Wall and floor cabinets may be positioned freely, without the side walls of the cabinets having to follow the same vertical lines, i.e. it is possible to "cross" the cabi- nets. The invention does not set any limits to how a cabinet fixture unit shall be planned.

The system provides a quicker assembly of the frames. On the basis of quick assembly and simple con¬ struction, it is possible to transport the cabinet fix- tures as boards and to perform the whole mounting work on the building site. In this manner, transportation space and costs are saved considerably. Additionally, manufacturers of melamine components may supply brand manufacturers with complete deliveries of components and still handle a smaller amount of components. The fixture may be mounted equally well to all constructions, such as log walls, sheet metal or wood spired walls, non¬ existent walls, laminated walls and oblique concrete walls, without injuring them. The novel fixture provides a quicker mounting resulting in an improved correspon¬ dence to dimensions. Very small variations in mounting tolerances can be achieved.

The cabinet fixture is intended for various fields of use, for instance: - reconditioning of older apartments,

- volume house manufacturers,

- small house manufacturers and

- building and housing projects of temporary nature, the fixture to be demounted and redis- tributed after use.

In the following, the invention will be de¬ scribed in greater detail with reference to the drawing, in which

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a cabinet -.- fixture,

Figure 2 shows an exploded view of the cabinet fixture of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a cabinet fixture, in which the wall and floor cabinets are crossed,

Figure 4 shows a corner strip,

Figure 5 shows a cross-section of the corner strip of Figure 4,

Figure 6 shows a joint strip, and Figure 7 shows a cross-section of the joint strip of Figure 6.

Figures 1 and 2 show basic components and structure of a cabinet fixture. The cabinet fixture comprises a cabinet back wall 1, the side edge of which is provided with systematic recesses, to which are joined side walls 2 and 3 of a wall cabinet and side walls 6 and 7 of a floor cabinet with fastening means, such as pins. The wall cabinet additionally comprises a bottom 5 and a top 4 as well as fitments not shown. The floor cabinet likewise comprises a bottom 8 and a support strip 9, to which a sinkboard or a top surface may be joined; fitments of the cabinet are not shown. By means of joint/corner strips 11 shown in Figures 4 to 7, two adjacent fixture units are joined to each other in such a way that the fastening means in a strip are engaged into the recesses in the cabinet back wall to form a solid joint. The fixture unit may also be finished by means of these strips. The strips 11 are e.g. cast in plastic or they are wood strips coated with

melamine and provided with fastening means 12, such as pins of wood.

The system with the fixed cabinet back wall 1 agrees with the measure standards of the most countries, as far as distances between wall and floor cabinets are concerned, thanks to the fact that the side edges of the cabinet back wall 1 are provided with the systematic recesses 10, preferably borings. As described above, the recesses serve as a jointing system between adjacent fixture units by utilizing joint strips and also as the points at which the "displaceable" wall cabinet and floor cabinet are attached to the cabinet back wall 1. The basic idea of this system consists in the self-sup¬ porting cabinet back wall 1 having various properties and in combining various frame portions and strips thereto by utilizing fastening means.

The corner and joint strips 11 shown in the Figures 4 to 7 are manufactured of plastic cast in one piece and provided with about 8 mm fastening means 12, for example plastic pins fastened afterwards. The strip and the fastening means may also be cast in one piece. Alternatively, the strips are manufactured e.g. of wood coated with melamine and provided with recesses for the about 8 mm fastening means 12, e.g. pins of wood. At the assembly of cabinets, the fastening means 12 are engaged into the recesses 10 or the like provided in the sides of the cabinet back wall 1. The corner strips are used for joining together cabinet backs positioned at an angle of 90° with each other. They may also be used for finishing a unity of cabinet fixtures. The strips 11 are delivered in desired lengths for the various systems for distances between the wall and floor cabinets.

Figure 3 shows how combinations of cabinets can be implemented irrespective of the breadths of wall and floor cabinets, respectively. This is due to the basic

components of the system. The breadth of elements la, lb, lc, Id of the cabinet back wall are selected in such a way that the position of joint 13a, 13b, 13c in the cabinet back wall will be correct for mounting cabinets having the selected cabinet breadth.

The invention is not restricted to the embodi¬ ment described above, but several variations are possi¬ ble within the scope of the idea of the invention set forth in the attached claims. So, for instance, a cabi- net fixture may be manufactured of many different mate¬ rials without being restricted to wood only. Likewise, the number of cabinets to be mounted to the cabinet back wall is not restricted, but the number of cabinets or tall cabinets may be one or more. Fitments of the cabi- nets are freely selectable, they are not restricted in any way by the described cabinet system.