Description

Invention Background:

This invention belongs to the scope of household and office furniture and appliances, where it is considered as a specialized cabinet to contain and operate electrical appliances.

The main idea behind this invention is to provide the means to place medium and small electrical appliances that are most used in hotels, offices and homes, such as mini fridge, microwave, electrical kettle, coffee maker, etc., within a stylish, easy-to- use cabinet that can be placed anywhere, and connected to one power outlet, since the cabinet has built-in internal and external electric outlets to feed each appliance.

Despite the simplicity of the idea behind this invention, there is currently no similar product in the local or global markets that serves the same function.

Detailed Description:

This invention (the electric appliances cabinet) is a cabinet specially designed for the containment and operation of medium and small size electrical appliances, and it can be used in hotel rooms, offices, shops, and homes. See Figure (1) for the general design and external dimensions of the cabinet.

The pictures in Figure (2) show a full prototype cabinet that was manufactured and tested using mini-fridge, microwave, electric kettle, sandwich grille, and coffee maker, as shown.

The benefits provided by this invention are:

1. Possibility of placing the most used electrical appliances by the user in any convenient place, without the need to design a special place for them or confine them inside the kitchen, and without the need for a large space area.

2. Hiding all electrical wiring of the appliance inside the cabinet, with just one cable feeding the cabinet from one wall socket, which minimizes the required electrical sockets and preserves the beauty of the place by eliminating any tangled wires.

3. The cabinet looks stylish and can be provided in selected colors. It also has two blue LED Lighting stripes (or other color) built-in into its door, which can serve as a night light in hotel rooms for example, making it a piece of special elegance and an addition to the aesthetics of the place.

4. In addition to the appliances mentioned above, many other types of electrical devices can be placed in the cabinet, such as DVD and sound systems, tablets and iPads, and similar devices. Evan a small LCD TV can be placed on the top of the cabinet and connected to its external electrical outlet, shown in figure (3).

The cabinet is made of many specially designed parts with specific dimensions to suite its purpose and functionality. It consists of the following main components:

❖ Built-in power outlets inside the cabinet (3 nos.) and outside (1 no.) to feed the appliances placed inside it and on its top, as shown in Figure (3)

❖ The cabinet frame is made of aluminum tubes with a profile specially designed to join the cabinet parts together and to contain the electrical wires and outlets, as shown in Figure (4)

❖ The cabinet sides, back, top, floor, and shelves are all made of rigid fiber panels or thick wood panels. The back panel contains a matrix of small circular openings for ventilating hot air from the appliances. See Figure (5)

❖ To make the cabinet suitable for any appliance size, the shelves are made removable where they can be located at any height as needed, as shown in

Figure (6)

❖ The cabinet frame corners are made of solid plastic pieces designed specifically for the cabinet. See Figure (7)

❖ The closet door is made of aluminum with a glass board in its center to see the appliances inside the closet. See figures (1) and (2).

❖ The cabinet door has two blue LED Lighting stripes (or other color) built in in the door at each side of the glass panel. See Figure (8) for the location of the LED lighting stripes. In addition to all the above, the cabinet parts are designed so that it can be detached and assembled like Legos, where the pieces join with each other without the need for screws (or by using minimum screws). See Figure (9) for clarification.

The cabinet design has also taken into consideration its packaging and shipping, where it can be placed in a relatively small package as separate parts, which can be easily assembled by the end user. This is a common procedure for major furniture manufacturers to save shipping and transportation costs. See Figure (10) for an illustration of the cabinet packaging method.

Drawings:

Figure (1): General cabinet form and its external dimensions

Figure (2): Examples of the electrical appliances that can be used with the cabinet.

Figure (3): Built-in power outlets (sockets): (a) internal outlets, (b) external outlets, and (c) the cabinet input electric cable.

Figure (4): The cabinet frame made of aluminum tubes: (a) vertical main tubes, (b) aluminum profile (section) used, and (c) electrical socket fixing in the aluminum tube.

Figure (5): Hot air vents in the cabinet back panel.

Figure (6): The adjustable height shelfs fixing method.

Figure (7): The special plastic parts for corners and for joining aluminum tubes

Figure (8): LED lighting stripe, (a) the LED feeding wire, and (b) the LED stripe location in the cabinet door.

Figure (9): Method of detaching and assembling cabinet parts without screws, shown in steps 1 to 4.

Figure (10): Packaging method of the cabinet, (a) dimensions of the package, and

(b) the dismantled cabinet parts inside the package.