Equipped wall system DESCRIPTION

Technical field

The present invention relates to an equipped wall system in accordance with the characteristic features set out in the preamble of the main claim. Technological background

One of the main applications of equipped wall systems of the type described here is to fit out premises for both commercial and domestic use; these walls may be used as divider members for rooms, support members for display structures or may even be placed against the normal walls of premises to enable their functional use.

These wall systems are typically provided with engagement means in which a range of accessories provided with appropriate hooking means can be engaged. The engagement and hooking means are embodied so that they can be rapidly engaged and disengaged to enable efficient replacement of the accessories mounted on the equipped wall system.

A drawback of this known kind of equipped wall system lies in the fact that the engagement means provided on the wall are normally compatible with only one kind of hooking means, which substantially limits the possibility of using components bearing hooking means even of slightly different form.

A typical example of this drawback is represented by the case of equipped wall systems provided with a series of parallel and vertically extending striplike battens in which openings disposed in a spaced manner

are provided and form seats adapted to receive respective hooking members provided on accessories, such as shelves and brackets. To ensure the necessary stability of the coupling, each batten is normally engaged by two or more hooking members aligned with one another and spaced to a predetermined extent.

It will be appreciated that the accessory can be mounted on the wall system only if the spacing between the openings provided in the batten is a sub-multiple of the distance between the hooking members.

This fact generally precludes any possibility of mounting accessories whose hooking members are spaced to a different extent on the same equipped wall system. Description of the invention

The problem underlying the present invention is that of providing an equipped wall system which is structurally and functionally designed to remedy the drawbacks described above with reference to the cited prior art.

This problem is resolved by the present invention by means of an equipped wall system embodied in accordance with the accompanying claims.

Brief description of the drawings The characteristic features and advantages of the invention are set out in further detail in the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, shown by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view of an equipped wall system embodied in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view, on an enlarged scale and partially exploded, of a detail of the wall system of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view, on an enlarged scale, of a further detail of the wall system of Fig. 1. Preferred embodiment of the invention

In the drawings, an equipped wall system in accordance with the invention is shown overall by 1.

The wall system 1 comprises a pair of panels 2 borne by a bearing structure shown overall by 3 and comprising two or a plurality of uprights 4. With reference to normal manner in which the wall system 1 is arranged in use, it comprises an upper edge 6a, a lower edge 6b, opposing lateral edges 7 and opposing main surfaces 5 formed by the panels 2.

The uprights 4 are made from a profiled metal member, for instance of aluminium, a series of grooves 8 being provided on its outer surfaces. The uprights 4 are preferably of telescopic type with two sections 4a,

4b sliding in one another which can be locked in a selected position so that the upright 4 can be positioned between the floor and the ceiling of the room in which the wall system 1 is to be installed.

It will be appreciated that this characteristic feature advantageously enables the wall system 1 to be installed rapidly, firmly and efficiently without the need for external locking connections and also enables the wall system 1 just as simply to be dismantled, moved and re-installed in another position or in another room.

The wall system 1 also comprises engagement means, shown overall by 10 adapted to be detachably engaged in connection with corresponding

hooking means 10a provided on an accessory, shown in Fig. 1, for example, as shelves 11. In the preferred embodiment described here, both the main surfaces 5 may be visible surfaces of the wall system 1 as a result of which the engagement means are appropriately disposed on both surfaces. Of course, the wall system 1 may have a single visible surface and therefore the engagement means may be provided only on this surface.

The hooking means 10a provided on the shelf 11 are, for instance, of the type with three vertically aligned hooks, known per se, adapted to engage in connection with a corresponding connection member 12 of the engagement means 10.

In particular, in the case of the hooking means described above, the connection member 12 comprises a striplike batten 13 provided with a plurality of through holes 14, for instance of rectangular section and disposed in a spaced manner in a longitudinal direction thereof. The spacing between the holes 14 is advantageously a sub-multiple of the distance between the hooks of the shelf 11.

The batten 13 is housed in a seat 15 provided in the upright 4, in particular at the location of the main surface 5.

The batten 13 and the respective seat 15 preferably extend along the whole vertical extension of the upright 4 substantially between the upper edge and the lower edge 6a, 6b of the wall 1 so that the shelf 11 can be disposed at any height of the wall.

The seat 15 is formed by a pair of guides 16, of C-shaped section, facing one another, in which the opposing longitudinal flanks 17 of the batten 13 are housed in a sliding manner. To enable access to the holes 14

by the hooks of the shelf 11, the seat 15 has a front opening 18 facing the main surface 5 and bounded laterally by a pair of shoulders 19 of the upright 4 which abut against and support the flanks of the panel 2.

According to an aspect of the invention, the seat 15 housing the batten 13 is closed at the lower edge 6b of the wall 1, but is open at the upper edge 6a thereof. In this way, the batten 13 is housed in the seat 15 in a removable manner and can in particular be removed from the seat by extraction from the top of the upright 4 as shown partially in Fig. 2.

It will be appreciated that the seat 15 may also be closed at the top by a cover pressed into the seat 15 or by other methods which nevertheless enable it to be readily removed.

As a result of the arrangements described above, the batten 13 may be readily removed from the seat 15 and replaced by another batten. This means that the battens and therefore the engagement means of the wall 1 are advantageously interchangeable so that, when necessary, a batten which is similar but has holes of different dimension and/or spacing from that of the batten 13 may be inserted. It will be appreciated that shelves or other accessories having hooking means differing from those of the shelf 11 may in this way be connected, thereby making the composition of the wall more flexible.

The present invention therefore resolves the problem described above with reference to the cited prior art.