The invention relates to prefab furniture consisting of a number of vertical and horizontal standard compo¬ nents of suitable material for connecting.

Such prefab furniture is known in all kinds of embodiments but have the drawback that they are either difficult to assemble or are made up of expensive ele¬ ments.

The invention has for its object to provide prefab furniture which can be assembled to a plurality of furni- ture forms with simple system components, and wherein there is free use of coverings and these are easy for the user to arrange in a known manner of fastening.

Prefab furniture according to the invention is distinguished in that a vertical part is formed by a shell which has recesses distributed along the periphery for closely-sized receiving a horizontal elongate part, this such that a spatial frame is formed.

Through use of shell-like vertical parts and hori¬ zontal elongate parts in the form of profiles, for in- stance extrusion profiles, assembly of the furniture is limited to the minimum. Such components can moreover be easily manufactured from plastic material, whereby it is possible to provide construction kits which are light in weight and easy to transport by the user. The filling materials such as cushions for backs, seats and arm rests can be chosen at random and can likewise be fixed to the spatial frame of the furniture by simple connecting means, for instance undercut recess¬ es. Above mentioned and other features will be further elucidated in the figure description hereinbelow of an embodiment of the prefab furniture according to the invention. In the drawing: fig. 1 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the prefab furniture according to the invention with partly broken away parts to elucidate the assembly,

fig. 2 shows a perspective view of the spatial frame of the chair of fig. 1 with exploded parts, fig. 3 shows a detail of the connection between a horizontal elongate part and a vertical shell part of the frame, fig. 4 shows an assembly of the seat, respectively back surface suitable for the prefab furniture of fig. 1, fig. 5 shows a detail of a second possible embodi¬ ment of a connection between a horizontal elongate part and a vertical shell part, fig. 6 shows a third embodiment of a connection between a horizontal elongate part and a vertical shell part, fig. 7 is a perspective view of the spatial frame of another embodiment of prefab furniture according to the invention, with exploded parts.

Designated in fig. 1 with the numeral 1 is the vertical shell part and with the numeral 2 a horizontal elongate part which is coupled to the vertical shell part in a manner to be elucidated below. The vertical shell part and/or the horizontal parts are covered with a filling of for instance foam material which can take any random form and can be adapted to the furniture to be obtained. The numeral 3 designates the seat surface and numer¬ al 4 the back surface of the furniture.

A number of points are further shown in detail in fig. 2.

The shell-like standing part of the spatial frame of the prefab furniture according to the invention is sub¬ stantially L-shaped and consists of a lower part 5 and an upright rear part 6. The shell part can be manufactured from plastic material and in accordance with the injec¬ tion moulding method. It can further be seen in fig. 2 that the vertical standing part is formed by two mirror-symmetrically formed shell parts 5 and 5' which are arranged against one another. The mutually facing sides can be hollow, whereby the weight of the total vertical part iε limited considerably.

Arranged along the periphery of the shell-like part are recesses 7 which serve for fixing the horizontal elongate parts to be further described hereinafter. Recesses, designated with 8, can further be arranged in the surface of the shell . Recesses 7 and 8 run through the surface of the shell so that a continuous connection can be formed.

It is also possible to arrange recesses in the surface of shell 5 which are designated with 9. The horizontal parts 2 are preferably profile ele¬ ments which are shown in fig. 2 as I-profiles. It will be apparent that within the scope of the invention random profiles are possible and also solid profiles, as shown in fig. 6. Each recess 7 in the periphery of the shell 5 is an opening widening toward the outside, so that when two shells are assembled a narrowed section 10 is obtained in the middle of the standing part. By likewise profiling the ends of each horizontal element such that this coin- cides with the shape of recess 7, a very robust connec¬ tion between the horizontal part and the vertical part can be effected in simple manner. Tensile forces in horizontal sense are absorbed by the profiled end por¬ tions of the horizontal parts. In the case use is made of plastic, it is recommend¬ ed to arrange a connecting member 11 between the horizon¬ tal parts and the recess 7 of the shells. These connect¬ ing members 11 also serve to mutually join the shell-like parts 5 for a standing vertical part, as shown in fig. 2. It is noted that the recesses 8 are embodied on the upper side with a widened recess 8' whereby it is possi¬ ble to insert the profiled heads of the horizontal parts 2 through the shell and subsequently move them downward as according to arrow PI, see fig. 2, to obtain the desired connection. If desired, additional connecting members 12 can be arranged which are shown in fig. 2 on the rear side of the standing part.

The seat surface respectively back surface 3 , 4 of the chair is shown in detail in fig. 4 in a possible embodiment .

The seat portion 3 consists of a tubular element which can be formed from suitable material, for instance hard foam material . The tubular part is closed at either end by partitions 15 which are fastened to the tubular part 3 by for instance a pin-hole connection 16. The tubular part also has undercut groove-like recesses 17 which co-act with continuous strips which end in corre¬ spondingly shaped recesses 18 of the partitions. These strips can run over the full width of the chair when a number of these elements are fitted adjacently of each other.

Such a strip is shown on the left in fig. 4 and designated with the numeral 18.

The back part 4 can be constructed in similar man- ner.

The space in the tubular part 3 can if desired be filled with a foam material of a softer quality.

The back surface respectively seat surfaces 3, 4 of the furniture are supported on the horizontal parts 2, as can be seen in fig. 1.

A possible connection between the end surfaces 15 and the shell parts 1 can be effected by means of con¬ necting pieces 19 which have a dovetail form in cross section and half of which fits into the undercut recess 20 in the end partition and half into the undercut recess 9 of the shell. A closely-sized connection between the different elements can thus be realized in simple manner and the chair can be assembled in random manner.

Fig. 5 shows an embodiment of the horizontal parts running continuously along a standing shell 1. For this purpose a part of the horizontal profile part is embodied in a special manner in order to bring about the undercut closely-sized connection to recess 7.

Fig. 6 shows an embodiment wherein the horizontal profile part takes a solid form and consists for instance of a wooden beam.

The whole item of furniture can be covered with a random covering which can be stretched and fixed in suitable manner as slip cover round the back and seat

surfaces and the arm parts. The covering can of course have any random design.

The second embodiment of a prefab furniture system according to the invention shown in fig. 7 comprises: shells 31, horizontal elongate elements 32, seat surface element 33, back surface element 34, arm rests 40 and a rear cover plate 45.

Recesses 37 are arranged through the shells 31, which recesses 37 consist of a wide portion for passage of the horizontal elongate elements 32 and a narrow portion in which the ends of the horizontal elongate elements 32 are coupled to the shells 31. The horizontal elongat J elements 32 which have ->. beam-shaped profile are provided at the ends with slots (not shown) and the inner side of the narrow portion of the recesses 37 in shells 31 are provided with ridges (not shown) which co-act with these slots . During assembly of the prefab furniture according to the invention the beam-shaped elements 32 are guided through the wide portion of recesses 37 of a shell 31 to the wide portion of recesses 37 in the other shell 31 such that the slots in the beam-shaped elementε are brought into line with the ridges in the narrow portion of recesses 37, whereafter the beam-shaped ele¬ ments 32 can be pushed over the ridges in the narrow portion of the recesses 37. As a result movement of the beam-shaped elements 32 in their lengthwise direction is not possible. The beam-shaped elements 32 supporting the seat surface element 33 are pushed in opposing direction into the narrow portions of recesses 37 so that displace- ent in the direction of the seat surface is not possible when the seat surface element 33 is placed with recesses 35 over the beam-shaped elements 32, wherein the gripping elements (not shown) fixed to the seat surface element 33 connect onto the beam-shaped elements 32. Likewise the beam-shaped elements 32 supporting the back surface element 34 are pushed in opposing direction into the narrow portions of recesseε 37 so that displacement in the direction of the back surface is not posεible when the back surface element 34 is placed with the receεses 36 over beam-shaped elements 32, wherein the gripping

elements 38 fixed to the back surface element 34 connect onto the beam-shaped elements 32. The arm rests 40 are provided with hook elements 41 which hook behind the wide portion of the recesses 37 on the inside of the prefab furniture so that arm rests 40 are coupled to shells 31. Slots 46 in the sides of the rear cover plate 45 co-act with the flange 42 on the rear of shells 31 so that rear cover plate 45 can be fastened to the prefab furniture. The invention is not limited to the above described embodiments. Another embodiment of the invention is for instance a multi-seat item of furniture, for example a settee or sofa, wherein the horizontal elements take a longer form than shown in the above described embodi¬ ments. In this way more vertical shell parts can be arranged at a mutual distance. It is likewise possible to adapt the height of the prefab furniture by arranging foot pieces under the shells on the underside of the assembled prefab furniture. In order to secure the hori¬ zontal elongate elements in their lengthwise direction into the narrow portions of the recesses in the shells use can also be made of a clamping system, wherein springs or wedge-shaped resilient plates arranged above and below the horizontal elongate elements in the narrow portions of the recesses clamp the horizontal elements.