The present invention relates to a piece of storage furniture such as a cabinet, a set of shelves or the like, comprising two or more individual shelves which are mutually spaced by means of spacers, said shelves having at edges corresponding to each other, fittings which are mounted to the shelves and form a channel for receiving therein a panel spanning the space between the shelves.

It has already been proposed (Swiss patent specification 414,972) to arrange on such storage furniture detachably mounted fittings with channels for receiving slide doors at the front side of the storage furniture. Then, the storage furniture obtain stability partly by the arrangement of a framework and partly by mounting said framework against a wall and providing the framework with end walls fastened by screws. Said fittings are attached to the framework or to a panel which terminates the storage furniture at the top or bottom. The fittings in said latter alternative are detachably mounted to the panel by the fittings straddling the front edge of the panel and are flush with the top and bottom sides of the panel. The prior art storage furniture are difficult to mount and must be "tailored" for the intended purpose; the possibilities of modifying the storage furniture in order to satisfy other functional demands are very limited.

The Swedish patent specification 27,574 describes a set of shelves wherein the shelves are mutually spaced by means of spacers and have at two edges corresponding to each other grooves for receiving therein slide doors, which span the space between the shelves. The grooves are arranged directly in the shelves. The stabilization of the set of shelves is obtained by means of partitions

connected to the spacers.

The purpose of the invention is to provide a piece of storage furniture of the kind referred to which facilitates the production and can be produced as standardized units which can be put together to form a compact package so that the furniture can be sold by retail sale in shops and department stores and can be easily mounted according to the make-it-yourself principle to form a piece of furniture which is inherently stable and which has the desired character and is intended for a definite purpose. At the same time there is the possibility of modifying at a later occasion the piece of furniture in many different ways by simple measures when other demands present themselves. Then, it should be possible to effect the mounting without using screws, nails or other fasteners.

For the purpose mentioned above the piece of storage furniture according to the invention has obtained the characteristics appearing from, claim 1. It is achieved by the invention that the storage furniture will be very stable by way of the panels inserted into the fittings between the shelves without the need of a frame structure which is more or less complicated, several possibilities at the same time presenting themselves as to the variation of the appearance of the storage furniture in order to satisfy individual aesthetical and/or functional demands.

In order to illustrate the invention an embodiment thereof will be described in more detail below, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a set of storage shelves according to one embodiment of the inven¬ tion, FIG. 2 is a horizontal cross-sectional view of the

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set of storage shelves in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view along line III - III in FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view similar to that in FIG. 3 of another embodiment of the fittings and the attachment thereof, and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of another arrangement of the set of storage shelves according to the invention. The set of storage shelves shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 in the drawings comprises a number of parallel shelves 10 arranged one above the other mutually spaced. Bars 11 with tubes 12 passed onto said bars extend through the shelves, the ends of the tubes being engaged with the shelves to form spacers therebetween. The bars 11 are attached in a suitable manner to the uppermost and lowermost shelves. A desired number of shelves may be provided and the shelves can have desired dimensions; the number of bars must of course be adapted to the size of the shelves and the expected load thereon.

Each shelf has a fitting 13 as an edge trimming along each of the four edges thereof, said fitting being attached in a groove 15 by means of a flange 14. Said groove is milled into the shelf 10 along the edge surface thereof and should have a depth which is larger than the width of the flange such that the flange does not bottom in the groove and the fitting engages directly the edge surface of the shelf. The attachment can be effected by the flange having press fit in the groove. Then, the flange can be grooved or form barbs at the flat sides thereof, which are directed such that they do not interfere with the insertion of the flange into the groove but engage with the wood of the side surfaces of the groove when an attempt is made to withdraw the flange from the groove. However, it is

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safer if the flange is glued in the groove or is attached by means of pins, nails, or screws passing through the flange.

Each fitting 13 is channelled and in the embodiment shown, two upper channels 16 and two lower channels 17 are provided extending in parallel with the edge of the shelf 10 along which the fitting 13 is arranged. In these channels, outer and inner panels 18 and 19, respectively, can be inserted, said panels being supported and guided by the channels 16 of a fitting 13 on a lower shelf 10 and being guided by the channels 17 of a fitting 13 on an upper shelf 10. The panels 18 and 19 span the space defined by the spacer tubes 12 between said shelves. The panels 18 and 19 can be translucent and consist e.g. of glass or plastic, or can be opaque and consist of fiberboard, chipboard, or the like. Such boards can have different structures and/or colours on the front side and the back side, respectively. In the embodiment shown in the drawings there are provided at the end sides of the set of storage shelves opaque panels 18 forming the end walls of the set of shelves. At the longitudinal sides of the set of storage shelves there are, however, arranged translucent panels 19 and 19' made of plastic or glass, which overlap to some extent and cover completely the longitudinal sides of the set of shelves in such position. They can be displaced such that one panel is slid in front of or behind the other panel when it is desired to open the set of shelves in order to get access to the interior thereof/ the panels thus forming slide doors.

The fitting 13' in the embodiment of FIG. 4 embraces in U form the edge portion of the shelf. It is flush with the shelf on the top side thereof where the fitting at a rib 20 engages as a hook into a corresponding groove in the shelf. The fitting can be

slid onto the shelf in the longitudinal direction thereof. All four edges of the shelf should be provided with fittings, e.g. the fittings on the two longitudinal edges first being slid onto the shelf and the fittings along the transverse edges then being mounted to lock the fittings along the longitudinal edges. The fittings at the two transverse edges in turn can be locked in a simple manner by means of pins or screws 21. In other respects the embodiment is in agreement with that in FIGS. 1 to 3.

The set of shelves shown and described is intended for use as a room boundary which is directly available from the back side as well as the front side, but the set of shelves can also be constructed in the manner shown in FIG. 5 wherein every second space on one side of the piece of furniture is provided with slide doors 22 and is closed on the other side of the piece of furniture by means of a fixed panel ^' 23 inserted into the channels in the manner described, while the, other spaces between the shelves have the reversed arrangement with fixed panels 23 on said one side and slide doors 22 on the other side. The piece of storage furniture can also be constructed as a set of storage shelves to be positioned against a wall, the shelves being available from the front side only while there is arranged on the back side an opaque panel 18 as a fixed rear panel. The panels 18 mounted as end walls and fixed rear panel should bottom at their edges in the channels receiving said edges in the fittings 13 and 13', respectively, to make the piece of furniture steady. No cross struts or brackets thus must be arranged for this purpose. The panels 18 and 19 can be chosen as desired in the' individual case, and it is very easy to change from one type of panel to another type of panel. An advantage is that the panels can be delivered in narrow lengths which

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are not wider than the distance between the shelves (often of the same order as the width of the shelves) and are completely planar without projecting details. The fittings must have two channels 16 and 17, respectively, when slide doors are to be arranged, but one channel is sufficient when a closing panel is to be arranged e.g. on the back side and at the ends of the piece of storage furniture. However, it is preferred to use always fittings with two channels such that all possible variations can be utilized. It is very easy to change the height of the set of shelves by adding or removing shelves 10 and exchanging the bars 11. However, these bars can also be constructed as bar lengths which can be interconnected by screw threads, each length being dimensioned in accordance with the distance between the shelves.