Cabinet structure and method of construction

#This invention relates to a cabinet structure and method of construction wherein the component parts of the structure are held together in a substantially rigid, stressed attitude.

#A variety of cabinet designs have been proposed in recent years, with the object of each design typically being simplicity in construction, ease of assembly, and minimization of the number of component parts. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,806,755, 3,272,582 and 3,815,966.

#One drawback with most prior art cabinet designs is that screws or screws and bolts are typically required to maintain the structure in a rigid attitude or alternatively the structure is fabricated with the component parts permanently bonded together. In the former case, assembly of the cabinets is oftentimes difficult and, because screws tend to loosen with movement, the cabinets lose their rigidity with time. In the latter case, there is typically no rigidity problem but storage and shipping is difficult and costly because the cabinet effectively has no disassembled, compact state.

#The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description presented in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is an exploded, perspective view of a cabinet structure made in accordance with the principles of the present invention;

#FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C show an upper corner member and fragmented portions of frame members of the cabinet of FIG. 1 illustrating the manner of joining the corner member and frame members together;

#The cabinet structure of the present invention includes a cabinet frame 2 (FIG. 1) which carries a plurality of panels such as a top panel 4, a bottom panel 6, a back panel 8, and two end panels 10 and 12. The frame 2 rests on four base members 14 which may include casters or wheels 16 for moving the cabinet. The unique configuration and design of the components of the frame 2 allow for maintaining the frame in a mechanically stressed and rigid disposition and for maintaining the panels and base members in place. Of course, sliding or hinged doors could also be mounted in the cabinet as could additional internal shelves, partitions, etc.

#The components of the cabinet frame 2 of FIG. 1 include bottom corner members 18, top corner members 20, bottom tubular frame members 22, top tubular frame members 24 and vertical tubular frame members 26. The corner members 18 and 20 each includes a body portion 30 (composite FIG. 2), a central post 32 which projects outwardly from the body, and a pair of legs 34 and 36 projecting from the body 30 at substantially a right angle with respect to the central post 32 and with respect to each other. Although the top and bottom corner members are essentially alike, the bodies of the upper corner members 20 are somewhat thicker than the bodies of the bottom corner members 18. This is best seen in composite FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 which respectively show a top corner member and a bottom corner member. Note that the thickness of the body of the top corner member 20 is substantially the same as the thickness of the frame member 24 (composite FIG. 2) whereas the thickness of the body of the bottom corner member 18 is less than the thickness of the frame member 22 (FIG. 3).

#The body 30 of the corner members has the shape of a right angle with flat end faces 30a and 30b formed at right angles to one another and out from which the legs 34 and 36 project (FIG. 1 and composite FIG. 2). The central post 32 projects either from the bottom surface of the body 30 (composite FIG. 2) or from the top surface of the body (FIG. 3).