The present invention concerns a set of structures supporting stuffing elements to realize upholstered furniture, in particular sofas.
The largely used upholstered modular furniture are made, as known, setting side by side two or more elements of static structures to obtain various patterns, wherein said static structures may be of different shape and dimensions.
Moreover, upholstered modular furniture, in particular sofas, are obtained variously combining structures that are usually made of a fixed part, which is usually used as a sitting element, and one or more parts, which usually form back or armrest elements, that can be placed in various angular position inclined with respect to the fixed part. Even these kind of structures can be set side by side in different ways to obtain a range of different configurations.
This invention aims to propose a set of supporting structures for upholstered modular furniture which allow to obtain a range of different patterns and configurations much wider with respect to the structures of the known art, both as regards the shapes and as regards the specific destination.
Further aim of the invention is to propose a set of structures which allows to obtain upholstered modular furniture whose configuration can be changed in a simple way by operations which can be easily performed by everyone.
These and many other aims and advantages are obtained by a structure for upholstered furniture according to claim 1. Each pivoting board is apt to be inclined and locked in various angular positions, and even in a flat position in which it and said fixed board are coplanar.
The structure also comprises stuffing elements combined to said boards and able to bend in order to fall with the position gained by the boards.
The above frames and their respective boards are square shaped and they assume their maximum planar dimensions when the boards are placed in the flat position.
Advantageously each structure may comprise at least two pivoting boards.
A first one of the supporting structures comprises a fixed board extending all along one side of the frame, slightly protruding over it, placed in intermediate position with respect to the other side of the frame. The structure also comprise at least one pivoting board hinged along one of the long sides of the fixed board, or at least one pivoting board hinged along one long side and at least one on the other long side of the fixed board, or even two pivoting boards along each long side of the fixed board. The board, or the boards, placed along one of the long sides of the fixed board can be more narrow then the board, or the boards, placed along the other long side.
A second one of the structures can comprise a fixed board placed along two adjacent sides of the supporting frame, a first pivoting board hinged along one side of the fixed board and a second pivoting board hinged along the other side of the fixed board. The extension of the longer side of said second pivoting board can be the sum of the dimension of the side of the fixed board which it is hinged to and of the dimension of the first pivoting board's side which is perpendicular to the hinged side of said board.
Advantageously the set can comprise two specularly symmetric structures to be placed at the opposite ends of an upholstered modular furniture which they contribute to compose.
One more different structure can comprise
In this case the frame and its respective boards can be rectangular shaped having two different side dimensions.
The structures can be combined setting them side by side in various ways and with their pivoting board locked in various angular positions to realize different patterns, as regards the shape and the dimensions, of upholstered furniture.
For a better understanding of the characteristics and advantages of the set of structures according to the invention, these will now be described by way of embodiment examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figures from 1 to 6 show two specularly symmetric structures which can be used either alone or combined with further structures, specially at the ends of a modular furniture. They can be coupled each other for the aims disclosed below. The structures shown in figures from 1 to 6 comprise a rectangular frame 1 provided with supporting feet 3, said frame 1 being advantageously square shaped. A first board 5 is fastened to the frame 1 and placed close to one of its corner and along the sides starting from said corner. A pivoting board 7 is hinged, by hinge means 9, to one of the internal sides of the fixed board 5; the sides of the fixed board and of the pivoting board connected together by the hinge means 9 have same length.
A further pivoting board 10 is hinged, by hinge means 12, along the other internal side of the fixed board 5; the side of the pivoting board 10 connected to the fixed board 5 is as long as the sides of the square frame 1. The boards 5,7 and 10 are not closely adjacent one to another, but the little space remaining between them can be covered by stuffing elements without yielding of these ones. Moreover the dimensions and placement of the boards 5,7 and 10 are provided in such a way that they extend with their external sides over the frame 1 of a limited amount when in flat position, so that the frame 1 comes blind under the global dimensions of the boards.
Boards 7 and 10 can be locked, without interfering one another, in various angular positions, as shown in figures from 1 to 4 and in the flat position too, as shown in figures 5 and 6.
The structure of figures 1, 2 and 5 can be advantageously assembled with the structure of figures 3, 4 and 6 which is specularly symmetric to the previous one. They can even be advantageously assembled with the structure of figures from 7 to 10.
The structure shown in figures from 7 to 10 comprises a frame 13, and relating supporting feet 14, whose shape and dimensions are similar to those ones of frame 1. A fixed board 16 extending all along one side of the frame 13, slightly protruding over it, is placed in intermediate position with respect to the other side of the frame 13. Two pivoting boards 20, which can be locked in various angular positions and even in a flat position, are hinged by hinge means 18 to one of the long sides of the fixed board 16. Two more pivoting boards 24, which can also be locked in various angular positions and even in a flat position, are hinged by hinge means 22 to the other long side of the fixed board 16. The boards 24 are more narrow then the boards 20. When the boards 20 and 24 are in flat position, as shown in figure 9, their external sides extend over the frame 13 of a limited amount, so that, as occurs for frame 1 of the structures of figures 1-6, frame 13 comes blind under the global dimensions of the boards.
One more structure is shown in figure 11. The structure is, in this figure, provided with its relating stuffing elements. The structure comprises
When the pivoting boards are in flat position their external sides extend over the frame 27 of a limited amount, as occurs for the previous described structures. Also in this case the pivoting boards can be locked in various angular position, without any interference between them, to create several different configurations.
Figure 12 shows one more structure. Also in this case, the structure is shown with its relating stuffing elements. The structure comprises
The pivoting boards can be locked in various angular position and even in a flat position in which the external sides of the boards extend over the frame 31 of a limited amount.
Figures from 13 to 17 show the structures of figures from 1 to 10 which, together with their relating stuffing elements, constitute upholstered furniture which can perform various configurations and arrangements. Note that the stuffing elements have a constant depth and cover about the same planar development as the underneath boards.
Exactly, the upholstered furniture of figure 13 corresponds to the structure of figures 1, 2 and 5; the upholstered furniture of figure 14 corresponds to the structure of figures 3, 4 and 6; the upholstered furniture of figures from 15 to 17 correspond to the structure of figures from 7 to 10.
In figure 18 is shown, as an example, an upholstered modular furniture obtained by simply setting side by side the structures described in figures from 1 to 10.
A wide range of upholstered modular furniture, like the one shown in figure 18, can be obtained combining in many different ways the above described structures and arranging the relating boards in the desired angular positions.
In particular all the above described structures and the modular furniture that can be obtained combining them in various arrangements constitute modular sofas in which the position and the dimensions of the sittings, the backs and the armrests can be freely defined, so creating a wide range of different patterns.
Moreover, since all the boards of the above described structures can gain a flat position, upholstered furniture having horizontal surfaces can be arranged to obtain beds or, more generally, upholstered planes.
It is clear that the above described embodiments of the invention structure allow to reach a high versatility and flexibility in the furniture composition, obtaining a wide range of upholstered modular furniture with the possibility of changing them directly at home with very simple operations. All above can take place within the limits of the invention as defined by the following claims.
This list of references cited by the applicant is for the reader's convenience only. It does not form part of the European patent document. Even though great care has been taken in compiling the references, errors or omissions cannot be excluded and the EPO disclaims all liability in this regard.