EP2021567A1

EP2021567A1 - Hanging cabinet with overturning doors

Info

Publication number: EP2021567A1
Application number: EP06831771A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Angelo Molteni
Original assignee: System Holz SpA
Current assignee: System Holz SpA
Priority date: 2006-05-12
Filing date: 2006-12-15
Publication date: 2009-02-11
Anticipated expiration: 2026-12-15
Also published as: CN101438022A; ITMI20060943A1; WO2007132290A1; EP2021567B1; RU2008148976A; RU2413827C2

Abstract

The invention relates to a hanging cabinet wherein the doors (6, 7), when opened, are overturned outside the structure formed by the upper and lower walls (2, 3) and the sides (4, 5) of the cabinet. Advantageously, the hanging cabinet is horizontal and the doors move simultaneously, so that in the wide open condition they are partly juxtaposed to the upper wall (2) and to the lower wall (3): this provides easy access to the entire inner space of the cabinet, and the doors can be closed easily even by a short person. The invention also comprises a device for overturning the doors simultaneously.

Description

Description of Invention: "Hanging cabinet with overturning doors" Applicant: System HoIz - Cremnago di Inverigo (CO)

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The present invention relates to cabinets in general and to hanging cabinets in particular.

As known, hanging cabinets are located at man's height, usually above other pieces of furniture or kitchen tops, and are frequently opened and closed for taking and putting away commonly used objects; the motion of their doors is therefore particularly important compared to other kinds of cabinets (including free-standing ones) used in environments other than the kitchen or subject to less frequent use. In fact, for obvious reasons, hanging cabinets should be easily opened and closed frequently, and their doors at man's height should not represent a hindrance or a danger for people; for example, this is the case when the doors remain open and a person working in the kitchen may be unaware of it and thus be at risk of hitting his/her head against the doors, with easily imaginable consequences. For these reasons, it has become a recent trend to manufacture kitchen hanging cabinets having upward opening doors, i.e. doors which can be overturned relative to a horizontal axis; in this- way, in fact, the door is opened by lifting it higher than the average man's height, thus avoiding the risk that a person hits his/her head against it. Also, it should be pointed out that doors of this type allow to gain access to the entire inner space of the hanging cabinet through a single opening movement, since the door is as wide as the cabinet and clears the whole width thereof as it is being lifted. According to this recent trend, various door actuation mechanisms have been developed which allow to control the upward and downward motions of the doors or to hold them in the open condition; these mechanisms utilize advanced viscous damping systems, return springs, levers and other components, which are described in detail in the large technical and patent literature available on this matter.

As a representative example of this state of the art, it is nonetheless worth citing the international patent application published under number WO/2003/ 025323 to Huwil-Werke. This application describes a hanging cabinet with a door made up of an upper panel and a lower panel hinged together, wherein the first panel is also hinged to the cabinet structure: this offers the advantage that, when the door is lifted, the hinged lower panel remains hanging from the upper one, so that it can be grabbed and pulled downwards more easily in order to close the door. hi fact, it is apparent that, if the door were made from a single panel (i.e. not from two hinged panels), the projecting end of the lifted panel would be higher than the door according to HuwiPs international application, thus making it difficult for short or average-height people to grab it in order to close the cabinet.

However, it should be taken into consideration that, when a cabinet door made up of hinged panels is lifted, the lower panel hanging downwards becomes a hindrance for a person wanting to take or put objects from/in the cabinet. As a matter of fact, in said condition the lower panel limits the accessibility of the top portion of the cabinet, although mechanisms are used in order to keep it in a folded condition, as it is the case of the aforementioned patent application. It should also be noted that such mechanisms must also provide for holding the entire door in order to keep it open, since otherwise a person should hold it up with one hand, making his/her movements difficult . These mechanisms are therefore rather complex and may lose efficiency and reliability over time. The present invention aims at getting over this state of the art; that is, it aims at providing a cabinet, in particular, but not limited to, a hanging cabinet, having such structural and operating features as to overcome the above-described drawbacks of prior-art cabinets. The idea based on which said object is attained is to provide a cabinet having two separate doors which, when opened, are respectively overturned upwards and downwards or toward the cabinet sides, until they get at least partly juxtaposed outside the upper and lower walls or the sides of the cabinet. Such a cabinet can be easily opened with just one hand, if the doors are so arranged that they can open simultaneously; furthermore, the fact that the doors are overturned downwards and upwards, i.e. about a horizontal axis, allows to gain access to the whole inner space of the cabinet right away without having to hold the doors in order to keep them open. The features of the cabinet according to the invention will be stated in a more analytical manner in the claims appended hereto; before starting this description, it should be stated that the invention also comprises a device which is specifically adapted to actuate the cabinet doors, the features of which are included in the claims as well.

The aforementioned features and the effects deriving therefrom will become apparent from the following description of a preferred, but non-limiting, embodiment example and of a number of possible embodiment variations thereof illustrated in the annexed drawings, wherein:

- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a hanging cabinet according to the invention, in three distinct operating conditions; - Fig. 2 is a side view of the cabinet of Fig. 1, in the same operating conditions;

- Fig. 3 shows a partially sectioned detail of the preceding cabinet, in the same operating conditions;

- Fig. 4 shows a detail of Fig. 3, in the same operating conditions; - Fig. 5 is an exploded view of the detail of Fig. 3;

- Fig. 6 shows a detail of Fig. 5;

- Fig. 7 shows a first variation of the detail of Fig. 3, in the same operating conditions;

- Fig. 8 shows a second variation of the detail of Fig. 3; - Figs. 9 and 10 show respective details of Fig. 8;

- Fig. 11 shows the detail of Fig. 3 in the closed condition;

- Fig. 12 shows a detail of Fig. 11;

- Fig. 13 shows schematically a front view and a side view of the cabinet according to the invention, with doors to be adjusted; - Fig. 14 is an exploded view of elements comprised in the detail of Fig. 12; - Fig. 15 shows a third variation of the detail of Fig. 3;

- Figs. 16 and 17 show respective details of Fig. 15;

- Fig. 18 shows an improvement of the cabinet according to the invention;

- Fig. 19 shows a detail of Fig. 18; - Fig. 20 is an exploded view of a connecting rod to be applied to the detail of Fig. 19;

Referring to the drawings, reference number 1 designates as a whole a cabinet according to the invention.

Said cabinet is a hanging one, i.e. it is intended for being hung on a wall, and has an external structure comprising an upper wall 2, a lower wall 3 and two sides 4, 5; this structure is closed in front by two doors 6 and 7, respectively an upper one and a lower one, which can be overturned as will be better described later.

In the illustrated example, upper door 6 is frame type, whereas lower one 7 is a simple panel made of laminated chipboard or the like, on which there is a handle 8; of course, this is just one of several possible embodiments, as both doors may have different shapes and be made of different materials depending on the specific solutions conceived by the designers.

Likewise, it is hardly worth mentioning that cabinet 1 preferably (but not necessarily) has also a back wall 9, and that shelves, drawers, compartments or the like may be included inside the cabinet, which are not shown in the drawings for clarity.

As shown in the sequence of images (a), (b), (c) of Figs. 1-3, doors 6 and 7 move simultaneously from the closed condition to the open condition (and vice versa), until they reach a position wherein they are at least partly juxtaposed to upper wall 2 and to lower wall 3 of the cabinet. The door motion takes place through a device 10 located on each side 4, 5 of the cabinet; for simplicity's sake, reference will hereafter be made to just one of said devices, but the same shall apply to the other device as well. In this regard, Fig. 5 clearly shows that the components of device 10 are contained in a box-shaped housing formed by two sections 12, 13 coupled together; on the latter there are pairs of longitudinal ribs designated 14 and 15, respectively, which are used for joining the sections in order to form the box-shaped housing as well as for guiding the motion of some components of the mechanism used for actuating the doors.

Device 10 is removably secured to the cabinet structure by means of screws and tie-rods which are known per se and therefore not shown in the drawings. Device 10 is both simple and reliable, in that it essentially comprises a mechanism with a central rod 20, to the ends of which respective rack toothings 21, 22 are fastened (in this case by using simple screws): said toothings engage with corresponding pinions 23, 24 being present at the base of swing arms 25, 26 supporting doors 6 and 7, whereto they are hinged through end feet 27, 28.

In practice, when the doors are opened (or closed) by a person, the force applied to the end of swing arms 25, 26 causes them to rotate together with respective pinions 23, 24 which, by engaging with rack 21, 22, move rod 20 either downwards, if the cabinet is being opened, as shown in Fig. 3(c), or upwards, if the cabinet is being closed, as shown in Fig. 3(a). In order to facilitate the motion of rod 20, in this example it is guided by a block 18, located at the centre of section 13, which is also advantageously used as a support for an end-of-stroke damper 29; the latter is a small hydraulic cylinder inserted in a longitudinal groove 30 of rod 20 and used for slowing down and stopping rod 20 as it approaches the end of its stroke. Sections 12, 13 forming the housing of the box-shaped mechanism of device 10 are joined at their ends by bases 32, 33 fastened with screws; these bases are also used as caps for closing the mechanism housing and as supports for a respective swinging connecting rod 34, 35. Each connecting rod slides in a guide 36, 37 being present on doors 6, 7, thus following the motion of the latter as they are being juxtaposed to upper wall 2 and lower wall 3 of the cabinet, as shown in Figs. l(c), 2(c), 3(c). hi fact, during the opening and closing phases, doors 6 and 7 rotate together with swing arms 25 and 26, whereto they are hinged through the feet 27, 28, and move (upwards or downwards, depending on whether the cabinet is being opened or closed) guided by the relative sliding occurring between guides 36, 37 and the connecting rods 34, 35.

The advantageous effects deriving from the functional aspects of cabinet 1, which allow to attain the objects of the invention, are apparent in the light of the above explanations.

In fact, actuation device 10 allows both upper door 2 and lower door 3 to be opened or closed simultaneously, even by acting only on one of them; in the example taken into consideration, a person will preferably act on the lower door, since it is the one equipped with handle 8. This makes it easy to open or close the cabinet even for short or average- height people, who can reach lower door 7 easily in any condition, even when it is wide open.

From a kinematic point of view, in the cabinet according to the invention doors 6 and 7 are overturned through a combined rotating-translational motion from a closed condition, wherein they are arranged vertically, to an open condition, wherein they are arranged horizontally on upper wall 2 and under lower wall 3 of the cabinet, respectively, and vice versa. Doors 6, 7 remain horizontal without a person having to hold them with one hand and without using any holding mechanism: this is due to the fact that the lower door is pushed downwards and kept open by its own weight, which is transmitted to the upper door through the mechanism comprising racks 21, 22, thus keeping it open as well. In other words, it can be said that it is the very mechanism for the simultaneous actuation of both doors which operates as a holding mechanism by making use of weight force; in this context, it is clear that a well-balanced force system, wherein both doors have the same weight, will allow to minimize the force required to open and close the doors, at the same time making it easier to hold them in the open condition. Since, as shown in the drawings, the doors may be different because they may be provided by using different configurations and/or materials, it is apparent that they may also have different weights; in such circumstances, it would therefore be advisable to adopt design solutions which compensate for the weight difference, e.g. by appropriately using materials having different specific weights (plastic, wood, glass, steel, etc.) or by using ballast elements (e.g. heavy handles, or weights in the hollow portions of the frames).

A further important advantageous aspect of the invention which deserves to be adequately highlighted is the fact that, in the open condition, both doors 6 and 7 are arranged outside upper wall 2 and lower wall 3, and are at least partly juxtaposed thereto.

Thus, they do not take up any space inside the cabinet and, most importantly, lower door 7 does not hinder a person having to take or put objects from/in the cabinet. In fact, it is clear that, if door 7 were not arranged at least partly along lower wall 3, it would be completely overhanging and projecting for its full width, thus representing an inevitable obstacle for the raised arm of a person wanting to reach inside the cabinet.

On the contrary, in the described example lower door 7 is juxtaposed to lower wall 3 of cabinet 1, so that it is projecting only for a portion of its width, thereby causing less hindrance.

Said hindrance may be reduced even further by providing a lower door 7 being shorter than upper door 6, i.e. by sizing the doors differently, with respect to the example illustrated in the drawings. In such a case, suitable measures may also be taken in order to balance the different weights of the doors, due to the different sizes thereof.

The aforementioned special device 10 for actuating the cabinet doors simultaneously also offers advantageous effects as far as manufacturing is concerned. Firstly, the mechanical components are housed in a box-shaped container which, once it has been secured to cabinet sides 4, 5, becomes incorporated therein.

This simplifies the cabinet's assembling operations, since device 10 can be manufactured separately and then mounted to the rest of the cabinet together with the doors.

Furthermore, the protected housing and the simplicity of the two-rack mechanism make it safe and reliable over time.

Secondly, it should be remarked that, according to this invention, actuation mechanism of the door works in a substantially vertical direction, so that the device 10 can be placed as an upright arranged in front of the structure of cabinet 1.

Thus it takes up no space inside the cabinet, unlike in known devices such as the one disclosed in the international application WO/2003/025323, wherein the mechanism including the swing arm is located inside the cabinet.

Of course device 10, which has been described above as a rack-type device, may be subject to several variations.

One of these variations is shown in Fig. 7, wherein structurally or functionally equivalent items are designated by the same reference numbers.

In this variation, the central rod and the two racks are replaced with a flexible cable 70 made of metal or another appropriate material, which is wound around or unwound from pulleys 75, 76 respectively arranged at the base of the swing arms 25, 26 and integral with the swing arms 25, 26. It can be easily understood that such a solution is equivalent to the previously described one, because when a person opens lower door 7, pulley 76 at the base of swing arm 26 is turned clockwise (with reference to Fig. 7) and cable 70 is wound around it accordingly. As a result of this winding, cable 70 is unwound from pulley 75 at the base of upper swing arm 25, thereby turning the latter counterclockwise and opening upper door 6.

Of course, the reverse will occur when closing the cabinet, i.e. as lower door 7 is closed, swing arm 26 and lower pulley 76 turn counterclockwise (with reference to Fig. 7), so that the cable is unwound from it and is wound around upper pulley 75, which is turned clockwise together with the associated swing arm 25.

In order to accompany these motions, device 10 includes return springs 77, 78, in this case being of flexure type, with one arm secured to bases 32, 33 and the other arm secured to pulleys 75, 76, so as to make the opening and closing motions of the doors softer and smoother.

These springs may also be applied to the rack-type device 10 of the preceding embodiment, as shown by way of example in Fig. 5, wherein spring 77 in the upper area is clearly visible (lower spring 78 is not shown in this drawing for simplicity's sake).

It is appropriate to underline that also the variation of device 10 with cable 70 works in a substantially vertical direction (like the one using racks), and that its components are located inside the box-shaped housing formed by sections 12 and 13: therefore, the above remarks about the advantageous effects deriving from these features apply to this variation as well. A further embodiment of the invention is shown in Figs. 8-10, wherein the same reference numbers designate equivalent items.

As easily understood, in this case device 10 (which is of rack type) has hinge arms 84, 85 replacing connecting rods 34, 35 of the above examples. These arms are known hinged-lever units manufactured by the present Applicant for hinges of common furniture. hi the latter, the arms are mounted on bases thanks to an intermediate part (not shown in the drawings as it is per se known), whereas in the example of the present invention arms 84, 85 (with the intermediate parts) are engaged in a sliding way in respective guides 36, 37 being present on doors 6 and 7. hi this solution, the typical rotating-translational motion given to the hinge arms 84, 85 by the hinged levers is combined with the sliding motion of guides 36, 37, thereby facilitating the latter and therefore, more in general, also the opening and closing motions of the doors.

A further embodiment of the door overturning device is finally visible in Figs. 15-17, wherein structurally or functionally equivalent items are designated by the same reference numbers for simplicity. As shown, in this case device 10 is functionally similar to the preceding one, the only difference consisting in the fact that two racks are secured side by side to each end of central rod 20, which racks engage with a matching pair of pinions. Therefore, in this case, the swing arm moving system turns out to be de facto doubled. For clarity, it is still worth adding that the drawings show how the base of upper swing arm 25 is interposed between pinions 23 and 42, which respectively engage with racks 21 and 41 being present on the upper end of rod 20. Likewise, the base of lower swing arm 26 is inteiposed between pinions 24 and 44, which respectively engage with racks 22 and 43 being present on the lower end of rod 20. In this solution, the double rack and the double pinion provide a more effective overturning motion, even with heavy or large doors. It is appropriate to remark that, as described previously, the components of device 10 are contained in a box-shaped housing made up of two sections 12, 13 coupled together. Advantageously, since this third variation is particularly suitable for heavy doors, thermoplastic rubber stop inserts 45 are interposed between the two sections 12 and 13 for each door.

Inserts 45 are applied to the pair of ribs 14 and 15 being present on sections 12 and 13, respectively, through grooves 46 and 47 obtained on opposite sides of the body of inserts 45, parallel to sections 12 and 13, according to the representation of Fig. 15. Each insert 45 may be positioned by sliding it manually over the sections, in the areas where the doors stop when they are in the closed condition. In fact, the function of inserts 45 is to absorb the impact of the doors against the cabinet structure at the end of their closing motion. Also, the impact absorption capacity of inserts 45 is further improved by the body thereof being advantageously hollow, which increases elasticity. Of course, inserts 45 are present on both overturning devices 10 of the doors, and the cabinet according to the invention may also be provided with another improvement, as shown in Fig. 18, should the doors be particularly long and wide.

For clarity, Fig. 18 shows just the lower half-door of cabinet 1, in order to make the details described herein more visible. Said improvement consists in providing a notch 50, 51 (enlarged in Fig. 19) on the front edge of upper wall 2 and of lower wall 3, respectively, of cabinet 1.

Each notch is adapted to house a swinging connecting rod, shown in an exploded view in Fig. 20; each connecting rod 52 is adapted to be housed in respective notch 50, 51, and for this purpose it is applied into an associated mounting 53 to be inserted into the notch.

Connecting rods 52 engage in a sliding way in a respective guide, e.g. made of aluminium, plastic or another suitable material, which is secured to the corresponding door; Fig. 18 only shows guide 55 applied to the lower door. Said connecting rod 52 has a structure which is similar to that of connecting rods 34, 35 secured to device 10, and slides in guide 55 in order to follow the motion of the door being opened or closed.

As said, this solution limits the risk of flexure for large or heavy doors.

Finally, it is hardly the case of pointing out that, depending on the various possible mechanical alternatives, the motion of the doors may also be different from that shown in the drawings, in the sense that more complex motions may be provided according to which the doors first move vertically and are then turn until they reach the wide open condition while remaining partly juxtaposed to the upper and lower walls of the cabinet. This requires the presence of mechanisms being more complex than those taken into consideration in the above descriptions, which however should not be excluded at all.

Another possible modification to what has been described so far may be obtained by providing cabinet 1 with just a single door actuation device 10

(instead of the pair of devices included in the preceding examples); this alternative might be advantageous for hanging cabinets being small or having lightweight doors, wherein the latter can be supported by just two swing arms 25, 26 arranged on one side only. As an alternative, it is possible to connect a device 10 as described above, i.e. with arms linked by rack-type or cable-type mechanisms, to another swing arm-type device located on the opposite side of the cabinet but lacking said mechanisms.

Let us consider the case wherein swing arms 25 and 26 of a device 10 on one side of the cabinet structure are connected, through a shaft or another equivalent means passing through upper wall 2 and lower wall 3 of the cabinet, to swing arms of a second device located on the other side, but lacking any rack-type or cable-type mechanisms.

In such a variation, the arms of this second device would be driven by those of the first one, so that it would no longer be necessary to connect them kinematically together through the aforementioned rack-type or cable-type mechanisms.

Finally, it is worth remarking that, in accordance with a preferred embodiment shown in Figs. 11-14, it is possible to provide door position adjustments in both the vertical and horizontal directions, as schematically indicated by the arrows in Fig. 13.

For this purpose, end feet 27 and 28 of swing arms 25 e 26 consist of two pieces; as shown in the exploded view of foot 28 in Fig. 14 (the other foot is identical and therefore is not shown in detail), it has a base 80 which is secured to cabinet door 7 by means of a dowel 81.

Body 82 of the foot is then mounted to base 80, which body is advantageously provided on one end with two prongs 83, 84 engaging with base 80, while on the opposite end there is a hinge seat 85 for connection to swing arm 26.

Prongs 83, 84 have a rounded shape which allows body 82 to rotate slightly relative to base 80, by screwing and unscrewing a threaded pin 87 provided with a base 88, through a hole 89 in body 82 of the foot. Base 88 of pin 87 engages in a front notch 90 of base 80; note that both the pin, with its particular conformation, and the front notch are of a known type already in use for certain furniture hinges.

Furthermore, body 82 moves longitudinally relative to base 80 as a screw 94 having an eccentric head 95 is loosened or tightened; the latter is inserted in an elongated hole 96 across body 82 and, as it is turned, it moves the body forwards or backwards relative to the base.

Finally, it should be highlighted that, although the examples and variations taken into account so far have always referred to a hanging cabinet with doors which can be overturned upwards and downwards (i.e. a horizontal- type cabinet), the invention may as well be applied to vertical-type cupboards or hanging cabinets, i.e. turned by 90° compared to the one shown in the previous drawings. hi these cases, upper wall 2 and lower wall 3 shown in the drawings will become the sides of the cabinet, whereas, vice versa, sides 4 and 5 will become its upper and lower walls; in a vertical hanging cabinet, doors 6 and

7 are overturned along its sides (as opposed to the upper and lower walls) and are at least partly juxtaposed thereto.

All of these variants still fall within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. Cabinet having a structure comprising an upper wall (2), a lower wall (3) and sides (4, 5) extending laterally between said walls, a pair of doors (6, 7) for frontal closing of the structure, characterized in that the doors (6, 7) can be overturned so that they are both arranged outside the structure when wide open.

2. Cabinet according to claim 1, wherein the doors (6, 7), when they are in the wide open condition, are at least partly juxtaposed to the outer surface of the upper and lower walls (2, 3) or of the sides (4, 5).

3. Cabinet according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the doors (6, 7) can be overturned simultaneously.

4. Cabinet according to claim 3, comprising at least a first and a second swing arm (25, 26), each having one end (27, 28) connected to a respective door (6, 7), which are swung simultaneously by an overturning device (10) extending between the upper and lower walls (2, 3) or the sides (4, 5) of the cabinet.

5. Cabinet according to claim 4, wherein the overturning device (10) of the doors (6, 7) comprises a box-shaped housing (12, 13) applied to either cabinet side (4, 5) or to one of the cabinet upper or lower walls (2, 3), on the side thereof facing the doors (6, 7),

6. Cabinet according to claim 5, wherein the box-shaped housing of the device (10) comprises a pair of matched sections (12, 13) between which means (20-24; 41-44; 70, 75, 76) are arranged for moving the swing arms (25, 26) simultaneously.

7. Cabinet according to claim 6, wherein the means for moving the swing arms (25, 26) comprise a pair of racks (21, 22) located at the respective ends of a rod (20) which is movable in a substantially longitudinal direction relative to the sections (12, 13) of the device, which racks engage with pinions (23, 24) associated with the base of the swing arms (25, 26) for the rotation thereof.

8. Cabinet according to claim 6, wherein the means for moving the swing arms (25, 26) comprise a flexible cable (70) which is wound around and unwound from pulleys (74, 75) associated with the base of the swing arms (25, 26) in said substantially longitudinal direction relative to the sections (12, 13).

9. Cabinet according to claim 6, wherein the means for moving the swing arms (25, 26) comprise two pairs of racks (21, 41; 22, 43) located at the respective ends of a rod (20) which is movable in a substantially longitudinal direction relative to the sections (12, 13) of the overturning device (10), which pairs of racks engage with respective pairs of pinions (23, 42; 24, 44) associated with the bases of the swing arms (25, 26) for the rotation thereof.

10. Hanging cabinet according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the overturning motion of the doors (6, 7) is guided by sliding guide means (34-

37; 52, 55; 84, 85).

11. Hanging cabinet according to claim 10, wherein said guide means comprise, for each door (6, 7), at least one connecting rod (34, 35, 52) pivoted to the overturning device (10) and coupled in a sliding way to a guide (36, 37, 55) arranged on the corresponding door (6, 7).

12. Hanging cabinet according to claim 10, wherein said guide means comprise, for each door (6, 7), at least one hinge arm (84, 85) pivoted to the overturning device (10) and coupled in a sliding way to a guide (36, 37) arranged on the corresponding door (6, 7).

13. Hanging cabinet according to claim 12, wherein the hinge arm (84, 85) is of a type comprising hinged levers and an intermediate body.

14. Hanging cabinet according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the overturning device (10) of the doors comprises springs (77, 78) acting on the swing arms (25, 26) in order to facilitate the motion thereof.

15. Hanging cabinet according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the doors (6, 7) are made of different materials and/or have different sizes.

16. Hanging cabinet according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the swing arms (25, 26) are fitted with a foot (27, 28) comprising a base (80) secured to a respective door (6, 7), an upper body (82) adjustably applied to said base and hinged to the end of the swing arm (25, 26).

17. Cabinet according to claim 16, wherein the upper body (82) can rotate relative to the base (80) changing its inclination, thus providing a front adjustment of the position of the corresponding door (6, 7).

18. Cabinet according to claim 17, wherein the rotation of the upper body (82) is obtained through a threaded pin (87) provided with a base (88) engaging in a notch (90) of the base (80).

19. Cabinet according to claim 18, wherein the position of the upper body (82) relative to the base (80) is adjusted longitudinally by means of a screw (94) having an eccentric head (95).

20. Cabinet according to any of the preceding claims, characterized by comprising at least one insert (45) applied to the overturning devices (10) for absorbing the impact of the doors at the end of their closing stroke.

21. Cabinet according to any of the preceding claims, being of the hanging, horizontal type, the doors (6, 7) of which are opened by overturning them towards the upper wall (2) and the lower wall (3), respectively.

22. Device for overturning the doors (6, 7) of a cabinet according to any of the preceding claims, characterized by comprising a box-shaped housing (12, 13) which contains a mechanism (20-24; 41-44; 70, 75, 76) adapted to transmit the swinging motion to two swing arms (25, 26) having a base mounted in the housing.

23. Device according to claim 22, wherein the housing substantially consists of two facing sections (12, 13).

24. Device according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the mechanism comprises a pair of racks (21 , 22) respectively arranged at the ends of a rod (20) which is movable longitudinally relative to the sections (21, 22).

25. Device according to claim 24, wherein the rod (20) has a longitudinal groove (30) circumscribing an end-of-stroke damper (29).

26. Device according to claim 25, comprising a block (18) for guiding the motions of the rod (20), on which block the damper (29) is arranged.

27. Device according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the mechanism comprises a flexible cable (70) which is wound around and unwound from pulleys (74, 75), respectively associated with the base of the swing arms (25, 26), in a substantially longitudinal direction relative to the housing sections (21, 22).

28. Device according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the mechanism comprises two pairs of racks (21, 41; 22, 43), respectively located at the ends of a rod (20) which is movable longitudinally relative to the sections (12, 13), which pairs of racks engage with respective pairs of pinions (23, 42; 24, 44) associated with the base of the arms (25, 26) for the rotation thereof.