EP2072916A2

EP2072916A2 - Improved flush-mounted cabinet

Info

Publication number: EP2072916A2
Application number: EP08153876A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mauro Durello
Original assignee: Unilam Srl
Current assignee: Unilam Srl
Priority date: 2007-11-22
Filing date: 2008-03-31
Publication date: 2009-06-24
Also published as: EP2072916A3; ITPD20070392A1

Abstract

Improved flush-mounted cabinet for containing headers and/or valves of heating installations, and accessories, which comprises two plate-like feet which can be mechanically associated at an adjustable height with two sides walls of a box-shaped body defining a containing compartment; and a transverse front piece which can be removably mounted on the front of the box-shaped body at the bottom thereof. Each of the plate-like feet is able to slide by means of a guide along a bottom section of the said side walls to which it can be secured in an adjustable position by means of fixing means.
The front piece is provided with two engaging members situated in the vicinity of the two ends and able to be removably inserted by means of forced engagement inside aligned openings provided in the edges of the feet.

Description

Field of application

The present invention relates to an improved flush-mounted cabinet.
The cabinet in question is intended to be advantageously used in the heat engineering sector for housing headers and valve units of sanitary plumbing and heating systems, in order to allow the cutting off, supply and control of pipes intended to connect terminal apparatus such as radiators, floor heating pipes, cooling units and sanitary equipment.
This cabinet is usually mounted flush inside a recess formed in the thickness of the wall in the vicinity of the floor and houses internally the headers and the valve units by means of supports or fixing brackets.

State of the art

At present, the cabinets for the purposes described above consist of a metal box-shaped body defining by means of a bottom wall, two side walls and a top wall the compartment for containing the headers. Advantageously the cabinet may also comprise a front frame which is arranged so as to engage inside the box-shaped body and is fixed to its side walls at the desired depth. This frame is generally positioned flush with the plaster or the finish of the wall (tiles, plasterboard cladding, fire-retardant material, etc.) and can be closed at the front by means of a door (or a panel).
Although generally the cabinets of the known type have predetermined dimensions and are available in different sizes so as to satisfy the requirements arising from the various applications, more recently cabinets of the type mentioned above, with a front frame engageable inside the box-shaped body for adjustment of the depth, and cabinets with an adjustable height, have become available on the market.
The latter envisage support feet which extend downwards so as to form an extension of the side walls and are intended to define an adjustable support for the cabinet underneath the floor surface.
The said side walls, extending beyond the rear wall, delimit with the latter and with the front closing door, two windows, i.e. a rear window and a front window, respectively.
Operationally, the cabinet is positioned so as to rest on the two side feet inside the recess in the wall before the floor screeding is laid. In greater detail, once the height and the position of the cabinet have been adjusted, the header and/or the valves with the associated connections to the pipes leading into the compartment of the cabinet are mounted, the latter passing through openings formed in the side walls or more frequently passing through the bottom layer of screed on top of which the floor will be laid.
In order to prevent, during the subsequent floor laying operation, the mortar from penetrating into the compartment of the cabinet, a metal front piece is mounted on the front of the cabinet, fixing it to the base of the uprights of the side walls so as to close the front window defined by them. The front piece usually consists of a panel provided with at least one area for fixing to the mortar, consisting of a metal mesh which is closed at the rear with containing fibres.
The front piece must therefore be able to be associated in a removable and simple manner with the box-shaped body of the cabinet and in particular with the bottom of the side walls.
At present, the front pieces are mounted on the front uprights of the side walls by means of forced engagement systems.
Furthermore, the box-shaped bodies of the cabinets, consisting of folded or welded sheet metal, must have a sufficient rigidity to support the headers and the valve units.
The known solutions of cabinets have proved to be not without drawbacks.
A first drawback consists in the lack of an optimization of the sheet-metal surface used to form the box-shaped body.
A second drawback consists in the not always sufficient rigidity of the metal structure of the box-shaped body.
A third drawback consists in the difficulty of mounting and subsequently fixing the front piece to the walls.

Disclosure of the invention

In this situation the object forming the basis of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art mentioned above, by providing an improved flush-mounted cabinet which is able to allow easy connection of the front piece.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a flush-mounted cabinet which allows easy adjustment heightwise.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a flush-mounted cabinet which is structurally strong while reducing the amount of sheet metal used.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a flush-mounted cabinet which is constructionally simple and operationally entirely reliable.

Brief description of the drawings

The technical features of the invention, in accordance with the abovementioned objects, may be clearly determined from the contents of the claims indicated below and the advantages thereof will emerge more clearly in the detailed description below, provided with reference to the accompanying drawings which show a purely exemplary and nonlimiting embodiment thereof and in which:

FIG. 1 shows a first perspective view of the flush-mounted cabinet according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows a second perspective view of the flush-mounted cabinet according to the present invention with some parts removed so that other parts may be seen more clearly.
FIG. 3 shows a third perspective view of the flush-mounted cabinet according to the present invention with other parts removed so that further parts may be seen more clearly;
FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 each show a perspective view of details of the flush-mounted cabinet according to the present invention.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment

With reference to the accompanying drawings, 1 denotes overall the improved flush-mounted cabinet according to the present invention.
This cabinet 1 is intended, as described in the introduction, to be used generally in the heating and plumbing sector to contain and support headers and/or valves of heating installations and all the accessory components which are used to control the valves such as electrical and electronic wiring and plumbing connections. For this purpose, the cabinet is usually flush-mounted inside a recess formed in the thickness of the wall in the vicinity of the floor.
With reference to the accompanying figures, said cabinet is composed of a box-shaped body 2 on which a closing door or panel which may consist of a frame of the type described in patent application No. IT PD 2002A00233 in the name of the same applicant - the contents of which are cited here by way of reference - can be fixed.
In greater detail, the box-shaped body 2 is made of folded sheet steel without welds and is formed by a bottom wall 3, by two side walls 4 and by a top wall 5, which define the containing compartment 6 for the headers and the valves (not shown in detail in the figures since they are well-known to a person skilled in the art) supported inside it by the bottom wall 3 by means of supports or fixing brackets of the type per se conventional and for this reason not shown in detail in the accompanying figures. Advantageously, these fixing systems may comprise track-mounted guides on which the heating system components to be inserted inside the compartment are fixed.
Access to the compartment 6 for the pipes is envisaged both at the front and at the rear. The side walls 4 moreover have pre-marked windows for allowing rapid and easy introduction of the pipes to be connected to the headers.
The box-shaped body 2 is made by folding sheet metal which is pre-coated or galvanized and painted, without the need to perform welds.
Two elongated rectangular plates with a central body 7', which act as feet 7 for resting on the ground, can be fixed facing each other in an adjustable manner heightwise to the side walls 4.
The structure of the cabinet 1 is completed by a transverse front piece 8 which is also made of sheet metal and can be removably mounted on the front of the box-shaped body 2 at the bottom or base thereof.
According to the underlying idea of the present invention, each of the plate-like feet 7 is provided with a first front edge 9 which extends by means of a first fold 10 perpendicularly with respect to the plate of the central body 7' of the foot 7.
The abovementioned edge 9 has, formed in it by means of shearing, a plurality of openings 11 which are aligned in a direction X parallel to the main extension of the side wall 4 which corresponds to the vertical direction when the cabinet is 1 assembled inside the recess in the wall.
Each foot 7 can moreover be slidably engaged, by means of a guide 12, with a bottom section of the side walls 4 to which it can be secured in an adjustable position by means of fixing means 13.
Advantageously, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the edge 9 of the feet 7 is formed by two layers of sheet metal, i.e. a lower layer 14 and upper layer 15, which face each other and are joined together by means of a second 180° fold 16.
The openings 11 are preferably of the through type and therefore aligned incisions are provided in the two layers 14, 15 which form the projecting edge 9 of the feet 7.
The said two layers 14 and 15 are slightly separated from each other by a distance slightly greater than the thickness of the sheet metal so as to define with their interspace the abovementioned guide 12 for sliding of the feet 7, which guide 12 for this purpose houses a peripheral plate-like rim 17 projecting perpendicularly outwards from the side walls 4 of the box-shaped body 2.
Advantageously, the guide 12 is completed by a plate-like strip 30 which is formed by means of a third fold 31 of the upper layer 15 of the edge 9 of each foot 7, directed perpendicularly towards the inside of the compartment 6 so as to face the inner surface of the central body 7' of the foot 7.
The front piece 8, the function of which, well known per se, is to contain the mortar so as to prevent it from entering into the compartment 6, has at least two engaging members 18 (four according to the example shown in the accompanying figures) which are situated n the vicinity of the two ends of the front piece 8 and are able to be inserted removably by means of forced engagement inside corresponding pairs of openings 11 preferably situated on the edges of the two feet 7 and aligned at the same height.
Advantageously, each engaging member 18 consists of a projecting tongue formed by means of punching and pressing of the sheet metal as shown in Figures 6 and 7.
The tongue 18 forms a resilient clip connected at a first end 23 without interruption to the sheet metal of the front piece 8, while the second end 24 is free to be inserted inside the abovementioned openings 11.
In greater detail, the tongue 18 is formed with at least three sections connected together, the first section 18' of which extends perpendicularly with respect to the flat surface of the front piece 8, the second section 18" of which is connected to the first section with a fourth fold greater than 90° which directs it with an inclination towards the said plate of the front piece 8 and finally the third section 8''' is connected to the second section 8" with a fifth fold less than 90° which directs it with an inclination away from the plate of the front piece 8.
The inclination of the third section 18''' is such as to direct the second end 24 outwards, allowing easier penetration thereof inside the openings 11 as soon as the front piece 8 is slid making contact with the front edges 9 of the feet 7.
Preferably, the tongue 18 is inserted with its second end 24 only inside the opening formed in the upper layer 15 of the edge 9 of the foot 7.
Fixing of the feet 7 to the side walls 4 is performed once the said feet 7 have been slid with the guides 12 engaged inside the rims 17 of the side walls 4 down to the desired depth of telescopic engagement.
Threaded tubular inserts 13' (female screws) are mounted on the side walls 4, each of them sliding, during adjustment, inside a track 25 formed longitudinally along the side walls 4. Once the desired position has been reached, the feet 7 are fixed to the walls 4 by means of nuts 13" (wing nuts or similar threaded means) engaging on the threaded inserts 13'.
Advantageously, the feet 7 consist of the same component for mounting both on the righthand side wall and on the left-hand side wall, for which purpose the same fixing means 13 or the guide 25 and the tubular inserts 13' are provided in a mirror arrangement relative to a transverse centre plane.
In accordance with an advantageous characteristic feature of the present invention, the bottom profiles 20, 21 of the side walls 4 and the bottom wall 3 are aligned so as to form a perimetral profile which has, extending along it, a continuous internal gutter 22 formed with two perpendicular folds and able to give the box-shaped body 2 a considerable degree of rigidity.
Advantageously the front piece 8 is provided with a plurality of incisions which define projecting deformed areas 40 able to form fretting or a knurled area or similar forms which favour gripping of the plaster or mortar.
The invention thus achieves the predefined objects.

Claims

Improved flush-mounted cabinet, in particular intended to contain headers and/or valves for heating installations, and/or other accessories, comprising:
- a box-shaped body which has a bottom wall, two side walls and a top wall defining a containing compartment;

- two plate-like feet which can be mechanically associated at an adjustable height with said side walls;

- a transverse front piece which can be removably mounted on the front of the box-shaped body at the bottom thereof;
characterized in that each of the said plate-like feet:
- has at least one front edge extending perpendicularly from said plate-like foot and provided with a plurality of openings aligned in the main direction of extension of said side wall;

- is able to be slidably engaged by means of at least one guide 12 with a bottom section of the said side walls to which it can be secured in an adjustable position by means of fixing means;
and characterized in that said front piece is provided with at least two engaging members situated in the vicinity of the two ends and able to be removably inserted by means of forced engagement inside a pair of openings situated horizontally aligned on the edges of said feet.
Flush-mounted cabinet according to Claim 1, in which the edge of said feet is formed by two layers of sheet metal facing each other and joined together by means of a fold and each provided with aligned incisions able to define said openings, said layers defining with their interspace said guide suitable for receiving a peripheral plate-like rim projecting perpendicularly outwards from said side walls of said box-shaped body.
Flush-mounted cabinet according to Claim 1, in which the upper layer of the edge of each foot is furthermore folded perpendicularly along the inner surface of said foot.
Flush-mounted cabinet according to Claim 1, in which the bottom perimetral profile of said side walls and said rear wall is in a common plane and forms an internal gutter with at least one perpendicular fold.
Flush-mounted cabinet according to Claim 1, in which each of said engaging members consists of a projecting tongue connected at a first end without interruption to said front piece, the second end being free to be inserted inside said openings.
Flush-mounted cabinet according to Claim 1, in which said projecting tongue forms a resiliently yielding clip with at least one end section inclined away from the plate-like surface of the front piece.
Flush-mounted cabinet according to Claim 6, in which the end section of said projecting tongue is inserted inside the opening of the outer layer of the edge of the foot.
Flush-mounted cabinet according to Claim 1, in which said fixing means comprise pins fixed to said side walls and inserted in tracks formed along said side walls so as to allow fixing of the latter at the desired height by means of nuts or similar threaded means.