Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
1(~61075
In modern open-plan offices and industrial wGrk-
shops, panels for sound-damping and other purposes are often
used to divide up the open-plan office or industrial workshop
into smaller units. These panels or other furnishing components
are often interconnected by means of various fittings which,
however, permit only certain predetermined angles of position
- between abutting furnishing components. These connecting
devices display disadvantages, not only concerning the limited
choice of positional angles but also concerning cost, because
the various fittings are relatively expensive and require
careful mounting on the furnishing components, so that they
fit each other.
In an attempt to create freedom of choice concerning
the angles of position between abutting furnishing panels;
in this case folding door elements; it has been suggested, in
the British patent specification 921,647, to use gear segments
which are mounted along the vertical edges of the door elements.
A longitudinal clamp member serves to hold the door elements
in engagement and to maintain the gear segments in mesh.
This construction is, however, not only expensive but also
disadvantageous when used in connection with furnishing com-
ponents such as sound-damping panels, which are often moved
around, according to the required rearrangement of the furnish-
ing in the open-plan office, or, according to the placing of
machinery in the industrial wor~shop.
An object of the present invention is to provide a
connecting device, serving as a hinge, for preferably panel-
- ~L
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shaped furnishing components, thereby to obviate the dis-
advantages in the prior art devices serving similar purposes.
Another object of the invention is to provide an
improved and cheaper connecting device, for preferably panel-
shaped furnishing components, which can serve as a hinge means
between the furnishing components, despite the fact that it
permits simple separation of them.
Indeed, the U.S. patent specification 3,114,951
discloses a connecting device of so-called VELCRO (trade mark)
tape (bur fastener tape), but these Velcro tapes are used for
the connection of preferably flexible elements. The patent
specification does not, however, make any statements which
indicate that such tape fasteners could be used to obviate the
disadvantages in the aforementioned connecting devices for
panel-shaped furnishing components.
According to the present invention, there is
provided for use in a panel, a member having a curved section,
an outer surface of which supports one of a complementary pair
of tapes adapted to form a tape fastener~ Opposite ends of the
curved section have engaging means adapted to releasably retain
the member in contact with a cooperating member situated along
a vertical edge of the panel, whereby the tape on the member is
adapted to engage a second tape situated on a respective surface,
whereby an angle of contact of the member with respect to the
surface can be varied while contact is maintained between the
member and the surface.
According to one embodiment of the present invention,
there is provided for use in a panel, a cooperating member
adapted to be connected to a vertical edge of the panel, the
cooperating member adapted to releasably support along a
vertical edge of the panel a member having one of a pair of
tapes mounted on an outer surface thereof, the tapes adapted
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to form a tape fastener.
According to a further embodiment of the present
invention, there is provided a panel comprising a cooperating
member mounted along at least one vertical edge of the panel,
the cooperating member releasably supporting a member having a
curved section, an outer surface of which supports one of a
complementary pair of tapes adapted to form a tape fastener.
Opposite ends of the curved section have engaging means
releasably retaining the member in contact with the cooperating
member, whereby the tape on the outer surface of the curved
section of the member is adapted to engage a second tape
situated on a respective surface, whereby an angle of contact
of the panel relative to the surface can be varied while
maintaining contact between the surface and the panel.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent from
the following description in which embodiments of the invention
are described with reference to the accompanying drawing.
In the drawing:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of two panels which
have been interconnected by means of a hinge device according
to the invention:
Figure 2 shows a section on the line II-II in
Figure 1: and
Figure 3 is a section corresponding to Figure 2, but
illustrating a panel connected to a bookcase.
As seen in Figure 1, two panels 10 are interconnected
by means of a hinge device according to the present invention.
This hinge device consists of two complementary tapes 11, 12
which are mounted on their respective semi-cylindrical frame
elements 13, these elements being, in turn, releasably secured
to the vertical edges of the panels 10. The two tapes 11, 12
together form one tape fastener.
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Each of the opposite vertical edges of the panels 10
have each been fitted with their respective types of tape. One
of the tapes, for example, tape 11, is of the closed loop type,
while the other tape 12 is of the cut loop type. In the cut
loop type of tape 12, the cut loops form small hooks which
engage the uncut loops of the other complementary tape 11.
Alternatively, the bur grip fasteners can be designed with tapes
having mushroom-shaped projections which engage each other when
they are joined together.
Figure 2 illustrates one embodiment of the semi~
circular frame elements or profiles 13 which are situated along
the vertical edges of the panels 10. In this embodiment, the
frame element 13 is in the form of an extruded, channel-shaped
profile having a semi-circular arch 14 which terminates in
inwardly-directed limbs 15. The limbs 15 merge into respective
rearwardly-directed projections16, each projection 16 having a
barb-like thickened portion 17 at its outer end. The thickened
portions 17 clasp inwardly bent, cooperating edge portions 18 on
a substantially U-shaped cooperating element or profile 19. The
cooperating element or profile 19 is either affixed (for example,
by pop-riveting) to a supporting frame 20, or itself forms the
supporting frame of the panel, this latter embodiment not being
shown. In this latter construction, the thickness of the panel
10 is of the same thickness as the width of the U-shaped profile.
The thickened portions 17 and the inwardly bent edge portions 18
function as a snap-action catch because of the flexibility of the
semi-circular arch 14.
~ he inwardly directed limbs 15 are preferably provided
with shoulder portions 21 which extend outwardly to the ends of
the arch 14. The shoulder portions provide spaces between the
frame elements 13 and U-shaped profiles 19 to receive ends of
the tapes 11, 12.
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In the embodiment of Figure 2, a cloth cover 25 is
stretched over the surfaces of the panels 10, the cover 25
extending over the surfaces of the supporting frame 20 and
U-shaped profiles 19. Ends of the cover are secured by glueing
to the U-shaped profiles 19 at locations adjacent the shoulder
portions 21. In this way, a very durable method of securing
both the cloth covering 25 and tapes 11, 12 is provided. Further,
in the embodiment of the invention in which the cooperating
element or profile 19 also forms the supporting frame for the
panel 10, and the element or profile is of the same thickness
as the panel, a connection of the frame element 13 to the
cooperating element or profile 19 is provided without the
presence of aesthetically unattractive shoulders along the
vertical edges of the panel 10.
As is apparent from Figure 3, it is possible to glue
two strips of tape 12 (or 11, or alternatively 11 and 12 in
the same line) to the end edges of, for example, bookcases 22,
so that the panels may be directly attached to the bookcase
units 22O
Another embodiment of the present invention, which is
not shown in the drawings, utilizes one of the types of tape,
for example, the tape with the cut loops, which is secured
around a rod, the rod then being positioned as the connecting
and hinging element between two panels or other furnishing
components which have been fitted with the other type of tape,
the screens or other components being interconnected in a
desired angular position.
A great advantage inherent in, for example, the semi-
cylindrical frame element 13 is that more than two furnishing
components can be connected to each other at the same pivot
point. Thus, for example, two furnishing components fitted with
the tape 11 on their frame elements 13 can be connected to one
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1C1 61~75
and the same frame element 13, fitted with the tape 12, on
another furnishing component.
Experiments have shown that the hinge device
according to the invention is very strong and resistant to
shearing forces. As a result, there is very little risk that
two or more interconnected furnishing components will be
detached from each other by shearing at right ang~es to the
hinge axis. This powerful resistance of the hinge and con-
necting device ensures that, for example, panels such as shown
in Figure 1, can be fitted with straight legs 23 without out-
wardly extending support feet, while still avoiding the risk
of the panels falling over.
