Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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CASKET
This application is a division of copending, commonly owned
Canadian Patent Application No. 2,232,120 filed March 16, 1998.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to caskets, and more
particularly to economically manufactured wood caskets.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Caskets have for many years been fabricated of wood. Fine
woods, such as those used in the manufacture of fine furniture,
are often used, for example, mahogany, cherry, oak and the like.
As is to be expected, one of the greatest costs associated with
the manufacture of wood caskets is the cost of the wood itself.
At least two factors drive this cost.
First, the cost per unit length of these fine woods is
relatively expensive. Second, it is desirable, from an aesthetic
standpoint, to utilize so-called "full length" boards and panels
in the construction of wood caskets, that is boards and panels
that are the full length of the portion of the casket to be
constructed, for example shell side wall, shell end wall and/or
cap, rather than short pieces or "scrap." This is because it is
desirable to have a uniform wood grain the entire length of the
casket, whether it be for the casket shell side walls and end
walls, each of which are normally constructed of a single,
unitary full length panel, or for the casket caps, which are
fabricated of a plurality of full length boards formed into a
convex shape for the crown portion of the cap and then sawed in
two to create the separate head end and the foot end caps. The
former provides for a continuous wood grain on the casket shell
side walls and end walls; and the latter provides for a
continuous wood grain for each of the boards forming the crowns
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of the head end and foot end caps. Utilizing such full length
boards and panels results in smaller boards and portions of
panels, which are cut from the full length boards and panels,
being scrapped, thus increasing manufacturing costs.
It would be desirable from a cost perspective to be able to
utilize smaller pieces of wood in the construction of wood
caskets, for example to use more than one panel to fabricate a
casket shell side wall or end wall, and/or to utilize something
other than full length boards to fabricate the casket lids.
However, prior attempts have not met with complete success.
For example, if one were to abut a pair of wood panels
together to form a casket shell side wall, joint is readily
apparent to observers of the casket shell side wall, not only
because of the seam created by the abutted edges of the panels,
but because of the discontinuous or non-matching wood grains of
the two panels, i.e. the wood grain is discontinuous at the seam
and is therefore not continuous across the joint from one panel
to the other panel. Such is generally unsightly and therefore
undesirable.
Second, if one were to utilize non-full length boards from
which to fabricate the head and the foot end lids, the grains of
each and every corresponding board of the head end cap and foot
end cap would be non-matching and would be readily apparent upon
viewing the casket with both caps in the closed position.
Yet another drawback to utilizing non-full length boards
from which to manufacture the head end and foot end caps is that,
by and large, the current tooling in the industry is set up to
fabricate these lids from full length boards; if non-full length
boards were utilized, new tooling would likely have to be
designed, purchased and/or built and then implemented.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed toward overcoming the
aesthetic deficiencies of prior wood casket construction
techniques when non-full length wood, whether either panels or
boards, are used in the construction of wood caskets. Thus,
manufacturing costs are reduced, but not with a consequent
reduction in aesthetics or ornamentality of the caskets. In
addition, tooling currently in use in the industry is able to be
continued to be utilized.
The invention according to the parent application provides a
casket comprising a casket shell including a floor, a pair of
side walls and a pair of end walls. A lid is closable upon the
shell. At least one of the walls is constructed of at least two
panels having adjacent abutting edges forming a joint between the
panels. A decorative feature disguises the joint to create the
appearance of the two panels being a single panel. The
decorative feature may either be formed in the two panels or
placed over the two panels.
The one wall referred to above is preferably a side wall,
having a longer dimension and a shorter dimension with the joint
being transverse to the longer dimension. The joint joining the
two panels is preferably a finger joint. The decorative feature
preferably comprises at least one groove extending the visible
length of the joint. More preferably, the one groove is formed
partially in one of the two panels and partially in the other of
the two panels. The decorative feature may further comprise a
second groove formed in one of the two panels parallel to and
coextensive with the one groove.
More preferably, the casket of the parent application
comprises a casket shell including a floor, a pair of side walls
and a pair of end walls, and further including a top mold around
an upper portion of the walls and a base mold around a lower
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portion of the walls. A lid is closable upon the shell. Each
side wall is constructed of at least two panels having adjacent
abutting edges forming a joint between the panels, the joint
being visible from a lowermost edge of the top mold to an
uppermost edge of the base mold. A plurality of grooves are
provided in the two panels extending from the lowermost edge of
the top mold to an uppermost edge of the base mold disguising the
joint to create the appearance of the two panels being a single
panel.
The grooves are preferably spaced apart longitudinally and
are V-shaped in cross section, and the joint preferably lies in
the trough of one of the V-shaped grooves. Each side wall is
preferably constructed of three panels, which are equal in length
to each other and to the end walls. Thus, the walls of the
casket shell may be fabricated of eight equal length or identical
panels thereby simplifying construction.
Additional grooves may be provided in the side and end walls
of the casket shell at the corners to match and compliment the
grooves in the panels making up the side walls.
On the other hand, in accordance with the present invention,
a casket comprises a casket shell including a floor, a pair of
side walls and a pair of end walls. A head end cap and a foot
end cap, each closable upon the shell, each have a crown, a
longer dimension and a shorter dimension. Each cap crown is
constructed of a plurality of boards extending parallel to the
longer dimension of the caps and includes a center spine board.
The center spine board of both the crowns is fabricated from a
single full length board which is sawed in two such that the
grains of the head end and foot end spine boards match. The
remaining ones of the plurality of cap crown boards are non-full
length boards. The gap between the head and foot end caps, when
closed upon the shell, in combination with the matching grain of
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the spine boards of the caps, helps to create the appearance of
the cap crowns being fabricated of full length boards. In
addition, while continuing to fabricate the head end and foot end
caps utilizing at least one full length board, for example a full
length center spine board, tooling currently in use for forming
the caps is still usable.
These and other features of the present invention will
become more readily apparent during the following detailed
description taken in conjunction with the drawings herein, in
which:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the casket of the present
invention;
Fig. 2 is a view of just the casket shell side walls and end
walls of Fig. 1, with the balance of the casket being shown in
phantom;
Fig. 3 is a view taken along line 3--3 of Fig. 2
illustrating the joint formed by two adjacent side wall panels
and the decorative grooves disguising the same;
Figs. 3A and 3B are cross-sectional views similar to that of
Fig. 3 but of a corner of the casket shell and illustrating
further decorative grooves in the casket shell.
Fig. 4 is a view taken along line 4--4 of Fig. 1
illustrating the relationship of the decorative grooves to the
casket shell side wall, top mold and base mold;
Fig. 5 is a view of the crowns of the head end and foot end
caps, utilizing a full length center spine board with the balance
of the boards being non-full length boards, after being removed
from the tooling which forms the crown into a convex shape;
Fig. 6 is a top view of the crowns of Fig. 5;
Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 6 illustrating installation
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of the pie portions of the caps onto the crown portions;
Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the assembled crowns and
pies of Fig. 7 illustrating installation of the rim and header
panels; and
Fig. 9 is a view illustrating the crown and pie assembly of
Fig. 7 with rim attached being sawed in two to make the separate
head end and foot end caps.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring first to Fig. 1, there is illustrated a wood
casket 10 according to the present invention. The casket 10
comprises a casket shell 12, and head end 14 and foot end 16 caps
closable upon the shell 12. Caps 14 and 16 may be pivoted to the
shell 12 by hinges or the like as are known in the art.
The shell 12 includes a floor 18, a pair of side walls 20
and a pair of end walls 22. The shell 12 further includes a top
mold 24 secured around an upper portion of the side walls 20 and
end walls 22, and a base mold 26 secured around the lower portion
of the side walls 20 and end walls 22.
Referring now to Figs. 2-4, it will be seen that shell side
walls 20 are each formed of three separate panels of wood 30, 32
and 34. As shown in Fig. 3, the edges of abutting panels, for
example those of panels 32 and 34, are joined via a finger joint
40 and suitable wood glue. A joint seam 42, transverse to the
longitudinal dimension of the panels 32 and 34, results from the
panels 32 and 34 being abutted together. Seam 42, along with the
mismatch of the wood grain of the panels 32 and 34, would
otherwise be visible from the lower edge 44 of the top mold 24 to
the upper edge 46 of the base mold 26.
To obscure, camouflage or otherwise disguise the joint seam
42, along with the mismatch of the wood grains of the panels 32
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and 34, a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart grooves 50,
V-shaped in cross-section, are formed in the panels. In
particular, one such V-shaped groove 52 is positioned so that the
joint seam 42 is located at the base or within the trough 54 of
the groove 52. One or more additional grooves 56 and 58 may be
formed parallel to and adjacent to the first groove 52 in either
or both of the panels 32 and 34. The effect of the grooves 50 is
twofold. First, by positioning the seam 42 of the finger joint
40 in the trough 54 of one of the grooves 52, the seam 42 tends
to go unnoticed. Second, by including one or more grooves 50 in
the vicinity of the abutting edges of the panels 32 and 34, the
focus of one's eyes is on the decorative grooves 50 themselves,
rather than on the joint seam 42 or the mismatching wood grains
of the panels 32 and 34. And, adding the grooves to the abutting
edges of the panels helps to create the illusion of continuity of
grain pattern of the wood panels. Thus, shorter pieces of wood
panel, which would otherwise be discarded as scrap, are able to
be utilized in the construction of the casket shell 12, thus
reducing its cost of manufacture. However, the decorative
grooves tend to disguise the fact that the shell side walls are
"pieced together," thus avoiding any negative connotations which
might normally be associated with such a construction technique.
In fact, an ordinary observer can be looking directly at the
joint seam 42 and not even know it due to the optical illusion
created by the grooves 50.
It is preferable to fabricate each side panel 20 out of
three equal length panels, which themselves are equal in length
to the wood panels forming the end walls 22. Thus, only a single
length of wood panel need be made up for fabricating the casket
10; the entire casket shell 12 can then be fabricated from eight
such panels along with a floor 18.
The end walls 22 and floor 18 are attached to the side walls
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20 by a combination of glue and fasteners as is known in the art.
Similarly, top mold 24 and base mold 26 are attached to the walls
20 and 22 by fasteners as is known in the art.
Referring to Fig. 4, it will be seen that once the panels
are glued together to form the casket shell side walls, the
grooves 50 may then be routed into the side walls 12. As shown
in the Figure, while all the grooves 50 extend entirely to the
bottom or lower edge 53 of the panels, the grooves 50 stop short
of the upper edge 55 of the panel, thereby avoiding notching the
upwardly facing edge 57 against which the caps 14 and 16 reside
when in the closed position.
Additional grooves may be added to the shell side and end
walls at the corners as illustrated in Figs. 3A and 3B. By
adding additional decorative grooves in the casket shell the
grooves at abutting panel edges are somewhat "balanced out," and
the tendency to focus on the joints of the abutting panels is
reduced even further.
Referring now back to Fig. 1, head end cap 14 includes a
crown portion 60, a pie portion 62 (the crown 60 and pie 62
sometimes referred to collectively as the "cover") and a rim
portion 64. Similarly, foot end cap 16 includes a crown 61, a
pie 63 and a rim 65. Though not shown in Fig. 1, head and foot
end caps 14 and 16 also include a header panel located at their
respective foot and head ends.
Referring now to Fig. 5, the crowns 60 and 61 are integrally
fabricated of a plurality of boards, including a full length
center spine board 70. The crown 60 of the head end cap 14 is
fabricated of six separate boards 72, 74, 76, 78, 80 and 82, plus
the head end portion of the full length center spine board 70.
Similarly, the crown 61 of the foot end cap 16 is formed of six
boards 90, 92, 94, 96, 98 and 100, plus the foot end portion of
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the full length center spine board 70. The foot ends of the
non-full length boards making up the head end cap 14 abut the
head ends of the non-full length boards making up the foot end
cap 16 as at 120 and 122.
The assemblage of boards 70-100 with glue applied between
them is fixtured into tooling to form the convex shape of the
crowns 60 and 61. The tooling (not shown) is conventional in the
art and may include a convex plate in the size and shape of the
two crowns and against which the assemblage of boards 70-100 is
pressed or formed by a plurality of pneumatic or hydraulic
cylinders. An R-F glue curing apparatus may also be employed to
aid curing of the glue gluing together the assemblage of boards
70-100.
Once the crown portions 60 and 61 of the caps 14 and 16 are
removed from the tooling which forms the crowns 60 and 61 into
their convex shape, the head and foot ends 126 and 128 of the
crowns 60 and 61 respectively are sawed to accept the head end
pie 62 and the foot end pie 63. The pies 62 and 63 are then
installed with a combination of glue and fasteners as is known in
the art. See Figs. 6 and 7. Similar to the crown forming step,
the step of sawing the ends of the crowns and installing the pies
is performed after fixturing the crowns 60 and 61 into tooling
(not shown but conventional in the art) adapted to receive the
crowns 60 and 61 as a single or unitary assemblage.
Next the header panels 114, 116 are installed into the
crowns 60 and 61, still a single, unitary assemblage. See Fig.
8. The header panels 114, 116 are installed with a combination
of glue and fasteners as is known in the art.
Finally, the rims 64 and 65 are installed around the crowns
60, 61 and pies 62 and 63 with glue and fasteners as is known in
the art. Again, during this step the crowns are still a single,
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unitary assemblage fixtured into tooling (not shown) known in the
art for this purpose.
The only remaining step is to saw the heretofore unitary,
unseparated caps 14 and 16 in two as is diagrammatically shown in
Fig. 9. The caps 14 and 16 may then be mounted to the shell 12
with fasteners as is known in the art.
One or more sanding steps may be performed on the caps
during the above fabrication steps as desired or required.
During the above-described cap fabrication steps, it is
important that the assembly of crowns 60, 61 and pies 62, 63 be
an integral, unitary assemblage for at least two reasons. One is
that because a number of the fabrication steps, for example,
installation of the header panels, installation of the rim,
installation of hardware such as latches and hinges and making
the final saw cut, are all dimensioned from a common datum, for
example one end of the crown and pie assembly or crown, pie and
rim assembly. This would not be possible if the caps were
fabricated separately. It is preferable to so dimension the caps
for manufacture in order to avoid tolerance stackups and
mismatches which would result from fabricating the caps
separately, since the shell is likewise so dimensioned.
Another reason is that the tooling currently in use in the
industry is set up for full length caps, i.e. a one-piece
unitary cap as is used on a so-called full-couch casket. This
allows either full length caps or separate head and foot end caps
to be fabricated on a single set of tooling simply by including
the last additional step of sawing the cap in two to form a
so-called "split cap" having head and foot ends separately
openable.
Accordingly, the above-described cap manufacturing technique
allows the caps to be manufactured in a full length state, with
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only the final product being sawed in two, by utilizing the
full-length center spine board; yet by reducing the number of
full length boards employed in the caps to an absolute minimum
the resulting cost of the caps is reduced. In addition, the
combination of the gap between the head and foot end caps when
closed upon the shell with the matching grain of the spine boards
of the head and foot caps, tends to create the appearance of the
cap crowns being constructed of full length boards, or at least
to minimize the visual effect of the remaining ones of the cap
crown boards being non-full length boards, i.e. to minimize the
visual effect of the wood grains of respective ones of the head
and foot end cap crown boards being non-matching.
By way of example, the cost savings on a $500 lumber package
can be as much as $80 by employing the shell side wall and cap
crown manufacturing techniques of this invention.
Those skilled in the art will readily recognize numerous
adaptations and modifications which can be made to the present
invention which will result in an improved casket, yet all of
which will fall within the spirit and scope of the present
invention as defined in the following claims. For example, while
only the casket shell side walls have been illustrated as being
fabricated from more than one panel, it is contemplated that the
casket shell end walls could as well be fabricated of more than
one panel. Further, while grooves have been disclosed as the
preformed decorative feature disguising the joint between two
adjacent panels, many other decorative features, both formed in
the panels or overlying the panels, could be employed. That is
to say, decorative features other than straight V-shaped grooves
could be routed into the panels to disguise the joint; or a
decorative trim piece, hardware or the like extending from the
lower edge of the top mold to the upper edge of the base mold
could be utilized to conceal the joint. Accordingly, the
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invention is to be limited only by the scope of the following
claims and their equivalents
