Plastic furniture

Claim 2

A frame for a piece of furniture, comprising a pair of identical structural foam plastic modules, having spaced and opposed rectangular flat panel portions closing the ends of said frame, spaced beam members extending transversely between and interconnecting said panel portions, said beam members having end segments consisting of aligned stump-like legs formed on and in one piece with said panel portions, said stump-like legs forming the entire cross sections of said beam members, means defining grooves on the inner surfaces of the panel portions and continuing along the adjacent inner surfaces of said legs, and filler pieces inserted in aligned grooves of the panel portions and legs for closing remaining sides of said frame.

Claim 3

A frame according to claim 1 in which said legs are visible segments of the part of the frame bordering said filler pieces and of said piece of furniture.

Claim 4

A frame according to claim 2 in which said legs terminate in free abutment ends, said beam members including end abutting connection means between the legs of one module and the opposed legs of the other module and with hidden pin means at abutting ends.

Claim 5

A piece of furniture comprising a pair of opposed structural modules of a structural foam plastics material, each said module having a rectangular, flat panel portion with oppositely facing outer and inner surfaces and having a plurality of stump-like connecting legs positioned at respective corners of said panel portion and extending in one direction away from said inner surface, said legs of a module each being a length segment of a corresponding beam member connecting opposed corners of said panel portions of said pair of modules, aligned legs of the pair of modules being at least the end length segments of such beam members, adjacent pairs of said legs having grooves extending longitudinally thereof and said inner surface of said panel portion having grooves therein each communicating with the said grooves of a respective said adjacent pair of legs, and means rigidly connecting said modules together with said flat panel portions in spaced parallel relation.

Claim 6

A piece of furniture comprising a pair of opposed structural modules of a structural foam plastics material, each said module having a rectangular, flat panel portion with oppositely facing outer and inner surfaces and having a plurality of stump-like connecting legs positioned at respective corners of said panel portion and extending in one direction away from said inner surface, said legs of a module each being a length segment of a corresponding beam member connecting opposed corners of said panel portions of said pair of modules, aligned legs of the pair of modules being at least the end length segments of such beam members, adjacent pairs of said legs having grooves extending longitudinally thereof and said inner surface of said panel portion having grooves therein each communicating with the said grooves of a respective said adjacent pair of legs, and means rigidly connecting said modules together with said flat panel portions in spaced parallel relation.

Claim 7

A piece of furniture according to claim 4 in which said legs form the entire cross section of said beam member.

Claim 8

A piece of furniture according to claim 4, wherein said modules are assembled together with said aligned legs of the pair of modules being rigidly coupled, said modules defining a rectangular space frame structure having one pair of opposed ends closed by said flat panel portions and pairs of open sides extending therebetween and at least in part bounded by said legs.

Claim 9

A piece of furniture according to claim 6, wherein aligned legs of said opposed modules are directly connected to each other in end abutting relationship.

Claim 10

A piece of furniture according to claim 6, including beams each interposed longitudinally between and end abutting an aligned pair of legs of the opposed modules, each said beam being the central portion of a corresponding said beam member and rigidly interconnecting the aligned legs so as to both connect and space legs of said modules.

Claim 11

A piece of furniture according to claim 8, wherein said beams are formed with longitudinally extending grooves which are continuous with the said grooves in the legs which they bridge.

Claim 12

A piece of furniture according to claim 4, including fillets smoothly joining said legs to said panel portion of a module and forming corner reinforcements, said grooves in said legs and panel portion forming angular corners at their points of communication with each other for permitting installation of a rectangular panel element therein.

Claim 13

A piece of furniture according to claim 4, in which said grooves comprise first and second parallel grooves on the inner sides of the panel portion and legs of a module and including planar elements insertable into communicating sets of first and second grooves of said opposed modules for closing sides of the piece of furniture.

Claim 14

A piece of furniture according to claim 11, wherein at least in the parallel grooves of the legs, the partition walls between such parallel grooves are shorter than the outer groove walls and including a relatively thick planar element of width to abut the outer groove walls of such parallel grooves and usable as a floor for such piece of furniture.

Claim 15

A piece of furniture according to claim 11, wherein at least in the parallel grooves of the panel portion, the outer wall of the outer of said parallel grooves is shorter than the outer wall of the inner one of said parallel grooves and said last mentioned outer wall forms a stop surface for drawers or doors.

Claim 16

A piece of furniture according to claim 4 including upstanding eyes on the inner surface of said panel portion for securing of adjusting plates for drawer guide rails to said panel portion.

Claim 17

A piece of furniture according to claim 4, further comprising a panel element engaged in coplanar ones of said grooves in said panel portions and legs for closing a side of said piece of furniture transverse to said panel portions.

Claim 18

A piece of furniture according to claim 4, wherein said modules are connected together with the free ends of said legs of one said module opposing the outer surface of the panel portion of the other said module, and including shorter separate pieces interposed between said leg ends and outer surface for interconnecting same.

Claim 19

A piece of furniture according to claim 8, in which the distance between the opposed panel portions of said pair of modules is the sum of lengths of an aligned pair of said legs and the intervening beam.