One-piece drawer with integral guide structure

Claim 1

An improved drawer assembly of the type having a drawer with a bottom wall and a peripheral wall structure extending upwardly from the bottom wall and defining in conjunction therewith a storage space, said peripheral wall structure having a front wall, a rear wall and first and second laterally spaced side walls each extending between the front and rear walls, each said side wall having a free top edge and a bottom edge within said storage space, and means for guiding sliding movement of said drawer between a closed position and an open position, the improvement comprising: each said first and second side walls, front wall, rear wall and bottom wall comprising a single piece of formed sheet metal and each said first and second side walls having a laterally opening U-shaped guide slot formed directly from said single piece of sheet metal extending from front to rear for cooperation with the guiding means to support and guide sliding movement of the drawer in a fore and aft direction relative to the guide elements between said open and closed positions, each said side wall having an inside wall surface bounding said storage space and an outside wall surface extending between the top free edge and bottom edge of the side wall, said outside wall surface being formed to define said guide slot on each said side wall, and being a continuous and uninterrupted formed single layer of said single sheet of metal between the top free edge and bottom edge on each side wall, and said guiding means comprising a cabinet defining a space for reception of said drawer in the closed drawer position and having spaced guide elements for reception in the drawer guide slots and cooperating with the slots to guide movement of the drawer selectively into and out of the cabinet space.