A furniture panel and method of making

Description of equivalent WO 0138073 A1

A FURNITURE PANEL AND METHOD OF MAKING CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This is a continuing non-provisional application of co-pending United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/167,303, entitled Partition Panel Insert Panel and filed on November 24, 1999, by Kenneth Assink, the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED

RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT Not Applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to office landscape systems and the like. More particularly, the invention relates to trim panels, insert panels, or other furniture panels that are useful with office landscape partition panel systems and with storage cabinets.

Many office furniture systems use a modular or component based system approach to

fulfilling office work tasks. This is found even in free standing case goods, traditionally styled office furniture. The use of component based furniture systems is driven at least in part, by a high level of competition in the office furniture market segment. Customers, including users and designers, desire rich, high quality appearances in the office furnishing products, which may require a generous use of fabric finishes. The fabrics

used today may include not only traditional fiber fabrics, but may also include non-fiber or membrane fabrics, for example. Further, the use of contours or contoured surfaces in stead of panel, even raised panel, surfaces is increasingly being called for by designers and end users. The use of various fabrics as a finish material typically requires the commonly

expensive production processes of upholstering, however. Even when implemented in today's best mass production facilities, the upholstering process adds significantly to the costs of manufacture. Further, various environmental regulations and codes, such as safety requirements, add to the cost of producing the products that the market place is calling for.

Thus, a desirability of improving the production of office furnishing products is easily understood. Further, reducing the cost of making fabric finished or upholstered office furnishing products will not only provide a cost based competition advantage, it will also make generally better designed and better made products available to those who had not been able to afford them.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, a furniture panel of the invention has a layer of moldable material and a decorative facade or finish material. The layer of moldable material has a first side and an opposing second side. The finish material is disposed upon at least the first side and is at least

partially embedded into the layer of moldable material

In some aspects of the invention, the finish material includes filaments of moldable material and further yet, a predetermined number of the filaments in the finish material may be colored a preselected color. The layer of moldable material may include a filler material. More

specifically, the filler material may define a stratum within the layer of moldable material. As to other aspects of the invention, a member may be molded within the layer of moldable material. The member may be any of a hydraulic conduit, a pneumatic conduit, an electrical conduit, electrical conductors, fiber optic conductors, and structural reinforcement. These and other features, objects, and benefits of the invention will be recognized by one having ordinary skill in the art and by those who practice the invention, from the specification, the claims, and the drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF

THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING Figure 1 is a perspective view of a fabrication line that is configured to fabricate

furniture panels according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic fragmentary cross-sectional view of a furniture panel of the

invention;

Figure 3 is an exploded schematic fragmentary cross-sectional view of an number of strata of materials for a furniture panel of the invention; and

Figure 4 is the view of Fig. 3, showing a first alternative construction of a furniture panel

of the invention; Figure 5 is the view of Fig. 3, showing a second alternative construction of a furniture panel of the invention, including a rigid structure;

Figure 6 is the view of Fig. 2, showing the second alternative construction of Fig. 5 incorporated in a furniture panel of the invention; and

Figure 7 is an end perspective view of a flipper door storage cabinet that has a door panel according to the invention in a closed position;

Figure 8 is the view of figure 7 showing the door panel in an open position; Figure 9 is a front perspective view of a first alternative door panel that is adapted for use with a pre-existing flipper door panel;

Figure 10 is a centerline cross-sectional view thereof; and Figure 11 is the view of figure 10 with the pre-existing flipper door panel removed; and

Figure 12 is a front perspective view of a second alternative door panel that incorporates

a metal support frame; and

Figure 13 is a perspective view of a furniture panel according to the invention; and

Figure 14 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional detail view taken along line XIV-

XIV of figure 13; and

Figure 15 is a perspective view of a first alternative embodiment of a decorative furniture

panel according to the invention; and

Figure 16 is an end elevational view thereof, partially wrapped around a post; and Figure 17 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of two panels matted to provide a unified panel with two opposing finish sides; and

Figure 18 is an exploded fragmentary cross-sectional view thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of a furniture panel according to the invention is generally shown in the drawing figures and discussed below. A furniture panel or decorative panel according to the invention may be formed with any of various configurations as may be dictated

by the specific use requirements of a given office landscape system, furniture, or other installation. Thus, a furniture panel or decorative panel according to the invention may include flipper doors, wall panels, tack boards, seat back panels, soft sided storage cabinets, light shields, divider screens, and modesty panels, for example.

The furniture panel may commonly be a generally planar rectangular panel member

that is covered on at least one side surface with a decorative material. Then decorative material may be any decorative membrane, including fiber and non-fiber materials and woven and non- woven materials, for example. A furniture panel of the invention is a molded member and is thereby influenced by the method of construction, including without limitation, such factors as closed mold temperature and pressure, and material densities.

More particularly to the furniture panel structure, the panel is a unified or monolithic member that has a layer of moldable material 12 into which a stratum of a filler material 14 may be embedded and into which a facade or finish material 16 is at least partially imbedded on one or both of two opposing side surfaces (Fig. 2). This is distinguished from prior known insert

panels and the like that incorporate multiple layers or substrates of various materials that are glued or otherwise adhered together. These multiple layers of prior insert panels typically include a structural substrate, a sound limiting substrate, and a finish material layer, that is a fabric, for example. A fire retardant layer may also be introduced under the finish material.

These multiple layers are further layered with adhesives that bond the layers together. Thus, the prior known panels have discrete layers of distinct materials with defined boundaries between them. The layer boundaries are emphasized or further defined by the adhesives that are interposed between the substrates or layers. The adhesives in prior panels may be provided as

sheets that are laminated between the other layers or by spraying the adhesive onto abutting surfaces of the other layers.

As to the invention, the layer 12 of moldable material in the invention is preferably a blend of materials with at least one of the component materials being a thermoplastic, including, and not limited to, polyester, co-polyester, polypropylene, nylon, or blends thereof, for example.

Another of the component materials may have a higher melting point, providing a matrix to which lower melting point materials may bond. This other material may also include various thermoplastics such as polyester, co-polyester, polypropylene, and nylon, for example, or may include natural materials such as, sisal, cotton, flax, and hemp, for example. One having ordinary skill in the art will know that the use of an all polyester

composition, for example, may provide a freer flowing base material that will conform to tighter radius mold shapes and that other resulting furniture panel characteristics may be preselected by the composition of the layer of moldable material. The layer 12 is preferably provided as a non- woven mat. Re-cycled or virgin polyester and polypropylene, for example, may be chopped, shredded, carded, blended and lofted into a non-woven sheet and rolled into a roll, as is known. In the blending, a homogenous mixture of polyester and polypropylene many be provided with a resulting ratio or mix of component materials being preselected according to predetermined desired resulting properties.

The furniture panel may be successfully constructed and used with a single mat of material, as one having ordinary skill in the art will understand. The one will further understand that a predetermined combination of multiple component mats that have different preselected compositions will result in a furniture panel that has a customized structure according to a user's requirements. This combining of multiple component mats that have differing content still

provides a monolithic resulting furniture panel, as discussed further below. The combining of multiple component mats also allows a fabricator to tailor the resulting characteristics of the resulting furniture panel by positioning strata of component materials within the resulting monolithic or unified furniture panel. Thus, a second mat 18 comprised of a blend including the filler material 14 may be used with the mat 12 to introduce and position the stratum of filler

material 14 into the resulting monolithic furniture panel of the invention.

More particularly, the stratum of filler material 14 is provided by embedding the filler into a second mat of the moldable material. This is conveniently accomplished by the same procedure that is used to provide the layer 12 of moldable material just discussed, with an

exception that fibers of filler material are included in the blend. Thus, a second mat of a homogeneous mixture of the moldable material and the filler material is provided according to predetermined desired resulting properties. The filler materials may include any of various materials that preferably have a melting point temperature that is higher than that of the moldable material that is used to mold the furniture panel of the invention. Some exemplary

materials that may be used as filler include, without limitation, polyester, polypropylene, nylon, ceramics, metals, sisal, cotton, flax, and hemp.

As shown in the drawing figure 1 , a fabrication line that is configured to fabricate

furniture panels of the invention may include a load station 22, an uncoiler 24, a shear 26, a high intensity oven 28, a bonding press 30, and a fabric carousel 32. The press 30 is provided with cooperating mold halves or dies, so the press can mold a desired, pre-determined panel configuration. A first conveyor portion 42 may interconnect the loading station 22, the uncoiler 24, the shear 26, the high intensity oven 28, and the bonding press 30. A second conveyor portion may interconnect the fabric carousel 32 and the bonding press 30. Further, an automatic unloader 46 may be provided to remove panels from the bonding press 30 and stack them on a pallet or transfer them to another conveyor, for example.

The first mat 12 of moldable material and the second mat 14, which includes the

filler, may be provided on separate rolls 50 at the load station 22 or may be concentrically rolled on the same roll. Either way, when the furniture panel is to be constructed with an embedded

stratum, the two mats are aligned and simultaneously feed through the shear 26. The mats are cut at a predetermined length or into a predetermined shape by the shear 26 and feed by the conveyer portion 42 into the oven 28. Of course, when the panel is to be constructed with a homogenous structure, rather than positioning a stratum of material within the unified member, one may use only one mat of blended material. More than two mats may also be used as will be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art. The moldable material in the mats 12 and 14 is preferably heated in the oven 28 to a point of transition from the solid state to the liquid state of the material. Some of the fibers of

moldable material may liquefy in the oven while others remain solid and yet others may be in a transition or gel-like condition. Thus, the material becomes very soft and pliable, yet can still be handled because it retains enough of the mat structure. The hot mats 12 and 14 are further transferred by conveyer portion 42 from the oven 28 to the bonding press 30. Substantially simultaneously, or previously, a corresponding piece of fabric 16 may be transferred from the

fabric carousel 32 to the bonding press 30 by the second conveyor portion, and the fabric is mated or aligned with the hot mats 12 and 14. The facade or finish fabric 16 and the hot mats 12 and 14 are aligned with one another and the mold. The press 30 is then closed, capturing and pressing the finish fabric 16 and the mats 12 and 14 between the mold halves.

When the bonding press 30 closes and the hot moldable material of mats 12 and 14 are pressed between the mold halves or dies of the press, the hot moldable material may transition to a liquid material state in the mold. Regardless of the extend to which the hot moldable material of mats 12 and 14 may or may not further transition to a liquid state, the hot moldable material does flow in the mold or become pressed throughout the mold because of the

pressure applied in the press 30. Thus, the two mats 12 and 14 become one layer of moldable material with a stratum of filler embedded in the moldable material. The molten moldable material flows throughout the mold cavity and attaches, even fuses with, to the non-molten material. The molten material is also pressed into the finish fabric 16, so the fabric becomes at least partially embedded into the moldable material.

The mold halves or dies are temperature controlled below the melting temperature of the moldable material. Thus, the oven heats the moldable material and the pressure of the closed mold in the press shapes the material before the transfer of heat from the material to the dies sets the material in the solid state.

Structural characteristics of the resulting panel may be controlled by adjustment of the material make up, as indicated above, the material density and the mold pressure. For a given amount of material, a given mold cavity volume will result in a particular material density. By holding the mold cavity constant, an increase in the amount of material will increase the

resulting material density. A resulting panel with a relatively higher resulting material density will be a relatively tougher panel that resists puncturing, including the insertion of pins and the like. Alternatively, a decrease in the amount of material will produce a panel with a relatively lower resulting material density, and will be less tough, that is more susceptible to the insertion of pins.

Thus, a furniture panel of the invention can be a fully tackable panel, for example, by adjusting the resulting material density appropriately. That is to say that the panel may be constructed so papers or the like may be posted anywhere on the panel with a push-pin or tack. As a mater of geometry, the tackable furniture panel should have an at least three eighths inch (10 mm) thickness to support a weighted push-pin, as one having ordinary skill in the art will

understand.

One may also note that the moldable material will commonly be viscous and will not flow freely, merely pouring throughout the mold cavity. Rather, the moldable material will tend

to remain at the location where it was placed when the press closes the mold, and will move into the mold cavity corners and crevices by the pressure in the mold. Thus, the panel may have localized areas of relatively higher material density, and associated greater material toughness, where the mold cavity and the resulting furniture panel cross-sectional thickness is thinner or where added mat thickness was originally placed in the mold. Further depending upon the requirements of a particular office landscape installation,

a fire barrier may be required in the furniture panel. This may be implemented with a stratum 14 of fiberglass or a layer of foil under the finish fabric 16. A mat 14 (Fig 3) that uses fiberglass as the filler material and has a relatively high ratio blend of fiberglass to moldable material may provide an acceptable level of fire barrier characteristic. Alternatively, a foil may be layered under the finish fabric. A micro perforation of the foil, with cleanly punctured perforations or perforations that leave a tab, may enhance unity of the panel structure.

As discussed above, one having ordinary skill in the art will realize that an panel of the invention may be constructed with various alternative 'lay-ups' of multiple mats prior to

molding in the bonding press into the monolithic panel of the invention. By selecting different numbers of mats and by changing the thickness and content of each mat, one may alter the stiffness, toughness, sound, and other characteristics of the resulting monolithic panel of the invention. A lay-up of fabric 16, a filler blend mat 18, and a moldable material mat 12 (Fig 3) will produce a unified furniture panel with an embedded filler stratum 14 adjacent the facade or

finish fabric 16 (Fig 2), for example.

Alternatively, the embedded filler stratum 14 may be spaced from the fabric 16, if desired, by using an additional moldable material mat 12 as shown in drawing figure 4. Further, strength and other panel characteristics may be enhanced with the use of metal or ceramic fibers.

Still further, a rigid structure, including a metal mesh 20, for example, may be embedded in the unified panel by including the structure in the mat lay-up (Figs 5 and 6).

A first specific embodiment of a furniture panel according of the invention is shown in drawing figures 7 and 8 as a flipper door 110 of a storage cabinet 112. The door 110 may be fabric finished with embedded mounting brackets or embedded mounting fasteners anchors.

The mounting brackets or anchors may be embedded metal or plastic members, for example. As plastic members, the brackets or anchors may easily be integrally formed with the panel by providing a high density of the moldable material in pre-selected localized areas. By providing a layer of moldable material of sufficient thickness, density, and area, the moldable material may define a mounting or anchor.

Alternatively, the panel may be constructed as a veneer piece 120 that overlays a preexisting flipper door 122 or the like (Figs. 9-11). The door cover 120 may similarly be used with an external support frame 124 (Fig. 12). Thus, the cover panel 120 will have very little

strength requirement and will have exoskeletal support from the underlying door 122 or frame 124. Of course, one having ordinary skill in the art will understand from this disclosure that the frame 124 may also be molded within the panel 120 as required.

Yet another feature of a panel that is constructed according to the invention, is the ease in which not only a face of the panel can be finished, but also the edges of the panel may be formed to facilitate wrap around finishing of the panel. The panel 140 may be formed with

generally outward extending flanges 142 (Figs. 13 and 14). A connection 144 between the flange 142 and the panel 140 may be formed in the press 30 as a localized high density portion of the panel, what is commonly known as a living hinge.

Portions of the flange 142 and of the panel 140 that are adjacent the hinge 144 are

most preferably chamfered or beveled back from the hinge at an angle of about forty- five degrees, as shown, to provide a 180 degree reversal of the flange, back toward the panel. Also, an about forty-five degree cut across adjacent flanges 142 at a square corner 141 of the panel

140 facilitates folding back of the adjacent flanges without overlapping the flanges on a back of the panel. Of course, the angles of the chamfer or bevel at the living hinge 144 and the cut at the

ends of adjacent flanges 142 will be dictated by the specific configuration of a given panel 140, as will be understood from this disclosure by one having ordinary skill in the art. The flange 142 extends from a body portion of the panel 140 to a terminal end 146 of the flange, which may be cleanly formed by shearing in the press 30. The folding over of the

flange 142 may also be performed as a machine operation and may also include capturing a frame or other component member in a space 148 that is defined between the panel body and the folded flange.

A pair of cooperating panels 140 and 141, for example may be monolithically bonded and produce a unified panel of the invention that has a finish material 16 on at least both opposing sides 150 and 152, and up to all exposed sides being covered with a finish material (Figs. 17 and 18). This process may be easily accomplished with a pair of cooperating panels 140 and 141 of the invention because of the unique construction of the panels as will be understood from this disclosure by one having ordinary skill in the art. The two panels 140 and 141 are fabricated as discussed in detail above, with at least one of two opposing sides 150 and

152, respectively, being a finish side with a finish fabric 16 and the other of the two opposing sides 154 and 156, respectively, having an exposed raw mating surface 154 and 156, respectively. The raw mating surface 154 and 156 may be heated by any appropriate method, including tubular quartz infeπed heating elements, for example, to melt the moldable material to

a molten or liquid state to a depth of about twenty to about thirty thousands of an inch deep ( 0.5 mm to 0.76 mm ). Care should be taken to not scorch the finish material 16 at the edges of the surfaces 154 and 156. The heated surfaces 154 and 156 are aligned with one another and pressed together. Upon cooling, the formerly two panels 140 and 141 are a singular monolithic panel. Of course, one having ordinary skill in the art will under stand that various members may

be introduced and molded between the panels 140 and 141 as discussed generally above regarding the metal mesh 20, conduits, and conductors, for example. This notching concept may be further extended to a decorative furniture panel 160

that is used to wrap posts 162, pipes, or ventilation ducts, for example (Figs. 15 and 16). In this configuration, a rectangular panel is notched 164 to define corners 166 between adjacent panel portions 168A-D. The notches 164 may be symmetrical with each of the panel portions 168A-D being substantially similar, although specific installation requirements may dictate that some or all of the panel portions be unique and so the notches may also be non-uniform. One having ordinary skill in the art will understand from this disclosure that the number, configuration, and

arrangement of the notches 164 will be affected by the desired resulting contour of the wrap panel 160. While a simple square post 162 wrap 160 is shown, virtually any contour may be

accommodated.

The wrap panel 160 also lends itself to a continuous fabrication process as contrasted with a process of fabricating one panel at a time. As discussed above, a panel by panel fabrication line may include a load station 22, an uncoiler 24, a shear 26, a high intensity oven 28, a bonding press 30, and a fabric carousel 32 (Fig. 1). A continuous fabrication process line may include the load station 22, the uncoiler 24, a continuous feed high intensity oven, a fabric

feeder, a continuous feed press, and a shear at the end of the line. The continuous feed oven will heat the materials as they are continuously fed through the oven. The fabric may then be fed into the process after the moldable material mats are heated. The heated moldable material mats and the fabric feed through the continuous feed press, which may use a roll form process to contour the materials. The continuously fed and now molded panels may then be cut to various

predetermined lengths with a cutter or shear without disrupting the continuous flow of the forming process.

It will be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art and by those who practice the invention, that various modifications and improvements may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosed concept. Some improvements of a decorative panel or furniture panel that are within the scope of the disclosed concept may include, without limitation, wall panels, tack boards, seat back panels, soft sided storage cabinets, light shields, divider screens, and modesty panels. Narious relational terms, including left, right, front, back, top, and bottom, for example, are used in the detailed description of the invention and in the claims only to

convey relative positioning of various elements of the claimed invention. The scope of protection afforded is to be determined by the claims and by the breadth of interpretation

allowed by law.