Partition Wall and Clip for Removably Joining a Panel to a Support Element for Forming a Partition Wall

The present invention relates to the furnishing sector and more particularly relates to the sector of partition walls for dividing up a room, albeit only temporarily, or for screening off part of the room from another part. The present invention also relates to a clip for removably joining a panel to a support element and thus forming a support wall or the like.

Partition walls have been known for some time and typically are used to divide up a room into two or more parts. Partition walls may have a height the same as or lower than the height between floor and ceiling. For example, they may have a height sufficient to prevent a person from seeing beyond the partition wall. They are used in various situations to divide up a room and/or to hide from view a part of a room.

Partition walls may be permanent or temporary. In the latter case, partition walls can be assembled and, typically, disassembled.

One of the particularly valued features of a partition wall is the possibility of assembling it easily. However, despite the large number of partition walls which are currently known, ease of assembly is still a goal which is yet to be achieved.

According to known embodiments, the assembly of temporary walls involves the use of hooks, screws or bushes. The assembly and/or disassembly operations are often laborious and require specific tools or in any case operations for assembling the panels by means of screws, screwdrivers or other tools.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,320 describes a connecting structure for panels intended for use in a storage and/or display device.

US 2017/089066 describes straight and curved reconfigurable partition systems.

GB 2368078 describes a separating system.

The Applicant has defined the aim of providing a partition wall which is particularly easy to assemble and which can be transported disassembled so as to facilitate transport.

According to the Applicant, the aforementioned aim is achieved with a partition wall comprising an upright and a panel to which one or more clips are joined. The clips are configured to penetrate inside a groove of the upright and thus lock the panel to the upright.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a partition wall comprising a panel with a first side edge and a second side edge, a first upright and a second upright is provided,

According to embodiments, the fastening member comprises a U-shaped clip with a bottom and two side walls, wherein each side wall comprises a tab elastically protruding outwards.

According to embodiments, the tab opens towards the outside of the U-shaped channel in the direction from the bottom towards the free ends of the side walls, wherein the tab is configured to retract and be seated inside a window in the side wall of the clip. This occurs in the penetration configuration when the edge of the panel, together with the clips firmly gripped thereon, penetrate into the groove of the upright. Once the edge of the panel is completely engaged inside the groove, the tabs open outwards and the panel remains locked to the upright.

According to embodiments, the fastening member comprises a gripping member, for example in the form of two pointed claws, for gripping the panel and firmly locking the fastening member to the panel.

According to embodiments, the groove comprises an opening, a bottom and two side walls, wherein the opening comprises two longitudinal teeth situated opposite each other along at least part of the length of the upright, the two longitudinal teeth being configured to retain the tabs of the clip.

According to embodiments, the opening of the groove comprises at least one cut-out, without longitudinal teeth, for facilitating separation of the panel from the upright.

According to embodiments, the panel comprises a wooden material, or a thermoplastic material, or a cellulose or cardboard-based material, or a composite material.

According to embodiments, the panel comprises, or essentially consists of, a sound-absorbing material, for example polyester.

According to embodiments, the partition wall further comprises a support base for at least one upright.

According to embodiments, the partition wall further comprises a first aligner, interposed between the base and the upright, for establishing at least a predetermined relative position of the support base and the upright.

According to embodiments, the partition wall further comprises a second aligner configured to engage with the groove and to support a bottom or top edge of the panel.

According to embodiments, the base comprises a first half-base and a second half-base and also a third aligner interposed between the first half-base and the second half-base and configured to establish a predetermined relative configuration of the first half-base and the second half-base.

According to another aspect, the present invention relates to a clip configured to connect an edge of a panel to a support member which is provided with a groove for receiving one or more clips, wherein the clip comprises a bottom surface and two side walls, wherein each side wall of the clip comprises a tab elastically protruding outwards and configured to retract and be seated inside a window in the side wall of the clip.

According to embodiments, each of the two side walls terminates in a gripping member configured to penetrate into the edge of the panel when the clip is joined to the edge of the panel.

shows by way of example a partition wall according to an embodiment of the present invention. The partition wall is denoted overall by the reference number.

The partition wallcomprises a pair of substantially vertical uprightsand a panelsupported between the two uprights. In some embodiments, only one uprightmay be provided.

An example of embodiment of an uprightaccording to the present invention is shown, for example, in, which is an axonometric view, and in, which is an enlarged cross-section.show only a section of an upright. According to embodiments, the uprightmay be substantially as high as the panel, or as high as the panel together with the associated aligner which will be described below. Obviously, the upright may also be higher or lower than the panel.

The uprightis in the form of an elongated body with a longitudinal axis X-X. It may be made of any material, for example a thermoplastic material or a metallic material such as aluminium, aluminium alloy, steel or the like. It may be obtained, for example, by means of extrusion.

The uprightmay comprise one or more grooves. In the embodiment shown, there are four grooveswhich are open along the outer surfaceof the upright. The longitudinal planes of the four groovesare at 90° with respect to each other. Obviously, with a different number of grooves, the angles formed by the longitudinal planes of the groovesmay be different from 90°. For the sake of clarity in, the reference numbers which identify some of the details of the grooveswill not be shown in all of the grooves.

According to embodiments, each groovecomprises an opening, a bottomopposite the opening, two first, opposite, side wallsand two second, opposite, side walls, otherwise referred to as “bottom side walls”. Each of the first opposite side wallsmay in turn comprise an inset recess′. According to embodiments, the bottom side wallsare slightly inclined towards the bottom.

According to embodiments, the openingof each grooveis delimited by two longitudinal teeth.

The uprightmay also comprise a central longitudinal hole, which is for example circular.

With reference toa panelwhich may be used to assemble a partition wallaccording to the invention is described here below.

The panelmay be made of any material, such as a wooden material (wood, wood fibre panels, or panels comprising wood flakes of the OSB type), a thermoplastic material, a cellulose or cardboard-based material, a composite material such as Alucobond®, etc.

According to embodiments, the panelmay comprise, or essentially consists of, a sound-absorbing material. For example, the panel may comprise, or be substantially made entirely of polyester. The panel may be as described in EP2820199. The panel shown inmay be a sound-absorbing panel.

According to embodiments, the panelhas a substantially constant thickness smaller then or substantially the same as the distance between the two longitudinal teeth.

According to embodiments, the panelhas an edge (along one or more sides, optionally along its entire perimeter) with a thickness smaller than or substantially the same as the distance between the longitudinal teeth. The edge of the panel comprises two side edgesand top/bottom edges.

According to the present invention, the connection between one paneland an uprightis performed by means of special pegs or clips, shown in particular in.

Only one clipmay be used to connect the edgeof a panelto an uprightor, advantageously, two or more clipsmay be used for each edgeof the panel. The number of clipsmay be established depending on the material of the panel, the height of the panel or other factors.

The clipmay be made of any material, but is preferably made of a metallic material, for example steel. The clipmay be formed by a metal sheet, suitably shaped as can be seen in the figures and as will be described below.

The clipis roughly in the form of a U-shaped channel with a bottom surfaceand two side walls. Each of the two side wallsterminates in a gripping member, for example in the form of two pointed claws. The pointed clawsmay be bent towards the inside of the U-shaped channel. The gripping memberis configured so as to penetrate into the edgeof the panelwhen the clipis pushed onto the edgeof the panel (from the position shown ininto the position shown in).

According to embodiments, each side wallof the clipcomprises a tabprotruding outwards. In the embodiment shown, the tabopens towards the outside of the U-shaped channel in the direction from the bottomtowards the free ends of the side walls. The tabis only fastened to the side wallalong one side, in the vicinity of the bottom. When pushed inwards, the tabmay retract and be seated inside a windowin the side wallof the clip.

In order to join a panelto an upright, the clipsmust first be mounted (one clip, however, may—at least theoretically—be sufficient) on the edgeof a panel. For example, two or three clipsmay be mounted, preferably in predetermined positions for reasons which will be clarified below. The predetermined positions of the clips mat be indicated by means of visual references, for example a coloured mark or a notch/stop.

Each clipis simply pushed until the bottomof the clip bears against the endof the edgeof the panel. By forcing the clipin this way, the claws penetrate into the edgeof the panel and prevent the clipfrom becoming detached or in any case moving with respect to the edgeof the panel.

Once the clipshave been mounted, it is sufficient to push the edgeof the panel(with the clips mounted) towards the grooveof the upright. During the pushing movement, the two tabsof the clipretract inside the respective windows and snap back outwards into the open position once the bottomof the clipcomes into contact with the bottomof the groove. In this position, the free ends of the tabsare retained by the longitudinal teethof the openingof the groove. When the panelis inserted into the groove, the clip is fastened laterally between the bottom side wallswhich keep the panelin the radial position. In other words, the side wallsof the clipand the tabsare retained by the bottom side walls.

When the panelis inserted inside the groove, the clip(which is firmly fastened to the edgeof the panel) does not allow the panelto be separated from the upright. In other words, when the uprightand the panelare arranged vertically, it is not possible to move them with respect to each other in the horizontal direction. The only way (without using tools) to separate an uprightfrom the panelis to extract the panelvertically, from the bottom upwards.

By repeating the operation on the other edgeof the panel, the panelwill be suitably retained and held in the correct position between two uprights.

A pair of uprightsmay house a single panelwhich is as high as the upright or several smaller panels which are arranged on top of each other so as to reach the desired height.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a groovecould have one or more sections with a cut-out, i.e. where there are no teeth. The cut-outcould for example be formed by means of a milled area. The milled area, advantageously, could have a size greater than the distance between the teethso as to facilitate further the extraction of the panel provided with the clip. In this way disassembly is facilitated. In fact, there is no need to extract the entire panel. The solution is particularly advantageous in the case of relatively low ceilings or very high configurations. It is sufficient to slide the panelupwards a few centimetres along the uprightuntil each clipreaches the cut-out, so that the tabsare no longer fastened by the teethwhich have been removed by machining of the cut-out, in order to free the panelfrom the upright. When the tabsare situated in the region of the cut-out, they may be moved horizontally, thus separating the panelfrom the upright.

In order to ensure the stability of the partition walls according to the present invention, in particular of the partition walls which have a straight composition, the uprightsmay be mounted on bases,. According to embodiments, the bases may be straight or round (or have any other shape). For example, each uprightmay be mounted on a base,by means of a screw.