Seating furniture assembly |
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申请号 | EP09151864.7 | 申请日 | 2009-02-02 | 公开(公告)号 | EP2213204A1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2010-08-04 |
申请人 | Lammhults Möbel AB; | 发明人 | Johnsson, Per-Evert; | ||||
摘要 | A seating furniture assembly comprises two furniture units (3, 5) releasably coupled to each other by means of at least one coupling means. The at least one coupling means comprises a first coupling member (9) provided on one (3) of said furniture units and a second coupling member (11) provided on the other (5) of said furniture units. The first and the second coupling members (9, 11) interact magnetically. A furniture unit (3) for building such a seating furniture assembly has a first coupling member (9) for magnetic interaction with a second coupling member (11) provided on a second furniture unit (5). |
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权利要求 | |||||||
说明书全文 | The present invention relates to a seating furniture assembly comprising at least two furniture units releasably coupled to each other by means of at least one coupling means. The present invention also relates to a furniture unit for building such a seating furniture assembly. Seating furniture assemblies of the above mentioned type are previously known. In known seating furniture assemblies the furniture units are typically coupled by means of fittings and/or fasteners, e.g. nuts and bolts. Such seating furniture assemblies may however be considered cumbersome and/or time-consuming to assemble. It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above described drawbacks, and to provide an improved seating furniture assembly. This and other objects that will be apparent from the following summary and description are achieved by a seating furniture assembly according to the appended claims 1-5 and a furniture unit according to the appended claims 6-9. According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a seating furniture assembly comprising two furniture units releasably coupled to each other by means of at least one coupling means. The at least one coupling means comprises a first coupling member provided on one of said furniture units and a second coupling member provided on the other of said furniture units, said first and second coupling members interacting magnetically. Thus, furniture units of the seating furniture assembly can be coupled to each other, as well as separated from each other, in a quick and easy manner without the use of tools. The configuration of a seating furniture assembly may therefore easily be modified. Hence, a flexible seating furniture assembly may be provided. The coupling members of a coupling means interact magnetically with each other. At least one of the coupling members of a coupling means thus includes a magnet. If only one of the the coupling members of a coupling means is a magnet the other coupling member is formed from a magnetic material, such as e.g. steel. Preferably, both of said coupling members are magnets and more preferably permanent magnets, in order to further improve the robustness of the seating furniture assembly. Preferably, at least one of the coupling members is a rare earth magnet and more preferably a neodymium magnet in order to provide a very robust coupling between the furniture units of the seating furniture assembly. Preferably, each of the coupling members of a coupling means is a magnet and more preferably a neodymium magnet in order to provide a particularly robust coupling. The bonding force of said at least one coupling means is preferably at least 100 N. Preferably, one furniture unit is provided with at least one further coupling member, said at least one further coupling member and the first coupling member being arranged on different sides of said one furniture unit. The at least one further coupling member is thus arranged to be able to interact magnetically with a coupling member provided on a third furniture unit. This embodiment has the advantage that the flexibility of a seating furniture assembly is further improved since a furniture unit is adapted to be coupled with a further furniture unit. Preferably, said at least one further coupling member is a magnet and more preferably a rare earth magnet in order to further improve the flexibility of a seating furniture assembly. Preferably, the coupling members are received in a cavity of respective furniture unit. Preferably, at least one of said furniture units is provided with means covering the coupling member. This has the advantage that the coupling member may be completely hidden. Preferably, each of said first and second furniture units is provided with several coupling members, said several coupling members being arranged parallel to each other on respective furniture unit, in order to further improve the robustness of the coupling between the furniture units. Particularly, if a seating furniture assembly comprises more than two furniture units a very flexible seating furniture arrangement may be provided. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a furniture unit for building such a seating furniture assembly having a first coupling member for magnetic interaction with a second coupling member provided on a second furniture unit. Further advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims. The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings which show embodiments of the invention and in which:
The coupling members of a coupling means interact magnetically with each other. Both of the coupling members of a coupling means are preferably magnets in order to provide for particularly good flexibility of a seat furniture assembly. In this embodiment each of the coupling members 9, 10, 11 and 12 is a rare earth magnet, in the form of a disc-shaped circular neodymium magnet. The magnets 9, 10, 11 and 12 are covered by a rubber coating. In this case the couplings means 7 together have a bonding force of about 280 N. Rare earth magnets are permanent magnets made from alloys of rare earth elements. Rare earth magnets are substantially stronger than for instance ferrite magnets. A neodymium magnet is a permanent magnet (Nd2Fe14B) made of an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron, which has very strong magnetic bonding properties. Each of the coupling members 9, 10, 11 and 12 is in this case accomodated in a frame structure cavity 17, as best illustrated in As shown in A seating furniture assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention may comprise different types of furniture units, such as e.g. corner furniture units, bench furniture units and bench furniture units having back rests. It is thus realized that several seating furniture assembly configurations are possible within the scope of the present invention by combining furniture units of the same or of different types. In order to illustrate this, a number of alternative embodiments are shown in The seating furniture assembly shown in The seating furniture assembly shown in The seating furniture assembly shown in It is realized that seating furniture assemblies according to embodiments of the present invention may be coupled to each other, as illustrated in A seating arrangement may be modified in a quick and easy manner by removing furniture unit(s), rearranging furniture unit(s) or by adding furniture unit(s). It will be appreciated that the described embodiments of the invention can be modified and varied by a person skilled in the art without departing from the inventive concept defined in the claims. |