US-12623371-B2 - Industrial plant for producing an assembled furniture item

US12623371B2US 12623371 B2US12623371 B2US 12623371B2US-12623371-B2

Abstract

An improved factory method for producing a complete furniture item starting from panels that can be joined together, is described. The method steps are picking up the set of panels divided into N sub-sets from a storage ( 10 ) of panels, N>=2, bringing the N sub-sets of panels respectively to N workstations ( 54, 20 56, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74 ) operating in tandem, loading—e.g. simultaneously—a subset of panels in each N-th station, and preferably subject them to processing there; transferring the panels of an Nth station to the next Nth station ( 54, 56, 64, 66, 68, 70 ), preferably for another processing, transferring all the panels of the set from the last of the N stations to an assembly station ( 72 ) and assemble them there to obtain the shell or cabinet.

Inventors

Mirko Piasentin

Assignees

TECNO LOGICA S.r.l.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20211204
Priority Date: 20201214

Claims (16)

1 . A method for producing a furniture item by in-line assembling a set of panels that can be joined together to form a shell or cabinet delimiting a compartment, the set of panels comprising a top or ceiling panel, a bottom panel, a back panel, and two side panels, the method comprising the steps of picking up from a storage a panel set divided into N sub-sets of panels, N >=2; bringing the N sub-sets of panels respectively to N workstations operating in series arrangement, namely wherein an output of a workstation is an input of a workstation next in series up to a last workstation of said series arrangement; loading and machining at least one of the N sub-sets of panels at each of the N workstations; transferring accumulated panels from a current workstation to a subsequent workstation in said series arrangement for another machining operation; transferring all the accumulated panels of the panel set from a last of the N workstations to an assembly station, and assembling the accumulated panels at the assembly station to obtain the shell or cabinet.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least some or all of the N workstations are circularly arranged on a circumference and each of the sub-sets of panels is transferred from one of the N workstations to the angularly adjacent subsequent workstation along an arc of circumference.
3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the assembly of the accumulated panels to form the complete furniture item takes place at a point on the circumference.
4 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the N workstations are distributed on two or more distinct circumferences to form two or more circular series of workstations, and from a last workstation of a first circular series of workstations a semi-finished product, consisting of a subset of panels, is transferred to a workstation of a second circular series of workstations.
5 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein machining and preparation and/or pre-assembly of sides of the furniture item takes place only in the first circular series of workstations, and processed sides of the furniture item are transferred from the last workstation in the first circular series of workstations to a workstation in a second circular series of workstations.
6 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein in the second circular series of workstations: a ceiling panel and a bottom panel are received in a first workstation, two machined side panels, right and left, are received in a second workstation from the last workstation of the first circular series of workstations, a back panel is received in a third workstation, the shell or cabinet is assembled in a fourth workstation, and the shell or cabinet is unloaded in a fifth workstation.
7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the shell or cabinet is transferred on a line and an assembled drawer, which is produced by drawer workstations working in parallel to said N workstations and assembling a set of drawer panels, is inserted in the shell or cabinet.
8 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein at least some or all of the drawer workstations are arranged circularly on a circumference, and a subset of drawer panels is transferred from one of the N workstations to the angularly adjacent one by travelling an arc of circumference.
9 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the drawer workstations are distributed on two or more distinct circumferences to form two or more circular series of workstations; and from a last workstation of a first circular series of workstations a semi-finished product consisting of a machined drawer front panel, is picked; and from a last workstation of a second circular series of workstations a machined drawer frame comprising the assembly of a bottom panel, a back panel and two side panels, is picked.
10 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein the semi-finished product consisting of a machined drawer front panel and the machined drawer frame are assembled together downstream of the circular series of workstations.
11 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the semi-finished product consisting of a machined drawer front panel and the machined drawer frame are assembled together downstream of the circular series of workstations.
12 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the machining and preparation and/or pre-assembly of the sides of the furniture item takes place only in the first circular series of workstations, and the processed sides of the furniture item are transferred from the last workstation in the first circular series of workstations to a workstation in a second circular series of workstations.
13 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein in the second circular series of workstations: a ceiling panel and a bottom panel are received in a first workstation, two machined side panels, right and left, are received in a second workstation from the last workstation of the first circular series of workstations, a back panel is received in a third workstation, the shell or cabinet is assembled in a fourth workstation, and the shell or cabinet is unloaded in a fifth workstation.
14 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the drawer workstations are distributed on two or more distinct circumferences to form two or more circular series of workstations, and from the last workstation of a first circular series of workstations a semi-finished product consisting of a machined drawer front panel is picked and from the last workstation of a second circular series of workstations a machined drawer frame comprising the assembly of a bottom panel, a back panel and two side panels is picked.
15 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the semi-finished product consisting of a machined drawer front panel and the machined drawer frame are assembled together downstream of the circular series of workstations.
16 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the set of panels comprises an intermediate shelf and/or linear guides and/or reinforcement strips.

Description

BACKGROUND The present invention relates to an industrial plant or factory for producing an assembled furniture item (also called a cabinet), or an assembled part of furniture such as a drawer, starting from individual panels. The present invention also relates to a method for producing the assembled cabinet. The well-known industrial plants for the mass production of assembled furniture consist of one or more independent lines on which various machining operations (drilling, milling . . . and assembly operations) are carried out. Each line is characterized by a series of loading bays, hosting pallets from which panels are picked up and then processed individually in a sequential manner. As they pass through, the panels stop at various work workstations where they are processed and/or pre-assembled; see for example DE102007040386A1, DE102007035743A1 or DE102006036193A1. The final assembly of the panels to compose the cabinet takes place at the end of the line in a workstation (the so-called “bottleneck”) manually fed with the last pieces. Not only is the handling of panels toward and on the line laborious and time-consuming, but a panel put on the line is handled many times, at least at each workstation. This results in many tolerance errors and high lead time, which suffers especially from the final manual assembly in the bottleneck. Moreover, in order to process all panel sizes, the dimensioning of the conveyors is constrained to ensure the passage of the smallest parts. The conveyors for supporting and handling the panel are movable and adapt to the width of the incoming material: they are very close when handling pieces of small widths and move away in the case of pieces of large widths. In the case of large pieces, this leads to inadequate support over the entire surface and to the onset of flexing during some machining operations (e.g. internal drilling), thus introducing critical issues in terms of time and quality in the machining execution. Traditional lines, in order to guarantee high production capacities, are structured in such a way as to process similar product families. In the case of furniture there are lines dedicated to the realization of wall units rather than bases or columns, with the need then to recompose the orders by moving the cabinets from several different lines and conveying them to a common unloading area. The absence of interconnection between lines, the nature of the lines themselves (dedicated to processing limited families of products) and the limitations in managing the dimensional variability of the panels to be processed (compromise between handling and processing), constitute one of the limits of traditional plants. SUMMARY The primary object of the invention is to improve upon the present state of the art. Another object of the invention is to achieve an improved industrial plant for producing an assembled piece of furniture, or an assembled part of furniture such as a drawer, starting from individual panels. These and other objects are achieved by what is set forth in the attached claims; advantageous technical features are defined in the dependent claims. An aspect of the invention is a method of producing a furniture item constructed by in-line assembly of a set of panels that can be joined together to form a shell (of furniture or cabinet) that delimits a compartment, the set of panels comprising a ceiling panel, a bottom panel, a back panel, and two side panels, and optionally an intermediate shelf and/or linear guides and/or reinforcing strips, with the steps of picking up from a storage the set of panels divided into N subsets of panels, N>=2,bringing the N subsets of panels respectively to N workstations operating in tandem,loading—e.g., simultaneously—a subset of panels at each N-th workstation, and preferably subjecting them to a machining there;transferring the panels from an N-th workstation to the next N-th workstation, preferably for another machining,transferring all the panels of the set from the last of the N workstations to an assembly workstation and assembling them there to obtain the shell or cabinet. Another aspect of the invention is an industrial plant for producing a furniture item built by in-line assembly of the aforementioned set of panels, comprising or consisting of a storage containing the set of panels,N workstations, N>=2, operating in tandem and configured (i) to receive—e.g. simultaneously—from a line a subset of the panels and then pass them to the next workstation, and preferably(ii) to machine the subset of panels; a line to transport a ceiling panel from the storage to one of the N workstations,a line to transport a bottom panel from the storage to one of the N workstations,a line to transport a back panel from the storage to one of the N workstations,a line to transport two side panels from the storage to one of the N workstations,a plurality of manipulators and/or conveyors for picking up a panel from a line and