This application claims the priority of German application 298 18 474.5, filed Oct. 16, 1998 in Germany, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a profile arrangement for building exhibition or shop systems, having a polygonal profile which is provided with at least one hollow chamber open on the face side, and which can be connected with additional profiles by means of corner pieces which engage in the hollow chambers by means of projecting pins.
Profiles of this type are known (Newline System of Octanorm-Vertriebs-GmbH fur Bauelemente, Filderstadt). These light-metal profiles are offered in different surface qualities which range from anodized aluminum to color-coated profiles. This provides a multiplicity of combination possibilities.
It is an object of the present invention to further expand the multiplicity of such profiles and provide a possibility for designing shop and exhibition systems also such that they have the appearance of systems manufactured with wood or improve aesthetics by additional different colorations.
For achieving this object, it is provided in the case of a profile of the initially mentioned type that a recess, which continues along the profile length and is used for sliding in a strip consisting of a different material than that of the profile, is provided on at least two lateral surfaces abutting to form an edge. As the result of this further development, it is possible, for example, to slide strips consisting of wood or strip consisting of plastic, which have a wood effect, into the recesses of the light-metal profiles in order to achieve special aesthetic effects and give the shop or exhibition systems the appearance of valuable wood systems.
In a first embodiment, it can now be provided that each lateral surface has a recess in the form of a wide and flat groove, parts of the lateral surfaces of the profile parts reaching over the edges of the groove, and that a flat strip, preferably one with a rectangular cross-section, is slid into this groove. As a further development of the invention, this groove may form a type of dovetail groove for the correspondingly bevelled edges of the strips.
In this embodiment, the corner piece, which is used for connecting the profiles, is provided on at least three sides aligned with the lateral surfaces of the profiles with recesses corresponding to the groove. In a preferred embodiment, the corner piece may be constructed as a cube with pins projecting from two lateral surfaces. From these lateral surfaces, recesses extend in each case into three adjoining lateral surfaces, which recesses correspond in their cross-section to that of the groove of the profiles and, in each case, end at a transverse edge bounding the lateral surfaces with respect to one another.
As the result of this further development, visually metallic strip elements remain at the edges of the profiles assembled to form shop or exhibition systems, which elements are offset from the used strips, thus, for example, from wood, in the central area of the profiles. This results in an aesthetically very attractive effect.
However, in another embodiment, it may also be provided that the recess is part of an indentation reaching over both lateral surfaces, over which indentation a section of the lateral surface reaches in each case on both edges, and in that a strip can be inserted into this indentation which is an edge profile with an edge formed between two outer surfaces aligned at a right angle with respect to one another and aligned with the lateral surfaces of the profile. In this embodiment, the edges are therefore not formed from the material of the profile but from that of the inserted strip, thus, for example, by a wooden strip, which, however, in the extension of its lateral surfaces, merges into the metallic surfaces of the profile which act as strips.
In this embodiment, the corner piece may be constructed as a cube which is provided on all sides not equipped with pins with recesses corresponding to the cross-section of the strip, a shaped piece, which is made of the same material as the edge profiles and forms a corner, being inserted in a fitting manner into these recesses. The corner of a system object in this embodiment is therefore formed by a piece of wood which merges toward the outside into metallic surfaces. The aesthetic effect of such a further development differs from that of the first embodiment.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.