GB2310242A - Seal between a panel and glazing channel, with hinged sealing section. - Google Patents

Description

"SEALS" This invention relates to seals for use in building construction and allied fields. In particular the seals of the invention find particular application for sealing the joint between glazed panels and their associated sashes or frames.

During assembly of building panels, including glazing panels, the panel is introduced from one side or the other of the frame and placed in an open rebate previously formed in the frame. In traditional construction, a stiff sealant such as putty is then used to correctly seat the panel in the frame and also to complete the seal. Sometimes a wooden beading is tacked round the rebate, after placement of the panel, to hold the panel in place, usually in association with sealant such as putty to provide a sealing join.

In more modem construction, using metal or plastics frames an open rebate is used, as above, and a triangular section or similar fillet, usually of the same material as the frame, is used to provide an equivalent function to the wooden beading of the traditional construction. Such fillets are generally shaped so that they clip into the rebate in the frame, thus retaining themselves, and hence the panel, in position. Sealing in this case is generally effected by rubber or similar seals positioned on the rebate and on the fillet to seal both faces of the panel. Such seals are generally shaped so as to clip into appropriately-positioned slots in the rebate and the fillets.

Recently attention has been directed towards methods of construction which do not use these fillets and in which the frame is formed with a full three-sided slot for receiving the panel instead of the open rebate. This eliminates the need for an extra component - the fillet - and simplifies construction. It also makes it easier to seal the joint between the frame and the panel at the corners. In addition, it is easier to make an aesthetically acceptable comer joint.

Sealing can, however, prove a problem with this type of construction since, during assembly, the panel has to be pushed into the slot in the frame past seals which must grip the panel and provide the necessary seal. In order to allow for tolerances in the panel thickness, the sealing system must be a very tight fit and this can make it difficult to push the panels into the slot, particularly if the thickness of the panel is close to the maximum tolerance allowed.

The present invention seeks to provide a seal and seal assembly which will allow a range of panel thicknesses to be readily installed into the frame slots and yet provide an effective grip and seal on the panel.

According to the invention, the seal comprises an elongate extrusion of flexible material whose cross sectional shape is such as to define an attachment means whereby the seal may be attached to a frame or to a carrier member which is itself attached to the frame, a sealing means comprising a pair of arms extending generally away from the attachment means in respective different directions and, between the attachment means and the sealing means, a hinge means for permitting the sealing means to pivot with respect to the attachment means.

In practice the seal is manufactured as an integral unit, for example from soft pvc, epdm, silicone plastics material or tcp.

Generally speaking, one seal will be arranged around the panel/frame joint on each of the two surfaces of the panel. Although capable of mild curves, the seal is cut at comers and mitred to give a neat finish and maintain the seal.

The attachment means may comprise a shaped formation which engages a corresponding slot in the frame. However, it is currently preferred to attach the seal to the frame by means of co-extrusion or by means of adhesive, in which latter case the attachment means simply comprises a suitable surface which may be adhered to the frame. In a still further altemative, a carrier member may be used to attach the seal to the frame. The advantage of a carrier member is that it can be used to carry a pair of seals - one for one panel surface and one for the opposite surface, thus creating a seal assembly comprising a pair of seals and a carrier member which can be dropped into the slot in the frame very easily and secured therein, thus in one operation both attaching the respective seals to the frame and also ensuring their correct orientation, as described below.Generally, the carrier member is made from relatively stiffer material and may be arranged, for example, to snap into the slot, thus presenting the seal or seals in their correct orientation, ready for insertion of the panel. The carrier member may even be co-extruded of rigid plastics material together with the seal or seals.

The seal is orientated so that the two arms are directed as follows, directions being given on the assumption that the seal is in its installed position on a frame, but before a panel has been fitted: 1) A first of said arms is directed in a direction generally away from the slot in the frame and advantageously such that, at least at its outer end, it is spaced from the corresponding arm of the opposite seal (i.e. the corresponding seal on the opposite side of the slot) by an amount equal to or (preferably) greater than the expected panel thickness.

2) The second of said arms is directed in a direction generally into the slot in the frame and such that, at least at its outer end, it is spaced from the corresponding arm of the opposite seal by an amount less than the expected panel thickness.

The purpose of this arrangement of arms is to cause the perimeter edge of the panel, as the panel is inserted into the slot, to engage at least the second arm of the seal. Pushing the panel beyond this point causes the sealing means as a whole to pivot about the hinge means thus, on the one hand allowing the edge of the panel to fully enter the slot and, on the other hand, causing the second (inner) arm to retreat, by pivotting as aforesaid, but still maintain a tight seal against the surface of the panel. At the same time, the first (outer) arm is caused to pivot towards and firmly engage and seal against the same surface of the panel.

Thus a "two-line" seal is created by the engagement of the respective arms of the seal against the panel surface.

Preferably the outer arms of the two seals on opposite sides of the slot are such as to provide a funnel or hopper effect for an incoming panel, acting to guide the panel into the correct position even if it is initially slightly misaligned. This is a great practical advantage when heavy and unwieldy double-glazed window panels have to be manoeuvred into position.

The hinge means may simply comprise a narrowed section between the attachment means and the sealing means; however, somewhat more sophisticated forms are preferred to give an appropriate locus of turning movement as the arms are rotated in the manner described above.

In order that the invention may be better understood, an embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a cross sectional view of a seal according to the invention; Figure 2 is a cross sectional view of a door frame incorporating a seal assembly according to the invention; and Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, but showing a doubled glazed window panel in place.

Referring to the drawings the seal comprises an extruded section 1 of flexible material such as plastics material. The seal itself is attached to a carrier member 2 of rigid plastics material. The attachment may be by adhesive, by welding or by co-extrusion of the parts 1 and 2.

The assembly comprising two seals 1 and carrier member 2 forms a unitary structure which can be fitted in a slot 3 formed in a frame member 4. A sawtooth-section ridge 5 formed on each side of the slot 3 cooperates with a correspondingly shaped formation 6 on the carrier member 2 to retain the carrier member securely in the slot.

The frame member 4 is one of a number of members making up a frame, for example a door or window frame, for carrying a building panel. In the example illustrated the building panel takes the form of a doubled glazed window unit, shown in Figure 3 under reference 7. The double glazed unit 7 comprises two panes 8,9 of glass with an air space 10 in-between. An elongate fillet 11 is fitted between the panes around the perimeter edge of the unit 7 in order to maintain the physical spacing of the panes, and also to act as a seal. The unit 7 sits on individual spacers 12 spaced apart along the bottom of the slot 3. The illustrated section of the frame member 4 is exemplary only; there are many such sections in use in the industry.The section shown is made of plastics material reinforced by a hollow steel bar 13; however, the seal of the invention could also be used with frames made of other materials such as aluminium or aluminium alloy or even steel or wood.

The shape of the seal will now be described in detail with particular reference to Figure 1 which is an enlarged view of each of the seals 1 shown in the seal assembly illustrated in Figure 2 and 3.

The main components of the seal, when seen in section, are as follows: 1) An attachment means, in this case simply comprising a surface 14 by which the seal is attached to the carrier member as described above.

2) A sealing means comprising a pair of arms 15,16 which extend away from the attachment means in different directions. Each of the arms has a slightly enlarged outer end portion to concentrate the pressure forces along two spaced lines which gives the most effective sealing - see below. The arm 15 extends in a direction out of the slot 3 whereas the arm 16 extends into the slot 3. The function of the arms is described in detail below.

3) A hinge means between the sealing means and the attachment means, and allowing the two arms to pivot as the unit 7 is pushed into the slot 3. The hinge means comprises two webs 17,18 extending on opposite sides of a hollow interior 19 of the seal. The air space formed within the interior 19 acts to take up size tolerances in the frame and, particularly, in the double glazed unit. A longitudinally extending groove 20 is formed in the lower web 18 and allows the arm 16 to pivot in the generally clockwise direction in Figure 1 without excessive stress and distortion of the seal. A further arm 21 of the seal is directed onto the adjacent surface of the frame 4 so as to provide a sealing connection between the seal assembly and the frame.A shallow rebate 22 is formed adjacent the upper edges of the slot 3 to define a corresponding gap between the material of the frame 4 and that of the carrier member 2. This gap allows for take up of size tolerances in the double glazed unit.

In use, the seal assembly comprising two seals 1 and carrier member 2 are fitted into the slot 3 in the frame 4 in the manner shown in Figure 2. A building panel in the form of a double-glazed glazing unit 7 is then introduced into the slot 3 and pushed in as shown in Figure 3.

with previous arrangements, this could be a difficult operation, in the first place because the seals, to be effective, had to be unduly tight, making fitting difficult, particularly if the thickness of the double glazed unit is close to the upper tolerance limit, and in the second place because the seals often presented a barrier to the initial introduction of the double glazed unit. This latter problem has been specifically addressed by angling the outwardly-extending arms 15 of the two seals 1 on either side of the slot in such a way as to present a hopper-shaped input so that the double-glazed unit is actually guided into the slot 3. This is made clear in Figure 2.Advantageously, the tips of the arms 15 are such that they are a greater distance apart than the thickness of the double glazing unit 7 so that small misalignments which can occur when manoeuvring the double glazing unit 7 towards the slot are corrected by the funnel effect of the two seals 1.

The shape and dimensions of the seal assembly are such that the double glazing unit 7 first applies serious pressure to the seal when it hits the arm 16 at the approximate point indicated by the arrow A in Figure 1. As the double glazing unit continues to be pushed in beyond this point, the corner edge of the unit slides down the outer surface of arm 16 and, in so doing, pushes the arm to the left in Figure 1, thus causing both arms 15 and 16 to pivot in a clockwise direction, and bringing the arm 15, and in particular its outer enlarged end, into tight sealing contact with the surface of the double glazed unit 7. Meanwhile, the arm 16 has, in effect, been pushed leftwards thus causing it also, and particularly its enlarged outer end, to bear tightly against the surface of the unit 7. The final position of the double glazed unit 7 is illustrated in Figure 3, and it will be seen that each seal 1 actually defines two distinct sealing lines: an outer one due to the arm 15 and an inner one due to the arm 16.

Due to the design of the hinge section, the clockwise movement of the arms 15 and 16 and in particular the leftwards movement of the arm 16 is achieved without significant distortion of the seal and without having to apply excessive pressure, even where the unit 7 is over thickness, to push the unit into position.

Claims (12)

1. A seal for providing a sealing connection between a panel and a slot in a frame carrying the panel, said seal comprising an elongate extrusion of flexible material whose cross sectional shape is such as to define an attachment means whereby the seal may be attached to the frame or to a carrier member which is itself attached to the frame, a sealing means comprising a pair of arms extending generally away from the attachment means in respective different directions and, between the attachment means and the sealing means, a hinge means for permitting the sealing means to pivot with respect to the attachment means.

2. A seal as claimed in claim 1 wherein said slot has opposite parallel sides between which said panel is fitted, leaving a gap on either side of the panel, which gap is sealed by a respective seal.

3. A seal as claimed in claim 2 wherein, when the seal is in its installed position on a frame but before the panel has been fitted, the arms are directed as follows: i) a first of said arms is directed in a direction generally away from the slot in the frame; and ii) the second of said arms is directed in a direction generally into the slot in the frame.

4. A seal as claimed in claim 3 wherein said first arm, at least at its outer end, is spaced from the corresponding arm of the opposite seal by an amount equal to or preferably greater than the expected panel thickness.

5. A seal as claimed in either one of claims 3 or 4 wherein the second of said arms, at least at its outer end, is spaced from the corresponding arm of the opposite seal by an amount less than the expected panel thickness.

6. A seal as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 5 wherein the outer arms of the two seals on opposite sides of the slot are such as to provide a funnel effect, when seen in section, thereby acting to guide a panel being fitted into the correct position.

7. A seal as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the hinge means comprises a narrowed section between the attachment means and the sealing means.

8. A seal as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the hinge means comprises, when the seal is seen in section, a pair of webs extending from the attachment means to the sealing means and defining therebetween a hollow interior of the seal.

9. A seal as claimed in claim 8 wherein the hinge means further comprises a groove formed in that web which is innermost to the slot to allow said second of said arms to pivot without excessive distortion of the seal.

10. A seal as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said carrier member is shaped to fit into said slot and has means to receive said panel.

11. A frame and panel assembly for use in building construction, wherein said panel is fitted within a slot formed in said frame and a sealing means for sealing the joints between the panel and the slot, said sealing means comprising a seal as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.

12. An assembly as claimed in claim 11 wherein said frame is a window frame and said panel is a glazing panel.