AU1000402A

AU1000402A - An assembly of a mirror and mirror backing support

Info

Publication number: AU1000402A
Application number: AU10004/02A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Mario Simeone; Ben Tilley
Original assignee: Crane Enfield Metals Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Aluminium Extrusion and Distribution Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2001-01-29
Filing date: 2002-01-02
Publication date: 2002-08-01
Anticipated expiration: 2022-01-02
Also published as: AU783621B2

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Applicant(s): CRANE ENFIELD METALS PTY LTD Invention Title: AN ASSEMBLY OF A MIRROR AND MIRROR BACKING SUPPORT 0* The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: 2 AN ASSEMBLY OF A MIRROR

AND

MIRROR BACKING SUPPORT Field of the Invention This invention relates to an assembly of a mirror and a mirror backing support and relates particularly but not exclusively to such for wardrobe doors.

Description of Prior Art In the art of wardrobe doors, it is fashionable to have the front face of the wardrobe door completely mirror coated. Traditionally, the mirror coating is provided on a mirror glass which is attached to the front face of the wardrobe door. The attaching has been generally by a peripheral frame that extends around the wardrobe door. The frame has been of an aluminium extrusion material which overlaps the sides, top and bottom edges, and also extends over a small portion of the front face of the mirror.

In recent times, there has been a trend to provide mirrored wardrobe doors which have the appearance 25 of a frameless construction when viewing from the front face of the wardrobe door. In other words, the trend has been to have a smooth or polished glass edge to at least the upright sides of the wardrobe door so that when viewing from the front face of the wardrobe door it has the appearance of a frameless supported mirror.

Traditionally, these frameless appearance mirrored wardrobe doors have been produced by providing a frame made from aluminium extrusions. The frame has a peripheral dimension that does not exceed the corresponding width and height dimensions of the mirror.

The mirror is then adhered to the frame by an adhesive such as silicone or by double sided adhesive tape. The \\mlb-fies\homeS\Piyanka\Kep\speci\HIRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01 3 weight of the glass in the mirror requires that the assembly of the support frame and the mirror be laid flat until the silicone adhesive cures. This generally takes 24 hours. Thus, in small fabrication factories where wardrobe doors are traditionally produced, there is a dilemma of where to place the wardrobe doors during the curing process. Whilst stacking tiered arrangements can be utilised this causes other problems with the manual lifting of the wardrobe doors to different heights for the stacking and unstacking purposes, and is not desirable.

A further problem exists with the traditional method of producing mirrored wardrobe doors in that the backing coating to the mirror itself is usually of insufficient strength to carry the weight of-the mirror once the adhesive material has set particularly with double sided adhesive tape, where the adhesive is not compatible with the mirror backing. Thus, it has been necessary to manually cut and peel back the backing to the mirror to permit good bonding to the mirror coating itself 20 which, in turn, has sufficient bonding strength with the glass to carry the weight of the glass once the adhesive has set. Accordingly, the production of mirrored wardrobe "doors has been quite time consuming and furthermore there is the risk-of damaging the mirror coating itself when the backing is being removed.

Object and Statements of the Invention There is a need for improved construction to minimise the above problems.

Therefore, according to a first broad aspect of the present invention there is provided an assembly of a mirror and a mirror backing support, said assembly having the mirror held to the backing support at least two opposed side edges by a substantially clear plastics material retaining means, said retaining means extending along the periphery of the mirror at the at least two \\melbfiles\homeS\Priynka\KeeV\speei\MIRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01 4 opposed side edges of the mirror, said retaining means having a first flange that extends over the edge surface of the mirror and a second flange connected to the first flange that extends over a front face of the mirror, said retaining means being held to the backing support, there being a supporting flange extending from the backing support across the first flange of said retaining means, said supporting flange acting to inhibit flexing of said first flange that would otherwise be caused by relative lateral displacement of the mirror to the backing support if said supporting flange were omitted, ~said assembly having the appearance from the front face of said mirror of a substantially frameless supported mirror at the at least two opposed side edges, except for the thickness of said supporting flange.

Most preferably, the supporting flange is formed integral with the backing support, and said retaining o" 20 means is held to the backing support by holding means formed on said retaining means which engages with corresponding holding means on said backing support.

In another embodiment the supporting flange is separate to the backing support and is fixed to the 25 backing support so as to hold the retaining means to the backing support.

Most preferably the two opposed side edges that the retaining means extends over are the right and lefthand upright side edges of the mirror.

Most preferably the retaining means also extends over the top and bottom side edges of the mirror.

Most preferably the retaining means extends over the full length of all the sides of the mirror.

Most preferably the assembly is a wardrobe door assembly.

A method of assembling a mirror to the face of a backing support is also provided.

\\melbfiis\homeS\Priyanka\Keep\speci\MIRROR BACKING CRANEdoc 31/12/01 5 Brief Description of the Drawings In order that the invention can be more clearly ascertained examples of two preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings where in: Figure 1 is a isometric part cross-sectional view of a lower corner of a wardrobe door having a mirrored front face according to a first example, Figure 2 is a vertical cross-section view through the wardrobe door shown in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a horizontal cross-sectional view shown through the wardrobe door shown in Figure 1, 15 Figure 3 is a perspective view similar to that of Figure 1 of a further example of a wardrobe door, and Figure 5 is a horizontal transverse crosssectional view at one side edge of the example shown in Figure 4.

a Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments "Referring firstly to the example shown in Figures 1 through 3 there is provided an assembly 1 of a mirror 3 and a mirror backing support 5. The mirror 3 is a glass S" mirror that has been rear surface coated with a reflecting material and wherein a protective coating is then applied over the mirror coating material all in a known manner.

The backing support 5 is a generally rectangular frame produced from aluminium extrusions 7 and 9. Figures 2 and 3 show the different transverse cross-sections of each of the extrusions 7 and 9. Extrusion 7 forms the horizontal top and bottom rails, and extrusion 9 forms the vertical upright side edges of the backing support 5. The extrusions 7 and 9 are appropriately cut and checked related to one and other to allow interfitting and subsequent fastening by known fastening techniques. A \\melb files\homeS\Priyanka\Keep\speci\MIRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01 6 further extrusion 11 is provided as a horizontal rail to the backing support 5. The exact detail of the backing support 5 is immaterial to the present invention, except insofar that the purpose of the backing support 5 is to merely carry the mirror 3 and to permit appropriate wardrobe door suspension means to be fitted thereto to carry the wardrobe door in an operative manner and that there needs to be some way of holding the mirror 3 to the backing support 5. Generally, the backing support 5 is of rectangular configuration, which approximately equates to the rectangular configuration of the mirror 3.

The mirror 3 is held to the backing support 5 at least two opposed side edges 13 and 15. These side edges are typically the upright left and right hand side edges of the assembly 1.(These two opposed edges 13 and 15 are identified only in Figure Accordingly, the mirror 3 is held to the backing support 5 at the at least two opposed side edges 13 and 15 by a substantially clear plastics material retaining means 17. The retaining means 17 is produced from an acrylic extruded material and in the example shown in Figures 1 through 3 has a generally shaped transverse cross-section.

*The retaining means 17 has a first flange 19 that extends over the edge surface 21 of the mirror 3. The retaining means 17 also has a second flange 23 connected to the first flange 19 that extends over a front face of the mirror 3. Most preferably, the retaining means 17 extends over the top and bottom side edges of the mirror 27 and 29 respectively so that the retaining means 17 extends over the full length of all the four side edges of the mirror.

A supporting flange 31 for the retaining means 17 extends from the backing support 5 across the first flange 19 of the retaining means 17. This supporting flange 31 acts to inhibit flexing of the first flange 19 that would otherwise be caused by relative lateral displacement from side to side or from top to bottom of the mirror 3 \\melb-files\howeS\Priyanka\Keep\speci\MIRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01 7 relative to the backing support 5. In other words, if the supporting flange 31 were not present then the first flange 19 of the retaining means 17 would be able to flex if there were lateral movement of the mirror 3 relative to the backing support 5. This is particularly so in relation to any downward movement that may be caused by the mass of the mirror 3 which would act to flex the first flange 19 at the bottom edge of the wardrobe door. Side to side movement could be caused by a person engaging the mirror with their hand in order to slide the wardrobe door open or closed. Thus, the supporting flange 31 resists this flexing and retains the mirror 3 held captive to the backing support The retaining means 17 is held to the backing by a rear part of the shaped transverse cross-section engaging with a corresponding locking flange 33 formed integrally with the extrusions 7 and 9. The locking flange 33 is positioned appropriately on the extrusions 7 and 9 to hold the rear face of the mirror 3 substantially flush against the forward front face of the backing support 5 as clearly shown in the drawings. Snap-lock engaging ribs are provided both on the locking flange 3 and the corresponding engaging leg of the shaped cross-section of the retaining means 17 as shown. The 25 part of the shaped cross-section of the retaining means 17 in which the peripheral side edge 3 of the mirror is received has a thickness equal to the thickness of the mirror 3 as also clearly shown.

The assembly 1 has the appearance from the front face of the mirror 3 of a substantially frameless supported mirror at least the two opposed side edges 13 and 15. In the particular example of Figures 1 through 3 this substantially frameless supported mirror appearance occurs at all four sides of the assembly 1. This substantially frameless appearance occurs because the thickness of the supporting flange 31 is insubstantial compared to the total surface area of the mirror 3 when \\melb-files\home$\Priyanka\Keep\speci\HIRROR BACKING CRANE doe 31/12/01 8 viewed from the front face. The second flange 23 of the retaining means 17 appears substantially clear to a viewer from the front face of the mirror 3 and does not intrude greatly to the uninterrupted view of the front face of the mirror 3. Thus, the assembly 1 has the appearance from the front face of the mirror of a substantially frameless supported mirror except for the thickness of the supporting flange 31.

The assembly 1 can have suspension roller wheels and the like attached at the top of the backing support Details of any such suspension have been omitted in order to aid clarity.

Whilst the example has been shown in relation to a wardrobe door, it should be appreciated that the concepts of providing a frameless appearance are applicable to other mirror assemblies and that the invention is not limited to wardrobe doors per se.

The example of Figures 4 and 5 is substantially identical to the example shown in Figures 1 through 3 20 except that the retaining means 17 is slightly differently shaped and is held to the backing support 5 in a different manner. Like parts to those in the example of Figures 1 through 3 have been provided with the same numerical designations. It should therefore be appreciated that a 25 backing support 5 is provided in a similar manner to that shown in Figures 1 through 3 except that the different extrusions from which the backing support 5 are made have a generally rectangular configuration and do not have an integrally formed supporting flange 31. In this example, the supporting flange 31 is separate and is subsequently fastened to the backing support In this example, the retaining means 17 is substantially shaped in transverse cross-section as shown in Figures 4 and 5. The retaining means 17 has a similar first flange 19 to that shown in the previous example and a similar second flange 23. It also has a third flange 35, which engages with the rear face of the \\melbifiles\homeS\Priyanka\Keep\speci\MIRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01 9 backing support 5, as shown.

The supporting flange 31 has a generally "L" shaped transverse cross-section as shown, and the supporting flange 31 is attached integrally with a stepped rear flange 37.

In this example, the mirror 3 is placed in the correct position relative to the backing support 5 and the retaining means 17 clipped or fitted over the peripheral edge of the backing support 5 to hold the mirror 3 thereto. The supporting flange 31 is then applied over the first flange 19, as shown, and then the supporting flange 31 is then held to the backing support 5 by fastening means that pass through the stepped rear flange 37 and engage with the backing support 5. Typically, self-tapping screws or pop-rivets can be used at position 39 to effect this fastening.

In the two examples shown, substantial throughput in a fabrication establishment can be achieved in the production of mirrored wardrobe doors compared to the 20 traditional method of adhering the mirror 3 to the backing support 5 by an adhesive medium. In the examples shown, the mirror 3 may be held to the backing support 5 without the use of an adhesive medium although the use of an adhesive medium is not to be excluded. Because the movement of the mirror 3 relative to the backing support is inhibited by the supporting flange 31, the known problems associated with traditional ways of producing mirrored wardrobe doors is minimised or avoided.

In both examples, the mirror 3 is held against face to face displacement from the backing support 5 by the flange 23 of the retaining means 17.

It should be noted that with the examples described above the upright edge surface the mirror glass are covered and do not need finishing or edge polishing, and therefore further cost savings can be realised.

Modifications may be made to the present invention as would be apparent to persons skilled in the H:\Priyanka\Keep\speci\MIRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 2/01/02 10 production of wardrobe doors and mirrors. For example, the transverse cross-section of the extrusions of the backing support 5 may be provided with a small flange that extends across the peripheral edges of the mirror 3 to further retain the mirror 3 held substantially captive against lateral displacement side to side and up and down relative to the backing support 5. This may assist further with the supporting compared to providing only the single supporting flange 31.

These and other modifications may be made without departing from the ambit of the invention the nature of which is to be determined from the foregoing description.

i4 4 \\melpbfiles\homeS\Priyanka\Keep\speci\ \nIOR RACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01

Claims

1. An assembly of a mirror and a mirror backing support, said assembly having the mirror held to the backing support at least two opposed side edges by a substantially clear plastics material retaining means, said retaining means extending along the periphery of the mirror at the at least two opposed side edges of the mirror, said retaining means having a first flange that extends over the edge surface of the mirror and a second flange connected to the first flange that extends over a front face of the mirror, said retaining means being held to the backing support, there being a supporting flange extending from the backing support across the first flange of said retaining means, said supporting flange acting to inhibit flexing of said first flange that would otherwise be caused by 20 relative lateral displacement of the mirror to the backing support if said supporting flange were omitted, said assembly having the appearance from the •front face of said mirror of a substantially frameless supported mirror at the at least two opposed side edges, except for the thickness of said supporting flange.

2. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the supporting flange is formed integral with the backing support, and said retaining means is held to the backing support by holding means formed on said retaining means which engages with corresponding holding means on said backing support.

3. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the supporting flange is separate to the backing support and is fixed to the backing support so as to hold the retaining means to the backing support. \\melb~files\homeS\Priyanka\Keep\speci\MIRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01 12

4. The assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the two opposed side edges that the retaining means extends over, are the right and left- hand upright side edges of the mirror.

The assembly as claimed in claim 4 wherein retaining means also extends over the top and bottom side edges of the mirror.

6. The assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein retaining means extends over the full length of all the sides of the mirror.

7. The assembly as claimed in any one of the 15 preceding claims wherein the assembly is a wardrobe door assembly.

8. A method of making an assembly of a mirror and a mirror backing support, said method including: holding the mirror to the backing support at at least two opposed side edges by a substantially clear plastics material retaining means held to the backing support, said backing support extending along the periphery of the mirror at the at least two opposed side edges, and by causing a first flange of said retaining means to extend over the edge surface of the mirror and a second flange of said retaining means to extend over a front face of the mirror, and by causing a supporting flange to extend from said backing support across said first flange of said retaining means, \\melbfils\home$\Priyanka\Kep\spci\MIP.RO BACKING CRANE.doc 31/12/01 13 said supporting flange acting to inhibit flexing of said first flange that would otherwise occur by relative lateral displacement of the mirror to the backing support if said supporting flange were omitted, thereby providing an appearance to the front face of the assembly of a substantially frameless supported mirror at the at least two opposed side edges, except for the thickness of said supporting flange.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8 wherein the holding of said retaining means to the backing support is by a supporting flange integrally formed with the retaining means.

10. A method as claimed in claim 8 wherein the holding of said retaining means to the backing support is by fixing a supporting flange, separate to the retaining means, to the backing support.

11. An assembly substantially as herein described with reference to either example in the accompanying drawings.

12. A method of making an assembly substantially as herein described with reference to either embodiment, in the accompanying drawings. Dated this 2 nd day of January 2002 CRANE ENFIELD METALS PTY LTD By their Patent Attorneys GRIFFITH HACK Fellows Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia \\melb.files\home$\ Priyanka\Keep\ speci\IRROR BACKING CRANE.doc 2/01/02