DK3181796T3 - Sliding seal element for sliding doors and gap sealing arrangement - Google Patents

Description

Description [0001] The invention concerns a gap sealing element that is provided for for sealing a gap under a sliding door or a larger sliding door that is termed a "gate". Known from WO 2015/001096 Al is a magnetic gap sealing strip.

[0002] In practice it is known to seal sliding doors with the aid of linear brushes. Particularly in the case of house doors that are exposed to the weather and the leaves of which doors are shifted over a floor or ground that is also exposed to the weather the floor or ground, particularly flagstones or tiles, may be raised slightly through, for example, freezing. If the gap that the brush is to bridge is narrowed by this, the brush will be badly deformed and the wear on it accelerated accordingly. If, following the period of freezing, the floor or ground sinks again because it is walked or driven over and as a result the gap width under the sliding door widens again, the bristles of the brush do not always reliably return to their original position and also because of increased wear in the meantime complete gap bridging may no longer be guaranteed.

[0003] The purpose of the invention is to specify a gap sealing element that can be fitted and demounted without difficulty, is wear-resistant and is accordingly long-lived and the fitting position of which on the door can be readjusted by easy means. The purpose of the invention is further to specify a gap sealing assembly that offers the aforementioned advantages when sealing the gap under a sliding door.

[0004] This purpose is fulfilled by a gap sealing element in accordance with claim 1 and by a gap sealing assembly in accordance with claim 11. Advantageous embodiments are described in the subclaims.

[0005] On the one hand, the proposed gap sealing element incorporates a middle layer that is made from metal and therefore lends the gap sealing element outstanding stability.

[0006] On its back side the gap sealing element is provided with a magnetic adhesive layer. Magnetic adhesion affords sufficient resistance to high pull-off forces at right angles to the surface normal of the door leaf or the gap sealing element and so ensures outstanding fastening of the gap sealing element on the door.

On the other hand, however, magnetic fitting enables the gap sealing element to be shifted on the door without difficulty by overcoming the shifting forces that act parallel to the door leaf or the gap sealing element and are weaker than the pull-off forces, so that the position of the gap sealing element can be adjusted without difficulty.

[0007] This adjustment possibility relates, in the first place, to adjustment of the gap sealing element on initial fitting to the sliding door and, in the second place, also to the capacity of the gap sealing element to avoid obstacles by shifting on the sliding door and so avoiding the obstacle without being damaged. This enables the gap sealing element to last longer because damage to the gap sealing element can be prevented accordingly. The gap sealing element can then be slid back again without difficulty, so optimally bridging the gap.

[0008] At the front the metal middle layer is provided with a surface element that can be deformed like a textile fabric. Because this surface element protrudes over the metal middle layer, it can sit against the area around the door leaf so as to optimally seal it and, for example, also bridge irregularities in the lie of the floor or ground under the door. The combination of metal middle layer and surface element affords the gap sealing element an otherwise unattained combination of advantages, namely, the toughness of metal, on the one hand, and the flexibility of a brush, on the other.

[0009] This deformable surface element can advantageously extend about 0.5 cm downwards over the middle layer, on the one hand, so as to ensure by sufficient deformability optimum adaptation to the floor or ground underneath because of the length of 0.5 cm and, on the other, so that this comparatively short length of 0.5 cm ensures that the surface element is rigid enough to, for example, effectively seal the gap against small living creatures such as rodents, particularly mice. If the gap between the door leaf and the floor or ground underneath is wider than 0.5 cm, the rigid middle layer of the gap sealing element reduces this originally existing gap width, and the remaining gap under the middle layer is sealed by the surface element. If furthermore it is assumed that the surface element does not only stand on the floor or ground underneath but is actually deformed and lies against the floor or ground underneath so as to bend and be pre-tensioned, the effective gap width under the middle layer is narrower than the amount by which the surface element protrudes over the middle layer. If this amount of protrusion is, for example, 0.5 cm and the effective gap width is accordingly even narrower, effective protection against rodents is enabled by the gap sealing element.

[0010] If the floor or ground under the door is optimally level, for example, as in the case of a seamless floor or ground so situated, the amount of surface element protrusion can be considerably reduced to, for example, a value of only 0.5 mm, so that the metal middle layer actually extends almost as far as the floor or ground underneath and the surface element stands with its lower narrow edge against the floor or ground underneath without deforming.

[0011] Described as "deformable like textile fabric" is a surface element that is not comparatively rigid such as, for example, a wooden sheet or a metal plate but one that can be reversibly deformed like a flat textile fabric element, for example, one that can be rolled or folded or made into a bag or the like. Even if such three-dimensional deformability as envisaged by the present suggestion is not provided for, the term “textile-like deformability” of the material that it is proposed be used must clearly indicate that, for example, textile surface elements such as woven or knitted materials or the like or that, for example, foils or that, for example, a combination of these in the form of fibre-reinforced foils can be used. The surface elements that it is suggested be used may be termed collectively “covers”. The base material used may in the following always be termed “cover”, regardless of whether a foil, a textile element or a fibre-reinforced foil is used.

[0012] The middle layer can preferably be made from metal sheet that is comparatively rigid and accordingly hard to deform and which by comparison with plastics offers better protection against bites. The metal sheet may be aluminium sheet or, economically advantageously, steel sheet.

[0013] The front layer can simply be fitted as a comparatively narrow strip to the middle layer in the bottom area of the middle layer. However, it can advantageously cover the entire front side of the middle layer so as to help give the gap sealing element as uniform and as unnoticeable an appearance as possible. In particular the colour of the front layer can be adapted to suit the rest of the door, that is, to look as much like it as possible or to be deliberately contrastingly coloured.

[0014] The front layer can be advantageously designed as a foil that incorporates a fibre reinforcement and that because of its material thickness is referred to as a "cover". So-called lorry covers, for example, have proved outstanding in practical tests, for one thing, because of their wear-resistance and, for another, because of their commercial availability.

[0015] The magnetic adhesive layer can be fastened to the middle layer, so that the gap sealing element can be fitted to, for example, steel door frames or door leaves/door wings without having to use tools. However, the magnetic adhesive layer can also be designed as a separate component part, so that it can be fitted to, for example, a non-ferromagnetic sliding door and then in turn enable magnetic fastening of the middle layer, if this middle layer is made from a ferromagnetic material, for example, in the form of steel sheet.

[0016] If the magnetic adhesive layer is fastened to the middle layer, fitting of the gap sealing layer to a non-ferromagnetic sliding door can be enabled by using an additional fitting strip. The fitting strip in turn is fastened to the sliding door, for example, bonded or screwed. The fitting strip is made from a ferromagnetic material that co-acts with the magnetic adhesive layer and enables it to stay in place outstandingly well. For example, the fitting strip is made from steel sheet or a magnetic material, for example, a so-called magnetic foil that is commercially available in various material thicknesses and rigidities. The advantages derived from being able to shift the adhesive layer, the middle layer and the surface element of the gap sealing element on the door are also afforded by the use of the additional fitting strip.

[0017] Bonding of the fitting strip can be enabled in a simple way by providing the fitting strip with a self-adhesive back side. Screwing on the fitting strip can be made easier by providing the fitting strip with drilled holes that enable screw fitting, that is, with regard to their diameter and arrangement or distribution in the fitting strip are adapted to suit the fitting of the fixing screws.

[0018] The gap sealing element according to the proposal is designed as a longish strip. The gap sealing element can also be advantageously bent over at one of the two ends of this narrow strip, so that this bent-over end can extend in front of the narrow edge of the door leaf. This enables the best possible sealing of the gap, that is, not only under the sliding door but also as far up on the side of the lower portion as the gap sealing element extends on the door leaf. During initial fitting of the gap sealing element the gap sealing element can be purposely fitted so as to protrude a long way at the side of the door leaf. If the sliding door is then slid into its closed position, the bent-over end of the sealing element runs up against an obstacle such as a second leaf of the sliding door or a door frame or the masonry of a building. Because of the magnetic holder the gap sealing element is shifted on the sliding door so as to sit gaplessly against the aforementioned obstacle in the end position of the door. This results in an additional seal, particularly additional protection against, for example, the entry of rodents.

[0019] Because the gap sealing element in accordance with the proposal has a very low structural height on the door leaf, for example, only about 2 mm, it can also be fitted to sliding doors that retract into a cavity that sits very tightly against the door leaf. A cavity of this kind may be, for example, created between a building wall and wall cladding. Even if a sliding door with two door leaves of which one is movable and the other either immovable or likewise movable is provided for, so that in any case these two door leaves do not meet end on but move past and parallel to each other, a gap sealing element in accordance with the proposal can in most cases be fitted without difficulty, whereas sealing brushes frequently have a structural height of 1 cm or more relative to the surface of the door leaf.

[0020] The invention is explained in greater detail below with the aid of purely schematic illustrations. They show:

Fig. 1 a first example embodiment of a gap sealing element in a perspective view diagonally from above, and

Fig. 2 a gap sealing assembly in which a second example embodiment of a gap sealing element is used.

[0021] On the drawings 1 refers to a gap sealing element which incorporates a metal middle layer 2 in the form of a steel sheet and on its back a magnetic adhesive layer 3 that is designed as magnetic foil. In front the gap sealing element 1 incorporates a surface element 4 that can be deformed like a textile fabric and that in each of the example embodiments shown is designed as a lorry cover. The gap sealing element 1 as a whole is designed as a longish strip that incorporates a bent-over portion 5 at one of its two ends.

[0022] In the example embodiment in fig. 1 the surface element 4 extends as a narrow strip over only a small part of the height of the metal middle layer 2 and protrudes approximately 0.5 cm downwards over the middle layer 2.

[0023] Shown in fig. 2 is a gap sealing arrangement that incorporates two sliding doors 6, where these two sliding doors 6 can also be described as a sliding door system with two door leaves. Both sliding doors 6 incorporate a metal frame 7 that is made of steel and a door panel 8 made, for example, from glass that is held in the frame 7. The two sliding doors 6 in the example embodiment shown move, not past and parallel to each other, but in the same plane, either apart into an open position or together into the closed position shown in fig. 2, as required.

[0024] Each of the two siding doors is provided with a gap sealing element 1 that is mounted in front of the lower, horizontal portion of the respective frame 7 and is held onto the frame 7 direct by its magnetic adhesive layer 3. The two bent-over sections 5 are positioned in front of the two end faces of the two sliding doors 6 and sit against each other gaplessly.

[0025] The surface elements 4 that can be deformed like a textile fabric each extend full-surface in front of the middle layers 2 of the two gap sealing elements 1. The surface elements 4 sit so that their protruding portion which protrudes downwards over the middle layer 2 and in which the two surface elements 4 extend in a curve lies sealingly against a floor or ground 9.

Claims (11)

A gap seal element (1) formed as an elongated strip which exhibits a magnetic layer adhesive layer (3) on the back and a front layer formed as a textile deformable surface element (4), characterized in that it an oblong strip shows a middle layer (2) of metal, that the front layer projects beyond the middle layer (2) and that the elongated strip at one of its narrow ends has a beveled area (5). A gap seal element according to claim 1, characterized in that the middle layer (2) has a steel plate. A gap seal element according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the surface element (4) covers the entire front of the middle layer (2). A gap seal element according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the surface element (4) extends beyond the middle layer (2) by 0.5 cm. Gap seal element according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the surface element (4) is formed of a fiber-reinforced film, which is referred to as tarpaulin. A gap seal element according to claim 5, characterized in that the surface element (4) is designed in a manner as a so-called truck cover. A gap seal element according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the adhesive layer (3) abuts against a similarly and complementary magnetically mounted mounting strip, which can be mounted on a sliding door (6) to be sealed. A gap seal element according to claim 7, characterized in that the mounting strip has a self-adhesive backing. Slot seal element according to claim 7, characterized in that the mounting strip has several bores which enable screw mounting of the mounting strip. A gap seal element according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the magnetic adhesive layer (3) is formed as a separate component of the gap seal element (1). Slot seal arrangement with a sliding door (6) and with a slit sealing element (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the slit sealing element (1) is arranged extending along the lower edge of the sliding door (6), the bevelled area abuts the narrow edge of the sliding door (6) and the surface element (4) protrudes downwardly of the sliding door (6).