EP0283549A2

EP0283549A2 - Integral armour-clad, bullet-proof, double-shield closure means such as a door, window, shop-window and the like, of aluminium alloy

Info

Publication number: EP0283549A2
Application number: EP87108371A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Fulvio Rovere; Mario Guerri
Original assignee: Aluminia SpA
Current assignee: Aluminia SpA
Priority date: 1987-03-17
Filing date: 1987-06-10
Publication date: 1988-09-28
Anticipated expiration: 2007-06-10
Also published as: EP0283549A3; DE3766955D1; IT8719723A0; ATE59691T1; ES2020226B3; EP0283549B1; IT1215385B

Abstract

Armour-clad, bullet-proof closure means such as a door, window, window-glass and the like ("closure means") integrally made from a small set of extruded structural shapes (1,2,7,9) of aluminum alloy, of substantially quadrangolar and hollow shape, arranged relatively to each other so to form two frames opposite to each other, joint-coupled with each other by means of blocks or continuous bars (4,4a,8,8a) suitable to be inserted inside seats provided on the mating faces of the said frames and so dimensioned, as to form both the frame constituting the door or window jamb, and the glass-holding frame of a door or window of the leaf type or fixed, the structural shapes (1,7) forming the frame destined to remain inside the room being made of an aluminum alloy of the traditional type for aluminium door and window jambs and frames, whilst the structural shapes (2,9) forming the frame destined to remain outside the room are made of an aluminum alloy endowed with a very high mechanical strength and high toughness.

Description

The present invention relates to an armour-clad, bullet-proof closure means like a door, window shop-window and the like ("closure means"), integrally made of aluminum alloy and constituted by the assembly of extruded structural shapes for forming two frames coupled with each other, one frame of which, the interior frame, is made of traditional aluminum alloy, and the other frame of which, destined to remain outside the room, is made of an aluminum alloy endowed with very high characteristics of mechanical strength and toughness, which makes it possible to produce an armour-clad closure means particularly resistant to the penetration of bullets.
It is known that the so said armour-clad doors and armour-clad windows are made, in certain cases, by applying a steel plate to the outer face, or to the inner face, of a traditional door; in other cases, the door is totally made of steel sheet, having the shape of a box-like body inside which a honey-comb structure is provided, which performs the functions of spacer and of connecting body; the so obtained door is then mounted on a door jamb constituted by a metal frame rigidly anchored to the opening provided in the wall.
Such types of armour-clad doors, even if fulfil their task of providing a protection towards the thefts, in practice result very complex to be manufactured, very heavy, and difficult to be installed. The same holds true in case of windows or shop-windows equipped with bullet-proof glass, the support frames of which are made of steel and are hence heavy and to be dimensioned from time to time according to the requirements. Also the doors constituted by one single, high-thickness steel plate, for special uses, suffer from the same drawbacks of the steel armour-clad doors, besides being often aesthetically unpleasant.
Hence, a purpose of the present invention is to provide a closure means, such as a door, a window, a fixed or openable shop-window, or the like, of bullet-proof armour-clad type, integrally made by means of the assemblage of extruded structural shapes of aluminum alloy, and more precisely of structural shapes of aluminum alloy of the traditional type for closure means, combined with structural shapes of a special aluminum alloy endowed with a high level of mechanical strength and toughness, which makes said aluminum alloy suitable for solving the specific problems of the armour-cladding in the building field with the typical flexibility, and by the manufacturing techniques of the normal closure means made of aluminum alloy.
Another purpose of the invention is to provide an armour-clad, bullet-proof closure means which can be obtained by means of the assemblage of extruded structural shapes of aluminum alloy, partly modular and polyfunctional, so anchored to each other as to give rise to two mating frames easily and rapidly obtainable, and such to show high characteristics of resistance to the atmospheric agents.
A further purpose of the invention is to provide an integrally armour-clad closure means in which the armour-clad portion is an integral part of the support frame of the closure means, securing a high protection agains the penetration of bullets and the attack by cutting tools, and hence capable of constituting a valid protection structure for fixed and openable glass windows and glass doors, doors, windows, and the like, in rooms in general, and in particular in rooms of houses, banks, shops, post offices and the like.
These and still further purposes, which will appear more clearly from the hereunder disclosure are achieved by means of an armour-clad, bullet-proof closure means like a door, window, shop-window and the like ("closure means"), integrally made of aluminum alloys, which is constituted, according to the present invention, by a plurality of extruded base-structural shapes, of hollow shape, so positioned relatively to each other as to form two mutually opposite frames, joint-coupled with each other by means of blocks or continuous bars which can be inserted inside seats provided on the mating faces of the same frames, and so dimensioned as to form both the frame constituting the jamb and the glass-holding frame of a door or window of the leaf type or fixed, the structural shapes forming the frame destined to remain inside the room being made of an aluminum alloy of the traditional type for fixed or movable closure means of aluminum, whilst the structural shapes forming the frame destined to remain outside the room are made of an aluminum alloy endowed with very high mechanical strength and high toughness, substantially the alloy known under the "Series 7000" code.
More particularly, said sturctural shapes constituting the external armour-clad frame are accomplished with a double continuous shield, with an inner air gap, it too continuous, suitable for dampening the residual energy of the bullets which may possibly have passed through the outer shield.
The invention is disclosed hereunder in greater detail, according to a preferred form of practical embodiment thereof, referring to the hereto attached drawing tables, supplied for purely indicative and non-limitative purposes, wherein:

Figure 1 shows a horizontal-transversal sectional view of a closure means according to the invention, and, more precisely, of a portion of a jamb (vertically standing) and of a portion of a bullet-proof glass-door (or window), openable in a leaf fashion relatively to said jamb;
Figure 2 shows a transversal sectional view of a structural shape of traditional aluminum alloy, destined to constitute the jamb of the the frame destined to remain in the interior of the room, and also the inner leaf of a shutter;
Figure 3 shows the view of a polyfunctional structural shape made of a traditional alloy, suitable to fasten the inner flat jamb and the inner leaf of a shutter, an internal central upright for a frame equipped with cross-bars, or "T"-frame, an "T"-upper crosspiece for an inner frame and the inner windowsill of a window-jamb;
Figure 4 shows the view of a structural shape of a traditional alloy, suitable to constitute a wainscot for the inner frame of a glass-door or window;
Figure 5 shows the view of a structural shape of a traditional alloy, suitable to constitute an inner flat band of a door or shop-window, as well as an oversize upright for a shop-window or the like;
Figure 6 shows the view of an "L"-shaped structural shape of a traditional alloy, constituting a glass-locking element;
Figure 7 shows the view of a snap butt-strap for the glass-locking element of Figure 6;
Figure 8 shows the view of a double-shield structural shape of "Series 7000" alloy for an outer frame, and precisely for an external flat jamb, to be coupled with the structural shape of Figure 2;
Figure 9 shows the view of a double-shield structural shape of "Series 7000" alloy, constituting the bullet-proof leaf of the external frame, to be coupled with the inner structural shape of Figure 3;
Figure 10 shows the view of a double-shield structural shape of "Series 7000" alloy, constituting a central upright of an outer frame, and
Figure 11 shows the view of a structural shape of "Series 7000" alloy suitable to constitute the external band or the external wainscot of a door or shop-window, as well as an oversize upright for outside-mounting, to be coupled with the oversize upright for inside-mounting of Figure 5.

Referring to the above cited Figures, the closure means of the invention is to be understood as being both a fixed closure element, i.e., constitued by a glass-frame mounted fixed inside the opening provided in a wall, e.g., for a fixed shop-window, and a shutter (or glass-door or window) of leaf type, contained inside a frame normally denominated "jamb".
Figure 1 shows a partial transversal sectional view of a glass shutter, hinged onto a jamb upright, i.e., a closure means constitued, according to the invention, by extruded structural shapes of aluminum alloys having different mechanical characteristics, but all of them being equally suitable for being processed according to the known extrusion techniques for the aluminum alloys for closure means and the like.
More particularly, the closure means of Figure 1 is constituted, according to the present invention, by the assembly of a reduced number of base structural shapes, of a traditional aluminum alloy, forming, after the assemblage, the frame of a jamb, and a frame for a glass-door or window, both destined to remain inside the room; with these frames a frame destined to remain outside the room is coupled, which is accomplished by assembling structural shapes of a "Series 7000" aluminum alloy, already known for other uses, such frames constituting the armour-clad portion of the jamb-rotatable shutter assembly.
Hence, with particular reference to Figure 1, the box-shaped structural shapes 1 constitute, after the assembling, as it will be explained in greater detail in the following, the jamb of a door or shop-window, to be anchored onto the walls of the building room; they are provided, on one of their sides, with the external continuous toothed appendices 1a-1b, and with two equal parallel appendices 1c-1d in a central position, whilst on the opposite sides thereof continuous protrusions 1e-1f-1g are provided, which are opposite to each other, and are "T"-shaped, suitable for enabling various types of couplings with elements for fastening glasses, gaskets and butt-straps, as it will be better explained hereunder. The extruded structural shapes 1 constitute a frame (jamb) which is made of an aluminum alloy of the type already used for aluminum closure means (Series 6000), and which is destined to remain inside the room.
With each structural shape 1 of the internal frame (internal jamb) a structural shape 2 can be snap-coupled, which is made of a "Series 7000" aluminum alloy, known under the trade mark "ALUBLIND", and being the subject matter of the application for Italian industrial patent No. 20156 A/83, whose characteristics of mechanical strength and toughness make it suitable to resist to the penetration of bullets and of perforating tools.
Each structural shape 2 is of the double-shield structure, i.e., it is composed by two separated elements 2a-2b, between which the air gap 3 contributes to dampen the residual energy of the bullets and, after the assemblage, said structural shapes constitute an armour-clad frame which is destined to remain outside the room to be protected.
The stable union of the two frames is obtained by means of the insertion of two rows of moulded blocks or continuous bars 4-4a, of a stiff and thermally insulating material, snap-mounted at pre-established distances inside the seats defined by the appendices 1b-1d and 1c-1a of the structural shape 1 and anchored onto the structural shape of the external frame 2 by means of known pins or rivets, not shown.
The external structural shapes 2 are furthermore provided with sloped stop surfaces 5, with a gasket 6, for the protruding edge of the shutter of the closure means.
The glass-door or window is also constituted by an internal frame formed by the assembly of structural shapes 7 of a traditional aluminum alloy, of box-shaped type and provided with contiuous appendiced 7a-etc., equal to those of the structural shapes 1; the base of the structural shapes 7, i.e., the internal, on-sight flat face 7b, is horizontally extended so to show a wing 7c, such to constitute, at its end, a seat 7d provided with a stop gasket 7e cooperating with a gasket 7f snap-anchored onto the structural shape 1. The outer face of the wing 7c is then hinged, in a known way, onto the external flat face of the structural shape 1 of the jamb.
With the internal frame of the leaf door, i.e., with each structural shape 7 of the internal frame, a double-shield structural shape 9 is snap-coupled, by means of two rows of moulded blocks or continuous bars 8-8a; said double-shield structural shape 9 is of a "Series 7000" aluminum alloy, and its upper wing 9a is longer than the lower wing 9b, so to constitute a continuous means for holding, with the interplacing of a gasket 10, a bullet-proof glass sheet 11, or the like. The sheet 11 is kept blocked against the wing 9a by means of a pin 12 inserted through a glass-locking element 13, of a traditional aluminum alloy (Series 6000), which in its turn is snap-inserted between the protrusions 7g protruding from the structural shapes 7. An "L"-shaped butt-strap 14 suitable to be snap-applied to the glass-locking element 13 contributes to make the glass-locking element coplanar with the on-sight plane of the structural shapes 7 and 1.
Furthermore, between the two wings 2a-2b of the external structural shapes 2 a gasket 15 is inserted for the purpose of securing a tight sealing against the atmospheric agents, whilst the individual structural shapes 7 show a recessed step 16 acting as a stop for the end of the wing 2b of the structural shape 2, and a sloped appendix 17 acting as a stop for the end 5 of the wing 2a of the structural shapes 2.
The closure means results hence constituted by two coupled frames forming the jamb, and by two coupled frames constituting the glass-door or window, the one of which, which is destined to remain inside the room, is made of extruded structural shapes of a traditional aluminum alloy, and the one of which, which is destined to remain outside the room is made of extruded structural shapes of an aluminum alloy of "Series 7000" type.
For the completion of said frames, and for making it possible to accomplish several types of closure means, both fixed and of the type with openable shutter, the invention provides a limited set of other structural shapes, as described above in connection with the figure listing; furthermore, the base-structural shapes 1 and 7 can be used both for forming jambs and leaf shutters.
In fact, the structural shape 7 of a traditional alloy (Figure 3) can constitute the internal jamb or the internal shutter of a leaf, or also the central internal upright of a frame with crosspieces placed in a "T"-arrangement relatively to the upright; in a similar way, also the same structural shape 7 can constitute the upper crosspiece of a frame with uprights and crosspieces arranged according to a "T" configuration, as well as the internal windowsill-crosspiece of the jamb.
The internal structural shapes 1 can constitute, as already said, the inner shutter of a leaf, as well as the inner stop jamb.
Besides the base-structural shapes 1-7 and 2-9, the subject set of the present invention comprises structural shapes 18 (Figure 10) of "Series 7000" alloy, constituting the external central uprights of a "T"-frame, wherein between the wing 18a and the end of the lower, shorter wing 18b a bullet-proof glass can be anchored, and on the opposite side an openable shutter made from the structural shapes 9-7b (Figure 1) can be kept to a stop.
Furthermore, the structural shape 19 of "Series 7000" alloy of Figure 11 can constitute the external flat face of a door or of a window-glass, or the wainscot thereof, or also an oversize upright for outside, to be coupled with the oversize upright for inside 20, shown in Figure 5.
Finally, the set of base-structural shapes provides a structural shape 21 (Figure 4) of a traditional alloy, suitable for constituting a wainscot for the inner frame of a glass-door or of a window.
The integral, armour-clad, bullet-proof closure means accomplished by means of the set of extruded structural shapes of aluminum alloys having different characteristics, besides exploiting the most advanced "Series 7000" aluminum alloys, and hence making it possible to obtain armour-clad closure means of reduced weight, obtainable by the usual extrusion-techniques, and also easy and quick to be assembled, offers the advantage of being particularly suitable for undergoing ornamental and protective surface treatments, such as paint-coating, anodizing, with obvious advantages of aesthetical character.
Obviously, in the practical embodiment of the invention, as disclosed for exemplifying purposes, modifications and variations may be supplied to it as to the dimensions and manufacturing technique of the structural shapes, as to the type, dimensions and positioning of the various sealing and stop gaskets, and to other details, with technically and functionally equivalent solutions, without going out of the protection purview of the same invention.

Claims

1. Armour-clad, bullet-proof closure means such as a door, window, window-glass and the like ("closure means") integrally made from aluminum alloy, characterized in that it is constituted by a plurality of extruded base-structural shapes, of hollow shape, arranged relatively to each other so to form two frames opposite to each other, joint-coupled with each other by means of blocks or continuous bars suitable to be inserted inside seats provided on the mating faces of the said frames and so dimensioned, as to form both the frame constituting the door or window jamb, and the glass-holding frame of a door or window of the leaf type or fixed, the structural shapes forming the frame destined to remain inside the room being made of an aluminum alloy of the traditional type for aluminum door and window jambs and frames, whilst the structural shapes forming the frame destined to remain outside the room are made of an aluminum alloy endowed with a very high mechanical strength and high toughness, substantially the alloy known under the "Series 7000" code.

2. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that said extruded structural shapes constituting said external armour-clad frame are of double-shield structure, inside which a continuous air gap is defined, which is suitable for dampening the residual energy of the bullets impinging against the same external structural shapes.

3. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that said blocks or continuous bars for the joint-coupling of the mutually opposite frames are distributed or positioned along two parallel rows, at pre-established distances from each other, and are anchored inside seats constituted by continuous appendices protruding from the faces of the internal frame and fastened by means of studs or pins protruding from the faces of the external frame.

4. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that a part of said structural shapes constituting the internal frame are made in a quadrangolar hollow shape, with on-sight flat face, with protrusions protruding from their free sides for the purpose of retaining glass-holding elements and butt-straps, and with seats for said coupling blocks or continuous bars, said structural shapes being such to constitute the jamb of the inner frame, and also the internal leaf of a shutter.

5. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that another part of said structural shapes for the internal frame are constituted by a quadrangolar hollow body, it too provided with side protrusions and seats for said blocks or continuous bars, with an appendix on the extension of the on-sight plane face suitable to provide, at its end, a stop plane, with the interposition of a gasket, for a corresponding extension protruding from the structural shape of the adjacent frame, said structural shapes being able to constitute the internal jamb and the internal leaf of a shutter, a central upright for a frame with "T"-arranged crosspieces, an upper crosspiece for an inner "T"-shaped frame and the internal windowsill of a window jamb.

6. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that it provides, for the completion of the internal frame, both for a jamb and a glass-shutter, hollow structural shapes with appendices and protrusions so dimensioned as to constitute the wainscot of a glass-door or window, the internal flat band of a door or of a shop-window, as well as an oversize upright for a shop-window or the like.

7. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that said double-shield structural shapes of "Series 7000" alloy, forming the outer frame, are constituted by extruded elements having the form of a flattened "C", each of which is provided with means for getting coupled with said anchoring blocks or continuous bars and are destined to constitute both the external jamb and the external shutter, the ends of the "C"-shaped double-shield being shaped in such a way as to hold, in one case, a bullet-proof glass on one side and constitute a stop on the opposite side, whilst in the other case they are shaped in such a way as to constitute counter-stop elements for the end of the structural shape of the adjacent frame.

8. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that it provides a double-shield structural shape of "Series 7000" alloy constituting an external central upright with opposite ends respectively shaped for holding a bullet-proof glass and for constituting stop elements for a shutter.

9. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that it provides structural shapes made of "Series 7000" alloy of box-shaped, extended type, suitable to constitute an oversize upright for outside to be coupled with the oversize upright for inside.

10. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that it provides extruded, substantially "L"-shaped glass-locking elements of a traditional aluminum alloy, so shaped as to make it possible to lock a glass between said double-shield structural shapes and said structural shapes of interior, as well as elements having an "L"-profile or the like, suitable to constitute butt-straps, for snap- application onto said glass-locking elements.

11. Closure means according to claim 1, characterized in that inside the air gap of the double-shield structural shapes constituting the external jamb, sealing gaskets are interposed against the entering of atmospheric agents.