Classifications

• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04C—STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS; BUILDING MATERIALS
  • E04C2/00—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels
  • E04C2/02—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels characterised by specified materials
  • E04C2/26—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels characterised by specified materials composed of materials covered by two or more of groups E04C2/04, E04C2/08, E04C2/10 or of materials covered by one of these groups with a material not specified in one of the groups
  • E04C2/284—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels characterised by specified materials composed of materials covered by two or more of groups E04C2/04, E04C2/08, E04C2/10 or of materials covered by one of these groups with a material not specified in one of the groups at least one of the materials being insulating
  • E04C2/292—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels characterised by specified materials composed of materials covered by two or more of groups E04C2/04, E04C2/08, E04C2/10 or of materials covered by one of these groups with a material not specified in one of the groups at least one of the materials being insulating composed of insulating material and sheet metal
• • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
  • E04—BUILDING
  • E04C—STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS; BUILDING MATERIALS
  • E04C2/00—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels
  • E04C2/30—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels characterised by the shape or structure
  • E04C2/32—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels characterised by the shape or structure formed of corrugated or otherwise indented sheet-like material; composed of such layers with or without layers of flat sheet-like material
  • E04C2/322—Building elements of relatively thin form for the construction of parts of buildings, e.g. sheet materials, slabs, or panels characterised by the shape or structure formed of corrugated or otherwise indented sheet-like material; composed of such layers with or without layers of flat sheet-like material with parallel corrugations

Definitions

• the invention relates to insulating panels of the type commonly used for the construction of walls, doors, roofs and the like, of civil, industrial or other kinds of buildings.
• these panels have a composite structure, also called “sandwich” structure, in which there is at least one insulating layer interposed between two outer walls forming the faces at sight of the panel;
• the insulating material is usually a foam made of polyurethane or the like (but could also be a rock wool or other insulating material), while the faces are in most cases sheet metal.
• the panels described in these documents are continuously manufactured using special apparatuses starting from two strips of sheet metal which are unwound from respective coils: the two strips are fed along respective converging paths until they are brought into the parallel horizontal condition where the insulating material, be it polyurethane foam, rock wool or other, is applied between them.
• the insulating material be it polyurethane foam, rock wool or other
• the semifinished product thus obtained is then cut transversely so that, at the end of the apparatus, panels of predefined dimensions are obtained; the panels may then be completed,, if required, off line with finishing operations.
• the profiling of the surfaces of the panels constitutes a major limitation in current state of the art.
• the metal sheets having ribs deeper than 3 mm generally have a rigidity such that it is practically impossible to bend them in the longitudinal (axial) direction; as a consequence the known panels, in fact, have only one face deeply ribbed because otherwise it would not be possible to produce them continuously as explained above.
• the deeply profiled strip advances in horizontal direction so as not to have to require changes in inclination during processing, while the other strip moves above it and is flat or slightly profiled with longitudinal ribs smaller than 3 mm, thereby resulting flexible enough to be bent a few degrees and to converge towards the bottom strip.
• light profiling or fretting of the faces of a panel is understood as any type of rib or groove having a height such that the resultant flexural rigidity is negligible compared to that of the whole panel.
• This rigidity will obviously also depend on the thickness of the sheet metal and on the characteristics of the metallic material (steel, aluminium, copper, etc.) used; however, from a general point of view it may be stated in accordance with the European standards on composite panels (ECCS), that light profiling should be regarded as the one obtained with ribs having a height (or depth, whichever applies) less than 3 mm.
• ECCS European standards on composite panels
• deep profiling according to the ECCS standards should be regarded as the one formed by ribs having a height greater than 3 mm and, in accordance with the Applicant's experience, preferably a height greater than 10 mm; the variability of these values depends furthermore on factors such as the thickness and type of metallic material used for the panel faces.
• the present invention aims therefore to improve this state of the art: namely, its object is that of providing an insulating panel to be produced continuously, having structural strength properties better than those of the currently known panels with only one profiled surface.
• the invention also comprises a method for producing the aforementioned panel and an apparatus for carrying out this method, whose features are also set out in the following claims.
• - Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a panel according to the invention
• - Fig. 2 shows schematically an apparatus for the continuous production of panels according to the invention
• - Fig. 3 shows in detail of a particular feature of the apparatus according to Fig. 2;
• - Fig. 4 is a cross-section along the line iN-IV in Fig. 3;
• FIG. 5 illustrates the stacking of panels according to the invention
• FIG. 6 shows another example of apparatus for the continuous production of panels according to the invention.
• numeral 1 denotes overall an insulating panel according to the invention.
• this panel comprises two outer faces 2 and 3 at sight, between which an insulating layer 4 is present made in this case from polyurethane foam.
• outer faces 2 and 3 are both reinforced with deep profiling as explained further above, in the form of a series of respective longitudinal ribs 5, 6 with a trapezoidal profile, which extend in relief with respect to the intermediate portions 7 and 8; the latter are profiled slightly with low ribs 9 and 10, different between one side and the other of the panel.
• the profile of the faces 2 and 3 may differ from that shown in the drawings, depending on the widely varying shapes of the ribs 5 and 6; what should be herein considered is the fact that both faces have deep profiling, greater than 10 mm, thereby providing the panel with high flexural rigidity even in the case of limited thickness of the insulating layer 4.
• the strips which advance horizontally at different heights downstream of the profiling machines 24 and 25 are indicated by 2' and 3' respectively in Figure 2, according to what has been seen in connection with the panel of Fig. 1; this is done for the sake of simplicity of the description since, obviously, the outer faces of the panels may also be formed from the metal strips arranged in an inverted manner with respect to that of Fig. 2.
• the profiling machine 24 is shown in detail in Fig. 3; it has a series of intermediate stages Si, S 2 , S 3 ... S n , in each of which a pair of shaped opposing rolls 25 and 25 of a type known per se is located.
• These rolls are shaped in accordance with the profile to be formed in the strip 2' which passes through the profiling machine 24, and are mounted on corresponding frame supports T ⁇ -T' ⁇ , T 2 -T' 2 , T 3 -T' 3 , ... T n -T' n , arranged at their ends.
• the rolls 25 and 26 are operated by respective spindles 27 and 28, which are connected in turn to actuating motors not shown in the drawings; the heightwise position of the rolls may be adjusted by means of adjusting screws 29, 30, 31, 32 arranged in the frames of each stage, which act on the bearings 33, 34, 35 and 36 of the rolls.
• the purpose of this adjustment facility in addition to ensuring the normal operating functions of the profiling machine 24 as already occurs in conventional machines, is to facilitate the passing movement of the lower strip 3' supplied by the first profiling machine 25.
• the already profiled strip 3' advances inside the profiling machine 24 at a lower level than the roll 26, i.e. the bottom drum, of each stage S ⁇ -S n ; for this purpose the strip 3' is supported inside the profiling machine 24 by a series of idle rollers 38 which are located in a plane located underneath that of the rolls 26.
• the profiling stages S ⁇ -S ⁇ are fixed on base structures 40 formed with longitudinal members 41 joined by reinforcing cross-pieces 42; these structures are modular and rest on a main base 44 of the profiling machine 24, so that they can be removed for the operations of maintenance or replacement of the profiling equipment.
• the second profiling machine 25 which is located upstream of that considered above is similar to the latter, except that it does not have idle rollers arranged underneath the profiling stages; these rollers are in fact superfluous since the profiling machine does not have to be passed through longitudinally by another metal sheet, like the other machine.
• the profiling machine 25 is intended for working the lower strip 3, the passage line of the latter (the so-called "pass-line") defined by the nip between the shaped rolls is located at a lower level than the pass-line of the first profiling machine 24. Consequently the positioning height of the shaped rolls of the second profiling machine 25 in the respective support frames, will be different from that of the rolls shown in Figure 3; what is important, however, is that inside the apparatus 21, the upper and lower strips 2' and 3' advance horizontally parallel to each other towards the zone for application of the insulating material.
• Nozzles 50, 51 operate in this zone, spraying onto one or both strips 2', 3' the polymer substances which are usually used to form the insulating layer 4 of the panels; downstream the nozzles a continuous belt press 55 known per se is located.
• the profiling machines 24 and 25 are arranged downstream the other, it becomes possible to perform deep profiling of the flat metal strips supplied by the reels 22 and 23, keeping them in a position close to each other which is later useful for injection of the insulating foam and, more generally, for any subsequent operation envisaged in the production cycle.
• the strips are profiled along respective levels located close to each other, downstream of the profiling machines 24 and 25 they may be conveyed towards the press 55 with a negligible inclination relative to the horizontal, actually less than 1-2°. hi practice this inclination is determined by the deformation camber of the strips 2' and 3' before entering the continuous press.
• the latter also includes the method for the continuous production of the panels.
• the conventional apparatus are not suitable for deeply profiling both faces of the panels because the spaced arrangement of the profiling machines, such as for example that shown in European patent application No. 995594, involves necessarily bending angles of the upper strip in order to guide it towards the lower strip, which are incompatible with deep profiling. With the manufacturing method according to the present invention it is possible to overcome this technological limitation.
• the profiling of the strips now occurs along respective levels which are at distance substantially equal to the final thickness of the panels: it follows, therefore, that downstream of the profiling machines the upper strip does not have to undergo significant deviations which may require longitudinal bending thereof about an axis transverse to the direction of feeding, which would be incompatible with deep profiling thereof. h particular, in apparatus 21 this result is achieved by arranging the profiling machines 24, 25 one after another and keeping the strips at a close distance such that, downstream of the profiling machines, they may be conveyed towards the continuous press in a substantially parallel condition relative to each other.
• the strips 2' and 3' converge with an inclination which is preferably less than, or equal to, 1° until they reach a distance between them, corresponding to the final thickness of the panel.
• panels with deep profiling on both sides in accordance with the invention may be stacked by combining the respective profiles, so as to reduce significantly the empty spaces for transportation.
• the insulating layer must not necessarily consist of polyurethane foam, but might also be formed with any other suitable material such as, for example, rock wool, glass and the like.
• the presence of the insulating-wool application means between the two profiling machines is not incompatible with the polyurethane-foam injection means, since it would allow the formation of an apparatus of the dual-purpose type, i.e. capable of producing both foam-filled panels and wool-filled panels. h this connection it must also be pointed that profiling of the strips could be performed in an inverse manner with respect to that described for the apparatus of Fig. 2, namely by processing first the upper strip and thereafter the lower strip, with the position of the profiling machines 24 and 25 being interchanged.
• FIG. 6 An example of this situation is shown in Fig. 6 where, for the sake of simplicity, numbering of the preceding embodiment has been maintained. It just has to be pointed out that in this apparatus the upstream profiling machine 24 which processes the upper strip 2 will no longer have idle rollers 38 for supporting the lower strip while on the other hand, the profiling machine 25 will be provided with such rollers which obviously will be positioned above the shaped rolls which profile the lower strip 3'.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Architecture (AREA)
• Civil Engineering (AREA)
• Structural Engineering (AREA)
• Laminated Bodies (AREA)
• Casting Or Compression Moulding Of Plastics Or The Like (AREA)
• Insulating Bodies (AREA)
• Building Environments (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=27840299

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (9)

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Family Cites Families (7)

• 2002
  • 2002-03-18 CZ CZ2004979A patent/CZ2004979A3/cs unknown
  • 2002-03-18 HU HU0500790A patent/HUP0500790A2/hu unknown
  • 2002-03-18 AU AU2002253507A patent/AU2002253507A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2002-03-18 WO PCT/IT2002/000162 patent/WO2003078752A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2002-03-18 EP EP02722654A patent/EP1485545A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2002-03-18 SK SK5002-2004A patent/SK50022004A3/sk not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2002-03-18 MX MXPA04009102A patent/MXPA04009102A/es unknown
  • 2002-03-18 CN CN02828889.0A patent/CN1625635A/zh active Pending
• 2004
  • 2004-09-20 HR HRP20040863 patent/HRP20040863A2/xx not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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