EP2251497B1 - Flexible glass elements - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to flexible glass elements according to the preamble of independent claim 1 and to methods for producing flexible glass elements according to the preamble of patent claim 6.

In the patent application EP-A-1 950 357 The applicant describes methods for creating microperforations and micro-slits by means of abrasive waterjet technology in glass plates. These methods make it possible to apply holes with a diameter of 0.2 to 0.8 mm in glass sheets on systems with a plurality of nozzle heads by means of abrasive water jet technology. A process control has been developed which minimizes the risk of destruction of the glass sheets to be perforated at the beginning of the perforation process. It has been recognized that a) even a small risk per hole in creating 40,000 continuous microholes results in a tremendous scrap rate and is not economically viable; and b) process safety in a forced stop-and-go operation at such a high cost C) the drilling times in this "stop and go" operation are considerably too long with all methods known today to perforate larger glass components within a reasonable time.

When drilling through laminated glass with an internal plastic membrane, the water jet temporarily becomes blurred as it passes from the glass to the elastic plastic membrane, causing unwanted cavities in the boundary region of the glass layers to the plastic, which in turn will lead to undesired optical effects and opacities EP-A-1 950 357 proposed to slit or cut the glasses after successful piercing by means of the abrasive jet of water with a greatly reduced risk of destruction. The unwanted cavity formation in the area of the plastic film in the case of laminated glass remains when cutting after drilling and the width of the micro-slots can be lowered in contrast to the diameter of the holes up to 0.1 mm. Instead of the multiplicity of holes or microperforations, a significantly reduced number of slots are made in the glass.

The advantages of such a micro-slotted sound absorber in glass are that the turbulence and friction of the air in the microslit, with variable cavity arranged therebehind and soundproof boundary increases by any variation of the slit length and slit width and by the arbitrary arrangement of the micro-slots in the surface manufacturing technology extremely efficient or can be reduced. The sound energy is converted into heat energy in adjustable frequency ranges and the reverberation time is reduced over a wide frequency range. The required open area in the glass, to the extent of approximately 0.8 to 3.0% of the sound area, can be produced by suitable cutting processes with sufficient process reliability and with a 10 times shorter machining time compared to bores. The risk of microcracks can be reduced by controlled slitting as opposed to microhole drilling. By an obvious reduction, the "stop and go" losses, the productivity can be substantially increased.

For the acoustic elements applies in the interior area with personal residence the requirement of splinter freedom. Applying micro holes or micro-slots with an open area of more than 1% directly into carrier glass plates often causes chipping and shells in the glass, so that the carrier glass can not be used as ESG or VSG. The multitude of small micro-holes and narrow micro-slots with an open area of more than 1% also makes the carrier glass unstable statically. Since large-scale acoustic elements are in demand today in architecture, in which the formats of 1 m ^{2 are} exceeded, the carrier glasses must also be correspondingly large-format. As a result, glasses provided directly with microperforations or micro-slits become uneconomical. The processes in direct carrier glass processing are unmanageable due to the large number of micro-interventions and the expected failure considerably. It is therefore already in the EP-A-1 950 357 suggested that in certain embodiments, rondelike micro-slit components are inserted into corresponding openings cut in a base plate. It is proposed to provide the cut-out circular disks or roundels in a separate machining process from the outer periphery with micro-slots, so that a central web is formed, which carries the teeth of two combs. These comb discs are then inserted back into the base glass pane, respectively glued. They can also be used with separate holders releasably or firmly in the respective openings. The resulting rondelles when creating the receiving openings can also be discarded, so that in the openings comb discs from separate production can be used. The creation of the receiving openings does not have to be done with a micro-cutting process, but can be done with conventional methods with sufficient tolerance. The receiving openings can even be attached during the production of the glass panes. The edges of the receiving openings need not be sharp, unlike the edges of the micro slots.

In the EP-A-1 950 357 It is also disclosed that in order to increase the mechanical stability and in particular when using panes of safety glass two-part glass bricks are used. The base plates made of glass are provided as described above with larger holes / receiving openings and equipped with prefabricated micro-slit glass inserts. The active in the absorption inserts can according to the EP-A-1 950 357 in other preferred embodiments of the invention in different strengths of glass, but also of other materials such as art glass, other plastics or metal. As already mentioned, the micro-slit inserts are fitted with inserts, holders or adhesions into the receiving openings of the base glass plate. Although these non-glass inserts can also be produced using abrasive water jet technology, they can also be produced using other known cutting or punching methods, in contrast to glass.

In particular, in the embodiments in which the absorption inserts are held by means of inserts or holders in the receiving openings, the risk of injury and the risk of breakage is reduced to a minimum, since the holding force can be adapted to the stability of the absorption insert. If someone hits or pushes against the insert, it will be released from the base plate before it breaks. This advantage is especially useful for inserts made of glass.

From the European patent application no. EP-A-2 015 291 The applicant is aware of further acoustic elements with sound-absorbing properties made of glass and further developed production methods. For the broadband micro-slotted absorbers, slit widths of less than 0.3 mm are required, and at the same time, the open area must be increased to over 3% of the base area of the acoustic element. As an unexpected alternative method of abrasive water jet cutting, in patent application no. EP-A-2 015 291 discloses the slurry wire saws. With this method, the slot widths compared to the abrasive water jet cutting can be massively reduced and it can achieve slot widths of 0.1 to 0.3 mm. The economically interesting slurry wire sawing process for such dimensions is known from wafer cutting in the semiconductor industry. With this method, not only very narrow slits of up to 0.1 mm can be sawed, but also narrow webs of less than 2 mm in width can be produced without these breaking during sawing. The required performance can be achieved by stacking several glass plates in succession into blocks and simultaneously sawing several blocks.

For this slurry wire sawing process, machinery and equipment such as silicon wafer fabrication are available on the market. By appropriate application adjustments, combed glass inserts can be sawn in such a way that this method can meet the requirements for the efficient production of decoupled inserts with a high density of fine slots, so that the cost of machine investment and above all the operating costs for the wearing materials wire and separating liquid are justified. The so sawn filigree decoupled elements must first be glued and stabilized for insertion into the carrier glass on three sides, preferably with glass rods.

As an alternative method for producing acoustically active absorber elements is described in the patent application no. EP-A-2 015 291 proposed to build absorber elements with micro-columns of individual thin glass rods. The individual rods are preferably rectangular or polygonal and are assembled at intervals of, for example, 0.2 mm into an element and preferably glued, so that micro gaps of 0.2 mm are formed. With a rod width of, for example, 1.8 mm and a distance of 0.2 mm between the rods, absorbers with an open micro-gap area of 10% based on the surface of the absorber element can be produced. It has been shown that the column width should be between 0.1 and 0.8 mm. Broader columns show only very unsatisfactory absorption performances. Preferably, the gap widths are 1.5 to 3 mm. The thickness of the rods, and thus the width of the webs, should be chosen between 1 and 8 mm, advantageously between 1.5 and 3 mm. In preferred embodiments, it is selected at 1.8 mm.

From 100 glass rods with a rectangular cross-section and a size of 1.8 mm x 4 mm x 200 mm, which are available on the market, it is possible, for example, to produce absorber elements in the size of 200 x 200 mm with 99 micro-gaps of 0.2 mm width economically efficiently.

The efficient production of fine glass rods can be done by means of glass scribing and breaking or by other known methods such as drawing, pressing or casting. It is essential that the glass surfaces without shells and chipping and preferably remain mirror-like. In the format of the finished glass elements is a frame construction made of glass or Art glass glued so that the fine glass rods receive additional stability, for example by a profile frame. The gluing of the glass rods with gaps, which correspond to the required slot width, is largely fully automatic, by means of a mounting robot. The clam-free glass rods are preferably chemically or thermally cured after calibration, so that these, like the glass carrier plates, meet the passive safety requirements in public and private spaces without splintering. Furthermore, an increase in impact resistance, flexural strength and scratch resistance is achieved. The advantages of this construction method over microperforation or microslot methods are transparent inserts without edge surface haze, higher strength of the hardened rods, and increased passive safety of the absorber inserts.

In the patent application no. EP-A-2 015 291 is described that the support elements are formed as plate-shaped components with an approximately plan first surface. In preferred embodiments, the support elements are carrier glass plates made of flat glass or special glass in thicknesses between 2 and 12 mm, which are provided with recesses for receiving the absorber.

The area occupied by the absorbers in the transparent or translucent support elements is limited to an upper limit of about 60% by the requirement of light transmission and the strength load or the breakage resistance of the acoustic elements. The lower limit, on the other hand, is determined by the absorption power in the frequency range to be absorbed. In order to achieve particularly good absorption performance in a wide frequency range, for example in the speech range from 125 Hz to 1250 Hz, according to the first embodiments of the invention, absorbers are used in which the acoustically effective open surface is formed by microperforations, micro-slots, micro-gaps or a combination thereof wherein this acoustically effective open area is 1 to 12%, preferably 7 to 12%, more preferably 10% of the total area corresponds to a first surface of the absorber. It is possible to combine both different absorption elements with microperforation, micro-slots or micro-gaps in a support element, or microperforations, micro-slits and / or micro-gaps can be combined within an absorber. Both microperforations, micro-slots and micro-gaps can be used with different diameters and / or widths in the same or in different absorbers. The widths can also be varied within a micro-slot or within a micro-column.

According to the patent application no. EP-A-2 015 291 The absorbers can be produced as single elements or as sandwich constructions with or without nonwoven material. All these combination possibilities make it possible to widen the bandwidth of effectively absorbed sound frequencies. It has been shown in experiments that different slot and gap widths and different hole diameters and single elements or sandwich constructions have absorption maxima in different widths in different frequency ranges. For example, in addition to single-layer multilayer glass structures with micro-gaps, they are joined together to form sandwich constructions. Such a multi-layered construction creates additional resonators that enhance absorption and widen the frequency range. This results in a total broadband absorber.

Despite the relatively high variety of absorbable frequency ranges and various design options, there is still a need for additional and alternative absorber designs.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide glass components for sound absorbers and other uses and methods for producing the same, which allow such products to be produced efficiently in larger quantities and dimensions. It It is a further object of the invention to provide glass components which, if desired, can be transparent and can be produced quickly and economically with reasonable technical outlay and avoid further disadvantages of the known glass components.

These objects are achieved according to the invention by the glass components according to claim 1 and the manufacturing method according to claim 6, advantageous embodiments result from the dependent claims.

The glass components according to the invention are also referred to below as "flexible glass". This term is understood to mean materials such as glass and hard synthetic glass components having a multiplicity of webs and micro-slits arranged between the webs, which are made flexible by attachment to, preferably bonding to, an elastic carrier material such as plastic.

The procedural problems for the industrial production of flexible glass have not yet been solved. In interior design, in many everyday objects such as mirrors, but also in optics and in aspherical technology, bent glass has to be ground in a complicated and costly way. The present invention makes it possible to produce transparent flexible elements which can be formed with variable radii into curved, cylindrical, corrugated or twisted shapes or combinations of the foregoing. The glass components produced are of high optical quality. The slot and web widths are just as variable as the size of the finished glass components.

The present invention allows the flexible glass elements, also referred to as glass components to create in large quantities and dimensions that are transparent, technically and economically efficient to produce.

Advantages in the production of the new micro-slit flexible glass components, comprising micro-slits and webs, result, inter alia, from the fact that the webs are preferably produced by slurry sawing and remain connected to a crossbar during the sawing process step. The slurry sawing method makes it possible to produce the glass components, in particular the micro slots between the webs very precisely with the smallest tolerances, web and slot widths can be freely selected and varied within reasonable ranges. As a result, the possible bending shapes and radii of the finished glass components can be easily influenced.

The micro-sawn glass elements, in which the webs are arranged comb-like on the crossbar, are then flexibly connected to a semi-finished product, preferably glued, to a semi-finished product.

The flexibility can be variably adjusted by the choice of the support materials such as plastic frames, plastic bands, fiber-reinforced plastics, metal or glass fibers.

As the last process step, the transverse web is preferably cut off at the rigid semi-finished product together with parts of the carrier, preferably by means of a water jet. From the rigid semifinished product is thereby the flexible glass element according to the invention. In the embodiments according to the following figures, the carrying elements run along all four edges. However, this is not absolutely necessary. In order to prevent the delicate webs from breaking off in the comb of the semifinished product when the free web ends are loaded during the water jet cutting, it has proved to be extremely advantageous to stabilize this edge by a support element.

In further steps, the flexible glass element can now bring in the curved, cylindrical, corrugated or twisted shape or in a combination of the aforementioned. It is obvious that the present invention allows glass elements to be made that can take any shape deviating from a planar shape as long as the integrity of the individual lands is maintained. It can be elements with single direction of rotation such as cylinder jackets or parts thereof, but also elements with two or more directions of rotation changes such as S-shapes or waves. The distance between the webs, ie the slot width and the height of the webs, predetermines the maximum degree of bendability.

The individual webs correspond in preferred simple embodiments straight lines which all have the same length. However, according to the invention, the webs may also have different lengths and one of the straight deviating basic shape.

Preferably, the micro-slits are formed between the glass webs with a width of 0.1 to 1.0 mm and distributed homogeneously or irregularly on the surface. The slots can be arranged in a straight / linear or curved design as desired, depending on the aesthetic requirements and in consideration of strength stress.

The glass webs with a width of 0.15 to 20.0 mm, in turn, can be distributed homogeneously or irregularly on the surface, arranged in straight or curved design arbitrarily, to aesthetic requirements and to strength load.

Depending on the required mechanical stability and in particular on the use of safety glass, glasses of different thicknesses can be used according to the invention. To achieve desired optical effects different types of glass can be used.

Suitable all common glass plates or bricks in thicknesses between 2 and 12 mm as flat or curved elements.

According to an alternative method, the glass elements are not produced in the slurry sawing process, but constructed from individual webs as described above for the prior art. Once these individual webs are introduced into the flexible carrier and connected to this, preferably glued, the other processing steps of the semi-finished products do not differ significantly from each other.

The glass elements according to the invention can preferably be used as acoustic elements, which on the one hand can have completely novel three-dimensional shapes and enormously expand the creative freedom of the architect, designer and / or acoustician, and on the other hand, the effectively acoustically effective slot widths can be set almost as desired by bending the elements. If the bending radius, which is permitted by the slot widths and web heights of the semi-finished products, is maximized, the webs touch each other at least at one edge and the slots are completely closed in the acoustic sense. In one element, correspondingly, depending on the bending radius, completely open slots can be produced (at flat places without bending) up to completely closed slots at locations with maximum bending radius, without the slots having to be varied during production of the associated semi-finished products.

In glass elements according to the invention, which are simply twisted in themselves, the cross-sectional shape of the individual slots does not vary, but the surfaces of the individual webs are always further apart as a function of the distance from the torsion axis about which the webs are rotated relative to each other. If the elements in addition to the twist also bent, the cross-sectional shape of the individual slots varies over the length.

In further preferred embodiments, the glass elements are formed Absitmmbar. For this purpose, adjusting elements engage on the elastic support frame, by means of which the bending can be varied. These adjustment elements can act mechanically, electromechanically, pneumatically or hydraulically. With such an acoustic element, the absorption effect can be adjusted / changed, for example, by changing the bending radius. In the case of an optically effective, for example a bendable, mirrored glass element, the focus of the reflected light can be changed in this way.

Brief description of the figures

Fig. 1a

eine perspektivische Draufsicht auf eine erste Oberfläche eines Halbfabrikats gemäss einer Ausführungsform der Erfindung bei dem ein Quersteg noch nicht abgeschnitten ist,

Fig. 1b

eine Ansicht auf das Halbfabrikat gemäss Figur 1a, nach Entfernen des Querstegs,

Fig. 2

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Glaselements gemäss einer Ausführungsform der Erfindung mit einer einfachen Biegung,

Fig.3

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Glaselements gemäss einer weiteren Ausführungsform der Erfindung mit einer einfachen Biegung,

Fig. 4

eine Ausschnittsvergrösserung einer Seitenansicht eines Glaselements gemäss Fig. 2, und

Fig. 5

eine Ausschnittsvergrösserung einer Seitenansicht eines Glaselements gemäss einer weiteren Ausführungsform der Erfindung.

On the basis of figures, which represent only embodiments, the invention will be explained below. Show it

Fig. 1a

8 is a perspective top view of a first surface of a semi-finished product according to an embodiment of the invention in which a transverse web has not yet been cut off,

Fig. 1b

a view of the semi-finished product according to FIG. 1a after removing the crosspiece,

Fig. 2

a perspective view of a glass element according to an embodiment of the invention with a simple bend,

Figure 3

a perspective view of a glass element according to another embodiment of the invention with a simple bend,

Fig. 4

a partial enlargement of a side view of a glass element according to Fig. 2 , and

Fig. 5

an enlarged detail of a side view of a glass element according to another embodiment of the invention.

In the FIG. 1 is a perspective top view of a semi-finished product 11 for producing a glass element according to an embodiment of the invention, in which a glass plate after the slurry wire saws a plurality of webs 10 with interposed micro slots 20 and is already glued to a flexible, respectively bendable support member 40 , Since the cuts do not penetrate the glass plate in its full width, the webs 10 are all still connected to one another via a transverse web 50. The semifinished product 11 is therefore not yet flexible. In the FIG. 1b is the semi-finished product 12 shown after the cross bar, preferably cut by water jet cutting. The semi-finished product is now flexible and can be supplied for further processing.

In the FIGS. 2 and 3 two embodiments of inventive glass elements 1 and 3 are shown, which have different radii of curvature and differently measured basic shapes.

In the FIG. 4 is a sectional enlargement A of a side view of a glass element 1 according to Fig. 2 shown. The individual webs 10 have a rectangular cross-section and are evenly spaced from each other on the flexible carrier 40 glued 16. Due to the bending of the carrier 40, the webs are away from each other and opened at an angle α. The slot width at the base of the slot D ₂ corresponds approximately to the width of the slot in the unbent semifinished product. The slot width D ₁ on the - a first surface 11 of the glass element facing - slot opening is correspondingly wider than D ₂ . The slots 20 in the element 1 according to the Figures 2 and 4 As a result of the uniform bend all have an approximately identical cross-sectional shape.

In the embodiment according to the FIG. 5 on the other hand, the glass element is bent in a waveform so that the direction of rotation of the bend is reversed from R1 to R2 and traversed therebetween by a tangential region where the slot 20 'is unchanged because the associated portion of the carrier is flat. On both sides of slot 20 ', the slots taper at an angle b up to the top 11' or they expand at angle α.

In the case of the glass elements according to the invention which are to be used as acoustic elements, the coarse dimensioning does not differ from the previously known ones. According to the embodiment of the FIG. 2 are sawed between the webs 10 micro-columns in a width of 0.2 mm. If 100 webs are produced in this way, an absorber plate with an area of 200 × 200 mm and 99 continuous microcolumns 20, for example, after removal of the transverse web, results in an acoustically effective area of approximately 10% relative to the first surface 11 add the absorber plate.

The bending forms: concave, convex, waves, screws, etc. and the mass given in the embodiments of the inventive glass elements with micro gaps, should allow the comparison of these plates with the previously known and not give the impression that by means of the described method only produce elements with the specified masses and shapes. On the contrary, the production methods described allow the person skilled in the art a great deal of freedom in dimensioning and adjusting the shape of the elements according to the invention and thus the absorber performance of acoustically active absorber plates and the reflection, refraction and or scattering of optically active elements and combinations thereof. It will be appreciated that the elements may be used alone in simple as well as in twos or in several in composite components. According to preferred embodiments, a plurality of semi-finished products for the Glass elements made of glass slices by means of slurry wire saws and subsequent cutting of the crosspiece by means of water jet.

The semifinished products produced in this way are stabilized and secured at least at two end regions, preferably on the front side or particularly preferably peripherally with frame elements.

In view of the above-disclosed technical teaching of the present invention, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that there are tremendous variations in the choice of materials and structural variations, and particularly in the shape of glass elements.

According to other embodiments not shown in the figures, the transparent and / or translucent glass elements are combined with lighting means to produce lighting effects. Adjustable or tunable glass elements as described above are ideally suited for generating changeable light accents in combination with LEDs, light guides or other light sources.

List of reference numbers

1, 2, 3

glass element

11

semi-finished product

12

semi-finished product

3

absorber

10

web

11

first surface

12

second surface

16

bonding

20

micro slot

D ₁

slot width

D ₂

slot width

α

Slot-opening angle

b

Slot-opening angle

G

Slot-opening angle

40

supporting member

41

inner surface

R ₁

Direction of rotation 1

R ₂

Direction of rotation 2

50

crosspiece

Claims (10)

1. Glass elements (1, 2, 3) comprising at least one support element (40) and a plurality of bars (10) made of glass, between which micro-slots (20) are arranged, characterized in that the support elements (40) are designed in a flexible and/or bendable manner and the glass elements (1, 2, 3) are designed in a bendable manner.
2. Glass elements (1, 2, 3) according to Claim 1, characterized in that they are formed into curved, cylindrical, corrugated or twisted forms or combinations thereof.
3. Glass elements (1, 2, 3) according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the supports are produced from materials such as plastic frames, plastic strips or fibreglass bands or fibre-reinforced plastics or metal.
4. Glass elements (1, 2, 3) according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the bars (10) are adhesively bonded to the support elements (40).
5. Glass elements (1, 2, 3) according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that setting elements by way of which the bending of the glass elements (1, 2, 3) can be changed act on the support elements (40) or are operatively connected to the bars (10).
6. Method for producing glass elements (1, 2, 3) according to one of Claims 1 to 5, characterized in that micro-slots (20) are sawn into a glass plate by the slurry wire-sawing method, while leaving a cross-bar (50), which interconnects the bars (10) produced between the micro-slots (20) at one end face, in a further step the sawn plate is provided with a bendable support element (40) and in a subsequent step the cross-bar (50) is removed and the glass element is bent into the desired form.
7. Method according to Claim 6, characterized in that the glass plate and the support element (40) are adhesively bonded to one another.
8. Method according to Claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the cross-bar (50) is cut off by means of a water jet.
9. Method according to one of the preceding Claims 6 to 8, characterized in that the bendable glass elements are inserted with the bendable support elements (40) into preformed receptacles, which bring the glass elements into the desired form.
10. Acoustic element comprising a glass element according to one of Claims 1 to 5.

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