GB2041057A

GB2041057A - Glazed panels

Info

Publication number: GB2041057A
Application number: GB7942394A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: BFG Glassgroup GIE
Current assignee: BFG Glassgroup GIE
Priority date: 1979-01-03
Filing date: 1979-12-07
Publication date: 1980-09-03
Also published as: GB2041057B

Abstract

A frame for holding a panel of glass or other material in a peripheral groove is formed from side rails and corner brackets each having limbs (20,21) for insertion into the adjacent side rails, at least one corner bracket being provided with an orifice which is exposed when the frame components are assembled and which communicates via passages (29,30) with the panel-receiving groove at the corresponding corner zone of the frame so that sealant can be injected into the groove. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Glazing and other panel frames This invention relates to a panel frame comprising frame side rails and sidejoining corner brackets which can be assembled around a panel and provide at least one groove for the reception of the panel margin. The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing a framed panel by using such frame.

In order to achieve a moisture-tight seal between a panel and its frame it is known to provide the frame with a groove for receiving the margin of the panel and to seal the panel margin in the groove by means of a sealing composition. In order that the panel can be fitted into the frame this is assembled around the panel from side rails and corner brackets.

The panel-receiving groove can be filled or partly filled with sealant before the panel is inserted, so that the panel margin becomes enveloped by sealant on being inserted into the groove. Experience shows that the resulting panel seal is often defective at or near the corners of the frame. Reliable sealing at such regions becomes less easy to achieve as advances are made towards automated or more rapid assembly. The said sealing deficiencies are mostly evident as between the corner zones of the panel and the frame. This defect has particularly occurred in units wherein the frame side rails are mitred and the corner brackets serve to hold such side rails in mutually abutting relationship. Sealing deficiencies also occur as between abutting faces of the frame components.

There is need for a panel frame of a construction which facilitates efficient sealing of a panel therein. The invention aims to meet this need.

According to the present invention there is provided a panel frame which comprises frame side rails and side-joining corner brackets which can be assembled around a panel and which has at least one groove for the reception of a panel margin, characterised in that the frame has at least one side-joining corner bracket having an orifice which is exposed when the said frame components are assembled and occupied by a panel or panels and which communicates with the or a said panel-receiving groove at the corresponding corner zone of the frame whereby a flowable sealant can be injected into such groove via said orifice.

When using a frame according to the invention the lengths of the or each panel-receiving groove which are defined by different frame components can be filled or partly filled with sealant before the panel insertion and frame assembly takes place. Following such assembly, sealant can be injected via the injection orifice(s). The sealant injected at any given corner can fill the panel-receiving groove(s) at that corner zone of the frame or make up for any deficiency of sealant which exists at such zone. The injected sealant can moreover have access via such groove(s) to joints between abutting faces of different frame components at that corner region of the frame, or cause sealant already in said groove to be displaced into such joints.Penetration of such intercomponent joints can of course be facilitated by use of a sealant having sufficiently low viscosity by virtue of its composition and/or temperature. The access of injected sealant to abutting frame component faces can also be facilitated by provision of appropriately located branch channels for the sealant as hereafter exemplified.

The invention includes a method of manufacturing a framed panel by using a panel frame as above defined and including the step of injecting sealant into one or more corner regions of the panel-receiving groove(s) via said injection orifice (s).

The frame can as known per se comprise four frame side rails and four side-joining corner brackets. When using such a frame it is preferable to assemble all of the side rails in situ on the panel(s) after charging the panelreceiving groove lengths in the different rails with sealant. As an alternative, half-frames of L-form can be pre-assembled and then assembled together around the panel(s). As a further alternative three side rails and two corner brackets can be pre-assembled to form an incomplete frame of U-form for completion after insertion of the panel(s) therein. However this method of assembly necessitates greater sliding movement of the panel(s) along the pre-assembled part of the frame. This sliding movement involves greater risk that sealant will be displaced along the groove(s) and leave parts of the panel periphery inadequately sealed.

It is however within the scope of the invention for the frame to comprise less or more than four frame side components and less or more than four corner brackets. As an example the frame may comprise two frame side components of L-form (each providing two integral side rails) and two corner brackets for joining such frame side components to form a rectangular frame; or one U-form frame side component (providing three integral rails) together with one straight rail component and two corner brackets for joining that straight component to the U.

The invention affords advantages even if each of two or more corner brackets does not have a said sealant injection orifice. For example, if frame side rails are preassembled by corner brackets to form two half-frames of Lform as above referred to, assembly conditions may make it easily possible to provide adequate sealant at the corner regions of the two half-frames, both in the panel-receiving groove(s) and between abutting frame compo nent faces, before insertion of the pa-nel(s), whereas the sealing of the other corners when assembling the two half-frames together in situ on the panel(s) by means of the two further corner brackets may present more difficulty, which may be avoided or reduced by providing such further corner brackets with injection orifices in accordance with the invention.

In preferred embodiments of the invention the corner brackets have limbs which are insertable into receptive channels in adjacent rails and these rails have mitred ends which abut at the frame corners when the rails and corner brackets are assembled. There may for example be four side rails and four corner brackets of generally L-form, which assemble to form a rectangular frame. When assembled, such mitred-rail frames present a very neat appearance. The corner brackets can be concealed from view from the front or from the front and the rear of the frame. However it is precisely in such mitred corner assemblies that efficient panel sealing has proved hitherto to be most difficult. This is probably because none of the corner zones of a panel can be fully enveloped by sealant in a frame side rail groove before that component is joined at that corner to an adjacent side rail component.By providing for injection of sealant into the corner regions after assembly of the frame, in accordance with the invention, such difficulty can be avoided or reduced.

The invention can be applied to panel frames for holding panels of various materials, e.g., glass, plastics or wood. The most important field of application of the invention is that of glazing frames. The efficient sealing of glass panes in frames assembled from prefabricated components without need for very skilled labour is a problem which has receive much attention in the building and other industries in recent years. The invention enables moisture-tight and even hermetic sealing to be achieved easily and reliably.

Efficient panel-to-frame sealing is particularly required in hollow glazing units comprising a frame in which panels of glass or other light-transmitting material are hermetically sealed in spaced relationship.

In the most preferred embodiments of the invention the frame defines spaced panelreceiving grooves for receiving the margins of different panels in spaced relationship. Such frames will hereafter be called double-glazing frames, but it is to be understood that there may be more than two spaced grooves for receiving more than two spaced panes.

Advantageously, a double-glazing frame according to the invention has at least one corner bracket wherein there is a injection orifice which leads into spaced panel-receiving grooves in that bracket at positions which are between those occupied by panels when these are in position in such grooves. By that means sealant can be supplied against inside faces of the spaced panes, at a given corner of the frame, via a single injection orifice.

Preferably at least one corner bracket of a said double-glazing frame according to the invention has limbs which are insertable endwise into two mitred-end side rails to be joined, and in the interior angle defined by such limbs there is a corner gusset portion having sealant passages which communicate with a said injection orifice and open into side faces of such gusset portion. When the frame is assembled around two panes and sealant is injected through the injection orifice(s), such sealant extrudes from the sealant passages in the side faces of the gusset portion(s). These gusset portions form the inner faces of the panel-receiving grooves at the frame corners.

Preferably the gusset portions make butt joints with the bottoms of the panel-receiving grooves in the frame side rails and such joints are accessible to sealant leaving the said sealant passages in the side faces of the gusset portions, whereby the sealant injection can seal such joints against ingress of air or mois ture from the outer peripheral faces of the frame.

Preferably the side faces of the gusset portions are shaped to provide channels extending from sealant passages to positions where exposed edge faces of the gusset portions meet the corner bracket limbs and at those positions the corner brackets have transverse grooves along which sealant can flow to form seals between the abutting #frame components at positions between the panel-receiving grooves of the frame.

In certain double-glazing frames according to the invention at least one frame side rail has a channel suitable for holding desiccant and the sealant injection orifice in a corner bracket is in communication with such channel so that desiccant can be introduced into the channel via said orifice. After introduction of such desiccant, sealant can be injected via said orifice using an injector which is insertable into an operative, injection, position in which it seals off communication between said orifice and the desiccant channel, while leaving the sealant discharge opening or opening of the injector in communication with the panel-receiving grooves.

The or each sealant injection orifice is preferably provided with a closure plug for sealing the orifice after sealant injection.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a transverse cross-section of a frame side rail; Figure 2 is a side e evation of part of such rail, showing the se i-on line (la-lb) on which the Fig. 1 cross-section is taken; Figure 3 is an end elevation of a corner bracket; Figure 4 is a side elevation of that bracket; Figure 5 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a corner portion of the assembled frame; different zones K and D being shown in different sections on lines V-K and V-D in Fig. 6; and Figure 6 is a combination of cross-sections showing different portions C and Y of the corner joint on lines Vl-C and VI-Y in Fig. 5.

Each of four frame side rails is cut with mitred ends from an extruded aluminium alloy section of the profile shown in Fig. 1. The profile includes two side walls 1 and 2 and an intervening spacer portion 3 which defines with such side walls two spaced grooves 4, 5 for receiving margins of two glazing sheets (not shown). The spacer portion 3 is joined to the side walls by transverse bridge portions 6, 7 forming the bottom walls of such grooves.

The side walls have inwardly directed flanges 8, 9 which are spaced below said bridge portions 6, 7. The space 10 below the spacer portions 3 receives one limb of a generally Lshaped corner bracket which will presently be described.

The side wall 1 has an outwardly directed angled flange 11 which can be used for securing the frame to a fixture.

The spaced grooves 4, 5 for receiving margins of the glazing sheets have inwardly directed ribs 13 adapted to locate the sheets within the grooves so that spaces are available between such ribs for holding sealant.

The spacer portion 3 has a cylindrical channel 12 for the reception of desiccant.

Each end of the frame side rail is mitred at 45". Fig. 2 shows one mitred end 14 which in the assembled frame abuts against a correspondingly mitred end of an adjacent frame side rail. The ends of the spacer portion 3 and adjacent portions of the bottom walls 6, 7 of the glass sheet-receiving grooves 4 and 5 are mitred in the opposite direction, also at 45 , as indicated by the broken line 15 in Fig. 2.

In the assembled frame, those reversely mitred faces abut against oblique faces of gusset portions of the corner brackets yet to be described.

Referring now to Figs. 3 and 4 showing one of the four identical corner brackets, the component is a onepiece metal component machined to the illustrated shape. The bracket is of generally L-form comprising two mutually perpendicular limbs 20,21 and a triangular gusset portion 22. On opposite sides of the gusset portion there are ledges 23,24 extending along the limbs 20, 21 and between the gusset portion and the free ends of the limbs the latter have central longitudinal ribs 25,26 which are slightly narrower than the gusset portion. The thickness of the gusset portion is the same as that of the spacer portion 3 of the frame side rails (ignoring the projecting ribs 13 thereon).The gusset portion 22 itself has local projections 27,28 at the level where the gusset portion is met by the tops of the spacer portions 3 of the adjacent frame side rails when the limbs of the corner bracket are fitted into them. A cylindrical bore 29 extends through the gusset portion 22 from its oblique face to the outer face of limb 20, and sealantpassages 30,31 are formed in the sides of the gusset portion so as to communicate with that bore. A plug 32 is screwed into the outer end of bore 29, i.e. its end opening into the outer face of limb 20. The opposed sides of the gusset portion have flat-bottomed channels 33,34 formed therein which extend to the opposed ends of the gusset portion from around the sealant passages 30, 31.

In order to couple the corner bracket to the frame side rail shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the limb 21 is inserted endwise into the space 10 of the rail. The limb is inserted so that its longitudinal side margins slide along the grooves between the inwardly directed flanges 8,9 and the bottom walls 6,7 of the panelreceiving grooves 4,5. During this insertion, the ledges 23,24 lying abreast of the gusset portion 22 pass between the portions of those bottom walls which are shown sectioned in Fig. 1. The insertion of the limb is limited by abutment of the oblique face of the gusset portion 22 against the face of the spacer portion 3 which is reversely mitred as represented by broken line 15 in Fig. 2. In this fitted position of the corner bracket, its cylindrical bore 29 is in alignment with and forms a continuation of the cylindrical channel 12 in the frame side rail.In this fully inserted position the free ends of the ledges 23,24 are slightly spaced from those portions of the bottom walls 6,7 of grooves 4, 5 with which they are aligned, i.e., the narrow unshaded portions in Fig. 1, thereby leaving gaps into which sealant can penetrate. At the corresponding end of the oblique face of the gusset portion 22 a small transverse gutter 35 extends across the longitudinal rib 25 of the limb 21. The purpose of those gaps and that gutter is to allow sealant exuding from the sealant passages 30,31 to form a seal between the side rail and the corner bracket at their abutting region between the two glassreceiving grooves 4,5.A gutter 36, similar to channel 35, is present at the other end of the oblique face of the gusset portion 22 to permit a similarly effective seal to be formed between the corner bracket and the adjacent frame side rail into which limb 20 of the corner bracket is fitted.

When the two rails and the corner bracket as assembled their mitred ends 14 mutually abut. The tops of the spacer portions 3 of the two rails abut against the oblique face of the gusset portion of the bracket at a central position where the small lateral projections 27,28 on the gusset portion are located and those projections co-operate with the upper ribs 13 on those spacer portions to form a barrier against the ingress of sealant into the air space between the two panes of glass.

When assembling a frame, the four corner brackets are so arranged that the cylindrical bore 29 of each of them is aligned with the cylindrical channel 12 of a different one of the four side rails. The grooves 4, 5 are charged with sealant before fitting the rails onto the margins of the glass sheets. After such assembly of the frame around the glass sheets, the side rails are positively connected to the corner bracket by small screws (not shown) which pass through the limbs 20, 21 of the bracket and bear against the bottom faces 37 of the spacer portions 3 of the side rails.

Once the frame has thus been secured, desiccant is inserted through the bore 29 in each corner bracket, its plug 32 being for this purpose removed. The desiccant introduced through each bore 29 is allowed substantially to fill the side rail channel 12 which is aligned with that bore. Then an injector is inserted into that bore preparatory to the injection of sealant for the purpose of ensuring correct sealing of the corner regions of the glass sheets and correct sealing of the transverse joints between the side rails and the corner brackets. The injector (not shown) has a nozzle with a blind end which when the injector has been inserted into the bore 29 closes off communication between that bore and the aligned desiccant channel 12. The injector nozzle has lateral sealant discharge orifices which register with the slots 30,31 in the sides of the gusset portion of the corner bracket. Sealant pumped through the injector nozzle exudes from the slots 30,31 and becomes distributed along channels 33, 34, over the whole corner zone of the glass sheets opposite the gusset portion 22, and into the transverse frame component joints between the grooves 4, 5 as above referred to. Sealant exuding from the slots 30,31 against the inner faces of the glass sheets has access around the peripheral edges of the sheets to their outside faces. Displacement of sealant from the insides to the outsides of the grooves 4, 5 at the corner zones is facilitated by gutters 38 (Fig. 4) in the corners of the corner brackets.

On cormpletion of the injection of sealant into each corner of the hollow glazing unit in that manner, the injector is withdrawn and the bore 29 is air tightly sealed by means of the plug 32.

Claims

1. A panel frame which comprises frame side rails and side-jointing corner brackets which can be assembled around a panel and which has at least one groove for the reception of a panel margin, characterised in that the frame has at least one side-jointing corner bracket having an orifice which is exposed when the said frame components are assembled and occupied by a panel or panels and which communicates with the or a said panelreceiving groove at the corresponding corner zone of the frame whereby a flowable sealant can be injected into such groove via said orifice.

2. A panel frame according to claim 1, characterised in that the corner brackets have limbs which are insertable into receptive channels in adjacent rails and these rails have mitred ends which abut at the frame corners when the rails and corner brackets are assembled.

3. A panel frame according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the frame defines spaced panel-receiving grooves for receiving the margins of different panels in spaced relationship.

4. A panel frame according to claim 3, characterised in that there is at least one corner bracket wherein there is an injection orifice which leads into spaced panel-receiving grooves in that bracket at positions which are between those occupied by panels when these are in position in such grooves.

5. A panel frame according to claim 4, characterised in that each corner bracket has limbs which are insertable endwise into two mitred-end side rails to be joined, and in that in the interior angle defined by such limbs there is a corner gusset portion having sealant passages which communicate with a said injection orifice and open into the side faces of such gusset portion.

6. A panel frame according to claim 5, characterised in that the gusset portions make butt joints with the bottoms of the panelreceiving grooves in the frame side rails and such joints are accessible to sealant leaving the said sealant passages in the side faces of the gusset portions.

7. A panel frame according to claim 5 or 6, characterised in that the side faces of the gusset portions are shaped to provide channels extending from sealant passage to positions where exposed edge faces of the gusset portions meet the corner bracket limbs and at those positions the corner brackets have transverse grooves along which sealant can flow to form seals between the abutting frame components at positions between the panel-receiving grooves of the frame.

8. A panel frame according to any of claims 3 to 7, characterised in that at least one frame side rail has a channel suitable for holding desiccant and the sealant injection orifice in a corner bracket is in communication with such channel so that desiccant can be introduced into the channel via said orifice.

9. A panel frame according to any preceding claim, characterised in that a closure plug is provided for sealir g the or each sealant injection orifice.

10. A panel frame according to any preceding claim, assembled around one or more panels of glass or other light-transmitting material.

11. A panel frame according to claim 1 and substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

12. A method of manufacturing panel frame, characterised in that a panel frame according to any preceding claim is used and in that after assembling said frame around the panel or panels, sealant is injected into one or more corner regions of the panel-receiving groove(s) via said injection orifice(s).