GB2167464A

GB2167464A - A retaining element for self- supporting building members such as roof and wall facings

Info

Publication number: GB2167464A
Application number: GB08525358A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Horst Gehlhaar
Original assignee: Kaiser Aluminium Europe Inc
Current assignee: Kaiser Aluminium Europe Inc
Priority date: 1984-11-20
Filing date: 1985-10-15
Publication date: 1986-05-29
Also published as: DE3442398C2; NL187496C; NL8502854A; GB8525358D0; NL187496B; DE3442398A1; GB2167464B

Abstract

The mounting of self-supporting building members such as roof members of substantially U-shaped cross-section, is facilitated with a retaining element therefor and permanent securing thereof is improved by the head portion 6 of the retaining element having triangle-like section substantially symmetrical relative to the centre axis of the connecting web 5, of which section only the uppermost tip 8 and only the two laterally farthest-projecting lateral tips 9 and 10 are used to support the inner surface of at least the inwardly disposed tubular joining edge, whereas the remaining outer surfaces of the section in the final retaining position or mounted position of the building members have no supporting function. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A retaining element for self-supporting building members such as roof and wall facings or the like, and end cap therefor The invention is directed to a retaining element for seif-supporting building members having approximately U-shaped cross-section, of the kind specified in the preamble of claim 1.

Such retaining elements have already been known (Kaiser Aluminium: ZIP-RIB ROOFING AND SIDING SYSTEM, 1969). Such a retaining element has the function of anchoring building members, which for example are made of long aluminium strips of substantially U-section so as to be substantially self-supporting, to support members such as iron girders, roof beams or the like in order to prevent lifting of the building members from the support member. If such self-supporting building members are joined to one another in particular along their tubular joining edges to form largesurface roof sections, wall sections and the like, such retaining elements which are inserted intermediate adjacent building members along the legs and joining edges thereof provide for good anchoring to the support members.It has been found, however, that such large-surface outer wall facings-- or interiorfacings such as suspended ceilings-- require a considerable freedom of movement relative to the support members so as to be able to accommodate and compensate for different types of expansion caused by heating or cooling or heavy roof loads due to snow masses or large wind forces. Since the known retaining elements are securely clamped between adjacent and mutually joined building members, to which the retaining elements are joined via the support members, any fasteners such as screws or bolts by means of which the retaining elements are joined to the support members are subjected to excessive stresses so that they shear off and do no longer perform satisfactorily.

To eliminate this drawback it has also been known to design the foot portion of the retaining element relative to the support member so as to be movable and to insert for example between the support member and the foot portion a kind of mounting track so that the foot portion is longitudinally movable therebetween. Of course, this results in additional expenditure quite apart from the fact that support members such as, for example, T-beams or U-beams frequently do not have a seating surface of sufficient width to ensure such longitudinal movability.

To eliminate this drawback, a retaining element has already been proposed which is configured as a sectioned element and whose unsymmetrical head portion is disposed inside the tubular joining edge such that it substantially fills the cavity defined by said tubular joining edge. Because of the capillary depression in the inwardly disposed tubular joining edge the head portion of this proposed retaining element is unsymmetrical. It has been found, however, that this retaining element also does not yet satisfy all requirements in respect of a balance of forces following assembly and also in respect of simple mounting of the self-supporting building members.

The invention is based on the object of improving the retaining element of the above-specified kind so that it will permit easy assembly of self-supporting building members even by unskilled workers and will absorb or transmit the forces occurring after assembly without any problems so that the retaining function of the retaining element for such building members will not be impaired.

The invention is characterized in patent claim 1, and further embodiments thereof are claimed in subclaims.

The head portion of the retaining element has approximately triangular section which is substantially symmetrical to the central axis of the connecting web. This symmetry facilitates assembly due to the fact that the retaining function of the retaining element will always be obtained irrespective of the side from which, or of the tubular joining edge with which, the building member or members to be retained are secured to the head portion. Thereby previous difficulties are avoided, which occur when in the case of the previously proposed unsymmetrical head portion of the retaining element the tubular joining edge of a building member, which should be anchored thereat, is placed thereon from the wrong side and upon fitting or slipping over is stretched beyond the apparent limit of elasticity so that it will not spring back to the desired position.

Moreover, the section of the head portion is configured such that only the uppermost tip thereof, which may be rounded, and only the two laterally farthest-projecting lateral tips, which may likewise be rounded, are used to support the inner surface of at least the inwardly disposed tubular joining edge of the respective building member, while the remaining outer surfaces of the section also in the region of the capillary depression have no supporting function in the final assembled or retaining position of the building member. Thereby the surfacas for supporting the tubular joining edges are reduced, whereby the frictional forces are decreased and the longitudinal movability is improved, and also defined seating surfaces are provided in each case, so that the capillary depression does not engage the head portion.

Rather, the spring-like function of the tubular joining edges can be fully utilized during and after assembly, because as viewed in cross-section, only defined points of the section are practically used for supporting purposes. The use of a triangle-like section provides for optimum wide distribution of these points of application of force.

Preferred embodiments and further improvements of the invention will be described below with reference to the drawing, in which: Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate prior-art retaining elements and the mounting thereof with self-supporting building members in an inclined view (Fig. 1) and a schematic cross-section (Fig. 2), respectively; Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view thorugh a retaining element according to the invention cooperating with adjacent building members; Fig. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the application of forces on the head portion of the retaining element after assembly; Figs. 5 and 6 are cross-sectional views illustrating possible applications of the retaining element for securing not only a self-supporting building member but also an end cap in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention;; Fig. 7 is a further configuration of such an end cap; and Fig. 8 is a special embodiment of the foot portion of a retaining element.

Fig. 1 illustrates the way in which the retaining element 1, which is bent from sheet metal, is bolted with its foot portion to the leg of a U-beam used as support member 2, while the head portion of the retaining element 1 overlaps a tubular joining edge of a self-supporting building member 3. Over this tubular joining edge of the one building member 3, which is clamped by the head portion of the retaining element 1, another tubular joining edge of the adjacent building member 3' has been fitted such that in the final position the retaining element 1 is pinched with respect two its head portion and connecting web between the mutually contiguous legs and joining edges of the building members 3, 3'. It is only for purposes of illustration of the retaining element 1 that a portion of the respective building member 3' is broken away in Fig. 1.

According to Fig. 2 the retaining member 1 of the prior art, which is likewise bent from sheet metal, is screwed by means of a fastener 4 such as a screw onto the support member 2, which in the present case is a timber beam, so that the connecting web 5 of the retaining element 1 projects upwardly and terminates in the head portion 6, which is likewise bent to tubular shape. At the other end of the connecting web 5 the foot portion 7 has been formed by bending. One side of the retaining element 1 is engaged by an aluminium building member 3, and the other side of the retaining element 1 is engaged by a corresponding building member 3'. The connection between the substantially parallel legs 3a, 3a' of these building members 3, 3' is effected at the locations of the head portion 6 of the retaining element 1 and of the tubular joining edges 3b and 3b'.

As shown in Fig. 3, the head portion 6 of the retaining element 1 according to the invention is symmetrical relative to the central axis ME of the connecting web 5. The sectioned head portion 6 has approximately triangular cross-section with a rounded uppertip 8 and two lateral tips 9 and 10 which, as it were, form the corner points of the triangle. Thereat, the tubular joining edge 3b of the building member 3 is also supported in such a way that the capillary depression 11 does not engage the head portion 6 but there is a spacing 12 between the capillary depression 11 and the connecting surface 13 intermediate the uppermost tip 8 and the left (as viewed in the drawing) lateral tip 10.The contact faces formed by the tips 8, 9, 10 - or better, the contact points as viewed in cross-section -- impair the longitudinal movability of the building members 3, 3' only to a minimum extent and also readily permit a kind of rotary movement of the tubular joining edges 3b, 3b' or corresponding spring-like snap-action movements during assembly.

In the present embodiment the foot portion 7 of the retaining element 1 is disposed in nonsymmetrical relationship to the central axis ME; the foot portion 7 is provided in the region of a concave recess 14 at the underside thereof with an opening through which a fastener such as a screw or bolt may be inserted forjoining the foot portion 7 or the retaining element 1, respectively, to the support member 2, which is merely shown schematically. In any case the recess 14 in the vicinity of the opening 15 ensures that the foot portion 7 securely rests on the support member 2 at locations which are remote from the recess 14, such that the fastener, which is not illustrated, is substantially relieved from dynamic stresses upon the occurrence of forces such as high wind pressures.

Fig. 4 illustrates schematically in what way for instance vertically acting forces P,, such as pressure caused by snow loads, are absorbed by the uppermost tip 8 of the head portion 6 of the retaining element, while the lateral tips 9 and 10 absorb laterally acting forces, for instance the right force Pr or the leftforce Pl, respectively, which are predominantly caused by wind suction.

As illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, the retaining element 1 may have connecting webs 5, 5' of different lengths so as to support, for instance, different building members 3 and 3" having legs 3a and 3a" of different lengths. Provided each such building member 3, 3" constitutes the end of a row of such self-supporting building members or of such a roof facing or wall facing, an end cap 15 is employed to coverthe head portions 6, 6" and the corresponding tubular joining edges 3b and 3b", respectively. One and the same end cap may be used for such different retaining elements 1, 1", whereby the manufacture and stock-keeping of end caps of different lengths is unnecessary. Provision should merely be made that the lower ends of the end cap 15, which are in engagement at the central web 5 and 5", respectively, are secured for example in the region of the dash-dot line L.Of course, in this embodiment as well as in the embodiment shown in Fig. 7 the head portions 6, 6" with their tips 8, 9, 10 serve the purposes of supporting the tubular joining edge 3b, 3b". This arrangement has not been shown in said figures for schematic reasons only.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 7, the end cap 15 differs somewhat from that of Figs. 5/6; it includes a foot portion 16 which together with the fastener 17, which is merely indicated by a dash-dot line, is secured to the support member 2 with the foot portion 7 of the retaining element 1. Fig. 7 illustrates schematically that the head portion 6 of the retaining element 1 is provided with a notch 18 in the area of the transition from the rounded upper tip 8 to the lateral tips 9, 10 leading to the faces 13, said notch facilitating assembly of the tubular joining edges 3b.

As shown in Fig. 8, the foot portion 7 of the retaining element 1 is provided at the lateral edges thereof with groove-like notches 19 engaged by strip-like projections 20 of a mounting member 21 which is conveniently made of thermally insulating plastics material so as to ensure a higher heat transmission resistance between the foot portion 7 of the retaining element 1 and the support member when the retaining element 1 is secured to the support member 2 by means of the fastener 17. In this connection it is convenient that the lower surface of the foot portion 7 does not fully rest on the engaging surface of the mounting member 21, which may be achieved by channel-like recesses 22.

The end cap 15, which is shown in cross-section in Figs. 5 to 7 but which extends along the retaining element 1 and at least along a portion of the building member 3, 3", also claims independent protection. With a box-like or channel-like head portion 36 it overlaps the outside of the respective joining edge 3b, 3b" and in particular rests thereon and covers the major part of the overall height of the retaining element 1 towards the side where no building member 3, 3" is mounted. Conveniently, the end cap intimately engages the connecting web 5 for some distance; to this end the section 37 is provided, which projects substantially at right angles from the head portion 36.

Claims

1. A retaining element for self-supporting building members of approximately U-shaped cross-section, in which the side edges of a strip are bent by approximately 90" to form substantially parallel legs of the U-section relative to the remaining strip portion which forms the web of the U-section, and the free ends of said legs are bent to form tubular joining edges having curved cross-section and are supported by a head portion of the retaining element, said head portion being joined by means of a connecting web to a foot portion secured to a support member, wherein the head portion has a triangle-like profile which is substantially in symmetry with the central axis of the connecting web, of which profile only the uppermost tip and only the farthest-projecting lateral tips are used to support the inner surface of at least the inwardly disposed tubular joining edge while the remaining external surfaces of the section in the final supporting or mounted position of the building men ,brs Va ,use no supporting lunatic

2. A retaining element as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the tips of the sectioned head portion have rounded cross-section.

3. A retaining element as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that the transitions from the rounded uppermost tip of the head portion to the transition surfaces which extend towards the lateral tips respectively include a rounded notch.

4. A retaining element as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the foot portion is provided with at least one opening and/or recess for accommodating a fastener on the support member.

5. A retaining element as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the recesss is adapted to have a projection of the fastener inserted or pushed thereinto.

6. A retaining element as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bottom or engaging surfgace of the foot portion facing towards the support member is provided with a recess.

7. A retaining element as claimed in claim 6, characterized in that the recess is disposed in the vicinity of the opening.

8. A retaining element as claimed in claim 6 or claim 7, characterized in that the recess is of concave configuration.

9. A retaining element as claimed in claim 6 or claim 7, characterized in that the recess is of channel-like configuration.

10. A retaining element as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the connecting web is provided with a recess or an opening for accommodating a fastener for an end cap.

11. An end cap for retaining elements, particularly as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that a head portion overlaps the outside of the joining edge in the position resting on the head portion of the retaining element and extends right to a section which is used for engagement with the connecting web of the retaining element.

12. A retaining element for self-supporting building members substantially as herein described, with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.