GB2202874A - Insulating panels with offset upper & lower faces - Google Patents

Abstract

A block of insulating material, such as expanded polystyrene has offset parallel rectangular faces and stepped sides. The block is sliced parallel to the faces to produce panels (1, 2), also with stepped or rebated sides (3). The panels can then be assembled edge-to-edge with overlaps. <IMAGE>

Description

Improvements Relating to Insulating Panels During recent years the mandatory requirement to insulate buildings to a certain standard has seen considerable growth in the use of a variety of insulation products. The most common is probably glass fibre. For wall cavity filling ureaformaldehyde foam has been used, and in the past few years expanded polystyrene beads. These insulating materials tend to be applied only to existing domestic buildings. More recently, however, for large houses and industrial buildings, expanded polystyrene sheet insulation has been fitted inside the cavity wall at the time of erection.

Today, therefore, in original building, the main insulation material used is a cut sheet of expanded polystyrene, usually measuring 1200 mm x 450 mm x 25 mm, installed in a standard cavity. This meets the established insulation standards. However, the use of such cut panels has resulted in many problems in damp penetration, and practical difficulties arise in installing the panel. A number of companies have therefore produced a moulded panel which has locating tongue and groove rebates which overcome the installation difficulties and minimise the problems of damp penetration. These panels have not replaced the single cut panel because the method of manufacture is too costly and some builders prefer to live with the problems rather than pay the increased costs.

It is an object of this invention to provide an insulating panel which will be effective in use, relatively simple to install and cheap to produce.

According to the present invention there is provided an insulating body comprising a block of insulating material with two similar parallel rectangular faces mutually offset in directions parallel to the sides of the rectangles, the sides between the faces being stepped.

Preferably, the steps will be of the same depth (the front to back dimension) around the body. They may also be of uniform height, but alternatively the first and last steps could be half the height of the intermediate steps, for reasons to be explained. Conveniently, the material will'be expanded polystyrene.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a mould for producing such a body, the mould cavity being the inverse of the slope of the block.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of manufacturing insulating panels comprising forming a body as defined above, and slicing panels therefrom parallel to said faces, each said panel incorporating at least one step.

The or each slice may be coincident with a step in said body (when those steps are of uniform height) or mid-way between intermediate steps in said body (when the first and last steps are half the height of the intermediate ones). This will produce uniform, matching panels.

According to a yet further aspect of the present invention there is provided an insulating panel produced by the method defined above.

Nhen a number of such panels are assembled together in the same place, for example to line a cavity, the steps provide rebates which overlap.

The invention may be performed in various ways and preferred embodiments thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an insulating panel, Figure 2 is a plan view of a body from which multiple insulating panels can be obtained, Figure 3 is a side view of the body of Figure 2, and Figure 4 is a side view of an alternative body from which multiple insulating panels can be obtained.

The insulating panel shown in Figure 1 is an integral body of expanded polystyrene. It can be regarded as two face-to-face rectangular sheets 1 and 2 offset from one another in two mutually perpendicular directions in the interface plane to form rebates 3 along all four sides of the panel. A series of such panels can be applied to a wall surface and overlap by means of the rebates 3.

The panel shown in Figure 1 is initially formed, together with three others of identical shape, in a single mould, as part of an integral body of the shape illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. This has two similar parallel rectangular faces mutually offset in directions parallel to the sides of the rectangles. The sides between these faces are uniformly stepped, so that each embryo panel is staggered with respect to the adjacent one or ones in a similar manner to the way in which the rebating is formed, and in the same directions. When this body is removed fron the mould, the individual panels can be divided off by placing the body in a jig and slicing it up into four individual panels by hot wire cutting, each slice being coincident with a step.

A more compact mould may be constructed if the multiple panel body is formed in the manner shown in Figure 4, where the two adjacent sheets of each adjacent pair of panels have their boundaries coincident. Thus the first and last steps of the block are half the height of the intermediate steps. The body will then be sliced through the centre of each of the thicker sections, as indicated by the broken lines 4.

The forming of the insulating panels as multiples in a single mould is much more cost effective than moulding each panel individually. There is substantial time saving and the heating costs for forming a multiple panel from expanded polystyrene are not much greater than the cost of forming a single panel by the same technique. Furthermore, the multiple panel is handled more easily than a single, rather thin panel. In particular, ejection from the mould is easier. For single panel ejection a longer cooling time in the mould or an increase in the number of ejection rams would be required.

The final insulating panel, of the form as illustrated in Figure 1, also has an advantage over previous panels having tongue and groove rebates in their edges. The present panels can be located adjacent to one another relatively easily, and should cement or other material collect on any rebate 3, it can readily be removed prior to the application of a further panel.

Whilst the multiple panel bodies shown in the drawings produce four individual panels of identical shape, it will be appreciated that such bodies could be constructed to comprise more or less panels, as desired.

Furthermore, it would be possible for a multiple panel body to be cut, say at every third or fourth step, to form panels of greater thickness and with more complicated, though still overlapping, rebates.

Claims (14)

1. An insulating body comprising a block of insulating material with two similar parallel rectangular faces mutually offset in directions parallel to the sides of the rectangles, the sides between the faces being stepped.

2. A body as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the steps are of the same depth around the body.

3. A body as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein the steps are of uniform height.

4. A body as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein the first and last steps are half the height of the intermediate steps.

5. A body as claimed in any precediny claim, wherein the material is expanded polystyrene.

6. A body substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 2 and 3 or Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.

7. A mould for producing a body as claimed in any preceding claim, the mould cavity being the inverse of the shape of the block.

8. A method of manufacturing insulating panels comprising forming a body as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 and slicing panels therefrom parallel to said faces, each said panel incorporating at least one step.

9. A method as claimed in Claim 8 as appendant to Claim 3, wherein the or each slice is coincident with a step in said body.

10. A method as claimed in Claim 8 as appendant to Claim 4, wherein the or each slice is mid-way between intermediate steps in said body.

11. A method as claimed in Claim 8,9 or 10, wherein the block is produced in a mould as claimed in Claim 7.

12. A method of manufacturing insulating panels substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

13. An insulating panel produced by the method as claimed in any one of claims 8 to 12.

14. An insulating panel substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.