GB2514080A

GB2514080A - Expandable seal

Info

Publication number: GB2514080A
Application number: GB1301059.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Richard Luxton; Charlie Luxton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2013-01-18
Filing date: 2013-01-18
Publication date: 2014-11-19
Anticipated expiration: 2033-01-18
Also published as: GB201301059D0; GB2514080B

Abstract

An inflatable seal 11 defines a chamber 14 that is filled with fluid 19. The chamber is connected to a cylinder 12 with a piston 161, that compresses the fluid in reservoir 17 and consequently chamber 14 via biasing means. The biasing means can be a pressurized compartment 18, such as a gas compartment, which may apply force to the piston head 16 by a valve 110, where the piston head 16 is sealed against the edges of the cylinder 12 with for example, an O-ring seal 150. The inflatable seal may also have a protrusion 32, 32, which may be a different material to the seal and may be stiffer than the seal. The protrusion attaches the seal to an item, such as double glazing panels 34. A method of sealing is also provided.

Description

Expandable seal The present invention relates to sealing apparatus and particularly, but not exclusively, to the sealing of items, such as windows and doors.

Early systems for locating glazing within a frame used solid packers to wedge the glazing in place. These packers often applied a force on a localised area of the edge of the glazing and required hammering to ensure* a tight fit, both of which were prone to damaging the delicate glazing. As a solution, inflatable seals were devised. Such seals enable the user to securely locate a glazing unit in an aperture. The seal can be easily deflated if the glazing -requires removal. Early system used pressurised air to inflate the spal. However, over irne, air can migrate through the seal material and deflate the seal, which in the worst cases, can result in the glazing urkit no longer being secured within the frame. Use of heavy gases with larger molecules such as sulphur hexafluoride can reduce the tendency of gas leak through the seal. However, these gases are often environmentally damaging and thus illegal to use.

Newer designs of expanding seals have used liquid to inflate the seal and utilise a valve to allow retention or release of the seal liquid. This presents challenges in handling the liquid effectively and avoiding spillages during installation or removal, which often takes place inside homes and offices. Liquids are incompressible and as such, thermal expansion and contraction in the seal result in the seal shrinking and becoming ineffective at low temperatures. -Expanding solid foams can be used for as a glazing seal but this results in a substantially more permanent installation.

More speifically, disclosed in GB 2129038 A is an expandable seal for glazing which is filled with a fluid via a valve. The seal is inflated after positioning of the glazing so as to secure the glazing within a frame. The seal is designed to be filled with air, and as such* can leak over time and allow the glazing to become unsecured within its frame. Also, if * :2.

the ambient temperature decreases, then the seal fluid may contract, reduce the volume of the seal and allow the glazing to become unsecured.

Prior art document US 4722151 discloses an airtight spal and lock for a door assembly.

The seal is inflated using pressurised air from an external source.

Prior art document GB 260115 A discloses an anti-rattling device for doors and windows, in which an expandable seal is inflated to secure a window in moving vehicles to stop rattling noise. Disclosed in a particular embodiment is a device which uses an enlargement or bulb which can be compressed by a lever means to force a fluid into an

inflatable seal.

Prior art document CA 1147602 discloses a sealing system for windows and doors which includes an inflatable seal which is filled with liquid from n external reservoir using a pump system. This system requires a pump to be operated to increase the pressure in the seal, or a valve to be opened to dcrease the pressure.

A first aspect of the present invention provides a sealing apparatus comprising a resiliently deformáble seal defining a chamber for receiving a fluid for expanding said seal; a reservoir having a chamber for holding a fluid for expanding said seal, the chamber of the reservoir being in fluid communication with the chamber of said seal; wherein the reservoir comprises a member moveable froth a first position to a second position so as to thereby reduce the volume of said chamber of the reservoir and wherein said moveable member is biased to move from the first position to the second position thereby applying a pressure to said fluid held in the chamber of the reservoir.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a sealing method using sealing apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a seal expanding fluid in a chamber defined by a resiliently deformable seal; receiving said seal expanding fluid in a chamber. of a reservoir; fluidly communicating the chamber of said reservoir with the chamber defined by said resiliently deformable seal; and providing a moveable member of said reservoir with a bias so as to move said member from a first position to a second

H

position and thereby reduce the volume of the chamber of said reservoir and apply a pressure to said fluid held in the chamber of the reservoir.

A sealing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a seal chamber which is supplied with fluid from a pressurised source of fluid held in the chamber of a reservoir. The fluid source is pressurised by the biased moveable member.

In this way, the effects f thermal expansion or contraction of fluid in the seal chamber which may result from a change in atmospheric conditions (for example, outside temperature and pressure) are compensated for by movement of the moveable member.

For example, if outside temperature reduces and causes the fluid with the seal chamberto contract (and a resultant tendency for the volume of the seal chamber to reduce), then the bias of the moveable member tends to press additional fluid from the reservoir chamber into the seal chamber, thereby passively or automatically (i.e. without human intervention) compensating for the fluid contraction. The fluid for expanding said seal is ideally a liquid. -Further features of the present invention are provided as recited in the appended dependent claims.

In the arrangement of prior art document US 4722151, no reservoir is provided to allow a passive compensating effect within the seal. In the arrangement of prior art document GB 260115 A, the bulb is not disclosed as being of an elastic material and does not provide a biasing effect to compensate for expansion and contraction of the seal inflating fluid. In the arrangement of prior art document CA 1147602, a pump is operated to increase the pressure in the seal. However, there is no biasing of a member to move to a position in which a reservoir volume is reduced, and as such there is no passive compensation. The first aspect of the present invention therefore provides the advantage over the prior art of passively compensating for changes in the fluid of the seal.

Described herein is a sealing apparatus which can be expanded using a pressurised seal fluid to seal glazing or another item within an aperture and can compensate for the thermal expansion and contraction of the seal fluid which might occur during use because * .,* H of, for example, a change in ambient atmospheric conditions such temperature and pressure. The sealing apparatus may be located at the periphery of onç or more glazing panes and engage with the surfaces of the aperture in which the glazing panes are located.

Compensation of the volume changes of the seal fluid in the expandable seal is achieved using a pressuriseci reservoir of seal fluid.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic cross-sectional partial view of a first embodiment of the present invention; * Figure 2 is a schematic cross-sectional partial view of a seal of the first embodiment located adjacent a glazing unit; and Figure 3 is a schematic cross-sectional partial view of a seal of a second embodiment located adjacent a glazing unit.

A first embodiment of the present invention is show in Figure 1 of the accompanying :drawings. Figure 1 shows a sealing apparatus 10 having a deformable seal 11 and a reservoir 12 connected thereto. The seal 11 is an elongate expandable tube having a circular cross-section (see Figures 2 and 3), and is shown in Figure 1 located ilong the perimeter of an Insulated Glazing Unit (IGU) 15 to provide a glazing assembly 100. In use, the seal 11 is located about the perimeter of a glazing unit 15 and positioned, with the unit 15, in an aperture (not shown) for receiving the glazing unit 15. The seal 11 is inflated or expanded so as to secure the unit 15 in the aperture. The seal 11 also forms a seal between the unit 15 and the aperture. This seal may be a full seal (thereby substantially preventing the passage of fluid therepast) * or a partial seal (thereby preventing the passage of fluid therepast in some areas along said perimeter but allowing the passage of fluid in other areas).

The apparatus 10 may be alternatively used with an item other than a glazing unit 15. For example, the seat 11 may be located along the perimeter of a door.

The expandable seal 1 F is substantially hollow and closed. The expandable seal 11 is constructed from a material which expands elastically and is substantially resistant to damage, in other words it is of an elastically and resiliently deformable material.

The hollow seal 11 defines a chamber 14 for feceiving a seal fluid 19 which inflates the seal 11. In an alternative embodiment, the seal 11 defines the chamber 14 together with one or more other surfaces, for example the surface of a channel with which the seal 11 locates and sealingly abuts. The chamber 14 of the seal 11 is in fluid communication with a chamber 17 of a closed reservoir 12.

The closed reservoir is provided as a cylinder 12 and is located adjacent an edge of the IGU 15. The reservoir cylinder 12 is fluidly coupled to the ekpandable seal chamber 14 via a fluid adaptor 13. A piston head 16 is located as a member moveable within the reservoir cylinder 12 and separates the reservoir cylinder 12 into two zones -a seal fluId chamber 17 on a first side 162 of the piston head 16, and a pressurising compartment 18 on a second opposite side 161 of the piston head 16. The piston head 16 allows no fluid communication between the two zones 17,18 and is moveable by sliding longitudinally along the reservoir cylinder 12 whilst maintaining the sealed separation of the two zones 17,18 by means of at least one 0-ring seal 150 located between the piston head 16 and the* cylinder 12.

The seal fluid chamber 17 of the reservoir contains a volume of a seal fluid and is in fluid communication with the seal chamber 14 via the fluid adaptor 13. The seal fluid 19 can pass from the fluid chamber 17 to the expandable seal 11 via the fluid adaptor 13. The fluid adaptor 13 is ideally made of a material which does not allow the adaptor 13 to expand during use.

When the piston head 16 is moved from a first position within the reservoir cylinder 12 towards the fluid adaptor 1.3, the volume of the fluid chamber 17 decreases and seal fluid S. . . . 6 19 is forced out of the fluid chamber 17 into the seal chamber 14 via the fluid adaptor 13.

Conversely, when seal fluid 19 flows into the fluid chamber 17 from the seal chamber 14, the piston head 16 is moved within the reservoir cylinder 12 away from the fluid adaptor 13 and the volume of the fluid chamber 17 increases.

A valve 110 is located at the opposite end of the reservoir cylinder 12 to the fluid adaptor 13. The valve 110 allows for air (or some other gas) to be selectively introduced into, retained in, and/or released from the pressurising compartment 18. The valve 110 is adapted to receive a pump (such as an air pump) in order that (air) pressure in the compartment 18 can be raised and maintained above ambient air pressure. It is to be understood that a manual or automated pump may be used to achieve the desired pressure.

The air pressure in the pressurising éompartment 18 is raised to an appropriate leieI such that the piston head 1 is forced within the reservoir cylinder 12 towards the fluid adaptor 13. As a result of the continuous presence of increased air pressure in the pressurising compartment 18, a force is continuously applied to the pressurising compartment side 161 of the piston head 16. As such, the piston head 16 is biased to move towards the end of the reservoir cylinder provided with the adaptor 13. The piston head 16 will indeed move and reduce the volume of the reservoir chamber 17 in the absence of a sufficient opposing force on the fluid chamber side 162 of the piston head 16. A pressure is thereby applied to the fluid chamber 17 and the fluid 19 contained therein. As a result, seal fluid 19 is forced into the seal bhamber 14, and the seal 11 expands elastically to engage with the surfaces of an aperture (not shown) in which the glazing unit 10 and sealapparatus 10 is located.

In alternative embodiments, the bias of the piston head 16 to move so as to reduce the size of the fluid chamber 17 could be generated by any different means, which provides a continuous force, e.g. a mechanical spring, or a hydraulic system.

On the insertion of the glazing unit 15 into an appropriate aperture (not shown), the seal chamber 14 contains a substantially reduced volume of seal fluid 19, because the fluid S. 7.

chamber 17 is increased in volume by appropriate sliding movement of the piston head 16 so that seal fluid 19 in the seal chamber 14 is drawn into the fluid chamber 17. Once the glazing unit 15 is appropriately located within the aperture, the pressure in the compartment 18 is increased by pumping air into the compartment 18 through the valve 110. Consequently, the piston head 16 is forced towards the fluid adaptor 13, the volumeS of fluid chamber 17 is reduced and seal fluid 19 is forced into the seal chamber 14. The seal 11 expands at least radially to accommodate the increased volume of seal fluid and thereby engages with surfaces of the aperture to secure the glazing unit 15 in place. The apparatus, only requires the introduction of air at the installation stage and all seal expanding fluid is sealingly contained within the apparatus. As such, there is a reduced risk of contaminating the local working environment with the seal expanding fluid.

In the event of thermal contraction of the seal fluid 19 (perhaps due to a drop in outside temperature for example), the pressure on the fluid chamber side 162 of the piston head 16 decreases. In order to equalise the pressure either side of the piston head 16, the piston head 16 automatically moves to increase'the volume -and therefore decrease the pressure -of the pressurising compartment 18. By definition, the size of the fluid chamber 17 decreases and as such a greater mass of seal fluid 19 is forced into the seal chamber 14.

Therefore, despite a reduction in the total volume of seal fluid 19 (i.e. the volume of seal fluid 19 in both the seal 11 and the reservoir chamber 17), the expandable seal 11 is maintained at a substantial constant volume such that the sealing and supporting fUnctions of the apparatus 10 in relation to the glazing 15 in the aperture are uncompromised.

Figure 2 shows a cross-section view of the glazing assembly 100 which has the expandable seal 11 secured along the perimeter of a glazing unit 15. It can be seen from Figure 2 that the seal 11 comprises a chamber 14 which has a circular cross-section and extends along the length of the seal 11. The end of the seal 11 distal to the adaptor 13 is closed. The chamber 14 is defined by a tube 31 of elastic resiliently deformable material.

It can be further seen that the seal 11 has a locator rail 32 provided exteriorly of the chamber 14. The locator rail 32 has a substantially rectangular shape in cross-section, protrudes radially from the tube 31, and extends along the length of the tube 31. * . 8

The glazing unit 15 has at least one element which functions as a conventional spacer 33 (spacing/separating the two glazing panels/panes 34 of a double glazing unit) and is positioned so as to be offset by a distance x from the edge of the glazing panes 34. The locator rail 32 protrudes from the tube 3 1 by a distance ofx or less, and is located in the channel formed by the glazing panes 34 and the offset spacer 33 so as to provide the glazing assembly 100. The rail 32 can be secured in this channel by an adhesive or other substantially permanent securing means. Alternatively, the locator rail 32 can be secured in this channel by surface friction alone, in which case, the seal 30 can be replaced, for example during maintenance work, without requiring replacement of the entire glazing assembly 100. The rail 32 may or may not be constructed froth the same material as the seal 31. Rail 32 may or maynot be constructed with a seamless connectionto seal 31.

Ideally, th tube 31 and rail 32 are integral with one another and therefore of the same material.

The protrusion of the rail 32 by a distance of x or less ensures that the spacer 33 does not preveth the tube 31 of the seal 11 from abutting the perimeter edge of the glazing pthes 34, as shown in the accompanying drawings.

Figure 3 shows a cross-section view of a different glazing assembly 200 which has the* expandable seal 11' secured between two glazing panes 23. In this glazing assembly 200, a sepathte spacer and rail is not provided, but rather the rail 32' of the seal 11' is used as* a spacer. In this case, the rail 32' is formed as a separate component to the tube 31'. This allows the rail 32' to be made of a material suitable to perform is spacing thnction. For e*ample, the rail 32' may be made from a plastics material which resists being deformed.

The rail 32' is attached to the tube 31' with an adhesive so as to protrude radially from the tube 31' along the length of the expandable seal 11'.

The rail 32' is located between the glazing panes 23 and provides the same function as a conventional spacer in a double glazing insulated glazing unit. The rail 32' is attached to the tube 31'* such that the tube 31' locates about the periphery of, and in the plane of the glazing panes 23.

The present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described herein.

Alternative arrangements and suitable materials will be apparent to a reader skilled in the art. For example, the reservoir may comprise a bladder bag member, the material of which is elastic and resiliently deformable providing a bias of the bladder bag towards a contracted position. In addition, it is stated above that the end of the seal 11 distal to the adaptor 13 is closed. In an alternative embodiment, this end may be provided with a valve (not shown in the accompanying drawings) which may be used to allow the injection of expanding fluid into the seal chamber. In this way, expanding fluid may be introduced into a dry seal and also used to fill the reservoir chamber to the extent require.

This step may be performed once the seal and item to be sealed/supjort in an aperture have been located in said aperture. A bleed valve may be provided at the end of the seal chamber opposite said closed end, or at the reservoir in fluid communication with the reservoir chamber. --

Claims

CLAIMS -1. A sealing apparatus comprising: a resiliently deformable seal defining a chamber for receiving a fluid for expanding said seal; a reservoir having a chamber for holding a fluid for expanding said seal, the chamber of the reservoir being in fluid communication with the chamber of said seal; wherein the reservoir comprises a member moveable from a first position to a second position so as to thereby reduce the volume of said bhamber of the reservoir and wherein said moveable member is biased to move from the first position to the second position thereby applying a pressure to said fluid held in the, chamber of the reservoir.
2. A sealing apparatus as ctaimed in claim 1, further comprising a biasing means separate from said moveable member and which applies a force to said moveable member. -
3. A sealing apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said biasing means domprises a gas compartment which is in part defined by said moveable member.
4. A sealing apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said biasing means comprises a valve for allowing gas to be injected into thç gas compartment and thereby pressurise said compartment.
5. A sealing apparatus as claimed in claim 3 or 4, wherein the moveable member is a piston head slideable in the gas compartment.
6. A sealing apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the moveable member is sealingly engages the sides of the gas compartment so as to substantIal prcvent a flow of gas therepast.
7. A sealing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said seal comprises means for attaching said seal to an item.
8. A sealing apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein said means for attaching said seal to an item Comprises an element for spacing adjacent panels of said item,
9. A sealing apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein said element is of a different material to the remainder of the seal and is secured to said remainder. * n10. A sealing apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said material of said element is stiffer than the material of the remainder of the seal.11. A glazing assembly comprising a sealing apparatus as claimed in any of the preceding claims.12. A sealing method using sealing apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a seal expanding fluid in a chamber defined by a resiliently deformable seal; receiving said seal expanding fluid in a chamber of a reservoir; fluidly communicating the chamber of said reservoir with the chamber defined -by said resiliently deformable seal; and providing a moveable member of said reservoir with a bjas so as to move said member from a first position to a second position and thereby reduce the volume of the ôhamber of said reservoir and apply a pressure to said fluid held in the chamber of the reservoir.13. A sealing method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising the stepof: locating said resiliently deformable seal between an item to be sealed and an aperture in which said item is to be secured.14. A sealing method as claimed iii claim 13, wherein after locating said seal and item in said aperture, said method comprises the step of increasing the bias provided to said moveable member.15. A sealing method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 14, wherein the step of providing or increasing the bias comprises the step of injecting gas into a gas compartment partly defined by said moveable member and thereby pressurising said compartment.16. A sealing method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 15, further comprising the step of attaching said resiliently deformable seal to an item, * 17. A sealing method as claimed in claim 16, wherein said item is a glazing pane.18. A sealing method as claimed in claim 16 or 17, wherein an element of said seal is attached between two glazing panes.19. A sealing method as claimed in any of claims 12 to 18, wherein said sealing apparatus is as claimed in any of claims 1 to 11. U. H20. A sealing apparatus substantially ashereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.21. A glazing assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings. . 22. A sealing method substantially as herèinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.