GB2556991A

GB2556991A - Bodensystem

Info

Publication number: GB2556991A
Application number: GB1715648.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Heuser Thomas
Original assignee: Herotec Flachenheizung GmbH
Current assignee: Herotec Flachenheizung GmbH
Priority date: 2016-09-30
Filing date: 2017-09-27
Publication date: 2018-06-13
Also published as: GB201715648D0; DE202017105887U1

Abstract

The device comprises a U shaped carrier 20 for placement on a beam 16, each carrier comprising a base 22 and parallel lateral legs 28, 30, with undergripping projections 32 extending from the outer sides 29, 31 of at least one of the lateral legs for gripping under an edge area of the temperature control module, the undergripping projections each being spring-elastic and comprising a support surface which is angled with respect to the base. The undergripping projections may be resiliently flexible or connected to the lateral legs with resilient flexibility. The support surfaces may be elastic and formed by wedge-shaped upright ribs 38. The undergripping projections may be at an acute angle to the lateral legs. The base may comprise recesses 27. A stiffening plate 34 may connect the lateral legs and the undergripping projections. Also claimed is a hollow floor comprising a plurality of beams placed parallel on an underlying surface each having the device laid on top of them, with temperature control modules on the undergripping projections.

Description

(54) Title of the Invention: Bodensystem

Abstract Title: Device for holding temperature control modules in a hollow floor (57) The device comprises a U shaped carrier 20 for placement on a beam 16, each carrier comprising a base 22 and parallel lateral legs 28, 30, with undergripping projections 32 extending from the outer sides 29, 31 of at least one of the lateral legs for gripping under an edge area of the temperature control module, the undergripping projections each being spring-elastic and comprising a support surface which is angled with respect to the base. The undergripping projections may be resiliently flexible or connected to the lateral legs with resilient flexibility. The support surfaces may be elastic and formed by wedge-shaped upright ribs 38. The undergripping projections may be at an acute angle to the lateral legs. The base may comprise recesses 27. A stiffening plate 34 may connect the lateral legs and the undergripping projections. Also claimed is a hollow floor comprising a plurality of beams placed parallel on an underlying surface each having the device laid on top of them, with temperature control modules on the undergripping projections.

At least one drawing originally filed was informal and the print reproduced here is taken from a later filed formal copy.

This print takes account of replacement documents submitted after the date of filing to enable the application to comply with the formal requirements of the Patents Rules 2007.

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Fig. 4

Floor system

The invention relates to a device for holding temperature control modules in a hollow floor, and a hollow floor provided with such a temperature control module holding device.

Hollow floors or also double floors are known as floor systems e.g. for sports halls and offices. It is further known to provide such hollow floors with surface regulation systems, mostly in the form of in-floor heating systems. In such systems, the top flooring layer is supported on support elements in the form of a structure of uprights and beams. Apart from this purpose, these support elements are also used to keep the in-floor heating modules at a distance from the underlying surface on which the hollow floor is built.

It is an object of the invention to optimize the thermal coupling of the temperature control modules to the top flooring layer of a hollow floor.

According to the invention, for achieving the above object, there is proposed a device for use in a hollow floor comprising support elements and bottom plates, for holding temperature control modules having at least a respective bottom side and top side, at a distance from the underlying surface holding thereon the support elements for the bottom plates of the hollow floor, said device comprising substantially U-shaped carrier elements to be placed on the support elements, wherein each carrier element comprises a base portion having a top side facing away from the support elements in the supported state of the carrier element, and lateral legs running substantially parallel to each other and extending from the base portion on both sides of thereof, the lateral legs comprising outer sides facing away from each other, wherein undergripping projections extend from the outer side of at least one of the two lateral legs for gripping under an edge area of a temperature control module, and wherein the undergripping projections, for pressing a temperature control module from below against a bottom plate in the mounted state, are designed in a spring-elastic manner and each comprise a support surface which at least in a partial area has a distance to the level of the top side of the base portion that is smaller than the dimension of the temperature control module between its bottom side and its top side.

A hollow floor which is provided according to the invention for achieving the above object and in which said device is used, comprises a plurality of support elements to be placed on an underlying surface in rows longitudinally parallel to each other, or along rows longitudinally parallel to each other, and a device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of U-shaped carrier elements are laid on the support ele ments, and the carrier elements lying on support elements of adjacent rows comprise undergripping projections facing toward each other, temperature control modules are arranged on the undergripping projections, and bottom plates are supported on the base portions of the carrier elements.

The temperature control module holding device according to the invention comprises substantially U-shaped carrier elements which can be laid onto the support elements, which support elements are part of the hollow floor and support the top flooring plates of the hollow floor. The carrier elements are now resting from above on these support elements and comprise, apart from a base portion, two parallel lateral legs extending from the base por3 tion on both sides of the latter. Extending from the mutually averted outer sides of the lateral legs, notably from the outer side of at least one of the lateral legs, are individual undergripping projections. A carrier element which is provided with undergripping projections on the outer side only one lateral leg can be used e.g. in the edge region toward the wall, whereas carrier elements provided with undergripping projections in the other area of the floor.

According to the invention, the undergripping projections are elastic and particularly are designed in a spring-elastic manner, which is realized by the connection of the undergripping projections to the respective lateral leg of the carrier element or, however, by another design of the undergripping projection. Each undergripping projection comprises an support surface for support of a temperature control module. The support surface is situated at a distance from the underlying surface on which the hollow floor is built, and at least in one of its partial areas has a distance to the top side of the carrier element, i.e. to the top side of the base portion of the carrier element that is smaller than the thickness, i.e. the dimension, of the temperature control module between its bottom side and its top side. Thereby, it is effected that, when the top flooring plates have been laid, the temperature control modules are biased from below against the top flooring plates. In this manner, an optimum thermal coupling is achieved between the temperature control modules and the top flooring layer.

Suitably, it can be provided that the undergripping projections are resiliently flexible or are connected to the lateral legs of the carrier elements with resilient flexibility, or that the undergripping projections comprise elastic support surfaces. The elastic support surface can be yielding across its entire surface area or, however, be yielding in partial surface areas. In this respect, use can be made e.g. of resiliently compressible materials on the support surface.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the support surface of an undergripping projection can be formed by wedge-shaped upright ribs. In this exemplary embodiment, the temperature control modules will then rest on the support surfaces of the undergripping projections at individual spots or linearly.

Suitably, it can be further provided that the undergripping projections are each oriented at an acute angle relative to the outer side of a lateral leg and in an upward direction. In this case, the temperature control modules, when in their mounted state, can rest on the undergripping projections by way of surface contact whereas, e.g. when the top flooring layer has not yet been laid, they will rest only in the region of the free ends of the undergripping projections.

Suitably, it can be further provided that the base portion of a carrier element comprises recesses. This serves to save material and reduce the weight.

The U-shaped carrier elements are preferably made of plastic and formed as injection-molded parts.

According to a further suitable embodiment of the invention, it can be provided, for stability purposes, that the connection of the undergripping projections to the lateral legs of the carrier elements is stiffened, notably by a respective stiffening plate element extending substantially at a right angle both to the support surface of an undergripping projection and to the outer side of the respective lateral leg. If this stiffening element is designed e.g. as a rectangular triangle, the hypotenuse edge serves for centering the temperature control modules between two rows of successive U-shaped carrier elements.

Generally, the temperature control modules can have any possible design. Likewise, for the temperature control medium, use can be made of any con5 ceivable materials. In the normal case, the temperature control modules are operated by use of water, wherein the temperature-medium-conducting tubes extend in grooves which are formed in the top sides of the temperature control module. Additionally, the top side of a temperature control module can be provided with thermally conducting material such as e.g. a light metal layer comprising beads and respectively corrugations extending in the grooves.

For stabilization of the temperature control modules which according to the invention are supported at two mutually opposite edge regions of respective adjacent undergripping projections of the carrier elements, it can be provided to stiffen the temperature control modules by constructional measures. This can be performed e.g. by a plate or by ribs, both being integrally formed with the temperature control modules at the bottom side of the temperature control module, or by transverse webs which on each of their opposite ends are resting on one of two mutually opposite undergripping projections.

The advantage of a hollow floor wherein, as provided by the invention, the temperature control modules are separate elements from the top flooring layer, resides in that the spring-elastic property which in hollow floors is desired for some applications, can be maintained without problems. As support elements for the hollow floor, it is possible to use individual supports, preferably arranged in respective rows next to each other, or longitudinal bars. The invention is particularly useful for renovation of existing hollow floors to which the holding device of the invention, consisting inter alia of the U-shaped carrier elements, can be retrofitted. The carrier elements will then laid upon the existing support elements (mostly beams), as, besides, is also the case in the original construction of the hollow floor.

The invention will be explained in greater detail hereunder by way of an exemplary embodiment and with reference to the drawings. The individual Figures show the following:

Fig. 1 a partial sectional view of a hollow floor structure with carrier elements according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention,

Figs. 2 and 3 are perspective views of the carrier elements as positioned on beams of the hollow floor, and

Fig. 4 a partial sectional view of an intermediate stage of the construction of the hollow floor, with the top flooring layer not yet laid.

In Fig. 1, the configuration of a hollow floor 10 is shown in partial sectional view. The hollow floor 10 is arranged on an underlying ground 12 which can be bare concrete, for instance. The hollow floor 10 comprises support elements 14 in the form of parallel beams 16. On such a beam 16, plastic carrier elements 18,20 are arranged as are shown in perspective view in Figs. 2 and 3. Each carrier element 18,20 has a U-shaped configuration and comprises a base portion 22 with a top side 24 and a bottom side 26 and with recesses 27. Starting from base portion 22, each carrier element 18,20 comprises two lateral legs 28,30 with an outer side 29 and 31, respectively. On one of its lateral legs, i.e. on lateral leg 30, the carrier element 18 comprises individual undergripping projections 32 extending from lateral leg 30 while the carrier element 20 comprises such undergripping projections 32 on both sides, i.e. projecting from both of its lateral legs 28,30. The connection between the undergripping projections 32 and the lateral legs 28 and respectively 30 is stabilized by stiffening plate elements 34. The undergripping projections 32 and the stiffening plate elements 34 are arranged on the outer sides 29,31 of the respective lateral legs 28,30.

As evident particularly from Figs. 1 and 4, the undergripping projections 32 form support surfaces 36 having temperature control modules 37 resting on them. In the present exemplary embodiment, the support surfaces 36 are formed by wedge-shaped ribs 38 which have the effect that at least a par7 tial region 40 of the support surfaces 36 has a distance to the top side 24 of base portions 22 of the carrier elements 18,20 that is smaller than the thickness of the temperature control modules 37, i.e. smaller than the distance of the top' side 42 of the temperature control modules 37 to their bottom side 44. On the bottom sides 44, the temperature control modules 37 can be stiffened by a plate element 46 or the like.

As further evident from Figs. 1 and 4, the temperature control modules 37 comprise, on their top sides 42, receiving grooves 48 for temperaturemedium-conducting tubes 50. Further, the top sides 42 can be formed of so-called heat-conducting elements 52 of thermally conductive material, particularly metal.

When, now, starting from the situation according to Fig. 4, the top flooring layer and respectively the top flooring plates 54 will be mounted, this will result in the situation according to Fig. 1. Due to the weight of the top flooring layer, the temperature control modules 37, which before had still projected beyond the top sides 24 of the carrier elements 18,20, will be pressed downward, notably with accompanying elastic deformation of the undergripping projections 32 and respectively of their support surfaces 36 so that, in the completely mounted state of the hollow floor 10, the temperature control modules 37 will, by their top sides 42, be in abutment on the top flooring 54 from below. This leads to an optimized thermal coupling of the temperature control modules 37 to the top flooring 54.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS hollow floor underlying ground support elements beam carrier element carrier element base portion top side bottom side recess in base portion lateral leg outer side of lateral leg lateral leg outer side of lateral leg undergripping projections stiffening plate elements support surfaces temperature control modules ribs partial region top side bottom side plate element receiving grooves tubes heat-conducting elements top flooring plates, top flooring

Claims

1. A device for use in a hollow floor comprising support elements and bottom plates, for holding temperature control modules having at least a respective bottom side and top side, at a distance from the underlying surface holding thereon the support elements for the bottom plates of the hollow floor, said device comprising

- substantially U-shaped carrier elements (18,20) to be placed on the support elements (14),

- wherein each carrier element (18,20) comprises a base portion (22) having a top side (24) facing away from the support elements (14) in the supported state of the carrier element (18,20), and lateral legs (28,30) running substantially parallel to each other and extending from the base portion (22) on both sides of thereof, the lateral legs (28,30) comprising outer sides (29,31) facing away from each other, wherein undergripping projections (32) extend from the outer side (29,31) of at least one of the two lateral legs (28,30) for gripping under an edge area of a temperature control module (37), and

- wherein the undergripping projections (32), for pressing a temperature control module (37) from below against a bottom plate in the mounted state, are designed in a spring-elastic manner and each comprise a support surface (36) which at least in a partial area has a distance to the level of the top side (42) of the base portion (22) that is smaller than the dimension of the temperature control module (37) between its bottom side (44) and its top side (42).

2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the undergripping projections (32) are resiliently flexible or are connected to the lateral legs (28,30) of the carrier elements (18,20) with resilient flexibility, or that the undergripping projections (32) comprise elastic support surfaces (36).

3. The device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the support surface (36) of an undergripping projection (32) is formed by wedgeshaped upright ribs (38).:

4. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the undergripping projections (32) are each oriented at an acute angle relative to the outer side (29,31) of a lateral leg (28,30) and in an upward direction.

5. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the base portion (22) of a carrier element (18,20) comprises recesses (27).

6. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the undergripping projections (32) are connected to the lateral legs (28,30) of the carrier elements (18,20) by a respective stiffening plate element (34) extending substantially at a right angle both to the support surface (36) of an undergripping projection (32) and to the outer side (29,31) of the respective lateral leg (28,30).

7. A hollow floor comprising

- a plurality of support elements (14) to be placed on an underlying surface in rows longitudinally parallel to each other, or along rows longitudinally parallel to each other, and

- a device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein

- a plurality of U-shaped carrier elements (18,20) are laid on the support elements (14), and the carrier elements (18,20) lying on support elements (14) of adjacent rows comprise undergripping projections (32) facing toward each other,

- temperature control modules (37) are arranged on the undergripping projections (32), and

- bottom plates are supported on the base portions (22) of the carrier elements (18,20).

8. The hollow floor according to claim 7, characterized in that each temperature control module (37) has its top side (42) provided with grooves (48) accommodating tubes (50) for conveyance of a tempering fluid.

9. The hollow floor according to claim 7, characterized in that the top sides (42) of the temperature control modules (37) are thermally conductive or are provided with thermally conductive material (52).

10. The hollow floor according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized in that the temperature control modules (37) are stiffened by reinforcement elements (46) arranged on their bottom sides (44).

Intellectual

Property

Office

Application No: Claims searched:

GB1715648.0

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