IE20000911A1

IE20000911A1 - A profiled cladding sheet

Info

Publication number: IE20000911A1
Application number: IE20000911A
Authority: IE
Inventors: Hugh Connolly
Original assignee: Hugh Connolly
Priority date: 1999-11-11
Filing date: 2000-11-13
Publication date: 2001-05-16
Also published as: AU1171701A; IES81942B2; WO2001034379A1; IES20000910A2

Abstract

A profiled cladding sheet (1) forming part of a roof (25) and is usually of opaque material comprises an upper profiled panel (2) on top of a lower profiled panel (3) which is in turn mounted on a base sheet (4) which together form longitudinally arranged spaced apart cavities (20,21,22). The roof (25) has conventional cladding sheets (27) e.g. profiled steel cladding sheets on insulation panels (28) on purlins (26). The profile of the upper profiled panel (2) matches that of the cladding sheet (27). The cavities (20,21,22) may be sealed and filled with a gas. <Figure 3>

Description

The present invention relates to a profiled cladding sheet and in particular to a load bearing profiled cladding sheet of the type comprising two profiled panels, each profiled panel having in cross-section alternate ridge and valley portions connected by upstanding side walls. Generally the upstanding side walls are flat and usually converge together to meet at a further flat ridge portion. It is however known to make such cladding panels of substantially sinusoidal cross-section. Thus, any reference to a profiled panel sheet in this specification refers to a sinusoidal type cladding sheet through the ridge and valley portions are curved and notflat.

S Λ •' Usually such cladding panels when they are load bearing are manufactured from a relatively strong material such as rolled steel. The cladding sheet can be mounted ^gainst the wall or on the roof of a building. Generally when mounted against a wall , ’ the cladding panels are not load bearing however, when mounted on the roofs of x buildings they are. Such profiled ciadding sheets are generally opaque and when it is desired to provide a translucent panel problems arise if the panel is to be load bearing. It is known to make such panels from glass fibre reinforced material (GRP) which glass fibre reinforced material while generally translucent is not load bearing. For example when used in a roof the remainder of the profiled cladding sheets will be laid on a flat insulation panel, very often manufactured from sheet metal sheets sandwiching dense foamed plastics material there between which in turn had been overlaid on roof purlins to provide a rigid load bearing roofing panel. Then there is interposed between these load bearing roof panels the GRP panel, which as well as not being inherently strong is not particularly securely fastened to the rafters or ' X purlins and is thus hazardous if somebody should stand on it. As safety requirements become more stringent and the use of such profiled cladding sheets become more widespread in the construction of roofing the need to provide a profiled cladding sheet of this type that can be effectively translucent in use and load bearing becomes all the more important.

Additionally such a profiled cladding sheet must be aesthetically pleasing in that the IE000911 -2visual profile must match that of the other profiled cladding sheets. Further since the main purpose of this substantially transparent or opaque profiled cladding sheet is to allow the ingress of light the maximum amount of light must be transmitted through the sheet. Thus distortions and light absorption in the profiled cladding sheet should -x. be minimised and the present invention is directed towards this object.

As mentioned above, very often the remainder of the profiled cladding sheets are mounted on the roof purlins with an insulation panel interposed there between, thus if the profile of the opaque cladding sheet is to match that of the other profiled cladding sheets, then it must be identical in cross-section and if they are to occupy the same plane there is of necessity going to be a gap between the purlins and the valley of the opaque profiled cladding sheet. It is very difficult to provide adequate support to give structural rigidity to such an opaque profiled cladding sheet in conventional roof construction. It is thus known to place one opaque profiled cladding sheet namely an upper profiled cladding sheet on top of another lower profiled cladding sheet both manufactured from GRP which cladding sheets have different profiles in crosssection the upper profiled cladding sheet having a profile in cross-section which is identical to that of the other usually opaque profiled cladding sheets which are used for the roof construction. Usually these two profiled cladding sheets are arranged to nest partially inside each other with the ridge panel of the lower of the two profiled cladding sheets been narrower than that of the upper profiled cladding sheet and having a depth greater than that of the upper profiled cladding sheet. Accordingly, when the lower profiled cladding sheet nests within the upper profiled cladding sheet the ridge of the lower profiled cladding sheet supports the ridge of the upper profiled cladding sheet. Thus the remainder of the upper profiled cladding sheet is supported in spaced apart relationship with the lower profiled cladding sheet such as to provide a plurality of longitudinally arranged cavities therebetween. These usually have to be assembled on site with adhesive and generally are very difficult to assemble and even more so are not particularly useful in use. The method of construction as well as being difficult and time consuming is costly and further the panel is not particularly useful for the transmission of light therethrough. Further such a combination profiled cladding sheets does not now have sufficient rigidity to pass the morestringent safety requirements now being used for such profiled cladding sheets. The present invention is directed towards providing a profiled cladding sheet which will address IE000911 -3these problems.

As well as there being a need In general for a translucent profiled cladding sheet that can be used in conjunction with opaque profiled cladding sheets whether load bearing or not there is a need for other constructions of cladding sheet which are not necessarily translucent but are load bearing and do not require the provision of Inherently structurally strong materials such as steel.

Additionally, cold bridging, fire and other safety requirements for roofing generally need to be addressed and the present invention is directed towards providing constructions of profiled cladding which will address these problems.

The present invention is directed towards these objects and is particularly directed to providing an improved construction of profiled cladding sheet which can be manufactured from what are not inherently structurally strong materials which can be translucent or transparent and further which profiled cladding sheets can be aesthetically pleasing. Further the invention is directed to providing cladding which when required for light transmitting functions will transmit the optimum amount of light having regard to the materials used to make the profiled cladding sheet.

Further is an object of the invention that such a profiled cladding sheet can be manufactured off site and simply requires to be mounted on supports whether they ’X be wall supports, roof purlins or the like without the need for time consuming and difficult site assembly. Additionally such a profiled cladding sheet should have low thermal conductivity and as far as possible eliminate the problems associated with cold bridging.

Statements of Invention According to the invention there is provided a profiled cladding sheet, of the type detailed above characterised in that the cladding sheet comprises;a base sheet; IE000911 -4• —χ a lower profiled panel mounted on the base sheet; and an upper profiled panel mounted on the lower profiled panel spaced-apart from the base sheet, the contacting panels forming longitudinally arranged spaced-apart cavities across the cladding sheet.

This forms a structurally sound and load bearing profiled cladding sheet which can be manufactured from any suitable material such as a translucent or opaque material. In one embodiment of the invention, the valley portions of the upper profiled panel lie on the ridge portions of the lower profiled panel. Further, the upper profiled panel may form a mirror image of the lower profiled panel. Ideally the lower profiled panel nests partially within the upper profiled panel with the respective ridge portion spaced apart. In another embodiment of the invention the lower profiled panel nests partially within the upper profiled panel with the respective valley portions spaced apart.

Ideally, end plates are provided to abut against the end edge of the cladding sheet to seal the cavities formed in the cladding sheet. With this construction, the cavities may be filled with a pressurised gas, which pressurised gas, for example, can be inert gas and can be chosen from gases such as CFC or argon or carbon dioxide. Further, the cavity can be under a partial vacuum to reduce heat conductivity. Needless to say sealing means other than end plates may be used. Similarly the end plates may be profiled rather than flat.

Ideally, the contacting surfaces of the panels and base sheet are sealed together such that the materials forming them fuse together to form a seamless joint for light transmission. When the cladding sheet is formed from polymer plastics material, a hot melt polymer based adhesive is used to seal the profiled panels and base sheet together.

In another embodiment of the invention the adhesive used to seal the panels is P.U. adhesive.

In another embodiment of the invention, the materials forming the profiled panels and base are of a thermoplastics material whereby application of pressure and heat to the IE000911 -5contacting causes the materials to fuse together.

Ideally, the material or the upper profiled panel is chosen for its weathering properties and the base sheet for its fire retardant properties. Ideally, the upper profiled panel is also of a UV stable material with alternative fire properties. Irrespective of whether cavities are sealed or not, they may be filled by an insulation material.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a profiled cladding sheet comprising:laying strips of adhesive on a base sheet; placing a lower profiled panel on the base sheet to sandwich the adhesive therebetween such as to cause the adhesive to activate and the lower profiled panel to adhere to the base panel; laying further strips of adhesive on the lower profiled panel; and placing an upper profiled panel on the lower profiled panel so as to form transversely arranged separated cavities therebetween and such as to cause the adhesive to activate and the upper profiled panel to adhere to the lower profiled panel.

According to another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of manufacturing a profiled cladding sheet comprising: assembling the cladding sheet by mounting the profiled panels and base sheet together; and welding the contacting surfaces together.

Ideally the welding is by ultrasonic welding. In a further embodiment of the invention the welding is by radio frequency welding.

IE000911 -6Detailed Description of the Invention The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig 1 is a perspective view of a load bearing profiled cladding, sheet according to the invention, Fig 2 is an exploded view of the profiled cladding sheet, Fig 3 is a section through a roof incorporating the cladding panel Fig 4 (a) to (d) illustrates end views of further load bearing cladding sheets according to the invention, Fig 5(a) to (d) illustrates end views of still further load bearing cladding sheets according to the invention, and Fig. 6 is an end diagrammatic view showing part of the manufacture of the cladding sheet of Figs 1 to 3.

Referring to the drawings and initially to Figs 1 to 3 thereof there is illustrated a load bearing cladding sheet indicated generally by the reference numeral 1 comprising an upper profiled panel 2 over an lower profiled panel 3 and a base sheet 4. The upper profiled panel 2 comprises a plurality of alternatively arranged ridge portions 5 and 6 connected together by side walls 7 and 8 respectively to valley portions 9. The valley portions 9 in turn are provided with longitudinally arranged micro-corrugations 10 which micro-corrugations in cross-section mirror the profiles of the panel. The lower profiled panel 3 comprises ridge portions 11 and 12 connected together by side walls 13 and 14 respectively to valley portions 15. The ridge portions 11 and 12 are provided with micro-corrugations 16 and 17 respectively. It will be seen that the upper profiled panel 2, the lower profiled panel 3 and the base sheet 4 form therebetween various separate spaced apart longitudinal cavities 20, 21 and 22. Flat end plates 23 IE000911 -7in this case provided by short end caps identified generally by the reference numeral 24 seal the cavities 20, 21 and 22. Generally end caps would not be used. Micro corrugations are not always provided.

Referring now to Fig 3 there is illustrated an end cross-section portion of a roof indicated generally by the reference numeral 25 comprising a roof purlin 26 carrying a conventional profiled cladding sheet 27 on an insulation panel 28. The cladding sheet 27 is a conventional steel cladding sheet. Mounted beside the steel cladding sheet 27 on the purlin 26 is the load bearing cladding sheet 1. The profile of the upper profiled panel 2 matches identically that of the steel cladding sheet 27. The load bearing profiled cladding sheet 1 if manufactured from a translucent material will allow light to penetrate through the roof and its profile will match the profile of the rest ofthe roof thus providing an aesthetically pleasing surface.

Referring now to Fig 4 there is illustrated in Fig 4a a load bearing cladding sheet again identified indicated generally by the reference numeral 1 having an upper profiled panel 31 and a lower profiled panel 32 and a base sheet 33. In this load bearing cladding sheet 1 the ridge panel of the lower profiled pane! 32 contacts and supports the ridge panel of the upper profiled panel 31 with the respective valley portions spaced apart thus forming two sets of cavities 34 and 35.

In the embodiment of Fig 4b there is illustrated another load bearing cladding sheet indicated generally by the reference numeral 1 having an upper profiled panel 41 and lower profiled panel 42 and a base sheet 43 in this embodiment the lower profiled panel 42 nests partially in to the upper profiled panel 41 with their valley portions contacting such that the ridge portions of both panels 41 and 42 are spaced apart to form cavities 44.

Fig 4c illustrates an alternative construction of load bearing cladding sheet indicated generally by the reference numeral 1 in which there is an upper profiled panel 51 and a lower profiled panel 52 and a base sheet 53. The profile of the upper profiled panel 51 and of the lower profiled panel 52 effectively mirror each other such that the valley portion of the upper profile panel 51 rests on the ridge portion of the lower profile panel 52 forming two cavities 54 and 55.

IE000911 -8Fig 4d illustrates a still further construction of load bearing cladding sheet indicated generally by the reference numeral 1 having an upper profiled panel 61 a lower profiled panel 62 and a base sheet 63 in this embodiment the valley portion of the upper profiled panel 61 is spaced apart from the valley portion of the lower panel 62, also a third cavity 66 between the respective ridge portions are spaced apart thus forming two separate cavities 64 and 65 one above the other it will be appreciated that many other arrangements may be provided.

Referring now to Figs 5(a) to (d), there is illustrated further load bearing cladding sheets according to the invention, again identified generally by the reference numeral 1. Similarly, the upper profile panel, the lower profile panel and the base sheet have been identified by the reference numerals 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Figs. 5(a) to 5(c) show how sinusoidally upper profiled panels 2 can be used effectively. Fig. 5(d) shows how nesting can be achieved in a different way.

Referring now to Fig 6 there is illustrated in diagrammatic cross-sectional view apparatus indicated generally by the reference numeral 70 for manufacturing the load bearing cladding sheet 1. The apparatus comprises lower rollers 71, intermediate idler rollers 72 and upper rollers 73. The lower rollers 71 and the upper rollers 73 are pressure and heater rollers which also can be heated and pressurised by means not shown. The idler rollers 72 in this embodiment are cantilevered but could be secured in any other arrangement. As will become apparent from the description following the load bearing cladding sheet 1 has to be removed from the apparatus 70 and thus either the idler rollers 72 have to be cantilevered so as to allow the easy reimoval of the load bearing cladding sheet 1 or alternatively some form of disengagement means has to be provided.

In operation, a base sheet 4 is placed in position and polyurethane (PU) adhesive is placed in strips on the top surface of the base sheet 4 then the lower profiled panel 3 is laid in position and further adhesive is placed on the lower profiled panel 3 and the upper profiled panel 2 is then placed in position and the panels are then led through the apparatus 70 where the upper profiled panel 2 and lower profiled panel 3 and base sheet 4 are all pressed together so as to form a coherent load bearing cladding IE000911 sheet with the application of heat and pressure. The pressure applied can be anything from 0.5 to 4 bar and the temperature will depend on the adhesive but for example for an adhesive sold under the trademark Convert C2050 requires temperatures in the range 250 to 300° Fahrenheit. Another set of rollers that are not shown are used to allow the panel to cool. When the adhesive Is hardened a coherent panel produced. The PU adhesive cross bonds with the GRP and thus there is no thermal bridging or condensation between members.

It is also envisaged that the profiled cladding sheet may be manufacturing by welding such as ultra-sonic welding or radio frquency welding. Again the profiled panels and base sheet will be assembled together and the contacting surfaces welded. The cavities 20, 21 and 22 can be sealed by, for example, end plates or the like. The cavities can be filled with a gas or evacuated as required.

It is envisaged, as described above with reference to Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, that the end faces may be sealed and the cavities In the panels evacuated. Heretofore a sheet with such a profile has not been provided. It is envisaged that GRP Is a particularly suitable material but many other materials could be used. The profiled cladding sheet could, for example, be manufactured from any form of polymer material; polycarbonate, PVC or acrylics. The advantage of an acrylic material is that they can be thermoformed subsequent to a manufacturer thus providing a coherent bond between all the sheets.

It is envisaged that the particular physical construction of sheet may be so arranged as to provide the best possible structural strength. A further advantage of the present invention is that by bonding tightly the profiled panels and base sheet together the load bearing cladding sheet will not distort light transmitted therethrough.

One particular suitable construction of load bearing cladding sheet according to the present invention comprises an upper profiled panel namely the weather sheet made from reinforced GRP class 3 gel coated above a standard GRP lower profiled sheet which in turn is mounted on a class 1 GRP base sheet which construction of GRP will satisfy all fire and other requirements. The purpose of using the adhesive according to the present invention is to ensure that there is a chemical bonding between the IE000911 -10surfaces so that any irregularities are taken up. It will be appreciated that these sheets are UV stable which is very important.

It is also envisaged that when the profiled cladding sheet is a sealed cladding sheet that the cladding sheet can be evacuated or indeed various types of gas such as CFC gas, argon, CO2 and so on can be pumped into the sheet so as to either improve insulation or indeed provide a more efficient fire retardant material. It is also envisaged that where the profiled cladding sheet is not required for the transmission of light therethrough that the cladding sheet can be manufactured from other opaque materials and that further the cladding sheet can be filled with suitable insulation materials such as for example mineral wool such as that sold under the Trade Mark Rockwool and foamed plastics material to name but two.

It will also be appreciated that one of the great advantages of the present invention is that since it uses materials that can be easily coloured aesthetically pleasing cladding panels may be provided. It is envisaged that many forms of adhesive may be used and that while in the above hot melt PU adhesive sold under the Trade Mark Convert C2050 has been described that all that is required is an adhesive sufficient to allow the various portions of the cladding sheet to adhere to each other.

It will be appreciated that one of the great advantages of the present invention is that the panels can now be delivered on-site either as totally sealed units or as lengths of panels that can be cut as required. The erector does not any longer have to manipulate the panels or to part assemble them on-site. ' x It is envisaged that many materials may be used as mentioned above to manufacture the panel according to the present invention. One of the advantages is some of the polymer materials is that such polymer materials can be for example fibre reinforced to provide very high strength materials. It is well know to provide such polymer materials with fibre reinforcing such as with corrugated panels etc. which fibre reinforced materials will be particularly strong in use. It is also envisaged that when polymer materials are used that by judicious heat forming and either thermosetting or chemical setting that the panels forming the profiled cladding sheet can be effectively merged together to form the one coherent construction. As mentioned above it will IE000911 -11 be appreciated that with a profiled cladding sheet according to present invention there is no thermal bridging.

In this specification, the terms '‘comprise”, “comprises” and “comprising” are used 5 interchangeably with the terms “include”, “includes and “including”, and are to be afforded the widest possible interpretation and vice versa.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described which may be varied in both construction and detail within the scope ofthe claims.

Claims

C LAI MS

1. A profiled ciadding sheet (1) of the type comprising two profiled panels, each profiled panel in cross-section having alternate ridge and valley portions connected by upstanding side walls characterised in that the cladding sheet (1) comprises:a base sheet (4); a lower profiled panel (3) mounted on the base sheet (4); and an upper profiled panel (2) mounted on the lower profiled panel (3) spaced-apart from the base sheet (4), the contacting panels (2, 3) forming longitudinally arranged spaced-apart cavities (20, 21, 22) across the cladding sheet (1).

2. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 1, in which the valley portions (9) of the upper profiled panel (2) lie on the ridge portions (11, 12) of the lower profiled panel (3).

3. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 2, in which the upper profiled panel (51) forms a mirror image of the lower profiled panel (52).

4. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 1, in which the profiled panels (31, 32) nest with the ridge portion of the upper profiled panel (31) contacting the ridge portion of the lower profiled panel (32) and with the respective valley portions spaced-apart forming two sets of cavities (34, 35).

5. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 1, in which the profiled panels (41, 42) nest with the valley portion of the upper profiled panel (41) contacting the ridge portion of the lower profiled panel (42) and with the respective ridge portions spaced-apart to form cavities (44).

6. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any preceding claim, in.which flat end IE000911 -13plates (23) are provided to abut against the end edges of the cladding sheet (1) to seal the cavities formed in the cladding sheet (1).

7. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 6, in which the cavities (20, 21, 22) are filled with a pressurised gas.

8. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 7, in which the gas is an inert gas.

9. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 8, in which the gas is chosen from one or CFC gas, argon or carbon dioxide.

10. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 6, in which the cavities (20, 21, 22) are under a partial vacuum.

11. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the contacting surfaces of the profiled panels (2, 3) and base sheet (4) are sealed together such that the materials forming them fuse together to form a seamless joint for light transmission.

12. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in claim 11, in which the cladding sheet (1) is formed from a polymer plastics and a hot melt polymer based adhesive is used to seal the profiled panels (2, 3) and base sheet (4) together.

13. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the materials forming the profiled panels (2, 3) and the base (4) are of a thermoplastics material whereby application of pressure and heat to the contacting causes the materials to fuse together.

14. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any preceding claim in which the material for the upper sheet is chosen for its weathering properties and the base sheet for its fire retardant properties.

15. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any preceding claim, in which at least the upper profiled panel is of a UV stable material. IE000911 - 1416. A cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any preceding claim in which the cavities are filled with an insulation material.

16. 17. A method of manufacturing a profiled cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any preceding claim, comprising:laying strips of adhesive on a base sheet; placing a lower profiled panel on the base sheet to sandwich the adhesive therebetween such as to cause the adhesive to activate and the lower profiled panel to adhere to the base panel; laying further strips of adhesive on the lower profiled panel; and 'X placing an upper profiled panel on the lower profiled panel so as to form transversely arranged separated cavities therebetween and such as to cause the adhesive to activate and the upper profiled panel to adhere to the lower profiled panel.

17. 18. A method as claimed in claim 17, in which the profiled panels and base sheet are manufactured from a GRP and adhesive.

18. 19. A method as claimed in claim 18 in which the adhesive is a PU adhesive.

19. 20. A method as claimed in any of claims 17 to 19, in which heat and pressure is applied to the contacting surfaces.

20. 21. A method of manufacturing a profiled cladding sheet (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 16 comprising: assembling the cladding sheet by mounting the profiled panels and base sheet together; and IE000911 -15welding the contacting surfaces together.

21. 22. A method as claimed in claim 21 in which the welding is by ultrasonic welding. 5

22. 23. A method as claimed in claim 21 in which the welding is by radio frequency welding.

23. 24. A profiled cladding substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

24.

25. A method of manufacturing a profiled cladding sheet substantially as described herein.