ITUB20154221A1 - TRANSPARENT SUPPORT SLAB FOR CONSTRUCTION AND FURNISHING - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

TRANSPARENT SUPPORT SHEET FOR BUILDING AND FURNITURE

The invention relates to a transparent support or support plate for building, for example to form steps, tiles, walkable areas and surfaces, slabs, and also for furniture, for example to form table tops, shelves, consoles, counters, work surfaces, of the type specified in the preamble of the first claim.

As is known, slabs and similar elements - for example panels, crosspieces, shelves, etc. - are increasingly widespread in the construction and furnishing fields. - transparent or semi-transparent.

These slabs have particular pleasantness values in the furnishings and make the environments in which they are inserted spacious and innovative.

However, when used as support elements and arranged horizontally, the plates in question have a limited use, as they must guarantee resistance, reliability and durability even in the presence of sensitive loads and weights.

For example, the steps of a ladder made of transparent material must be able to support even occasional high loads, when the ladder is used for the transport of various objects, and the transparent top of a table must be able to support any relatively heavy work equipment.

The transparent support elements must also resist scratches or abrasions or local wear, for example prolonged foot traffic, in order not to lose the aesthetic qualities for which they are designed, or to avoid continuous and difficult maintenance.

In many cases, the material used for the transparent support plates is glass, in particular tempered and / or laminated glass.

This material is advantageous for its excellent transparency (the transparency coefficient is about 80 - 90%, but varies with the thickness of the slabs) and for its high hardness, which protects it from abrasion on its external surfaces. However, it has two specific drawbacks: it is very heavy and easily subject to breakage or cracks.

In fact, glass weighs approximately 2.4 - 2.7 kg per dm <3>, approximately three times the weight of wood.

It follows that the supports necessary for the glass sheets must be oversized and / or particularly solid,

The glass is resistant to compression (the breaking load under compression is about 10000 kg per cm <2>), but it has a weak resistance to traction and bending (the breaking load to traction and compression is about 400 kg per cm <2>).

This weak resistance is very negative because it is precisely the bending loads that intervene when it is necessary to arrange horizontal plates to support weights and when - moreover - you do not want to cancel the aesthetic effect of transparency by arranging a continuous or wide support under the plates.

Therefore, it becomes necessary to considerably thicken the glass sheets, simple or stratified, with a further increase in the overall weights and dimensions of the supports that must hold the sheets.

Another widely used transparent material is polymethylmethacrylate - also called PMMA - which has an advantageous lightness: it has a specific weight equal to less than half that of glass (about 1.19 kg per dm <3>).

It also has a higher tensile and flexural strength (of the order of about 1000 kg per cm <2>, that is, more than double that of glass).

It is also unbreakable and perfectly transparent, even more transparent than glass: it has a transparency of 92 - 94% and - unlike glass - it does not lose transparency with increasing thickness. It also has the advantage of high workability and can be easily shaped and structured.

However, PMMA is a relatively soft material and is damaged and subjected to abrasions such as scoring and scuffing when subjected to wear.

Another different transparent material is polycarbonate (PC), which has excellent physical characteristics in all applications. It is also used for protection and as a bulletproof material.

However, it has a reduced workability and in practice it is processed only at an industrial level with special systems and equipment.

It also has the drawback of a relatively low transparency, and also a not high brilliance. It is also a relatively expensive material.

Transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC), also known as “Cristal”, is also widely used on an industrial level.

However, it has the drawback of minimal heat resistance and a maximum operating temperature of 60 degrees centigrade is expected.

In summary, the transparent materials indicated above are not optimal for making transparent sheets that perform the function of stable and reliable shelves - typically horizontal - of support or support, without the risk of breakage and excessive wear, at low costs, also maintaining a excellent transparency. This transparency and the aesthetic effect that it wants to achieve require that the supports of these shelves appear as elements that engage only limited areas of the shelves themselves, for example the edges, and that therefore the shelves in question must face significant bending efforts. .

In practice, laminated glass is currently one of the most used materials for said shelves, but it requires excessive thicknesses to remedy its reduced resistance to bending and also important and aesthetically negative supports to remedy its high weight.

In this situation, the technical task underlying the present invention is to devise a transparent support plate for building and furnishing capable of obviating the aforementioned drawbacks.

Within the scope of said technical task, it is an important object of the invention to devise a transparent support plate which is reliable and can be used advantageously in the presence of prevailing bending stresses.

Another important object of the invention is to devise a plate which, in the presence of significant bending stresses, can be used in conditions of full transparency and therefore without extended supports or in any case such as to substantially reduce the transparency itself.

Not least object of the invention is to devise a relatively light transparent sheet, resistant to wear and easily adaptable to specific needs.

The said technical task and the specified aims are achieved by a transparent support plate for building and furnishing of the type claimed in the attached independent claims.

Preferred embodiments are highlighted in the sub-claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the invention are clarified below by the detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Fig. 1 is a cross section of the plate according to the invention in a first embodiment example;

- Fig. 2 is a cross section of the plate according to the invention in a second embodiment;

- Fig. 3 is a cross section of the plate according to the invention in a third embodiment example;

- Fig. 4 illustrates the structure of the plate according to the invention; And

- Fig. 5 shows a fourth variant of the plate according to the invention. With reference to the Figures, in particular to Figures 2 and 3, the transparent support or support plate for building and furnishing according to the invention is globally indicated with 1.

As already specified, the transparent plate 1 is specifically designed for construction, for example to form steps, tiles, walkable areas and surfaces, slabs, and also for furniture, for example to form table tops, shelves, consoles, counters, surfaces of work.

In practice, the transparent plate 1 is designed to have a substantially horizontal position in place and to support loads weighing on one of its external faces, while the opposite face defines the lower face and is typically connected to supports 5.

To maintain the effect of transparency, the supports 5 - which are, for example, made of metal or other material - have a small or marginal size compared to the transparent plate and typically engage at the edges of the same.

The transparent plate 1 is therefore exposed on site to prevailing bending stresses, due to the effect of the loads applied on its first upper face.

The transparent plate 1 advantageously has a sandwich structure.

As known, sandwich structures are panels consisting of two peripheral layers, called "skins" or "faces", of higher strength, which sandwich an internal layer, also called "core", which has lower strength and connects the two layers external.

The transparent plate 1 with a sandwich structure comprises an inner layer 3 in then imethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and outer layers 2 of glass.

Preferably the inner layer 3 has a thickness of between 3 mm and 2 cm.

Preferably, the outer layers 3 are made of silicon glass and suitably have similar or identical thicknesses. More in detail, each outer layer 3 has a thickness of between 2 mm and 6 mm, more preferably between 3 mm and 5 mm and more preferably still about close to or equal to 4 mm.

Conveniently, the inner layer 3 has a thickness greater than the outer layers 2, preferably greater than the sum of the thicknesses of the outer layers 2.

Furthermore, preferably, the inner layer 3 and the outer layers 2 are mutually connected by thermal bonding by means of polymeric films, preferably in Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (ÈVA) or in Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB). The term thermal bonding refers to the melting and solidification inside the film 4, so that the molten material, in the solidification phase and once solidified, glues the adjacent layers. Said film 4 preferably has a thickness of less than one millimeter.

In addition, due to the high and easy workability of PMMA, various embodiments of the and also the use of various connection elements such as screws, joints, etc. can be envisaged. The same screws can be in PMMA.

Furthermore, between the inner layers 3 and at least one outer layer 2 a decorative layer 6 can be advantageously provided, which can be made in various ways and freely according to purely aesthetic requirements, as it is not subject to stresses of relief. The bonding between the decorative layer 6 and the inner 3 and / or outer layer 2 is preferably in polymeric film of the specified type.

Decorative elements can also be easily inserted inside the internal PMMA layer 3. The PMMA sheets are also suitable for being made in various colors, always maintaining transparency, and possibly can present suggestive aesthetic effects, such as phosphorescence.

The plate 1 can also comprise metal side edges 7 (Figs. 2 and 3), preferably with a C-section. They are able to completely cover the lateral portion of the internal layer 3.

These edges 7 can have lateral arms of a thickness less than or identical to the thickness of the glass sheets or the like. These edges 7 can be assembled by means of the same thermal gluing or by other different processes.

At the edges 7, inside the C-shaped profile as shown in Fig. 3, LED strips 8 can be attached to illuminate the plate 1 transversely.

The transparent sheet 1 is produced by means of a first phase in which the individual internal 3 and external 2 layers and the films 4 in ÈVA or PVB are produced by known methods.

Subsequently, layers 2 and 3 are stacked, with the external layers 2 on the outside, the central internal layer 3 and the films 4 in EVA or PVB are interposed between the internal 3 and external 2 layers.

Then a high temperature is applied to the sandwich, around 90 ° C-110 ° C, such that it melts the films 4 but not the inner layer 3 in PMMA.

The compound thus obtained can be cut on its main surface, for example with water cutting or other.

Edge 7 can then be constrained, also by gluing or interlocking, and LEDs 8 can be inserted.

The invention achieves important advantages.

In fact, the transparent plate 1 combines glass and PMMA so as to obtain an optimal transparent plate when arranged substantially horizontal and with spaced supports, and when loads are foreseen on its external faces such as to generate bending effects.

The glass has a high hardness, which protects it from abrasion. It is also resistant to compression and, in the upper part, works mainly by compression. Also in the lower part the external glass layer 2 works even if by bending but in any case increases the resistance of the sheet 1.

Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is lighter and has satisfactory tensile and flexural strength.

It is also unbreakable and perfectly transparent, even more so than glass. It does not lose transparency with increasing thickness and can be easily shaped and structured. However, PMMA is relatively soft and undergoes abrasion when subjected to wear.

In fact, a perfectly transparent sheet is obtained, relatively light, easily adaptable to the supports and above all such as to present - in conditions of use - the hardness of the glass and the resistance of PMMA.

Furthermore, if the slab is surrounded by the metal profile 7, the whole slab itself is class A fireproof and can also be used in public places.

The invention is susceptible of variants falling within the scope of the inventive concept defined by the independent claims and their technical equivalents.

All details can be replaced by equivalent elements, within the scope of protection defined by the independent claims and their technical equivalents.

Claims (9)

RIVEN DI CAZI O N I 1. Transparent plate (1) for building and furnishing, characterized by the fact of - have a sandwich structure, comprising outer layers (2) of glass and an inner layer (3) of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), - said inner layer (3) and said outer layers (2) being mutually constrained by thermal bonding by means of polymeric film (4). 2. Transparent support plate (1) according to claim 1, wherein said polyurethane film (4) in Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (ÈVA). Transparent support plate (1) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said polymeric film (4) in Polyvinyl butyral (PVB). 4. Transparent support plate (1) according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein said inner layer (3) has a greater thickness than each of said outer layers (2). 5. Transparent support plate (1) according to one or more of the preceding claims, comprising lateral edges (7) adapted to completely cover the lateral portion of said inner layer (3). 6. Transparent support plate (1) according to the preceding claim, in which said lateral edges (7) are "C" -shaped. 7. Transparent supporting plate (1) according to claim 5 or 6, in which said lateral edges (7) are made of metal. 8. Transparent support plate (1) according to one or more of claims 6-8, comprising LED strips (8) constrained to said lateral edges (7) and adapted to transversely illuminate said transparent (1). 9. Transparent support plate (1) according to one or more of the preceding claims, comprising a decorative layer (6) interposed between said inner layer (3) and at least one of said outer layer (2).