Sliding Window for Driver' s Cabin
The present invention concerns a driver's cabin, especially for tractors and machines, and comprising a sliding window of the kind which is guided and housed in profiled mouldings on a lower end side of the sliding window, and which slides on profiled U-shaped guide or support rails facing towards these sides, secured respectively to the upper and lower part of the cabin construction.
Such sliding windows are well-known and are to be found in numerous configurations, but the configurations have certain common characteristics. To illustrate this, an example is shown in fig. 1 and in figs. 1A-1D.
Fig. 1 shows a side view of a driver's cabin with double sliding window. As will appear from fig. 1 and figs. 1A-1D, the under sides of the respective sliding windows are mounted in a frame consisting of a profiled moulding which has a groove to receive the actual window part, and a groove in the side opposite the window which co-operates with the facing side of a profiled U-shaped guide/support rail secured to the lower part of the cabin construction. Between the moulding and the support rail there is provided a bush of plastic material, the object of which is to reduce the friction between these parts during the displacement of the sliding windows. The sliding window is guided in the uppermost side by being inserted in a U-profiled guide rail with a cross-section corresponding to the guide/support rail, where a slide bush is provided between the upper side edge of the sliding window and the profiled guide rail . The basic principles regarding sliding windows have thus hitherto included at least one frame mounting of the under side of the sliding window, cooperating with a profiled moulding secured to the facing sides of the driver's cabin. This construction has given rise
to several disadvantages, of which shall be mentioned troublesome and demanding assembly operations as a consequence of the aforementioned frame mounting of the sliding window (s), and fitting of slide pieces in between mouldings and facing frame sides on the driver's cabin. A particularly difficult problem with the known construction is the draining-off of water which accumulates in the U-shaped support rail, which has given rise to the need for a cut-out in the guide/support rail through which the accumulated water can be led away to the outer side of the cabin. The cut-out is established by the milling-out or sawing-out of a part 30 of the front of the support rail as will appear from fig. 1, or a slot in the bottom of the outer side of the U-shaped rail. Since out of regard for weight and corrosion, the support rails often con- sist of anodized aluminium profiles, the said milling/sawing- out will give rise to the need for subsequent anodizing, painting or other coating of the cut surfaces, with extra production costs as a consequence hereof. Moreover, the milling-out/sawing-out in the front of the support rail, as shown in fig. 1, leaves the impression of a through-going but broken support rail .
With the invention, however, it has been realised that it is possible to solve the above-mentioned problems at one and the same time with a driver's cabin comprising a sliding win- dow of the kind disclosed in the introduction, and which is characterized in that the sliding windows of the driver's cabin are guided and mounted (directly) in a profiled moulding comprising one or more parallel grooves, said profiled moulding comprising longitudinal locking tags and locking grooves which are inserted in co-operating connection also longitudinally in the profiled rails secured to the side of the cabin construction.
The advantage with this construction is that it is simplified to a considerable degree. For example, an actual
framing of the lower part of the sliding window in a profiled moulding becomes superfluous, also the inclusion of slide bushes in between the guide and support rail and the profiled moulding and slide bushes in between the window and the guide rail . The sliding window is thus displaced solely in the groove provided for this purpose in the profiled moulding, and slides directly in this groove.
The profiled moulding can with advantage consist of a suitable weather-resistant and sunlight-resistant plastic ma- terial, in that the leading out of water accumulated in the grooves to the outer side of the driver's cabin is effected via drainage slots cut in the bottom of the grooves and by the milling away of a corresponding piece of the locking tag. An additional and almost in itself inventive aspect of the use of the profiled moulding of plastic material is that this material allows itself to be processed by blanking/punching, which provides the possibility for a considerable simplification of the working operations in connection with the establishing of the drainage slots, in that these can be blanked out at selected places in the profiled moulding in an uncomplicated manner.
Since the locking tag in the profiled moulding is inserted in locking grooves in the profiled rails, unlike that for the known sliding window, the facade of the driver's cabin will appear almost unbroken from corner to corner of the facade. Moreover, it will not be necessary to carry out subsequent treatment of the edges in the areas where the milling-out/sawing-out/stamping-out has been effected, in that the plastic material will not corrode, which considera- bly simplifies the production process and makes this cheaper.
With regard to the use of the same type of profiled moulding along the whole of the outside edge of the facade opening, the grooves on the outwardly-facing side can be provided with flukes which are bent over in an arc and which
serve as sealing strips, the result being that the profiled mouldings also serve as sealing strips.
A further advantage of the construction is that the same type of profiled moulding can be used as sealing strip and slide/support strip in the whole window section, which provides this with a particularly aesthetic appearance.
With regard to achieving as little friction as possible between the sliding window and the profiled moulding, the grooves in the profiled moulding can be provided longitudi- nally with a rounded support beading extending upwards, and upon which the window is able to slide. An additional advantage achieved with the support beading is that moisture/water does not accumulate on the upwardly-rounded support beading, but will run down into the low points at the sides of the grooves, from where it can be led away via the drainage holes in the profiled moulding. The drainage provides the further advantage that ice formations do not occur at the contact surfaces between the support beading and the sliding windows. The invention also comprises a sliding window for driver's cabins, especially for tractors and machines, of the kind which is guided and mounted in profiled mouldings on a lower end side of a sliding window, and which slides on profiled U-shaped guide or support rails facing towards these sides, secured respectively to the upper and lower part of the cabin construction as disclosed and characterized in the claims 1-6.
In the following, the invention is explained with reference to the drawing, where fig. 1 is a side view of a sliding window for a driver's cabin according to the known technique, figs. 1A-1D show sections of a sliding window along the lines A-A, B-B, C-C and D-D in fig. 1, fig. 2 is a side view of a sliding window for a driver's cabin according to the invention,
figs. 2A-2D show sections of a sliding window along the lines A-A, B-B, C-C and D-D in fig. 2, fig. 3 is a diagram showing the principle of the construction of a sliding window according to the invention, fig. 4 is a detailed perspective view of a support rail and profiled moulding according to the invention.
The known sliding window construction for a driver's cabin shown in fig. 1 is configured with an outer frame 2 consisting of a profiled support/guide rail of surface-coated metal, preferably anodized aluminium profile, the one side edge of which comprises means 4 for securing of a fixed side glass by clamping, so that the whole side section comprising sliding window (s) and possibly fixed side glass can be secured to the cabin construction, typically by means of an ad- hesive. The opposite side edge comprises a first U-shaped groove 6 and a second U-shaped groove 8 connected herewith for the accommodation of slide bushes 10 for guiding the sliding windows 12, 14 at their upper edges, cf. figs. 1A, IB. As will appear from figs. 1C and 1 D, the sliding windows 12, 14 are mounted in a profiled moulding 16 by clamping in between upwardly facing parts 18 of the moulding. The downwards-facing side edge 20 of the profiled moulding 16 is shaped as an inverted U-profile in which there is a slide bush 22 which in turn is in contact respectively with the one outermost web 24 and the second outermost web 26 of the U- shaped profile on the support/guide rail 2. As will appear from figs. 1A, 1C and ID, end stop-blocks 28 are provided in the grooves 6, 8. In the example embodiment shown, the leading away of water which accumulates in the grooves 6, 8 is effected via the milling/cutting-out of the webs 24, 32 of the U-shaped groove over a section 30. The known construction has the following drawbacks: The milling/cutting-out of a part of the webs 24, 32 necessitates a subsequent surface treatment/anodizing along the machined edges, and moreover
the overall appearance of the facade with the sliding windows is interrupted. Furthermore, the construction is based on the underside of the sliding windows being framed in the profiles, so that in co-operation with the slide bushes 22 they can slide on the webs 24, 26 on the support/guide rail 2.
Fig. 2 shows the construction of the sliding window according to the invention. This construction comprises a frame consisting of the profiled support rail 40, preferably of aluminium, as shown in figs. 2A-D and fig. 4. Along the one outer side edge 42, the support rail 40 comprises means 44 for securing of a fixed side glass 46 by clamping, cf . fig. 2, so that the whole of the side section comprising sliding window (s) and possibly fixed side glass can be secured to the cabin construction, typically by means of adhesive. The oppo- site side of the support rail has a locking groove 48 extending along its length. The inner side edge 50 of the support rail 40, which lies above the level of the locking groove, comprises an upright locking recess 52 extending longitudinally, and a support edge 54 extending parallel herewith. The support rail 40 co-operates with a profiled moulding 56 which consists preferably of a plastic material. On the side facing away from the support rail 40, the profiled moulding 56 has grooves 58, 60 extending along its length for the accommodation of facing side edges of sliding windows 62, 64. The op- posite side of the profiled moulding comprises a cam-shaped locking tag 66 extending longitudinally nearest the outer side 68 of the profiled moulding for accommodation in the locking groove 48 in the support rail 40, and a longitudinally-extending locking groove 70 to accommodate the locking recess 52 in the support rail. The support rail 40 and the profiled moulding 56 co-operate mutually in that the latter slides in over the support rail so that the cam-shaped locking tag 66 slides into the locking groove 48, at the same time that the locking recess 52 in the support rail is en-
gaged in the locking groove 70 in the profiled moulding, while at the same time that the under side of the profiled moulding at the under side of the locking groove is supported by the bevelled support edge 54. In the assembly of a frame section for sliding windows, the profiled moulding is secured against displacements in the longitudinal direction, whereby the profiled moulding 56 and the support rail 40 constitute a unit whereby the profiled moulding can not be displaced in the longitudinal direction by displacement of the sliding windows 62, 64.
As will appear especially from fig. 2C and fig. 4, extending in and along the length of in the grooves 58, 60 in the profiled moulding there is an upwardly-rounded support beading 72 on which the windows 62, 64 can slide. The advan- tage herewith is that the friction area between the sliding window and the profiled moulding is reduced. Moreover, moisture/water will not accumulate on the upwardly-rounded support beading, but run down into the low points at the sides of the grooves 58, 60, from where it can be led away, which is explained later. This provides the further advantage that ice formations will not arise at the contact surfaces between the support beading and the windows 62 , 64.
The outwards-facing sides 74, 76 of the grooves 58, 60 in the profiled moulding 56 have edge flukes 78, 80 which are bent over so that they function as sealing strips and also serve to hold the sliding windows 62, 64 in contact with the opposite side of the grooves. The side 76 also has a downwards-extending web 82 which serves as a drip-edge for splash-water on the sliding window 62. The draining of the grooves 58, 60 can be established at any point without interrupting the outside edge of the facade opening, i.e. by milling/stamping-out slots 86 at one or more passages 84 in the bottom of the grooves 58, 60, and in the cam-shaped locking tag 66 as shown in fig. 1 and fig. 4,
whereby water which accumulates in the grooves 58, 60 has free passage to run through the milled/stamped-out slots and down over the support rail 40 to the outer side of the cabin. The downwards-extending web 82 covers over the passages 84, whereby the milled/stamped-out parts 86 of the locking tag 66 are practically speaking invisible, or are only slightly visible in that the support rail profiles are normally black- anodized and the profiled moulding 56 consists of black plastic material. With the sliding window construction according to the invention, there is thus achieved a considerable simplification compared with the construction traditionally used, in that the sliding windows according to the new construction are not framed in a slide rail which, sliding on bushes, co-operates with the support profiles, but are displaced in the grooves in the profiled moulding. Moreover, considerable aesthetic progress is achieved regarding the appearance of the facade of the sliding window construction, the reason being that this can appear substantially unbroken, while at the same time the necessary openings are established for the draining of the grooves in the profiled moulding.