WO2016101029A1

WO2016101029A1 - Sash press

Info

Publication number: WO2016101029A1
Application number: PCT/AU2015/050829
Authority: WO
Inventors: Howard Bruce
Original assignee: Howard Bruce
Priority date: 2014-12-23
Filing date: 2015-12-22
Publication date: 2016-06-30

Abstract

A sash press including a support frame for holding a panel of glass, press tools adapted to hold opposite sections of a sash and a drive assembly to force the sections onto opposed edges of the panel. The invention also relates to a method of calculating a compression force to apply to the press tools and to a method of fitting sash sections to the glass panel.

Description

SASH PRESS

Related Application

This application claims the benefit of priority from Australian Patent Application No. 2014905233, the contents of which are incorporated in entirety by reference.

Field of the invention

The invention relates to a sash press for fitting a sash to a glass panel. Background of the Invention

A sash is a frame that is fitted around a window. The sash includes top and bottom sections and two side sections called styles. Prior to assembly, a gasket formed of rubber or other suitable elastomer material is fitted around the window and the sash is forced into place over the gasket using a mallet to tap the sections into place. Fasteners are then used to secure the sections together.

Use of a mallet is time consuming and can cause the window to fracture or shatter if too much strike force is applied to the sections. Summary of the Invention

In accordance with the invention, there is provided a sash press including a support frame for holding a panel of glass, press tools adapted to hold opposite sections of a sash and a drive assembly to force the sections onto opposed edges of the panel. Preferably, the press includes a unit to provide a value representing a height dimension of the panel.

Preferably, the press includes a processor to operate the drive assembly and to determine a compression force to be applied to the press tools based on the value.

Preferably, the press includes a worm gear connected to each of the press tools to drive the tools in unison.

Preferably, the press includes support rollers to support a base of the panel. Preferably, the press tools include lead-in ramps to lift the panel into a predetermined position in the sections.

Preferably, the press includes biased guide rollers in line with the support rollers, the guide rollers being able to deflect as the press tools move toward each other.

Preferably, the press includes a bracket to couple each tool to the drive assembly and an adjustment mechanism to allow the tools to be adjusted relative to the brackets.

In another aspect, there is provided a method of assembling sash sections on a glass panel, including mounting the panel on a support frame and applying pressure to tools to drive the sash sections onto opposed edges of the panel.

Preferably, the method includes determining a value representing a height dimension of the panel and applying a compression force based on the value.

Preferably, the method includes inputting the value to a processor and controlling a drive assembly to apply a set compression force to the tools.

Preferably, method includes mounting the panel on support rollers to allow the panel to self-centre on the frame as pressure is applied through the tools.

Preferably, the method includes transferring the panel with the sections attached to another press station, where a remaining pair of sections of the sash are pressed onto the glass panel.

In another aspect, there is provided a glass panel with sash sections fitted in accordance with the above described method.

In yet another aspect, there is provided a method of calculating a compression force to be applied to press tools used to fit sash sections to opposed edges of a glass panel including determining a size of the panel and referring to a look-up table where panel size is correlated to compression forces in order to select the compression force to be applied to the panel.

Preferably, the panel size is automatically determined by a detector unit associated with a support frame of the above described sash press.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention is described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a press; Figure 2 is a rear view of the press; Figure 3 is a front view of the press; Figure 4 is a side view of the press;

Figure 5 is a side view of a biased guide roller and press tool;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the biased guide roller and press tool; Figure 7 is a front view of the biased guide roller and press tool; and Figure 8 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a detector unit. Detailed Description of the Invention

Referring to Figure 1, a sash press 1 is shown as including a support frame 2 and a stand 3 formed of feet 4 and uprights 5. The frame 2 has two central rollers 6 that support a glass panel 7 and two biased guide rollers 8 adapted for limited vertical movement. The rollers 6, 8 allow the panel 7 to self- centre during a pressing operation.

The press 1 includes two press tools 10 mounted to brackets 11 that are connected to a drive assembly 12 through horizontal slots 13 formed in the frame 2. The drive assembly 12 drives the tools 10 toward and away from each other.

The tools 10 have an internal moulded rubber profile 14 to fit with sash sections 15 that are preferably left and right-hand extruded aluminium sections known as styles 16. In use, an operator places the styles 16 into the respective press tool 10 prior to the pressing operation.

The glass panel 7 has a vinyl or rubber gasket 17 around the edge 18 which is aligned in grooves 19 formed in the rollers 6, 8 so that the panel 7 is properly positioned to receive the styles 16.

The press 1 also includes vertical ribs 20 that serve to hold the panel 7 off the support frame 2, in order to provide clearance between the frame 2 and the panel 7 to allow unobstructed movement of the sections 15 as they are pressed onto opposed edges 21 of the panel 7.

With the glass panel 7 loaded on the rollers 6, 8 and the styles 16 fitted in the press tools 10, an operator can initiate a press function by a button on a controller (not shown) to activate the drive assembly 12 and cause the two press tools 10 to move together and press the right and left styles 16 onto the glass panel 7. The correct compression force is applied to affect closure of the tools 10 onto the panel 7 to the desired specification.

The same process is then applied in a second press machine (also not shown), after the panel 7 is rotated through 90 degrees, to allow top and bottom extrusions to be applied to the remaining two opposed edges of the panel 7, thus completing the pressing operation. All the sash sections can then be screwed together to form a completed glass panel and sash assembly. Prior to initiating the press function, a detector unit 33, as shown in Figure 8 is used to determine a value representing a height dimension of the panel 7. The unit 33 includes an LED emitter 34 and a detector 35 fitted in a mounting block 36 and arranged of a suitable angle to allow a beam of light 37 from the emitter 34 to reflect off the panel 7 and be received by the detector 35 in order to indicate the presence of the panel 7. Only a single emitter 34 and, a single detector 35 is shown, however, the unit would have a series of such emitters and detectors along the length of the block so as to detect the height of the panel 7.

The detector unit 33 can be located in a central slot 22 in the frame 2 and, as indicated, is preferably in the form of a series of emitters and detectors or sensors that can detect whether glass panel 7 is in front of the sensors. Instead of an optical detector 35, the unit 33 may instead employ any other suitable form of sensor, or transducer, such as a mechanical switch or touch type sensor. In any case, as soon as an upper most sensor detects the absence of glass, a processor (not shown) determines the height value of the panel based on positive sensor results. Alternatively, the dimension of the glass panel could simply be input to the processor manually or through entering a product code or the like that provides associated dimensional information and threshold strength characteristics of the glass panel. The processor then calculates the pressure that needs to be applied to the panel in order to fit the sections 15 onto the edges of the panel, by reference to a look-up table. As an empirical guide, for every 10 cm of height measured, a force of 1 tonne needs to be applied to the press tools 10. As such, a direct correlation exists between the detected height of the panel 7 and the compression force that needs to be applied to the tools 10.

Turning now to Figure 2, a rear view of the sash press 1 shows the drive assembly 12 as including a servo motor 23 that applies torque via two worm reduction gear boxes 24 which are arranged to simultaneously drive top and bottom worm gears 25. The brackets 11 have back plates 26 with mountings 27 at either end 28 to couple to the gears 25. When the servo motor 23 is operated, the gears 25 rotate to move the mountings 27 and associated brackets 11 so that the press tools 10 are in parallel alignment and simultaneously move toward or away from each other under action of the servo motor 23.

Figure 3 is a front view of the press 1 illustrating the press tools 10 in a parallel vertical orientation. The tools 10 are connected to the brackets 11 by adjustment mechanisms 29 in the form of bolt and slot connectors 30 that allow the position of the tools 10 to be changed or adjusted, as required.

Figure 4 is a side view of the press 1, where the frame 2 is shown at an angle to the stand 3, preferably at about 15 degrees to vertical. A lower end 31 of each tool 10 is substantially in line with the guide roller 8.

With reference now to Figures 5 to 7, the lower end 31 of the tool 10 has a lead-in ramp 32 to lift the panel 7 up into the tool 10 for correct placement of the panel edge relative to the sash section 15. As shown, the lower end 31 and the ramp 32 are below the level of the guide roller 8 and the roller 8 is biased to deflect away from the tool 10, as the tool 10 moves past, during a sash pressing operation. The deflection of the guide roller 8 also means the roller 8 is less prone to being scored or gouged by the lead-in ramp 32.

System Hardware

The operation of the press is controlled using a system that has a micro controller custom programmed to operate the press via a set of transducers that determine the size of the panel, as provided by the detector unit, and transducers to monitor the applied compression force. A control box is also provided, consisting of 4 buttons, open, close, press and stop, for manual control.

In relation to the detector unit, that detects the size of the panel, the transducers are preferably in the form of a series of sensors placed in a vertical axis and at a distance of 50mm from the glass when placed on the frame.

As indicated previously, the sensors preferably detect the size of the panel in 100mm increments starting at 200mm being the minimum panel size and proceeding to 1500mm being the largest panel size.

Once the system processor determines the size of the panel, reference is made to an internal lookup table for the required amount of torque needed from the servo motor and hence the compression force to be applied to the press tools for the particular size of panel.

Alternatively, the compression force may be entered manually or read from a product code or the like associated with the panel.

The press operation is activated by the operator using the control box and the press tools proceed to a closing position. As the press tools close the styles engage the gasket and this generates a force to press the sections onto the glass panel. The servo motor has an analogue output which is applied to the analogue input of the micro controller.

Upon the correct force being applied to the panel, a trigger voltage is reached and the servo motor is stopped and reversed to an open position. This allows the operator to remove the panel from the press. The analogue input to the micro controller is suitably attenuated from the servo motor to provide calibration of the applied force to affect the correct force to install the styles on to the glass panel. This provides a closed loop servo system via the feedback from the servo motor . If the system needs to be calibrated, a large die spring of l,000Nm per 1mm can be coupled between the press tools to provide accurate calibration of the system. A simple measurement of the deflection of the spring determines the force applied for a given dimension of the panel. The force applied to the panel is calibrated and ranges from l,000Nm through 4,000Nm per 10cm panel height approximately depending upon the thickness of the glass. This figure is derived empirically for the range of panels.

A significant advantage of the present invention compared to the prior art is that the press force applied to the glass panel is pre-determined and constant at a level designed not to fracture the panel, based on the size of the panel itself.

In addition, there are no complicated controls requiring input from the operator to set the size of the panel. Nor can the operator make a mistake in inputting the wrong size of panel if the size of the panel is detected automatically.

Although not shown, the sash press 1 preferably also includes a protective shield that covers the press 1 during operation in the unlikely event the glass panel breaks and shatters when compression force is applied by the press tools 10.

The invention has been described by way of non-limiting example only and many modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. List of Parts

1. Sash press

2. Support frame

3. Stand

4. Feet

5. Uprights

6. Central rollers

7. Panel

8. Guide rollers

10. Press tool

11. Bracket

12. Drive assembly

13. Slot

14. Profile

15. Sash section

16. Style

17. Gasket

18. Edge

19. Groove

20. Rib

21. Opposed edges

22. Slot

23. Servo motor

24. Gear box

25. Worm gear

26. Plate

27. Mounting

28. End

29. Adjustment mechanism

30. Connector 31. Lower end

32. Ramp

33. Detector unit

34. Emitter

35. Detector

36. Mounting block

37. Beam

Claims

The Claims 1. A sash press including a support frame for holding a panel of glass, press tools adapted to hold opposite sections of a sash and a drive assembly to force the sections onto opposed edges of the panel.

2. The sash press of claim 1, including a unit to provide a value representing a height dimension of the panel.

3. The sash press of claim 1 or 2, including a processor to operate the drive assembly and to determine a compression force to be applied to the press tools based on the value.

4. The sash press of any one of claims 1 to 3, including a worm gear connected to each of the press tools to drive the tools in unison.

5. The sash press of any one of claims 1 to 4, including support rollers to support a base of the panel.

6. The sash press of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the press tools include lead-in ramps to lift the panel into a predetermined position in the sections.

7. The sash press of claim 5, further including biased guide rollers in line with the support rollers, the biased guide rollers being able to deflect as the press tools move toward each other.

8. The sash press of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the press includes a bracket to couple each tool to the drive unit and an adjustment mechanism to allow the tools to be adjusted relative to the brackets.

9. A method of assembling sash sections on a glass panel, including mounting the panel on a support frame and applying pressure to tools to drive the sash sections onto opposed edges of the pane.

10. The method of claim 9, further including determining a value representing a height dimension of the panel and applying a compression force based on the value.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method includes inputting the value to a processor and controlling a drive assembly to apply a set compression force to the tools.

12. The method of any one of claims 9 to 11, further including mounting the panel on support rollers to allow the panel to self-centre on the frame as pressure is applied through the tools.

13. The method of any one of claims 9 to 12, further including transferring the panel with the sections attached to another press station, where a remaining pair of sections of the sash are pressed onto the glass panel.

14. A glass panel with a sash sections fitted in accordance with the method of any one of claims 9 to 13.

15. A method of calculating a compression force to be applied to press tools used to fit sash sections to opposed edges of a glass panel including determining a size of the panel and referring to a look-up table where panel size is correlated to compression forces in order to select the compression force to be applied to the panel.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the panel size is automatically determined by a detector unit of a support frame of a sash press.