GB2183818A

GB2183818A - Ventilators for windows

Info

Publication number: GB2183818A
Application number: GB08528839A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Stephen Paul Broad
Original assignee: HUNTER INT Ltd
Current assignee: HUNTER INT Ltd
Priority date: 1985-11-22
Filing date: 1985-11-22
Publication date: 1987-06-10
Also published as: GB2183818B; GB8528839D0

Abstract

The ventilator 6 is accommodated within a window- frame 1 together with a sheet of glass 5. The ventilator includes a web 9 having apertures which define a ventilation channel. The web is provided at its lower edge with a seal for a pane of glass. The web, the seal and the glass, when assembled, form an assembly of substantially uniform thickness so that the assembly can be easily received within a window frame. The seal has an upper rib 16 which engages an inverted channel at the base of the web and downwardly directed strips 15 of rigid PVC. Flexible tangs 17 and lips 18 which engage the glass are coextruded of flexible material. Extension pieces 12 are mounted on each side of the web and include end caps 11 of a housing 10 on each side of the web. One of the housings may contain a movable shutter. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to a ventilation arrangement THE PRESENT INVENTION relates to a ventilation arrangement and more particularly related to a ventilation arrangement intended to be mounted in position, together with a sheet of glass, within a glazing opening.

It has been proposed previously to provide a ventilator arrangement adapted to be located in a glazing opening, together with a sheet of glass. In a typical prior proposed ventilator arrangement of this type, the ventilator arrangement has incorporated a planar web of material having apertures passing therethrough which serve to define a ventilation passage.

The apertures may be associated with a ventilator housing or the like on one or both sides of the web. The lowermost edge of the web of material is bifurcated to define a downwardly open channel which receives the upper edge of a pane of glass, together with an appropriate sealing strip or the like. It will be understood that this bifurcated part of the web is substantially thicker than the remaining part of the web. A sheet of glass has one edge thereof inserted into the downwardly open channel and the entire assembly of the sheet of glass and the ventilator arrangement can then be located in position within a glazing opening as formed, for example, in a wooden window frame.Putty, or beading together with putty, may then be located in position around the inner periphery of the window frame, thus retaining the glass and the ventilator arrangement in position within the glazing opening. The putty and/or the beading is moulded appropriately to cover the bifurcated part of the web which, as has been mentioned above, is substantially thicker than the remainig part of the web.

It is now becoming conventional to utilise, instead of the traditional putty, or beading and putty, a so called "dry-glazing" technique to locate glass in position in a window frame.

This is particularly the case since it is now relatively common to utilise window frames that are formed of extrusions either of aluminium or of plastic material. Such window frames can readily be glazed on site without utilizing putty.

When a frame of this type is to be provided with a sheet of glass an appropriate sealing strip is located in position in the frame, the glass is located in the frame, and then retaining beads with associated sealing strips are effectively snapped into position. It has been found that a "dry glazing" technique of this type cannot readily be utilised with a ventilator of the above-described prior-proposed type, since the snap-in beads do not form a water tight seal around the bifurcated part of the web. In order to overcome this it has been the practice, where a ventilator of the type described above is to be utilised in conjunction with a "dry-glazing" technique, to provide a small tube of sealant which can be utilised to seal any gap that occurs, but this is not really a satisfactory solution to the problem.

According to one aspect of this invention there is provided a ventilator arrangement, said ventilator arrangement comprising a ventilator assembly including a web having means extending therethrough defining a ventilation channel, sealing means at one edge of the web adapted sealingly to receive one edge of a sheet of glass, the sealing means being adapted so that, when the plane of glass is received therein, the web, the sealing means and the glass are of substantially uniform thickness, at least in the region of the outer periphery of the combination constituted by the ventilator arrangement and the pane of glass.

Preferably said sealing means comprises an elongate channel member, dimensioned and adapted to embrace one edge of the pane of glass, the sealing means being mounted on one edge of the said web.

Conveniently said one edge of the web defines a channel or recess therein, the sealing means being provided with a member adapted to be inserted into said channel or recess to retain the sealing means at the said one edge of the web.

Advantageously the sealing means comprises an elongate co-extrusion of a substantially rigid plastics material defining said channel, and a substantially resilient plastics material defining inwardly directed lips provided at the open end of said channel to sealingly engage the opposed faces of said sheet of glass.

Preferably said channel is provided with an elongate rib protruding from the base thereof, said resilient material comprising a plurality of tangs projecting from said rib adapted to engage the channel formed in one edge of said web.

Conveniently the ventilator includes a central web portion having said means extending therethrough defining a ventilation channel and two web extension pieces secured thereto which can be selectively cut to length.

Advantageously the central web portion defines a housing thereon, said web extension pieces each being formed integrally with a respective end cap for the ventilator housing.

Preferably each end cap and associated web extension piece is formed of two components, each said component having a planar element forming part of the web extension.

Conveniently each said component comprises a planar region which constitutes one part of said web extension piece, at least one said planar region being provided with means protruding therefrom adapted to engage the planar region of the other component.

Advantageously the two components are ul tra-sonically welded together.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a sealing strip, said sealing strip comprising a substantially "U" sectioned channel adapted to receive one edge of a pane of glass, and means for mounting the strip in position on a web, the strip being formed of a coextrusion of rigid material and flexible material, the rigid material constituting said channel, the flexible material constituting two resilient lips formed at the open mouth of the channel adapted to engage opposed faces of said sheet of glass.

Preferably said lips are directed inwardly, but extend away from the base of the channel.

Advantageously an element is provided extending away from the base of the channel, said element having co-extruded therewith tangs of said resilient material so that the sealing strip may be retained in position by inserting said element and said tangs into an appropriately dimensioned channel or recess or the like.

Conveniently said rigid material is PVC and the flexible material is nitrile rubber.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a component in the form of an end cap for a ventilator housing together with a substantially planar extension of uniform cross section, wherein said component is fabricated from two elements, each element having a planar portion defining part of said planar extension.

Preferably the planar portions of the two elements are abutted, but are spaced apart by protruding means present on at least one of said planar portions.

Advantageously one element carries a plurality of parallel ribs which constitute said protruding means.

Conveniently one component carries a peripheral rib consisting said protruding means.

Advantageously the components are ultrasonically welded together.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood, and so that further features thereof may be appreciated, the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: FIGURE 1 is a partly cut away view of a ventilator arrangement mounted in a window frame and held in position by a "dry-glazing" technique, FIGURE 2 is an enlarged perspective view of part of the arrangement shown in Figure 1, FIGURE 3 is an end elevational view illustrating the web of the ventilator, a connecting strip and the top edge of a sheet of glass, FIGURE 3A is a view corresponding to Figure 3 illustrating a modified embodiment of the invention;; FIGURE 4 is a perspective exploded view of one end housing of the ventilator arrangement shown in Figure 1, taken in one direction, and FIGURE 5 is a view corresponding to Figure 4, taken in another direction.

Referring initially to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings a window frame 1, only part of which is shown, is formed from plastics material extrusions 2. Located within the main plastics extrusion 2 is a second extrusion 3 which carries a rubber sealing strip 4.

It will be understood that the rubber sealing strip 4 runs entirely around the periphery of a square or rectangular glazing opening, which is to receive, in the present case, a sheet of glass 5 which may be 4mm or 6mm thick, together with a ventilator arrangement 6.

A second rubber sealing strip 7 is provided which lies over the glass 5 and the ventilator arrangement 6, the second sealing strip 7 being retained in position by means of a "Snap- in" bead 8. The details of the window frame itself are conventional and thus do not require further description at this stage.

It is to be understood at this stage that the sheet of glass 5 and the illustrated ventilator arrangement 6 have a substantially uniform thickness over their entire periphery by virtue of the specific design of the ventilator arrangement 6 which will be described hereinafter in greater detail. Thus, as can be seen in Figure 2, the sealing strip 7 forms a uniform seal in the entire region between the ventilator arrangement 6 and the glass 5.

The ventilator arrangement 6 includes a main planar web portion 9 which has a plurality of apertures which forms ventilation passages extending therethrough. The apertures are associated with a ventilator housing 10 which can be seen clearly in Figure formed on the front face of the web 9, and there may be a further ventilator housing (not shown) on the reverse surface of the web 9. One of the ventilator housings may contain a shutter or the like movable between open and closed positions, so that the ventilation passages may be opened or closed as desired. The housing 10 is provided with an end cap 11 which is integrally formed with a web extension 12. The end caps 11 and web extensions 12 are provided at each end of the housing 10. The web extensions 12 may be cut to size, as will be described hereinafter, so that the combination of the web 9 and the two web extensions 12 is substantially equal to the width of the sheet of glass 5 to be inserted into the glazing opening. A sealing strip 12' may be provided between the web 9 and the web extension 12.

The lower edge of the web 9, and the lower edge of each web extension 12 defines a downwardly open channel 13 (see Figure 3) which is of uniformal cross section. A connecting strip 14 of a specific design is. provided which is mounted within that downwardly open channel 13 over the entire length of the channel. The sealing strip 14 is a coextrusion of a substantially rigid material, such as PVC, which defines the base and two arms of an inverted substantially "U" channel portion 15, with an upwardly extending rib proejecting from the centre of the base of the "U". Coextruded with the rigid PVC material is a flexible material, such as nitrile rubber, which forms two downwardly inclined tangs 17 on either side of the rib 16 and two inwardly and downwardly directed flexible lips 18 formed at the free ends of the arms of the inverted "U" section channel 15.

Instead of using a co-extruded strip of two materials, two or more separate strips of different materials may be extruded and then subsequently adhered together to form a single composite strip.

It will be appreciated that the rib 16 may be inserted into the channel 13, thus compressing the flexible tangs 17 so that the tang 17 firmly engage the side walls of the channel 13, thus retaining the strip 15 securely in position. Wheri the strip 15 has thus been mounted in position the edge of the sheet of glass 5 may be introduced into the inverted "U" section channel 15, and the flexible lips 18 will firmly engage both sides of the sheet of glass, thus providing a weather tight seal.

Since the combination of the web 9 and the web extension pieces 12 is selected to be substantially the same as the width of the sheet of glass 5, and since the sealing strip has a length equivalent to the length of the lower edge of the combination of the web 9 and the web extenders 12 when the sheet of glass 5 has been inserted into the sealing strip 14 mounted on the lowermost edge of the combined web 9 and web extenders 12, the resultant structure is substantially square or rectangular, and has, at least in the region of its periphery, a substantially uniform thickness. This is because (as can be see from Figure 3) the sealing strip has substantially the same thickness as the thickness of the web 9 which is, in itself, substantially the same thickness as the glass 5.There is room for a certain discrepancy between the thickness of the described components, but since the components are virtually of the same thickness, as can be seen from Figure 2, the rubber sealing strip 7 is able to mould itself to the configuration of the web extender 12, the sealing strip 14 and the sheet of glass 5, thus providing a weather tight seal. This is in direct contrast with the prior art arrangement where the rubber sealing strip 7 could not follow the sharp change in thickness in the region of the bifurcation at the lower edge of the web.

As shown in Figure 3A the bottom part of the web may be thickened 9' so that there is virtually no discontinuity at the junction between the web and the seal. This makes it easier for the sealing strip 7 to make a perfect seal.

It has been found that in utilising the present invention a weather tight window assembly which incorporates a ventilator can readily be fabricated utilising a dry glazing technique. It will be appreciated that the complete assembly will comprise a window frame having a sheet of glass securely mounted in position in the lower part of the glazing opening, and a ventilator mounted in position in the upper part of the glazing opening. Thus, even if the window is locked shut, thus preventing entry to the premises by a burglar or other similar person, nevertheless a certain degree of ventilation may be provided.

In fabricating the ventilator arrangement described above, a web 9 on which is mounted major part of the housing 10 will be fabricated of a standard length, and the end caps 11 for the ventilator will be provided with the web extension pieces 12 of a predetermined length selected such that the web extension pieces 12 may readily be cut to size, thus making it possible to produce readily a ventilator assembly ready for insertion in a glazing opening of any specific size.

It will be appreciated that it is therefore desirable to be able to produce a ventilator end cap 11 connected to a web 12 of considerable length and of perfectly uniform thickness.

If an attempt is made to manufacture an item of this type designed so that the web 12 is of solid plastics material, it is very difficult to achieve the desired result. Either the mould design is such that there is a draft angle on the web 12, so that the web effectively tapers, or very expensive multi-part tools must be utilised. If any attempt is made to mould the web 12 of solid plastic material it is very difficult to control the tolerances on the thickness of the web, and also the moulding cycle is very long, since the plastics material present in the thick web will need to be cooled sufficiently to solidify, which will take a relatively long time.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate one of the caps 11 forming part of the ventilator assembly of Figure 1, showing the design of the web extension piece 12. Figures 4 and 5 are corresponding exploded views illustrating the same components from different vantage points. It can be seen that the housing and the web extension are moulded in two pieces. The first piece comprises a substantially planar element 19 provided with a plurality of spaced apart parallel ribs 20 on one face thereof. The planar part 19 has, integrally moulded therewith, at one end thereof, a housing component 22 adapted to engage with one end of the housing 10. The component 22 is provided with appropriate screw holes 23 to receive screws to enable the housing to be screwed in position.The second component illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 again consists of a substantially planar element 24 having the same general configuration as the element 19 but effectively being a mirror image thereof. The interior face 25 of the element 24 is not provided with ribs corresponding to the ribs 20, but instead is provided with a peripheral inwardly directed lip 26.

The illustrated component also carries projecting parts 27 which cooperate with part of the ventilator housing on the rear of the web in Figure 1.

The two components illustrated can be put together with the free edges of the ribs 20 contacting the planar face 25 of the element 24 within the bounds of the peripheral rim 26.

The two components may then be ultra-sonically welded together, for example although other means may be utilised to interconnect the two components.

It has been found that by utilising this design technique, it is possible to fabricate a housing end piece and an associated web extension piece in a relatively economic manner, since it is possible to mould the described components rapidly with an adequate toierance. It will be appreciated that none of the plastic material in the final moulding is very thick, thus minimising the use of raw material, and leading to the production of a relatively light product. The product can be made within adequate tolerances, and the web extension, being of reinforced hollow section, is of substantial strength. The hollow web extension has good thermal insulation properties. The web extension piece may be cut to length appropriately.

The components shown in Figures 4 and 5 are, of course "handed". Components of the opposite "hand" configuration will be provided for use at the other end of the housing 10.

Claims

1. A ventilator arrangement, said ventilator arrangement comprising a ventilator assembly including a web having means extending therethrough defining a ventilation channel, sealing means at one edge of the web adapted sealingly to receive one edge of a sheet of glass, the sealing means being adapted so that, when the plane of glass is received therein, the web, the sealing means and the glass are of substantially uniform thickness, at least in the region of the outer periphery of the combination constituted by the ventilator arrangement and the pane of glass.

2. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 1 wherein said sealing means comprises an elongate channel member, dimensioned and adapted to embrace one edge of the pane of glass, the sealing means being mounted on one edge of the said web.

3. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 2 wherein said one edge of the web defines a channel or recess therein, the sealing means being provided with a member adapted to be inserted into said channel or recess to retain the sealing means at the said one edge of the web.

4. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 3 wherein the sealing means comprises an elongate co-extrusion of a substantially rigid plastics material defining said channel, and a substantially resilient plastics material defining inwardly directed lips provided at the open end of said channel to sealingly engage the opposed faces of said sheet of glass.

5. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 4 wherein said channel is provided with an elongate rib protruding from the base thereof, said resilient material comprising a plurality of tangs projecting from said rib adapted to engage the channel formed in one edge of said web.

6. A ventilator arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the ventilator includes a central web portion having said means extending therethrough defining a ventilation channel and two web extension pieces secured thereto which can be selectively cut to length.

7. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 6 wherein the central web portion defines a housing thereon, said web extension pieces each being formed integrally with a respective end cap for the ventilator housing.

8. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 7 wherein each end cap and associated web extension piece is formed of two components, each said component having a planar element forming part of the web extension.

9. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 8 wherein each said component comprises a planar region which constitutes one part of said web extension piece, at least one said planar region being provided with means protruding therefrom adapted to engage the planar region of the other component.

10. A ventilator arrangement according to claim 9 wherein the two components are ultra-sonically welded together.

11. A sealing strip, said sealing strip comprising a substantially "U" sectioned channel adapted to receive one edge of a pane of glass, and means for mounting the strip in position on a web, the strip being formed of a coextrusion of rigid material and flexible material, the rigid material constituting said channel, the flexible material constituting two resilient lips formed at the open mouth of the channel adapted to engage opposed faces of said sheet of glass.

12. A sealing strip according to claim 11 wherein said lips are directed inwardly, but extend away from the base of the channel.

13. A sealing strip according to claim 1 1 or 12 wherein an element is provided extending away from the base of the channel, said element having co-extruded therewith tangs of said resilient material so that the sealing strip may be retained in position by inserting said element and said tangs into an appropriately dimensioned channel or recess or the like.

14. A sealing strip according to any one of claims to wherein said rigid material is PVC and the flexible material is nitrile rubber.

15. A component in the form of an end cap for a ventilator housing together with a substantially planar extension of uniform cross section, wherein said component is fabricated from two elements, each element having a planar portion defining part of said planar extension.

16. A component according to claim 15 wherein the planar portions of the two elements are abutted, but are spaced apart by protruding means present on at least one of said planar portions.

17. A component according to claim 16 wherein one element carries a plurality of parallel ribs which constitute said protruding means.

18. A component according to claim 15 or 16 wherein one component carries a peripheral rib constituting said protruding means.

19. A component according to any one of claims 15 to 18 wherein the components are ultra-sonically welded together.

20. A ventilator arrangement substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

21. A sealing strip substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

22. A two-part component substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

23. A glazed window incorporating a ventilator arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 10 or 20.

24. Any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein.