The present invention relates to a building facade element embodied as an insulating glass unit according to the preamble of claim 1.
In the construction of building facades, the emphasis is increasingly on the esthetic appeal of the installed elements and on the overall esthetic appeal of the building. There is a strong demand for large-area glass facades, especially with respect to complexes of large business enterprises and stores. Large-area glass facades are composed of a plurality of elements of an insulating glass unit. To satisfy the mandated requirements for building insulation and thereby keep the cost of heating and the use of air conditioning within limits, the insulating glass units are composed of a plurality of glass panes. To improve thermal insulation, an inner chamber between the glass panes is filled with a gas having low thermal conductivity. To create the inner chamber, the glass panes are connected to each other by means of spacers, especially by means of a combination of different spacers, and sealants so as to create a gas-tight seal. The seal between the spacers and the glass panes, and especially the seal of the joining region between two spacers, is of crucial importance in the creation of the gas-tight inner chamber. On large-area glass facades which can be composed of a plurality of elements of the insulating glass units, the spacers may have an undesirable effect on the visual appearance in the transition region between the elements. Such an undesirable effect can be avoided or at least reduced by using transparent spacers, especially glass spacers.
The insulating glass units known from the prior art either do not satisfy the requirements for the gas tightness of the inner chamber or they have a negative effect on the visual appearance of the insulating glass units because of the spacers used.
German Utility Model DE 94 11 674 U1 describes an element for a facade cladding made of glass in which a glass strip serves as a spacer between two parallel glass panes. This, however, creates merely an air-tight inner chamber, but not the gas-tight inner chamber required for thermal insulation.
The publication WO 2015/086457 A2 discloses an insulating glazing for a building, comprising at least two panes, a circumferential polymer or metal spacer, appropriate sealants between the panes and the spacers, and appropriate sealants in the external intermediate space between the panes and an intermediate space filled with air or gas. The connection between two spacers on the corners of the insulated glazing is implemented by a corner connector, especially a plastic molded part, in which two miter-cut spacers are adjoined to each other. The inner chamber of the glazing between the panes is filled with an inert gas before the assembly is pressed together.
The patent specification WO 2017/157634 A1 discloses an insulating glass unit which can be filled with air or gas and which has at least one transparent spacer, especially a spacer made of glass. To connect the glass pane to the spacer, a first waterproof seal, especially formed by a transparent acrylic adhesive tape, and a second gas- and water vapor-proof seal, especially made of transparent butyl, is provided. The insulating glass unit is intended for use in a climatic cabinet and is not suitable for use in a building facade, inter alia, because the seal, especially the transparent butyl used, is not sufficiently resistant to natural UV radiation.
The publication WO 2017/157636 A1 also discloses an insulating glass unit for an air-conditioned unit. The glass spacers used are cut from a glass pane and directly used in the roughly cut unprocessed condition. These glass spacers are connected to the glass pane by means of a sealant, with the sealant filling the uneven surface of the unprocessed glass spacer in the intermediate space.
German Utility Model DE 20 2017 104 538 U1 describes an insulating glass element with spacers made of glass and a plastic material or aluminum for use in multi-pane doors. The glass pane is connected to the spacer by means of an EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) film, and the EVA film strips are disposed so as to overlap at the four corner points from the horizontal spacer and the vertical spacer. The edges are sealed in that the intermediate space between the upper and the lower glass pane up to the aluminum spacer, which is inserted at right angles thereto, is filled with a sealing compound, preferably black polysulfide.
The patent specification EP 2 456 942 B1 describes a multi-pane glazing unit with a spacer strip made of tempered glass and without a gas-tight inner chamber.
European patent applications EP 3 147 443 A1 and EP 0 470 373 A1 disclose how to seal laminated glass elements in general. The use of transparent spacers, especially spacers made of glass, is not described.
The task of the present invention is to provide a building facade element embodied as an insulating glass unit, wherein the insulating glass unit has a gas-tight inner chamber and the visual appearance thereof is not negatively affected.
The invention solves this task with a building facade element having the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments and further advanced modifications of the invention are described in the dependent claims.
According to the present invention, the above-mentioned building facade element embodied as an insulating glass unit, comprising at least one first and one second glass pane, at least one glass spacer made of glass [sic], which is connected to each glass pane by means of at least one first sealant, at least one additional spacer, with the spacer being gas-tight or having a gas-tight layer and with the additional spacer being connected to each glass pane by means of at least one second sealant, at least one joining region between a glass spacer and an additional spacer, with the at least one glass spacer, the at least one additional spacer and the glass panes forming a sealed inner chamber, is characterized in that the at least one joining region is sealed to create a gas-tight seal by means of a third sealant, with the third sealant containing butyl and extending over the joining region.
In addition, the third sealant of the building facade element, which seals the joining region between a glass spacer and an additional spacer with a gas-tight seal, can comprise a metal-containing tape.
In this context, a metal-containing tape is intended to also include especially a metal-containing plastic tape and a metal tape.
According to another embodiment of the building facade element, the additional spacer has a recess in the region of the at least one joining region. The remaining non-recessed region of the additional spacer preferably extends along a short side of the glass spacer. The first sealant preferably comprises a first primary sealant on the side facing the inner chamber and a first secondary sealant on the side facing the external region. The first secondary sealant is most preferably also applied to the short side of the glass spacer. According to an advantageous embodiment, the remaining non-recessed region of the additional spacer does not extend over the entire length of the short side of the glass spacer. The third sealant preferably extends from the remaining short side of the glass spacer up to the external side of the additional spacer.
In addition, the building facade element may comprise at least one additional layer of the third sealant, which layer seals the joining region to create a gas-tight seal, or a layer of silicone, or a layer consisting of the third sealant and silicone, which layer is applied to the edge of the insulating glass unit.
The sealants used in the building facade element are preferably resistant to natural UV radiation.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the building facade element, the first sealant, by means of which the glass spacer is connected to the glass panes, or the second sealant, by means of which the additional spacer is connected to the glass panes, or both of the sealants mentioned consist(s) of a primary sealant, which is disposed on the side facing the inner chamber, and a secondary sealant which is disposed on the side facing the external region. At least one of the primary and secondary sealants mentioned is transparent. In addition, one of the primary sealants or both primary sealants may contain acrylic. According to an advantageous embodiment, one of the primary sealants or both primary sealants takes/take the form of a double-sided adhesive tape. One of the secondary sealants or both secondary sealants preferably contains/contain butyl.
According to an advantageous embodiment, the first sealant consists of a first primary sealant on the side facing the inner chamber and a first secondary sealant on the side facing the external region, with the first primary sealant containing acrylic and the first secondary sealant containing butyl, which is resistant to natural UV radiation. The first secondary sealant is preferably a black butyl sealant. Most preferably, the first primary sealant is transparent.
In addition, the inner chamber of the building facade element is filled with gas, especially with argon, krypton, xenon or a mixture of these gases.
According to yet another embodiment, at least one side of at least one of the glass panes of the building facade element has a metal coating.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the building facade element, the at least one additional spacer is a plastic spacer or a metal spacer, especially an aluminum or a stainless steel spacer.
A drying agent is preferably incorporated into the at least one additional spacer.
According to a preferred embodiment, the gas-tight layer of the at least one additional spacer is a metal-containing tape.
Preferably, the at least one additional spacer of the building facade element can be punctured in order to fill the inner chamber with gas.
According to yet another configuration, the at least one glass spacer of the building facade element consists of a plurality of components disposed adjacent to each other, or the at least one additional spacer consists of a plurality of components disposed adjacent to each other, or both combined.
The invention will be described in greater detail below by way of exemplary embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings. These drawings show:
The elements of a glass façade must satisfy both esthetic and functional requirements, especially with regard to thermal insulation. To this end, insulating glass units 1 are used, whose individual glass panes 2, 3 are connected to each other by means of spacers in such a way that a gas-tight inner chamber 10 is created, which can be filled with gas, especially a gas with low thermal conductivity, such as argon, xenon, krypton or a mixture thereof.
To avoid a negative effect on the visual appearance of the insulating glass unit 1 and to ensure a pleasing overall visual appearance of the glazing, spacers made of glass are used at least on the visible sides of the insulating glass unit 1 to be installed. The glass spacers 4 preferably have the same composition as the individual glass panes 2, 3 of the insulating glass unit 1. To ensure a gas-tight inner chamber 10, the glass spacers 4 are connected to the glass panes 2, 3 by means of first sealants 5, 5′, as illustrated in
The first sealant 5, 5′ shown in
The first primary sealant 13 shown in
The additional layer 12 shown in
As
The adhesive 17 used in the possible embodiments of the connection between an additional spacer 6 and the glass panes 2, 3, as shown in
The embodiment shown in
In order to use the insulating glass unit 1 as an element of a building façade, the sealants 5, 5′, 8, 8′, 11 used must be sufficiently resistant especially to natural UV radiation. In this context, a sealant is considered resistant to natural UV radiation if, for example, after the treatment specified in DIN EN ISO 4892-2, it has not undergone any substantial changes over a period of 3000 hours. However, other definitions of UV resistance obvious to those skilled in the art can also be followed, such as a treatment according to the American Standard ANSI Z97.1-2015 which requires that no substantial changes occur over a period of 3000 hours. Since sealants containing transparent butyl are not sufficiently resistant to natural UV exposure, the butyl sealant, especially the sealant used for the secondary sealants 14, 16, is a black butyl sealant which has the UV resistance required. A negative effect on the insulating glass unit 1 caused by the secondary sealant 14, 16, especially by the secondary sealant 14 disposed in the region of the glass spacers 4, is negligible since this sealant is applied only in a thin layer.
To obtain a gas-tight inner chamber 10, it is necessary, in addition to the gas-tight connection between the glass spacer 4 and the glass panes 2, 3 and between the additional spacer 6 and the glass panes 2, 3, to seal the joining region between a glass spacer 4 and an additional spacer 6 with a gas-tight seal. Special attention must be paid to the short side of the additional spacers 6, which does not have a gas-tight layer 7 and could therefore make a gas exchange possible.
To fill the inner chamber 10 of the insulating glass unit 1 with gas, the at least one additional spacer 6 is punctured in at least two areas to create a gas inlet and a gas outlet. Via the inlet, the inner chamber 10 is subsequently filled with the gas to be introduced until only the gas to be introduced can be detected at the outlet. The inlet and the outlet are subsequently sealed with a gas-tight seal by means of a sealant, especially a butyl sealant.
To manufacture a building facade element embodied as an insulating glass unit 1 according to the present invention, glass spacers 4 are placed on the long side of the lower first glass pane 2 on top of the first primary sealant 13, preferably in the form of the above-described double-sided acrylic adhesive tape, and along the external edges of the glass spacer 4 on top of the first secondary sealant 14, preferably in the form of a butyl string. The additional spacers 6, preferably in the form of the commercially available plastic spacers described, are provided with the recesses described and are attached to the short sides of the first glass pane 2 adjacent to the glass spacers 4. After placement of the second glass pane 3, the insulating glass unit 1 is joined together under pressure. Subsequently, the joining region 9 is sealed by means of the third sealant 11, the inner chamber 10 is filled with gas, the adhesive 17 is applied to the external side of the plastic spacers, and one additional layer or a plurality of additional layers 12 of a butyl sealant or of silicone is/are applied to the edge of the insulating glass unit 1.
In other embodiments, at least one of the glass panes 2, 3 can be provided with a metal layer, for example, a sun protection layer or a thermal protection layer.
Also conceivable are insulating glass units 1 which are constructed of more than two glass panes 2, 3 and a plurality of inner chambers 10.
Furthermore, given the length of the building facade elements, it is possible for a glass spacer 4 to be composed of a plurality of components, especially of a plurality of glass components disposed one next to the other.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2018 105 479.3 | Mar 2018 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2019/055866 | 3/8/2019 | WO | 00 |