This application claims the benefit of priority of Italy Patent Application No. 102022000023472 filed on Nov. 15, 2022, the contents of which are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein in their entirety.
The present invention relates generically to a device for clamping panels or sheets, for example for the construction of balustrades, parapets, railings, or other fencing elements, with an improved structure.
For the structural connection of glass panels or sheets to building structures, such as, for example, reinforced concrete slabs or floors requiring safety parapets, the use of metal profiles (made of steel or aluminium), which are anchored to the building structure and which in turn hold the panels at an edge through fixing means, is still well known.
However, this type of clamping devices is made of noble materials, such as, for example, aluminium, thus proving very costly and poorly resistant in relation to the loads they must withstand, as the material used has low deformation resistance.
One problem of the prior art lies in the fact that, when mounted, the clamping device and thus the material making it up, for example aluminium, will be in direct contact with the floor and, due to its physical characteristics, will deform with great ease, with the related problems ensuing therefrom.
Moreover, one should likewise take into consideration the fact that, though glass sheets of increasingly large dimensions are requested, it is desired that the supporting metal profiles be of increasingly reduced dimensions and be as unobtrusive as possible, in order not to impact negatively on the aesthetic continuity of the installations and in order to reduce costs.
This requirement gives rise, on the other hand, to a lower reliability of the clamping device, which should however assure a given resistance.
Furthermore, today, in order to overcome the above-described problems given by the use of noble materials, among the various alternatives, the sheets are secured by means of concrete castings or, alternatively, through the use of precast concrete profiles, which, however, have the defect of being subject to the creation of cracks on their surface, making the system unsuitable for bearing the required loads over time. What has just been said also leads to products that are generally very bulky in size.
Moreover, some of these solutions do not allow a replacement of the fixed sheets should this be necessary and require a perimeter demolition of the system and restoration following the replacement.
The aim of the present invention is thus to overcome the abovementioned drawbacks and, in particular, to provide a device for clamping panels or sheets, with an improved structure, which has a greater resistance compared to the devices of the prior art, both to substantial operating loads of a static type and impact loads of a dynamic type.
Another aim of the invention is to provide a clamping device with an improved structure which renders the system more lightweight and enables the attainment of excellent performances, such as, solely by way of example, high adhesion and resistance to fatigue phenomena, thermal cycles, and high temperatures.
A further aim of the present invention is to provide a clamping device that is more economical compared to the prior art solutions, is simple to install and can be applied on any type of panel or sheet, while also preserving the aesthetic continuity of installations built with several glass sheets side by side.
These and other aims are achieved by a device for clamping panels or sheets, with an improved structure, according to the appended claim 1, while other detailed technical features of the clamping device which is the object of the invention are disclosed in the subsequent dependent claims.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is a device for clamping panels and sheets, comprising an extruded profile having a U-shaped profile.
Advantageously, the device is inferiorly attachable to a reference surface and is adapted to house at least one panel or sheet within the U. In preferred but non-limiting embodiments, the sheet is usually single-glazed, laminated and treated according to the required resistance. Furthermore, the sheet can also be made of a composite material such as (HPL), which is a type of decorative laminate consisting of numerous layers of Kraft paper impregnated with thermosetting resins, or materials of a composite type.
Advantageously, the aforesaid profile comprises:
In a first non-limiting embodiment, the slots are quadrangular in shape and said first and second brackets are parallel to each other.
In further embodiments, such as the one that may be seen in
Advantageously, the device is made of a noble material, preferably aluminium.
Furthermore, at least one slot of the plurality of slots, preferably in the first and second brackets, is filled with a further material, so as to create a device of the hybrid type and which will increase the overall performances of the device in question.
Likewise advantageously, as an alternative to what was said above, it is possible for the entire plurality of slots to be filled with the further material.
Solely by way of non-limiting example, the aforesaid injectable material in the plurality of slots is a material to be chosen preferably between an expansive premixed cement mortar for anchoring centimetric thicknesses by casting which is of a commercial type or a cement mortar or a cement mortar of an expansive type or a two-component resin, preferably vinylester.
In greater detail, the injectable material is filled into the slots by means of the casting technique for centimetric thicknesses, but also through injection under pressure with the aid of compressors and delivery nozzles.
In preferred but non-limiting embodiments, the inner walls of the device penetrate perpendicularly into the base so as to optimize the load distribution, as well as the durability and resistance of the device.
Solely by way of example, the base has a thickness of 3.5 mm, again in order to achieve the aim proposed above.
Moreover, each inner wall, outer wall and further inner wall is substantially flat and smooth or comprises knurls and/or protrusions to increase the friction between the walls and better strengthen the union between the noble perimeter profile and cement filler material, for example aluminium, and the expansive premixed cement mortar for anchoring centimetric thicknesses by casting injected therein.
Further aims and advantages of the present invention will emerge more clearly from the description that follows, which relates to a preferred but non-limiting example embodiment of the clamping device according to the invention, as well as from the appended drawings, wherein:
With reference to the mentioned figures, 10 indicates an extruded clamping device, having a U-shaped profile, adapted to be attached inferiorly to a reference surface, such as a slab and/or a floor, and to house a panel or sheet not shown in the figures, preferably made of glass, for the construction of balustrades, parapets, railings, and fencing structures in general.
Advantageously, the clamping device 10, U-shaped, has a substantially closed structure, comprising:
In greater detail, each first and second bracket 11 comprises a respective inner wall 111 and a respective outer wall 112 adapted to act structurally as upright members, as well as a plurality of further horizontal inner walls 113, located substantially parallel to the ground and between the inner wall 111 and the outer wall 112, so as to act structurally as cross members.
Advantageously, the aforesaid slots 20 are delimited by the inner walls 111 and the outer walls 112 of each bracket 11, as well as by the horizontal inner walls 113.
In a first embodiment, the slots 20 have a quadrangular shape and said first and second brackets 11 are structurally parallel to each other.
In further embodiments, such as the one that may be seen in
According to the present invention, compared to the device 100 of the prior art, the device with an improved structure 10 has a larger thickness of the base 12 compared to the thickness used today. Solely by way of example, the thickness of the base 12 of the device of prior art (
Furthermore, again advantageously, the inner walls 111 enter perpendicularly into the base 12 and have a greater thickness compared to that present in the prior art. Again with reference to
Advantageously, the device 10 is placed directly on the ground and fixed thereto by means of an associated anchorage system, also called anchor bolt.
Physically, the behaviour of the first and second brackets 11, being subject to bending, when in use, is that of a Vierendeel truss, which will be better described below.
Compared to the prior art, the device 10, as structured, assures that the thicknesses of the device are optimized compared to the distribution thereof in the device of the prior art. In fact, there is no need to have a full device 10, but it is sufficient that the latter has the aforesaid slots, which structurally allow the thickness and thus, accordingly, the weight of the device 10 to be reduced, thereby optimizing the use of the material making it up.
In greater detail,
In preferred but non-limiting embodiments, the material used to make the profile of the device 10 is aluminium. Advantageously, in order to be able to improve the performances of the device 10, the profile thereof is injected with a further material, at least at the level of the brackets 11, thereby creating a profile of a hybrid type.
Advantageously, this hybrid structure avoids problems such as cracking, endowing the device with greater resistance compared to what occurs today with devices of the traditional type.
Solely by way of example, the injectable material inside the profile of the device 10 can be cement mortar, for example of the expansive type, or a two-component resin such as high-performance vinylester and the like, preferably the product commercially known as an expansive premixed cement mortar for anchoring centimetric thicknesses by casting.
Such materials are applicable by casting for centimetric thicknesses and are adapted to endow the device 10 with important characteristics such as high adhesion and resistance to fatigue phenomena, thermal cycles, and high temperatures.
Furthermore, by virtue of the cooperation between the two materials, the one of the profile plus the injected one, there is also an increased possibility of the device 10 withstanding substantial operating loads, for example, 2 kN/m loads of a static type and impact loads of a dynamic type.
In the first embodiment, which may be seen in
In further embodiments, as may be seen in
All the various experimental phases, which, starting from the prior art solution, led to the making of the device with an improved structure 10, the object of the present invention and as described above, will be illustrated in detail below.
Substantially, starting from the study of loads and of the usable material, a first model 100 was constructed, according to the known geometry, which took account of the nonlinear behaviour due to both the geometry of the device and the material used.
For all the study hypotheses of solutions, the control criteria followed were:
As may be seen in
As mentioned previously, the behaviour of the bracket subject to bending is that of a Vierendeel truss.
Generically, the static Vierendeel scheme involves bending and axial action on the upright members (inner wall 111 and outer wall 112) and bending on the horizontal members (further inner wall 113).
The bending moment is broken down as a pair of forces on the vertical walls of the bracket:
As may be seen in
In
In a first solution, which may be seen in
In a second solution, which may be seen in
In the last solution, which may be seen in
As may be seen in
With reference to
At this point, as may be seen in
At the conclusion of these tests, the extruded profile was verified, as the deformations showed to be equal to 1.6%<5%.
With reference to
In particular, this solution proposes:
In detail, the expansive premixed cement mortar for anchoring centimetric thicknesses by casting was considered to have been introduced into all the holes of the device 100 and
The effect of the expansive premixed cement mortar for anchoring centimetric thicknesses by casting is to create a series of diagonals that work only under compression between the meshes of the extruded profile. The expansive premixed cement mortar for anchoring centimetric thicknesses by casting was thus modelled with diagonal elements of the cutoff bar type only under compression. The cross section of the cutoff bar is dependent on the size of the mesh in the extrusion direction. Considering that the mesh has a size of 10 mm along the extent of the extruded profile, a cutoff bar with a rectangular cross section of 10×4 mm was considered, thus resulting in a cross-section area of 40 mm2 for each equivalent beam element which represents the cutoff bars.
At this point, similarly to what was done for the previous solution, in this case as well,
In
In
Using an expansive premixed cement mortar for anchoring centimetric thicknesses by casting and considering the relevant technical datasheet, there is a compressive strength of:
Considering a cross section of 10×4 mm (equal to 40 mm2), where 10 mm is the mesh pitch and 4 mm is a geometrically reasonable thickness for the cutoff bar, what results is a maximum strength of:
The cutoff bars in white, at the base 12 in
Only in the mesh corner cutoff bars of the base 12, indicated in
A compression-induced crack could form in the direction of the compressed diagonal. Based on a first analysis, however, this is not deemed to be a significant critical aspect, since the material remains in place, retained by the aluminium and protecting the surrounding walls from bending.
Finally,
The conclusions of all these study solutions for optimizing the structure of the device 100 of the prior art are summed up in
In particular, they lead to an extruded profile that is not verified due to the following critical aspects:
This solution, through the results of all the aforesaid study and experimentation phases, not only overcomes the limits of the prior art, but also optimizes the final structure for achieving the previously specified objectives.
From the description provided, the features of the device for clamping panels or sheets, with an improved structure, of the present invention are clear, as are the advantages thereof, both operational and functional.
Finally, it is clear that numerous other variants can be introduced to the clamping device and adjustment in question without going beyond the principles of novelty inherent in the inventive idea, just as it is clear that, in the practical implementation of the invention, the materials, shapes and sizes of the details illustrated may be any whatsoever according to needs and the same may be replaced with other equivalent ones.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102022000023472 | Nov 2022 | IT | national |