Fasteners, such as screws, may be used to secure objects, such as wood, metal, or plastic objects, to each other. Fasteners are used in a wide variety of construction applications. For example, it is known to use fasteners to secure roof and side paneling to building structures. In such applications, environmental or weather conditions can result in water or moisture leaking through at the locations of the fasteners, potentially damaging the underlying building structures.
Certain fasteners are used in hidden locations, whereas other screws may be used in more visible locations, such on the exterior of a building. Certain known fasteners used to secure paneling to buildings have large protrusive heads, which can be aesthetically unpleasing.
There is therefore an existing need for fasteners and fastener assemblies that provide a water-tight seal and have an aesthetically pleasing appearance.
Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a fastener assembly with a fastener and a washer (e.g., a sealing washer). The fastener includes a low profile head coupled to a shaft, wherein at least a portion of the shaft is threaded. The low profile head has an underside and an outwardly facing side opposite from the underside. The outwardly facing side has a tapered portion (e.g., a conical surface) surrounding a central flat portion having a drive recess (e.g., to receive a tip of a driving tool). The underside has a washer recess disposed about the threaded shaft. The washer is disposed in the washer recess about the shaft.
In this manner, the fastener assembly of present disclosure provides a water tight seal, provides a better appearance when the fastener assembly is in place, eliminates the “battleship” look attributed to protrusive fasteners, provides a solution for applications requiring panel lapping, reduces installation time, and reduces leakage even when driven at an angle, and reduces maintenance associated with leakage.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings.
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
Referring now to
The washer 14 is located or retained between the shaft 16 and the low profile head 12. In certain embodiments, the washer 14 may be directly bonded to an underside 26 of the low profile head 12, while in other embodiments the washer 14 is not bonded to the underside 26 of the low profile head 12. In either configuration, the washer 14 may be held within a washer recess formed in the underside 26 (e.g., a recessed surface) as discussed in further detail below. For example, the underside 26 may have a generally annular recess to receive the washer 14.
The washer 14, in certain embodiments, may be a sealing washer (e.g., a rubber washer or o-ring). It should be appreciated, however, that the washer 14 may be any suitable washer which facilitates sealing of a bore, thereby helping to prevent damage (e.g., due to water leakage) to any underlying building structure. The washer 14 may be comprised of any suitable compressible material, including modified or unmodified bitumen, tar, neoprene, fluoroelastomer, silicone, natural rubber, or any suitable synthetic rubber, for example. Furthermore, the washer 14 may include multiple layers of different materials, such as concentric ring-shaped layers, axially stacked layers, or any combination thereof. For example, the layers of the washer 14 may vary in stiffness or resiliency, such as a rigid layer surrounded by two resilient layers. By further example, the layers of the washer 14 may include layers with different properties, such as one layer with greater resiliency or compressibility, one layer with greater chemical resistance, one layer with greater corrosion resistance, one layer with greater biological resistance (e.g., resistant to mold growth), or any combination thereof. The configuration of the fastener and integral washer of the disclosed fastener assembly 10 (as described in more detail below) provides a weather proof seal at the fastened connection, even if the fastener is driven into the substrate at an angle that is not exactly perpendicular to the substrate. For example, the fastener assembly 10 can provide a sealed connection when driven at a 90, 85, 80, 75, 70, 65, 60, 55, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, or 15 degree angle relative to the substrate.
In the illustrated example embodiment, the low profile head 12 has an outwardly facing side 28 opposite from the underside 26, and a lateral side 30 extending about a longitudinal axis 32 of the fastener 11 between the outwardly facing side 28 and the underside 26. In the illustrated embodiment, the outwardly facing side 28 includes a central flat portion 34 having a drive recess 36, and an outer tapered portion 38 extending between the central flat portion 34 and the lateral wall 30. In various alternative embodiments, the drive recess 36 may be a square-shaped recess, a slotted recess, a cross-shaped recess, a pentagon-shaped recess, or any other suitable recess. The tapered portion 38 may be angled (e.g., a constant angle of approximately 1 to 50 degrees) relative to both the central flat portion 34 and the underside 26. In certain embodiments, the tapered portion 38 may have a single angle or multiple angles (e.g., 2, 3, 4, 5, or more) between the flat portion 34 and the lateral side 30. In either case, each angle of the tapered portion 38 is constant over some distance. In other words, in such embodiments, the angle of the tapered portion 38 does not continuously vary (i.e., not a curve) between the flat portion 34 and the lateral side 30. For example, the tapered portion 38 may be described as a conical portion (e.g., a conical exterior surface) having a constant angle between the flat portion 34 and the lateral side 30. In some embodiments, the tapered portion 38 may have a single conical exterior surface with a single constant angle, or the tapered portion 38 may have a plurality of conical exterior surfaces each having a different constant angle. The lateral side 30 may be described as an annular side, which may be cylindrical, conical, or slightly curved as shown in
Furthermore, the illustrated head 12 may have a height 42 and a width or diameter 44. In certain embodiments, the height 42 may be less than approximately 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 millimeters. For example, the height 42 may be approximately 0.5 to 7, 1 to 6, or 2 to 5 millimeters. However, the height 42 may vary across different implementations of the fastener 11. Likewise, the width or diameter 44 may vary across different implementations, but may range between approximately 5 to 30 millimeters. For example, the width or diameter 44 may range between approximately 5 to 20, 7.5 to 17.5, 10 to 15, 11 to 14, or 12 to 13 millimeters. As appreciated, the foregoing height 42 and width 44 dimensions of the low profile head 12 are intended to be non-limiting examples. In other embodiments, the height 42 and width 44 of the head 12 may have other dimensions suitable for a particular application. In certain embodiments, a height/width ratio of the height 42 to the width or diameter 44 may range between approximately 0.1 to 0.4, 0.2 to 0.375, 0.25 to 0.35, or 0.275 to 0.325. For example, the height/width ratio may be less than or equal to approximately 0.35, 0.325, 0.3, 0.275, 0.25, 0.225, 0.2, 0.175, 0.15, 0.125, or 0.1. However, the foregoing height/width ratios of the low profile head 12 are intended to be non-limiting examples. In other embodiments, the head 12 may have other height/width ratios suitable for a particular application.
Referring now to
In the illustrated embodiment, the low profile head 112 has an outwardly facing side 128 opposite from the underside 126, and a lateral side 130 extending about a longitudinal axis 132 of the fastener 111 between the outwardly facing side 128 and the underside 126. In the illustrated embodiment, the outwardly facing side 128 includes a central flat portion 134 having a drive recess 136, and an outer curved portion 138 extending between the central flat portion 134 and the lateral wall 130. In certain embodiments, the drive recess 136 may be a square-shaped recess, a slotted recess, a cross-shaped recess, a pentagon-shaped recess, or any other suitable recess. The curved portion 138 may gradually curve from the flat portion 134 to the lateral side 130. For example, the curved portion 138 may be described as a convex portion (e.g., curved annular shape) having a variable angle (e.g., continuously increasing or decreasing angle) between the flat portion 134 and the lateral side 130. The lateral side 130 may be described as an annular side, which may be cylindrical, conical, or slightly curved as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
This application claims priority from and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/545,518, entitled “FASTENER WITH LOW PROFILE HEAD AND WASHER”, filed Oct. 10, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61545518 | Oct 2011 | US |