The present invention concerns a method and the product obtained using said method for the creation of decorative plates of glass for use in building as a covering material for walls and floors and in furnishing for kitchen surfaces, bathroom furnishings and the like; said plates being able to resist thermal shocks and knocks or, at the least, to minimize the effects of such thermal shocks and knocks, usually making repairs possible.
Glass is particularly suitable, because of its transparent and glossy characteristics, to creating decorative articles of notable quality. In particular, a tempered plate that is shattered while keeping the fragments in place acquires an excellent brilliance, since the many surfaces of the fragments produce shimmering and countless reflections.
Particular decorative effects are obtained using the well-known technique in which three glass plates are joined together with a film of PVB, or something similar, in between, as in the stratification of security glass. Between the two external plates, one of previously tempered glass is placed; the panel thus formed is grounded perimetrically to finish the edges. This working causes the tempered glass to shatter (crackle). The adherence of the glass fragments to the external plates is assured by the PVB, which holds the panel together. In this way, one has fragmentation of the tempered plate without any shifting of the fragments.
On the other hand, to obtain gaps between said fragments, there is a well-known technique, which allows obtaining plates that have been shattered and reconstructed using an adhesive, said plates being contained between plates of glass.
In none of the known cases were plates which had been shattered and reconstructed individually, that is not contained between other plates, successfully obtained, which thus precludes the possibility of having thin plates.
Glass is a notoriously brittle material and is thus liable to break under mechanical actions, even if the latter are not too intense. Even thermal actions, such as intense and localized heating, make glass, precisely because of its characteristic brittleness, particularly subject to breaking.
Technological development has led to the creation of high-resistance glass, which shows exceptional characteristics of resistance to both knocks and heat. The tempering treatment greatly increases resistance to knocks, just as a particular type of glass, called pirex, has a resistance to heat high enough to actually allow its use for pots and pans which can be placed directly over the flame. Furthermore, the combining of more glass plates with the interposition of sheets of polymeric material, for example polyvinyl butyraldehyde (PVB), makes possible the creation of such afore-mentioned security glass, able to resist smashing and gun shots. Glass of this type is commonly used for windshields and armoured bulletproof windows.
In any case, the possibility still remains that glass, even of the high-resistance variety, will break and in such a case, obviously, will break in a precise way. In the case where tempered glass is involved, it crumbles completely and so any attempt to repair it is absolutely impossible, while if stratified security glass is involved, the various fragments remain in place, but without hope of repair, if not in extremely unusual cases, that is in the case of extremely localized breaks without fractures prone to further cracking. In such cases, it is usually sufficient to insert a low-viscosity adhesive, for example an acrylic resin that can be cross-linked with ultra-violet light, into the cracks to obtain an almost perfect repair. In cases where the fractures are susceptible to further cracking, no repairs would prove effective in that the crack tips would remain nonetheless a weak point and a focusing point for stresses, because of which the cracks would continue to propagate.
As far as resistance to thermal shocks is concerned, even if pirex glass performs very well, it is not suitable to make objects with plates of particularly substantial dimensions.
The aim of the present invention is to propose a method and the object deriving from the use of said method, respectively according to claims 1 and 13, for making decorative glass plates able to provide aesthetic effects of high quality, for use in furnishings and construction, said plates being, among other things, resistant to thermal shocks and localized knocks, and usually repairable in cases of breaks.
The object that derives from the use of the method according to the invention, is a plate formed by a large quantity of fragments, held together by an adhesive which re-establishes integrity. A plate of this type is not normally able to sit directly over a flame like pirex glass, as the resins normally used are not able to resist high temperatures, but it is without a doubt able to have even hot objects placed on it, since the dilatation caused by localized heating is absorbed by the resin. Furthermore, any breaks which might involve the article, obviously if of slight extent, would however be easily repaired because fractures susceptible to further cracking would not be produced.
The resistance to heat is thus inferior to that of pirex glass, just as the resistance to knocks is inferior to that of tempered glass; nevertheless, as will be seen in the following description, in its use as tiles for floors and covering for building, and as a surface material for kitchens and sinks, the conditions of normal use are not very harsh. However, situations can occur in which glass of a known type is subject to breaks to a greater extent and, moreover, in such a way that repairs are impossible, while a glass plate according to the invention is, should it break, almost always repairable.
The invention will now be described with an illustrative, not restrictive, aim in mind and with reference to the attached figures, in which:
FIGS. 1(a, b) briefly illustrate the method according to the invention;
FIGS. 2(a, b) show the procedure to obtain shattered plates with and without gaps forming;
FIGS. 3(a, b) illustrate both vacuum and press procedure, for obtaining plates, according to the invention;
FIGS. 4(a, b) show the insertion of adhesive in the cracklings of the shattered plates;
FIGS. 5(a, b) show the plates obtained by joining the plate, according to the invention, to other plates;
FIGS. 6(a, b) illustrate the method for obtaining the afore-mentioned coupled plates.
The method, according to the invention, briefly illustrated in FIGS. 1(a, b), essentially consists of shattering a plate of tempered glass (1), laying on a surface (2), and preferably contained within a frame (3) which prevents the fragments from dispersing, and of reconstructing the integrity of the plate with an adhesive (4) which enters into the cracks.
The afore-mentioned adhesive (4), for example an acrylic resin that can be cross-linked with ultra-violet light, or an epoxy resin with hardener, or else a polyester resin with catalyst, can be smeared beforehand on the supporting surface (2), as shown in
In both cases, the supporting surface (2), if not made from a material to which the chosen adhesive can not adhere, such as PTFE, UHMWPE, or UHMWPET, must be treated with a release substance or else covered with a sheet of an intrinsically release material.
The aforesaid frame (3) should be of such dimensions as to perfectly contain the plate (1) (
In practice, one proceeds in the following way:
In order to improve the plate's consolidation (1) through a complete infiltration of the adhesive in the cracklings, it is preferable to remove the air present inside the cracklings themselves. As shown in
A possible variation (not shown) to the procedures described can be to keep upwards the part that stays in sight. This procedure can be advisable in the case of very small series or single pieces for which particularly accurate equipment would not be economically reasonable. Indeed, in this case, it is possible that air bubbles in the gaps and/or more or less empty gaps would remain. In such a case it is possible to refill the said gaps manually to eliminate the effects of the air bubbles.
Regarding the filling of the cracklings, it must be said that their complete refilling greatly reduces the brilliance of the glass, since it is the presence of numerous reflecting surfaces that causes the desired glitter; hence for the best aesthetic result, it is advisable to refill the cracklings only in part, said partial refilling being possible with an adhesive that rises only in part or else that rises through some routes and not others, fixing the fragments in place all the same.
The correct refilling of the cracklings can be achieved with the correct choice of the adhesive's viscosity and of the time of the application of pressure and vacuum.
If, for reasons that will be illustrated in the following text, one desires to fill the cracklings completely or almost completely, it would be best, regardless of the fluidity of the adhesive, to apply either some pressure and vacuum, while in the case where one wants to maintain a high level of brilliance and hence not completely fill the cracklings, it can be sufficient to apply pressure with a press, without vacuum.
The plate obtained through the method described can be used individually or can in turn be joined to a second and third plate to obtain plates of two (12) (
To have a coupled plate of type (12), the reconstructed plate (1) can be joined to a second plate (14) of equal dimensions. In the case where the afore-mentioned coupled plate (12) is to be used as a tile for floors and covering, the aforesaid second plate (14) can be of brick, while in the case of the coupled plate's use for decorative windows, walls, or doors, said second plate (14) can be in glass, if the window must be transparent, or else in sheet-metal, for example in aluminium or stainless steel, when transparency is not necessary.
For a coupled plate of type (13), the reconstructed plate (1) can be bonded in such a way as to be included between the afore-mentioned second plate (14) and a third glass plate (15).
The bonding of said second (14) and third (15) plates to the first (1) can occur either after said first plate (1) has been shattered and reconstructed according to the procedure described or during the process of formation of said shattered and reconstructed plate (1).
FIGS. 6(a, b) show respectively the plans of formation of said coupled plates (12) and (13). Obviously in these cases means for releasing the first plate (1) from the second and third, (14) and (15), should not be used.
In the case of coupled plate type (12), it must be remembered that, should gaps form in the plate (1), the withdrawal of the adhesive in the gaps can cause a contraction in the plate itself, with the consequence that the coupled plate (12) could end up deformed. In such cases, it is necessary to use adhesives with minimal or no withdrawal, such as, for example, acrylic resins that harden with ultra-violet light or epoxies with high percentages of force.
The aforesaid third plate (15) can in turn be of tempered and shattered glass with or without gaps.
The surfaces of the first plate (1), in the case of a plate that has been shattered and reconstructed individually, the external surface of the plate (1), in the case of coupled plates (12); and the external surface of the third plate (15) in the case of coupled plates (13) and of a shattered third plate (15), can advantageously undergo grinding and, possibly, polishing, obtaining thusly surfaces that are perfectly smooth and of a desirably finishing. For example, a grinding that leaves surfaces glazed can be advisable for floor tiles in order to avoid slippery surfaces. In the case of cracklings that are not completely filled with adhesive, treatment with a suitable impregnating substance could be advisable in order to avoid the infiltration of liquids that could affect the aesthetic aspect.
If the upper plate, whether it involves the afore-mentioned third plate (15) or the first plate (1), in the case of coupled plates of, respectively, type (13) or (12), should be shattered and with its cracklings completely refilled with adhesive, it would be practically indistinguishable from a intact plate. This operation would have however notable functional advantages. In the case of use for making kitchen surfaces, this operation makes said plates (15) and (1) practically immune to localized heating, obviously within the limits of cases that can occur in a domestic kitchen, such as, for example, those caused by setting down pots and pans just removed from the flame. Indeed, the localized dilatation is absorbed by the adhesive, which thus averts the risk of cracks. Moreover the fact that the cracklings are completely refilled prevents even the risk of infiltrations that can alter the aesthetic appearance.
Said shattered plates with cracklings that are completely refilled with adhesive offer a further advantage. In the case of use as floor tiles, that is heavier use regarding the falling of heavy, denting bodies, the possible breaking caused by said falls concerns only the zone immediately around the point of impact, impeding the propagation of cracks. This fact has the important consequence of making it possible to almost always repair the plate affected by the break, proceeding in a method similar to the repair of a car windshield, inserting, that is, an acrylic resin that can be cross-linked with ultra-violet light.
In order to obtain particularly high levels of thickness, with a marked effect of depth, it is possible to bond even more than three plates, until reaching desired aesthetic and/or functional effect. The formation of such coupled plates of more than three plates can be done either during the formation of the first plate (1), as in the case of the coupled plates of type (12) and (13), or subsequently attaching as wished the desired number of shattered and reconstructed plates or of intact plates.
A possible variant of the method described consists of sucking the air completely out of the chamber (5) and the injection of the adhesive following this operation (4). In this way, it is practically impossible to find some air left, since the air itself has been completely removed before the adhesive injection, and it is the adhesive itself that, passing through the fractures, helps the removal of the remaining air, which has not been removed by the vacuum pump yet.
Anyway, since the plates are obtained through a airless and/or press process, practically, said first plate (1) could be considered in contact with the second plate (14), in case of plates paired up per type (12), and also with said third plate (15), in case of plates paired up per type (13), since in this case the thickness of the interposed adhesive is quite thin.
The invention has been described with a purely illustrative and not limiting goal in mind. The sector's technical expert will be able to find numerous variations, all falling under the protection of the claims that follow.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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VA/2005/A/0016 | Mar 2005 | IT | national |