The present invention relates to a mounting rail, or a cladding rail, of the type to be mounted onto the walling structures, to support external cladding or tiles. More particularly, the present invention relates to mounting rails that provide an improved sound attenuation between the external cladding and the walling structure.
Cladding rails, or mounting rails for cladding, are used to mount cladding tiles or brick tiles to an external walling structure, usually to externally-facing mullions. Cladding tiles and brick tiles constitute the ‘outer skin’ and provide functionality such as rain protection and are used as a decorative finishing.
Support structures for cladding tiles require a certain degree of rigidity to securely hold the tiles in place throughout the lifetime of the structure. In addition, for cladding intended to mimic the appearance of a brick wall, the joints between cladding tiles may be filled in with mortar to provide an appearance of a genuine brick-and-mortar wall. The underlying support structure must be sufficiently rigid to prevent cracks appearing in the infill material.
The present invention seeks to provide advanced mounting structures that maintain a sufficient degree of rigidity.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mounting rail as defined in claim 1. The mounting rail is for mounting tiles to be provided to a backing system of a building wall structure.
The mounting rail comprises a tile support and a back-fixing rail, the tile support being linked to the back-fixing rail via a tile-support carrier. The tile-support carrier comprises an acoustic damper between the tile support and the back-fixing rail.
It is understood that the mounting rail has a longitudinal extension. The principal parts of the mounting rail can be described with reference to a cross-section perpendicular to the longitudinal extension.
The mounting rail is intended for horizontal mounting to a backing system, the backing system usually consisting of laterally spaced apart, vertically extending mullions, by way of the back-fixing arrangement. The mounting rail carries tiles or cladding that is to form the exterior skin of a building structure.
The mounting rail is of the type capable of supporting the base of a first tile to be provided and of retaining the top of a second tile to be provided, eg by sitting between an upper row of tiles and a lower row of tiles.
A prior art mounting rail design is illustrated in
When mounted to the walling structure, rows of tiles are carried between two mounting rails, ie carried between the lower tile support of an upper mounting rail and the upper tile support of a lower mounting rail. The tile supports are unitarily connected with tile-support carriers which are unitarily connected with the back-fixing rail. When the back-fixing rail is mounted on a walling system, thereby the tiles are fixed to the walling system. In other words, a tile support carries the base of a first tile to be provided and retains the top of a second tile to be provided.
The present inventor has discovered that the conventional arrangement exhibits a poor sound insulating performance, because sound can travel from the tile carrier to the backing fixing with little inhibition. Sound propagation is exacerbated because the structures are made from rigid metal. Thus, any ‘knocking’ against an external tile is transmitted onto the underlying backing structure and may even be amplified.
Illustrating the problem using the example of
Surprisingly, a good degree of noise attenuation can be achieved by including a sound damper in the tile-support carrier. The sound damper is an arrangement that impedes the direct sound propagation via a solid, right-angled structure from the tile carrier to the back-fixing rail.
The sound damper may be provided in the form of a structure provided in at least a portion of the longitudinal extent of the tile-support carrier. The structure may comprise an obtusely angled bend. The structure may comprise one or more apertures. Such a structure is believed to impede the direct pathway sound can travel from the tile support along the tile-support carrier structure to the back-fixing rail. It is believed that the effect may be achieved by features that provide additional degrees of freedom allowing vibrations to dissipate, such as angular features that interrupt the unidirectional propagation of sound within a metal medium, and/or apertures that reduce the mechanical stiffness of the material between the tiles and the backing system. Such structures are believed to increase the modes of vibration that allow sound energy to dissipate before it reaches the backing structure.
At the same time, a surprising finding was that the mechanical strength of the tile-support carrier is sufficient to keep tiles in place, even if the tile-support carrier is provided with a sound attenuating structure. In this regard, for tiles or cladding intended to mimic the appearance of a brick wall, and therefore with mortar infill material between tile joints, it can be imagined that too much leeway, particularly in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the backing system, will allow cracks to appear in the mortar, which is undesirable.
Surprisingly, the provision of an acoustic damper does not negatively affect the structural rigidity required to keep the tiles in place. It is believed that this is a result of the different order of magnitudes involved. Acoustic vibrations are expected to cause vibrations in the micrometre range, and these can be attenuated to a sufficient extent by the acoustic dampers without reducing the structural rigidity.
In some embodiments, the acoustic damper comprises an angled bend between the tile support and the back-fixing rail.
An angled bend may be understood as an angulation, a curve, turn or deflection, at an angle (other than a straight 180 degree angle) in the neutral position of the tile-support carrier. The acoustic damper may comprise one or more angled bends. The bends may extend along the longitudinal extent of the mounting rail.
In some embodiments, the tile-support carrier extends from the back-fixing rail at an acute angle or at an obtuse angle.
In some embodiments, the tile support is connected to the tile-support carrier at an acute angle or at an obtuse angle.
This reduces the rigidity resisting a horizontal push, eg of a person pushing or knocking against the brick-wall type cladding. Also, a connection at an angle other than a right angle increases the distance between the tile support and the back-fixing rail, ie relative to a right-angle shortest distance between two parallel planes. This provides a larger area for sound dampers, eg a bend, ribs, or apertures, or combinations of two or more of these, without increasing the spacing between a tile and the backing structure.
In some embodiments, the tile-support carrier extends from an upper end or from a lower end of the back-fixing rail.
Thereby, the tile-support carrier is not structurally anchored at two sides (upper and lower side) to the back-fixing rail, ie with portions of the back-fixing rail extending at both the upper and lower side of the tile-support carrier. Instead, the tile-support carrier extends from only one end (upper end or lower end) of the back-fixing rail. This is believed to allow the tile-support carrier to vibrate in slightly more modes, thereby facilitating the dissipation of sound energy before it reaches the back-fixing rail.
In some embodiments, the mounting rail comprises a tile-biasing element biasing a tile away from the backing system. An acoustic damper may be provided in the tile-biasing element.
A tile-biasing element facilitates a quick alignment of tiles. However, the tile-biasing element may provide a channel from a tile to the backing system for at least some acoustic energy.
Thus, the provision of an acoustic damper on the tile-biasing element improves the overall attenuation of acoustic vibration of the mounting rail.
In some embodiments, the acoustic damper comprises an angled bend on the tile-biasing element between a tile-contacting surface and the back-fixing rail.
In some embodiments, the tile-biasing element is carried on the tile-support carrier spaced apart from a backing-system contacting plane of the back-fixing rail.
It will be understood that the back-fixing rail is intended for mounting to the backing system, and as such has a plane extending in the vertical direction of the backing system. The tile-biasing element may be carried on the back-fixing rail or on the tile support. The tile support extends from the back-fixing rail and this allows the tile-biasing element to be carried on the tile support in a manner that extends back (back is in the direction of the backing system) less far than the tile support extends from the back-fixing rail, such that the biasing element is distanced from the backing system when the mounting rail is mounted to the backing system.
The space between the biasing element and the backing system may be in the region of a millimetre, or somewhat less than a millimetre. Acoustic vibrations are in the region of micrometres and, as such, much less than the space between the biasing element and the backing system. The spaced-apart relationship has the effect that the biasing element may acoustically vibrate while making it practically impossible for such vibrations to be mechanically transferred to the backing system.
At the same time, even though a small space provides a leeway allowing a tile element to be pushed towards the mullion structure, in practice the leeway is sufficiently small to reduce the likelihood of a crack appearing if a tile element is pushed against the backing system.
In some embodiments, the acoustic damper comprises one or more apertures.
The acoustic damper may be provided by apertures on the tile-support carrier and/or the acoustic damper on the tile-biasing element.
Such apertures can be readily distinguished from screw holes that would conventionally be expected on a mounting rail, because conventional screw holes are on the back-fixing rail so as to allow the mounting rail to be mounted to a mullion, ie at a right angle to the mullion surface.
Apertures provided for acoustic dampening on the tile-support carrier and/or on the tile-biasing element and would not be suitable as screw-holes for mounting to the backing structure, because the tile-support carrier and the tile-biasing element are not abutted against a mullion.
In some embodiments, the plurality of apertures is spaced apart in the longitudinal extension of the mounting rail.
The present inventor has discovered that the longitudinally spaced apart apertures have an acoustic dampening effect, ie an effect that reduces the transfer of acoustic vibrations from the tiles to be provided to the backing system. It is believed that this effect is observed because the longitudinally spaced-apart apertures reduce the mechanical stiffness of the tile-support carrier and/or because the apertures provide additional degrees of vibrating freedom that allow vibration energy to dissipate in modes other than directly to the backing system.
The apertures are spaced apart, such that bridging material between the apertures provides mechanical strength, such that the mechanical stiffness of the tile-support carrying arm is not adversely affected.
In some embodiments, the apertures are constituted by slots with an elongate extent in the longitudinal extension of the mounting rail.
In some embodiments, the apertures are constituted by an array of slots arranged sequentially in a longitudinal extension of the mounting rail.
In some embodiments, two adjacent apertures are spaced apart by a bridge distance less than the length of at least one of the two adjacent apertures.
It will be understood that, in a longitudinal extension, the apertures are spaced apart by an aperture pitch. The space of material between two adjacent apertures, or “bridge” corresponds to the difference between aperture pitch and aperture length. The acoustic-dampening effect is improved with larger apertures, ie if the aperture length increases in relation to the aperture pitch. For instance, if the aperture length is half the aperture pitch, the bridge length corresponds to the aperture length. The aperture length may exceed the bridge length. Eg, the ratio of aperture length to aperture pitch may be 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, 4:5, or 5:6. The longer the bridge, the better the structural stiffness of the mounting rail. Which ratio of aperture length to aperture pitch is appropriate for a given mounting rail system depends on the characteristics of the tile/panel to be provided, eg size, material (mass), and tile thickness, and whether or not, and in which manner, the apertures are combined with other sound damper features such as angled bends.
In some embodiments, two or more adjacent apertures have different shapes, the two or more adjacent apertures are arranged in a sequence of apertures, and the sequence of apertures is repeated along the longitudinal extent of the mounting rail.
The apertures may have different shapes, eg elongate slots of different length may be used to reduce the likelihood of harmonic vibrations travelling in the longitudinal extent of the mounting rail.
In some embodiments, alternating apertures have the same shape.
In some embodiments, the apertures have the same shape.
The apertures may have different shapes, or alternating shapes, or the same shape. This allows the length of the apertures to be tailored to a particular tile size, to reduce harmonic effects that may affect an acoustic dampening effect.
In some embodiments, the mounting rail comprises one or more rows of apertures.
Rows of apertures may be provided on either side of an angled bend.
In some embodiments, the mounting rail comprises a plurality of rows of apertures, wherein the apertures of a first row are longitudinally offset from the apertures of a second row.
For apertures with a length shorter than the bridge distance, this allows the material between apertures to overlap to improve mechanical stiffness. For apertures with a length exceeding the bridge distance, this allows a tile-support carrier and/or tile-biasing element to be provided in which no section (perpendicular to the longitudinal extent) provides a direct, perpendicular pathway for sound to travel from the tile-carrier to the backing system.
In some embodiments, the mounting rail is formed from extruded metal.
In some embodiments, the mounting rail is formed from sheet metal.
In some embodiments, the mounting rail is formed from aluminium.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a walling structure comprising one or more mounting rails according to the first aspect of the invention.
Exemplary embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the Figures, in which:
From the back-fixing rail 15 extends towards the distal side (ie, towards the left in
At the distal (left in
Turning now to the tail 17 extending down from the Y-branch 20, the tail 17 extends generally downward (in the reading orientation of
At its lower end, the lower tail portion 17b of the tail 17 comprises a back-folded lip 17d to provide a smooth contact line with a tile to be provided. An upper groove of a second tile may be slotted onto the lower lip 14 and is biased distally by the tail 17.
By way of the Y-branch 20, the obtusely angled connection of the carrier arm 16 to the back-fixing rail 15, and the connection at the lower end 19 rather than at the centre of the back-fixing rail 15, vibrations picked up at the tile support 12 are not transmitted directly to the back-fixing rail 15. Instead, the angled bends provided by the Y-branch 20 and by the obtusely angled connection at the lower end 19 prevent a straight sound path and therefore provide a de-coupling effect to allow sound energy (vibrations in the micrometre region) to dissipate. As such, the Y-branch 20, the angled connection and the connection at the lower end 19, each individually and in combination, constitute sound dampers of the invention. Furthermore, sound dampers are provided by the tail 17 constituting a tile-biasing element. The tail 17 is in contact with a tile to be provided, yet not connected straight to the back-fixing rail 15. As such, the proximal arm portion 16a is the only part immediately connected to the back-fixing rail 15. The tail 17 is spaced from the back-fixing plane 120 of the back-fixing rail 15. Also, the tail 17 comprises a bend 17c between the tile-contacting end and the Y-branch 20 providing an additional de-coupling. It will be understood that one or more of these features can be combined to optimise a sound-dampening effect for a particular cladding configuration.
The cladding rail 10b comprises a carrier arm 16 with a Y-branch 20, and a proximal arm portion 16a of the carrier arm 16 extends from the lower end 19 at an incline towards the Y-branch 20. Along the longitudinal extent of the proximal arm portion 16a there is provided a plurality of elongate slots 22 constituting sound dampening apertures. The slots 22 are spaced apart by bridges 24. Each bridge 24 is about half as long as a slot 22 and so, on average, there is only about one third of material along the array of slots 22 in the cross section of the proximal arm portion 16a compared to an arm portion without apertures. As the proximal arm portion 16a carries all components that come into contact with the bricks to be provided, the apertures reduce the amount of material capable of relaying vibrations from the tile support 12 onto the back-fixing rail 15.
The cladding rail 30a comprises a carrier arm 36 that extends from the upper end 38 of the back-fixing rail 35. The carrier arm 36 constitutes a tile-carrier support and comprises at its distal end a tile carrier 32, with an upper lip 33 and a lower lip 34. The carrier arm 36 comprises a kink 40 partway (about halfway) between the upper end 38 and the tile carrier 32. Between the kink 40 and the upper end 38, the carrier arm 36 comprises a proximal arm portion 36a that is inclined upward at an obtuse angle and, thus, connected to the back-fixing rail 35 at an obtuse angle. Distally of the kink 40 the carrier arm 36 bends down such that a portion of the carrier arm 36 beyond the kink 40, ie a distal arm portion 36b, extends practically horizontally between the kink 40 and the tile carrier 32. The distal arm portion 36b is practically perpendicular to the vertical plane of the back-fixing rail 35. The kink 40 constitutes an angled bend.
At the lower end 39 the cladding rail comprises a tail 37 constituting a tile-biasing element. The tail 37 extends away from the back-fixing rail 35 at an incline and comprises a back-folded lip 37d to provide a smooth contact line with a tile to be provided.
It will be understood that the cladding rail 50a corresponds in principle to the cladding rail 30a and so any features described with reference to
The cladding rail embodiments of
To provide an illustration of the magnitudes involved, a brick tile may be in the region of 10 cm high and so there may be in the region of 10 metres of cladding rail per square metre. Thus, a purposeful de-coupling of acoustic energy can have a noticeable effect on sound attenuation.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1709829.4 | Jun 2017 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/GB2018/051685 | 6/18/2018 | WO | 00 |