Patent Application
20170175437
U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,489, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a cellular polyvinyl chloride (PVC) weatherstrip for garage doors which is generally extruded by known processes as including a cellular PVC base and non-cellular, flexible strip portion as shown in
However, when such conventional weatherstrips are stacked for shipping or storage, the base and strip portions of adjacent weatherstrips generally interfere with one another. Undesirable shifting may also occur with stacking and transporting of the prior art weatherstrips. As a result, there is a need for an improved weatherstrip structure in order to avoid inefficient, disorganized and potentially damaging results in packing, transporting and storing a plurality of weatherstrips.
The present invention provides an improved weatherstrip structure for garage doors with better stackability. In one embodiment a tapered, angled non-cellular strip portion is extruded at a corner of a cellular PVC base portion. The tapered geometry increases stiffness of the strip portion (i.e. weather seal) and the corner placement with improved adhesion location surface area between the strip portion and base increases adhesion of the strip portion to the base portion.
In further embodiments of the invention an angled edge is provided along the base portion opposite the corner adhesion. The angled edge provides improved stackability of weatherstrips of the invention as an adjacent angled strip portion of an adjacent weatherstrip avoids interference with a base portion of an adjacent, stacked weatherstrip. In other words, the modified angling of a base portion edge in the present invention permits the subsequent stacked weatherstrip's strip portion to extend in an angled and outward manner without being pressed and interfered with by a traditional flat corner edge as occurs with conventional weatherstrips that are stacked.
In order to facilitate a fuller understanding of the exemplary embodiments, reference is now made to the appended drawings. These drawings should not be construed as limiting, but are intended to be exemplary only.
The following description is intended to convey an understanding of the embodiments of the invention by providing embodiments and details involving an improved weatherstrip for garage doors. It is understood, however, that the invention is not limited to these specific embodiments and details, which are exemplary only. It is further understood that one possessing ordinary skill in the art, in light of known devices, systems and methods, would appreciate the use of the invention for its intended purposes and benefits in any number of alternative embodiments.
It will be appreciated from the details described in incorporated-by-reference U.S. Pat. No. U.S. 6,360,489 and processes known to those skilled in the relevant art that methods for extruding a weatherstrip for garage doors that includes a cellular PVC base portion and non-cellular, flexible extrudate strip portion are known in the art. It will be apparent to skilled in the art that such known extrusion methods may be readily implemented to manufacture weatherstrips according to the present invention.
Referring to
Further, in embodiments of the invention, an angled edge 20 of the base portion 10 is provided opposite the corner adhesion location 15 where the strip portion 5 adheres. In other embodiments, flexible strip portion 5 may be adhered to corner adhesion location 15 of base portion 10 by other chemical, mechanical and/or thermal bonding and adhesion techniques than as an extrudate. It will also be appreciated that rigid based portion 10 may comprise alternative materials to cellular PVC.
By moving the strip portion from an outer, flat surface adhesion location of the prior art to the corner location 15 of the present invention, as well as providing a complementary angled edge 20 on the base portion 10 opposite such corner location 15 of the present invention, improved stacking of weatherstrips 1 is shown as in
Specifically, it will be appreciated that in contrast to the stacking and packaging of prior art weatherstrips that results in disorganization and pressing of the strip portions by base portions of adjacent weatherstrips, the invention as shown in
In the preceding specification, various embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from the broader scope of the exemplary embodiments as set forth in the claims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.
This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. provisional application No. 62/268,749, filed Dec. 17, 2015, which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62268749 | Dec 2015 | US |
