1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pre-engineered building construction, and more particularly but not by way of limitation, to improvements in standing seam panel clips for the metal roof industry.
2. Discussion
Standing seam roofs have become the most popular metal roofing assembly due mainly to the avoidance of panel penetration when securing roofing panels to underlying building support structures. Also, since the outer surfaces of a metal roofing assembly are directly exposed to a wide variety of weather conditions, standing seam roofs utilize connectors that provide for expansion and contraction of metal roof panels.
To eliminate or minimize the use of “through fasteners” (fasteners that penetrate the panels to attach them to supporting structure), standing seam metal roofs are secured to the support structure by non-penetrating clip connectors, and the sidelap joints of the standing seam metal roof panels and attaching fasteners are joined together, usually by a seaming process.
The type of seaming utilized will vary depending on the panel design. In some cases, such as in the case of simple interlocking panel arrangements, seam joinder is accomplished by snapping the panels together. In more complex designs, the seaming process will involve pressing the panel sidelaps together to initially interlock the sidelaps as the panels are positioned on the building roof support structures (typically purlins), following which seaming of the joint is achieved by either: (1) a seaming implement or machine that elastically joins the sidelaps; or (2) by a seaming implement or machine that inelastically forming (i.e., by bending and folding) the sidelaps into the standing seam assembly.
Non-penetrating clips that connect roof panels to underlying building support structure (such as purlins) are connected between overlapping panel sidelaps prior to joining and seaming. Panel clip connectors attach the roof to the building structure in the installed position, stabilizing and bracing the roof from environmental factors, such as the uplift forces of a strong wind. The clips also stabilize and brace the support structure, and provide for expansion and contraction of the roof panels as temperature gradients are imposed on the roof members and the underlying building structurals.
To secure roof panels to the underlying support structure, clips typically have tabs designed to be disposed within the panel seam. Such clip tabs are generally shaped as required by the particular shape of the panel design. Because most panels have unique shapes, each clip model is configured for a particular panel shape to which it is to be connected. One important requirement for such clip tabs is that a watertight seal be maintained about the clip tabs in the finally formed standing seam assembly.
Water tightness is usually achieved by a factory applied bead of sealant disposed on the under side of the female sidelap. As adjacent panel sidelaps are seamed, the sealant material is pressed against the top side of the male sidelap to form a watertight dam, preventing water and air from moving between the two sidelaps in the final seam assembly. At the locations where clip tabs are interposed between the male and female sidelaps, such clip tabs prevent the sealant on the female sidelap from contacting the male sidelap, with the female sidelap carried sealant instead being pressed against the tops of the clip tabs at those locations.
That is, as the sealant is compressed to flow toward the male at the clip locations, the sealant must flow around the clip tabs. While encapsulation of the clip tabs is desired, what happens in practice is that the sealant flow at the clip tabs results in gaps in the sealant between the under side of the clip tab and the top of the male side seam. It has been well verified that, because of these gaps, voids and sealant discontinuities, water and air can migrate between the under side of the panel clip tabs and the top side of the male sidelap. In time, this condition will deteriorate the sealing further (such as water freezing, roof leaks, etc.), leading to building leaks and diminished roof panel life.
Past attempts at preventing this condition have included such measures as a factory applied sealant on the underside of each clip tab that aligns with the sealant on the underside of the female sidelap when the clip tab. This sealant on the clip tab is positioned to generally align with the female sidelap carried sealant when the components of the standing seam assembly are assembled. To assure water tightness, the sealant on the female sidelap and on the clip tab, when joined and seamed, must form a continuous seal; this requires that the sealant on the clip tab extend past the tab edges in order to contact the sealant on the female sidelap during sealing. The purpose is to achieve encapsulation of the clip tab and to assure the integrity of the resultant seal between the male and female sidelaps when the seam is formed. However, tests have shown that this approach is less than totally successful, as for many reasons, the continuity of the sealant is far from perfect, there continuing to be some discontinuities in the sealant along the length of the standing seam assembly near the locations of the clips.
Furthermore, although an improvement in providing a continuing watertight seal, the placement of a sealant on the clip tab is costly in material and labor because a separate manufacturing step is required after the final clip forming operation. This means that a separate line must be provided, and that additional handling of the clips is required.
Some manufacturers have attempted to eliminate the clip sealant by designing a clip with perforations, or holes, in the clip tab, the purpose being to allow the sealant on the female sidelap to flow through the tab perforations onto the male sidelap during seaming. This has met with only limited success because the sealant flow through such perforations during seaming has not been consistent to a degree necessary to assure watertight integrity of the seal along the total length of the panel seam, as it has been shown that gaps and discontinuities frequently occur between the stream of sealant extruded through the holes and the sealant extruded around the edges of the clips.
There is therefore a need for a clip design that assures complete sealant encapsulation of the clip tabs with the seaming of a standing seam panel assembly. Preferably, as well, such design would make unnecessary having a sealant pre-applied to the clip tabs prior to installation; that is, complete encapsulation of the clip tabs will be achieved by only the sealant carried by at least one of the panel sidelaps during sealing thereof.
The present invention provides an improved standing seam roof assembly in which roof panels are supported by underlying support structure in overlapping edge relationship. A male sidelap extends from a first side edge of the panels and a female sidelap extends from the opposing second side edge of each panel. The male sidelap has a male leg member and the female sidelap has a female leg member shaped to fit over the male leg member and to be seamed together.
A sealant bead is supported on the underside of the female leg member and is disposed to sealingly contact the top side of the male leg member. A clip member having a clip leg member shaped to fit over the male leg member is seamed with the male and female leg members to connect the standing seam assembly to an underlying roof support structure in the assembled mode. The clip leg member has a clip inclined portion with a sealant flow hole, and the clip leg member cooperates with the male leg member and the female leg member to form a lower sealant chamber and an upper sealant chamber along the clip leg member; the sealant flow hole communicates between the upper sealant chamber and the lower sealant chamber, and the sealant is extruded and distributed in the upper and lower sealant chambers to encapsulate a portion of the clip leg member.
The advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent when the following detailed description is read in conjunction with the drawings and appended claims.
Referring to the drawings in general, and particularly to
The medial portion of the clip second leg member 24 of the clip 18 is crimped to form an angularly clip first inclined portion 35 and a clip second inclined portion 36, the clip second inclined portion 36 being perforated to have a plurality of sealant flow holes 38. The clip sealant flow holes 38 can be regular in shape (such as slots or circular holes) or irregular in shape, and the clip sealant flow holes 38 can be spaced uniformly or non-uniformly down and across the clip inclined portion 36, to accommodate different sealant flow rates there through so as to achieve encapsulation of the clip tab 20 to form a water tight seal.
Returning to
During initial assembly of the standing seam assembly 16, as the female sidelap 10 is joined with the male sidelap 14 with the clips 18 hooked there over, the assembly process forces, or extrudes, the sealant 40 through the sealant flow holes 38 in the clip inclined portion 36 of the clip 18 into a lower sealant chamber 42 formed between the clip inclined portion 36 and the male sidelap 14, as shown in
It will be noted that the lower sealant chamber 42 and the upper sealant chamber 46 have cross sectional profiles that are generally triangularly shaped. The sealant chambers 42, 46 are protected from collapse by the crimped clip first inclined portion 35, and further, by a crimped dimple portion 48 formed between one end of the clip first inclined portion 35 and the clip apex radius portion 26 (between the clip first leg member 22 and the clip second leg member 24) as shown in
It should also be noted that the angle of incline 37 of the more vertical clip first inclined portion 35 may be varied to adjust the resistance to collapse of the lower sealant chamber 42 and the upper sealant chamber 46, as well as the amount of spring back occurring. The more vertical the position of the clip first inclined portion 35, the greater the resistance to collapse and the less spring back that will occur, unless the clip first inclined portion 35 is eliminated altogether. It should also be noted that the angle of incline of the clip second inclined portion 36 may be varied to increase or decrease the distance between the clip apex radius portion 26 and the clip intermediate radius portion 30 to accommodate different panel shapes.
The triangular profiles of the sealant chambers 42, 46 result in sealant cavities in which the sealant is significantly thicker than that achieved by conventional clip to panel configurations in which the surface contact does not provide such sealant cavities. The benefit of the sealant thickness achieved by the present invention becomes apparent to one skilled in the art when considering the phenomena of metal “spring back.” As the sidelap seam is formed by the sealing tool/machine, the lower sealant chamber 42 and the upper sealant chamber 46 are slightly compressed and the metal will have a certain amount of metal spring back to its pre-seamed condition, and a thicker bead of sealant, such as in the sealant chambers 42 and 46, will provide a greater elastic length so that a set limit on unit elasticity can accommodate a greater overall movement without failure to better accommodate and compensate for the spring back and compression during seaming.
Seaming pressure and metal spring back will cause the seam cavities to close and then open somewhat, and the greater thickness of the sealant bead in the sealant chambers 42, 46 insures that the sealant is not broken or displaced during the seaming process. Rather, when the spring back occurs, allowing some separation of the female sidelap 10, the male sidelap 14 and the clip tab 20, the sealant 40 prevents creation of water flow paths between the seam components, thereby substantially eliminating potential leaks. Thus, the sealant bead 40 adhered to, and carried by, the underside of the female sidelap 10, forms a watertight barrier between the female sidelap 10 and the male sidelap 14 even at clip locations.
The dimple portion 48 of the clip 18 supports the clip second inclined portion 36 above the male second leg member 72 of the male sidelap 14 to form the sealant chamber 42. That is, the sealant chamber 42 is positioned between the clip intermediate radius portion 30 and the dimple 48, and the lower sealant chamber 42 is formed by the upper surface of the male second leg member 72 of the male sidelap 14. The sealant flow holes 38 that communicate with the lower sealant chamber 42 can vary in number and can be of various shapes and sizes depending on the clip tab tooling requirements and the sealant flow characteristics, including durometer, surface tension, etc.
The upper sealant chamber 46 is formed between the underside of the female second leg member 52 of the female sidelap 10 and the upper surface of the clip second inclined portion 36 at each clip location, as depicted in
Returning to
In
As shown in
The inelastic seaming of the standing seam assembly 16 has caused a partial closure of the upper sealant chamber 46 between the clip intermediate radius portion 30 and the female intermediate radius portion 58 of the female sidelap 10 along the upper surface of the clip second inclined portion 36, as shown. Thus, the upper sealant chamber 46 is formed by the underside of the female sidelap 10 and the top surface of the clip member 18, including at least partially around the intermediate radius portion 30. The seam forming process reduces the volume area in which the sealant 40 was disposed following the initial extruding force that was exerted (as discussed above for
The upper sealant chamber 46 which forms a dam against the underside of the female second leg portion 52 of the female sidelap 10, and sealant 40 in the upper sealant chamber 46, being compressed by the seaming process, causes a portion of the sealant 40 to flow toward the clip intermediate radius portion 30 of the clip 18 and out and over the clip first and second end edges 80, 82 (see
Turning now to
Reference will now be made to
Thus,
Both the sealant 40 above the clip tab 20 and the portion of the sealant 40 extruded into the sealant chamber 42 in
The sealant flow holes 38 in
Turning to another beneficial attribute, it should be noted that the clip member 18, described above, can provide added stabilization for the roof purlins of a building structure. As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art of metal panel roofs, a purlin load force can cause a translation or rotation of a zee or a cee purlin. The panel clip can be designed to resist a portion of such force tending to cause the purlins to translate or rotate by transferring a portion of the force required to resist such movement through the clip to the seam of a standing seam panel assembly of the type discussed herein where it is then transferred to other portions of the building structure.
The clip members of a standing seam panel roof are usually installed over a blanket insulation of from 2 to 6 inches in thickness placed over the supporting roof purlins. When the base of the clip members are attached to the roof purlins, this blanket insulation will be compressed, the amount of such compression depending on the thickness and type of insulation and the compressive force placed on the insulation, unless means are incorporated in the clip base to prevent or limit the compression of the blanket insulation.
This compressibility of blanket insulation can permit clip bases to move, or rock, on the purlin surfaces, and this in turn allows the purlins to rotate, thus reducing the purlin load carrying capacity. The clip base of the invention has rigid penetrating clip base support feet spaced laterally apart. These feet concentrate the compressive force over a small area so the feet compress the insulation to the point where it is virtually solid and the clip base will not rock.
As will be noted in
The clip fasteners 100 are purposefully established in a line that is parallel (as opposed to perpendicular) to the clip tab 20 of the clip 18, as this is advantageous in resisting forces on the clip tab 20. That is, the force exerted by wind uplift load on the roof panels are transferred through the clip tab 20 to the clip base 92; this force is in turn transferred substantially equally to the clip fasteners 100, allowing these multiple fasteners to share equally the force load received by the clip base 92. If the clip fasteners 100 were positioned along a line substantially perpendicular to the clip tab 20, as is the case in prior art structures, a preponderance of the transferred force would first go to the clip fastener 100 closest to the clip tab. Once the closest fastener failed, all the transferred force would then be transferred to the next fastener in line, which would be subject to failure at substantially the same load as the closest fastener had been, the only practical purpose thus being served by the most distant fasteners would be that of backup to failure of the other closer fasteners. It will be appreciated that the holding force of the clip 18 is increased when all the fasteners 100 share portions of the transferred load and work together, being loaded equally.
The web portion 94 folds over itself to form a clip retaining tongue 106, and the bottom portion of the clip first leg member 22 is folded into a groove forming, base connector portion 108 that receives the clip retaining tongue 106. This permits the clip body 90 to slide relative to the clip base 92, with appropriate limiting stops being provided to restrict the total movement allowed, such as the tab and slot stop 110 (other stops can be provided as well along the base connector 108).
The clip base 92 has a plurality of bearing tabs or feet 112. The bearing tabs 112 are spaced about the bottom of the clip base 92 and serve to penetrate and embed the underlying blanket insulation so as to compress the insulation under them; this serves to place the support of the clip base 92 and its load substantially directly on the purlin 102. This is depicted in
This provides a solid foundation for the clip base 92 on the purlin 102, as the bearing tabs 112 of the clip base 92 bear substantially directly against the purlin 102, reducing the amount of further compression of the insulation 114 and preventing lateral and longitudinal rocking of the clip base 92 in relation to the purlin 102.
A downward load on the roof panels will attempt to translate or rotate the roof purlin 102. As the roof purlin 102 tends to move, the roof panels by attachment to the clips 18 tend to resist the movement of the roof purlin 102. Without the bearing feet 112, there would remain some compressibility of the insulation 114 under the clip base 92, and the clip base in relation to the purlin flange could be rotated by the clip loading; this would tend to rotate clip base relative to the supporting purlin, resulting in applying substantially a point load through the insulation 114. This would further compress the insulation 114 until the insulation would compress no further, and in effect, the toe end of the clip base would bear directly on the roof purlin 102, at which point the load capacity of the purlin would have been compromised because it had been allowed to rotate in relation to the clip base.
Resisting purlin rotation, such as that which occurs in the previously known art, is achieved by the aforementioned transfer of load more directly to the supporting purlin flange. Stated simply, purlin rotation does not take place with the clip 18 until the purlin has rotated an amount that significantly reduces its ability to resist load.
In the present invention, the bearing feet 112 concentrate the total force exerted by the attachment fasteners 100 on the bearing feet 112, resulting in a more concentrated compression of the insulation 114 under the bearing feet 112 to the point the insulation cannot be compressed further by any significant amount, thus resisting any rotation of the clip base 92 in relation to the purlin flange. In effect, this causes the insulation 114 under the bearing feet 112 to provide a substantially solid base. The compressed insulation 114 therefore bears substantially directly on the roof purlin 102, so that as the roof purlin 102 tries to rotate as loading occurs, the load is immediately transferred to the roof panels through clip tab 20 and the clip base 92 which has close tolerance between it and the clip base 92 to resist purlin rotation before the roof purlin 102 has rotated to any significant degree. This immediate transfer of load allows the roof panels supported by the clips 18 to provide greater structural stability to the purlin.
The present invention assures complete sealant encapsulation of the clip tab of a clip connecting a standing seam assembly to underlying building structure, resulting in a more reliable watertightness seal throughout the complete length of the seams interconnecting metal building panels. Clip tab sealant encapsulation is accomplished by utilizing only a single sealant bead, preferably applied to the female sidelap, but it will be appreciated that the principles taught herein can as well be followed by applying the sealant to the top side of the male sidelap. Thus, the sealant can be automatically and economically applied to the full length of panels utilized to form a roof or a siding for such structures as pre-engineered metal buildings.
As will is clear from the above description of preferred embodiments of the invention, seam water tightness is accomplished by extruding the sealant through sealant extrusion holes in a clip tab into a sealant distributor channel created over and under the clip tab and over the upper surface of the male sidelap. The result is a continuous sealant dam between the male and female sidelaps having greater water tightness than that of the previous art while maintaining other desirable features, such as strength and aesthetic qualities. The location of the sealant on the female sidelap is coordinated with, and complementary to, the location of the sealant extrusion holes in the clip tabs.
The end edges of the each clip tab is provided with a sealant transition notch that is configured to channel the sealant on the female sidelap in such a manner as to form a continuous seal at the edges of the clip tab. That is, the ridges and valleys adjacent to the sealant transfer holes cause the sealant extruded through the sealant extrusion holes to form a continuous and effective water entry prevention dam. The clip tab notches can be provided with coined or configured edges, and as well, the clip sealant transfer holes can also be coined to assure even sealant flow, avoiding voids or channels through the sealant dam.
Staggering, or axially offsetting, the sealant extrusion holes creates a greater dimensional tolerance through which the sealant on the female sidelap can flow, helping to assure a uniform sealant dam. This also provides greater location tolerances for location of the sealant and the sealant extrusion holes, while also providing increased field assembly tolerances.
Turning now to
The elastically seamed standing seam assembly 16C is assembled by placing the clip members 18C over the male sidelap 14C, following which the female sidelap 10C is placed over the members 18C and the male sidelap 14C. The application of a vertical force to the top of the female sidelap 10C will cause the female second leg member 52 to be forced away from female first leg member 50 within the elastic range of the material of the female sidelap 10 until the female fourth leg member 60 passes by the distal end of the male second leg 72, allowing the stresses induced as the female second leg member 52 was forced open during seaming to be released; this results in compression of the sealant 40 along the upper sealant chamber 46 through the clip sealant flow holes 38 and along the lower sealant chamber 42 in a similar manor as described for the inelastic seaming described above.
As the panel sidelaps 10P, 14P are seamed, the seaming process results in compression of the sealant 40 between the underside of the female second leg member 52 and the top of male second leg member 72 to form a water resistant dam between clip members 18 at each clip member 18. The sealant 40 is compressed between the underside of the female second leg member 52 and the top of clip second leg member 24. The clip sealant 40A is adhered to the underside of the clip second leg member 24 in alignment with the position of the sealant 40 in the female sidelap.
It should be remembered that the clip members 18P in a typical installation are about 30 to 50 inches apart. As the seaming machine forms the standing seam assembly 16P, the resulting shape being that depicted in
The present invention, as illustrated in
It is clear that the present invention is well adapted to carry out the objects and to attain the ends and advantages mentioned as well as those inherent therein. While presently preferred embodiments of the invention have been described for purposes of this disclosure, numerous changes may be made which will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art and which are encompassed within the spirit of the invention disclosed and as defined in the appended claims.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/533,832 filed Dec. 31, 2003, entitled Standing Seam Panel Clips; and is a continuation to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/028,994 filed Dec. 30, 2004.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60533832 | Dec 2003 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11028994 | Dec 2004 | US |
Child | 12188883 | US |