Static structures (e.g. – buildings) – Intersection of wall to floor – ceiling – roof – or another wall – Sustainer coextensive with junction of panels or modules
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-29
2001-11-06
Ball, Michael W. (Department: 1733)
Static structures (e.g., buildings)
Intersection of wall to floor, ceiling, roof, or another wall
Sustainer coextensive with junction of panels or modules
C052S272000, C052S278000, C052S279000, C052S282100, C156S091000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06311442
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an external corner formative member, which forms a part of an external corner portion of a building.
In related art of ceramic siding boards for buildings, an external corner post has been employed at an external corner of a building. The external corner post is a member which covers a corner portion of exterior walls to form decorated surfaces with building boards. A fixed interval is ensured by making use of fixtures between side edges of the external corner post and a building board, and after all building boards and external corner posts have been attached to the exterior walls, the interval is filled with sealing compound to prevent leakage of rain water.
In prior art, several kinds of external corner formative member have been proposed (Japanese Patent Unexamined Application H10-280641, Japanese Patent Unexamined Application H10-8683, etc.), which is generally constructed such that it comprises an angled corner plate portion, and a pair of groove portions formed on the opposite sides of the corner plate, respectively. In this case, the external corner formative member is adapted to be attached to an external corner portion of a building in such a manner that the side edge portion of a building board to be attached as a siding board is fitted in the groove portion thereby to allow the side edge portion of a building board to be covered by the external corner formative member, and at the same time, the external corner portion of a building is also covered by the angled corner plate portion.
When an external corner formative member of this kind is employed, an external corner post that has been formed of the same kind of material as that of the building board is no more required to be employed, and at the same time, the work of filling a sealing material is no more required, thus making it possible to simplify the constructing work of the external corner portion of a building.
However, when the external corner portion of a building is constructed using this conventional external corner formative member, the side edge portion of a building board is simply fitted in the groove portion of the external corner formative member without performing a work to fill the groove portion with a sealing material. Therefore, rain water is more likely to be allowed to pass through a gap formed between the front plate portion of the groove and the building board inserted therein, and then to penetrate, while turning around the side edge of the building board, into the inner side of the building board, thus causing the building frame to become wet with rain water.
With a view to prevent rain water from penetrating into the groove portion, there has been proposed an idea to internally bend the side edge portion of the front plate portion of the groove so as to make the bent portion function as a kind of weir, or an idea of forming a plurality of lips on the back plate portion of the groove so as to make the lips function as a sort of weir. However, when the present inventors have conducted a leakage test on the external corner formative members constructed based on these ideas by making use of a hose for showering, these external corner formative members are found insufficient in water leakage prevention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made under the circumstances as mentioned above, and therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an external corner formative member which comprises an angled corner plate portion, and a pair of groove portions formed on the opposite sides of the corner plate, respectively, and which is capable of effectively preventing rain water from turning around from the front plate portion of the groove into the back plate portion of the groove, thus completely preventing rain water from entering into the building frame portion.
The leakage of rain water through the board siding of a building into the inside of a room is generated by the following factors, i.e. a first factor is the existence of rain water on the surface of the board siding, a second factor is the existence of a gap in the board siding enabling rain water to pass therethrough, and a third factor is the existence of the force to cause rain water to move toward the interior of the room. This force causing rain water to move into the interior of room may be ascribed to capillary phenomena, differences in atmospheric pressure, the kinetic energy of rain water, a surface tension, or an influence of air current. As a result of profound study to prevent the leakage of rain water through the board siding thereby to solve the aforementioned problem, it has been found by the present inventors that to take countermeasures to cope with the problems of differences in atmospheric pressure and of the kinetic energy of rain water among the aforementioned various factors is most effective in the prevention of the leakage of rain water through the board siding of a building.
Namely, with a view to realize the aforementioned problems, the present invention provides an external corner formative member, which comprises an angled corner plate portion; and a pair of groove portions formed on the opposite sides of the corner plate, respectively for allowing a side edge portion of a building board to be fitted therein, wherein at least one rib which is adapted to be contacted with a side edge portion of said building board and hence to function as a weir for preventing rain water from penetrating into an inside of the building board is projected from a bottom of each of said groove portions. The side edge portion of the front plate portion of each of said groove portions may be internally bent so as to make the bent portion function as a weir.
When the external corner portion of a building is constructed using the external corner formative member of the present invention, the internally bent portion of the front plate portion of each groove portion (if formed) functions as a weir for receiving the kinetic energy of rain water. Rain water that has passed through a narrow gap that may happen to be formed between the surface of the building board inserted into the groove and the aforementioned bent portion of the front plate portion of the groove is turned into a state of so-called reduced-pressure as the rain water enters into the space formed inside the groove, so that the flow thereof toward the inside of the building board is interrupted, thus causing most of the rain water to flow downward through this space functioning in this case as a gutter.
Rain water that has failed to flow downward through this space reaches the rib formed on the bottom of the groove portion. The rib also functions as a weir for receiving the kinetic energy of rain water, so that the rain water is caused to fall along the rib. As a result, the leakage of rain water into the building frame portion disposed behind the building board can be almost perfectly prevented. If this rib is formed in a plural number, the aforementioned leakage preventive effect can be achieved by every rib, so that the leakage preventive function of the external corner formative member can be further enhanced.
According to a preferable embodiment of the present invention, the external corner formative member is provided with a broad space formed between the rib formed on the bottom of the groove and the back plate portion of the groove, this broad space being designed to be mostly left remained even when the side edge portion of a building board is fitted in the groove portion. In this embodiment, even if rain water has succeeded to pass through a narrow gap that may happen to be formed between the rib and the side edge portion of the building board inserted into the groove, the rain water is also turned into a state of so-called reduced-pressure as it enters into this broad space formed inside the groove, so that the flow thereof toward the inside of the building board is interrupted, thus causing the rain water to flow downward through this broad space functioning in this case as
Ball Michael W.
Lowe Hauptman & Gilman & Berner LLP
Nichiha Corp.
Rossi Jessica
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