Static structures (e.g. – buildings) – Composite prefabricated panel including adjunctive means – Sandwich or hollow with sheet-like facing members
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-15
2001-04-10
Stephan, Beth A. (Department: 3635)
Static structures (e.g., buildings)
Composite prefabricated panel including adjunctive means
Sandwich or hollow with sheet-like facing members
C428S034000, C156S107000, C156S109000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06212852
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to thermally insulating glass, and more particularly to glass panels containing a thermally insulating vacuum.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are many types of thermally insulating glass panels. Some of them are made by coating multiple transparent and dielectric layers on glass and some are made by enclosing insulating gaps between multiple glass panels. Basically, two glass sheets separated by a vacuum space gap can greatly increase the thermally insulating effect of the glass panel.
In manufacturing glass panels having insulating gaps, three to five layers of glass are usually required to provide good insulating effect. Conventionally, getter is put into the gap between glass panels that are framed and sealed by metal. A vacuum space having air pressure below atmosphere pressure is thus formed between glass panels by the getter. Dried gas such as N
2
is a suitable material for the getter because the thermal expansion coefficient of dried N
2
is fairly small.
A schematic diagram of a conventional evacuated glass panel is shown in FIG.
1
. To manufacture an evacuated glass panel, two flat glass sheets
101
and
102
are separated by a narrow evacuated space and hermetically sealed around the edge
103
. An array of support pillars
104
maintains the separation of the two glass sheets
101
glass sheet with solder glass that is used to make the edge seal between the glass sheets
101
and
102
. Evacuation takes place through the tube. The glass panel
100
thus contains a thermally insulating vacuum.
There are various evacuation methods. For example, a tube
107
may pass through a hole extending in the glass panel between the space
106
and the exterior of the glass panel. Alternatively, the tube
107
may be sealed to a hole passing from an interior face of one sheet of glass to an exterior face.
FIG. 2
illustrates a sectional view of the glass panel shown in FIG.
1
. As shown in
FIG. 2
, a small tube
107
is positioned at a corner of the glass panel
100
and sealed into one glass sheet
102
with solder glass
108
. The apex of the corner is removed to accommodate the stub
105
of the tube
107
. This ensures that it does not protrude beyond the nominal dimension of the glass panel
100
.
The thermally insulating vacuum technique as shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
has some disadvantages. One is that customers must provide manufacturers with the specification of a glass panel in advance. In other words, users can not control by themselves the shape or size of a glass panel once the glass panel has been manufactured. Another problem is that the thermally insulating effect of such glass panels is not good enough in an environment such as a low temperature area. Even if two or three layers of such glass panels including dried N
2
are used, the thermally insulating effect is still poor in the building located at low temperature areas.
One application of conventional heat insulating glass panels is in freezers. In his application, prevention of fog forming on the glass panel is the main objective and the heat insulating effect is not a significant factor in the design and production of such a glass panel. Therefore, the design and manufacture of a conventional evacuated glass panel do not satisfy the requirement of high thermally insulating effect. There is a need in improving the thermally insulating effect of an evacuated glass panel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention has been made to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks of a conventional thermally insulating evacuated glass panel. It is an object of the present invention to provide an evacuated glass panel containing a thermally insulating vacuum. By having an internal thermally insulating vacuum, the thermal impedance of the evacuated glass panel of the invention is greatly improved.
Another object of the invention is to provide a thermally insulating evacuated glass panel with which users may easily control by themselves the shape or size of the glass panel. In other words, users may trim or cut the evacuated glass panel in any shape or size according to their need after the evacuated glass panel has been manufactured.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a simple structure of a thermally insulating evacuated glass panel which can be manufactured by an advanced vacuum packaging method. The structure of the thermally insulating evacuated glass panel can be manufactured in a vacuum chamber in a low pressure without special additional equipment. This eliminates the high cost associated with the specialized manufacturing equipment.
The fundamental construction and manufacturing process of a preferred thermally insulating evacuated glazing in accordance with the present invention will be illustrated in the detailed description provided herein below.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from a careful reading of the detailed description, with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4928448 (1990-05-01), Phillip
patent: 5252408 (1993-10-01), Bridges
patent: 5489321 (1996-02-01), Tracy
patent: 5643644 (1997-07-01), Demars
patent: 5657607 (1997-08-01), Collins et al.
patent: 5668353 (1997-09-01), Matsuda
patent: 5794403 (1998-09-01), Oberlander
patent: 5794404 (1998-08-01), Kim
patent: 5989659 (1999-11-01), Kato
patent: 6071575 (2000-06-01), Collins
patent: 6083578 (2000-07-01), Collins
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Stephan Beth A.
LandOfFree
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