Static structures (e.g. – buildings) – Multiroom or level – Curtain-wall; i.e. – panel attached outside floor or beam
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-13
2001-09-18
Friedman, Carl D. (Department: 3635)
Static structures (e.g., buildings)
Multiroom or level
Curtain-wall; i.e., panel attached outside floor or beam
C052S506100, C052S506060, C052S508000, C052S378000, C052S325000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289644
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an externally suspended facade system, preferably mounted on an aluminum subsystem, according to the preamble of claim
1
.
DE-PS 34 01 271 and manufacturers' brochures have disclosed a facade system whose boards are secured by means of narrow board holders to horizontal or vertical supporting sections. In this system, an H-shaped piece of the board holder engages around the head rabbet of the respectively lower board and the foot rabbet of the respectively upper board. The board holders are in general arranged in pairs at the head and foot rabbets, respectively, of the facade boards, which are preferably embodied in transverse format and are offset slightly inwards from the corners of the facade boards so that the facade boards are secured at 4 points. Since the H-shaped pieces of the board holders are active upwards and downwards, there is a requirement throughout the surface of two board holders per facade board. The disadvantage of this system lies in the high requirement of two board holders for each facade board, as a result of which both the materials costs and the labor costs for the completely installed facade system are increased. In addition, the high head rabbet in particular is exposed to a substantial risk of breaking if the facade board is subjected to a heavy impact from the front, as in this event, as a result of slight tilting of the facade board, the head rabbet rests with its top rearward edge on the board holder, so that the supporting force acts on the head rabbet with a long lever arm.
Also known from DE-PS 36 27 584 and from manufacturers' brochures is a joint section for the vertical joints of facade systems, which is intended to prevent the relative movement of the facade boards in the horizontal direction in the plane of the facade and the clattering of the facade boards in a wind. The joint section consists of a central knuckle of the width of the vertical joint provided between the facade boards and two resilient double legs arranged on both sides of the central knuckle. The joint section is mounted in long bars and so ensures clean flush fitting of the vertical joints. The disadvantage of this system lies in the fact that the joint section described, because of the necessary resilient action, must be produced from very thin material and therefore bends easily out of true during installation or requires a long assembly time if the necessary care is taken. In addition, because of the necessary 7-fold beveling, it is costly to produce. For both reasons, the production costs of the completely installed facade system are increased. A further disadvantage of this joint section lies in the fact that it provides only inadequate sealing of the vertical joint against incident rain, since the legs of the central knuckle are continued in a straight line to the support point on the supporting section and therefore narrow gaps may be left as a result of production tolerances, through which water may be driven which reaches the supporting profile and, via this, the heat insulation, and soaks the latter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is therefore to describe a facade system in which the material input is reduced and the necessary assembly time is shortened and the proofing against incident rain is increased.
This object is achieved, according to the invention, by the characterizing clause of claim
1
. The advantage of this embodiment lies in the fact that, in each case, two upper and two lower facade boards are secured by a single board holder in their corner regions on the supporting sections of the subsystem. In each cruciform joint of the facade, therefore, one board holder is arranged; therefore the demand in the surface of the facade is only one board holder per facade board, whereas in facade systems according to the state of the art two board holders are necessary for each facade board. As a result, material costs are saved and assembly times are shortened. A further advantage of this embodiment lies in the fact that the facade boards are held at an exact joint distance apart by tongues or tabs which are attached or notched onto the board holders in precise alignment, one above the other, and that as a result the vertical joints of the pair of boards arranged respectively uppermost are precisely aligned with the vertical joints of the pair of boards arranged respectively lowermost. In this arrangement, the width of the tongues or tabs corresponds, with the necessary relatively slight play, to the clear width of the vertical joints between the facade boards. Instead of the tongues or tabs it is also possible to notch-fit double tongues or tabs whose overall dimension from outer edge to outer edge corresponds to the width of a single tongue. In the assembly of the facade system, in each case the lower tongue or the lower pair of tongues of the board holder is introduced from above into the vertical joint between the lower pair of boards, as a result of which the board holder is precisely centered on the center of the joint before its final fixing on the supporting section. As the upper tongue of the board holder is also arranged centrally over the lower tongue, the assembly of the upper pair of boards automatically results in an alignment of the vertical joint of the upper pair of boards with that of the lower.
In another particularly advantageous embodiment as claimed in claims
3
and
4
, a joint section with a knuckle is arranged between the vertical joints of the upper and lower pairs of boards, which section engages around the vertical rear edges of the facade boards arranged on both sides and is supported on the board holder or on the support section by means of simple resilient legs on both sides. The tongues attached to the board holder, in this arrangement, do not engage directly into the vertical joints between the respective pairs of boards but only into the knuckles, which are open at the rear, of the joint sections arranged in the vertical joints. The advantages of this embodiment lie in the fact that the joint section, which is preferably made from very thin sheet metal or plastic, although it does keep the facade boards at a precise distance apart, is nevertheless so extensively deformable both elastically and plastically that reactive forces and therefore damage to or breakage of facade boards cannot occur either during assembly or in the event of subsequent relative movements of the facade resulting from wind stress or settling of the building. Furthermore, the joint section is resiliently supported by the ends of its two outward-splayed legs on the board holder in its lower region and, resiliently, on the supporting section in its upper region and thus presses the facade boards on both sides, around whose vertical rear edges it engages, elastically toward the front of the facade until the play between the head and foot rabbets of the facade boards on the one hand and the board holder on the other hand is balanced. The advantage of this embodiment lies, first, in the fact that the joint section with its inward-projecting edges engages tightly around the rear vertical edges of the facade boards and thus forms a particularly effective seal against the penetration of incident rain. Furthermore, this joint section is substantially cheaper than the joint section according to the state of the art, since it is provided only with one knuckle and 2 bevels instead of one knuckle and 6 bevels. A further advantage resides in the fact that it can be mounted simultaneously with the facade boards in short sections and the laborious handling of the long joint sections according to the state of the art is no longer necessary, as a result of which assembly time is spared.
Another advantageous embodiment of the facade system according to the invention, as claimed in claim
5
, lies in the fact that the U-shaped parts of the board holder which engage around the head rabbet of the two lower facade boards and/or the foot rabbet of the two upper facade boards are notched in th
Friedman Carl D.
Gerhaher Max
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
Syres Christy M.
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