Movable or removable closures – Closure seal; e.g. – striker gasket or weatherstrip – Magnetic
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-06
2001-01-16
Stodola, Daniel P. (Department: 3634)
Movable or removable closures
Closure seal; e.g., striker gasket or weatherstrip
Magnetic
C049S489100, C049S496100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06173533
ABSTRACT:
DESCRIPTION
The present invention relates to a weather strip, in particular for window and door frames and the like.
It is known that in the field of external window and door frames, in that of motor-vehicles and in many other fields, weather strips designed to ensure an appropriate seal against atmospheric agents such as air, water or others are widely used.
In particular, the weather strips referred to in the present description have an extension and shape adapted to match the opening contour with which they are associated and, under operating conditions, they are interposed between a fixed portion such as a door or window frame or a car body, and a movable portion, such as the movable framework of a door or window or a vehicle door.
As mentioned above, weather strips having differentiated structures, conformations and working conditions have been made in the past, depending on the different requirements. More particularly, one known type of weather strip consists of the so-called compression strip. It includes a base portion intended for fitting into a corresponding seat of one of the frames with which the strip is associated, and a head portion which, under working conditions, is deformed by compression and therefore implements the necessary sealing action.
While the compression strips briefly described above are presently employed in many applications, they however have a great number of drawbacks above all from an operating point of view.
It is to note in fact that, even if rather valuable materials are used in the strip manufacture, when said materials are submitted to compression, a compression set is caused, that is the material is unable to completely and resiliently recover the bearing strain to which it has been subjected.
Clearly, these drawbacks, the presence of which increasingly grows in time, partly or completely impair the sealing capabilities of the strip.
It should be also noted that, taking into account the materials usually employed in manufacturing said strips, important problems exist in connection with aging and stiffening of the strip that, as time goes by, will become increasingly more unable to resiliently respond to the stresses to which it is submitted, in particular at corner areas. As a result, a reduction and a decay in the sealing capabilities of the strip occurs, which makes it necessary to replace the strip itself at predetermined intervals.
In addition to the above, it is to point out that, given the typology of said strips, working tolerances are to be respected with great accuracy in order to ensure a specific contact pressure substantially uniform over the whole perimeter to be sealed.
Furthermore, the compression strips are substantially unable to carry out and ensure an appropriate sealing when the openings to be sealed have tortuous shapes or corner areas where particularly sharp edges are present.
Then said compression strips, still due to their structural conformation, need a great closing strength capable of deforming the head portion of the strip itself so as to generate an appropriate specific contact pressure along the whole perimeter of the opening to be sealed.
Finally, it will be recognized that pressure strips cannot cause locking of a closure without the presence of a mechanical lock which must necessarily act in combination with the strip itself.
In order to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks at least partly, the same Applicant has already developed a second type of weather strip suitable both for building applications such as door and window frames for example, and applications to motor-vehicles, such as doors, hatchback doors, hoods or other movable parts of the car bodies, as well as for other similar applications.
In accordance with the last-mentioned typology, the weather strip is provided to comprise a head portion with which a band of magnetic material is associated. The head portion is them connected to a base or shoe portion of the weather strip by a tubular body or a bellows-shaped body capable of ensuring some mobility to the head portion. In this manner, the drawbacks typical of compression strips are reduced and a better adaptability to shapes of any conformation is ensured together with a greater reliability in time, due to the absence of a portion of strip acting under compression, and an easier setting up of the weather strip itself, since the latter does not need any mechanical lock and in addition no particular closing strength is required, because the sealing portion is biased against the corresponding abutment element by the attraction force caused by the insert made of ferromagnetic material.
While the above described weather strips provided with a magnetic insert appear to be greatly effective and widely imposed on the market, they however have shown some working aspects that, in the Applicant's opinion, are still susceptible of further improvement.
In particular, the magnetic-insert strips have involved some problems due to the particular conformation of the connecting portion between the head portion and the base portion of the strip itself.
More specifically, since the connecting portion is in the form of a tube or bellows, great difficulties arise on installation, when junctions between two straight portions of said strips are to be made at the corner areas.
In addition, due to the particular conformation of the connecting portion, the head portion appears to be linked to the base portion too stiffly. For this reason, the head portion has a weak mobility relative to the base portion and is therefore only limitedly capable of following the profile of the opening to be sealed.
Under this situation, it is a fundamental aim of the present invention to provide a weather strip that is of easy and ready installation while at the same time ensuring the greatest mobility to the head portion so as to achieve an excellent operating efficiency.
The foregoing and further objects that will become more apparent in the progress of the present description are substantially achieved by a weather strip in particular for window and door frames, as defined in the appended claims.
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Caldiroli Alfonso
Cittadini Paolo
Conte Robert F. I.
Industrie Ilpea S.p.A
Lee Mann Smith McWilliams Sweeney & Ohlson
Stodola Daniel P.
Thompson Hugh B.
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