Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Direct application of electrical or wave energy to work – Extrusion molding
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-19
2001-10-30
Dixon, Merrick (Department: 1774)
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Direct application of electrical or wave energy to work
Extrusion molding
C264S464000, C264S129000, C156S277000, C156S384000, C156S390000, C156S538000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309584
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention affects a procedure for producing profiled sections out of elastic material that will be further processed, particularly profiled joints for the construction industry, which are extruded and then cured in fused salt at 170-330° C., and onto which the necessary data is printed as well as a coating is applied—and then dried—which favors the installation process. Furthermore the invention concerns a piece of equipment to produce profiled sections coated with lubricating lacquer for the construction industry with an extruder, a fused salt bath and a coating and printing station. Finally, the invention affects a profiled section, especially a profiled window section for the building industry with a profile rail and a sealant body whose surface is equipped with a coating that facilitates installation.
Profiled sections out of crude rubber, resin, or appropriate blends are required for a wide range of applications, among other things in the building industry for windows where they are used both for the installation of panes into the actual profiled section and for an all-around sealant between the movable window wing and the profiled section frame. The profiled sections are extruded and then cured in a fused salt bath in order to be further treated afterwards, especially to be imprinted and equipped with a coating that favors installation and further processing. The coatings used for such profiled sections until now were silicone emulsions, which are meant to make the actual profiled window section more pliable and altogether easier to handle. The disadvantages in these silicone emulsion coatings, however, are that these emulsions have only limited storage stability, that changes during the manufacturing process are practically impossible so that customer requests cannot be incorporated or only at appropriately high expenses, and above all that the utilization of silicone emulsions leads to a contamination of the production equipment and also of people during the handling process of the silicone-treated profiled sections. Not only the processing station operator has to deal with the occurring contamination, but also subsequent operators or handlers because the silicone emulsion smudges everything unfavorably. Even the housewife is often still affected in her cleaning duties for months to come by silicone emulsion residues.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is therefore based on the task of creating a procedure and a piece of equipment for the economical production of profiled sections, especially of profiled window sections, with a coating that allows simple and clean processing and ensures long storage stability. In addition, an appropriate profiled section is to be created.
With the invention the task is resolved by manufacturing the profiled sections out of a non-lacquer-repelling material and by coating them after leaving the extruder and before entering the fused salt bath with a lubricating lacquer applied onto the uncured surface.
Such lubricating lacquer coatings are basically known from the automotive industry, where the profiled sections are first extruded and cured and then treated, i.e., equipped with the lubricating lacquer instead of the silicone emulsion. The lubricating lacquer must subsequently be hardened through appropriate equipment, which necessitates not only considerable additional investments, but also requires a lot of space and time because the hardening of the lacquer must be done very carefully and over the entire surface of the profiled section body. In contrast, in the procedure invented the lubricating lacquer is applied to the uncured profiled section and then inserted into the fused salt bath where, surprisingly, full hardening of the lubricating lacquer occurs, without the lubricating lacquer being affected by the fused salt bath as such. After the part has left the fused salt bath, you have a profiled section that can be used without problems. A profiled section developed in such a way offers considerable advantages. At first, the dry surface should be mentioned as well as the low friction coefficient. At considerably improved storage stability values, simple and clean handling is possible, with the lubrication effect being maintained permanently because contrary to the profiled sections coated with silicone emulsions the lubricating lacquer is maintained on the profiled section's surface. The profiled section's surface interlocks with the lubricating lacquer, leading to an appropriately long service life. The fixation of the lubricating lacquer onto the profiled section's surface eliminates the existing extensive work involved with the cleaning of the windows, not only during the initial cleaning, but also for subsequent cleaning processes. Another advantage is the fact that the lacquer work is in no way affected by the lubricating lacquer that is applied to the profiled section. This creates an overall procedure which offers considerable advantages for the profiled section that is produced, but beyond also for the manufacturing process itself because a separate lubricating lacquer hardening step can be foregone since the lacquer already undergoes this process in the fused salt bath. Hardening in the fused salt bath also ensures uniform hardening of the lubricating lacquer around the surface of the profiled section, even if this surface is not completely even due to the profiled section's layout, but has cuts and similar gaps.
An effective development of the invention plans for the distance between coating station and the fused salt bath to be sufficiently large to enable volatile matters to escape. This layout of the procedure offers the opportunity to use a lubricating lacquer that has been manufactured on a PU, silicone or teflon compound-basis, their derivatives, modifications or blends with solvents. By allowing the volatile matters to escape before immersion into the fused salt bath, optimized hardening in the fused salt bath itself is enabled. In doing so we found that a distance of 0.25-3 m, preferably a length of 1 m, is sufficient to ensure that the volatile matter escapes.
Another effective development plans for the lubricating lacquer to be sprayed, painted or otherwise spread onto certain parts or the entire surface of the profiled section. This shows that the lubricating lacquer, which should have a layer thickness of 3-4 &mgr; in order to ensure the necessary storage stability and appropriate service life after assembly of the entire profiled section, can be applied by using different techniques. The application technique will allow to coat only partial areas of the profiled section with lubricating lacquer or the entire surface, which then offers also the possibility to pull the profiled section through a lubricating lacquer bath or immerse the section in it.
If sufficient hardening of the lubricating lacquer is not ensured by the fused salt bath for technical reasons, then the profiled section can be treated with hot air, IR or UHF, after the coating process and before entering the fused salt bath and/or after leaving the fused salt bath, according to an appropriate version of the invention. In detail, this is a pre- or post-treatment process of the profiled section; however, generally the fused salt bath hardening process described above is sufficient and can often even be broken off early if the curing process permits. It is surprising that the curing process is not affected negatively by the lacquer layer that is applied; however, the layer thickness is important for this and should be at 3-4 &mgr;, as described in the above version.
For identification purposes, the profiled section must be equipped with various types of information. A familiar process includes the printing of appropriate notices and data onto the profiled section. In doing so, the identification features must remain on it at least until assembly. In accordance with one version of the invention, imprinting the profiled section before the coating process ensures this. This offers the great advant
Berens Werner
Kientz Paul
Creighton Wray James
Dixon Merrick
Narasimhan Meera P.
Saar-Gummiwerk GmbH
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