Refrigeration – Structural installation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-12
2001-06-12
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Structural installation
C062S297000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244063
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a refrigeration wall system composed of interlocking panels. More specifically, the present invention relates to a refrigeration wall system having panel fasteners that are coated with a backing material that enhances the adherence of the fasteners to the panel's foam insulation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Certain types of walls, such as refrigerator walls, are assembled from insulated slab panels, which are factory molded from insulating materials such as urethane. Mounted within these panels are fastening housings for holding adjacent slabs in abutting positions as they are assembled. The fastening housings contain opposed locking devices. Usually the housings are mounted along the panel edges during the factory molding process, and thus the housings must adhere to the molding material in order to provide a secure interlocking of the panels.
One obstacle in the manufacture of refrigeration wall systems has been poor adherence of the metal fastener housings to typical insulating material such as urethane foam. In the past, this problem has been addressed by spraying the fastener housings with an adhesive before beginning the molding process in order to enhance the adherence of the fastener in the foam insulating material. This method did increase the pull strength of the foamed-in-place fastener, but proved to be labor intensive and costly. An alternative method was to apply the adhesive during the manufacture of the fasteners, but the adhesive tended to obstruct the equipment used to assemble the fasteners. Therefore, there continues to be a need for a fastener that will strongly adhere to the insulating foam in a refrigerator wall system while being easily produced and attached to the panels.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator wall system having panel fastening mechanisms with increased adherence to panel insulation, resulting in improved pull-strength and overall stability of the wall system.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a cost effective fastening mechanism for use in the refrigerator wall system that will not interfere with other processing equipment.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a method for making the fastening mechanisms for use in the refrigerator wall system.
To achieve these objectives, the present invention provides a refrigerator wall system having panel fastening mechanisms that are coated with a backing material. The backing material more strongly adheres to the insulating material than does the bare substrate of the fastener housing, and thus the backing material enhances the strength of the interlocking panels that constitute the refrigerator walls.
In one aspect of the invention, the backing material is a polymer. In another aspect of the invention, the backing material is a polyester.
In the method of the present invention, a backing material is added to a substrate material before the substrate is stamped to form the parts needed to assemble the fastening housings. The substrate is preferably a metal, and most preferably bare cold rolled steel, temper #4 with hardness range of B45 to B65. The backing material chosen must have a stronger adherence to insulating material than the substrate itself has to the insulating material. Suitable backers are polymers, such as polyesters, and/or epoxy resins.
The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of the specific embodiment of the invention, together with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3006167 (1961-10-01), Lorch
patent: 3205674 (1965-09-01), Arnold et al.
patent: 3729950 (1973-05-01), Astrom
patent: 5245838 (1993-09-01), Cavalea, III
patent: 5546758 (1996-08-01), Hintermeier
patent: 5775119 (1998-07-01), Yamada et al.
patent: 5966956 (1999-10-01), Morris et al.
patent: 6109052 (2000-08-01), Austin, Jr.
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Doerrler William
Manitowoc Foodservice Group Inc.
Shulman Mark
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