Method of making an insulating unit having a low thermal conducting spacer

• US 6,223,414 B1
• Filed: 12/04/1996
• Issued: 05/01/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Vitro Flat Glass LLC (Compagnie De Saint-Gobain)
• Original Assignee: PPG Industries Ohio Incorporated (Nouryon BV)
• Inventors: Hodek, Robert Barton, Siskos, William Randolph, Kerr, Thomas Patrick, Thompson, Albert Edward Jr., Misera, Stephen C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hughes, S. Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hong, John C.
• Application Number:
  US08/760,605
• Time in Patent Office: 1,609 Days
• Field of Search: 29/527.1, 29/527.4, 29/897.312, 29/428, 52/786.13, 52/786.11, 52/658, 52/745.15, 428/34, 72/181, 72/177
• US Class Current: 29/527.1
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 2003/6638 with coatings
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 2003/66395 U-shape
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 3/66309 Section members positioned at the edges of the glazing unit
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 3/667 Connectors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 3/67304 Preparing rigid spacer members before assembly
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 3/67313 by bending
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 3/67317 Filling of hollow spacer elements with absorbants; Closing off the spacers thereafter
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49627 Frame component
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49906 Metal deforming with nonmetallic bonding
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/4998 Combined manufacture including applying or shaping of fluent material
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49982 Coating
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49986 Subsequent to metal working

Abstract

A method of fabricating an insulating unit includes the steps of: providing a pair of sheets and a substrate; forming the substrate into at least one spacer section having a base and a pair of outer legs connected to the base, the spacer section having a surface designated as a supporting surface; providing a bead on the supporting surface, the bead provided on the supporting surface includes a moisture pervious adhesive having a desiccant therein and assembling a spacer frame that includes the at least one spacer section and the sheets provide an insulating unit having the pair of sheets in a fixed relationship.

Claims

1. A method of fabricating an insulating unit comprising the steps of:

providing a pair of sheets;

providing a substrate;

forming the substrate into at least one spacer section having a base and a pair of outer legs connected to the base, the at least one spacer section having a surface designated as a supporting surface, and having a structural stability sufficient to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another;

providing a bead on the supporting surface, the bead provided on the supporting surface includes a moisture pervious adhesive having a desiccant therein, the bead at least when provided on the supporting surface having a structural stability to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another less than the structural stability of the spacer section, and

assembling a spacer frame that includes the at least one spacer section and the sheets to provide an insulating unit having the pair of sheets in a fixed spaced relationship to one another with the spacer frame therebetween to provide a compartment defined by the sheets and portions of the spacer frame wherein the moisture pervious adhesive having the desiccant communicates with the compartment.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein:

said step of providing a pair of sheets includes the step of providing the pair of sheets each having a parallelepiped shape, and

said step of providing means for spacing includes the step of providing a closed parallelepiped frame including the at least one section.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the step of assembling includes flowing a moisture impervious adhesive on selected portions of the spacer frame and moving the sheets and spacer frame relative to one another to move the adhesive into contact with edge portions of the glass sheets.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step of assembling includes the step of providing three spacer sections, each of the three sections having a pair of outer legs connected to a base to provide the sections with a U-shaped cross sectional configuration with outer legs of the three spacer sections and of the at least one spacer section only connected by the base, the step of providing the adhesive having the desiccant is practiced on each of the three sections and the at least one spacer section by flowing the adhesive having the desiccant on the surface of the base between the upright legs;

and

providing a moisture impervious adhesive on outer surface of each of the upright legs of the spacer frame.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the assembling step includes the step of positioning the spacer frame on marginal edge portions of one of the sheets and the marginal edge portions of the other sheet on the opposite side of the spacer frame.

6. The method according to claim 4 wherein the spacer sections are made of a fiber reinforced fiber glass plastic core with a film of a gas and moisture impervious film.

7. The method according to claim 4 wherein the spacer sections are made of a plastic core coated with a film of a gas and moisture impervious film.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein the film is a halogenated polymeric material.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein the film is a thin metallic film.

10. The method according to claim 4 wherein the spacer sections are made of metal.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing a bead on the supporting surface includes flowing the bead on the supporting surface.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the bead after it is provided on the support surface and during the use of the unit has a structural stability less than that of the spacer section.

13. A method of fabricating an insulating unit comprising the steps of:

providing a pair of sheets;

providing a substrate;

providing a length of spacer stock having a base and a pair of outer legs connected to the base with the outer legs having cutouts indicating bending points of the spacer stock the spacer stock having a surface designated as a supporting surface between the outer legs, and having a structural stability sufficient to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another;

providing a bead on the supporting surface, the bead including a moisture pervious adhesive having a desiccant therein, the bead at least when provided on the supporting surface having a structural stability to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another less than the structural stability of the spacer section, and

bending the spacer stock at the cutouts to form a spacer frame,

assembling the spacer frame and the pair of sheets to provide an insulating unit having the pair of sheets in a fixed spaced relationship to one another with the spacer frame therebetween to provide a compartment defined by the sheets and portions of the spacer frame wherein the moisture pervious adhesive having the desiccant communicates with the compartment.

14. The method according to claim 13 further including the step of imposing “

V”

shaped weaking lines in each of the outer legs about each of the cutouts with closed end of the “

V”

adjacent to the base, the “

V”

shaped weaking lines facilitating bending of the spacer stock into the spacer frame during the practice of the bending step.

15. The method according to claim 13 wherein the spacer stock is made of a fiber reinforced fiber glass plastic core with a film of a gas and moisture impervious film.

16. The method according to claim 13 wherein the spacer stock is made of a plastic core coated with a film of a gas and moisture impervious film.

17. The method according to claim 16 wherein the film is a halogenated polymeric material.

18. The method according to claim 16 wherein the film is a thin metallic film.

19. The method according to claim 13 wherein the spacer stock is made of metal.

20. A method of fabricating an insulating unit comprising the steps of:

providing a pair of sheets;

providing a substrate;

forming the substrate into at least one spacer section having at least a base and a pair of outer legs connected to the base, the at least one spacer section having a surface designated as a supporting surface having the pair of outer legs spaced from one another a sufficient distance for air to move between the legs, and having a structural stability sufficient to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another;

applying a bead on the supporting surface, the bead includes a moisture pervious adhesive having a desiccant therein, the bead at least when applied having a structural stability to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another less than the structural stability of the spacer section, and

assembling a spacer frame that includes the at least one spacer section and the pair of sheets to provide an insulating unit having the pair of sheets in a fixed spaced relationship to one another with the spacer frame therebetween to provide a compartment therebetween wherein atmosphere in the compartment moves through the spaced distance between the pair of legs to communicate with the moisture pervious adhesive having the desiccant.

21. The method according to claim 20 wherein:

said step of providing a pair of sheets includes the step of providing a pair of glass sheets, and

said step of assembling a spacer frame includes the step of providing a closed spacer frame.

22. The method according to claim 21 wherein the step of assembling a spacer frame includes flowing a moisture impervious adhesive on selected outer surface portions of the spacer frame and moving the sheets and spacer frame relative to one another to move the adhesive into contact with marginal edge portions of the glass sheets.

23. The method according to claim 20 wherein said step of assembling a spacer frame includes providing three spacer sections, each of the three sections having a pair of outer legs connected to a base to provide the sections with a U-shaped cross sectional configuration with outer legs of the three spacer sections and of the at least one spacer section only connected by the base, the step of applying the adhesive having the desiccant is practiced on each of the three sections and the at least one spacer section by flowing the adhesive having the desiccant on surface portions of the base between the upright leg, and further including the step of

providing a moisture impervious adhesive on outer surface portions of each of the upright legs of the spacer frame.

24. The method according to claim 20 wherein said step of providing at least one spacer section includes providing a length of spacer stock with the outer legs having cutouts indicating bending points of the spacer stock to form the spacer frame during practice of the assembling step;

the step of applying the adhesive containing desiccant is practiced on the surface of the base between the outer legs; and

the assembling step includes the step of bending the spacer stock at the cutouts to form the spacer frame.

25. The method according to claim 24 further including the step of imposing “

V”

shaped weaking lines in each of the outer legs about each of the cutouts with closed end of the “

V”

adjacent to the base, the “

V”

shaped weaking lines facilitating bending of the spacer stock into the spacer frame during the practice of the bending step.

26. The method of claim 20 wherein the step of applying a bead on the supporting surface includes flowing the bead on the supporting surface.

27. The method of claim 20 wherein the bead after it is provided on the supporting surface and during the use of the unit has a structural stability less than that of the spacer stock.

28. The method of claim 20 wherein the applying step is practiced during the forming step and the moisture impervious adhesive is applied on the surface of the substrate.

29. A method of fabricating an insulating unit comprising the steps of:

providing a pair of sheets;

providing a substrate;

applying a bead on a surface of the substrate, the bead including a moisture pervious adhesive having a desiccant therein,

forming the substrate having the bead into at least one spacer section having at least a base and a pair of outer legs connected to the base, and having a structural stability sufficient to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another whereas the bead at least when applied on the surface of the substrate having a structural stability to maintain the pair of sheets spaced from one another less than the structural stability of the spacer section wherein the bead is on surface portions of the base between the pair of outer legs wherein the outer legs are connected only by the base and the outer legs spaced from one another a sufficient distance for air to move between the outer legs, and

assembling a spacer frame that includes the at least one spacer section and the pair of sheets to provide an insulating unit having the pair of sheets in a fixed spaced relationship to one another with the spacer frame therebetween to provide a compartment therebetween wherein atmosphere in compartment moves through the spaced distance between the pair of legs to communicate with the moisture pervious adhesive having the desiccant.

30. The method according to claim 29 wherein the step of assembling includes flowing a moisture impervious adhesive on selected portions of the spacer frame and moving the pair of sheets and the spacer frame relative to one another to move the adhesive into contact with marginal edge portions of the glass sheets.

31. The method according to claim 30 wherein said step of providing at least one spacer section includes providing a length of spacer stock with the outer legs having cutouts indicating bending points of the spacer stock to form the spacer frame during practice of the assembling step;

the step of providing the adhesive containing desiccant is practiced on the surface of the base between the outer legs; and

the assembling step includes the step of bending the spacer stock at the cutouts to form the spacer frame.

32. The method according to claim 30 further including the step of imposing “

V”

shaped weaking lines in each of the outer legs about each of the cutouts with closed end of the “

V”

adjacent to the base, the “

V”

shaped weaking lines facilitating bending of the spacer stock into the spacer frame during the practice of the bending step.

33. The method of claim 29 wherein the step of applying the bead includes flowing the bead on the supporting surface.

34. The method of claim 29 wherein the bead after it is applied on the support surface and during the use of the unit has a structural stability less than that of the spacer section.