Process for manufacturing a gas-filled multiple glazing unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10358863-B2
Application number	US-201214365401-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2012
Priority date	Dec 15, 2011
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

A process for manufacturing a gas-filled multiple glazing unit including at least two glass sheets, the process including a preassembly step in which each glass sheet is positioned inclined at an angle strictly greater than 0° and less than or equal to 10° to the adjacent glass sheet, so as to form at least one cavity, each cavity being completely closed on one of its sides; a step of partially blocking at least one of the sides of each cavity; a step of filling each cavity with gas via an injection side of the cavity; and a step of pressing the glass sheets. One or more cavities of a multiple glazing unit can be filled while reducing the amount of gas used and the filling times.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for manufacturing a gas-filled multiple glazing unit comprising at least two glass sheets, the process comprising:
preassembling the glass sheets so that the glass sheets are positioned facing one another, at least one of the glass sheets being equipped with a spacer and each glass sheet being positioned inclined at an angle strictly greater than 0° and less than or equal to 10° to the adjacent glass sheet, so as to form at least one cavity, each cavity being located between two adjacent glass sheets and being completely closed on one of its sides;
after said preassembling, partially blocking at least one of the sides of each cavity with a blocking element different from the spacer, said blocking element being positioned against said at least one of the sides so that said blocking element extends over only a first portion of said at least one of the sides to completely block said first portion, a second portion of said at least one of the sides, which is different from the first portion, being unblocked;
after said partially blocking, filling each cavity by injecting gas via an injection side of the cavity to push air present in the cavity to escape via said second portion of said at least one of the sides that is unblocked; and
after said filling, pressing the glass sheets against one another in order to seal the multiple glazing unit,
wherein said at least one of the sides that is partially blocked is different from the injection side.

2. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which the one or more partially blocked sides are blocked over at least 3% of their length and over at most 90% of their length.

3. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which the one or more partially blocked sides are blocked over a portion starting from one of their ends.

4. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which the gas is injected over at least one portion of a length of the injection side of each cavity.

5. The process as claimed in claim 4 , in which the gas injection portion is between 10 and 100% of the length of the injection side of each cavity.

6. The process as claimed in claim 5 , in which the gas injection portion is between 30 and 50% of the length of the injection side of each cavity.

7. The process as claimed in claim 6 , in which the gas injection portion is a third of the length of the injection side of each cavity.

8. The process as claimed in claim 4 , in which two sides of each cavity are partially blocked and in which the gas injection portion is located in the center of the injection side of each cavity, the gas injection portion remaining at a same position relative to the two sides of each cavity that are partially blocked and having a same length throughout the filling.

9. The process as claimed in claim 8 , in which the gas injection portion is a third of the length of the injection side of each cavity.

10. The process as claimed in claim 4 , in which one side of each cavity is partially blocked, and another side of each cavity is completely blocked.

11. The process as claimed in claim 10 , in which the completely blocked side and the injection side are connected to each other so that a corner is formed between the completely blocked side and the injection side, and in which the gas injection portion is located near said corner formed between the completely blocked side and the injection side, the gas injection portion having a length that gradually increases during the filling.

12. The process as claimed in claim 11 , in which the length of the gas injection portion gradually increases during the filling up to 100% of the length of the injection side of each cavity.

13. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which the filling comprises measuring the gas fill level of each cavity using a sensor located on the one or more partially blocked sides.

14. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which a flow rate of gas injected into a cavity is proportional to a height of the glazing unit and a thickness of the cavity.

15. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which the glazing unit comprises at least three glass sheets and at least two cavities which are all filled with gas at the same time.

16. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which, in the filling, the gas injected is a heavy gas.

17. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which, in the filling, the gas is injected into the cavities via orifices provided in a belt for conveying the glass sheets.

18. The process as claimed in claim 1 , in which the filling comprises evacuating the cavities before the gas is injected.

19. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the blocking element is a shutter or a seal.

20. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a flow rate of the injected gas varies during said filling.

21. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the injected gas is injected into the cavity via a plurality of nozzles and wherein a number of said nozzles that inject the injected gas into the cavity varies during said filling.

22. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the second portion of said at least one of the sides has a length that is at least 50% of a length of said at least one of the sides.

23. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first portion has a length of at least 5 cm.

Assignees

• Saint Gobain

Inventors

• Ripoche Xavier
• Hervieux Sebastien
• Diop Aliou
• Lagneaux Laurent

Classifications

• E06B3/6675 Primary

  for connection between the spacing elements and false glazing bars · CPC title

• E06B3/6775

  Evacuating or filling the gap during assembly · CPC title

• E06B3/673 Primary

  Assembling the units (E06B3/677 takes precedence {; making hollow glass sheets or bricks C03B23/24}) · CPC title