Insulating glazing, in particular for a temperature-controlled piece of furniture

Abstract

An insulating glazing includes at least two substantially parallel glass sheets, which are spaced apart by at least one air- or gas-filled cavity forming a cavity internal to the glazing, a spacer, which is arranged at a periphery of the glass sheets and which keeps the two glass sheets spaced apart, and an adhesive bonding system arranged to fasten the spacer to each glass sheet via two of opposite fastening faces of the spacer, wherein the spacer includes, at least for one side of the glazing, a mirror-function reflective surface on an internal face of the spacer facing the internal cavity of the glazing.

Claims

1. An insulating glazing comprising at least two substantially parallel glass sheets, which are spaced apart by at least one air- or gas-filled cavity forming a cavity internal to the glazing, a spacer, which is arranged at a periphery of the glass sheets and which keeps the two glass sheets spaced apart, and an adhesive bonding system arranged to fasten the spacer to each glass sheet via two of opposite fastening faces of the spacerwherein the spacer comprises, at least for one side of the glazing, a mirror-function reflective surface on an internal face of the spacer facing the internal cavity of the glazing, wherein a material of the mirror-function reflective surface is a material having a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of at least 75%, and a gloss of at least 100 GU under an angle of illumination of 85.

2. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spacer comprises a mirror-function reflective coating that forms the mirror-function reflective surface, said mirror-function reflective coating being added during assembly of the spacer with the glazing or added thereto/integrated therein during manufacture of the spacer in a factory.

3. The glazing as claimed in claim 2, wherein the mirror-function reflective coating is porous or comprises orifices in order to allow moisture in the gas-filled cavity to be absorbed by desiccant housed in the spacer.

4. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mirror-function reflective surface is obtained by a material as such from which the spacer is made.

5. The glazing as claimed in claim 1 wherein the mirror-function reflective surface is associated with the spacer on at least two sides of the glazing, which at least two sides are intended to be vertical in a position of use of the glazing, or are intended to be placed next to other identical sides of glazings that are placed side-by side one another.

6. The glazing as claimed in claim 1 wherein the glazing comprises two seal-tight barriers, which include a first seal-tight barrier that is seal tight to water, or to gases and water vapor, and that is formed by the adhesive bonding system to fasten the spacer, and a second seal-tight barrier that is complementary to the first such that when the first seal-tight barrier is seal tight to water, the second seal-tight barrier is seal tight to gases and to water vapor, and vice versa.

7. The glazing as claimed in claim 6, wherein the spacer has its internal face facing the cavity and its opposite external face in contact with said second seal-tight barrier, said internal and external faces each being provided with a mirror-function reflective surface.

8. The glazing as claimed in claim 7 wherein the glazing is a double glazing or a triple glazing.

9. A door comprising a glazing according to claim 1.

10. A climate-controlled piece of furniture comprising at least one door as claimed in claim 9.

11. A method comprising arranging one or more glazings according to claim 1 as an exterior glazing, or as an interior glazing or as a partition of a building.

12. A process for manufacturing an insulating glazing comprising: providing at least two substantially parallel glass sheets providing a spacer, and fastening the spacer to each glass sheet via two opposite fastening faces of the spacer with an adhesive bonding system so as to arrange the spacer at the periphery of the glass sheets in order for the spacer to keep the two glass sheets spaced apart by at least one air- or gas-filled cavity forming a cavity internal to the glazing, and wherein the spacer is selected to comprise, at least for one side of the glazing, a mirror-function reflective surface on an internal face of the spacer facing the cavity, and wherein a material of the mirror-function reflective surface is a material having a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of at least 75%, and a gloss of at least 100 GU under an angle of illumination of 85.

13. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material of the mirror-function reflective surface has a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of at least 80%.

14. The glazing as claimed in claim 13, wherein the material of the mirror-function reflective surface has a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of 81% and a gloss of 104 GU under an angle of illumination of 85.

15. The glazing as claimed in claim 14, wherein the material of the mirror-function reflective surface has a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of 84% and a gloss of 106 GU under an angle of illumination of 85.

16. The glazing as claimed in claim 7, wherein the internal and external faces are each provided with a mirror-function reflective surface when the second seal-tight barrier is transparent.

17. The glazing as claimed in claim 8, wherein the glazing is provided with one or more low-E coatings and/or an anti-fog or anti-frost layer.

18. A climate-controlled piece of furniture comprising a plurality of glazings as claimed in claim 1, the plurality of glazings being placed side-by-side one another, the spacers of said plurality of glazings provided with their mirror-function reflective surface being placed at least on the sides placed side-by-side one another of the glazings.

19. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the one or more glazings include a plurality of glazings that are placed side-by-side one another and the spacers of the plurality of glazings provided with their mirror-function reflective surface being placed at least on the sides placed side-by-side one another of the glazings.

20. The process as claimed in claim 12, wherein the reflective surface is made of a material having a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of at least 80%.

21. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the adhesive bonding system is made of butyral rubber.

22. The glazing as claimed in claim 2, wherein the mirror-function reflective coating is porous in order to allow moisture in the gas-filled cavity to be absorbed by desiccant housed in the spacer.

Description

(1) The present invention is now described using merely illustrative and non-limiting examples of the scope of the invention, and with regard to the appended drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic perspective view of a front of a refrigerated unit/piece of furniture incorporating a plurality of glazings according to the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of an insulating glazing with the spacer according to the invention;

(4) FIG. 3 is a variant of the insulating glazing of the invention, the sealing means of the spacer being transparent.

(5) The figures are not to scale for the sake of readability.

(6) The climate-controlled unit/piece of furniture 1 schematically illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a plurality of doors 2 each comprising an insulating glazing 3 according to the invention.

(7) The unit is for example a refrigerated chiller unit (temperature above 0 C.) intended to be installed in a store aisle. It is thus possible, according to the invention, to form a unit with a row of doors that are laterally side-by-side vertically along their edge faces.

(8) In the case of a chiller unit/window, since seal tightness is less critical than for a freezer unit (temperature below 0 C.), the door of the invention, which comprise the insulating glazing according to the invention, has no need to comprise vertical jambs forming a frame and provided with thick seals at the junction of two side-by-side glazings/doors. The glazing of the invention thus allows, because of the transparency of its vertical edges, a continuous transparent area to be achieved when glazings are placed side by side via their edge faces.

(9) Each insulating glazing comprises at least two glass sheets that are held parallel and spaced apart by a frame at least the opposite vertical portions of which, in the mounted position of the glazing, are produced with spacers according to the invention.

(10) There is thus an illusion of the front of the glazings and therefore of the unit appearing to be devoid of any structural frame and of continuity of objects placed behind the glass facade and behind the junction line of two side-by-side doors.

(11) Only the vertical portion of the frame of the glazing, i.e. the portion corresponding to the invention, will be described below; the door incorporating the glazing, the hinging means, the profiles supporting and hiding the hinging means, and the type of handle will not be described.

(12) FIG. 2 illustrates a partial perspective view of the insulated glazing 3 showing the vertical portion 4 of the interlayer frame of the glazing. The insulating glazing illustrated is a double glazing with two glass sheets. In the case of a triple glazing with three glass sheets, the glazing would comprise two portions 4 with the spacer according to the invention.

(13) The glazing 3 comprises two glass sheets 30 and 31 that are parallel and spaced apart by means of an interlayer element or spacer 5.

(14) The glass sheets 30 and 31 are preferably made of tempered glass. The thickness of each of the glass sheets is comprised between 2 and 5 mm, and is preferably 3 or 4 mm in order to minimize the overall weight of the glazing and to optimize the transmission of light.

(15) The glass sheets are separated from each other by the spacer 5 in order to produce, therebetween, a volume forming a gas-filled cavity 32.

(16) The gas-filled cavity 32 has a thickness of at least 4 mm and is adapted depending on the desired performance in terms of the heat-transfer value U, but is no thicker than 16 mm, or even than 20 mm.

(17) The gas-filled cavity is filled with air or, preferably, in order to increase the level of insulation of the glazing, a rare gas, chosen from argon, krypton, xenon, or a mixture of these various gases, the rare gas making up at least 85% of the gas mixture filling the cavity. For an even further improved U value, it is preferable for the cavity to be filled with a gas mixture containing at least 92% krypton or xenon.

(18) The spacer 5 according to the invention is a conventional insulating-glazing spacer with respect to its interlayer function.

(19) The spacer 5 is of generally parallelepipedal shape and has four faces, a face called the internal face 50 facing the gas-filled cavity, an external opposite face 51 facing the exterior of the glazing, and two what are called fastening faces 52 and 53 facing the respective glass sheets 30 and 31.

(20) The spacer 5 extends lengthwise (here not shown) over the entire length of each of the sides of the glazing. For the targeted refrigerated-unit application, the spacer 5 has the mirror-function feature described below at least on the vertical sides of the glazing.

(21) The spacer has a width (dimension transverse to the general faces of the glass sheets) equivalent to the desired spacing of the glass sheets.

(22) According to the invention, the spacer 5 has a thickness (distance separating the internal face 50 and the external face 51) that is generally about 6 or 8 mm.

(23) By way of example, the spacer is of a SWISSPACER type, this type of spacer being sold by SAINT-GOBAIN GLASS. It has a body of rectangular cross section that is beveled at its edges on the internal side of the glazing. The body is made of a thermoplastic, such as styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) or polypropylene, reinforced with glass fibers, which are mixed with the thermoplastic. The body is hollow and houses the desiccant.

(24) The spacer 5 is fastened in a known way, by adhesive bonding, by virtue of a structural seal 6 arranged at the interface between each fastening face 52 and 53 of the spacer and each internal face 30A and 31A of the glass sheets 30 and 31, respectively. The structural seal 6 is for example made of butyral rubber and produces a seal-tight barrier to gases and to water vapor.

(25) As usual, a sealing mastic 7 is added to the external face 51 of the spacer and between the glass sheets 30 and 31, coplanar with the edge faces of the glass sheets. This mastic is seal-tight to water. It is for example made of polyurethane, or polysulfide or silicone.

(26) According to the invention, the spacer 5 has, on its internal face 50, a mirror-function reflective surface 54.

(27) The mirror-function reflective surface 54 is preferably made of a coating 8 that is securely fastened to the internal face 15.

(28) The coating is made of a mirror-function reflective material and has, on the one hand, a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of at least 75%, and preferably of at least 80%, and, on the other hand, a gloss of at least 100 GU under an angle of illumination of 85.

(29) By way of example, the mirror-function reflective coating has a light reflectance R.sub.L of 81% and a gloss of 104 GU under an angle of illumination of 85.

(30) Another example achieving the optical illusion that it is sought to produce with the spacer is a reflective coating the light reflectance R.sub.L of which is 84% and the gloss of which is 106 GU under an angle of illumination of 85.

(31) The mirror-function reflective coating 8 is an adhesive film that is adhesively bonded to the entirety of the internal face 50 of spacer

(32) The mirror-function reflective coating 8 advantageously comprises orifices (not illustrated here) just like the internal face 50 of the spacer, in order to allow moisture in the gas-filled cavity to be absorbed by the desiccant.

(33) The spacer illustrated in FIG. 3 has a shape with a more rectangular cross section. Furthermore, the sealing mastic 7 is transparent.

(34) Thus, according to the invention, in this embodiment in which the sealing mastic is transparent, the spacer 5 is provided with a mirror-function reflective surface 54 not only on its internal face 50 but also on its external face 51. The mirror-function reflective surface 54 is for example obtained by adhesive bonding the mirror-function reflective coating 8 of FIG. 2.

(35) The process for manufacturing the glazing of the invention is the following with respect to the manufacture of the spacer and the assembly thereof: the spacer is manufactured in a conventional way; a coating 8 is selected, said coating having a reflective surface and being made of a material having, on the one hand, a light reflectance (R.sub.L) of at least 75%, and preferably of at least 80%, and, on the other hand, a gloss of at least 100 GU under an angle of illumination of 85; the mirror-function reflective coating 8 is added by adhesive bonding to the spacer when it is an adhesive film; the spacer is assembled in the conventional way into the glazing.

(36) Therefore, the process according to the invention is simple to implement. The spacer of the invention produced in this way allows, on being assembled at least into the vertical sides of an insulating glazing, an optical illusion to be created at the level of the spacer, this generating the illusion that the frame of the glazing is invisible on the vertical sides. In the mounted position of the glazing in a refrigerated unit, the visual impact of the frame is almost zero, giving the impression of transparency at the junction of a plurality of glazings according to the invention placed side-by-side.