Insulating glazing with glass spacer, notably for climate-controlled unit

Abstract

An insulating glazing includes two glass sheets spaced apart by at least one air- or gas-filled cavity, at least one transparent spacer made of glass, which is arranged at a periphery of the glass sheets and which keeps the two glass sheets spaced apart, and a transparent fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding, which fastens the spacer to each glass sheet via two opposite fastening faces of the spacer, wherein the spacer made of glass is obtained by the cutting of glass sheet in a raw state, and is joined to the glass sheets directly in the raw state, and wherein the fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding consist of a transparent material having been placed at an external junction of the spacer and of the glass sheets and having flowed into asperities of the glass of the fastening faces of the spacer.

Claims

1. An insulating glazing comprising at least two glass sheets, which are spaced apart by at least one air- or gas-filled cavity, at least one transparent spacer made of glass, which is arranged at a periphery of the glass sheets and which keeps the at least two glass sheets spaced apart, and a transparent fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding, which fastens the spacer to each glass sheet via two opposite fastening faces of the spacer, wherein the spacer made of glass is obtained by the cutting of float glass sheet in a raw state, the cutting having been made using, a scoring-breakage or laser technique and the spacer having a. thickness smaller than 10 mm, and wherein the spacer is joined to the at least two glass sheets between the at least two glass sheets via cut edge fixes of the spacer and joined directly in the raw state after the cutting without any step of finishing said edge faces, and wherein the fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding consist of a transparent material having been placed at an external junction of the spacer and of the at least two glass sheets and having flowed into asperities of the glass of the fastening faces of the spacer created in the cut edge faces in the raw state as a result of the cutting.

2. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thickness of the spacer is the same as that of the at least two glass sheets of the glazing.

3. The glazing as claimed in claim l, wherein the fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding consists of a transparent adhesive-bonding material having a refractive index identical or close to that of the glass.

4. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding consists of a transparent adhesive-bonding material that optionally crosslinks under ultraviolet light.

5. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding consists of a transparent material chosen to also form a barrier that is seal-tight at least to water.

6. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastening system to fasten by adhesive bonding has a thickness on an external joint line of the spacer and of each glass sheet of a few microns to 1 mm.

7. The glazing unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the glazing is a double glazing or a triple glazing.

8. A door comprising a glazing as claimed in claim 1.

9. A climate-controlled unit comprising at least one door as claimed in claim 8, the spacer being placed vertically in a mounted position of the glazing.

10. A process for manufacturing an insulating glazing as claimed in claim 1, comprising a step of producing the spacer and a step of joining the spacer to the at least two glass sheets, wherein the producing step consists in cutting at least one glass strip of width equivalent to that required to separate the at least two glass sheets, from a glass substrate of thickness smaller than 10 mm and using the scoring-breakage or laser technique, and associating the glass strip, via cut edge faces of the spacer, with the at least two glass sheets by joining the glass strip directly in the raw state after the cutting without any step of finishing said edge faces and placing the glass strip between the at least two glass sheets, with adhesive-bonding a material of which is able to flow into an interface between said cut edge faces of the spacer and the at least two glass sheets, and into the asperities of the glass of the cut edge faces created therein in the raw state as a result of the cutting.

11. The process as claimed in claim 10, wherein the producing step comprises cutting a plurality of glass strips.

12. The process as claimed in claim 10, wherein the joining step comprises placing a glass sheet flat, placing the spacer along one side of the glass sheet by applying one of the cut edge faces of the glass strip to an accessible general face of the glass sheet and close to the edge of the glass sheet, holding the spacer in place temporarily, applying a transparent adhesive-bonding material to the external joint of the spacer and of the glass sheet, placing the other glass sheet against the other cut edge face of the spacer and parallelly and perfectly facing the first glass sheet, and applying the transparent adhesive-bonding material to the external joint of the spacer and of the second glass sheet.

13. The glazing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spacer made of glass has a thickness smaller than 8 mm.

14. The glazing as claimed in claim 13, wherein the spacer made of glass has a thickness comprised between 4 and 6 mm.

15. The glazing as claimed in claim 5, wherein the barrier is seal tight to water and to gases and water vapor.

16. The glazing as claimed in claim 5, wherein the transparent material is made of an acrylate resin or epoxy resin.

17. The glazing as claimed in claim 6, wherein the thickness is of a few microns to 0.5 mm at most.

18. The glazing unit as claimed in claim 7, wherein the glazing is provided with one or more low-E coatings and/or an anti-fog or anti-frost layer.

19. A climate-controlled unit comprising a plurality of glazings as claimed in claim 1, the transparent spacers associated with the plurality of glazings being placed vertically in a mounted position of the glazings.

20. The process as claimed in claim 12, wherein the spacer is placed at most 5 mm from the edge of the glass sheet.

21. The process as claimed in claim 20, wherein the spacer is placed at most 1 mm from the edge of the glass sheet.

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 incorporating a plurality of glazings according to the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of a glazing according to the invention;

(4) FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a spacer according to the invention;

(5) FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of the glazing according to the invention with the spacer of FIG. 3 and without the presence of adhesive-bonding means; and

(6) FIG. 5 shows the view of FIG. 4 with the adhesive-bonding means, and thus the glazing according to the invention.

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

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

(9) 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.

(10) 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 according to the invention, which comprises 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 according to 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.

(11) Each insulating glazing comprises at least two glass sheets that are held parallel and spaced apart by a frame the opposite vertical portions of which, in the mounted position of the glazing, are transparent.

(12) The front of the glazings and therefore of the unit is thus devoid of any structural frame and has a smooth glass-wall-like appearance. In this way vision area is increased.

(13) Only the transparent vertical portion of the frame of the glazing, i.e. the portion corresponding to the invention, will be described below, the horizontal portions generally being formed by conventional interlayer means and sealing means that are not transparent. Likewise, the door that incorporates the glazing, the hinging means, the profiles for supporting and hiding the hinging means, and the type of handle will not be described.

(14) FIG. 2 illustrates a partial perspective view of the insulated glazing 3 showing the transparent vertical interior portion 4 of the frame. 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 transparent portions 4 according to the invention.

(15) 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.

(16) 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.

(17) 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.

(18) The gas-filled cavity 32 has a thickness of at least 4 mm and is modified 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.

(19) 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.

(20) The spacer 5 is entirely made of glass.

(21) 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.

(22) The spacer 5 extends lengthwise (here not shown) over the entire length of each of at least the vertical sides of the glazing for the targeted refrigerated-unit application.

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

(24) According to the invention, the spacer 5 has a thickness (distance separating the internal face 50 and the external face 51) which is smaller than 8 or 10 mm, and preferably equal to the thickness of a conventional insulating-glazing glass sheet, i.e. to 4 or 6 mm.

(25) The spacer 5 is fastened, by adhesive bonding, via its external junction lines 54 and 55 connecting the fastening faces 52 and 53 and the respective internal faces 30A and 31A of the glass sheets 30 and 31.

(26) According to the invention, the spacer made of glass is obtained by cutting glass, in particular float glass serving to manufacture the glass sheets of a glazing.

(27) Preferably, the cutting of the spacer is made using the scoring-breakage technique. This upstream step of the process for manufacturing the insulating glazing according to the invention may advantageously be carried out under the same conditions as those used to cut the glass sheets.

(28) The spacer illustrated in FIG. 3 has a thickness of 4 mm, equal to that of the glass sheets 30 and 31. The spacer is obtained from float glass; its perfectly parallel opposite faces will correspond to the internal face 50 and the external face 51 in the joined position of the spacer, whereas the cut edge faces of the glass will correspond to the fastening faces 53 and 54.

(29) Because of the cutting technique, the edge faces 52 and 53 are not perfectly planar as illustrated in FIG. 3, but have planarity defects usually called chips, with asperities 56 that are amplified in the figure for the sake of understandability. The asperities have very small dimensions, of about 0.5 mm, or even less.

(30) According to the invention, the spacer is joined to the glass sheets in the raw state after cutting, such as illustrated in FIG. 3, without any polishing-type step of finishing said edge faces.

(31) FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the glazing according to the invention with the spacer of FIG. 3 but without the presence of the adhesive-bonding means, in order to make it possible to more easily see the planarity defects of the spacer and that the surface of the fastening faces is not perfectly smooth and parallel to each of the internal faces 30A and 31A of the glass sheets.

(32) According to the invention, the adhesive-bonding means 6 illustrated in FIG. 5 are such that they are found on the joint lines 54 and 55 of the external face of the spacer and of the glass sheets, and in the asperities 56 of the fastening faces 52 and 53 of the spacer.

(33) The adhesive-bonding means 6 are made of a material that is able to flow during its deposition on the glass. In particular, the material possesses a viscosity comprised between 300 mPa.Math.s and 900 mPa.Math.s.

(34) Thus, the thickness of material placed on the joint lines 54 and 55 is minimized, in particular does not exceed 1 mm, and preferably does not exceed 0.5 mm, on the faces of the glass sheets on said joint lines. Furthermore, the material is arranged at the interface of the fastening faces 53 and 54 and of the faces 30A and 31A of the glass sheets, thereby filling the asperities 56, so as to produce an extremely thin adhesive-bonding coating that is almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

(35) The material of the adhesive-bonding means 6 is a transparent adhesive-bonding material having a refractive index identical or close to that of the glass.

(36) The material is able to rapidly crosslink. It for example crosslinks under ultraviolet.

(37) The material of the adhesive-bonding means is a material possessing properties that make it seal-tight at least to water, and preferably to water and to gases and water vapor, and in particular is an acrylate resin or epoxy resin.

(38) One (completely nonlimiting) adhesive-bonding material that exemplifies the invention and that combines all the above properties is an acrylic resin, the adhesive UV Verifix B 678 sold by the company BOHLE.

(39) The process for manufacturing the glazing of the invention is the following with respect to the manufacture of the spacer and the joining thereof: a plurality of strips of glass are cut from a glass substrate of 4 or 6 mm thickness using the scoring-breakage techniques, the glass strips corresponding to the width of separation of the glass sheets of the glazing; preferably, each glass strip is cut transversely at its ends, i.e. at the beginning and end of the cut length of the strips; a strip is cut transversely to the length desired for the spacer, the length corresponding to the length of one side of the glazing; a first glass sheet is placed flat; the spacer is arranged on the internal face of the glass sheet via one of the longitudinal cut edge faces of the glass strip; the spacer is held temporarily, for example with a clamp; adhesive-bonding means are deposited on the joint line of the spacer and of the glass sheet on the external side of the spacer, the adhesive-bonding means then flowing into the asperities; the adhesive is dried, for example using ultraviolet if the adhesive-bonding means are crosslinkable under ultraviolet; the second glass sheet is arranged perfectly facing and parallel to the first glass sheet, on the second cut edge face of the spacer; the glass sheet is held temporarily, for example with clamps; adhesive-bonding means are deposited on the joint line of the spacer and of the second glass sheet on the external side of the spacer, the adhesive-bonding means then flowing into the asperities; the adhesive is dried; and the means for temporarily holding are removed.

(40) Therefore, the process according to the invention is simple to implement and uses the technique conventionally used to cut glass that is not very thick, and the spacer according to the invention thus produced in the raw state, combined with the adhesive-bonding means, allows an insulating glazing to be produced the spacer of which is transparent and of very small thickness, with adhesive-bonding means that are imperceptible to the naked eye, thereby not interfering with the transparent visual impression that the entire glazing must give.