Insulation device

Abstract

An insulation device having: a tubular and pliable joint member, the joint member comprising a first end region and a second end region opposite to the first end region, the second end region being fastened to the first end region at a junction area so as to form a joint loop, and a flexible sleeve comprising a tubular central portion, a first end portion and a second end portion disposed on either side of the tubular central portion, the first end portion being folded toward the interior of the tubular central portion, the second end portion being folded toward the interior of the tubular central portion, the flexible sleeve being mounted about the joint loop and configured to cover the junction area. The present invention also concerns a folding tool and a method for folding and mounting the insulation device.

Claims

1. A method for providing an insulation device, comprising: providing a tubular and pliable joint member, the joint member comprising a first end region and a second end region opposite the first end region; fastening the second end region to the first end region at a junction area to form a joint loop of the joint member; locating a flexible sleeve at the junction area, the flexible sleeve comprising a tubular central portion, a first end portion and a second end portion disposed on either side of the tubular central portion, the flexible sleeve being covering the junction area when the flexible sleeve is mounted about the junction area of the joint loop, wherein the locating step comprising the steps of: folding the first end portion into an interior of the tubular central portion of the flexible sleeve via a free end part of a folding portion of a folding tool, the folding tool further comprising: a gripping portion, and the folding portion is secured to the gripping portion and comprises the free end part whose surface has a globally convergent shape, the folding portion being configured to bend the first end into the interior of the tubular central portion of the sleeve; folding the second end portion into the interior of the tubular central portion of the flexible sleeve so as to obtain a folded sleeve, and sliding the folded sleeve about the folding tool in order to locate the folded sleeve at the junction area of the joint member, wherein the insulation device is a furnace insulation device.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the locating step further comprises: providing the folded sleeve about the folding tool, introducing the first end region of the joint member inside the first tubular end part of the gripping portion of the folding tool, sliding the folded sleeve about the joint member, removing the first end region of the joint member from the first tubular end part of the folding tool, fastening the first end region to the second end region of the joint member so as to form the joint loop, and sliding the flexible sleeve on the joint loop until covering the junction area.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the fastening step comprises a step of stapling the first end region to the second end region.

Description

(1) Other aspects, aims and advantages of the present invention will better appear upon reading the following description of an embodiment thereof, given as a non-restrictive example and made with reference to the annexed drawings. The figures do not necessarily comply with the scale of all the shown elements so as to improve their readability. In the following description, for the sake of simplification, identical, similar or equivalent elements of the different embodiments carry the same numerical references.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of an insulation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates an enlarged view of the insulation device according to the embodiment of FIG. 1.

(4) FIG. 3 illustrates a step of folding a flexible sleeve according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(5) FIG. 4 illustrates a folded sleeve on a folding tool according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(6) FIG. 5 illustrates the folding tool according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(7) FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate steps of method relative to the sliding of a folded sleeve on a joint member according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(8) FIG. 8 illustrates a fastening mode of the end regions of a joint member according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(9) FIG. 1 illustrates an insulation device 1 comprising a pliable tubular joint member 2 forming a joint loop on which is mounted a folded flexible sleeve 3 (enlargement in FIG. 2). The joint member 2 and the sleeve 3 are formed at least in part of a braided material incorporating glass fibers so as to give very good thermal insulation properties to the insulation device 1. As illustrated in FIG. 8, the joint member 2 comprises a first end region 4 fastened to a second opposite end region 5 by a staple so as to form the joint loop intended to be clipped, for example, inside a furnace so as to insulate the opening. The junction area 6 between the stapled first end region 4 and the second end region 5, which can lead to a thermal bridge, it is covered by the insulating sleeve 3, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

(10) The flexible sleeve 3 comprises a tubular central portion 7, a first end portion 8 and a second end portion 9 located on the opposite side of the tubular central portion 7. As illustrated in FIG. 3, when the end portion 8, 9 is not folded, the braid tends to fray, which can be amplified upon friction which may take place during the use of the insulation device 1, in particular in a furnace.

(11) A folding tool 10, fully illustrated in FIG. 5, is then used in order to fold or in other words, bend the first end portion 8 and the second end portion 9 toward the interior of the tubular central portion 7 of the flexible sleeve 3 according to the folding method of the present invention. The folding tool 10 comprises two secured metal parts which extend along a longitudinal direction. These two metal parts define a gripping portion 11 and a folding portion 12, the latter being secured to the gripping portion 11.

(12) As illustrated in FIG. 4, the folding portion 12 comprises a free end part whose surface has a globally convergent shape which can be assimilated to a globally truncated-cone shape. This folding portion 12 allows to fold effectively the first end portion 8 of the flexible sleeve 3 inside the tubular central portion 7, in the direction of the second end portion 9 (FIG. 3step b) of the folding method. Thus, the sharp edge of this first end portion 8 is bent on itself toward the interior of the tube formed by the central portion 7 so that it is no longer subject to friction. Once the first end portion 8 is folded, the folding tool 10 is then used to fold the second end portion 9 (step c) and the sleeve 3 thus folded and ready to be used on a junction area 6. The folded sleeve 3 is then slid about the folding tool 10 (FIG. 4, step d).

(13) As illustrated in FIG. 5, the gripping portion 11 of the folding tool 10 comprises a first tubular end part 13 on the opposite side to a second end part 14 secured to the folding portion 12. This first tubular end part 13 is used according to step g) of the insulation device 1 mounting method for the introduction of a first end region 4 of the joint member 2 (FIG. 6). Then, according to step h) of the method, the sleeve 3 folded and mounted about the folding tool 10 is slid on the joint member 2 (FIG. 7). After removal of the first end region 4 of the folding tool 10, the latter is fastened by a staple (step jFIG. 8) to the second end region 5 in order to form the junction area 6 and the joint loop 2. Finally, the folded sleeve 3 is slid until reaching the junction area 6 so as to form the insulation device 1 of the invention (FIGS. 1 and 2).

(14) Thus, the present invention proposes an insulation device 1 for insulating the opening of a heating member whose components are simple to manufacture and to mount, the mounting of this device 1 furthermore requires the use of only one and the same folding tool 10.

(15) It goes without saying that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above by way of examples but that it comprises all the technical equivalents and variants of the described means as well as their combinations.