GLASS CERAMIC PLATE FOR WORKTOP OR FURNITURE

Abstract

A novel glass ceramic sheet intended in particular to be used as the surface of a furniture unit or as a worktop, the sheet including, at least in one of its faces, in particular its lower face, at least one connection element of a height less than or equal to 10 cm, the connection element including at least one part that is magnetized or at least one part made of a material capable of being attracted by a magnet. Furniture or a household equipment incorporating the glass ceramic sheet.

Claims

1. A glass ceramic sheet in particular for at least one of a furniture unit and a worktop, comprising: at least in one of its faces, in particular its lower face, at least one connection element of a height less than or equal to 10 cm, said connection element including at least one part that is magnetized or capable of being attracted by a magnet.

2. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 1, wherein said connection element is an element of the stud or pin type, in particular cylindrical, and of which the cross section is inscribed in a circle of a diameter less than 3 cm, or a profile section.

3. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 1, the sheet comprising: comprises a plurality of connection elements positioned under the lower face of the sheet.

4. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 1, wherein said connection element or said part, that is magnetized or capable of being attracted by a magnet, of the connection element is in the form of a coating or layer, for example in the form of a coat of paint formed from magnetic particles or in the form of a ferromagnetic foil.

5. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 1, wherein said part that is magnetized or capable of being attracted by a magnet of the connection element occupies an area representing from 15% to 100% of the surface-area of the connection element on its opposite side to the one in contact with the glass ceramic sheet.

6. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 1, wherein said connection element or at least part of said connection elements are able to accept, removably, at least one complementary part, magnetized or capable of being attracted by a magnet, of an element that is to be added, such as a support element that is to accept one or more accessories to be associated, or an accessory that is to be associated.

7. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 6, wherein the magnet or the magnetized part of the connection element or of the element that is to be added has a maximum energy product BHmax of at least 10 KJ/m.sup.3.

8. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 6 wherein the support element(s) with which the sheet is equipped or intended to be equipped are of the casing or plate type, and the accessory or accessories with which the sheet is equipped or intended to be equipped are in particular of the heating element(s), display system(s), electronic board(s), audible or vibrating component(s), light source(s), control unit(s) or interface(s) or sensor(s) type.

9. The glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sheet is a monolithic sheet having a thickness of less than 15 mm, an expansion coefficient of less than 3010.sup.7 K.sup.1 between 20 C. and 400 C., and a surface area of greater than or equal to 0.7 m.sup.2.

10. An item of at least one of furniture and household equipment, particularly the worktop or furniture unit, comprising: at least one glass ceramic sheet as claimed in claim 1.

11. The item of at least one of furniture and household equipment as claimed in claim 10, wherein said sheet occupies at least 50% of one face of said item of at least one of furniture and household equipment, particularly the top face, and is mounted, particularly horizontally, on one or more support elements so as to offer a continuous stable surface intended for various uses.

Description

[0044] Other advantageous features and details of the invention will emerge below from the description of nonlimiting embodiments of the invention, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

[0045] FIG. 1a depicts a schematic cross section of a first exemplary embodiment of a sheet according to the invention (with an element in the form of a stud enclosing a magnet or a part capable of being attracted by a magnet);

[0046] FIG. 1b depicts an alternative form of the embodiment of FIG. 1a;

[0047] FIG. 1c depicts another alternative form of the embodiment of FIG. 1a;

[0048] FIG. 2a depicts a view in perspective (viewed from above) of a sheet according to the invention according to a second exemplary embodiment of the invention;

[0049] FIG. 2b depicts a schematic partial cross section of said sheet depicted in FIG. 2a when a support element that is to accept one or more pieces of equipment or accessories that are to be associated is added and fixed to the sheet using the connection element (which in this embodiment is formed by a coat of magnetic paint);

[0050] FIG. 3a depicts a view in perspective (viewed from above) of a sheet according to the invention according to a third exemplary embodiment of the invention;

[0051] FIG. 3b depicts a schematic partial cross section of said sheet depicted in FIG. 3a when a support element that is to accept one or more pieces of equipment or accessories that are to be associated is added and fixed to the sheet using a connection element (which in this embodiment is formed by a rail equipped with a magnetized component).

[0052] The same references are used throughout the figures where appropriate to denote the same types of element.

[0053] In each of the aforementioned figures, the sheet (1) according to the invention is a monolithic sheet of glass ceramic (for example a sheet of the kind marketed by the Eurokera company under the reference KeraBlack+), this sheet having an upper face and a lower face which are smooth, and having for example a thickness of 6 mm and a surface area of 1.17 m.sup.2, and being in particular obtained by a procedure like that of patent application WO 2012156444, reducing the speed of passage through the ceramization lehr by 50% in order to obtain said large-sized sheet without any flatness defects.

[0054] In the first embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1a to 1c, the glass ceramic sheet (1), in particular intended to act as the surface of a furniture unit or as a large worktop, is equipped, on its lower face (1), with several identical or similar connection elements (2) (just one element being depicted here in the figures) each one comprising at least one shell or cylindrical body (3), each connection element being bonded under the underside (or lower face in the position of use) of the sheet by means of a thermosetting adhesive (4) that has a coefficient of expansion of less than90010.sup.7 K.sup.1 between 40 and 80 C. and a shear strength on aluminum of between 10 and 50 N/mm.sup.2, such as an epoxy-type adhesive marketed by the Henkel company under the reference Loctite EA 9492, or a cyanoacrylate-type adhesive marketed by the Henkel company under the reference Loctite 480.

[0055] Each connection element (2) is formed of at least one cylindrical body (3), which in particular is hollow or part-hollow, 0.5 to 3 cm in diameter, and 0.5 to 3 cm in height, for example made from a non-magnetic material such as aluminum, graphite, etc., and of at least one magnet (6), fixed (for example by bonding or insetting) in the cavity (5) at the base of the connector (2). The magnet is made for example from an alloy of samarium and cobalt or from an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron, and preferably covers from 15 to 100% (or even from 30 to 100%) of the area of the lower surface of the pin (formed by unfolding essentially of the total interior surface (5) of the cavity and of the lower surfaces 7 of the adjacent walls).

[0056] The support element intended to accept one or more pieces of equipment or accessories takes for example the form of a casing or housing (not depicted) essentially made of aluminum or of plastic, but also exhibiting a lateral part (8) or flange with an end (8) able to become lodged in the cavity (5) of the connection element, this end being formed for example from a ferromagnetic material and forming a complementary part to the magnetized part (6) of the element so as to allow the removable attachment of the support element (and of the accessories or equipment items it contains) to the connection element and, thereby, to the sheet, through the force of attraction exerted between the magnet/the magnetized part and the ferromagnetic end of the housing.

[0057] In the embodiment of FIG. 1a, when the support element bearing the equipment items or accessories is being mounted, the end (8) of the support element is introduced into the cavity (5) of the connector (2) where it is attracted by the magnet with a force exerted in the direction of the sheet. Should it prove necessary to remove or change equipment items, the support element can be removed by exerting a force in the opposite direction.

[0058] In the alternative form in FIG. 1b, the magnet/the magnetized part (6) is this time positioned in such a way that the force exerted between the magnet and the end (8) is perpendicular to the direction of insertion.

[0059] In the alternative form in FIG. 1c, the magnet/the magnetized part (6) is situated this time on the support element associated with the connection element, the connection element in this instance having a cavity interior surface (5) made of a ferromagnetic material, for example said interior surface being coated with a ferromagnetic foil (9), bonded if appropriate to said surface, or with a paint based on magnetic particles.

[0060] In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 2a and 2b, the glass ceramic sheet (1), in particular intended to act as the surface of a furniture unit or a large worktop, is equipped, on its lower face (1), with a connection element in the form of a coat of magnetic paint of a thickness of between 1 and 200 m, or of a ferromagnetic foil (12) with a thickness of between 10 and 2000 m, covering the entire lower face of the sheet. The paint is, for example, a paint containing 50% by weight of silicone resin, marketed under the reference DC 249 by the company Dow Corning, 30% of magnetic pigments marketed under the reference Alnico FLNG12 by Epixen Industries, 10% of fillers marketed under the reference Talc 10MO by the company Omya, and 2% of dispersants marketed under the reference Disperbik 110 by the company Byk GmbH, 1% of rheological additives marketed under the reference Aerosil 300 by the company Evonik, 2% of deaerating agents marketed under the reference Byk 306 by the company Byk GmbH, and 3% of xylene.

[0061] The support element (10) for example takes the form of an essentially aluminum or plastic rectangular casing or housing measuring 1926 cm and with a (side wall) thickness of 12 mm, provided on its upper face with a magnetized part (11), this support element being intended to accept one or more pieces of equipment or accessories (not depicted) such as induction coils, an electronic unit, etc. This housing can be fixed under the sheet at any point (as illustrated in particular in FIG. 2a where two support elements are positioned at arbitrary locations), fixing being by means of the attraction exerted between the magnetized part (11) of the support element and the magnetic paint or foil under the underside of the sheet, thus offering a great deal of flexibility in terms of the positioning of the added elements, these added elements furthermore being fixed removably.

[0062] In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 3a and 3b, the glass ceramic sheet (1) is this time equipped, on its lower face (1), with three similar or identical connection elements (13) in the form of, for example, U-section (as depicted), L-section or T-section aluminum rails of a thickness of between 0.5 and 3 cm, and of a length for example of between 1 and 30 cm, or even of a length corresponding to that of the sheet, each connection element or rail enclosing a magnetized bar (14) on all or part of its length.

[0063] The support element (10) takes, for example, the form of a rectangular casing or housing measuring 480550 mm, provided at least on its upper face (15) with a part formed for example of a ferromagnetic material and thus allowing the removable attachment of the support element (and of the accessories or equipmentnot depictedthat it contains) to the connection element and, thereby, to the sheet, via the force of attraction exerted between the magnet/the magnetized part and the ferromagnetic part of the housing. The housing can be fixed under the sheet at various points along the rails, attachment taking place via the attraction exerted between the magnetized part (14) of each relevant connection element and the ferromagnetic part of the relevant support element. As an alternative, each rail, for example made of a non-magnetic material such as aluminum or graphite, can be provided with a coating, for example at its base, or in its interior cavity, in the form of a magnetic paint or foil, the support element then having a magnetized part like that of FIG. 2b.

[0064] The sheet according to the invention may in particular be used to advantage to produce a new range of cooking devices or furniture units.