Abstract
A spacer for multipane insulating glazing units includes a polymeric main body having two pane contact surfaces running parallel to one another, a glazing interior surface and, an adhesive bonding surface. The pane contact surfaces, and the adhesive bonding surface are connected directly or via connection surfaces. The spacer also includes an insulation film, which is applied on the adhesive bonding surface.
Claims
1.-15. (canceled)
16. A spacer for multipane insulating glazing units comprising: a polymeric main body comprising: two pane contact surfaces running parallel to one another, a glazing interior surface, an adhesive bonding surface, wherein the pane contact surfaces and the adhesive bonding surface are connected to one another directly or via connection surfaces, and an insulation film, applied on the adhesive bonding surface, wherein the insulation film comprises: a metal-containing barrier layer with a thickness of 1 μm to 20 μm facing the adhesive bonding surface, a polymeric layer with a thickness of 5 μm to 80 μm, and a metal-containing thin layer with a thickness of 5 nm to 30 nm adjacent to the polymeric layer.
17. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein a layer sequence in the insulation film, starting from the adhesive bonding surface, is ordered as: the metal-containing barrier layer, the polymeric layer, the metal-containing thin layer.
18. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein a layer sequence in the insulation film, starting from the adhesive bonding surface, is ordered as: the metal-containing barrier layer, the metal-containing thin layer, the polymeric layer.
19. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the insulation film completely covers the adhesive bonding surface and the connection surfaces and partially covers the pane contact surfaces.
20. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the metal-containing barrier layer comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of: aluminum, silver, copper, and alloys thereof.
21. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the metal-containing barrier layer has a thickness of 5 μm to 10 μm.
22. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the metal-containing thin layer has a thickness of 10 nm to 20 nm.
23. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the insulation film is bonded to the adhesive bonding surface via a polyurethane hot-melt adhesive.
24. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the polymeric layer has a thickness of 5 μm to 24 μm.
25. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the polymeric main body contains a polymer selected from the group consisting of: polyethylene (PE), polycarbonates (PC), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene, polyester, polyurethanes, polymethylmethacrylates, polyacrylates, polyamides, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), preferably acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylester (ASA), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene-polycarbonate (ABS/PC), styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN), PET/PC, PBT/PC, copolymers thereof, and mixtures thereof.
26. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the polymeric main body is glass fiber reinforced.
27. An insulating glazing unit comprising at least two panes, the spacer according to claim 16 arranged peripherally between the panes in an edge region of the pane, a sealant, and an outer sealing layer, wherein: the first pane lies flat against the first pane contact surface, the second pane lies flat against the second pane contact surface, the sealant is placed between the first pane and the first pane contact surface and between the second pane and the second pane contact surface, and the outer sealing layer is placed between the first pane and the second pane in an outer edge space adjacent to the insulation film.
28. A method for fabricating the spacer according to claim 16, comprising: extruding the polymeric main body; fabricating the insulation film, by: depositing a polymeric layer by physical vapor deposition (PVD) on a metal-containing thin layer, thereby fabricating a polymer-metal structure, and laminating the polymer-metal structure; and applying the insulation film on the polymeric main body.
29. The spacer according to claim 21, wherein the metal-containing barrier layer has a thickness of 5 μm to 10 μm.
30. The spacer according to one of claim 22, wherein the metal-containing thin layer has a thickness of 14 nm to 16 nm.
31. The spacer according to claim 24, wherein the polymeric layer has a thickness of 12 μm.
Description
[0042] In the following, the invention is explained in detail with reference to drawings. The drawings are purely schematic representations and not true to scale. They in no way restrict the invention. The figures depict:
[0043] FIG. 1 a cross-section of the spacer according to the invention,
[0044] FIG. 2 a cross-section of the insulating glazing unit according to the invention,
[0045] FIG. 3 a cross-section of the insulation film according to the invention, and
[0046] FIG. 4 a cross-section of an alternative embodiment of the insulation film according to the invention,
[0047] FIG. 5 a cross-section of an alternative embodiment of the insulation film according to the invention,
[0048] FIG. 6 a cross-section of a spacer according to the invention.
[0049] FIG. 1 depicts a cross-section of the spacer 1 according to the invention. The glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 comprises two pane contact surfaces 3.1 and 3.2 running parallel to one another, which produce the contact to the panes of an insulating glazing unit. The pane contact surfaces 3.1 and 3.2 are bonded via an outer adhesive bonding surface 5 and a glazing interior surface 4, Preferably, two angled connection surfaces 6.1 and 6.2 are arranged between the adhesive bonding surface 5 and the pane contact surfaces 3.1 and 3.2. The connection surfaces 6.1, 6.2 preferably run at an angle α (alpha) of 30° to 60° relative to the adhesive bonding surface 5. The glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 preferably contains styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) and roughly 35 wt.-% of glass fibers. The angled shape of the first connection surface 6.1 and of the second connection surface 6.2 improves the stability of the glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 and enables, as depicted in FIG. 2, better adhesive bonding and insulation of the spacer according to the invention. The main body has a hollow space 8 and the wall thickness of the polymeric main body 2 is, for example, 1 mm. The width b (see FIG. 5) of the polymeric main body 2 along the glazing interior surface 4 is, for example, 12 mm. The overall height of the polymeric main body is 6.5 mm. An insulation film 10, which comprises at least a metal-containing barrier layer 12 depicted in FIG. 3, a polymeric layer 13 as well as a metal-containing thin layer 14, is applied on the adhesive bonding surface 5. The entire spacer according to the invention has thermal conductivity of less than 10 W/(m K) and gas permeation of less than 0.001 g/(m.sup.2 h), The spacer according to the invention improves the insulating effect.
[0050] FIG. 2 depicts a cross-section of the insulating glazing unit according to the invention with the spacer 1 described in FIG. 1. The glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 with the insulation film 10 affixed thereon is arranged between a first insulating glass pane 15 and a second insulating glass pane 16. The insulation film 10 is arranged on the adhesive bonding surface 5, the first connection surface 6.1 and the second connection surface 6.2 and on a part of the pane contact surfaces. The first pane 15, the second pane 16, and the insulation film 10 delimit the outer edge space 20 of the insulating glazing unit. The outer sealing layer 17, which contains, for example, polysulfide, is arranged in the outer edge space 20, The insulation film 10, together with the outer sealing layer 17, insulates the pane Interior 19 and reduces the heat transfer from the glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 into the pane interspace 19. The insulation film can, for example, be affixed with PUR hot-melt adhesive on the polymeric main body 2. A sealant 18 is preferably arranged between the pane contact surfaces 3.1, 3.2 and the insulating glass panes 15, 16. This sealant includes, for example, butyl. The sealant 18 overlaps with the insulation film, to prevent possible interface diffusion. The first insulating glass pane 15 and the second insulating glass pane 16 preferably have the same dimensions and thicknesses. The panes preferably have optical transparency of >85%. The insulating glass panes 15, 16 preferably contain glass and/or polymers, preferably flat glass, float glass, quartz glass, borosilicate glass, soda lime glass, polymethylmethacrylate, and/or mixtures thereof. In an alternative embodiment, the first insulating glass pane 15 and/or the second insulating glass pane 16 can be implemented as composite glass panes. The insulating glazing unit according to the invention forms, in this case, a triple or quadruple glazing unit. Inside the glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 is arranged a desiccant 9, for example, a molecular sieve, inside the central hollow space 8. This desiccant 9 can be filled into the hollow space 8 of the spacer 1 before the assembly of the insulating glazing unit. The glazing interior surface 4 includes small openings 7 or pores, which enable a gas exchange with the pane interior 19.
[0051] FIG. 3 depicts a cross-section of the insulation film 10 according to the invention. The insulation film 10 comprises a metal-containing barrier layer 12 made of 7-μm-thick aluminum, a polymeric layer made of 12-μm-thick polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and a metal-containing thin layer made of 10-nm-thick aluminum. Polyethylene terephthalate is particularly suited to protect the 7-μm-thick aluminum layer against mechanical damage, since PET films are distinguished by particularly high tear strength. The film layers are arranged such that the aluminum layers, i.e., the metal-containing barrier layer 12 and the metal-containing thin layer 14, are on the outside. The foil is arranged on a polymeric main body according to the invention such that the metal-containing barrier layer 12 faces the adhesive bonding surface 5. Then, the metal-containing thin layer 14 faces outward and acts at the same time as an adhesive layer for the material of the outer sealing layer 17. Thus, the metal-containing thin layer 14 performs not only a barrier effect but also the role of an adhesion promoter. Thus, an effective spacer can be obtained through strategic arrangement of a simple to produce film structure.
[0052] The structure of the insulation film 10 according to the invention reduces the thermal conductivity of the insulation film compared to insulation films that are made exclusively of an aluminum foil since the thicknesses of the metal-containing layers of the insulation film 10 according to the invention are thinner, Insulation films that are made of only an aluminum foil have to be thicker since aluminum foils with thicknesses under 0.1 mm are highly sensitive to mechanical damage, which can occur, for example, during automated installation in an insulating glazing unit. A spacer 1 provided with said insulation film 10 according to the invention and the glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 has thermal heat conductivity of 0.29 W/(m K). A prior art spacer, in which the insulation film 10 according to the invention is replaced by a 30-μm-thick aluminum layer, has a thermal heat conductivity of 0.63 Wi(m K). This comparison shows that, despite lower overall metal content, with the structure according to the invention of the spacer made of a polymeric main body and insulation film, higher mechanical resistance and equivalent impermeability (against gas and moisture diffusion) with, at the same time, lower heat conductivity can be obtained, which significantly increases the efficiency of an insulating glazing unit.
[0053] FIG. 4 depicts a cross-section of an alternative embodiment of the insulation film according to the invention. The materials and thicknesses are as described in FIG. 3; however, the sequence of the individual layers is different. The metal-containing thin layer 14 is between the metal-containing barrier layer 12 and the polymeric layer 13. In this arrangement, the metal-containing barrier layer 12 is protected by the polymeric layer 13 against damage, by which means an unrestricted barrier effect is ensured.
[0054] FIG. 5 depicts a cross-section of another embodiment of the insulation film according to the invention. The structure of the insulation film 10 is substantially as described in FIG. 4, Additionally, a further metal-containing thin layer 14 is arranged adjacent the polymeric layer 13. This thin layer 14 improves, in particular, the adhesion to the material of the outer sealing layer 17 in the finished insulating glazing unit.
[0055] FIG. 6 depicts a cross-section of a spacer according to the invention comprising a glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric main body 2 and an insulation film 10, which is placed on the adhesive bonding surface 5, the connection surfaces 6.1. and 6.2 as well as on roughly two thirds of the pane contact surfaces 3.1 and 3.2. The width b of the polymeric main body along the glazing interior surface 4 is 12 mm and the overall height g of the polymeric main body 2 is 6.5 mm. The structure of the insulation film 10 is as shown in FIG. 3. The insulation film 10 is affixed via an adhesive 11, in this case, a polyurethane hot-melt adhesive. The polyurethane hot-melt adhesive bonds the metal-containing barrier layer 12 facing the adhesive bonding surface 5 particularly well to the polymeric main body 2. The polyurethane hot-melt adhesive is a non-gassing adhesive, to prevent gases from diffusing into the pane Interior 19 and visible condensation from forming there.
LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS
[0056] (1) spacer [0057] (2) polymeric main body [0058] (3.1) first pane contact surface [0059] (3.2) second pane contact surface [0060] (4) glazing interior surface [0061] (5) adhesive bonding surface [0062] (6.1) first connection surface [0063] (6.2) second connection surface [0064] (7) openings [0065] (8) hollow space [0066] (9) desiccant [0067] (10) insulation film [0068] (11) adhesive [0069] (12) metal-containing barrier layer [0070] (13) polymeric layer [0071] (14) metal-containing thin layer [0072] (15) first pane [0073] (16) second pane [0074] (17) outer sealing layer [0075] (18) sealant [0076] (19) pane interior [0077] (20) outer edge space of the insulating glazing unit [0078] h height of the pane contact surfaces [0079] b width of the polymeric main body along the glazing interior surface [0080] g overall height of the main body along the pane contact surfaces
