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(11) | EP 0 702 744 B1 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT SPECIFICATION |
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| (54) |
LOCATING DEVICE HALTEVORRICHTUNG DISPOSITIF DE POSITIONNEMENT |
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| Note: Within nine months from the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent, any person may give notice to the European Patent Office of opposition to the European patent granted. Notice of opposition shall be filed in a written reasoned statement. It shall not be deemed to have been filed until the opposition fee has been paid. (Art. 99(1) European Patent Convention). |
[0001] The present invention relates to a locating device to facilitate location of a facing element, especially a brick slip, on a penetrable layer or substrate of a wall formation, the penetrable layer or substrate beneficially comprising an insulating layer, and also to a facing method.
[0002] Brick slips are used to provide a wall facing giving an effective brick appearance, and comprise a thin brick slice formed for example by cutting off the face of a full brick (the mother brick) before firing. The slip, essentially defining a brick "tile", is therefore a thin slice of brick consisting of the decorative and weathering surface of the "mother" brick, the slip being fired conventially to produce a hard durable material. Brick slips are widely made (by most manufacturers) to appropriate standards, e.g. British Standards (B.S.), and are adhered to a substrate of a wall formation using special adhesive.
[0003] For energy saving and building improvement, external wall insulation is utilised in buildings specifically by applying a variety of suitable insulants (mainly expanded polystyrene and mineral fibre sheeting) to the outside wall surface of a building wall. The insulation can be protected by a cementituous render or other protective/decorative material e.g. dry-dash or textured coloured finish, but a more effective finish is achieved by using the above brick slips to replicate a conventional brickwork finish. A number of systems are available which combine a brick appearance with an insulation substrate but they are of limited use because of an unacceptable appearance or an inability to cope with normal hazards such as fire. Brick slips cannot of course be located simply by mounting slip rows one above the other as in conventional brickwork, and consequently special panels (insulation) have been produced with profiled surfaces in sizeable sheets which serve to locate and hold the brick slips until the bonding adhesive has set; such a panel is shown in GB-A-2199352A.
[0004] There is the disadvantage however, that the system cannot accommodate dimensional discrepancies and misalignment which occur in most buildings. Conventional brickwork, which this prior system intended to replicate, can cope with these problems by adjusting the spaces between bricks horizontally and vertically, to "expand or shrink" dimensionally as required.
[0005] EP-A-0141 453 shows a panel of similar characteristics as that of GB-A-2199 352A although in this case the panel has a series of parallel spaced grooves which receive elongate tongues of special cladding tiles for positioning of the tiles on the panel. However, the aforementioned disadvantage of the prior art is still present in that the positioning of the tiles is set by the location of the grooves on the panel. A further disadvantage is that the tiles and panel are purpose designed to work together with the result that these items may not work with another type of tile or panel.
[0006] DE-A-3146 505 shows a further primary and permanent support system for attaching cladding to a substrate, which system uses an array of brackets secured to wooden battens of the substrate by means of screws. The bracket array includes channel form clamping brackets each providing a common support for the ends of a pair of adjacent cladding elements e.g. bricks so that the adjacent elements are gripped and held by the clamping bracket, a spacing web being provided on each clamping bracket for correct positioning of the elements. The bracket array must firstly be fitted to the substrate before the cladding elements/bricks are mounted on the bracket array. The system has the disadvantage of being complex so adding to the time required for cladding of the substrate and the need for special wooden battens in the substrate for the woodscrews complicates the substrate.
[0008] It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a locating device for use with proprietary brick slips to enable the slips to be applied to a plain insulant substrate while providing freedom to place the slips on the surface where desired without dimensional restriction.
[0009] Therefore, according to the present invention there is provided a locating device for a wall facing element especially a brick slip on a penetrable layer of a building wall, in accordance with the appended claim 1.
[0010] Preferably the locating means comprise clamping means adapted for clamping on opposed edge surfaces of the facing element, and said clamping means preferably comprise a flange at one edge of the main body and a flexible tongue towards an opposed extra edge of said main body.
[0012] The main body is preferably of open-work form thereby facilitating adhesive keying between the facing element and the penetrable layer. Further, a body portion may extend outwardly of said clamping means and include apertures for the fitting of additional fastening elements to the building wall.
[0014] According to a further aspect of the present invention a method of facing a wall formation is in accordance with appended claim 13.
[0015] An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
Figs 1 to 4 show respectively a front elevation, back elevation, a top view and a bottom view of a clip device for locating a brick slip on a penetrable insulating layer of a building wall;
Fig. 5 shows a side view of the device as applied to an insulating layer; and
Fig. 6 shows a front view of brick slips applied to an insulating layer of a building wall.
[0016] Referring to Figs. 1 to 5, a clip device 1 is provided for locating a brick slip 2 on an insulating layer L of a building wall, the insulating layer being formed of a penetrable material, such as expanded polystyrene or a mineral fibre layer. The device 1 comprises a main body 3 adapted to rest against the back surface 2B of the brick slip 2, clamping means 4, 5 on the body 3 to secure the device 1 to the brick slip 2 and piercing means in the form of spikes 6 to implant into the insulating layer L. The clamping means comprise a support flange 4 at the bottom of the main body 3 and a flexible tongue 5 towards the top of the body 3, the spacing of the flange 4 and tongue 5 permitting a predetermined size range of brick slip 2 to be placed against the body 3 while being securely clamped by the clamping means 4, 5. In this example, three spikes 6 are employed and arranged in triangular configuration, the spikes 6 having a T-cross section for strength, while the upper spike 6 at the triangle apex is longer than the spikes 6 at the triangle base to facilitate accurate placement of a brick slip 2 on the insulating layer L.
[0017] The main body 3 has a substantial spread to ensure that a brick slip is brought square onto the layer L, but is of openwork form by virtue of substantial apertures 7 to encourage satisfactory adhesive keying between the brick slip 2 and the layer (substrate) L. A portion of the body 3 above the tongue 5 can include holes 8 to allow additional mechanical attachment pins for example to be inserted if these are required by particular circumstances. The clip devices 1 can be made relatively inexpensively from suitable metal or plastics so that even although the devices 1 are located permanently, i.e. "lost" on formation of the wall facing using the brick slips 2 there need not be an excessive increase in cost, and in any event any cost increase can be off-set by the use of a simpler and cheaper insulating layer L and additionally there is the sizable benefit of greater flexibility in application of the brick slips to the layer L. The main body 3 can be sufficiently thin so as to be size compatible with the adhesive layer thickness between the brick slip 2 and the layer L.
[0018] The clip device 1 can be fitted easily to a brick slip 2 by applying the slip at an angle to the device 1 (as shown dashed in Fig. 5), then imparting a force between the slip and the tongue 5 to deflect the tongue, whereupon the device 1 can snap onto the slip and into the working position shown in Fig. 5, with the device 1 then clamped on the brick slip. By means of the device 1, the brick 2 can be positioned in any desired way on the insulating layer L prior to setting of adhesive between the layer L and the brick slip 2. For the formation of a conventional wall pattern, a horizontal starter line S (Fig. 6) can be drawn on the layer L and, with adhesive applied appropriately to the later L, the first row of brick slips 2 including the fitted clips device 1 is positioned relative to the line S, firstly partially implanting the top longer spike 6 then, when satisfied with the positioning driving all the spikes 6 fully into the layer L to locate the brick slip. The following rows of brick slips can then be completed similarly using the preceding lower row as a guide. Significantly however, the present invention allows a shift in the positioning of brick slips to cater for discrepencies in the general wall formation, or alternatively permit varying facing brick patterns to satify particular archetectural requirements for example as shown by brick slips 2A in Fig. 6. Pointing P can be applied in the usual way using a selected mortar.
[0019] The clip device according to the present invention provides the following advantages:-
1. The device allows standard brick slips to be used from the ranges of a number of manufacturers. The choice of colour and texture within controlled dimensional tolerances is therefore extensive.
2. The device accommodates the need for brick slip applications to be as capable as conventional facing brickwork in coping with dimensional discrepancies and misalignment.
3. The device makes it possible to install brick slips to insulant backgrounds without the need for special preformed insulated boards which restrict dimensional flexibility.
4. The device allows a choice of insulants to be used to meet specific requirements.
5. The device, when used in conjunction with a non-fire reactive insulant such as lamella mineral fibre, allows brick slips to be installed where non-combustibility and fire resistance are important such as in multi-storey work.
a) applying a penetrable layer (L) to the wall;
b) positioning and locating a facing element (2) on the layer (L) for subsequent adhesive bonding of the facing element (2) to the layer (L) by:
(i) providing the facing element (2) with spikes (6) projecting normally from the rear face of the element (2) by fitting a spike-carrying locating device (1) to the facing element (2); and
(ii) appropriately positioning the facing element (2) with the spike carrying device (1) thereon over the penetrable layer (L) and stabbing the facing element (2) normally into the layer (2) to locate the facing element (2) in a desired position on the layer (L) by means of the spikes (6) rupturing and penetrating the penetrable layer (L); and
c) bonding the facing element (2) to the penetrable layer (L) by applying adhesive between the facing element (2) and the penetrable layer (L).
a) Anbringen einer durchdringbaren Schicht (L) an der Wand;
b) Positionieren und Haltern eines Verkleidungselements (2) an der Schicht (L) für das spätere Ankleben des Verkleidungselements (2) an der Schicht (L) durch:
i) Ausstatten des Verkleidungselements (2) mit Nägeln (6), die rechtwinklig von der Rückseite des Elements (2) vorstehen, indem an dem Verkleidungselement (2) eine nageltragende Haltevorrichtung (1) angebracht wird; und
ii) Positionieren des Verkleidungselements (2) mit der daran befindlichen nageltragenden Vorrichtung (1) über der durchdringbaren Schicht (L) und Einstechen des Verkleidungselements (2) senkrecht in die Schicht (2), um das Verkleidungselement (2) an einer gewünschten Stelle der Schicht (L) mit Hilfe der Nägel (6) zu Haltern, die die durchdringbare Schicht (L) aufreißen und in sie eindringen; und
c) Verbinden des Verkleidungselements (2) mit der durchdringbaren Schicht (L) durch Einbringen von Klebstoff zwischen das Verkleidungselement (2) und die durchdringbare Schicht (L).
a) appliquer une couche pénétrable (L) sur le mur;
b) positionner et maintenir un élément de parement (2) sur la couche (L) pour un collage subséquent par adhésif de l'élément de parement (2) sur la couche (L) en :
(i) munissant l'élément de parement (2) de pointes (6) faisant saillie perpendiculairement depuis la face arrière de l'élément (2) en ajustant un dispositif de maintien (1) portant des pointes sur l'élément de parement (2); et
(ii) positionner correctement l'élément de parement (2) lié au dispositif (1) portant des pointes sur la couche pénétrable (L) et planter l'élément de parement (2) perpendiculairement dans la couche (2) pour maintenir l'élément de parement (2) dans une position désirée sur la couche (L) à l'aide de pointes (6) qui rompent et pénètrent la couche pénétrable (L); et
c) coller l'élément de parement (2) sur la couche pénétrable (L) en appliquant un adhésif entre l'élément de parement (2) et la couche pénétrable (L).