Polymer utility vault and method of manufacturing by welding
AssigneeChannell Commercial Corporation
InventorEdward J. Burke
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A utilities enclosure comprising a grade level vault adapted for installation below ground and having an upper opening facing an interior region for containing at least a below-ground utility service, the grade level vault is formed in two halves comprising a first half and a second half, wherein each of the first half and the second half have an edge wall on opposite spaced apart end walls, each edge wall having a sacrificial pad extending outwardly therefrom which when heated and pressed together under pressure with a sacrificial pad on an opposite edge wall welds the first half and the second half together to form a seam.
Claims7
A method of assembling a grade level vault formed in two halves comprising a first half and a second half, wherein each of the first half and the second half have an edge wall on opposite spaced apart end walls, each edge wall having a sacrificial pad extending outwardly therefrom comprising the steps of:
- loading the first half onto a first fixture and the second half onto a second fixture in a press and moving a hot plate between the first half and the second half to heat the sacrificial pads to a predetermined temperature of 240° C.;
- withdrawing the hot plate from between the first half and the second half;
- and
- moving the top fixture and the bottom fixture towards one another to force the pads together under a predetermined pressure based upon a matching force between 0.2 N/mm{circumflex over ( )}2 to 0.5 N/mm{circumflex over ( )}2 for a matching time of 14 seconds, a heating time of 13 seconds, and a fusion time of 14 seconds to weld the halves together and form a seam therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.