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US 4,107,892 AGranted
Wall panel unit
AssigneeButler Manufacturing Company
InventorNorman A. Bellem
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A prefabricated wall panel unit capable of being matingly joined with like units in edge-abutting relationship. The unit includes interior and exterior wall panels joined by hermaphroditic coupling elements. The coupling elements each have a channel-defining portion and a wing-defining portion with the portions being offset from each other and positioned so that a wing of one panel unit is received in a channel of an adjacent unit. Deformable strips of low thermal conductivity material are mounted in the channels for embeddingly receiving the wing elements to couple adjacent units together to form a wall.
Claims14
A prefabricated wall panel unit capable of being matingly joined with like units in edge-abutting relationship, comprising:
- an elongate interior wall panel having a first wing defining flange on one edge thereof and a first channel defining means on another edge thereof;
- an elongate exterior wall panel having a second wing defining flange on one edge thereof and a second channel defining means on another edge thereof;
- joining means connecting said wing elements to said channel means, said joining means being formed of a material having a thermal conductivity which is low relative to the material of said panels, said wing and channel elements being positioned on said wall panels so that said first channel means is located at the transverse centerline of the wall panel unit and said second channel means is spaced from the wall panel unit transverse centerline, and said first wing defining flange is located adjacent the wall panel unit transverse centerline and said second wing defining flange is spaced apart from the wall panel unit transverse centerline, said second channel defining means having an outer free edge which is located to be essentially co-planar with said interior wall panel one edge, said exterior wall panel one edge being located outwardly of said interior wall panel channel defining means;
- and
- thermal spacer means in each channel defining means for maintaining wing elements of one wall panel unit out of direct thermal contact with channel defining means of an adjoined wall panel unit, said thermal spacer means including deformable strips of low thermal conductivity material mounted in said channels embeddingly receiving said wing-defining flanges and being interposed between adjoined wall panel units, said deformable strips forming a thermal break in a heat path through the wall panel unit whereby direct thermal contact between adjoined wall panel units is prevented so that formation of any continuous heat path between wall panel unit connecting elements is prevented.
2 more elements
A prefabricated wall comprising:
- a plurality of matingly joined units, each unit including an elongate interior wall panel having a first wing defining flange on one edge thereof and a first channel defining means on another edge thereof;
- an elongate exterior wall panel having a second wing defining flange on one edge thereof and a second channel defining means on another edge thereof;
- joining means connecting said wing elements to said channel means, said joining means being formed of a material having a thermal conductivity which is low relative to the material of said panels, said wing and channel elements being positioned on said wall panels so that said first channel means is located at the transverse centerline of the wall panel unit and said second channel means is spaced from the wall panel unit transverse centerline, and said first wing defining flange is located adjacent the wall panel unit transverse centerline and said second wing defining flange is spaced apart from the wall panel unit transverse centerline, said second channel defining means having an outer free edge which is located to be essentially co-planar with said interior wall panel one edge, said exterior wall panel one edge being located outwardly of said interior wall panel channel defining means;
- and
- thermal spacer means in each channel defining means for maintaining wing elements of one wall panel unit out of direct thermal contact with channel defining means of an adjoined wall panel unit, said thermal spacer means including deformable strips of low thermal conductivity material mounted in said channels embeddingly receiving said wing-defining flanges and being interposed between adjoined wall panel units, said deformable strips forming a thermal break in a heat path through the wall panel unit whereby direct thermal contact between adjoined wall panel units is prevented so that formation of any continuous heat path between wall panel unit connecting elements is prevented.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.