Sliding window

[57] ABSTRACT

A sliding window having a frame with a slidable panel and a further panel therein, the slidable panel being mounted on pivot arms coupled to slider means such that in its closed position the slidable panel is coplanar with the further panel and pressed against compression sealing means on the frame, but on opening movement, the slidable panel moves, by means of said pivot arms, away from the sealing means and out of the plane of the further panel to lie parallel thereto, whereby it can be overlapped with the further panel.

Claims, 8 Drawing Figures

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PATENTED oct 151374

3,841.024

SHEET 1 OF 3

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PATENTED OCT 151974

3.841,024

SHEET 2 OF 3

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PAIENTED0CT151974

3,841,024

SHEET 3 OF 3

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FIG. 8

3,841,024

SLIDING WINDOW

The invention relates to sliding windows.

Previously proposed sliding windows have the disadvantage that they cannot be made weatherproof due to the absence of a positive compression seal. Sliding windows, however, have considerable advantages over casement windows, particularly that installation is more simple and the metal content of the frames can be reduced since no problems arise regarding sagging, thereby resulting in a reduction of cost.

According to the invention, there is provided a sliding window having at least one slidable panel movable between a closed and an open position, at least one further panel which may be fixed or slidable, a surrounding frame and means, including pivot arms, for mounting the slidable panel in the frame, said means being so arranged and disposed that the slidable panel in its closed position lies substantially in the same plane as the further panel and in abutment with compression sealing means of the frame and, when moved from its closed position to its open position, moves out of said plane to lie in a further plane parallel to said plane but spaced therefrom such that the sliding panel can be overlapped with said further panel.

Said means are preferably so constructed that the slidable panel in open positions is movable in said further plane along a track of the frame but as the slidable panel approaches its closed position it is swung, on the pivot arms, into the plane of the further panel to bring it into abutment with said compression sealing means on the frame and compression sealing means on a mullion of the fixed panel.

The further panel is preferably normally fixed but is mounted for sliding movement, for example to facilitate cleaning.

The invention is diagrammatically illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional plan view through one embodiment of a sliding window according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional elevation on line 2—2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an elevation from the inside of the window of a bottom roller assembly for the window of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an elevation from the inside of the window of a top guide assembly for the window of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary elevation of the portion indicated by the arrow V on FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary plan view of the portion indicated by the arrow VI on FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary plan view corresponding to the lefthand end of FIG. 1 and showing a modified embodiment of a sliding window according to the invention; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional elevation corresponding to FIG. 7.

In the following description, “inner” is to be interpreted in the sense of towards the interior face of a wall in an aperture in which a window is provided and “outer” is to be interpreted as towards the exterior face of such a wall.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 6 of the drawings, a sliding window has a fixed surrounding frame 1 comprising vertical side members 2 and 3, a lower member 4 and an upper member 5. The frame 1 can be secured in an aperture in a surrounding wall, for example by dove-tail arrangements generally indicated at 6.

A fixed panel 7 and a slidable panel 8 are mounted in the frame 1, each of the panels 7 and 8 having a frame comprising opposite vertical jambs 10 and 11, an upper member 12 and a lower member 13.

The lower member 4 of the surrounding frame is formed to present an inner track 14 and an outer track 15. The lower members 13 of the frames of the slidable panels 7 and 8 mount rollers 16 which bear on the inner track 14. The lower member 13 of the slidable panel 8 is pivotably coupled to one end of each of the two link arms 17, the other end of each of the link arms being pivotally coupled to a respective roller housing 18.

The roller housings 18 each include a roller 19 bearing on the outer track 15, the two roller housings 18 being coupled together by tie bars 20. The link arms 17 are pivotally connected by rivets 21 to a bracket 22 secured to the lower member 13 of the panel 8 and the link arms 17 are pivotally connected to a respective one of the roller housings 18 by rivets 23, the lower member 13 of the panel 8, the link arms 17 and the tie bars 20 forming a parallelogram arrangement as is apparent from FIG. 1.

The upper member 5 of the surrounding frame 1 has an outer track 24 on which a pair of nylon guides 25 are suspended. The guides 25 are coupled to the upper member 12 of the slidable panel 8 by link arms 26. The link arms 26 are connected by rivets 27 to the respective guide 25 and by rivets 28 to brackets 29 secured to the upper member 12 to give a parallelogram arrangement of similar proportions to that provided at the lower part of the slidable panel 8.

By means of the two parallelogram arrangements the slidable panel 8 is is movable between a closed position, in which it lies in the same vertical plane as the fixed panel 7, and open positions, in which it lies in a plane parallel to the plane in which the fixed panel 7 lies and located outwardly thereof, whereby it can be overlapped with the fixed panel 7 to leave a window opening.

The members 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the surrounding frame 1 have flanges 30 thereon and resilient sealing strip 31 is provided on outwardly facing edges of the flanges 30. By pressing the fixed panel 7 and the slidable panel 8 inwardly against the resilient sealing strip 31, the panels 7 and 8 can be sealed against draughts.

In operation, with the slidable panel 8 in an open position, that is to say overlapped with the fixed panel 7, the slidable panel 8 is moved leftwardly as viewed in FIG. 1 to close the window, by a force applied to a handle 9 on the side member 10 of the panel 8, the rollers 19 moving along the outer track 15. As the panel 8 approaches the vertical member 2 of the frame 1, the lefthand roller housing 18 moves into abutment with a fixed nylon stop 32 and the lefthand guide 25 into abutment with a fixed nylon stop 33. Further movement of the panel 8 leftwardly will cause it to pivot inwardly on the rivets 21, 23 of the link arms 17 and the rivets 27, 28 of the link arms 26, to move substantially into the same plane as that in which the fixed panel 7 lies. The vertical member 10 of the panel 8 engages an angled face 34 of a stop 35 on the side member 2 of the frame 1, which angled face 34 guides the member 10 inwardly to press it against the adjacent sealing strip 31. The fixed nylon stop 32 in addition to restricting lateral movement of the roller housing 18 also helps to clamp

3,841,024 down the roller housing 18 by means of a wedging action as can be seen from FIG. 3.

The side member 10 of the fixed panel 7 forms a mullion and mounts a crescent-shaped locking catch 36 which is engageable with a keeper 37 on the side member 11 of the slidable panel 8. Actuation of the locking catch 36 moves the slidable panel 8 leftwardly to cause the side member 10 thereof to move further along the angled face 34 of the stop 35 and pulls the side member 11 of the slidable panel 8 inwardly to press it against a sealing strip 38 on the mullion and to press a sealing strip 39 on the side member 11 of the slidable panel 8 against the mullion.

The window is thus closed, locked and sealed.

It is to be noted that when, during closing of the window, the two link arms 17 move off the roller housings 18, the loading of the entire slidable panel 8 is transferred onto the inner track 14 thus preventing a torque being exerted on the two free resting roller housings 18.

To open the window the locking catch 36 is released and a force is applied to the slidable panel 8 to slide it rightwardly as viewed in FIG. 1. The mullion formed by the side member 10 of the fixed panel 7 includes a nylon block with an outer face 40 which is angled and which causes the whole slidable panel 8 initially to move outwardly, due to the parallelogram arrangement of the link arms 17 and 26. The outer ends of the link arms 17 have portions 42 which project outwardly beyond the rivets 23 and which, in the closed position of the slidable panel 8, are engaged behind stops 43 provided on a flange 44 of the lower member 4 of the frame 1. The stops 43 prevent the roller assemblies 18 moving rightwardly until the link arms 17 have pivoted about the rivets 23 until they are substantially aligned with the tie bars 20. When the link arms 17, and also the link arms 26, are so aligned the slidable panel 8 has moved to a position sufficiently outwardly of the plane of the fixed panel 7 to be moved rightwardly to overlap the panel 7.

In the fully closed position of the slidable panel 8, the portions 42 of the link arms 17 bear against the flange 44 of the lower member 4 of the frame 1 and exert additional inward pressure on the lower member 13 of the slidable panel 8 to press it more firmly against the sealing strip 31. A similar arrangement is provided at the upper edge of the slidable panel 8 by end portions of the link arms 26 bearing on a flange of the upper member 5 of the frame 1.

The purpose of initially restricting lateral movement of the roller housings 18 is to make sure that the side member 11 of the panel 8 has cleared the mullion before the entire slidable panel 8 is slid further to the right. To prevent the slidable panel from being excessively pushed outwardly, thus causing mis-alignment, adjustable nylon stops 45 (FIG. 5) are fixed to the top and bottom of the side members 10 and 11 of the slidable panel 8 and cooperate with the flange 44 of the lower member 4 of the frame 1 and the corresponding flange on the upper member 5 of the frame 1. The height of the stops 45 can be adjusted to permit the slidable panel to be moved outwardly for cleaning.

Although the panel 7 has been referred to as “fixed” it is desirable that it be movable to facilitate cleaning, but providing it to be movable requires means to apply an inward force thereto in the closed position to maintain the seal provided by the sealing strip 31.

In the closed position of the panel 7 the side member 11 thereof is pressed against the sealing strip 31 by an angled face 46 of a stop 47 similar to the stop 35. The side member 10 of the panel 7, which forms the mullion, is pressed inwardly by two identical wedge-shaped nylon keepers 48 fixed respectively on the bottom member 4 and the top member 5 of the surrounding frame 1. The two keepers 48 also serve to locate the panel 7 laterally by means of grooves 49 which accommodate one side of the mullion wall.

In the event that lateral movement of the panel 7 is desired, a laterally and leftwardly directed force exerted on the mullion will cause the mullion to move out of the two grooves 49. Recesses 50, FIG. 6, are cut in the outer side edge of the track 14 to accommodate cooperating wedge-shaped extrusions 50α on the roller housings 51 for the rollers 16 in the fully closed position of the panel 7. When opening pressure is exerted on the panel 7, the wedge-shaped extrusions 50α press against the recesses 50 and force the housing 51, together with the entire panel 7, to move outwards, thereby relieiving pressure on the sealing strip 31 and enabling the entire panel 7 to move freely. Lips 52, provided on the housings 51, prevent the panel 7 from being derailed from the track 14.

When the panel 7 is moved rightwardly to its closed position, the wedging actions of the face 46 of the stop 47 acting on the side member 11 and the keepers 48 acting on the mullion again, press the entire panel 7 inwardly until the mullion engages in the grooves 49 in the keepers 48 at the top and bottom to press the members 11, 12 and 13 against the sealing strip 31 of the surrounding frame 1.

The link arms 17 and 26 are preferably provided of stainless steel and other components of the sliding window, except where otherwise indicated, are preferably provided of aluminum.

Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, a modification is shown wherein the stops 32, 33 of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 6 are replaced by stop brackets 32α, 33α secured to the side member 2 of the frame 1. The stop brackets 32α, 33α mount pins 43α which replace the stops 43 of the previous embodiment and the link arms 17α and 26α have their outer end portions shaped to form recesses 42α to engage the pins 43α. Operation is as in the previous embodiment, that is to say the lefthand roller housing 18 and the lefthand guide 25 abut the respective stop brackets 32α, 33α during the closing operation as the window approaches its closed position, thereby initiating inward pivoting movement of the panel 8. At the end of the inward pivoting movement, the lefthand link arms 17α and 26α have the pins 43α engaged in their recesses 42α. When opening movement is initiated, the cooperating pins 43α and recesses 42α prevent rightward movement of the roller housings 18 and guides 25 until the panel 8 has pivoted outwardly on the link arms 17α, 26α into the plane of the outer track.