Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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The present invention relates to wall panels for
buildings and especially houses, the panels being of the
type having two outer sheathing boards separated by rigid
foam insulation.
In many previously known panels of this type,
wooden studs span the gap between the sheathing boards and
provide thermal bridges which impair the insulating quality
of the panels. Attempts have been made to avoid such thermal
bridges, and such constructions are shown for example in
Canadian Patent Numbers 1,041,728 issued November 7, 1973 to
Samuelsson, and 1,124,482 which issued June 1, 1982 to Slater,
and U.S. Patent No. 4,329,827 which issued May 18, 1982 to
Thorn.
In some prior constructions, for example in the
Larrow U.S. ~atent No. 4,269,006, the panels are relatively
narrow in width and separate designs of panels are used for
unapertured wall areas, wall areas with windows, and door
openings. In other proposals, for example that of the Edgar
U.S. Patent No. 3,697,633, relatively long panels are used
(having a length greater than their height), and window and~or
door openings are provided in a panel which also has a length
of uninterrupted wall. In a typical known system using long
panels of this kind, a window or door opening is provided
by pre-cutting suitable apertures in the sheathing boards
before forming the panel, placing the sheathing boards in
spaced position in a mold or suitable holding apparatus, and
then framing around the opening so that when the foam is injec-
ted between the panels it does not spill into this opening.
The provision of this frame involves significant labor cost
in panels formed in-this way. In U.S. Patent No. 4,147,004
which issued April 3, 1979 to Day et al, window apertures are
cut from the finished panel, but these require framing after-
wards.
The present invention provides wall panels which
have a suitable strength and yet in which thermal bridges
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are minimized. Also, the invention allows long wall panels
to be produced from which windows and/or door openinys can be
cut if necessary, without any additional framing beins required;
although it is preferred that large openings be formed by
separate components above a door and above and below a wlndow.
The panel of this invention avoids the need for framing of
openings by the provision of a continuous top header extending
the full length of the panel and supported internally of the
panel by stud members designed for minimum thermal bridging.
In the wall panel of this invention, the continuous
top header comprises a pair of upper boards located against
upper margins of the opposed interior surfaces of the sheathing
boards and further comprises a transverse top bearing plate
overlying the upper edges of the upper boards. The panel also
has a base reinforcement comprising a pair of lower
boards having the same thickness as the upper boards and located
against lower margins of the interior surfaces and a transverse
lower bearing plate underlying the edges of the lower boards.
The panel further comprises a series of vertical stud members
each having a central web and a nailing flange along one edge
of said web, the flange being internally nailed to one of said
sheathing boards, and having an opposite edge element holding
nails applied through said other sheathing board, the central
web having end extensions fitting between the pair of upper
~S boards to the top bearing plate and between the pair of lower
boards to the lower bearing plate. The flange and edge ele-
ment provide parts lying between the edges of the web and said
sheathing boards; these parts each have a thickness equivalent
to the upper and lower boards and these span the vertical
spaces between adjacent edges of said upper and lower boards
so that the stud members support the header. All spaces
between the sheathing boards and upper and lower pairs of boards -
are filled with rigid foam insulation.
Any small window opening may be situated with i-ts
top immediately below the header, and the header provides the
sole reinforcement above such opening.
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Preferably the web of each stud member is a parallel
sided board dimensioned so that its end extensions fit perpen-
dicularly between the pair of upper boards and the pair of
lower boards, and the nailing flange and said opposite edge
element are each constituted by a strip of board material
secured perpendicularly to the outer edges of the said web.
The invention will be further described with
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-
Fig. 1 shows in elevation, a portion of a wall
panel connected to an end portion of an adjacent panel,
Fig. 2 shows a vertical section of the wall panel,on lines 2-2 of Fig. 1,
Fig. 3 shows a horizontal section of the two wall
panels taken on lines 3~3 of Fig. 1,
Figs. 4A and 4B show top and edge views of a stud
member,
Figs. 5A and 5B show top and side views of a spline
used to connect the wall panels,
Figs. 6A and 6B show top and edge exploded views of
~0 a wall expander and associated components,
Fig. 7 shows a horizontal section through a corner
panel,
Fig. 8 shows a panel intended to be cut into other
components including a wall expander and a spline,
~5 Fig. 9A shows a section of wall including part
of a door opening and part of a window opening,
Figs. 9B, 9C, 9D and 9E show sections on lines
9B-9B, 9C-9C, 9D-9D and 9E 9E of Fig. 9 respectively.
Fig. 10 shows a horizontal section through an
alternative corner construction,
Fig. 11 shows a vertical section through a wall
to floor connection,
Fig. 12 shows a vertical section through a panel
having a window opening, and
Figs. 13 and 14 show alternative forms of stud rnembers,
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Fig. 13 being a view similar to Fig. 4A of a first alternative
and Fig. 14 being a perspective view of a second alternative.
Fig. 1 shows an end of one wall panel A joined on to
an adjacent wall panel B, the latter having a window opening W.
Vertical and horizontal sections through the panels are shown
in Figs. 2 and 3.
As best seen in Fig. 2, the wall panel has two outer
sheathing boards 10 and 11 separated by rigid foam insulation
12. The boards 10 and 11 may be of plywood, or of so-called
oriented strand board which is formed of wafers of wood. The
inner board member 11 may also be formed of a smooth material
having a finish suitable for internal wall surfaces. The rigid
insulation is a foam plastic material, preferably polyure-thane.
Along the whole length of the top of the panel there
extends a continuous header indicated at 14 and which comprises
two upper boards 16 separated by the rigid foam insulation 12.
Boards 16 are adhered to -the inner surfaces of the boards 10
and 11. Across the upper edges of boards 16 there extends
a transverse bearing plate 18 which is also adhered to the foam
material 12; a second top plate 20 is installed during erection
of the panel but is not an integral part of the panel. As
shown in Fig. 1, a window ope~ing W may be cut out having its
top immediately underneath the header 14, and this header
which is about 12 inches (305 millimetres) in depth is suf-
ficient to support loads acting on the top of the panel over
the window, without any other header or reinforcement being
required. However, to avoid wastage of ma-terial, it is prefer-
red that large window openings at least be accommodated by sep-
arate panel elements as described below.
A base reinforc~ment indicated at 22 extends along
the length of the panel. This reinforcement is similar to
the header and comprises two lower boards 24 having the same
thickness as the upper boards 16. These lower boards are
again separated by the rigid foam insulation 12 and adhered to
the sheathing boards 10 and 11, and are provided with a base
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37~364
or bearing plate 26 underlying the lower edges of boards 24.
The base reinforcement is typically three inches to four
inches in height (89 millimetres to 101 millimetres). A further
base plate 28 may be installed in the field but this is no-t
an integral part of the panel.
Stud members 30 extend upwardly between the top of
the base plate 26 and the bottom of the bearing plate 18, and
are located at about 2 foot (610 millimetres) spacing. These
stud members are shown separately in Figs. 4A and 4B. Each
1~ stud member comprises a central web 31 formed as a parallel
sided board and having extensions 31a which fit perpen-
dicularly between the pair of upper boards 16 forming the
top header and between the pair of lower boards 24 forming the
base reinforcement and so that its ends abut bearing plates 18
and 26. In the region between the lower edges of the upper
boards 16 and the upper edges of the lower boards 24 extend
flanges 32 secured to the outer edges of the web so that the
central part of the stud`member is in the form of a channel.
The flanges 32 provide parts lying between the edges of the
web and sheathing boards 10 and 11 and having the same thickness
as the upper and lower boards and such parts thus fill the spaces
between the web 31 and the boards 10 and 11 as well as spanning
the gap between the upper boards and the lower boards thereby
giving support for the header. Conveniently, both web 31
~5 and the flanges 32 are cut from the same material as that of
the sheathing boards.
As shown in Fig. 3, the lateral edges of the wall
pa~els have recesses formed by providing boards 10 and 11 with
extensions lOa and lla protruding beyond the inner parts of
the panels and by providing that the stud members at opposite
ends of the panel have their flanges projecting inwardly of
the webs away from the panel ends. As shown in Figs. 1 and 3,
these re~esses allow two panels to be connected end to end by
the so-called foam spline 34 which is shown separately in
Figure 5. The foam spline comprises two elonaated boards 36
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separated by a layer oE rigid foam insulation 37. The exterior
surfaces of boards 36 fit snugly within the end portions lOa
and lla, and the spline is attached to the boards of the end
portions by screws.
S In the preferred method of forming the panel, a
first sheathing board 10 is laid on a table. A first bearing
plate (such as plate 18) is positioned perpendicularly to
board 10 along its marginal edge, being located by a vertical
flange attached to the table. A first reinforcing board (such
as board 16) is glued to the board 10 and positioned to have
its outer edge against the plate 18. A second reinforcing
board (such as board 24) is placed close to the opposite margin
of the board 10 with glue being applied between these latter
boards. The preformed stud members are then put in place
and glued transversely of board 10 with the end portions of
their web members 31 extending over the boards 16 and 24, each
with one end abutting plate 18, and each with one end of its
lowermost flange 32 abutting the inner edge of board 16. The
position of board 24 may be adjusted if necessary ~while the
glue is still soft) to bring the inner end of this board against
the other end of the lowermost flange 32. As indicated, the
outermost stud members are set back from the end of board 10
and arranged so that their flanges face inwardly away from
these ends. When positioned, the studs are secured to the
~5 board 10 by nails applied by means of an angled nailing device
applied internally of the lower flange 32 of the stud member.
The plate 18 may also then be nailed to the stud members and
the board 16.
The other reinforcing boards 16 and 24 are then
applied over the web portions of the stud members and are
glued and nailed to the stud members, following which the
top board 11 is applied over the studs and the reinforcing
boards are glued and nailed in place to the top flanges of
the stud members. The bottom bearing plate 26 can then be
positioned and stapled to the stud members, and plate 18
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nailed to the top board 16 and the top board 11.
It is to be understood that the order of procedure
may be varied somewhat, and that in some cases gluing and
nailing may not both be required. It will also be understood
that nailing can include stapling and that reference to
the former include the latter. However, it is important that
the panel, before addition of the foam, be sufficiently
strong that it can readily be handled. For this reason the
stud members are nailed both to the first board 10, the nail-
ing being done internally of the stud member, and to the secondboard 11 by externally applied nails. For the internal
nailing a flange such as flange 32 is required; for the external
nailing all that is required is an edge element suitable for
receiving nails and having the same thickness as boards 16
and 24; conveniently however this edge element is also a
flange.
To allow addition of foam material a series of injec-
tion holes is bored in the bottom bearing plate 26 with one
hole between each pair of adjacent stud members. Vent holes
are provided in both the upper and lower bearing plates.
The hollow panel is then moved to a press where
a pile of several panels is held between upper and lower rigid
platens capable of resisting expansion forces of the foam.
With these platens in place, foam is injected through the
injection holes, and fills the cavities between studs. Filling
can be ensured by checking at the vent holes and/or by closely
regulating the amount of foam injected. The finished panel
is removed from the platens when the foam has hardened.
Reference has been made to the stud members ex-
tending transversely of the sheathing boards. While this willbe the case for typical-panels having a length greater than
their height (the height being 8 feet or2.44 metres), the inven-
tion can also be used to make panels of say 16 feet (4.88 metre.s)
in height, in which case the panel height will be greater
than the width. In this case the stud members will of course
extend along the longer dimension rather than "transversely".
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Figs 6A and &B show a simple wall expander component
which can be used to provide a wall extension from about 6
inches (152 mm~ to about 2 ~t. (610 mm). The thickness of
the expander is the same as that of the foam spline shown
in Fig. 5 so that this fits snugly within the board portions
lOa, lla of the two wall panels. This wall expander 38 com-
prises two rectangular inner boards 40 each having the height
of the wall panel and a width of about 2 ft. (610 mm), separat-
ed by rigid foam material 41 and having a stud member 42 along
one edge; this is similar to the central portion of stud 30
but narrower since boards 40 are closer together than boards
10 and 11. The flanges 42a of the stud member project
inwardly away from the edge. The upper and lower edges of the
e~pander are closed by plates 44 and 45; additional upper and
lower plates ~6 and 47 may be field installed. The expander
also has two board members 49 abutting the sheathing boards
of the panel and which bring the thickness of the expander up
to the same dimension as the panels, and these outer boards
can be cut to the desired width and inserted between the edges
70 of two panels connected by the expander, to make a smooth
transition between panels.
Figure 7 shows a corner panel 50 adapted to connect
with two of the wall panels previously described. The corner
panel has outer and inner sheathing boards 52 and 53 which
~5 are similar to those of the wall panel and which are similarly
spaced, and which each have two halves connected perpendicularly
to each other. Board members 55 reinforce the corners of the
two outer and inner sheathing boards. Stud members 57 have
a web 57a and flanges 57b similar to those of the central
portion of stud 30, and are spaced inwardly from the outer
edges of these boards to allow the foam spline to be used to
connect the corner panel to an adjacent wall panel. The spaces
in between the boards 52, 53 and studs 57 is filled with rigid
insulating foam 58.
Figure 8 shows a section through a panel used as
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an intermediate stage in the production of various components
including the wall expander and spline. As shown, the panel
has two sheathing boards 60, spaced to fit between the board
portions lOa, lla of the wall panels, and having a-t each end
a stud member 42 each of which is the same as member 42 of
Fig. 6A. The flanges of each stud member extend inwardly
of the panel away from its edge. The centre of the panel is
filled with rigid foam material 62. FigO 8 indicates how
the panel can be divided to form:-
A: - A wall expander part 38, which is the same as
the main part of the wall expander shown in Fig. 6A (i.e.
without boards 49); and which can also be cut parallel to its
upper and lower edges to form a header panel described below;
B: - A foam spline 34; and
C: - A fill-in element 64 which can be fitted
between the edges lOa and lla of a wall panel, with the stud
web outwards to close the end of a wall panel.
Fig. 9A shows how the components previously described
may be used to frame a door and a window. While, as indicated,
the continuous header allows such apertures to be cut from the
panel at any desired location under the header, the arrange-
ments shown in Fig. 9 are preferred except for small window
apertures.
As shown, the side of door opening D is framed
~5 by the fill-in element 64 which is fitted between the ex-
tending board edges lOa and lla of the wall panel, this pro-
vides a substantially flush end for the wall panel largely
constituted by the web portion of stud member 42. This fill-
in element also serves to support a header panel 38a which is,
in effect, a horizontal slice of the wall expander 38 formed
from the panel shown in Fig. 8. Each end of this header panel
is received between panel board edges lOa and lla and rests
on a fill-in element 64. The header has outer board members
49a corresponding to board members 49 of the wall expander
and which bridge the gaps between adjacent edges of the wall
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panel shea-thing boards.
The structure above and beside the window opening
W' is the same as that above and beside the door opening.
Below the window extends a portion of a wall panel cut to
suitable height and joined to each adjacent wall panel with
spline 34, as shown in Fig. 9E.
Figure 10 shows an alternative corner construction
which does not require a special corner panel, but which in-
stead makes use of the wall expander 38 shown in Figure 6.
In this construction, a first wall panel C is prepared by
havings its protruding board edges lOa and lla cut off to
expose web 31 of a stud member. The other panel F has wall
expander 38 inserted into its edge recess, with its stud mem-
ber 42 at its outer end. The expander may be cut to whatever
width is required for the particular design. The facing boards
49 of the expander are then cut so that the interior board
spans the gap between the edge of sheathing board 11 of the
panel F and the associated inner face of the panel C, and
the outer board of the wall expander is cut so that it overlaps
with the end of panel C and makes a smooth joint with the sheath-
ing board 10 of panel F. The outer board is then screwed into
place as shown, and screws are also inserted through the thick-
ness of the panel C into the end of the wall expander.
Figure 11 shows the joints between the bottom of
a standard wall panel, the edge portion of a floor panel, and
~5 the upper edge of a basement wall panel which is similar to
the standard wall panel (although usually of less height to
go on a concrete basement wall). The floor panel has upper
and lower sheathing boards 70 and 71, held apart by an edge
formation provided by outer and inner elongated boards 72 and
73 separated by a layer 75 of rigid foam. An outer plate
76 is screwed around the edges of the Eloor panel. The outer
surface of board 76 is flush with the outer surfaces of the
boards 10 of the wall and basement panels, and these boards
are connected by metal connecting clips 78 which are nailed
or screwed to the board members.
37~64
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Figure 12 shows how a standard window frame is
fitted into a standard wall panel, with the frame coming
just underneath the bottom of the header. The window frame
80 is equipped with a metal or plastic nailing fin 82 all
around the window to secure this to the outer sheathing board
10. Strips of wood 84 on the inner side of the window frame
secure this to the lower edge of the outer header board mem-
ber 49a. Since the header supports the forces applied to
the top of the wall panel there is no need for any additional
framing around the window opening other than that provided
by standard available window frames, of the type illustrated.
The wall panels as described may be used in com-
bination with the floor panel shown in FigO 11, with foam
insulated roof panels, and uninsulated interior wall panels.
The roof panels will have outer and inner sheathing boards
similar to those of the wall panels and will have stiffeners
formed by board members set perpendicularly to the sheathing
boards. The interior wall panels may comprise two sheathing
boards, which may be of gypsum, and have a hollow interior
bounded by upper and lower closure elements whi~h may be
similar to the base reinforcement 22 used in the wall panels.
Figure 13 shows a view similar to that of Fig. 4A
of a modified stud member in which the flanges 32' are thicker
than the boards 16 and 24 of the wall panel, but are provided
with rabbets so that the parts of the flanges 32' which lie
between the edges of web 31' and the sheathing boards are of
equal thickness to the boards 16 and 24.
Figure 14 shows a molded stud member 90 which may be
used as an alternative to the fabricated stud members pre-
viously described. This is preferably molded of high densitypolyurethane foam, having a density and strength considerably
greater than that of the insulating foam 12. Such material is
available as a substitute for wood. The stud member has a
central web 90a formed by a longitudinal recess which provides
a nailing flange 92 along each edge, and having one end extensions
37~3~i4
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94 sized to fi.t between the pair of upper boards 16 and
an opposite end extension 96 sized to fit between the pair
of lower boards 24. The flanges 92 are identical and dimension-
ed to extend between the adjacent edges of the upper and lower
boards and dimensioned to fit closely within the sheathing
boards 10 and 11. The flanges are shaped to permit one of the
flanges to be nailed internally to the first board 10. While
only one flange is required to be nailed internally, it is
preferable to have the flanges identical so that the stud mem-
bers at opposite ends of a panel can both have their open sidesfacing inwardly.
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