The present invention relates to a method of mount¬ ing frame elements in wall openings in buildings. Typi¬ cally, this kind or work will relate to the mounting of outer window and door frames in wall openings, in which the frame is to be placed in a particular position rela¬ tively to the slightly larger wall opening. It is a common practice that the frame in an initial phase is placed in the wall opening and fixed therein by means of wedge elements hammered into the space between the frame and the surrounding edge faces of the wall opening, whereby the frame can be adjusted into a correct positi¬ on and then be permanently fixed to the sides of the opening, e.g. by means of screws.

It is well known, however, that this mounting me¬ thod is rather troublesome, because the required wedging of the frame to the edges of the opening involves diffi¬ culties in the many situations where a correct position¬ ing of the frame is not achieved in the first place. The frame should be mounted in a correct manner in more dif¬ ferent directions and planes, viz. normally in a verti¬ cal position with specific distances from the edges of the wall opening, and if obliquities or inaccuracies oc¬ cur at the initial mounting, this happening quite com¬ monly, then it may be very laborious to effect a re- wedging of the frame. If, by way of example, the frame should be moved a little to one side this will require a loosening of the wedges at that side, and hereby the frame, which will make it change its position, also in the height direction, and it is required to change the positions of the wedges at both sides, and already for that reason it is common practice that these mounting works are done by two workers who can supervise and effect the correct frame mounting, respectively.

According to the present invention it has been realized that the mounting work may well be done by a single worker, when the said wedging principle is abo¬ lished and when in lieu thereof use is made of selec¬ tively inflatable cushion members inserted in the inter¬ space between the frame and the surrounding wall opening in such a manner that the position of the frame will be accurately adjustable by inflating these cushions at one side to a higher or lower degree, relative to the pres¬ sure exerted by the pressure cushions at the opposite side, whereby a single operator can easily adjust the frame into exactly the desired position.

It will be particularly relevant to place such cushion members outside the respective upper and lower partial stretches of the side pieces of the frame, as it is hereby achievable to operate the cushions to effect a certain lateral displacement of the frame, while still holding the frame frictionally against noticeable verti¬ cal displacement. In weakening the inflation pressure of one or more of the cushions it will be possible to ad¬ just the frame vertically and to its correct mounting depth, and accordingly the operator may easily bring the frame into its correct mounting position, in which it may then, by nails or other means, be rigidly secured to the surrounding wall of the wall opening.

The invention also comprises the said cushion mem¬ bers or sets of such members. It is very important that they are made as flat bags and in such a manner that they are stabilized against carrying out a rolling move¬ ment corresponding to the rolling of a rubber hose pressed together into a flat oval shape, as in that case the cushions could not carry the frame by way of their frictional pressure against the sides of the vertical slots between the frame and the mounting opening. How¬ ever, such a stabilization is easily achievable, prefer¬ ably in that the cushion members are made as a double

layer of a strong and flexible, yet substantially un- stretchable material, e.g. reinforced plastic sheets joined flat, face to face, at one or more side edge areas. A good and simple option is to form the cushion member by folding a single rectangular sheet piece and join by welding the resulting three edge areas, while at the folded edge there is affixed the required connector hose to the inflation ball and the associated bleeding valve, this being facilitated by the fact that the fold¬ ing edge need not be sharply folded.

Such a cushion member, when inflated, may well ⁷ roll ^, slightly by the weight of the frame, but only very slightly, and the operator will be able to compen¬ sate for this at an early stage, by displacing the frame correspondingly upwardly or by actuating the cushions in a slightly over-raised position of the frame.

The cushion members according to the invention may, with a low actuation pressure, be brought to exert a quite high pressure against the outer frame surface, and a.o. for this reason the cushion members should prefer¬ ably be placed reasonably close to the top and bottom of the frame. For the same reason it will even be possible, with the use of extra cushion members, to effect a straightening of frame sides assuming an outwardly arched configuration.

It is to be mentioned that from EP-B-0,193,531 it is known to use an angularly shaped air cushion member at each upper corner of a door frame that is firmly floor supported and, besides, is stabilized against joint foam pressure by means of special transverse struts. The angular cushions primarily serve as holding elements, even though to a limited degree they may en¬ able some adjustment of the frame. For the purpose of the invention they will be directly unsuitable, because a changed lateral pressure will also result in a changed downwardly directed pressure, while with the use of the

flat cushions according to the invention it is possible to effect mutually independent adjustments in all three main directions. Even by optional use of lower support blocks it will still be possible to effect adjustments at the lower end, just because no pressure is applied from above.

In the following the invention is described in more detail with reference to the drawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a window frame during mounting in a wall opening,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of an inflated cushion member held between a wall side and frame side

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a flat cushion mem¬ ber according to the invention, and

Figs. 4-6 are front views of different special mounting configurations.

In Fig. 1 is shown a wall opening 2, in which a window frame 4 is about to be mounted. The frame is at each lateral side supported by means of an upper and a lower flat cushion member 6, while at the bottom of the opening 2 it is either supported by conventional wedge bodies 7 for correct height, alternatively by corre¬ sponding cushion members 6, or it is not at all support¬ ed, as it may well be carried by an established frictio- nal engagement with the cushion members.

In Fig. 3 it is shown in more detail that the cushion members 6 may be made by folding and edge weld¬ ing of a rectangular piece of a sheet material, which should be easily flexible, but substantially non-stretchable, preferably a reinforced plastic sheet. Prior to the folding at 24 there is secured to the inner side a foot piece of an outwardly projecting, flexible stub or hose 10 for connection with an inflation ball 12 having an intake valve. In connection with the ball 12 or on an inserted connector piece is provided a bleeding valve having an actuator button 18. A corner portion of

the welded, flat edge area may be provided with a sus¬ pension hole 20.

The stub or hose 20 may, optionally, project at an oblique angle with the folding edge, such that the balls, when the cushions are mounted as in Fig. 1, will or may be depending from the cushions.

When the cushion members have been inflated to a certain degree a frictional engagement will be estab¬ lished between the frame 4 and the opening sides 2, and the frame may then, in a self supported manner, be accu¬ rately displaced into its mounting position in the height and depth direction, while in the lateral direc¬ tion it can be displaced by a differentiated inflation/- bleeding of the respective cushion members. These may well carry the frame, as they will only be slightly de¬ formed into some lapsidedness, see Fig. 2. They will not be able to form any rolling side support. As they are made of a non-stretchable material it will be without importance whether or not they are fully received be¬ tween the faces which they press against.

During the adjustment the operator may steadily keep up in increasing the bag pressure, whereby towards the end such a tight fixation can be attained that the associated final mounting, preferably by means of screws through preshaped holes 22 in the frame sides, may be effected with the frame in a safely fixed position. As far as window frames of reasonably usual sized are con¬ cerned, the entire work can be done easily and rapidly by a single operator.

After the fixation of the frame the operator can easily bleed and remove the cushion members, which are then ready for the next mounting job. Optionally, from the beginning, the cushion members may be attached to the frame sides by means of tape or staples through the edge areas 22' .

In Fig. 4 it is shown that a frame may be mounted

in a ^• "bottomless' wall opening, without any lower support, while Fig. 5 shows that in connection with a frame having outwardly arched side pieces it is possible to use auxiliary cushion members, which, when placed e.g. at the middle, are usable for straightening these side pieces for the final fixation.

Fig. 6 shows a special arrangement, where a number of frames are mounted next to each other in a large wall opening. Here, as shown, it will be advantageous to use cushion members even for an adjustable support of each of the frames, as well as counteracting cushion members at the top sides of the single frames.

It is a marked advantage that the cushion members will be extremely lenient towards the frames, such that these will be left without any kind of pressure marks after the temporarily used fixation means.

A preferred size of the cushion members is some 15 x 15 cm, whereby it is possible to work in slot widths of up to 50-60 mm.

Relatively to Fig. 1 it can be an alternative op¬ tion to work with only a single cushion member at the middle of one of the frame sides, such that an entire cushion set may consist of only three cushion members. Often, however, a set of four or up to six cushion mem¬ bers will be preferable.

It should be mentioned that it is known to achieve various form of sealing and support by means of inflable bodies, but mostly based on the use of compressed air. It would of course be possible to use compressed air also here, but it has been found that even large work- pieces may well be mounted with the use of the hand operated balls, which are very easy to use and very suitable in use.