ARΉCULATING POST FOR A TOPLESS AND BOTTOMLESS GLASS POST SYSTEM

Cross Reference to Related Application

This application claims priority from United States Provisional Patent Application No. 60/924,439 filed May 15, 2007 entitled Articulating Post for a Topless and Bottomless Glass Post System.

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the field of glass deck surrounds generally wherein sheets of glass are mounted to a deck between vertical posts and without the need for top or bottom supports along the top and bottom edges of the sheets of glass>. and in particular to a selectively articulating post and post system for topless and bottomless glass sheet deck surrounds.

Background of the Invention

It is now well known to provide deck surrounds using sheets of 10 mil (3/8 inch) sheets of glass mounted between vertically supporting posts so that upper and lower rails on the upper and lower edges of the sheets of glass are not required. The problem in the prior art was that when it was needed to mount the sheets of glass on either side of one of the vertical posts at other than ninety degrees or one hundred eighty degrees between the sheets, being the pre-fabricated orientations conventional found in such posts, in the past, this meant that each post had to be custom built by welding a supporting channel at the required angle onto a solid post.

hi the prior art pf framing systems generally, applicant is aware of United States Patent No. 5,291,708 which issued March 8, 1994 to Johnson for a Modular Framing System. Johnson discloses a modular framing system having a plurality of framing units between which panels may be retained by their lower corner edges. Each framing unit includes a body having a

plurality of circumferentially spaced receiving chambers having semi-circular configuration and vertically tapered openings \ chamber rod on a panel retainer c onnects to the body by lowering into one of the receiving chambers to connect the panel retainer to the body through the openings. The chamber rod and panel may be rotated to the desired angular position with respect to the body. Because of the tapered opening, which is open wider at the upper end of the body and narrower at the bottom end, firstly, the range of angular motion may be restricted as compared to if the opening had parallel edges spaced apart by the amount of the widest opening, and secondly, a cap may advantageously be provided having downward projections registering with apertures in the chamber rods so as to counter the tendency, aggravated by the tapered opening, of the chamber rods and panel retainers to rotate outward from the main body

Applicant is also aware of United States Patent No 5,626,434 which issued May 6, 1997 to Cook for a Connector for Variable-Curvatures Space Frame Structural System. Cook teaches a space frame structural system wherein the ends of elongated frame members have headed ends which fit into matching recesses in a connector joint within a connector having three, disk- like parts nestled one on top of the other.

Applicant is also aware of United States Patent No. 6,397,537 which issued June 4, 2002 to Auer et al. for a Partition Wall, Auer et al. disclosing the use of connecting elements to connect wall elements to a column wherein the column has grooves along its periphery for interacting with the connecting elements and the wall element has a connection profile having a groove on an edge side bordering the column for receiving the connecting element, the grooves providing for rotation of the connecting element about the longitudinal axis of the groove.

Summary of the Invention

hi the present invention, the vertical edges of the sheets of glass are held within elongate cylindrical gaskets which are journalled length-wise into and along vertical channels, formed within the sides of the vertical post. The channels are semi-circular in horizontal cross

section and characterized herein as cylindrical, and are sized for a snug mating fit with the cylindrical gasket so that a sheet of glass supported in a slot in the gasket may pivot relative to the post, for example by up to approximately forty-five degrees for each channel. Thus the vertical edges of the sheets of glass are maintained within the vertical post in a vertical hinge by the use of the elongate gasket mounted on the vertical edge of the sheet of glass providing a snugrotatable fit within the channel when the edge of glass and the gasket are mounted in the vertical channel in the vertical post so as to extend the slot opening and sheet of glass through the parallel side edges of the opening into the channel.

In a further embodiment, a space may be provided between the vertical edge of the sheet of glass and the interior-most surface of the slot into which the edge of the glass is fitted so as to provide a vertical pocket into which maybe mounted a light strip to thereby illuminate across the sheet of glass from the edge of the sheet.

In summary, the articulating post system according to one aspect of the present invention may be characterized as including at least one elongate post housing, each post housing having at least one channel extending between opposite ends of the post housing so as to extend substantially entirely from one end to an opposite second end of the post housing, and at least one rigid cylindrical gasket mountable into snug rotational engagement within and along substantially the entire length of the at least one channel. Each gasket may be selectively rotated about a longitudinally extending centroidal axis of its corresponding channel whereby, when the gasket is mounted within the channel, the gasket is selectively angularly rotatable relative to the post housing about the centroidal axis.

Each gasket has a glass-receiving slot formed therein and extending along substantially the entire length of the gasket parallel to a longitudinal axis of the gasket, for example an axis co-axial with the centroidal axis. The glass-receiving slot is sized so as to snugly receive along substantially the entire length of the gasket a corresponding entire edge of a sheet of glass in snug mating engagement therein and therealong.

Each of the channels has an elongate opening along substantially the entire length of the gasket and includes opposed facing gasket retaining flanges having parallel edges extending along the opening from opposite sides of the opening to thereby retain the corresponding gaskets in the channels. The gasket is not retained in its corresponding channel by anything other than the gasket retaining flanges. In particular, no gasket-retaining cap such as in the above-noted Johnson 708 United States Patent is required.

The housing may include only a single channel and with the corresponding gasket thereby forms an end post. The housing may alternatively include a pair of channels and with a pair of corresponding gaskets thereby forms a post chosen from the group comprising, that is, which is either an in-line post, or a corner post. Where the channels are parallel and oppositely disposed to one another on the housing the post is an in-line post. Where the pair of the channels are parallel and adjacent to one another in the housing and disposed substantially orthogonally relative to one another, the post is a comer post.

Advantageously, the flanges are elongate continuous lips formed in opposed feeing relation to thereby define the opening therebetween, and wherein each gasket has a diameter in lateral cross section which is larger than a width of the opening. Preferably each channel is formed as a cylindrical socket.

Each gasket may further include at least one resilient lining member such as resilient protrusions, ribs, bumps, etc. mounted within the slot for resilient mating against the edge of the glass sheet when the edge of the glass sheet is mounted in the slot

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is, in partially exploded perspective view, an end post including post extrusion, gasket and glass sheet according to one aspect of the glass post system according to the

present invention.

Figure 2 is, in partially cut away perspective view, a segment of the gasket of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is, in transverse cross section, the gasket of Figure 2 with the edge of a sheet of glass and a flat light strip mounted therein.

Figure 4 is, in partially cut away perspective end view, a corner post including a post extrusion and a pair of gaskets mounted therein.

Figure 5a is, in transverse section, the corner post of Figure 4 with the pair of gaskets angled so as to support a pair of sheets of glass at an acute angle therebetween.

Figure 5b is the cross section of Figure 5a with the pair of gaskets aligned so that a pair of glass sheets mounted in the pair of gaskets are perpendicular to one another.

Figure 5c is the cross section of Figure 5a with the pair of gaskets rotated so that a pair of glass sheets supported in the pair of gaskets form an included angle therebetween of greater than ninety degrees.

Figure 6 is a transverse section through the end post extrusion of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a transverse section through the comer post extrusion of Figure 4.

Figure 8 is a transverse section through an in-line post extrusion.

Detailed Description of Embodiments of the Invention

The articulating post 10 and post system described herein in four alternative embodiments, which are not intended to be limiting, provide for accommodating the support of topless and bottomless glass sheets 12 on, again without intending to be limiting, balconies, patios, pools, retaining walls, mezzanines, stairs, etc., herein collectively referred to as decks, so that the posts in combination may accommodate any particular angle required so as to provide a deck surround using the glass sheets 12.

In the prior art, conventional deck surround posts were fabricated using two and one half inch or two inch square tubes with one inch by one inch aluminum channels which were welded together. In the present invention, a poly vinyl chloride (PVC) gasket 14 snugly and rotatably mates into a corresponding channel 16 defined by cylindrical channel walls 16b extending the vertical length the post housing extrusion 18. Gasket 14 and channel 16 are semicircular in horizontal cross section, that is in cross section transversely across, so as to be orthogonal to, the longitudinal axes A and B respectively of gasket 14 and channel 16 where axes A and B are co-axial axes of rotation. Gasket 14 has a cross sectional radius orthogonal to axis A. Axis B is spaced radially inwardly from the ooter periphery of the channel 16 by a distance less than the radius n. Radius n is substantially equal to radius r ₂ of channel 16. Thus, each of channels 16 also includes a longitudinal opening in the outer facing periphery of the channel so as to accommodate angular rotation of gasket 14 about the axes of rotation when the edge of a sheet of glass is fitted in the gasket through the opening in the channel .

Thus with gasket 14 snugly joumalled in and along channel 16, gasket 14 maybe rotated in direction C better seen in the progression illustrated in Figures 5a to 5c about coaxial axes A and B which coincide with the axis of rotation of the gasket within the channel.

Thus with sheet 12 mounted fully into slot 20 in direction D formed within and along the length of gasket 14, so as to be supported within slot 20 by for example flexible PVC

ribs, pads, or other supporting linings or protrusions 22, and with gasket 14 installed into channel 16, glass sheet 12 may be rotated about the coaxial axes of rotation A, B to adjust the angular orientation of glass sheet 12 and gasket 14 relative to channel and post housing extrusion 18 to the required angular relationship to allow the opposite edge of the glass sheet to be correspondingly installed into an opposed facing gasket 14 itself mounted into a corresponding channel 16 in a corresponding post housing extrusion 18 at the opposite end of the sheet of glass.

Thus as seen in Figure 1 , in use, a base plate 24 is mounted to the lower-most end of post housing extrusion 18 by passing bolts 26 through corresponding bolt holes 24a in base plate 24 into threaded engagement in extruded bolt receiving channels 28. Base plate 24 may be mounted down onto the deck floor by securing fasteners through apertures 24b in the base plate. With the base plate thus secured down onto a rigid horizontal floor, post housing extrusion 18 is thereby rigidly and vertically mounted extending upwardly from base plate 24 so as to support one or more gaskets 14 within corresponding channel 16 depending on the particular variant of post extrusion 18 being employed.

Thus as seen in Figure 6, in one embodiment, post extrusion 18 maybe an end post having a single channel 16 and thereby a single enlarged exposed surface area E (shown diagrammatically in dotted outline).

hi a further embodiment of post housing extrusion 18, as seen in Figure 7, post housing extrusion 18 may be a corner post having a pair of channels 16 angled at ninety degrees to one another when viewed in lateral cross section so that the planes 16a containing the openings into channel 16 are inclined ninety degrees relative to one another as indicated by angle a in Figure 7. Consequently, the exposed surface F, again shown diagrammatically in dotted outline, is broken into two arcuate sections, one bridging the common corner edge of post housing extrusion 18 between the adjacent two channels 16, and one extending around the longer circumference of post housing extrusion 18 from one channel 16 to the other.

Thus as seen in the progression of Figures 5a-5c, various angular inclinations of the gaskets 14 relative to channels 16 and post extrusions 18 in the illustrated examples using a comer post illustrate the range of angular motion, for example approximately twenty-two degrees, of gaskets 14 within the corresponding linear sockets of channels 16. The range of motion is indicated in Figure 5a by angle β. Without intending to be limiting, angle β may be a range of angles and still work, for example m the order of fifteen to thirty degrees depending on the size of the planar opening 16a, and the geometry. The size of the opening across plane 16a, that is, the opening into channel 16 is constrained primarily by the need to form the flanges or lips 16c which partially close over the opening into channel 16 to retain therein the cylindrical gasket 14. The further lips 16c intrude into the opening, the better the retention of gasket 14 within channel 16but with a commensurately reduced angular range of motion, that is, a reduced angle β.

As seen in Figure 8, in a third embodiment, post housing extrusion 18 may be formed as an in-line post, that is, so as to support a pair of glass sheets 12 in a planar end-to-end array wherein the adjacent opposed facing edges of the pair of glass sheets are supported within the oppositely disposed pair of channels 16 of the in-line post. With glass sheets 12 installed into co-planar array within the pair of oppositely disposed channels 16 in the in-line post, a symmetrically oppositely exposed surface G is provided, again shown diagrammatically in dotted outline.

In one embodiment of the present invention, an elongate light strip such as for example sold commercially under the trade-name Flatlite ™ by E-Lite Technologies Inc of Trumbull Connecticut, U.S.A. forms an electro luminescent light strip 32 (see www.e-lite.com ^' ) which may be conveniently fitted into linear pocket 30. Pocket 30 extends along the inner-most edge 12a of glass sheet 12 when inserted fully into slot 20 within gasket 14. The use of a light strip 32 along the length of linear pocket 30 so as to extend and illuminate along the length of edge 12a of glass sheet 12 illuminates the glass from that edge along and across the entire glass sheet 12 thereby providing soft edge illumination. Where the sheet is engraved, the edge lighting illuminates the engraving for decorative and safety purposes.

As will be apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the foregoing disclosure, many alterations and modifications are possible in the practice of this invention without departing from the spirit or scope thereof.