GB2235232A - Shower enclosure - Google Patents

Abstract

A mitred stanchion arrangement for a shower enclosure comprises a pair of extruded aluminium profiles (91, 92) which have mating tongues and grooves (91a, 92a). Each profile is of generally L-section so that together they define a square section stanchion. An L-section corner cover plate (95) is snap-fitted over the profiles to give a neat and attractive finish. Respective top rails (93, 94) of the shower enclosure are connected to the stanchion. <IMAGE>

Description

SHOWER ENCLOSURES This invention relates to shower and like enclosures.

Panels, which is to say door panels and side panels, for shower enclosures are supplied for assembly to a shower base to make an enclosure. There is a standard range of shower base dimensions, so different panel widths must clearly be supplied to fit these different sizes.

There are also different possible configurations of shower enclosure, depending upon whether the base is in a recess, so that only a door panel is required, which spans the opening to the recess, or a corner so that a door panel and a side panel will be needed, or stands out from a wall, when a door panel and two side panels have to be assembled together. In some cases, the enclosure is oblong and there is an additional fixed panel adjacent the door on the long wall.

The panels are constructed as frames and doors with glazing beads or door seals and door hanging arrangements. The frames comprise stanchions and upper and lower cross-members, to which the glazing beads are attached. Generally speaking, the stanchions are of rectangular box configuration, though there are numerous variations within that broad description.

In addition to the need to provide different sizes of panel for the different sizes of the range, it is necessary to provide, for each range, different panel sizes depending upon the enclosure configuration. If a door panel, for example, is required to span one side of the enclosure from edge to edge, a side panel will need to be narrower by the dimension of the stanchion of the door panel. If it is the side panel that is required to span from edge to edge, then an adjacent door panel will need to be narrower.

If the configuration comprises two side panels and a door panel, one of the panels - say, the door panel - can have three different widths depending on whether it spans edge to edge, or is flush with only one edge, or with neither edge.

Some systems employ adjustable width stanchion profiles, as by including a telescoping arrangement, which are intended to compensate for walls being out of true and installation tolerances, and which can also be used to some extent to accommodate the problems inherent in the different arrangement possibilities referred to.

The present invention provides a shower enclosure construction system which avoids the need to produce these different panel widths for individual range sizes and reserves adjustable stanchion profiles for the accommodation of out-of-trueness, while coincidentally affording other advantages.

The invention comprises a mitred stanchion arrangement for a shower enclosure.

A panel may comprise stanchions of generally "L" section adapted to connect with corresponding sections of adjacent panels. The connected stanchions may have a square section and particularly a box section.

The stanchions may be adapted to mount glazing, seal and hinge supports, and such adaptation may be by way of a profile adapted to mate with a corresponding profile on the supports.

The arrangement may include a tongue and groove locating arrangement between mitred parts of the stanchions and may also include profiled recesses adapted to receive sunken fasteners for fastening mitred parts together and/or to glazing, seal and hinge supports.

The arrangement may comprise extruded sections of plastics material or aluminium for example.

Embodiments of mitred stanchion arrangements according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which : Figure 1 is a plan of a typical conventional shower enclosure; Figure 2 is a plan of an alternative conventional version of an enclosure for the situation of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a plan of another conventional shower enclosure Figure 4 is a plan of an alternative conventional version of an enclosure for the situation of Figure 3; Figure 5 is a plan of a further alternative conventional version of an enclosure of the situation of Figure 3; Figure 6 is a plan view of one arrangement of shower enclosure according to the invention; Figure 7 is a plan view of another such arrangement according to the invention; Figure 8 is a plan of another enclosure according to the invention;; Figure 9 is a perspective view of the top of a stanchion according to the invention, with a corner cover plate and cooperating panel upper cross members; Figure 10 is an exploded view showing the connection of one of the upper cross members of Figure 9 to the stanchion; Figure 11 is an exploded view showing the connection of the other of the upper cross members of Figure 9 to the stanchion and a glazing bead; Figure 12 is an exploded view showing the top of a stanchion and its connection to a door frame and a continuation panel; and Figure 13 is an exploded view showing the top of a stanchion at the termination of a door frame or panel against a wall.

The drawings illustrate shower enclosures 11.

The enclosures 11 illustrated in Figures 1 to 5 are prior art enclosures.

All the enclosures (except that of Figure 8) are built on a standard square shower base 12 which has sides of length, for example, 760 mm (there are other standards, viz. 800 mm and 900 mm squares).

Figure 1 shows what is perhaps the most common arrangement in which the shower enclosure 11 is built in to a corner. The enclosure 11 has a door panel 13 and a side panel 14. The side panel extends from the wall 15 to the forward edge 12a of the base 12. Thus the outer faces 16a of the two side panel stanchions 16 are flush with the outer edge of the base 12, the distance between them being, in this case, 760 mm.

The door panel 13, for a door 17, hinged off-centre, extends from the other wall 18 to abut the side panel 14. Hence the distance between the outer faces 19a of the door panel stanchions 19 is less than 760 mm by the width of the stanchion 16. In practice, all the stanchions will usually have the same square cross-section.

Figures 2 illustrates an arrangement where the door panel 13 extends the full width of the base 12, and the side panel 14 has the reduced width.

To accommodate these alternative arrangements it is therefore necessary to have two sizes of side panel 14 and two sizes of door panel 13.

Figure 3 illustrates another common configuration where the base 12 is against a single back wall. Here, there is a door panel 13 and two side panels 14. The door panel 13 is full width and the side panels of reduced width, as in Figure 2. Figure 4, however, illustrates an alternative arrangement in which there is one full width size panel 14 (on the left), a reduced width door panel 13 and a reduced width side panel (on the right).

Figure 5 shows yet another variant in which there are two full-width side panels 14 and a doubly-reduced door panel 13.

To give the maximum flexibility of design and installation, full width, reduced and doubly-reduced side and door panels must be held in stock for all standard sizes of shower base. This makes for a large inventory, and a risk that panels will be wrongly specified, whether in the design of an individual enclosure or in the consignment of panels to an order.

Figures 6 and 7 illustrate how the invention eliminates the need for size variants for each standard. These figures illustrate mitred stanchion arrangements 61,71 for the enclosures 11.

In Figure 6, which shows a configuration corresponding to Figures 1 and 2, the corner stanchion 61 is mitred, while in Figure 7, which corresponds the Figures 3 to 5, both corner stanchions 71 are mitred.

In fact, the wall-abutting stanchions 61B,71B are also mitred, being completed during assembly of the enclosure with complementary parts 62,72 that form square sections with them.

It will be seen now that there is only one panel size required (for any particular standard), whether it be a door panel or a side panel.

Figure 8 shows an arrangement in which mitred stanchions are used as corner supports, and also as a mid-length support 81 in increasingly popular double length showers, connecting an extension panel 82 to the door panel 17.

Figure 9 to 13 illustrate in detail one system of mitred stanchion arrangement according to the invention.

Figure 9 illustrates a corner assembly comprising generally L-shaped extruded aluminium profiles 91,92 which fit together like the two parts of a mitred joint to form an essentially square box section. The profiles 91,92, it will be seen, are of complex configuration. This is for the purpose of interlocking them and connecting them to other members of the complete system for the construction of shower enclosures, as will be explained further below.

The profiles 91,92 receive respectively the top rail 93 of a door frame and the top rail 94 of a side panel. An L-section corner cover plate 95, which is a snap fit, by virtue of springy projections 96 fitting into a recess 97 in the profile 91, covers up the exterior faces of the profiles 91,92 to give a neat and attractive finish.

The profile 91 has two grooves 9la one at each of the free ends of its generally L-section, while the profile 92 has corresponding tongues 92a which are assembled to the grooves 91a.

Profile 92 has a guideway 98 formed by grooves 98a in projections 98b for a floating attachment profile 99, which is drilled at intervals along its length corresponding to drillings in the profile 91 to take self-tapping screws 99a to secure the two profiles 91,92 together.

Figure 10 illustrates the connection of the top rail 93 to the stanchion 91/92 (the bottom rail arrangement is similar). Profile 91 has a rectangular key 101 which cooperates with cutouts 102 in the end of the top rail 93. An anchor block 103, cut from a specially extruded profile, fits into the end of the top rail 93 and is secured therein by pins 104 dropped through drilled holes 105 into locating channels 106 in the profile anchor block 103. Web 107 of the block 103 is drilled and has captive nuts behind to receive bolts 109 through corresponding drilled holes in the key 101 which locates against the web 107 between projections 108 therefrom.

The key 101 can of course be used for attachment of door hinges in enclosures using such hingeing arrangements, as compared to the off-centre hinged door illustrated in Figures 1 to 8. With the latter arrangement, the key 101 abuts the door seals on closure.

Figure 11 illustrates how a shower enclosure side panel top rail 94 (the bottom rail is similar) attaches to the stanchion 91/92. The rail 94 has locating channels 111 for self tapping screws 112 through a web 113 of the profile 92. An extruded glazing bead 114 fits by virtue of springy, beaded projecting tongues 115 locating in grooves 116 of the rail 94. Double sided adhesive gasket material 117 is interposed between facing surfaces of the tail 94 and bead 114.

The rail 94 with its assembled glazing bead 114 fits between projections 120 from the profile 92, which, lower down, receives a like glazing bead in similar fashion, the profile 92 having for this purpose the like configuration to that of the rail 94, providing like grooves 116 for the springy, beaded projecting tongues.

The profile 92 has a flat face 118 against which fits the cover plate 95.

Figure 12 illustrates a different mitre stanchion configuration for a shower enclosure like that illustrated in Figure 9, for the connection of the continuation panel 82.

The door frame part 121 of this stanchion is similar to the part 91 of the corner stanchion of Figures 9, 10 and 11 and joins with the door frame top rail 93 in similar fashion. The continuation panel part 122 of the mitre stanchion is a rearranged version of the corner panel part 92. Tongues 122a correspond to the tongues 92a of profile 92. A guideway 128 is provided corresponding to the guideway 98 and has grooves 128a corresponding to grooves 98a for a floating attachment profile, not shown, but like profile 99.

A plane face 138 corresponds to face 118 of profile 92, while projections 140 and grooves 136 correspond to projections 120 and grooves 116 of profile 92. The top rail 134 of the extension panel 82 is similar to that 94 shown in Figures 9 and 11.

A cover plate 150 fits, like the cover plate 95 of Figure 9, by springy projections 150a into the recess 127 of the door frame part 121 of the stanchion 121,122, and provides, again, a neat, finished appearance.

Figure 13 illustrates how a panel terminates the system against a wall with a slightly different mitre stanchion arrangement and a compensating profile.

The stanchion arrangement comprises a profile 141 which is like the profile 92, but, in this case, turned upside down, and a profile 142 which is essentially free from complication since it requires only to connect to the profile 141, mitre fashion, by a groove 142a engaging with a tongue 141a and a semi-groove 142b engaging with tongue 141b. Securing the mitre parts 141 and 142 together is again effected by self tapping screws and a floating attachment profile, not here illustrated but like profile 99 of Figures 9 and 10.

To compensate for out-of-trueness or for variable wall spacing due to different relative locations of shower base and wall surface, a telescoping compensating profile 143 is provided which simply fits over the stanchion 141,142 and is adjustable to fill in the space between the stanchion and the wall. It provides, of course, a neat and attractive finish both internally and externally of the enclosure.

Variations in the design of the several elements of the system are of course perfectly possible within the framework of the invention which can realise the advantages of the mitre stanchion arrangement in the construction of shower enclosures. It will be seen that essentially the term "mitred" implies that instead of having separate box sections providing door and panel frames which sections have to be joined together side by side so that the enclosure dimensions are influenced by the manner of placement of the connected stanchions, each stanchion now comprises two half-stanchion profiles which connect together to form a single stanchion of which one half is peculiar to a door frame and the other to a panel or extension panel, or of which one half is peculiar to a panel and the other is a stanchion completion profile to terminate the enclosure against a wall.

Claims (7)

1. A mitred stanchion arrangement for a shower enclosure.

2. An arrangement according to claim 1, in which a panel comprises stanchions of generally "L" section adapted to connect with corresponding sections of adjacent panels.

3. An arrangement according to claim 2, in which the connected stanchions have a square cross-section.

4. An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 3, in which the stanchions are adapted to mount glazing, seal and hinge supports.

5. An arrangement according to claim 4, the adaptation being by way of a profile adapted to mate with a corresponding profile on the supports.

6. An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 5, including a tongue and groove locating arrangement between mitred parts of the stanchions.

7. An enclosure according to any one of claims 1 to 6, comprising extruded sections.

7. An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 6, including profiled recesses adapted to receive sunken fasteners for fastening mitred parts together and/or to glazing, seal and hinge supports.

8. An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 7, comprising extended sections.

Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows 1. A rectangular shower enclosure comprising a door panel and at least one side panel adjacent said door panel, the said panels being of standard side length and having adjacent stanchions of mitred cross-section secured together to form a square cross-section.

2. An enclosure according to claim 1, in which a panel comprises stanchions of generally "L" section adapted to connect with corresponding sections of adjacent panels.

3. An enclosure according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the stanchions mount glazing, seal and hinge supports.

4. An enclosure according to claim 3, the stanchions being profiled and mating with corresponding profiles on the supports.

5. An enclosure according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the stanchions including a tongue and groove locating arrangement between mitred parts of the stanchions.

6. An enclosure according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the stanchions including profiled recesses adapted to receive sunken fasteners for fastening mitred parts together and/or to glazing, seal and hinge supports.