Cold-Joined Profile Bond for Metallic Sealing of Hollow Profiles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing profile composites connected by cold joining struggle to achieve water-tight and gas-tight seals without additional sealant materials, especially when connecting hollow chamber profiles, and the production process is complex due to the need for internal access and tools.
Innovation Solution
The profile composite design features a clinching leg on the exterior leg of the clamping head receptacle, with a tapered clamping head receptacle and clinching leg, allowing for a metallic seal through surface pressure during the cold joining process, eliminating the need for internal tools and additional sealants.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a cold joining process is used to connect two hollow chamber profiles, then the profiles can be longitudinally connected, but achieving water-tight and gas-tight seals without additional sealant materials is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces chemical sealing (sealant materials) with a mechanical sealing system. The clinching leg is pressed into the clamping pocket to create direct metal-to-metal contact, forming a mechanical seal through surface pressure between the first and second profiles. This mechanical substitution eliminates the need for additional sealant materials while achieving reliable water-tight and gas-tight connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes parameter changes in the form of tapered geometries. The clamping head receptacle is tapered with respect to its open width, and the clamping head is tapered with respect to material thickness. These geometric parameter changes enable the clinching leg to generate sufficient surface pressure during the cold joining process, creating the necessary conditions for a metallic seal without requiring additional sealing materials.
2Shape
If the clamping structures are arranged on the profile inner side to maintain a planar outer side, then the outer surface remains planar, but access for the cold joining process is obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional arrangement by placing the clinching leg on the profile-exterior (outer) side instead of the inner side. This inversion allows the cold joining process to access the clamping structures from the outside, eliminating the need for internal tools and mandrels while maintaining a planar outer surface of the finished profile composite.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the clinching leg formation from the internal profile structure and places it on the external profile surface. This extraction allows the cold joining operation to be performed from the outside, simplifying the manufacturing process by eliminating the need for internal access tools and mandrels that would otherwise be required.
3Manufacturing precision
If a positioning strip is pressed into the undercut of the anchoring channel, then the profiles are connected in a formfitting manner, but a gap remains between the positioning strip and the base of the anchoring channel
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the positioning strip mechanism with a direct metal-to-metal sealing system. Instead of using a separate positioning strip that leaves gaps, the clinching leg is pressed directly into the clamping pocket to create surface pressure between the profile surfaces themselves, forming a metallic seal that eliminates the need for filler materials while maintaining formfitting connection.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design enables a gas-tight and water-tight connection without additional sealants, simplifies the production process by allowing external force application, and prevents deformation under tensile loads, ensuring a durable and sealed profile composite.
Implementation Method 1
a metallic seal is formed between the two profiles 1, 2 by the surface pressure which prevails between the two surfaces interacting to form the metallic seal as a result of the cold joining
Implementation Method 2
the two profiles 1, 2 are connected to one another in a formfitting manner in the plane of the profile composite by way of a cold joining process
Data Source
AI summary
A profile assembly produced from a first profile and a second profile connected longitudinally by cold joining. Both profiles bear complementary clamping structures on long sides thereof facing toward one another for cold joining together. The clamping structure of the first profile comprises a clamping head formed on a web and forming an undercut on each side of the web by way of a greater extension in the profile transverse direction in relation to that of the web. The clamping structure of the second profile comprises a clamping head receptacle for accommodating a section of the clamping head and a clinching leg, formed on a profile-exterior leg of the clamping head receptacle, having a first profile arm protruding before cold joining and a second profile arm formed at an angle thereon, the free end of which engages behind the clamping head and, before cold joining, faces toward a clamping pocket of the first profile. The clamping head receptacle is tapered with respect to its open width and/or the clamping head is tapered with respect to its material thickness of the section to be inserted into the clamping head receptacle, wherein the section of the clamping head pressed into the clamping head receptacle is connected to the clamping head receptacle in a metallically sealed manner.