Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090158684 | GRID TEE FOR SUSPENSION CEILING - In one embodiment, a roll-formed sheet metal tee for grid type suspended ceilings with the face of its flange integral with the stem and the layers of the stem fixed together for improved torsional strength. An upper region of the stem can have one or more of its layers folded to increase suspension wire breakout strength. A stiffening bulb is below suspension wire receiving holes so that a loop of the suspension wire through the tee has a narrow profile and thereby avoids interference with ceiling panels during their installation or removal. Other embodiments of a tee share the feature of a narrow, suspension wire receiving upper stem portion. | 06-25-2009 |
20110078969 | BRACKET USEFUL WITH SLOPED SUSPENDED CEILING SYSTEMS - The invention provides a bracket and method of its use for adapting standard wall angle trim for use in sloped ceiling construction. The disclosed bracket arrangement can be used for the top edge or bottom edge of a sloped ceiling and be adjusted to match the angle of any practical ceiling slope. In disclosed embodiments, the bracket has the form of a rectangular flat steel sheet. The sheet has a hinge or bend line running lengthwise in its mid-area. The bend line is made by cutting the sheet intermittently along its length and thereby dividing the sheet into two sections. The cuts may be made, for example, by punching elongated slots along the bend line in a blank being formed into the bracket. Also punched into the bracket blank are a plurality of holes distributed lengthwise on marginal areas of the two sections of the blank. | 04-07-2011 |
20110131913 | CONNECTOR CLIP - An end clip for joining runners of suspended ceilings by coupling with an identical clip, the clip being stamped from sheet metal stock with lead and trailing ends, a lateral projection and a projection receiving area behind the lead end, the clip being arranged such that when an identical clip oriented in the opposite direction of the clip and caused to laterally overlap the clip the projection of the clip is locked in the receiving area of the identical clip and, vice versa, at least one of the projection and projection receiving area having a rearward facing sheared edge forming an acute angle with the clip plane resulting from being sheared with tooling having a clearance between tooling substantially greater than 10% of the thickness of the sheet from which the clip is stamped. | 06-09-2011 |
20110146184 | CLIP CONNECTION - Producing grid tees with a range of service duty, reflected in the use of various gauge sheet stock, that exhibit an effective uniform thickness at their cross tee slots by locally altering a grid tee in the area of its cross tee receiving slot or slots so that the grid tee has a uniform effective thickness at these area(s) that can be standardized across a manufacturer's range of tee load ratings. Preferably, a grid tee is permanently stamped with an indentation or dimple adjacent the cross tee slot and a cross tee connector has a lead edge area arranged to seat against the bottom of the indentation. | 06-23-2011 |
20110146194 | SEISMIC CLIP - A seismic clip for suspended ceiling grid tees that offers high strength, rigidity, versatility and ease of assembly while improving the ability of a clip to self-align with a grid tee. The clip includes a lanced tab that serves to establish and maintain alignment of the clip body and the tee to which it is assembled whereby a tendency of a clip to be tilted upwardly relative to the tee is eliminated or greatly reduced. The alignment tab serves to initially align the clip and tee either when it is assembled by snapping it over the tee or by sliding the tee endwise into the clip. The tab is configured so that it does not unduly add to the assembly force level when the clip is snapped over the tee or when the tee and clip are slipped endwise together. | 06-23-2011 |
20120023854 | GRID RUNNER - A roll-formed grid runner comprising a sheet metal strip folded into an upper hollow single wall reinforcing bulb, a double wall web below the bulb, a channel extending laterally from both sides of a lower end of the web to a bend and upwardly from the bend to a panel supporting elevation, the bend on each side of the web existing at a longitudinally extending score line where a thickness of the strip is locally reduced. | 02-02-2012 |
20120167514 | CEILING PANEL SYSTEM - A ceiling panel system includes a plurality of grid members that are operable to form a grid suspendable from a ceiling, the grid having grid member intersections; and a plurality of ceiling panels, each ceiling panel including a planar surface and a plurality of upturned edges arranged about the periphery of the planar surface. The upturned edges include a catch operable to attach the panels to the face of the grid intermediately to the intersections to form a ceiling surface. | 07-05-2012 |
20120180420 | WALL BRACE SUPPORT FOR ACOUSTICAL CEILING TEE - A wall brace support for an acoustical ceiling tee having a bulb includes an elongated main portion having two ends; a wall attachment tab at one of the ends, the tab being operable to abut the wall and receive at least one fastener therethrough to fasten the tab to the wall; and an acoustical ceiling tee attachment structure at the other end, the structure being operable to receive at least one fastener therethrough to fasten the structure to the bulb at a location spaced away from the wall. | 07-19-2012 |
20120291388 | GRID RUNNER CAP ANCHORING LANCE - An elongated grid runner, and its manufacture, comprising a pair of overlying metal strips roll-formed together into a shape suitable for use in a rectangular grid to support ceiling panels, one of said strips serving as a visible cap for concealing the other strip forming the main body of the grid runner when the grid member is employed in a completed ceiling, the strips being lanced at each end of the grid runner to lock the cap strip on the main body strip whereby when the overlying strips are simultaneously cut to a finish length prior to finish roll-forming, the ends of the strip are maintained in substantially overlying end-to-end registration where the cap is visible in a finished ceiling. | 11-22-2012 |
20120304574 | OPEN WEB GRID RUNNER - A suspended ceiling grid runner comprising separate parallel upper and lower chords, a plurality of identical web plates fixed between the chords and the plates having a height less than the height of the grid runner and a width, the chords being made of roll-formed sheet metal strips and symmetrical about a vertical plane, the chordal strips each having marginal sections folded parallel to one another and on opposite sides of the vertical plane, the web plates including vertical slots for receiving connectors of cross runners, the web plates being spaced at regular centers along the grid runner with a distance that is a small fraction of the nominal length of the grid runner, the gaps between adjacent web plates being longer than the height of the grid runner. | 12-06-2012 |
20130111963 | GRID RUNNER - A roll-formed grid runner comprising a sheet metal strip folded into an upper hollow single wall reinforcing bulb, a double wall web below the bulb, a channel extending laterally from both sides of a lower end of the web to a bend and upwardly from the bend to a panel supporting elevation, the bend on each side of the web existing at a longitudinally extending score line where a thickness of the strip is locally reduced. | 05-09-2013 |
20130118223 | GRID RUNNER CAP ANCHORING LANCE - An elongated grid runner, and its manufacture, comprising a pair of overlying metal strips roll-formed together into a shape suitable for use in a rectangular grid to support ceiling panels, one of said strips serving as a visible cap for concealing the other strip forming the main body of the grid runner when the grid member is employed in a completed ceiling, the strips being lanced at each end of the grid runner to lock the cap strip on the main body strip whereby when the overlying strips are simultaneously cut to a finish length prior to finish roll-forming, the ends of the strip are maintained in substantially overlying end-to-end registration where the cap is visible in a finished ceiling. | 05-16-2013 |
20130276395 | INDEXING TAB FOR GRID RUNNERS - A roll formed sheet metal grid runner, and method of its manufacture, for a suspended ceiling grid having indexing tabs stamped from a central web of the runner profile, the tabs being effective to reliably locate ceiling panels and, when the grid runner is nested with other identical runners in a package, avoid marring of visible surfaces. | 10-24-2013 |
20130333317 | SERPENTINE INSERT FOR OPEN WEB GRID - A grid runner and method of its manufacture that saves material content with use of a serpentine sheet metal web configured to be essentially scrapless and that results in a parallel chord truss-like construction with open spaces between an upper reinforcing bulb and a lower flange. | 12-19-2013 |
20150040494 | TWO-PART CHANNEL CROSS MEMBER - A cross member for a narrow channel in a suspended ceiling grid comprising a carrier and a cover, the carrier having a web and a planar flange on a lower edge of the web, end connectors at opposite ends of the carrier web, the cover having a three-dimensional cross-section with an overall width generally equal to the width of the carrier flange and integral bendable tabs, the tabs being adjacent the ends of the cover and short in comparison to a length of the cover, the tabs being constructed to be manually folded over the flange of the carrier to lock the cover to the carrier. | 02-12-2015 |
20150040495 | CHANNEL CROSS MEMBER - A short cross member for a narrow utility channel formed of malleable sheet metal and having a vertical double ply web and a horizontal flange symmetrically disposed on both sides of a lower edge of the web, integral end connectors formed on each end of the cross member from sheet material contiguous with the web, the integral end connectors being arranged to support the flange in coplanar relation with flanges of the channel, the end connectors and the web being weakened at a predetermined vertical line whereby the cross member can be assembled in a narrow channel by bending at the associated line of weakness to shorten the effective overall length of the cross member. | 02-12-2015 |