Door for a refrigerated cabinet
View Patent ↗The door is made with a triple-lite insulated glass unit and a frame of aluminum rails. The insulated glass unit has a stepped cross-section with the outer glass lite being larger than the inner glass lites. An opaque non-conductive ceramic frit forms a rectangularly shaped border to mask the mounting of the inner glass lite(s). An electrically conductive coating on the outer glass lite is insulated from the aluminum rails of the frame by a plastic strip disposed between the outer glass lite and each rail.
1. A door for a refrigerated cabinet comprising
an insulated glass unit having an outer glass lite of predetermined rectangular shape with an electrically conductive coating thereon, an inner glass lite of smaller rectangular shape than said outer glass lite and an intermediate glass lite disposed in spaced relation between said outer glass lite and said inner glass lite;
a plurality of aluminum rails defining a frame about said insulated glass unit, each said rail having a base, a pair of parallel walls extending perpendicularly of said base and a flange extending from said base in parallel to said pair of walls and defining a recess with one of said walls receiving an edge of said outer glass lite in sealed relation therein; and
a plurality of plastic strips, each said plastic strip being disposed between said outer glass lite and one of said pair of parallel walls of a respective rail to electrically insulate said electrically conductive coating on said outer glass lite from said one of said pair of parallel walls of said respective rail.
2. A door as set forth in claim 1 wherein each said plastic strip is of Z-shaped cross-section having a web disposed in parallel against said outer glass lite, a first flange disposed over an outer edge of said outer glass lite and a second flange disposed over a respective rail.
3. A door as set forth in claim 2 wherein said web of each said plastic strip has a corrugated surface facing said outer glass lite for receiving a glue for bonding said web to said outer glass lite and a corrugated surface facing said respective rail.
4. A door as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a plurality of plastic breakers, each said breaker being snap-fitted onto a respective one of said rails and having an end disposed in abutment with said inner glass lite.
5. A door as set forth in claim 4 further comprising a plurality of gaskets, each said gasket having a grommet thereon and wherein each said breaker is of skeletal structure including a cup-shaped recess having a constricted mouth receiving said grommet of a respective gasket in snap-fit relation.
6. A door as set forth in claim 1 wherein each said rail includes a third wall extending from one of said pair of walls towards the other of said pair of walls and a fourth wall extending from said other of said pair of walls towards said third wall to define a gap therebetween and imparting a C-chaped cross-section to said rail.
7. A door as set forth in claim 6 further comprising a plurality of plastic covers, each said cover being fitted onto said third wall and said fourth wall of a respective rail to close said gap therebetween.
8. A door as set forth in claim 7 wherein each said cover has a corrugated surface facing said intermediate glass lite of said insulated glass unit.
9. A door as set forth in claim 1 further comprising an opaque non-conductive ceramic frit forming a rectangularly shaped border on an inside surface of said outer glass lite facing said intermediate glass lite, an electrically conductive bus bar disposed along an upper edge of said inside surface of said outer glass lite and an electrically conductive bus bar disposed along a lower edge of said inside surface of said outer glass lite.
10. A door as set forth in claim 1 wherein each said rail includes a C-shaped boss mounted on and extending from one of said walls of said pair of parallel walls for receiving a heater wire therein.