GB2133109A - Hotbed - Google Patents

Abstract

A hotbed consists of a boxlike container, which is open at the bottom and adapted to be closed at the top by a cover and has side walls consisting of plastics panels (3), which are held together by connectors (4). The connectors consist of two-part profiled clamping devices, each profiled clamping device comprises a profiled connecting element (5), which accommodates the two lateral end portions of two adjacent plastics panels, and a profiled backing element (7), which is connected to the profiled connecting element by a clamped joint (8) and by which the end portions of two plastics panels, which are received by the profiled connecting element, are non-positively connected to the profiled connecting element. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Hotbed This invention relates to a hotbed for a back garden, which hotbed consists of a boxlike container, which is open-bottomed and adapted to be closed at the top by a cover and has side walls consisting of plastics panels, which are held together by connectors.

In known hotbeds the front wall of the container or box is lower than its rear wall so that in case of a properly oriented hotbed a maximum portion of the solar radiation can enter the hotbed through the transparent cover without being reflected. Such box is placed onto the garden soil with the open side on the bottom so that the seedings and young plants contained in the hotbed are protected from precipitation by the hotbed and the latter provides also a protection from the cold by a limited storage of thermal energy emitted by the sun.

In such hotbeds the side walls are made of concrete or timber beams and the top covers consists of windowpanes. That design has various disadvantages. In the first place such a box has a heavy weight so that it is virtually stationary and cannot be transferred to locations which are more favourable for growing plants during the year. In the second place the side walls are opaque and particularly in the autumn and spring months having only little sunshine this involves a substantial loss of sunlight, which is vital to the plants. Moreover, the materials used for side walls and the cover has a relatively high heat transfer capacity so that the heat capacity is only very small and the protection against a cooling of the interior is not very effective.

Laid-open German Application 3115 355 discloses a boxlike container, the parts of which can be connected by plugs and which can be used as a hotbed. That container consists of hollow panels, which are connected by corner connectors.

For this purpose the connectors and the adjoining wall panels are formed with bores for receiving plug pins, which cooperate with suitable locking elements to hold the unit consisting of a corner connector and a wall panel together. So-called double-web panels are used, which are made of transparent plastic material and consist of two thin facings, which are spaced apart by crosswebs made of the same material.

That design has proved to have various disadvantages in practice. In the first place the two facings of the double-web panels are reiatively thin, in order to save costs, so that they cannot provide a stable structure without reinforcements.

Besides, the double-web panels made by a continuous extrusion process vary in thickness as a result of their manufacture and an oversize will virtually prevent a formation of snap joints by the locking members in the manner described.

In case of an undersize the joint can be made but will be so unstable owing to the existing backlash that the function is not adequately performed.

This will be the more unfavourable the more the hotbed is to be increased in size by an addition of so-called intermediate connectors, by which the free length of the longitudinally extending side wall panels is increased whereas said side wall panels are not spaced apart by transverse panels.

In that case the backlash between each panel and the associated connector depends on the thickness variation of the panels used and said backlash is cumulative and results in the formation of considerable gaps between the cover and the wall panels and owing to the heat loss which is incurred offsets the advantages afforded by the heat-insulating double-web panels. Besides, precipitation can enter the interior of the hotbed in large amounts.

It is an object of the invention to eliminate the disadvantages of the known designs and to provide a hotbed which is readily portable and can be taken apart in a simple manner in case of need and which is highly transparent to light and has a high heat capacity.

This object is accomplished in accordance with the invention in that the connectors consist of two-part profiled clamping devices, each profiled clamping device comprises a profiled connecting element, which accommodates the two lateral end portions of two adjacent plastics panels, and a profiled backing element, which is connected to the profiled element by a clamped joint and by which the end portions of two plastics panels, which are received by the profiled connecting element, are non-positively connected to the profiled connecting element, and anchor rods are optionally clamped between the profiled connecting element and the profiled backing element.

An advantage resides in that owing to the prestressed clamped joint between the profiled connecting element and the plastics wall panels in the structure according to the invention all variations in the dimensions of the wall panels, which variations are due to the manufacture of such panels, can be compensated and stable joints are ensured in any case.

According to a further feature of the invention the profiled backing element and the profiled connecting element have two mutually opposite clamping surfaces, between which the end portions of the two plastics panels are received.

As a result, the plastics panels are clamped directly between the profiled connecting element and the profiled backing element so that an effective seal between the connector and the wall members is ensured.

In accordance with a further feature of the invention, for each end portion of the plastics panels the profiled connecting device has a groove, which is defined by two flanges, that flange which is disposed opposite to the profiled backing element laterally protrudes over the flange which is adjacent to the profiled backing element and the end portion of each plastics panel is clamped between the protruding flange and the profiled backing element. That design will facilitate the assembling and disassembling of the hotbed. The wall elements consisting of plastics panels are first inserted into the associated openings and are then clamped fast by means of the profiled backing element.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the profiled backing element consists of a planar plate, which extends throughout the height of the plastics panels and has webs which laterally protrude from the plane of the plate or are angled from said plane and engage the plastics panels.

This will ensure an effective seal of the wall elements and an additional reinforcement thereof.

In accordance with a further feature of the profiled backing element consists of one leg of a U-shaped clamping member, the other leg of which extends over and engages the profiled connecting element, that leg of the U-shaped clamping member which constitutes the profiled backing element bears on both plastics panels received by the profiled connecting element and the other leg of the U-shaped clamping member bears on the profiled connecting element. That design permits of an easy assembling operation because two wall elements consisting of plastics panels can be connected in that they are simply introduced into the profiled connecting element and it is then sufficient to fit on the U-shaped clamping member.Within the scope of the invention the hotbed may be additionally stiffened in that the profiled clamping devices disposed on opposite sides of the hotbed, particularly the profiled backing elements of said profiled devices, are interconnected by a stiff U-shaped member or the like.

The invention will now be explained more in detail with reference to illustrative embodiments shown on the drawings, in which Figure 1 is a transverse sectional view showing a wall element consisting of a plastics panel, Figure 2 is a side elevation showing a hotbed, Figure 3 is a top plan view showing a hotbed, Figure 4 is a top plan view showing a corner portion of a hotbed, Figure 5 is a side elevation showing a U-shaped clamping member, Figure 6 is a top plan view showing the U-shaped clamping member of Figure 5, Figure 7 is a top plan view showing a portion of a hotbed and Figure 8 is a side elevation coordinated with Figure 7.

A hotbed according to the invention consists of a boxlike container 1, which is open at its bottom and on its top carries a transparent cover 2, which can be swung upwardly. The side walls 2 of the container 1 consist of plastics panels 3, preferably of panels defining hollow chambers. In a first embodiment, each plastics panel 3 extends throughout the length of a side wall of the container and the panels 3 are interconnected only at the corners of the container by corner connectors 4. Each corner connector comprises a profiled corner-connecting element 5, which has two oversize grooves 6 for receiving respective plastics panels 3, and a profiled backing element 7, which is connected by a clamped joint to the profiled connecting element 5. The properly cut plastics panels 3 are introduced into the grooves 6 of the profiled connecting element.Thereafter the profiled backing element 7 is forced from the inside against the profiled corner-connecting element 5 by means of a positive joint, either by a screwed joint 8 or by a C-shaped clamping member 9.

The wall thickness of the profiled backing element 7 is so selected that said element is elastically deformed and exerts a spring force so that the plastics panels 3 are forced in an absolutely reliable manner against the legs of the profiled corner-connecting element 5 whereas this force will not damage the plastics panels. That design permits of an economical manufacture of such hotbed because the double-web panels and the profiled metal elements are cut to the required size and delivered in an unassembled condition whereas otherwise a pressing operation was required by which the profiled metal elements were forced against the plastics panels.

Moreover, the components can be transported within a small space and can easily be assembled and owing to its light weight the hotbed can be used at different locations. The transparent side walls permit an ideal exposure to light even in months having little sunshine. For periods of nonuse, that hotbed can be disconnected quickly in a simple manner and can be stored in a small, space within a small height.

The hotbed can be increased in size in a simple manner by means of intermediate connectors 10.

For that purpose, two mutually opposite profiled connecting elements are interconnected by a U-shaped member, by which the side wall panels are exactly spaced apart and even in case of a substantial increase of the hotbed in length there will be no leaks between the side walls and the cover. Each profiled connector 11 will receive a wall panel 3 on each side. By means of the profiled backing element 12 and the screwed joint 13, the double-web panel is forced against the profiled connecting element 11 and is reliably held in position. The profiled connecting element 11 has a groove 14, in which an anchor 15 to be driven into the soil is also clamped. The connection to the profiled clamping element of the other longitudinally extending panel is effected by the U-shaped connecting member 16, which ensures a proper spacing.

The means for anchoring in the soil may alternatively consists of metal rods 15', which are clamped together with the corner-connecting profiled clamping elements and are held in grooves 14' of the corner-connecting profiled elements 4' and protrude below the lower limit of the hotbed and are forced into the soil to anchor the hotbed.

The profiled backing element 7 has clamping surfaces 17, which directly engage the plastics panel 3. The profiled connecting element 5 has clamping surfaces 18, which are opposite to the clamping surfaces 1 7 of the profiled backing element 7 and are separated therefrom only by the plastics panel. The plastics panel wall elements of the container 1 are clamped between the clamping surfaces of the profiled connecting element 5 and the profiled backing element 7.

As in the illustrative embodiments shown, the lateral end portions of the plastics panels may be received by the groove 6, which is defined by two flanges 1 9, 20. That flanges 1 9 which is adjacent to the cooperating profiled portion 7 is shorter than the flange 20 which is opposite to the profiled backing element so that the plastics panels 3 are clamped by the tightening of the screwed joint 8 provided between the longer flange 20 defining the groove 6 and the profiled backing element 7.

In one embodiment, the profiled backing element 7, 12 consists of a planar plate, which extends throughout the height of the plastics panels 3 and has lateral webs 21, which protrude from the plane of the plate or are angled from said plane and engage the plastics panels 3. Said webs 21 may be slightly curved to make only linear contact with the plastics panels 3 or they may be platelike too to be in surface-contact with the plastics panels 3. The U-shaped clamping member for forcing the profiled backing element 7 against the profiled connecting element 5 may consist of a U-shaped member or may carry the profiled clamping element. In another embodiment, one leg of the U-shaped clamping member 9 constitutes the profiled backing element and the other leg 9' engages the profiled connecting element when the U-shaped clamping member is fitted. In that case that leg of the U-shaped clamping member 9 which comprises the profiled backing element 7 bears on both plastics panels 3 which are received by the profiled connecting element and the other leg 9' of the U-shaped clamping member 9 bears on the profiled connecting element 5.

Claims (8)

1. A hotbed consisting of a boxlike container, which is open at the bottom and adapted to be closed at the top by a cover and has side walls consisting of plastics panels, which are held together by connectors, characterised in that the connectors consist of two-part profiled clamping devices, each profiled clamping device comprises a profiled connecting element, which accommodates the two lateral end portions of two adjacent plastics panels, and a profiled backing element, which is connected to the profiled connecting element by a clamped joint and by which the end portions of two plastics panels, which are received by the profiled connecting element, are non-positively connected to the profiled connecting element, and anchor rods may be clamped between the profiled connecting element and the profiled backing element.

2. A hotbed according to claim 1, characterised in that the profiled backing element and the profiled connecting element have two mutually opposite clamping surfaces, between which the end portions of the two plastics panels are received.

3. A hotbed according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that for each end portion of the plastics panels the profiled connecting device has a groove which is defined by two flanges, that flange which is disposed opposite to the profiled backing element laterally protruding beyond the flange which is adjacent to the profiled backing element and the end portion of each plastics panel being clamped between the protruding flange and the profiled backing element.

4. A hotbed according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the profiled backing element consists of a planar plate, which extends throughout the height of the plastics panels and has webs which laterally protrude from the plane of the plate or are angled from said plane and engage the plastics panels.

5. A hotbed according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the profiled backing element consists of one leg of a U-shaped clamping member, the other leg of which extends over and engages the profiled connecting element, that leg of the U-shaped clamping member which constitutes the profiled backing element bearing on both plastics panels received by the profiled connecting element and the other leg of the U-shaped clamping member bearing on the profiled connecting element.

6. A hotbed according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the profiled clamping devices disposed on opposite sides of the hotbed, particularly the profiled backing elements of said profiled devices, are inter-connected by a crossmember.

7. A hotbed according to claim 6, characterised in that said cross-member is a stiff U-shaped member.

8. A hotbed substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.