Pile weatherstripping dust plugs

Abstract

Dust plugs provide seals for openings in door frames and window frames to seal against air or water infiltration. The dust plugs are made continuously and automatically by feeding several weatherstrips having piles extending from rigid backing through a tool having side by side slots there through which extend from an anvil surface thereof. The backing strips rest on the surface in edge-to-edge relationship. An adhesive tape having a contact adhesive on one side thereof is fed synchronously with the pile weatherstripping in juxtaposition with the weatherstrips and in contact with the exposed sides of the backing strips. The dust plug material consists of the tape in contact with the weatherstrips and provides an assembly of the weatherstrips and the tape. Counter rotating puller belts engage dust plug material which may then be wound on a reel. For installation of the dust plug, the dust plug material is unwound from the reel and cut into dust plugs of desired length. Guides on upstream and downstream ends of the tool bring the tape into contacting relationship with the weatherstrips to provide the assembled dust plug material.

1 . A dust plug made by a process comprising advancing a plurality of pile weatherstrips having pile extending from one of the sides of backing strips through a tool presenting an anvil surface having adjacent slots in which the piles of the weatherstrip are received with the backing strips bridging the anvil surface between adjacent slots; advancing a tape having a contact adhesive on one side thereof in synchronism with the weatherstrips and with the contact adhesive side in engagement with the backing strips on the anvil surface so as to provide continuously an assembly of dust plug material having the weatherstrip in adhesively adhering engagement with the backings of the weatherstrips.  
   
   
       2 . The dust plug according to  claim 1  wherein the process further comprises cutting the dust plug material laterally at spaced increments to provide individual dust plugs of selected length.  
   
   
       3 . The dust plug according to  claim 1  wherein the tool has a plurality of slots equal or less than the number of weatherstrips.  
   
   
       4 . The dust plug according to  claim 1  wherein the process further comprises guides spaced from upstream and downstream ends of the tool and engaging a back surface of the tape opposite from the adhesively coated surface thereof which maintains the tape in tension on the backing strips on the anvil surface of the tool.  
   
   
       5 . The dust plug according to  claim 4  wherein the process further comprises directing the pile weatherstrips into the slots by engagement of the backing strips with an upstream one of said guides.  
   
   
       6 . The dust plug according to  claim 5  wherein the process further comprises unwinding the plurality of weatherstrips from separate spools disposed upstream from the anvil tool.  
   
   
       7 . The dust plug according to  claim 5  wherein the process further comprises engaging assembled dust plugs material between counter-rotating belts thereby advancing the tape and the weatherstrips synchronously to the tool.  
   
   
       8 . The dust plug according to  claim 1  wherein the slots are sufficiently wide and deep to allow clearance therein for the piles of the weatherstrip moving through the slots.  
   
   
       9 - 13 . (canceled)