Abstract:
An under counter mount sink sealing surface and method of making that provides a watertight interface between an under counter mount sink and a laminate counter as well as a simplified and more dimensionally accurate method of field installing the sink below the counter. The water impervious seal is tightly chemically bonded to the cutout lip of the laminate as well as to the entire area on the bottom face of the laminate countertop that contacts the entire profile of the top face of the under counter mount sink. The seal also aligns the sink into the correct location and contacts the entire surface of the as it is deck aligned or completely parallel to the sink top flange.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a watertight seal made between the interface of a sink and the laminate counter which it is mounted underneath. It provides both an aesthetically pleasing alternative to conventional undermounted sinks and also provides a much user friendly and dimensionally precise method of on-site installation. 
     The countertop industry has seen a shift from the standard laminate countertops with top mount stainless steel (or other material) sinks to solid surface countertops with undermount stainless steel, porcelain or polymer sinks. Under counter mount sinks are more desirable than top mount sinks because there is no lip on top of the counter to catch debris and stain. Further they prevent the continuous wiping of the counter into the sink. Man made and natural solid surface countertops lend themselves better to under counter mount sinks than do laminate countertops because of their solid construction. When water contacts the sides of a laminate countertop the glued wood particle makeup absorbs water, swells and eventually deteriorates and crumbles away. The point of failure (where this water substrate contact occurs) in the prior art generally occurs at interface at the bottom edge of the laminate and the sink seal. In top mounted sinks the water can seep under the sink top flange and the laminate and run down between the sink and the particle board substrate. Thus solid surface countertops have dominated the market where under counter mounted sinks are desired. 
     The solution for the laminate countertop is to have a seal that prevents the deterioration of the laminate substrate by preventing water from ever contacting it. Of course it must also be aesthetically pleasing. 
     Henceforth, a visually appealing sealing interface between an undermount sink and a laminate countertop would fulfill a long felt need in the building industry. This new invention utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration to overcome the aforementioned problems and accomplish this. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a sealing interface between an under counter mount sink and a laminate counter as well as a simplified and more dimensionally accurate method of field installing the sink below the counter. The key concept of accomplishing a water impervious seal between an under counter mount sink and a laminate countertop is to provide a seal that is tightly, directly, chemically bonded to the cutout lip of the laminate and the sink cutout edge in the particle board substrate as well as to the entire area on the bottom face of the laminate countertop&#39;s particle board substrate that contacts the top face of the under counter mount sink. In this way there is never the possibility of water contacting an unprotected area of the countertop substrate. Critical to accomplishing this are two other key concepts: aligning the sink onto the seal correctly and ensuring that the seal face that contacts the top flange of the sink is deck aligned or completely parallel to the sink top flange. 
     The undermount sink seal of the present invention has many of the advantages mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new system for mounting an under counter mount sink to a laminate countertop which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof. 
     The subject matter of the present invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of this specification. However, both the organization and method of operation, together with further advantages and objects thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to like elements. Other objects, features and aspects of the present invention are discussed in greater detail below. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a front perspective view of the under counter mount sink sealing system showing an under counter mounted sink mated to a countertop with the sealing interface; 
         FIG. 2  is a bottom perspective view of the under counter mount sink sealing system showing the clamping assembly; 
         FIG. 3  is a top perspective view of the inner routing ring; 
         FIG. 4  is a top perspective view of the surface routing jig; 
         FIG. 5  is a top perspective view of the hole routing jig; 
         FIG. 6  is a top perspective view of the locator/dam ring; 
         FIG. 7  is a top perspective view of the countertop cutout support jig; 
         FIG. 8  is a top perspective view of an under counter mount sink; 
         FIG. 9  is a top perspective view of an inverted laminate countertop; 
         FIG. 10  is a top perspective view of the sink seal mold; 
         FIG. 11  is a top perspective view of the surface routing assembly; 
         FIG. 12  is a top perspective view of the locator/dam ring with the hole routing jig and the countertop cutout support jig installed; 
         FIG. 13  is a top perspective of the countertop sink cutout being routed out from the top side of the countertop; 
         FIG. 14  is a top perspective view of an inverted countertop with the locator/dam ring, the hole routing jig and the countertop cutout support jig installed; 
         FIG. 15  is a top perspective of an inverted countertop with the locator/dam ring installed thereon; 
         FIG. 16  is a top perspective view of an inverted countertop with a locator/dam ring and the mold installed; 
         FIG. 17  is a top perspective of the surface routing jig, planing the exposed face of the seal with the inner ring installed; 
         FIG. 18  is a top perspective of the surface routing jig planing the exposed face of the flange with the inner ring removed; 
         FIG. 19  is a side cross section of a laminate countertop with a seal and under counter mounted sink; and 
         FIG. 20  is a bottom perspective view of the locator/dam ring showing the two positioning pins that extend therefrom. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. 
     In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of descriptions and should not be regarded as limiting. 
     Looking at  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and  19  the undermount sink seal can best be seen. A sink  4  is located such that all parts of the sink completely reside beneath a laminate countertop  2  ( FIG. 9 ) and is physically held into place about numerous points of the bottom face of the sink flange  8  ( FIG. 8 ) by a series of clamping assemblies  16  which are affixed to the bottom face of the countertop  2 . A generally oval seal  10  having a planar flange  12  extending normally from its bottom edge is chemically bonded to the countertop  2  on the exposed edge of the sink cutout  14  and the bottom face of the countertop in an area matingly profiling that of the sink flange  8 . It is to be noted that this seal  10  is chemically bonded directly to the cut edge of the laminate and the cut edge of the particle board substrate that the laminate is affixed to. By directly affixing the seal  10  to both of the parts that make up the countertop  2  there can be no leakage. Direct chemical affixation of the seal  10  means that the polymer of the seal  10  is bonded to the laminate and the particle board substrate without the use of any other material. It is the use of a polymer such as an epoxy, a polyester, a urethane, an acrylic or combination thereof that in the seal forming process bonds directly to the laminate and substrate. (The inclusion of such material would leave just another point of water leakage as in the prior art.) The flange  12  of the seal is surface planed to be parallel to the top of the sink flange  8  and to be of a uniform thickness with respect to the planar countertop. In this fashion when fully installed, no water can get between the sink  4  and the countertop  2 , or contact the sink cutout. 
     The clamping assemblies  6  consist of clamp blocks  18  affixed to the bottom face of the countertop  2 , which constrain arced metal clamping plates  16  that cantilever beyond the edge of the clamp blocks  18  and onto the bottom face of the sink flange  8 . Short screws inserted through oblong slots in the center of the clamping plates  16  serve to tension upwardly the sink  4  onto the seal flange  12 . (Alternatively inverted bolts may be secured under the clamp blocks  18  so as to leave threaded studs protruding normally from the exposed bottom face of the clamp block, onto which nuts could be threaded.) One edge of each of the clamp blocks  18  abuts an edge of the flange  12  on the seal  10 . Since the clamp blocks  18  are thicker than the flange  12  this arrangement serves to define a positioning device for the placement of the sink  4  under the counter  2  such that the sink flange  8  resides directly atop the flange  12  on the seal. 
     With the seal flange  12 , matingly configured to the sink flange  8  and planed to enable full surface contact between the sink and the flange, a watertight seal can be formed between the two with the inclusion of a sealant, especially since the sink  4  may be precisely located onto the seal flange  12  when installed by virtue of the placement of the clamp blocks  18  about the seal flange&#39;s periphery. 
     The seal  10  is made of a polymer epoxy resin so as to be economical, of minimal toxicity to work with, extremely resilient and quick to set up and cure. There is a plethora of materials that would work suitably as seal material but in the preferred embodiment an epoxy resin is used. Other suitable casting resin materials include but are not limited to polyester, polyurethane, epoxy and acrylic casting resins or any modified combination there of. The seal is poured in place as a liquid polymer into a mold around the sink cutout region so as to directly bond to the laminate and the particle board substrate of the countertop. 
     Prior art seals used with top mounted sinks notoriously let water contact the laminate substrate as most of them were glued or frictionally fit into place. They did not have an extended seal flange  12  and seal  10  that were chemically affixed (epoxied) to the entire countertop cutout, a seal flange  12  that extended over the entire top face of the sink flange  8 , and a seal flange  12  that was matingly profiled to and planed parallel to the sink flange  8  so as to make a watertight seal. Additionally, the existing sink sealing systems did not have a physical positioning guide for the mounting of the sink precisely under their various seal arrangements. 
     The method of manufacturing the undermount sink seal utilizes a set of accurately dimensioned and interrelated jigs/templates including a locator/dam ring  20 , a hole routing jig  22 , a countertop cutout support jig  24 , a seal mold  26 , an inner routing ring  28 , and a surface routing jig  30 . A router  50  and a surface planing jig  52  are used for the cutting, trimming and surface planning operations. There are also the attendant mechanical fasteners, (preferably screws) as well as the polymer material used to make the sink seal, the silicon to bond the sink  2  to the seal flange  12 , and the release products for the mold and the locator/dam ring. In the preferred embodiment these are carnauba wax and a spray release agent (commonly of a silicon variety.) 
     The key component to making the seal  10  is the locator/dam ring  20  best seen in  FIG. 6 . It is this jig that is anchored to the countertop, thus establishing all the positioning for the various operations, and upon which all the other jigs attach to. The locator/dam ring  20  is a generally enclosed rectangular template with two positioning pins  32  extending therefrom that are used to align the other templates associated with the seal creation and affixation and planning (Reference  FIG. 20  for an underside view.) It is dimensioned so that when its leading edge contacts the front lip of the countertop this will determine and set the depth onto the countertop  2  that the sink  4  will reside and ensure that the front and back sides of the hole routed through the countertop  2  for the sink  4  will lie perpendicular to the front and back edges of the countertop  2 . The center cutout region of the locator/dam ring  34  has the same dimensions as the outside of the sink top flange  8 . On the two short sides of the locator/dam ring  20  are template locating members  36  also used to position and affix the other jigs/templates. In these members  36  there are screw attachment orifices  38  that allow the passage of screws therethrough to secure the jig to the bottom face of the countertop. 
     The hole routing jig  22  is best seen in  FIG. 5 . It is a rectangular template designed to tightly fit within the center cutout region of the locator/dam ring  34 . The central cutout region of the hole routing jig  41  is matingly conformed to the sunken or concave region of the sink. There are also screw attachment orifices  38  that allow the passage of screws therethrough to secure it to the bottom face of the countertop  2 . 
     The countertop cutout support jig  24  as best seen in  FIG. 7  merely has a set of linear arms  44  that span the template locating members  36  and are affixed to them through screws  40  passing through the linear arm  44  and into t-nut attachment orifices  39  located on the underside of the locator/dam ring  20 . Across the linear arms  44  are a pair of cutout arms  46  also having screw attachment orifices  38  that allow the linear arms  44  to be screwed to the countertop in the region to be cutout for the sink  2  installation. 
       FIG. 12  shows the locator/dam ring  20  with the hole routing jig  22  installed and the countertop cutout support jig  24  attached. 
     Looking at  FIG. 10  the seal mold  26  can best be seen. It has a rectangular frame  54  that supports the mold form  56  and toggle pressure clamps  58 . On two sides of the seal mold  26  are alignment strips  60  with locating orifices  62  formed therethrough. These locating orifices  62  are dimensionally sized to receive positioning pins  32  of the locator/dam ring  20 . (The pins are visible in  FIG. 13 .) When the seal mold  26  is located beneath the countertop  2  and the pins  32  are inserted in the locating orifices  62 , the seal mold  26  will be correctly aligned with the sink cutout such that the mold form  56  will extend through the sink cutout and the exterior profile of the mold form  56  will reside in a uniformly spaced placement about the periphery of the sink cutout. This is the gap or region into which the seal mold polymer resin will be poured and the sink seal  10  will be formed. 
     There is a series of toggle pressure clamps  58  positioned about the mold form  56  and mounted on the support backer plate  64 . The clamp arms of these toggle pressure clamps  58  span across the gap onto the locator/dam ring  20  and when actuated serve to raise the mold form  56  into tight contact with the laminate countertop, thus allowing no seepage by of the seal material and resulting in a sharply defined interface between the countertop laminate and the seal  10 . This is critical to both the visual aesthetics and the integrity of the waterproof seal at the laminate seal interface. In this manner there will be no seepage of seal material onto the top face of the countertop laminate. 
     The mold form  56  is made of polyurethane resin in the preferred embodiment as it works well with the preferred embodiment casting of the seal  10  with epoxy casting resin although room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) silicon has also been successfully used. The polyurethane resin of the mold generally will be of a low enough durometer so as to be flexible and slightly compressive. These features of the mold are critical as they allow the mold form  56  to be tightly fitted and compressed against the laminate countertop  2  so as to make a leak proof seal preventing the seal casting resin material from leaking out during fabrication of the seal  10 , and securely maintaining the mold form  56  in its proper position. 
     The surface routing jig  30  ( FIG. 4 ) is a rectangular template with a recess on the bottom side which dimensionally matches the exterior dimensions or profile of the flange  8 . It has screw attachment orifices  38  about it to allow it to be mechanically secured to the countertop  2 . About its inner periphery is a rabbeted edge  60  that accepts the inner routing ring  28 . 
     The inner routing ring  28 , ( FIG. 3 ) is a template sized for insertion into the surface routing jig  30 . The outer profile of the inner routing ring  28  is matingly dimensioned and profiled to fit into the inner periphery of the surface routing jig  30 . The inner profile of the inner routing ring  62  matches the profile of the outer edge of the seal  10 . 
       FIG. 11  shows the router  50  attached to the surface routing spanner board  52 . The spanner board is of a length sufficient to span over the sides of the surface routing jig  30 , so as to maintain the cutting bit of the router at a constant height with respect to the bottom face of the laminate countertop. As is well known in the field of surface routing, a bushing is affixed at a uniform radius from the center of the cutting bit (affixed to either the spanner board or the router base.) This will allow precision locating when routing the surface as the bushing will contact the peripheral sides of the templates used in the surface routing process as described herein. 
     The mounting of the sink to the countertop uses the clamping assembly  6  detailed above and best illustrated in  FIG. 2 . 
     The steps to fabricating the sink seal as described above are as follows:
     1. Paint a coat of release wax (preferably carnauba paste wax) on the underside and inside edge of the locator/dam ring  20  and allow sufficient time to dry. (Note it is only put onto the underside as a precaution if epoxy resin leaks under the rim.)   2. Spray RTV release bond onto the mold form  56  portion of the mold  26 .   3. Lay the countertop  2  upside down so that the laminate surface is face down and the bottom face of the countertop  2  is facing upward. Place locator/dam ring  20  onto the bottom face of the countertop, ensuring the outside leading edge of the locator/dam ring  20  firmly contacts and abuts the inside edge of the front lip of the countertop  2 . Slide the locator/dam ring  20  to the position where the sink  4  is to be located. Insert screws through the screw attachment orifices  38  located along the four sides of the locator/dam ring  20  and threadingly engage them into the bottom face of the laminate countertop  2  to secure the locator/dam ring  20  in its desired position. A screw should be used at numerous locations about all four sides to eliminate any movement of the locator/dam ring  20  during routing/placement operations. Before inserting screws the bottom face of the countertop should be center punched through the screw attachment orifices  38 . This step allows the screws to go in perpendicular to the bottom face and completely parallel to the attachment orifices  38 . Any angular insertion of a screw will distort the locator/dam ring&#39;s profile.   4. Insert the hole routing jig  22  into the locator/dam ring  20 . These are close tolerance fits with the outside dimensions of the hole routing jig  22  approximating the inside dimensions of the locator/dam ring  20 . Affix the hole routing jig  22  to the bottom face of the countertop  2  in the same fashion as was done with the locator/dam ring  20  above using screws through the screw attachment orifices  38 .   5. Attach the countertop cutout support jig  24  to the locator/dam ring  20  by placing screws through screw attachment orifices  38  in the corners of the countertop cutout support jig  24  that pass through aligned screw attachment orifices  38  in the locator/dam ring  20 . Attach the countertop cutout support jig  24  to the bottom face of the countertop  2  through the use of screws through the screw attachment orifices  38  as described above. The assembly of the locator/dam ring  20 , the hole routing jig  22  and the countertop cutout support jig  24  is seen in  FIG. 12 .  FIG. 14  shows this assembly mounted onto the countertop.   6. Drill a starting hole for the router bit through the countertop  2  within the area bounded by the inside of the locator/dam ring  20 .   7. Install a flush cut straight router bit with a ⅛ inch diameter oversized guide bearing on the bottom. The guide bearing has a diameter that is ⅛ of an inch larger than the diameter of the flush cut bit. Flip the entire assembly over and insert the router bit through the starting hole so the router resides on the top surface of the counter. Route the sink opening out so that the center cutout of the countertop is no longer a contiguous section of the countertop as best seen in  FIG. 13 .   8. Remove the oversized guide bearing and install a size for size guide bearing on the bottom of the flush cut straight router bid. Reroute the sink opening. This step now removes the final 1/16 inch of countertop material and ensures the finish cut in the laminate countertop is extremely smooth. This step of double routing is key to getting a proper tight interface edge between the seal and the countertop. Aesthetically this will allow for a clean demarcation between the seal  10  and the countertop  2 .   9. Flip the routed assembly over and remove the countertop cutout support  24  by removing screws  40  and lift the countertop cutout support  24  from the locator/dam ring  20  with the sink cutout still affixed to the countertop cutout support  24 . The locator/dam ring  20  remains affixed to the countertop.   10. Remove the hole routing jig  22  by removing the screws and lifting it out of the locator/dam ring  20 .   11. Spray silicon release wax onto the mold form  56 . (All toggle clamps fully released.) Place the locator/dam ring  20  onto the mold  26  aligning the two into their critical nested spacing with the countertop  2  still attached and oriented face down. To accomplish this, there is a set of alignment pins  32  on the bottom face of the locator/dam ring  20  that engage in a set of mating locator orifices  62  in the mold  26 . All of the numerous toggle (compression) clamps  58  about the periphery of the mold form  56  are engaged to frictionally contact the locator/dam ring  20 . This step is critical to get a perfectly tight seal that does not allow any of the seal resin to leak by the cutout edge of the laminate countertop  2 .   12. Mix the seal material as per manufacturer&#39;s directions adding pigment as necessary. Although the preferred embodiment uses an epoxy casting resin there is a plethora of other materials that may also be used to form the sink seal  10 . Epoxy resin was chosen because of its long working times, hand mixing ability, low odor and volatile organic vapors.   13. Pour the epoxy into the annulus created between the mold form  56 , the sink cutout in the countertop and the locator/dam ring  20 . Let cure as per the manufacturer&#39;s directions.   14. Release all toggle pressure clamps  58  and lift the countertop  2  away from the mold  26  (with the locator/dam ring  20  still attached.) Remove the locator/dam ring  20  from the countertop  2  by removing the screws. (The counter sink hole now has an interior periphery epoxy seal ring  10  with an extended epoxy flange  12  formed on the bottom face of the counter.)   15. Place a surface routing jig  30  over the extended epoxy flange  12 . The inside profile of the surface routing jig  30  dimensionally matches the exterior dimensions or profile of the extended epoxy flange  12 . Attach a surface routing jig  30  onto the bottom face of the counter  2  with screws through screw attachment orifices  38 . Place the inner routing ring  28  into the surface routing jig  30 . The outer profile of the inner routing ring is matingly dimensioned and profiled to fit into the inner periphery of the surface routing jig  30 . A router on a spanner board ( FIG. 11 ) is used (as is well known in the industry) to allow the router bit to be held a constant depth off of the bottom face of the countertop. Counterclockwise rout the inside edge of the flange&#39;s  12  bottom face planar, tracing the inner routing ring.   16. Remove the inner routing ring  28  and then clockwise rout the outside edge of the of the flange  12 . The entire seal  10  should now be a uniform thickness with respect to the bottom face of the counter and parallel to the sink flange  8 . There should be no nicks in either of the edges of the flange  12 .   17. Remove the surface routing jig  30 .   18. Place the sink attachment blocks  6  directly abutting the extended epoxy flange  12 . These are glued and screwed directly to the bottom face of the counter  2  with their embedded studs extending normally therefrom. These give a solid surface for the cantilever clips  16  to be secured into and serve as a locator for the sink placement for the in field installation of the sink.   

     In the field, the installer need just apply a suitable silicone or other sealant to the top face of the sink flange  8 , raise the undermount sink  4  below the sink cutout aligning the edges of the sink  4  with the sides of the clamp blocks  6 . The sink  4  is then propped up in place while a mechanical fastener is utilized in the slot of a clamping plate  16  and the clamping plate in tensioned until one end of the contacts the sink flange  8  and one end contacts the clamp block  6 . 
     In an alternate embodiment, the seal  10  would be removably cast and hardened on a surface that had a profile that matched the sink cutout and the finished seal  10  would then be affixed to the sink cutout by an adhesive. The seal  10  in this case may be made to an extended height and once adhesively affixed to the sink cutout, routed down level with the top face of the laminate. 
     The above description will enable any person skilled in the art to make and use this invention. It also sets forth the best modes for carrying out this invention. There are numerous variations and modifications thereof that will also remain readily apparent to others skilled in the art, now that the general principles of the present invention have been disclosed. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.