Patent Abstract:
An adaptor clip, for converting a standard tee grid ceiling to a snap-up panel system, comprising an injection-molded plastic body that includes gripping elements for engaging the tops of the flanges of the tee grid and support elements for mating with the upstanding peripheral flanges of the snap-up panels. The clip is arranged to be quickly and easily installed without tools by simply positioning it against the lower faces of intersecting tee grid members so that its center underlies the center of the intersection and rotating it about a vertical axis.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The invention relates to suspended ceiling structures and, in particular, to a system for converting conventional T-grid for lay-in tiles to a snap-up panel construction.  
       PRIOR ART  
       [0002]     Conventional suspended ceilings comprise a rectangular metal grid and lay-in tiles. Typically, the metal grid members have an inverted tee configuration and the tiles or panels are supported on the upper faces of the tee flanges. Situations arise where it is desirable to change the ceiling surface for various purposes such as to present a new appearance or look, or to conceal a soiled or otherwise damaged ceiling. The traditional approach to renewing the ceiling is to replace the tiles and either refurbish the lower visible faces of the grid tees or replace them. These approaches can be expensive considering the cost of new materials and installation labor, as well as the cost of handling and disposal of the old materials. Still further, replacement of existing ceiling tiles with new tiles does not yield a completely new “look” but, rather, only a renewed appearance.  
         [0003]     U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,696,142 and 6,467,228 illustrate “snap-up” ceiling panels of a type used with the present invention.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     The invention provides a system for resurfacing existing suspended ceilings that utilizes the original grid for support and allows the original tiles to remain in place. The disclosed resurfacing system provides a mounting clip with gripping elements that engage the existing grid and support elements that mate with peripheral portions of new ceiling panels. The mounting clip, in the illustrated embodiment, is configured to snap onto the flange of a standard tee or grid member and, more specifically, is configured to be installed at an intersection of the tee grid members such that it grips the adjacent flange areas at all four grid member extensions from the intersection.  
         [0005]     As disclosed, moreover, the preferred clip is arranged to be manually installed without tools by simply twisting or rotating it about the center of the intersection, causing it to simultaneously grip onto all four grid extensions. A number of features allow the clip to be accurately positioned and readily snapped into place even where previously installed ceiling panels remain in place. The clip can beneficially be made by injection molding a suitable plastic material so as to achieve the resilience to enable it to reliably snap into the installed position. Moreover, the clip can be modified by cutting it with a hand shear or snips, without shattering or splitting, to fit areas where the grid members intersect walls, light fixtures, air vents, and the like. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a suspended ceiling system, viewed from above, illustrating a conventional tee grid, lay-in tiles, an adaptor clip of the invention at the intersections of the grid tees, and snap-up panels supported on the tee grid by the adaptor clips;  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  is a perspective top view of the adaptor clip of the invention;  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  is a bottom perspective view of the adaptor clip of the invention;  
         [0009]      FIG. 4  is a bottom view of the adaptor clip;  
         [0010]      FIG. 5  is a side view of the adaptor clip;  
         [0011]      FIG. 6  is a top plan view of the adaptor clip;  
         [0012]      FIG. 7  is a cross-section of the adaptor clip taken along the lines  7 - 7  indicated in  FIG. 6 ;  
         [0013]      FIG. 8  is a cross-section of the adaptor clip taken along the lines  8 - 8  indicated in  FIG. 6 ;  
         [0014]      FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional view of the adaptor clip taken along the lines  9 - 9  indicated in  FIG. 4 , but shown upright;  
         [0015]      FIG. 10  is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the adaptor clip taken along the lines  10 - 10  indicated in  FIG. 6 ; and  
         [0016]      FIG. 11  is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the ceiling installation taken along the staggered plane indicated by the lines  11 - 11  in  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0017]      FIG. 1  illustrates a suspended ceiling system  10  embodying the invention. The system includes a rectangular grid  11  formed of conventional main and cross tees  12 . The rectangular grid  11  in the illustrated case forms square modules that are 2 foot by 2 foot, but it will be understood that the invention is applicable to other rectangular grid patterns such as the common 2 foot by 4 foot module. The cross tees or cross runners  12  intersect the main tees or main runners at regularly spaced locations along the lengths of the main tees and are coupled together with end connections of known construction. As is customary, the tees or runners have the general cross section of an inverted tee with a vertical stem or web  13  ( FIG. 11 ) and a horizontal flange  14  at the lower edge of the stem. The flange  14  has symmetrical portions  16  each extending horizontally away from the stem  13 . The width of the flange  14  of a common type of tee is nominally 15/16″. At a regular tee intersection, four tee sections or portions extend horizontally outwardly from a theoretical center of the intersection. Typically, the sections of a main tee extend in opposite directions along one line and the sections of two cross tees extend in opposite directions along a line perpendicular to the line of the main tee.  
         [0018]     Conventional ceiling tiles or panels  15  usually have acoustic and fire retardant properties and are normally supported on the grid tees  12  by resting in direct contact on the upper faces of the flange portions  16 .  
         [0019]     A plurality of clips or adaptors  17 , installed on the tees or runners  12  at strategic locations, most typically at their intersections, are arranged to enable new ceiling panels  18  to be attached and supported on the grid  11  while, typically, previously installed tiles  15  remain on the grid  11 . The illustrated clip  17  is a one piece injection molded body having a cruciform shape in plan view formed by four identical arms or sections  19 . The major areas of the sections  19  are generally co-planar. The clip  17  can be formed of a suitable thermoplastic material such as a glass filled polybutylene tetra phthalate. This and like material has sufficient resilience to allow the clip to be installed and removed more than one time.  
         [0020]     An upper face of the clip  17  has gripping elements  21  formed to interengage with the flange portions  16  of the grid tees  12  and a lower face of the clip has support elements  22  formed to mate with perimeter portions  23  of the ceiling panels  18 . Each of the four arms or sections  19  of a clip body has a gripping element  21  arranged to engage and couple with a separate one of the four tee parts or sections of the grid  11  that comprise an intersection. The gripping or mounting element  21  as shown most clearly in  FIG. 8 , is L-shaped in cross-section with a short vertical leg  26  supporting a second cantilevered longer leg  27 . The second or major leg  27  extends above an upper surface  28  of its respective body section  19  a distance about equal to and, preferably, slightly less than the thickness of the tee flange  14  to which it is to be mounted. A lower face of the horizontal leg  27 , distal from the short vertical leg  26 , is beveled at  29  and, proximal to the vertical leg  26  the lower surface is recessed at  31  vertically above the lowermost zone of the distal beveled part  29 . A notch  32  at the juncture of the short vertical leg  26  and the planar section of the main body of the respective clip arm or section  19  enables the gripping or mounting element  21  to be manually broken off with thumb pressure for special applications or installations where it might otherwise interfere with a structure on which the clip  17  is to be mounted. The horizontal longer leg  27  of the gripping or mounting element  21  extends horizontally to a plane that is short of the center line of the arm or section  19  so that as discussed below, when properly installed on a grid tee flange  14 , it does not interfere with the tee stem or web  13 .  
         [0021]     The perimeter of the clip  17  is reinforced and thereby stiffened by a downwardly extending flange  36 . When the clip  17  is properly installed on the grid tees  12 , central and outlying portions of the upper surface  28  are arranged to abut the lower face of the grid tee flanges  14 . Centering rib formations  37  shown, for example, in  FIGS. 2, 6 , and  7 , extend upwardly from the planar upper surface  28  and are symmetrically disposed on opposite sides of a center line of the respective clip arm  19 . The ribs  37  each include a laterally outwardly facing inclined ramp surface  38  and a laterally inward facing alignment surface  39  having a relatively small tilt or draft of, for example, about 5 degrees.  
         [0022]     Panel supporting elements or members  22  extend downwardly from the plane of the main body. The support elements  22  are symmetrically spaced on opposite sides of the center of the arms or sections  19 . One of the support elements  22 , on the side of the section  19  carrying the respective gripping element  21  is interrupted in the area of the gripping element such that it is in two parts spaced along the length of the respective section  19 . Each support element  22  has an L-shaped section (e.g.  FIG. 7 ) with a generally vertical leg  41  depending from the body proper of the associated section  19  and a horizontal flange or leg  42  extending from the vertical leg  41 . The support elements  22  are stiffened by gussets  45 . The gap between the support elements  22  is accompanied with a rectangular notch  44  in the main body of the section  19 . The notch  44  permits the clip  17  to be molded with simple tooling that releases the clip with straight molding press platen opening motion without secondary slide action.  
         [0023]     Holes  46  molded in the clip body adjacent the outward ends of the sections  19  and near the center of the body are provided to receive optional fasteners such as screws for fixing the clip  17  to a suspended grid or associated ceiling fixtures. The holes  46  are reinforced by concentric small annular flanges  47 . A square hole  48  at the geometric center of the clip and notches  49  at the distal ends of the sections or arms  19  have corners lying on the center line of the respective sections. The corners of the hole  48  and notches  49  can be used as sights to align the clip  17  with a grid on which it is being installed or a chalk line or a laser beam, for example.  
         [0024]     The clip  17  is manually installed, typically without tools, at an intersection of grid tees  12  from below the grid  11  by horizontally aligning its center with the imaginary center of the intersection while the top face  28  of the clip is held in contact with the lower faces of the grid tees and the sections  19  are deliberately held out of angular alignment, slightly counter-clockwise when viewed from below, with the lines of the grid tees.  
         [0025]     The gripping elements  21 , extending slightly above the plane of the main area of the clip body, raise the overlying tiles  15  that are carried on the respective grid tees  12 . The clip  17  is rotated about its center on a vertical axis causing the gripping elements  21  to slide over portions  16  of the grid tee flanges  14 . The beveled areas  29  smoothly cam the gripping elements  21  over respective tee flange portions  16 . An audible click will be heard and resistance to further rotation will occur when the tee flanges  14  snap into the pocket formed between the opposing ribs  37  on each clip section  19 . This snapping action is produced by the spring-like resilience of the gripping elements  21  and to some extent the resilience of the flanges  14  themselves. The tilt of each pair of alignment surfaces  39  tends to wedge the respective tee flange  14  into a snug and aligned fit therebetween. Once a flange  14  snaps between the surfaces  39 , the force to remove a clip is greater than that required to install it. The location of the alignment surfaces  39 , distal from the center of the clip  17  maximizes their position holding capacity. Fine adjustment of the clip position can be assisted by reference to the sights formed by the notches  49  and center hole  48 , and any selected reference lines or marks.  
         [0026]     In a typical application, clips  17  are installed on all of the grid tee intersections of an existing suspended ceiling. At the perimeter of the ceiling and other interruptions or terminations of the grid, such as at lighting and air duct fixtures, the clip  17  may be suitably field cut or otherwise modified to provide support elements  22  at these locations. Fasteners installed through the holes  46  of the modified clips can be anchored in corresponding areas of the overlying grid flanges  14  or other structure to maintain the modified clip in position.  
         [0027]     With reference to  FIGS. 1 and 11 , the clips  17  enable new ceiling panels  18  to be installed on the grid  11  where, if desires, an earlier installation of ceiling tiles or panels  15  remain in place. It may be desirable to renew the appearance of a ceiling installation in which the ceiling panels and/or grid has been soiled with airborne dust and grime or otherwise become shopworn. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,696,142 and 6,467,228 disclose types of ceiling panels that are compatible with the clip  17 . The panels  18 , typically formed of sheet metal, have peripheral vertically extending flanges  52 . The panels  51  are proportioned so that the flanges  52  have re-entrant surface portions  53  that snap over the upper surfaces of the upturned edges  43  of the horizontal flanges  42  of the support elements  22 . Normally, both the panel flanges  52  and the support elements  22  can be imparted with some relative resilience to permit this snapping action. Alternatively, a panel  18  or the support elements  22  can be designed to be the primary resilient element for this snapping action.  
         [0028]     It will be understood that rectangular panels, other than the illustrated square panels  18 , can be mounted on the clips  17 . The clips  17  can be installed on less than all of the intersections of the grid tees  12  and can be installed on the grid tees between intersections. Thus, for example, 2 foot by 2 foot panels  18  can be installed on a 2 foot by 4 foot grid and, 2 foot by 4 foot panels can be installed on 2 foot by 2 foot grid patterns. Mounting the clips  17  at locations on an existing grid at locations other than intersections allows for re-squaring an out of square existing grid. The clips  17  can be installed along any grid tee  12  where additional panel support may be beneficial, for example, near the perimeter to support cut panels.  
         [0029]     It should be evident that this disclosure is by way of example and that various changes may be made by adding, modifying or eliminating details without departing from the lair scope of the teaching contained in this disclosure. For example, the clip can be made of metal by blanking and forming, spot welding parts together, or casting. The invention is, therefore, not limited to particular details of this disclosure except to the extent that the following claims are necessarily so limited.

Technology Classification (CPC): 4