Hardware accessories are key components of plastic door and window structures, and their quality directly affects the performance and lifespan of plastic doors and windows. When designing and selecting hardware accessories, it is necessary to have the function of accepting the self weight and frequent opening of the window sash, while also considering safety, firmness, aesthetics, and corrosion resistance to ensure the sealing performance of the window sash when closed. The structure of hardware accessories should be suitable for the structure and opening method of plastic windows. The widely used opening methods for plastic windows are side hung windows and sliding windows, with a few being side hung bottom hung windows. All flush opening, flipping, lifting, and sliding windows are achieved using different forms of hardware accessories
1. Hinges: The number of plastic window hinges used for each window should be determined based on the size of the window sash, the opening direction (inner opening, outer opening), the thickness and number of layers of glass, the wind conditions in the area where the window is used, and the height of the building.
2. Number of handles and linkage handles. The handle is usually installed in the middle of the window sash, about 1.5m from the ground. When the height of the window sash is less than 800mm, a handle is used; When the window sash height is greater than 800mm, two handles must be installed, located at 1/4 of the upper and lower ends of the window sash. However, the problem with installing two handles is that when the window sash is high or large, shorter people cannot reach the handle on it. Therefore, a linkage handle should be used to achieve multi-point locking.
The position of the window stabilizer (also known as the window support) device should be able to make the opening angle of the window sash greater than 90 °, and the opening angle of the rotating window greater than 60 °
It is recommended to install the sliding window lock handle at the midpoint of the sliding fan height.
Install at least two pulleys for each window sash at a distance of 100mm below the glass cushion block at the corner.
Fixation of hardware accessories
The fixation of plastic window hardware accessories is different from that of wooden windows. As wooden windows are solid profiles, the hardware accessories are fixed with wooden screws, which has a higher riveting force. Plastic windows are hollow profiles with a wall thickness of 23mm, which cannot be achieved with regular wooden screws. Self tapping screws or rivets are necessary. In principle, the hardware accessories (hinges, supports, etc.) that carry the load should be fixed to the extracted reinforced lining components. If there is no reinforcement part, the screw must pass through at least two layers of wall thickness of the plastic profile. One reason is that the screw fixing the hinge is subjected to two forces. The other reason is that the connection strength between the screw and the profile is affected by temperature. The stress distribution of the hinge fixing is one is the horizontal pulling force, and the other is the vertical shear force. Experiments have shown that plastic profiles exhibit greater shear stress than pull-out stress. Therefore, the gripping force or pull-out strength of screws are commonly used as the riveting procedure for screws. The higher the pull-out strength of the screw, the pull-out strength of the screw fixed on the reinforcing rib of the profile is about three times higher than that of the profile without the rib. For hardware accessories with small load-bearing capacity, it is possible to consider not adding reinforcement bars. This is because the inner wall of the profile forms a balanced moment against the screws, effectively preventing the failure of the connection between the screws and the profile due to shear force, and correspondingly improving the pull-out strength
