For sometime now, it has been the dream of the television set manufacturers to be able to commercially produce light weight large screen glass TV systems. However, in view of the fact that the electronic components of such systems require an evacuated environment, it has not been possible to produce such a large light weight flat panelled glass TV system which could withstand, within commercially acceptable maximum stress limits, the high atmospheric forces acting thereon. That is, when a relatively large shallow structure is evacuated, an atmospheric pressure of approximately one ton per square foot is exerted upon the enclosure structure, and if the base plate and face plate of such structure were about 8 square feet in area, then such plates would be subjected to a total atmospheric pressure of about 16 tons. Suitable supporting structures such as the supporting means shown in commonly assigned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 965,588, filed Dec. 1, 1978 and entitled Floating Vanes for Flat Panel Display System, provide sufficient support to prevent catastrophic failure of a glass housing, however, due to normal manufacturing tolerances the housing is still subjected to a degree of deformation and resulting stress which must be compensated for in order to maintain the maximum stress within commercially acceptable limits.
The present invention materially reduces the problems of high stress concentration which occur in conventional evacuated glass envelopes for rectangular flat panel display devices such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,101,802 and 4,117,368, solar collectors such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,995,615 and 4,038,965, and the like by utilizing skew wall panels within the housing structure to offset and minimize the effects of the atmospheric loading upon the evacuated housing structure.
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USPTO Backgrounds