What's this part that joins two pieces of poly?

[AndyF]

I was poking around the Clearview cyclone site and noticed their blower housing:
http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/supporting-products/34-blower-housing-15-inch.html

there's some kind of aluminum (?) part that joins two pieces of clear plexy.  Any one know what that might be?  I was thinking of some type of "H" shaped aluminum channel that could be used for weather stripping or something.

On another note, if you flip the blower housing over, it looks very close to most of the Top Hats.

thx,
andy

[phil (admin)]

Never noticed that before.  I'm surprised they didn't use a single longer piece of plastic?  Plastic comes in pretty long sheets, no?

[brdad]

Possibly they decided it was easier for them to heat and form the curved piece of plastic and join in to a flat piece.

[phil (admin)]

Possibly they decided it was easier for them to heat and form the curved piece of plastic and join in to a flat piece.

Could be right.  What I know about working w/ plastics wouldn't fill a thimble.

[Rmeglath]

I am in the process of building a tophat to fit on my 30 gallon Behlen's galvanized trashcan, and I'm using clear Lexan (polycarbonate) for the walls. I routed an 1/8" groove around the perimeter of the BB ply on both the top and bottom. The Lexan was .0.40" but when if fit into both grooves it held its shape very well. I wound up using heavy duty packing tape on the outside, folding the taped together pieces so the edges were exposed, putting caulk between them, and taping the other side. After that I put it into the groove. We'll see how airtight it is but I'm hopeful. When I'm done with the build I'll post the details. My point is I'm not sure the aluminum piece is necessary. But we'll see.

[AndyF]

It was explained to me that it's related to noise reduction:

.... [It] attaches to the inside only.  It doesn't attach 2 pieces of acrylic, in theory it's supposed to reduce noise by introducing a "2nd gore point" that's out-of-phase with the main gore point...  in practice, I think the jury may still be out on that, though.