Patent Application
20240060295
The present application relates to a mechanical wall. More particularly, the present application relates to a collapsible prefabricated mechanical soft wall used as a non-load-bearing wall.
In the traditional construction process, wall building has many steps including framing, filling, board nailing etc. These complicated takes a lot of time and labor. In order to reduce the cost, some prior arts have provided related methods or devices.
For example, US patent application No. 2020/0157806 [hereinafter referred to as D1] discloses a modular fabricated wall system which has a number of interlocking modular prefabricated wall sections. Each wall section has opposed planar face boards and a number of orthogonal spacers adhered to respective inner faces of the face boards for bracing the face boards apart. Vertical joiners are adhered to inner edges of each face board for quickly and easily vertically slotting together adjacent wall sections in a row. Although D1 has advantages in low-cost materials and less labor, transportation cost increases according to the hollow and huge design of the modular prefabricated wall sections.
Another example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 10,662,646 [hereinafter referred to as D2]. A prefabricated wall for interior is disclosed by D2. The prefabricated wall partitions the indoor space of a building and comprises: a runner installed to face a ceiling and a floor; a plurality of studs vertically installed and fixed on both width-wise sides of the runner; and a finishing panel coupled to the plurality of studs. D2 minimizes the use of screws to facilitate the installation and reassembly of a wall, allows a small number of personnel to simultaneously perform the installation or disassembly work to reduce labor costs, and can shorten the construction period. However, subject to the finishing panel and the studs, the prefabricated wall cannot have a non-straight design.
In order to solve the problems in the prior arts and wall building process, a collapsible prefabricated mechanical soft wall is provided in the present application.
This paragraph extracts and compiles some features of the present application; other features will be disclosed in the follow-up paragraphs. It is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
In order to settle the problems mentioned above, a collapsible prefabricated mechanical soft wall is disclosed. The collapsible prefabricated mechanical soft wall comprises: a housing having a top board, a bottom board and a plurality of side boards formed therebetween, wherein two of the side boards opposite to each other have a slot, respectively, the two slots are parallel to each other, and a long opening is formed on the bottom board; a plurality of movable wall parts each rotatably connected to two adjacent ones; and an adjusting rod with two ends movably installed in the slots, respectively. The housing is used to fixed on a high position of a building frame. Some of the movable wall parts are removably stored in the housing. An innermost movable wall part is fixed inside the housing. An outermost movable wall part emerges from the housing through the long opening and is used to pull some of the removably stored movable wall parts out of the housing. The adjusting rod is parallelly arranged on one side of the stored movable wall parts. When the adjusting rod moves along the slots, the removably stored movable wall parts are pushed to line in two and the number of the stored movable wall parts revealed out of the housing is adjusted. The outermost and the revealed stored movable wall parts move along two parallel guiders fixed on the building frame and form a wall body when the outermost movable wall part is fixed on a base of the building frame or ground.
According to the present application, the adjusting rod may comprise: a hollow rod body; and a moving rod, formed on a first end of the hollow rod body to install in a first slot. A worm gear may be connected to a second end of the hollow rod body, and the worm gear and the hollow rod body are located on two sides of a second slot. The housing may further comprise a worm shaft on the side boards and parallel to the second slot. The worm gear is meshed with the worm shaft. The worm shaft rotates to adjust a location of the worm gear relative to the second slot.
According to the present application, the movable wall part may comprise: a main body, comprising: a rectangular section tube; two first connecting tubes formed on two sides of a top surface of the rectangular section tube; and a second connecting tube formed on a middle part of a bottom surface of the rectangular section tube; and a connecting pin, rotatably connecting two adjacent main bodies by being inserted to the two first connecting tubes of one main body and the second connecting tube of the other main body. The rectangular section tube may be filled with a soundproofing material to have a function of reducing external noise. Preferably, the soundproofing material may be cotton, soundproofing spray foam or soundproof sponge. In one embodiment, an outer diameter of the first connecting tube, an outer diameter of the second connecting tube, a width of the top surface of the rectangular section tube and a width of the bottom surface of the rectangular section tube are the same.
Preferably, the parallel guider may be a column with a guide groove, or a channel steel.
According to the present application, the outermost and the revealed stored movable wall parts are and covered by a plurality of fixtures to fix relative positions and shape an appearance thereof after the outermost movable wall part is fixed on the base of the building frame. Preferably, the fixture may be sheetrock, calcium silicate board, mineral fiber board or cement board.
Preferably, the housing may be made of a stainless steel plate or a galvanized steel plate.
Preferably, the movable wall part may be made of stainless steel, fiber reinforced plastics, aluminum alloy, or reinforced concrete.
Preferably the adjusting rod may be made of stainless steel, cast iron, galvanized steel, fiber reinforced plastics, or aluminum alloy.
Preferably, the worm gear may be made of stainless steel or cast iron.
Preferably, the worm shaft may be made of stainless steel or cast iron.
This present application provides a new style of prefabricated mechanical wall as a non-load-bearing wall in the frame structure. By dividing the wall into small movable wall parts similar to the hinge structure, a ‘mechanical soft wall’ is realized. The movable wall parts can be formed by mold and assembled in the factory, which greatly reduces the labor and time of housing construction. Since the movable wall parts can be freely stored into a box (the housing), it is convenient for transportation and on-site installation.
At the construction site, the housing carrying the movable wall parts is suspended on the beams and columns of the steel structure, and the columns on both sides form a groove. When the adjusting rod slides, the movable wall parts expand down along the slot, and the groove will limit the movable wall parts from moving horizontally. After final deployment, the outermost movable wall part can be nailed to the floor to fix the wall body.
After the wall body is unfolded and fixed, formworks can be installed on it, painting can be applied, too. Functions of the collapsible prefabricated mechanical soft wall are equivalent to that used in a traditional house. At the same time, the detachable design also facilitates the modification of the building structure. Internal space of the building structure can be freely expanded, or the internal division can be changed. The housing carrying the movable wall parts can be used as a roof or a second-floor floor, and the interior space of the housing can be used for pipeline installation.
The present application will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiments.
Refer to
See
As mentioned above, in order to install the adjusting rod 30, two of the side boards opposite to each other have a slot, respectively. The slot is straight. In this embodiment, the left side board 15 and the right side board 16 are chosen to form slots. The left side board 15 has a second slot 171. The right side board 16 has a first slot 172. Although the left side board 15 and the right side board 16 are parallel to each other, the slots 171/172 on each side board may not be formed parallel to each other. However, it is required to make the first slot 172 and the second slot 171 parallel to each other according to the present application. Preferably, the first slot 172 and the second slot 171 are formed on the middle portion of the right side board 16 and the left side board 15, respectively. Refer to
As to material-wise, since the housing 10 would be a part of the building that the collapsible prefabricated mechanical soft wall 1 applied to after the building is completed, materials for the housing 10 should be light and rigid. Preferably, the housing 10 is made of a stainless steel plate or a galvanized steel plate. If required, the housing 10 can be made of reinforced concrete. The side boards, the side board and the top board 11, and the side board and the bottom board 12 are well bonded. Therefore, there are no interface lines drawn in the drawings. According to the present application, the housing 10 is used to fixed on a high position of a building frame to expend the movable wall parts 20. This feature will be illustrated with an example of assembly of a building later.
The movable wall parts 20 are the key to form a mechanical soft wall. The wall is ‘soft’ since the movable wall parts 20 would rotate and move if no restriction is applied. As shown in
Come back to
The collapsible prefabricated mechanical soft wall 1 may have a function of reducing external noise. In order to achieve this goal, the rectangular section tube 211 may be filled with a soundproofing material. In practice, the soundproofing material may be, but not limited to cotton, soundproofing spray foam and soundproof sponge. Material-wise, the movable wall part 20, including the main body 21 and the connecting pin 22, may be made of stainless steel, fiber reinforced plastics, aluminum alloy, or reinforced concrete.
The adjusting rod 30 is a tool to adjust the extension of the movable wall parts 20. The adjusting rod 30 is with two ends movably installed in the second slot 171 and the first slot 172, respectively. As shown in
The most basic type of adjusting rod 30 can be a long straight rod, directly go straight through these slots 171 and 172. However, the long straight rod may fall out of the slots 171 and 172. It is not easy to move the long straight rod due to the significant weight of the movable wall parts 20. Therefore, the adjusting rod 30 has a special design. Refer to
In practice, the adjusting rod 30 may be made of stainless steel, cast iron, galvanized steel, fiber reinforced plastics, or aluminum alloy. The worm gear 40 and the worm shaft 18 need to be rigid and durable. Stainless steel and cast iron may be good material.
Refer to
To build the wall bodies, some stored movable wall part 20 must be pulled out of the housing 10 and the outermost movable wall part 20b should be fixed on the base of the building frame 50 or ground. In order to have a better understanding, please see
The wall body mentioned above is still soft. It may not move horizontally due to the restriction of the parallel guiders 53. However, vertical movement is still possible since the movable wall parts 20 are not fixedly connected. In order to make the soft wall ‘hard, namely, to fixed vertical movement of the movable wall parts 20 and to form a fixed wall body, some fixtures may be used to enhance the connection of the movable wall parts 20. Refer to
While the present application has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the present application needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
