Patent Application
20080313990
This disclosure relates in general to manufactured articles for constructing floors of buildings and in particular panels of expanded plastic material having channels adapted to accommodate spacingly supported reinforcement steel bars for forming parallel load bearing reinforced concrete ribs and eventual transversal stiffening ribs, upon consolidation of a concrete filling poured over the laid panels and reinforcement structures.
The technique of stay-in-build insulating concrete forming systems for joisted concrete floors employing channeled panels of expanded plastic associated with reinforcement steel bars of load bearing ribs, realized upon the consolidation of poured concrete filling channels defined in the expanded plastic panels for accommodating reinforcement bar fabrics is well-known and commonly practiced in the concrete building industry.
The publications WO 2005/108700-A1 and WO 2005/121467 A2, both to Cretti and assigned to the assignee of this applicaton, disclose significant examples of such a technique for constructing floors as an alternative to the traditional technique employing pre-fabricated load bearing reinforced concrete beams and bridging hollow floor bricks laid there between.
The high degree of automation that is practicable in producing panels of expanded plastic, metal elements of self standing and/or reinforcement steel bar fabrics for the concrete ribs to be formed, the lightness of the expanded plastic panels compared to the traditional materials used for constructing floor such as pre-fabricated reinforced concrete beams and hollow floor bricks, significantly reduce the costs of transportation and for laying the panels and the reinforcement steel bar fabrics over which concrete is eventually poured. This technique simplifies the construction of floors at sensibly reduced cost and enhances acoustic and thermal isolation characteristics.
Labor cost in laying the expanded plastic panels and the reinforcement metal structures (fabrics) into channels defined in the expanded plastic panels and of eventual other metallic elements for providing adequate self-standing properties of the laid panels and reinforcement structures onto which the concrete will be poured and evenly distributed, remains yet an important cost factor. Moreover, assembling and laying the distinct components at the construction site may lead to assembly imprecision that could, in the worst case, determine instability of the reinforcement metal structures within the channels defined in the body of the expanded plastic panels, during the distribution of the poured concrete.
Notably, floors constructed with this technique have a reduced ability to retard penetration of flames in the finished floor structure because of an excessive contraction of the expanded plastic bodies caused by a prolonged exposure to strong heat may lead to the peeling off of plaster coats or the falling off of the plaster boards or of other facing layer of the underside ceiling.
It is important that in case of fire, notwithstanding the fact that the expanded plastic may shrink as far as forming informal masses of reduced volume, the coats or facings of the underside ceiling, for example one or more layers of plaster or a facing of plaster boards remain in place, for retarding penetration of flames.
A composite article of manufacture for constructing concrete floors has now been developed so as to be completely factory assembled for exploiting, to the fullest degree, cost saving automation facilities and achieving reliable quality control.
The factory assembled composite panels of this disclosure achieve an outstanding minimization of labor and relative costs required for laying the fully pre-assembled composite articles at the construction site and an almost complete elimination of risks of assembly errors during the preparation of the flooring platform onto which the pourable concrete will be finally distributed.
Moreover, the novel structure of the factory pre-assembled composite panels enhances the stability of coatings and facings that may be applied to the underside surface of the finished floor in case of fire, notwithstanding contraction of the expanded plastic portions.
According to a preferred embodiment, the whole underside surface of the composite article has a metal sheet shroud, the stability of which is substantially ensured even in case of fire. The metal shroud of the composite panels provides a metal facing substantially free of discontinuity over the whole underside surface of the floor.
In situations wherein particular aesthetical qualities are not required, the outer facing of metal sheet of the ceiling surface of the finished floor may even remain in sight (for example in case of ceilings of underground storage space, garages and the like).
Alternatively, the facing metal sheet of the composite article of manufacture of the present disclosure provides an anchoring element for common ceiling coats such as plaster, plaster boards and the like.
Basically, the composite panel of the present disclosure comprises a body of expanded plastic having at least two parallel channels, open on the upper surface of the panel, that extends for the whole length of the article, adapted to be filled with concrete poured over the panel. A steel reinforcement bar fabric is installed into each channel. It may comprise at least two parallel steel bars connected by at least an order of cross bars disposed at regular intervals along the length of the reinforcement fabric. At least same or preferably all of the cross bars extend beyond a lowest reinforcement steel bar of the fabric for constituting a plurality of spikes of length sufficient to pass through the expanded plastic bottom of the accommodating channel in order to sustain in a stable upright position inside the channel the reinforcement fabric, and to protrude from of the underside surface of the expanded plastic body.
One or more rolled or stamped sheet metal shrouds with at least one row of aligned holes spaced from one another at intervals matching those of the array of protruding spike ends are applied to the underside surface of the expanded plastic body hung from the protruding ends of the spike by fastening nuts or caps stably engaged with the ends of the metal spike body reinforcement fabric, that cover the hole of passage of the spikes.
The fastening nuts or caps may be of a sufficiently malleable metallic material capable of self threading on a helicoidal thread formed in the end position of the metal spikes or of a plastic material having a significant resistance to fire, such as for example a polytetrafluoroethylene or similar material.
Preferably, before installing the reinforcement bar fabric into a channel of the expanded plastic body, appropriate spacing counter caps of the same material of the fastening caps or even of different material are slipped over the metal spikes in order to enhance stabilization of the reinforcement bar fabric and keep it in a precisely upright position inside the receiving channel, spaced from the bottom surface of the channel in the expanded plastic body in which it is disposed.
The invention is defined in the annexed claims.
The following detailed description of several embodiments shown in the drawings, does not exclude in any way other possible forms of realization of the composite article of manufacture of the present disclosure.
In the exemplary embodiments shown, the expanded plastic body of each composite panel has two parallel channels open on the upper side of the expanded plastic body that extend for the whole length, which will eventually be filled by a poured concrete mix. Of course, each expanded plastic bodies may have more than two panel open channels for realizing more than two load bearing reinforced concrete beams, according to design choices, having a proportionately greater width and even a different arrangement of longitudinal cavities for reducing the mass of expanded plastic material.
With references to
In the shown example, the expanded plastic body 1 defines two parallel open channels 4 and 5 inside in which reinforcement bar fabrics 6 for load bearing beams to be formed upon consolidation of poured concrete mix are pre-installed at the factory.
In the shown example, the reinforcement fabrics 6 include a reinforcement upper steel bar 8, a reinforcement bottom steel bar 9, an order of steel cross bar 10 and an order of stiffening spacer steel bars 11.
Preferably as shown, all of the cross bars 10 extend well beyond the lower bar 9 of the reinforcement fabric 6 for constituting as many spikes 12 of length sufficient to pass through the bottom of expanded plastic of the reinforcement fabric accommodating channel, as far as reaching close to or slightly protruding out of the underside surface of the expanded plastic body 1.
As shown in
Preferably, as shown in the figures, before passing the spikes 12 through the bottom wall of the channel, spacer counter-caps 13, preferably of a plastic material each having an end flange 14 for resting over the bottom surface of the expanded plastic of the channel accommodating the reinforcement fabric are slipped over the spikes 12.
Over the underside surface of the expanded plastic body 1 is then applied a rolled or stamped sheet metal shroud 15, as illustrated in
The rolled or alternatively press stamped sheet metal 15 has longitudinally aligned holes with the same pitch (uniform spacing distance) of the axis of the spikes 12 and its rolled or press formed profile matches the profile of the lower surface of the expanded plastic body.
Fastening nuts or caps 16 having an end flange and a tubular stem stably engage with the ends of the spikes 12, on which they are tightened so as to provide for a stable connection between the reinforcement fabric 6 and the sheet metal shroud 15 applied onto the underside surface of the manufactured article. The sheet metal shroud 15 thus coupled to the expanded resin body confers to the composite an enhanced self-standing capability by acting as a stiffening and protecting armature that permit safe handling, transportation and laying of the factory pre-assembled composite panel.
The tightening of the fastening caps 16 effectively stabilizes the positioned reinforcement fabric 6 as well as the stiffening metal sheet shroud 15 coupling with the expanded plastic body, making it possible to handle with ease the fully assembled composite panels without risk of damaging them, to transport them from the factory to the construction site to be easily and quickly laid for constructing the floor platform, by simply juxtaposing one composite panel to the other over a temporary scaffold.
The way in which the three essential components of the composite article of manufacture of the present invention namely, the expanded plastic body 1, the reinforcement metal fabric 6 and the stiffening sheet metal shroud 11, are assembled to form a composite article suitable to be stored, transported and laid at the construction site is graphically illustrated in
Preferably, as in the example shown in
The spacing counter-cap 13 is forcibly slipped along the full extension length of the spike.
The spacing counter-cap 13 may be made of a malleable plastic having a through hole of diameter slightly interfering with the outer diameter of the threaded end of the spike 12, in order to make it possible to slip it over even by actually forcing it over the spike 12, as far as abutting against the lower reinforcement bar 9, and be thus retained in place by being unable to fall or drop off by gravity.
The steel bar reinforcement fabric 6, optionally pre-equipped with the spacer counter-caps 13, may be installed into the receiving channel eventually by forcing the spikes 12 to pierce through the thickness of expanded plastic at the bottom of the channel as far as bearing with the flanged end 14 of the spacers 13 over the bottom of the channel. Any other effective way of maintaining the lower bar of the reinforcement fabric spaced by a certain distance from the bottom of the channel that will be eventually filled by the poured concrete mix can be resorted to, for example by simply placing a few stay-in spacers of appropriate shape on the bottom of the channel before placing and fastening in place the reinforcement fabric.
The assembly is completed upon tightening the fastening caps 16, having a terminal flange 16a and a tubular stem 16b. The axial hole diameter of the caps is smaller than the outer diameter of the helix 17 at the end 17 of the spike 12, for self-threading and tightening of the fastening caps 16. The fastening caps 16 may be of malleable metallic material or of a plastic material capable of resisting relatively high temperatures and sufficiently malleable in order to permit self-threading over the helicoidal end 17 of the steel spike 12.
The end flange 16a, besides sustaining the sheet metal shroud 15 so connected to the reinforcement fabric 6 of the load bearing beam has also the function of covering the hole through the shroud and the piercing through the expanded plastic bottom of the channel in which will be formed the load bearing reinforced concrete beam of the floor.
Instead of a helicoidal self-threading, any other type of mechanical fastening capable of ensuring an adequate resistance to the tensile stress may be used for fixing (hanging) the sheet metal shroud 15 to the reinforcement fabric of the overhanging beam.
In this case, each metal shroud 19 has only one row of spaced holes for suspending it to the respective beam by virtue of its mechanical connection to the reinforcement fabric 6 of the beam through the spikes 12, the spacer under caps 13 and the fastening caps 16.
In any case, the single sheet metal shroud 15 or the two parallel shrouds 19 provide structural elements for fixing eventual coats of the ceiling, for example of plaster boards, that will remain in place even in the event of a partial of an extended deformation of the expanded plastic body 1, because securely fastened to the load bearing beams of the floor.
In case of the preferred embodiments of
According to a preferred embodiment, the materials that may be satisfactorily used are indicated here below:
Of course, even different materials with mechanical and thermal characteristics similar to those indicated above may be used for meeting peculiar requirements, in function of the type of building and of its contemplated use.
The term “comprising” (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of “having” or “including” and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of” The terms “a”, “an” and “the” as used herein are understood to encompass the plural as well as the singular.
All publications, patents and patent applications cited in this specification are herein incorporated by reference, and for any and all purpose, as if each individual publication, patent or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. In the case of inconsistencies, the present disclosure will prevail.
The foregoing description of the disclosure illustrates and describes the present disclosure. Additionally, the disclosure shows and describes only the preferred embodiments but, as mentioned above, it is to be understood that the disclosure is capable of use in various other combinations, modifications, and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the concept as expressed herein, commensurate with the above teachings and/or the skill or knowledge of the relevant art.
The embodiments described hereinabove are further intended to explain best modes known of practicing it and to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the disclosure in such, or other, embodiments and with the various modifications required by the particular applications or uses. Accordingly, the description is not intended to limit it to the form disclosed herein. Also, it is intended that the appended claims be construed to include alternative embodiments.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| VA2007A000053 | Jun 2007 | IT | national |
