Patent Application
20210340757
The present disclosure belongs to the field of the manufacture of base structures for partition walls, floors, roofs, furniture, among others, under the principle of modular construction by means of the use of materials such as wood, metal, plastic, among others.
The present disclosure consists in an improvement to the system described in the invention patent CL 52599 of the same applicant, which describes a basic modular system to obtain a diversity of products, which comprises at least two previously dimensioned material units that are perforated in at least one point of their extension and subsequently aligned and separated in a matrix. The material units are then traversed by at least one threaded bar through at least one perforation of each unit, forming a separation between the material units and between the bars.
An example of the modular system described in patent CL 52599 is illustrated in
By means of the modular system of the aforementioned patent, it is possible to build a diversity of curved or straight objects and structures by means of a simple and intuitive assembly, without the use of glues, nuts, spacers, etc. In addition, modular manufacturing requires low labor resources and significantly reduces the space used for storage and transportation.
Notwithstanding the above, a drawback of the system proposed by patent CL 52599 is noted having to do first of all with an aesthetic aspect, since the use of threaded bars through the perforations of the material units generates that said thread is seen through the spaces generated between each material unit. This is not appropriate when the structures to be formed by the modules are ornamental objects such as furniture or housing construction structures exposed, since the exposure of such threads are not desirable aesthetically and for other inconveniences such as the accumulation of corrosion in them over time, among others.
Another drawback of using threaded bars in the system proposed by the aforementioned patent is that it makes it difficult to align the material units when such bars must be removed for example for replacement of damaged material units or for repositioning of modules. To avoid the above, the use during the reassembly operation of a toothed die is required in order to ensure uniform spacing between material units, which hinders and slows down the repair or module repositioning operation.
It is therefore the objective of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks observed in the system of patent CL 52599, by means of improvements that ensure a superior aesthetic finish of the modules and that facilitate the alignment and assembly operation of the material units comprising it.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a constructive module is proposed for use in a modular construction system, wherein said constructive module is formed from a set of spaced material units, and by a set of bars going through traversing said set of material units transversely.
Advantageously, the bars that go through the material units have threaded sections separated by smooth sections, so that when the bar is introduced through the perforations of the material units, only the threaded sections remain fixed to the material units, being located and hidden inside the latter. In turn, only the plain sections are visible between each material unit, thus creating a better aesthetic finish than known state-of-the-art systems in which the threaded sections of the bar are visible through the gaps between material units.
The fact of having bars that comprise threaded sections separated by smooth sections also acts as a grading system or reference for the design and alignment of the material units, since the threaded sections are designed and made according to the use that will be given to the construction module, so that their width and the spacing between them exactly define the position in which the bar must be inserted through the perforations of the material units. This advantageously allows achieving uniform spacings and also any custom design to be achieved only by defining the position of the threaded sections on the bar. This is also intuitive for the operators since, for example, for repair operations, aligning each threaded section with its respective material unit is sufficient to achieve the desired configuration of the construction module.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a modular constructive system is proposed formed from constructive modules as described above, which makes it possible to form a diversity of products of different shapes.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a method of assembling the modular constructive system of the present invention is proposed, by means of which the manufacture of a large number of structures and products is possible.
Additional advantages of the present invention may be observed from the figures described below, which are intended only to illustrate the features of the invention graphically and not necessarily to limit it to a particular design, shape or specific distribution of its parts and components.
According to the first aspect of the present disclosure, a constructive module 1 is proposed for use in a modular construction system, wherein said constructive module 1 according to
The material units 10 are previously dimensioned with the desired length, width and thickness and perforated with at least two perforations 11 of a diameter preferably smaller than the bars 20. In the embodiment illustrated in
According to the present disclosure, each bar 20 is introduced through each material unit 10 through the perforations 11 preferably by means of a suitable tool such as a drill, each of the perforations traversed by a same bar being aligned parallel but not necessarily at the same distance with respect to the ends of each material unit.
According to
According to an alternative embodiment, the material units 10 have an additional free perforation (not illustrated) at least one of their ends, through which a bar is not passed, in order to allow joining with other modules by means of a bar as described above. Such a junction also makes it possible to join displaced modules to each other to form, for example, movable structures.
According to preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, the bars 20 are metallic while the material units 10 may be of materials such as wood, metal, plastic, combinations thereof or any other material. In addition, the material units may be straight, curved, and may have a cross-section of any desired shape.
In addition and as can be seen in
According to the embodiment illustrated in
Alternatively and as illustrated in
According to the second aspect of the present disclosure, by means of the constructive module 1 proposed, it is possible to obtain a modular constructive system for the manufacture of all types of structures.
An example of a structure manufactured from the proposed constructive modules is illustrated in
Adjacent material units 10 of each module are connected by means of at least one bar 20 in common to both modules, being in the illustrated example, by means of the bar located at one or both ends of each module. However, the common bar 20 between each module could be one located at the center or any other located at some intermediate position of the module.
By means of the modular construction system proposed, it is therefore possible to build diverse structures with a great flexibility of design, which will be determined by the way of connection between the modules and the intrinsic characteristics of the components of each one of them, being able to form curved, straight, mixed structures and with different types of materials.
According to the third aspect of the present disclosure, the method of assembly of the modular construction system comprises:
(a) having at least two units of the constructive module 1 with at least one free perforation at some point of its extension;
b) having a bar 20 formed on its surface by at least two threaded sections 21 separated by a smooth section 22;
c) interlocking the material units 10 of two adjacent modules, aligning their free perforations;
d) rotating one of the modules in relation to an adjacent one, until the desired angle of separation between the two units is obtained; and
e) inserting the bar through the free perforations of the adjacent modules, in order to fix and join them, thus avoiding the displacement of one module with respect to the other. This step comprises locating the threaded sections 21 of bar 20 inside the material units 10 and locating the smooth sections 22 of the bar 20 between the material units 10.
According to an alternative embodiment of the proposed method, step a) comprises arranging inserts 30 in the perforations so that in step e), the bars are inserted by said inserts through the perforations.
The system and constructive method proposed by the present disclosure can be used in the manufacture of base structures of partition walls, floors and roofs, which can be coated with some plate or sheet for their finishing. In addition, the constructive modules can be placed both horizontally and vertically.
For example, the constructive modules proposed here can be used as interior finishing products, such as the installation of American type false ceilings, façade cladding, blinds, and lattices.
In the area of furniture, the modular construction system proposed can be used for the construction of all types of furniture or use the modules as cladding for the same.
This application is the National Stage filing under 35 U.S.C. 371 of International Application No. PCT/CL2018/050096, filed on Oct. 18, 2018, the contents of which are all hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CL2018/050096 | 10/18/2018 | WO | 00 |
