Mold for making a mortar-less interlocking block. The invention was engineered and developed to make a double interlocking block that has internal ears and grooves. Also, it has one receding and protruding portion on the external faces of said block.
The objective of the invention is to make mortar-less blocks for construction of residential dwellings and commercial buildings. With the system, you can implement the sweat equity concept cutting the construction time from days to hours. After the first tier of blocks is in grout and with rebar, you can stack blocks starting at any corner. The contractor can save approximately 80% on labor for constructing the walls of residential and commercial buildings. The interlocking mortar-less block system can be a prepared kit so an unskilled person can build 90 percent of their own house. The kit would contain precut plumbing, bundled electrical wires and door jambs; also the windows would be pre-framed.
Another objective is to obtain a construction system which does not require special equipment.
Another objective is to provide the means for precision molding of blocks.
Another objective is to make it easy for the builder to choose and use the blocks.
An Englishman, Terrance J. Hunt, arrived in California in the mid-1980s and developed the first double locking mortar-less block and was issued a published patent with a priority date of Feb. 21, 1985. He developed a fence block that would withstand an earthquake and later was issued a U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,472, dated Jan. 30, 1990. Douglas Eugene Edwards of Gainesville, Texas was issued a provisional patent application No. 61/626/877 filing date Oct. 5, 2011. The invention relates to a double locking mortar-less block. The building block will facilitate the construction of buildings, walls, cross walls, and the likes without the need of special equipment or techniques. The essential idea is to provide a basic system of five blocks. The blocks are designed to firmly lock together and thus the construction does not require the traditional mortar or cement to bond it together. This is due to the ears protruding from the blocks and the grooves in all the blocks that fit on said protruding ears. The blocks have external faces and some faces has protruding and receding portions mating with each other so that the blocks are adapted to form a rigid structure. As a result, it is possible to interlock said blocks in parallel, longitudinally or transversely. Thus with this system any simple or complex structure may be built.
The system comprises the combination of five interlocking building blocks.
These blocks should be manufactured with precision for interlocking without the use of mortar. Load-bearing structures can be built therewith.
As shown in
The middle web 103 extending transversely of said block and parallel to end walls that separate the open-ended internal cavities. There are two end cavities of equal size of one end wall, one internal face of one end wall, one internal face of one middle web, and the intervening internal faces of side walls.
An ear 107 on a central web protrudes from the top face 108, each ear being the same dimensions. Each ear has a transversely extending surface 104 delimiting the extent of said ear toward said central web and oppositely disposed, longitudinally extending surface 114, each delimiting the extent of said ear toward the proximal wall.
The side edges 106 of the groove in each end wall are each spaced from the external face 101 of the proximal side wall a distance X substantially the same as the distance from the longitudinally-extending surfaces 114 of the ears 107 respectively to the same, proximal side wall faces. Each transversely-extending surface 104 of each ear is spaced from the external face 102 of the proximal end wall a distance Y substantially one half the external length of a side wall minus the distance Z of the face of the groove 100 Z in the proximal end wall to said external face 102 Z of said end wall. The side edge 106 Z proximal the end wall of the groove in each said side wall is substantially the same distance ZX from the external face 102 Z of said proximal end wall as the distance Y of each longitudinally-extending surface 114 of each ear to the external face 101 of the proximal side wall.
As a result, as shown in
In other words each groove extending from the bottom toward the top face at least as far as the ears project from the top face is positioned, shaped and dimensioned so that an ear and groove of adjacent block can be male-female interlocked with one external face of one block flush with an external face of another block for either longitudinally or transverse orientations of the blocks.
In the manufacture of conventional blocks only one bar 400B is used for the cores. The bar 400B is located along the top face of a mold to support steel cores 401B to form a cavity or hollow in a concrete block. The mold method herein described uses twin, i.e. two parallel-spaced core bars 400A for supporting steel cavity-forming 401A in a block forming press mold. The positions of the twin bars 400A can be approximately 6 mm from opposite longitudinal edges of the protruding ear 107 to a position of approximately 3 mm with relation to the external edge of the steel core.
Molding guides 407 on sections of the twin bars at the area of the top face 403A and extend downward between the steel cores 401A to the frits levels defined by top face 404A of said block aside from the ear projections. These are in the 6 mm space between the twin bars 400A and the longitudinal sides face 408A of the projections at 403A as delimited by the steel cores 401A. The molding guides 407 are removable.
The contours are such that external faces have one protruding portion 150 and one receding portion 152. The depth from and into the block of the protruding and receding portion of the contours together define an average face (only one shown) at 154 of each wall which is shown in phantom because not real. The average face at 154 corresponds to the face from which various distance have heretofore been described as being measured.
In the embodiment of
The protruding and receding portion of the contours on opposite end and side faces of the block are complementarily positioned for nesting with those of another full block similarly oriented relative to the top and bottom faces when complementary end or side faces of the blocks mate. This prevents relative movement of the blocks transverse of the contours and, when there are three such blocks with the ears and grooves interlocked it adapts the blocks for forming a rigid structure.
It will be understood that various other characteristics of the invention are apparent from the drawings that such variations of the characteristics or features of the invention as may occur to one of ordinary skills in the art are contemplated by the drawings of the invention.
Merely-preferred embodiments, which do not limit the invention, are shown in drawings, wherein: