Patent Application
20220064942
This application claims the priority benefit of United States patent application Serial No., filed on, which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Aspects of the disclosure generally relate to building systems, structures, and components; and more particularly to techniques and apparatuses for composite building systems, vehicles, structural frames, walls, floors, and roofs comprising Pultruded Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer (PFRP) material.
The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present inventive subject matter. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed inventive subject matter, or that any publication, specifically or implicitly referenced, is prior art.
PFRP can include fiberglass, which is a composite comprising a polymer resin matrix reinforced with embedded glass fibers. The strength of a fiberglass element is determined primarily by the type, orientation, quantity, and location of the glass fibers within the composite. This allows the end product to be engineered to provide specific performance characteristics, such as ballistic protection or predetermined flexibility or stiffness.
Pultrusion is a manufacturing process for producing continuous lengths of PFRP structural shapes with constant cross-sections. Raw materials can include a liquid resin mixture (containing resin, fillers and specialized additives) and flexible textile reinforcing fibers. The process involves pulling these raw materials (rather than pushing, as is the case in extrusion) through a heated steel forming die using a continuous pulling device. This technique removes all air/gasses from the product, allowing for a much stronger and safer product compared with other materials.
Pultrusion yields smooth finished parts that typically do not require post processing. A wide range of continuous, consistent, solid and hollow profiles can be pultruded, and the process can be custom-tailored to fit specific applications. Pultrusion has been used for decades with glass fiber and polyester resins, but in the last 10 years the process also has found application in advanced composites applications.
Today, the vast majority of mobile and fixed building structures and enclosures are still constructed using traditional building materials, such as steel, concrete, and wood. In order for any new building material to be certified for use, an engineering process and building method need to be identified or developed that solve the problems associated with fire, deflection, impact, and seismic effects while meeting numerous building codes and standards in varying geographical locations.
Barriers to entry for new building materials include fire protection standards, cost, and resistance by General Contractors for product training and education. Aspects disclosed herein can solve these and other problems.
Disclosed aspects include composite building and mobile systems that exploit advantageous characteristics of PFRP materials and can eliminate many long-standing problems found within the construction industry. PFRPs can weigh approximately 75-80% less than steel and 30% less than aluminum. Disclosed aspects can enable in lower transportation costs, easier installation, and less weight in structural designs; requiring less equipment, fewer workers, and less time to install. Additionally, PFRP's can be field-fabricated with standard carpentry tools (using carbide or diamond blades). This can greatly reduce building costs, installation time, equipment, and labor costs. PFRPs are corrosion-resistant, will not rot, and can withstand weathering and intense use. It is impervious to insects and a broad range of corrosive environments. Maintenance costs, such as routine painting, repair, or replacement, can be reduced or eliminated. PFRPs have low thermal conductivity, are electrically non-conductive (making the material an excellent insulator) and transparent to radio waves, microwaves, and other electromagnetic frequencies.
In one aspect, a composite building system comprising a structural frame, walls, floor and or a roof made of PFRP material can be used to construct mobile and fixed building structures, enclosures, or vehicles. Disclosed aspects can be developed for residential, commercial, industrial, healthcare, aerospace, government defense, energy, and agriculture sectors, as well as other markets. PFRP can resist impact damage from winds in excess of 250 miles per hour, and deteriorates slowly compared to traditional building materials, such as steel, concrete, and wood. PFRP enables minimal transfer of thermal energy and can be designed to provide variable strength for ballistic and seismic protection. Disclosed aspects can provide for reduced weight, labor costs, construction time, and total cost of ownership over the life of the structure.
Groupings of alternative elements or aspect of the disclosed subject matter disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified, thus fulfilling the written description of all Markush groups used in the appended claims.
All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided with respect to certain aspect herein is intended merely to better illuminate the inventive subject matter and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the inventive subject matter otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the inventive subject matter.
The disclosed aspects will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, provided to illustrate and not to limit the disclosed aspects, wherein like designations denote like elements.
The description that follows includes exemplary systems, methods, and techniques that embody techniques of this disclosure. However, it is understood that the described aspects may be practiced without these specific details. Apparatuses and methods are described in the following description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, modules, components, steps, parts, processes, etc. (collectively referred to as “elements”).
As used herein and in the claims, each of the terms defined in this glossary is understood to have the meaning set forth in this glossary. As such, claims should first be construed based on intrinsic evidence. If a claim term remains ambiguous after considering the intrinsic evidence, then extrinsic evidence is to be considered.
Architectural Precast Concrete Cladding—Precast concrete cladding offers a cost-effective means of providing a robust, high-quality facade, with a great variety of durable textures, colors and patterns, including a range of facing materials such as stone and brick.
Ballistic—is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behavior and impact effects of projectiles, especially ranged weapon munitions such as bullets.
Composite Material—is a material made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties that, when combined, produce a material with characteristics different from the individual components.
Deteriorate—to make or become worse or inferior in character, quality, value; to disintegrate or wear away.
Embed—to fix into a surrounding mass; to surround tightly or firmly; envelop or enclose; to incorporate or contain as an essential part or characteristic.
Fiberglass—is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet, or woven into a fabric. The plastic matrix may be a thermoset polymer matrix—most often based on thermosetting polymers such as epoxy, polyester resin, or vinyl ester—or a thermoplastic.
Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP)—most often referred to as “fiberglass”. Used in this context, “fiberglass” is a composite consisting of a polymer resin matrix reinforced by embedded glass fibers.
PFRP—a continuous molding process using material consisting of strong fibers embedded in a resin matrix. The most common fibers are glass, carbon, and synthetic fibers which are formed using a pultrusion method which eliminates out-gassing while providing a method to strengthen the product.
Intumescent—is a substance that swells as a result of heat exposure, thus leading to an increase in volume and decrease in density. Intumescents are typically used in passive fire protection and require listing, approval and compliance in their installed configurations in order to comply with the national building codes and laws.
Outgassing—is the release of a gas that was dissolved, trapped, frozen, or absorbed in some material. Outgassing can include sublimation and evaporation, as well as desorption, seepage from cracks or internal volumes, and gaseous products of slow chemical reactions.
Polymer—is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules, or macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Polymer can be both synthetic and natural.
Pultrusion—is a continuous process for manufacture of composite materials with constant cross-section. The term is a portmanteau word, combining “pull” and “extrusion”. As opposed to extrusion, which pushes the material, pultrusion works by pulling the material.
Resin—is a generic term used to designate the polymer, polymer precursor material, and/or mixture or formulation thereof with various additives or chemically reactive components.
Seismic—pertaining to, of the nature of, or caused by an earthquake or vibration of the earth, whether due to natural or artificial causes.
Thermal Air Gap—Deliberate spacing between the PFRP frame assembly and the exterior architectural concrete cladding to stop the thermal transfer between the two components.
The PFRP frame assembly, 13 of system 100,
The PFRP frame assembly, 13, is versatile and can be used as a load-bearing wall,
Traditional construction materials are subject to failure in the following areas; concrete cracks due to its rigidity; steel can bend, rust or deforms due to external forces from seismic activity, high velocity winds or intrusion of moisture or water; wood can rot, crack or be destroyed by insects. A PFRP wall frame assembly, 13, is resistant to all of the failures known to traditional construction materials. The PFRP frame assembly,
Describing further the versatility of the PFRP wall framing assembly, 13, is the ability to attach a PFRP non-ballistic sheeting, 4, PFRP ballistic sheeting, 4, architectural precast concrete cladding panel, 15, or a tilt-wall concrete panel via a PFRP embed connector 11, 12. The PFRP non-ballistic sheeting, 4, is constructed with standard pultrusion process whereas the PFRP ballistic sheeting, 4, is constructed using multi-directional glass fiber using a pultrusion process. The PFRP ballistic sheeting, 4, is designed to withstand high-velocity projectile impact by delaminating, thus, absorbing the energy associated with a high-velocity projectile. The PFRP sheeting, 4, can be manufactured in varying thicknesses to provide a wide range of high-velocity projectile protection. This feature allows for its use in construction to protect persons or property within the structure from tornado or hurricane winds or small-arm and rifle munitions.
Most traditional PFRP products are made with a fire-retardant chemical contained within the resin. This process uses smoke produced by the fire-retardant chemical to extinguish the flame. This smoke is toxic and does not meet building fire code requirements for occupied structures. The advantage of the present invention is that the PFRP wall sheeting, 4, or PFRP wall assembly, 22 of system 100, does not contain the fire-retardant chemical. The present invention relating to the PFRP wall sheeting, 4, or PFRP wall framing assembly, 13, uses an applied intumescent fire-resistant coating which is applied to the PFRP wall sheeting, 4, or PFRP wall assembly, 22, during the manufacturing process and prior to any finish coat or completion of a traditional interior or exterior finishing system. Under the present invention method, the lack of toxic smoke and inability for the flame to crawl or grow larger, also known as flame spread, permits the present invention to pass building fire code and requirements for occupied structures.
The PFRP wall frame assembly, 13 of system 100, can be shipped to the job site or a precast concrete manufacturing facility and a concrete cladding panel, 15,
The PFRP wall assembly, 13 of system 100, contains a PFRP vertical column, 32, and horizontal PFRP I-beam, 31, or wide flange horizontal beam, 31 of system 700,
The PFRP wall assembly, 22, contains an PFRP column, 32, which connects to a PFRP floor assembly, 25 of
The PFRP floor assembly, 25, can connect to a PFRP pilling, 30, to elevate the structure off of the ground,
The PFRP structural assembly, system 100, consists of an PFRP I-beam, 32, or PFRP wide flange vertical column, 32, and an PFRP I-beam, 31, or PFRP wide flange horizontal beam, 31, which are connected via a PFRP clip angle bracket, 6, and PFRP bolts or traditional bolts. The PFRP I-beam, 32, or PFRP wide flange columns, 32, are connected to an PFRP floor assembly, 25, via a PFRP clip angle bracket, 6, into a concrete foundation, 27, via a traditional concrete anchor or connected to an PFRP floor assembly, 25, using PFRP bolts or traditional bolts. This PFRP frame assembly, system 100, is unique in that it can be used to construct a residential, commercial or mobile structure. In a PFRP mobile configuration the PFRP frame, system 700, can use traditional wheel assemblies to make the structure mobile.
In constructing a PFRP residential, commercial or mobile structure the method begins with system 100. Each structure's foundation will define in what order the PFRP components are assembled. Relating to a PFRP structure using a conventional concrete foundation, 27, the PFRP assembly begins with constructing the PFRP wall assembly, 22. Using the PFRP frame assembly, 13, components connect the PFRP non-ballistic or PFRP ballistic sheeting, 4, to the PFRP frame assembly, 13, using traditional self-drilling screws, 7, 8 or 9, and a flexible epoxy which bonds the PFRP non-ballistic or PFRP ballistic sheeting, 4, to the PFRP frame assembly, 13, creating a one-piece composite wall assembly, 22, which increases the wall panel strength, increases shear wall performance and prevents water or air intrusion. This assembly method would also apply to connecting a PFRP frame assembly, 13, system 200, to an architectural precast concrete cladding or tilt wall exterior wall covering.
When connecting system 100 to system 600, the PFRP pilings, 30, are installed first. The PFRP floor assembly, 25 of system 400, is then connected to the PFRP pilings, 30 of system 600, via the PFRP flange, 29. System 100 is then erected and connected to the PFRP floor assembly, 25 of system 400. In other configurations, the PFRP floor system, 25 of system 400, can contain a PFRP flange, 29, mounted to the outside of the PFRP floor frame, 25, and on each corner. A PFRP piling, 30, can then be inserted into the PFRP flange, 29, allowing the PFRP structure to move freely up and down the PFRP piling, 30. This configuration would be practicable for a floating PFRP structure when applying foam or other buoyant materials within the PFRP floor assembly, 25, to allow the PFRP structure to float on water. The combination of the exterior mounted PFRP flange, 29, sliding freely along the PFRP piling, 30, would allow the floating PFRP structure to naturally adjust its height during tidal changes or changing water volumes/elevations.
When constructing a PFRP mobile structure, the horizontal PFRP I-beam or wide flange beam, 31, System 700, is first connected to the PFRP floor assembly, 25 of system 400. System 100 is then attached to the PFRP floor assembly, 25, and then system 300 is connected to system 100 to complete a complete PFRP mobile structure. A traditional wheel assembly can be mounted to system 700. Additional configurations allow a wheel assembly, or without a wheel assembly, the frame assembly of system 700 to accommodate attachment points on the PFRP horizontal I-beam or wide flange beam, 31, using a traditional heavy-duty “D” ring that will allow the mobile unit to be picked up by a crane or airlifted by a helicopter for transport. This mobile structure is similar in size but not in weight to a conventional “Conex” container or can be constructed without the PFRP walls or PFRP roof to allow for design as an open trailer.
In the above listed roof configuration, the PFRP roof assembly, system 300, attaching to the PFRP wall frame assembly, 13 of system 100 can accommodate a solar system, system 800, by using PFRP solar panel or solar tile,
Assembling the above listed configurations with part numbers 7, 8, 9 and 23, combined with a flexible epoxy, allows the PFRP structure to function as one composite component enabling that component to become impervious to air or water and provides a uniform coefficient of thermal expansion throughout the PFRP component. Assembling all of the components using this method of assembly will allow the complete PFRP structure to become impervious to air or water and provides a uniform coefficient of thermal expansion throughout the entire PFRP structure.
The lightweight advantage and ease of construction for the entire PFRP structure can allow a manufacturing facility to assemble the PFRP components for shipment via truck, rail, ship or aircraft as a modular unit or “Flat Packed” for easy shipment to other locations for final assembly to be a fixed or mobile structure.
The previous description is provided to enable a person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the common principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Furthermore, although elements of the described aspects and/or embodiments may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. Additionally, all or a portion of any aspect and/or embodiment may be utilized with all or a portion of any other aspect and/or embodiment, unless stated otherwise. Thus, the disclosure is not to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63069972 | Aug 2020 | US |
