The invention is about a modular foldable brick winch is only assembled with ropes that enables architectural elements such as stacked walls, arches, corners, doors, windows and wall niches to be constructed at indoor and outdoor conditions that divides, restricts and secures a certain space or area; storing and carrying this brick at a minimum weight, which is both connectable within itself and attachable for constructing architectural elements as a wall building system. This invention is about a stacked wall building system that is based on interlocking and fitting units and a brick unit having a height and volume reaching up to the arithmetical sum of the thickness of the material it is made of, that is self-folding which ensures a personal freedom for customizing the features of an architectural structure, having no size, volume, space and area restrictions, consisting of a single and completely detachable parts.
The invention consists of a foldable brick, which has two large and one narrow chambers inside when the first brick unit is installed, that has been designed and manufactured with optimal lightweight materials, can be interlocked and can be fitted side by side and on top of each other and can be installed without requiring any tools and equipment; front and rear walls of the brick which have been attached with a high strength rope—the visible surfaces of these walls can be optionally coated—and interlocking elements that enables the assembly, fitting and interconnection of the bricks. The foldable brick, can be installed, removed, folded and re-installed over and over again numerous occasions without using and tools and equipment. Thanks to the rope attached internal connection structure, the volume of the chamber comprised inside the foldable brick unit disappears during storage and transportation. This system can be installed without requiring a special skill within, an overall architectural space, this allows individuals to remodel their own spaces, to reconstruct in a different shape and form or for a different function and make additions/extensions. As the same elements can be used again, materials as in conventional methods, do not become nibble and discarded.
Foldable brick, thanks to the improved rope connection system, is quite lightweight and flexible as it is made of very light material; can be folded or be stacked in many different ways. In the making of foldable brick, no connection elements such as metal or plastic-based screws, nails etc. are being used; therefore the materials and techniques used in the manufacturing of this unit are completely recyclable. Foldable brick, being an invention which is completely outside of the traditional approach regarding issues such as storage, storing, transportation, installation, cost, structure, sustainability, maintenance, resistance, hygene sanitary, environmentalism provides a solution that did not exist before.
The invention relates to a fitting locking system which is reciprocally located at least in two places on this foldable brick or in other words on these structure units to enable them to be connected in a way that ensures formal, functional and aesthetic integrity among brick units and to reduce these units to the area, height and volume of the material and/or materials that they are made of, through completely eliminating the area and volume that bricks, concrete blocks or units occupy in the universe along with the air gaps/chambers they contain, by folding in upon itself. This invention describes a general overview presentation of a series of interconnected units and at the same time describes a foldable brick connected with a high strength and completely flexible rope that forms the connection structure of this unit and the structure and fitting interlocking system that enables a three dimensional structure with volume to be reduced to a structure with the minimum size, thickness and volume possible by stacking upon each other and converting into a plate like flat shape that leaves absolutely no space between corresponding walls.
Such easy to assemble and disassemble panel systems with interconnected structures are available in the current techniques; there are different systems to be known as it can be seen in the following patent documents.
In the patent application no: EP0960585 (A2), a kit for the installation of three-dimensional structures is being described. Here, the cubic kit mentioned has connection elements formed with padding elements and intermediate plates. These padding cubes have sockets for connection elements on each corner and base surface along through all corner surfaces. Intermediate plates have locking gripping elements applied with positive force onto each surface, this way two cubes which is to be combined, can be locked to each other. This kit also has panels within the mentioned padding elements and/or grips which have been connected and organized with the same grid pattern like the connection sockets, which have been aligned with padding cubes.
On the other hand, patent application no: GB2323861 (A) is about a wall structure designed for display stands. The wall structure here contains removable panels, cross shaped parts, support legs which are interconnected in a way to correspond to the frame. Vertical legs have front and rear surfaces. Cross pieces are connected in a way to face the surfaces of the adjacent vertical legs along with the panels connected to the front surface. These vertical legs are comprised of a sheet material folded into a pipe shaped structure. Windows pairs are formed on front surfaces; the distance between adjacent windows pairs is equal to the distance desired between adjacent panels. Panels that are connected to the same pair of vertical legs having overlapping areas serve to limit the light leaking between two panels. There are hooks on the corners of these panels designed for the extensions on the windows and for casings. These panels are providing a removable wall system without disturbing other panels.
The patent application no: DE4208193 (A1) is about a demountable construction system designed for structures and items having panel corners shaped with profiled gripping stripes that construct supporting structures. This structure has panel corners inside these profiled units that take form by interlocking each other. Each structural element has two profiled corners that are at least connected to these panels. These inter-connectable profiles can be secured with inner springs or with a self-locking design. Hinge pins are located in the holes prepared inside the structure for doors and shutters. The purpose of this invention is to construct an item/furniture in a simple way without using separate independent connectors.
However, each of above mentioned systems and many other similar structures, items and furniture systems, offers different solutions in terms of functionality and structure to overcome one or several problems regarding the available technique, our invention is on the other hand has a different approach in comparison to the already known systems with its special dismountable foldable brick design.
The main purpose of this invention is to easily reduce/convert a 3 dimensional structure unit to a minimum thickness and volume thanks to its foldable connection design that has flexibility and mobility in a similar fashion to the ligaments holding the human knee joint together. As a result of this conversion, the construction unit only occupies an area equal to the volume of the material or materials that it is made of, without leaving any gaps in between. The previous size of a unit is decreased approximately by 5 times. This design not only ensures convenience and ease for transportation and storage but also savings in material and transportation costs, by offering a low cost, removable and foldable brick that can be installed over and over again.
Another essential purpose of the invention is to enable structures in any form and architectural form, to be built by entirely allowing personal customization freedom for any type of structure without any restrictions and boundaries thanks to the detachable design of the foldable brick.
One purpose of the invention is to enable a sub-structure system that can be easily implemented for different types of furniture or a construction system that forms a new partition/room as an alternative replacing use of plasterboard especially in spaces such as offices, houses as well as building structures such as panels, rooms, cabins, items, furniture etc., constructing architectural elements such as walls, arches, corners, doors, windows, niches etc. at indoor and outdoor conditions by stacking easily foldable modular units upon each other that have been designed with an fitting/interconnection/interlocking system. The aim is to offer a wall building system in which anyone can easily build his/her own space starting from the desired location, disassemble and make extensions without any skills and any re-construction works needed for constructing any customized partition/room with traditional bricks, briquettes or plasterboard. With the system described in the invention, it can be possible to construct customized partitions/rooms/spaces in any size, form/shape, pattern and color.
Another purpose of this invention is to materialize a brick as a unit of the wall building system which is easy to build up, offers effortless and minimum storage and transportation thanks to the mobile but strong internal structure (connection system) that occupies minimum volume without leaving any gaps after being easily, quickly and practically demounted. During the installation of the foldable brick, being the subject of the invention, it can be possible to easily install and also dismantle the units without using any tools or equipment such as screwdriver, hex key and similar other tools.
Foldable brick, is constructed by internally attaching a high strength rope like the ones used in tree houses in some of the primitive tribes of Amazons or like the ones used by ancient Egyptian wood makers —which may be a steel rope—through front and rear walls (just as in the cruciate ligaments of human knee joint) by making a simple sailor's knot similar like sewing them together. This mobile and flexible connection is designed to be folded by getting disassembled countless times and installed and mounted again. When folded, the air chamber inside completely disappears and the foldable brick is reduced to the total volume of the material or materials used for the manufacturing of the foldable brick.
One of the purposes of the foldable brick that has completely dismountable parts is to use corrugated board, which is a simple and cheap but green recyclable material for creating a solution to the sound isolation issue, which is one of the biggest problems of wall systems. Again, with this inner filling unit that is formed by folding in it upon itself in a completely unique fashion, it can be possible both to increase the durability and strength of the wall and to maintain acoustic comfort level by minimizing the sound permeability.
A foldable brick with rope attachments and detachable wall building system developed for the purpose of “folding itself”, can be easily composed a rectangular structure with a three dimensional volume, inner cavernously by three different techniques based on the connecting/fixing principle of the front/back two opposite wall with rope and sash which constitutes the brick.
Among these as seen in the
The formation/combination and interlocking/interconnecting/fitting mechanisms for the foldable brick and wall building system, which have been designed to fulfill these purposes, are shown in the attached figures, these figures are;
Separate numbers are given to each of the parts and technical details shown in the figures and the descriptions to these numbers are given below:
References in
A—Brick body
A2—Half Brick Body
A3—High strength rope
A4—Tongue beam
A5—Corner Tongue Beam
A6—Beam Clamp
A7—Half beam clamp
A8—Base
A9—Base beam clamp
A10—Dowel Joint
A11—Corrugated board padding box
A12—Cap
References in
B1—Brick Body
B2—Pliable string rope
B3—Insulation panel
B4—Tongue beam
B5—Beam clamp
C1—Brick Body
C2—Wire Frame
C3—Tongue Beam
The flexible rope (A3) connection system used in the demountable foldable brick (
Front and rear walls of foldable brick (Al, A2, B1, C1), removable tongue beam (A4, A5, B4, C3) and cap (A12), can be made from any type of durable material that is hard but not brittle including plastic, glass, metal, ceramic, clay and etc, such as solid wood, plywood, laminated chipboard, laminated MDF, hard and strong cardboard, acrylic, PVC foam sheet (DAKOTA FOREX). While the base (A8) can be made of materials such as solid wood, plywood, chipboard, MDF, beam clamp (A6, A7, B5) and base beam clamp (A9) can be made of plastic or metal alongside to those materials. Corrugated board padding box (A11) can be made of corrugated paperboard or also corrugated but plastic based sheets. Insulation plate (B3) can be made from any of these materials; paper box, fiber paper box, paperboard, ribbed cardboard or ribbed plastic plate, EVA, felt and plastic.
The front/rear body of the foldable brick (A1, A2, B1, C1) and tongue beam (A4, A5, B4, C3) can be manufactured in any size based on the need; the value of the lateral side of this surface material, that we call its short edge or its depth and its height should be 1 unit whilst its width should be 2 units (
On the top and bottom edges of the front and rear walls of the mentioned foldable brick (A1, A2) as shown almost in all figures, there are holes opened side by side, such as button holes, being total of 8 pairs on a single brick (A1), total of 4 pairs (A1a) on a half-brick (A2). High strength ropes (A3) passing through these holes allow the front and rear walls of the brick to be attached/mounted to each other. This way, as in the cruciate ligaments in the human knee joint, thanks to the pulling force applied inwardly the parts are prevented and to be stretched from falling apart outwardly. Thus, just, thanks to the inner direction of the applied pulling force is prevented from leaving towards the external side parts. One of those double connection holes (A1a) located on the inner wall surfaces of the brick, is a countersunk connection hole (A1b) and with a very simple sailor's knot, the rope is prevented from coming out of this hole. This countersunk hole, enables the rope knot (A3a) of this knotted end of the rope to be buried without any bulges on the surface. The depth of the slot (A1c) opened between these double holes on the exterior surface of the brick is equal to the thickness of the rope that enables this connection. As shown in all figures, the rope (A3) buried inside this rope slot (1c) is bare and visible from the exterior surface of the brick, like the string on a jacket or shirt button. Besides it allows all types of coating materials, which will be applied onto the exterior surface of the brick to offer aesthetic benefits, to be easily applied/coated.
On the interior surfaces of front and rear wall of the foldable brick body (A1, A2, B1, C1) that are facing each other, that are reciprocal beam grooves (A1d, B1a, C1a) located lengthwise being one on right and left and two in the middle. These grooves allow the tongue beam (A4, B4, C3), which enables the rope (A3) and string rope connection (B2) and externally encircled wire frame (C2) preventing the inward motion of the front and rear wall of the brick body (A1, A2, B1, C1) that is attached together with the mentioned rope connection, by applying force against the force coining from outward direction, to be tightened/fixing/stabilizing exactly until the desired brick depth (
In this direction, the plate thickness of the tongue beam (A4, B4, C3) is enough to be fitted/placed inside the beam clamp insertion slots (A1d, B1a, C1a) on the front and rear wall of the brick, therefore there is no need to open additional grooves. Beam clamp insertion slot (A4a, B4a, C3a located on the bottom edge of tongue beam (A4, B4, C3) and beam clamp insertion slot and wiring groove (A4b) located on the upper edge of the tongue beam (A4, B4, C3) enable the beam clamp (A6, B5) to be locked in (
The third function of the tongue beam (A4, B4, C3) can be described as this, while the bricks are being stacked upon each other in the wall building system, the beam grooves (A1d) located on the interior surfaces of the front and rear brick bodies (A1, A2, B1, C1) that are aligned/lined with each other on the top and bottom, thrill a groove tray line by overlapping upon each other lengthwise from top to bottom through the foldable brick stack. This way foldable bricks are locked onto each other at the bottom and end by sliding these tongues vertically within this formed line. In this way, each upper brick, combined with two adjacent bottom bricks, lock/connect the entire system one by one without requiring any binding, connector agents such as mortar, adherents, screws or nails etc. for wall building system. The circular hole (A4c) located in the center of these tongues enables the user/builder to insert his/her finger and easily grab the tongues especially during mounting/demounting process.
As mentioned above and demonstrated schematically in
In other words, the bottom half of the beam clamp locks the bottom bricks, the upper half of the beam clamp locks the top bricks to each other on tongue beams. In this way the beam clamp greatly increases the durability and strength exponent-static property-of the system, which is built by going across the each row of the foldable brick and wall building system lengthwise, vertical to the foldable brick bodies (A1, A2, B1, C1) to the brick body (1, 2) on a horizontal plane (
Another component of this invention is the padding box (A11), which offers huge benefits but is not necessarily requisite item; that is made of corrugated cardboard or corrugated plastic sheets and built with an entirely unique folding method. This padding box, as seen in
The folding principle of the foldable brick is as this;
As shown in
Dowel joint (A10) and base beam clamp is locked with each other through the corresponding holes (A8a) located on the base (A8) placed onto the ground. (
The main approach at the principle of interior stretched folding (Group B figures) is both simplifying the production and simplifying the folding procedures thus increasing users friendly property. In this process, pliable string rope (B2) is mounted by a mean such as staple or screw to the internal surface of brick body. (
Second, the angulation problem of unit brick unit is solved by this crosslinking technique without beam clamp (B5). The crosslinking technique, for example, is ensured benefits to the fair users for setup time. Because, if requested, beam clamp (B5) is not used as shown
Insulation panel (B3) a string rope connection kit totally is placing at the related places on the internal surfaces of the brick body (B1) and they are fixed from the gaps at the string rope insertion hole (B3a) (that is reference point at the same time) by staple or screw. The function of insulation panel (B3) prevents light leakage at the connection point of overlapping sides of brick body during the connection, providing directly both sound and heat insulation without using any supporting material, according to kind of material used on the expectations of the user. After mounting the pliable string rope mechanism (B2) with insulation panel, the unit brick unit is ready to set up and as shown in
The same steps are followed for the second unit to be placed on the right or on the left side of it. Onto those two foldable brick units placed adjacently on both sides, the beam clamp (A6, B6) is locked/connected by fitting the corresponding tongue beams (A4, B4) vertically into the beam clamp insertion slot (A4b, B4b), which is located on the upper edge, by passing through the center lines of both of these two brick bodies (A1, B1), while one being the starting point, other being the ending point (if the brick on the side is a half brick then from the outer line) (
A wall corner is built by combining two foldable brick modules at a vertical angle without leaving any space at the overlapping corners. As shown in
The final stage is the aesthetic stage, if desired, includes the mounting of the caps (A12). This procedure is also relatively simple; to ensure aesthetic integrity, applied by fitting the caps onto the outer edge of the exposed foldable brick body (A1, 2) with a double-sided tape if the wall system is to be removed/dismounted again in a short time or with an adhesive compatible with the corresponding material if it is to be permanent by fitting the caps onto the outer surfaces of the tongue (5/4) and onto the corresponding cavity from inside to outside. (
The second connection technique of the brick principle, which is a subject for the invention, are shown in the Group C figures. Unlike the other interior connecting/stretching principles, this technique is based on exterior encirclement.
The most advantageous part of this technique is; every single parts of the foldable brick unit's can be totally demounted. Thus, the workmanship cost in production is minimized and it is useful for the users that maintenance or renewal procedures are applied to the relevant parts.
So, there is an opportunity for the ultimate user to change/renew only the related part, not the whole part, of the default foldable brick unit.
Furthermore, in this technique, the volume that the foldable brick system covers, is equal to the 8/1 volume of the setup. In this technique, (Group C figures) there is not any connection (fixation) before setup. Previous fitting-interlocking principle of the foldable bricks and wall building system, which is subject to invention, is entirely same. Herein there is not just the principle of folding but folding by separating to its parts and preserving principle.
A channel, is opened thoroughly to the brick body (C1) including outside surfaces, except inner surface, and that channel is as the thickness and depth of the rope or wire frame (C2) that makes the related encircling/enfolding to the outside surface of the brick body (C1) at the horizontal axis. The wire frame (C2) whose two ends are fixed, connected, combined or the two ends are combined inextricably by welding, is placed to the related wire frame groove (channel) (C1b) by putting on to the front and back brick body upwardly or downwardly (
Thus, wire frame (C2) is placed entirely with four directions to the wire frame grooves (C1b) at the external surface of brick body (C1). (
The folding techniques such as the subject of the invention, tongue beams (C3), as in the other the folding techniques which are the subject of the invention, are assembled vertically from top to bottom by putting on the beam groove (C1a) (
The merging, fitting-interlocking of the foldable bricks which are subject to invention is based on laying together front-back wall foldable bricks bodies and interlocking by placing on related places these upper foldable brick units which are placed/accumulated on these foldable bricks and herein, front-back wall foldable bricks bodies that are fixed with non-stable and rigid rope or tie wire but which can move independently.
Connection/locking, of the foldable bricks, which is the subject this invention, is based on placing the front and rear walls of brick bodies side by side, which are exactly identical to each other and remain independent from each other through a rope connection and locking the upper foldable brick bodies into corresponding slots which are placed/stacked on top of these foldable brick units. In other words, one foldable brick is stacked/placed on top on top of the two bottom foldable bricks in a way to center the full merging axis of these two. Each box shaped foldable brick progressing on the right and left of these foldable bricks, is locked with another foldable brick body on the side and on the top according to the installation principle described above. This way, an architectural wall building system which is fully demountable, consisting of entirely removable parts with a single foldable brick (i.e., a foldable structural unit) that is easy to assemble and disassemble without the use of appropriate equipment, screwdriver, hex key and a similar tools is obtained.
The foldable brick, which is the subject of this invention, can also be used for various furniture products such as tables, coffee tables, desks, bars to function as a base foot; and thanks to its foldable design and the flexible inner connection principle and/or external encircling principle that allows any form, different types of furniture can be produced as coffee tables, chairs, sofas, shelves, table, bed, bunk etc. and surfaces such as fabric, leather, plastic or decorative plates can be used.
The above mentioned preferred applications and the accompanying drawings have been added provide a better understanding of the invention, are not intended to limit the protection scope of the invention. In accordance with the information disclosed with the invention, the changes will be made on the preferred applications and accompanying drawings, should be considered within the scope of protection of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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a 2013 14327 | Dec 2013 | TR | national |
a 2014 04053 | Apr 2014 | TR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/TR2014/000486 | 12/5/2014 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2015/084284 | 6/11/2015 | WO | A |
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