Patent Application
20070022696
Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a), this application claims the benefit of earlier filing date and right of priority to Korean Application No. 2005-69402, filed on Jul. 29, 2005, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a high-strength panel for use as flooring in a clean facility, such as a semiconductor clean room.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, a clean room in which a variety of special experimental and production equipment are mounted, utilizes a double flooring system. Examples of such clean rooms include a production room for highly integrated circuits such as semiconductors and a genetic engineering laboratory. The double flooring system is constructed with a predetermined height in order to uniformly distribute the load of the variety of special equipment while effectively absorbing and removing exterior dust particles, fine particulates, and the like to thereby prevent the generation of cracks or depressions in the floor even when the load is concentrated on a specific location of the double flooring system.
When the double flooring system is used at certain locations where permeation of cold air into the flooring system, or overheating of the flooring system caused by heat produced from special machinery must be prevented, or at places requiring an adjustment in the temperature and humidity of the room and an absorption and removal of dust particles, fine particulates and the like, the double flooring system may include a porous panel possessing a number of fine pores. An underside of the porous panel forms a floor having a supporting structure. Due to a variety of exhaust devices and cable equipment being mounted underneath the floor, the floor, being the bottom surface of a semiconductor clean room, must be spaced apart from the ground by a certain constant height. Considering the size of the exhaust devices and cable equipment and other various conditions, the installation height of the floor must have variability.
The conventional bottom panel 2 further comprises a main reinforcing rib 206, which serves as a partition between the lattice sections 204. As shown in
The conventional bottom panel having the above described configuration, however, is problematic because the bottom panel is easily warped or damaged by shock or vibration when a variety of heavy equipment is directly disposed on an upper surface of the bottom panel.
Specifically, if the bottom panel is exposed to a vertical load transmitted from the heavy equipment to the upper surface thereof, and an eccentric load when the equipment is gathered at a specific location on the panel, the vertical and eccentric loads tend to be concentrated on the circular recesses 208, the circular recess connecting bars 210 and the octagonal recesses 212 between the respective adjacent circular recesses 208.
Because each lattice section 204, defined by the main reinforcing rib 206, has relatively large vertical and horizontal lengths and the plurality of circular recesses 208 is distributed in the lattice section 204, if the vertical load and lateral eccentric load are transmitted to the center of the lattice section 204, the circular recesses 208 and the octagonal recesses 212, located at the center of the lattice section 204, will be incapable of withstanding such load, thus causing the generation of damage and cracks.
The present invention is directed to a high-strength panel for use as flooring in a clean facility, such as a semiconductor clean room.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention is embodied in a high-strength panel comprising rim ribs formed at respective rim portions of the panel and each provided with a tapered surface to have a downwardly increasing thickness, a main reinforcing rib serving as a partition to divide an interior space defined by the rim portions into a plurality of square lattice sections, a plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs arranged in a respective one of the square lattice sections to divide the square lattice section into 4 rows and 4 columns, i.e. into sixteen sub-sections, and a plurality of circular recesses formed at a bottom layer of each sub-section defined by the auxiliary reinforcing ribs, whereby the panel achieves an enhancement in supporting force resistant to vertical load and eccentric load applied thereto.
Preferably, the rim portions are centrally formed with a predetermined number of rim lattice sections, and each rim lattice section is divided into four sub-sections by the auxiliary reinforcing ribs. The circular recesses, formed at a lower surface of the sub-section defined by the auxiliary reinforcing ribs, are surrounded by circular ribs, respectively.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a high-strength panel for enhancing a supporting force for resisting a vertical load and an eccentric load applied thereto comprises a plurality of square lattice sections formed by a plurality of main reinforcing ribs intersecting one another, a plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs formed in each of the plurality of square lattice sections, wherein the plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs are arranged to divide each square lattice section into sub-sections, and a plurality of circular ribs formed in each sub-section, wherein each circular rib has a circular recess. Preferably, the high-strength panel further comprises rim ribs formed at edges of the high-strength panel.
In one aspect of the present invention, a height of the plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs is one-half a height of the plurality of main reinforcing ribs. Alternatively, a height of the plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs is one-half to one-third a height of the plurality of main reinforcing ribs.
Preferably, the plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs divides each square lattice section into sixteen sub-sections of four rows and four columns. Preferably, the circular recesses are formed in a 2×2 array in each sub-section, diagonally aligned in each sub-section, and arranged in each sub-section to define a diamond-shaped supporting recess in the center of the sub-section. A diagonal length of the diamond-shaped recess is shorter than a diameter of the circular recess.
In another aspect of the present invention, the rim ribs are respectively formed at rim portions of the high-strength panel. Moreover, the rim ribs comprise a tapered surface having a downwardly increasing thickness. Preferably, the rim portions are formed with a predetermined number of rim lattice sections, wherein each rim lattice section is divided into four sub-sections by the auxiliary reinforcing ribs.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a high-strength panel for enhancing a supporting force for resisting a vertical load and an eccentric load applied thereto comprises a plurality of square lattice sections formed by a plurality of main reinforcing ribs intersecting one another, a plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs formed in each of the plurality of square lattice sections, wherein the plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs are arranged to divide each square lattice section into sub-sections, a plurality of circular recesses formed in a 2×2 array in each sub-section, and rim ribs respectively formed at rim portions of the high-strength panel.
Preferably, the circular recesses are diagonally aligned in each sub-section and are arranged in each sub-section to define a diamond-shaped supporting recess in the center of the sub-section. Preferably, the rim ribs comprise a tapered surface having a downwardly increasing thickness.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. Features, elements, and aspects of the invention that are referenced by the same numerals in different figures represent the same, equivalent, or similar features, elements, or aspects in accordance with one or more embodiments.
The present invention relates to a high-strength panel for enhancing a supporting force for resisting a vertical load and an eccentric load applied thereto.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, rim ribs 316, which form rim portions 302 of a high-strength panel 30 (as shown in
Furthermore, the rim ribs 316 of the rim portions 302, which support four corners of the panel 30, are reinforced in consideration of a higher height of the ribs. Accordingly, resistance against initial deformation is increased. Moreover, because of a thicker thickness of the ribs, critical strength to sustain a breaking load is enhanced. Also, the presence of the tapered surface allows the rim ribs 316 to achieve a uniform initial deformation value and breaking strength at any location thereof.
In one aspect of the present invention, a plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs 307 as shown in
Preferably, each sub-section, defined by the auxiliary reinforcing ribs 307, is formed at a lower surface thereof with circular recesses 308 in a 2×2 array. The circular recesses 308 are diagonally aligned to minimize the area of a recess defined therebetween. Also, a circular rib 314 surrounds each circular recess 308, as shown in
Therefore, by virtue of the rim ribs 316 and the auxiliary reinforcing ribs 307 inside the main reinforcing rib 306, the panel 30 of the present invention achieves an enhanced supporting force resistant to the vertical and eccentric loads and prevents a degradation of the supporting force at a specific location thereof.
Referring to
As shown in
Such a height of the auxiliary reinforcing ribs 307 is determined in consideration of the material costs of the entire panel as well as a panel supporting force effective to resist the vertical and eccentric loads. Thus, an excessively high height of the auxiliary reinforcing ribs 307 beyond the above range is economically undesirable because it results in an increase in the price of products.
Meanwhile, with respect to the circular recesses 308 in accordance with the present invention, the thicker the thickness of the circular rib 314 that encloses a respective one of the circular recesses 308, the supporting force resistant to the vertical and eccentric loads is increased.
As shown in
In the present invention, the rim portions 302 of the supporting panel 30 are centrally formed with a predetermined number of rim lattice sections 303, as shown in
As is apparent from the above description, the high-strength panel of the present invention is configured such that rim ribs are formed along the rim of the panel and a plurality of auxiliary reinforcing ribs are arranged in a respective one of lattice sections defined by a main reinforcing rib so as to provide the entirety of the panel with a supporting force for effectively increasing the strength of the panel resistant to a concentrated load. Further, according to the present invention, since a plurality of circular recesses is formed at a lower surface of the panel and is surrounded by circular ribs, respectively, it is possible to effectively support vertical and eccentric loads applied to the entirety of the panel while preventing the downwardly applied load from being concentrated at a specific location of the panel by distributing the load throughout the panel.
Although the bottom supporting panel according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications of the present invention, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-69402 | Jul 2005 | KR | national |
