Patent Application
20230002979
The present application claims priority from Australian provisional patent application no. 2020900693 filed 6 Mar. 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates generally to a paving device for the formation of ground structures, and in particular, to a paving device for creating a paved surface which is water permeable, safe and of sufficient strength to support a significant load.
With the increase in world population and as the effects of global warming become more understood, the ability of communities to manage water, especially waste or run-off water, is becoming especially important. As residential and public spaces become more densely populated, paved walkways and roads for handling traffic are replacing many grassed areas and ground spaces. Thus, especially in new residential developments where large houses are being built on small blocks in close proximity to other houses, rain water is more likely to be captured in drains or to flow into gutters or other dedicated water drainage systems than to be captured in the ground surface and be retained in the soil.
Such water drainage systems remove the water from the site into dedicated stormwater collection systems which ultimately deliver the rainwater back into the neighbouring rivers or oceans. As a result, the groundwater or water table in the region becomes diminished, minimising the amount of water present in the ground to support plants and trees. In many new developments, especially those in drought areas or in areas where rain water is largely collected and removed from the site, the soil structure is becoming increasingly dry and is beginning to contract and subside. Such a phenomena will result in foundation slabs for houses and other buildings becoming stressed and fracturing, compromising the integrity of such buildings and requiring significant costs and expertise to resolve. Thus, there is a social and an environmental benefit in allowing rainwater to be captured in the ground so as to infiltrate into the water table or, alternatively, to be harvested for re-use in irrigation, rather than merely removing it from the site.
A variety of water permeable paving systems have been proposed to address this problem and to facilitate capture and release of water into the underlying ground soil. However, most such paving systems rely upon a gap between adjacent paving bricks of the paved surface to act as a water permeable medium, through which water is able to flow to the underlying ground soil. In such arrangements, aggregate material is typically used to fill a space between adjacent paving bricks such that water passing over the paving bricks will flow into the spaces there between and be absorbed into the ground surface or water collection system below the paving.
Whilst such a system is able to provide a means for capturing water for release to the underlying ground surface, the amount of water captured largely relies upon the size of the spacing between pavers, with larger spacing sizes capturing the most water. Therefore, the paving system must have pavers separated by aggregate which can significantly limit the aesthetic appeal and safety of the walking surface of such paving. Most importantly, the gaps or joints between the paving bricks invariably become clogged with debris within a short time, thereby eliminating or substantially compromising the permeability. As each paver is not, in itself, pervious, permeability can only be restored by regularly cleaning the installation using commercial-grade vacuuming equipment. The maintenance regime is labour intensive and costly and often neglected.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a paving system whereby the individual pavers are configured to be permeable to water such that the paving can form, not only a path for traffic and pedestrians, but also capture water for release into a harvesting system or underlying ground surface.
The above references to and descriptions of prior proposals or products are not intended to be, and are not to be construed as, statements or admissions of common general knowledge in the art. In particular, the above prior art discussion does not relate to what is commonly or well known by the person skilled in the art, but assists in the understanding of the inventive step of the present invention of which the identification of pertinent prior art proposals is but one part.
The invention according to one or more aspects is as defined in the independent claims. Some optional and/or preferred features of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.
Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention there is provided a paving member comprising:
In one embodiment, the body may have a water permeability rate of at last 300 mm per hour.
The body may be configured to have a shape that facilitates interlocking with other paving members.
The aggregate may comprise crushed natural stone. The natural stone may be marble, basalt, granite or any other similar stone material marble. The aggregate may vary in sizes having diameters of between 1 mm-7 mm.
In one embodiment, the body may be configured such that the size of the aggregate is consistent therethrough. In another embodiment, the body may be configured such that the size of the aggregate adjacent the base is larger than the size of the aggregate adjacent the surface.
Accordingly, in a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method of manufacturing a water permeable paver comprising
In one embodiment of the second aspect of the invention, the step of mixing the aggregate may comprise making a first mixture of aggregate having a small diameter size and a second mixture of aggregate having a larger diameter size. The first mixture may have an aggregate of the size of between 1-2 mm in diameter. The second mixture may have an aggregate of between 2-7 mm in diameter. Each of the first mixture and the second mixture may be formed into a plastic concrete state through the introduction of water into the mixture.
The step of pouring the mixture of aggregate and concrete in the plastic concrete state into the mould may comprises initially pouring a base layer of mixture in the plastic concrete state into the mould to define a base layer of the paver and secondly pouring a surface layer of mixture in the plastic concrete state into the mould to define a surface layer of the paver. In one embodiment, the base layer may comprises the first mixture of material and the surface layer may comprise. the second mixture of material with a colouring agent added.
The mould may be cured for between 24-48 hours to form said paver.
The invention may be better understood from the following non-limiting description of preferred embodiments, in which:
Preferred features of the present invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it is to be understood that the features illustrated in and described with reference to the drawings are not to be construed as limiting on the scope of the invention.
The present invention will be described below in relation to its application as a paver for use in paving heavy traffic areas, such as car parks and driveways, as well as industrial areas and roadways. The present invention also has application to walkways, footpaths and the like, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. However, it will be appreciated that the paver of the present invention could be used in a variety of different applications still fall within the scope of the present invention.
Referring to
One embodiment depicting a manner in which the pavers 10 may be installed for use is shown in
The bedding layer 36 may then be levelled to form a base upon which the pavers 10 may be supported. As is shown, the pavers 10 are positioned in close proximity to each other with a small gap 37 formed therebetween. The gap 37 may be at least partially filled with sand to stabilise any movement between pavers 10.
In such a configuration as depicted in
The paver 10 is porous and is formed from a concrete and aggregate mixture. The aggregate may be a natural stone such as basalt, granite, or marble. In one embodiment, the aggregate is crushed marble which is mixed with cement at a ratio of 5:1. The crushed marble typically comprises varying sizes of marble stone varying from pieces having a diameter of between 1 mm-7 mm. In order to provide a variety of aesthetic options, a coloured oxide may also be added to the surface level part of the mixture as desired. Water is used to create the appropriate consistency of mix to form the paver 10.
A method 40 for forming the paver 10 is shown in
The manufacturing process 40 can be varied to create pavers 10 with different properties. In a first embodiment, the aggregate and the cement may be mixed to provide an even consistency of aggregate throughout the paver 10. To pour the moulds, this is typically done in a two-part process whereby a base layer is initially poured into the mould, followed by the surface layer having a depth of between 5-7 mm and which contains a colouring agent. In this embodiment, whilst the surface layer of the finished paver may have a different colour than the rest of the paver, all of the aggregate size is substantially the same throughout the paver, namely between 1-2 mm in diameter. This process produces a paver 10 having a consistent finish with all aggregate substantially the same size, as is depicted in
In another form, the paver 10 may be also formed from a two-part process whereby the surface layer 12 and the base layer 14 have different aggregate sizes. In one example of this process, the base layer has a coarser aggregate than the surface layer. In this regard, in one embodiment the base layer 14 may have aggregate of between 2-7 mm in diameter, preferably of between 2-3 mm in diameter, whilst the surface layer comprises aggregate of 1-2 mm in diameter and also contains the colouring agent. As a result, the aggregate is mixed to contain the different proportions and is then added to the mould at different times to create the different layered effect. A paver 10 formed from the two-part process is depicted in
An alternative embodiment of a paver 20 in accordance with the present invention is depicted in
Due to the manner in which the paver 10, 20 is formed, it has sufficient porosity so as to be water permeable such that water that is contact on the surface of the paver 10, 20 will permeate through the body of the paver 10, 20 and into the ground surface below, as is depicted in
The paver 10, 20 has a minimum permeability rate of 300 mm per hour and as the paver 10, 20 absorbs water it's body does not change shape. Thus, the entire surface area of the paver 10, 20 is able to collect water and retain the water as it passes through the paver 10, 20 to be absorbed into the underlying ground surface. This enables the surface 12, 22 of the paver 10, 20 to be configured to have a high resistance to abrasion to ensure durability, and still be permeable to water. Without the need for any additional treatment, the surface 12, 22 of the paver will also be slip resistant to the required standards, without compromising its' ability to be permeable to water. Similarly, the paver 10, 20 is formed in such a manner that it has a breaking load strength suitable to support industrial and commercial traffic loads.
The pavers 10, 20 may be manufacture to a variety of sizes, as required by the end user. For the interlocking paver 10, the paver may have a length of 225 mm and a width of 112 mm, and a thickness of 60 mm. For the rectangular paver 20, the paver may have a length of around 200 mm and a width of 100 mm with a thickness of around 60 mm. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the dimensions of the paver 10, 20 may vary, together with the thickness to suit a variety of different types of applications.
It will be appreciated that the paver of the present invention offers a variety of benefits that has not been achievable with conventional permeable paving systems that rely upon the spacing between pavers to capture the water. By having the entire surface of the paver acting as a water permeable surface, water will not tend to flow across the pavers of the present invention, but rather be consumed by the pavers, thereby reducing the flow of water collecting in drains and other conventional rainwater collection systems. This then reduces the onset of flash flooding in such regions, as the pavers themselves will hold/retain water that would have otherwise flowed into the drains.
The pavers of the present invention can also be installed about trees/plants in footpaths and roadways so as to collect water and release the water to the underlying ground surface adjacent the tree/plant root system. This ensures that as rainfall or water provided to the tree/plant will not flow away from the plant but will be retained and released to the plant, increasing the health of the tree/plant and reducing the need to install root watering systems and other such devices, which generally require dedicated watering.
Throughout the specification and claims the word “comprise” and its derivatives are intended to have an inclusive rather than exclusive meaning unless the contrary is expressly stated or the context requires otherwise. That is, the word “comprise” and its derivatives will be taken to indicate the inclusion of not only the listed components, steps or features that it directly references, but also other components, steps or features not specifically listed, unless the contrary is expressly stated or the context requires otherwise.
Orientational terms used in the specification and claims such as vertical, horizontal, top, bottom, upper and lower are to be interpreted as relational and are based on the premise that the component, item, article, apparatus, device or instrument will usually be considered in a particular orientation, typically with the paver uppermost.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations may be made to the methods of the invention described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020900693 | Mar 2020 | AU | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/AU2020/000055 | Jun 2020 | US |
| Child | 17902950 | US |
