PROCESS FOR CONSTRUCTING DRY-MOUNTED WALLS

Abstract

A process is described for constructing walls. A moving wall is constructed in the process that is able to move, hindering earthquakes and major thrusts. The process eliminates the use of binders and locking joints and includes positioning elements using diamond configurations and grooves and pins which, when in place, never block the elements but, in case of thrusts, leave them free to move in alignment with axes of the wall.

Description

BACKGROUND

The benefits of the dry-mounted self-standing walls assembled in a diamond configuration, that is the inclination at 45° of the internal faces of the elements from the horizontal plane, have already been disclosed by previous patents, mainly U.S. Pat. No. 3,238,680 to Blair and U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,506 to Henderson, which illustrate in detail various benefits and advantages, as well as the way to implement it in the field. These patents have the main aim of facilitating and standardizing the processes of construction and reducing their related problems. The solutions disclosed by these patents do not tackle directly the possibility of optimizing the resistance of their products to earthquakes that could compromise their utilization. Actually, they provide indirectly to this problem the standard solution of blocking the elements once in place by grouting the elements, such as described in the Blair Patent, or by creating male and female joints shaped in order to completely block any movement once constructed in place, as described in the Henderson Patent. Furthermore, the complexity of all previous solutions make their industrial production expensive and jeopardize their diffusion.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to the field of construction and masonry together with the field of construction toys, but not the only ones. From these fields, terminology and examples are taken, with an explanatory and non-restrictive aim.

The main objective of this invention is the creation of a kit for the construction of dry-mounted walls having an innovative modality of resistance to earthquakes.

Another innovative characteristic of this invention is the form of the modular element, which allows the easy and cheap creation of any single piece, making industrially profitable its production.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, with emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Further characteristics, features, and benefits of the embodiments described herein will become evident after the clarification of the detailed illustration of figures.

FIGS. 1-3 are perspective views of a modular element having grooves running along an entirety of the upper faces thereof

FIGS. 4-6 are perspective views of the related finishing elements to be used for the basement (FIG. 4), for finishing lateral edges (FIG. 5), or the top (FIG. 6), obtained by splitting the elements.

FIGS. 7-8 are perspective views of a modular element having grooves running partially along the upper faces.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the beginning of the construction of the wall starting from the lateral pillar and the finishing elements.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a pillar having four faces with vertical grooves as female joints.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the beginning of the construction of the wall starting from the lateral pillar with the finishing elements and a first row of modular elements in place.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure relates to a process for constructing walls, where the traditional concept of self-supporting wall being a solid and compact structure is abandoned.

We get this through the elimination of both the binders and the locking joints, the positioning of the elements using the diamond configuration, and the creation into the elements of a system of grooves and pins which, when in place, do not block the elements, but keep them free to move, for instance, in the case of thrusts or quakes, always aligned with the axis of the wall, along the system of transversal planes created by the surrounding elements with the diamond configuration.

This transversal planes transform any sort of thrust into an upwards transversal thrust, always hampered by the force of gravity and the weight of the structure. At the end of the stresses, the force of gravity will reposition each element in its original position, at the center of the wedge created by the underlying elements, using the same transversal planes.

The act of repositioning the elements along the transversal planes back to their original position utilizing the force of gravity is part of the improvement described herein and it is not possible on horizontal planes and if elements are locked.

In addition to creating an extremely ergonomic basic element, functional to the purpose and industrially reproducible, various benefits of this process of drywall construction is found in the identification, definition, and use of four conditions, all desirable and sufficient to create what we could call a “moving wall,” or a wall that “must” be able to move to hinder the seismic shakes and the major thrusts in a way that is innovative in the process of building vertical walls.

These four conditions are:

1) the shape of the elements and their correct positioning,

2) the shape of the grooves and pins that, while avoiding the locking joints, maintain their function of guide,

3) the diamond configuration of the elements, which allows the creation of wedges and transverse planes and the consequent absence of horizontal planes, which are identified as a major problem to be avoided in this construction technique, and

4) the dry construction, free of binders and free of locking joints, which prevents the solid welding of the elements once in place, keeping them in a static equilibrium.

The result of this invention is a dry-mounted wall, assembled in a diamond configuration composed of modular elements, their related completion elements and the containment bars and pillars.

The modular element is a six faces parallelepiped having a squared or rhomboid base. The height of the parallelepiped, when positioned, will be the thickness of the wall and its basis will constitute the two facades of the wall. In the diamond configuration, the two diagonals of its basis are disposed vertically and horizontally. When in its final position, the element has two external parallel faces placed vertically, two internal faces laying upwards and two internal faces laying downwards. Into two contiguous internal faces, two pins are inserted per each face, disposed at the same height and at the same distance from their closest external face, symmetrically (see, e.g., FIGS. 1, 2, and 7).

The two opposite contiguous internal faces have two grooves each, laying symmetrically in correspondence of the pins which are on the opposite faces (see FIGS. 1, 3, 7, and 8) from the edge in common between the two faces, these grooves run along the faces in parallel with the external face of the element, for its entire length (FIGS. 1 and 3) or just to the height of their matching pins (FIGS. 7 and 8). These grooves will always be slightly wider than the thickness of the forecasted pins, and slightly deeper than their height in order to not block or stress or press or strain anyhow the pins when the elements are assembled in their final position of static equilibrium. The force of gravity and the friction between the elements in the diamond configuration will grant the stability of the wall. The pins, together with the friction between the opposite faces, will hinder the thrusts avoiding the misalignment of the wall along the axis of the facade. When assembling the elements, both faces holding pins have to face upwards or both downwards and in the same way for all the elements of that wall. For technical reasons the number of pins, their shapes, materials and/or dimensions may vary, provided that the corresponding grooves are matching the selected pins.

These characteristics make the production of the elements extremely cheap. The initial form to be created is a plain six faces block, into which you just have to carve the grooves and to insert the pins. With many materials grooves may be already forecasted when preparing the mold and, for materials such as concrete or conglomerates, pins may be replaced by metal bars inserted into the mold, having one extremity remaining external to form the pin and the internal part utilized to reinforce the concrete. When using materials such as wood, pins allow to reduce wastage due to the carving and increase the resistance of the male joint in front of thrusts and stresses; for wood, so much as for many other materials, a pin inserted in an element, even if the two of them are composed of different materials, provides a much higher endurance in front of thrusts and stresses than a pin carved from the same piece. The specific materials utilized for pins and for elements will determine dimensions, profile, shape, height, and thickness of the pins.

In an example, the modular element is a square basis block with dimensions 70×70×100 mm (millimeters), excluding pins. Its volume is 490 cc (cubic centimeters), excluding the variations due to pins and grooves. The four internal faces measure 70×100 mm and 100 mm is at the same time the length of the basis of the internal faces, the length of the vertical section and the thickness of the element when in its correct position. The two external faces measure 70×70 mm, and their diagonals both are 70L/2, that is 98.9 mm, which can be considered as 100, because of the tolerances of materials. Therefore, vertical and horizontal sections in place can be considered as 100×100 mm. The volume of almost half a cubic decimeter and the 100×100 mm section make easy many evaluations and rough calculations also for unskilled labor. Due to the diamond configuration, any layer of elements will raise the wall by 50 mm and its 100 mm thickness can be increased by 50 mm a time by placing aside entire elements or halves of them, alternately. The dry construction technique makes all these measures compatible with those of the constructions requiring mortars or binders, so allowing the use of all the finishing, the tools, and the accessories already in use in the construction sector.

The squared basis, the element dimensions and the proportions between its parts may be varied in case of technical or aesthetic needs.

Grooves are 10 mm large and their depth is 20 mm; any of them is 20 mm distant from its closest external face and 40 mm distant from the other groove. The external part of pins is 8 mm thick and 19 mm high. Apart from minimizing the production costs, the form of these elements, the shape of their joints, and the diamond configuration allow an innovative reaction of the structure to earthquakes.

In a compact construction quakes release their energies over the weakest points of the structure. In this kit of construction, the wall does not hinder the shake as a compact ensemble. On the contrary, any single element remains free to move; the enormous earthquake forces are parceled in vectors aligned to the form and the positioning of the elements and they discharge their forces on any single element, causing their movement. The dry building technique allows the pieces movement, and the specific play created by pins and grooves forces elements to slide like cars over their rails, uniquely in a direction aligned to the axis of the facade and transversal to the ground due to the diamond composition, while the two parallel grooves minimize the possibility of swinging and the risk of misalignment of the single elements, which are forced to slide and climb along the planes created by the contiguous elements, transforming all the strains into transversal and ascensional thrusts always hindered by the force of gravity that, at the end of the quakes, will reposition any single element at the center of its wedge in the diamond composition, bringing back the entire structure in the original position of static equilibrium.

The downwards positioning of pins and the upwards positioning of grooves contribute to lower the barycenter of the element and help its balance during movements. The weight of the structure, the undulatory and discontinuous nature of the shakes and the continuous detachments of any single element from at least one of the contiguous ones, will tend to parcel and hinder constantly the effects of the thrusts and the wall will react to earthquakes in a way which is much more similar to the reaction of gravel terrains than the reaction of the compact ones, dispersing the forces instead of discharging them against the weakest points.

Apart from the earthquakes, in which forces and thrusts are exceptional, the wall will maintain all the characteristics of static equilibrium and stability given by the dry-mounted building with diamond configuration already illustrated in the previous patents.

Finishing elements: being the modular elements set in a diamond configuration, finishing elements are junction elements connecting them to the basement (FIG. 4), to lateral pillars (FIG. 5) and with the top of the wall or the ceiling (FIG. 6); they are also used to create doors, windows or technical holes for cabling or plumbing; they are obtained by dividing the modular element along one or more of its axes; their use is of immediate understanding (FIGS. 9, 10, and 11). The section in two halves along the plane parallel to the external face results in two symmetrical pieces that can be used to enlarge the thickness of the walls by multiples of 50 mm. These finishing elements may have additional pins along the faces obtained by the splitting, allowing the anchoring to the facing elements (FIG. 5), or allowing to satisfy technical needs (FIGS. 9-11).

Containment elements: they are polygonal pillars into which other elements can be anchored or leant. Different from the rest of the construction, they can be fastened to the ground or to the basement. One or more lateral faces have male or female joints matching those of the elements used. In the case of grooves, they will run vertically and they are intended to transform the transversal thrusts into vertical ones allowing the finishing elements to make a vertical sliding movement which will lift the element, avoiding the possibility of being crashed by other elements, uplifting its contiguous elements upwards and so discharging its lateral thrusts. As closing elements, U-shaped bars can be used, having joints or not. These bars have been already illustrated and they are part of the state of the art.

Many variants of the modular elements can be forecasted, such as two different elements, one with all male joints and one with all female joints, to be laid alternately, or having other variants with more than two different elements having different shapes, creating different configuration with the same sort of joints, grooves and pins and without horizontal planes, always allowing any element to move, remaining within the perimeter of the invention.

Dimensions, colors, the sort of material utilized, the fact of being internally empty or compact or having any sort of holes, cavities or canalizations, the fact of being homogeneous or stratified or composed by one or more materials, all these are irrelevant details for the functionality of the process over which we claim the protection of the patent and may vary as per the needs or the requests.

All the elements utilized in the work should have dimensions, proportions, faces, joints, contact faces and profiles that must be compatible and matching with the modular element utilized; therefore for any modular element “A”, it will be necessary to create a “Type A” set of finishing elements having all the requested characteristics compatible with “A”. In future development of this building technique, the possible variety of elements will multiply, designed to solve specific problems or aesthetic necessities, always remaining in the perimeter of the invention.

As per what we have explained until here, it seems evident that the process reaches its goals. The manners of the process may have innumerable variations, all within the border and the perimeter of the invention and included into the attached claims. Any detail can be changed with other elements technically equivalent and materials will be diversified as per the local needs without going out of the protection of the requested patent. Even if elements are described referring specifically to the attached figures, the figures themselves and the reference numbers used in the description and in claims have to be solely intended as mere means for better understanding the process and they are not intended to put any limit to the protection claimed with the requested patent.

Claims

1-6. (canceled)

7. A method for constructing a self-supporting anti-seismic modular structure from a kit, comprising: providing the kit, wherein the kit comprises: at least one polyhedral bar;a plurality of modular elements having a parallelepiped shape and a base having a squared shape or a rhomboid shape; anda plurality of junction elements obtained by sectioning the modular elements along one of the diagonals of their external faces;wherein the at least one polyhedral bar, the modular elements, and the junction are adapted to be connected and assembled together andwherein the modular elements and the junction elements have bases suitable to be oriented parallel to the force of gravity when assembled into the self-supporting anti-seismic modular structure;wherein at least one of the modular elements, at least one of the junction elements, and the at least one polyhedral bar comprise at least one female element or at least one male element on a face thereof respectively, shaped so as to be coupled to a male or female element of a contiguous element;wherein the at least one female element has a shape of a groove and the at least one male element has a shape of a pin, the pin being adapted to be inserted and to slide loosely along the groove once in place;wherein, in the modular elements and in the junction elements, the groove runs parallel to a base of a polyhedron; andwherein, in the at least one polyhedral bar, the groove runs perpendicular to a base of the at least one polyhedral bar; andconstructing the self-supporting anti-seismic modular structure from the kit in a dry-mounted manner such that no binding agent or joint is used in construction of the self-supporting anti-seismic modular structure, wherein constructing the self-supporting anti-seismic modular structure from the kit further comprises assembling the modular elements and the junction elements in static equilibrium with a diamond configuration along a plane parallel to a direction of the force of gravity;wherein single ones of the modular elements and the junction element are connected with play to contiguous elements remaining free to move also once in place; andwherein all faces of the modular elements in contact with faces of other ones of the modular elements or the junction elements identify reciprocal sliding planes transverse to the direction of the force of gravity.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one polyhedral bar is one of a plurality of polyhedral bars.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: assembling all of the modular elements in a diamond configuration by having the polyhedral bars vertically placed at their sides aligned with axes of a wall and the junction elements in between.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the self-supporting anti-seismic modular structure is further assembled from the kit by inserting pins of any of the modular elements or the junction elements into a groove of a contiguous element or bar.