Patent Application
20100180530
The present invention relates generally to a roofing structure, and in particular to a touch-to-fastener coconut-fiber-made roofing structure for outdoor applications.
An outdoor shed is often made of concrete, plastic/canvas sheets, or metallic materials, such as steel and aluminum.
Such materials themselves are not beautiful. If they are used to construct a roof of for example an outer pavilion, the overall configuration of the construction may become unsynchronized with the surrounding natural environment. Further, a roofing structure formed by a single layer of plastic/canvas sheet or a metal plate roofing structure has the features of fast heat transfer and poor air ventilation. Thus, in a high temperature summer daytime, heat is quickly transferred to the space sheltered under the roofing, making the sheltering effect poor.
Further, besides using concrete to construct, the conventional sheds also need certain fastening/assembling mechanism to connect to a support frame below the roofing. For example, a metal roof is often fixed to the support frame by bolts; a plastic roof is fixed to the support frame by suitable fasteners. These arrangements make installation and removal difficult, and further, since a roofing structure is often set an elevated location, which makes the installation and removal of the roofing even more difficult.
Thus, it is desired to have an outdoor roofing structure that offers excellent rain protection and thermal insulation and also provides an effect of beautification, and that is easy to install and remove.
In view of the above problems, an objective of the present invention is to provide a touch-to-fasten coconut-fiber-made roofing structure that offers excellent thermal insulation.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a touch-to-fasten coconut-fiber-made roofing structure that beautifies the surrounding environment.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a touch-to-fasten coconut-fiber-made roofing structure that offers excellent capability of water drainage.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a touch-to-fasten coconut-fiber-made roofing structure that prevents water penetration.
Yet a further objective of the present invention is to provide a touch-to-fasten coconut-fiber-made roofing structure that can be installed and removed without any tool and additional parts.
To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides a touch-to-fasten coconut-fiber-made roofing structure that comprises a main board, a first touch fastener provided on a surface of the main board, a support frame, a second touch fastener provided on the support frame and corresponding to and engageable with the first touch fastener, wherein the main board is bonded to the support frame by the engagement between the first and second touch fasteners. The main board comprises a first coconut fiber board, a second coconut fiber board, a plastic film interposed between the first and second coconut fiber boards for fixing the first and second coconut fiber boards together, and a main board edge bonding strap mounted to exposed edges of the first and second coconut fiber boards and the film for bonding the first and second coconut fiber boards and the film together so as to allow an amount of air to exist between the first and second coconut fiber boards.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the film has a surface facing at least one of the first and second coconut fiber boards and the surface forms a plurality of projections, which is uniformly distributed on the surface of the film.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first and second coconut fiber boards are formed by weaving coconut fibers with non-woven fabric weaving techniques.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the film is made of an adhesive material.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the film is made of an adhesive material.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the film is made of a non-water permeable material.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the main board edge bonding strap is made of a non-water permeable material.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the touch-to-fasten coconut-fiber-made roofing structure comprises more than one main board, which comprises a third touch fastener on a surface thereof opposite to the first touch fastener. The third fastener may be set on an edge of the main board that is adjacent to a next main board. The touch-to-fasten roofing structure further comprises a bonding strap that comprises a fourth touch fastener corresponding to and engageable with the third touch fastener. The bonding strap connects between adjacent main boards by engagement between the third and fourth touch fasteners, whereby the roofing structure is made more sound and firm.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first, second, third, and fourth touch fasteners are members of loop-and-hook fasteners, which are easy to mount and/or dismount.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the roofing structure includes a vehicle shed, a pavilion, or a rain shade.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a material for making the main board is selected from a group consisting of coconut fiber, plastics, metals, and a combination thereof.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the main board has a polygonal shape, including rectangle, square, and triangle.
The foregoing objective and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.
Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.
The following descriptions are exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
The present invention provides a touch-to-fasten roofing structure that is made of coconut fibers.
To have the main boards coupled to the support frame below and to have the bonding strap attached to the main boards, each main board 10 is comprised of an upper touch fastener 10A, a lower touch fastener 10B and a main material portion 10C. The touch fastener can be a hook-and-loop fastener or other fasteners having similar function of being detachable when subjected to a peeling force. The main material portion constitutes the primary material of the roofing and can be for example plastics, metals, coconut fibers or any combination of the above materials. The main material portion will be further described.
The support frame 20 comprises an upper touch fastener 20A, which corresponds to and mates with the lower touch fastener 10B of the main board 10. For example, when the upper touch fastener 20A is a hook member of a hook-and-loop fastener, the lower touch fastener 10B is a loop member of the hook-and-loop fastener. Or, alternatively, the upper touch fastener 20A is a loop member, while the lower touch fastener 10B is a hook member. The support frame 20 is a beam frame (see
As shown in
Those having ordinary skills can appreciate that although the above discussed preferred embodiment of the present invention uses only two main boards to form a roofing structure, yet it is possible to use only a single piece of the main board or more than two main boards to make the roofing, as demonstrated in
In addition, although the main boards are shown to be rectangular in the preferred embodiment discussed, it is apparent that the main boards can be made any other shapes, such as square and triangle, or other polygons and the present invention is not limited to the specific shapes discussed.
In the following, the main material portion 10C of the main board 10 will be described with reference to
The present invention uses natural coconut fibers as a primary material for constructing the roofing and is particularly suitable for an outdoor pavilion, a vehicle shed, or a rain shade.
Referring to
The upper and lower coconut fiber boards 101, 102 can be formed by weaving or braiding together, for example using the weaving techniques for making non-woven fabrics, to form a sheet/board or other configurations. The present invention, however, is not limited to such weaving techniques and other weaving or braiding techniques or the likes known to those having ordinary skills can be applied. The upper and lower coconut fiber boards 101, 102 are fixed together by the plastic film 103 that has an adhesion capability, such as being bonded together through a hot pressing process. The plastic film 103 can be made of any suitable adhesive materials that provide the bonding effect. In another embodiment, the plastic film 103 is made of a water-proof material. In a further embodiment, the film 103 is made of a material having an excellent strength and being not easy to break.
As shown in the drawings, the film 103 forms a plurality of bosses or projections 131 on surfaces thereof that interface the upper coconut fiber board 101 and the lower coconut fiber board 102. Preferably, the bosses or projections are uniformly distributed. The bosses or projections function to provide an increased space between the film and the coconut fiber boards for realizing thermal insulation.
It is noted that the bosses or projections can, alternatively, be formed on only one surface of the film 103 that faces the upper coconut fiber board 101 or that faces the lower coconut fiber board 102. In other words, it is not necessary to provide the bosses or projections on both surfaces of the film.
Since the two coconut fiber boards are attached to the intermediately arranged film 103, the two coconut fiber boards are not in direct connection with each other. As illustrated in
Further, using the plastic film that has bosses or projections 131 to fix the coconut fiber boards and the main board edge bonding strap to bond the boards allow an amount of air to exist between the two coconut fiber boards, whereby thermal insulation capability is better than a single plastic/canvas layer made roofing structure or a single steel plate made roofing structure. Also, due to such a double layered structure, the overall roofing construction is not easy to deform and is durable against weathering, such as winds and sun light.
It is known from the above description that the coconut fiber roofing structure in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention employs a double-layered coconut fiber board structure to realize thermal insulation, protection against water penetration, and being not easy to deform. Further, using coconut fibers as a construction material is natural and environmentally conservative and provides excellent water drainage capability. Further, the natural coconut fibers help roots of climber plants to fix thereto to thereby make the overall configuration of the roofing natural and beautiful. Further, the coconut fibers have excellent water drainage capability so that it is not easy to maintain wet that breeds microorganisms and insects.
The drawings are provided for schematically illustrating examples of the present invention, and are not made to scale. For example, compared to the overall size of the main board 10, the upper touch fastener 10A and/or the bonding strap 30 is shown in an exaggerated or shrunk ratio with respect to the main board 10 itself. The actual sizes of these components can be any desired values and the present invention is not limited to any specific figures.
While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
