Patent Grant
12163329
This Application is a Section 371 National Stage Application of International Application No. PCT/NL2019/050504, filed Jul. 22, 2019 and published as WO 2020/017975 A1 on Jan. 23, 2020, in English, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The present disclosure relates to construction techniques, in particular methods and devices for building at least part of a wall and constructions comprising such wall or wall part. More in particular, the present disclosure relates to building walls, in particular dry walls.
Construction of walls from construction blocks using bricks and mortar and the like is generally known. Dry wall constructions are also known.
Although mortar-based walls and dry walls have been built for ages, improvements are continuously desired to provide stronger, lighter and/or cheaper constructions, and/or to reduce aspects as one or more of time, costs, materials, builder skills, etc. involved with the building.
In aspects, a wall and an assembly for building at least part of the wall are provided.
The wall and the assembly comprises building blocks and support blocks. Each building block comprises opposite first and second faces, both comprising a plurality of recesses arranged spaced from each other. Each support block comprises a body and a plurality of protrusions extending from opposite top and bottom sides of the body. Each recess of the plurality of recesses comprises a recess support structure and each protrusion of the plurality of protrusion comprises a protrusion support structure. The recesses and protrusions are arranged in a matching pattern.
In the assembled wall, alternating layers of building blocks and support blocks are stacked on top of each other such that
Thus, the building blocks and support blocks support each other, so that the wall may reach a desired height, and they interengage and interlock each other, defining relative positions within a layer fortifying the layer and therewith fortifying the wall as a whole. Also, in plural directions, generally three mutually perpendicular directions, tolerances are defined by the interplay of (the recesses can protrusions of, respectively) the building blocks and support blocks, rather than just the outside shape, structure and/or texture of the building blocks and/or support blocks as a whole. Thus, constructing a wall, and therewith constructing an object comprising the wall, by appropriately assembling the respective building blocks and support blocks is facilitated.
Each support block may have a length, a width, and a height, in, respectively, a length direction L, a width direction W, and a height direction H, and the protrusions may be spaced at least in the length direction L of the support block. In the building blocks, the recesses are accordingly distributed in the faces.
The pattern in which the recesses and protrusions are arranged may be limited to specific pairs of a building block and a support block or larger groups of blocks. One or more blocks (building block or support block, respectively) may at least partly overlap plural adjacent blocks (support block or building block, respectively), e.g. by staggered arrangement and/or by one block having a length and/or width different from a length and/or width of an adjacent block with which it is operably coupled by cooperation of their respective protrusion and recesses. Thus, a positioning and/or interlocking effect in the length and/or width direction may be achieved in a wall portion constructed with the assembly.
In an embodiment, each building block comprises a plurality of recesses arranged spaced from each other in at least one of the width and height directions, and the assembly comprises matching support blocks. Thus, when placing alternating layers of building blocks and support blocks on and/or adjacent each other the protrusions can be accommodated in the recesses and the respective support structures can engage each other and position the respective adjacent blocks with respect to each other. Thus, the building blocks and support blocks interengage and interlock each other also in a length direction. This facilitates defining relative positions in length and/or width directions and it facilitates constructing a wall by appropriately assembling the respective blocks into the alternating layers.
In each building block, the recess support structures are formed with respect to one reference. The reference preferably is or identifies a plane, more preferably a midplane of the building block. At least some of the recesses may be formed in the building block by cutting. Cutting techniques, e.g. one or more of hacking, sawing, milling, drilling, grinding, polishing, etching, etc. have proven to allow reliable manufacturing for forming recesses in building material, which itself may have a rough outer shape. Thus, such post-processing enables use of otherwise more or less irregularly shaped building blocks. Milling and/or sawing can generally be performed at great speed also on site in a construction site.
When forming (at least the support structures of) the recesses relative to the same reference, at least some of them may be formed sequentially and/or simultaneously relative to the same reference. When forming (at least the support structures of) the recesses relative to the same reference, the building block and the reference are preferably positioned and oriented with respect to each other in the same predetermined position and orientation in at least one relative direction, more preferably being in the same relative position and orientation, so that the reference relates to positions and orientations with respect to the building block in a predetermined and reliable manner.
Preferably, the support structures are formed as mated structures; e.g. at least flat or conical surfaces. The larger the contact surface area of engaging support structures, the better and/or reliable the supporting force may be and/or the less the chance that a building block and/or a support block get damaged to local stress build-up and/or to other local forces and/or to other local weaknesses.
Preferably each recess support structure is a support surface and defines a recess support plane.
Preferably each protrusion support structure is a support surface and defines a protrusion support plane.
Preferably all support structures of the plurality of recesses of a building block in at least one of the first and second faces define a common first plane and/or second plane, respectively. Preferably, the first plane and second plane are parallel. In an embodiment, the first plane and second plane may coincide.
Preferably all protrusion support structures of the plurality of protrusions of a support block protruding in one direction from the body define a common first support plane, more preferably all protrusion support structures of the plurality of protrusions of a support block protruding in the opposite direction from the body define a common second support plane. Preferably, the first and second support planes are parallel.
Common planes facilitate design and construction of a wall and/or a building comprising such wall. Further, checking of a construction is facilitated.
When stacked, at least the building blocks are separate from each other and preferably, in each vertical pair the respective blocks do not support each other apart from at the support structures, e.g. support surfaces, preventing interference with the accurate positioning governed by the support structures. The support structures of a recess may be formed by the bottom of the recess.
By forming the first and second recesses to the same reference, accurate control over the position and/or orientation of the respective support surfaces is facilitated. Thus, the relative positions and/or orientations of the recesses can be defined to a high precision at a relatively low cost.
For it has been found that dry wall buildings suffer from tolerance stacking, wherein size fluctuations of elements of different layers add up so that after several layers the wall may deviate from its intended size, in particular its height. This may be acceptable for free-standing objects, dikes and horticulture etc., but not for houses, offices, etc. Moreover, there is a development towards specifying entire buildings and any components therein to ever smaller tolerances, even down to the size and pitch of masonry of walls, so that parts may be manufactured to predefined sizes in advance and construction and/or installation work onsite is reduced. In the traditional way of building, skilled adjustment of mortar and/or cement layers allows for adaptation of varying brick sizes and shapes to such design requirements. However, the numbers of sufficiently skilled masons are dwindling and in any case the construction speed is determined by the process time of setting of the mortar and/or cement layers to allow addition of a further layer of bricks on a wall without deforming a previous layer underneath.
In dry wall constructions in which tolerances to size and stability are tight, currently the top and bottom sides of the building blocks are milled or polished to size. This is expensive and it provides buildings with a relatively “harsh” and/or “sterile” appearance. In the building blocks of the presently provided method, only the support structures need be formed to an accuracy to prevent unacceptable tolerance stacking, enabling reduction of material consumption and/or tool wear. Further, (post-) processing time per building block may be reduced. By forming the support portions in the recesses, the shape, position and/or orientation of the support portions relative to the top/bottom sides of the building blocks may be obscured by lateral portions of the building block defining the recesses. This enables use of building blocks with large variations in their outer surface shape and/or size without affecting building tolerances, enabling benefits in one or more of material costs, production costs and appearance of the wall.
The support blocks may be made to accuracy by the same techniques as the building blocks or other techniques providing uniformity, wherein the uniformity may be masked by the building blocks. Cost benefits due to the speed and ease of manufacturing the building blocks, support blocks and the assembly as a whole are considered to outweigh possible elevated costs for manufacturing the building blocks and support blocks over traditional materials like (mortar and) bricks without further processing thereof.
In an embodiment, the recesses in at least one of the first face and the second face extend parallel to each other. In an embodiment, the recesses in at least one of the first face and the second face extend perpendicular to the first and/or second face, respectively. Each recess may extend along an axis, the axis may extend perpendicular to the first and/or second face.
In an embodiment, the protrusions on at least one of the first and second sides extend parallel to each other. In an embodiment, the protrusions in at least one of the first side and the second side extend perpendicular to the first and/or second side, respectively. Each protrusion may extend along an axis, the axis may extend perpendicular to the first and/or second side.
This facilitates design and construction of the respective blocks as well as of a wall and/or a building comprising such wall. Further, checking of a construction is facilitated.
In an embodiment, at least some recesses in at least one of the first face and at least some recesses in the second face extend coaxial to each other.
In an embodiment, at least some protrusions on the first side and at least some protrusions the second side extend coaxial to each other.
This facilitates defining and/or realising particular relative positions of the building blocks and support blocks. Further, construction forces and/or stresses may be transmitted linearly, which may fortify a wall relative to curved or meandering distributions of relatively elevated forces and/or stresses.
In an embodiment, at least some of the recesses have a shape, in a cross section generally parallel to the first face and/or second face, that is at least one of circular, annular and cylindrical.
In an embodiment, at least some of the protrusions have a shape, in a cross section generally parallel to the first side and/or second side that is at least one of circular, annular and cylindrical.
In an embodiment, at least some of the recesses have a tapering or conical shape, in a direction generally perpendicular to the first face and/or second face.
In an embodiment, at least some of the protrusions have a tapering or conical shape, in a direction generally perpendicular to the first face and/or second face.
Such embodiments each may one or more of facilitate construction of a wall, providing guidance for assembling a wall, and assisting distribution of construction forces and/or stresses.
In an embodiment, at least some of the recesses, preferably all recesses, have an elongated slot shape in the respective face, having a relatively large size (i.e. being relatively long) in a longitudinal direction and a relatively small size (i.e. being relatively short) in a transverse direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. Preferably, the longitudinal and transverse directions preferably each extend generally parallel to a respective pair of opposite faces, and/or parallel to reference planes of the building block.
The longitudinal direction may extend generally parallel to a side face of the building block in length direction, e.g. a front face and/or a rear face, and the transverse direction may extend generally parallel to a side face of the building block in width direction, e.g. an end face. In the building block, at least some of the elongated recesses, preferably all, have their longitudinal directions parallel to each other and preferably then being in one line. Also or alternatively, at least some of the recesses, preferably all, have their transverse directions parallel to each other and more preferably then in one line.
Elongated recesses enable adjustment in the direction of elongation of the position of the building block relative to (the protrusions of) a support block, when coupled. The size of the elongated recesses determines the available amount of adjustment and therewith the restriction of the relative movement of the respective blocks in the mutually perpendicular directions generally parallel to layers of coupled blocks. This enables meeting construction tolerances while accommodating building block tolerances.
The shape and size in one direction, preferably the longitudinal direction, of an elongated recess may be significantly larger (i.e. being 2-5 times longer) than a size in corresponding direction of a protrusion of a support block. The shape and size in another direction, preferably the transverse direction, of an elongated recess may be approximately equal to a size in corresponding direction of a protrusion of a support block. In combination, the relative movement of the respective blocks, when coupled with a protrusion accommodated in the elongated recess, is restricted more in one direction (in particular the transverse direction) than in the other direction (in particular the longitudinal direction). Thus, relative adjustment in one direction may be enabled and/or may be larger whereas adjustment in another direction may be prevented and/or may be more limited. In particular, adjustment may be limited essentially in one direction only and over a restricted length, determined by the size and position of the recesses in combination with the size and position of the protrusions accommodated therein. Such adjustment options may facilitate accepting manufacturing tolerances of building blocks and/or support blocks in one or two directions. The elongated recesses preferably extend into the building block in one direction and are enclosed in five directions (i.e. only opening to one face of the building block) so that stacked building blocks appear essentially intact and the recesses do not open to a side face.
Further, it is noted that elongated recesses may be cut by milling techniques. Milling an elongated recess to a predetermined depth may be more easy and accurate than drilling a recess with constant diameter (cylindrical hole), in particular with respect to one or more of:
The latter may be desired for providing a flat support surface, which may be preferred to provide a constant support height when adjusting a relative position or the building block and support block.
The body of one or more of the support blocks may comprise one or more openings. This can save material and weight.
The body and at least some of the protrusions of one or more of the support blocks may be formed unitary.
Adjacent support blocks may be connected together within one support block layer. For this, support blocks may comprise connectors for mating with an associated connector on another support block. Preferably the connectors are symmetric and/or all support blocks are provided with identical connectors or connector pairs e.g. comprising one connector on one side and a mated counterconnector on an opposite side. One or more of the support blocks may comprise one or more holes for accommodating a protrusion of an adjacent support block. Thus, adjacent support blocks may be connected by concatenation.
Also or alternatively, the assembly may comprise one or more support links for interconnecting adjacent support blocks, e.g. by comprising one or more holes for accommodating a protrusion of an adjacent support block, being generally similar to a support block however not comprising support protrusions.
In each of these cases, the connectors and/or the holes and protrusions may preferably be sized matchingly, e.g. protrusions and holes fitting each other accurately. A support block layer may be assembled from a series of connected support blocks and/or from a series of support blocks and associated links.
Each combination of connectors, in particular a pair of protrusion and hole, may have a predetermined play. The play may be limited down to predetermined tolerances as defined by manufacturing tolerances of the support blocks and/or links; since these may be moulded the manufacturing tolerances may be very tight. Also or alternatively, the play may be of predetermined size as a desired proportion to manufacturing tolerances and/or design tolerances of building blocks and/or a wall. Note that since the building blocks and support blocks rest on each other at the respective support structures, a body of a support block and/or a link may be kept free from supporting contact of building blocks, thus interfering little or not at all with a spacing in stacking direction of adjacent building block layers.
Support blocks and links may be manufactured to tighter tolerances than building blocks; e.g. and in particular when the building blocks comprise bricks, concrete stones and/or natural materials like hewn stone blocks, whereas the support blocks may be moulded and/or milled polymers, metals, etc.
Connectors and/or links may facilitate accommodating spacings between support blocks without affecting a spacing of protrusions otherwise. E.g. links lacking protrusions comprise comparably less material than support blocks, and may serve as adjustment blocks for adjustment of spacing between support blocks and therewith for the spacing between the protrusions. In a particular embodiment of the assembly, the support blocks are sized to fit and to correspond to a particular number of building blocks, in particular two or three building blocks, and links are provided to space adjacent support blocks to accommodate tolerance stacking of building blocks different from and mismatching tolerances of support blocks. Since, as said, support blocks and links may be made to tight tolerances, size-variations of and/or misfit building blocks may be accommodated within a specifically designed wall portion (or even: a building). Note that manufacturing of bricks, and just as well of some other types of building blocks, may result in batches of bricks (or other building blocks) that are several millimetres or even centimetres per single block off of designed sizes, whereas wall portions may have to fit specific sizes and/or specific numbers and/or layouts of building blocks; traditionally such building block tolerances had to be accommodated by skilled masons adjusting spacings with sizing layers of mortar. Nowadays such masonry skills are scarce. The presently provided assembly enables to establish an average size of a batch of building blocks and, using an accordingly designed predetermined arrangement of support blocks and/or links, adjusting the entire wall portion (and hence possibly a building) to a predetermined size, pattern and/or number of building blocks, e.g. as designed by an architect and/or in order to provide a desired relationship (e.g. a ratio) between building blocks and spacing thereof, e.g. in accordance with a relationship (e.g. a ratio) between a length and a width of a building block; with or without an intermediate space such as for a vertical between adjacent building blocks.
An embodiment comprises building a wall using the assembly adjacent another wall and connecting the respective walls together with anchors. The anchors may be attached to the support blocks. Anchors may increase stability of the walls with respect to each other and/or assist in aligning the walls relative to each other. Further, accessory objects, e.g. water conduits and/or electrical cords, may be supported by the anchors. Anchors may be fixed by clamping, friction fit, screwing into a support block and/or building block. An anchor may be used to align a wall relative to another object, e.g. another wall.
The building blocks and the support blocks may be of different materials, e.g. bricks or concrete and, respectively, a polymer material. This may reduce costs and/or it may help mimicking traditional brick and mortar building style. Also, different materials may facilitate attaching objects to the wall using different techniques. Various polymer materials have proven to be sufficiently strong for construction of multiple-storey buildings like houses in which the building blocks are traditional bricks, when the latter are provided with grooves in accordance with the disclosure.
In particular the building blocks may be formed by shaping a malleable material and allowing and/or forcing the shaped material to harden, e.g. by one or more processes of drying, curing and baking, and by forming the recesses of the building blocks in the hardened material. This accommodates using materials wherein the hardening may produce unpredictable deformations relative to the unhardened shape, such as tends to occur by moulding, drying and baking clay to bricks and/or by moulding and drying concrete, which are generally the optimum building materials for walls of houses and similar constructions. However other building blocks may be made by cutting, e.g. sawing or hewing, the building block from a larger object e.g. natural stone blocks cut from a rock.
In particular the support blocks may be formed at least partly by moulding and/or extrusion processes, e.g. forming the support blocks by extrusion of a polymer material, e.g. a polyolefin like a polyethylene (PE) and/or a polypropylene (PP), which may be of (ultra) high molecular weight and/or be reinforced with (glass) fibres, wires, rods and/or other fortification additives. Polyolefins, in particular PE and PP varieties, are proven for use in building construction work, e.g. for housing, being heat resistant, fire-safe and readily workable with woodworking tools, and having thermal expansion characteristics similar to those of concrete and/or bricks.
Metals may also be used as construction material, in particular for support blocks. Several metals and alloys can be suitably extruded or moulded, and may readily be formed for construction of buildings, most notably aluminium and aluminium alloys. Building blocks, and in particular, support blocks may be made of different materials.
Another option which may be preferred is forming of a concrete extraction product. A suitable concrete material can be processed to a desired shape in a robust form. When the material is wetted it may attach and fix itself to surrounding materials, in particular stone-like materials like concrete and brick, with little to no shape change. However, the adherence is strong and permanent. Hosing a (partly) finished wall may therefore fortify the wall.
The support blocks at least partly being received in the building blocks facilitates making that the former are less exposed to weather and/or other external influences. Also, it facilitates making the support blocks smaller than the building blocks, in particular in directions perpendicular to the directions of the wall. This facilitates use of a possibly more susceptible or delicate material than that of the building blocks.
In an embodiment, in the wall support blocks are receded behind a wall surface defined by side surfaces of building blocks, forming recesses, and wherein the method further comprises filling at least part of the recesses with a filler material. This may serve for structural integration and/or fortification of the wall e.g. by covering the support blocks, but also or alternatively for decoration and/or adaptation to a masonry style. The filler material may be a malleable material that can harden when inserted into the recess. In an embodiment, a filler material may formed and/or comprise one or more preformed objects, e.g. ornamental elements like coloured plates or strips and/or protective elements covering a portion of an adjacent support block. A building block may be formed at least partially to accommodate such object, e.g. having a widened groove, and/or the filler material may be attached to a support block.
The above-described aspects will hereafter be more explained with further details and benefits with reference to the drawings showing a number of embodiments by way of example.
It is noted that the drawings are schematic, not necessarily to scale and that details that are not required for understanding the present invention may have been omitted. The terms “upward”, “downward”, “below”, “above”, and the like relate to the embodiments as oriented in the drawings, unless otherwise specified. Further, elements that are at least substantially identical or that perform an at least substantially identical function are denoted by the same numeral, where helpful increased by hundreds and/or individualised with alphabetic suffixes.
Further, unless otherwise specified, terms like “detachable” and “removably connected” are intended to mean that respective parts may be disconnected essentially without damage or destruction of either part, e.g. excluding structures in which the parts are integral (e.g. welded or moulded as one piece), but including structures in which parts are attached by or as mated connectors, fasteners, releasable self-fastening features, etc. The verb “to facilitate” is intended to mean “to make easier”, rather than just “to enable”.
Each building block 3 comprises opposite pairs of faces F1 and F2; F3 and F4; and F5 and F6, respectively. Faces of at least one pair of opposite faces F1, F2; F3, F4; F5, F6; comprises a plurality of recesses 7 arranged spaced from each other in the respective face. As shown, the recesses may be blind holes defined by surrounding wall portions. The building blocks 3 may have various sizes as generally indicated with reference symbols 3A-3D in
Each support block 5 comprises a body 9, and a plurality of protrusions 11 on opposite top and bottom sides of the body 9. Here, the protrusions 11 are formed as substantially coaxial solid cylindrical rod portions of circular cross section, but other relative positions and shapes may be provided. The body 9 preferably is generally plane as shown here and may comprise one or more openings 10, providing the body 9 with a frame-like shape. The support blocks 5 may have various sizes as generally indicated with reference symbols 5A-5C in
Each recess 7 of the plurality of recesses 7 comprises a recess support structure 8 inside the recess, e.g. a flat portion on an end face terminating the blind hole 7 (not visible in
The building blocks 3 and/or support bocks 5 may have various sizes as shown and generally indicated with reference symbols 3A-3D and, respectively, 5A-5D in
Further, the recesses 7 and protrusions 11 may be mated in the sense that the protrusions closely fit into the recesses with very little play in horizontal direction (XY), reducing tolerances in width and/or length directions of the wall.
Depending on the relative dimensions, the support blocks 105 may be used in combination with the building blocks 3, in particular two support blocks 105 being arranged adjacent each other (not shown), to fit and operably engage the recesses 7 of the building blocks 3 for stacking a wall.
However, as particularly shown in
For post-processed building blocks, annular recesses may reduce the amount of material to be cut or otherwise removed from the building block relative to forming, like in
As indicated in
Any possible spaces 19, 119 between adjacent building blocks in a layer may be filled by additional material, which may take the form of a plate-like body and may have protrusions matching recesses in the associated faces F3, F4. Such body may be connectable with one or more support blocks 5, 105. In the latter case, it may be noted that any interconnection, in particular fixation between adjacent layers of the same type (B-B, S-S) or of different type (B-S, S-B) may further strengthen the wall 2, 102. Also, tolerances in spacing of building blocks 103 may be reduced. Attachment or fixation may be performed by any suitable means, like screws, bolts and nuts or threaded holes, etc. and even pieces or loops of string and/or belts, for which support blocks 5, 105 may be provided with locks like (series of) V-shaped recesses and/or serrations and/or other clamping mechanisms. Also or alternatively ratchet-and-pawl-based binding strips (a.k.a. “tie-wraps”) may be used. The latter may be looped and/or may be integrated at least partly into the support blocks.
Protrusions and recesses having a rotational symmetry, like rectangles (2×2-fold symmetry), squares (4-fold symmetry), circles (infinite-fold symmetry) and the like, together with an appropriate pattern of protrusions and recesses may facilitate arranging a support block in a different directions relative to a building block. Thus, a support block 105 (105C) may e.g. be arranged sideways perpendicular (in W-direction) to a length direction (L) of a building block 103 from one wall 102A to extend to an adjacent wall 102B and function as a wall anchor connecting both walls 102A, 120B, see
In the shown variant, the elongated recesses 307 have a relatively large size in a longitudinal direction 1 parallel to the length direction L of the building block 303, and a relatively small size in a transverse direction w parallel to the width direction W of the building block 303.
Here, the recesses 307 are cut into the building block 303 relative to references per direction L, W, H, determined as midplanes ML, MW, MH of the building block, e.g. determined with respect to an average of, respectively, the length, the width and the thickness of the building block. The midplanes ML, MW, MH cross in a center lines CLW, CLH, CWH which in turn cross in a center point C (not indicated) which may form a primary reference of the block 303. Note that a reference point, line and/or plane may also be determined differently, e.g. relative to a particular feature of a building block, e.g. a marked, coated, sculpted or otherwise particularly treated side.
As before, each recess 307 of the plurality of recesses 307 comprises a recess support structure 308 inside the recess 307, e.g. a flat portion of a bottom 308 of the recess 307. Each protrusion 311 of the plurality of protrusions 311 comprises a protrusion support structure, e.g. a flat end face 313 of the protrusion 311. Note that the protrusions 311 may be hollow as shown, e.g. to save material. The support blocks 305 may be similar or identical to the embodiment of
Note that a wall (not shown), may comprise a combination of building blocks according to plural embodiments, e.g. in particular according to
Best seen in
Also or in addition to the anchoring technique using a support block (cf.
Differently sized support blocks and/or support links, in particular with respect to the separation of protrusions may be colour coded for easy recognition. It is noted that the spaces 319, 320 may be at least partly filled with a mortar, a clay, a polymer, and/or another filler material, thus covering and obscuring support blocks 5, 105, 305, vertical bodies 325 and/or links 331, 333.
The assembly may further comprise support blocks (not shown) having protrusions on only one side of the support block body, e.g. for forming a substantially flat base layer or top layer of support portions. E.g. a wall portion may be accurately sized by arranging a series of interconnected support portions (possibly using support links) on a base surface with the protrusions upward according to a predetermined size and/or pattern as support block layer S and a template for stacking thereon a first layer B of building blocks; positions of the building blocks being determined by the initial layer of support blocks. Also or alternatively, such one-sided support blocks may be used at openings in the wall e.g. for windows, with the protrusions pointing only downward for a bottom sill and only pointing upward when supported on a top sill. Note that relative positions of different layers may be arranged and/or checked by comparing relative positions of (e.g. alignment of) protrusions of support blocks rather than by comparing relative positions of building blocks; this obviates having to account for tolerances in and/or erratic shapes of building blocks.
End space (19, 119, 319D, 319G) filler bodies may be provided with hooks engaging the bodies 9, 109 of support members 5, 105 of adjacent layers S, e.g. at or in openings of support members (e.g. openings 10, 110).
The assembly may further comprise adjustment support blocks wherein one or more of the protrusions, preferably all protrusions, are size-adjustable, e.g. comprising complementary threaded portions. As an example,
The bolt 441 provides the support structure of the thus-formed protrusion 411, in particular the top surface of the head 445. Note that instead of an internal hexagonal structure as shown, an external control portion, e.g. a head 445 of the bolt 441 may be provided, e.g. one or more flat surfaces such as a hexagonal head enabling adjustment from aside relative to another object, e.g. a levelling rule.
Optionally, as also indicated in
Also or alternatively, adjustable protrusions may be provided with external threads onto which e.g. threaded nuts and/or threaded caps could be fit. Other adjustment portions could also be provided as protrusions.
Size-adjustable protrusions allow establishing and/or correcting deviations from a default size, e.g. ascertaining a horizontal orientation of a building block layer B stacked on the adjustment support block and/or accommodating differently sized building blocks. In particular, (protrusions of) an at least partly single-sided support block for forming a substantially flat base layer may be adjustable to accommodate for a non-horizontal and/or uneven base surface.
The building blocks 503 in
The building block and/or the sets of drills 221 may be controllably moved with respect to each other for milling elongated recesses into the building block (cf.
At least some of the drills 221 may individually or collectively be checked and/or controlled regularly for position and/or wear so as to ensure proper forming of the recesses. The drills 221 are configured to drill recesses in the desired respective face Fx (x=1, 2, 3, . . . ) of the building block 3, 103, 203 to a depth corresponding to the desired and predetermined position of the respective recess support structure. Such position is determined for each drill and recess of/for opposite faces relative to a single common reference, irrespective of external properties of the building block regarding size, shape and/or surface structure. In particular, recesses in opposite sides are defined relative to one common reference instead of from both opposite sides independently. This prevents that (lack of) tolerances in the shape, size and/or structure of the building blocks extend into (lack of) the tolerances of the wall as a whole.
Thus, stacking tolerances may be tightly controlled although the building blocks may have comparably rough and/or erratic shapes, structures, textures etc.
The drills 221 may be similarly used for cutting grooves 551 in building blocks 503 shown in
The disclosure is not restricted to the above described embodiments which can be varied in a number of ways within the scope of the claims. For instance elements and aspects discussed for or in relation with a particular embodiment may be suitably combined with elements and aspects of other embodiments, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Although support planes may be preferred, e.g. for ease of manufacturing, of control and/or of checking, in some embodiments the support surfaces may be formed at least partly inclined to a vertical direction and/or relative to a main direction of a construction layer (S, B), e.g. in order to assist determining relative positions of the respective blocks. E.g., a support portion may comprise a pointed tip, e.g. a rib or a cone-shape which may be a truncated cone, and the recess may comprise a V-shaped structure like a conical bottom recess or a V-groove-shaped bottom. The latter may be in particular interesting for the embodiments largely according to
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021372 | Jul 2018 | NL | national |
| 2023037 | Apr 2019 | NL | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/NL2019/050504 | 7/22/2019 | WO |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2020/017975 | 1/31/2020 | WO | A |
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| 1083846 | Aug 1980 | CA |
| 2220743 | Oct 2000 | CA |
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| 2496066 | Aug 2006 | CA |
| 10033481 | Jan 2002 | DE |
| 0118374 | Sep 1984 | EP |
| 0748905 | Dec 1996 | EP |
| 1387024 | Jan 1965 | FR |
| 1476209 | Apr 1967 | FR |
| 2912163 | Aug 2008 | FR |
| 2065740 | Jul 1981 | GB |
| 2215749 | Sep 1989 | GB |
| 2320041 | Jun 1998 | GB |
| 2390860 | Jan 2004 | GB |
| 2528155 | Jan 2016 | GB |
| WO-8402154 | Jun 1984 | WO |
| WO-2010100534 | Sep 2010 | WO |
| WO-2013098448 | Jul 2013 | WO |
| WO-2015132422 | Sep 2015 | WO |
| 2017183967 | Oct 2017 | WO |
| Entry |
|---|
| Translation of FR 1476209 A retrieved from ESPACE including bibliographic data, description and claims and original document granted Apr. 7, 1967 https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&II=0&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=19670407&CC=FR&NR=1476209A&KC=A (Year: 2022). |
| International Search Report and Written Opinion for International Application No. PCT/NL2019/050504, dated Oct. 14, 2019. |
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| 20210293018 A1 | Sep 2021 | US |
