Structural system

• US 6,282,849 B1
• Filed: 08/04/1999
• Issued: 09/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Florian Tuczek
• Original Assignee: Florian Tuczek
• Inventors: Tuczek, Florian
• Primary Examiner(s): Friedman, Carl D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): GREEN, CHRISTY MARIE
• Application Number:
  US09/366,206
• Time in Patent Office: 762 Days
• Field of Search: 52/811, 52/814, 52/815, 52/794, 526/481, 52D/IG.10
• US Class Current: 52/81.1
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 1/32 Arched structures; Vaulted structures; Folded structures E04B1/345 takes precedence; vaulted roofs E04B7/08
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 1/6158 the connection made by formlocking
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 2001/3223 Theorical polygonal geometry therefor
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 2001/3241 Frame connection details
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 2001/3247 Nodes
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 2001/3252 Covering details
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 2001/3276 Panel connection details
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 2001/3288 Panel frame details, e.g. flanges of steel sheet panels
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 2001/3294 with a faceted surface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 52/10 Polyhedron

Abstract

The present invention relates to a building system comprising prefabricated plates for self-supporting space boundaries. To enable simple construction of load-bearing structures that are versatile in three dimensions and that enclose spaces, plates, at least some of which are disposed at different inclinations, in the form of flat, slanted prisms are joined by their side faces directly to one another and/or via bars in the form of long, slanted, square prisms; adjacent connecting faces are congruent, and the square faces of different bars, are disposed parallel or perpendicular to one another.

Claims

1. A building system for assembled, self-supporting and faceted polyhedral shells including zomes, comprising:

prefabricated, solid plates as material components, joined along their edges without nodes on their corner points, wherein;

two neighboring, differently inclined plates are joined everywhere by their side faces according to one of;

both ways occurring in the same building;

directly to one another, if the adjoining side faces are parallel without any distance; and

via bars as complementary components along some joints;

each said bar fills completely one of;

a cleft along the joint between two plates touching one another only by one edge line; and

an oblong gap, necessarily continuing a cleft, between two plates touching one another nowhere;

the adjoining side faces of two plates, of a plate and a bar, and of two bars side by side are congruent everywhere and have the shape of an oblong parallelogram having two shorter and two longer edges;

said plates and bars are in the form of a slanted prism;

said plates are in the form of a flat parallelepiped having an extensive polygonal base defining the top and bottom surface of a plate;

said bars are in the form of a stretched parallelepiped having a small quadratic base defining the ends of a bar;

the quadratic faces on the ends of different bars are equal everywhere;

said two shorter edges of each said parallelogram have the length of said quadratic faces;

said shorter edges are always disposed parallel to the areas of a cartesian coordinate system;

two bars adjoin on one of their ends always according to one of;

directly, if said quadratic faces on the ends are parallel without any distance; and

via cubes having said quadratic faces too, if there are gaps between the ends of neighboring bars, filling them completely.

2. The building system as defined in claim 1, wherein said components as plates and bars belong to a restricted set of types of a building construction kit, and said two longer edges of the side faces of plates and bars define a uniform length, and wherein said edges projected on two of three projection planes, of which each is parallel to one of said quadratic faces, deviate by an angle of 22.5°

from a respective edge of one of said quadratic faces.

3. The building system as defined in claim 1, further comprising oblong connectors, securing a joint, which is rigid against transverse and bending forces by a prestress, wherein:

said connectors are located in the midline of each joint between two adjacent components as plates and bars;

said connectors have the form of a rail being one of;

a rail type C having the uniform cross-sectional profile of a C; and

a rail type H having the uniform cross-sectional profile of an H;

one rail of type H is inserted lengthwise into two faced rails C, each rail type C being part of a component and acting as an anchor channel;

each rail type C is inlet into a groove milled along the middle of said side face divided hereby in two partial faces;

each of said side faces has been made concave making said partial faces oblique in cross section and causing a distance between two profiles of type C of two components touching each other merely on the edges of their top and bottom surfaces, but not being connected;

one rail type H connects two components by drawing their facing rails of type C together like a clamp, causing compression on said partial faces;

said prestress consists of a tension between the connected profiles of type C and a pressure between the adjacent ones of said partial faces of adjacent components;

said connectors have serif-like, rectangularly doubled hooks, visible in a cross-section, against forces from different directions;

said connectors have multiple, differently directed conical ends to facilitate the lengthwise telescoping insertion of a rail of type H into the joint.

4. The building system as defined in claim 1, wherein said plates and said bars definitively are deformed on purpose, and wherein the topological arrangement of the components is preserved without misfits.

5. The building system as defined in claim 1, wherein:

said bars are divided diagonally lengthwise into four parts, defining quarter parts, and

some of said quarter parts are attached irreversibly by congruent parallel faces to a respective plate, becoming parts of this plate, while each respective remaining one of said quarter parts is used for one of;

locking and simultaneously covering the butt between two of said plates, and for covering merely the edge of said plate.