Translucent building material comprising corrugated cardboard

• US 9,796,153 B1
• Filed: 10/25/2013
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Metacomb, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Metacomb, Inc.
• Inventors: Tsodokov, Vsevolod
• Primary Examiner(s): Cajilig, Christine T
• Application Number:
  US14/063,490
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 29/08 Corrugated paper or cardboard
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 3/28 characterised by a layer comprising a deformed thin sheet , i.e. the layer having its entire thickness deformed out of the plane, e.g. corrugated, crumpled B32B29/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E04B 9/04 comprising slabs, panels, sheets or the like
• CPC Class Codes: E04C 2/322 with parallel corrugations
• CPC Class Codes: E04F 13/0871 having an ornamental or specially shaped visible surface E04F13/0867 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E04F 15/10 of other materials, e.g. fibrous or chipped materials, organic plastics, magnesite tiles, hardboard , or with a top layer of other materials
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/0481 characterised by the composition of the encapsulation material
• CPC Class Codes: H02S 20/26 Building materials integrated with PV modules, e.g. façade elements H02S20/25 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 10/10 Photovoltaic [PV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/50 Photovoltaic [PV] energy

Abstract

A manufacturing process, and related products, for fabricating translucent articles in the form of tiles is disclosed. The manufacturing process includes holding together a stack of corrugated cardboard pieces and saturating the cardboard pieces with an impregnating agent. Additional steps may include machining the cardboard pieces to define a block of a desired shape, slicing the block into tile components, and/or coating one or more tile components with a coating material to produce the article. Articles include translucent tiles made of corrugated cardboard pieces saturated with an impregnating agent. The tiles may be arranged to define a surface, such as a floor, a wall, a roof, a lighting installation, an architectural construction element, an architectural aesthetic element, or a solar panel.

Claims

1. A translucent tile comprising:

a plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard formed of paper and disposed proximate each other, each of the corrugated cardboard pieces comprising (i) a corrugated sheet defining flutes and (ii) at least one linerboard, ends of the corrugated cardboard pieces defining a surface; and

a transparent outer layer component comprising an impregnating agent and disposed proximate the surface and covering the surface, the transparent outer layer component being substantially free of holes,

wherein a direction of the cardboard flutes intersects the surface such that the tile is translucent through a thickness of the tile, and wherein the plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard is saturated by the impregnating agent.

2. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the surface is substantially planar.

3. The translucent tile of claim 1, further comprising a rigidifying component disposed perpendicularly to the surface of the tile.

4. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the transparent outer layer component is water-impermeable.

7. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the flutes of at least two adjacent cardboard pieces are aligned in a common direction.

8. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein an angle between the flute directions of two of the corrugated cardboard pieces is greater than 0 degrees.

9. The translucent tile of claim 8, wherein the angle between the flute directions of two of the corrugated cardboard pieces is from about 30 degrees to about 60 degrees.

10. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the flute direction of at least one corrugated cardboard piece is not perpendicular to the surface.

11. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein (i) the translucent tile comprises two tile components, and (ii) a linerboard angle between the two tile components is greater than 0 degrees.

12. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the translucent tile comprises a stacked configuration of translucent tile components.

13. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the transparent outer layer component is selected from the group consisting of a coating material, glass, a photovoltaic film, a scratch-resistant film, a filter for particular wavelengths of light, a mesh material, a portion of a mold, and quartz.

14. The translucent tile of claim 3, wherein the rigidifying component comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of a photovoltaic material, a light source, metal, plastic, rubber, wood, carbon fiber, glass, cardboard, and a portion of a mold.

15. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein at least two of the corrugated cardboard pieces have different thicknesses.

16. The translucent tile of claim 1, further comprising an expanded polymeric material disposed between at least a portion of the flutes and the at least one linerboard.

17. The translucent tile of claim 1, further comprising a photovoltaic component.

18. The translucent tile of claim 1, further comprising an inter-tile spacer.

20. The translucent tile of claim 12, wherein the stacked configuration comprises at least one of a varying flute direction, a light source, a photovoltaic component, a hollow space comprising a fluid, an inter-tile spacer comprising an electrically conductive material, and an inter-tile spacer comprising a thermally conductive material.

21. The translucent tile of claim 1, further comprising a coating material comprising at least one of a photovoltaic nanopolymer and nanoparticles.

22. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the outer layer component comprises more than one layer.

23. The translucent tile of claim 1, wherein the translucent tile comprises a tile component wrapped with at least one of a band and a strip.

5. A process for using translucent tile, the process comprising:

providing a plurality of translucent tiles, each translucent tile comprising a plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard formed of paper and disposed proximate each other, each of the corrugated cardboard pieces comprising (i) a corrugated sheet defining flutes and (ii) at least one linerboard, ends of the corrugated cardboard pieces defining a surface and a transparent outer layer component comprising an impregnating agent and disposed proximate the surface and covering the surface, the transparent outer layer component being substantially free of holes, wherein a direction of the cardboard flutes intersects the surface such that the tile is translucent through a thickness of the tile, and wherein the plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard is saturated by the impregnating agent; and

arranging the plurality of translucent tiles to define a tiled surface.

6. The process of claim 5, wherein the tiled surface is selected from the group consisting of a floor, a wall, a roof, a lighting installation, an architectural construction element, an architectural aesthetic element, and a solar panel.

19. A translucent tile comprising:

a plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard disposed proximate each other, each of the corrugated cardboard pieces comprising (i) a corrugated sheet defining flutes and (ii) at least one linerboard, ends of the corrugated cardboard pieces defining a surface, and a direction of the flutes intersecting the surface such that the tile is translucent through a thickness of the tile;

a transparent outer layer component disposed proximate and in contact with the surface;

a second outer layer component disposed over the transparent outer layer; and

a solar panel disposed between the outer layer component and the second outer layer component.

24. The translucent tile of claim 19, wherein the plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard are formed of paper.

25. The translucent tile of claim 19, wherein the plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard is at least partially saturated by an impregnating agent.

26. The translucent tile of claim 19, wherein the plurality of pieces of corrugated cardboard is saturated by an impregnating agent.

27. The translucent tile of claim 26, wherein the transparent outer layer component comprises the impregnating agent.