US3372519A - Intersecting, modular barrier clamp joint - Google Patents

Description

March 12, 1 968 e.c.RussELL 3,372,519

INTERSECTING, MODULAR BARRIER CLAMP JOINT Filed Oct. 23, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

Agent GORDON C. RUSSELL INTERSECTING, MODULAR BARRIER CLAMP JOINT Filed Oct. 23, 1965 G. C; RUSSELL March 12, 1968 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. GORDON C.- RUSSELL Agent v cs. c. RUSS-ELL March 12, 1968 INTERSECTING, MODULAR BARRIER CLAMP JOINT a Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Oct. 23. 1965 INVENTOR.

GORDON C. RUSSELL Agent United States Patent 3,372,519 INTERSECTING, MODULAR mama CLAMP JOINT Gordon C. Russell, Studio City, Calif, assignor to Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif. Filed Oct. 23, 1965, Ser. No. 503,096 2 Claims. (Cl. 52-274) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A building construction having a plurality of abutting vertical Wall panels and a series of horizontal roof panels with a plurality of locking plates being secured to reinforcing rods, extending through the roof panels, and tie rods, extending through the wall panels, to tie the adjacent roof panels together and to secure the roof panels to the wall panels.

Background 0 the invention This invention relates to preformed building panels and apparatus for tying the panels into interlocking roof and Wall panels.

In the past there has been a need for prefabricated or preformed buildings which can be constructed and erected by semiskilled or unskilled labor. Typically, a building is formed with a concrete floor and a series of wall panels formed from a cementitious material such as concrete or a similar material. A flat roof is formed from similar cementitious materials. Some difficulty has been experienced in the prior art types of construction in that the unskilled workers have difiiculty in aligning adjacent panels and typing roof panels into the wall panels into the floor Without the need for a sophisticated type of fasteners or aligning devices.

The problems relating to such prefabricated or formed cementateous buildings are twofold. Initial problem is hinged upon the simplicity of the construction due to the type of labor which is used to fabricate these buildings. The second problem is directed to the cost of the materials used in the buildings in addition to the cost of the labor in construction. Naturally, the lowest cost building includes the simplest design with the lowest amount of labor needed to construct the panels and fabricate these panels into a functional building without undue delay and acceptable quality.

Heretofore there has been some difiiculty in the manner in which cementitious panels are tied together in the walls and tying these walls together with a roof in such a manner that the building is easy to construct with unskilled labor and is additionally able to withstand the rigors of weather especially in extremes as in some areas of the country these buildings must withstand winds of up to 120 miles per hour without collapsing or leaking. Some prior art types of construction have solved these problems but are more expensive than is necessary and are of such construction that the labor is baflied or requires an undue amount of education in order to form these types of constructions.

Summary of the invention In its broadest aspects, the present invention is directed to a building construction in which a plurality of abutting cast building panels are formed with a series of reinforcing rods extending therethrough. Some of the reinforcing rods have extremities extending out of the panels and a locking plate having a series of openings extending therethrough are slipped over the reinforcing rods extrernities so as to tie adjacent building panels together. A means for securing the locking plates engages the locking plate and forces this plate against the building panels.

In accordance with the present invention, an aim is made to construct a cementitious building using the necessary parts of the building to advantage such that all parts of the building are tied together and anchored to a foundation with the minimum amount of parts and of a construction which is so simple that unskilled labor are able to construct the building without extensive training. It has been found that cementitious panels, especially those which are formed from concrete require that reinforcing rods are used to strengthen these panels to withstand tornadoes and hurricanes. By using these reinforcing rods as tie points for adjacent panels, it has been found that by using the present invention that a tying means can be used to couple adjacent panels together by engaging the reinforcing rods.

Brief description of the drawings FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a building using the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a joint of the building illustrated in FIGURE 1 showing in exploded fashion the building construction in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 33 of FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a building joint having four panels coupled together.

Detailed description of the invention Referring now to FIGURE 1, a building 10 constructed in accordance with the present invention includes a foundation 12 in the form of a concrete slab. All vertical walls of the building are formed from a plurality of identically shaped vertical building wall panels 14 each mounted in abutting relation and upon the foundation 12. A vertical post 16 is secured to the foundation 12 and extends as a corner of the building 10 and is abutting the wall panels 14. A plurality of identically shaped roof panels 18 are supported on spaced wall panels 14 and abut each other to form a composite roof over the entire building Ill. An end roof panel 20 abuts the roof panel 18 and has basically the same shape as the other roof panels with minor changes which will hereinafter become apparent. A tie rod 22 extends along the entire vertical height of the Wall panels 14 and extends within the foundation 12 with an L-shaped foot 24. This foot 24 extends in the foundation and may be formed as an integral unit or as a composite construction.

While the building illustrated in FIGURE 1 does not disclose the provisions for such things as windows or door openings, these provisions can be included without undue design and are well known by those skilled in the art.

Referring now to FIGURES 2 and 3, the vertical wall panels are preferably formed from a homogeneous cementitious material 28 as, for example, concrete, adobe mix, or any equivalent building material that is used to form the main body of each panel. It is to be noted that both the roof panels and the wall panels have a similar construction. A locking band 29 extends around the periphery of each wall panel 14 serving to protect the edges and has a cross section which is best illustrated in FIGURE 2. This rocking band serves to prevent chipping of the panels and also to provide a cavity for the insertion of the tie rod 22 between each adjacent wall panel 14. While not shown, additional conventional fastening devices can be used to grip adjacent locking bands 29 on adjacent Wall panels 14.

Each of the roof panels 18 includes a series of trapezoidally shaped, outwardly extending tongues 30 and 32 being disposed on an edge 34- of the panel. On each pposite edge 36 of the roof panels 18 is a series of trapezoidally shaped depressions 38 which extend along and mate with the outwardly extending tongues 31? and 32. These tongues and depressions then serve to lock the adjacent roof panels together and help serve to prevent leakage of rain through the roof. An extrusion 40 is disposed within each roof panel 18 and includes a flat plate 41 having a pair of upstanding cars 42 and 43 for purposes of locking the extrusion 40 within the roof panel 18 and being so disposed when the roof panel is cast from cementitious material. The plate 41 includes a pair of down-pending spaced-apart flanges 44 and 45 which extend on opposite sides of the locking band 29 and serve to center the roof panel upon the wall panels. The flanges 44 adn 45 also serve to guide the panels during installation and serve to aid in assembly of the building. Each roof panel 18 includes a hemispherically-shaped opening 46 extending transversely across the edge 34 and mates with the tie rod 22 thereby permitting the tie rod to extend through the roof panels. A rectangular opening 48 is disposed in each roof panel adjacent the tie rod 22 and mates with a similar shaped rectangular opening 49 on the adjacent roof panel to form a cavity contiguous with each other.

For purposes of reinforcing each roof panel 18, a series of reinforcing rods 50 are imbedded within the roof panels each having extremities 51 and 52 extending within respective rectangular cavities 48 and 49. These extremities 51 and 52 extend outwardly and are exposed thereby serving as an anchor for tying each adjacent roof panel together.

For purposes of tying all the roof panels 18 together, a locking plate 54 being formed in the shape of a rectangular metallic strip includes a central circular opening 55 which permits the insertion of the locking plate over the tie rod 22. A pair of circular openings 56 and 57 extend through the plate and permit this plate to extend over the respective extremities 52 and 51 of the reinforcing rods 50 of adjacent roof panels 18. The locking plate then prevents lateral movement of the roof panels once it is disposed in position. The circular openings 56 and 57 are large enough to permit the reception of the reinforcing rods extremities 51 and 52 and leave a little tolerance to account for error in construction of each roof panel and in the assembly of the building. A conventional threaded nut 58 extends over a threaded portion of the tie rod 22 and is tightened upon the locking plate 54 until it places the tie rod in tension and compresses the roof panel against the wall panels 14. Thus the tie rod then ties the roof panel against the wall panels and also the locking plate serves to prevent lateral movement between the adjacent roof panels.

Referring now to FIGURE 4, an alternative embodiment of the invention is illustrated wherein a vertical wall panel 14 supports four horizontally disposed roof panels 60, 62, 64 and 66. While the remainder of the building is not illustrated, this embodiment is best adapted for the support of roof panels upon interior walls, that is walls which are not facing exteriorally from the building such as illustrated in FIGURE 1. Each of the panels 60456 has a respective reinforcing rod 60A, 62A, 64A and 66A extending through each panel for purposes of reinforcing these panels in a conventional manner. These reinforcing rod extremities terminate and are exposed in a rectangular cavity 70 being formed at the joint of the respective roof panels 60, 62, 64 and 66. A rectangular metal plate 72 extends within the cavity 70 and has openings therethrough for purposes of engaging the extremity 60A, 62A, 64A and 66A much in the same manner as illustrated in the embodiment in FIGURE 3. A vertically disposed tie rod 74 extends through the wall panel 14 and projects upwardly into the cavity 70 and through the rectangular plate 72. A conventional threaded fastener 76 is threaded upon the tie rod '74 and serves to force each of the roof panels 60, 62, 64 and 66 into engagement with the vertical wall panel 14 and also prevents lateral movement of these same panels by tying each of the reinforcing rod extremities together.

It is recognized that there are equivalent changes in the form of construction. The particular shape of the cavities in their locking plates are not necessarily restricted to those illustrated in the drawings and other shapes are considered to be equivalent in the present invention. While the building construction as set forth in the present invention is directed to tying a roof panel to a series of wall panels, it is considered equivalent that a similar type of construction can be used to tie wall panels together and it is not necessarily limited to the application of the types of construction enumerated here.

I claim:

1. A building construction comprising:

a foundation,

a plurality of abutting cast vertical wall panels mounted on the foundation and a series of horizontal roof panels mounted on the wall panels,

each roof panel including a series of reinforcing rods extending therethrough,

the roof panels having a plurality of cavities contiguous with each other,

the reinforcing rods having extremities extendin g into the roof panel cavities,

a locking plate having a series of openings extending therethrough and extending over the reinforcing rods extremities and into each roof panel cavity so as to tie the adjacent roof panels together, and

a tie rod extending between each adjacent vertical wall panel and being coupled to the foundation and to the locking plate thereby forcing the roof panels against the wall panels.

2. A building construction comprising:

a plurality of abutting vertical wall panels and a series of horizontal roof panels, each roof panel including a series of reinforcing rods extending therethrough,

the roof panels having a plurality of cavities therein,

the reinforcing rods having extremities extending into the roof panel cavities,

securing means separate from and extending between each adjacent vertical Wall panel and having an extremity extending into each of the roof panel cavities, and

a locking plate having a series of openings extending therethrough seated in each of the roof panel cavities, said opening receiving the reinforcing rods and securing means extremities, and tying the adjacent roof panels together, clamping means engaging the extremities of said securing means and the locking plates, said clamping means fixing said plates in said cavities and said roof panels to the wall panels.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 917,859 4/1909 Fusch 52601 X 1,067,854 7/1913 White 52--587 X 1,193,515 8/1916 Clark 52-583 X 1,264,582 4/1918 Vergara 52-583 X 2,372,200 3/1945 Hayes 52293 X 2,947,118 8/1960 Rockwell 52 -583 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,505,979 9/1953 France.

HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner.

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