AU678010B2 - Magnetic building block playing system - Google Patents

Description

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DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to a building kit of magnetic toy building elements which can be used mainly as a toy, but also as a teaching aid and/or for the visualizing of plans in the building and design sector.

Because of the magnetic force the individual building elements of the building kit can be easily linked/ connected to one another, but also be easily separated again by the exertion of a sufficiently large external force. The building kit is therefore a simple, flexible and universal toy in the building sector with a high educational play value, which in addition gives great pleasure.

There are already magnetic toys in which a permanentmagnetic block and/or magnetic foil and/or metal plate is fixed as a separate part on a support material wood or plastics material). In this case the permanentmagnetic blocks are conventionally magnetized axially (optionally with ferric short circuit plate), while the magnetic foils are normally strip-magnetized on one side, wherein magnetic north- and south-pole strips alternate (cf. Fig. 4).

The toy building elemer's of the magnetic building kits known at present have, in comparison with the known mechanical toy building kits LEGO, Fischer Technik), only a very limited linkage flexibility.

This is due to the shape of the building elements, to the magnetic materials used, to the number, geometry and arrangement of the magnetically acting linkage points and to the nature of the magnetization of the linkage points. They are therefore particularly unsuitable for reproducing in a realistic manner (on a reduced scale) houses and buildings as well as machines, plants, animals and human beings. In particular the known magnetic toy building shapes are not geared sufficiently 2 to the shapes suitable for multifaceted building (e.g.

DIN building dimensions). Permanent-magnetic blocks and magnetic foils are disadvantageous as regards weight, geometry, manufacture and also under mechanical or thermal loading (cf. in this connection P 43 06 573.2 and G 93 04 198.5 of the applicant/inventor of this document).

Furthermore the known toy building elements with permanent-magnetic blocks normally possess only one magnetic linkage point on one surface. "Offset" building is therefore hardly possible, if not completely impossible, since a large part of the surface is incapable of effecting magnetic linkage. In order to make the entire surface capable of effecting magnetic linkage, magnetic foil with strip magnetization is conventionally used (cf. Fig. "Offset" building is then cartainly possible in this way, but not longitudinal cross-linking of the building blccks. Critical for the ;linkage versatility is also the geometric shape and 20 magnetization of the linkage points (or faces).

ee*0 The axial or strip magnetization normally used with toy building elements offers far fewer linkage possibilities than the type. of magnetization of the linkage points which is novel according to the invention and is 25 described further below.

*r o *n 2A In light of the above, the present invention seeks to provide building elements which enable construction of scaled-down structures based on imagination and reality and which can be erected in a simple manner.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a magnetic toy building block with a moulded body, which comprises on at least two opposite body surfaces linkage zones containing a magnetic material, characterised in that the opposite body surfaces, in order to achieve an alignment effect by means of external magnetic force between two interconnected toy building blocks, possess in each case at least two discretely constructed magnetic linkage zones spaced apart and arranged axially symmetrically, wherein the linkage zones arranged opposite one another on the body surfaces exhibit opposite magnetizations.

In DE 27 04 204 Al a "Building toy for the erection of buildings from knockdown construction elements arranged i in a grid system" is presented. A plug-in system without magnecs is however involved there. In a similar way to 20 LEGO, DUPLO and Fischertechnik, therefore, the linkages there are purely mechanical, whereas in the present patent specification the magnetic force causes the linkages. This leads (in some cases) to other building block and play properties.

*5S ees e t S:24099A 3 In DE-GM 80 23 609 a magnetic toy building block is described which "comprises at least one permanent magnet" and in which the permanent magnet and/or magnetizable elements are (partially or completely) recessed into the surface of the building block body made of plastics material. The arrangement of the permanent magnets is there characterised in that the permanent magnets "are arranged in the end areas of the building block bodies and are inserted in a slip-on body in the form of a cap", as is illustrated in a figure. Nothing is said there, however, about an axially symmetrical arrangement of the permanent magnets or about their magnetization. In particular there is no reference either in words or in figures to an (n x m) matrix arrangement (with n, m natural numbers greater than 1) of the magnetic linkage points, something which is important for "offset building"'.

In DE-OS 19 42 333 a "building block kit for model building purposes" is presented, which is characterised inter alia in that "at least some of the building blocks contain permanent-magnetic material embedded in plastic".

It is also possible there for "the permanent-magnetic material" to be "distributed in the base material in fine-grained form and magnetized in uniform direction".

In a similar way to DE-GM 30 23 609, hcwever, nothing is also said there about an axially-symmetrical arrangement of the permanent magnets or about the permanent-magnetic material or about the more precise magnetization. Nor is "offset building" with form closure any more possible with the building blocks described there.

As far as the magnetizatoii with inner and outer circle is concerned, something similar is already described in DE-GM 17 37 900 and DE-GM 17 83 302 for non-toy, industrial magnetic clamping systems. There are some differences, however, namely that with DE-GM 17 37 900 "S T LU Ty 4 the polar areas overlap in some cases and DE-GM 17 83 302 does not contain the case r 2 >r.

In US-PS 3 196 579 magnetic building elements are presented which are composed of four parts: a hollow cuboid-shaped plastics body whose underside has a 4 x 2 grid structure and whose top side is completely open in order to accommodate a plat2 with 4 x 2 grid punching, which produces a mechanical fit with the underside. The chird part is a magnetic plate which is supported on the 4 x 2 plastics grid of the underside and the fourth part is a thin mecal plate which is attached to the rear side of the magnetic plate. Because of the mechanical 4 x 2 grid structure it is also possible to perform offset building with form closure with these magnetic building elements.

An important difference from the novel invention lies, however, in the fact that in US-PS 3 196 579 the magnetic material is distributed regularly over the building block underside and the 4 x 2 matrix structure is obtained only 20 as a result of the mechanical grid structure of the plate and of the plastics body underside. Without these mechanical fixing aids positive, offset building would also not be possible there. With the ncvel invention, on the other hand, the magnetic material itself is already 25 arranged (concentrated) as a 4 x 2 matrix, so that the building blocks can be arranged positively and in an offset manner simply because of the magnetic force and do not therefore require a mechanical fixing aid.

A further difference is that with US-PS 3 196 579 there is a clamping of magnet to metal, compared with directly from magnet to magnet with the novel invention.

Magnetization and polar layouts are also different.

iA 5 In order to achieve an effect which is aesthetically pleasing and realistic, a suitable colouring is important, for example building blocks of a variegated sandstone colour of a Rhineland wine-growing estate.

As for the shape, the proportions of the proven DIN building dimensions will be used. The basic building block is accordingly a cubcid with the proportions length L width W height H L W H 3 1.5 1. Other building blocks are easily obtained by division and/or multiplication (Fig. In crder to create for example windows, doors, roofs cr facades from different architectural periods classical, Romanesque, Art Nouveau), still further shapes are required in some cases. In. the case u_ the material, a distinction must be drawn between support or filling material on the one hand and the magnetic material on the other.

Conventional plastics material with colour) can be used as support material, while there is recommended as magnetic material a magnetic/magnetizable substance mixture consisting of 25 plastics material and magnetic or magnetizable material and optionally other additives colour).

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An example of this are the so-called "magnetizable thermo-plastics", which will be referred to here as "plastics magnetic material" or "plastics magnet".

As already described in G 93 04 198.5, several possibilities are conceivable as regards the arrangement of the plastics magnetic material. The use of "plastics A4/ magnets" gives a far wider choice of shape than the V 5 conventional magnetic materials. This is important for

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6 the configuration of the magnetic linkage points and for the mechanical and thermal robustness of the toy building elements. Important for the linkage variety is above all the number, arrangement and geometry of the magnetic linkage points. In order to permit both longitudinal/ longitudinal and longitudinal/transverse connections, axially and rotationally symmetrical linkage points such as squares or circular areas are recommended. To permit "offset" and regular building, several linkage points arranged axially symmetrically on the surface are required, which are distributed uniformly on the surface (Fig. 3 and Fig. The greater the number of linkage points, the "more precisely offset" it is possible to build, wherein the type of magnetization is also important.

Since like poles repel and unlike poles attract, the N-S pole distribution (N north pole, S south pole) cannot be selected at will. Fig. 6 shows possible north-south pole arrangements for the linkage points according to Fig. 5. It will be seen that with these kinds of magnetization the linkage variety is already far greater than with the magnetic toys known to date, since in particular longitudinal/transverse connections are also possible. However, care always has to be taken when building to see that the building blocks are correctly rotated. In addition, linkages are (again) only possible with the "next but one series of points", since the "next series of points" always ha' a repellant effect.

An ideal building block, on the other hand, would be one in which all the points of two building block faces to be linked attract one another. The N-S pole distribution would then no longer have to be allowed for when building. The solution to this is shown in Fig. 1, from the example of interleaved square or circular areas. In this case the inner and outer surfaces are each magnetized with opposite poles. The linkage points of two sides to be linked are exactly oppositely magnetized.

7 If only top and bottom sides of the basic building block according to Fig. 1 are magnetized, the same linkage possibilities exist as with tt mechanical LEGO building blocks. If in addition the i s (all six) of the cuboid are magnetized in this way lie linkage variety is even greater than with LEGO building blocks. Lateral linkage points are useful, for example, if it is desired to fix facade building blocks of a particular architectural style laterally to the basic building blocks. In order to achieve the greatest possible clamping power, the magnetic field density should be at its greatest on the building block surface.

The parameters d 1 d 2 d 3 or rl, r 2 r 3 and h from Fig. 1 will be adapted according to the desired clamping power.

ri is here the radius of the inner circle, r, the inner radius of the outer circle and r 3 the outer radius of the outer circle together with d 2 d 3 correspondingly for the square shape. The parameter h denotes the height of a magnetic linkage point. In the special case d 3 =d,=d>0 or r 3 r 2 =rr>0, one has only one square or one circle as a magnetically effective linkage point (cf.Fig. 3 and Fig.

In principle all known maynetic materials which permit such an arrangement and magnetization could be used for this purpose, i.e. not only magnetizable thermoplastics.

The drawings Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 represent embodiments of this invention.

The individual figures show the following: Fig. 1: Axially symmetrical arrangement of the magnetic linkage points for square or circular north-south pairs with the main geometric parameters d 2 d 3 or r 2 r 3 and h.

8 Fig. 2: Basic building block with divider and multiple Fig. 3: all blocks with magnetic linkage points, only top and bottom side with magnetic linkage points.

Fig. 4: Strip magnetization with transverse strips and (b) longitudinal strips; N=north pole, S=south pole.

Fig. Surface with square and circular magnetic linkage points.

Fig. 6: Two useable N-S arrangements with square or circular linkage points according to Fig. An embodiment of the invention is a magnetic toy building kit with various toy building elements linkable to one another in such a way that with it essentially realistic houses can be easily reproduced on a reduced scale. In addition to detached family houses or terraced houses (with or without garden), the reproduction of private and public buildings of historico-cultural importance is particularly worthwhile, such as for example Burg Trifels, Hambach Castle, Villa Ludwigshbhe, Arc de Triomphe, Alhambra etc..

The basic building block for this is a cuboid with the proportions L W H 3 1.5 1 with for example x 15 x 10 mm (cf. Fig. The edges of the building A blocks can naturally also be bevelled, rounded or 9 otherwise finished in order to achieve particular effects, e.g blind joint.

Conventional plastics material ABS with colour) is selected as support material and a magnetizable thermoplastic as magnetic material. On its top and bottom sides there are to be arranged axially symmetrically eight horizontally embedded, circular magnetic linkage points with inner and outer circle. On the top side the inner circles are each to be magnetized unilaterally as south poles and the outer circles as north poles; on the bottom side precisely the reverse (cf. Fig. i).

In order to reproduce the facades as realistically as possible, either an outer side of the basic building block can be fashioned accordingly surface structure and colour) or else magnetic linkage points can be accommodated additionally on an outer side of the basic building blocks so that specially shaped facade building blocks can be fixed (magnetically) thereto. The latter variant has the advartage that various facade styles can be tested simply and rapidly in toy terms with the same "shell".

Dividers and multiples of the basic building block are naturally required as door crossbeams) together with still :urther shapes cylinders as columns, window and door toy building elements).

A magnetip toy building kit of this kind can be expanded in stages into a complete "magnetic toy world". It calls for creativity as well as constructive and artistic understanding, particularly of architecture and art history, and can provide a great deal of pleasure, among other things because of the magnetic effect.

Claims (4)

1. Magnetic toy building block with a moulded body, which comprises on at least two opposite body surfaces linkage zones containing a magnetic material, characterised in that the opposite body surfaces, in order to achieve an alignment effect by means of external magnetic force between two interconnected toy building blocks, possess in each case at least two discretely constructed magnetic linkage zones spaced apar and arranged axially symmetrically, wherein -he linkage zones arranged opposite one another on :he body surfaces exhibit opposite magnetizations.

2. Magnetic toy building block according to claim 1, characterised in that: he linkage zones are provided with concentrically arranged magnetic surfaces, wherein the macnetic surfaces each have an inner face and an ou:er face with opposite magnetizations. S

3. Magnetic toy building block according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that on at least one lateral *5* surface of the moulded body f:rther linkage zones are arranged.

4. A magnetic toy building block substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to figure 1, figure 2, figure 3 or figure Dated this 3rd day of March 1997 AL/ TRIFELS SPIELWARENFABRIK THEO KLEIN GMBH By their Patent Attorneys (1 GRIFFITH HACK