EP1900887A1

EP1900887A1 - Light weight brick

Info

Publication number: EP1900887A1
Application number: EP06019035A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Li-Yu Hung
Original assignee: Hong Lead Enterprise Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hong Lead Enterprise Co Ltd
Priority date: 2006-09-12
Filing date: 2006-09-12
Publication date: 2008-03-19

Abstract

A light weight brick includes foaming elements centrally located in and surrounded by cement, decorative slates securely attached to an outer periphery of the cement and at least one through hole defined through the cement.

Description

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a light weight brick, and more particularly to a light weight brick which is easy to be employed for a wall, a fence or a pole.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Using bricks to build a wall or a fence around a garden is quite common in the countryside, especially in European countries. However, due to the dull and plain color of the bricks, people start using slates to build walls or fence. Because of the diversified shapes and colors, slates are becoming one of the major materials for constructions.
Again, due to various shape and heavy weight of the slates, the workers are having a hard time controlling the position and arrangement of the slates when building a wall. As a result, the cost for building a wall using the slates as the material is high. Therefore, despite the colors and diversified shapes of the slates, "how much it will cost" becomes a major concern for the users.
To cope with the problems, the current practice of building a wall is to prepare bricks, sands and slates or granite to the site where the wall is to be built. Then the workers start building the wall from scratch by mixing the bricks, the sand and the slates together. The slates are attached to the outer face of a brick wall so as to increase the decorative purpose of the wall. However, the current practice still suffers from the following drawbacks:

Difficult to assemble:
- After the brick wall is finished, it is not easy for the worker to arrange the slates or the granite regularly on the outer face of the wall. It often requires professional technique to accomplish the task.
- Time concern:
  - It is necessary for the worker to attach the slates or the granite to the outer face of the brick wall piece by piece such that it takes a long time to finish the building of the desired wall. Also, the transportation of the heavy-weight slates is another concern for both the user and the worker.
  - To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide an improved light weight brick to mitigate the aforementioned problems.
  - The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a light weight brick composed of foaming elements surrounded by cement and decorative flagstones attached to an outer wall of the cement.
  - Still another objective of the present invention is that the light weight brick has multiple through holes defined through the brick and a step formed on two opposed ends of the brick to correspond to and engage with the step of an adjacent brick so as to form a fence.
  - In order to accomplish the aforementioned objectives, the light weight brick of the present invention has:
    - foaming elements centrally located in and surrounded by cement; and
    - decorative slates securely attached to an outer periphery of the cement.

There are through holes defined through the cement and the foaming elements.
There are two steps formed on two opposed ends thereof so as to enable two adjacent bricks to be on top of one another.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the light weight brick of the present invention before cement is employed;
Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing components of the light weight brick of the present invention;
Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing the complete structure of the light weight brick of the present invention;
Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view showing the internal structure of the brick taken from line 4-4 of Fig. 3;
Fig. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing how the light weight brick in the second embodiment of the present invention is made;
Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the light weight brick in the second embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 7 is a cross sectional view taken from line 7-7 in Fig. 6; and
Fig. 8 is a schematically cross sectional view showing the employment of the light weight bricks respectively in the first embodiment and in the second embodiment.

With reference to Figs. 1 and 2, it is noted that the light weight brick in accordance with the present invention includes a rectangular base (10) with a centrally defined through hole (101) and two arms (102) respectively extending from two opposed sides of the rectangular base (10) to support the rectangular base (10) on a ground, multiple L-shaped decorative slates (20) surrounding a contour of the rectangular base (10), multiple rectangular foaming elements (21) and an inner core (11) which is a rectangular hollow core having a dimension substantially the same as that of the through hole (101) of the rectangular base (10).
When the light weight brick of the present invention in this embodiment is assembled, it is noted that the multiple decorative slates (20) are securely connected to one another and mounted on top of the rectangular base (10) to encompass the contour of the rectangular base (10). The inner core (11) is mounted on top of the rectangular base (10) to allow the through hole (101) to communicate with an interior of the inner core (11). Then the rectangular foaming elements (21) are sandwiched between the decorative slates (20) and the inner core (11). Thereafter, cement (30), as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, is poured between the decorative slates (20) and the inner core (11) to surround the foaming elements (21). After the combination of the decorative slates (20), the foaming elements (21) and the cement (30) is cured and the rectangular base (10) as well as the inner core (11) are removed, the light weigh brick in accordance with the present invention is presented. It is to be noted that the position of the flaming elements (21) is adjusted during the curing process such that each of the foaming elements (21) are located centrally between the inner core (11) and the decorative slates (20). After the light weight brick in this embodiment is finished, it is preferably used for building a pole in a fence.
The decorative slates (20) may be made of granite or any kind of natural stones with various patterns and shapes so as to increase the decorative effect once the light weight brick is finished.
With reference to Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8, it is noted that the light weight brick in this embodiment is prepared in a mold (50) having rods (51) extending downward from a linkage (500), two substantially
shaped side boards (52) respectively provided at both ends of the linkage (500) and multiple crossbars (53) extending between the two side boards (52). The mold (50) is hollow inside such that after the foaming elements (61) are received in the mold (50), the cement (70) is employed to fill in the void in the mold (50). Similarly, the foaming elements (61) is adjusted to be located centrally in the available space inside the mold (50) after the cement (70) is employed. Then due to the existence of the rods (51), through holes (71) are defined in the light weight brick (80) in this embodiment. It is especially noted from the cross sectional view shown in Fig. 7 that the light weight brick (80) of the present invention is now provided with two steps (81,82) respectively formed on two opposed ends of the brick (80) and mutually complementary to one another such that one light weight brick (8) can be stacked on top of an adjacent light weight brick (80) via the two complementary steps (81,82).
With reference to Fig. 8, it is noted that when the brick (80) in the second embodiment is cured and employed as a material for building a fence, steel bars (41) are used to extend through the through holes (71) of the light weigh brick (80) of this embodiment.
Therefore, it is noted that the light weight brick in the first embodiment of the present invention is able to be used to build a pole and the light weight brick in the second embodiment of the present invention is able to be used to build a fence.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.

Claims

A light weight brick characterized in that:
foaming elements (61) centrally located in and surrounded by cement (70); and

decorative slates (60) securely attached to an outer periphery of the cement (70).
The light weight brick as claimed in claim 1, wherein through holes (71) are defined through the cement (70) and the foaming elements (61).
The light weight brick as claimed in claim 2 further having two steps (81,82) formed on two opposed ends thereof so as to enable two adjacent bricks to be on top of one another.
A light weight brick characterized in that:
foaming elements (21,61) centrally located in and surrounded by cement (30,70);

decorative slates (20) securely attached to an outer periphery of the cement (30,70); and

at least one through hole (71) defined through the cement (30,70).
The light weight brick as claimed in claim 4 further having two steps (81,82) formed on two opposed ends thereof so as to enable two adjacent bricks to be on top of one another.