EP3414401B1

EP3414401B1 - Cage for containing stone materials for use in making dry stone wall structures

Info

Publication number: EP3414401B1
Application number: EP17712824.6A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Alessandro DALLA COSTA
Original assignee: Ufficio Commercio Porfido Sas Di Dalla Costa Alessandro & C
Current assignee: Ufficio Commercio Porfido Sas Di Dalla Costa Alessandro & C
Priority date: 2016-02-08
Filing date: 2017-02-03
Publication date: 2020-04-22
Anticipated expiration: 2037-02-03
Also published as: ITUB20160569A1; EP3414401A1; WO2017137873A1

Description

The present invention relates to a cage for containing stone materials for use in making dry stone wall structures, such as enclosure or retaining walls for steep and loose ground.
In the prior art, cages for containing loose stone materials for use in building dry stone wall structures as mentioned above, are formed using flexible wire meshes, which are folded into box-like configurations, i.e. having cubic or cylindrical shapes, leaving an open portion, which is designed to allow the stone material to be introduced therein and to be later closed by tying the mesh wires.
The cages constructed according to the above discussed prior art suffer from the drawback of being somewhat deformable when they are empty, which makes it difficult to fill them with stone materials, and are still deformed when filled, especially under the compression stresses acting upon them when they are stacked to form a dry stone wall structure.
Such cages also have the drawback of not being easily handled by common lifting machines, as they have no strong coupling features for connection of the arms of the lifting machines.
The deformability of these cages also involves the drawback that the stone wall structures formed thereby have uneven surfaces, which are not perfectly flat, and have irregular corners, thereby creating an aesthetically and structurally defective product.
Cages are also known, whose walls are formed with grids of crossed wire elements, which are connected, at their intersections, for example by welding, to form rectangular meshes, see e.g. JP 2015 094169 A .
Nevertheless, when forming stone wall structures from multiple longitudinally adjoined cages, proper alignment of the latter is not easily achieved.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a cage for containing stone materials for use in building dry stone wall items, such as enclosure or retaining walls for loose ground, that can obviate the drawbacks of prior art cages and particularly can achieve proper alignment and connection of both longitudinally adjoined cages and superimposed cages, thereby strengthening the dry stone wall.
These and other objects, as better explained hereafter, are fulfilled by a cage for containing stone materials as defined in the accompanying claim 1.
The invention will be now described in greater detail with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of illustration and without limitation, and shown in the annexed drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a cage of the invention in its preferred embodiment, with the top wall removed for filling stone materials therein;
Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the cage of Figure 1, filled with stone materials, with the top wall shown in an exploded configuration above the open side of the cage;
Figure 3 shows a perspective view of the cage of the invention, filled with stone materials and closed;
Figure 4 shows a perspective view of a cage of the invention, with comb-like coupling members for lifting is shown in an exploded configuration, and a pair of adjoined fixed posts;
Figure 5 shows a perspective view of a cage of the invention, with posts fitted therein for fixation to the ground as a base cage and with the comb-like lifting members coupled thereto;
Figure 6 shows a perspective view of a base cage in its position with connection posts for a second cage being introduced therein;
Figure 7 shows a perspective view of a base cage in its position and a second cage having comb-like lifting members, as it is being placed on top of the base cage;
Figure 8 shows a perspective view of a stone wall structure composed of two cages of the invention, one on top of the other, with the addition of lateral finishing elements;
Figure 9 shows a perspective view of a connection device between longitudinally adjoined cages.

Referring to the above figures, and particularly to Figure 1, the cage of the invention, which is generally designated by numeral 1, has the configuration of a parallelepiped with rectangular walls, two of which, referenced 2 and 3, form longer sides, mainly extending in a longitudinal direction, as compared with the end walls 4 and 5 whose width sets the width of the cage structure and the thickness of stone wall structure to be formed.
The other walls, referenced 6 and 7 form the base of the cage and the cover, the latter being opened, as shown in Figure 1, to pour the stone materials, generally referenced 8, into the cage.
All the walls of the parallelepiped configuration are flat and are formed using wire elements 9 perpendicularly crossed with wire elements 10 to form rectangular meshes 11. At their intersections the wire elements 9 and 10 are connected by conventional means, such as by welding.
Alternatively, the walls 2 and 3 that mainly extend in a longitudinal direction may have a curved profile, with their concave side facing the interior of the cage.
The aforementioned wire elements 9 and 10 may be advantageously made from galvanized aluminum, with a diameter ranging from 4 to 10 mm, preferably of 6 mm.
The meshes formed by the wire elements preferably have a size of 19 x 200 mm, and are arranged over a surface of 1000 x 1998 mm for each of the walls 2 and 3 that form the pair mainly extending in a longitudinal direction.
The cage comprises a plurality of bracing tie rods 12 between the walls mainly extending in a longitudinal direction, which are connected to the wire elements 10 by bending the ends of each tie rod into hooks.
The opposed walls 4 and 5 located at the ends of the walls 2 and 3 mainly extending in a longitudinal direction, are equipped with respective tubular rod elements 14 and 15, which are rigidly fixed to their respective walls, e.g. by welding on the wire elements 9 and 10 of the walls, such that they are located within the cage, with a vertical orientation relative to the base wall 6.
The tubular element 14 has openings 16 and 17 at its ends and the tubular element 15 has similar end openings 18 and 19, which can be all accessed from the outside of the cage, from the bottom 6 and the cover 7 respectively, through special spaces that are left open by the wire elements 9 and 10 of their respective walls.
Preferably, the tubular elements 14 and 15 have an inner axial cavity with a four-sided, particularly square, cross section, although different geometric configurations may be also envisaged, e.g. polygonal or circular configurations.
Particularly referring to Figure 4 the cage of the invention also comprises at least one pair of rod- like elements 20 and 21 in the form of posts, whose cross section conforms with that of the axial cavity of the tubular elements 14 and 15 with a smaller size, such that they can be telescopically introduced into the axial cavities as more clearly shown hereinafter.
Still referring to Figure 4, the cage of the invention further comprises a plurality of coupling members 22, which are used to lift it by mechanical means, each comprising a plate-like portion 23 with slots 24, and a comb-like arrangement 25 with hook-like teeth 26, extending along the edge 23a of the plate-like portion 23.
As shown in Figure 5, when the cage 1 has to be lifted using conventional lifting machines, particularly when it is filled with stone materials and is very heavy, the coupling members 22 are fixed to the edges of the cage 1 by fitting the hooks 26 of the comb 25 into corresponding meshes 11, proximate to the edges of the top side of the walls 2 and 3, in adequate positions for the slots 24 to engage and cooperate with the coupling devices of the lifting machines.
Still referring to Figure 5 it shall be noted that a cage 1 of the invention may be placed in a position in which a stone wall structure is designed to be formed, e.g. as shown in Figure 8, to act as a base cage, and the portions 27 and 28 of the rod-like posts 20 are fitted into the respective tubular elements 14 and 15 toward the tip-like ends thereof, referenced 29 and 30 respectively. The remaining axial portions 31 and 32 of the posts 20 and 21, terminating with the tipless ends 33 and 34, are separated by respective peripheral ribs 35 and 36, allowing abutment against the edge of openings 17 and 19 of the tubular elements 14, 15 when the posts are inserted therein.
Preferably, the aforementioned ribs 35, 36 are placed on the posts 20, 21 for the portions 27 and 28 to be long at least 60% the overall length of their respective posts.
This length , in a preferred embodiment, is equal to 1000 nm.
As shown in Figure 6, the portions 31 and 32 of the pair of posts 20 and 21 for the base cage 1, are intended to be fitted into the laying ground of said cage 1 which is designed to accomplish the base task of the stone wall structure to be built.
Alternatively, the base cage 1 may be fixed to the support surface also by means of plates, not shown, which are welded to the tubular element 14 and to the tubular element 15 that are fixed to the (reinforced concrete) understructure, by means of threaded bars and resin or by means of mechanical plugs, that are not shown because they have a conventional construction Further base cages 1 may be laid in longitudinally adjoined positions, depending on the length of the stone wall structures to be formed, i.e. laid with the wall (5) at the end of said side walls (2, 3) mainly extending in a longitudinal direction of one cage adjacent to the wall (4) at the end of said side walls (2, 3) mainly extending in a longitudinal direction of the other cage.
Here, according to one aspect of the invention, proper horizontal alignment is obtained by connecting together two adjacent cages using a connecting fork device, as shown in Figure 9 and generally designated by numeral 37, i.e. by introducing the teeth 38 and 39, joined together by the plate 40 of the connection device 37, into the top opening 18 of the tubular element 15 of a first cage and into the top opening 16 of the tubular element 14 of the other adjoining cage respectively.
The vertical laying configuration of a second cage 1a on top of the base cage 1, is shown in Figure 7.
Once the pair of posts 20 and 21 for the second cage have been positioned by fitting their respective portions 31 and 32 into the top portions of the tubular elements 14 and 15 of the cage 1, with the respective peripheral ribs 35 and 36 abutting the edges of the openings 16 and 18 of the tubular elements, the cage 1a which is identical to the cage 1, is lifted by means of the coupling members 22 and is placed on top of the cage 1, with the portions 27 and 28 of the posts 20 and 21 fitted into the bottom openings 17, 19 of the tubular elements 14 and 15 of the cage 1a.
Then the coupling members 22 are removed, and additional cages may be overlaid or adjoined until the dry stone wall structure is completed.
Once the latter is so formed, it is perfectly stable in the vertical direction due to the presence of the connecting posts 20, 21 between the superimposed cages and the connecting fork devices 37 between the adjoining cages of the upper row.
Furthermore, the structure has walls with even surfaces and well defined corners, and has an aesthetically pleasant appearance.
While preferred dimensions have been indicated herein, any dimensions may be used as needed, without departure from the scope of the invention as disclosed above and claimed below.

Claims

A cage for containing stone materials (8) for use in making a dry stone wall structure by stacking at least two of these, which comprises perforated walls joined together to impart a closed three-dimensional configuration to the cage, said configuration having a base wall (6), a pair of side walls (2, 3) mainly extending in a longitudinal direction, a pair of walls (4, 5) located at the ends of said side walls (2, 3) mainly extending in a longitudinal direction, as well as a cover wall (7) characterized in that the opposed walls (4, 5) which delimit the cage configuration at the ends of the pair of side walls (2, 3) mainly extending in a longitudinal direction both have respective tubular rod-like elements (14, 15) rigidly attached to their respective walls in the cage and oriented perpendicular to said base wall (6), said tubular elements (14, 15) having openings (18, 19) at their ends, said openings (18, 19) being accessible from outside the cage (1, 1a), said tubular elements being adapted to telescopically receive, through their respective end openings, respective end portions (31, 32) of a pair of connecting rod-like elements (20, 21) which are fitted between two identical closed cage configurations, stacked one above the other to form the dry stone wall structure.
A cage for containing stone materials (8) for use in making a dry stone wall by adj oining at least two of these, as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said tubular elements (14, 15) are adapted to telescopically receive, through their respective end openings (16, 18) respective teeth (38, 39) of a connecting fork device (37) located between two cage configurations when the latter are adjoined with the wall (5) at the end of said side walls (2, 3) mainly extending in a longitudinal direction of one cage adjacent to the wall (4) at the end of said side walls (2, 3) mainly extending in a longitudinal direction of the other cage.
A cage for containing stone materials (8) a claimed in claim 1, characterized in that each of said tubular elements (14, 15) has a four-sided cross section, and each of said rod-like elements connecting two cages in stacked relationship, has a corresponding four-sided cross section of smaller size, allowing it to be axially introduced into the respective element of said tubular elements (14, 15).
A cage for containing stone materials (8) a claimed in claim 2, characterized in that each of said tubular elements (14, 15) has a four-sided cross section, and each of said teeth (38, 39) of said fork element (37) connecting two cages in longitudinally adjoined relationship, has a corresponding four-sided cross section of smaller size, allowing it to be axially introduced into the respective element of said tubular elements (14, 15).
A cage for containing stone materials as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said closed configuration is a parallelepiped with rectangular flat faces.
A cage for containing stone materials as claimed in claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said perforated walls (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) are made of grids composed of wire elements (9, 10) in crossed relationship to form meshes (11) and rigidly attached to each other at their respective crossing points.
A cage for containing stone materials as claimed in claim 6, characterized in that said wire elements (9, 10) have a diameter ranging from 5 to 10 mm.
A cage for containing stone materials (8) as claimed in claims 1 to 7, characterized in that it comprises brace ties (12) connecting together two opposed walls (2, 3) of the closed configuration of the cage.
A cage for containing stone materials (8) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that when said cover wall (7) is lifted, it allows stone material (8) to be loaded into the cage, and when it is lowered, it closes it, said cover wall (7) being opposed to said base wall (6).
A cage for containing stone materials (8) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of coupling members (22) allowing the cage to be lifted by hoisting machines, said coupling members (22) comprising plates (23) with apertures (24) and hook-like teeth (26) in comb arrangement (25), said hook-like teeth (26) being designed to fit into respective meshes (11) of two opposed walls (2, 3) of the cage and engage with the crossed wire elements (9, 10) of the grids that form the walls.