GB1292286A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of building elements - Google Patents

Abstract

1292286 Moulding concrete beams A H WIKSTROM 27 Oct 1969 [28 Oct 1968] 52555/69 Heading B5A [Also in Division E1] Concrete building elements, e.g. beams are continuously moulded in a process wherein an empty steel mould 1, lined around its side walls by a steel frame 3, is deposited by an overhead telpher from a stack 25 thereof on to a vibratory table 5; reinforcement bars are then located in the mould 1, followed by three layers of concrete, the middle one being of clinker concrete, deposited from traversing hoppers O and which are each levelled, e.g. by a vibrating profile, and then vibrated by table 5. Successive filled moulds are stacked by the telpher on a wheeled heat and moisture insulated carriage 17 and the telpher encloses each stack on a carriage 17 by a portable heat and moisture insulated setting chamber 16. The carriages 17 are then transported by a conveyer belt, or chain 28, along a track 21 as the mould stacks are heated by thermostatically controlled resistance elements of the chamber 15 supplied with current, either via an overhead line, or through the carriage wheels 18 from a live rail. At a location 30, the telpher removes the setting chamber 16 to a location 31, the moulded beams are removed to a further carriage at 32, and the empty moulds to a stack 33 which is then replaced by the telpher, together with the setting chamber, on an empty carriage at 30 which is returned, either by a further rail track or by the telpher, to its initial position in which the chamber 16 and the stack are separated by the telpher. The moulds 1 comprise open-ended trays, and the steel frames 3 include outwardly extending upper flanges, and out-turned, e.g. at 45 degrees, lower edges which locate against the mould 1. The lengths of the beams cast may be varied by end closure walls secured by pins fastened to the frame end wall and received through lugs outwardly projecting from the end closure walls. The end closure walls may be profiled to produce, on the beam ends, vertically extending tapering ribs.