GB2505430A

GB2505430A - Construction kit

Info

Publication number: GB2505430A
Application number: GB201215343A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter John Charles Spurgeon
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-08-29
Filing date: 2012-08-29
Publication date: 2014-03-05
Also published as: GB201215343D0

Abstract

A construction kit comprises a multiplicity of bricks 11,16 having protruding formations on an upper surface and receiving formations on an opposite under surface that enables bricks to be releasably assembled one above another, each brick having a slit (15, figure 4b) in at least one surface, which slits align when the bricks are assembled one above the other, and a panel 20 having at least one straight edge of a thickness such as may be inserted into the aligned slits. The construction kit find particular use as a toy construction set for the assembly of model buildings where the panel is printed to represent, for example, a window, door or wall of the model building.

Description

A Construction Kit.

Background

Construction bricks such as the Lego® type are based on a module around 9mm high, 8mm long and 8mm wide. A typical brick is 9mm high, 32mm long and 16mm wide. If it is re-quired to build a wall 90mm high by 192mm long it requires about 60 bricks of this size. Holes maybe left in the wall but they cannot be represented as windows, doors, architectural features etc without special transparent bricks or special purpose bricks.

Description

The invention relates to the use of thin panels of material and a means for supporting and locating them in apertures in a wall made of small interlocking bricks. The brick for use with panel parts has a slit cut in at least one edge, or in its underside such that a panel may be slid into the brick or into an assenThly of such bricks. The slit may be of any width but it will normally be between 0.5mm and half the width of the slitted face. The panel may be supplied to a pre-cut size and design or it may need cutting out, or decoration, as part of the creative play and constrction. The panel may be of plastic, wood, cardboard, paper or metal. The panel may be transparent, or have transparent parts. The panel may have sliding or hinged parts. The panel may be coloured, patterned, or have images. The images may be representa-tive of interior or exterior walls, everyday objects, animals, persons or scenes. The images may be photographs. The images may be supplied in a digital form for printing onto panels. The images may be printed on a paper or film that may be applied to the panel. The images may be supplied in digital form for adapting and printing by the user. The images may include Brand and Advertising matter.

Detailed Description

The figures represent the use bricks similar to commonly available children's construction interlocking bricks, of plastic. These were easy to modify for prototyping the invention using a thin saw blade and the figures are easy to visualise by those familiar with child's construction bricks.

Figure la shows a square brick 1 with flat ends 2 and sides 3, the brick 1 has interlocking male features 4 in the upper edge 5 and receiving features 6 in the lower edge 7. In figure lb the longer brick 8 has identical interlocking features 4 and 6 to those of brick 1. In figure ic the brick 8 is releasably assembled under brick 1 in an offset manner to produce an essentially flat end 9 and an end 10 having a exposed interlocking features 4. Figure id shows a part of wall assembled with bricks 1 and 8 in order to achieve a bonding between the bricks, both verti-cally and horizontally and having a flat end face 13 and an extendable end 14. Figure 2a shows a square brick 11 having a slit 15 in one end, figure 2b has a brick 16 with a slit 15 in one end.

Figure 2c shows a part of a wall where the slits 15 align in the end enabling the edge of a plate 17 to be inserted. Figure 3a shows a brick 18 with slits 15 in opposite ends, Figure 3b shows a brick 19 with slits 15 in adjacent sides. In figure 3c two colunll1s have been assembled with bricks 18 and 19 and panels 20 have been assembled to form an extended wall and a corner.

Figure 3d shows a plan view of the wall and corner of figure 3c. Figure 4a shows a brick 21 of three times the length of brick 1 having slits 15 in both ends. Figure 4b shows the slitted brick 21 and one brick 11 in a first layer of bricks, having the three slits 15 to produce three panel intersection. Figure 4c shows the brick 16 and two bricks 11 in an arrangement that maybe assembled in alternate layers with the bricks of figure 4b in order to achieve three aligned slits in a column for assembly of the three panels 20 whilst also giving a buttress to a wall. Figure shows bricks surrounding a panel 22 and using bricks 23 with slits 24 in their underside.

The panel 22 could be representative of a window and be of a transparent material. Figure 6a shows a view of a rectangular model building constructed using four corner colunms of assem-bled bricks and four panels that sre accommodated in the alighned slits in the corner cokunns.

Figure 6b shows one corner assembly made to represent a round tower, the slits in the corner columns then being wide enough to accommodate the edges of both the wall panels and the tower panel. The curved tower panel may be formed from a flat material, then allowing it to be printed on a domestic printer for added creative play opportunities. When used as a toy the open top of building models may be used for access to toy characters but roof shapes can be made from cardboard (not shown) if it is desired to add extra realism. Figure 7 shows a num-ber of panels for use with the invention. The panel 25 represents a section of a wooden shed, 26 represents a wall of a house, 27 is an open shed with a window, 28 is a curtain surrounding a window or stage and 29 is a front door. Figure 8a shows a brick 32 having spring retention arms in its base 30 as a part made of a different material to the brick, only one of the sprung arms 31 is shown in the elevation for clarity, the arm may be shaped to provide a tapered lead-in' when assembling another brick into the recess. The brick body 32 being of a rigid plastic and the spring component 30 being of metal, is proportioned to exert a frictional force on the flat faces of the interlocking male features 4 and the component 30 is a press fit in the base of the body 32. The component 30 may be of various forms provided that it does not impinge on any of the possible slit positions. The component 30 may be of different sizes and have addi-tional sprung arms for accommodation in the bodies of bricks of different lengths.

Figure 8b shows a brick 33 having a slit 35 across the base of its a single cylindrical male por-tion. The slit 34 then enables the cylindrical portion 36 to be pushed into the base aperture of another brick having lesser dimensions. This principle, of using the slit to provide an accom-modating flexing effect to either the male portion or the aperture portion of the brick may be applied to many brick designs according to the invention.

Panels could be printed from plans or photograph to represent actual buildings. Development models may consist of slits created using a narrow saw blade to cut slits of 0.5mm to 1.5mm in width to accept thin cards of common thicknesses or transparent plastic sheet; such cards being cut with knives, scissors or guillotines. Roofs for models can be constructed of folded card, flat panels, or may be molded: the roof being laid on top of a model for lifting off when access is required to the inside. A panel maybe decorated on both sides, to represent the inside and outside of a building. The bricks may be cut with parallel slits in a side, enabling panels to be inserted representing a wall with an inner and an outer leaf. The edges of more than one panel may be accommodated in a slit. The panels may be flexible or curved and they may be embossed.

Individual components shown in the drawings are not limited to use in their drawings and they may be used in other drawings and in all aspects of the invention.

Claims

Claims 1. A construction kit including a multiplicity of bricks having protruding formations on an upper surface and receiving formations on an opposite under surface to enable bricks to be re-leasably assembled one above another and the bricks having a slit in at least one other surface that align when the bricks are assembled one above the other and a panel having at least one straight edge and the edge being of a thickness such as may be inserted into the aligned slits.
2. A construction kit according to claim 1 including at least one brick having a slit in its sur-face that has a receiving forniation such that its slit aligns with a slit in one of the surfaces of a receiving brick.
3. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a brick that has been produced by machining at least one slit in a brick from a non-slitted construction set.
4 A construction kit according to any one of the previous daims having at least one brick of cuboid shape.
5. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having at least one panel that has opposite parallel edges that are of a thickness that may be engaged in the slit.
6. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a panel shaped to represent a window in a wall made from the bricks.
7. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a panel shaped to represent a section of wall.
8. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a flat panel with at least one aperture to represent an access way through a wall.
9. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a flat panel that has transparent features.
10. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a flat panel that has at least one side printed to represent the features of an outside wall of a building.
11. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a flat panel that has at least one side printed to represent an inside wall of a building.
12. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a fiat panel that has pivoted features.
13. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a flat panel that has sliding features.
14. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims having a panel that includes a representation of items of furniture.
15. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims for use in the construction industry.
16. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims for model making.
17. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims as a construction toy.
18. A construction kit according to any one of the previous claims essentially as illustrated in the figures.