NZ533319A

NZ533319A - Building system

Info

Publication number: NZ533319A
Application number: NZ53331904A
Authority: NZ
Inventors: Peter Harris
Original assignee: Craig Wallace Lonsdale; Peter Raymond Harris
Priority date: 2004-07-27
Filing date: 2004-07-27
Publication date: 2007-03-30
Also published as: WO2006011818A1

Abstract

A building component includes a panel of insulating material formed with vertical tunnels 13 which are adapted to receive continuous columns 19 of load bearing material. One end of the panel is formed with a horizontal channel which extends along the width of the panel and which opens into the tunnels 13.

Description

533 3 1 9 New Zealand Patent App. 533319 Filed: 27 July 2004 Patents Form No. 5 Patents Act 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION BUILDING SYSTEM I, Peter HARRIS, a New Zealand citizen of P.O. Box 1287, Queenstown, New Zealand, hereby declare the invention for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: i'ii: i! ■ .=•/ 2 ?r:s 1 (to be followed by 1a) Title: Building System Technical Field The present invention relates to a building system and component in which a combination of insulating materials and load bearing materials is used to form the walls of a building, and to a method of using this component.

Background Art It is known to form a wall structure from blocks or sheets of lightweight insulating materials (such as polystyrene or foamed plastics materials) which have been hollowed out to form a cavity which is then filled with a load bearing material such as concrete. However, in known constructions of this type, the resultant structure effectively is a continuous concrete panel sandwiched by a layer of insulating material on each face of the concrete panel; panels made in this way use a comparatively large volume of load bearing material for each panel.

New Zealand Patent Number 29 7909 discloses a building system which uses panels of insulating materials such as polystyrene reinforced by spaced concrete columns and a concrete beam across the upper end of the columns. However, in this system the columns are formed in channels which are formed by aligning rebates along the edges of adjacent polystyrene panels. This means that the panels have to be very accurately located and supported on-site, since any inaccuracies in the alignment of adjacent panels will mean that the columns are not formed correctly. Thus, the system is comparatively labour-intensive and slow to use.

Disclosure of Invention An object of the present invention is the provision of a building component which combines an insulating material and a load bearing material to form a strong composite construction with good insulating properties, but which uses less of the load bearing material than the currently known constructions. A further object of the present invention is the provision of a building component which enables the columns of a column and beam type of construction to be formed quickly and accurately on-site. 1a 1 As used herein, the term "insulating material" is used to refer to materials whose primary function is to provide heat insulation; it will be appreciated that materials which provide heat insulation may also have some load bearing capabilities:- for example, polystyrene blocks are capable of bearing a significant compressive load, but nevertheless their primary function is to insulate rather than to carry load. Similarly, the term "load bearing materials" is used to refer to materials whose primary function is to provide strength to the construction (e.g. concrete and steel) although some of the load bearing materials may also have a significant heat insulation factor.

The present invention provides a building component which includes a panel of insulating material formed with at least one vertical tunnel therethrough, the or each said tunnel being adapted to receive a continuous column of load bearing material; wherein one end of the panel is formed with a horizontal channel which extends along 15 the width of the panel, with the base of the channel opening into the end of the or each tunnel, said channel being adapted to receive a continuous beam of load bearing material.

Description of the Drawings By way of example only, preferred embodiments of the present invention are described in detail, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section through part of a wall constructed in accordance with 25 the present invention; Fig. 2 is an end view of the wall of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a sectional side view of the upper part of a wall; Fig. 4 is a sectional sided view of the lower part of a wall; and Fig. 5 is a plan view of two walls joined together.

Best Mode for Carrying out the Invention Fig. 1 shows a section through part of a wall 10 constructed in accordance with the present invention; the wall 10 is made up of one panel 11 which is the full height of the 35 wall and panels 12, each of which is a quarter of the height of the wall. The smaller Intellectual Property Office of N.Z.

JAN 2007 panels 12 are stacked four panels deep, with a row of three adjacent panels at each level.

Each of the panels 11,12 is made of a lightweight insulating material such as 5 polystyrene or a foamed plastics material. Each of the panels is a flat sided cuboid, the height, width and depth of which are selected as required for the particular application:- for example, it may be convenient to construct the entire wall 10 from full height panels such as panel 11, or smaller panels 12 may be used for the whole wall structure, or in combination with some full height of panels 11 as shown in Fig. 1. 10 Regardless of the panel's height and width, the depth of each panel must be sufficient to accommodate the full width of a tunnel 13 which is formed through the panel such that when the panels are arranged to form a wall, the tunnels 13 extend vertically. At least one tunnel 13 is formed through each panel 11,12; in the drawings, only a single tunnel is shown per panel, but more than one tunnel can be formed in each panel if 15 required. Each tunnel 13 is completely contained within the insulating material, with continuous walls, and is open only at its upper and lower ends.

The tunnels 13 are located at the same position or positions in each panel, so that if the smaller panels 12 are stacked as shown in Fig. 1, the tunnels 13 align in a vertical 20 plane to form a continuous tunnel through the entire stack of panels.

Each of the panels 11,12 at the top of the wall has a channel 14 formed across the top of the width of the panel; the base 14a of the channel 14 opens into the top of the tunnels 13. Once the panels have been assembled to form a wall of the required 25 dimensions, with the tunnels 13 aligned in a vertical plane and the channels of 14 aligned in a horizontal plane, the channels/tunnels 14 and 13 are filled with a suitable load bearing material (e.g. concrete) to form a continuous top beam 18 and a series of spaced columns 19. The channels/tunnels 14,13 may be filled by pouring concrete into the channels or by inserting preformed load bearing material into the 30 channels/tunnels (e.g. preformed concrete or steel posts for the tunnels 13 and a preformed concrete or steel beam for the channels 14). If preformed load bearing materials are used, then the top of each column 19 is tied to the top beam 18 in any suitable known manner.

If the channels/tunnel 14,13 are filled by pouring in a load bearing material, reinforcing rods 20 may first be placed in the tunnels as shown in Fig. 1; the reinforcing rods 20 3 extend through the top beam 18 and are bent over and fastened to the top beam 18. Alternatively, the upper end of each reinforcing rod 20 may extend through the top beam 18 and into the roof framing 22 as shown in Fig. 3. One or more additional reinforcing rods 25 (shown in broken lines in Fig. 1) may extend horizontally through 5 the channels 14.

Another possible configuration is to arrange the upper end of each reinforcing rod 20 to extend horizontally into the top beam 18.

Truss wall connectors (not shown) of known type may be cast into the top beam 18.

Each of the panels 11,12 at the base of the wall has a cavity 15 formed across the width of the base of the panel; the cavity 15 is dimensioned to receive a baseplate 16 (Fig. 1).

At the base of the wall, the reinforcing rods 20 may extend below the base of the wall to terminate in the baseplate 16. Alternatively, the lower end of each of the reinforcing rods 20 may be anchored in a foundation structure 23 as shown in Fig. 4.

It will be appreciated that, using the construction of the present invention, a wall may be constructed from a single panel of the required dimensions or from multiple panels assembled to form the required dimensions. If multiple panels are used, then adjacent panels are secured together by any suitable means e.g. by bonding together with a bonding material such as an expanding foam.

When construction is completed, the wall is formed of one or more panels of insulating material supported by a series of spaced columns 19 secured together along their upper ends by a top beam 18 and along their lower ends by a baseplate 16 or an alternative foundation construction. This gives a strong load bearing wall which has 30 excellent heat insulation characteristics.

The fact that the columns 19 are formed in the precut tunnels 13 means that the columns are reliably and accurately formed without the need to support and align the edges of the panels very accurately during casting the concrete.

The cross-sectional area and shape of each column 19, and the spacing between the 4 columns, can be varied as required for a wide range of applications. Two or more walls may be formed at any required orientation and can be secured together by opening up adjacent channels 14 so that a continuous top beam is formed, and using horizontal reinforcing rods as necessary to provide extra strength. Fig. 5 shows one 5 such variation, in which a T-shaped arrangement of two walls is formed:- one wall 30 extends at right angles to the second wall 31 and the junction is reinforced by a T-shaped reinforcing rod 32 and a continuous top beam 33.

Claims

1. CLAIMS: 5 10 2 15 3 20 4 25 30 6 A building component which includes a panel of insulating material formed with at least one vertical tunnel therethrough, the or each said tunnel being adapted to receive a continuous column of load bearing material; wherein one end of the panel is formed with a horizontal channel which extends along the width of the panel, with the base of the channel opening into the end of the or each tunnel, said channel being adapted to receive a continuous beam of load bearing material. The building component as claimed in claim 1, wherein the other end of the panel is formed with a horizontal cavity which extends along the width of the panel. The building component as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the load bearing material is selected from the group consisting of: preformed concrete, preformed steel reinforced concrete, steel, concrete poured in situ, steel reinforced concrete poured in situ. The building component as claimed in any one of the preceding claims where the insulating material is selected from the group consisting of: polystyrene; foamed plastics materials. A load bearing structure formed from a building component as claimed in claim 1, wherein said panel of insulating material has a height and width equal to the height and width of said structure and the panel has a plurality of spaced parallel vertical tunnels therethrough; wherein each said tunnel is filled by a continuous column of load bearing material and said channel is filled with a continuous beam of load bearing material, the top of each column being rigidly secured to said beam. A load bearing structure formed from two or more building components as claimed in claim 1, wherein each panel of insulating material has a height equal to the height of said structure and said panels are joined together side-by-side to form a composite panel having a width equal to the width of said structure; wherein each said tunnel is filled by a continuous column of load 6 Intellectual Property Office of N.z. 1 0 JAN 2007 bearing material and said channel is filled with a continuous beam of load bearing material, the top of each column being rigidly secured to said beam. A load bearing structure formed from building component as claimed in claim 1, said components including at least one panel of insulating material having a height equal to the height of said structure and two or more shorter panels of insulating material having a height less than the height of said structure; said shorter panels being stacked in one or more stacks to achieve a composite panel of predetermined height and width, with the tunnels in said shorter panels being positioned such that when said panels are stacked, the tunnels are aligned to form a single continuous tunnel down the or each stack, and the channels are aligned to form a continuous channel; each said tunnel being filled by a continuous column of load bearing material and said channel being filled with a continuous beam of load bearing material; the top of each column being rigidly secured to said beam. A load bearing structure formed from building components as claimed in claim 1, said components including two or more panels of insulating material having a height less than the height of said structure, said panels being stacked in one or more stacks to achieve a composite panel of predetermined height and width with the tunnels in said panels being positioned such that when said panels are stacked, the tunnels are aligned to form a single continuous tunnel down the or each stack, and the channels are aligned to form a continuous channel; each said tunnel being filled by a continuous column of load bearing material and said channel being filled with a continuous beam of load bearing material; the top of each column being rigidly secured to said beam. The load bearing structure as claimed in any one of claims 5-8, wherein the load bearing material is selected from the list consisting of: preformed concrete, preformed steel reinforced concrete, steel, concrete poured in situ, steel reinforced concrete poured in situ. The load bearing structure as claimed in any one of claims 5 - 9, wherein the insulating material is selected from the list consisting of: polystyrene, foamed plastics materials. Intellectual Property Office of N.Z. 10 JAN 2007 A building component substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings. A load bearing structure substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings. Intellectual Property Office of N.

2. 10 JAN 2007 RECEIVED