US1401974A - Sponge asphalt, method of producing same, and packings made therefrom - Google Patents

Description

, A. C. FISCHER.

APPLlcAnoN FILED Nov.1, 1919.

SPONGE ASPHALT, METHOD 0F PRODUCING SAME, AND PACKINGS MADE THEBEFBGM.

ALBERT CHARLES FISCHER, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SPONGE ASPHALT, METHOD OF PRODUCING SAME, AND PACKINGS MADE THEREFROM.

Specification of Letters `Patent.

Patented Jan. 3, 1922.

Application led November 1, 191119. Serial No. 335,170.v

Sponge As halt, Method of Producing- Same, and -ackings Made'lherefrom, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is based upon the discovery that asphaltic material may be developed into spongy, cellular form, and when so developed makes a good insulator of sound, moisture, electricity, heat at relatively low temperatures, and other influences; also that the material lends itself with peculiar advantage to application to spaces to be packed or objects to be covered; also to ready treatment as by a heat medium for the development thereon of an impervious sealing skin and cementation to adjoining bodies.

In order that the several phases of the present invention may be understood, one method of producing the material, a sample of the material when produced, and several suggestive uses to which it may be put are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a vertical section of a recepticle into which asphaltic material is being delivered under conditions which develop it into spongy cellular structure.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a sample of the goods produced.

Figure 3 is a sectional View suggesting a method of tamping the material into a lioint to be weatherproofed.

Figure 4 is a view suggesting a method of developing an impervious skin upon the eX- posed surface of the packing material.

Figure 5 suggests the use of the material as a heat insulation in the wall of a building.

Figure 6 illustrates the use of the material as ,(211, sound deadener beneath wooden floors; an

Figure 7 suggests the use of the material as a foundation upon which to lay paving bricks or blocks.

Referring to Figure 1, l represents a receptacle adapted to receive and hold asphaltic material in the fused state, and 2 is a container having a nozzle 2a from which the material is delivered to the receptacle under conditions which cause the material to trap air and develop an aerated condition that causes it to rise to the top of the body of the asphalt contained in the receptacle and .accumulates on the top thereof. Gravity alone may be employed for delivering the asphaltic material into the receptacle 1, or any suitable pressure medium may be employed for that purpose.

3 represents a spoutthrough which the unaerated portion al, which accumulates in the receptacle l, may be drawn off from time to time either for re-melting or in order to keep the level of the accumulating sponge asphalt below the top of the receptacle.

Preferably some means, such as the airblast 4, or a fine water spray or the like, is directed against the upper/surface of the accumulating spdnge asphalt in order to develop an impervious outer skin or sheath that traps the air in the material behind the sheath until the material is suiliciently cooled to retain its sponge-like cellular structure.

The texture of the cellular structure can be controlled, within limits, by the violence of delivery of the stream a regulated either by height of falling, or other means of acceleration; also by the temperature at which it is delivered. It may also be influenced by the provision of special air disseminating means, and the temperature at which the air is introduced.

It is to be noted that the illustration in Figure l is intended to indicate at a more or less dense unaerated though fused asphaltic material; at A the sponge-like cellular asphalt; and between A and a1 frothy or aerated asphaltic material of sufficient density to cause the globules to rise therein. For starting the process, the receptacle 1 may be largely filled with vfused asphalt until a body of spongy texture begins to accumulate upon its surface, and it can then be drawn of or its level gradually lowered so as to develop the desired violence of air- .trapping effect.

larly packed, as, for instance, the joint between two cement or other paving blocks 10, 11, it is advantageous to seal the outer surface of the packing as suggested in Figure a, as, for instance, by means of the blow torch 9, thereby developingon the packing an impervious outer skin like the skin A4, Figures 1 and 2, and which is suggested at A4 in Figure 4. This method of sealing the ing the packing firmlyto the adjacent surfaces of the objects to be/packed. In packing such as shown in Figures 3 and 4, there is ample compressibility in the packing to compensate for expansion of the structure under heat, and suiiicient resiliency in the material to compensate for enlargement of the packing space by contraction of the adjacent members as a result of cold.

Figure 5 shows the material used as a heat insulation for freight cars, refrigertors, and other building structures where it is introduced as at A between the inner sheathing 12 and the outer sheathing 13.

The material of the present invention will serve well for sound insulation in flooring, as, for instance, by introducing it as shown at A in Figure 6, where it lies between the floor boards 14 and the foundation 15 or the cement layer 15a in which are set. the battons 16 on which the boards are laid.

In this relation the material becomes an insulator against moisture as well as sound, and it will serve well as a safeguard against buckling .of expensive wooden floors, which are sometimes injured by laying them over cement foundation before the cement has fully dried out.

Another use to which the material may be put is suggested at A in Figure 7, where it serves as a substitute for the sand in which bricks are laid in paving.

'While I have illustrated the best method now known to me of developing cells in asphalt and setting it to create a spongy consistency in the material, this is not the only method of so doing. For instance, the condition maybe created by aeration or causing air bubbles to rise in heated asphalt against an upper crust of chilled asphalt; or` it may be done by chemical action causing expansion ofgases in asphalt body, followed by a cooling condition as above noted. Another method would be by evaporation or rather vaporization'of water or chemicals causing cells to form undervthe conditions of either of the foregoing recitals. Still another methodis that of blistering, according to which moisture and heated asphalt are sprayed on a surface alternately.

in any of the foregoing methods the asphalt body is caused to inherently expand into many small cells, thereby causing the spongy condition to develop.

l claim: 1. The herein-described sponge asphalt. 2. As an article ofmanufacture, an asphaltic material having a sponge-like cellu- `lar structure. outer surface also has the effect of cement- 3. As a new article of manufacture, asphaltic material having a cellular structure with sluggishly sponge-like resistance to compression.

4:. The herein-described sponge asphalt having an imperforate skin.

5. Packing material comprising in its structure sponge-like cellular asphaltic material.

6. Packing material comprising in its structure sponge-like cellular asphaltic material, and having an'imperforate continuous skin.

7. ln combination withy spaced members lof a structure, a packing therefor comprising a body of sponge-like cellular asphalt located in the space between the bodies.

8. 1n combination with spaced members of a' structure, a packing therefor comprising a body of sponge-like cellular asphalt located in the space between the bodies, and having its exposed surface fused into a continuous impervious sealing skin.

9. The art of producing sponge-asphalt which consists in delivering fused asphaltic material under air-trapping conditions, de-

lecting the aerated asphalt.

10. rl`he art of producing sponge-asphalt Lwhich consists in delivering fused asphaltic veloping aerated asphalt therefrom, and coliio Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 29th day 12 of Uctober, 1919.

ALBERT CHARLES FISCHER,

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