US3813841A - Cuboidal structures - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the assembling matters such as blocks which are solid and stout and have excellent fittability or joinability to one another, such matters being capable of forming face plates of perfectly same configuration adapted to constitute the respective sides or faces of a six-sided cubic structure which can be easily assembled or disassembled and which can be utilized for a variety of purposes such as for building, construction, many types of utensiles, structures, toys and so forth.

Description

United States Patent [191 Tsurumi 1 .Bune4,1974

I 1 CUBOIDAL STRUCTURES [76] Inventor: Sukeo Tsurumi, 55 Syokusan, Najio,

Siyoze, Post No. 669-11, Nisinamiya, Hiyogo, Japan [22] Filed: Nov. 18, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 200,081

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data June 25, 1971 Japan 46-45692 June 25, 1971 Japan 46-45693 [52] US. CI 52/648, 273/160, 52/758 A [51] Int. CI ..E04h 1/12 [58] Field of Search 46/27, 28, 29, 24, 25;

287/54 B, 54 C, 189.36 A; 52/79, 648, DIG. 10, 655, 488, 656, 657, 663, 637, 668;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,894,061 1/1933 Sanders 46/25 2,473,369 6/1949 273/160 2,558,591 6/1951 Starck 273/160 UX 2,836,421 5/1958 Turner 273/160;

3,144,265 8/1964 Humble 287/54 8 3,670,449 6/1972 Lemkin et al.... 46/25 X 3,690,672 9/1972 Dreyer 46/24 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 150,156 4/1904 Germany 46/28 259,637 5/1913 Germany 52/657 363,444 9/1962 Switzerland 287/189.36 A

Primary Examiner-John E. Murtagh Assistant Examiner-Carl D. Friedman 5 7 ABSTRACT The present invention relates to the assembling matters such as blocks which are solid and stout and have excellent fittability or joinability to one another, such matters being capable of forming face plates of perfectly same configuration adapted to constitute the respective sides or faces of a six-sided cubic structure which can be easily assembled or disassembled and which can be utilized for a variety of purposes such as for building, construction, many types of utensiles, structures, toys and so forth.

3 Claims, 24 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJun 4mm sntsnurs INVENTOR SUKEO Tsu/ecrm PATENTEDJUR 4 m4 INVENTO/E SUK0 TSURUM/ HTTORNEYS PATENTEDJUH 191 3813841 sum 5 or 5 Feb.

INVENT R SUKEO T URU/VII ATTOIQ/VH'S CUBOIDAL STRUCTURES DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention is intended to provide very useful assembling matters which are of most simple and uniform configuration and designed to constitute the respectives sides of a six-sided cubic structure and which are easy to manufacture, transport and handle and can be easily combined together in various ways to meet various purposes of use.

In the conventional built-up structures of various types such as concrete blocks, the individual composite members are widely varied in quality and shape, and it was hardly possible to build up a complicated structure meeting certain particular purposes by assembling the simple uniformalized members alone. Also, such structures as concrete blocks, particularly the ones which are of a large size, was very difficult to transport in the form as they are, so that it was often necessary to transport them in sections and assemble them at the job site. It will, therefore, be easily understood that it would be of great benefit not only to such building and construction industries but also to our daily life if there were available uniform-sized assembling matters that can be easily and efficiently assembled into desired structures including not only those used for building or construction but also many types of daily utensiles or toys and that can also be easily disassembled and rearranged into other types of structures as desired.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide face or side plate of same configuration which can be joined together at four sides to form a six-sided regular cubic structure which, if desired, can be easily disjointed and reassembled into an oblong cubic structure since said plates, although same in configuration, may be varied in size.

Another object of the present invention is to obtain a perfect cubic structure by suitably combining said plate members which are most simple and handly and are of same standardized quality.

It is still another object of the present invention to obtain cubic structures used for constructing a truss or the like, such cubic structures being composed of cross-or lattice-shaped plate members.

It is an additional object of the present invention to build up a perfect hollow cubic structure by assembling plate members of the same configuration.

Yet another object of the present invention is to obtain said type of plate members which are made of steel, concrete, wood, synthetic resin or other like material and which are suited for use as a prefab building matter.

A further object of the present invention is to extend the scope of application of the basic principle of the invention over the expanded fields of various industries, domestic applications, toys, recreations, etc.

These and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from reviewing the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention as taken in conjuction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. I is a perspective view of a cubic structure built up by assembling the crossshaped members each being adapted to constitute a side of said structure;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the general configuration of a cross-shaped member used to constitute a side of the cubic structure of FIG. I;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example where the circularly or squarely shaped face plate members are used together with the cross-shaped members to form a crate-like cubic structure;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a cross-shaped member as it was divided into two portions;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a cross-shaped face plate member made from a single sheet of plate;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a cubic structure formed by assembling the plate members shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a simple elementary matter which may be combined with many other similar matters to assembly a cross-shaped face plate member or a cubic structure;

FIG. 8 is a plane view of the elementary matter of FIG. '7, showing the width A thereof;

FIG. 9 is a plane view showing the thickness B and other dimensions of the elementary matter of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a plane view of a face plate member formed by combining three elementary matters shown in FIGS. 7 to 9; I

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the plate member shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a plate member formed by combining two elementary matters and providing auxilary fillers thereto;

FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing'the configuration of said fillers;

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of a face plate member modified from the member of FIG. 2 so as to form recessions and projections at four sides;

FIG. 15 is a perspective of a cubic structure assembled from the face plate members exemplified in FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a square plate to which the face plate member or members of FIG. 14 may be hinged;

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of a face plate member similar to that shown in FIG. 14 but reduced in thickness;

FIG. 18 is a perspective view of a cubic structure assembled from the face plate members of FIG. 17, show ing the joined relation between said members;

FIG. 19 is a perspective .view of a member formed by hollowing out the interior of the plate member of FIG. 14, with rods or bars being passed therethrough to make the member lockable:

FIG. 20 is a perspective view of a cubic structure built up by assembling the face plate members each of which is composed of three elementary matters of FIG. 7 combined together;

FIG. 21 is a perspective view of a cubic structure assembled from the face plate members each of which is composed of two elementary matters of FIG. 7 combined;

FIG. 22 is a cubic structure assembled from the face plate members each of which is composed of four elementary matters of FIG. 7 combined;

FIG. 23 is a plane view showing an example of chamfering as effected on the face plate members of FIG. 14; and

FIG. 24 is a side view of FIG. 23.

The present invention, as outlined above, concerns the assembling of the face plate members of same configuration into various forms of truss-like or hollow cubic structures which may be utilized for a variety of purposes. The featured arrangements of the invention will be described in detail hereinbelow by way of its embodiments of application with reference to the drawings.

Each of the cross-shaped face plate members is joined to another at each of its four ends to constitute a six-sided cubic structure. These cross-shaped members It) may be in the form of square bars, plates or other blocks of any desired sectional configuration and may be made of various sorts of material. Also, each of said cross-shaped members may be composed of two bar elements and each of such bar elements may be made up of assemblage of two or more identical simplex plates or like matters.

If the area of a cross-shaped member 10 is enlarged to the limit within the scope of the square plane inscribed by the sides of the four ends of the member, there is obtained a member 40 such as shown in FIG. 14. These members 40, when combined, can form a hollow cubic structure.

Although the joining of these face plate members may be accomplished by using suitable fastening means such as nails, bolts and nuts or the like, it is of course possible to achieve such joining by fitting engagement without using said fastening means at all.

In the case of a hollow cubic structure, the joining may be made externally by use of hinge shafts or other means as well as internally by means of lock pins or the like so as to make it impossible to disassemble the structure from the outside, thus providing a structure suited for use as a container or the like.

The cubic structures provided according to the present invention are roughly divided into the following four types in terms of purpose of use: those used for bulding and construction; those used for transportation as, for instance, freight containers; those used for various industrial or domestic applicances; and those used for toys or other amusement utensiles. More important among these applications is utilization for development of oceanic exploitation and prevention of pollution and other environmental disruptions and disasters.

In order to meet these varied purposes of use, the products of the present invention, although same in the basic principle, may be varied widely in quality, dimension and other details.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, each of the four ends of each cross-shaped face member 10 is formed with a recession 11 or a tenon 12 which is dovetailed with the tenon or recession at the corresponding end of another cross-shaped member whereby six peices of said members 10 are jointed together to form a cubic structure. The cross-shaped face member 10 may be composed of two similar bars 20 as shown in FIG. 4, and each of said bars may be formed with a depression at its central part where it is to be joined with another bar, so as to join the two bars through fitting engagement of said depressions. It is also possible to use a one-piece cross-shaped member as shown in FIG. 5, with the end of each arm being formed with a hole for inserting a bolt, rivet or other fastening means or arranged to effect hinge pin joining, so as to frame up a cubic structure such as shown in FIG. 6. Alternatively, the cross-shaped face members 10 may be deformed to make the squareshaped members 14 or circular members 15, as shown in FIG. 3, which may be used in combination to constitute a crate-like structure.

Said bar 20 may be composed of simplest elementary pieces 30 as shown in FIG. 7 to facilitate assembling and disassembling. The configuration and dimension of each said elementary piece 30 are selected such as shown in FIGS. 8 to 10, where A represents the width of the face which is exposed upwardly when the pieces are joined to form a cross-shaped member, B the thickness of said piece in FIG. 9, D the span of the recession 3] formed in each piece, and C the distance between one side wall of said recession 31 and the corresponding end of piece 30. It is to be noted that the recession 31 in each piece 30 is formed at a position slightly biased toward one end from the center such that the distance between the other side wall of said recession 31 and the corresponding end of the piece 30 will be C B. The span D of said recession 31 will become 3 X A if three of said elementary pieces 30 are combined to form a cross-shaped member as shown in FIG. 10. Likewise, it will be 2 X A if two pieces are combined and 4 X A if four pieces are combined. It is therefore advisable to maximize the size of the space D in each piece 30 such that such space may be suitably narrowed, as desired according to the purpose of use by fitting therein a spacer or spacers 32 such as shown in FIG. 13, which are of a desired size and provided with a protuberance 33 which aptly fits in the corresponding slit or dent 34 formed in each side wall of the recessed portion 31 in each elementary piece as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, so as to form a desired cross-shaped face member.

Said biasing of the position of the recession 31 in each elementary piece 30 is designed to form the depression 11 or tenor 12 when said pieces are combined together to constitute a cross-shaped member 10. As seen in FIG. 7, each elementary piece 30 is formed with holes 35, 36 and 39 which may be used, if need be, for joining the pieces 30 together. The holes 36 and 37 are at the symmetrical positions which are of equal distance from the recession 31.

In the case of a square face plate member 40 shown in FIG. 14 which was formed by deforming the member 10 of FIG. 2, the corresponding protuberances 41 and recessions 42 are formed at the opposed sides of the plate as shown. The height of each protuberance 41 and the depth of each recession 42 are equalto the thickness E of the plate 40 so that the cubic structure formed by assembling such plates 40 will have it corners 43 recessed as shown in FIG. 15. This will allow adaptation of a hinge-pin-joined face plate 50 such as shown in FIG. 16, so that effective joining may be made by providing suitableshafts and holes according to the purpose of use. Namely, recessions 52 and protuberances 51 each having a shaft hole are formed at the opposed sides of the plate 50 and the shafts in the plate 40 are inserted in said shaft holes in the plate 50, thereby to assemble a cubic or otherwise configured structure which may most effectively be utilized as, for example, a freight container.

In case of using the thinned plates 60 such as shown in FIG. 17 which were each formed by reducing the thickness E of the plate 40 as compared with the depth of recessions 42 and height of protuberances 41, the resultant cubic structure will have an appearance as shown in FIG. 18 where the protuberances 61 and projections 63 and (64) on both sides of each recession 62 are all projected outwardly of the cubic structure. These projections 61, 63 and 64 are fittably engaged with those of other similar cubic structures so that a plurality of such structures may be coupled together either vertically or laterally, or both vertically and laterally, to form a large and massive structure which may suitably be utilized for prefab or other building construction. Each of such square plates 60 has excellent joinability sufficient to stand immediate use even in case such plates are assembled in a simpliest way, without using any fastening means such as nails or bolts, to build a makeshift shack. In case of using them for con structing a more solid building, it will need to reinforce the square plates 60 which will serve as walls in the lower part of the building so as to stand possible heavy load applied thereto. It may also be necessary to take some other suitable measures such as using suitable fastening means such as bolts for joining the junctures of the adjoining structures or forming suitable openings, passages or windows in some of the plates 60.

In the case of a hollow cubic structure such as shown in FIG. 19, which was formed by using the plates each prepared by hollowing out the interior of the plate 40 of FIG. 14, coupling rods or bars 46 may be passed through the structure as shown so as to allow locking thereof from the inside.

Discussing now the cubic structures formed from seemblage of a plurality of said elementary pieces 30 and having the same cross-shaped configuration on each of the six faces of the structure, it will be noted that there is obtained a cubic structure such as shown in FIG. when using the cross-shaped face plate members each being composed of three elementary pieces 30 combined together, a structure such as shown in FIG. 21 when using the face members each being composed by combination of two elementary pieces, and a structure such as shown in FIG. 22 when using the face members each being composed by combination of four elementary pieces. By suitably varying the height of protuberances, depth of recessions and thickness of each elementary piece 30 from one another, it is possible to form the projections such as the ones 61, 63, and 64 in the cubic structure of FIG. 18, so as to obtain high joinability of the cubic structures to each other. It is also possible to utilize these projections to provide depressions and suitable packings or fillers may be stuffed in such depressions for joining the cubic structures to one another, thereby producing a decorative or artistic effect to meet certain specific purposes.

In order to obtain a perfect hollow cubic structure having no projection or recession, such as the one shown in FIG. 15 without each corner portion 43 thereof being cout out, four pieces of face plates 40 of FIG. 14 each being added with a complementary portion as shown by a dotted line and two pieces of such face plates each being further added with an additional complementary portion 45 are assembled together, whereby a perfect hollow cubic structure having an expanded plan shown in FIG. 23 can be formed.

In the structure of FIG. 23, if the thickness of each face plate 70 is E as shown in FIG. 24, then the height of each projection 71 and the depth of each recession 72 will be also E, that is, they are all of a same size, and only two pieces of face plates 70 have a small projection 73. The cubic structures assembled from these face plates, of which an expanded plan is shown in FIG.

23, may, for instance, be utilized in the following manners. If a calendar is printed or inscribed on both front and back sides of each said face plate, there can be obtained a container bearing a calender on its face plates each of which can be turned backside front as desired. Also, if each face plate is made of a transport material and laminated in two folds, with a photograph or the like being interposed therebetween, there may be assembled an album container. It is also possible to form a transparent die if each of the face plates is perforated with a hole or holes ranging in number from 1 to 6. F urther, if several smaller dice are placed within such transparent die, there can be obtained a plaything having plural dice.

As viewed above, it is possible with the present invention to form with ease a cubic structure, or assemblage of such structures, having excellent joinability, by simply assembling together six pieces of face members which are of same form and size are each provided with corresponding fitting configurations at the opposed sides and of which the direction of joining is always same. The scope of use of the products of the present invention extends very widely; they may, for instance, be used for various purposes in building and construction works, for cultural institutions or facilities for prevention of disaster or environmental pollution or disruption, for various types of containers or apparatuses used for transportation or storage, for indoor equipments or utensils for domestic use, for upholstery, toys, educational implements, and for many other purposes. Pracically, they are open to limitless development and utilization if the originality and contrivance of the users is added.

I claim for Patent:

1. A cuboidal structure comprising six face plate units, at least four of said face plate units each having at least one end linking portion which is identical to at least one end linking portion of the other three of said four face plate units, each face plate unit being linked to four other of said face plate units in the form of a cuboidal structure, each of said face plate units comprising at least two identical members each having a recess and said members being positioned transversely relative to one another with their recessed portions overlapping one another providing a cross-shaped face plate.

2. A cuboidal structure comprising six face plate units, each of said face plate units consisting of crossedelements, each said element consisting of a plurality of rectangular members positioned side by side with each member having a recess located at a position toward one end from the center of the longitudinal axis of said member and with the recesses of all of said members being aligned transversely of said members with the end portions, of said members being offset, each face plate having the recesses of its crossed-elements overlapping and the crossed-elements of each face plate having their end portions mating with end portions of others of said face plates crossed-elements in the shape of a cuboidal structure.

3. A cuboidal structure as claimed in claim 2 wherein each face plate crossed-element has at least one of said rectangular members between at least two others of said rectangular members.

Claims (3)

1. A cuboidal structure comprising siX face plate units, at least four of said face plate units each having at least one end linking portion which is identical to at least one end linking portion of the other three of said four face plate units, each face plate unit being linked to four other of said face plate units in the form of a cuboidal structure, each of said face plate units comprising at least two identical members each having a recess and said members being positioned transversely relative to one another with their recessed portions overlapping one another providing a cross-shaped face plate.

2. A cuboidal structure comprising six face plate units, each of said face plate units consisting of crossed-elements, each said element consisting of a plurality of rectangular members positioned side by side with each member having a recess located at a position toward one end from the center of the longitudinal axis of said member and with the recesses of all of said members being aligned transversely of said members with the end portions, of said members being offset, each face plate having the recesses of its crossed-elements overlapping and the crossed-elements of each face plate having their end portions mating with end portions of others of said face plates crossed-elements in the shape of a cuboidal structure.

3. A cuboidal structure as claimed in claim 2 wherein each face plate crossed-element has at least one of said rectangular members between at least two others of said rectangular members.

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