WO1995018330A1

WO1995018330A1 - A construction kit

Info

Publication number: WO1995018330A1
Application number: PCT/SE1994/001257
Authority: WO
Inventors: Per Littorin
Original assignee: Exator Miljö Ab
Priority date: 1993-12-30
Filing date: 1994-12-28
Publication date: 1995-07-06
Also published as: SE9304350D0; AU1429295A; SE502056C2; ZA9410396B; SE9304350L

Abstract

The present invention relates to a construction kit comprising elongated structural members (10, 70) having an essentially rectangular basic cross-sectional shape, wherein said members include at least at the ends of at least one of a pair of mutually opposing long sides a rectangular recess (14), preferably a generally rectangular recess, for shape-binding engagement with mutually adjacent, angled structural members (10) forming part of the construction kit. With the intention of increasing the variability of such a kit, among other things, it is proposed that in addition to longer wall-forming members, the construction kit also includes shorter connecting members (30, 40, 50, 60) for alternating engagement with respective wall-forming members (10) and with each other. The shorter connecting members are recessed over a major part of their length between end portions thereof, and have either only one recess (16; 18) of a length two, three or more times the element thickness, or two or more recesses (14) of a length corresponding to the element thickness and being evenly spaced at a distance corresponding to the double element thickness.

Description

A CONSTRUCTION KIT
The present invention relates to a construction kit comprising elongated structural members which have a generally rectangular basic cross-section and which include at least at the ends of at least one of a pair of mutually opposing long sides recesses, preferably generally rectangular recesses, for shape-binding engagement with adjacent structural members of said kit that are angled in relation to said long sides.

With the aid of such a construction kit it is possible to erect constructions by alternately placing structural members one upon the other in mutually perpendicular relationship, wherein the walls of the construction, or building, are locked at the corner points formed by the recesses in a manner to produce a rectangular closed shape when seen from above, or some other right-angled closed shape, as is known from full-scale timberjointed buildings, which may, in general, include a number of different types of recesses, and also from different types of model construction kits.

A model construction or building kit of the aforedescribed kind, however, will be particularly restricted with regard to its flexibility, or variability, unless it includes several sets of elongated structural elements of mutually different lengths, of which many are unavoidably superfluous on each building occasion. In other words, additional sets of structural members are required for each new varied construction.

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a construction kit of the kind defined in the introduction which while retaining the jointing principles of the aforesaid types of structural members will have greater flexibility and variability than known kits, while modulizing the kit with a given set of wall-building structural members.

According to one aspect of the invention in addition to including longer wall-building members, the elongated structural members also include shorter connecting members which are intended for alternating engagement with the wall-forming members and also with each other.

The combined recessed length of each connecting member occupies a major part of the length of the member between the remaining ends of the member outside the recesses, whereby said shorter connecting members being selected from a group comprised of: - members which have on said long side thereof only one recess whose length
corresponds to two, three or more times the thickness of the structural members;
and - members which have on said long side thereof at least two recesses disposed at
a mutual distance corresponding to the double thickness of the structural
members, said recesses having a length corresponding to the thickness of the
structural members.

A set of structural members of this kind will provide greater flexibility with regard to variation of the limited shapes that can be constructed with solely the longer wallforming members. As will be evident from the exemplifying embodiments described in the following, the wall-forming members can primarily be lengthened in different ways, therewith requiring the need to provide members of mutually different lengths.

Furthermore, mutually angled walls can be connected in different ways to the extension points of the wall-forming members, and other constructions can be produced, such as concave corners for bay windows for instance, and similar structures.

These and other features together with advantages afforded by the invention will be apparent from the following description of an exemplifying embodiment made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a side view which illustrates broken-away parts of an incomplete building structure including elongated structural members of a known kind; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an inventive connecting member; FIG. 3 illustrates in side view a plurality of different connecting members intended for inclusion in an inventive building kit; FIG. 4 is a view from above of a construction example; FIG. 4A is a perspective view of a single layer of elements of the example shown in FIG. 4; and FIGS. 5-8 are views from above of other different possible construction examples of an inventive construction kit.

FIG. 1 illustrates the jointing principles on which the present invention is based, with the aid of a known elongated structural member 10, 70 forming part of the construction kit.

The illustrated structural member 10 is divided into two parts horizontally along a symmetry plane so as to provide a structural member 70 having a flat, imperforate bottom surface for coaction with an underlying supportive surface.

The structural members 10 and other structural members described herebelow have a generally square basic cross-sectional shape, whose corners are bevelled or chamfered as shown at 12. However, the cross-sectional shape may be any suitable rectangular basic shape, for instance have a greater height than thickness. Each of the structural members is provided at each end with a pair of mutually opposing recesses 14. In the illustrated case, the recesses 14 have a rectangular shape in longitudinal section, although it is quite conceivable to allow at least some of the members forming part of the construction kit to include other types of mutually complementary recesses.

The length of respective recesses 14 corresponds to the thickness of said members and can therewith be considered to form a module length in the construction kit, and a depth or a height which corresponds to a quarter of the height of said member. The remainder of the structural members lying outside the recesses has a length which corresponds to half the thickness or the module length of respective structural members. Thus, the aforedescribed wallforming elongated structural members can be interconnected with perpendicularly orientated members in a known manner, by stacking the members alternately one upon the other with the complementary recesses engaged in one another.

A plurality of different connecting members 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. In addition to being shorter in length, the connecting members 20-60 also differ from the aforedescribed wall-forming members 10, 16 by virtue of the fact that the combined length of the recesses will never be shorter than half the total length. The length values recited are therewith multiples of the thickness of the structural members and the module length respectively.

The connecting member 20, which has the length two, this member having only one pair of mutually opposed simple recesses 14, i.e. having the length 1, is shown mainly to introduce the series in FIG. 3 and is essentially used mainly to connect together the ends of the wall-forming member 10 at "non-corner connections", such as in window and door openings (not shown).

The connecting element 30 having the length three, includes a pair of mutually opposing recesses 16 having the length two, wherein each of the recesses is able to coact with a respective recess of two mutually adjacent members of the construction kit extending at right angles to said connecting member.

The connecting element 40 has the length four and includes a pair of mutually opposite recesses 18 of length three, wherein each of said recesses is able to coact with a respective recess of three mutually adjacent members of the construction kit placed perpendicularly to said member 40.

The connecting member 50 also has the length four but includes two pairs of mutually opposed single recesses 14 which are spaced at a module distance and which are each able to coact with a respective recess of two mutually spaced structural members of the construction kit placed at right angles to said member 50.

The connecting element 60 has the length five and includes three pairs of mutually opposing single recesses 14 which are mutually spaced apart by a module distance and which are therefore able to coact with a respective recess of three mutually spaced structural members of the construction kit placed at right angles to said member 60.

Although not shown, the connecting members 20-60 may also be divided into two parts along their horizontal symmetry planes, similar to the bottom wall-forming member 70, so as to obtain a starting or finishing member which will provide a smooth transition to a ceiling or floor of a building structure for instance. As illustrated with the partially shown structural member 80 in FIG. 3, the recesses may also have varying depths. The upper recess 22 of this illustration has a depth which corresponds to half the height of the structural member, whereas the bottom recess has the normal depth corresponding to a quarter of the height of said member.

A structural member 80 of the kind illustrated and having a deeper recess 22 may therewith be connected to a structural member 10 which has no recess at the connection point, at the same time as the structural member 80 will be centered vertically with respect to the mutually crossing members 10, 10.

Such a symmetrical structural member 80 can be used, for instance, at upper and lower corners of window openings and door openings in a building structure.

Various examples of connections between the wall-forming members 10 and the connecting members 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 will now be described with reference to FIGS.

4-8, wherein it is assumed that a selected number of structural members have been stacked one upon the other in a mutually intersecting sequence with the various recesses engaging in one another.

FIG. 4 illustrates a preferred embodiment of an extension coupling for a wall-forming member 10. Structural members 30 engage with the structural members 10 and, in turn, are mutually connected on one side of said structural members 10 by means of structural members 50. Because the members 50 lie flat against the members 10, there is obtained a relatively rigid connection of respective wall-forming members 10. In order to further illustrate the principles of connection, FIG. 4A shows a perspective view of a single layer of elements in this embodiment
The extension connection illustrated in FIG. 5 differs from that shown in FIG. 4 by virtue of the fact that the structural members 30 have been replaced with structural members 50, which are thus mutually connected at a distance from the wall-forming members 10.

Although this type of wall connection is not as rigid or as play-free as the connection shown in FIG. 5, it has the advantage of requiring only one type of connecting member.

Such extension connections enables the construction kit to include wall-forming elements of one single length or of only a few different lengths, without detracting from the variability of the construction kit.

FIG. 6 illustrates a variant of the connection shown in FIG. 5 which by exchanging the wall-parallel members 50 for structural members 40 can still be used as a simple wall extension while also providing the possibility of connecting a further wall with the aid of wall-forming members 10.

FIG. 7 shows an example of how the connecting members 50 can be used to produce a concave corner coupling, which can be used in building a bay window or like configuration, for instance. This coupling or connection can be used purely as a corner connection in order to adapt the width of a building structure to the extension of two module lengths that is obtained at the ends of the members when connecting further walls thereto in accordance with FIGS. 6 and 8.

A four-wall connection can be achieved by replacing the structural members 50 in FIG.

7 with the structural members 60 shown in FIG. 8, and with the aid of further structural members 10 and 60.

The aforedescribed examples are only a few of the possible variations that can be achieved by combining the structural members of an inventive construction kit.

Claims

1. A construction kit comprising elongated structural members (10, 70) having an essentially rectangular basic cross-sectional shape, wherein said members include at least at one end of at least one of a pair of mutually opposing long sides a rectangular recess (14), preferably a generally rectangular recess, for shape-binding engagement with mutually adjacent, angled structural members (10) forming part of the construction kit, characterized in that in addition to wall-forming longer members (10, 70), the structural members also include shorter connecting members (30, 40, 50, 60), the combined recessed length of each connecting member at said long side occupying a major part of the total length of the member (30, 40, 50, 60) between remaining ends of the member located outside the recesses, said shorter connecting members being selected from a group comprised of:

members (30, 40) which have on said long side thereof only one recess (16, 18) whose length corresponds to two, three or more times the thickness of the structural members; and members (50, 60) which have on said long side thereof at least two recesses (14) disposed at a mutual distance corresponding to the double thickness of the structural members, said recesses having a length corresponding to the thickness of the structural members.

2. A kit according to claim 1, characterized in that the recesses (14, 16, 18) are disposed on each of the opposing long sides of respective members and that each recess has a depth which corresponds to a quarter of the height of said member.

3. A kit according to claim 1, characterized in that each recess (22) on one of the opposing long sides has a depth which corresponds to one-half the height of said member (80), whereas each recess (24) on the other of the opposing sides has a depth which corresponds to a quarter the height of said member (80).