WO2003044305A1

WO2003044305A1 - Modular element to support building products, such as flooring, floors or similar

Info

Publication number: WO2003044305A1
Application number: PCT/IB2002/000858
Authority: WO
Inventors: Donatella Sinigaglia
Original assignee: Donatella Sinigaglia
Priority date: 2001-11-22
Filing date: 2002-03-22
Publication date: 2003-05-30
Also published as: AU2002247882A1; SM200100024A; SM200100024B

Abstract

The modular element comprises a mono-block structure with a square or quadrangular surface, with first lower supporting means (111) arranged on the perimeter of the modular element and in correspondence with the corners, at least a lower supporting means (211) arranged in an intermediate perimeter position between two of the first supporting means (111) arranged at the corners, and at least an inner supporting means (15) associated with the lower part of an inner portion of the upper wall (20). The perimeter supporting means (111, 211) have a section at least partly open towards the outside, and the inner supporting means (15) have a section at least partly hollow and open upwardly, to allow a cast of concrete to be included able to form a plurality of supporting pillar elements, the supporting means (111, 211, 15) having a vertical development at least partly converging downwards of a conical or pyramid shaped type.

Description

"MODULAR ELEMENT TO SUPPORT BUILDING PRODUCTS, SUCH AS FLOORING, FLOORS OR SIMILAR"

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FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention concerns a modular element to support building products, such as flooring, floors, roofing or similar. The modular element according to the invention is employed to make self-supporting structures of great stability, able to be used with the function of a ventilated foundation floor to insulate floors from the ground below, or as floors for intermediate storeys, or again to achieve roofing, floating floors, ventilated roofs, or other similar structures .

Every modular element according to the invention constitutes a single mono-block structure and is formed by an upper supporting wall supported by wide-based lower supporting means to rest the entire modular element on the ground, even when this ground has little consistency and resistance. Anchor means are associated to the lower supporting means and are suitable to increase the gripping capacity and to allow an optimum support of the modular element and ensure high stability on any type of ground.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There are known modular elements used to make foundation floors and supporting structures for flooring, able to create a ventilated insulating space with respect to the ground or the floor below, in order to prevent the passage of humidity and to allow a constant passage of air.

Conventional modular elements used for this purpose usually comprise an upper supporting wall, possibly shaped, and lower supporting means, substantially shaped like legs, associated with this supporting wail so as to allow the entire supporting modular element to rest on the ground, or on the floor .

However, these conventional modular elements have the disadvantage that they have a rather small base size, which entails the need to use a large number of modules; consequently it takes a long time to assemble them and entails additional costs and time.

Another disadvantage of conventional modular elements is that they cannot support heavy loads, since their supporting means are usually formed by tapered legs which do not ensure adequate resistance to great weights.

Another disadvantage is that conventional elements have the lower end of the supporting means lying on a single common plane, and therefore when they are laid on uneven or yielding grounds the upper supporting wall is positioned incorrectly, that is, not horizontally.

Examples of such modular elements are shown in EP-A- 803.613 and WO-A-0055279 , in the name of the Applicant. These elements, although extremely valid and effective in themselves, have the disadvantage that they do not guarantee to rest in an optimum and uniform manner on the ground if they are made larger than a certain size.

The present Applicant has devised and embodied this invention to overcome these shortcomings of the state of the art, and to obtain further advantages. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is set forth and characterized essentially in the main claim, while the dependent claims describe other innovative characteristics of the invention.

One purpose of the invention is to make a supporting modular element for building products which will be suitable to support heavy weights and which will allow, under all conditions, a substantially horizontal positioning of the upper supporting wall, even when said modular element is arranged on uneven or yielding ground, and even when the base module has large surface dimensions .

Another purpose of the invention is to make a modular element which has a sufficiently ample base size, without losing its characteristics of great stability and capacity to rest uniformly on the underlying ground, so as to allow to reduce the number of elements needed to support building products with large surfaces to support.

A further purpose is to guarantee a great load capacity both during the laying step and also after the concrete has been cast .

The modular element to support building products according to the invention comprises lower supporting means which, during use, are able to confer great stability on the modular element itself, and an upper supporting wall associated with the supporting means, able to support the building products.

The upper supporting wall can be continuous or discontinuous . Moreover, said wall can be substantially plane, or, according to a variant, it can have a slightly convex shape facing downwards, for example in the zones where it joins and connects with the lower legs .

According to another variant, the upper wall is rounded upwards .

According to a characteristic feature of the invention, this modular element comprises a mono-block structure with a substantially square or in any case quadrangular surface, with perimeter supporting legs in correspondence with the corners and at least an intermediate leg located between two of said legs arranged at the corners .

The modular element has a surface size which can go from a minimum of 40 cm x 40 cm to a maximum of 120 cm x 120 cm. The height of said modular element, in the preferential embodiment, is between about 5 cm and about 120 cm.

Said supporting legs have a section at least partly open towards the outside of the modular element to allow cement to be included during the cast and the consequent formation of supporting pillar elements .

According to a variant, the supporting legs have a vertical development substantially conical or pyramid- shaped, with a section at least slightly converging downwards .

According to another variant, the vertical development of the supporting means is at least slightly diverging towards the outside.

According to another variant, each of the supporting legs has at the end a substantially plane base element able, during use, to cooperate with the floor below.

The supporting legs form pillar elements able to define a space so that the air can pass between the upper supporting wall and the ground; said pillar elements, in cooperation with the upper supporting wall, are also able to define apertures communicating with said space, so that the edge which delimits pillars and apertures is substantially fret- shaped.

According to a variant, said edge has a substantially curved shape with substantially linear sides.

In one embodiment of the invention, the apertures have a width substantially equivalent to that of the pillar elements .

Moreover, at least one anchor element is associated with every pillar element and is able to anchor the modular element to the ground even when the latter has little consistency, and to allow to position the upper supporting wall substantially on a plane. According to a variant, this anchor element is of the adjustable type, at least in height; according to a variant the anchor element can also be adjusted in the inclination.

According to another variant, on the upper surface of the supporting wall, through grooves are provided to allow to position structural reinforcement elements .

According to another variant, blind grooves are provided on the upper surface of the supporting wall.

With the supporting modular element for building products according to the invention it is possible to position the building product with greater stability, since the latter rests on a very large surface, the upper surface of the supporting wall, and with few joints between the modules, which could weaken the entire structure of the modular element and hence its ability to support heavy weights.

Another advantage is that the lower supporting means have a wide base surface so as to be able to easily support heavy weight loads .

Moreover, the large supporting surface and the adjustable- type anchor elements allow to position the modular element even on uneven ground, since it is possible to adjust each individual pillar in height, so as to obtain a great planarity of the supporting wall irrespective of the type, .the inclination and the stability of the ground. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other characteristics of the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferential form of embodiment, given as a non-restrictive example, with reference to the attached drawings wherein: Fig. 1 is a three-dimensional view of a modular element to support building products according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a view from below of the modular element in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a three-dimensional view of a first variant of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a three-dimensional view of a second variant of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a three-dimensional view of a third variant of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a view from below of Fig. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERENTIAL EMBODIMENT With reference to Fig. 1, a supporting modular element 10 for building products such as for example flooring, floors for intermediate storeys, roofing, ventilated roofs, or other similar structures according to the invention comprises lower supporting means 11 and an upper supporting wall 20.

The lower supporting means 11 are arranged substantially equidistant in correspondence with the sides of the modular element 10.

To be more exact, perimeter supporting means 111 are present arranged in a corner position, and perimeter supporting means 211 arranged in an intermediate position between two adjacent corner supports 111; with regard to the surface dimension of the modular element 10, there may be only one intermediate support 211 for every side, as in Figs. 3 and 4, or there may be several intermediate supports 211, as in Figs. 1, 2, 5 and 6. The modular element 10, which can substantially be considered as a plurality of substantially identical base modules 10a, consists of a single mono-block structure wherein each base module 10a has its own upper supporting wall; these supporting walls in their entirety constitute the upper supporting wall 20 of the modular element 10, so that said modular element can even assume a very large surface dimension, which for example can reach a maximum value of about 120 cm x 120 cm in the case of a square surface. The monolithic nature of the structure of the modular element 10 allows a greater resistance to loads both during the laying step and also during the casting of the concrete. In this case, the base modules 10a are coupled together so as to be symmetrical with respect to an axis.

On the lower surface 20b and in a position substantially central with respect to the supporting wall 20 there are also one or more vertical pillars 15 able to support and give greater resistance to the supporting wall 20 itself, allowing to reduce, given the same load resistance, the thickness of said upper supporting wall 20.

The vertical pillars 15 comprise a hollow structure substantially perpendicular to the supporting wall 20, and are substantially parallelepiped in section; moreover, at the lower part these vertical pillars 15 have a base 16 able, during use, to be put in contact with the ground.

The perimeter supporting means 111 and 211 have a substantially conical or pyramid-shaped section, with the corner facing downwards, and at least partly open towards the outside of the element. When they are filled with the cast of concrete, they form little pillars which ensure that the modular element 10 rests uniformly on the ground, and guarantee great stability already during the laying step. Moreover, the presence of supporting means 111, 211 over the whole perimeter of the modular element 10, together with the presence of at least one central pillar 15, ensures that it is possible to have even very large surface sizes while still ensuring that very stable supporting conditions and a great load capability are maintained.

According to the variant shown in Fig. 3, on the upper surface 20a of the supporting wall 20 there are through seatings 18 able to allow to position structural reinforcement elements, of a conventional type and therefore not shown in the attached drawings .

Fig. 4 shows a second variant wherein the modular element 10 is provided on the upper surface 20a of the supporting wall 20 with blind grooves 118.

The supporting means (Figs. 1, 2) are able to allow the modular element 10 to rest on the ground so as to create a chamber 12 between the ground and the supporting wall 20. The chamber 12 allows the air to pass below the building product and separates the flooring from the ground; this gives the advantage of improving insulation from humidity, eliminating gases, and also allows to arrange electric cables, pipes or suchlike inside, without having to smash or break the building article when already laid. The supporting means, or pillars, 11 are substantially parallelepiped in shape, as we said before, and each of them, at the lower part, has a wide base 13 able, during use, to come into contact with the ground.

The pillars 11, in cooperation with the supporting wall 20, also define apertures 17 which allow air to access the chamber 12.

In a preferential embodiment of the invention, these apertures 17 have perimeter dimensions substantially equal to those of the pillars 11, so that the lateral edge 19 of the modular element 10 is substantially fret-shaped. To be more exact, the edges of said apertures 17 define substantially linear arches of a height substantially equal to the width.

This conformation allows to have pillars 11 able to support very heavy loads, given the same dimensions of the supporting wall 20 with respect to conventional modular elements .

The edge 19 is also shaped so that it can be coupled, due to its having the same shape, with a mating edge 19 of an adjacent modular element 10.

On the lower surface of every base 13 of the pillars 11, and on every base 16 of the pillars 15, at least an anchor element 14 is mounted, able to allow the stable positioning of the modular element 10 on particularly yielding, crumbly or uneven ground, such as for example gravel, earth mold, or similar. These anchor elements 14 also allow to adjust the height of every pillar 11 individually, so that, even when the ground is uneven or slightly sloping, the supporting wall 20 can be arranged substantially horizontal so as to guarantee an optimum supporting plane for the building product to be made.

It is clear however that modifications and/or additions of parts can be made to the supporting modular element 10 as described heretofore without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

For example, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the modular element 10 can comprise more than one central pillar 15 even in the event that there are grooves 18 or 118, on the upper surface 20a.

It is also clear that, although the invention has been described with specific examples, a person of skill in the art shall certainly be able to achieve many other equivalent forms of a modular element to support building products, all of which shall come within the field and scope of this invention.

Claims

1 - Modular element to support building products such as flooring, floors or similar, comprising lower supporting means (11) able, during use, to allow said modular element to be supported and anchored to the ground to define an underlying space (12) through which the air can pass, and ah upper wall (20) associated with said supporting means (11) and able to support said building products, characterized in that it comprises a mono-block structure with a substantially square or quadrangular surface, with first lower supporting means (111) arranged on the perimeter of the modular element and in correspondence with the corners, at least a lower supporting means (211) arranged in an intermediate perimeter position between two of said first supporting means (111) arranged at the corners, and at least an inner supporting means (15) associated with the lower part of an inner portion of the upper wall (20) , the perimeter supporting means (111, 211) having a section at least partly open towards the outside, and the inner supporting means (15) having a section at least partly hollow and open upwardly, to allow a cast of concrete to be included able to form a plurality of supporting pillar elements, said supporting means (111, 211, 15) having a vertical development at least partly converging downwards of a conical or pyramid shaped type.

2 - Modular element as in claim 1, characterized in that said supporting means (111, 211, 15) include at their lower part at least a substantially plane element (13, 16) able to increase the surface resting on the ground. 3 - Modular element as in claim 1, characterized in that said single mono-block structure is substantially symmetrical with respect to at least an axis.

4 - Modular element as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that said modular element (10) is made by combining a plurality of base modules (10a) , each base module (10a) having its own upper supporting wall, the combination of the supporting walls of the base modules (10a) defining said upper wall (20) of said modular element (10) .

5 - Modular element as in claim 1, characterized in that said supporting means (111, 211) are able to define, in association with said upper supporting wall (20), passage apertures (17) communicating with said space (12) .

6 - Modular element as in claim 5, characterized in that said apertures (17) have a width substantially equivalent to that of said pillars (11) so as to define substantially arches of a height substantially equal to the width. 7 - Modular element as in claim 6, characterized in that the peripheral edge (19) of said supporting means (11) and of said apertures (17) has a substantially fret-shaped development .

8 - Modular element as in claim 1, characterized in that said supporting means (111, 211) are distributed substantially uniformly along the perimeter of said modular element (10) .

9 - Modular element as in claim 2, characterized in that below said plane supporting elements (13, 16) there are foot-type anchor elements (14) able to anchor said modular element (10) to the ground and to position said upper supporting wall (20) substantially on a plane.

10 - Modular element as in claim 9, characterized in that said foot-type anchor element (14) is of the adjustable type .

11 - Modular element as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that on the upper surface (20a) of the supporting wall (20) there are grooves (18, 118) facing downwards and able to allow the positioning of structural reinforcement elements .

12 - Modular element as in any claim hereinbefore, characterized in that it has a surface size comprised between about 40 cm x 40 cm and about 120 cm x 120 cm, and a height comprised between about 5 cm and about 120 cm.