Method of Fabricating Integrally Insulated Concrete Wall or Wall Components

Abstract

A method for forming integrally insulated concrete sandwich walls or wall components is disclosed. The walls are fabricated by casting the walls vertically and pumping the concrete from the bottom of the form or from sides near the base. Walls fabricated thus can be used in commercial, industrial, residential, and agricultural buildings. These walls can be cast on-site or in a manufacturing plant.

Description

[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 937,519, filed Jun. 28, 2007.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention generally relates to method of fabricating integrally insulated concrete walls or wall components. This invention is an improvement of existing methods of fabricating the integrally insulated concrete wall or wall components.[0003]Integrally insulated concrete walls (also known as sandwich walls) are well known in the art and offer a number of advantages to the residential, commercial, institutional and agricultural industry building construction. These walls are typically cast at a manufacturing plant or on-site. The walls can be cast horizontally or vertically and when cast vertically; the concrete is placed from top of the forms.[0004]Integrally insulated concrete walls contain two outer layers or wythes of concrete sandwiching rigid insulation board. Connectors are used to tie the outer layer concrete with the inner layer concr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018]In the present invention of fabricating integrally insulated concrete wall, the wall panels are fabricated by casting the walls or wall components vertically and pumping the concrete from the bottom of the form or from sides near the base. Walls and wall components fabricated thus can be used in commercial, industrial, residential, and agricultural buildings. These panels can be cast on-site or in a manufacturing plant. The formwork for the panels contains a fixed vertical form and a moveable base form. The bulkheads are adjustable to

Problems solved by technology

The disadvantage of dropping concrete from the top is that concrete tends to segregate and hence the drop height is often limited to eight feet which limits the wall height that can be poured.

Dropping concrete also leads to an increase in entrained air.

Additionally, placement of concrete can be difficult if not impossible when the exterior wythe thickness is less than three inches, a limitation which limits the minimum thickness of walls that can be formed.

With increased thickness of the wythes, the weight of the wall component is more, this limiting the size of the wall component that can be transported to a remote location and increasing the cost of such shipping.

However, this vibration process will cause the entrained air to travel towards the formwork and cause for surface blemishes.

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