Large but lightweight interlocking wooden brick, intended for the manufacture of walls or partitions for the construction of enclosures, buildings such as houses, warehouses and hangars or for the construction of swimming pools.

Abstract

Large lightweight interlocking brick made of wood for the manufacture of building walls or for the construction of swimming pool walls. Said brick is hollow and preferably made of "Marine" plywood with a length "L" between 500 mm and 1050 mm, a width "l" between 100 mm and 250 mm and a height "h" between 150 mm and 350 mm. Its weight is low compared to the volume (mass ≤ 6 kg). The thickness of the walls constituting the different faces is between 10 and 20 mm. The longitudinal side walls have two L-shaped interlocking devices with rebates half the thickness of the walls, a female at the top and a male at the bottom. At both ends, the interlockings are identical to the previous ones with a female at one end and a male at the other.These devices allow the bricks to be fitted together on one side, preferably in a staggered pattern, and on the other side at the ends of each other. A reinforcing spacer, parallel to the end faces, is placed in the middle. Figure to be published for the abstract: [Fig 9].

Description

Title of the invention: Interlocking wooden brick, large but light, intended for the manufacture of walls or partitions for the construction of enclosures, buildings such as houses, warehouses and hangars or for the construction of swimming pools.

[0001] The present invention relates to a brick for the construction of perimeter walls, buildings such as houses, warehouses and hangars or even swimming pools.

[0002] [Fig-1] shows an example of a surrounding wall.

[0003] [Fig.2] represents an example of a classic house whose walls are mounted, as very frequently, in concrete blocks.

[0004] [Fig.3] is a classic image of a swimming pool.

[0005] As far as the state of the art is concerned, we know the usual elements for making these constructions. These are most often stones, terracotta bricks or concrete blocks.

[0006] [Fig.4] shows a pile of stones used for construction of elements to traditional character.

[0007] [Fig.5] shows classic clay bricks.

[0008] [Fig.6] represents concrete blocks very often used for construction.

[0009] All of these elements most often present several of the disadvantages listed above- below: -A high density and sometimes a significant unit weight. -High surface hardness and significant roughness. -The absence of interlocking elements requiring the use of additional alignment means. -Great complexity in the event of the need for subsequent demolition of the building in question. -A low rate of recovery of materials after demolition. Some of these drawbacks pose risks of injury to operators. It is also noted that construction is one of the sectors where there are still too many workplace accidents.

[0010] There are also large polystyrene blocks which are often used for the construction of swimming pools.

[0011] [Fig.7] shows an example of such a large polystyrene block.

[0012] These blocks are provided with interlocking devices. They have the advantage of being light and easy to assemble, but they are not without drawbacks which limit their applications: - Reduced rigidity which does not allow them to be used independently and requires them to be filled with poured concrete with metal reinforcement. -Great fragility during handling which can cause breakage and tearing of polystyrene. -Since the basic element is a synthetic aromatic hydrocarbon polymer, the manufacture of such parts requires the consumption of non-renewable fossil materials. -Complete recycling is impossible and a large amount of waste is found in nature.

[0013] [Fig-8] shows how the filling of these polystyrene blocks with concrete can be carried out.

[0014] The present invention, which aims to overcome the various drawbacks of the construction elements listed above, relates to an interlocking wooden brick, of large dimensions but light given its volume and whose general shape remains strictly parallelepipedal. This brick is intended for the construction of walls or perimeter walls, buildings such as houses, warehouses and hangars or even swimming pools.

[0015] [Fig.9] shows the general configuration of the brick of the invention.

[0016] As can be seen in [Fig.9], the brick of the invention has 4 solid faces: two large side plates and a plate of smaller dimensions at each end. The associated features are as follows which are illustrated in Figures 10 to 19: -The material used is wood. -The volume is large compared to the usual elements used in construction. "L" being the length, "1" the width and "h" the height, we thus have: 500 mm < L < 1050 mm, 100 mm < 1 < 250 and finally 150 mm < h < 350 mm. -The thickness of the sides and faces constituting the brick is between 10 and 20 mm, see [Fig. 10]. -A spacer in the form of a plate of the same material, of the same thickness as the other plates, is fixed inside the brick, approximately in the middle and parallel to the end faces, to constitute a reinforcement, see [Fig. 11]. -The brick is strictly hollow except for the middle spacer. -The weight is low compared to the volume (Mass < 6 kg). -The assembly of the elements constituting the brick (side plates, end faces and central spacer) is carried out by screwing, possibly supplemented by gluing. -The two longitudinal plates which constitute the side walls have two interlocking devices along their entire length: a male interlocking in the lower part and a female interlocking in the upper part. -The same two longitudinal plates also have at the end over the entire height two interlocking devices, a male device for the plate at one end and a female device for the other end. -The said interlocking devices, longitudinal or at the end, consist of an L-shaped notch having a rebate half the thickness of the walls. These interlocking devices are intended to ensure on the one hand the assembly of the bricks on top of each other, preferably in a staggered pattern, and on the other hand the assembly of the bricks together at the ends. -The two longitudinal side plates thus each have four inverted interlocking devices in the form of a notch revealing a rebate of lesser thickness. For the female part of the interlocking, the rebate is on the outside and for the male part, the rebate is on the inside. -The thickness of the rebate is preferably equal to half the thickness of the wooden plates constituting the brick, see [Fig. 13]. -The above-mentioned interlocking devices consist, on the one hand, in the lengthwise direction, of a female interlock in the upper part and a male interlock in the lower part and, on the other hand, of a female interlock at one end and a male interlock at the other end, see [Fig. 12]. -At the level of the end male socket, a plate is fixed at the very end, between the reduced thickness rebates. -At the female socket of the other end, another plate is fixed between the side plates, set back from the reduced thicknesses of the rebates. The end plates are of the same material and thickness as the side plates, see [Fig. 14]. -The upper female device and the lower male device allow the bricks to be fitted together and the end devices allow the bricks to be fitted together at the ends, see figures 15, 16 and 17. -The height of the end plates and the central reinforcement is the same for these three elements but it is slightly lower than the height of the large side plates to allow, if necessary, the fixing of a long longitudinal reinforcement plate at the bottom of the bricks in the same row. Such a lower reinforcement plate is not generally necessary, but it is useful in special cases where the walls are subjected to particularly high lateral forces, such as for example for above ground pools which are subject to water pressure, see [Fig. 18a] and [Fig. 18b], -To make walls or enclosure walls, buildings or swimming pools, the arrangement of bricks nested on top of each other is done in a staggered pattern, with an upper brick being approximately centered on the junction of two lower bricks, see [Fig. 19].

[0017] [Fig. 10] shows a diagram of the brick of the invention with its preferred dimensions.

[0018] [Fig. 11] shows how the central reinforcement is inserted into the brick of the invention.

[0019] [Fig. 12] shows the female socket in the upper part and the male socket in the lower part of the invention brick.

[0020] [Fig. 13] shows the half-thick interlocking grooves of the plates constituting the brick of the invention.

[0021] [Fig. 14] shows on the one hand the interlocks at each end of the brick of the invention, a female on one side and a male on the other and on the other hand the position of the end plates, at the very end and between the rebates of reduced thickness for the male interlock and set back from the reduced thicknesses for the female interlock.

[0022] [Fig. 15] is a diagram showing how the bricks of the invention are stacked on top of each other.

[0023] [Fig. 16] shows the concrete realization of the stack of bricks of the invention.

[0024] [Fig. 17] shows the concrete realization of the interlocking at the end of bricks of the invention.

[0025] [Fig. 18a] and [Fig. 18b] show the installation of the longitudinal reinforcement plate in the case of the production of patois subjected to significant lateral forces.

[0026] [Fig. 19] shows the arrangement of the bricks of the invention nested on top of each other in a staggered pattern.

[0027] Once the interlocking has been completed, the bricks can be fixed together either by screws, by gluing, or by screws and gluing. Gluing improves air and water tightness while consolidating the overall strength of the entire wall or partition.

[0028] For joining bricks in a corner in order to create building parts with perpendicular walls or partitions, the device of the invention provides two possible configurations. -In the first configuration, the simplest, the bricks of the same row are fixed together by an end face of one (called the inner brick) which is placed, almost at the end, against the side plate of the other (called the outer brick). The end face of the inner brick is then screwed and possibly glued to the end of the corresponding side plate of the outer brick. For this junction, in both cases, interior brick and exterior brick, it is the side where the end face is at an end with the female socket which is used. For the row of bricks placed above the positions of the bricks are reversed and so on over the entire height of the wall or partition, see [Fig.20] and [Fig.21]. -The second configuration consists of using a special corner brick constructed on the same principle as the brick of the invention. This brick has the same characteristics on its two perpendicular end faces as the longitudinal bricks previously described. It is also made of the same materials, see [Fig.22] and [Fig.23]. This particular corner brick configuration has advantages: -It ensures a more solid perpendicular connection between the bricks of perpendicular walls. -It allows the bricks to be assembled by either end, female or male as shown in [Fig. 14], since it has the same types of ends as the reference brick. -It facilitates the staggered arrangement of bricks on top of each other. -It can have different lengths for each of its branches depending on the size of the walls to be made and the arrangement of the other bricks. We can therefore consider several dimensions for each branch: —The two branches of length equivalent to a brick width of the invention. —One branch with a length equivalent to a brick width and the other branch with a length equal to a quarter of the length of the brick of the invention. —One branch with a length equivalent to a brick width and the other branch with a length equal to half the length of the brick of the invention etc...

[0029] [Fig.20] shows the corner junction of two bricks of the invention, with the face end of one fixed almost at the end of the corresponding side wall of the other.

[0030] [Fig.21] shows how the positions of the corner bricks are reversed to carry out the stacking.

[0031] [Fig.22] illustrates the general shape of the special corner brick.

[0032] [Fig.23] shows its internal configuration allowing a 90° assembly to be produced very robust.

[0033] [Fig.24] shows an example of a corner brick having branch lengths at 90° different.

[0034] In the context of the invention, the connection to the ground of the first base bricks in contact with the base screed is carried out with a particular configuration of the bricks concerned, these: -On the one hand, they have a female fitting in the lower part as well as in the upper part. -On the other hand, they have a fifth face, the lower face, which is screwed after embedding in the female socket in the lower part, see [Fig.25] and [Fig.26]. The ground connection is then made by directly fixing the lower plate to the screed.

[0035] [Fig.25] illustrates the assembly of the plate, constituting the lower face, in the lower female socket of the base brick.

[0036] [Fig.26] shows the lower configuration of the base brick with its plate inferior.

[0037] The advantages of the brick of the invention thus appear clearly. -First, unlike the known solid construction elements listed above (stones, clay bricks and concrete blocks illustrated in Figures 4, 5 and 6), the brick of the invention is easy to handle and install by interlocking. Its lightness and its surface with reduced hardness and low roughness lead to a reduction in the risk of accidents. -Then, the large volume makes it possible to considerably reduce the number of bricks to be used for the same construction. -In addition, the dismantling of the walls and partitions already built is easy and the materials, which are mostly biodegradable, can be largely recycled or even reused. -Finally, compared to the polystyrene block more particularly used for swimming pools and shown in [Fig.7], the brick of the invention does not require concrete filling and does not present any great fragility.

[0038] Another characteristic of the brick of the invention is that its hollow and enlarged interior configuration allows filling with any insulation, in particular an insulation of the “Cotton Wool” type, with the aim of improving thermal insulation and sound insulation. As already indicated, the brick of the invention can also be used for the construction of swimming pools. -For a built-in “in-ground” pool, the walls are held in place by the fact that the whole thing is buried and stiffened by the earth surrounding the pool. -For an "above ground" swimming pool (and also for walls of other applications subject to significant lateral forces), the use of the brick of the invention is entirely possible but, as already mentioned, it is necessary to add a special device. This device, incorporated in each row of bricks, has already been presented previously and illustrated by figures 18a, 18b and 19. This is the long horizontal reinforcing plate placed at the bottom of bricks in the same row. For your information, there is also a well-known device that involves additional external reinforcement. This device comes in the form of external vertical pillars that also support the walls and are distributed around the perimeter of the pool.

[0039] [Fig.27] shows an example of this external reinforcement device often applied for above ground pools.

[0040] Note that the two previous devices can be considered as complementary since the first reduces the longitudinal bending of the walls while the second reduces the vertical bending.

[0041] In a preferred configuration of the invention, the wood used for the production of the brick of the invention is “Marine” plywood, treated against termites, capricorns and woodworms. In addition to the above-mentioned treatment, “Marine” plywood also has the following advantages: -It is a so-called “dead” material, meaning that it does not “work” like wood in general and therefore has good dimensional stability. -The insulating power is good. -There is a fairly low sensitivity to earth movements. -Machining is easy and precise. -Forming is possible. Other features of this material are also very useful: -It's a fairly common material -It usually comes in the form of plates with standard thicknesses, especially the 18 mm thickness which is frequently used for various applications. It is therefore this thickness of 18 mm which is preferentially adopted for the plates constituting the brick of the invention. The rebates of the L-shaped recesses thus have a thickness of 9 mm as illustrated in particular in [Fig. 13].

[0042] Finally, it should be noted that, for the finishing of walls and partitions, the brick of the invention lends itself easily to the application of coverings such as: -For exterior cladding: —The wood —PVC —Decorative stones —Exterior painting —The metal plates —or any other possible exterior coating -For interior coating: —The painting —The wallpaper —The plaster —Glass cloth (paintable, pre-painted or factory-colored) —Wall fabric (stretched or glued) —Paneling (solid wood or PVC) —Cork which has the following advantages: -----Easy to install -----Moisture resistant -----Good thermal and acoustic insulator -----Resistant -----Long lifespan -----Rot-proof -----Easy to maintain -----Good fire resistance -----Economic

Claims

Claims

1. Interlocking brick intended for the manufacture of walls and partitions for the construction of enclosures, buildings such as houses, warehouses and hangars or for the construction of swimming pool walls characterized by the fact that it has all of the following associated characteristics: - the brick is made up of only five assembled elements, two longitudinal side plates, two end plates; one at each end, and a central plate parallel to the two end plates and which constitutes a reinforcing spacer, said brick is hollow with the exception of the reinforcing spacer - the material used is wood and is the same for all five constituents of the brick, - the length "L" of the brick is between 500 mm and 1050 mm, the width "l" of the brick is between 100 mm and 250 mm and the height "h" of the brick is between 150 mm and 350 mm,-the thickness of the five elements constituting the brick is the same and is between 10 and 20 mm, -the total mass of the brick is less than or equal to 6 kg, -the two longitudinal plates which constitute the side walls have two interlocking devices along their entire length: a male interlocking device in the lower part and a female interlocking device in the upper part to allow the bricks to be mounted on top of each other, preferably in a staggered pattern, -the same two longitudinal plates also have at the end over their entire height two interlocking devices, a male interlocking device at one end and a female interlocking device at the other end to allow the bricks to be assembled together at the end, -the said interlocking devices,longitudinal in the upper part and in the lower part and at the end at each end of said longitudinal plates consist of an L-shaped notch having a rebate of thickness equal to half the thickness of the plates.,

2. Interlocking brick according to claim 1, characterized in that the wood constituting the elements of the brick is treated “Marine” plywood with a thickness of 18 mm.

3. Interlocking brick according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the assembly of the plates constituting said brick is carried out by means of screws and is possibly completed by gluing.

4. Interlocking brick according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the interior of the brick is filled with an insulator, preferably of the “cotton wool” type, to provide thermal insulation and sound insulation.

5. Interlocking brick according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that, for an above-ground swimming pool application, the stacking of the bricks is reinforced by the integration of a horizontal plate placed in the lower part of several bricks in the same row.

6. Use of interlocking bricks according to one of claims 1 to 4 for the production of perpendicular walls or walls, in which the bricks of the same first row are fixed together, an end face of one of the bricks of said first row is placed and fixed at the end against a side plate of a brick of another row of bricks perpendicular to the first row.

Images