A honeycomb brick, each of whose multiple cells is sealed at one of its two open ends by a non-protruding cardboard stopper.
By using cardboard plugs made from plant by-products to seal honeycomb brick cells, the method addresses the challenge of efficient insulation and sealing, achieving enhanced thermal resistance and reduced CO2 emissions with cost-effective, sustainable production.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- FR2023014181
- Authority / Receiving Office
- FR · FR
- Patent Type
- Utility models
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2022-12-20
- Filing Date
- 2023-12-14
- Publication Date
- 2025-01-10
- Estimated Expiration
- 2033-12-14
AI Technical Summary
Existing honeycomb bricks with internal insulation face challenges in sealing one end of their cells, making it difficult to achieve efficient filling and insulation, particularly due to the large number of cells requiring sealing, which is time-consuming and resource-intensive.
The use of cardboard 'plugs' made from plant by-products like bamboo pulp or sugar cane bagasse to close and fill the cells, facilitated by gravity-assisted pouring and micro-vibrations, allowing for efficient filling of a large number of cells with insulating materials such as rice straw, sorghum panicles, and coconut fibers.
This method doubles the thermal resistance of bricks, reduces CO2 emissions, and enables easy recycling of insulating materials, while maintaining a competitive price point, thus promoting local and sustainable insulation production.
Abstract
Description
Title of the invention: Honeycomb brick, each of whose multiple cells is closed at one of its two open ends by a non-protruding cardboard plug
[0001] The present invention relates to the construction sector and more specifically to the field of internal insulation of cellular bricks.
[0002] In the current state of the art, none of the existing internally insulated cellular bricks, whether those of the world leader WIENERBERGER, the Italian group Laterizi DANESI or the Austrian company UNIPOR, have used non-overhanging internal sealing of one end of the cells, considering this to be probably almost impossible to achieve, knowing for example that this would require sealing an average of 200 cells for a single brick, i.e., for an average brickworks producing 30,000 bricks per day, 6 million "plugs" to be shaped and then pressed into 6 million cells.
[0003] Our invention of sealing the cells with cardboard “plugs” (made from plant by-products such as bamboo pulp or sugar cane bagasse) makes it possible to fill cell bricks at a rate of 9 million sealed and filled cells per day and per machine.
[0004] The filling is carried out by pouring into the cells, by simple gravity assisted by lateral and vertical micro-vibrations, small sections of 1 to 3 mm cut from plant by-products such as rice straw, sorghum panicles, conifer needles, coconut fibers or any other dense, rigid, smooth and relatively straight plant by-product (by-products sorted, cleaned, cut, soaked in a fireproofing solution before being mixed with animal repellent ash).
[0005] For a classic standard brick of 25x30x25cm weighing 15kg and comprising 200 cells, we will be able to insert 500g of plant by-products, the equivalent of 12cm of glass wool that would have had to be glued to the brick, which will double the thermal resistance of the brick.
[0006] By using plant by-products as insulators, which would normally have ended up as compost in the soil, we avoid releasing 1kg of CO2 per kilo, i.e. 500g less CO2 released per brick, or for our average brickyard which employs 60 people, the compensation of the annual CO2 emissions of 750 people.
[0007] Based on a current average emission of 50kg of CO2 per tonne of brick, the use of our insulation will avoid an emission of 30kg of CO2.
[0008] Note that in the event of deconstruction it is also easy to empty the bricks of their insulation and thus be able to recycle these two products separately.
[0009] Finally, as our plugging of the cells then allows us to easily insert a wide choice of plant by-products, it is of course those produced locally and at lower cost and with greater ecological impact that will be chosen, for example in Europe sorghum straw, the seeds of which have very interesting nutritional values, and the cultivation of which is resistant to drought on soils of average quality.
[0010] To give an order of magnitude, it will be enough to encourage the cultivation of 1000 hectares of sorghum within a perimeter of 50km around our standard brickyard (i.e. 1 / 1000 of agricultural land) to have enough "local" insulating straw.
[0011] Finally, on the economic level, thanks to our invention of plugging the cells of honeycomb bricks using a new, industrializable process, completely outside the practices of those skilled in the art of brickmaking and requiring great inventiveness, the price of insulated bricks should be very little higher than the price of non-insulated bricks, which should allow their development throughout the world.
[0012] An embodiment of our invention, for example to seal bricks of standard dimensions 25x30x25cm, bricks arranged in 12s (3x4) on a 90x100cm pallet, bricks pierced with 120 cells of 8x16mm opening for 25cm depth, and 80 smaller cells of 8x8mm opening, bricks whose cell uprights have a thickness of 6mm, will consist of: • take a sheet of corrugated cardboard measuring 89x119 (the row of 12 90x100 bricks reduced by the external thickness of the brick) • pre-cut in this sheet the surface of the 200 cells x 12 bricks, each increased by half the thickness of the cells, i.e. 3mm more in length and width, i.e. 120 cutouts of 14x22mm and 80 cutouts of 14x14mm • so that these cardboard cutouts fold in a controlled manner when they are forcibly pressed into the cells, the cardboard of these cutouts will be incised at the desired folding locations, i.e. 1 mm less than the dimensions of the openings • the manipulator arm, which picks up the rows of bricks on the pallets as they come out of the kilns, will then precisely position each row of bricks on this sheet of corrugated cardboard • under the bricks and under this sheet of cardboard there are stamping cleats of height 10mm, width 3mm and length 4 or 8mm = 2400 cleats • when the sheet + brick assembly is correctly positioned, the dosing frame of the insulating sections, the base of which is a plate of strips of 20mm thick glued bamboo pierced with the same openings as the bricks without the flat edges of the cells, which contains 500g of insulation / brick or 6kg or 100 liters or 20cm in height, descends to block the bricks. The stamping pins are then pushed upwards, causing the pre-cuts in the cardboard sheet to break, to be folded along the grooves, and finally to be stamped 10mm into the cells with individual force locking in each cell. the brick + dosing frame assembly is then subjected to horizontal and vertical micro-vibrations the alveoli are filled in 15 seconds the stamping cleats then descend, the dosing frame rises higher and the row of bricks is evacuated onto the conveyor the row of bricks is covered with a protective cardboard waterproofed with vegetable wax before being palletized
Claims
Claims
1. Honeycomb brick characterized in that each of its multiple cells is closed at one of its 2 open ends by a non-protruding plug made from material derived from plant by-products.
2. Honeycomb brick according to claim 1 characterized in that this stopper is made of cardboard made from sugar cane residue or bamboo pulp.