Concrete Leveling Pin with Hollow Slot for Rebar Support
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Solution Overview
Problem
The use of wooden stakes with nails for guiding concrete placement is inefficient, costly, and time-consuming, with issues in accuracy and durability, especially in soft soil and cold climates, leading to potential concrete cracks.
Innovation Solution
An injection molded grade pin with a hollow slot for accommodating a vertical support, such as rebar, and a fastening mechanism like wing nuts, providing notches or grooves for precise leveling and secure attachment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If wooden stakes with nails are used for guiding concrete placement, then the method is traditional and simple to implement, but it is inefficient, costly, and time-consuming with reduced accuracy and durability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces durable wooden stakes with inexpensive, disposable plastic pins that are injection-molded and discarded after use. These pins provide the necessary guidance function during concrete pouring but do not need to be reused, eliminating the time-consuming process of driving, measuring, and securing wooden stakes while maintaining simplicity of implementation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the material parameter from wood to injection-molded plastic, which fundamentally alters the installation process. The plastic pins can be directly inserted into the ground without driving, eliminating the need for nails and complex securing mechanisms, thereby dramatically improving efficiency while keeping the method simple.
2Measurement precision
If wooden stakes are driven into the ground individually with measurement, then the method is traditional, but it is time-consuming and loses accuracy in soft soil conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The plastic pins are pre-manufactured with precise dimensions and embedded reference features (such as raised rings or colored bands) that indicate the correct concrete level. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for on-site measurement and adjustment, allowing workers to simply insert the pins and use them as ready-made reference points, thereby maintaining high accuracy while dramatically reducing installation time.
Solution Approach 2:
The disposable nature of the plastic pins allows for precise pre-fabrication of measurement features without concern for reuse. Each pin can be manufactured with high precision and discarded after single use, eliminating the cumulative errors that occur when wooden stakes are repeatedly driven and adjusted on-site in soft soil conditions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If wooden stakes are used in cold climates, then the method is traditional, but the stakes swell in concrete potentially causing cracks
Solution Approach 1:
The plastic pins are designed as disposable components that are inserted into the concrete but do not remain as permanent formwork. They are removed after the concrete sets sufficiently to provide guidance, eliminating the prolonged contact time that causes wooden stakes to swell and crack concrete in cold climates. The pins provide their guidance function temporarily and are discarded.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the material parameter from organic wood to synthetic plastic, which has different dimensional stability characteristics. The plastic material does not absorb moisture and swell like wood when exposed to cold, wet concrete conditions, thereby eliminating the harmful swelling effect that causes concrete cracks while maintaining adaptability to various climate conditions.
Data Source
AI summary
An exemplary device for leveling new concrete includes a pin with a hollow, slot or void for accommodating at least a portion of a vertical support extending above the new concrete; and a fastening mechanism for fastening the pin to the vertical support at a reference height corresponding to a desired level for the new concrete.