Dry Cement Pellet Transport and Nozzle Mixing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing construction methods using extrusion techniques face issues with wet, uncured cementitious materials hardening due to power failures or equipment halts, leading to operational disruptions and equipment clogging.
Innovation Solution
An extrusion system that transports dry pellets in a gaseous stream, separates them using gravity, mixes with fluid and chemicals, and extrudes the mixture through a nozzle, allowing for continuous operation and preventing material hardening.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If wet, uncured cementitious material is delivered through hoses to a nozzle, then continuous extrusion construction can be achieved, but the material may harden and cause equipment clogging during power failures or halts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state of the cementitious material from wet to dry pellets, and stores it in a hardened state. The material is only converted back to a workable state at the point of use through mixing with water, eliminating the risk of premature hardening in the delivery system while maintaining continuous construction capability
Solution Approach 2:
The cementitious material is divided into discrete dry pellets that can be individually transported and stored. This segmentation allows the material to be delivered in a stable, non-clogging form and only combined into a continuous extrudable stream at the nozzle, resolving the contradiction between continuous construction and equipment clogging
2Reliability
If dry pellets are transported in a gaseous stream and mixed with fluid at the nozzle, then material hardening is prevented during transport, but the system complexity increases with additional mixing equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The cementitious material is prepared in advance as dry pellets that are stable for storage and transport. The mixing with water is performed just before extrusion at the nozzle, combining the benefits of stable transport with continuous construction capability while minimizing the complexity of the mixing system by using a simple fluid injection mechanism
3Manufacturing precision
If wet material is used for extrusion, then precise control of material proportions is difficult, but the material must be kept in a liquid state requiring continuous flow
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material state from wet to dry pellets, which can be precisely metered and controlled during transport. The dry pellets maintain their composition integrity during transport, and only when mixed with a controlled amount of water at the nozzle do they become extrudable, enabling precise proportion control without requiring continuous flow throughout the entire system
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables continuous construction by maintaining the flow of uncured cementitious material, preventing hardening and ensuring efficient equipment operation, and allowing for precise control of material proportions and additives.
Implementation Method 1
a transport line configured to transport dry pellets in a gaseous transport stream
Implementation Method 2
The separation chamber may be configured to substantially separate the dry pellets from the gaseous transport stream
Implementation Method 3
a mixer configured to mix the dry pellets with the fluid
Implementation Method 4
a nozzle having a nozzle inlet configured to receive the wet material and a nozzle outlet configured to extrude the wet material
Data Source
AI summary
Dry construction pellets that may be made by mixing predetermined portions of two or more components of cementitious materials without ingredients that would allow the mixture to cure, and separating the un-curable mixture of the two or more components into a plurality of pellets, each having substantially the predetermined portions of the two or more components. An extrusion system may include a transport line configured to transport the dry pellets in a gaseous transport stream.