Elastic Brick Connector for Fast Aligned Masonry Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
The traditional masonry construction process is labor-intensive, prone to errors, and inefficient due to dimensional variations in brick holes, leading to reduced wall resistance and increased repair costs, especially in seismic regions.
Innovation Solution
A connector device with a tubular body featuring grooves or channels that can elastically adjust to varying brick hole dimensions, equipped with recesses forming flaps for easy insertion and alignment, allowing for flexible connection and separation of masonry units.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional masonry construction methods are used with manual bricklaying and mortar application, then skilled labor can achieve precise alignment and connection, but the construction process becomes labor-intensive, slow, and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The construction system is segmented into standardized components: bricks with precisely positioned holes, connectors with specific geometries, and grout injection systems. This segmentation enables modular assembly, improving construction speed while maintaining simplicity through standardized interfaces that reduce the need for skilled manual adjustment
Solution Approach 2:
Connectors serve as intermediary elements between bricks, providing precise alignment and connection without requiring skilled manual bricklaying. The connectors act as mediators that standardize the interface between masonry units, enabling faster construction while maintaining structural integrity through controlled geometric relationships
2Adaptability or versatility
If connectors are designed with fixed rigid dimensions, then manufacturing precision is high, but they cannot accommodate dimensional variations in brick holes leading to installation failures
Solution Approach 1:
The connector design incorporates dynamic elements that allow dimensional adjustment within specified ranges. The connector geometry includes features that can adapt to variations in hole dimensions while maintaining standardized manufacturing tolerances, enabling both adaptability and manufacturing precision to coexist
Solution Approach 2:
The connector design allows for parameter changes within controlled ranges to accommodate brick hole variations. By designing connectors with geometric flexibility parameters built into the standardized manufacturing process, the system achieves adaptability without sacrificing manufacturing precision or requiring custom fabrication
3Strength
If traditional Reinforced Masonry method is used with manual alignment and grout filling, then wall structural resistance is improved, but the process is slow, cumbersome, and prone to human error
Solution Approach 1:
Alignment features and connection geometries are prepared in advance during connector and brick manufacturing. The preliminary preparation of precise geometric interfaces eliminates the need for time-consuming manual alignment during construction, maintaining structural resistance while dramatically improving construction efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical process of alignment and grout application is replaced by a standardized system of geometrically controlled connectors and bricks. This substitution eliminates human error in alignment while maintaining structural integrity, and enables faster construction through predetermined connection geometries that require minimal manual adjustment
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
The connector device facilitates quicker and more reliable masonry construction by accommodating dimensional variations, enhancing wall stability and reducing the need for skilled labor, while allowing for post-construction mortar injection and imperfection correction.
Implementation Method 1
A connector device with a tubular body featuring grooves or channels that can elastically adjust to varying brick hole dimensions
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a device for connecting and separating masonry units, preferably bricks, which comprises a tubular body that fits the tubular shape of holes in the bricks. The device for connecting and separating comprises a portion that has a straight cross-section larger than the cross-section of the tubular body and disposed approximately midway along the length of the connector device, for separating the bricks that said device connects. The device also comprises at least one depression or channel along the entire length of the tubular body, the depression or channel acting as a spring. The connector allows walls to be assembled using only bricks and connectors so as to apply mortar ex post.