Interlocking Arch Tile with Vaulted Underside for Airflow and Drainage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing floor tiles lack efficient integration of airflow, drainage, and electrical conduit management while maintaining structural integrity and aesthetic appeal, particularly in supporting weight and reducing noise and vibration.
Innovation Solution
The development of tiles with a matrix of interconnected vaults on their underside surface, allowing for airflow, drainage, and electrical conduit passage, featuring a solid rigid body with a planar upper surface and a thickness significantly less than its linear dimensions, and incorporating mortise-and-tenon joints for interlocking and stress distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If floor tiles use a solid flat construction, then structural strength is maintained, but airflow, drainage, and electrical conduit management are hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The tile's underside is segmented into multiple vaults (typically three to five) that create separate channels for airflow, drainage, and electrical conduits. This segmentation allows the tile to perform multiple functions (structural support, airflow management, drainage, electrical routing) simultaneously without compromising structural integrity, as each vault acts as an independent pathway while the overall tile structure remains unified and strong.
2Ease of operation
If floor tiles are made with complex interlocking features, then installation ease is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of adding complex protruding interlocking features that would complicate manufacturing, the patent uses recessed grooves and channels molded directly into the tile body during manufacturing. The interlocking mechanism is inverted from traditional tongue-and-groove where the male element protrudes; here, the female element (groove) is the primary feature, and the male element (protrusion) simply fits into it. This approach simplifies manufacturing while maintaining easy installation.
3Weight of moving object
If floor tiles have a uniform thick structure, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tile structure transitions from uniform thickness to variable thickness, with thinner sections at the center and thicker sections at the edges and corners. This local quality variation reduces overall weight while maintaining structural integrity where it is most needed (at the edges and corners that bear the load). The vaulted underside creates natural thickness variation, with the highest points at the edges and lowest points at the vault centers, optimizing the weight-strength ratio.
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 solution enables effective airflow and drainage, hides unsightly wiring, improves safety by preventing tripping, and maintains structural integrity by distributing loads through interconnected pendentives, while allowing for easy installation and maintenance.
Implementation Method 1
Each archway is characterized by a span and a rise. The archways resolve any downward stresses, into compressive stresses carried to its base.
Data Source
AI summary
Tiles having a matrix of interconnected vaults on its underside surface provides space for flow of heated or conditioned air, passages for electrical service conduits and wiring, or passages for drainage. In particular, each tile may comprise a solid rigid body having a substantially planar upper surface and thickness substantially less than upper surface linear dimensions. The underside surface has a set of concavities forming a matrix of vaults bounded and interconnected by archways. Each archway is characterized by a rise dimension that is less than a span dimension. The matrix of vaults defines a set of pendentives at each vault corner whose load-bearing bases are all substantially coplanar with one another so as to contact a supporting subfloor. Edges of the tile body have corresponding alternating laterally projecting extensions and indentations for forming (with some desired leeway) mortise-and-tenon joints between adjacent tiles.