Modular Lightening Formwork Wedge Clamping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current lightening formworks for reinforced-concrete objects face issues with protruding plastic clips that are prone to breaking and require precise alignment, leading to molding problems and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
A modular lightening formwork with a metal framework and wedge members that interlock between metal support bars, eliminating the need for precise alignment and enhancing structural strength and production efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If protruding plastic clips are used to clamp onto reinforcement bars, then the lightening formwork can be firmly clamped onto the reinforcement, but the clips are prone to breaking and require perfect alignment
Solution Approach 1:
The formwork is divided into two separate cup-shaped bodies that are coupled together, with wedge members as distinct separate components that are inserted into dedicated slots. This segmentation allows the wedge members to be replaced if damaged and simplifies the clamping mechanism design, eliminating the breaking issues of integrated plastic clips.
Solution Approach 2:
Wedge members act as intermediary elements between the two cup-shaped bodies and the reinforcement bars. These wedge members are inserted into slots and wedge between the reinforcement bars to provide clamping force, serving as a mediator that transfers and distributes the clamping force more effectively than direct plastic clips.
2Device complexity
If protruding clips are made in a single piece with the cup-shaped body, then the structure is simplified, but this entails considerable moulding problems
Solution Approach 1:
The formwork components are segmented into separately manufacturable parts: two cup-shaped bodies and separate wedge members. Each component can be molded independently using standard plastic molding processes, avoiding the complexity of molding integrated protruding clips while maintaining structural simplicity through assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
While components are separately manufactured, they are merged through assembly using wedge members that lock into slots on the cup-shaped bodies. This combining approach achieves the structural simplicity of an integrated design while benefiting from the manufacturing ease of separate components.
3Manufacturing precision
If perfect alignment between lightening formwork and reinforcement bars is required, then the clips can clamp effectively, but the arrangement becomes hard-working and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The wedge members are designed to be inserted at an angle and then driven home to lock the formwork in position. This dynamic insertion process allows for some initial misalignment that is then corrected as the wedge is driven in, eliminating the need for perfect pre-alignment and significantly improving assembly efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The wedge members serve themselves by automatically finding their correct position as they are inserted and driven between the reinforcement bars. The wedge action self-corrects alignment issues and locks the formwork securely without requiring precise manual positioning, reducing labor and time requirements.
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3
AI summary
A lightening formwork (1) for reinforced-concrete objects, which is adapted to be fixed to a metal framework (101) for reinforced-concrete objects and which comprises: at least a first (2) and a second cup-shaped body (3), separate and independent from one another, which are mutually coupled/ couplable along the perimeter edge so as to form a closed and substantially globoidal-shaped, rigid shell (4); and a protruding wedge member (5), which extends cantilevered from the rigid shell (4) and is adapted to wedge and get stuck between a pair of metal bars (102) of said metal framework (101) .