Stackable Wall Spacer for Automated Concrete Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wall spacers for concrete constructions lack efficient stacking and automated distribution capabilities, requiring critical positioning and leading to increased labor and storage costs.
Innovation Solution
A stackable wall spacer design with a circumferential body section and inclined leg sections that allow for space-efficient stacking and random positioning, featuring a void for interlocking leg sections and a central opening for automated distribution, ensuring reliable support of reinforcement grids without exact placement requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If wall spacers are designed with traditional shapes for manual placement, then they can provide support for reinforcement grids, but they require critical positioning and increase labor costs
Solution Approach 1:
The wall spacer features an asymmetric design with a larger base area than traditional spacers. This asymmetric geometry allows the spacer to be stable and supportive regardless of its rotational orientation or precise position on the formwork, eliminating the need for critical positioning while maintaining structural support functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The wall spacer is designed as a stackable modular component that can be automatically fed one at a time from a stack. This segmentation into individual placeable units with standardized interfaces enables automated distribution systems to efficiently deploy multiple spacers without manual intervention, reducing labor costs while maintaining support quality.
2Productivity
If wall spacers are designed for automated distribution, then distribution time is reduced, but the spacer design becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The wall spacers are designed to stack vertically one inside another, forming compact towers for storage and transport. This nesting capability allows automated distribution systems to hold and dispense multiple spacers sequentially without requiring complex individual handling mechanisms for each spacer, reducing the overall system complexity while maintaining high distribution speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The wall spacer serves multiple functions: it provides structural support for the reinforcement grid, acts as a spacer to maintain concrete cover distance, and functions as a modular unit in an automated distribution system. The standardized geometry with a central opening and specific base area enables it to be both structurally effective and compatible with automated feeding mechanisms, achieving multi-functionality without excessive complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If wall spacers are made with larger base area for stability, then they can be placed randomly, but they occupy more storage space
Solution Approach 1:
The wall spacers are designed to stack vertically one inside another, forming compact towers for storage and transport. This nesting capability allows multiple spacers with larger base areas to be stored in a minimal footprint, offsetting the increased individual spacer area while maintaining placement flexibility on the construction site.
Data Source
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AI summary
Stackable wall spacer adapted for automated distribution using a feeder device and adapted to support a reinforcement grid, where the wall spacer comprises a plurality of leg sections each having a lower foot adapted to be placed on a mould surface for the concrete, where a plurality of wall spacers can be stacked in each other with the feet of one wall spacer extending into corresponding voids of a subsequent wall spacer, where the side wall of a leg section is parallel with the side wall of a leg section of a subsequent wall spacer. The advantage of the invention is that the wall spacers can be stacked in a space saving manner in each other, which allows a cost-efficient storage and transportation of wall spacers. The invention further allows for wall spacers that can be distributed by using a hand-held or automatic feeder device. Further, a reinforcement grid can be supported by a wall spacer regardless of the position of the spacer.