PROCESS FOR MAKING A THERMAL INSULATION BUILDING BLOCK

PROCEDE DE FABRICATION DE BLOCS DE CONSTRUCTION, THERMO-ISOLANTS

English Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
The disclosure herein describes a process for
making a thermal insulation load or non-load supporting
building block for wall construction which comprises the
steps of first pouring a layer of a wet mixture
consisting of concrete containing expanded polystyrene
beads or other beads of similar cellular lightweight
insulating material, laying a board of expanded poly-
styrene over the wet mixture and then pouring over the
board a second layer of a similar wet mixture of concrete
containing expanded polystyrene beads or the like; the
board of expanded polystyrene is cut from a block of
expanded polystyrene so that the opposite cut surfaces
may define small cavities into which the wet cement
impregnates so that, once the concrete has set, a solid
bond is formed between the concrete layers and the board
of polystyrene.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an
exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined
as follows:
1. A process for making a thermal insulation
load supporting block for wall construction comprising
the steps of:
a) pouring a first layer of a wet mixture consisting
of concrete containing beads of cellular lightweight
insulating material;
b) laying a board of polystyrene over said wet
mixture, said board having opposite cut surfaces
defining cavities therein; said laying being done
while the mixture is in a fluid state so that a paste
of said mixture impregnates into said cavities of one
of said cut surfaces in contact with said mixture;
c) pouring over the opposite cut surface of said
board a second layer of a wet mixture consisting of
concrete containing expanded beads of cellular light-
weight insulating material whereby said mixture
impregnates into said cavities of said opposite cut
surface of said board; and
d) allowing said layers of wet mixture to set and
harden to thereby form an integral bond between said
layers and said board and to form a monolithic slab.
2. A process as defined in Claim 1, comprising
the steps of cutting said slab after the setting and
hardening of said layers to form individual blocks of
smaller size.
3. A process as defined in Claim 1 or 2,
wherein said expanded beads are made of polystyrene.

4. A thermal insulation building block for
wall construction made in accordance with the process of




Claim 1.
5. A block as defined in Claim 4, wherein
said expanded beads are made of polystyrene.

Description

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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
. .
The present invention relates to a method of
making a thermal insulation load or non-load supporting
building block for wall construction and to a block thus
made.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Some masonry blocks have been devised to
include inner and outer layers of concrete with an
intervening layer of cellular insulating material such
as polymer foam, glass or the like. The intervening
layer thus forms a barrier to the transmission of heat
between the inner and outer layers of concrete. One
example of such blocks is described in U.S. patent No.
3,653,170 issued April 4, 1972 to Sheckler. In this
patent, the bonding between the outer and inner layer
with the intervening cellular insulating material is
accomplished by either mechanical or adhesive material
so that the block is formed by a series of steps which
consist in pre-casting the foam core and casting the
concrete faces to the core, or in pre-casting both
cores and faces and cementing the components together
by use of an adhesive. Also, the inner and outer
layers of the block are formed entirely of concrete
which adds to the weight of the blocks transported
to a building site. Furthermore, each block is
produced individually which adds to the cost of making
the block.
OBJECTS AND STATEMENTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to
provide a thermal insulation load or non-load supporting
building block which is simple to construct, light in
weight and which possesses t~e heat insulation character-
istics needed to provide an adequate thermal barrier in
a wall construction.
The present invention therefore relates to
process for making such a block, which comprises the

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steps of: pouring a first layer of a wet mixture
consisting of concrete containing expanded beads of
cellular lightweight insulating material; laying a
board of polystyrene over the wet mixture, the board
having opposite cut surfaces with cavities, the laying
being carried out while the mixture is in a fluid state
so that a paste of the mixture impregnates into the
cavities of one surface of the board; pouring over the
opposite cut surface of the board a second layer of
wet mixture consisting of concrete containing expanded
beads of cellular lightweight insulating material
whereby the mixture impregnates again into cavities
formed in this opposite surface; and allowing the
layers to set to thereby form a bond between the layers
and the board and to form a monolithic slab.
It is a further object of this invention to
cut the slab, thus formed, into individual blocks.
In one preferred form of the invention, the
expanded beads are made of polystyrene.
The present invention is also related to a
thermal insulation building block made in accordance
with the above-described process.
Other objects and scope of application of the
present invention will become apparent from the detailed
description of one embodiment of the invention given
hereinafter; it is wished to have it understood, however,
that this invention may be refined and modified in
various ways without departing from the scope of the
appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
-
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a block
formed in accordance with the present invention;
Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view
showing the various steps involved in the building of
the block shown in Fig. l; and
Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of the

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block shown in Fig. 1.
DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown a block
constructed in accordance with the invention which is
of a standard dimension such as 8 x 8 x 16 inches and
is used especially for the building of a wall construction.
The block is called load supporting or non-load supporting
depending on whether the load that it supports is above
or below a given value known in the trade (for example,
1000 psi). The block 10 is composed of three layers 12,
14 and 16. The three layers may have various thicknesses
depending on the heat insulation characteristics needed
or the wall construction required.
Both layers 12 and 16 are made of the same
material which is a mixture of concrete (sand and cement)
and expanded beads of polystyrene. Instead of poly-
styrene, other similar cellular lightweight material,
such as expanded glass, may be used for the beads mixed
with the sand and cement. An adhesive, such as a carbon
methyl cellulose known under the trademark Methocel may
be added to provide a more adequate bond between the
water-sand-cement paste and the polystyrene beads and
to prevent the segregation between the light~eight beads
and the heavy matrix.
Referring to Fig. 2, a first layer 16 is poured
into a cast form, schematically represented at 18. While
the layer 16 is in a fluid state, a board of polystyrene
is laid over the pasty surface 20 of the layer. An
important feature of the present invention is the
formation of a physical-chemical bond between the board
14 and the layer 16. First, the expanded polystyrene
board must be formed by cutting a slice from a block of
expanded polystyrene so that the opposite cut surfaces
22 and 24 are provided with a series of small cavities
into which impregnates the concrete paste at surface 20
of the layer. Referring to Fig. 3, this forms a solid

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integral bond 26 of uneven thickness along the contiguous
faces of the layer 16 and the board 14.
As shown in Fi.g. 2, some pressure means,
represented schematically by roller 27, is used to insure
S full contact between the mixture surface 20 and the board
surface 24.
The next step of the process consists in pouring
an other layer 12 of mixture of concrete containing
expanded polystyrene beads over the cut surface 22 of the
polystyrene board 14. Again, the fluid condition of
layer 12 causes it to impregnate into the small cavities
present in the surface 22.
The process is completed by allowing the layers
to set and harden during a predetermined period. There-
after, an arrangement of cutters such as saws (not shown)
may be used to cut the slab shown in Fig. 2 into a
,series of blocks such as shown in Figs. 1 and 3.