Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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CONNECTING ELEMENT FOR THE ERECTION OF WALLS MADE
OF CONSTRUCTION BLOCKS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention refers to a connecting element
for the erection of walls made of construction blocks laid
upon one another.
There exist several sets of construction blocks for
the erection of walls, in particular without the need to
use wet mortar~ wherein the blocks are interconnected. One
of the known sets, according to the German Patent No.
10 2,650,292, comprises a block with two tenons on one side
and corresponding apertures on the other side. The tenon is
surrounded by a concentric, stepped collar, causing a dis-
tance between each course. ~his distance is not only a de-
corative element, but also very practical, excluding the
danger of crushing the fingers between two blocks of the
persons laying said wall. Said blocks are further distin-
guished by its peripherical form with smooth, outwardly
arched sides, enabling the erection of streamline-shaped,
curved walls. In general, those blocks are made of concre-
te, whereby respectively the tenons with the collar and theapertures are formed with the blocks in one piece. Thus the
molds for those blocks are complicated and expensive and,
accordingly, the blocks are expensive. It became further
apparent that a steady layer of the blocks upon one another
cannot be warranted in every case, due to the irregulari-
ties of the surface of the collars, whereupon the upper
block is resting, necessitating in those cases additional
measures.
The U.S. Patent No. 3,479,782 discloses a wall made
of a plurality of construction blocks laying in courses one
upon another, said blocks having apertures, in which metal-
lic sleeves with a slot along their length and a bead in
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its central part are extending, for positioning and fixing
said blocks. The blocks have an annular counterbore around
the aperture, corresponding to the annular bead of the
sleeve in such a way, that the blocks lay one upon another
without any space between.
The German Laid Open No. 3,222,318 discloses similar
double-bolts with a circular bead in its central part. The
corresponding apertures in the construction blocks have an
annular recess corresponding to the annular bead, thus enab-
0 ling to put one block upon another without space between.The European Laid Open No. 0,052,082 discloses also
a connecting element with an intermediate annular flange
for connecting rectangular building blocks laid in superim-
posed horizontal courses. The surfaces of the blocks being
in contact and the connecting pins are made thus, that the
blocks are laying one upon another without space between.
SUMMARY_OF THE INVENTION
Starting from the first mentioned, interconnected
construction blocks with tenons surrounded by an annular
collar, said collar serving as spacer between two blocks
laying one upon another, it is an object of the present in-
vention to provide a connecting element which is not expen-
sive and easy to produce, results in a more efficient and
less expensive production of the construction blocks to be
connected by said element, facilitates the assembling of
walls, and enables steady layers of blocks.
This object is attained with a connecting element for
the erection of walls made of construction blocks laid one
upon another, each construction block having at least one
aperture at each of its horizontally oriented surface for
receiving one end of said connecting element, said connect-
ing element having an inner portion with one end thereof to
be inserted into one aperture of a first block and the
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other end thereof to be inserted into the aperture of a se-
cond block laying aligned upon said first block and a ring
intermediate to said ends connected to said inner portion,
wherein the diameter of said ring is greater than the dia-
meter of said apertures, said ring serving as spacer bet-
ween said first, underlaying block and said second, super-
imposed block resting upon said ring.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a lateral view of a wall erected with ele-
ments and constructions blocks according to the invention,
Fig. 2 is a section of the preferred connecting ele-
ment according to the invention, between two construction
blocks,
Fig. 3 is a section along line III-III of Fig. 2,
Fig. 4 is a section of a second embodiment of the
invention,
Fig. 5 is a section along line V-~ of Fig. 4,
Fig. 6 is a section of a third embodiment of the in-
vention,
Figs. 7 and 8 are sections of details of the embodi-
ment of Fig. 6,
Fig. 9 is a top view of a fourth embodiment of the
invention, and
Figs. 10 and 11 are enlarged sections of details of
the connecting element according to the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Fig. 1 shows a wall made of construction blocks 1
like the one shown in Fig. 3. The sides 2 of said block
are smoothly, outwardly arched. As indicated by the irregu-
lar line at the left side of Fig. 3, a block could be
constituted by one, two or more such portions, the normal,
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most used block being the block with two such portions and
hence two apertures 3, shown in Fig. 2. Each portion is se-
parated by an indentation 4. In the case of the one-portion
block all four sides are arched. This arched shape enables
the erection of streamlined-shaped, curved walls. Normally,
the blocks are laid on a concrete base 5 as shown in Fig.
1. The aperture 3 is normally circular and and for all
blocks, except the cover blocks of the top course, through.
It can be deduced from Fig. 2 that the circular aperture
and the corresponding circular inner portion 7 of the con-
necting element 6 is not obligatory, although preferred.
Instead of the circular shape any other shape of the aper-
tures and the corresponding inner portion of the connecting
elements can be used. If for the top course blocks with
through apertures are used, those apertures can be closed
by appropriate means, like a plug.
The connecting element 6 of Fig. 2 consists of an in-
ner portion 7, serving to fix the blocks in its lateral po-
sitions and also to center said blocks, and of a circular
ring 8 intermediate to the ends of the inner portion, serv-
ing as spacer between two blocks laying one upon the other
and as a part of the supporting surface, both parts being
made in one piece. The inner portion 7 consists of several,
for example six, centering fins 9 with a T-shaped form, the
longitudinal leg 10 thereof being connected to the ring 8
and constituting also a part of the supporting surfaces.
The outer diameter of the centering fins is adapted to the
diameter of the aperture. For facilitating the insertion of
the connecting element and of the block atop, the sides 11
of the fins, adjoining the aperture, are chamfered. There
need not be six fins, a minimum of three are required for
easy centering.
Preferably, the connecting elements are made of an
appropriate plastics material, like soft or hard PVC (poly-
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vinyl chloride) and colored with the same color as theblocks. Other material can be used, such as elastomeres,
rubber, or metal. Besides the non-expensive and easy mass
production of the connecting element, if made of plastics
material, the use of relatively soft PVC results in several
further advantages: The relative compressibility of the
supporting surface of the connecting element enables to
compensate the irregularities inherent to the fabrica-
tion of the blocks and allows a steady support of those
blocks, resp. courses. This effect is enhenced, if the sup-
porting surfaces are not flat and are provided with one or
two circular lips, as shown in Figs. 10 and 11. In general,
only the circular ring 8 is provided with such lips. For
example, the supporting surfaces 11 can be U-shaped as in
Fig. 10 or U-shaped in the other sense or the outer rim of
the supporting surfaces 12 can be provided with a circular
lip 13. It is evident that the circular lips adapts better
to the irregularities of the block surfaces they are in
contact with than the whole supporting surface of the ring
and the supporting leg. The lips serve further as seal in
the case the apertures are filled with concrete.
The fins can be executed otherwise than pane-like
and T-shaped. They can be also L-shaped, with the vertical
leg showing up or down and the section could be spherical
like, althought the pane-like shape economizes material
and allows an obstacle-free flow if concrete is poured into
the connecting element.
In the Figs. 4 and 5 there is shown a second embodi-
ment of the invention where the construction blocks have
another shape, the sides 17 being arched in a stepped fa-
shion. The connecting element 14 comprises a sleeve-like
inner portion 15 consisting of a tube 16 and intermediate
to its ends, radially arranged fins 18 similar in shape as
the fins described above, said fins connecting the inner-
most tube 16 with the circular supporting ring 1~.
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This ring can have supporting surfaces as described above.It follows from Fig. 4 that the ends 20 of the centering
fins 16 are chamfered~ As can be seen from Fig. 4 solely
the supporting circular ring 19 supports the blocks whilst
the height o the connecting leg of the fins is slightly
less than of said ring. It is evident, that this is not ne-
cessary and that the height of the connecting leg of the
fins can be equal to the height of the ring 19 and can have
a greater length so as to obtain an increased stability.
The purposes of this embodiment are manyfold. If the aper-
tures are filled by concrete, an inner concrete bar is
formed by the tube 16 which is almost independent of the
blocks and thus increases the stability of the wall. On the
other hand, if no filling up with concrete is desired and
an increased stability is necessary, a steel bar can be in-
serted into the innermost tube and fixed thereto.
If the steadiness and the supporting ability has to
be increased, it is possible to add a further supporting
annular ring outside the rings 8 and 19 described above, as
shown in the Figs. 6-8. This applies in particular if the
height of the connecting legs of the T- or L-shaped fins or
the links is less than the height of the supporting rings.
It is possible to provide an additional L-shaped ring 21
(Fig. 6), or a I-shaped ring 22 (Fig. 7), or a U-shaped
ring 23 (Fig. 8) and also to form the supporting surfaces
thereof as shown above.
Fig. 9 shows a third embodiment of a connecting ele-
ment 24, with two variations, wherein the supporting ring
25 (left side) or 26 (right side) consists of radially ex-
tending ribs 27, connected to an inner centering ring 28,
from which centering fins 29, which can be the same as tho-
se shown in Fig. 2, are extending inwards, said supporting
ribs being further connected by a reinforcing ring 30, or
not.
Beneath the preferred embodiments described above,
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further variations oE the connecting element are possible
within the spirit of the invention. It is thus possible
to fabricate the element of more than one piece and to pro~
duce for example the inner portion of another material and
with another color as the supporting ring, or to shape the
tubes of the inner portion conically, or, as mentioned abo-
ve, to take any other section as the cylindrical one, with
corresponding apertures in the blocks. The blocks can have
any other shape as described, for example they can be rec-
tangular slabs.
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