Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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: nS~'RUC~ I, PA~, A~D ~A M~ HOD OF USI~G ~EE ~;l~E
I~ HOUSE CONS~RUC~ION"
The invention is a structural ~anel? e.g., of wood,
consisting oE a structural pos~ and a building board,
locked together by means of a groove in the plane of the
board, so that the structural post and the adjacellt
I boards form a bearing whole requ.iring no nailin~, glueing,
¦ or other form of fastening, and can be snapped together and
j pulled apart easily and without professional skill.
Different kinds of structural posts form dif~erent kinds
of structural panels, single or double,for instance
conduits, floors, panellin~ on external walls, ceilings,
insulated walls, complete walls~ partial interior walls,
or walls with windows or doors.
The basic units may be glued or fastened together to form
larger units, increase strenqth or reduce material.
The invention is desiyned for house construction but can
also be used i~ model building, toy making and elsewher~.
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A plane i the mo~t common form in house cons~ruction
outside as well as inside~ ~?alls, floors and ceilings
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panelling on flat surfaces, permanerlt and rnovable interiors,
and eYen urniture, are all build up from this simple Eorm.
Its unit is called a board.
The form by itself is not sufficient/ fQr strength is also
required. l'he board has least strength and rigidity in
the direction of the perpendicular to its plane. I~ that
direction it is flexible and weak. Therefore a structural
frame is built behind the boards and the boards ~astened to
it, usually by nail.ing but also often by gluein~. This kind
of structural surface has no sp~cial name, and is in fact
thought o~ as two distinct things, as a structural frame
and the covering boards. The structural frame is a bearing
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whole and is constructed by itself ahead of the rest ~ since
it must, among other things, sustain the hammering involved
in nailing the boards onto it.
The structural frame must be adapted to the size of the
board, since undPr PaCh board edge there must be a post to
carry the perpendicular thrust on the board and to ~asten
the board into. Therefore the construction of the frame
calls ~or fairly accurate measurement. The structural
posts must not bend from the straight line of the edg2, and
must therefore be braced so that each post foxms a straight
line. The construc~ion of the frame therefore requires
professiorlal ~kill, practical sense, measurement, and a
considerable a~ount of labour.
~he board~i are then nailed onto ~he frame and all na~ls
set, whlch is a time-consuming job. All nail holes must
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be filled and the filler left to dr~y pro~erly, after which
~t must ~e sanded down. Electric wlretupes run ~ertically
within walls, so that hcles must be drilled ln the braces
to thread the conduits through. Door and window frames are
not automatically produced but must be made separa~ely and
astened to the frame. The result of all this is that two
thirds of ~he cost of a walL without door or window frames
is accounted for by the labour described above, consisting
~or the most part in measuringf nailin~, and repairing the
damage associated with nailing.
The basis of the invention is the real judgement that this
labour i5 unnecessary. The purpose of measurement is to
locate posts where two boards meet. This can be done by
changing the order of operations and pl~cing each ~ost
after the board is already in position, thus making the
board determine the location of the post, which in turn
determines the location of the next board. This makes
measurement unnecessary.
The purpose of nailing is to fasten the board and the post
together. Nailing is an immovable and permanent form of
fastening which does not allow a seperation without some
damage and even total damage. This kind of fast~ning is
far from being desirable, since it is an indisputable
advantage to be able to change inter~or arrangements. The
r~ason for nailing mus~ be that firm and separa~eable fast-
~ning does not exis~. To replace nailing it is therefore
n~cessary to ~nvent such a fastening.
Grooving i5 a known methoa o~ joining that does not have the draw-
bac]cs of naiLing but has nevertheless not been used to fasten
board and post together. The groove has only been used to join
surface units, as a plane joint, and then only to provide a
character of continuity across the joint, provide continuity, and
make the joint rigid in the plane oE the surface, but not to
fasten the surfacing-forming elements to structural elements~ For
that purpos~ nailing is used, even when the surface-forming
elements are joined by means of a groove. Thus the groove is
known only as a plane joint, of constructing a surface of plane
units, but not as a means of joining plane units and at the same
time attaching them to a supporting frame nor as a means of simply
attaching such units to a frame. All this may be summed up in the
conclusion that the groove is known as a plane joint but not as a
structural frame joint or joining individual structural posts to
other structural members or, in other words~ as a means of bearing
joint. Such a use of the groove is indispensible for the purpose
of the invention.
The purpose of the invention is a new product which has the bearing
characteristics o-f the structural frame and the surface character-
istics of the board covering but instead of being based on gluing,
nailing or any kind of permanent fastening is self-bracing and can
be taken apart.
In drawings which illustrate embodiments of the invention,
Figure 1 is a cross-section o-f a joint between two structural
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sur:Eaces and a structural pos-t in acco:rdanc~e with this invent.ion,
Figure 2 is a cross-section of a partially assembled joint utiliz-
ing a two-surface groove,
Figure 3 is a cross-section of a partially assembled joint using
a three-surface groove,
Figure 4 is a cross-section of a portion of an assembled structural
panel,
Figure 5 is a cross-section o~ two adjacent assembled structural
panels with insulation material disposed between them,
Figure 6 is an elevation, partially in ~ection, of a double
structural panel forming a complete interior wall,
Figure 7 is an elevation, partially in section, of a double
structural panel with an end member, forming a partial interior
wall,
Figure 8 is an elevation, partially in sectionl of a double
structural panel with an interposed frame structure,
Figures 9, 10 and 11 are cross-sect.lons of joints of additional
embodiments of the invention.
The invention is a structural panel according to Figure 1,
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including a board ~2) to ~orm a surface (3) and a structural
post (1) to provide strength, wherein the structural post
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is located at the edge of the board (2) and the bearing direction
of the structural pos-t (1) is perpendicular to the board
surface (3), and the board (2) and the structural post (1) are
joined by means of a groove (4), where the joining direction
of the groove (4) is in the plane of -the board (3) and is
perpendicular to the edge of the board.
Each struc-tural post (1) obviously has a longitudinal
bearing direction parallel to its long axis. In addi-tion,
each structural post (1) has two txansverse bearing directions
which are, respectively, perpendicular to its two pairs of
longitudinal faces. Generally, but not necessarily, structural
posts as contemplated by this invention are rectangular in
cross-section, such that they have substantially greater bearing
strength in one -transverse bearing direction than in -the other.
In this specification, the term "the transverse bearing
direction" of a structural post will designate that transverse
bearing direction in which bearing strength is equal to or
greater than the bearing strength in the other -transverse bearing
directionO
Since an ordinary groove is a rigid joint in a direction
perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and the direction
of joining, in other words, at right angles to -the surface, in
the direction of the perpendicular to it, and the -transverse
bearing direction of the supporting post (1) is direc-ted in
the direction of the perpendicular, the groove becomes a rigid
joint or fastenin~ in such bearing direction. Since the
structural pos-t (1~ is rigld in the direction in which the
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board is Elexible and is connected to i-t b~ a joint -tha-t is rigid
in the same direc-tion, the rigidity of the struc-tural post (1)
ls transferred -to the board (2)~ which -thus becomes rigid both
to and from the s-tructural post (1), but that is precisely -the
function formerly served by nailing. This is the functior
of a "-transverse" groove.
The "transverse" groove (~) thus does not func-tion as
a plane joint, for it does not join two surface uni-ts, but
instead joins a surface-unit to a bearing unit, but -that was
formerly the function of nailing. The result is a bearing,
surface-unit, a structural panel according to figure 1, a new
product.
By joining the same structural post ~1) to two boards (2)
in the same plane, a plane joint is formed between the boardS,
where the structural post ~1) is an intermediary member.
Therefore the structural panel may be defined as a panel
consisting of surface-units joined by means of a groove and is
characterized by, the groove joint not being between the surface-
units, but between one surface-unit and a bearing intermediate
member and then again between the same intermediate member and
a second surface-unit, so that the groove-joint is indirect
and the intermediate member a bearing one.
This does not necessarily include that the intermediate
member becomes a part of the surfa~e. On the other hand, it
can be, if so desired. This is a matter of free choice, but
not indispensable principle.
From structural panel units a surface may be constructed
that is equivalent to an ordinary groove-joint surface bu-t
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has the advantage of requiriny neither nailing, glueing, nor
a struc-tural Erame, since bearing ability and rigidi-ty are
included characteristics. ~his is a structural panel.
rrheoretically a joining dlrection of a groove between
the structural post (1) and the board can be either in the plane
of the board or perpendicular -to i-t, i.e. in -the direction of
the normal. In the latter case the groove is not fixed in
the transverse bearing direction of the structural pos-t, which
under a load becomes sligh-tly bended, which would suffice to
loosen the joint. Moreover, it does not utilize the surface
strength of an ordinary chip-board, which is one of the mos-t
common kinds of board used in house building, but instead it
depends on the strength within the board, perpendicular to
the surface, where such a board is weakest. For these two
reasons a groove in the direction of the perpendicular to -the
plane of the board is unsuitable for the construction of a
structural panel. ~either does such a groove resis-t a force
in the direction away from the surface, caused, for instance,
by a sudden drop in air pressure or by the weight of shelves
or other things suspended from the surface. A groove in the
plane of the board does bear such forces, it is fixed in the
normal direction, which is a necessary condition for transferring
the bearing ability from the structural post -to the board, since
that resistance is in the opposite direction. In addition the
groove allows the bending referred to above and also makes use
of the surface strength of a chip board.
A structural panel according to the invention is as~er~lbled
on the site by placing the supporting post (1) against the edge
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of the board (2), or vice versa, and locking the groove--joint by
pressing the units together. This :incl.udes that the structural
panel itself locates the structural post (1), and therefore a
measurement is unnecessary. Since, moreover, the transverse
groove serves the purpose of nailing, the labour involved in mea-
suring and nailing the frame together, as well as in nai:Ling and
setting of nails, fi]ling of nail. holes, and sanding, is elimin-
ated with the realization of this new product, the structural
panel.
The form and design of the groove depends on circum~
stances, such as the bearing qualities and thickness o:E the board
and the desired character of the surface, whether, for instance,
the structural post is to be concealed, visible between the
boards, or aligned in the plane of the board. It is important
that the groove is narrow enough to prevent moving of the board in
the transverse bearing direction in spite of natural shrinkage,
but still wide enough to make assembly suitably easy and allow
disassembly without damage.
These requirements are contrary, and consequently for
that purpose the groove according to figure 2 is important, which
allows for a two-stage assembly where the second stage involves
two parallel. contact surfaces Al and A2, one on each side oE the
groove, which are not opposite each other and consequently exert a
bending force on two corresponding contact surfaces Bl and B2 on
the tongue filling the groove. Such a groove utilizes the elasti-
city of the wood for the purpose of a firm hold in the groove.
Furthermore, it allows for an amount of shrinkage in the locking
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directi.on of the groove correspond;ng to the length of the contact
surfaces. Such a groove is cal.l.ed doub:Le if it has two contact
surfaces and triple if it has three; furthermore, it is a "trans-
verse" groove.
Figure 3 shows a trip].e elastic "transverse" groove.
Such a groove conceals the structural post under the surface of
the boardsO This groove includes addi~.ional contact surfaces A3
and B3.
Figure 4 shows a sing:le structural panel.
Figure 5 shows two single structural panels forminq an
insulating wal.l.
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Fig. 6 shows a double structural panel form.in~ a complete
interior wall.
Fig. 7 shows a double structural panel with an end member,
forming a partial interior wall.
Fig. 8 shows a double structural panel with a frame.
The above description together with the accom~anying
drawings gives only an example of the apE)lication of the
invent.ion, made for the pu:rpose of obtainin~ patent protect.ion,
and does not in any way limit the invention.
The inventors know, that the invention is a~plicable to
other materials than wood, even though wood has here been
chosen for the illustrative purpose already mentioned.
The assembled wholes according to fig. 4 to 8 arG attached
to other structures by means of a positioning ~eace ~5)
fastened by conventional nailing.
It is evident that the invention here described also
¢onstitutcs a method applicable to house construction.
In another embodiment (Figures 9 and 10) the post has a
flat back surEace paral]el to tha board and extends to at least
one side behind the groove. The extension is con~igured to be
nailed to an adjacent element, such as an existing wall, a beam or
another post. This provides a facing wall spaced from the
existing structure to which the poc;t is nailed.
Figure 11 illustrates a t:riple elastic groove similar to
that illustrated in Figure 3. In t:his embodiment, however, the
post 1 has a surface 6 parallel to the back surface o~ the board 2
and extending from the groove 7 to the edge of the post. The
groove 7 slopes inwardly towards the front Eace 8 of the post 1,
opposite to the slope of groo~e 4 in F`igure 3. With this con-
struction, the surEace 6 of the post supports the edge oE the
board 2 against bending and inhibits opening of the joint between
the edges of adjacent boards. The respe~tive contact surfaces of
the post 2 and the board 2 are indicated at Al, A2 and A3, and BL,
B2 and B3, respectively.
A similar arrangement can be embodied in double elastic
transverse grooves.
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