Joints and connections – Branched – Polyhedral
Patent
1996-03-06
1997-09-16
Knight, Anthony
Joints and connections
Branched
Polyhedral
403169, 403171, 403348, 446119, 446126, 301118, 301111, 301131, F16B 700, A63H 3300, B60B 3700
Patent
active
056673264
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a construction system, especially useful as a construction toy, display stand, instructional engineering aid and more particularly to a novel and improved type of flexible tie strut. The present invention also relates to couplers for connecting structural members and collapsible, self-erecting construction structures.
PRIOR ART
The range of construction toys available today for children older than six years is small and generally unappealing. There are two major problems associated with this section of the toy market. First, the short attention span of many of today's television-oriented children requires a toy to provide immediate gratification--the `push-together` ease of the Lego.TM. is now a minimum standard. Second, there is considerable buyer resistance to construction toys which manifestly do not contain sufficient components to build the impressive models so often seen in shop-window displays and advertising literature and when they do, they are fragile not durable.
Although examples of toys are discussed in detail it is understood that the present invention is directed to construction systems in which the primary types of structural members are beams, ties and struts. Beams are those members that are subjected to bending or flexure. Ties are members that are subjected to axial tension only. Struts are members that are subjected to axial compression only. The present invention is able to support tension and compression loads and in addition, is flexible and collapsible. After being collapsed and bent, the flexible tie strut is able to elastically recover to it's original form.
A variety of construction toys having combinations of connectors and structural elements acting primarily as struts which can be combined to form various structures is generally known. The structural elements of the known construction toys generally do not accommodate tensile loads or allow recoverable bending along their longitudinal axis. Such known elements seriously limit the size and strength of structures that can be assembled from them.
If a large structure is fabricated from existing combinations of connectors and structural elements, such a structure can easily be damaged from the application of small loads. The reason for this is, the application of a relatively small load can cause significant bending stress to be developed in the struts, thus damaging them. The present invention is designed to support only compressive and tensile loads and cannot support excessive bending loads. This feature of not being capable of supporting excessive bending loads not only prevents damage in the event of overload of the structure, but also permits the structure to be collapsed and stored for later self-erection.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,137,486 to Glickman and 2,709,318 to Benjamin are typical of construction toys having hub-like connectors and strut-like structural elements adapted to be removably engaged, e.g., force fit, with the connectors to form composite structures. In general, none of these prior art devices provides positive coupling of strut-like members to withstand tensile loading, and none provides strut-like members with strength in tension and compression. In addition, none of the strut-like members in the prior art allows controlled flexure for purposes of assembly or the creation of self-erecting structures.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,968 to Fentiman, an attempt is made at producing a construction system which is able to load the strut members in tension and compression, but this design is susceptible to damage due to the rigid nature of both the struts and the coupler.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,900 to Rayner and also U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,391 to Mengeringhausen, a flexible connection means is disclosed. This connection means is able to accommodate a certain amount of abuse, but because the strum in both of the aforementioned patents are rigid, they are easily damaged if subjected to bending loads as might occur if they were to be stepped on. The present invention c
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