Joints and connections – Branched – Three or more radiating members
Patent
1979-06-04
1985-04-09
Kundrat, Andrew V.
Joints and connections
Branched
Three or more radiating members
403217, 52 80, F16B 700
Patent
active
045098794
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application corresponds to and claims the priority of British Application Ser. No. 41000/77, filed Oct. 3, 1977 and PCT/US78/00100, filed Oct. 3, 1978, which claimed priority therefrom, but which was abandoned in favor of the present application.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to building structures having prefabricated components whose struts must be joined, and in particular, to a hinge joining arrangement for interconnecting the struts of triangulated space frame type structures.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Triangulated framework space structures include planar space frames for building roofs and walls, domes, such as geodesic domes and the like, and complex convexoconcave structures. Such structures possess a certain symmetry and direction characteristic such as is explained and described in my earlier issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,825, and Great Britain Pat. No. 1,354,965. Such building structures frequently comprise planar members whose planes are defined by peripheral struts joined to adjacent structural plane members at the strut ends. An improved strut system which utilized a novel gusset clamp which interconnected strut members at preselected angles is disclosed in my copending application Ser. No. 817,512, filed July 21, 1977 and now abandoned for GUSSET CLAMP JOINING SYSTEM FOR TRIANGULATED SPACE STRUCTURES.
Except these approaches, the classic and pervasive solution to the problem of joining a plurality of struts at a single point is to join the struts to an additional nodal element or component. Such an approach is exemplified by the so-called German "Mero" system described by Borrego, Space Grid Structures, (the MIT Press, 1968) at pages 18-21, and by the so-called U.S. "Unistrut" system, at pages 30-33 of the Borrego, and the "Triodetic" system from Canada.
It has long been thought to continue improvements in such prefabricated linear strut members so that they may be joined at their ends simply, and with fewer parts so to facilitate their assembly into a fully triangulated framework space structure where a plurality of strut members meet at a typical, nodal domain.
One such approach was described in the patent to R. B. Fuller, No. 2,986,241, issued May 30, 1961, for "SYNERGETIC BUILDING CONSTRUCTION". In FIGS. 7-13 inclusive, strut members were shown which terminated in generally "X" shaped ends that were drilled to receive fasteners. The drilled ends or flanges were arranged in what Fuller termed "overlapping" or "plus or minus turbining" and appear to be joined in a node including six axii or struts radiating outwardly from the centre of a hexagon with three struts as the apex of a tetrahedron below and/or above the node. All struts were of the same length and all structures were based on a common octahedron-tetrahedron system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention a system is disclosed which provides much greater versatility at lower cost than other systems including that of Fuller (supra). The system is predicated on the principle that no central nodal component is required (whether said nodal component is homogeneous or segmented), but that the ends of the struts themselves may be attached one to another directly, thereby eliminating the need (and therefore the manufacturing complexities, cost and weight) of a nodal component. Fuller, while avoiding the nodal component, teaches a structure that generally requires the interconnection of at least three but generally more struts at each "node".
The means by which such joining of struts together without use of nodal components may be called the "polyhinge" or "multi-hinge" joining system. Such multi-hinge joints enable as few as two strut ends to be joined at a single "nodal domain", or as many as 100 or more to be joined at a single nodal domain. This versatility is not matched by any other joining system, except the earlier gusset clamp joining system of the copending application.
The multi-hinge joint system consists generally of paired, hinge-like elements. Such hinge-like elemen
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Kleinberg Marvin H.
Kundrat Andrew V.
Pearce Peter
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