Set Of Glazed Brick Building Blocks

Abstract

A set of hollow clay-brick blocks having rectangular dimensional sizes of 231223, 231212, 231210, 11.51210.5, 231211 or 231211, and each brick block has at least one of exterior side that is ceramiclly glazed.

Claims

1. A set of glazed clay-brick blocks, comprising: at least one rectangular hollow clay-brick block having a LHW dimension of 231212, said hollow clay-brick block having two-rectangular hollow spaces separated in-between by a 4 thickness wall, the two-rectangular hollow spaces are surrounded by walls of at least 2 thickness; and at least one exterior surface side of said hollow clay-brick block is glazed with ceramic compound and is water-proof; wherein said hollow clay-brick block is made of clay.

2. A set of glazed clay-brick blocks, comprising: A set of rectangular hollow clay-brick blocks, respectively having a LHW dimension of 231223, 231212, 231210, 11.51210.5, 231211 or 231211; each of said hollow clay-brick blocks having two-rectangular hollow spaces separated in-between by a 4thickness wall, the two-rectangular hollow spaces are surrounded by walls of at least 2 thickness, except the brick block of 11.51210.5 having one rectangular hollow space surrounded by walls of at least 2 thickness; and at least one exterior surface side of said set of hollow clay-brick blocks is glazed with ceramic compound and is water-proof; wherein each of said set of hollow clay-brick blocks is made of clay.

3. The set of glazed clay-brick blocks of claim 2, further comprising: a trapezoidal hollow clay-brick block with one trapezoid side of LHW dimension 231223 and the other trapezoid side of 211223; a trapezoidal hollow brick block with one trapezoid side of LHW dimension 221223 and the other trapezoid side of 231223; wherein each trapezoidal hollow clay-brick blocks is made of clay.

4. The set of glazed clay-brick blocks of claim 3, further comprising: a parallelogram shaped hollow clay-brick block having non-perpendicular parallel sides with LHW dimension 231223.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] The disclosed application will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show important sample embodiments of the invention and which are incorporated in the specification hereof by reference, wherein:

[0015] FIGS. 1 and 2 show perspective views of an example hollow clay brick block with glazed sides in accordance with this application.

[0016] FIGS. 3, 4, 5A and 5B show perspective views of an example hollow clay brick block with glazed sides in accordance with this application.

[0017] FIGS. 6-14 show plan views of an example set of hollow clay brick blocks for modular-style efficient construction.

[0018] FIG. 15 shows a plan view of different arrangements of the brick blocks in constructing structural elements in accordance with this application.

[0019] FIGS. 16-25 show several example ways of structural assemblies in construction using the set of hollow clay brick blocks of FIGS. 6-14, demonstrating improved efficiency for construction.

[0020] FIG. 26 shows an example building design built by the sized clay-blocks in accordance with this application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

[0021] The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will be described with particular reference to presently preferred embodiments (by way of example, and not of limitation). The present application describes several embodiments, and none of the statements below should be taken as limiting the claims generally.

[0022] For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and description and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, some areas or elements may be expanded to help improve understanding of embodiments of the invention.

[0023] The terms first, second, third, fourth, and the like in the description and the claims, if any, may be used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable. Furthermore, the terms comprise, include, have, and any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, such that a process, method, article, apparatus, or composition that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, apparatus, or composition.

[0024] It is contemplated and intended that the design apply to various materials suitable for being construction material; for clarity reason, the examples are given based on fired hollow clay bricks, but an ordinary person in the art would know the variations to modify the design to provide various other sizes and dimensions.

[0025] Masonry building is the oldest and most common method in construction, it is the process by which different blocks are placed one above and/or next to each other. A binder is commonly used, mostly mortar based on cement and lime. For example, masonry has been used to raise pyramids, Roman aqueducts, bridges, it still remains a reliable method today.

[0026] In masonry structures the armed elements are very important as they support and counteract the horizontal and vertical forces that occur after a major sudden earthquake. The pillars and the belts, the vertical and the horizontal elements, are linked together so as to compose a single and unified corpus. They all are concrete elements that transfer the energy coming from the tectonic movement through the reinforcing steel. Therefore it is usually regulated that the maximum length of the side of a wall between two reinforced pillars should not exceed 5 meters (16.4 feet). Link joints are used in the construction of masonry in order to ensure the monolith content of the full brick masonry. Mortar as binding material are used to bind the joints together. The mortars in construction are usually well mixed compositions of binder, water and fine aggregate with additives such as: plasticizers, pigments, water proof substances, substances for adjusting the setting, hydraulic active substances, etc. Ordinary mortars are based on lime, cement, plaster, clay earth. Their compressive strength may be for example: M4, M10, M25, M50, M100 (figures indicating minimum compressive strength at 28 days, in daN/cm.sup.2). For mortar M4, the compressive strength is determined at 90 days and it must be of 49 daN/cm.sup.2.

[0027] The clay bricks are usually made from a mixture of clay, sand and water or of other materials such as concrete, blast furnace slag etc., sun-dried or burned in a furnace. The initial step in producing brick is crushing and grinding the raw materials in a separator and a jaw crusher. Next, the blend of ingredients desired for each particular batch is selected and filtered before being sent on to one of three brick shaping processes such as extrusion, molding, or pressing. Once the desired bricks are formed and any glaze processes are performed, they are dried to remove excess moisture that might otherwise cause cracking during the ensuing firing process. Next, they are fired in ovens and then cooled.

[0028] In comparison, concrete, or autoclaved aerated concrete, is obtained from a mixture of sand, cement, lime, gypsum, water. For porous structure, a reaction between the aluminum powder and an acid is induced, and further it is subjected to autoclaving with high temperature, high pressure steam, which cause the release of silica and quartz. The concrete blocks undergo a curing process and then are cut (trimmed) in blocks of different shapes and sizes depending on their subsequent use.

[0029] The compressive strength Rc is the tension (c) to which a material breaks after being subjected to compression. Compressive strength is usually measured in laboratories. Higher compressive strength means higher bearing capacity. The bulk density (a) is the ratio between the mass of a subject and its apparent volume, which includes pores, cracks and any internal empty spaces. Lower bulk density for bricks means a larger volume of empty spaces or pores, hence better thermal insulation. Moreover, the lower the apparent density, the lower the loads on the structural system, which, in its turn, will lead to structural elements with smaller sections and lower reinforcing steel consumption. It is well known that the seismic force a building bears during an earthquake is commensurate with the mass of that building, so it would be ideal to construct buildings which are as light as possible, while meeting all the standards of safety and comfort.

[0030] If the structural system of the building is on frames, such as, boards, beams and columns that take all forces exerted on the building, or on concrete structural walls, the compressive strength of the construction material becomes irrelevant, since they do not serve as structural element. The only load they take is their own weight and the finishing. The thermal conductivity () is the property of materials to transmit via their mass the heat flux produced by the temperature difference between two opposite sides. For homogeneous flat wall with parallel faces, by thickness (d) and surface (S) when there is a difference of temperature (t1t2) between the opposite faces, =(Q*d)/[S*(t1t2)*] where () is the time interval for heat flux. Construction materials with <0.29 are conventionally considered as thermal insulators. Thermal insulation properties are also assessed by the thermal resistance (R), computed by the formula R=1/. The lower the thermal conductivity of a material is, the higher the thermal resistance of that material will be, so it insulates better. It means lower heat loss through a high thermal resistance wall, hence energy consumption for heating the building will decrease. The reaction to fire is the property of materials to temporarily withstand high temperatures (circa 1000 C., as they occur in fires), without damage. Clay bricks have a compression strength 17-22 N/mm.sup.2 which is much higher than that of concrete blocks (1-4 N/mm.sup.2), clay bricks also have higher bulk density (600-1600 kg/m.sup.3) than that of concrete blocks (500-700 kg/m.sup.3). Fired bricks are more fire resistance because they are manufactured through burning in high temperature furnace (called kilns). Bricks are more heat conductive (>0.18 W/mK) while aerated concrete blocks are less heat conductive (0.13-0.19 W/mK).

[0031] Therefore to improve the thermal resistance, brick blocks are designed with hollow spaces. In addition, one or more sides of a brick block are glazed with ceramics to improve construction efficiency. In reference to FIG. 1-5A and 5B, a clay brick block 100 is designed rectangular in shape with two adjacent rectangular/cubic hollow spaces 103 and 105. These two hollow spaces 103 and 105 are separated with a middle wall 117 of 4 inch thickness. Hollow spaces 103 and 105 preferably are of a length of 6.5-7.5 inches, height of 12 inches and width of 11-12 inches. They are formed by walls 101, 111, 113, 115 and 117 which form a rectangular brick block with dimensions of 231212. Clay walls 101, 111, 113 and 115 have a thickness of at least 2 inches. The dimension of brick block 100 is preferably a rectangular with LHW dimension of 231211 (FIG. 6, 7), 231212 (FIG. 8), 231210 (FIG. 9), or 11.51210.5 (FIG. 10). The sizes are particularly designed so that two blocks of FIG. 8 can form a square block of 2 can form a square 231223 (FIG. 11) that can be used for the wall supporting a window structure of multiples of 4 feet. It can also be shaped as a trapezoidal hollow block with one trapezoid side of LHW dimension 231223 and the other trapezoid side of 211223 (FIG. 14) or as a trapezoidal hollow brick block with one trapezoid side of LHW dimension 221223 and the other trapezoid side of 231223 (FIG. 12). Alternatively, brick block 100 is made in parallelogram shape with both top 125 and bottom 121 parallel sides with LHW dimension 231223 (FIG. 13). These sizes have never been developed because concrete blocks in combination of a layer of exterior small sized bricks have been dominantly used in construction.

[0032] As shown in FIG. 1-5A and 5B, brick block 100 is also glazed on 2-3 sides of the block, such as, on exterior surface 123 of wall 115 (FIG. 1), exterior surface 109 of wall 101 (FIG. 2), on exterior surface 127 of bottom side 121 (FIG. 3), on exterior surface 131 of side wall 113 (FIG. 5A) or on exterior surface 129 of side wall 111 (FIG. 5B). Glazes are great both for decorating and for creating an attractive glossy surface that protects the wall from wear and water. Molded brick blocks first go through a bisque firing process to make it hard and to have porous absorbent surface, then spray wet glaze mixture made out of dry powdered commercially available glaze chemicals that contain silica, alumina, various ground elements, and water. Then firing the glazed brick blocks in at the required temperatures in the kiln. The glazed brick blocks eliminate the need to further exterior and interior decoration and protection and painting. The brick blocks can be glazed at all sides except the top side of hollow space, or two to three sides depending the use of the brick. The brick block of FIG. 6 has two rounded edges for forming ends of columns or walls, it is glazed on three sides. The brick block of FIG. 7 has one rounded edge for forming one end of a wall with other adjacent brick blocks is glazed on two sides. The brick block of FIG. 8 has no rounded edge for forming the middle section of a wall, is glazed at one side. The brick blocks of FIGS. 9 and 10 are for forming corners of a building, are glazed at one side. The brick blocks of FIGS. 11, 12, 13, and 14 are for construction of the windows, are glazed on three sides including the underside. Two three side glazed brick blocks of FIG. 11 can be used to form the 231223 square column for supporting a window. The trapezoid brick block of FIG. 12 is used for the upper side of a window, and the trapezoid brick block of FIG. 14 is used for the lower side of a window. They can efficiently build window sizes of 48 feet long12 feet high or 8 feet 9 inches high and 4 feet wide by stacking together several layers bricks together through masonry building process. For windows the wall will have a 23 inch thickness with two layer of bricks forming a square (FIG. 11). The glazing compound of brick blocks is cured and heat-treated in gas-fired tunnel kilns, thus becoming an integral part of the masonry brick block unit. The glazed brick masonry units are molded in individual molds, ensuring dimensional uniformity of the glazed facing regardless of minor variations in the blocks.

[0033] From the viewpoint of the loads they take, walls are divided into 2 categories: structure walls that take horizontal and vertical loads as well as bending moments and non-structure walls that take only the loads of their own weight and any loads perpendicular to their plane that may appear accidentally. Masonry is started from corners or from an empty space such as a doorway or window, the first and last brick rows are made of bricks laid crosswise. Mortar is not laid on the last row. Before work, bricks get wet with water; mortar composition is given in the project and its consistency is determined by the standard cone. In the present application, the minimum thickness of load-bearing walls is 1 brick block, one-brick walls are 23 inch thick. The length of 23 inch is necessary so that there is a half inch gap at each end for laying mortar, and making each brick block a length of 24 inches, a size each to standardize and to plan. In performing masonry, particular attention must be paid to wall verticality and flatness. The placement of the bricks is so that each row is offset from the previous by exactly half a brick, thus avoiding the situation where two joints overlap vertically. That is what the brick blocks of FIGS. 9 and 10 are for. The various arrangements of the glazed brick blocks are shown in FIG. 15, for corners (FIG. 15A-15F) and for various column sizes of hollow columns (FIG. 15G, 15H, 15K and 15L) which have a 1313 center hollow space that can install an I-steel beam inside to provide structural frame support of the building. For beams and structural walls, these elements take the vertical and lateral loads that may occur throughout the life of the building, I-steel beam will need to be used especially in tall buildings where earthquake loads and gravitational forces are very strong. Masonry walls with I-steel beam and/or reinforced concrete seeds are used at the intersections of walls, columns and perimeter belts on top of the spalet masonry. The reinforced concrete belts are poured together with the reinforced concrete slab over the previously made spalet (with pillars). To provide larger supporting columns, longer brick blocks can be made with size of L26H12W11 which can form 3838 column with center hollow 1616; or size of L30H12W11 which can form 4242 column with center hollow 2020.

[0034] FIGS. 16-25 illustrate the various arrangement and combinations to form a ready to use wall, or a hollow column, or a corner structure.

[0035] Such sized clay blocks can improve construction efficiency, and quickly build buildings with standard sizes as shown in FIG. 26.

[0036] As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, the innovative concepts described in the present application can be modified and varied over a tremendous range of applications, and accordingly the scope of patented subject matter is not limited by any of the specific exemplary teachings given. It is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.

[0037] None of the description in the present application should be read as implying that any particular element, step, or function is an essential element which must be included in the claim scope: THE SCOPE OF PATENTED SUBJECT MATTER IS DEFINED ONLY BY THE ALLOWED CLAIMS. Moreover, none of these claims are intended to invoke paragraph six of 35 USC section 112 unless the exact words means for are followed by a participle. The claims as filed are intended to be as comprehensive as possible, and NO subject matter is intentionally relinquished, dedicated, or abandoned.