CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM

Abstract

A construction system has rods and connectors that may be assembled and disassembled in order to be re-used to construct a variety of geometric figures and other figures. Each connector has a plurality of sockets configured to form joints with the rods. Each socket has a cavity where the cavity has aligned openings. The socket at one of the openings forms an interference fit with an inserted rod.

Claims

1. A socket in a connector for a construction system, comprising: a receptacle having a top, a bottom and two sides defining a cavity, the cavity having a width and a height where the width is greater than the height; and a first opening on the cavity, wherein the first opening and the cavity are formed and configured to receive a rod at the first opening and into the cavity and to engage with the rod in an interference fit at the top and the bottom of the cavity.

2. The socket of claim 1, further comprising a second opening on the cavity, the second opening aligned with the first opening, the second opening formed and configured to enable at least a portion of the rod to pass through the second opening.

3. The socket of claim 2, further comprising: a beam extending from the receptacle adjacent to the second opening, the beam to connect the receptacle to the connector.

4. The socket of claim 2 where the cavity is tapered, the cavity cross-sectional area decreasing from the first opening to the second opening.

5. The socket of claim 2 wherein the receptacle includes a narrow section included in the cavity at the second opening.

6. The socket of claim 2 wherein the first opening, the cavity, and the second opening are formed and configured to receive a tapered rod.

7. The socket of claim 1 wherein the first opening is rectangular.

8. The socket of claim 1 wherein the first opening is oval.

9. A connector in a construction system, comprising: a plurality of receptacles, connected around a central axial point, each receptacle having a top, a bottom and two sides defining a cavity, the cavity having a width and a height where the width is greater than the height; and a first opening on the cavity, wherein the first opening and the cavity are formed and configured to receive a rod at the first opening and into the cavity and to engage with the rod in an interference fit at the top and the bottom of the cavity.

10. The connector of claim 9, wherein each receptacle further comprises a second opening on the cavity, the second opening aligned with the first opening, the second opening formed and configured to enable at least a portion of the rod to pass through the second opening.

11. The connector of claim 9 wherein the receptacles are symmetrically located around the central axial point.

12. The connector of claim 9 comprising at least 3 receptacles.

13. The connector of claim 9 comprising six receptacles.

14. A construction system, comprising: a plurality of rods; and a plurality of connectors wherein each connector has a plurality of receptacles, connected around a central axial point, each receptacle having a cavity, a first opening on the cavity, and a second opening on the cavity, the second opening aligned with the first opening, each receptacle further having a beam extending from the receptacle adjacent to the second opening, wherein the first opening, the cavity and the second opening are formed and configured to receive a rod from the plurality of rods at the first opening, for the rod to pass through the cavity and for at least a portion of the rod to pass through the second opening, the first opening and the cavity further configured to engage with the rod in an interference fit.

15. The construction system of claim 14 wherein each connector in the plurality of connectors has three receptacles.

16. The construction system of claim 14 wherein the plurality of connectors includes at least one connector having three receptacles, at least one connector having four receptacles, at least one connector having five receptacles, and at least one connector having six receptacles.

17. The construction system of claim 14 wherein the rods in the plurality of rods have a first end and a second end and are tapered at the first end and the second end.

18. The construction system of claim 14 wherein the rods in the plurality of rods are of varying length.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0027] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a connector having three sockets according to principles of the invention;

[0028] FIG. 2 is a front view of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0029] FIG. 3 is a left side view of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0030] FIG. 4 is a right side view of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0031] FIG. 5 is a top view of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0032] FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0033] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the connector of FIG. 1 in a first deformed state;

[0034] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the connector of FIG. 1 in a second deformed state;

[0035] FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a horizontal cross-section of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0036] FIG. 10 is a vertical cross-section view of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0037] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the connector of FIG. 1 further including a rod inserted into one of the sockets to form a joint;

[0038] FIG. 12 is a cross-section view of a socket of the connector of FIG. 1;

[0039] FIG. 13 is the cross-section view of FIG. 11 further including a cross-section of an inserted rod;

[0040] FIG. 14 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the connector according to principles of the invention;

[0041] FIG. 15 is a perspective view of a second alternative embodiment of the connector according to principles of the invention;

[0042] FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a third alternative embodiment of the connector according to principles of the invention;

[0043] FIG. 17 is a perspective view of a fourth alternative embodiment of the connector according to principles of the invention; and

[0044] FIG. 18 is an example structure constructed from elements of the present construction set.

DESCRIPTION

[0045] A construction system enables the construction of a variety of assemblages and structures. The construction system includes deformable N-way connectors (where N is typically a number between 2 and 6) and elongated rigid rods. The connectors in some embodiments each include at least one tapered socket configured to receive an end of a rod. The rods are generally cylindrical in shape and are tapered at either end. In some embodiments, the rods are pointed at the ends. The sockets and rods are configured such that each socket and the inserted rod have a limited surface area of engagement for easy assembly and disassembly. Additional aspects of the socket enabling ease of assembly, flexible construction and ease of disassembly will be described below.

[0046] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a connector 100 according to one embodiment. FIG. 2 is a front view of the connector of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a left side view of the connector of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a right side view of the connector of FIG. 1. FIG. 5 is a top view of the connector of FIG. 1. FIG. 6 is a bottom view of the connector of FIG. 1.

[0047] The connector 100 includes three beams 110 arranged around a central point, or central axis 105. The beams are also referred to as arms. Each beam 110 has an axial end 120 and a distal end. The beams 110 are connected together at the axial ends 120. Each beam 110 has a socket 130 at the distal end. Each socket 130 has a first opening 155 and a second opening 160. In the present arrangement, the first opening 155 and second opening 160 are elongated and rectangular in shape. For the purpose of clarity of explanation, the long edges of the rectangle are also referred to as the top 131 and the bottom 132 and the short edges are also referred to as the sides 133. Each socket 130 is configured to receive and engage with a rigid rod in order to form a construction joint. The socket and the rod will be described in greater detail below.

[0048] FIG. 7 shows the connector 100 in a first deformed state and FIG. 8 shows the connector in a second deformed state with the original undeformed states in dotted line. In some embodiments, the connector 100 is made from an elastic material and in other embodiments the connector is made from a ductile material. For example, the connectors may be made from plastic such as polypropylene, nylon or polyethylene or some copolymer. The connectors may also be made from metal such as copper, tin, aluminum, steel or some other alloy. The present invention should not be considered limited to the list of materials presented here. Process of manufacture for elements of the construction set include 3-D printing, molding, casting, pressing, cutting and bonding. The beams 110 of the connector 100 may be flexed, or bent, to suit the structure being constructed.

[0049] FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a horizontal cross-section of the connector of FIG. 1. FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a vertical cross-section of the connector of FIG. 1. FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the connector of FIG. 1 further including a rod 200 inserted into one of the sockets to form a construction joint. The details of the sockets 130 can be seen in the cross-sections in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10. Each socket 130 is a receptacle 135 having a cavity 150. Each socket 130 further has a first opening 155 and a second opening 160 onto the cavity 150. The first and second openings 155, 160 are elongated. In the present embodiment, the first opening 155 is larger in area than the second opening 160. In the present embodiment, the cavity 150 is tapered toward the second opening 160. The cavity 150 at the second opening 160 has a narrow section 165, the narrow section 165 having a width similar to the second opening 160. Each first opening 155 is aligned with its respective second opening 160 such that the socket 130 can receive a rigid rod 200 at the first opening 155, for the rod to enter the cavity 150 and then for a portion of the rod to pass through the second opening 160 and protrude as shown in FIG. 10. The socket cavity 150 is preferably tapered to guide the inserted rod 200 towards the center of the connector 100.

[0050] The rod 200 is substantially rigid and cylindrical in shape. The rod 200 is tapered at both ends 205. In some embodiments, the ends 205 of the rod 200 come to a point. The rod 200 is made from a material such as plastic, wood, metal, bamboo or some other rigid material.

[0051] FIG. 12 shows a cross-section of the socket 130 close to the first opening 155 of the cavity 150. The socket 130 seen in FIG. 12 is undeformed. FIG. 13 shows a cross-section of the socket 130 at the first opening 155 of the cavity 150 and an inserted rod 200. The socket in FIG. 13 shows some deformation related to forming a joint with the rod 200 as described below.

[0052] The height (shorter dimension) of the first opening 155 is designed such that the dimension is less than the diameter of the rod cylinder away from the tapered ends 205. This ensures that the rod 200 after insertion into the first opening 155 and the cavity 150 engages with the top 131 and the bottom 132 of the cavity 150. Accordingly, this further ensures that the rod 200 does not freely move in and out of the socket cavity 150 axially or rotate within the socket cavity 150 and that the tapered end 205 of the rod 200 contacts the upper and lower inner surface of the socket cavity creating an interference fit having the desired manual insertion resistance and frictional grip between the rod 200 and connector 100.

[0053] As described above with regard to FIG. 9, FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, the socket cavity 150 is tapered toward the second opening 160 of the socket 130 to guide the rod 200 towards the center of the connector 100 as the rod 200 is inserted. The first opening 155 is formed and configured to receive the rod 200 into the cavity 150 and to engage with the rod 200 in an interference fit. The narrow portion 165 of the cavity 150 and the second opening 160 are formed and configured for a portion of the rod 200 to pass through and to protrude beyond the second opening 160. That is, a joint between the socket 130 and the rod 200 can be made by manually inserting a tapered end 205 of the rod 200 into the first opening 155 of the socket cavity 150 in a direction parallel to the axis of the beam 110 and toward the center of the connector 100. By pressing the rod 200 into the socket 130 in this way an interference fit is created. The socket 130 is configured to provide an interference fit between the top and bottom inner walls of the socket cavity 150 and the inserted rod 200 as shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 13. This interference fit provides a secure connection between the rod 200 and connector beam 110 that enables the user to deform the connector beam 110 to a desired angular orientation by manipulating the distal end of the inserted rod. Once the desired orientation of the connector beam is achieved, the frictional grip provided by the interference fit maintains the desired orientation within, for example, a larger meshed structure.

[0054] In the present embodiment, the rod 200 is gripped by the upper and lower surface of the first opening 155 of the socket cavity 150 against the tapered portion of an end of the rod 200. This feature allows for variances in rod diameter, cross sectional shape, taper angle and length thereby reducing the cost of the rod components since tight manufacturing tolerances are not critical to the function of the rod and connector.

[0055] The joint between the socket 130 and rod 200 can be disassembled by manually pulling the rod 200 out of the socket 130 in the opposite direction to that used for insertion. Both the rod 200 and the connector 100 can be repeatedly reused.

[0056] In the present embodiment, the cross section of the socket cavity first openings 155 are approximately rectangular. In alternative embodiments, these openings 155 can by one of many other elongated shapes, for example, an ellipse, an oval, a trapezoid, or an elongated hexagon.

[0057] The socket configuration has the following benefits: [0058] 1. The socket facilitates manual insertion of a rod into the socket by creating a large target for the tapered end of the rod (similar to inserting a thread through the eye of a common needle). [0059] 2. The socket allows for angular variation between the rod central axis and the central axis of the socket thereby facilitating the creation of angled joint geometries. [0060] 3. The socket provides an intentionally progressive resistive force to the insertion of the rod so that it can be performed manually by the operator effectively. That is, the rods do not intentionally snap into place but can be inserted progressively until the desired location is attained. [0061] 4. The socket provides an intentionally progressive frictional gripping force between the connector and the rod through elastic deformation of the upper and/or lower socket walls as the rod is inserted and the tapered end is in contact with the upper and lower inner surfaces of the socket cavity. [0062] 5. The socket allows for variation in the length, diameter, cross-sectional shape, and taper angle of the rod components and still operate as intended as a joint.

[0063] FIG. 14 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the connector. The alternative embodiment is a connector 300 having two sockets 305 like the socket described above with regard to FIGS. 1-13 connected by a single beam.

[0064] FIG. 15 is a perspective view of a second alternative embodiment. The connector shown here has four sockets attached together by four centrally attached beams.

[0065] FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a third alternative embodiment. The connector shown here has five sockets attached together by five centrally attached beams.

[0066] FIG. 17 is a perspective view of a fourth alternative embodiment. The connector shown here has six sockets attached together by six centrally attached beams.

[0067] FIG. 18 is an example structure constructed with connectors and rods that are embodiments of the present invention. The example structure is a model of a tetrahedron, the simplest Platonic solid, made from four (4) connectors according to the embodiment of FIG. 1 (also referred to as three-way connectors) and six (6) rods. For each corner of the tetrahedron, deformation of the connectors around the central hub is shown. Additionally, for each corner the three rod axes can be seen to converge around a common point in space.

[0068] The connectors described herein can be oriented at arbitrary and unequal angles. For example, the beams of the three-way connector arms are, in some embodiments, equally spaced at 120 degrees relative to each other in the undeformed state but can be deformed to create unequal spacing as needed for the desired geometry. The arms can be deformed up and down relative to the plane of the undeformed connector. After inserting the rod into a socket, the rod can be held by the user and used as a lever to manipulate and deform (bend) the connector arm to the desired angular orientation.

[0069] Deformation of the connector arm generally occurs at the central hub of the connectorthe convergence point of the arms (3). This leads to a joint geometry where all rod axes typically cross at a common point in space regardless of the angular orientation of each rod, thereby maintaining the geometric accuracy of the joint.

[0070] A construction system for building 2 or 3-dimensional permanent or temporary meshed assemblages and structures includes multiple deformable N-way connectors (where N is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or more) and multiple elongated rigid cylindrical rods with pointed tapers at each end. A collection of many embodiments of connectors and along with many rods (e.g. 10 s to 100 s of each) can be combined to form a construction kit for academic, engineering, educational, recreational and artistic purposes. As described above, the connectors include a plurality of beams, also referred to as arms typically in a planar, equally-spaced star-shaped configuration with each arm converging at a central point. At the distal end of each arm is attached a socket with an opening and a shaped cavity for accepting a rod. The rod in a preferred embodiment is tapered at each end.

[0071] Each arm of a connector can be manually deformed, that is, bent, to create many variable joint geometries. A mesh structure can be constructed by joining rods to each of the sockets of an N-way connector, then joining further N-way connectors to the free unconnected ends of each of the rods, and repeating this until the desired mesh geometry is achieved. Once a rod is inserted in a socket the rod can be used as an extended lever to facilitate the bending and correct orientation of the connector arm connected to the socket. This is a useful method of constructing mesh structures.

[0072] The connector arms can be bent in the original undeformed plane to create, for example, planar star-shaped configurations with unequally spaced arms to create planar tessellated structures. The connector arms can also be bent perpendicular to the original undeformed plane to create 3-dimensional joints for creating 3-dimensional structures such as regular and irregular polyhedra, engineering structures, models of molecules such as Carbon nanostructures, and freeform artistic sculptures. In an alternative embodiment of the construction set, the rods can be of varying lengths thereby able to form more fanciful regular and irregular structures.

[0073] A benefit of the design of the connector sockets, the double-ended rods with tapered pointed ends, and of the interaction between the sockets and inserted rods is that a large amount of variation in size and shape of both rods and sockets can be tolerated without affecting the correct operation of the construction system. Therefore, both the connectors and rods can be manufactured at a lower cost relative to conventional connector and rod construction systems that require accurate parts and high tolerance manufacture for correct operation.

[0074] It is to be understood that the above-identified embodiments are simply illustrative of the principles of the invention. Various and other modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope thereof.