DESCRIPTION

The present patent relates to the elements for the construction of raised and/or ventilated floors and in particular concerns a new modular system for the construction of raised and/or ventilated floors.

Preformed monolithic elements or disposable formworks for the construction of ventilated and/or raised floors are known in the prior art.

These monolithic plastic elements generally have a dome shape with four support feet and are placed side by side and connected to each other to form a continuous square mesh structure. Steel reinforcement is laid on this structure (such as electro-welded mesh or rebar) and then the cement conglomerate is cast. A monolithic floor is thus obtained, ventilated below, the lower aeration compartment of which can be used for laying pipes, ducts and cables.

Said monolithic modular elements enable the creation of raised and/or ventilated floors which are fairly low-lying with respect to the laying surface.

The construction of raised and/or ventilated floors with a larger gap between the floor and the laying surface, is currently based on modular elements, the corners of which rest on generically cylindrical column-like tubular elements.

The corner edge of these modular elements is shaped to be stably joined to the column elements.

The lower end of the column elements is housed in base elements designed to ensure and improve the placement on the underlying support surface, to keep said cylindrical elements in a vertical position, and to keep the lower ends of all the column elements in the proper position and maintain their distribution on the underlying support surface.

The base elements comprise a cylindrical part, inside of which one end of the cylindrical column elements is housed, any diverse generically vertical protrusions inside said cylindrical part, designed to keep the lower end of the column elements centered inside the aforementioned cylindrical part, various connecting elements and/or lateral portions, suited to mutually constrain several base elements to each other in the proper position and at the proper distance from each other.

The modular systems of the prior art have various drawbacks.

The cylindrical column elements are usually obtained by cutting to size pipes of a certain length, which are stored and transported in stacks. The space occupied by these stacks is particularly large, due to the fact that both the entire internal space of the pipes and the space between adjacent pipes in the stack is wasted.

The base elements of the prior art, on the other hand, are usually designed to be stackable, but when they are stacked together the result is a bulky vertical stack.

This creates a significant waste of space, which is particularly inefficient during transport.

To address this drawback, a new modular system has been designed and implemented for the construction of raised and/or ventilated floors, the main purpose of which is to optimize the overall dimensions of one or more of the elements that compose it, particularly during storage and transport.

One object of the present invention is in fact to reduce the bulk of the column elements when they are not used, thanks to the fact that, in the preferred embodiment, these column elements are made of two linear elements with a semicircular section configured to be selectively joined together to form the complete cylindrical wall of the column element.

In the unassembled configuration, the two linear elements can be stacked on other identical elements, to form a pile where the percentage of unused space is significantly reduced.

Another object of the present invention is to also reduce the bulk of the base elements which are configured to be stacked on top of each other so as to form very compact stacks, therefore resulting in a reduced use of vertical space.

Furthermore, these base elements also consist of parts that can be disassembled to limit the space need during storage and transport and more specifically they may comprise a central plane portion, for example substantially circular, stackable on other identical central portions, and spacer arms, with a substantially flat and elongated shape, easy to store with minimum space requirements.

In this way, the horizontal space needed for the stacks of base elements is also reduced.

Similarly, the domed upper elements are also shaped so as to be stackable on top of each other in an orderly manner to optimize storage and transport volumes.

These and other direct and complementary objects are achieved by the new modular system for the construction of raised and/or ventilated floors.

The new modular system comprises in its main parts: a plurality of upper elements, intended to be installed to form a surface on which to cast concrete; a plurality of tubular elements with a substantially circular section, hereinafter simply called columns, suitable to be positioned vertically on a support surface, each column being able to support at least one of said upper elements; and where at least one of said columns in turn comprises at least two linear elements with a section corresponding to an arc of a circle, and more preferably two elements with a semi-circular section, and means for selectively joining said linear elements to form the complete tubular wall of said column.

Therefore, in a whole configuration, necessary for the installation of the assembly of the invention, said linear elements are joined together so as to form a complete column.

In the open configuration, on the other hand, said two linear elements can be detached from each other or they can remain joined together along a longitudinal linear edge, thus making their internal volume accessible for the insertion of other identical linear elements, which, in this way, can be stacked one in the other, reducing the overall dimensions.

In the preferred embodiment, said modular system also comprises base elements, in turn comprising: a substantially plane portion, suitable for being properly placed on the underlying support surface, a first series of protrusions rising from said plane portion, arranged along a circumference, a second series of protrusions rising from said plane portion, arranged along a second circumference concentric to the circumference described by said first series of protrusions, and where said first and second series of protrusions, arranged concentrically constitute, together with the flat base, the seat for inserting and housing one end of a column, one or more holes or openings on said plane portion, both between each pair of consecutive protrusions of said first series and between each pair of consecutive protrusions of said second series, said holes having dimensions suitable for the passage of identical protrusions of an identical base element placed below.

Configured in this way, one base element can be stacked on an underlying base element, reducing the overall dimensions in height, since the protrusions of the underlying base element, necessary to create the seat for a column, can enter the holes of the base element laying on top, which will then have a rotated position with respect to the underlying base element.

By making two or more holes between each pair of protrusions, it is possible to stack corresponding two or more base elements, each rotated with respect to the underlying base element by a pitch equal to the distance between the holes.

Said base elements also comprise two or more lateral extensions or arms, each comprising a substantially elongated body arranged laterally to said plane portion and substantially coplanar to said plane portion.

Said arms are preferably joined to said plane portion in a removable way, the latter comprising means for the reversible, that is removable, joining of said arms, and where said joining means are preferably arranged outside the circumference created by said first series of protrusions. Said joining means comprise, for example, pins suitable to be inserted from below into corresponding holes made on the ends of said arms.

Said arms are used to properly distance and join two base elements corresponding to adjacent columns, that is, columns intended to support contiguous upper elements.

The characteristics of the new modular system for the construction of raised and/or ventilated reinforced concrete floors will be better clarified by the following description with reference to the drawings attached by way of non-limiting examples.

Figure 1 shows a three-dimensional view of a column (100) in a first embodiment formed by two linear elements (110, 120) having a semicircular section, while Figures 2 and 3 show a transverse section and a segment close to one of its ends (101) respectively.

Figure 4 shows a three-dimensional view of a linear element (110') with a semi-circular section intended to be coupled to another identical element to form an entire column with a circular section.

Figures 5 and 6, on the other hand, show a cross section and a segment close to one of its ends (111).

Figure 7 shows a cross section of a column (100") in a third embodiment made up by two linear elements (110", 120") with a semi-circular section, joined together along an edge (130).

Figure 8 shows a detail of Figure 7 where the joining edge (130) of the two linear elements (110", 120") is visible.

Figure 9 shows a three-dimensional view of an upper element (200).

Figure 10 shows a three-dimensional view of a base element (300).

Figure 11 shows a three-dimensional view of a spacer arm (400).

It is a new modular system for the construction of raised and/or ventilated floors, comprising in its main parts: a plurality of upper elements (200), intended to be installed to form a surface on which to cast concrete; a plurality of columns (100), that is, tubular elements with a substantially circular section, suitable to be positioned vertically on a support surface, each column (100) being suited to support at least one of said upper elements (200).

Said upper elements (200) can be of a substantially domed type, that is, comprising a plane upper surface (201), for example square, and support feet (202), for example four, each of which is in correspondence with one of the four corners of said plane upper surface (201).

Said support feet (202) are configured to rest on the upper end (101) of a column (A) and also preferably and substantially have a quarter circle shape, so that four support feet (202) of four upper elements (200) properly placed side by side, can rest on the same column (100).

A preferred embodiment of said upper element (200) is shown by way of an example in Figure 9. Each column (100) in turn comprises two linear elements (110, 120) having a semi-circular section, and means suitable to selectively join said linear elements (110, 120) to form the entire tubular wall of said column (100).

In the example of Figures 1, 2 and 3, said column (100) in particular is made by the joining of two linear elements (110, 120), each having a length equal to the length of the column (100) to be formed.

A first linear element (110) comprises a first longitudinal edge (140) on which some female coupling elements (141) are distributed for the preferably removable coupling with corresponding male coupling elements (151) accordingly distributed on the opposite longitudinal edge (150) of the second linear element (120).

Said female coupling elements (141) and said male coupling elements (151) are configured in such a way as to form a hinged constraint, which enables the relative rotation between said linear elements (110, 120) around the respective joined longitudinal edges (140, 150).

Each linear element (110, 120) further comprises, on the second longitudinal edge (160, 170) opposite to the first (140, 150), further teeth or coupling means (161, 171) suited to engage preferably in a removable manner in corresponding seats (172, 162) made on the second longitudinal edge (170, 160) of the other linear element (110, 120).

In the integral embodiment shown in Figure 1, said linear elements (110, 120) are joined together so as to form the whole column (100).

In the open configuration, on the other hand, said two linear elements (110, 120) can be completely detached from each other and can be stacked one inside the other, thus reducing the overall space they occupy. In a second embodiment shown in Figures 4, 5 and 6, each column (100) is made up of a pair of linear elements (110') with identical semicircular sections, each provided, on each of its longitudinal edges (140', 160') with male coupling elements (141') and/or female coupling elements (142') suited to be joined with corresponding female coupling elements (162') and/or male coupling elements (161') present on the opposite longitudinal edge (160', 140').

In a further possible embodiment, shown in Figures 7 and 8, said linear elements (110", 120") making up a column (100) are joined together along their longitudinal edge (130) where there is a flexible part (130) that can change from a configuration in which said linear elements (110", 120") are arranged with the opposite longitudinal edges (160", 170") joined in order to form a tubular element with a cylindrical section, and an open configuration, for example shown in Figure 7, where the opposite longitudinal edges (160", 170") are detached.

On each of said opposite longitudinal edges (160", 170") there are removable joining elements (161", 162", 171", 172") configured to join together.

Said linear elements (110, 120), in any of the possible embodiments, may also comprise seats/holes (180) for the insertion of joining means such as screws or the like, to ensure that they are stably and securely joined together when the column (100) is in use.

In the preferred embodiment, said modular system also comprises base elements (300), in turn comprising a substantially plane portion (310), suitable for resting on the underlying surface. Said plane portion (310) has, for example and preferably, the shape of a circular crown, resulting in the savings of fabrication material.

From the sides of said plane portion (310) intended to be turned upwards, a first series of protrusions (320) rises, arranged along a circumference.

From said plane portion (310) a second series of protrusions (330) also rises arranged along a circumference concentric to the circumference described by said first series of protrusions (320), and where between each protrusion (320) of said first series and each protrusion (330) of said second series, a seat (340) is defined to house the lower end (102) of said column (100).

On said plane portion (310) there are also one or more holes or openings (350) both between each pair of consecutive protrusions (320) of said first series and between each pair of consecutive protrusions (330) of said second series.

Said holes or openings (350) have dimensions suitable for the passage of identical protrusions (320, 330) of an identical base element (300) placed underneath.

In the example of Figure 10, two holes (350) are made between each pair of consecutive protrusions (320, 330), thus enabling the compact stacking of at least three identical base elements (300), each rotated by a pitch equal to the distance between two holes (350), with respect to the underlying base element.

Said plane portion (310) further comprises means (360) for preferably removably joining one or more spacer arms (400), for example of the type shown in Figure 11.

Said joining means (360) are suitably arranged on said plane portion (310) in a position external to the circumference on which said protrusions (320) are distributed.

Said joining means (360) comprise, for example, one or more pins (361) on which the holes or seats (420) made on said spacer arms (400) and more specifically at the ends (411, 412) of said spacer arms (400) are inserted.

Said spacer arms (400) comprise a substantially elongated body (410) suited to be positioned radially with respect to said plane portion (310) and substantially coplanar with it.

In the example shown in Figure 11, said spacer arms (400) comprise said joining holes/seats (420) at both their opposite ends (411, 412).

In the preferred embodiment, said ends (411, 412) are in particular provided with at least two of said holes (420), to ensure the proper positioning of the spacer arm (400) with respect to the plane portion (310).

In particular, one or preferably both of said ends (411, 412) of the spacer arm (400) are fork-shaped.

Said linear elements (110, 120) making up the columns (100), said upper elements (200), said plane portions (310) and said spacer arms (400) are preferably made of plastic material.

Therefore, with reference to the preceding description and the attached drawings the following claims are made.