Other

Ebert Composites Corporation

W Brandt Goldsworthy

David W Johnson

George Korzeniowski

Raymond V Browning

Lois Goldsworthy, Legal Representative

The invention provides snap fit pultrusion housing elements for joining structurally insulated panels suitable for housing and shelter construction. The housing elements include a pultruded panel body member having at least one edge, and a pultruded snap lock fitting on the edge adapted for fastenerless engagement with a complementary fitting on an adjacent panel body member.

Snap-fit pultrusion for housing elements

To produce a pultrusion which can be machined without undue strength loss bidirectional woven fiber fabric is modified to be pultrudable into a high shear strength composite member. In a preferred form of the invention the fabric is pleated in the pultrusion process to create an endless wall of stacked switch-back pleated layers which defines a box beam wall in one example, and the shaft of a bolt in another. Products produced by this process have improved isotonic strength qualities over currently produced pultrusions, which are limited to unidirectional fibers, continuous fiber mats, or alternating layers of non-woven 0.degree. and 90.degree. cloth and do not have the shear strength inherent in the pleated configuration.

High shear strength pultrusion

A structure derives its structural strength and integrity entirely from interlocked pultruded composite members. The disclosed techniques can be used in a wide variety of applications including replacement for steel frame structures and is especially useful where the electrical properties of steel are undesirable, such as in high voltage transmission towers. Two types of pultrusions are used as structural members to build the entire structure. Lock-in butt joints between all members are made by inserting the compressed ends of the resilient bifurcations of the crossmembers into openings in the receiving member, where they expand to lock in place and are blocked against subsequent compression by inserts. Channels spanning the entire column lengths permit insertion of a crossmember anywhere along the channel where there is an access opening. Cruciform crossmember supports used throughout are made by passing one member through an expandible slit in the other member until corresponding notches interlock, with the joints so created allowing a few degrees of scissoring between the members to facilitate engagement of the crossmembers in the column channels through the smallest window possible.

Composite structure

A column and beam joint system is used to make possible the construction of a large tower such as an electrical transmission tower, which has at least three and probably four corner legs or columns which are interconnected and supported by a lattice structure of cross members. The columns have specialized channels extending substantially their full lengths and the cross members have specialized locking ends which lock into retaining structure defined in the channels, permitting braces to be inserted and locked in place at any selected point along the channel. A technique for connecting a cross member brace between a column and another cross member is also disclosed. All of the principle parts of the tower are pultruded composites which are either used in their longitudinally extended form or sectioned as required by the application. The entire tower can thus be formed of pultruded composites without the use of metal fasteners or connecting structure, enabling the tower to be made smaller and more compact, thus reducing induced EMF around the base of the tower.

Bifurcated column joint system for electrical transmission tower

This joint system is provided primarily for connecting elongated structural members which are made of materials which deter the use of conventional fastening techniques, and specifically for joining pultruded composite structural members composed of, for example, glass fibers and resins. The joint system in the first embodiment includes an elongated pultruded member which defines one or two re-entrant slots along its entire length, with the interior structure defining the walls of the slot or slots being configured to cooperate with the inserted seating end of another composite length such that when the length is inserted into one of the slots, the slot is first expanded slightly and then the walls of the slot snap back to lock with cooperating structure of the other structural member. In a second embodiment a sleeve-like equivalent of the slot configuration is set forth and lastly, a high-voltage power line tower constructed with the joint coupling as its central feature is described.

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Palos Verdes Estates, CA, United States of America

W Brandt Goldsworthy