Abstract:
This invention relates to a cement or cementitious composition with synthetic or natural fibers and/or microfibers with caliber or gauge smaller than 0.0508 mm (2 mils), in a proportion from 0.2 to 1.5% of total weight of composition when dry. Aggregates and additives that achieve thixotropy, plasticity, which preserve its dimensional structure and integral mechanical bonds may also be included. These above ingredients are included to create a composition suitable for modeling (i.e., a petrified material, cement, mortar, or concrete with extraordinary and novel characteristics). This composition is also useful for constructing, machining, restoring or creating forms with or without structures. Furthermore, the composition solidifies without contractions, fissures or cracks.

Description:
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/212,109 filed Mar. 11, 1994, now abandoned. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The purpose of this invention is to provide a novel, practical, economic, non-toxic and durable material, both for the construction industry and for craftsmen and artists and for the industry in general, with which one may model, machine, restore or create forms with the ease of modeling clay and the resistance of concrete. 
     With regards to the construction field, it may be used without the need of arch centering and in other fields without molds or ovens due to its principal characteristics which are: extraordinary plasticity, conservation of dimensional structure, both when dry and when hardening, and integral mechanical bonds that prevent slumping. 
     Sculptors have long desired a material with high resistance, suitable for sculpting stone obligues. In the present specification a distinction is made between the concepts of modeling and molding. Modeling relates to forming a material without a mold or arch centering. Molding relates to forming a material with a mold or arch centering. 
     None of the cements, cementitious materials, mortars and concretes in the prior art, were suitable for modeling while also having the resistance of concrete. Although one could use plasticizers, superplasticizers, gypsums and additives with loads of fine powders, to increase plasticity (i.e., improve the plastic characteristics of mortars), these components do not suppress slumping. Moreover, use of these components increase contractions and diminish the resistance of the material. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It has been known in the state of the art for thousands of years to use fibers in cementitious materials, always with the sole purpose of reinforcing but never for modeling. The present invention is directed to a composition which uses fibers with a caliper smaller than 0.0508 mm (2 mils) and of microfibers smaller than 0.0254 mm (1 mil). Fibers of such calibers may be included in mortars, cements, cementitious materials, and concrete to create a composition suitable for modeling. Also, modifying the grain size organization provides a novel combination of grading in the aggregates, which produces an extraordinary elasticity, an increase in resistance, and preservation of dimensional structure. In order to further improve this composition, thixotropic agents, selected from microsilica, amorphous silicon dioxide or colloidal silica, may also be included. These types of additives have never been used for the design of established mortars for the purpose of taking advantage of their thixotropic benefit. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Three novel and fundamental parameters, which, even though each one of them renders very good results on a separate basis, together provides a superior composition of this invention, which comprises: 
     1) Inclusion of fibers and specially of microfibers, both synthetic and natural fibers. 
     2) Grain size control of the aggregates with new specifications for modeling. 
     3) Inclusion of thixotropic agents and/or other additives. 
     1. Inclusion of Fibers and Microfibers 
     For thousands of years natural fibers such as straw, jute, horse&#39;s hair, coconut and bamboo fibers were used for the purpose of reinforcing cementitious materials. 
     In the last several decades synthetic fibers began to be used to reinforce mortars and concrete. See, for example, ASTM C1116 Fiber-Reinforced Concrete and Shotcrete; ASTM C1154 Asbestos and Fiber Cement; ASTM C1329 Standard Specification for Mortar Cement. Since the fibers were used exclusively for reinforcing, the required caliber of the fibers was greater than 0.0508 mm (2 mils). Alternatively, expensive and/or toxic filaments were used to reinforce. However, the literature has not foreseen in any manner whatsoever that fibers or microfibers may modify and/or improve the hardening properties of the compositions. 
     Microfibers generate important changes at the level of the structure of the composition integrating it internally to obtain a mechanical bond, which provides the mass with consistency and at the same time with plasticity. Thus microfibers add new physical characteristics in the mass plasticity and mechanical bond, that large caliber fibers could not produce. 
     Synthetic or natural fibers with caliber smaller than 0.0508 mm when added to the composition in the proportion of 0.2 to 1.5% of total weight of the composition when dry, improves the plasticity and resistance of the material that is suitable for modeling. 
     2. Grain Size Control 
     ASTM C33 is the standard specification for concrete aggregates and ASTM C144 is the standard specification for C144 aggregate for masonry mortar, which cites to ASTM C33 for mortar aggregate grading specifications. For ASTM acceptable aggregate, ASTM C33 only requires that the aggregate pass through a No. 4 sieve (4.75-mm) and that only a minimum percentage of the aggregate pass through a No. 200 sieve (75-μm). For concrete, that minimum percentage is 5% of the total weight of the aggregate and for mortar, that minimum percentage is 10% of the total weight of the aggregate. The rationale behind the upper, No. 4 sieve specification is that larger size aggregate prevents workability whereas the rationale behind the lower, No. 200 sieve specification is that smaller size aggregate are, in general, contaminated with clays and organic materials that, in turn, demand a greater amount of water in the mixture. 
     In all cases, the required specifications are for the purpose of maintaining the resistances, diminishing the contractions by greater requirement of water and having a product with known specifications of workability for mortars and concretes. 
     The invented grain size combination has the purpose of providing plasticity to the material by modifying with additives the physical properties of the composition, as opposed to prior materials requiring chemical or physicochemical additives. The present invention the gauges or calibers of the aggregates as a multiple combination of &#34;gears&#34;, that is, to stop being aggregates in order to turn, as the fibers and microfibers in bonds interact mechanically in the behaviour of masses. The composition may be improved by the inclusion of thixotropic additives. For example, plasticizers, hardening accelerators, air includers, adhesives, resins, water retainers, superplasticizers and other additives known and utilized by the current state of the art may also be added to the composition to improve its characteristics. 
     For example, in one embodiment, a composition suitable for modeling, while keeping its dimensional structure in an uncured state and hardened into a cured state without contractions, fissures, or cracks consists of cement in the amount of 5 to 99.8% by weight and/or filler sand in the amount of 20 to 99.8% by weight, together with fibers of polypropylene or nylon in the amount of 0.2 to 1.5% in weight and thixotropic agents in the amount of 0.001 to 5% by weight. Of the 20 to 99.8% by weight of said composition of the filler sand, the combination of 50 parts of sand with a mesh size of 16, 30 parts of sand with a mesh size of 30, 8 parts of sand with a mesh size of 50, 7 parts of sand with a mesh size of 80, 3 parts of sand with a mesh size 120, and 2 parts of sand with mesh size of 200, combined with fibers with a thickness less than 0.0381 mm (1.5 C thousandths of an inch), produces a good result. Similarly, by using 10 to 70% of the cement, 30 to 90% of the filler sand, 0.2 to 8% of a polypropylene microfiber (said microfiber having a diameter less than 0.0254 mm), 0.02 to 0.25% amorphous silicon dioxide, and the following additives (plasticizer additives, air blowing agents, water reducing agents and curing accelerators), a composition with increased plasticity, viscosity elasticity and zero slumping may be produced. One may use this composition and vary the above-mentioned parameters to produce concrete, mortar, and cement products having zero slumping and great workability. 
     3. Inclusion of Thixotropics 
     The inclusion of additives such as microsilica, amorphous silicon dioxide, synthetic silica or colloidal silica improves the thixotropy in the material. 
     These thixotropic agents are used in some paints, inks, the food industry and other industries, but have never been used to provide for mortar consistency. 
     These three parameters create a structural change in the mass, changing the physical characteristics of the mass. Therefore presenting these qualities of plasticity and resistance so they are clearly integrated, is a concept which not been explored in cement until the present invention. The relationship between the masses with these new qualities presents a new perspective. There are multiple variations upon applying the three fundamental parameters to cements, cementitious materials, mortars and concrete. This is because each one of the three parameters provides good results separately. There are also countless variations as regards their combination and composition as will be seen by the examples. For example, the principle of inclusion of fibers and microfibers renders different benefits both on a plastic and structural level than the principle of grain size control or that of the inclusion of thixotropic agents. Therefore, the combination of the three parameters can be tailored to create different formulations in accordance with the needs of each application. 
     The present invention provides a material that preserves its dimensional structure once shaped by any of the current processes, before curing, and upon hardening will improve this quality. That is, in cement, a physical change from a semiliquid known material to a new semi-solid material with great workability, was achieved. This was achieved because of the following novel characteristics. 
     With the composition of the present invention, putties with zero slumping are obtained, and without the need of compression efforts. While having enough amounts of water in the composition to allow one to work with them, the integral mechanic bonds and additives of this composition provide modelability, plasticity, cohesion and firmness characteristics which preserve its dimensional structure. These characteristics have not been obtained on any petrified material in the prior art. 
     One of the features that holds this invention is that by reducing the caliber of the fibers (i.e., using microfibers), the amount of fibers may be increased, improving the plastic behaviour, mechanical bond and resistances in the composition. 
     Grain size may be controlled in order to obtain plasticity from greater volumes of thick and intermediate calibers combined to produce a predetermined effect. Specified microsilica and other additives may be included in the composition in order to obtain improved thixotropy and plasticity. 
     Due to the above, the best mode to obtain this objective is the combination of the above mentioned three parameters which leads to the novel composition of cement for modeling. 
    
    
     EXAMPLES 
     With the purpose of submitting an analysis of the behaviour of mortars and microconcretes (with grain size control), with inclusion of fibers and microfibers and with thixotropic properties, the following tests were carried out. 
     In all the examples, the ingredients of the compositions of the present invention were manually mixed together when dry, to obtain a homogeneous mixture. When water is added, the ingredients are thoroughly mixed until a homogeneous slurry is obtained. 
     Example 1 
     The ingredients used in this example were 640 gr. of sand, 350 gr. of pozzolanic cement, 10 gr. of microfiber, and 275 ml. of water. This composition showed a considerable increase in its cohesion and viscosity. The excess of fibers and the difficulty of the composition to homogenize were drawbacks of this composition. 
     Example 2 
     The ingredients used in this example were 647 gr. of sand, 350 gr. of pozzolanic cement, 3 gr. of microfiber of 0.0127 mm (0.5 mils), and 275 ml of water. This composition showed a slight increase in its cohesion, viscosity and plasticity. 
     Example 3 
     The ingredients used in this example were 645 gr of sand, 350 gr. of pozzolanic cement, 5 gr. of typical polypropylene fiber of 0.0635 mm (2.5 mils), and 275 ml of water. This composition showed a very slight increase in its viscosity. The excess of fiber, slight detriment of plasticity, due to its caliber greater than 0.0508 mm and great difficulty of the composition to homogenize were drawbacks of the composition. 
     Example 4 
     The ingredients used in this example were 650 gr. of screened sand at screen 16 with controlled grading 350 gr. of pozzolanic cement, and 275 ml. of water. This composition showed a slight increase in viscosity and plasticity. 
     Example 5 
     The ingredients used in this example were 600 gr. of sand, 350 gr. of pozzolanic cement 50 gr. of amorphous silicon dioxide 275 ml. of water. This composition showed a noticeable requirement of water, therefore, we added 200 milliliters more than in the other tests. This composition had a considerable increase in viscosity, elasticity and thixotropy. 
     Example 6 
     The ingredients used in this example were 650 gr. of screened sand at screen 16, 350 gr. of pozzolanic cement, 475 10 ml. of water; and the result of this example show an extraordinary increase in plasticity, viscosity, zero slumping, elasticity, integral mechanic bonds, thixotropy, preservation of dimensional structure and workability. 
     The above description and the following claims describe the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Particularly with regard to the claims it must be understood that changes can be carried out without departing from the essential spirit and scope of the present invention. In this regard, it is intended that these changes fall within the scope of the present invention. It is simply not practical to describe and claim all of the possible combinations that may be achieved with the present invention. The various changes and combinations to the submitted claims and of other aspects submitted in the specification are intended to be included within the claims and shall be understood as supported by the existing specification. 
     The foregoing description of the specific modes reveals the nature of the invention that others may, upon applying this knowledge, easily modify or adapt for various applications by adjusting it to the specific applications. These modalities will not depart from the general concept and therefore will be considered to fall within the meaning and range of equivalents of the described and claimed modalities. It shall also be understood that the wording and technology are submitted for the purpose of describing and not of limiting.