Patent GB-748942-A (GB)
Title: Method of building walls and apparatus therefor
IPC: E04G21/22
Filed: 1953-03-13
Abstract: 748,942. Building walls. THOMAS, R. E. June 14, 1954 [March 13, 1953], No. 6944/53. Class 20(4). [Also in Group XXX] A method of building a wall comprises the steps of conveying cored bricks or like elements from a loading station to their ultimate resting place in a series of intermittent movements, bringing each brick into position longitudinally over the foundation or previously laid course and endwise against the last laid brick, locating it in relation to that brick, forcing it down upon the foundation or previous course, and injecting cement or mortar into a core of the brick so as to fill any communicating core of an adjacent brick, after which another brick will be brought into position in a similar manner and in turn injected with cement or mortar, each injection taking place during the period between the intermittent movements of the bricks. The bricks are preferably such as described in Specification 718,114. Apparatus for carrying out the method comprises an intermittently moved: conveyer chain 18 provided with spaced trays 27 for holding the bricks. and conveying them from a loading station 19 along (as shown) partly built wall, the bricks being released at successively earlier points along the wall and during a period of rest cement or mortar is injected from a filling head 34 into a core of the last laid brick. The conveyer is supported by scaffolding comprising uprights 13, horizontal ties 15 and a framework 16 secured to the scaffolding and carrying a continuous runway 17 for the conveyer. 18. Other frameworks such as 16a are provided for conveyers such as 18a which are used to build the other walls of the building, the arrangement at the corners where two frameworks intersect being as shown. The runways for the conveyers are raised in successive steps as each course is completed, the raising being effected by a hydraulic or compressed air jack 20, the scaffolding including ratchet members 21 engaged by pawls on the framework, and each stroke of the jack raising the runways by the height of one course. The uprights 13 also support pairs of sprockets 23 over which the conveyer chains run after having released the bricks at the working position, these sprockets 23 being arranged above the finished height of the wall, with an inverted runway 17a between them. From the loading station 19, the conveyer 18 passes over sprockets 24 leading it up past a hydraulic or compressed air jack 20a which drives the conveyer by ratchet engagement to a movable set of three sprockets (two of which are shown) 25 carried by the vertically adjustable framework 16. The conveyer first passes over one of these sprockets 25 and then beneath the other two which are spaced apart horizontally by a distance slightly greater than the length of the wall, from the last sprocket 25 the conveyer passes upwards to the first of the sprockets 23 then horizontally to the second sprocket 23 and then downwards past a second driving jack 20a to a sprocket 26 and the loading station 19. The conveyer may carry a single line of bricks but as shown in Figs. 3 and 5 the conveyer is fitted with two staggered sets of trays 27 upon: which bricks are placed by hand at the loading station 19. The bricks after loading are held to the trays by grips 28 these grips being later released automatically. Each tray has at each end a transverse spindle 29 supporting a link-30 controlled by coiled torsion springs 31, the links 30 carrying at their free ends rollers 32 engaging in the runway 17. The spacing of the trays along the conveyer and the travel of the intermittent movement of the conveyer are chosen to suit the length of brick to be laid. As each brick is brought along the top of the wall and placed in position a filling head 34 (Fig. 3) is caused to descend bringing with it a discharge nozzle 35 to engage with a recess 38 in the forward half of the brick. The filling heads are secured to a carrier 37 adapted to travel along the wall and having for this purpose rollers 38 which run upon runways 39 mounted on and adapted to move with the vertically adjustable framework 16. Preferably a pair of discharge nozzles are associated with each filling head, the second nozzle being adapted to fill a recess in the rearward half of the previously laid brick. Mixed mortar is fed to the heads 34 by flexible connections 44 secured thereto by hooked bolts 47. The filling heads are guided by rollers 45 engaging with vertical members 46 and each head has a cylindrical portion within which is displaceable an annular piston 48 fitting within a circumferential groove around a piston head 49 secured upon a piston-rod 50 extending up through the wall of the connection 44. A valve member 51 fitted with a central gland 52 is mounted upon a tube 53 slidable in the piston-rod above the piston-head 49, the member 51 being adapted to seat against the conical facing 54 of the connection 44. The filling head is filled with mortar by downward movement of the piston-head 49 by depressing rod 50, valve member 51 moving to allow flow of mortar from the connection 44. Further downward movement of the piston-head 49 and the piston-rod 50 when the discharge nozzle 35 is engaged with the recess in the brick drives the mortar out through the nozzle. The upper end of the filling head will have in the meantime refilled with mortar and upon the return movement of the piston-head 49 and the piston-rod 50 this fresh charge of mortar will be transferred to below the piston-head. Valve member 51 will then close. As shown in Fig. 5 the trays 27 are at one end provided-with holes 57 through which the discharge nozzles pass to engage the recesses in the bricks. At the other end of the trays there are pivoted at 58 two levers 59 pulled together by a coiled tension spring 60, the free ends of the levers carrying rollers 61 which engage with guide means or cam devices when the tray reaches the position at which a brick is to be laid, and also a pair of vertical pins 62 which carry the grips 28 for holding the bricks loaded at the station 19. The grips 28 are moved to allow release of a brick by operation of the levers 59 ; for example a cam device carried by a vertically displaceable shaft may be lowered by any suitable automatic means between the rollers 61 and then turned to force them apart thus operating the levers 59... All the movements of the various parts associated with the laying of the bricks and the filling of the recesses with mortar may be performed by mechanical means, such as hydraulic or compressed air cylinders, in proper relation to the intermittent advance of the conveyer, and either automatically or semi-automatically under the immediate control of an operator. Arrangements are made for disconnecting the fillingheads 34 when working close to the corners of a building, or for window recesses or doorways. Half-bricks and quoin elements are normally placed by hand-work. In building a number of walls at right angles to each other it is found convenient to build up two of the walls, for instance side walls, to a height of two or three courses before starting on the front and back walls.