Abstract:
A vee joint having a first flange hingedly connected to a second flange at an angle. A trough is formed between the first flange and the second flange and is used to retain joint filler within a joint interval in a concrete floor slab. The flanges are movable to facilitate the placement and retention of the vee joint within various sized joints in concrete slab flooring. When the vee joint is placed within a joint interval, the flanges may be spaced varying distances apart to accommodate joint filler therebetween and to intimately engage with the confronting walls of the floor slab to avoid bypass of joint fill material.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Concrete floors are typically composed of a plurality of rectangular slab panels placed on separate days and joined together by slip dowels (for load transfer) or tie rods (reinforcing bar—usually for resistance to earthquakes—or to increase the moment capacity of walls and foundations) or merely abutted to one another as the daily progression of slab panel placements ensures. The joints resultant from adjacent placements of smaller concrete slab panels are known as “bulkhead construction joints” (or “bulkhead joints”, or simply as “construction joints”), and should not be confused with sawn or tooled joints within each individual concrete floor slab placement that are used primarily for the organization and control of concrete cracking—such joints are commonly known as “control joints” or “contraction joints”. (Nor should they be confused with isolation joints which occur between slab panels and other building elements.) In essence, construction joints occur at the perimeter of every concrete slab panel (4 sides) that abuts another concrete slab panel. 
     Subsequently to slab placement, long after the concrete has hardened, the construction joints are filled with commonly known semi-rigid joint filler materials intended to close the gap between the slabs for the purposes of housekeeping and to provide a means of load transfer from the top edge of one concrete panel to another, thereby minimizing the possibility of edge break down under repeated traffic, esp. heavily loaded, small wheeled traffic commonly found in forklift environments. 
     The major problem with joint filler at construction joints is that it is not economical to fill the joint from the ground, up to the top of the slab and to do so would adhere the separate slab panels together, increasing the likelihood of undesirable cracking. Thus, construction joints are typically filled first with some backer material like sand or foam “backer-rod”, so the residual depth to fill with semi-rigid joint filler material is a fraction of the depth of the concrete slab itself. The consequences of this industry-wide approach may be summarized as follows: 
     1. Sand-like fillers tend to subside beneath the semi-rigid joint filler because the adjacent slab panels shrink away from each other, and slab panel edges tend to curl upward, providing a void for the sandy material to subside into. 
     2. Foam “backer-rod” materials provide no support beneath a joint filler subject to concentrated wheel loads. 
     3. The semi-rigid joint fillers harden to the width of the construction joint at the time of filling and are too rigid to accommodate thermal and drying shrinkage movement of the adjacent slab panels, losing adhesion with one panel or the other, or splitting itself, so that load transfer from panel edge to panel edge is lost. Also, and especially for shrinkage compensating concrete (SCC) floor slabs, the construction joint movement is so large relative to the original joint width, repeated impact from concentrated loads forces the joint filler materials downward into the joint, or results in a rebound of the filler so that it emerges from the joint. 
     As mentioned, SCC floor slabs typically have much wider joints than their counterpart slabs composed of traditional portland cement/pozzolanic materials, because SCC slab panels are subject to thermal and drying shrinkage movement as are their counterparts, but SCC slabs have no interior contraction joints at which to relieve the drying shrinkage and thermal movement, hence all the movement occurs at the construction joints. For instance, a traditional portland cement/pozzolanic concrete slab panel about 100′ by 100′ would usually have a control joint every 15′—two ways, or roughly 5 interior joints in each direction where the drying shrinkage and thermal movement may be approximately 0.01″ per joint, for instance. In contrast, a shrinkage compensating slab panel of equal size has no interior joints. So, in this example, the added movement at a shrinkage compensating construction joint would approximate 5×0.01″=0.05″ divided by 2 (one construction joint at the two opposing edges of each panel) or 0.025″ more than the construction joint of a typical slab. Therefore, it is more common for the joint filler in construction joints of a shrinkage compensating slab to come loose and become ineffective, requiring repeated expensive and wasteful refilling of the joint. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide an economical and easy to install support mechanism for the joint filler in concrete slabs, hereafter referenced as a vee joint. The objective of this invention is accomplished by a vee joint having a first flange connected to a hinge and a second flange connected to the same hinge at an angle A from the first flange. The hinge may be a separately constructed device, but it is intended to typically be that point where a material is folded over upon itself. A trough is formed between the first flange, the second flange, and the hinge which is used to retain joint filler within a shrinkage compensating concrete floor slab construction joint. The flanges can be adjusted so the angle therebetween is increased or decreased to fit within various sized construction joints and to accommodate the movement of the floor joints as they become wider and narrower. The flange width may be enlarged or decreased to fit various joint depths. Additionally, the support provided by the rigid nature of the hinge minimizes the process wherein joint filler is forced downward into a joint by concentrated loads traversing it. Adhesion of the joint filler when in contact with the flanges minimizes joint filler from emerging from the joint. 
     The Vee joint of the present invention is primarily a V-shaped set of flanges joined by a hinge. The Vee joint is configured to be narrower at its base than the distance between its upper flanges, hence creating a “V” or “U” shaped cross-section. The vee joint is adapted to fit various size joints and it is used to retain the joint filler within a joint and prevent it from being pushed further into the joint or from being forced out of the joint due to impact. 
     The vee joint herein described can be used in floor joints that either have or do not have edge armor (embedded steel at the slab panel edge). In fact, the vee joint could be used in most any type of floor slab joint. The vee joint can be installed above load transfer devices (dowels) and rest upon them, providing more substantial support of the joint filler above. Where no load transfer device exists, the vee joint can be forced into a joint, the friction between its flanges and the concrete slab panels providing support for the joint filler, or it may be simply forced down into the joint to the base below the slab, where it will minimize the escape of preliminary sand-like fillers, increasing the longevity of the semi-rigid joint filler above them. 
     Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of the first embodiment of the vee joint showing the present invention in detail; 
     FIG. 2 is a partial top plan view of a construction joint in a concrete floor which includes but does not show the vee joint of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a view of the vee joint of the present invention shown in a construction joint of a concrete floor, and taken substantially along line  3 — 3  of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 of a backer rod according to the prior art shown in a construction joint of a concrete floor; and 
     FIG. 5 is an end view of a second embodiment of the vee joint of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 shows the preferred embodiment of the vee joint, generally designated  10 , wherein the flanges  20 , 30  are hingedly connected to one another with hinge  80  so as to form a channel or trough  70  therebetween. Flange  20  is connected at an angle A to flange  30  and either flange can be rotated about the hinge  80  to either increase or decrease the angle A and thereby adjust the spacing between upper edges  90 . 
     Upper edges  90  of the flanges  20 , 30  may rest upon the entire lengthwise extent of joint walls  112  (FIG. 3) when the vee joint  10  (having a length l which is substantially the same as that entire lengthwise extent) is in use within a joint interval  110  and may have a lip  250  as is further discussed with regard to FIG.  5 . 
     The first embodiment of the vee joint  10  may be formed from a single piece of inorganic material that is folded in the central portion thereof forming the two flanges  20 , 30  and angle A. 
     As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, when the vee joint  10  is in use, it is placed within a joint interval  110  of a concrete floor or slab  100  and  101  where it rests upon a load transfer element or elements  160 , such as a dowel or dowels. The load transfer elements  160  may be intermittently placed throughout the floor structure to provide support to the vee joints  10 . The vee joint  10  can also be placed upon any type of slab support such as insulation, sub-grade supports, slip sheets or the like. 
     The flanges  20 , 30  (FIG. 1) are movable toward and away from one another, and can easily be set to a specific width to accommodate various sized joints between concrete slab  100  and  101 . Therefore, the wider the joint interval  110 , the wider the span of the vee joint  10  must be. They may also be enlarged or decreased in dimension “h” to fit into varying joint depths “d”. 
     The vee joint  10  is used to support joint fill material  120  within the joint interval  110 . Enough joint fill material  120  is maintained within the joint  10  so that the top of the joint fill material is the same height as the top surface  150  of the floor slabs  100 , thereby creating a constant floor surface throughout the entire floor. By maintaining a constant floor surface, erosion to the corners and edges of the floor slabs  100 , caused by heavy equipment, is minimized. 
     Due to the movable nature of the flanges  20 , 30 , when a large angle A is formed between the flanges  20 , 30 , the span that the flanges  20 , 30  will fill is greater. When a narrow joint interval  110  exists, the angle A between the flanges  20 , 30  can be reduced, thus bringing the ends  90  of the flanges  20 , 30  closer together to fill the narrower joint interval  110 . This flexible configuration of the vee joint  10  allows the installation of the vee joint  10  to be easy and expedient regardless of the size and shape of the joint interval  110 . For example, a vee joint  10  can be forced into an opening wider than its base or hinge  80  but narrower than the edges  90  of the flanges  20 , 30  when they are placed in their support position, and then the vee joint  10  is configured to fit within the joint interval  110  by spreading the flanges  20 , 30  out to their support or extended position. 
     The flexible nature of the vee joint  10  also allows for a single size vee joint  10  to be manufactured so as to accommodate various types and sizes of joint intervals  110 , making the manufacture economical and easy. The vee joint  10  can change along with the joint  110  if the joint  110  expands or contracts during use of the floor. 
     The vee joint  10  is designed to retain joint filler  120  above the vee joint  10  at a level even with the top surface  150  of the floor slab  100  as shown in FIG.  3 . 
     The configuration of the vee joint  10  behaves in a cup-like fashion catching the joint filler  120  between the flanges  20 , 30  and retaining it therein. When liquid filler is installed the flanges  20  and  30  minimize its passage beyond vee joint  10  until it hardens. When forces are applied to the top edge  140  of the joint filler  120 , the flanges  20 , 30  are forced outwardly, distributing the load against the slabs  100  and  101  and as well as onto load transfer for elements  160 . 
     FIG. 3 shows the hinge  80  of the vee joint  10  resting on load transfer elements  160  (FIG. 2) for support within a floor slab  100 . When in use, the upper edge  90  of each flange  20 ,  30  rests against a joint wall  112 , one on each side of the joint interval  110 . 
     With the hinge  80  and each upper edge  90  of each flange  20 ,  30  supported, the joint filler  120  is prevented from moving past the vee joint  10  and being forced further within the joint interval  110 . The top edge  140  of the joint filler  120  is also maintained level with the top surface  150  of the floor slab. 
     As shown in FIG. 4, it is a common practice to fill the joint interval  110  with a backer element  170  that is typically a foam (as shown) rod which is round or oval in shape, for the purpose of minimizing passage of liquid joint filler beyond it. Sand or grit fill may be used in place of the backer rod  170 . The rod  170  is not a very effective way to retain the hardened joint filler  120  within the joint interval  110  and above the load transfer device  160  because it provides little, if any, support. 
     When a force is applied to the top edge  140  of the joint filler  120 , which is common when heavy objects such as forklifts and other vehicles drive across the top surface  150  of the floor  100 , the joint filler  120  is forced in a downward direction within the joint interval  110 . Eventually, enough of the joint filler  120  is pushed deep within the joint interval  110  resulting in an open space within the joint interval at or just below the surface level  150  of the floor  100 . 
     FIG. 5 shows a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of the vee joint  210  described herein. In this second embodiment, the vee joint  210  has two flanges  220 ,  230 , one on each side of the vee joint  210 . Each flange  220 ,  230  has a connected end  280  and a free end  290 . The connected end  280  of each respective flange  220 ,  230  connects the flange  220 ,  230  to a central, cross member  240  forming a U-shaped vee joint  210 . 
     The cross member  240  can be straight or curved in shape. The connected end  280  of each flange  220 ,  230  is flexible so as to allow each flange  220 ,  230  the ability to move in a hinged manner with respect to the cross member  240 . Therefore, the flanges  220 ,  230  of the second embodiment of the vee joint  210  are movable allowing the vee joint  210  to be adaptable to fit into various sizes and shapes of joint intervals  110 . 
     The free end  290  of each flange  220 ,  230  may be flared or slightly angled from the respective flange  220 ,  230  forming a lip  250  thereon. The lip  250  rests against the joint walls  112  and prevents the joint filler  120  from being forced past the vee joint  210  into the joint interval  110 . Each lip  250  may even be driven into the joint walls  112  by the pressure of the joint fill material  120 . 
     Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims. For example, the hinge  80  may be made of varying widths to accommodate various sized joint intervals  110  and support greater amounts of joint filler  120  therein. 
     The vee joint  10  may be made of a single piece of material wherein the flanges and hinge are all integrally formed with one another, or the vee joint may be comprised of separate and distinct elements that have been connected together through conventional connection means.