Patent ID: 6884486

Claim:
A self-supporting structure comprising hollow, tubular elements, which are put together with parallel axes to form an interlocking entity without any binder as a composite layer, in which the elements, respectively lying only loosely against one another with linear contact, are held together by a frame extending around the element structure and determining a flexural elasticity of the structure by its own restraining force, each of the elements having a circular middle cross section starting from the circumference of which generated convex half-surfaces of the element go over in an smoothly curved manner to element ends, the edge contour of which respectively has the form of a flat ellipse having pointed major-axis vertices, the major axes of which, lying normal to the longitudinal axis of the element, are turned by 90° with respect to each other about the longitudinal axis of the element, the axial ratio of the two ellipse axes in a cross section lying normal to the longitudinal axis of the element increasing continuously from the center of the element respectively to its ends.