Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080245021 | Rotational apparatus for welding beam-mount structure to the side(s) of a column - Apparatus for precision deploy-attaching beam-mount structure to the outside of an elongate column at plural, defined attachment sites that are distributed and spaced along the length of the column. During use, a column support jig with plural openable/closeable yokes in the apparatus supports a column horizontally for selective rotation about its long axis. A carriage in the apparatus, which holds beam-mount structures to be attached to a supported column, is selectively moveable and position-lockable in defined locations distributed along the supported column between yokes in a pair of spaced yokes to enable precision weld-attaching of the mounts to sides of the column. | 10-09-2008 |
20080245023 | Building frame structure - A family of beam cross-connections, including column/beam and beam/beam connections, between beams and columns in a building frame. Each connection within a cross-connection features (a) a pair of parallel-spaced, upright, planar plate components operatively associated with either a side of a column or a side of a beam, (b) an elongate, generally horizontal cross-connection beam including a generally upright, planar central web with an end which, with respect to a pair of such plate components, extends into the space that exists between those components, and (c) a structural relationship involving the plate components in a pair which accommodates (1) vertical-motion placement of a web end between the components, with (2) the automatic establishment thereby of correct relative, spatial, three-dimensional relationships and dispositions of the specific, associated column and/or beam elements so connected. | 10-09-2008 |
20080295420 | Frame damper bracing - A damper brace for use in a rectangular structural building frame pane which pane is defined by interconnecting beams and columns includes a formed rigid triangle having an apex, and a force-adjustable, relative-motion braking structure operatively interposed the rigid-triangle apex and one of the frame beams forming the pane. | 12-04-2008 |
20080295443 | Halo/spider, full-moment, column/beam connection in a building frame - A column/beam connection in a building frame, including an elongate column having faces which join through corners, an elongate beam having an end, and a full-moment nodal connection connecting the end of the beam to the column solely through a pair of next-adjacent corners in the column, with the beam end, as so connected, being spaced from the column face which lies between the mentioned pair of corners. The connection per se features (a) plural standoffs joined to and extending, one each, outwardly from the column's corners at a selected, common elevation located along the length of the column, and (b) a halo collar joined through a gravity-seat-and-lock, full-moment interface connection to each of the standoffs, and, as so joined, spaced by the standoffs from the column faces which lie between the column corners. | 12-04-2008 |
20080296353 | Multi-angle, articulated-jig-supported, beam-end component welding - Adjustable, elongate, beam-offset jig structure for assisting in welding a pair of beam-end, column-interface components to the opposite ends of an elongate beam. The jig structure includes spaced, adjustable head-stock and tail-stock structures, each capable of holding such a component adjacent a beam end for adjustment to an infinite number of different, pre-weld angular-offset dispositions relative to such a beam end in order to accommodate planned horizontal and vertical beam offsets which will be encountered when such beams are installed in a building frame. A computer-controlled, robotic welder is preferably provided adjacent each end of the jig structure to implement appropriate welding when any and all offset angles have been jig-established. | 12-04-2008 |
20090062986 | Guide-by-wire vehicle steering - Guide-by-wire vehicle steering involving (a) preparing a vehicle lane in a roadway with a passive, lane-following, elongate, lateral-triangulation responder, (b) equipping a selected vehicle having signal-controllable steering mechanism with a lateral-triangulation transceiver operatively associated, and interactive, with the responder, and signal-control-linked to the selected vehicle's signal-controllable steering mechanism, (c) with such a vehicle traveling along the roadway, interacting the transceiver and the responder, and (d) by such interacting, applying, as necessary, control signals from the transceiver to the vehicle's signal-controllable steering mechanism, thereby to control vehicle steering so as to assure vehicle following of the prepared vehicle lane. Also disclosed is system structure capable of performing these vehicle-steering steps, and selectively, additionally, communicating non-position roadway information in addition to steering-control information. | 03-05-2009 |
20090302289 | Building frame construction safety-barrier system and method - A cable safety-barrier system for use along an elevated region of lateral exposure in a building structure having plural, spaced, laterally next-adjacent uprights distributed along the exposure region. The system, in an operative condition, includes (a) plural cable-threading brackets distributed along the exposure region and anchored, at least one each, to each of such uprights, (b) an elongate cable having ends and a long axis, and between such ends plural elongate portions, operatively threaded as a continuum between the cable's ends through each of the brackets, and (c) adjacent each bracket, an associated securing device functionally locked to an associated, elongate portion of the cable, inhibiting any appreciable motion of the cable portion generally along the cable's long axis relative to the associated bracket. | 12-10-2009 |
20100058675 | Building-insert module and associated methodology - A prefabricated, building-insert module adapted for insertion to create in-place room infrastructure in an open, plural-story, main, column-and-beam building frame which is defined by columns and beams, the module including a prepared floor sub-module having an upper surface, and an at least partially completed, three-dimensional room sub-module anchored to and rising upwardly from the upper surface of the floor sub-module. The floor sub-module acts variously as a fabrication, transportation and installation-lifting pallet for the entire module, and the room sub-module is placed in a continuous state of vertical compression so as never, during transportation, lifting, and ultimate, in-place installation, to go into a state of vertical tension. | 03-11-2010 |
20100192346 | Rotational apparatus for welding beam-mount structure to the side(s) of a column - Apparatus for precision deploy-attaching beam-mount structure to the outside of an elongate column at plural, defined attachment sites that are distributed and spaced along the length of the column. During use, a column support jig with plural openable/closeable yokes in the apparatus supports a column horizontally for selective rotation about its long axis. A carriage in the apparatus, which holds beam-mount structures to be attached to a supported column, is selectively moveable and position-lockable in defined locations distributed along the supported column between yokes in a pair of spaced yokes to enable precision weld-attaching of the mounts to sides of the column. | 08-05-2010 |
20100313400 | PRECISION ROTATIONAL WELDING AROUND OUTSIDE OF ELONGATE, TUBULAR COMPONENT, SUCH AS A COLUMN - Apparatus and methodology for performing precision rotational welding on the outside surface, and circumferentially around the long axis, of an elongate, hollow, tubular component. The apparatus includes an elongate frame, and plural, component-supporting, releasable-clamping yoke structures mounted on and distributed along the frame, including idlers defining an elongate, common, substantially horizontal rotational axis for a supported component, which common axis is designed to be substantially coincident with the long axis of such a component. With this apparatus, practicing the invention involves releasably clamping and horizontally supporting such a component for rotation on its long axis relative to the frame, and while so supporting a component, implementing selective rotation of it about its long axis, and performing precision rotational welding on and circumferentially around the surface of the supported component. | 12-16-2010 |
20110031298 | MULTI-ANGLE, ARTICULATED-JIG-SUPPORTED, BEAM-END COMPONENT, MANUAL AND COMPUTER-CONTROLLED WELDING - Adjustable, elongate, beam-offset jig structure for assisting, under manual, or appropriate computer, control, in welding a pair of beam-end, column-interface components to the opposite ends of an elongate beam. The jig structure includes spaced, adjustable head-stock and tail-stock structures, each capable of holding such a component adjacent a beam end for adjustment to an infinite number of different, pre-weld angular-offset dispositions relative to such a beam end in order to accommodate planned horizontal and vertical beam offsets which will be encountered when such beams are installed in a building frame. A computer-controlled, robotic welder may be provided adjacent each end of the jig structure to implement appropriate welding when any and all offset angles have been jig-established. | 02-10-2011 |
20120110947 | QUICK-SET, FULL-MOMENT-LOCK, ASSEMBLABLE AND NONDESTRUCTIVELY DISASSEMBLABLE, COLUMN AND BEAM FRAME SYSTEM - A floating, nondestructably disconnectable, discontinuous, full-moment nodal connection between the end of a beam and the side of a column including (a) a column having a side, (b) a column-mount node structure joined to that column side, (c) an elongate beam having an end, and (d) a beam-mount node structure joined to that beam end. The column-mount and beam-mount structures are floatingly, nondestructably disconnectably, and discontinuity-gravity-seated relative to one another, and as so seated, form an operative full-moment connection, via the node structures, between the column and beam, this connection being characterized by the fact that there is no uninterrupted material-occupying path or structure which flows structurally from the beam to the column through the node structures. | 05-10-2012 |
20120181396 | MODULAR PIPE-SHOE, PIPE-SUPPORT SYSTEM - A modular system for supporting, on an underlying framework, and at plural pipe-underside locations, an elongate linear pipe. The system includes (a) for each such location, a shoe anchorable to the pipe's underside at that location, (b) for one pipe-underside location only, an anchor securable to the framework for receiving and anchoring the shoe, and thus the pipe also, at this one location, against any motion relative to the framework, and (c) for each other pipe-underside location, a guide securable to the framework for guidably receiving the adjacent shoe in a manner permitting it, and thus the pipe also, at this other location, solely reversible sliding motion relative to the framework along a line substantially paralleling the pipe's long axis. | 07-19-2012 |
20120279949 | BOX COLUMN ASSEMBLY - Apparatus for assisting in weld assembling a box column from a tack-welded pre-assembly of planar plate components. The apparatus features (1) an elongate frame defining a rotational-assembly axis, and (2) plural pre-assembly-receiving, rotational support structures mounted at spaced locations on the frame—each support structure including (a) an openable/closable yoke possessing a collar-reception zone, (b) an openable/closable collar rotatably receivable within this reception zone, and possessing a central throughpassage having a cross-sectional configuration which is larger than that of a box-column which is to be assembled, and (c) a pair of removably-collar-attachable, throughpassage clamping shoes for forming cooperatively, within the collar throughpassage, a window for complementarily, receiving extension therethrough of a box-column pre-assembly's cross section. A so received pre-assembly is rotatable about the rotational-assembly axis to position the existing seams of adjacency between the pre-assembly plate components for full-strength welding by an automated, traveling welding instrumentality. | 11-08-2012 |
20140182233 | COLLAR-FORM, FULL-MOMENT STRUCTURAL CONNECTION WITH ANGULAR, CONFRONTING, LOAD-TRANSFER, CORNER FACETS - A collar-form, nodal connection between the ends of beams and the outside of a column including (a) column-mount node components, joined to and distributed around the outside of the column at a defined location along its length, (b) planar beam-mount node components connected to beam ends and arranged in a collar form circumsurrounding the column-mount node components, with adjacent beam-mount node components possessing adjacent lateral sides including confronting load-compression faces that lie in planes which are disposed at angles of substantially 45-degrees relative to the respective planes of their associated beam-mount components, and (c) for each pair of adjacent beam-mount-component lateral sides, operatively connected nut-and-bolt structure extending through the associated beam-mount components' lateral sides, appropriately tightened within the overall nodal connection to produce compression in confrontingly adjacent load-compression faces which is effective within the connection to promote column-circumsurrounding load delivery from the beams through the connection to the column. | 07-03-2014 |
20140183330 | MODULAR, SIX-AXIS-ADJUSTABLE, CONCRETE-POUR FORM-STRUCTURE SYSTEM - A precision fabrication form system for preparing a poured-concrete (with upwardly projecting anchor bolts) footing for anchorably supporting the base of an elongate, upright, structural-frame column. The system includes a reversibly stackable plurality of independent, intercooperative, fabrication-form templates—grade, pedestal, base-plate, anchor-bolt and centerline—reversibly assembleable in a predetermined stack order above a prepared ground excavation into which concrete pouring to be associated with such a footing is to occur, certain ones of these templates being infinitely adjustable relative to one another and to the ground in both pre-pour and post-pour conditions to accommodate staged, precision, X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis, and pitch, roll and yaw axes dispositions for the concrete and anchor bolts in such a footing. | 07-03-2014 |
20140202795 | PLURAL-STORY, PIPE-SUPPORT FRAME SYSTEM WITH MODULAR, REMOVABLYATTACHABLE LATERAL-WORKER-SUPPORT SCAFFOLDING - A pipe-support system including a pipe-support frame structure having plural, substantially horizontal, pipe-support levels supported by columns including a distribution of side columns uniformly spaced along at least one side of the frame structure, and featuring selectively graduated, support-level-indifferent, lateral-connectivity access for quickly available, removeable, outrigger gravity attachment to the frame's side columns, through gravity catch and hook structures, of modular, outrigger, lateral, worker-platform scaffolding either as individual scaffolding units, or as assemblies of plural, individual units, all such units deriving vertical support through outrigger connections made to the frame structure. | 07-24-2014 |
20140208666 | DUAL-FUNCTION, SEQUENTIAL-TASK, LUG-REGISTRY, PICK AND STACK-ALIGN BUILDING-COMPONENT HANDLING SYSTEM - A system for handling various structural building components including a pick and stack-registry lug which is anchorable to the top of a building component for handling that component in either one, or both sequentially, of its two, pick and stack-registry functional modes, (b) a clamshell-style, releasably lockable clasp adapted to receive and close capturingly upon the lug under operational circumstances with the lug anchored to the top of a building component, and ready to function in its pick category of component-handling behavior, and (c) a guide socket includable in the base of a building component functional for camming, guided reception of a lug with the lug then functioning in its stack-registry mode of behavior to facilitate overhead stack registering of two building components in relation to the lowering of an overhead component onto the top of an underlying component whose top also has a lug anchored to it. | 07-31-2014 |
20140270918 | MODULAR, FACETED, BLOCK-AND-SHELL NODE SYSTEM FOR CONNECTING ELONGATE FRAME ELEMENTS - A modular, faceted-component node system for uniting adjacent ends of elongate frame elements at selectively different types of frame-element-junction nodes in a frame structure including (a) a first type faceted node component adapted for attachments to it of ends of plural, elongate frame elements, operable as a singularity to form in a frame structure a first-type frame-element-junction node, and a second type faceted node component for joining, and cooperating with, different pluralities of the first-type node component to form, selectively with such component pluralities, in a frame structure a plurality of different, second-type frame-element-junction nodes—the first and second type node components including, respectively, concave and convex, angularly faceted surface regions that are complementary to one another, and that accommodate facet-to-facet, matching-facet-coextensive, selective joinder of the two component types. | 09-18-2014 |