Modular construction element
OwnerMerrill W. Hauginventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A modular element for constructing furniture or artistic sculptures comprising a flat member having three equilaterally arranged legs and three equilaterally arranged, arc-shaped sides having equal radii of curvature, each of the legs having a slot extending through its thickness and arranged equilaterally with the slots in the other legs. Groups of four elements are assembled with a center element being engaged at each of its slotted legs with a separate slotted leg of one of the other elements. In one preferred embodiment a group of twenty such elements are so assembled to form an artistic sculpture.
Claims4
In combination, a group of four inflexible, modular construction elements, each element being flat and having three equilaterally spaced legs with arc-shaped sides between each leg, each of the arc-shaped sides having the same radius of curvature, each of the legs further having a slot through its thickness which extends toward the centroid of the element, the width of the slots being only slightly greater than the thickness of the element, and at least one of the elements having the slot in each of its legs fully inserted in the slot in one leg of a separate one of the other three elements so that one element is oriented perpendicularly to the other three elements and is inflexibly interloced therewith to form a rigid, load bearing structure whose constituent elements are inflexible with respect to each other when so interlocked.
A modular construction element comprising a flat member having three equilaterally spaced legs with arc-shaped sides between each leg, each of the arc-shaped sides having the same radius of curvature, each of the legs further having a slot through its thickness which extends toward the centroid of the element, the width of the slot being only slightly greater than the thickness of the element and further including a leg and holder assembly having a pair of parallel strips and a rectangularly shaped member mounted between and to the strips at one end to space them apart, the strips and the rectangular member being beveled at one end, the strips being wider than the width of the leg slots, and the rectangular member being thinner than the width of the leg slots so that the leg and holder assembly can be fitted to an element leg by engaging the rectangular member in the leg slot with the strips overlying opposite sides of the element leg.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.