Method and apparatus for lift-slab building construction
OwnerRaymond A. Burklandinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Pre-formed concrete floor slabs stacked one on top of the other, at or near ground level, are raised vertically into desired elevations for permanent attachment to the building structural columns. The same cylindrical forms used to pour each floor's height of the building's columns are also utilized as hydraulic cylinders to lift the forms, and connected floor slabs, upon the previously hardened column sections to the next higher floor level where the process is repeated until the entire building structure of columns and floors is in place.
Claims14
Apparatus for constructing a concrete building framework of a plurality of floors and at least one supporting column on a previously prepared ground slab that includes an upwardly projecting starting column for each supporting column, and a stack of at least two previously prepared releasably serially interconnected floor slabs supported on the ground slab and having said starting column projecting up through vertically registered holes through each said floor slab, said apparatus comprising:
- a tubular, upright column form with a side wall having substantially the same transverse cross-sectional size and shape as the starting column so that the column form may be initially placed on the uppermost floor slab with the starting column projecting part way up into the column form;
- said column form side wall having a lining of resilient material;
- means releasably connecting the uppermost one of said floor slabs to said column form;
- a removable plug for closing the upper end of the column form and for leaving the upper end of the column form open for when settable concrete is being introduced into the form to make an increment of columns;
- a toroidal gasket means provided on said column form adjacent the lower end of said side wall, for forming a seal against such increment of the starting column or column being formed as lies radially adjacent said toroidal gasket means;
- means for introducing pressurized hydraulic fluid into the column form annularly between the column being formed and said side wall lining, so that with said removable plug installed, the column form may be caused to hydraulically lift relative to the column being formed, thus also lifting the stack of floor slabs, so that as each floor's complement of column is formed, the then lowermost, lifted floor slab may be detached from the stack secured to the column and left behind as the column form is further lifted, until the uppermost floor slab is thereby fully lifted and connected to the thus-completed column.
A method for constructing a building framework of concrete on a previously prepared ground slab, including:
- (a) providing at least one upwardly projecting starting column on the ground slab;
- (b) providing a stack of individual horizontally extending floor slabs upon the ground slab, each of the floor slabs having a hole vertically through it, these holes being aligned and the starting column projecting up through all of them to leave an exposed stub;
- (c) temporarily connecting each floor slab to each of its vertically neighboring floor slabs;
- (d) installing an open lower end tubular column form over the exposed stub, this column form having an internal side wall that is of substantially the same size and shape as the stub;
- (e) temporarily connecting the column form to the uppermost said floor slab;
- (f) introducing settable concrete into the column form and permitting the settable concrete to at least partially set;
- (g) establishing an annular seal between the column being thus formed and the internal side wall of the column form adjacent the lower end of the column form;
- (h) closing the upper end of the column form;
- (i) introducing pressurized fluid into the annulus defined between the column being formed in the internal side wall of the column form with sufficient pressure as to cause said column form to raise relative to the column being formed in order to withdraw a substantial amount of the column being formed out of the lower end of the column form and to make space for forming more of the column within the column form;
- when a full story increment of column has thus been formed, connecting the lowermost said floor slab to the column being formed and disconnecting that floor slab from the resulting remainder of the stack of floor slabs
- (j) repeating steps (f) through (i) in succession until all full story increments of the column thus have been formed, each floor slab has been connected to the column, and each floor slab except the uppermost one has been disconnected from the column form;
- (k) disconnecting the column form from the uppermost floor slab.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.