AU768335B2 - Arrangement and method of fabrication of vessel for fluid containment - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

9 Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Invention Title: TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT GARTHNEIL BURNARD SMITH GARTHNEIL BURNARD SMITH A.P.T. Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys GPO Box 772, Adelaide, SA 5001 ARRANGEMENT, KIT AND METHOD OF FABRICATION OF VESSEL FOR FLUID

CONTAINMENT

Details of Associated Provisional Application No: PP8815 dated 19th February 1999 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us:- This invention relates to a vessel for fluid containment and a method for fabrication of the same. The vessel in a preferred form can be a swimming pool but other applications include amongst others municipal water storage tanks. Further, it will be appreciated that the fluid contained is not intended to be limited to water but may be other liquids and gasses that can be contained without gross detrimental effect on the materials from which the vessel is made including wine and carbon dioxide. For explanative purposes the application of a fibre glass swimming pool will be used but this is not intended to limit the invention to that application or that material.

It is known to prefabricate at a factory a swimming pool shell from fibre glass using a mould. The completed shell is then transported to where the swimming pool is to be installed. The installed swimming pool may be above ground or in ground.

Considerable expense and difficulties are incurred in the transportation of the shell from factory to installation site. Further, the overall size of a shell is limited by the ability to transport the shell. Also, the expense involved in making a mould restricts the number 15 and shapes of shells that a manufacturer may offer.

It is also known to fabricate a swimming pool on the site of its installation. Here suitable formwork is constructed and the shell is moulded in situ. Whilst larger pools S may be made the costs of the formwork are considerable and unattractive where prefabricated pools may be used. With in ground pools there can be considerable S. 20 surface finishing work.

o* It is an object of this invention to provide a vessel for liquid containment and a method and a kit for fabrication of the same to obviate or minimise at least one of the aforementioned problems, or at least provide the public with a useful choice.

The invention may be said to reside, not necessarily in the broadest or only form, in a vessel for fluid containment including a wall and a floor joined to the wall, the wall and the floor consisting of a plurality of joined fluid impervious panels, each panel having a peripheral edge adapted to register with a peripheral edge of an adjacent panel, the panels being in edgewise registration one to another with sealing means between each adjoining panel adapted to restrict egress of fluid between the panels.

In one form, adjoining panels are co-planar proximal a common joint. In another form adjoining panels are not acutely angled one to the other proximal a common joint. In the example of a typical cylindrical water storage tank the panels of the wall are slightly arcuate but the curvature is not great. Localised zones of higher pressure may occur at corners for example of a hexahedral swimming pool but by placing the panel joins away from corners then less stress may be placed on the joins.

According to one form, the peripheral edges of adjoining panels are adapted to register to provide a substantially flush face to the wall, walls or floor. The registration between adjacent panels may be achieved by one panel having a tongue and the other panel having a groove into which the tongue is received. The length of the tongue may be greater than 10 times the width of the groove and the tongue and the groove of respective registered panels may be offset from a side of the panels thereby to allow the other sides of the panels to form a flush surface. In this form an inner face of a swimming pool may be smooth without projections along panel joints.

In another form there is a first transition region between the wall and the floor, and the "I ••first transition region consists of a number of the said plurality of panels being floor/wall panels. The floor/wall panels may have the shape of the outer surface of a quadrant of a cylinder; that is a quadrant of a cylinder cut longitudinally into four equal 15 parts.

According to one form there are three further walls joined to the floor to form an open topped hexahedral vessel, second transition regions between adjacent walls consisting of a number of the said plurality of panels being wall/wall panels, and third transition regions between the floor and adjacent walls each consisting of one of the said plurality 20 of panels being a corner panel. Some of the floor/wall panels and the wall/wall panels may be identical in shape for a hexahedral vessel such as a swimming pool that in plan view is rectangular and has vertical or near vertical walls. Where the vessel shell is hexahedral then the corner panels may have the shape of the outer surface of an eighth of a sphere in shape; that is the outer surface of a sphere cut into eighth equal parts.

In an alternative form the vessel shell is open topped and cylindrical and the floor/wall panels have the shape of the outer surface of an outer quadrant of a section of a toroid; that is an outer section of an outer quadrant of a toroid cut into four equal radial crosssectional parts. The vessel shell may include a top as may be desired for a rainwater storage tank or be open as may be desired for a swimming pool.

In yet a further form the wall or walls may be non rectilinear in plan view, such as kidney shaped or any other shape as desired. To make other shaped vessels as seen in plan view it will be appreciated that the constituent panels are moulded to suit.

4 In one form, fabrication of each panel includes moulding of the panel. This may be of polymeric material including but not limited to fibre glass or plastics material. The panels may be fabricated out of other materials including steel.

According to another form, the peripheral edges of adjoining panels are adapted to register to provide a substantially flush face to the wall. The flush face may be an internal surface of the vessel. In this way the internal face may be smooth and require minimal finishing work after construction of the wall. This is desirable with a swimming pool.

In a preferred form, the engagement between panels is achieved by one panel having a tongue and the other panel having a groove into which the tongue is received. The length of the tongue may be considerably greater than the width of the groove thereby limiting any relative movement between the panels due to the pressure of the fluid contained. Also the load bearing of the join between the panels may be spread over a S•wide region and so limit localised stresses. In one form the depth of the groove is 15 longer than the length of the tongue providing space for excess sealing material.

According to one form, the tongue and the groove of respective engaged panels are offset from a flush face thereby to allow the panels of a side of the wall to be flush.

The invention may also be said to reside, again not necessarily in the broadest or only form, in a kit for making a vessel shell having a floor and a wall for fluid containment including a plurality of fluid impervious panels, each panel having a peripheral edge adapted to register with a peripheral edge of another panel, the panels being adapted for edgewise registration one to another with sealing means between each adjoining panel to restrict egress of fluid between the panels.

The invention may also be said to reside, again not necessarily in the broadest or only form, in a method of making a vessel shell for fluid containment including the steps of assembling a plurality of panels to form a wall and a floor joined to the wall, each panel being prefabricated prior to installation and having a peripheral edge adapted to register with a peripheral edge of another of said panels, panels being assembled by edgewise registering with an adjoining one of said panels, and introducing sealing means between each adjoining panels to restrict egress of fluid between adjoining panels.

To assist in the understanding of the invention preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a sketch of a plan view of a swimming pool shell; Figure 2 is a sketch of a cross sectional view of the wall of the shell along

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Figure 3 is a sketch of a plan view of a corner side panel; Figure 4 is a sketch of an end elevation of a corner panel; Figure 5 is a sketch of a side elevation of the corner panel; Figure 6 is a sketch of a side view of a water storage tank; and, Figure 7 is a sketch of a plan view of the water storage tank shown in Figure 6.

The first preferred embodiment is illustrated by application to a swimming pool. The 10 pool being a vessel has a floor (one shown as 2) which in Figure 1 is the floor of the pool. The walls have similar construction. The floor is adapted for containment of water within the pool. There are a plurality of floor panels (one shown as 3) forming the floor. Each panel is prefabricated prior to installation and has a peripheral edge S°(one shown as 4) adapted to register with a peripheral edge (one shown as 5) of another of said panels The panels are each in edgewise registered engagement to an adjoining one of said panels. Between adjoining panels are sealing means adapted to restrict egress of fluid between the adjoining panels.

There are six types of panels being coping side panels (eg. 7) for the tops of the side walls, coping comer panels (eg. 8) for the tops of the corners of the pool, wall panels (eg. 3 and 9) for the main parts of the walls, wall/wall panels (eg. 10) for the upright corners of the pool, floor/floor panels for joining the floor with one of the upright walls, o'o* and corner panels (11) for the floor and upright walls junction.

The engagement between panels is best seen in Figure 2. Panel has at (12) a groove (13) formed by a projecting parallel member Panel has at (15) an offset tongue (16) which is slotted within the groove. On the opposed edge of panel is a groove formed in the same manner as that of panel Some of the panels have similar opposed peripheral edges whilst others have different opposed, eg. tongues on both sides thereby allowing the wall/wall panels to be the same.

The sealing means silicon caulking such as that manufactured by Dow Corning as silicon 720 or methyl methacrylate 532 is placed within the grooves prior to introduction of the tongue of an adjacent panel. This effects a water seal. Further, it may act as an adhesive to bond the panels together.

The thickness of the panels is about 5 or 6 mm which is comparable with pool shells moulded using known techniques. The tongue and groove are similar in thickness dimension though the width of the groove is sufficient to allow for the operation of the sealing means. Each tongue is about 65 mm long whilst the groove is about 100 mm deep. In this manner space is provided for the sealing means.

Each panel has a face which is directed to the inside of the pool. About the peripheral edges of the internal face of the panels is a chamfer. Each panel is moulded with the internal face nearest to the mould. Thus the internal face of the moulds are smooth.

Where panels join there is a channel (18) formed between the chamfered edges. This channel is filled with silicon and screed flush with the panels. In this way less finishing of the inside face of the pool is required.

"i The floor/wall panels, the wall/wall panels and the corner panels are curved and the radius of the curve is about 300 mm. The floor/wall panels and the wall/wall panels are substantially quarter cylindrical in shape. The corner panels are substantially 1/8th 15 spherical in shape.

ooooo The length of the panels is a matter of choice. In this embodiment the floor panels for the floor are 5 m long and 4 m wide whilst those for the walls are 5 x 1 m. The coping side panels are about 5 m long. These have a curved lip (19) to provide a suitable top of the pool walls.

S 20 The wall/wall panel (11) is illustrated in Figure 3 and is joined as at (20) to wall panels (21 and 22) as previously described. All peripheral edges excepting the bottom edge S. .are grooved. The bottom edge is a tongue.

•The corner panel is relatively small and to provide extra strength is three times the normal panel thickness of about 5 mm. This is best seen in Figures 4 and 5. All peripheral edges are grooved. In Figure 4 the corner panel is joined to the wall panel (21) and floor panel In Figure 5 a similar view is depicted except that two wall panels (21 and 24) are joined.

The site of the swimming pool is prepared using known techniques. Then with minimal supporting structures the panels are assembled using silicon within the grooves. The channels between panels are filled with silicon and screed smooth. The panels are premoulded prior to installation and due to the size are readily transported. The assembled empty shell is essentially the equivalent of either a factory moulded shell or an in situ moulded shell. Accordingly, known load supporting techniques are used including back filling where the pool is an in ground pool and use, for example, of vertical steel bars at 1125 mm centres where the pool is above ground.

The use of panels has further advantages to those just mentioned. Being prefabricated and relatively small, great flexibility in pool design is possible. Further, complex shapes may be more readily catered for compared with previously known factory moulding practices. Storage tanks may also be constructed using the panels as just described.

Referring to Figures 6 and 7, illustrated is a second embodiment in this case applied to a water storage tank. In these drawings the dashed lines represent the joins between the panels comprising the tank. The tank (25) has a floor a wall (27) and a top (28).

The floor comprises a central disc shaped panel, not shown, which has a circumferential tongue. The central panel is 1 m in diameter. Registering with the central panel are eight floor panels, not shown, which radiate out from the central panel.

The floor panels are generally wedged shaped in plan view with two radial sides and 15 two opposed curved sides. The shorter curved side has a groove to accept the tongue of the central panel whilst the longer curved side has a tongue. One of the radial sides has a tongue whilst the other has a groove so that each floor panel may be registered with an adjacent panel. The distance between the curved sides is 1.5 m.

The transition between floor and wall is by floor/wall panels (one shown as 29) which 20 have the shape of the outer surface of an outer quadrant of a section of a toroid; that is an outer section of an outer quadrant of a toroid cut radially into four equal parts.

These perform the same function as floor/wall panels of the first embodiment and in plan view are arcuate. The floor/wall panels add a further 0.25 m to the radius of the tank and has grooves for accepting tongues of wall and of floor panels. Between floor/wall panels are tongue and groove joints.

The wall is made up of eight elongate and arcuate wall panels (one shown as 30) which have a height of 2.2 m. The top and bottom sides of the wall panels have tongues, and the other sides have respectively a tongue and a groove.

Onto the top of the wall panels are placed coping panels (one shown as 31) that are similar to the floor/wall panels excepting that the angle between the top and the wall is not ninety degrees but approximately 110 0 so that the top of the tank is conical.

The top of the tank is similar to the floor excepting that it is intended to be conical.

8 The tongue and grooves, panel construction and jointing for the tank takes the same form as those used in respect of the swimming pool. For brevity these will not be further described.

In constructing the tank, a site with a sand surface is prepared according to known techniques. The central floor panel is located and each floor panel is glued in place with vinyl ester durcane EPV 500 using the tongue and grooves to register adjacent panels. Next the floor/wall panels are assembled followed by the wall panels. The top including the coping panels is assembled prior to lifting with suitable equipment onto the wall panels.

The tank constructed as above when empty is self supporting. When filled with water further strengthening may be required which can take the form of one or more circumferential steel bands.

go It will be appreciated that large tanks may be constructed using the same general o- concept just disclosed though more panels may be desired to reduce individual panel 15 size and weight. For example the floor may be constructed of two or more rings of concentric wedged shaped floor panels. Further the top, if required, may be constructed from other materials rather than interlocking panels, such as for example, cross beams supporting sheeting. This may be desirable where the top would be too large to conveniently lift into place when assembled. Suitable modification to the coping panels 20 may be made.

.o It will be appreciated that this disclosure is not intended to limit the invention to preferred embodiments or details thereof. Further skilled addressees will readily conceive other embodiments of the invention and all of these will fall within the spirit of the invention disclosed herein.

Claims (22)

1. A vessel shell for fluid containment including a wall and a floor joined to the wall, the wall and the floor consisting of a plurality of joined fluid impervious panels, each panel having a tongue extending from a peripheral edge registering with a groove in an adjoining peripheral edge of an adjacent panel, the tongue and groove extending a full length of each adjoining peripheral edge, a length of the tongue being an extent to which the tongue extends from its peripheral edge is greater than the width of the groove into which it fits, and wherein a settable adhesive sealant in the groove provides a seal between the tongues and grooves of adjacent panels, thereby making "10 the vessel shell self supporting.

2. A vessel shell as in claim 1 including a first transition region between the wall and the floor, and the first transition region consists of a number of the said plurality of panels being floor/wall panels.

3. A vessel shell as either claim 1 or 2 including three further walls joined to the floor to forrt an open topped hexahedral vessel, second transition regions between adjacent walls consisting of a number of the said plurality of panels being wall/wall panels, and third transition regions between the floor and adjacent walls each consisting of one of the said plurality of panels being a comer panel. C

4. A vessel shell as in either claim 2 or claim 3 including a top.

5. A vessel shell as in claim 2 wherein the floor/wall panels have the shape of the outer surface of a quadrant of a cylinder.

6. A vessel shell as in claim 3 wherein the wall/wall panels have the shape of the outer surface of a quadrant of a cylinder.

7. A vessel shell as in claim 6 wherein at least some of the floor/wall panels and the wall/wall panels are identical in shape.

8. A vessel shell as in claim 3 wherein the corner panels have the shape of the outer surface of an eighth of a sphere in shape. COMS ID No: SMBI-00423670 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:59 Date 2003-09-19 19/09/2003 16:20 +61-8-82723255 APT PAGE 13/14

9. A vessel shell as in any one of the preceding claims wherein the length of the tongue is greater than 10 times the width of the groove.

A vessel shell as in any one of the preceding claims wherein the a depth of the groove is longer than the length of the tongue providing space for the settable adhesi ve to form a sealant bead.

11. A vessel shell as in any one of the preceding claims wherein the tongue and the groove of respective registered panels are offset from a side of the panels thereby to 10 allow the other sides of the panels to form a flush surface.

12. A vessel shell as in any one of the preceding claims excepting claim 4 being for use as a swimming pool.

13. A vessel shell as in any one of the claims 1 to 11 inclusive being for use as a water storage tank.

14. A method of making a self supporting vessel shell for fluid containment including the steps of: 20 assembling a plurality of panels to form a wall and a floor joined to the wall, each panel being prefabricated prior to installation and having a tongue extending from a 0.00: peripheral edge registering with a groove in an adjoining peripheral edge of an adjacent panel, the tongue and groove extending a full length of each adjoining peripheral edge, a length of the tongue being an extent to which the tongue extends 25 from its peripheral edge is greater than the width of the groove into which it fits, panels being assembled by edgewise registering with an adjoining one of said panels, and introducing a settable adhesive sealant in the grooves to provides a seal between the tongues and grooves of adjacent panels to provide a seal between adjoining panels.

15. A method as in claim 14 including the steps of assembling panels to form the floor, assembling floor/wall panels to the floor to form a first transition region between the wall and the floor.

16. A method as in either claim 14 or 15 for making an open topped hexahedral vessel having three further walls joined to the floor including the steps of assembling COMS ID No: SMBI-00423670 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:59 Date 2003-09-19 19/09/2083 16:20 +61-8-82723255 APT PAGE 14/14 11 wall/wall panels to form a second transition regions between adjacent walls, and corer panels to form a third transition regions between the floor and adjacent walls.

17. A method as in any one of claims 14 tol6 including the step of forming a top.

18. A method as in any one of claims 14,to 17 including the steps of applying filler to any gap in a joint between adjacent panels and sanding the joint to provide a smooth surface.

19. A method as in any one of claimsl4 to 18 for use in making a swimming pool.

20. A method as in any one of claims 14 to 18 for use in making a water storage tank. 15

21. A vessel shell substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

22. A method of making a vessel shell substantially as herein described.with reference to the accompanying drawings. Dated this 19th day of September 2003 GARTHNEIL BURNARD SMITH 25 By his Patent Attorneys A.PT. Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys e *o COMS ID No: SMBI-00423670 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:59 Date 2003-09-19