Translucent building material comprising corrugated cardboard
View Patent ↗A manufacturing process, and related products, for fabricating translucent articles in the form of tiles is disclosed. The manufacturing process includes holding together a stack of corrugated cardboard pieces and saturating the cardboard pieces with an impregnating agent. Additional steps may include machining the cardboard pieces to define a block of a desired shape, slicing the block into tile components, and/or coating one or more tile components with a coating material to produce the article. Articles include translucent tiles made of corrugated cardboard pieces saturated with an impregnating agent. The tiles may be arranged to define a surface, such as a floor, a wall, a roof, a lighting installation, an architectural construction element, an architectural aesthetic element, or a solar panel.
1. A process for manufacturing a translucent building material comprising corrugated cardboard, the process comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a plurality of corrugated cardboard pieces, each of the cardboard pieces comprising (i) a corrugated sheet defining flutes and (ii) at least one linerboard;
(b) thereafter, holding together the corrugated cardboard pieces to define a rough block having the flutes of at least two adjacent cardboard pieces aligned in a common direction;
(c) thereafter, saturating the rough block with an impregnating agent to form a working block;
(d) thereafter, machining the working block to define a finished block having a cross-section with a precise geometric shape; and
(e) thereafter, slicing the finished block at a predetermined angle to the direction of the flutes into slices having a consistent thickness to define a plurality of tile components.
2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the holding step comprises adhering the corrugated cardboard pieces together with an adhesive.
3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the impregnating agent comprises a material selected from the group consisting of a two-part epoxy, polyaspartic polyurea, silicates, siliconates, plant-based resins, and combinations thereof.
4. The process of claim 1 , wherein providing the plurality of corrugated cardboard pieces comprises cutting corrugated cardboard sheets into uniform strips.
5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the saturating step is performed under a partial vacuum.
6. The process of claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
adhering a rigidifying component to at least one of the plurality of corrugated cardboard pieces.
7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the direction of the flutes defines a light path through each tile component.
8. The process of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
providing a coating material in a mold;
placing a corrugated component into the coating material, the corrugated component comprising at least one of the plurality of tile components; and
curing the coating material to create an outer layer component having a texture.
9. The process of claim 8 , further comprising forming the corrugated component by adhering at least a portion of the plurality of tile components together to define a geometric pattern.
10. The process of claim 8 , wherein the curing step comprises:
removing the corrugated component with the cured coating material from the mold, thereby creating a translucent tile.
11. The process of claim 8 , wherein the coating material is selected from the group consisting of thermosetting acrylics, thermosetting epoxies, polyamides, photocurable acrylics, polyaspartic polyurea and combinations thereof.
12. The process of claim 10 , further comprising the steps of:
forming a plurality of translucent tiles; and
arranging the plurality of translucent tiles to define a surface.
13. A process for manufacturing a translucent building material comprising corrugated cardboard, the process comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a plurality of uniform corrugated cardboard strips, the cardboard strips comprising flutes and at least one linerboard;
(b) thereafter, holding together the cardboard strips to define a surface intersected by the flutes, wherein the flutes of at least two adjacent cardboard strips are aligned in a common direction;
(c) thereafter, placing the cardboard strips into a mold such that the surface is proximate the mold;
(d) thereafter, saturating the cardboard strips with an impregnating agent; and
(e) thereafter, curing the impregnating agent to create an outer layer component disposed proximate the surface.
14. A process for manufacturing a translucent building material comprising corrugated cardboard, the process comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a plurality of corrugated cardboard pieces, the cardboard pieces comprising flutes and at least one linerboard;
(b) thereafter, holding together the cardboard pieces to define a rough block having the flutes of at least two adjacent cardboard pieces aligned in a common direction;
(c) thereafter, saturating the rough block with an impregnating agent to form a working block; and
(d) thereafter, slicing the working block at a predetermined angle to a direction of the flutes into slices having a consistent thickness to define a plurality of tile components.
15. The process of claim 2 , wherein the adhesive and the impregnating agent comprise a common material, the common material comprising a plasticizer.
16. The process of claim 8 , wherein the corrugated component comprises a single tile component.