ES1306539U - Tray for shaping green surfaces (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

A tray for the formation of green surfaces, of the type that includes a plurality of cavities to contain liquid, characterized in that it comprises a base from which ribs rise that interconnect with each other enclosing said cavities, where each cavity has a bottom and walls inclined facets that join said ribs forming a resistant structural network, the tray including drainage holes formed in the ribs, between adjacent cavities, and a perimeter edge that encloses the tray, with means of hooking to attachable trays.

Description

DESCRIPTION

TRAY FOR SHAPING GREEN SURFACES

STATE OF THE ART OF THE INVENTION

Field of Invention

The present invention is related to the field of installations to form surfaces or planes or green areas in different areas, such as the so-called green roofs or plans of structures where it is desired to have green natural coverings, such as grass, plants, etc.

Even though this description refers to a tray to form the so-called green roofs, it is clear that its usefulness does not restrict this coating but can be applied to other parts of a construction, arid soils, asphalt floors or even covered by tiles, construction materials, etc.

Description of the prior art

The covering of surfaces such as walls, solid material floors, arid soils, and roofs, with "living" green matter such as different types of grass and plants, is an increasingly widespread practice in the world. This practice has spread especially for covering the roofs of homes or any other type of construction, and in this particular case this practice is known as "green roof" systems.

Numerous tray or module systems are known for the installation of green roofs. Some of these trays are produced using the thermo-molding technique and others by injection. Trays or modules manufactured by thermo-molding have a much lower resistance than those manufactured by injection. All of these trays or panel systems have a flat surface that has concavities distributed along it, which can be used both to reserve water and to house materials for water retention such as leca, expanded clay in the shape of small spheres, which retain water. On top of the trays, a layer of geotextile material is usually placed, a layer of substrate and on top of this, the desired vegetation.

The water that reaches these trays, whether by rain or irrigation, is distributed uniformly through channels that connect one concavity to the other. On the horizontal surface, which separates the concavities, there are drainage holes, so that rainwater or irrigation water that reaches these sectors of holes punctually drains and is lost, not allowing it to be stored for use. of the vegetation, reducing the total storage capacity and increasing the system's water clogging time. The water reserve is necessary to contribute to the healthy development of vegetation at lower substrate heights, the system functioning as semi-hydroponics. However, the systems, which will be referred to later with respect to Figures 1 and 2, lack sufficient water reservoirs, only offering the possibility of having reduced water reserves, that is, low reserves per square meter, which requires a greater depth of substrate.

Given this state of the art, it would be very convenient to have a new tray for the formation of "living" green spaces that has an important storage of water per unit of surface, necessary for the roots of plants and grass, that has very good drainage. uniformity of all cavities and resistance to withstand loads and traffic above the formed green spaces.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new tray for the formation of green surfaces that has a formation of cavities for the storage and/or reserve of water and drainage holes strategically arranged between the cavities that makes the plant or grass receives the necessary water without saturation.

It is also another object of the present invention to provide a new tray for the formation of green spaces and surfaces that presents a construction of ribs that, in addition to circumscribing the cavities, form a resistant structural network that allows the transit of people, the placement and use of furniture. , such as garden tables and chairs, and even vehicular traffic.

It is also another object of the present invention to provide a new tray for the formation of green spaces and surfaces that has a base that guarantees the perfect placement of the tray on the surface to be covered, from whose base resistant ribs rise that form a plurality of water reserve cavities, substrate material, etc. and provide the tray with exceptional resistance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For greater clarity and understanding of the object of the present invention, it has been illustrated in several figures, in which the invention has been represented in one of the preferred embodiments, all by way of example, where:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a prior art tray,

Figure 2 is a perspective view of another prior art tray,

Figure 3 is a perspective view taken from above of an upper face of the tray according to the present invention,

Figure 4 is a top plan view of the tray of Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a bottom face or base of the tray of Figure 3,

Figure 6 is a perspective view taken from one end and one side of the tray of Figure 3,

Figure 7 is a partial perspective view taken from one end and/or one side of the tray of Figure 3, showing a male coupling means for coupling the tray to an adjacent one so as to form a coating arrangement, and

Figure 8 is a partial perspective view taken from one end and/or one side of the tray of Figure 3, showing a female coupling means for coupling the tray to an adjacent one so as to form a coating arrangement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2 which show prior art trays, one can see in Figure 1 a well-known tray which is formed by a flat upper face 1 from which a plurality of cavities 2 extend downwards. in the shape of a “little glass”, and 3 holes for water drainage. The cavities 2 are quite far apart, forming, in addition to cavities, a plurality of support legs from the tray to the floor. Due to this tray configuration, with spaced cavities, an important water storage and reserve capacity is lost, and the capacity to retain substrate material is lost in the event that the cavities were only to contain soil or other materials. On top of the tray, as is known, a sheet of geotextile material 4 can be arranged.

In Figure 2 you can see another known tray that is also mainly made up of an upper face 5 from which cavities 6 extend downwards, intended to store water and in some cases a type of substrate is added whose purpose is to retain the water. water. The cavities 6, when extending downwards from the plate or flat upper face 5, form legs for supporting the tray on the surface to be coated. Once again, the cavities 6 are spaced apart which, in addition to reducing the storage, water and/or substrate capacity, decreases the resistance of the tray to vertical loads. The cavities 6 are interconnected by upper channels 7.

Reference will now be made to Figures 3 to 8 that illustrate the tray of the invention, clarifying that the reference numbers start from 10 to avoid confusion with the references used in Figures 1 and 2 of the prior art.

In Figures 3 to 6 you can see the tray of the invention, indicated with the general reference number 10, in particular Figures 3 and 4 show its upper face which, contrary to the trays of the prior art, lacks a flat surface top from which the cavities descend. On the contrary, as seen on the upper face 11, the tray 10 is made up of a base 12, see Figures 5 and 6, which is what defines the support for the ground, terrace or any surface intended to be covered with green material. alive.

Each cavity, indicated with the general reference 11, is formed by a bottom 13 from which walls 14 rise that are faceted and inclined and that join ribs 15 to form each cavity 11. In the ribs 15 and in positions between cavities Adjacent 11, water drainage holes 16 are arranged. The general shape of each cavity is hexagonal but it can have any polygonal shape.

As best seen in Figure 5, the polygonal configuration of the cavities 11 form among themselves a plurality of circulation channels 17, on the lower face 12 of the tray, for the circulation of the water that is drained through the holes 16. Thus , the ribs 15 form honeycomb-like frameworks that can be seen both on the upper face 11 and on the lower face 12. The entire perimeter of the tray is enclosed by a perimeter edge 18 that, preferably, rises until it coincides with the height of the tray. the ribs 15 but it should be noted that the edge 18 can be higher than the ribs 15 if the purpose of containing substrate material, such as soil, is also pursued, thus forming a kind of pot.

As is known in these systems for forming surfaces or living green spaces, the trays must be connected to each other to cover the desired surface as an integrated and stable covering. To this end, each tray of the invention is provided with male and female perimeter hooks on its edges. Figure 7 shows in detail a male coupling 19 that extends from the perimeter edge 18 and consists of a vertical rib. For its part, Figure 8 shows in detail a female coupling 20 formed within the perimeter edge 18 and forms a channel that has a complementary design to the male coupling 19 to receive and retain it firmly within the channel. Preferably, two consecutive sides have two male hooks 19 each and two consecutive sides have two female hooks 20 each.

In this way, the trays can be attached to each other to cover large surfaces. The trays can be made of any suitable plastic material, such as virgin high-density polyethylene, high-impact polypropylene or recycled material, and can be formed using the injection technique. The union of one with the other forms a single and uniform surface. As a non-limiting example, each tray can have the following measurements: 250mm X 500mm X 21.5mm.

Thanks to the new conformation of the tray of the invention, the tray allows water to be stored on the same surface, without upper planes, in almost its entire area, functioning as water boxes, reinforced by a network of hexagons, like a honeycomb, which gives it much greater resistance than previous systems, to withstand the weight of the substrate and vegetation, furniture, machinery, pots, as well as the traffic of people and even vehicles. This makes it different from the trays of the prior art because the tray of the invention avoids the spaces between cavities in order to behave like a box that stores water. This tray stores up to 93% of water, referring to its volume. This also allows hydroponic crops to be obtained, where the plant is separated from the water with a cloth.

Without intending to limit the scope of the invention, a series of important points of this tray could be listed as follows:

(1) Separate the roof from the garden,

(2) Water storage: it has a very good capacity to store water that is then taken up by the roots,

(3) Resistance: Support. How much resistance does that product have compared to the weight that is placed on it. It should resist as much as possible without crushing.

The invention was developed looking for at least two characteristics, such as increasing the resistance to loads and increasing the liquid storage capacity, for which the flat parts of the upper face of the trays of the prior art that do not resist well were eliminated. the weight and break, and taking advantage of the volume of the tray much more. The vertical ribs 15 resist weight much better than the flat areas of other products. This tray can withstand up to 100 times more weight than other known trays.

Comparison with prior art trays

The following table shows the values corresponding to different parameters, such as storage capacity, resistance and others, which allow the characteristics of this invention to be compared with those of other known trays.

Claims (1)

1. A tray for the formation of green surfaces, of the type that includes a plurality of cavities to contain liquid, characterized in that it comprises a base from which ribs rise that interconnect with each other enclosing said cavities, where each cavity has a bottom and inclined faceted walls that join said ribs forming a resistant structural network, the tray including drainage holes formed in the ribs, between adjacent cavities, and a perimeter edge that encloses the tray, with means of attachment to attachable trays.