CALCULUS STRUCTURE

Abstract

A calculus structure has a plurality of unit components and a plurality of joint components is provided. The unit components and the joint components are adapted to form a target structure. Each end of each of the joint components has an embedding construction or an embedded construction. Each of the unit components and the joint components has a bore therein for communication with each other. The bore is adapted to allow a cascading part to pass therethrough so that the unit components and the joint components are cascaded together by the cascading part, and the unit components and the joint components are movable relative to the cascading part so that the unit components and the joint components abut against each other in a cascading order to form the target structure.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a decomposable and re-composable device construction, and more particularly, to a decomposable and re-composable multi-purpose instant “Calculus” structure (discrete structure).

Descriptions of the Related Art

Dolls that are designed into segments and can be pulled into a state where legs stand straight or be released into a collapsed state by means of a string have already been available on the market, but there is still a room for improvement thereon. In consideration of this and in light of the design concept of the early extensible pencil formed by a plurality of small segments of pencil cores, the present invention proposes a Calculus structure formed of a plurality of small units.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With the proceeding of modernization, articles for daily life are getting smaller, thinner, and lighter, and more and more of them are designed to be portable, and preferably all articles can be decomposed and re-composed or can be folded and spread for the ultimate convenience of use. Here is a common structure principle that allows many articles of three-dimensional (3D) structures to be decomposable and re-composable in a very simple way, which is called the “Calculus” structure or discrete structure because of the nature of the principle. As its name implies, this common structure principle divides an article into a plurality of parts and then recomposes them together with simply one additional procedure and via a little trick:

The framework of the article is divided into a plurality of segments, with the basic repeated parts being called unit components (differential) and the interlaced or curved joint parts being called joint components, each end of the joint components has a construction that can be embedded into or be embedded by the adjacent unit component to support the adjacent unit component (the unit component may also have an embedding or embedded construction if necessary). Then, when all the unit components and the joint components are cascaded in the original order and pulled tight by a cascading part such as a thread or a string, the original framework can be recovered completely accurately (integration). When the cascading part is released again, the framework will be decomposed immediately. In this way, a framework structure that can be easily decomposed and re-composed instantly can be provided. Because the framework is divided into a plurality of segments, the article in the decomposed state can be arbitrarily accommodated into a smallest volume to be carried on or handled conveniently. Additionally, when being pulled tight by a tenacious cascading part such as a thread or a string, the framework composed of the segments will only become curved under the action of an external force without being fractured or collapsed, and once the external force is reduced or removed, the framework will restore its original shape. This imparts to the framework a desired anti-fracture property which is impossible for general stiff structures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1D are exemplary views illustrating the principle of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 2A-2F are schematic views illustrating an umbrella having the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A-3B are schematic views of innovative shape umbrellas of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 4A-4B is a schematic view of the optimal umbrella post of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A-5B are schematic and analytic views of tents of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIG. 5C is a partial schematic view of the solid block of the tent of the Calculus structure shown in FIG. 5B of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a composite tent structure of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 7A-7C are schematic and analytic views of household furniture of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 8A-8C are schematic and analytic views of outdoor furniture of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 9A-9C are schematic and analytic views of combined house structures of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic and analytic view of a wind-resistant lamp pole of the Calculus structure of the present invention;

FIGS. 11A-11B are schematic structural views of a start-end unit component of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a schematic view of a guiding corner of an embedding construction of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic view of a tail-end blocking plate of which the position is adjustable according to the present invention;

FIGS. 14A-14B are schematic views of a variant of the unit component of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a schematic view of a flat unit component and a cascading part of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a simulation view illustrating that the Calculus structure of the present invention becomes curved without fracture under the action of an external force and then recovers the original shape when the external force is removed;

FIGS. 17A-17B are schematic views illustrating supporting structures at two ends when the Calculus structure of the present invention is used for a long-distance suspended framework;

FIG. 17C are partial schematic views of the common integral structure shown in FIG. 17B; and

FIGS. 18A-18D are schematic views illustrating solving the sagging issue by adapting a second cascading part and/or a unit components with more than one bores.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in FIG. 1A, a large straight structure may be formed by cascading a plurality of segments together and pulling them tight. However, when a right-angle corner is needed in the structure, simply adding a right-angle structure as shown in FIG. 1B and then pulling the segments tight cannot achieve the purpose of getting a right-angle corner. If, in this case, constructions capable of being embedded into or embedded by adjacent segments are disposed at two ends of the right-angle structure (e.g., as indicated by the small circles in FIG. 1C; or for the embedded state, as shown in FIG. 1D) and then the cascaded segments are pulled tight, a large structure having a right-angle curve therein can be obtained as desired (as shown in FIG. 1C). The key reason lies in that, the additional embedding constructions lead to a structure of a very high strength when being embedded into or embedded by the adjacent segments and pulled tight together, so the desired shaped can be obtained owing to the support of the high-strength structure. On the basis of this principle, a plurality of segments in combination with possibly different curved or interlaced structures having embedding constructions can be cascaded together and pulled tight to form frameworks of various kinds of articles, and this is just the principle and basic implementations of the Calculus structure of the present invention.

Herein, the segments are called unit components 101 (as shown in FIGS. 1A-1D), the curved or interlaced structures having embedding constructions 103 (See remarks*) are called joint components 102, the part cascading these components together is called the cascading part 104, an end of the cascading part that is used to be blocked by a blocking part 107 at the beginning of the pulling process is called the start end 105, and a tail end of the cascading part is called the tail end 106. (Remarks*: for ease of description, implementations in which each joint component 102 has an embedding construction 103 or variant implementations thereof will be taken as examples in the following descriptions of embodiments, but as well be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, the embedding construction 103 of the joint component 102 may be replaced by an embedded construction having a large opening as shown in FIG. 1D).

Numerous practical applications can be derived from such a simple principle and method. Of course, there may be different specific problems to be overcome in different situations, or there may be common problems to be overcome. Hereinbelow, details of the implementations will be discussed with reference to several possible applications that might be commonly adopted, and a conclusion will be made for all the common problems and other matters.

I. SHELTERS

Shelters are articles to which the Calculus structure of the present invention is the most applicable, and now several kinds of representative articles will be discussed.

1. Umbrellas

As one of the necessities for people's daily life, the umbrella construction has remained unchanged for hundreds of years, but now it might be expected to be changed due to the present invention. Recently, it happened that a Europe specialist has developed a kind of umbrella that can be folded reversely, but the construction thereof is too complex and too costly to be popularized. In contrast, with the Calculus structure of the present invention, a plurality of sets of umbrella framework unit components 201 (as shown in FIG. 2B) with one umbrella framework elbow tube 202 having an embedding construction 203 being disposed in each set are cascaded by a string 204, the start end 205 of the string is tied, and then the sets of umbrella framework unit components 201 are distributed radially and then pulled down via an umbrella post top joint component 209 and further via another set of umbrella post unit components 210 that are thicker and having the embedding construction 203, and finally, via the end of the handle joint component 211. When the string 204 is pulled tight, the sets of umbrella framework unit components 201 in the radial distribution are tensioned into an umbrella framework to spread the umbrella fabric, the central umbrella post unit components 210 that are thicker and have an embedding construction 203 are straightly stretched into an umbrella post. By fixing the tail end 206 of the tensioned string into a slit 212 of the handle joint component 211 (as shown in FIG. 2D), a complete umbrella is formed (as shown in FIG. 2A).

In this embodiment, the umbrella framework unit components 201 and the umbrella post unit components 210 correspond to the aforesaid unit components 101, the umbrella framework elbow tubes 202, the umbrella post joint components 209 and the handle joint component 211 correspond to the aforesaid joint component 102, the embedding construction 203 correspond to the aforesaid embedding construction 103, the string 204 corresponds to the aforesaid cascading part 104, the start end 205 of the string corresponds to the aforesaid start end 105, and the tail end 206 of the string corresponds to the aforesaid tail end 106.

Referring back to FIGS. 2C-2D, it shall be noted that the slit 212 of the joint component 211 must be of the structure shown in FIG. 2D but not the simple and intuitive structure shown in FIG. 2C because: for the structure shown in FIG. 2C, when the tail end 206 of the string is drawn out of the handle joint component 211 and then plugged back for fixation, the length of the tail end 206 of the string that is pulled tight outside would be shortened (please note the variation in position of the point p in FIG. 2C), which means that the string 204 is somewhat released to make it impossible to completely tighten the whole umbrella; and for the structure shown in FIG. 2D, after the string has been drawn out of the handle joint component 211, the string must be continuously drawn in order to be fixed (see the arrow direction in FIG. 2D), so the length of the string that has been drawn out will not be retracted back. Of course, the way to fix the tail end is not limited to this, and other ways will be discussed later. However, other applications described hereinafter will all adopt the same way as the structure shown in FIG. 2D.

When the umbrella is not used, the whole umbrella including the umbrella post can be decomposed instantly by simply releasing the tail end 206 of the string from the slit 212 (the umbrella post is not required to be made in this way, but may be made in other better ways as described later). At this point, the whole umbrella becomes soft (as shown in FIG. 2E) just like a piece of large umbrella fabric. Then, the umbrella is turned down so that the rain water flows downward into the interior side of the fabric (i.e., the exterior of the fabric when the umbrella is opened) without wetting the hands and so that the umbrella can be gathered into a very small volume to be accommodated.

Supplemental Discussion:

(1) If the Calculus structure of the present invention is used to form a vertical section (e.g., the umbrella post in this example), then it is preferable that the unit component comprises an embedding construction to ensure upright standing of the vertical section under the action of an external force unless the section is suspended (e.g., the section that is located at the start end of the umbrella framework and close to be vertical as shown in FIG. 2B) or there is no additional load thereon. If there is any load thereon, then there must be an embedding construction to make the section less liable to deformation no matter whether the section is horizontal or vertical.

(2) There shall be sufficient space at an inner side of the last component (the handle joint component 211 in this example) before the tail end to allow the tail-end blocking part 107 (corresponding to the tie 207 of the tail end of the string in this example, as shown in FIGS. 2C-2D) to pass therethrough; and a shape convenient to be held by the hand shall be provided at the outer side of the last component, e.g., a horizontal handle is provided in this example so that when the user is pulling tight or releasing the umbrella by one hand, the other hand can be supported by the horizontal handle.

(3) The unit components 101 having an embedding construction 103 and the last component having a fixing device before the tail end 106 may be considered as joint components 102.

Discussion of Various Possibilities

a. Different Umbrella Surfaces

With the Calculus structure of the present invention, the umbrella no longer must be arc-shaped, but may have a completely new shape formed of straight lines, arbitrarily bent angles or curves in combination, for example, the block-like umbrella shown in FIG. 2A, a Minion umbrella formed of several appropriately bent unit components 301 (corresponding to the aforesaid unit components 101, which may have an embedding construction 103) plus one curve-to-straight joint component as shown in FIG. 3A, a Mickey-shaped umbrella formed of an inverted V-shaped joint component 302 (corresponding to the aforesaid joint component 102) as shown in FIG. 3B, or the like. (Remarks: the Minion and Mickey Copyrights are owned by the original creators, and are set forth herein only as exemplary examples for describing functional properties.)

b. Different Umbrella Posts

Because many people who have been accustomed to use of conventional umbrellas may not be accustomed to use of umbrellas of which the middle umbrella post will become decomposed when the umbrella is accommodated, the umbrella post may not adopt the Calculus structure but may be a conventional umbrella post having a fixed length or being telescoped in stages. In this case, the umbrella fabric of the umbrella adopting the Calculus structure is completely soft when being accommodated, so it is unnecessary for the umbrella post to be made as long as the conventional ones (the conventional umbrella post is made long to prevent the handle from being unaccessible as being covered by the umbrella fabric). Therefore, even when a conventional umbrella post is adopted, the length of the umbrella post can be made shorter. The unique mechanism of the umbrella of the Calculus structure results in an operation sequence which is opposite to the mechanism of the conventional umbrellas: the umbrella of the Calculus structure is opened by being pulled down, and closed by being released upwards. Considering this, the umbrella post of the Calculus structure is preferably telescoped in stages (as shown in FIGS. 4A-4B). As long as the length of the string 404 inside the umbrella post is just equal to the length required to completely open the umbrella fabric when the umbrella post is fully stretched (as shown in FIG. 4B, the tail end is fixed at the bottom of the umbrella post), the umbrella will be opened when the umbrella post component 401 that is telescoped in stages is pulled to the end (as shown in FIG. 4B); and the umbrella is released back when the umbrella post component 401 that is telescoped in stages is retracted back (as shown in FIG. 4A). Such operations are not only intuitive, but also eliminate the troubles of fixing the tail end.

c. Different Ways of Fixing the Tail End

For other umbrella post implementations than the umbrella post that can be telescoped in stages, how the tail end 206 of the string is fixed properly is critical to feasibility of the Calculus structure. In principle, any way or device that can prevent loose of the string 204 that has been pulled tight can be adopted:

(1) The simplest way is as shown in FIG. 2D, where a slit 212 is formed on the last component (i.e., the handle joint component 211 in this example) so that the tail end 206 of the string can be plugged into the slit 212 and clamped therein, and then a blocking tie 207 (corresponding to the aforesaid blocking part 107) is provided at the tail end 206 of the string to block releasing and sliding of the cascading string 204 (corresponding to the aforesaid cascading part 104). It shall be noted that, a material 208 having both elasticity and the fictional property like the rubber may be filled in the walls of the slit 213 (as shown in FIG. 2D) to make the slit 212 narrower so that the tail end 206 of the string cannot escape after being plugged therein. This can increase the fixing stability of the tail end 206 of the string and, meanwhile, improve the hand feeling of the operation. Additionally, as shown in FIG. 2F, the extreme corner of the slit 212 may be formed to be arc-shaped so that it is unnecessary to pull the tail end 206 a little more to bypass the extreme corner although elastic gaskets 209 which is not too soft (e.g., rubber) can be additionally provided in the framework to provide a buffering effect in the process of pulling tight so that the tail end 206 can be pulled out a little more for convenience purpose and the overall structure will not become loose when the tail end 206 is released back.

(2) For those people who still hold on to some conventional ways to operate the umbrella, the tail end 206 of the string may be tied twice to form a circle therebetween and then an elastic protrusion that can be pressed down is designed so that the circle is hooked to the protrusion when the protrusion is not pressed down. Then, when the umbrella is opened, the tail end 206 of the string is pulled tight to such an extent that the circle is hooked by the protrusion, and when the umbrella is to be closed, the protrusion is pressed down to release the tail end 206 of the string to have the umbrella decomposed. Thus, the umbrella can be opened and closed just like a conventional umbrella.

(3) If the slit 212 on the joint component 211 is not appreciated, a circle may be formed through tying the tail end 206 of the string as in the previous example so that when the string is pulled tight, the circle is just drawn out of the handle joint component 211 and then a small strip is inserted through the circle to fix the tail end 206 of the string, and the small strip may be tied by a short string to the handle joint component 211 for convenience of use.

(4) For further improvement on auto-operations of the umbrella, reef structures identical to an automatic tape measure can be used. Specifically, the reef structure is installed in the handle joint component 211 and joined with the tail end 206 of the string. A button may be provided for the reef structure so that the reef structure is retracted once the button is pressed. Thus, the umbrella can be opened by pressing down the button to pull tight and expand the framework. While closing the umbrella, it requires applying a little force to extend the reef structure into a pulled state to loose the whole framework. When the umbrella is to be opened again, the button is pressed down to automatically open the umbrella, and so on. This provides a feeling of a conventional automatic umbrella.

Advantages:

(1) Almost all articles adopting the Calculus structure of the present invention have the advantages of being able to be accommodated quickly and conveniently, having a small volume and a light weight, and being easy to be carried or handled, and being able to be assembled quickly and conveniently, so this will not be further described in other application unless it is to be emphasized. The umbrella of this example has the advantages of being able to be kneaded arbitrarily when the frame is released, having a very small volume and a very light weight, and being easy to be carried about (it is even possible to produce a pocket umbrella that can be put into a pocket of the clothes).

(2) It is possibly, in history, the first umbrella having nothing around the umbrella post when the umbrella is opened, so the available space inside the umbrella is much larger than conventional umbrellas and the umbrella post can be shortened remarkably.

(3) It is simple in structure, and will almost never fail except for possible wear of the string, so generation of wastes is reduced. Even if it fails, it is possible to be repaired by the user himself.

(4) The umbrella can be made of completely nonmetal materials and become safer to use.

(5) Thanks to the aforesaid anti-fracture property of the Calculus structure, the umbrella provides an excellent wind-resistant capability and eliminates the risk of outward flaring or disintegration of the umbrella surface.

(6) When the umbrella is closed, the dry portion will face outwards to prevent wetting of the user's body or clothes.

(7) The closed umbrella that becomes softy can be passed through a small gap, so it is convenient to open and close the umbrella indoors or within a car to prevent exposing the user to the rain or the sunlight.

(8) The manufacturing cost of the umbrella is comparatively low.

(9) The umbrella surface may be formed into various shapes, and a square umbrella outperforms a conventional arc-shaped umbrella in terms of the rain sheltering performance.

Disadvantages:

(1) The umbrella fabric becomes softy when the umbrella is closed, and users who have been accustomed to the conventional umbrellas might be not accustomed to this at the beginning particularly when the umbrella post is also made of a Calculus structure.

(2) All structures except for the umbrella fabric are made of lightweight plastic materials, which is unfavorable for environmental protection. However, fortunately, the umbrella is less liable to damage, which can reduce production of inorganic wastes.

2. Tents

Tents adopting the Calculus structure of the present invention can easily be made to be square like a house (as shown in FIGS. 5A-5B) without being limited to the common arc shape or demanding complicated supports to form a square space. And the tents can be made to an arbitrary height to provide a wider and more comfortable space inside.

Unlike the umbrella, no post is used in the tent, so the structure is even simpler. The cascading strings (correspond to the cascading parts) can be pulled or released directly from the top or routed along two crossed paths to two respective tail ends to fix the whole tent framework at the post feet outside the tent (as shown in FIG. 5B). When operated from the top, the cascading strings can be pulled from the outside or from the inside, and it is probably more convenient from the outside, but water-proof treatment needs to be additionally provided. All these suggest the routes of the cascading parts are not unique, and different routes provide different advantages. As shown in FIG. 5A, for a tent operated from the top, four cascading strings go upwards from four top operated tent start ends 505 respectively and gather in one to terminate as top operated tent tail end 506 on the top (see the arrow directions alongside the framework of FIG. 5A); and in FIG. 5B, for a tent operated from two post feet at the bottom, two cascading strings go upwards from two bottom operated tent start ends 515 and then cross with each other on the top and go downwards to terminate at two individual bottom operated tent tail ends 516 through respective two post feet at the bottom (see the arrow directions alongside the framework of FIG. 5B). The tent shown in FIG. 5A is exactly the reproduction of the umbrella mode without a post, while the tent shown in FIG. 5B is closer to the cascade of furniture pieces or houses to be discussed later. Please note that the way the tail end is fixed in the tents shown in FIGS. 5A-5B is basically as same as the umbrella mode shown in FIG. 2D. The only difference between them is that one is fixed inside on the roof and the other is fixed outside at the post foot. And the post foot mode will be continuously used in the furniture or house to be discussed later, so it will not be further described therein. Furthermore in the post foot mode, the strength of the solid block shown in FIG. 5C for blocking the slit is essential, and particularly in the furniture or house to be discussed later, it will determine the feasibility and stable existence of the whole structure.

In this embodiment, the top operated tent start ends 505 and the bottom operated tent start ends 515 correspond to the aforesaid start end 105, and the top operated tent tail ends 506 and the bottom operated tent tail ends 516 correspond to the aforesaid tail end 106.

By adopting the Calculus structure of the present invention in a tent, it takes huge advantage that a tent of composite forms for additional functions or purposes can be created by simply one framework and one operation (as shown in FIG. 6), and this can significantly simplify the conventional products currently on the market. A tent in any kind of form is substantially with the same structure as the aforesaid umbrella except that, the more complex the shape is, the more the joint components required will be (as shown in FIG. 6, only the additional routes of the cascading parts and the additional joint components are depicted as compared to FIGS. 5A-5B). (Remarks: if all unit components and joint components were depicted in the illustration of the Calculus structure, the depiction would be as complex as FIGS. 5A-5B, so for purpose of simplicity and to focus on the differences, only the routes and directions of the cascading part, which represent the framework of the whole Calculus structure, as well as the respective special joint components are depicted in FIG. 6 and subsequent drawings.)

Advantages:

(1) The structure becomes significantly simpler and more lightweight.

(2) Both the decomposing process and the composing process require only a single operation (at most two operations), and can be accomplished easier and more quickly.

(3) The tent can be easily formed into a square shape having a wider interior space, and can also be formed into any desired shape by changing the joint components at the corners.

(4) Only one framework is required for a composite tent.

(5) The cost is likely to be lower.

Disadvantages:

(1) If the unit components and the joint components are made of plastic, care shall be taken to keep the tent from stress during the storage, and otherwise, the plastic components could be broken to inhibit the normal shaping during the erection.

3. Sun shades or sun shelters, room dividers in exhibition places, marquees of circus troupes, yurts or the like.

The sun shades are similar in structure to the umbrella except that they have a much larger size and the umbrella post shall extend to the ground; the sun shelters, which are shaped like a half of a tent without the four sidewalls, also have the similar constructions. In terms of the advantages and disadvantages, the sun shades conventionally having a large volume can now be carried on the car during the touring due to the significantly reduced accommodation volume (especially the umbrella post that can be instantly shrunk significantly); the sun shelters are often arranged in rows on the beach or in large-scale activities, and by adopting the Calculus structure of the present invention, both the decomposing and composing require only one action of pulling or releasing, and this will significantly reduce the time to compose and, after use, decompose the sun shelters to save a large amount of labor and time costs. For the room dividers in the exhibition places, adopting the Calculus structure of the present invention can also significantly reduce the time to compose and, after use, decompose the room dividers.

The marquees of circus troupes and the yurts are also decomposed and composed frequently, and adopting the Calculus structure will greatly save the time and the labor, bring about more conveniences and ease the burden in the migrating process, and especially, will greatly improve the safety of the top structure of the marquees of circus troupes.

4. Walking Sticks and Camera Tripods

These are another two examples possibly to utilize the Calculus structure of the present invention. The implementations of both are easy. Somehow the resulting advantages over the conventional ones are not so significant and obvious.

II. FURNITURE

1. Indoor (Household) Furniture

Furniture to which the framework is applicable is nothing but desks, chairs, beds, cabinets or the like. Distinct from the aforesaid shelters, most of household furniture is of a square structure and is required to bear different loads. As being observed, the common element structure among the desks, chairs and cabinets is a framework of a four-legged desk. Based on the fact, by cascading unit components and joint components into a basic framework module of a four-legged desk in the first place then stacking in vertical or horizontal direction, most of various kinds of household furniture pieces can be obtained.

It is definitely not hard to assemble the frameworks of various kinds of household furniture pieces using the furniture unit components 701 and the furniture joint components 702, while to cascade all these components together using furniture cascading parts 704, and fixing the tail ends is another story. It is not as simple as the way we did in the shelters described above because the furniture pieces are square interlaced structures which will not allow just a single tail end to terminate all the cascading parts. Thus, the key point is how to plan the route of the furniture cascading parts 704 so that the number of the tail ends would be minimized and each tail end would bear even loads to each other to facilitate the pulling and releasing operations thereafter. After researching, we found an optimal cascading part route module for the aforesaid common element structure of a four-legged desk as shown in FIG. 7A (the solid lines and the dashed lines indicate different furniture cascading parts in the same framework and the arrows at the end of each line indicate the furniture tail end 706 and the routing direction of each furniture cascading part). Based on this optimal route module, a chair with armrests (as shown in FIG. 7B) and a framework of a multi-layered cabinet (as shown in FIG. 7C) can be obtained through vertical stacking and a bed framework can be obtained through horizontal stacking. That is, almost all furniture pieces can be assembled in this way. It shall be particularly noted that, each part of the frame itself that is formed by this kind of basic module structure has to bear a force in practical use, so it is preferable that all the furniture unit components 701 comprise an embedding construction, and material with an appropriate strength must be chosen depending on the load level (this also applies to the furniture joint components 702) to ensure the load-bearing capability of the assembled furniture.

In this embodiment, the furniture unit components 701 correspond to the aforesaid unit components 101, the furniture joint components 702 correspond to the aforesaid joint components 102, the furniture cascading parts 704 correspond to the aforesaid cascading part 104, and the tail ends 706 of the furniture cascading parts correspond to the aforesaid tail end 106.

So far, only the framework has been obtained, and next, how planar components are added on the framework composed of the Calculus structure of the present invention will be described. The planar components may be divided into soft ones and hard ones depending on their properties.

a. For chairs and beds on which the human body directly sits or lies, soft planar components 721 such as cloth may be directly used. Of course, it may also be that a hard planar component 722 is firstly placed on a chair or a bed and then a soft mattress is placed thereon. For the way to place the soft planar component 721, reference may be made to the lower right corner of FIG. 8A.

b. For desks and cabinets on which articles will be placed, hard planar components 722 are appropriately used. The hard planar components 722 may be fabricated to have an edge form that is correspondingly embedded into or by the furniture unit components 701 (please see the upper right view in FIG. 8A). The embedding may be two-side embedding or four-side embedding (as shown in FIG. 8C), or a threaded hole s formed at an appropriate corresponding position to be locked with the embedded hard planar components 722 so that the joint is made more secure. This also applies to the aforesaid chairs and beds where hard planar components 722 are to be placed firstly. If a cabinet is desired to be made closed, then an enclosure shall be additionally fabricated in the similar concept. However, unless the enclosure is formed to be foldable or a soft planar component 721 is adopted directly, this large enclosure piece may degrade the value of the detachable structure.

2. Outdoor Furniture (for Camping Use)

The camping use furniture is quite same as those of household furniture except the cabinets. However, what is different is that the camping use furniture is for temporary purpose that it focuses more on the conveniences in use. Specifically, the desks and chairs need not be made large, and need not to support too many and too heavy things thereon, so they can be made to have a low structural strength, and preferably, have a light weight and a small accommodation volume and are convenient to be carried on, composed and decomposed. In consideration of this, all the corresponding household furniture may be simplified by adopting the X structure which is the most commonly used in conventional foldable furniture as shown in FIGS. 8A-8B, in which case the route of the furniture cascading part 704 becomes further simpler (the arrow direction shown in FIGS. 8A-8B). Except for the desk surface with which a hard planar component 722 is used (the upper right view in FIG. 8A), the chair surface (the lower right view in FIG. 8A) and the bed surface (as shown in FIG. 8B) may both be used with a soft planar component 721. For the soft planar component 721, generally the canvas which is durable and provides sufficient supporting strength is the most suitable. If a more comfortable chair is desired, then the X structure may be used to modify the household chair to simplify the structure. For the hard planar component 722 of a large area for desk use, a foldable design may be adopted for good portability.

3. Furniture LEGO

A set of various unit components, joint components, cascading strings and planar components with many different possibly required specifications can be offered to the customers to assemble themselves the furniture pieces they wish to have. That makes some furniture kind version LEGO. And it could be very useful and joyful.

Supplemental Discussion:

For the last joint component of chairs or beds that should carry the people's weight, high-strength metal materials with a certain thickness shall be chosen to increase the durability of the large stress generated from the fixing of the tail end.

Advantages:

(1) The furniture can be shipped in a package of a significantly reduced volume and, hopefully, a reduced weight too.

(2) The furniture is unnecessary to be formed into a fixed size, but may be optionally adjusted in size.

(3) A same structure can provide diversified products.

(4) The furniture is suitable for use by boarder students because it could be much cheaper than usual household furniture, convenient to move, and reassembled quickly. It is also very suitable for borrowing from each other.

(5) It is applicable even in a small house space for the convenience of being able to be quickly decomposed and replaced anytime into desired furniture for flexible use of the space.

Disadvantages:

(1) It is not recommended to apply the Calculus structure to household furniture that shall bear the people's weight such as chairs and beds because there is the concern of safety unless each component of the whole structure is made sufficiently strong. For camping use furniture pieces, they may be made relatively low with a smaller volume, so the safety level is relatively higher.

III. COMBINED HOUSES

Totally different from what described above, combined houses for temporary use at building sites or in disaster areas shall bear much higher loads. In such cases, the components of the calculus structures of the present invention shall of course be made of metal materials and all the building unit components have to comprise an embedding construction, except that the principle of combining the components remains the same (as shown in FIGS. 9A-9C). In principle, the building joint components 902 and routes of the building cascading parts 904 are identical to those of the furniture, and the basic structure may be used as a module (as shown in FIG. 9A) for horizontal extension to form a whole building (as shown in FIG. 9B), or for vertical extension, with a fool slab being placed thereon, to form two-story building (as shown in FIG. 9C). Steel cables may be used as the building cascading parts 904 instead to improve the endurance and the safety. The walls and roofs are preferably made of hard materials (actually soft materials may be used, but they tend to produce noises when being blown by the wind). The way to join the components may be the same as that of furniture, but the locking fixation shall be used. It shall be further noted that, the last building joint component 902 at the tail end 906 of each building cascading part shall be made of a high-strength material having special strength and thickness to improve the endurance of this component against the large stress caused by the tail end that is pulled tight.

In this embodiment, the building unit components correspond to the unit components 101, the building joint components 902 correspond to the joint components 102, the building cascading parts 904 correspond to the cascading part 104, and the tail ends 906 of the building cascading parts correspond to the tail end 106.

Advantages:

(1) The labor and time to compose and decompose the combined house can be significantly reduced to save the cost.

(2) Because the framework can be dispersed, the accommodation volume is smaller than conventional combined houses and more combined houses can be shipped at a time to save the transportation time and cost.

(3) The combined house has an extremely high fracture resistance and is safer to use as long as the components for fixing the tail ends of the building cascading parts are securely joined to the ground and the segmented framework is passed through and supported by bendable and strong cables.

IV. CEILINGS OF HALL OR DOME-LIKE BUILDINGS

For buildings having a ceiling such as sports buildings, sky domes, auditoriums, churches or the like may adopt the Calculus structure of the present invention as a framework of the ceiling. However, the length limit of the suspended framework across the two ends is determined by the load that can be borne by the curved ceiling joint components 172 themselves and the portions that are vertically embedded by the curved ceiling joint components 172 (as shown in FIG. 17A), so the Calculus structure may be also used together with the conventional structure by using a common integral structure 179 (instead of a Calculus structure) directly as the two vertical portions at the two ends and cascading the Calculus structure therebetween (as shown in FIG. 17B) to increase the stability. Additionally, the curved ceiling joint components 172 at the two ends may be made to have a larger outer diameter and a larger wall thickness than the ceiling unit components 171 cascaded therebetween to increase the suspension length limit that can be supported. Also, because the framework needs not to be decomposed once being assembled, the cascading parts can be tied permanently after being pulled tight and this makes the fixing easier. Of course, the problem of relaxation and aging of the ceiling cascading parts 174 after a long time of service shall be taken into account.

The Calculus structure will provide many benefits to this application, among which the greatest benefit over the conventional structure is the high safety. In the ceiling framework adopting the Calculus structure of the present invention, parts other than the vertical supporting sections at the two ends can become significantly lightweight without the need of using heavy and stiff metal parts as supports, so possibly lightweight materials such as plastic or even high-density Styrofoam of a sufficient thickness can provide sufficient strength when being pulled tight by strings.

Take a plurality of unit components 101 and a cascading part 104 shown in FIG. 16 as an example. Because the combination of the unit components 101 and the cascading part 104 may have the property of being curved under the action of an external force and restore its original shape once the external force is removed, applying the combination to the aforesaid ceiling can greatly improve the resistance to strong winds which is often the biggest problem with the ceilings; also users need not worry about collapse of the ceiling due to earthquakes or fires because even if the ceiling collapses, the framework will be dispersed in segments and the framework made of nonmetal materials will not cause serious hurts. Needless to say, the greatly reduced production cost and the quick construction speed are also great benefits provided by the Calculus structure of the present invention. However, because the building structure will be permanently used, the problem of compensation for the gradual relaxation of the ceiling cascading parts 174 after a long time of service shall be taken into account, and as a possible solution, a gear-type winder may be disposed at the fixing end of each of the cascading parts. Besides, the tail end 176 of the ceiling cascading parts can also be pulled to the outside of the two vertical portions at the two ends (as shown in FIG. 17C) for the convenience of construction and maintenance.

In this embodiment, the ceiling unit components 171 correspond to the aforesaid unit components 101, the ceiling joint components 172 correspond to the aforesaid joint components 102, and the ceiling cascading parts 174 correspond to the aforesaid cascading part 104.

V. WIND-RESISTANT LIGHT POLES AND TRANSMISSION POLES

As shown in FIG. 10, the light pole formed of the Calculus structure of the present invention has a pole body comprised of discontinuous segments that are supported by a tenacious cable. When being attacked by strong winds, the light pole will become curved to provide a buffering effect and to reduce the wind resistance at the same time so that it will not be blown down by the wind unless the cable is broken. If a spring is additionally provided at the bottom to connect with the cable, a restoring force can be obtained to improve the resistance to the wind. Even if the pole eventually falls down due to wind or other causes, the pole can be reassembled by simply replacing those damaged unit components 1001 without having to replace the whole pole. The pole body unit components 1001 made of plastic or even thick Styrofoam materials, which have much lighter weight than cement and metal materials, can still provide a sufficient support force. And once the pole is impacted by a vehicle, the pole will collapse directly without generating reaction force to minimize the hurt to the driver and the vehicle (since the material of the pole itself is light weighted that the falling parts will not cause serious damage). Therefore, this will greatly improve the security of the public facilities.

In this embodiment, the pole body unit components 1001 correspond to the unit component 101, the pole body embedding construction 1003 corresponds to the embedding construction 103, and the pole body cascading parts 1004 corresponds to the cascading part 104.

It shall be noted that, unless the pole bears no load, the unit components assembling the pole shall all comprise an embedding construction preferably in an oblong form (as shown in FIG. 10) so that the pole body tends to be simply curved without being directly fractured under the action of the wind force; and if no special load to be borne thereon (e.g., power transmission poles without a transformer box), the embedding construction may be omitted from the unit components to provide even a better wind-resistant effect, just as the aforesaid anti-fracture property of the Calculus structure implies, and the curved pole body will automatically restore its original shape once the external force is removed.

VI. LONG RESCUE ROD, CARRY-ON LONG STICK, AND FISHING ROD

When the rescuer is unable to successfully project a cord to the rescuee located at a far distance, the Calculus structure of the present invention can be used. Specifically, a string of unit components are put on the rescue cord until the total length of the unit components becomes equal to the distance between the rescuer and the rescuee, and then the unit components are pulled tight to become a stiff and long rod that can reach the rescuee to successfully deliver the rescue cord. In this way, the rescue can be conducted safely, quickly and successfully, and ensure the safety of both the rescuer and the rescuee. Also, carry-on long rods may be formed of this structure, in which case the long rod can be wound like a cord when being carried on in the wild, and can be pulled tight into a long rod at any time if necessary. The fishing rod is of something special because it has to bear a large pulling force, so a research may be made on whether the pulling string on the rod body can be integrated with the fishing line.

VII. MECHANICAL METAL ARTICLES

Some portable foldable mechanical articles, the representative of which is the foldable bicycle, may adopt the Calculus structure of the present invention (in which case steel cables or metal chains must be used as the cascading parts), mainly in the framework portion in the middle of the bicycle body with the tail end being fixed under the seat. However, there is a concern that the appearance of the article is likely to be damaged during the accommodation, so the practicability is not high. If further researches are made, this may also become an option for portable articles that need detachment.

VIII. LEGO IN THE REAL WORLD

As described above in the Furniture section, actually a set of appropriate materials, component sizes and possible joint component shapes that are most commonly used may be designed for each application field so that the user can assemble the components to create an article of their own. That would be exactly like LEGO building blocks in the real world.

IX. COMPREHENSIVE CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

1. Almost all framework articles can be formed of the Calculus structure of the present invention, from interior articles to exterior ones and from small articles such as umbrellas to huge ones like ceilings of sky domes, let alone those having not been conceived currently. However, not all kinds of articles are suited to be comprised of this structure, and only some kinds of articles (e.g., shelters with a low load thereon) can gain significant benefits from this structure.

2. The diameter, the length, the material strength and the wall thickness of the unit components 101 depend on the load-bearing requirements. If the conditions allow, the smaller the diameter of the unit component 101 is and the lighter its weight is, the higher the application value of the Calculus structure of the present invention will be since both the accommodation volume and the weight will become as small as they can be.

3. The strength of the joint components 102 and the device for fixing the tail end 106 as well as whether the tail end 106 can still pull the whole structure to be very tight after being fixed will determine the feasibility and stability of the article formed of the Calculus structure of the present invention.

4. Huge and long frameworks can be easily formed by using the Calculus structure of the present invention. It is difficult to form such huge and long frameworks integrally. But with the Calculus structure of the present invention, segments are firstly produced and then cascaded. The framework can be made to any length in this way theoretically. Somehow in the real world, the framework would be inevitably partially sagged due to the weight of the long string of unit components 101 itself. However, this could be justified by appropriately increasing the number of unit components 101 comprising an embedding (or embedded) construction 103 or in an alternative way that will be discussed later in the issue #10 of this section.

5. A blocking part 107 (usually a tie of the cascading part) is provided at the start end 105 of the cascading part 104. In consideration of the aesthetic appearance, this end is often disposed on the ground. The opening of the first unit component 101 at the start end may be in the form of a funnel or a goblet of which the diameter decreases in steps (as shown in FIGS. 11A-11B). The opening is sufficient to completely cover the blocking part 107 so that the blocking part 107 is concealed therein without affecting the aesthetic appearance or protruding from the ground.

6. The difference between the diameter of the cascading part 104 and the inner diameter of the components shall not be too large, and the embedding construction 103 is preferably provided with a guiding corner 123 (as indicated by the circle in FIG. 12) to avoid the embedding construction from being stuck to prevent successful embedding when the cascading part 104 is pulled tight.

7. When the tail end is to be pulled tight and fixed, it shall be firstly pulled out of the bottom end of the slit 212 in order to plug the tail end into the slit 212 and use the blocking part 107/207 to block it from sliding out of position (as shown in FIG. 2D). The bottom end of the slit (as indicated by the circle in FIG. 2D) has a right-angle corner, so the tail end 206 must be pulled out a little more to bypass the right-angle corner. Then when the tail end has been plugged into the slit 212 and is then released from the hand, a small length of the tail end will be retracted back. This makes the whole Calculus structure not sufficiently tight and, thus, not sufficiently stable. There are three ways to solve this problem:

(1) As indicated by the circle in FIG. 2D, the bottom end corner of the slit 212 is formed into a round corner so that the length exposed outside will remain unchanged during the processes of pulling, plugging and releasing the tail end.

(2) Elastic gaskets such as rubber are disposed in the unit components 101 near critical joint components 102 which experience substantial force in the whole structure (the gaskets cannot be disposed in the joint components directly because of the embedding construction thereof) so that the released length of the tail end is offset by the elastic gaskets. If all structural components have an embedding construction, then the only solution is to fabricate special components comprising an embedding construction made of an elastic material (the material shall not be too softy), or to fix the tail end by the way shown in FIG. 2C.

(3) To ensure the tightness of the whole structure after the tail end 106 is fixed, the position of the blocking part may be adjusted after the tail end 106 has been plugged in. By use of the blocking plate 130 of a shape shown in FIG. 13, the tail end is wound as shown to obtain a blocking part 107 whose position is adjustable.

8. Because articles formed of the Calculus structure of the present invention tend to present a monotonous or even inaesthetic appearance, the colors or shapes of the unit components 101 and the joint components 102 may be changed to improve the variations and aesthetic appearance of the articles (as shown in FIGS. 14A-14B).

9. The unit components and the joint components are not necessarily of a round pipe form, but may also be a square flat form as shown in FIG. 15, in which case a flat cascading part will be used.

10. From the experiments we can see for a horizontal string of tightly cascaded unit components 101 having no embedding or embedded construction 103 it will inevitably tend to partially sag due to its own weight, especially at its suspended end as in the aforesaid umbrella or the long rescue rod embodiments or in its middle portion as in the aforesaid ceiling framework of a dome like building, when each unit component 101 is especially short and slim (as shown in FIG. 18A as a magnified figure) or the total length of the whole cascaded structure is too long (as shown in FIG. 18C). Except using unit components 101 having an embedding or embedded construction 103 to solve this issue, a second cascading part 184 could be adapted to help lifting the sagging portion and make it even easier to keep the cascaded structure stably horizontal. The unit components 181 with an additional bore are thus needed to let the second cascading part 184 pass through. As shown in FIG. 18B for the very short and slim unit component issue, twin-tube like unit components 181 with two bores up and down (as indicated by the right small circle of FIG. 18B) are adapted so the original cascading part 104 can pass through the bottom bore firstly then reverse into the upper bore at the start end 105 (as indicated by the left small circle of FIG. 18B) to let the cascading part 104 provide the additional support for keeping the string of the cascaded unit components 181 perfectly horizontal when the cascading part 104 is pulled tight. The very short and slim unit components are something essential to make pocket umbrella become possible. As shown in FIG. 18D for the very long string of general sized unit components issue, at least two unit components 181 with an additional sub-bore on the top (as indicated by the small circle of FIG. 18D) are cascaded right in the middle of the whole string of the unit components 101 to let two second cascading parts 184 be blocked and pass through the two sub-bores respectively in reverse directions to be fixed at two corresponding tail ends 186. More than two sub-bored unit components 181 can be cascaded in the middle of the string of the unit components 101, it all depends on the lifting forces needed that the sub-bored constructions have to bear for different weighted string of the unit components 101.

In this embodiment, the two sub-bored unit component 181 corresponds to the aforesaid unit components 101, the second cascading part 184 corresponds to the aforesaid cascading part 104, and the tail end 186 of the second cascading string corresponds to the aforesaid tail end 106.

11. The present invention relies on the geometry and gravity only without consuming any energy source to benefit people's life, it sets a pretty good example to the development of technologies of the next generation.

Claims

1. A calculus structure, comprising a plurality of unit components and a plurality of joint components, wherein the unit components and the joint components are adapted to form a target structure; each end of each of the joint components has a embedding construction or an embedded construction, each of the unit components and the joint components has a bore therein for communication with each other, the bore is adapted to allow a cascading part to pass therethrough so that the unit components and the joint components are cascaded together by the cascading part, and the unit components and the joint components are movable relative to the cascading part so that the unit components and the joint components abut against each other in a cascading order to form the target structure.

2. The calculus structure of claim 1, wherein a start end of the cascading part comprises a first blocking part which is sized to be unable to pass through one of the unit components or of the joint components that is cascaded at the start end.

3. The calculus structure of claim 2, wherein an end of the one of the unit components or of the joint components that is cascaded at the start end has a funneled or stepped bore, and a size of the funneled or stepped bore increases gradually from the inside to the outside, and a width in an inner space of the funneled or stepped bore at an end where the funneled or stepped bore has the maximum size is adapted to completely cover the first blocking part.

4. The calculus structure of claim 2, further comprising a fixing device adapted to fix a tail end of the cascading part so that loosing and sliding of the cascading part is prevented.

5. The calculus structure of claim 4, wherein the tail end of the cascading part comprises a second blocking part which is unable to pass through the fixing device.

6. The calculus structure of claim 1, wherein some of the unit components each has an embedding construction or embedded construction.

7. The calculus structure of claim 1, wherein an end of the cascading part is adapted to connect with a spring.

8. The calculus structure of claim 1, wherein an elastic part is additionally provided between the unit components and the joint components.

9. The calculus structure of claim 1, wherein the cascading part comprises a start end or a tail end, at least one of which is adapted to be directly fixed in position without the need of a blocking part.

10. The calculus structure of claim 1, wherein some of the unit components each has a second bore which is adapted to allow a second cascading part to pass therethrough.