Abstract: In the operation of a furnace for the production of iron or steel, the air preheater and the pipe communicating the preheater with the furnace are constructed of steel shells lined with an acid-resisting cement, with refractory lining overlying the cement. The acid-resisting cement is composed of quartz sand and refractory material in the form of hollow spheres, silicate binder, and hardener. The spheres are 10 - 40 vol.% of the total volume of quartz sand and spheres.

Abstract: Continuous concrete pipe is produced in an open trench by drawing a sled along the trench. The sled has a fresh concrete intake chute which supplies the concrete to a pipe-forming mechanism that generates the pipe. The lower pipe half is supported by the trench. To support the upper pipe half, a plastic material is given a convex shape complementary to the concave interior of the pipe. The plastic material is formed over a convex mandrel carried by the sled forward (in the direction of movement of the sled) of the intake means so that the plastic material hardens before contacted by wet concrete from the intake means. The mandrel extends rearwardly past the intake means to provide support for the plastic mold while the pipe is formed. Alternative ways for making the plastic mold are described.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a support framework or truss having at least one suspension element arched in one direction and serving as a roof construction, formed from concrete poured at the site or from prefabricated components, comprising forming a reinforcement construction taking-up the horizontal forces and composed of two horizontal supports arranged in spaced relationship from one another and extending transversely with respect to the arching direction of the suspension element, and which horizontal supports are laterally interconnected by means of reinforcement components, and supporting the thus formed reinforcement construction upon supports. Tension elements for the suspension element are arranged in a spatial curve extending in a catenary configuration between the horizontal supports and are anchored at the region of the supports at the reinforcement construction.

Abstract: In this invention there is taught the use of air tubes or fluid-filled containers to define permanent hollow tubular space within a body of solidified fill material placed in a mining excavation. The fill uses a mixture of solids and liquids with the addition of a structurally binding substance such as cement in order to make the fill substance permanent and capable of providing structural integrity and strength in the fill notwithstanding the empty tubular space. The empty tubular space can be used in accessways for mining and hauling of ore, or ventilation; it can also be used to provide volume within which to place fine component of tailings of a concentrator, or to store contaminants, or to route fill material. The tubular empty space within the fill reduces the weight, time and cost of the fill operation, and eliminates the need to drive galleries in waste rock, or of constructing costly timbered galleries or steel tubes within the stope prior to backfilling with tails.

Abstract: A pipeline retard, support, and protection method wherein a fast-setting, expandable, organic spray foam is sprayed at spaced locations in a trench to create support pads and retards in the trench. The foam constituents are mixed in a spray apparatus and directed as a spray foam into the trench where it rapidly expands and stiffens into a layer of foam. Rapid expansion and corresponding rapid stiffening is believed to cause the cells in each layer of the foam structure to be elongated essentially normal to the plane of the layer. This cellular configuration in each layer imparts vertical strength and limited lateral flexibility to the structure. A plurality of layers of foam are sequentially formed in the trench to fabricate the desired structure. The placement of each layer is sequenced so as to permit a membrane to form on the surface of each layer for improved strength and inhibition of water penetration.

Abstract: A method of efficiently curing and protecting a structural concrete column, beam or the like and which includes the steps of filling the form with concrete, removing the form upon the concrete becoming sufficiently rigid to be self-supporting but prior to the full curing thereof, and then disposing a tubular length of polymeric sheet material coaxially about the column and maintaining the same thereabout until the concrete is fully cured.

Abstract: The present sheath for a water-eroded wood piling is a longitudinally split, flexible and resilient plastic casing with overlapping circumferential end segments. The casing has a preformed, integral spout at its upper end into which wet concrete can be poured to fill the casing around the eroded section of the piling. Flexible bands clamp the casing tightly around the piling, and the spout has aligned openings in its opposite sides for passing the uppermost one of these bands. The casing may comprise two or more longitudinal sections in overlapped sealed engagement with each other end-to-end for enclosing a long eroded section of the piling.

Abstract: A pipeline retard, support and protection method wherein a fast-setting expandable foam is placed in a trench at spaced locations below and around a pipeline to create spaced retards and support pads in situ. Each retard and/or support pad is created in the absence of forms or other foam molding means for the expanding foam. The retards may be keyed to the trench walls and base for securement. The system is also adaptable to encapsulating a portion of the pipeline which transverses a roadbed.

Abstract: A method of installing a tendon in a duct in a slip-formed concrete structure including the steps of providing a tubular member which forms the uppermost part of the duct and whose upper end terminates at the level where the upper end of the tendon is to be anchored, said tubular member having outwardly extending abutment means at or adjacent its lower end, said abutment means being of such size and at such depth below the upper end of the tubular member as to enable the forces necessary to instal and support a tendon in the duct, at the time when the concrete structure reaches a height in the vicinity of the upper end of said tubular member, to be transmitted through the tubular member and distributed to the concrete structure by the abutment means at a level where the concrete has gained adequate strength for this purpose.

Abstract: A generally T-shaped flexible spacer for use in the formation of a flexible joint in concrete cladding for pipes, having a base flange and a compressible web extending generally perpendicularly from the base flange on one side thereof. In use, spacers are applied to a pipe at intervals, and are self supporting with the web radial of the pipe. When concrete is sprayed onto the pipe it forms a cladding in sections, between which the spacers provide compressible joints to accommodate bending of the pipe.

Abstract: A roof structure consisting of a thin curved slab of reinforced concrete which is initially cast by conventional techniques as a flat slab, tension cables (preferably of high tensile steel) extending in one or more directions being arranged across the slab and being connected to opposite edges of the slab and also connected to the slab at points along their lengths by means of tensioned hangers or compression props or columns of predetermined lengths, tension then being applied to the cables to cause them to straighten and in so doing to cause the concrete slab to take up a curved shape so as to form a shell structure which resists applied loads by reason of its curved shape.

Abstract: In an apparatus for the deposition of hardenable foamable compositions wherein a strip of foamable liquid composition is deposited within a restraining channel and subsequently hardened by means of a centrifugal dispensing head to form a hollow generally tubular strip, improved uniformity is obtained employing a spinning mandrel which projects into the portion of the strip during the foaming and partial curing.

Abstract: A slipform and method for forming a concrete lining in upright open shafts having been previously filled with a liquid such as drilling mud. The drilling mud below the slipform apparatus is pressurized to push the slipform upwardly within the shaft while it simultaneously forms delivered concrete into a monolithic lining within the shaft. The apparatus includes outer and inner slipform members. The inner slipform member fits within a conical recess of the outer slipform member and includes a lower cylindrical portion for forming the open inside diameter of the lining. Concrete, in a plastic, wet condition, is pumped between the two slipform members to be molded against the shaft wall into an upwardly open monolithic concrete lining. The rate of ascent of the forms is timed in accordance with the setting time of the concrete so that the upwardly moving form leaves a hardened monolithic lining behind.

Abstract: Apparatus for moulding inclined, free-standing hollow columns of concrete by means of sliding formwork is provided. Initially, there is formed a base structure, and a bottom section of the column to be formed is anchored thereto. In the bottom section of the column is positioned a combined support- and guiding means which is displaceably positioned firmly against the inside wall of the column and which furthermore is liftably arranged, in a known fashion such as by being biased to the moulded column section by means of lift-jacks or the like. The support- and guiding means may be forcibly adjustable in the lateral direction during the continuous moulding of the column to control and if necessary adjust the direction of the formwork and thereby the column wall during the moulding of the same.

Abstract: Means for repairing or forming structural bodies of self-hardening fluid cement mortar, in a subaqueous or other situs, utilizing a body-forming cavity including body-shaping walls of porous fabric in combination with openwork matrix means fixedly positioned at the situs. The matrix means is received within the body-shaping walls of porous fabric and connected thereto by tension-restraining tie-elements of predetermined length for controlling limited oppositely outward distension of the opposing walls away from the matrix as determined by the length of the tie-elements, upon reception of fluid mortar or like cementitious material within the body-shaping walls to expand the walls thereof to such given shape and size of the body formed by the cementitious material.

Abstract: A method for constructing a thin-shell concrete structure of round design comprising, pouring on soil of the main floor, applying reinforced concrete against a dome shaped liner of insulating material, and raising the resulting structure so as to allow a lower floor to be constructed.

Abstract: This invention relates to sealing small leaks in oil containers such as tankers, underground storage tanks, and the like, by plugging the orifice of the leak utilizing water-soluble polymers which have been dispersed in a water-in-oil emulsion wherein the oil is the continuous phase.The active sealant consists of small densely packed spheres of the water-soluble polymers which have an effective size of about 0.5-500 microns. The dosage on an oil-wet surface is about 3-15 percent based on the weight of the oil present and may alternatively be measured as about 10-1000 ppm of polymer spheres applied to the orifice.

Abstract: A method of constructing concrete shells of various design employing a plurality of inflatable water filled bladders which are aggregated to produce a mold having the configuration of the final structure. After a conventional concrete shell, which is formed by depositing concrete over the desired mold, has set, the bladders are drained, removed from the shell, and ready for reuse.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for making a self-supporting dome-like skeletal structure including the steps of preparing a substantially flat surface, assembling an array of multi-sided first members which is criss-crossed by paths comprising adjacent flanges of adjacent first members, placing a strip of pliable material along each path and interweaving the strips at intersections thereof, securing the ends of the strips, mounting over each first member a second member of configuration similar to said first member, said second members peripherally sealingly resting on the strips on the flanges of the first members, placing concrete in troughs having as sides the sides of adjacent second members and as bottoms the strips on the flanges of the first members and introducing pressurized gas below said array of first members to cause it to assume a dome-like configuration, allowing the concrete in the troughs to set and exhausting the gas from below the first members so as to strip at least said first members from the

Abstract: Walled structures are prepared from foam-in-place components such as those used to prepare rigid polyurethane foams wherein successive strips of foam are deposited and hardened within a three-sided enclosure having a generally H-shaped configuration. A foraminous scrim such as glass fiber mesh forms part of the vertical legs of the H and foam is disposed below the cross piece of the H to bond to adjacent scrim facing sheets and scrim of a previously disclosed strip. The foam is significantly reinforced, joined to the previously deposited structure and foaming components are isolated from depositing apparatus.

Abstract: A substantially spherical shaped structure constructed of reinforced concrete poured in a plurality of courses, each course consisting of a horizontal substantially annular band extending completely around the structure. A series of forms are shaped and positioned so as to create two adjacent concentric annular arcuate surfaces, thus forming an inner and an outer wall between which a suitable structural material, such as concrete, in a fluid state may be poured and allowed to harden. Additional forms, substantially vertically above and arcuately continuous with the previous surfaces, are fastened to the first series of forms and again a suitable structural material is poured between the forms and allowed to harden above the previously hardened band. This procedure is repeated until the desired spherically shaped structure has been obtained.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for fabricating on-site storage structures with reinforced composite materials, as well as the storage structures produced in accordance with the apparatus and method. In one aspect of the invention, reinforcing material which comprises at least one layer of fiber containing strand material, and one or more layers of fiber containing mat material are resin impregnated and passed through a draw-die orifice. Upon passing through the draw-die orifice this material is deposited in a continuously formed spiral where the turns forming the spiral are registered with each other. A cure of the resin material is initiated as the impregnated reinforcing material passes through the draw-die orifice. The cure is initiated by means of a curing device which applies dielectric energy to the impregnated reinforcing material, to thereby form a rigid spiral turn which becomes bonded to the next adjacent registered layer.

Abstract: A method for making a panel of plastic foam includes first coating a flexible ribbon on one side with foam and immediately thereafter while the foam is soft and flowable, laying the ribbon on a form with the foam coated side against the form. Length after length of the foam coated ribbon is laid on the form side by side in courses sufficiently close in order that the foam coating flow and cohere together on the form and thereafter the foam cures providing a panel of foam having the shape of the form.

Abstract: A reusable column mold particularly adapted for use in casting concrete pillars or columns, that mold including a sheet of flat, flexible material which can be rolled into a columnar configuration to erect the mold form and which can be readily stripped from a set-up concrete column cast into the mold form. In preferred form, the flat sheet is of a rectangular configuration and is characterized by a plurality of tongues on one side edge which, when the sheet is rolled into columnar configuration, are adapted to fit into slots in the sheet located on one of a series of slot lines (the slot lines are parallel to the sheet's tongued side edge and are positioned intermediate the sheet's side edges); the cross-sectional area of the mold form is determined by that slot line of the sheet which cooperates with the sheet's tongued edge.

Abstract: Ferrocement structures and the method for producing them comprising: providing a load-bearing framework, covering the framework with a strong flexible sheet-like material and then a flexible metal reinforcing material, and applying cement mortar thereover to cover the reinforcing material. The framework can be made of easily fabricated wooden ribs.