PREFABRICATED STRUCTURAL ASSEMBLIES OF NATURAL STONE

1,221,433. Building units. STONE FIRMS Ltd. 6 Jan., 1969 [5 Jan, 1968], No. 820/68. Heading E1B. Prefrabricated building elements comprise natural stones 10, 11, held together by mortar at their interfaces and reinforced by steel cables 5 and 12 which are tensioned before they are embedded in grooves 6 by, mortar 7. Alternative reinforcements may be braided steel wire, nylon, glass fibres or carbon fibres. Mortar may be an epoxy-resin based adhesive containing fillers, e.g. sand, chalk or stone dust. Elements may be load-bearing or non-load bearing, columns or beams comprising a single row of stones, and cladding or facing panels being examples. Reinforcement may pass through closed bores in stones. Elements may be formed with tongues and grooves to interlock with neighbouring elements or may be attached thereto or to building structure by separate fastenings. A number of elements may be subjected to tensile stress after they have been erected to for whole or part of a building, the tensioning members being grouted into grooves or bores through the aligned elements.