Building bricks including plastics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9919452-B2
Application number	US-201213527236-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2012
Priority date	Aug 25, 2010
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

A brick includes a thermoplastic material, such as high density polyethylene (HDPE), and a cement-containing material. The brick may be made by mixing thermoplastic material and dry, uncured cement-containing material. This mixture is placed in a mold. The mold is heated while the mixture is compressed to melt or soften the thermoplastic material and to bind the particulate material in the mold into the shape of a brick. After the hardened brick is removed from the mold, the surface of the brick may be sprayed with water to cure cement-containing material on the surface of the brick.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for preparing a brick, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) preparing a mixture comprising dry, uncured, cement-containing material and a thermoplastic material;
(b) placing the mixture from step (a) into a mold;
(c) applying pressure to the mold of step (b) to compress the mixture while maintaining the temperature of the mixture at a temperature sufficient to melt or soften the thermoplastic material and bind the cement-containing mixture in a matrix of thermoplastic material in the form of a brick such that, at the completion of step (c), internal regions of the brick comprise cement-containing material which has not been hardened by reaction with water; and
(d) removing the brick from the mold of step (c),
wherein the thermoplastic material comprises HDPE, and
wherein the mixture from step (a) further comprises a plastic material, other than HDPE, wherein the plastic material is at least one of polyacrylamide and polyacrylimide, and wherein the plastic material is greater than 0 wt % and no more than 10 wt % based on the weight of HDPE in the mixture.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of (e) contacting the surface of the brick of step (d) with water to cause cement-containing material on the surface of the brick to harden while retaining the internal regions unhardened by reaction with water.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plastic material, is between 2 wt % and 10 wt % based on the weight of HDPE in the mixture of step (a).

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the HDPE is a post consumer HDPE.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the HDPE is prepared by shredding or grinding discarded containers made of HDPE.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the shredded or ground HDPE is extruded into pellets before the HDPE is mixed with a cement-containing material according to step (a).

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the applying pressure to the mold of step (c) comprises a melt process with the dry, uncured, cement-containing material.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the melt process comprises compressing and heating the thermoplastic material to melt or soften the thermoplastic material and to create adhesion between plastic and the dry, uncured, cement-containing material.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising grounding the brick into aggregate size particles, which are subsequently used as aggregates for preparing new bricks in accordance with the steps of claim 1 .

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the brick comprises at least 35 wt % of the thermoplastic material.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the brick comprises from 35 to 80 wt % of the thermoplastic material.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the brick comprises at least 20 wt % of a cement-containing material.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the brick comprises from 20 to 65 wt % of the cement-containing material.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the dry, uncured, cement-containing material comprises fly ash.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the dry, uncured, cement-containing material comprises sand.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the dry, uncured, cement-containing material comprises fillers of particles of at least 2 mm.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein a weight ratio of cement to fillers in the dry, uncured, cement-containing material is at least 1:10.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the HDPE contains plastic particles which are prepared by shredding or grinding.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the plastic particles are flakes of less than 10 mm in size, which are directly blended with a cement-containing material.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plastic material is added to the mixture from step (a) as a separate component of the mixture.

Assignees

• Alsewailem Fares D
• King Abdulaziz City Sci & Tech

Inventors

• Alsewailem Fares D

Classifications

• C04B26/045

  Polyalkenes · CPC title

• C04B40/0263

  Hardening promoted by a rise in temperature (C04B40/024 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E04C1/40

  built-up from parts of different materials, e.g. composed of layers of different materials or stones with filling material or with insulating inserts · CPC title

• B28B1/44 Primary

  by forcing cores into filled moulds for forming hollow articles · CPC title

• B28B1/54

  specially adapted for producing articles from molten material, e.g. slag {refractory ceramic materials}(chemical aspects C04B {; from molten bituminous material B29C}) · CPC title