There are multiple examples in literature related to connectable elements, especially blocks designed to form constructions and double floors, for example. The following are some of them.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,033 (Thomsen, 2003} assigned to Interlego, is an example of the developments by this company in the area of assemblable construction toys, most of which show a similar structure and operation. In this patent, construction elements are described that include a body in the form of box that has a surface with upper and lower sides and a plurality of faces that extend towards underneath this surface, as well as a plurality of projections for connection that extend downwards until a distance smaller than the height of the walls, that are coupled with projections on the upper surface of another similar element, where the projections have an equal height to the difference between the walls and the projections for connection; this idea has been developed from designs like the shown one in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,170 (Kishi, 1971).
In an alternative proposed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,927 (Frederiksen, 1998), the coupling between the upper and lower pieces is obtained when modifying the form of the projection in the lower piece to a hemisphere in order that it fits to the interior of a hollow cylindrical projection towards underneath of the upper piece.
Although the previous examples offer alternatives for the coupling of units one on another one, for the purposes of the invention it is necessary to consider the connection side to side of individual elements. In this way, the U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,044 (McIntosh, 2000) describes a block of construction with lateral male/female joints of the “dovetail” type. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,310 (Valtolina et al, 1988) offers a lateral connection by means of interconnection elements that are coupled between parallel and perpendicular ribs of relatively flat panels.
All these references are limited applications in the scope of the construction toys, reason why their dimensions allow that a connection by superposition of minimal areas between blocks is sufficient to maintain the integrity of the connected set. In the scope of the industrial applications, we have the following examples of assemblable floors:
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,889,631 (McGregor, 2005) describes modules for the formation of floors for cattle, where the individual modules are mounted on rails on the ground; the panels, made of metal and plastic, offer in their sides, a series of projections and hollows (male/female) to be coupled to each other, but always the joint line must remain on preset rails. This is the same basic idea of panels described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,501 (Moreau, 1990), or in U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,684 (Gank, 2003) where a frame with male/female pieces is formed, and panels are confined in its interior which offer the surface of useful load. Many later developments are based on this idea of the substructure for panels support, and it is the technique mainly used for the construction of “double” floors for uses in computer rooms, for example, in which the space between both surfaces, the ground and the double floor, is used to confine electrical or data transmission systems.
Alternatively to the necessity of a previous substructure for the support of the useful surface, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,795 (Barnidge, 1980) proposes the use of self-supported individual modules, with elements for coupling in the vertical sidewalls. One more alternative it is considered in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,648,592 (Harinishi, 1987), where it is described a structure of floor for gymnastics that includes a panel, a substructure fixed to the ground and a plurality of inter-modular I-shaped supports where the ends form U-shaped channels which receive the lateral ends of the modular panels.
Between the most recent developments, it is worth to mention the United States patent application No. US2004/0258870 (Oakey et al, 2004) describing a reconfigurable floor and the method of assembling of the same, that allows to the elaboration of a variety of designs and the easy assembly/disassembly for its reuse.
Finally, there is a Mexican patent application PA/a/2006/003673 (Leon, 2006), the teachings of which are incorporated by reference, wherein a solution to the problem of installation of assemblable floors for diverse uses is described, based in two basic elements: a low-height tile of polygonal shape, preferably square-based, and a union element between pairs of tiles; the union is made by means of projections in the union element, fitted in corresponding hollows in the lower face of the body of the prismatic tile, nevertheless, this alternative have problems to guarantee a good isolation between the ground and the surface of the assembled floor, mainly due to the space between two contiguous tiles, that can serve as “bridge” for an electrical charge.