The present invention relates to arches for use in buildings, in particular, brickwork arches. Such arches may be suitable for location over architectural features such as windows, doors panels etc., and may have various shapes from flat to semicircular, gothic and many other decorative forms.

In the past, arches have been made by various methods. In perhaps their simplest form, arches have comprised a series of upright or "soldier" bricks arranged side-by-side over the feature. In such an arrangement, the arch has no load-bearing properties and must therefore be supported either by a lintel beneath or by a rod passing through the bricks from one end of the arch to the other or by some other means. This would constitute a flat arch. This basic design might be varied by using suitably tapered bricks to arrive at a trapezium-shaped arch having a flat top and bottom.

Other forms of arch are curved, for example, semi-circular arches. These use tapered bricks arranged in a semi-circle above the feature. Semi-circular arches in the past have relied on their massive bulk for their load bearing properties and are therefore only a practical solution when used in double thicknesses. They are not a practical proposition as a single layer, since they cannot use a rod passing down the centre of the bricks for support nor a semi-circular lintel.

It is possible to use pre-cast arches, however, these are expensive and very diffiuclt to handle on-site. Furthermore, they either require a complicated metal reinforcement system or a load bearing feature above.

When an arch is required having a form which is neither flat nor semi-circular, problems may arise from a load-bearing point of view. For example, a shallow curved arch suffers all the drawbacks of a semicircular arch but in addition, may have very poor load-bearing characteristics, and so metal angle supports from above may be required, and these are very cumbersome.

British Patent No. 1066853 shows a wall construction which has a facing layer. The facing layer comprises a number of units made up of brick-like elements. The facing units are connected to the wall by ties comprising an anchor and bolting rod. These extend between vertically adjacent units.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for a curved architectural arch which exhibits considerable load bearing characteristics and which can be used in single course brickwork.

According to the invention, there is provided an architectural arch comprising a series of bricks and a series of ties interconnecting the bricks, adjacent bricks being formed with opposed openings, characterised in that the arch has a curved form and in that each tie comprises a pin and an anchor, the pin of a tie being located in the opposed openings of adjacent bricks, the openings being in the form of bores extending through the thickness of the bricks, each brick including two bores, one spaced above the other when the brick is in the position in which it is used, whereby each adjacent pair of bricks is interconnected by a separate pin, and the anchor of each tie extends away from its respective pin and between the respective adjacent bricks to provide means for connecting the arch to a structure, the ties connecting a brick to a first adjacent brick on one side and to a second adjacent brick on the other side being offset from one another.

The bricks may be of any suitable material and may be cuboidal, or may have any other suitable profile, e.g. trapezium-shaped. In this way, a pin extends into one bore from one side of a brick while another pin extends into the other bore from the other side of the brick, and so on. Thus, each pin supports effectively half of the two adjacent bricks into whose bores it extends.

Preferably, each brick has in each side face, a central rebate which is open at the top. Thus, when two bricks are placed together, with a layer of mortar between them, and a tie in position with the pins extending into the corresponding bores, the two rebates form a recess into which a grout can be poured. The bores in the bricks are appreciably larger than the size of the pins so that the grout can fill the bores, surrounding the pins. The grout therefore serves to bond the two adjacent bricks together. This allows the mortar layer between the bricks to be quite thin which is frequently preferred for aesthetic reasons.

The bricks may be manufactured quite simply. First they are formed as cuboids, preferably by extrusion. The rebates may then be formed and bores drilled through. They may subsequently be formed with inclined faces so that a curved or semi-circular arch can be built. Naturally, any radius of arch curvature can be produced by adjusting the inclination of the faces.

The pins and anchors are preferably made of stainless steel. The grout is preferably a run-grout which may incorporate styrene-butadiene rubber.

In practice, a curved arch may be constructed as follows. A former is placed in position. A brick with the required profile is placed on the former and a layer of mortar is placed on the side surface of the brick. A tie is located with its pin level with one of the brick bores and the position of the anchor is marked on the structure behind the arch, which structure might be concrete downstand beam or part of a floor structure. A hole is then drilled in the structure at the marked position and the tie is located with the pin in the brick bore and the anchor in the newly drilled hole. The anchor is grouted in position.

A second brick is then mortared and placed in position adjacent the first with the remainder of the pin of the tie extending into the corresponding bore in the second brick. The recess formed by the two rebates is filled with grouting and the whole process is repeated, with the next tie being located relative to the other bore in the second brick. In this way, a load-bearing arch can be constructed with adjacent bricks being interconnected by staggered pins. It will be appreciated that a considerable span can be achieved.

However, the present invention allows an arch to be constructed in an even simpler fashion. The precise position of the ties relative to the bricks resulting from the location of the pins in the brick bores means that the position of the anchors relative to the structure as a whole can be predetermined. Thus, the holes necessary for location of the anchors can be drilled into the supporting structure in advance. The bricks and ties can then simply be mortared and grouted in position one after the other. Sufficient on-site tolerance is provided by the size of the pins relative to the brick bores.

Alternatively, it is possible to fix the ties in position, with the anchors set into the structure prior to the construction of the arch, due to the predetermined positions of the ties. To construct the arch it will then simply be necessary to mortar the bricks, locate them with the pins in the appropriate bores, and grout them in position.

The invention may be carried into practice in various ways and some embodiments will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-
   Figure 1 is an isometric sketch of a brick for use in accordance with the invention;
   Figure 2 is an isometric sketch of an alternative form of brick;
   Figure 3 is a side view of the brick of Figure 2;
   Figure 4 is a front view of the brick of Figure 2;
   Figure 5 is an isometric sketch of a tie;
   Figure 6 is a vertical section through a structure with a brick and tie in position; and
   Figure 7 is a schematic view of part of an arch in accordance with the invention.

The brick 11 has a top surface 12, a bottom surface 13, a front face 14, a rear face 15, and two side faces 16, 17. The side faces 16, 17 each have a recess 18, 19 which are open at the top surface 12 only. Two bores 21, 22 extend from one recess 18 to the other 19.

The brick 31 shown in Figures 2 to 4 is similar to the brick 11 except that the side faces 36, 37 are tapered. Thus, the brick 31 is wide from side to side at the top 12 than at the bottom 13. The degree of taper will be determined by the required radius of curvature of the arch to be constructed.

The tie 41 shown in Figures 5 and 6 is made of stainless steel and consists of a pin 44, 45, a flat perpendicularly extending shank 42, and an anchor portion 43. The anchor portion 43 is serrated.

The construction of an arch is shown in Figures 6 and 7. The bricks 31 are positioned on a former 51 and the ties 41 are located with one end 44 of the pin extending into one of the bores, in this case the upper bore 22. The serrated anchor portion 43 extends into a suitable hole 52 drilled into a concrete downstand beam 53.

A second brick 31 (not shown in Figure 6) is positioned with its side face 37 adjacent the side face 36 of the first brick 31 and with a thin layer of mortar 54 between them. The hole 52 is filled with grouting and the recess formed by the two adjacent rebates 18, 19 is also filled with grouting so that the shank 42 and the pins 44, 45 are encased, and the two bricks 31 are securely bonded. The next tie 41 is located with its pin in the lower bore 21 of the second brick 31 and so on, as shown in Figure 7. In this way, the arch form shown in Figure 7 is built up and the former can then be removed.