a. Patent Summary
Laminar Dome
R. BUCKMINSTER
FULLER
(1965):
LAMINAR DOME*
US Patent No.:
Application:
May 27, 1960
Serial No.:
32,268
Patented:
August 31, 1965
*-
Inventions, The Patented Works of
R. Buckminster Fuller,
R. Buckminster Fuller
(1983)
In a geodesic dome comprised of diamond panels arranged in overlapping relation to one another and having inner and outer sheets and spacing means these sheets the diamond panels will be assembled so that their overlaps are symmetrically arranged in oppositely disposed pairs.
Thus a single panel will have one pair of opposed overlying laps and one pair of opposed underlying laps.
The overlapping portions of the panels are adhesively secured together with the inner sheet of one panel adhered to the outer sheets of a pair of adjacent panels and the outer sheet of the one panel adhered to the inner sheets of another pair of adjacent panels.
This creates a weave of the inner and outer facing sheets which may be likened to the warp and woof of a woven fabric and this woven pattern creates a continuity in the shear connected inner and outer facing sheets.
In this fashion each composite diamond panel will have an outer face carrying stresses along one continuous path or direction and an inner face carrying stresses along another continuous path or direction.
These stress carrying paths are so interrelated in the overall pattern that the tensile strength of both facing sheets can be utilized to fuller advantage than has heretofore been disclosed in a laminar geodesic structure.
I have discovered further how to obtain such a continuous woven stress pattern in a structure wherein opposed laps at the upper ends of the diamonds are underlying laps whereas those at the lower ends of the diamonds are overlying laps so that the construction is inherently shingled to shed water while affording the stress continuity of the woven inner and outer sheets of the panels.
Other advantages are obtained by utilizing panels the foregoing composite type comprised of flat sheets which in their assembled relationship exhibit an overall pattern of planar triangular facets which are paired in diamond shaped sections the triangular facets of a plurality of pairs being arranged at an angle to one another to form diamond shaped sections bent into outward concavity about the long axis of the diamond and presenting trough shaped depressions in the outer surface of the dome.
The triangular facets of other pairs of facets are arranged at an angle to one another to form diamond shaped sections bent into outward convexity about the short axis of the diamond and present ridges alternating with the trough shaped depressions in the outer surface of the dome whereby said outer surface is faceted with intersecting ridges and valleys which stiffen the panel structure of the dome.
These and other advantages of my invention will appear more fully from the ensuing description of the best contemplated by me for carrying out my invention.