GB958491A - Improvements in or relating to portable shelters - Google Patents

Abstract

958,491. Laminates. G. INGRAM. Feb. 21, 1961 [April 20, 1960], No. 13864/60. Heading B5N. [Also in Division E1] A portable self-supporting shelter comprises a sheet of flexible material such as rubber, plastics material, plastics-coated fabric or waterproof canvas having secured thereto rigid elements, for example of foamed plastics, wood, chipboard or ebonite, of trapezium section with adjacent inclined faces such that on shaping the sheet into a hollow body, elements inward, the inclined faces bear against one another and hold the body rigid. As shown, a sheet 10 has secured thereto rigid blocks 13 with adjacent inclined faces permitting the sheet to be rolled up, blocks outward, as in Fig. 4, or erected into a part-cylindrical shelter, Fig. 3, in which the inclined faces of the blocks bear against one another and hold the structure rigid. Flaps 11 serve to secure the shelter to the ground, e.g. by pegs, or hooks and eyelets 12. The open ends may be closed by separate panels. In a modification a part-circular sheet with flaps on its circumferential and radial edges, is provided with blocks in a concentric circular arrangement all adjacent edges of which are inclined, permitting erection of the sheet into a rigid closed hollow body the edge flaps of which may be laced together. The blocks may be replaced by metal trays with adjacent upturned edges inclined inwardly, or by similarly shaped wire frames.