Reinforcing bars (hereinafter, “rebars”) are common steel bars that are hot rolled and used widely in the construction industry, especially for concrete reinforcement. Steel rebars are most commonly used as tensioning devices to reinforce concrete and other masonry structures to help hold the concrete in a compressed state. Concrete is a material that is very strong in compression, but virtually without strength in tension. To compensate for this imbalance in a concrete slab's behavior, reinforcement bars are cast into it to carry the tensile loads. It is also desirable to connect rebars in these applications.
Various methods have been implemented for connecting rebars including welding or using binding wires. However, such conventional rebar connectors can be difficult for the worker to manipulate due to their complicated structures. Furthermore, deformed rebars from different sources may come with different lug arrays which require different types of connectors when coupling.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds