Patent Application Titled “Lightweight Fire Resistant Composite Utility Pole, Cross Arm And Brace Structures” Published Online (USPTO 20200140631)

2020 MAY 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Chemicals & Chemistry Business Daily Business Daily Daily -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Sorenson, Thomas J. (Cottonwood Heights, UT); Larson, B. Jay (Salt Lake City, UT), filed on November 1, 2019, was made available online on May 7, 2020.

The assignee for this patent application is Composipole Inc. (Cottonwood Heights, Utah, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In this specification where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge, or any combination thereof, was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge, or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.

“By some estimates, the frequency of western U.S. wildfires has increased by 400 percent since 1970. Damage is the worst in California, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. These fires have burned six times the land area as before and last five times longer. Their fierce temperatures consume all nutrients and vegetation, leaving little to grow back. A 2016 study found that the number of acres burned since the mid-1980s had doubled.

“The fire season itself is also two months longer than it was in the early 1970s. That allows more time for fires to erupt. In California, wildfire season is now year-round. Since 2012, there has not been a month without a wildfire burning.

“As of Aug. 20, 2018, wildfires had burned 4.5 million acres. At least 110 wildfires were burning almost 2 million acres. They require 28,250 firemen to combat them. The 2018 Mendocino fire was at that time the largest in California history, burning 500 miles. As of Sep. 6, 2018, damage was $845 million in insurance claims. The Wine Country fires in 2017 cost $10.4 billion in claims.

“The 2017 fire season broke numerous regional records for acreage burned and costs incurred. It burnt 9.1 million acres in the United States.

“In 2017, the U.S. Forest Service spent almost $2.5 billion, much more than the $1.4 billion spent in 2016. Firefighting consumed 52 percent of its budget. At the peak of the season, more than 280,000 personnel and 1,900 fire engines were deployed. The Air National Guard had to help, dropping 530,000 gallons of fire retardant.

“There are a number of instances where wildfires disrupted various utility services. For example, in August of 2015 fires in Oregon and California left thousands without power. In May of 2014, power was cut to several communities in California due to wildfire. Frequently roads are impacted such as in the 2013 Silver Fire in New Mexico. Reports from Burned Area Emergency Response teams frequently include information on road closures and some service interruptions; however, these reports tend to focus on individual fires and do not provide national annual estimates nor do they cover all of the service interruptions.

“In November 2018, the Camp Fire became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. The fire caused at least 85 civilian fatalities, with one person still missing, and injured 12 civilians, and five firefighters. It covered an area of 153,336 acres and destroyed 18,804 structures with most of the damage occurring within the first four hours. Total damage has been estimated at $16.5 to $30 billion. The electrical utility that was responsible for the transmission line suspected of sparking the wildfire, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), filed for bankruptcy after being found liable for the fire.

“Typically, the overall service life of current technology wood utility poles is limited to 20-50 years, based on, among other things, the exposure to the outdoor environments where the poles are installed. Of course, wood utility poles are very susceptible to damage from fire as are untreated composite structures. Likewise, as fires become bigger and hotter, even metal utility poles are susceptible to damage from fire.

“Other drawbacks, disadvantages, and inconveniences of existing systems and methods also exist.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Accordingly, disclosed systems and methods address the above-noted, and other, issues of existing systems and methods. For example, the presently disclosed systems and methods provide fire-resistant, stronger, and lightweight alternatives to the wood, cement, and steel poles used today.

“In addition, the presently disclosed poles are be manufactured using flame retardant materials, making the utility pole fire resistant. The disclosed materials of the composite utility poles are less likely to ignite under the environments of a short circuit (i.e., sparking), a power line failure, being engulfed in a wildfire, or suffering from any other ignition source. The fire retardant nature of the presently disclosed poles and other structures and components has significant advantages over existing technology and reduces the loss of utility or communications or further property loss.

“In addition to being fire resistant, the presently disclosed composite materials are substantially impervious, or at least resistant to the effects of moisture, and are not affected by the weather, and therefore the service life is greater than 50 years for the disclosed composite utility poles.

“Additionally, the disclosed composite poles may be directly buried and do not require noxious or otherwise harmful chemical coatings or ground pre-treatment. The disclosed composite poles are also resistant to wildlife, insect, and the like, damage.

“In further disclosed embodiments the method includes applying the plurality of fibrous rovings 1-240 at a time, and simultaneously and/or in a circumferential, manner to the longitudinal axis of a forming mandrel during a filament winding process. Other composite manufacturing methods (pultrusion, table wrapping, ring winding, fiber placement, tape placement, and the like) may also be used.

“Disclosed embodiments include a utility structure having a fire resistant base structure and a utility support configured to support a utility device. In further disclosed embodiments the fire resistant base structure further comprises a composite material having a primary matrix with a fire resistant additive and a fiber reinforcement.

“In some embodiments the fire resistant additive is huntite, hydromagnesite, aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, melamine cyanurate, melamine polyphosphate, melamine phosphate, organobromine compounds, or brominated, halogenated, organophosphorous, metal hydroxide flame retardants, or the like.

“In some embodiments the fiber reinforcement is basalt, carbon, glass, Kevlar.RTM. (i.e., poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide), or the like.

“In some embodiments the primary matrix comprises 20%-50% of the weight of the composite material.

“In some embodiments the fire resistant base structure is a multi-piece structure.

“Also disclosed are methods of making a composite utility structure component. Embodiments of the method include combining a primary matrix material and a fire resistant additive, combining the primary matrix material with a fiber reinforcement, and forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes filament winding the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement onto a forming mandrel.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes ring winding the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement onto a forming mandrel.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes pultruding the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes table wrapping the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes fiber placing the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes tape placing the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes forming a plurality of segments of a utility pole wherein the plurality of segments are configured to assemble into a utility structure.

“In some embodiments the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component includes forming a cross arm or brace for a utility structure.

“Other features, advantages, and conveniences of the disclosed systems and methods also exist.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A utility structure comprising: a fire resistant base structure; and a utility support configured to support a utility device.

“2. The utility structure of claim 1 wherein the fire resistant base structure further comprises a composite material comprising: a primary matrix further comprising a fire resistant additive; and a fiber reinforcement.

“3. The utility structure of claim 2 wherein the fire resistant additive is selected from the group consisting of: huntite, hydromagnesite, aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, melamine cyanurate, melamine polyphosphate, melamine phosphate, organobromine compounds, or brominated, halogenated, organophosphorous, or metal hydroxide flame retardants.

“4. The utility structure of claim 2 wherein the fiber reinforcement is selected from the group of fibers consisting of: basalt, carbon, glass, or poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide.

“5. The utility structure of claim 2 wherein the primary matrix comprises 20%-50% of the weight of the composite material.

“6. The utility structure of claim 1 wherein the fire resistant base structure further comprises: a multi-piece structure.

“7. A method of making a composite utility structure component, the method comprising: combining a primary matrix material and a fire resistant additive; combining the primary matrix material with a fiber reinforcement; and forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component.

“8. The method of claim 7 wherein the fire resistant additive is selected from the group consisting of: huntite, hydromagnesite, aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, melamine cyanurate, melamine polyphosphate, melamine phosphate, organobromine compounds, or brominated, halogenated, organophosphorous, or metal hydroxide flame retardants.

“9. The method of claim 7 wherein the fiber reinforcement is selected from the group of fibers consisting of: basalt, carbon, glass, or poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide.

“10. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: filament winding the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement onto a forming mandrel.

“11. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: ring winding the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement onto a forming mandrel.

“12. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: pultruding the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“13. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: table wrapping the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“14. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: fiber placing the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“15. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: tape placing the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement.

“16. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: forming a plurality of segments of a utility pole wherein the plurality of segments are configured to assemble into a utility structure.

“17. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the combined primary matrix material and fiber reinforcement into a utility structure component further comprises: forming a cross arm or brace for a utility structure.”

For more information, see this patent application: Sorenson, Thomas J.; Larson, B. Jay. Lightweight Fire Resistant Composite Utility Pole, Cross Arm And Brace Structures. Filed November 1, 2019 and posted May 7, 2020. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220200140631%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20200140631&RS=DN/20200140631

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