Reinforced concrete slat floor

Claim 1

A load distributing and interconnecting slat floor module which may be connected to other interconnecting slat floor modules for supporting loads while simultaneously permitting waste and debris to drop through spaces between the slats, said slat floor module comprising spaced apart elongated slats of trapezoidal cross section, each slat having a top surface wider then the bottom surface and generally parallel to the bottom surface and having inwardly sloping slat sides, a longitudinal reinforcing member extending along the length of the slat adjacent the bottom surface of each slat for increasing the strength of the slat, a transverse reinforcing member fixed to the slats and extending in a generally perpendicular direction between the slats and through the slats, said transverse reinforcing members being spaced from the ends of the slats and extending beyond the outer slats in each module, and means for rigidly connecting the transverse reinforcing members between adjacent modules thereby providing load distributing interconnections between the slats and adjacent modules.

Claim 5

A method for connecting a load distributing and interconnecting slat floor module at the user's site with a rigid, moment-resisting splice to extend the load distributing feature from module to module wherein the slat floor modules have transverse reinforcing rods at spaced apart locations along the slats of each module with the ends of the transverse rods extending beyond the outer slats, said method comprising positioning the first slat floor module, positioning the second slat floor module with the ends of the transverse rods of the first module adjacent the ends of the transverse rods of the second module, surrounding the transverse rods extending between the outer slats of the first and second slat floor modules with rigid tubular members having passageways therethrough with cross-sectional areas larger than the cross-sectional areas of the transverse rods, filling the passageways around the transverse rods with a hardenable material, and hardening said material in the passageways.

Claim 6

A method for connecting a load distributing and interconnecting slat floor module at the user's site with a rigid, moment-resisting splice to extend the load distributing feature from module to module wherein the slat floor modules have transverse reinforcing rods at spaced apart locations along the slats of each module with the ends of the transverse rods extending beyond the outer slats, said method comprising positioning the first slat floor module, positioning the second slat floor module with the ends of the transverse rods of the first module adjacent the ends of the transverse rods of the second module, surrounding the transverse rods extending between the outer slats of the first and second slat floor modules with rigid tubular members having passageways therethrough with cross-sectional areas larger than the cross-sectional areas of the transverse rods, filling the passageways around the transverse rods with a hardenable material, and hardening said material in the passageways.