Claims:We Claim:
1. A plastic waste based interlocking grid mat, the said interlocking grid made from recycled poly propylene plastic without any additive comprising:
- a hexagonal honeycomb structure with hexagonal walls (101) with a round bottom (102);
- a cavity at the interlocking section (103);
- side structures configured to interlock another grid mat;
- interlocking joints; and
- tracking and monitoring sensors;
characterized by a compressive strength of 300 – 400 tonnes/m2 without filling and a compressive strength of 1200 – 1800 tonnes/m2 with filling.
2. The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the recycled poly propylene plastic is shredded to smaller granules and made as pellets, heated and melted at 1600C to 1800C and molded with injection molding machine.
3. The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the interlocking joints consist of protrusion (202) on a side of the grid mat complementing a routed groove or slot (201) on side of the other grid mat preventing displacement of adjacent grid mats and a cavity (103) for filling of materials.
4. The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the grid mat measures 500 – 1000 mm × 500mm × 40mm and has 95 - 96% permeability and 70% void space.
5. The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the grid mat is filled to its thickness i.e., 40mm with materials such as sand, mud, gravels, cold asphalt, hot asphalt as well as concrete.
6. The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the grid mat has flexural strength of 2 - 5 kN/mm2.
7. The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the round bottom (102) has an opening for flow of material into the grid to ensure the homogenous binding of filling with grid mats.
8. The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the said grid mats are embedded with sensors for tracking and monitoring surface related sensing including pressure, moisture, temperature, strain gauge, vibrations, finer optic sensors, accelerometers, geophones, velocity, deflection, laser guided system. , Description:DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention generally to the field of road construction, flooring, rigid surface creation, repair, and preventive maintenance of these surface.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an interlocking Grid Mats made of recycled polypropylene.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Pothole filled roads are the common sight across the road networks especially during monsoons. Every year crores of rupees are spent by the road agencies in extensive pothole patch repair. The pothole repair not just involves money but also includes labors and human efforts and unnecessary hardships to commuters on the roads every day. Potholes are mainly caused due to heavy vehicle, oil spills, heavy rain, poor quality of road construction etc. Water is the primary cause of potholes. It can be cause by diesel spillage mechanical damage vehicle rims, animal hooves on road surface in hot weather, poor road design over certain subgrades such as expensive, collapsible & dispersive soils. Environmental cracking can occur due to ultraviolet light from sun, heat oxidation or some other causes that leads to shrinkage of asphalt. Potholes not only causes damage to the vehicle but also cause serious vehicle accidents. The traffic congestion caused due to pothole may leads to wastage of fuel, and increasing air pollution, releasing CO (Carbon monoxide) and other pollutants by congested car accounting for environmental and health problem.
The world has realized that the issue related to protection of environment from all kind of pollutions must be addressed on priority. The use of plastic and related materials is increasing exponentially due to tremendous growth in population, urbanization and changed life style. This leads to widespread littering of plastic on the landscape. Disposal of waste plastic emerged to be a serious problem globally due to their non-biodegradability and hazardous nature. Land fill of waste plastic seems to be dangerous to the human and animal health, since it contaminates agricultural land and polluting the water near to the land filled areas by releasing the toxic chemicals. There exists a need to develop a product which will help tackle the perils of potholes and plastic waste together.
The prior art reveals that there have been attempts to develop a multiple products and methods which could resolve the problems of road repair and address the issue of plastic waste. Following patent and non-patent literature describes the existing state of the art.
WO2017093822A1 discloses a process for construction of roads, walk ways, footpaths, pavements, etc. from unsorted waste plastics of various types and origin, plastic type resins and related polymers comprising: - laying at least one sub-base layer of hollow blocks such that the hollow blocks lie horizontally adjacent to each other; - filling the said sub-base layer of hollow blocks with bituminous mixture or asphalt or road paving material; - optionally covering the said filled hollow blocks with covers/lids; - laying at least one base layer of hollow blocks over the sub-base layer such that the hollow blocks lie horizontally and vertically adjacent to each other; - filling the said base layer of hollow blocks with bituminous mixture or asphalt or road paving material; - optionally covering the said filled hollow blocks with covers/lids; - laying the surface layer with road base materials or bituminous mixture or asphalt.
US20170167084A1 relates to a paving system for paving or flooring includes a top layer of a plurality of paving elements, and an underlayment support layer of a polymeric material configured into panels. The panels are suitable to support the paving elements, the panels having a generally planar support surface.
US20140161525A1 describes a modular sidewalk pavement system having a plurality of pavers configured for interlocking engagement with each other. In the preferred embodiment, the pavers have a plurality of spaced apart, outwardly extending wedge members and a plurality of spaced apart inwardly disposed wedge receptacles along each side and end of the paver that are cooperatively configured for interlocking engagement, such that the wedge members of one paver are received into the wedge receptacles of one or more adjacent pavers. A locking mechanism, preferably comprising a protrusion on one or more wedge members and a detent in one or more wedge receptacles, is utilized to provide a quick and easy lay-and-click installation. In a preferred embodiment, the pavers are made out of recycled materials, including crumb rubber and recycled plastic.
The exhaustive literature search conducted to identify prior art indicated that several efforts have been made in the past to develop products or methods to tackle problem of potholes and plastic waste together. However, these methods (prior arts) are not efficient in terms of seamless integration of filling material on potholes in road repair. Besides this the prior arts have limitations with respect to the high costs associated with them.
Therefore, in light of foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the drawbacks associated with the existing products or processes of road repair using plastic waste.
The present invention provides a solution to conventional construction or repairing work, as repairing of damaged roadways by conventional methods can be extremely expensive, time consuming. The present invention describes a plastic waste based interlocking grid mat.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is the primary object of the present invention is to provide an efficient solution to the chronic issue of potholes on the roads and pollution caused by plastic waste;
Further object of the present invention is to provide a plastic waste based interlocking grid mat;
Further object of the present invention is to provide roads that do not need maintenance and frequent repairs;
Further object of the present invention is to provide a state-of-the-art road enabled with sensors for tracking and monitoring purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present disclosure present technological improvements as solution to one or more of the above-mentioned technical problems recognized by the inventor in conventional practices and existing state of the art.
The present disclosure seeks to provide a plastic waste based interlocking grid having a hexagonal honeycomb structure with hexagonal walls (101) with a round bottom (102); a cavity (102) at the interlocking section; side structures configured to interlock another grid mat; and interlocking joints (201, 202).
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the plastic waste based interlocking grid comprises recycled polypropylene that is placed above the bedding layer of the ground and filled with different fillings.
According to further aspect of the present invention, the plastic waste based interlocking grid is characterized by a compressive strength of 300 – 400 tons/m2 without filling and a compressive strength of 1200 – 1800 tons/ m2 with filling
The objects and the advantages of the invention are achieved by the process elaborated in the present disclosure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:
The accompanying drawings constitute a part of this specification and illustrate one or more embodiments of the invention. Preferred embodiments of the invention are described in the following with reference to the drawings, which are for the purpose of illustrating the present preferred embodiments of the invention and not for the purpose of limiting the same.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention. The same reference numerals in different figures denotes the same elements.
In the drawings:
Fig. 1 illustrates top view of the interlocking grid mat in accordance to the embodiments of the present invention;
Fig. 2 describes bottom view of the interlocking grid mat in accordance to the embodiments of the present invention;
Fig. 3 describes isometric view of the interlocking grid mat in accordance to the embodiments of the present invention;
Fig. 4 describes side view of the interlocking grid mat in accordance to the embodiments of the present invention;
Fig. 5 describes side view of the interlocking grid mat in accordance to the embodiments of the present invention;
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The following detailed description illustrates embodiments of the present disclosure and ways in which the disclosed embodiments can be implemented. Although some modes of carrying out the present disclosure have been disclosed, those skilled in the art would recognize that other embodiments for carrying out or practicing the present disclosure are also possible.
The present invention provides a plastic waste based interlocking grid mat made from recycled poly propylene plastic without any additive or binder. The recycled poly propylene plastic is shredded to smaller granules and made as pellets, heated and melted at 1600C to 1800C and molded with injection molding machine.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the said interlocking grid mat has a hexagonal honeycomb structure with hexagonal walls (101) with a round bottom (102); a cavity (102) at the interlocking section; side structures configured to interlock another grid mat; and interlocking joints (201, 202).
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the said plastic waste based interlocking grid mat is placed above the bedding layer of the ground and filled with different fillings in order to create a temporary or permanent, flat, high-quality road or surface. The said grid mat does not require any steel reinforcement reducing the cost of construction significantly.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the plastic waste based interlocking mat has dimensions 500 – 1000mm × 500mm × 40mm. These dimensions can be varied according to the application. Grid Mats with 20 mm and 30 mm thickness are used for less traffic movement or low-density areas.
According to further embodiment of the present invention, the plastic waste based interlocking grid mat is characterized by a compressive strength of 300 - 400 tons/m2 without filling and a compressive strength of 1200 – 1800 tons/m2 with filling.
According to further embodiment of the present invention, the plastic waste based interlocking grid mat has flexural strength of 2 - 5 kN/mm2.
Traditional road construction involves 4 to 5 layers of surface creation including steel reinforcement for concrete roads. The present invention reduces the base layers to just two layers - sub grade layer and base layer followed by installing the interlocking grid mat. The interlocking grid mat can be filled with materials such as sand, mud, gravels, cold asphalt, hot asphalt or concrete. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the filling can be exact to the thickness of the interlocking grid mat i.e., 40mm. Alternatively, the said thickness can be changed to 20 mm as well as 30 mm depending upon less traffic movement or low-density areas.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, this use of interlocking grid mat in the road construction reduces the material requirement by over 60% and also reduces the time required for road construction by 75% as compared to conventional methods of road construction.
The tests conclude that the interlocking grid mat is as strong as the other sections. The ability to carry similar loads without any characteristics change or distortion is very high. Compressive, flexure, point load and other mechanical tests reports indicate high confidence both at interlocking and other remaining surface.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the interlocking grid mat can be used for many applications for tracking and monitoring any surface related sensing including Pressure, Moisture, Temperature-Thermocouples, Strain Gauge, Vibrations, Finer Optic Sensors, Accelerometers, Geophones, Velocity, Deflection, Laser guided systems.
The present invention offers advantages in a wide variety of road applications, from unpaved roads that will remain un-surfaced to the roads that will receive running surface treatments.
Applications of interlocking grid mat as per the preferred embodiments of the present invention vary from road applications, parking surfaces, walkways, industrial flooring, tools, border vigilance platforms, haul ways, farm lands, temporary working areas, construction sites, temporary platforms for exhibitions/stalls/shows and many other use cases.
The plastic waste based interlocking grid mat was made from recycled polypropylene with an injection mold machine and was placed above the bedding layer of the ground and filled with different filling options. The compressive strength was found to be 407.7 tonnes/m2 as tested by the certification company bureau veritas. The interlocking grid mats used up to 20 tons of recycled plastic for constructing a patch of one kilometer.