A composite structural element in the form of a slab for a building is known comprising an insulating panel and a concrete rib plate.
The concrete rib pate with its base members and rib members is cast on the insulating panel instead of on a form which is removed.
The concrete rib plate has rib members which fit into corresponding recesses of the insulating panel. Further the concrete rib plate can have a planar reinforcement in the form of a steel mat and rib reinforcing elements (e.g. baskets) of reinforcing bar (rebar) for the rib members.
The structural element of my invention can be either a wall or a floor element. This structural element is designed to be sound and/or heat insulating. The insulating panel is intended to take the place of the removable form and thus become a so-called "lost form" in the manufacture of the structural element to allow simple manufacture of the structural element.
Moreover, the insulating panel used as a form can be combined with a form side wall composed of another material, for example wood. The insulating panel can fulfill additional functions in the structural element according to my invention. In fact it can be a multifunctional insulating panel having embedded electrical insulation, communication elements, and heat and water facilities.
A structural element found satisfactory in practice is described in German Patent Application No. P 21 15 250.1-09. It has however been required for automatic mass production to provide the steel mat at least with spacing retainers and rib reinforcing elements correspondingly equipped with spacing retainers installed and distributed in the form to provide a reinforcing cage. The individual mounting of the spacing retainers and the exact installation of the reinforcing components is time consuming, expensive, and interferes with the automatic mass production.