WO1981003245A1

WO1981003245A1 - Device for making through-holes in a fire-sealing lead-through

Info

Publication number: WO1981003245A1
Application number: PCT/SE1981/000129
Authority: WO
Inventors: H Siebert; B Legerius
Original assignee: Ericsson Telefon Ab L M; H Siebert; B Legerius
Priority date: 1980-05-05
Filing date: 1981-04-28
Publication date: 1981-11-12
Also published as: SE425879B; SE8003326L; DE3146415A1

Abstract

Tool for making holes in a fire-sealing lead-through including an elastic, fireproof, foamed material, which is kept in compression at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the holes therein. The tool has a hole-making bar portion (2), provided with teeth (9) formed and arranged for hole-making correctly suited to such compressed foamed material. Adjacent to the hole-making part (2), the tool also has tapering driving part (1).

Description

DEVICE FOR MAKING THROUGH-HOLES IN A FIRE-SEALING LEAD-THROUGH

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a tool which makes holes for conduits in fire-sealing leads-through located in a building member such as a concrete wall, ceiling or floor, or case section thereof. The building member can also constitute a relatively thin wall, for example, in a fireproof material such as steel, e g a vessel bulk head. By the term "conduit" is intended, for example, electric cable, piping or the like, and the term is also intended to include a group of such elements.

Leads-through, i e the facilities in walls and floors enabling the passage of electric cables, piping, ventilation ducting or the like from one room to another always constitute a large risk in connection with fire. These leads-through constitute obvious propagation paths for both smoke and flames. It is therefore of decisive importance for fire safety that such a lead-through is sealed in a mode effekctively preventing the propagation of both smoke and fire. The lead-through is usually provided by leaving a recess in a wall or the like on casting concrete or laying the courses of a wall. Alternatively, a passage can be cut in the ready-cast or Laid wall. At a later building stage, conduits are then taken through these leads-through, which are subsequently sealed against fire, i e the free space between the conduits and the wall of the lead-ttirough is filled out with a fire-resistant filling material.

BACKGROUND ART

In a lead-through, it is known to use a fastening frame which is rigidly and sealingly mounted in the building member, this frame then being filled with a plurality of parallelepipedic blocks. At least some of these blocks are parted and have mutually opposing semicircular recesses, which form a cylindrical space for a conduit. This space is filled with a cylindrical sealing body which can be removed to make room for a conduit. By tightening or clamping, the fastening frame affords the desired tight engagement between the blocks and the conduits. The disadvantage with the known arrangements with this kind of fastening frame is that the blocks supplied only afford sealing for certain conduit dimensions and a certain number of conduits. In turn, this has resulted in that during the supplementary laying of conduits through such a frame, a whole block is quite simply removed so that the seal between the cable and the adjacent blocks is lost. Furthermore, it has often been found that blocks have become lost during handling and have not been replaced, the lead-through thus having through-openings which nullify the fire-protecting function of the device.

It is also known in the prior art to utilize rubber bushings for sea ing a conduit lead-through (cf. British Patent Specification 953,869), a tubular rubber grommet being pressed into a lead-through, subsequent to which a cable group is forced through the hole in the grommet. However, such a technique is not particularly suitable for fire-sealing purposes, since the conduits must usually be pulled a long way through the grommet, as well as a new lead-through having to be arranged and a new grommet provided if a further conduit is to be taken through the wall.

A plastics moulding technique has therefore been adopted, the steps here being that the conduit or conduits are laid through the lead-through, which is thereafter temporarily sealed with shuttering, and a fire-resistant silicon is foamed in situ in the lead-through. This technique is offered by Studsviks Energiteknik AB under the name "Brandtatningssystem FC 225" ("FC 225 Fire Sealing System") where a silicon foam commercially available under the name Dow Corning 3-6548 RTV is utilized. If it is subsequently desired to lay a further conduit, a new lead-through should be made for it, e g in an existing wall, and sealed with the FC 225 technique. This is troublesome, especially if the wall consists of concrete, and expensive, not in the least with the thought that in preparing the lead-through, wall claddings such as panels and wallpaper are often damaged and must be replaced.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a tool specially formed for making holes through a fire-sealing lead-through having an elastic fire-resistant foam material which is kept in a compressed condition in the lead-through. The lead-through can be prefabricated or r.ade on site. Conduits are taken through the holes which are made, a sleeve having been inserted in the through-holes before laying out the conduits to facilitate laying out and to prevent damage to the hole walls. After the conduits have been laid and the sleeves removed where necessary, the conduits are sealingly clamped in the foamed material by the compression already in the latter. The object of the invention is to provide a tool for making the holes simply, rapidly and reliably, and which does not destroy the material in the Lead-through when so doing, e g by crumbling off or breaking the material. There is hereby enabled holes which keep the conduits well sealed in the lead-through while at the same time allowing an advantageous utilization of its entire cross section.

The characterizing features of the invention for attaining said object will be seen from the following claims.

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described in the following while referring to the appended drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Fig 1 is a side view, partly in cross section, of one embodiment of a tool in accordance with the invention.

Fig 2 is a perspective view of some segment parts of which the hole-making part of the tool is built up.

Fig 3 illustrates to a larger scale in side view and partially in section the forward end of a tool for expanding holes made by a tool according to Fig 1.

Fig 4 is a side view of a tool for enabling differently sized holes to be made.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The tools illustrated on the drawings are shaped for making holes through a fire-sealing lead-through including an elastic fire-sealing foamed material, said holes being intended for the passage of a conduit as defined hereinbefore. Before conduit-Laying takes place, a sleeve is suitably inserted in the hole to facilitate laying. In the Swedish Patent Application 8002047-2 there is shown an example of a Lead-through of the kind in question, where it is suitable to use a tooL in accordance with the present invention, there also being shown an example of a suitabLy formed sleeve.

The tool illustrated in Fig 1 comprises a driving end 1 in the form of a conical tip portion for facilitating driving the tool through the elastic foamed material without breaking it apart, a hole-making part 2 and a handle part 3. In the illustrated embodiment, the tip part 1 and the handle part 3 are provided with an internalLy threaded sleeve-shaped insert 4 and 5, respectively, for threaded engagement with a rod 6 extending through the hole-making part and threaded at its ends.

The tip part 1, the hole-making part 2 and the handle 3 are preferably made in a suitable plastics material, while the rod 6 is preferably made from stainless steel.

The tip part 1 is provided with grooves 7 along at least two opposing sides for facilitating driving the tooL through and forcing aside the material.

The hole-making part 2 comprises a plurality of parts of segments 8 which are slipped onto the rod 6 and mutually interconnected. The form of the segments 8 in the illustrated tool is best seen from Fig 2. For making holes in the foamed material, the segments are provided with a group of protuberances or teeth 9 of which there are six evenly distributed round the circumference of the segment in this example. For interconnection, the segments 8 are forir.ed with a projection 10 at one end, and at the opposite end with a recess 11 complemental to the projection 10. As will be best seen from Fig 2, the projections 10 and recesses 11 are so located that in the longitudinal direction of the tool the teeth 9 in one segment will register with the gaps between the teeth in the next segment. Furthermore, and as shown, the teeth preferably have an extension in the circumferential direction such that they fill out the gaps between the teeth in the next segment. This arrangement of the teeth and their form ensures in a simple way the formation of a hole with a substantially constant cross section along the hole, for a preferred simple reciprocatory motion of the hole-making portion through the materiaL in the Lead-through, this arrangement of the teeth and their form facilitating the transport of cut-away material out of the hole. The teeth 9 can naturally be given some other placing and form, but then suitably at Least in a helical Line along the hole-making part 2, partly to obtain a hole in the Lead-through with at least a substantially constant cross section, by solely executing the simple reciprocatory motion through the materiaL and partly to facilitate transport of cut-away material. Rotational movement of the tool during driving the hole-making part through the material can naturally be carried out, and here the teeth should also lie in line one after the other, but this results in a more complicated task as well as the risk of greater tearing-away of the material with resulting holes of poorer quality, e g such as could obtain a cross-sectional shape other than that of a circle along a portion of their Length.

The illustrated, preferred subdivision of the hole-making part 2 into segments 8 is above all made for production reasons. Production of the hole-making part in one piece, especially for a helically placed teeth, would signify a more complicated forming tool than what is required for producing the segments. Furthermore, the segments afford the formation of hole-making parts having different Length, and also optional placing of the teeth along the hole-making portion. In another embodiment (not shown) the projections 10 and recesses 11 can be evenly distributed at the ends of the segments, there being thus obtained a plurality of choices for placing the teeth in relation to those on an adjacent segment. There is, of course, the possibility of producing the hole-making part 2 in one piece.

If it is desired to make larger holes than can be suitably made with a tool according to Fig 1, bearing in mind the tearing of the material, a tool as illustrated in Fig 3 can be used after making the hole with a tooL according to Fig 1, the tool of Fig 3 having a larger cross-sectional area along the hole-making part 2, which is provided with a rounded tip instead of the pointed tip 1, which becomes unnecessary. As an alternative hereto a tool as illustrated in Fig 4 can be used. This tool comprises a driving end 1 and a hole-making part 2 in accordance with that shown in Fig 1, but by means of a conical portion 12 this tool now merges into a hole-making part with a Larger cross-sectional area, e g as illustrated in Fig 3. At Least one further hole-making part can subsequently be arranged via a conical part corresponding to the part 12.

The height of the teeth 9 is of .importance. If it is too great, there is a risk of the foamed materiaL being torn off and that the tool is jammed in the materiaL. A suitable tooth height is 1-3 mm, preferably 1.5 mm.

Some leads-through may be reinforced, i e provided with a wire mesh reinforcing net, and there may be a hard materiaL, e g so-called damming boards, arranged on the outsides of a lead-through. By the form of the conical driving tip 1 and its grooves 7, the tip can easily penetrate, especially with a rotating movement, any reinforcing and Like hard material which may be present.

The invention is naturaLly not Limited to the embodiment examples illustrated on the drawings but can be varied in a plurality of modes, which inter alia will be seen from the description hereinbefore, within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

WHAT WE CLAIM IS :

1 A tool for making through-holes in a fire-sealing lead-through, which includes an elastic fire-resistant foamed material which is kept compressed at right angles to the Longitudinal axis of holes therethrough, for subsequent conduit-laying through said holes, the tool comprising a hole-making bar part (2) provided with outwardly directed projections, teeth or the like (9) suitably arranged and formed for the Lead-through materiaL in question, and which merges into a driving part (1) with a cross section decreasing towards its free end, characterized in that the hole-making part (2) includes in its Longitudinal direction a plurality of mutually abutting similarly formed segments (8) bearing said teeth (9) and with coupling means (10,11) for mutually coupling said segments (8) with an intended mutual setting of the teeth (9) of adjacent segments.

2 A tool as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the teeth (9) are placed along a helical line in the longitudinal direction of the hole-making part (2) in the coupled position of the segments (8).

3 A tool as claimed in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that each segment (8) is provided with a plurality of teeth (9) evenly distributed around the circumference of said segment (8).

4 A tool as claimed in claim 2 or 3, characterized in that each tooth (9) on a segment (8) registers in the gap between two teeth on an adjacent segment (8) as seen in the longitudinal direction of the hole-making part (2).

5 A tool as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that each tooth (9) has an extension in the circumferential direction of the segment (8) substantially corresponding to the space between the teeth (9).

6 A tool as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the end opposite to the driving part (1) of the hole-making part (2) merges into a conical Ly expanding part (12), in turn merging into a hole-making, toothed portion of greater cross section. 7 A tool as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the touch height is between 1 and 3 mm, preferably 1.5 mm.