AU2002100086B4 - A structural mounting foot - Google Patents

Description

1 A Structural Mounting Foot Currently structures such as posts are mounted to floors by using a connecting foot. Such feet are often made so as to be attached to the floor by a threaded rod which is fixed into the floor and which then extends through the height of the foot so as to accept a nut for tightening the foot to the floor, such feet also contain an expanding wedge mechanism such that the post being a slide fit over the foot is clamped by the wedge mechanism when the nut is tightened.

Such wedge mechanisms commonly comprise one wedge which is a complimentary fit into an open vee shaped member part which expands as the wedge is forced into the vee via the nut. These vee shaped members on expanding exert a point load to the post and internal of the post so as to clamp the post but are unsatisfactory since the point load creates a small area of high stress concentration between the vee shaped member and the post thus causing compressive distortion of the vee shaped member in contact with the post. The assembly requires close manufacturing control between the size of the wedge mechanism and the post so as to approximate the slide fit which can often thus be too tight or too loose. Once assembled the distorted vee shaped member is difficult to remove from the assembly for maintenance and inspection.

The present invention provides a structural mounting foot which is simple to assemble and to un-assemble and does not require close manufacturing tolerance and which always provides an even pressure between the foot in contact with the post.

The structural mounting foot of this invention as shown in a typical side elevation 2 figure 1 comprises a base plate for bearing on a floor and having a set of chocks for bearing against the internal wall of a post throughout the longitudinal length of the chocks the foot also having a wedge for progressively separating the chocks the foot further having a hole extending longitudinally through the foot to accept a threaded rod for securing the foot to the floor the chocks further having a face for bearing against a nut on the threaded rod to allow progressively tightening of the chocks whereby the chocks are progressively bearable against the inner wall of the post to thereby progressively and evenly grip the post.

The device may be typically constructed from metal.

Claims (2)

1. A structural mounting foot for mounting a rectangular hollow section post vertically to a floor, the foot comprising a base plate for bearing on a floor, a pair of opposed chocks Sfor bearing against a pair of opposed internal walls of a post and a wedge between the chocks c 5 for progressively horizontally separating the chocks, the foot further having a hole for S accepting a threaded rod with a nut to secure the foot to a floor, the longitudinal axis of the IND hole being approximately central of the wedge and extending vertically through the foot, the 00oO wedge having a plan view cross sectional rectangular shape and in elevation view the opposed sloped sides of the wedge are angled towards each other upwardly, the chocks ,I having a plan view cross sectional rectangular shape and an elevational view perimeter shape which is defined by a series of connected faces the planes of which are perpendicular to the plane of the perimeter shape, the said perimeter shape of each chock being defined by; a vertical first face, for bearing against an inside wall of a vertical rectangular hollow section post, the said first face extending substantially above and below the top of the wedge a sloped second face, for bearing against a sloped side of the wedge, the said second face extending upwardly from the bottom end of the first face and being parallel to the sloped side of the wedge and having a terminal top end in the region of the top of the wedge, a sloped third face, extending downwardly from the top end of the first face, to resist bending of the post above the wedge and to guide an installation tool to the nut, the third face having a terminal bottom end in proximity to the terminal top end of the second face a horizontal fourth face, to receive bearing pressure from a nut above on the threaded rod, the said fourth face extending from the region between the terminal bottom end of the third face and the terminal top end of the second face, the horizontal fourth face being located in the region of the top of the wedge and substantially below the top end of the first face and extending towards the longitudinal axis of the hole, the chock being locatable on the wedge such that the horizontal extremity of the fourth face is locatable slightly past the closest extremity of the hole

2. A structural mounting foot as claimed in claim 1 wherein the horizontal fourth face of the chock extends from the terminal bottom end of the third face to the terminal top end of the second face and in a direction towards the longitudinal axis of the hole, the fourth face being located in the region of the top of the wedge and substantially below the top end of the first face such that the third face of the chock extends substantially above the fourth face. Ian Thomas Howe 1 August 2007 Eric Holmes 1 August 2007