AU2007100930A4 - Pipe hanger bracket assembly - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR AN INNOVATION PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Agent and Address Korvest Ltd David Salvaterra for Service: MADDERNS, 1 st Floor, 64 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Invention Title: PIPE HANGER BRACKET ASSEMBLY Details of Associated Provisional Application No. 2006905435 dated 3 October 2006 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION S The present invention relates to devices for hanging pipes below ceilings and beams.

BACKGROUND

S There are a large number of products available for hanging pipes below ceilings and beams. These products include clamps, hooks, straps, plates and brackets. Due to the s fact that these products are often installed by piping contractors in a highly S competitive market, there is a need for simple to assemble low cost pipe hanger bracket assemblies.

A commonly used bracket assembly system includes a threaded rod connected to a beam or ceiling and a pipe clamp having a nut welded to its upper surface. The bracket and nut can be rotated relative to the threaded bar to secure the bracket to the ceiling. With this arrangement, once the pipe is in place, it is not possible to adjust the height of the clamp. Pipe clamps are available with barrel nuts welded to the upper bracket. While this allows for a greater degree of adjustment, it does not allow the contractor to adjust the height of the clamp once the pipe has been installed within the clamp.

Other pipe brackets use straps that do not snugly encircle the pipe to be supported.

Such arrangements may in some cases be easy to install and adjust, but do not provide the degree of stability required in some applications.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved pipe hanger bracket assembly that addresses at least some of the aforementioned problems or shortcomings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a pipe hanger bracket assembly for supporting an elongate pipe having a cylindrical external surface, the assembly including: a barrel nut having an upper female threaded portion for receiving a threaded member and a lower nut end defining a flange; 2 a lower band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe clamping portion and terminating in a first lower band end and a second lower band a, end; an upper band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe i clamping portion and terminating in a first upper band end and a second upper band end, the upper band having a nut end receiving portion between the first and second upper band ends, the receiving portion defining a hole within which the nut end rotates, the hole and flange mutually sized to prevent the flange passing through the hole, the receiving portion and the nut end mutually shaped to prevent the external cylindrical surface of the pipe interfering with rotation of the nut with respect to the upper band; and a first fastener means for connecting the first ends together and a second fastener means for connecting the second ends together, wherein the barrel nut is rotatable with respect to the upper band after the fastener means have been fastened so as to clamp the clamping portions of the upper and lower band to the pipe.

With this assembly the installer can easily adjust the height of the pipe after the bracket has been assembled around the pipe by simply rotating the barrel nut with respect to the threaded member (threaded rod or bolt for instance).

Preferably the barrel nut defines a lateral hole or window opening into the female threaded portion that allows the assembler to determine whether or not the threaded member is sufficiently threaded into the barrel nut to safely hold the pipe.

Preferably the assembly includes insulating portions engageable with the clamping portions of the upper and lower bands, in use the insulating portions interposed between the clamping portions and the pipe.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a pipe hanger bracket assembly for supporting an elongate pipe having a cylindrical external surface, the assembly including: a barrel nut having an upper female threaded portion for receiving a threaded member and a lower nut end defining a flange; a lower band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe clamping portion and terminating in a first lower band end and a second lower band S end; an upper band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe r clamping portion and terminating in a first upper band end and a second upper band end, the upper band having a nut end receiving portion between the first and second upper band ends, the receiving portion defining a hole within which the nut end rotates; a retaining means for retaining the nut within the hole; and a first fastener means for connecting the first ends together and a second fastener means for connecting the second ends together, wherein the barrel nut is rotatable with respect to the upper band after installation around the pipe.

Preferably the retaining means comprises the flange, an adjacent recess within the nut and an O-ring received by the recess, the flange and the hole within the upper band mutually sized to prevent the flange passing through the hole and the O-ring sized to prevent the nut falling through the hole before installation around the pipe.

Preferably the barrel nut is shaped to define spanner gripable flats, the flats engageable by a spanner for rotation relative to the threaded member before installation around the pipe.

Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described in some further detail with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying Figures. These embodiments are illustrative, and are not meant to be restrictive of the scope of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying representations in which: Figure la is an exploded perspective view of a pipe hanger bracket assembly according to a first embodiment of the invention; Figure lb is a perspective view of the pipe hanger assembly of Figure 1 in a partly c assembled condition; Figure 2a shows the barrel nut component of the assembly shown in Figures la and 1 b; Figure 2b is a cross-sectional view of the barrel nut shown in Figure 2a; Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of an extruded insulation component of the assembly of Figures 1 and 2; Figure 4 is a side view of an upper portion of the assembly shown in Figure 2; Figures 5 and 6 are top and end views respectively of the portion shown in Figure 4; Figure 7 is a detailed cross-sectional view through the section lines A-A of Figure encompassing the barrel nut portion of the upper portion shown in Figure 4; Figures 8, 9, 10 and 11 are similar to Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively, but show the upper portion without the barrel nut connected; Figure 12 is a side view of the lower portion of the assembly shown in Figure 2; Figures 13 and 14 are top and end views of the lower portion shown in Figure 12; Figure 15 is a detailed view of a portion of the upper portions shown in Figure 13; and Figure 16 is an exploded perspective view of a pipe hanger bracket assembly according to a second embodiment of the invention; Referring to Figures 1 and 2, a pipe hanger bracket assembly 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention is shown. The assembly 10 comprises a lower band an upper band 30, a barrel nut 40 and a first and second fastener means in the form of screws 50 and 60. Insulating portions 23 and 33 engage the clamp upper and lower bands 30 and 20. These insulating portions can be formed from an extrusion such as the extrusion illustrated in sectional view of Figure 3. Referring to Figure lb, the pipe hanger assembly 10 is shown in its partially assembled condition. Once the assembly has been assembled around a pipe, the barrel nut 40 can still be rotated to allow adjustment of the height of the assembly relative to the ceiling to which it is attached.

The upper band 30 is shown in more detail in Figures 8, 9, 10 and 11. These Figures a show that the upper band has a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe C/ clamping portion 32 terminating in a first upper band end 36 and a second lower band end 38. With this embodiment of the invention, the ends are flanges defining attachment holes 37 and 39. The upper band 30 has an upstanding dimpled region 34 cr between its first and second ends 36 and 38. The dimpled region 34 defines a hole O This hole 35 is provided to receive the barrel nut 40 as is shown in Figure 7.

The barrel nut 40, before it is fixed to the upper band 30, is shown in more detail in Figures 2a and 2b. It has an upper female threaded portion 42 for receiving a threaded member such as a threaded bar or bolt and a lower necked portion which forms the waisted portion 46 that is received within the hole 35 defined by the dimpled region 34 of the upper band 30 in the finished assembly.

While the barrel nut 40 of the embodiment of the invention described above is created from a single piece of metal using a pressing process, in other embodiments of the invention, the barrel nut 40 may comprise separable parts. For instance, the flange 47 may be a separate part connected to the body of the barrel nut.

Referring to Figures 12 to 15, it can be seen that the lower band 20 also has a semicircular cross-sectional shaped pipe clamping portion. The clamping portion 32 terminates in a first lower band end 26 and a second lower band end 28.

With this embodiment of the invention, female threads are tapped into extruded attachment holes 37 and 39 as shown in Figures 8 and 11. This allows the lower band to be attached to the upper band 30 as shown in Figure lb. Figure 13 shows an arcuate shaped slot 24 and a screw head retaining lug 25. These features facilitate quick and easy attachment of the assembly to a pipe.

The barrel nut 40 is transformed from the configuration shown in Figures 2a and 2b to the configuration shown in Figure 7 in a pressing process. The pressing process flares the lower end of the necked region 45 outwards to form the waisted portion 46 above a flange 47 to secure the barrel nut 40 to the upper band 30. The lowermost 4 portion, flange 47 of the nut 40, is wholly contained within the space created by the i dimpled region 34 disposed above the outer circumference of the pipe or the outer i circumference of the insulation portions 23. Therefore, even when the pipe hanger bracket assembly 10 has been assembled around a pipe, the barrel nut 40 can be i rotated with respect to the upper and lower bands 30 and A second embodiment of the invention in the form of a pipe hanger bracket assembly I according to a second aspect of the invention is shown in Figure 16. This embodiment of the invention is similar to the first embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figures la to 15 in so far as it comprises a barrel nut, a lower band and an upper band 30 both having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shape pipe clamping portion. The upper band has a nut end receiving portion 31 between it ends. The receiving portion 31 defines a hole in which the nut end 41 rotates. The barrel nut 40 has an upper female threaded portion 42 for receiving a threaded member such as a threaded bar or bolt. The nut end 41 defines a flange 47. The flange 47 has an outside diameter larger than the diameter of the hole within the receiving portion 31 of the upper band. This allows the flange 47 and hence the barrel nut 40 to support the upper band A retaining means for retaining the nut 40 within the hole within receiving portion 31 of the upper band 30 is provided. The retaining means comprises a recess 49' within the nut 40 and an O-ring 49 received by the recess 49'. As stated previously, the nut flange 47 and the hole in the upper band 30 are mutually sized to prevent the flange part coming through the hole. The O-ring 49 is sized to prevent the nut 40 falling through the hole before installation around the pipe.

The barrel nut 40 is shaped to define gripable flats 70. The flats 70 are engageable by a spanner for rotation relative to the threaded member.

S Within the embodiments of the invention described above, an annular flange 47 is 0 provided. Alternatively other embodiments of the invention (not shown) a series of e radial protrusions may be employed to hold the upper band 30 to the nut N While the present invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment in order to facilitate better understanding of the invention, it should be appreciated Cc, that various modifications can be made without departing from the principles of the 0 invention. Therefore, the invention should be understood to include all such modifications within its scope.

Claims (4)

1. A pipe hanger bracket assembly for supporting an elongate pipe having a Lcylindrical external surface, the assembly including: a barrel nut having an upper female threaded portion for receiving a threaded member and a lower nut end defining a flange; a lower band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe clamping portion and terminating in a first lower band end and a second lower band end; an upper band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe clamping portion and terminating in a first upper band end and a second upper band end, the upper band having a nut end receiving portion between the first and second upper band ends, the receiving portion defining a hole within which the nut end rotates, the hole and flange mutually sized to prevent the flange passing through the hole, the receiving portion and the nut end mutually shaped to prevent the external cylindrical surface of the pipe interfering with rotation of the nut with respect to the upper band; and a first fastener means for connecting the first ends together and a second fastener means for connecting the second ends together, wherein the barrel nut is rotatable with respect to the upper band after the fastener means have been fastened so as to clamp the clamping portions of the upper and lower band to the pipe.

2. A pipe hanger bracket assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein the barrel nut defines a lateral hole or window opening into the female threaded portion that allows an assembler to determine whether or not the threaded member is sufficiently threaded into the barrel nut to safely hold the pipe.

3. A pipe hanger bracket assembly for supporting an elongate pipe having a cylindrical external surface, the assembly including: a barrel nut having an upper female threaded portion for receiving a threaded member and a lower nut end defining a flange; a lower band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped 9 pipe clamping portion and terminating in a first lower band end and a second lower band end; an upper band having a generally semi-circular cross-sectional shaped pipe clamping portion and terminating in a first upper band end and a second upper band end, the upper band having a nut end receiving portion between the first and second upper band ends, the receiving portion defining a hole within which the nut end rotates; a retaining means for retaining the nut within the hole; and a first fastener means for connecting the first ends together and a second fastener means for connecting the second ends together, wherein the barrel nut is rotatable with respect to the upper band after installation around the pipe.

4. A pipe hanger bracket assembly as claimed in claim 3 wherein the retaining means comprises the flange, an adjacent recess within the nut and an O-ring received by the recess, the flange and the hole within the upper band mutually sized to prevent the flange passing through the hole and the O-ring sized to prevent the nut falling through the hole before installation around the pipe. A pipe hanger bracket assembly as claimed in either one of claims 3 or 4 wherein the barrel nut is shaped to define spanner gripable flats, the flats engageable by a spanner for rotation relative to the threaded member before installation around the pipe.