AU613191B2 - Anchor nut - Google Patents

Description

I

61319 1 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPEC!CICATION

(ORIGINAL)

Form FOR OFFICE USE Class Int. Class 0 Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification-Lodged: 0 Accepted: Published: Priority: 0 1 r Related Art: TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT JOHIN LYSAGHT (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED Name of Applicant: Address of Applicant: 55 Sussex Street, Sydney, New South WalesI Australia Actual Inventor.- CAMPRELL JOHN SEOCOMBE 4 1 5 8 Address for Service SMITH STIELSTO4 IEADLE Suite 7, 207 Great North Roadi F-IVE DOCK XSW 204 6 Com'plete Specification for the invontlon entitled.

"ANCHOR NUT11 The followingj statement Is a full description of this Invention, Including tile best method of performing it known to me;e- CoinpJete after provisional P1 8449 dated 20 May 1988.

WUDN A.C.T. 2606. 2 f File: 6 2 This invention is concerned with means for suspending articles from slotted overhead supports, wherein the slots open downwardly and have their least width spaced below the roof of the slot, usually at or near the mouth of the slot.

The invention was devised primarily for the suspension of ceilings, pipes and conduits or other architectural components from roofs or the underside of upper floors in situations where the roof cladding, or the floor base, comprises ribbed steel sheets of the kind in which each rib defines an inverted channel having a mouth of lesser c 10 width than that of the interior. Frequently the rib, and thus the slot defined by it, is of dove tail cross-section. Thus, the invention is described herein primarily with reference to that application, but it will be reailsed that it is applicable generally to the suspension of other articles from other suitably slotted overhead structures.

c t One form of hanger in widespread use comprises an anchor nut trapped in the overhead slot and a tie or carrier means including a threaded stem which is screwed into the nut. The end of the stem t-a contacts the roof of the slot and draws the nut downwardly into tight engagement with the walls of a lower part of the slot, The tie or carrier mears is then held socurely in place.

Hangers for ceilings and the like are used in great numbers in the building industry, and it is important for them to be easy and quick to instal. The above indicated type presently leaves something to be desired in this regard because of the difficulty in inserting the nut into the slot, then disposing and positioning it to accept the stem, and holding it as the stem is initially engaged with it.

3 An object of the present invention is to facilitate the installation of anchor nuts in slots having a restricted mouth and the engagement of those nuts with a threaded stem.

The invention consists in an anchor nut comprising a nut body and elongated handle means comprising a strip of non-metallic material, which is flexible and readily foldable, but has sufficient E stiffness to be at least self-supporting, adhered to said body.

.I By way of example, an embodiment of the above described "oo o invention is described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the

OO

%o O: 10 accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an anchor nut according to the invention.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 are diagrams showing respective stages in oo the operation of installing the nut of figure 1 in a slot of dove tail cross-section.

0 0 4 so de The illustrated ancihor nut comprises a nut body 6 which is essentially a rectangular prism with upper and lower, square, major faces 7, two rectangular end faces 8 and two rectangular side faces 9.

A centrally positioned threaded hole 10 pierces the body 6, extending from one major face 7 to the other.

The illustrated nut also comprises handle means being, in this instance, a strip 11 of light cardboard adhered flatly against a major, preferably the upper, body face 7 (that is to say the face which will be uppermost when the nut is in its normal position when in use in an .L 4 overhead slot), with end portions of the strip extending away from the body across the ends of the major face 7 to which it is secured.

For preference the strip 11 has fold or crease lines 12 impressed in it adjacent the nut body to facilitate it folding about those lines to bring the strip end portions substantially perpendicular to the major faces 7.

To instal a nut according to this illustrated version of the invention one of the strip end portions is folded about its corresponding fold line and the lower edge of the adjacent end face 8 so that it lies 10 flatly against the lower face 7 and extends from the nut body in the same direction as the other end portion. This situation is shown in figure 2 where the nut is being offered up to a dove tail sectioned groove in a steel sheet 5. The nut body 6 may then be inserted end o, first through the mouth of the slot so that boti strip end portions then cc It 15 extend from the slot. The folded over end portion may then be pulled it as seen in figure 3 to turn the nut body right way up in the slot. Both strip ends may then be pulled to bring the nut body towards the mouth Pi of the slot until further movement is prevented by the restriction in the 4 ,oo, slot, as seen in figure 4. The threaded stem may then be engaged with the nut and the strip end portions facilitate obtaining the correct alignment of the two items for that purpose.

The illustrated embodiment is a particularly inexpensive embodiment to make and for that reason is generally preferred, however in other embodiments for use in a slot of dove tail crosssection the upper face of the nut body may be somewhat longer than the lower face so that the end faces converge downwardly in the same I I way as the side walls of the slot. This results in face to face pressure between the body end faces and the respective slot side walls when the stern is tightened up.

Alternatively the upper and lower faces may be the same size and the end faces bowed outwardly or doubly faceted so that, in the 1' first instance, line contact with the slot walls or, in the second instance, face to face contact with the lower facets occurs.

L In other embodiments the cardboard strip of the illustrated embodiment may be replaced by a strip of tape; but to facilitate the 80000 10 manipulation of the nut body in the slot it is preferred for the tape, like the preferred cardboard, to be stiff enough to enable the nut body to be lifted by upward movement of a tape end portion through the mouth of the slot. To that end an appropriately plasticised plastics tape or plastics covered paper tape may be used, Such tapes have the further advantage of being waier resistant.

In other embodiments of the invention the cardboard or other 0 0% strip may be adhered to the lower major face of the nut body. In that 4 04 44 ainstance the strip is preferably holed or gapped to expose the threaded hole. This may be done if it is thought that the presence of remnants of strip sandwiched between the end faces of the nut body and the slot walls is objectionable in particular installations. Another possible alternative utilising resilient strip handle means would be to have two pieces of strip respectively adhered to the nut body end faces.

'still other embodiments of the Invention, the handle, means may cornprise string-like components Instead of strip, or, in another class of embodiments, may comprise a rigid, wire handle welded, *1

I

i L f iir C t2( 'C ~J~oo o 6 brazed or soldered to a face of the nut body. Such a rigid handle may extend, for example, perpendicularly from a side face for a short distance and then turn through 900 to extend parallel to the axis of the threaded hole. Such a handle permits ready manipulation of the nut body within the slot as required.

0 o o 0 0 000 0 00 000 0

Claims (2)

1. An anchor nut comprising a nut body and elongated handle means comprising a strip of non-metallic material, which is flexible and reaJily foldable but has sufficient stiffness to be at least self- supporting, adhered to said body. o 2. A nut according to claim 1 wherein said handle means comprise a

4. single length of said material adhered to a major face of said body with end portions projecting beyond the end edges of said face. 3. A nut according to either claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said material is cardboard. 4. A nut according to claim 3 insofar as it depends on claim 2 wherein r a transverse fold line is impressed in the cardboard strip at or adjacent each said end edge. An anchor nut substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. Applicant JOHN LYSAGHT (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED Date 10 May 1991 Attorney ROBERT G. SHELSTON F.I.PA.A. of SMITH SHPISTON BEADLE