AU722181B2 - Fencing arrangement - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

Application Number: Lodged: Class Int. Class Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority Related Art: a.

Applicant a a 7 HILLS STEEL PTY. LTD.

7 Artisan Road SEVEN HILLS NSW 2147

AUSTRALIA

Address for Service is: PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys 367 Collins Street MELBOURNE 3000 AUSTRALIA Complete Specification for the invention entitled: "FENCING ARRANGEMENT" Our Reference: IRN 426790 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to applicant(s): ~3~W ,,,0605 ABM/PNO820A.DOC FENCING ARRANGEMENT The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the erection of a fencing facility such as that used in the erection of safety guard fencing in building construction. It will be convenient to describe the invention in relation to its use in safety fence construction, however, it should be appreciated that the invention has wider application and is not limited to that specific application described.

Safety guard fencing is generally erected during the construction or refurbishment of many types of buildings, such as warehouses, office blocks and domestic housing. The guard fencing principally acts as a barrier to prevent both workers and materials from falling over the edge of the scaffolding 15*or building.

A barrier for this purpose can comprise a rail extending about the edge *15 of the scaffolding or building structure which is required to be protected. The rail provides a barrier to support the weight of a worker in circumstances where that worker may lean or fall against the rail. For security, two parallel rails are generally provided, which are spaced apart vertically to ensure that the railing provides a sufficient barrier which is difficult for the worker to pass through.

20 The barrier can also include a kick-board which extends along the lower section of the railing, generally at foot level. Such a kick-board normally extends upwardly from the platform or surface upon which the workers stand, for a o distance of approximately 15-20 cm. The kick-board is normally a solid-sheet material such as a wooden plank, which provides a barrier against movement of tools or work materials therepast.

Known guard railing which performs one or both of the above requirements is now compulsory in many building sites. In Australia, safety guard railing is governed by Australian Standard AS 1657. However, the known safety guard railing has generally been cumbersome in size and weight, but more importantly, it has been awkward to erect.

The object of the present invention is to provide a fencing arrangement which is relatively simple and easy to install.

According to the present invention, there is provided a fencing arrangement, said fencing arrangement including at least one pair of spaced apart elongate support members, mounting means suitable to mount said support members at one end to a building or a scaffolding frame, attachment means suitable to attach a safety barrier between said spaced apart support members, said attachment means extending from opposite edge regions of said safety barrier and releasably engaging said spaced apart elongate support members said attachment means including a pair of opposed plates for sandwich engagement of said safety barrier, and fastening means for fastening said opposed plates into said sandwich engagement against said safety barrier.

The safety barrier of the invention can be any suitable barrier which provides a barrier against movement of workers or materials therepast. The safety barrier can be the same or similar to fencing used in other applications, such as mesh fencing. Such fencing will be generally planar and is preferably rigid, although the use of flexible mesh fencing could also be applicable. In certain circumstances, it O o**will be appropriate that the fencing be secured to a frame and this is most particularly applicable for flexible fencing such as flexible mesh or netting.

The safety barrier is provided in discrete lengths, suitable to extend between ;the pair of spaced-apart elongate support members. The spacing between support members may be a standard dimension, or it may be necessary to customise the barrier for particular applications. The barrier when erected will provide a generally planar, square or rectangular barrier, having top, bottom and side edges.

In a preferred form, the safety barrier has a rigid construction and the bottom edge is upturned to provide a recess for receiving a kick-board or the like.

The attachment means are preferably releasably securable to the safety S" barrier and in one form, the attachment means includes engagement means for releasably engaging the safety barrier. The engagement means may include a pair of oppositely located plates, which are arranged to be placed on either side of the barrier material to sandwich the barrier material therebetween. Fastening means may be adopted to sandwich the plates against the barrier material, and the fastening means may include-a fastening member, such as a screw threaded L/AN fastener, for drawing the opposed plates together. In addition, the 4,~ I-u C:AWINWORO\SHAROMANDRENODELETE427A.

opposed ends of one of the plates may be curved inwardly toward the other of the plates to inhibit slipping movement of the attachment means in the plane of the barrier material when the plates are fastened thereto. This is particularly suitable for gridded safety barriers, as the curved ends of the plate can be arranged to engage the spaced-apart elements of the gridded structure to prevent slipping.

The attachment means are required to be releasably engagable with the elongate support members. The elongate support members preferably take the form of support posts, and extend to a similar height as the safety barrier. For the attachment means to be releasably engagable with the support posts, each support post may include locating means for locating the attachment means relative thereto. In one form, the'locating means may include an opening for releasably receiving an engagement portion of the attachment means and that opening may be provided, for example, in the wall of the support post.

Alternatively, the locating means may comprise a member or members attached to the external surface of the support post, which member or members include an opening or bore suitable to receive the engagement portion. The or each locating member may be cylindrical in form and may be disposed vertically against the external surface of the support post by any suitable 20 means, such as by welding.

In a preferred arrangement, the support post includes a pair of hollow cylindrical members oppositely located at an upper region thereof and a further pair of hollow cylindrical members oppositely located at a lower region thereof, such that safety barriers can be supported at upper and lower regions of the side edges thereof, on either side of the support post.

The arrangement as above described advantageously enables a safety barrier, having attachment means attached thereto, to be lowered into engagement with the locating means of the spaced apart support members and to remain in that engaged state until such time as the safety barrier are lifted and the attachment means are released from the locating means. Thus, a safety barrier can be assembled relative to the support posts simply by lowering the attachment means into engagement with the locating means and 4 a.11- 11103 20 ,0o," disassembly of the fencing arrangement may be accomplished in the reverse, ie by lifting the safety barrier to facilitate release of the attachment means from the locating means. Thus, the arrangement provides for simple and convenient assembly and disassembly of safety barriers.

The mounting means may take any suitable form to mount the support members relative to the base or structure to which the fencing arrangement is mounted. In normal circumstances, it is envisaged that the fencing arrangement will be mounted on a structure such as scaffolding and for that purpose, the mounting means may include bracing means which extends between the support means and the scaffolding. The bracing means may include a bracing member which extends beyond the lower end of the support means and may include adjustable and/or releasable fastening means to fasten the bracing member both to the support means and to the scaffolding mount. Alternatively, the bracing member may be permanently fixed to the support means and the adjustable and/or releasable fastening means may be applied only to the bracing member in the region of the scaffolding. For convenience, the adjustable and/or releasable fastening means may be permanently fixed to the bracing member. The adjustable and/or releasable fastening means may take any suitable form and may for example be a hinged collar arrangement, that 20 extends and clamps about an appropriate part of the scaffolding to fix the bracing member thereto, with a suitable fastener applied to fasten the collar thereabout.

S• The support members may include further means to locate them relative to such scaffolding, for example each support member may include an opening suitable to receive a part of the scaffolding. That opening may be located at one end of the support member and may be a flared end of the post suitable to receive an upright post of the scaffolding.

Alternatively, an upright post of the scaffolding may be provided with a spigot which is sized to be received within the end opening of the support post, or alternatively the spigot may be provided in the end opening of the support post for receipt by an upright post of the scaffolding.

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In order to assist in arriving at an understanding of the present invention, a preferred embodiment is illustrated in the attached drawings. However, it should be understood that the following description is illustrative only and should not be taken in any way as a restriction of the generality of the invention as described above.

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate support means in the form of a support post The support post 10 includes a cylindrical elongate pipe part 11 which is hollow.

The support post 10 also includes a plurality of further cylindrical pipe sections 12 to 15 which have internal bores disposed vertically and which facilitate attachment of a safety barrier to the support post. The pipe sections 12 to 15 may be welded to the support post 10 and, as illustrated, are oppositely located against the external surface of the post S"The internal diameter of the pipe sections 12 to 15 are sized to cooperate with attachment means for attaching a safety barrier to the support °go° 15 post 10. Figures 3 to 5 illustrate a suitable attachment means which is o° arranged to be attached between the support post 10 and a mesh or grid safety i o barrier 17. The mesh safety barrier 17 includes a plurality of rods 18 arranged at right angles in a grid formation and the attachment means 16 includes a pair of plates 19 and 20, which are arranged to sandwich at least two of the rods 18 therebetween. Fastening means in for form of a screw threaded nut and bolt arrangement21 is provided to fasten the plates 19 and 20 to the safety barrier 17 and thus suitably positioned openings in the plates 19 and 20 are S"provided to accommodate the shaft of the bolt. For convenience, the nut may be permanently attached to the plate 19 for receiving the bolt, by way of welding for example.

As is evident from Figures 4 and 5, the plate 19 includes angled end portions 22 and 23 and these end portions are provided to resist movement of the attachment means relative to the mesh of the support barrier 17. The angled end portions 22 and 23 are angled away from the plane of the middle portion 24 of the plate 19 at a position approximately equal to the spacing between the rods 18, so that the rods are engaged by the plate 19 along the 6 aru0r,1,19So Ior angled end portions thereof, which thus resists movement of the plate 19 relative to the rods 18.

The attachment means 16 further includes an attachment member which, in the arrangement illustrated, is welded to the plate 20. The attachment member 25 is formed to have a horizontally disposed leg 26 connected to the plate 20 and a vertically disposed leg 27 for cooperation with one of the pipe sections 12 to The vertically disposed leg 27 is sized to be received within one of the pipe sections 12 to 15, and a schematic view showing the safety barrier 17 attached to the support post 10 via the attachment means 16 is illustrated in Figure 6. Figure 6 shows an arrangement whereby the support post includes four pipe sections 12 to 15, for receiving the vertical legs 27 of four attachment means 16, for the attachment of two separate safety barriers 17.

This arrangement is particularly effective and simple, given that the safety 15 barriers 17 need only be lifted into position in which the vertical legs 27 of the o* attachment means 16 are above the openings in the pipe sections 12 to i after which the support barriers can be lowered in order that the vertical legs 27 S°are received within the bores of the pipe sections. The opposite ends of the **safety barriers 17 can be supported in a similar manner.

Release of the safety barriers 17 from the support post 10 is easily completed by lifting the safety barrier 17 to remove the vertical leg 27 out of the opening in the respective pipe section.

°eoe° S°The support post 10 includes mounting means for mounting the post on the structure, such as a scaffolding structure to which it is attached. The mounting means is illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 7. In the particular arrangement illustrated, the mounting means includes a bracing member 28 which extends from the lower end of the support post 10. The bracing member 28 is welded to the support post The bracing member28 includes fastening means for fastening the bracing member to the scaffolding structure.. The fastening means illustrated is in the form of a releasable collar29 which includes two semi-circular sections 30 and 31 which are in hinged engagement by hinge-pin 32. The 7 a.rTh j9520 doc hinged arrangement allows the collar 29 to be opened to receive an upstanding mounting post 33 (see Figure 7) and to be fastened thereabout by a fastening member such as a screw-threaded fastener.

The mounting post 33 is provided with a spigot 34 which is received within the open end of the support post 10 and this further serves to secure the support post 10 relative to the mounting post 33. Alternatively, the lower end of the support post can be flared as illustrated at 35 in Figure 8.

The method of assembling the fencing arrangement is thus as follows.

The support post 10 is fitted to the scaffolding structure by placing the lower end of the support post 10 over the mounting post 33. Either the spigot arrangement 34, or the flared end 35 will locate the support post 10 in position over the mounting post 33. The releasable collar is then fastened about the mounting post 33 and the support post 10 is thus mounted securely on the mounting post 33 at two positions.

The attachment means 16 are attached to the safety barrier 17 at appropriate locations for cooperation with the pipe sections 12 to 15. For i o flexibility, the attachment means 16 can be initially loosely applied to the safety o barrier 17 to enable adjustment of their positions for accurate positioning relative to the pipe sections 12 to 15 upon assembly.

20 Once the attachment means 16 has been positioned accurately for engagement with the pipe sections 12 to 15, the attachment means can be left attached to the safety barrier 17 even when the fencing arrangement is disassembled, so that the attachment means 16 are correctly positioned when it is again required to erect the fencing arrangement.

The safety barrier 17, with attachment means 16 attached thereto, can then be lifted into engagement with the support post 10 and the fending arrangement is erected. Any member of safety barriers may be erected by erecting sufficient members of support posts.

In the erection of the fencing arrangement, it is envisaged that the attachment means can be permanently fixed to the safety barrier so that once the support posts are in place, all that is necessary is to lift the safety barrier into engagement with the support posts.

8 aNrn0820 ,o As discussed previously, the mounting means may take other forms and the fencing arrangement could for example be used for ground level walkway, street barriers, park fencing and many other uses in addition to its advantageous use as a safety fence on scaffolding and building structures. The fencing facility of the present invention is simple and quick to install and additionally is more compact in storage and has significant weight advantages compared to known portable fencing systems.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there may be many variations and modifications of the configuration described herein which are within the scope of the present invention.

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Claims (18)

1. A fencing arrangement, said fencing arrangement including at least one pair of spaced apart elongate support members, mounting means suitable to mount said support members at one end to a building or a scaffolding frame, attachment means suitable to attach a safety barrier between said spaced apart support members, said attachment means extending from opposite edge regions of said safety barrier and releasably engaging said spaced apart elongate support members said attachment means including a pair of opposed plates for sandwich engagement of said safety barrier, and fastening means for fastening said opposed plates into said sandwich engagement against said safety barrier.

2. A fencing arrangement according.to claim 1, wherein said attachment means are releasably attached to said safety barrier. 15

3. A fencing arrangement according to claim 1 or 2 wherein said fastening o;means comprises a threaded bolt, which extends in connection with one of said pair of opposed plates and the shank of which passes through an opening provided in the other of said pair of plates, for threaded engagement with a nut which engages the outer surface of the other of said pair of opposed plates.

4. A fencing arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein one of said pair of opposed plates includes curved or angled end regions which 0.4are curved or angled inwardly toward the safety barrier for gripping of the safety barrier.

A fencing arrangement according to any preceding claim, wherein each said support member includes locating means and said attachment means includes an engagement portion which extends into releasable engagement with said locating means.

6. A fencing arrangement according to claim 5, wherein said locating means includes a vertically disposed bore and said engagement portion is releasably receivable within said bore. C'WINWORDSHAROMANDREWNODELETEI2O7gOAM.DOC 11

7. A fencing arrangement according to claim 6, wherein said vertically disposed bore is provided by a tubular member attached to the outer surface of said support member.

8. A fencing arrangement according to any one of claims 6 or 7 when dependent on any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said engagement portion is an elongate member having two portions, one portion of which is connected to one of said pair of opposed plates and the other portion being disposed for receipt within said vertically disposed bore.

9. A fencing arrangement according to any preceding claim, wherein said mounting means includes bracing means depending from a lower end of said support member, said bracing means including a bracing member extending from the lower end of said support member and includes fastening means to fasten said bracing member to said building or scaffolding frame.

A fencing arrangement according to claim 9, wherein said bracing member is permanently fixed to said lower end of said support member. 20

11. A fencing arrangement according to claim 9 or 10, wherein said fastening means comprises a hinged collar arrangement suitable to clamp about a suitable part of said building or scaffolding frame.

12. A fencing arrangement according to any one of claims 9 to 119, wherein 25 the lower end of said support member includes a flared end to receive the upper end of a post extending from said building or scaffolding frame. V*le gee* 12. A fencing arrangement according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein 25 the lower end of said support member includes a spigotflared etndin to reeive thefrom, :upper end of a post extending from said building or scaffolding frame. oil•13. A fencing arrangement according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the lower end of said support member includes a spigot extending therefrom, for receipt within the upper end of a tubular post extending from said building or scaffolding frame.

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14. A fencing arrangement according to any preceding claim, wherein each said support member is a tubular support post.

A fencing arrangement according to any preceding claim, wherein said safety barrier is a rigid mesh barrier.

16. A fencing arrangement according to any preceding claim, wherein said safety barrier is a flexible mesh.

17. A fencing arrangement according to claim 16, wherein said safety barrier includes a supporting frame.

18. A fencing arrangement substantially as herein before described with reference to any one of the accompanying drawings. a ns at 17 Ma 2000 0* a. a o o y"OS k;