AU726928B2 - Gate support improvements - Google Patents

Description

I

47030 HKS:LJF P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

a* *Name of Applicant: *LANCE MALCOLM VATER 9* *Name of inventor(s): LANCE MALCOLM VATER Address for Service: COLLISON CO.,117 King William Street, Adelaide, S.A. 5000 Invention Title: GATE SUPPORT IMPROVEMENTS Details of Associated Provisional Applications: P03769 dated 22nd November 1996 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:

GAESPOTI*OEET

Deal of AsoitdPoiioa plctos PO76 dae 22dNvmr19 The folwn ttmn«safl dsrpinohsivnin This invention relates to gate support improvements and in particular, in one case to brackets for providing for such support in a further case to an assemblage providing such support and in a further case again to a method of adjusting the position of a gate relative to a supporting post.

The problem to which this invention is directed relates to the provision of hinging support for a gate of a type using tubular steel.

There exists at the present time a bracket comprised of two parts each part having an outer end arranged to interlock with the other and forming thereby two concave parts along the length of the joined bracket parts providing with a S 1 0 first of the concave partsattachment of a spigot on which a gate can be supported, and with a second of these concave parts this being adapted to engage with clamping force around a tubular steel post, the two elements making up this bracket being adapted to be pulled together and held in a clamping position by appropriate bolts, being threadably engaged by nuts, 1 5 passing mutually through apertures in the respective parts.

This bracket has been found to be an effective bracket for the purpose but it is not adapted to provide for adjusting the position of the support in a horizontal direction relative to the post when this might be needed.

To clarify the point as far as adjustability is concerned, when a gate is supported in the manner described, the alignment of the gate may need to be adjusted. For instance the gate may in some cases impinge on the ground, or at the least, its upper and lower edges may be visibly out of alignment or otherwise which can be unacceptable for a commercial installation.

Further however, the gate may have its outer vertical edge misaligned with the outer post and again there may need to be some adjustment.

The problem has been however, as to how can there be provided horizontal adjustment potential while using the significant advantages of the spigot support bracket as previously described which allows for vertical support and which may be already installed and in any event has proven itself to be 3 0 effective.

In accord with this invention this can be said to reside in an assemblage of a first bracket comprised of two parts each part having an outer end arranged to interlock with the other and forming thereby two concave parts along the length of the joined bracket parts providing with a first of the concave parts attachment of a spigot on which a gate can be supported, and with a second of these concave parts this being adapted to engage with clamping force around a tubular steel post, the two elements making up this bracket being adapted to be pulled together and held in a clamping position by an appropriate bolt, being threadably engaged by a nut, passing mutually through apertures in the 1 0 respective parts characterised by further including a second bracket which has at least two parts one part of which is adapted to be clamped by the first said bracket between the respective elements, and there being a second part which provides an upper support surface adapted to rest upon upper surfaces of the first said bracket and there being an aperture through the said upper support surface which is elongate.

This then provides for both horizontal and vertical adjustability with the same bracket.

This has previously not been possible.

In preference there is a spigot, a lower end of which spigot can be engaged by a screw threaded nut whereby to tighten and hold the spigot in any of selected *positions as will be available by reason of the elongation of the aperture through which the bottom of the spigot can pass.

One of the problems with such an arrangement however is that it can be quite difficult to get access to the nut in order to loosen this to adjust the position of 2 5 the spigot when in an installed position.

A bottom inner end of a gate will usually be very low to the ground so that if a bracket of the first type is secured to a supporting post, then it is very likely that this will be either just above the ground or so close to it that access to beneath the bracket will not be readily available.

3 0 A next development then in accord with this invention in preference but not essential has been to provide that a spigot is provided which will have at least two oppositely positioned flats whereby the spigot itself can be engaged by an open ended spanner so as to rotate this relative to its securing nut.

The self evident problem with this however again is that no-one can be sure that once the spigot itself has been loosened, that the nut will not turn and therefore simply not be readily able to be held fixed for tightening by engagement of the spigot.

Means of course have been long known to lock a nut in position, but the problem here is more than that.

The spigot is to be adjustable relative to the elongate slot in the support surface of the second said bracket.

So 1 0 In accord with a further development of this invention then there has been provided according to a preferred arrangement a nut lock which comprises a bracket (a third mentioned bracket) having first means to non rotatably engage the nut, and further means to slidably engage along the sides of a main support bracket so as to thereby lock the nut against relative rotational 1 5 freedom with respect to the main support bracket.

In preference, the third bracket is supported by having an aperture through which the end of the spigot passes and therefore the nut itself retains this third bracket with respect to the spigot nut assembly, and there are two oppositely positioned lugs which are positioned to engage on an inside edge of respective parts of the first said bracket.

What we then have with this arrangement is that a gate that might need to be adjusted relative to its supporting post, can be partially lifted away from its supporting spigot, and an open ended spanner can be used to engage and loosen off the spigot with respect to its holding nut in respect of the second bracket.

The gate can then be adjusted to its appropriate realigned position which in turn will cause the spigot to relocate itself along the elongate hole in the said second bracket. The spigot can then be rotated so as to again be tightened by relative rotation relative to the nut.

3 0 The gate can then be lowered and of course it will then have attained this new alignment.

The invention will be better understood when described with respect to an embodiment which shall now be described with the assistance of drawings wherein: Fig 1 is a perspective view of an assembly in accordance with the embodiment with part cut away, Fig 2 is a view with the spigot and an associated plastics bush lifted above the supporting brackets the whole of the drawing in this case being shown as a transparent view, .1 0 Fig 3 is an exploded view of the embodiment as shown in Fig's 1 and 2, l,=i Fig 4 is a further exploded view from below in this case rather than from above as in Fig 3, Fig 5 is an assembly view of the embodiment when in position with respect to a post and supporting a gate, *p S..

1 5 Fig 6 is a cross sectional view showing the range of positions of the spigot, Fig's 7, 8 9 are end, side and plan views of a third bracket by which a nut can be held how be it with slidable freedom with respect to the assembly, Fig's 10, 11 12 are respectively side plan and end views of the second bracket which is used to be held by the first said bracket and provides an elongate aperture through which the spigot can engage, Fig 13 comprises of views of both side and end of respectively the spigot, the washer, and the nut applicable in each case to the spigot, and Fig 14 is an enlarged view of the view as in Fig 6 illustrating in dotted outline and dotted shading, a further position of the spigot and therefore the range of adjustment available.

Now referring to the drawings in detail, there is a first bracket comprised of two 6 elements, these being shown as 1 and 2 and these have at an outer end 3, interlocking tongues shown at 4 and The remainder of the bracket then provides for two parts where the sides of the respective elements 1 and 2 are generally parallel one with respect to the other and these have curves which provide for engaging surfaces which would normally be intended to partially engage around a cylindrical surface for instance at 6 and 7 for a conventional spigot, and at 8 and 9 for a conventional supporting post.

The respective elements 1 and 2 will be brought into a clamping engagement by having bolts passing mutually through respective apertures shown at 9 and 10 in the one case and 11 and 12 in the other. This is an existing bracket and is referred generally in the specification as the first bracket or the first said bracket.

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Ooo We now have a second bracket 13 which has three parts, a first being an upper part at 14 which has an elongate aperture at 15. There are two further parts, these being a back part 16 which has at its lower outer ends, lugs 17 and 18 this back part 16 also having parallel sides at 19 and Finally there is a front part which comprises two downwardly projecting teeth at 21.

This second bracket 13 is secured with respect to the first bracket by having the back part and particularly the edges 19 and 20 being held under compression by respective elements 1 and 2 of the first bracket engaging and holding this in place. The lugs 17 and 18 assist in ensuring that the back will not lift away under substantial pressures.

The teeth 21 engage around the members 4 and 5 and provide further interlocking relationship between the said first bracket comprised of elements 1 and 2 and the second bracket 13.

By having such an arrangement then, a spigot 22 can be caused to be secured albeit in an adjustable position by reason of having a threaded lower end at 23 passing through he elongate aperture 15 and being ensnared by a nut 24.

The spigot itself however is of generally hexagonal shape so that it therefore has three sets of oppositely located flat surfaces which can be used to be engaged by a spanner for access and tightening purposes.

We now have the problem however that the nut 24 needs to be locked so that the spigot can be loosened and tightened without separate access to the nut simply because the whole of the assembly would normally be located as low as possible to the ground.

Accordingly, there is provided a third bracket 25 which has a central aperture 26, and two lugs 27 and 28 which are intended to engage against the flats of the hexagonal shape of the nut 24 so as to ensure that this nut 24 will not a relatively rotate with respect to the bracket 25. There are located, at the outer edges of the bracket 25, two further lugs at 29 and oe These lugs 29 and 30 are positioned and of sufficient length so that they will effect a sliding engagement along the inner straight sides of the elements 1 1 5 and 2 of the first said bracket.

The result then is to provide that the spigot can be engaged directly by an open ended spanner so that if the gate is in the position as shown in Fig 5 the gate having its lower inner end at 31 can be lifted so that there will then be exposed access to the flats for an open ended spanner directly to the spigot 20 22. For the sake of completeness an additional element shown at 32 comprises a plastic bush which can fit over the spigot but which is intended to be pushed into the bottom of the gate at 31 which thereby provides for a metal to plastic friction surface.

Finally, there is provided a washer 33 which assists in providing a larger bearing surface from the spigot 22 onto the second bracket 13.

The significance of the embodiment now described is that it can provide from components which apart from the spigot, the plastic bush and the nuts and bolts, elements which can be made by pressing from sheet metal which therefore can be very economically manufactured.

Further, by the addition therefore of some relatively small and not especially complex additional brackets, an existing bracket can be modified to provide for 8 adjustability in a very effective way.

Further, it will promote the use of adjustment to better align gates as these can now be aligned so quickly and therefore economically.

Finally, the construction once completed, provides an appearance which is relatively smooth in external surfaces which will go therefore to assisting in protection of the surfaces and further will not lead to animals unnecessarily injuring themselves by engaging sharp or unfortunately positioned angular pieces.

a The invention can reside in each of the second and third brackets separately, 0 in so far that the second bracket can be provided as a means to interlock with the first bracket and having an elongate aperture therethrough to support a spigot for adjustment.

~In preference, such an arrangement has a spigot which has oppositely aligned flats adapted therefore to be engageable by an open ended spanner.

Further however, the invention could reside in the third bracket which is comprised of means to engage a nut, and having further means to slidably interengage with parallel adjacent edges but adapted not to be free to relatively rotate with respect to these.

*4 *e The invention could further reside in the combination of the several brackets with a spigot of the type described and as well in combination these together with a bracket of the first bracket type.

The invention could further reside in the method of supporting a gate which includes providing in respect of a bracket of the first bracket type, a second bracket having an elongate aperture therethrough, and providing means to interlock a nut so that by engagement of the spigot whereby to relatively rotate this, this can be caused to be adjusted in any position along the elongate aperture.

9 It can now be seen that there is unique advantage from this proposal. The combination of features now available provides horizontal alignment as well as vertical adjustment through the bolt on bracket. This has not previously been possible since.

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