AU737792B2 - Hinged gutter - Google Patents

Description

'i Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Ei WSoA Lo 111 K'^q OLMDlau4 Wy AoL/0elajla A doo, Invention Title: Details of Associated Provisional Application No: Andrew CHAPMAN Andrew CHAPMAN ADDRESS FOR SERVICE KIEN MADDERNI PATE NT ATTll1FP 5th Floor, 150 Gronfoll Stroot, "Hinged Gutter" PN 9637 dated 3 d May, 1996 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to the applicant.

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This invention relates to a hinged rain water gutter which is applicable to a dwelling and useful for simplifying the cleaning of a gutter of dirt or fire hazard material, and also for providing a quantity of water to be emptied over the side of a building, for example a dwelling, in the case of a fire, or a bushfire, when associated with a down pipe blocking device.

Hinged gutters are already known, the hinging action usually being adjacent a fascia board or sometimes centrally of a gutter but beneath it.

However, it is desirable that a gutter should readily drop when released for hinging purposes, and should not require additional operation to cause it to tilt .e S: 10 to an inverted or partially inverted position, and one object of this invention is to provide means whereby a gutter can be retained in its normal in-use position, but it can be quickly caused to drop so as to spill any water contained therein, l for example for bushfire protection, and again readily returned back to its position.

15 An extensive search was conducted on behalf of the Applicant, in order ascertain the state of the art of hinge gutters, and by far the closest to this invention was the United States Patent 4,669,232 in the name of Wyatt, wherein the "heel" of the gutter between its rear wall and base wall carried a .i hinge, and latches were provided on the front wall to retain the gutter in its inuse position until release of the latches. The latches disclosed were simple latches of the spring type, and required manual operation to release the water from the gutter. Upon release the water would flow outwardly away from the rear wall and thereby away from the wall of a building, so as to be less effective than if it were caused to flow towards the wall in the case of a bush fire for example.

In this invention however a gutter is hinged about its front upper edge to gutter support brackets, so that when retention means are released, water or other material contained within the gutter will discharge over the rear wall, -2- I I thereby being deflected towards the side of a building above which the gutter is located. This is of some significance in bush fire areas.

However more importantly, hinging about the front upper edge of the gutter opens up a number of opportunities for different retention and release means, since the retention means can be co-operable between the gutter rear wall or means attached thereto, and the gutter bracket itself, thereby providing a substrate for the retention means whether they be latch or spring means. An example of retention means is disclosed hereunder.

Gutters are recognised as being very flexible and twist very easily, and 10 many of the previous arrangements require separate control of a plurality of latches to overcome the twisting. This is quite unsuitable in an emergency, and another object of the invention is to provide means whereby latches retaining a gutter in its in-use position can be simultaneously removed. Thus in one of the embodiments of the invention described hereunder there is a relatively 15 inextensible rod extending above the gutter and arranged to engage a latch release arm on each of a plurality of gutter brackets thereby simultaneously releasing the gutter at a number of points along its length. This avoids twisting of the gutter and probable damage thereto.

Another problem with a gutter is that the repositioning of a gutter after it has been lowered has frequently required the use of rods or other tools, which are sometimes a little inconvenient. Another object of the invention, therefore, is to provide means whereby a gutter can be returned to its in-use position with a constant upward force at spaced points along its length, and in an embodiment of the invention a gutter is provided with a flexible cable which passes through guide means above latches, and also through guide means carried on the latch assemblies, so that a tension applied to the cable will cause the gutter inner edge to be lifted up generally simultaneously along its entire length.

-3- Latch means in the above embodiment can be made to be very reliable, but sometimes there is a requirement to avoid latches, and by swinging the gutter about its front upper edge to discharge its contents, in an another embodiment use is made of springs which normally retain the gutter in the inuse position but can be deflected to cause the gutter to hinge to its discharge position, by manually operable means. Those means can include flexible cables or can include slidable but generally rigid structural elements.

Gutters are normally formed from rolled sheet metal, and the upper edge of the front wall of a gutter in most instances has the rolled edge formed to a .e 10 part circular shape, and while in some instances a part circular shape can be S.i used for the hinge means, in a better construction, the part circular rolled edge is used to contain an independent hinge for the hinging of the gutter.

While the invention need not necessarily include the abovementioned details embodiments are described hereunder in some further detail with 15 reference to and is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which: *Fig 1 is a fragmentary isometric representation illustrating one hinging and latching means; Fig 2 is an elevational section of the latching arrangement drawn to a larger scale than Fig 1; Fig 3 is a fragmentary end elevational section taken on the broken plane 3-3 of Fig 2, but also showing portion of the assembly in end elevation without section; Fig 4 is a plan view of the clip arrangement only, as otherwise illustrated in Figs 2 and 3; Fig 5 is a fragmentary "exploded" isometric view indicating use of a swivelling bracket secured to the gutter, and lying alongside a gutter support bracket.

Fig 5a is an elevational view of the latch arrangement used in Fig -4- Fig 6 is a fragmentary view showing an interconnection between a gutter and a tubular drain edge fitting which may be required; Fig 7 illustrates an adaptor for use on an outside corner of a building; Fig 8a is a front elevation showing a simple replacement means which may be used for returning a latched gutter (for example as in Fig 1) to its in-use position; Fig 8b is an end elevation of Fig 8a; Fig 9a illustrates how use can be made of a rod to release a gutter from a latch (for example as shown in Figs 2 and 3); 10 Fig 9b shows the lowering of the gutter by hand; and Fig 9c shows a gutter when in its lowered position.

In the embodiment of Figs 1, 2, 3 and 4, a gutter 10 of sheet metal is t provided with an outer inturned rolled edge 11 along its upper front edge which is generally circular in cross-section but the circle is incomplete as shown best in Fig 1. The gutter is supported at its inner end by a plurality of latch assemblies 12 only one of which is shown in the drawing, each latch assembly **12 co-acting with a shelf 13 constituted by a flat horizontal web of a gutter support bracket 14. The outer end 15 of gutter bracket 14 engages the inner surface of the outer rolled edge 11 of the gutter, and thereby constitutes a simple bearing for the gutter to swivel downwardly. (Alternatively a hinge may be used as described below.) As shown, the outer end 15 of bracket 14 is rolled to be of similar cross-sectional shape but smaller size than the outer rolled edge 11.

The inner end of gutter bracket 14 is best shown in Fig 3, comprising a vertical web 16 which extends upwardly from the inner end of the shelf 13 and then outwardly at 17 towards its gutter outward end 15, and a swage 18 extends both horizontally in the web 17 and vertically in the vertical web 16 for some of the distance to provide the required stiffness, since the outer end must support the whole of the weight of the gutter when it swivels downwardly.

The shelf 13 terminates in a downwardly directed flange 20, the flange however, being only half the width of the gutter bracket 14 (as best shown in Fig 2) so as to provide an opening for access of the latching mechanism 12, as a gutter is swivelled back upwardly to the latching mechanism, that swivelling being achieved by applying tension to a cable 21 which passes through an elongate guide bush 22 in the outwardly extending web 17, and also through a part spiral loop 23 extending outwardly from a clip 24 which carries a pivoted S: 10 latch member 25, the latch member being pivoted about a portion of the loop 23 which passes through the clip 24, and is retained at its inner end by a retention member 26, this being best seen in Fig 3.

The latch member 25 comprises a weighted end 30 so that it always tends to occupy the position shown in Fig 2, and an upwardly extending S 15 actuating arm 31 terminating at its upper end in a fork 32, and the fork :*:accommodates a metal wire or rod 33, metal being preferred to a woven cable because it remains operable even though a fire might exist. The rod 33 carries a plurality of adjustable abutment members 34 which can be adjusted to be a small distance away from respective forks 32, the distances being substantially the same along the length of the gutter. By this means, movement of the rod 33 in the direction shown (to the left) will release a plurality of latch members simultaneously or almost simultaneously as the latch members 25 are swivelled about their respective loop extensions 23. Each slides off the shelf 13 of fixed gutter bracket 14, and the weight of the gutter will cause hinging the gutter downwardly about its outer end 15. This may be assisted by a spring 27 coacting between the gutter 10 and bracket 14, which may be optionally used (Fig When it is desired to return the gutter, tension applied to the cable 21 will cause that cable to slide through the guide bushes 22 and also through the -6loops 23, lifting the gutter up, usually by a substantially degree along its length.

The gutter will finally come to bear against the lower end of the flanges 20 (Fig and release of tension on the cable 21 will allow the gutter to occupy a position substantially shown in Fig 3. As the gutter is lifted up, the slanting edge 35 of the hinge latch member 25 rides up over the edge 36 of the fixed bracket 20, deflecting the latch member 25 as it pivots about the pin portion of loop 23, until the upward movement of the latch member 25 along with the gutter is sufficient for latch member 25 to swing back to its normal position as shown in Fig 2. It is preferred that the latch members 25 are weighted by the 10 ends 30, since springs may deteriorate under adverse conditions encountered with gutters. However, springs may also be used or used alternatively depending on design requirements. If use is made of further abutment members 34 on the other sides of forks 32, a return spring at the end of rod 33 will assist in relocation of the latches.

0*° The sealing of the ends of the gutters with respect to end members which may carry the downpipes may be effected in any one of a number of ways, preferably by means of resilient strips in the ends of the gutters which bear against complementary surfaces in the end members, although that arrangement can be varied widely. However Fig 7 illustrates a gutter extension 40 riveted to gutter 10, and having an end 41 which is slightly larger than the gutter 10 and which contains a pair of resilient strips 42 formed from foam elastomer and cemented to the inner surface of the large end 41 of the extension 40. This is shown as sealing against the outer surface of a corner fixture 43, and in practice can be made a seal sufficiently effective to be useful for the gutter installation. Since the inner wall 44 of the gutter slopes, this arrangement is free to swing towards or away from the fixture 43. The same sealing arrangement can of course be made with other areas of a gutter installation.

-7- Reset of the release rod 33 can be effected by a simple spring at one end, so that the rod 33 is returned immediately upon being released.

There is a further need for joining a gutter to a tubular or part-tubular member such as a moulded drainpipe fitting 46 as shown in Fig 6, and while this can be achieved by telescopic movement, that is usually inconvenient and is more conveniently achieved by having the end of gutter 10 provided with resilient strips 42 which engage the outer projecting portion 47 of adaptor 48 sealably engaged by the resilient strips 42.

The above described embodiment is the preferred embodiment, but Fig S: 10 5 illustrates how the invention can be applied to numbers of embodiments. In Fig 5, the gutter 10 is of a "standard" cross-sectional shape, having a rear wall 44 which slopes upwardly and rearwardly (as in the first embodiment) a base .i wall 50 and a front wall 51 which embodies the rolled edge 11 as described above. In lieu of the end of the gutter support bracket 14 having a rolled edge 15 of smaller diameter, and to provide better hinging conditions use is made of a hinge assembly 52 which has a central hinge pin 53, and is provided with three fixed sleeves 54 (only two of which are shown). A forward extension 14a of the S:gutter support bracket 14 is adjustably secured to the inner portion 14b by fasteners 55, and the inner end 14b is unitary with a clamping plate 14c by which the gutter support bracket 14 is secured to fascia 56.

The projecting end 14a rides between two of the sleeves 54, and a swivelling bracket 60 hingedly engages the pin 52 between the other end and the intermediate of the three sleeves 54 as shown. A swivelling bracket 60 is secured to the sloping rear (inner) wall 44, while the sleeves 54 engage in the rolled edge 11 to provide a good hinging condition for the gutter 10. Use is made of spring 61 which interacts between the gutter bracket extension 14a and the swivelling bracket 60 to ensure that, when the gutter drops upon release of its latch, it completely empties. To empty the gutter, it is merely -8necessary to swivel the inner wall 44 downwardly and this can be done in a number of ways. One way is to utilise an extended rod 63 which is carried by the fascia 56, and which slidably supports a sleeve 64 which is connected to a ball coupling 65 by rigid rods which are represented by the dashed lines 66.

However, a preferred way is to employ latch 70 which is spring loaded to return beneath a rear end of swivelling bracket 60, the latch being released by longitudinal movement of cable 21, much as described with respect to the first embodiment, and as illustrated in Fig 1.

In the alternative, if it is desired to not use a spring such as the springs S 10 61, the weight of the gutter can cause its own swivelling, and the gutter can be restored to its in-use position by means of a cable arrangement for example as illustrated in Fig 8a, wherein a depending cable 69 is a pull cable and is .t S"coupled by cable 69a and 69b to spaced locations on the sloping wall 44 of gutter 15 One of the objects of this invention is to avoid the use push rods, hooks and the like, but if such is required, it is easily adaptable to the gutter S" arrangement of this invention as illustrated by the sketches of Figs 9a, 9b and 9c which illustrate the engagement of a rod arrangement with the gutter inner go wall when the gutter is in its in-use position, and the lowering of the gutter until in Fig 9c the gutter is sufficiently lowered that the contents will be readily shed from the inner wall 44.

It will be understood from the above embodiments that the invention can be varied in many ways. One way in which the invention can be varied which is not herein illustrated is for the inner end of the gutter to have a return flange which is downwardly directed and pierced at intervals which are equally spaced from one another, and again a rod 33 can be used with abutments which bear against depending hooks intermediate their ends, the hooks normally being -9held into engagement with the undersurface of the depending flange by a spring at the end of rod 33 but being releasable by tensioning the rod.

One of the advantages of the invention is that the latches always swivel in the longitudinal direction of the gutter, lying adjacent the fascia, so that effecting simultaneous release and repositioning is simplified.

Installations exist, known sometimes as "deluge" systems, wherein water is discharged from a high part of a roof, and descends to a gutter. Such systems are primarily used for bush fire protection. The gutter of this invention can have a secondary function of deflecting water so discharged downwardly .o 10 so that it cascades close to a side wall of a building.

S* The gutter arrangement of this invention has two further advantages. If associated with a rain water tank, in early winter it may be lowered to avoid l washing debris into the tank, and raised after rain has cleared a roof.

:•"'Secondly, it may be used for temporary water storage on bushfire hazard days, if its associated drain is provided with water blocking means.

Claims (13)

1. A hinged rain water gutter having a rear wall, a base wall and a front wall, the front wall terminating in an upper edge having a rolled edge forming a curved inner surface, characterised by, a plurality of gutter support brackets each having a support base at a rear end for securing of the support brackets to a substrate, and hinge means at a front end hingedly engaging in the curved inner surface of the rolled edge, and by retention means retaining the gutter in its in-use position, and release means operable to release said retention means such that the gutter is hingeable to a 10 discharge position where it can discharge any contents therein over said rear wall. 9

2. A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 1 wherein each said gutter support bracket has a curved surface which co-operates with said curved inner surface of said rolled edge of said hinge means.

3. A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 1 wherein said hinge means comprises a hinge pin and a plurality of sleeves carried by said hinge pin, said sleeves engaging said rolled edge curved inner surface, said hinge pin thereby being hingedly engaged by a said gutter bracket front end.

4. A hinged rain water gutter according to any preceding claim wherein said retention means comprise a latch assembly.

5. A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 4 wherein said latch assembly comprises a clip, means securing said clip with respect to said gutter rear wall, a latch member, a pivot pin pivoting said latch member to said clip for pivotal 11 movement about an axis which is generally parallel to a said gutter support bracket.

6. A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 5 wherein said latch assembly also comprises a shelf fixed with respect to said gutter bracket, an edge surface of said shelf being engaged by an edge of said latch member upon hinging of said gutter to an in-use position, so as to deflect said latch member until said latch member is clear of said edge surface, said latch member being biased to overlie and thereby be supported by said shelf.

7. A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 5 or claim 6 wherein said latch S 10 member has a forked end which accommodates a rod which is comprised in said release means, when said latch member is in a position which corresponds to the gutter in-use position, and an abutment member on said rod which engages at o. least one of the forks of said forked end upon longitudinal movement of said rod so as to pivot said latch member to an unlatch position.

8. A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 3 further comprising a swivelling bracket having a rear end fast with respect to said gutter inner wall and a front end which hingedly engages said hinge pin. o

9. A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 8 wherein a said gutter bracket is adjacent to and generally parallel to a said swivelling bracket, and spring means co-acting between said adjacent brackets to bias said gutter towards its release position.

A hinged rain water gutter according to claim 8 or claim 9 further comprising a hinged latch which is co-operable with a surface of said swivelling bracket near its rear end. 12

11. A hinged rain water gutter according to any one of claims 1 to 10 further comprising a manually operable return cable operatively coupled to said gutter rear wall for restoring said gutter from its said discharge position to its said in-use position.

12. A hinged rain water gutter substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figs 1, 2, 3 and 4 herewith.

13. A hinged rain water gutter substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Fig 5 herewith. *ee Dated this 13th day of July 2001 S 10 ANDREW CHAPMAN By his Patent Attorneys COLLISON CO i °°e 13