AU764567B2 - Gate - Google Patents

Description

WO 00/39427 PCT/SE99/02364 Gate TECHNICAL FIELD: The present invention relates to a gate which is arranged to be situated in a fence opening. More precisely, such a gate is intended, which by means of the influence of force can be laid down against the ground in the fence opening and thereby be driven over by a vehicle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION: Gates of the above-mentioned type are previously known.

They are advantageous particularly due to the fact that if one travels through the gate opening by a vehicle, one does not have to leave said vehicle in order to open the gate. It is easily opened by means of the fact that the vehicle is driven against the same, wherein it is laid down against the ground and can be passed by the vehicle.

Non-rigid members, such as springs or plummet systems, hold the gate in an upright position when it is not influenced, wherein it protects against passage of livestock, which are to be locked up inside the fence.

Previously known gates of this kind are constituted by a rigid, flap-like element which is pivotable about an essentially horizontal axis close to the ground in the fence opening. The known solutions differ essentially from each other by means of those devices, which are required for holding said element in an upright position when the gate shall be closed. Thus, in the patent US-A- 603 163 (Ball) it is indicated that the force-exerting members for erecting the gate element are constituted by ropes, which extend downwards from gateposts when the gate is closed, but in the latitudinal direction to the WO 00/39427 PCT/SE99/02364 2 longitudinal line of the gate when it is open. These ropes are influenced to exert their force against the element by means of tension springs. In the patent GB-A- 297 120 (Barber), it is shown that the gate element is influenced by a rope, which extends upwards and in the latitudinal direction, respectively, to the longitudinal axis of the gate. The force is provided by means of plummets and in order to provide these with a required movement distance, the gateposts are erected to a high height. In a similar manner, both the patents US-A-1 551 340 (Smith) and US-A-4 148 156 (Lubman) indicate erection of the gate element by means of ropes being influenced by plummets, which ropes extend downwards and outwards from the longitudinal line of the gate when the gate is laid down.

In the patent GB-A-2 077 798 (Lee et al), it is indicated that the folding element is influenced by torsion springs in order to be held in an upright position.

All of these arrangements imply that the gate element itself must have the form of a rigid plate having a height which corresponds to the height of the fence and a width, which corresponds to the opening which is required for a vehicle to be able to pass through. This results in that the gate element becomes bulky and heavy and thereby troublesome to transport, often long distances, when fences are situated over large grounds. Also, the weight of the element requires that comparatively large forces must be used in order to keep it upright, which in turn implies that the arrangements for this influence of force must be thoroughly anchored into the ground. For a number of cases, this has resulted in that it has been required to provide heavy gateposts, which in some cases are extended to a high height in order to make plummet arrangements possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a gate of the abovementioned type, which consists of light and not very bulky elements, which can be easily transported and in a simple manner can be erected. Another object is that the gate shall be satisfactorily adjustable to the commonly occurring wire fences and that it in this connection shall be very easy to install between to existing fence posts.

With the aforementioned in mind, the present invention provides a gate which extends between and which essentially follows a straight line between fixed elements, such as gate posts, defining an opening in a fence, said gate including a central operating element, which by means of a hinge is connected with the ground along a horizontal axis of oscillation, which is essentially parallel with said straight line, such that said gate, when closed, occupies an upright position due to the influence of spring forces and, during opening of the gate, can be laid down against opening of the gate, wherein opening of the gate takes place by influence of force against the operating element, for example by means of a vehicle being driven into a gate, such that said gate is laid down against the action of said Oil• spring forces from an upright position to a position where it is laid down against the ground, and wherein elastically stretchable, elongated links extend from each 20 of the fixed elements towards the operating element essentially along said S straight line, said links, in an upright position of the operating element close the gate opening together with said operation elements, and are arranged to exert said spring forces, which are directed outwards from the operating element and in the direction towards the respective fixed element and act to hold the operating 25 element in an upright position but at the same time to have such stretchability and flexibility that the operating element is allowed to be laid down against the ground l I when operated oo: BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be further described in the following with reference to a preferred embodiment and to the appended drawings, in which Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of the gate with parts of the associated fence, Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of an element for the gate, and Fig. 3 shows a side view of the element according to Fig. 2 when said element to some extent is laid down.

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S. S S WO 00/39427 PCTI/SE9/n236d 4 PREFERRED EMBODIMENT: Fig. 1 shows an overall view of the gate with associated parts of the fence around the gate opening. From fence posts i, 2, which define the opening, the fence extends outwards from the same, wherein the associated parts of said fence have the reference numerals 4 and 5. As is apparent, the fence is shown as a wire fence consisting of three wires, the uppermost being situated approximately 1.5 m above the ground 3. The gate itself, which extends over the gate opening, has in its entirety the reference numeral 8. It consists of a central, upright element having a small width, in the following called the operating element 9 seeing that this is the element which is to be influenced during the opening of the gate. As for the rest, the gate consists of elastically stretchable and flexible links 10 and 11, which extend from both sides of the operating element 9 outwards to the fence posts 1 and 2, respectively, in the following called the gateposts. Although it is shown in the embodiment that the gate is erected between fence posts, this is not a requirement for the invention. The fixed, upright elements that the fence posts constitute may just as well be posts which are particularly provided for the gate, thus gateposts, or the termination of a fence in the form of, for example, a wall or a fence.

The elastic links 10 and II may completely or partly consist of springs or rubber-elastic ropes. In the embodiment according to the shown example, each link consists of a first section 13 consisting of a wire rope.

The following section 14 is an elastically stretchable element, preferably a rubber-elastic rope; it can alternatively be a tension spring. The outermost section 15 is an elongation of the respective wires in the fence sections 4 and 5, respectively. As is apparent, the elastically stretchable link does not have to be elastic %Un n/llOA 7 PT/ 11;'QO/ )"AK Uf lIfAAVTVU t~ 5 in its entire extension. Instead, this function can be reserved to a smaller section of the link. Even if this is the case, the link will be elastically stretchable in its entirety.

The reason for the described division is that when the operating element 9 is laid down, the links will extend diagonally upwards to both sides from the operating element 9 to their attachment points in the gateposts 1 and 2. If the operating element 9 in this connection is considerably thinner than the vehicle, the links can get stuck in the lower part of the vehicle. Therefore, it is necessary for the operating element to have a certain width. The reason for the fact that the section 13 is constituted by a wire rope is that the width of the operating element in the embodiment is not greater than that the vehicle's wheel may end up outside this width during passage. Therefore, it is important that the part, which may be driven over by the vehicle's wheel, is robust, which thus is the reason for the fact that a wire rope has been chosen. The reason for the fact that a fence wire has been utilized for the outermost sections is that it serves to simplify the installation of the gate. In order for the gate according to the invention to have a satisfying function, it is necessary that, in order for vehicles having a conventional width to be able to pass without any difficulties, the gate opening has a width which is in the size of 10-20 meter. If a gate shall be installed in an existing wire fence, it is probably necessary to remove one or a couple of fence posts, and thereby, a free length of fence wire is obtained. In this case, it may be advantageous to utilize these free wire lengths as a part of the links of the gate.

Even if the division of the links in said sections which now has been described may be advantageous, it is, ~Jvr WO 00/39427 PCT/SE99/02364 6 however, not a requirement for the invention. What is necessary for the function of the invention is that the links are elastically stretchable and flexible, at least close to the operating element and at the gateposts, and that they are slightly prestressed between the gateposts and the operating element.

The operating element 9 shall essentially be rigid and hinged, so that it can be laid down against the ground 3 from an upright position. A hinge 18, which is situated close to the ground 3, connects the pivotable operating element with a foot 17, which is fixed to the ground 3.

This hinge is provided in order to make it possible for the operating element to revolve about an axis of rotation which extends along the straight line between the gateposts and essentially parallel with the ground 3.

The operating element 9 comprises a bar 19 which originates from the hinge 18, which bar supports a plate 20 from which rigid pipe sections 12 originate. It is not necessary for the operating element to have a plate-form over its entire width; as regards the function, it is only important that the links originate from any rigid element being associated with the operating element, thus, in this case, the pipe sections 12. The bar 19 extends to a level which is slightly above the level for the uppermost link 10/11 and is followed by a thinner, slightly flexible bar 22, which extends to a level which is considerably above the level for the uppermost link in the gate.

As has been apparent, a considerable part of the width of the gate consists of said links 10 and 11. These can be arranged so that they constitute continuations of the wires in a wire fence, as also is shown in Fig. i. It is very common that such a wire fence is a fence having passage protection by means of high-voltage electric WO 00/39427 PCT/SE99/02364 7 current, and, in this case, it is suitable that the gate forms a section of this electric fence. Therefore, the main part of the gate, and, in this case, particularly the links 10 and 11, should be electrically conductive and bridge the distance between the gateposts so that the current can pass. This can be accomplished if the steel wire 13 in the shown embodiment is allowed to extend outside the operating element at least on the side which faces inwards to the enclosure and create a bridging passage of the current at the central section of the gate and maintain the passage protection over the entire gate.

As has been described, the wire sections 15 constitute a part of the fence and are also presumed to be electrically conductive. If the stretchable section 14 is a spring, the current may be conducted here as well. If, however, as is advantageous, a rope of rubber-elastic material is used for the section 14, this has no conductivity. Conductivity may, however, be obtained if the rope is provided with a stretchable coating of conductive material such as, for example, a stretchable metal wire sock.

However, it is suitable that the operating element with the plate 20 is not electrically conductive since it may be necessary to utilize this in order to lay down the operating element when one passes on foot, when the plate also can be used as a stepping ground during the passage.

Furthermore, it is desirable that electric current is not transmitted to passing vehicles.

Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of an embodiment of the operating element 9. In this regard, it is apparent that the foot 17 has the form of a cross with arms 25 and associated transversely arranged arms 26. The arms 26 form a U-shaped section with the opening facing downwards to the ground 3. The foot is arranged to be attached to ground by means of bars 27, which extend through the foot WO 00/39427 PCT/SE99/02364 and are knocked down into the ground. The hinge 18 comprises an upwardly open, rectangular box-shaped section 28, which in its longitudinal direction extend in the latitudinal direction to the longitudinal direction of the gate. In the section 28, a number of washers 29 are inserted, the contours of which are adjusted to each other. Uppermost from the pile of washers, the bar 19 extends, which bar is provided with a hole 30. An elastically stretchable element 31 extends through the hole 30 and corresponding holes in the washers 29 and in the arm 27, which element by means of prestressing holds the washers and the bar on to the arm 26 and presses these parts against each other. In order to be able to exert this force against said elements, the elastic element 31 is provided with locking element 32 at each end outside the mantle of the arm section 26 and at the end of the bar 19, respectively.

By means of the prestressing of the elastic element 31, which strives to hold the washers 19 and the bar 19 together in a certain position, the bar will stand straight up from the foot 17 if it is not exposed to any influence. If, however, the bar has been influenced sideways, it can be revolved downwards, wherein the element 31 is additionally extended and the washers 29 are separated from each other at one of the edges.

Revolution of the bar is most easily carried out in the longitudinal direction of the section 28 and since this is transversely arranged in relation to the longitudinal line of the gate, the axis of oscillation of the bar will in this regard be parallel with the longitudinal line of the gate.

The longer, upper bar 22 should not be charged and originates from the upper end of the bar 19. The shown execution of the operating element has, however, only been chosen as an example and other examples for making WO 00/39427 PCT/SE99/02364 9 it possible for the operating element to revolve in the latitudinal direction to the longitudinal line of the gate are possible. The shown embodiment provides, however, an additional influence to the operating element for standing upright, apart from the one that the elastic links 10 and 11 exert.

When the operating element 9 is not influenced to be laid down, the elastically stretchable links 10, 11 strive to jointly form a straight line in the longitudinal direction of the gate. If the operating element is laid down, this will result in that the links will be extended since the shortest way between the gateposts along the straight line is elongated by means of the fact that the links are bent outwards. Thereby, an influence of force is achieved against the operating element, which is situated along the straight line, in order for this to stand upright. This influence is slightly increased if the attachment of the bar, which is shown in Fig. 2, is provided. This additional influence is, however, not necessary; during suitable prestressing, the traction force from the links is sufficient for keeping the operating element in an upright position.

When the gate shall be passed by a vehicle, see Fig. 3, the vehicle is driven straight against the operating element 9, so that the vehicle's lower, front part 35 in relation to the driving direction, hits the plate 20. In this manner, during continued movement, the operating element will bend downwards forwards and finally be laid down in a position which allows the vehicle to pass over the same. When the front part of the vehicle has passed the plate 20, the elongated bar 22 will rest against the vehicle's chassis and keep the operating element pressed down until its rear part has passed the outer end of the bar 22. When the rear part of the vehicle has passed so that the bar 22 is relieved, the operating element, by WO 00/39427 PCT/SE99/02364 means of the spring action of the links 10 and 11, is once again revolved upwards to an upright position. Thus, Fig. 3 shows schematically a moment of the passage of a vehicle.

Claims (9)

1. A gate which extends between and which essentially follows a straight line between fixed elements, such as gate posts, defining an opening in a fence, said gate including a central operating element, which by means of a hinge is connected with the ground along a horizontal axis of oscillation, which is essentially parallel with said straight line, such that said gate, when closed, occupies an upright position due to the influence of spring forces and, during opening of the gate, can be laid down against opening of the gate, wherein opening of the gate takes place by influence of force against the operating element, for example by means of a vehicle being driven into a gate, such that said gate is laid down against the action of said spring forces from an upright position to a position where it is laid down against the ground, and wherein elastically stretchable, elongated links extend from each of the fixed elements towards the operating element essentially along said straight line, said links, in an upright position of the operating element close the gate opening together with said operation elements, and are arranged to exert said spring forces, which are directed outwards from the operating element and in the direction towards the respective fixed element and act to hold the operating element in an upright position but at the same time to have such stretchability and flexibility that the operating element is allowed to be laid down against the ground when operated.

2. Gate according to claim 1, wherein the links extend essentially parallel with the ground.

3. Gate according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said elastically stretchable links at least partly are constituted by elastic ropes.

4. Gate according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the fence at least close to said S• fixed elements, such as gateposts, is an electric fence which is supplied with electric current and preferably with a number of live wires which are situated in various height positions, wherein said links are arranged to form part of the electric fence.

Gate according to claim 3 or 4 wherein said elastic ropes include a core of rubber-elastic material and a coating of conductive material which is connected to conduct the electric current over the length of the ropes.

6. Gate according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the operating element at least partly is isolated from the charged parts of the gate and the fence.

7. Gate according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the operating element which is connected with the ground by means of a hinge includes a middle element having such length that its upper part, during upright position, is situated on a level which is considerably above the stretchable links which form the rest of the gate, and also includes side elements rigidly connected with the middle element and which have such length that their upper parts, during upright position, are situated essentially on a level with the upward termination of said stretchable links.

8. Gate according to any one of the preceding claims, further including spring elements arranged to influence said hinge to hold the operating element in an upright position, thereby being a complement to the spring force of said links.

9. A gate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this 25th day of June 2003 FRED NORBERG 0000 WATERMARK PATENT TRADE MARK ATTORNEYS oo ~290 BURWOOD ROAD HAWTHORN VICTORIA 3122 AUSTRALIA PVF/MAPiTLS