EP0135749B1 - Plate-like element for a roadway - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a plate-shaped element for a driveway, in particular a steel driveway, wherein each element forms an essentially rectangular driving plane on its upper surface and has fastening devices for a connection to an adjacent element on its two end regions which run transversely to the longitudinal direction of the street, and one transverse end region of each plate-shaped element has an undercut latch mouth that is integrally connected to it and is open towards the end region of the adjacent element and the other, opposite end region is designed as a latch hook, which is also an integral part of the element and whose hook tip extends transversely to the driving plane and points in the direction of the driving plane .

From US-A-2 310427 a plate-shaped element with the features set out above is known. The latch hook and the latch mouth are designed so that the latch hook can be hooked into the latch mouth when the element to be hooked in is vertically upward relative to the adjacent element. The latch mouth and the latch hook are shaped so that the two adjacent elements can take a position of 180 'to each other. This means that the route formed from such elements can be laid in hollows.

Furthermore, a flat steel road is known, which is an aid to divert traffic to road construction sites, which has to be blocked due to modifications, next to the construction site. The plate-shaped elements of a steel flat road are 2.40 meters long, 12.25 meters wide and 30 centimeters high (see Lueger, Lexikon der Technik, Volume 11, 4th edition, keyword "Stahlflachstraße"), and can therefore only be installed by machine. This alone makes assembly and disassembly difficult, but in addition assembly and disassembly are made more difficult by the fact that the individual plate-shaped elements are connected to one another by additional connecting parts.

Compared to other methods of creating a driveway, however, the steel flat road has the advantage that the subsurface carrying the individual plate-shaped elements, hereinafter called the coarse subgrade, requires relatively little preparation and that a driveway can be created in a relatively short time, at least in less time than is required for other methods for creating a driveway, for example a concrete or asphalt road.

Furthermore, track plates for rough terrain, for example deserts, are known which, like the elements of the steel flat road, are laid on the existing floor without major preparations and form a stable, non-slip surface on which a vehicle tire can roll. The advantage of these known plate-shaped elements is that they can be handled individually, that is to say they can be laid by hand. However, it is disadvantageous that they are laid individually and without connection to one another, which means that there is a risk that individual elements will move transversely or lengthways. In addition, problems with bumpy rough planum occur at the transition points between adjacent track plates, since the adjacent, transverse end regions are not connected to one another, their position relative to one another is only due to the random course of the rough planum, so that joints, a tilting of the elements and also damage the tire of the vehicle rolling on the track plates is to be feared.

The invention has for its object to provide plate-shaped elements of the type mentioned, which can be installed quickly and without additional aids and connecting means, form a chain-like, cohesive composite and are easy to manufacture.

This object is achieved in that the latch mouth is limited by an upper, continuous nose and two lower arms, the arms being arranged at a distance from the side surface of the element and having an overall length which is considerably shorter than the width of the element.

Due to the pawl parts that form the transverse end regions of the elements and are an integral part of the elements, a hinge-like, easily clickable and unclamped connection between adjacent plate-shaped elements is created without. additional connecting parts for this connection are necessary. The pawl connection can be designed so that at a certain angular position between two adjacent elements, which is too large for practical driving, it is possible to plug the elements together by inserting the pawl hook obliquely from above into the ratchet mouth of an element already lying on the rough planum. The inserted element can then simply be dropped, the jack connection is maintained over a certain angular range, for example ± 25 °. An assembled route made of such plate-shaped elements thus forms a link system similar to a chain of a tracked vehicle. Due to the linkage, firstly, individual, plate-shaped elements cannot separate, secondly, it is ensured that the transition between adjacent, plate-shaped elements is always smooth, orderly and flowing, thirdly, unevenness in the rough planum is better compensated for than with individual, non-contiguous plate-shaped elements Fourth, it is possible for elements to be achieved and for loads that are exerted on a single element to be partially distributed to neighboring elements.

The plate-shaped elements according to the invention for a driveway are particularly suitable for mining. As is well known, large distances (paths) are often covered underground today. For this, one would no longer want to use rail-bound vehicles, but trackless vehicles, for example buses for the transport of mine workers. According to the state of the art, concrete is applied to the coarse sub-floor of a base of a gallery or a stretch. However, such concrete roads have proven to be very susceptible to repair, since the mountain is working and cracks appear in the concrete road.

According to the invention, it is now proposed to place the plate-shaped elements according to the invention on the rough planum of the sole of a gallery. The assembly of such a driveway is simpler than the construction of a concrete carriageway; repairs are only necessary to a lesser extent, since the driveway according to the invention can follow ground movements in an articulated manner and overall is considerably more adaptable than a rigid concrete driveway.

In addition, however, it is also contemplated to use the route according to the invention on other, rough terrain, for example on construction roads to a construction site, which later have to be removed. Here, in contrast to others, the route according to the invention offers fixed connections to the rough subgrade. Solutions, on the one hand, are reusable and, on the other hand, there is no overburden when they are removed.

It has proven to be particularly advantageous to arrange the pawl tip a few millimeters, in particular less than 10 millimeters, below the travel plane of the element. This measure has the effect that the slot required between two adjacent, plate-shaped elements, which forms a transverse groove in the roadway, remains tolerably small even if the angle between two adjacent elements in one extreme position, namely the angular tip towards the outside, lies.

The elements are preferably relatively short in the direction of travel, for example their length is 30 to 60 centimeters and their width is in the range of 1 meter. As a result, the individual elements, even if they are designed for loading by trucks or buses, are still so light that they can be comfortably carried and handled by a worker. Their weight is typically between 20 and 40 kilograms. In addition, such elements form a relatively short-link, closed chain, which can better adapt to the unevenness of a rough planum than relatively large elements, nevertheless creating a driving level sufficient for driving purposes.

Is particularly advantageous in the. elements according to the invention that individual elements can be separated from a longer route formed by many interlinked elements without having to start at one end. The separation is carried out by pulling a single element out of the link assembly.

To ensure that the individual elements rest securely and non-slip on the rough planum, they have ribs projecting downwards on their underside, which can press into the rough planum. These ribs are preferably formed by the outer surface of the pawl parts. This has the advantage that the pawl parts are loaded immediately when there is a load, without a lever arm occurring. As a result, the pawl connection is better maintained even under load than with support ribs separated from the pawl parts. In addition, stiffening ribs are provided in order to increase the load-bearing capacity of each individual element while largely saving material, in particular steel.

A particular advantage of the elements according to the invention is their production from a rolled profile, because the production costs are thereby very low. The aim is to create and use a rolled profile that only has to be cut to length to manufacture the individual elements, for example 1 meter long. However, there are certain difficulties with the jack mouth. In order to avoid these difficulties, it is proposed not to provide the lower arm of the ratchet jaw on the rolled profile and to subsequently arrange it by welding or the like.

Finally, it has proven to be advantageous to create a driveway from two elements that are adjacent to one another and are linked in a chain-link manner. In principle, it is also possible to use relatively wide elements, for example 3 to 4 meters wide, but these are no longer manageable. In addition, due to the roughness of the coarse subgrade, problems arise due to tipping and too large spans to be bridged. For practical operation, elements that are only about 1 meter wide and therefore only form one wheel track have proven their worth.

• Fig.1 eine perspektivische Darstellung eines plattenförmigen Elements,
• Fig.2 eine Seitenansicht mehrerer Elemente, um einerseits das Ein- und Ausklinken und andererseits den Bereich der Gelenkverbindung zu erläutern, und
• Fig. 3 eine Seitenansicht des Verbindungsbereichs zweier benachbarter Elemente.

Further advantages and features of the invention emerge from the remaining claims and the following description of a preferred, but not restrictive, exemplary embodiment, which is explained in more detail below with reference to the drawings. In this show:

• 1 is a perspective view of a plate-shaped element,
• 2 shows a side view of several elements, to explain on the one hand the engagement and disengagement and on the other hand the area of the articulated connection, and
• Fig. 3 is a side view of the connection area of two adjacent elements.

The plate-shaped element of a driveway shown in FIG. 1 has on its upper side an essentially flat driving plane 10 which is handy for practical driving operation and which is a rectangular surface. In the exemplary embodiment shown, it is corrugated in a diamond shape, but can also be provided with knobs, warts or a coating in order to impart the best possible grip to rubber tires. The direction of travel is indicated by the double arrow 11. The elements are, even if this is not immediately apparent from FIG. 1, significantly shorter in the direction of travel 11 than in the transverse direction, which is referred to as the width.

At its end regions 12, 13 which run transversely to the direction of travel 11, the element each has pawl parts 14, 15 which are integral with the element. The right end region 12 is designed as a latch hook 14, the hook tip 16 of which is approximately 8 millimeters below the driving plane 10. The latch hook 14 runs through the entire width of the element.

The opposite, left end region 13 is designed as a jack mouth 15 and is also an integral part of the element. This latch mouth 15 consists of an upper, slightly downwardly curved nose 17 and two individual, lower arms 18, 19 which project at a certain distance from the side edge 20 and have a certain length.

Except for these arms 18, 19, the element shown in FIG. 1 is a rolled profile, the arms 18, 19 are subsequently welded to the lower base 21 of a rib 22. The profile shape of this rolled profile is the side surface 23 shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1. After the rolling process and cutting the element to length, it is only necessary to weld the arms 18, 19, after which the elements are ready for use.

The latch mouth 15 is open in the direction of travel 11, it is undercut, as the two other figures show more clearly, so the mouth widens inwards starting from the mouth tip. The clear distance between the two edges 24, 25 delimiting the jaw tip is somewhat larger than the distance between the inner bay 26 and the lower end edge 27 of the latch hook 14, as can be seen from FIG. 3. This measure allows the latch hook to be inserted into the latch mouth 15 in the relative position of two elements shown in FIG. 3. This insertion is possible in the exemplary embodiment if the travel levels 10 of the two plates are at an angle of 135 ° to one another. If the inserted element is dropped after it has been latched in, the angle between the two travel levels 10 increases; at a 180 'angle, the two travel levels 10 are in the same plane. Starting from this 180 'position, one element can be swiveled by ± 25 ° (in the exemplary embodiment) with respect to the other, the articulated pawl connection being maintained, that is to say that a tensile force can be transmitted from one element to the other element.

In Fig. 2, the two extreme positions of a left element are shown on the left, which is pivoted by one + 25 ° and one - 25 ° relative to the 180 ° position with respect to a central element. The insertion position of the jack connection is shown on the right. Such an angular position, which means a 45 ° swivel from the 180 ° position, does not occur in a practical driveway, so that automatic disengagement of adjacent elements is not to be feared. If you want to make it even more difficult to disengage automatically, the engaging angle can be chosen even larger without departing from the scope of the invention. In general, the angles given are only to be regarded as one version.

The element is formed over the largest part of its area by a plate of the same thickness, for example it is 8 millimeters thick. In addition, each element is stiffened in its central region by a reinforcing rib 28.

In practical use, in particular only the arms 18, 19 and the base 21 rest on a rough planum, provided that this is reasonably flat. In the case of an uneven rough plan, the support of the individual elements cannot be predicted. Due to the link-chain-like connection, however, when the bearing forces are not introduced via the base 21, adjacent elements are also loaded and forces are transmitted to them.

Just like the hook area, the ratchet jaw also runs in the transverse direction to the direction of travel 11. This makes it possible to pull any element transversely to the direction of travel from a link chain-like combination of several elements. This may be necessary to carry out a repair or the like.

Instead of the non-continuous arms 18, 19 shown, continuous arms can also be provided. In a rolling process, either the arms 18, 19 or the nose 17 are first made to protrude laterally and only later pressed into the position shown. Then later welding work is not necessary.

• O = 0,13-0,16, Si = 0,30-0,40, Mn = 1,45-1,60, P = max. 0,030, S = 0,030, A1 = 0,010-0,045, Cu = max. 0,08, Cr = max. 0,05, Ni = max. 0,06, V = 0,12-0,06, N = 0,014-0,018.

The element is preferably made of steel, in particular a steel with the following analysis:

• O = 0.13-0.16, Si = 0.30-0.40, Mn = 1.45-1.60, P = max. 0.030, S = 0.030, A1 = 0.010-0.045, Cu = max. 0.08, Cr = max. 0.05, Ni = max. 0.06, V = 0.12-0.06, N = 0.014-0.018.

All figures are in% by weight.

In addition to the production of the elements from rolled profiles, production from an extruded profile is also particularly cost-effective.

The profile shape of the elements including the arms 18, 19 can be produced, for example, from aluminum or an aluminum alloy in the extrusion process.

Claims (12)

1. Plate-shaped element for a carriageway, especially steel carriageways, each element forming a substantially rectangular plane of travel (10) on its upper surface and having at its two end regions (12, 13) running at right-angles to the longitudinal direction of the road fastening devices for a connection with an adjacent element, the one end region (13) running at right-angles to each plate-shaped element having an undercut catch mouth (15) integral therewith and open towards the end region (13) of the adjacent element (12) and the other opposed end region (12) being designed as a catch hook (14) which is also an integral part of the element and the hook tip (16) of which runs at right-angles to the plane of travel (10) and faces in the direction of the plane of travel (10), characterised in that the catch mouth (15) is defined by an upper continuous nose (17) and two lower arms (18, 19), the arms (18, 19) being arranged at a distance from the side face (23) of the element and having a total length that is substantially shorter than the width of the element.

2. Plate-shaped element according to Claim 1, characterised in that the hook tip (16) of the catch hook (14) lies a few millimetres, especially less than 10 mm, below the carriageway plane of the element.

3. Plate-shaped element according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that it is manufactured completely or except for the arms (18, 19) from a rolled profile.

4. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the plane of travel (10) is designed so that it is non-skid, especially it has tears, buttons, grooves or the like.

5. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that ribs (22, 28) project at the underside of the element in the opposite direction to the plane of travel (10).

6. Plate-shaped element according to claim 5, characterised in that the rib (22) projecting furthest downwards is at the same time part of the catch mouth (15).

7. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that its total weight is less than 50 kilogrammes.

8. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the elements are approximately from 30 to 60 centimetres long in the direction of travel (11) and approximately from 80 to 120 centimetres wide at right-angles thereto.

9. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the internal inlet width of the catch mouth (15) between opposed edges (24) is slightly larger than the distance between an internal curve (26) and a rim (27) of the catch hook (14).

10. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterised in that the knuckle joint of the catch parts (14, 15) is maintained within an angular range of ± 30°, preferably ± 25°, based on a 180°-position of two adjacent elements.

11. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterised in that it is possible to insert and release the catch connection in a position in which one element is pivoted through 45°, based on the 180° -position of two adjacent elements, relative to the other element.

12. Plate-shaped element according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterised by a steel having the following analysis 0 = 0.13-0.16, Si = 0.30-0.40, Mn = 1.45-1.60, P = max. 0.030, S = 0.030, AI = 0.010-0.045, Cu = max 0.05, Ni = max. 0.06, V = 0.12-0.06, N = 0.014-0.018.
All figures are in % by weight.

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