EP0689628B1 - Guiding device for guiding walls - Google Patents

Abstract

PCT No. PCT/EP94/00692 Sec. 371 Date Sep. 18, 1995 Sec. 102(e) Date Sep. 18, 1995 PCT Filed Mar. 8, 1994 PCT Pub. No. WO94/21861 PCT Pub. Date Sep. 29, 1994The invention is concerned with producing a visual guiding effect for guide walls which are difficult to see particularly at dusk and in the dark. According to the invention, the guide arrangement comprises a holder which is to be mounted on the guide wall and is provided with a retaining arm, which is elastically resilient at least in the horizontal direction, and a guide member which is mounted on the retaining arm by a coupling device and is provided on at least one side with a guide face which is clearly visible even in conditions of poor visibility.

Description

On long-distance roads with heavy motor vehicle traffic, where a median with guard rails is common between the directional lanes, rigid baffles are set up in the area of longer construction sites with traffic routing of the opposite traffic flows on one side of the lane on the border between the directional lanes. These generally consist of wall sections of relatively short length, which are coupled to one another by means of coupling devices on their end faces to form a continuous guide wall. These guide walls are approx. 820 mm high and approx. 600 mm wide at the base. The foot has sloping deflecting surfaces on both sides. In addition, the guide walls have an approximately cuboid shape. In the elevation there is a neck-shaped constriction in the upper area, which is bounded at the top by a hammer-head-shaped section. The baffles are sometimes made as plastic hollow bodies that are weighted with a water or sand filling, or they are made of metal, also as hollow bodies that are additionally weighted with a filler depending on their own weight. Other guide walls are designed as massive molded concrete parts.

Due to their high weight and the resulting stability, the guide walls have a good repelling effect against bumping vehicles, which prevents them from entering the oncoming lane and causing serious accidents there. However, the repelling effect cannot prevent a motor vehicle from striking gets into its own directional lane and, especially if this directional lane has two lanes, triggers an accident by the rejected and possibly skidding vehicle grazing or colliding with vehicles or being hit by subsequent vehicles. For this reason, the baffles should have a minimum of visual guiding effect in addition to their purely mechanical repelling effect, so that rubbing is avoided. Metal baffles and even more concrete baffles, by their nature, especially at dusk and in the dark, have only a relatively small visual guiding effect. This deteriorates considerably if the baffles have become wet on the outside due to rain or splashing water. Then the concrete walls in particular have an even duller and darker appearance than when dry. As a result, they hardly stand out from a dark, damp road. This causes considerable uncertainty in the vehicle drivers traveling along it, to the point of oppression and cramping, as a result of which the danger of rubbing against the guide wall or also on vehicles traveling in parallel through the guide wall is even increased.

A guide device of the type described in the preamble of claim 1 has become known from US Pat. No. 3,564,984. In the known guide device, a holding foot is provided, or the like with a contact surface on the side of a guardrail. is present. A guide body, which is provided with a guide surface, is connected to the holding foot by a type of bayonet lock. A change in the dimensions of the guidance system is not scheduled. Nor is it ensured that the holding arm with guide body projecting laterally from the holding foot can easily dodge when starting a vehicle.

Another guidance device is described in FR-A-2 615 540. In the exemplary embodiment according to FIGS. 2 and 3 of this document, which is concerned with attaching the guide device to a guide wall, a bracket pushed from above over the guide wall is provided, on the legs of which holders are fastened with the interposition of a plate. Guide bodies with a reflective guide surface are arranged on the holders, which can assume a slight inclination. A holding arm protruding from a holding foot is not available here, and elastic flexibility of the guide body is also not addressed.

The invention is based on the object of developing a guide device of the type presupposed as known in such a way that a change in its horizontal dimensions is possible with a very simple design and while avoiding damage to approaching vehicles.

This object is achieved with a guide device with the features specified in claim 1.

The guide device can be attached to the side of the guide walls by means of its holding foot, in particular in the region of the neck-shaped constriction at certain intervals one behind the other. The guiding surface of its guide body faces the flowing vehicle stream and thus clearly stands out from the guiding walls and creates a clearly perceptible visual guiding effect. Without impairing this guiding effect, the guiding device can be chosen with respect to its horizontal dimensions and arrangement so that it does not protrude beyond the floor projection of the foot of the guiding walls. If some of them are still touched by a vehicle, their holding arm gives way elastically, so that the guide body is moved out of the movement space of the vehicle and can return to its old position after the vehicle has continued to travel. The parts of the guide device are expediently made from a plastic material that is resilient on the one hand and very tough on the other hand, in which the visibility of the guide device, especially the guide body, is not reduced even when wet, so that at least the guide devices remain clearly visible, even if the guide walls hardly stand out from their surroundings. Due to the coupling device, the holder and the guide body can be manufactured separately from one another. If one of the two parts is damaged, the other part can continue to be used.

With a configuration according to claim 2, a relatively large guide surface is nevertheless created with limited horizontal expansion of the guide device. A circumferential reinforcing rib according to claim 3 ensures sufficient dimensional stability despite the larger dimensions of the guide body, which benefits their conductivity.

With an embodiment according to claim 4, the holder receives a relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture basic shape. The holding foot can also be relatively easily on the guide walls attach. The reinforcing rib on the holding arm ensures that, despite sufficient flexibility of the holding arm, there is a minimum amount of restoring force, so that the guide body quickly returns to its operating position when it has been temporarily pushed aside by a vehicle rubbing against it. This is supported by further training according to claim 5.

In an embodiment according to claim 6, the guide body can be rotated and adjusted relative to the holding arm about the longitudinal axis of the cap screw, so that the guide body can also be aligned vertically when the holder is inclined obliquely upwards or downwards because the fastening point of the holding foot is not is aligned vertically. The same also applies to an embodiment according to claim 7, with the fact that the cap screw is partially captive molded on the guide body. This also facilitates and accelerates the assembly of the guide device, which is of great importance especially when guide bodies have to be exchanged on a guide wall that the traffic flows past.

A development according to claim 8 makes it easier to mold the head of the cap screw on the guide body. In addition, both the guide body and the holding arm are reinforced at the coupling point, so that they have a greater durability.

With an embodiment according to claim 9 or optionally according to claim 10, the possibility is created to adjust the guide body relative to the holder in the horizontal direction within a certain range. As a result, the guide device can be more easily adjusted to guide walls with different contours.

In an embodiment according to claim 11, the coupling device works with positive locking, which has the advantage that the position of the guide body remains even with a certain loosening of the screw connection. The claim 12 has a special embodiment of the positive connection, which makes it possible to change the position of the guide body with respect to the distance to the guide wall and with respect to the inclination to the vertical.

An embodiment according to claim 13 provides a particularly simple setting device in which only a loose part is present in the screw connection. The embodiment according to claim 14 improves the visual guiding effect of the guiding device considerably.

Fig. 1

eine Stirnansicht einer Leitwand mit einer daran angebrachten Leiteinrichtung;

Fig. 2

eine Ansicht der Leiteinrichtung allein;

Fig. 3

eine teilweise geschnitten dargestellte Seitenansicht der Leiteinrichtung;

Fig. 4

eine Draufsicht der Leiteinrichtung;

Fig. 5

eine Ansicht eines Halters der Leiteinrichtung;

Fig. 6

eine teilweise geschnitten dargestellte Seitenansicht des Halters der Leiteinrichtung;

Fig. 7

eine abgewandelte Ausführungsform in einer der Fig. 2 entsprechenden Darstellung;

Fig. 8

den Gegenstand von Fig. 7 in einer der Fig. 3 entsprechenden Darstellung;

Fig. 9

den Gegenstand von Fig. 7 und 8 in einer der Fig. 5 entsprechenden Darstellung;

Fig. 10

denselben Gegenstand in einer der Fig. 6 entsprechenden Darstellung;

Fig. 11

einen ausschnittsweise dargestellten Vertikalschnitt des Leitkörpers der Leiteinrichtung.

The invention is explained in more detail below on the basis of exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawing. Show it:

Fig. 1

an end view of a guide wall with a guide device attached thereto;

Fig. 2

a view of the guide alone;

Fig. 3

a partially sectioned side view of the guide device;

Fig. 4

a plan view of the guide device;

Fig. 5

a view of a holder of the guide device;

Fig. 6

a partially sectioned side view of the holder of the guide device;

Fig. 7

a modified embodiment in a representation corresponding to Figure 2;

Fig. 8

7 in a representation corresponding to FIG. 3;

Fig. 9

7 and 8 in a representation corresponding to FIG. 5;

Fig. 10

the same object in a representation corresponding to FIG. 6;

Fig. 11

a fragmentary vertical section of the guide body of the guide device.

1 shows a guide wall 10 with a guide device 11 attached to it.

The baffle element 10 is designed as a reinforced concrete molded part. The element is approx. 820 mm high and approx. 1000 mm long. It has a foot 12 which has a width of approximately 600 mm. The foot 12 has an obliquely rising deflecting surface 13 on both sides. An approximately cuboid central part 14 adjoins the foot 12. This merges into a neck part 15, to which a head part 16 adjoins at the top. The guide wall element 10 has two coupling elements 17 and 18 on each of its two end faces, each of which has a through hole, which are aligned with one another in the vertical direction. The coupling elements 17 and 18 are on the line of symmetry at a different distance from each other and a different height, so that when coupling several baffle elements to one continuous guide wall, the coupling elements can be brought to cover each other in the vertical direction and then a coupling bolt (not shown) can be inserted into the through holes, whereby the mutually adjacent elements are coupled together.

At a continuous baffle at certain intervals, i.e. arranged on individual guide wall elements 10, guide devices 11. They are generally fastened in the region of the neck part 15, and are screwed to them by means of dowels and cap screws

A guide device 11 has a guide body 21 and a holder 22, which are coupled to one another by means of a coupling device 23.

The guide body 21 has an approximately rectangular elevation (FIG. 2), the upper edge area of which is slightly curved in an arc. The guide body 21 has a guide surface 24 on the side facing away from the holder 22. This is surrounded on the edge by a circumferential reinforcing rib 25 (FIG. 3). The guide body 21 is made of an elastically resilient but very tough plastic.

The holder 22 has a holding foot 26 and a holding arm 27 (FIGS. 4 to 6). The holder 22 is designed as a one-piece plastic molded part and is made from an elastically resilient and very tough plastic, generally from the same plastic as the guide body 21.

The holding foot 26 has an approximately rectangular elevation (Fig. 6). Its outside facing away from the holding arm 27 forms the contact surface 28 of the holding foot 26 for contacting the guide wall element 10. At least one pair of through holes 29 are provided on the holding foot 26, which are used to fasten the holder 22 to the guide wall element 10.

The holding arm 27 is aligned normal to the contact surface 28. The main part 31 of the holding arm 27 is at least approximately leaf-shaped and has a rectangular elevation following the holding foot 26 and then a semicircular elevation. Along its edge, the main part 31 is provided with a circumferential reinforcing or stiffening rib 32, which is arranged on the side facing away from the guide body 21. This circumferential reinforcing rib 32 merges into a support rib 33 in the region of the holding foot 26, which extends to the edge of the holding foot 26. Although there is no circumferential reinforcing rib on the side facing the guide body 21, a supporting rib 34 is formed, which is formed and arranged similarly to the two supporting ribs 33 on the other side.

The coupling device 23 (FIG. 3) has a cap screw 35 as well as a nut 36 and a washer 37. The head screw and the adjoining part of the shaft of the head screw 35 are formed in the guide body 21 in such a way that the threaded shaft protrudes from the guide body 21 on the side facing away from the guide surface 24 and is thereby aligned normally to the contact surface 24. In the area of the screw 35, an extension 38 with a flat end face 39 is formed on the guide body 21 on the side facing away from the guide surface 24. The extension 38 additionally surrounds the head of the cap screw 35 and the first part of its shaft and thereby simultaneously reinforces the guide body 21. The extension 38 has an annular cross section and is either as a circular cylinder or as a truncated cone with a very small cone angle.

As a further part of the coupling device 23, a through hole for the shaft of the cap screw 35 is provided on the holding arm 27. This through hole is designed as an elongated hole 41 (FIG. 5). In the area of this elongated hole 41, a recess 42 is formed on the side of the holding arm 27 facing the guide body 21, the peripheral wall 43 of which is an equidistant from the peripheral wall of the elongated hole 41, the bottom of the recess 42 being flat. The recess 42 receives the extension 38 of the guide body 21 and is accordingly matched to its shape and dimensions, the fit between the peripheral wall of the extension 38 and the recess 42 being narrower than that between the peripheral wall of the elongated hole 41 and the threaded shaft of the cap screw 35 In the area of the recess 42, the main part 31 of the holding arm 27 has a bulge 44 on the side facing away from the guide body (FIG. 6), so that the holding arm 27 is not weakened by the recess 42.

The guide surface 24 of the guide body 21 is expediently covered with a reflective film 45, in which sloping strips alternate in the usual manner in red and white color, as is indicated in FIG. 1.

The embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 to 11 basically corresponds to the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 6. The type of connection of the guide body to the holding arm differs.

The coupling device 23 has an adjusting device 45. One part of the adjusting device 45 is by an external toothing 46 formed, which is formed on the peripheral surface of the extension 38 of the guide body 21. The other part of the adjusting device 45 is formed by an internal toothing 47 which is matched to the external toothing 46 and which is arranged on the straight sections of the peripheral wall 43 of the recess 42 which run parallel to the elongated hole 41. Depending on the division of the external toothing 46 and the internal toothing 47, the guide body 21 can be set to various fixed rotational positions with respect to the holding arm 27, specifically regardless of the horizontal relative position of the extension 38 in the recess 42. Conversely, the distance of the guide body can 21 can be adjusted by the holding foot 26 within the length of the elongated hole 41 and the recess 42 regardless of the rotational position of the guide body 21.

In contrast to the coupling device according to FIGS. 1 to 6, where the connection is established by frictional engagement, the embodiment according to FIGS. 7 to 11 works with positive locking. The positive connection is established in that the external toothing 46 engages in the internal toothing 47 in any rotational position and at any distance from the guide wall. The use of positive locking ensures that the position of the guide body remains even if the screw connection is loosened.

Claims (14)

1. Guide arrangement (11) for guide walls, having a holder (22) which is provided with a retaining foot (26) comprising an abutment face (28), having securing means (25) disposed therein,intended for abutting on a lateral face of the guide wall, and having a guide member (21) secured to the retaining foot and provided, on at least one side, with a guide face (24),
   characterised in that
   the folder (22) comprises a retaining arm 827) which projects from the side of the retaining foot (26) facing away from the abutment face (28) and is resiliently flexible at least in the direction vertical to the plane of the guide member (21), and in that a coupling device (23) is present, by means for which the guide member (21) can be coupled to the retaining arm (27).
2. Guide arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that the guide member (21) has an approximately rectangular configuration.
3. Guide arrangement according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that, on one side of the guide member (21), preferably on the side with the guide face (24), a reinforcing rib (25) is provided which extends along the edge.
4. Guide arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the retaining foot (26), having an approximately rectangular configuration, is provided with at least one pair of through-slots (29) which are disposed in a horizontal direction with a mutual spacing therebetween, in that the retaining arm (27) is disposed, preferably fitted, in the longitudinal centre of the retaining foot (26), in that the retaining arm (27) has at least an approximately leaf-shaped configuration, and in that the retaining arm (27) on the side remote from the guide member (21) is preferably provided with a circumferential reinforcing rib (32) along its edge.
5. Guide arrangement according to claim 4, characterised in that, at the transitional location between the retaining foot (26) and the retaining arm (27), at least one respective reinforcing rib, preferably two supporting ribs (33, 34) which are disposed one above the other with a mutual spacing therebetween are provided on both sides of the retaining arm (27).
6. Guide arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that a respective through-slot (41) is provided as part of the coupling device (23) on the guide member (21) and on the retaining arm (27), into which through-slot a headed screw (35) with nut (36) is insertable.
7. Guide arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that a headed screw (35) is fitted on the guide member (21) as part of the coupling device (23) in such a way that it protrudes from the guide member (21) on the side remote from the guide face (24), and in that a through-slot (41) is provided on the retaining arm (27) in alignment with the headed screw (35).
8. Guide arrangement accordinq to claim 7, characterised in that an extension (39), having a flat end face (39) preferably aligned parallel to the guide member (21), is provided in the region of the screw head on the guide member (21) on the side remote from the quide face (24), and in that a recess (42), which is adapted to the extension (33) of the guide member (21), is provided on the retaining arm (27).
9. Guide arrangement according to claim 8, characterised in that the through-slot for the headed screw (35) is configured as elongate slot (41) on the retaining arm (27) and is orientated parallel to the longitudinal extension of the retaining arm (27), and in that the recess (42) is configured as an elongate recess which extends parallel to the elongate slot (41).
10. Guide arrangement according to claim 8 or 9, characterised in that the extension (38) of the guide member (21) has a circular cross-section.
11. Guide arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterised in that the parts of the couplinq device (23) co-operate by form-locking.
12. Guide arrangement according to claim 9, characterised in that an external toothing (46) is disposed on the circumferential face of the extension (38), which has a circular cross-section, and in that an internal toothing (47), which is adapted to the external toothing (46), is provided on the rectilinear portions of the circumferential wall (43) of the recess (42), which portions extend parallel to the elongate slot (41).
13. Guide arrangement according to claim 12, characterised in that one threaded portion of the coupling device (23) is formed as a threaded nut portion (36), preferably in the form of a threaded bush provided in the region of the extension (38) of the guide member (21), and the other threaded portion is formed as headed screw (35), the shank of which extends through the elongate slot (41) from the side of the retaining arm (27) remote from the guide member (21) and is screwed into the threaded nut portion (36).
14. Guide arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 13, characterised in that the guide face (24) of the guide member (21) is orovided with coloured markings or with a reflective film (45).

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