EP0791108B1

EP0791108B1 - A panel

Info

Publication number: EP0791108B1
Application number: EP95935800A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Alojz Hanuliak
Original assignee: LeRoy Eclat AG
Current assignee: LeRoy Eclat AG
Priority date: 1994-11-11
Filing date: 1995-11-08
Publication date: 2002-01-09
Anticipated expiration: 2015-11-08
Also published as: WO1996015324A1; AU3769995A; ATE211787T1; DE69524973D1; EP0791108A1; DE69524973T2

Abstract

For a wasteless elimination of used plastic bottles, the elimination procedure being based on creation of barriers, especially safety barriers, there is designed a panel consisting of resilient hollow columns (13), the columns (13) comprising a pile of tubes (11) furnished with at least one cross baffle (15) and inserted one into the other and assembled, side by side, at least in one row and mutually interconnected into an integral body. The tubes (11) are made of plastic bottles with removed neck pieces (14). The neck piece (14) may be inserted in the bottle body when turned around about 180 DEG with respect to the original position on the bottle body. The assembly of columns (13) is seated in a casing (20) having elastic walls.

Description

Technical Field

The invention relates to a panel, especially to a panel for barriers of various types and more especially for safety barriers for a wide range of sport events.

Background of the Invention

There exists a wide range of sports and particular events therein, manifesting high-speed performances by competitors or even recreational participants. Present systems providing for safety during such sport events for sportsmen, officials and spectators as well are not sufficient no matter how the problem is handled in each of the sports. Safety systems applied in motor sports are based on escape zones, generally covered by sand, which are to decelerate a movement of a car or a driver in such a matter, that an impact against a solid barrier shall be of no danger. As solid barriers there are used concrete walls or steel guardrails, which along turns and other dangerous parts are usually lined with a material that is to damp the impact. In most cases there are applied used tyres arranged in piles, foam-polyurethane, or air-cushion mattresses resp., sometimes just blocks of pressed straw. Due to very high speeds, achieved in spite of efforts to build tracks the parameters of which should prevent them, escape zones are not effective enough and a moving body hits a barrier separating the track from spectator area at a speed which is dangerous for the driver's health and even for those who are behind such a barrier. Moreover on any tracks there are places where the escape zones are so small that any consecutive impact happens at full speed of the moving body. Experiences show that no known lining of solid walls is fully effective and offers only a very limited protection. Due to elasticity of the material of existing protection means the impact is damped only temporarily as the accumulated impact energy acts back and the vehicle or the human body, as the case may be, is thrown back on a track. The return impulse thus increases the load applied to the human body and therefore a danger of a severe injury. Speedway competitions feature even more dangerous conditions. The tracks are separated from stands only by wooden barriers and as there are no escape zones a fall of a rider represents a direct danger of an impact against a rigid, nonelastic wall. The situation is not better in other sports where competitors perform at rather high speeds, as is the case with cycling or skiing. In races performed on regular roads and streets there is no protection in steep, down-going passages. Protecting nets used in downhill skiing may trap a ski and if the binding does not act immediately, the skier is in a great jeopardy. Moreover, along or even inside ski pistes there are placed cableway towers, ski-tow poles, poles carrying safety nets and there exist other natural and artificial obstacles. In finish area there are located time-keeping equipment and other facilities. The present protection by means of foam-polyurethane cushions, air-fences or by any other elastic means, present the same danger as discussed above for motorsport, as the human body is thrown back at a relatively high speed. From a US document 5123775 there is known an impact attenuator including a fiberglass shell in the cavity of which there are a plurality of empty beverage cans which are arranged in an end-to-end relation in piles and the can piles side by side in rows. Such a solution offers only a single use device as the cans when once crashed and deformed by an impact loose their ability to damp an impact and thua the device must be replaced by a new one, for racing circuits thus being of no use, to say nothing that an impact of a human body would be still for the body very dangerous.
DE-A1-3106694 discloses an impact absorbing panel having hollow cylinders arranged in a regular pattern within an outer housing. The hollow cylinders are interconnected to form an integral body.
It is an object of the invention to create a safety barrier capable of damping the impact energy in such an extent that a collision with a solid obstacle shall be of no or very little danger to a human body and a damage to a vehicle shall be limited as much as possible. It is a preferred object of the invention to utilise a waste material for the purpose.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a panel for use as a barrier, comprising a plurality of hollow cylinders arranged in columns, said cylinders being furnished with at least one cross baffle, said barrier being characterised in that: each hollow column comprises a plurality of resilient tubes; each tube has a cross-baffle at one end thereof; each tube is inserted through an open end of an adjacent tube into the cavity of the adjacent tube to form a mutually interconnected column; and adjacent columns are mutually interconnected to form an integral body.
In a preferred embodiment the tube is formed by a plastic bottle with removed neck part, the neck part being inserted into the bottle when turned round about 180° with respect to the original position on the bottle body. Further in accordance with the present invention the column assembly is seated in a casing having elastic walls. The walls, preferably side walls may be provided with at least one vent. The casing may be also furnished with at least one inside wall arranged spaced from and planparalelly with the housing side walls. In a specific preferred embodiment the columns are placed horizontally in at least two layers, the assembly being at the front face equipped with at least one face row of vertically arranged columns with the axes of the horizontally arranged columns substantially perpendicular to the face of the assembly. In another preferred embodiment the columns are supported by a frame and may be at least partially filled with soil and/or water.
According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a panel manifesting significantly high rate of damping of impacts occurring under any angle. This effect is due to the ability of the panel to absorb the impact in such a rate that a rebound is minimal and nevertheless without fully exhausting its damping potential. Very easy mounting and dismounting of a barrier consisting of the panels allow for applications on tracks which usually serve for other purposes, e.i. for a regular traffic. The panel is suitable for applications in a large variety of sports, especially sports where high speeds are involved. Easy installation along sections of roads or tracks with a steep decline, or anyhow dangerous, capitalize on a low weight of the panel. Dismantling the whole barrier after an event, transport to another place and rearrangement in a short time, even within one day, is easily feasible.
According to another aspect of the invention there is presented a wasteless elimination of used empty plastic bottles. Plastic bottles used in a food industry as beverage containers, present a great problem for ecology of the environment, especially as they are applied in an ever growing rate. The majority of bottles used for the purpose are not to be returned as costs for cleaning of used bottles are higher than cost prices for new ones. Present recycling procedures demand costly equipment and therefore are for all beverage producers economically not efficient. The invention presents direct utilization of the bottles requiring only very simple amendment.

Brief Description of the Drawings

By way of embodiment examples the invention will be now described with reference to the accompanying drawing. Fig. 1 shows a plastic bottle with a marked line to cut off the neck part. Fig. 2 illustrates piling of the plastic bottle bodies into columns, the columns forming the basic element of the panel. Fig. 3 shows a panel in a preferred embodiment with a partially uncovered casing, the panel leaning against a guard-wall, as presented in a perspective view. Fig. 4 offers a side view on columns in an arrangement designed for car racing courses, while Fig. 5 presents a side view on columns in an arrangement designed for motorcycle events arid other sports. Fig. 6 gives a view upon one completed panel with marked inside wall and Fig. 7 shows panel blocks arranged in a barrier. Fig. 8 presents one panel block for an application in a speedway racing, and Fig. 9 illustrates an arrangement of a barrier for the speedway. Fig. 10 presents a simple panel for a noise-damping barrier and Fig. 11 shows an assembled noise-damping barrier in a cross-cut view.

Description of Preferred Embodiments

Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown a plastic bottle generally used for distribution of nonalcoholic drinks, e.i. a bottle having volume of 2.0 liters and a diameter of 100 mm. The bottle, known as a PET-bottle, constitutes a basic element of the solution described below.
The said bottle is amended as shown on the Fig. 1. From a cylindrical bottle body 1 there is removed a neck part 4. The modified bottle bodies 1 are then set-up five deep into column elements 3, longitudinally secured by a self-adhesive polyethylene tape. The column elements 3 were assembled side by side in two rows, and the assembly was again fixed by the self-adhesive polyethylene tape. The assembly forms a basic panel having width of 1000 mm, depth 200 mm and height 1000 mm. The over-all dimensions are given by the type and number of assembled bottles. The shape of the panel depends upon the application. To increase the rigidity of the whole assembly it is useful to insert the cut-off neck part 4, turned around by 180° with respect to the original position, into the bottle body 1. The inserted neck part 4 together with the bottle bottom 5 constitutes column 3 cross partitions. The whole material of a plastic bottle can be consumed without any waste. The bottle body 1 may be also provided with perforations 2, located in the upper half of its height, or in the bottle bottom 5, depending upon the appropriate application. Dimensions and shapes of employed bottles are not vital, they influence only basic dimensions of the assembled panel, or as the case may be, they define the number of bottles necessary for creation of a panel of required dimensions.
Generally speaking the panel 10 in accordance with the invention comprises hollow columns 13, arranged side by side in such a way that their axes are parallel and adjacent columns 13 are in a mutual longitudinal contact. Individual columns 13 are substantially formed by the one into the next one inserted tubes 11, equipped with cross baffles 15, the baffles increasing mechanical stiffness of the columns 13 and providing for functions described below. The tubes 11 are made of a resilient material allowing for deformation of the walls of the tubes 11 and simultaneously capable of assuming the original shape. There can be used tubes 11 manufactured just for this purpose but it's efficient to utilize the above described design, where the tubes 11 are made of cylindrical bottle bodies 1 and the cross baffles 15 and 14 are constituted by the bottle bottoms 5 and by the neck parts 4 inserted in the bottle bodies 1.
The above discussed panels are used as filling of damping barriers like safety barriers along racing tracks or noise-damping walls.
A safety barrier designed according to the invention consists of blocks, each of them being, a single unit, which are put together into a final set, i.e. one beside the other or one behind the other or one above the other, as the case may be, with respect to the current need. The embodiment can be seen from Figs. 3 and 4. One block is formed of a deformable panel 10 seated in a casing 20 of an elastic material, eg plastic textile. The arrangement of panel columns 13 depends upon an application of the barrier. For motorcycle competitions and for other sports where a body which may hit the barrier, such as a human body, or a machine, weighs approx. 100 kg and the speed at which it is moving is approx. 100 km/hr or less, the columns 13 are placed vertically, as seen from Fig. 5. For car races, featuring higher masses and higher impact speeds, the columns 13 are arranged horizontally, their axes being perpendicular to the assembly face. For this application the panel 10 is furnished with a face row 17 of columns 13, having their axes vertical, as can be seen from Figs. 3 and 4. The same panel 10 can be employed for both the above mentioned applications, just turning it by 90° in a direction perpendicular to the assembly face.
The shape of the casing 20 copies the outside shape of the panel 10. As the columns 13 are mostly arranged in a square or a triangle pattern, the casing 20 has a shape of a right parallelepiped, but in general it can be of any shape given by the arrangement of the columns 13. The side walls of the casing 20 are equipped with vents 21. The vents 21 may be performed in different ways. In the shown embodiment there are presented openings arranged in one line. To improve mechanical rigidity and the shape stability, especially during manipulation with the blocks and transport to a site, the casing 20 is furnished with at least one inside wall 22 extending planparallelly with and spaced from the side walls. The number of the inside walls 22 depends upon the width of the block face wall, the face wall being the wall facing the direction from where an impact may occur. The casing 20 can be made in such a way, that one wall serves as a lid, the edges of which overlap the adjacent walls, and are mechanically attached to the walls by known means. For applications like a speedway or cycling, velcro fasteners 23 meet the demand. As shown in Fig. 6 each block is at the lower part of the face wall provided with an reinforcement band 24, one end of which overlaps the band of the adjacent block. Both matching parts are furnished with engaging parts of a velcro fastener 23. After positioning the blocks side by side along the protected track section, a free end of the reinforcement band 24 of one block is pressed against the firm end of the reinforcement, band 24 of the adjacent block, thus providing for a mutual connection of the adjacent blocks and the whole barrier respectively. To a solid protecting wall 26, such as a concrete wall or a steel fender constituting, a support for the safety barrier, each block may be fastened, eg by means of a cuff 27 extending along a rear upper edge of the block or by means of connecting eyes 28.
The manifested damping ability of the barrier is due to the time subsequence of activities of the whole system of air-cushions comprised within each block, accompanied by simultaneously cooperating mechanical features of the panel 10 assembly. The mechanical deformation of a block caused by an impact and a consequently following escaping of the air from the block inside space does not happen at the same time. The compression of the block provokes gradual leaking of the air, at first out of free spaces between adjacent columns 13 and then from inside of the individual columns 13 themselves as they are subsequently deformed. The air is getting out through the vents 21, in a limited amount also through seams of the casing 20. The delay in time in which the air leaks from various inside spaces of each block is due to different permeability of the leakage routes and also due to a limited yielding of the material of the columns 13. The accomplished crash tests have proved that the barrier assembled from above described blocks is fully capable not only to damp a direct impact but dissipate the impact energy in such a rate that there is no rebound to throw the impacting body back. Until now such a rebound represents a great danger for a human body, with respect to the overload to which it is exposed in a forward and consequently in a backward direction. The column face row 17, as arranged perpendicular to other columns 13 of each panel 10, improves absorption of the first phase of an impact. The above discussed embodiments comprise a block in a shape of a regular hexahedron, the walls of which are regular quadrangles, such as a rectangle or a square. The block walls may nevertheless also have other shapes, eg cylindrical ones, or even substantially more complicated shapes, especially as far as side walls are concerned, which may help to improve mutual interconnection of the adjacent blocks thus improving the barrier stability or to improve a fit of the blocks into the covered object, like a pole.
Another application of the barrier according the invention are noise-damping walls placed along roads and allowing for decrease of noise level in dwelling centers in the vicinity of frequented routes. For this purpose the panels were assembled as follows. A bottom layer was formed by a set of ten rows of column element 3, each of them comprising five bottle bodies 1, thus making a unit with dimensions 1000 x 1000 x 1000 mm. Then goes a middle layer of six column rows of the same column elements 3. On the top there is a set of two column rows. A complete assembly constitutes one section of the said wall having a triangle cross-section as shown in Fig. 11. The staggered front and rear wall may be flattened by adding appropriate number of the bottle bodies 1 as can be seen from Fig 11. The complete unit covering an 1 x 1 m area and having a height of approximately 3 m is fixed with a flexible net of plastics. At the site the sections are seated into supporting frames 30 anchored in the ground. The upper bottle bodies 1 may be filled with a soil providing for a better stability of the wall and allowing to grow suitable plants which would improve an aesthetic appearance of the noise-damping wall.
The system of arrangement of the column elements 3 is unimportant, they may be set in a square or a triangle pattern and connected in a unit by an adhesive or mechanical means. A space between the column elements 3 may be also loaded with an adhesive filler of foam type. Each above described panel or block may be also produced of another material, such as plastic tubes, manufactured as such for this purpose.

Industrial applications

The invention is designed for wasteless elimination of used plastic bottles, the elimination procedure being based on creation of barriers for various applications, especially barriers for racing courses and for truck mounted attenuators used on roads under construction. The panel is also designed for safety barriers for other sports, such as cycling and skiing.

Claims

A panel for use as a barrier, comprising:

a plurality of hollow cylindrical columns (13), wherein adjacent hollow columns (13) are mutually interconnected to form an integral body;

characterised in that:

each hollow column (13) comprises a plurality of resilient tubes (11);

each tube (11) has a cross-baffle (4) at one end thereof; and

each tube (11) is inserted through an open end of an adjacent tube into a cavity of the adjacent tube to form a mutually interconnected column.
A panel for barriers according to claim 1, characterized in, that the assembly of columns (13) is seated in a casing (20) having elastic walls.
A panel for barriers according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in, that the tube (11) is made of a plastic bottle with removed neck part (4).
A panel for barriers according to claim 3, characterized in, that the plastic bottle body (1) is furnished with a neck part (4) inserted when turned round about 180° with respect to the original position on the bottle body (1).
A panel for barriers according to claim 1, characterized in, that the columns (13) are arranged horizontally, in at least two rows one above the other, the assembly being at the face equipped with at least one face row (17) of vertically arranged columns (13), provided the axes of the horizontally arranged columns (13) are substantially perpendicular to the face of the whole assembly.
A panel for barriers according to claim 2, characterized in, that the housing (20) is equipped with at least one vent (21).
A panel for barriers according to claim 6, characterized in, that the vents (21) are located at the housing (20) side walls.
A panel for barriers according to claim 2 or 6 or 7, characterized in, that the housing (20) is furnished with at least one inside wall (22) arranged spaced from and planparalelly with the housing (20) side walls.
A pane for barriers according to claim 1 or 3 or 4, characterized in that the columns (13) are supported by a frame (29).
A panel for barriers according to claim 1 or 9, characterized in, that the columns (3) are at least partially filled with soil and/or water.