EP1182296A1 - Road safety barrier - Google Patents

Abstract

The safety barrier for roads (1) has a horizontal beam supported on uprights and having a lower protective screen to prevent a motorcycle sliding under the barrier. The lower screen (10) is formed from longitudinal sections (11,12) each with upper and lower components each having mountings for fixing to the uprights, so that their position can be individually adjusted for height.

Description

The present invention relates to safety barriers which are placed along tracks vehicle traffic and which include at least one rail parallel to the ground and vertical supports.

These barriers have the disadvantage of leaving a lower space under the beam, of sufficient height so that an injured motorcyclist slipping on the ground can be seriously injured, either because it gets stuck between the ground and the lower part of the boom, either because it is projected against the vertical supports located behind the arm, supports which are numerous, rigid and blunt, that is to say extremely dangerous.

So that these barriers are protective not only for car passengers, trucks and coaches but also for motorbike users with or without sidecar, and a generally for anyone who is accidentally thrown into the path of traffic, we have already thought of filling the lower space by means of a flat screen, formed of plates fixed end to end.

But the solutions known to date have not been entirely satisfactory, in particular because of the fixing difficulties which they cause, the fact that the ground is not not always regular and sometimes even presents significant reliefs such as partially buried pipes above the normal ground level.

• Le brevet FR 2 556 755 qui décrit un écran formé d'une plaque simple, disposée verticalement sous la lisse unique d'une barrière.
• Le brevet FR 2 751 998 qui décrit un dispositif destiné notamment à « arrêter un motard après une chute », qui est constitué par l'assemblage de pièces en caisson devant entourer les supports verticaux d'une barrière de sécurité et réunies par des tiges métalliques horizontales.

To fix the state of the art, the following documents can be cited:

• Patent FR 2,556,755 which describes a screen formed by a simple plate, arranged vertically under the single rail of a barrier.
• Patent FR 2 751 998 which describes a device intended in particular for "stopping a biker after a fall", which consists of the assembly of parts in a box which must surround the vertical supports with a safety barrier and joined by metal rods horizontal.

Besides that these boxes are very expensive because of their manufacturing cost and because of the difficulty of assembly, it is necessary to assemble the boxes on site and for this engage long horizontal metal rods, which impose an alignment rigorous prohibiting any possibility of angular adjustment of two neighboring boxes to allow them to adjust independently of each other to irregularities ground.

The present invention deviates entirely from known solutions and makes it possible to carry out protective screens that are easy to mount and benefit from the same absorption effects energy, while allowing easy adaptation to uneven terrain.

To this end, the invention relates to a safety barrier intended to be placed on along vehicle traffic lanes, which includes at least one horizontal rail subject to vertical supports and which further comprises a lower screen called "of protection "intended to oppose the passage under the arm of a two-wheeled vehicle accident, sliding flat on the taxiway and / or its user fallen to the ground, characterized in that the lower protective screen is formed by the assembly longitudinal of horizontal segments which each have two parts respectively upper and lower must both be fixed to the barrier but each by separate and autonomous assembly members, so that their position can be individually adjusted so that the relative position of the upper and lower is adaptable in height, individually for each segment.

la partie supérieure et la partie inférieure de l'écran sont traversées d'ouvertures oblongues à grand axe vertical devant recevoir des boulons de fixation à la barrière ;

la partie supérieure de chaque segment est fixée à la barrière par l'intermédiaire d'au moins deux bras substantiellement verticaux présentant chacun trois parties qui sont respectivement une embase supérieure de fixation et une partie médiane toutes deux situées derrière la/les lisse(s) pour un observateur situé sur la voie de circulation, ainsi qu'une embase inférieure devant supporter la partie supérieure d'au moins un segment et située, à cette fin, au-dessous du bord inférieur de la lisse la plus basse de la barrière ;

l'embase supérieure est traversée d'une lumière oblongue à grand axe substantiellement horizontal qui doit recevoir au moins un organe de fixation à la barrière ;

le bras doit être situé au droit et en avant d'un support vertical de la barrière, pour un observateur situé sur la voie de circulation, et la lumière oblongue est une encoche débouchant sur un côté vertical de l'embase afin de recevoir un boulon de fixation standard réunissant la/chaque lisse audit support vertical ;

l'embase inférieure est traversée d'au moins une lumière oblongue à grand axe substantiellement horizontal qui doit recevoir un organe de fixation de la partie supérieure d'un segment ;

l'embase inférieure est traversée d'au moins deux lumières superposées devant recevoir autant d'organes de fixation d'un seul segment ;

l'embase inférieure présente deux séries de lumières superposées, séries qui sont disposées à une certaine distance horizontale l'une de l'autre, les séries devant recevoir des organes de fixation de deux segments distincts contigus ;

la partie médiane des bras est formée par la superposition et la fixation l'une à l'autre de deux plaques traversées de lumières verticales devant recevoir des boulons de fixation à des niveaux variables selon le niveau relatif des deux plaques ;

les parties supérieure et inférieure présentent chacune deux bords longitudinaux parallèles, le haut de la partie inférieure de chaque segment étant appliqué sur le bas de la partie supérieure ;

les bords non horizontaux des parties supérieure et inférieure de chaque segment sont obliques selon deux inclinaisons contraires d'une part pour les deux parties supérieures et d'autre part pour les deux parties inférieures de deux segments contigus, le bord supérieur de chaque partie supérieure et le bord inférieur de chaque partie inférieure étant ainsi plus longs que les deux autres.

According to other characteristics of the invention:

the upper part and the lower part of the screen are crossed by oblong openings with a large vertical axis which must receive bolts for fixing to the barrier;

the upper part of each segment is fixed to the barrier by means of at least two substantially vertical arms each having three parts which are respectively an upper fixing base and a middle part both located behind the beam (s) for an observer located on the traffic lane, as well as a lower base having to support the upper part of at least one segment and situated, for this purpose, below the lower edge of the lowest rail of the barrier;

the upper base is traversed by an oblong opening with a substantially horizontal long axis which must receive at least one member for fixing to the barrier;

the arm must be located to the right and in front of a vertical support of the barrier, for an observer located on the traffic lane, and the oblong light is a notch opening on a vertical side of the base in order to receive a bolt standard attachment joining the / each beam to said vertical support;

the lower base is traversed by at least one oblong opening with a substantially horizontal major axis which must receive a member for fixing the upper part of a segment;

the lower base is traversed by at least two superimposed openings which must receive as many fixing members from a single segment;

the lower base has two series of superimposed lights, series which are arranged at a certain horizontal distance from each other, the series having to receive fasteners of two separate contiguous segments;

the middle part of the arms is formed by the superimposition and the fixing to each other of two plates traversed by vertical openings which are to receive fixing bolts at variable levels according to the relative level of the two plates;

the upper and lower parts each have two parallel longitudinal edges, the top of the lower part of each segment being applied to the bottom of the upper part;

the non-horizontal edges of the upper and lower parts of each segment are oblique at two opposite inclinations on the one hand for the two upper parts and on the other hand for the two lower parts of two contiguous segments, the upper edge of each upper part and the lower edge of each lower part being thus longer than the other two.

The invention will be better understood from the detailed description below made with reference to attached drawing. Of course, the description and the drawing are only given as indicative and non-limiting example.

Figure 1 is a partial schematic perspective view of a safety barrier according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of the safety barrier of FIG. 1.

Figure 3 is a schematic front view showing the mounting of an arm on a spacer integral with a vertical support.

Figure 4 is a schematic view similar to that of Figure 2, showing a variant according to which the arms are also adjustable in height.

Figure 5 is a schematic front view of the barrier of Figures 1 and 2, showing the junction of two adjoining screen segments and their attachment to the barrier by arms located to the right of the vertical supports, the screen segments being adjusted at the same level, because the terrain is flat.

Figure 6 is a schematic view similar to that of Figure 5, the two segments adjoining screens being set at two different levels, due to the irregularity of the terrain.

Figure 7 is a schematic view similar to that of Figure 5, the two segments of adjoining screens being adjusted at two different inclinations due to the presence of an obstacle.

Figure 8 is a schematic front view of a barrier according to the invention according to a particular embodiment of the junction of two screen segments.

Referring to the drawing, we see a safety barrier according to the invention which, with this example, is made from a standard base, namely supports vertical 1 fixed to the ground, spacers 2 fixed to the upper part of the supports 1 and a rail 3 formed by segments of metal profiles fixed to each other with a slight overlapping of the downstream ends by the upstream ends (in the direction of circulation vehicles), in “fish scales”, as is well known, the stringer 3 having two superimposed longitudinal waves 4 and 5, symmetrical with respect to a flat 6 and extended by wings 7 and 8 respectively, the free edges of which are facing away from vehicle traffic lane A, located at the front of the figure 1.

According to the invention, the security barrier comprises a lower screen of protection 10 suspended from the barrier and masking as completely as possible the space between the bottom of the rail 3 and the ground.

The screen 10 is formed by juxtaposed segments each formed of two parts superimposed, respectively upper 11 and lower 12.

The two upper 11 and lower 12 parts are fixed to the barrier so adjustable, so that the lower part 12 can be adjusted in height and inclination longitudinal with respect to the upper part 11, in order to adapt the bottom of the screen 10 to the specifics of the soil, while the upper part 11 remains parallel to the single beam 3 (case of the example chosen here) or at the lowest barrier when the barrier has at at least two stringers located one above the other.

Thanks to this structure, the barrier is perfectly regular while the lower part of the screen matches the most important irregularities of the ground.

In other words, we reconcile the need to present a barrier perfectly parallel to taxiway A and offering a constant guarantee over its entire length protection, and the need for an effective lower screen 10 also over its entire length but able to be manufactured in the workshop in a standardized manner, to be installed so simple and yet adaptable immediately, on site, to ground irregularities.

The upper part 11 of the screen 10 is suspended from the barrier by arms 20 which are each made up of a metal strip, in particular made of galvanized steel like the smooth 3, and folded to present an upper base 21, a lower base 22 and a middle part 23 shaped to bypass the heald 3 by its rear (for a observer located on taxiway A) so as not to interfere with its deformation in the event of shock, as is well known per se.

It is, of course, necessary for the upper part 11 to be firmly fixed and each segment can therefore be suspended from the barrier by several arms, particularly near its ends to prevent a shock occurring at this location can cause bending horizontal of the screen which could unmask a sharp vertical edge of the part upper 11 and / or lower part 12, which would entail risks of cutting serious or deep trauma to the victim.

On the contrary, the suspension of the single upper part 11 by arms 20 leaves completely free the lower edge of the lower part 12 and allows the screen 10 all whole to deform vertically, like a flap that would pivot along an axis upper horizontal.

This uplift is more or less important depending on the impact force and never opposes the victim, under any circumstances, a dangerous element.

With the example shown, the barrier has an arm 20 to the right of each support vertical 1 and each of these arms 20 has a width sufficient to receive the ends of two contiguous upper parts 11.

Note that with the example shown, the screen segments 10 are aligned exactly, their ends being placed in the extension of one another, this assembly being the simpler but also being imperfect.

For security reasons, it is much better to have the upstream end covered parts 11 and 12 of a downstream segment by the downstream end of parts 11 and 12 upstream, in "Fish scales", as is done with the heald segments 3. The concepts upstream and downstream are to be considered according to the direction of vehicle traffic on the lane A.

Indeed, this arrangement avoids any accidental yawning of successive elements during a oblique impact or when sliding against the barrier, vehicles and victims approaching the security barrier, practically in all cases, from upstream to downstream and more or less obliquely, and sometimes frontally after a bounce on an obstacle during of an accident.

A downstream shock on the barrier is extremely rare and if this happens, most of the kinetic energy of the mobile has already been absorbed, so the shock is modest and the The raised downstream edge of the segments cannot cause people to run any serious danger.

Here, the upper base 21 is inserted between the front face of the spacer 2 and the flat part 6 of the arm 3, and is notched with an oblong slot 24 with a large horizontal axis, intended to be located opposite a light or one or more holes (not visible in the drawing) drilled in the front face of the spacer 2 and in the flat 6 of the arm 3, the fixing of the arm 20 by its upper base 21 using one or more bolts 25 (here three, visible in Figure 1) through the holes in the flat 6, the light 24 and the face front of the spacer 2 behind which each bolt 25 is blocked by a nut 26.

When the safety barrier is fitted from the outset with a screen 10 conforming to the invention, the light 24 can have a closed contour because the base 21 is positioned before the arm 3 and before engaging the bolts 25.

But the invention makes it possible to set up the screen 10 on a security barrier already existing and, for this purpose, the light 24 has an open contour, forming a notch which opens here on the left vertical side of the base 21, so that it is enough to loosen the bolts 25 without removing the arm 3, and engaging the base 21 by its left side to that the bolts 25 still in place freely penetrate into the notch 24. The latter allows a certain latitude of lateral movement allowing the correct alignment of the arm 20 relative to the vertical support 1, after which the bolts 25 and their nuts 26.

This process assumes that the bolts 25 are long enough to accept the allowance due to the insertion of the base 21.

If they are too short, we remove them arm by arm and replace them with bolts of same diameter and greater length.

In all cases, the heald segments 3 are not deposited, which constitutes a very large advantage of simplicity, time saved and reasonable price.

The lower base 22 is crossed by two oblong slots 27 superposed and at major horizontal axis opposite which a vertical light must be 28 passing through the upper part 11 and a vertical light 29 passing through the lower part 12.

These lights are used to fix one end of the same screen segment 10, fixing which is obtained by two bolts 30 and 31, the first being engaged in the vertical light 28 from the top 11 and in the horizontal light 27 from the top of the base 22, while the second is engaged in the vertical light 29 of the part lower 12 and in the horizontal light 27 at the bottom of the base 22.

The horizontal lights 27 of the base 22 allow small deflections horizontal allowing precise adjustment of parts 11 and 12 of screen 10.

The vertical lights 28 and 29 allow large deflections, thanks to which it is possible to vary the level of the bolts 30, to adjust the position on the one hand of the upper part 11 relative to the arm 3 and on the other hand the position of the part lower 12 compared to upper part 11.

What we have just described concerns the fixing of a single end of a single segment screen 10 and it is understood that the same assembly is made for fixing the other end of the same segment.

But, according to an interesting characteristic, one can use a single arm 20 to suspend two contiguous segments 10, so that each vertical support 1 corresponds a single arm 20 but that the latter carries the downstream end of an upstream segment and the upstream end of a downstream segment.

It is for this reason that the arm 20 of FIG. 3 is wide enough to have two series of lights 27 superimposed, series separated from each other by a distance horizontal D sufficient to allow easy assembly and guarantee the robustness of the arm 20, the series on the left serving for fixing the upstream screen segment and the series of right used for fixing the downstream screen segment, assuming that the vehicles run in the left -> right direction.

The upper 11 and lower 12 parts of the screen 10 are formed from two folded sheets near their two longitudinal sides to form a flat central part and two edges at 45 °, respectively upper 32 and lower 33. The upper edge 32 is located above an inclined plane 34 joining the middle part 23 of the arm 20 and the lower base 22 and in the position shown in Figure 2 this flange 32 abuts against this inclined plane 34 when the upper part 11 must occupy its low position maximum.

If the arm 3 is near the ground, the upper part 11 must be able to be raised, what we get thanks to the cooperation of the two lights 27 and 28 because they can occupy different relative height positions without preventing attachment a bolt 30. The lower part 12 is applied in the upper part to the lower part of the upper part 11 to obtain a covering, then is then adjusted in height relative to the upper part 11 already immobilized, by sliding it against this upper part 11, and by blocking the bolt 31 at a good height in the light vertical 29.

In FIG. 4, a variant is shown according to which the middle part 23 of each arm 20 is no longer in one piece of finished height, but results from the assembly of two plates 23 a and 23 b crossed by vertical lights ( not visible in the drawing), that (s) of the upper rear plate 23 a must be placed (s) opposite that (s) of the lower front plate 23 b in order to allow the passage of bolts 36 fixed by nuts 37, in order to secure the plates 23 a and 23 b at variable levels depending on the circumstances.

The upper 11 and lower 12 parts of the screen 10 are always adjustable in height by clamping one and the other on the lower base 22 of the arms 20, by bolts 38 fixed by nuts 39.

This embodiment provides very great freedom of adjustment, by adjusting the parts 11 and 12 of the screen 10 and by adjusting the plates 23 a and 23 b of each arm 20.

In FIG. 5, we see two contiguous segments of beam 3 and screen 10 and we observe that the lower edge 33 of the lower part 12, for the two segments, is located near of the ground, parallel to its surface, which corresponds to the case of a flat, uniform and in this case horizontal.

In FIG. 6, it can be seen that the lower parts 12 of the two screen segments 10 are at two different but parallel levels, due to the presence of irregularities in the ground which cannot be eliminated but which are very much the same height.

This shows that the level of the lower parts12 can be adjusted individually for each segment, depending on the specifics of the soil.

In FIG. 7, it can be seen that the freedom of adjustment provided by the fixing bolts 30 and 31 in lights 27 and 28 - 29 at each end of the segments are important because it is not only possible to adjust the level of tightness of these bolts for each segment but even for each end of each segment, and this in order to give the entire screen 10 or its constituent parts 11 and 12 a longitudinal inclination, independently of the heald 3 and more generally of the whole barrier.

Thanks to this possibility of tilting, the screen 10 adapts to all the cases encountered in the practice, as for the regularity and the horizontality of the ground.

In addition, it is possible to use for the segments of the same barrier of parts 11 and 12 made of sheets of different heights, so that by playing on the height of the arms 20, on that of the upper parts 11 and on those of lower parts 12, then in making adjustments during assembly, a safety barrier according to the invention fitted with a lower protective screen 10, can adapt to all cases encountered in practice: unevenness of the ground, sidewalks, shelters, poorly buried pipes, etc.

The middle part 23 of the arm 20 allows a deformation at least partially by pivoting of the screen 10 according to the arrow F1, as shown diagrammatically in FIG. 2. As the screen 10 on the one hand and the arm 20 on the other hand are made of metal, the deformation that the assembly undergoes during a substantial horizontal shock is final, i.e. there is no elastic return and resistance to deformation is established by properly calculating the thickness of the sheets of the screen 10 and of the metal strip constituting the arm 20, taking into account the metal chosen.

But above all, the total freedom of the screen 10 at its lower part (whose rim 33 is above from the ground) and its suspension from the barrier gives complete freedom of movement lifting, so that the screen 10, the arms 20 and the heddle 3 constitute together a deformable structure whose characteristics result from the combination more or less complex of the faculties specific to each of the components.

We said above that it was good to make a covering in fish scales not only for heald segments 3 but also for screen segments 10.

But when the top of the lower part 12 covers the bottom of the upper part 11 and that in addition these two upstream parts must cover two downstream parts of the segment neighbor, we end up with four superimpositions, which is practically unacceptable.

This is why, according to an important characteristic of the invention visible in FIG. 7, the ends of parts 11 and 12 are given an inclined edge, or “beveled”, so that these edges can overlap two by two, from upstream to downstream for the parts upper 11 and for the lower parts 12, and from bottom to top for the parts lower 12 on the upper parts 11.

There then remains in screen 10, at each junction of two contiguous segments, a space central 35 void of material but closed because it is located opposite the lower part of the lower base 22, which removes any dangerous character.

The safety barrier according to the invention adapts to all kinds of heddles 3, in metal or wood, and its realization is very simple since it does not use any technology unfamiliar to personnel specializing in manufacturing and assembly existing safety barriers.

Claims (11)

Safety barrier intended to be arranged along vehicle traffic lanes, which comprises at least one horizontal rail subjected to vertical supports and which also comprises a lower screen called "protection" intended to oppose the passage under the arm of a damaged two-wheeled vehicle, sliding flat on the taxiway and / or of its user fallen to the ground, characterized in that the lower protective screen is formed by the longitudinal assembly of horizontal segments which include each two upper and lower parts respectively, both of which must be fixed to the barrier but each by separate and autonomous assembly members, so that their position can be adjusted individually so that the relative position of the upper and lower parts is adaptable in height, individually for each segment. Barrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper part and the lower part of the screen are traversed by oblong openings with a large vertical axis which must receive bolts for fixing to the barrier. Barrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper part of each segment is fixed to the barrier by means of at least two substantially vertical arms each having three parts which are respectively an upper fixing base and a middle part all two located behind the beam (s) for an observer located on the traffic lane, as well as a lower base to support the upper part of at least one segment and located, for this purpose, below the lower edge of the lowest barrier barrier. Barrier according to claim 3, characterized in that the upper base is traversed by an oblong opening with a substantially horizontal major axis which must receive at least one member for fixing to the barrier. Barrier according to claim 4, characterized in that the arm must be located to the right and in front of a vertical support of the barrier, for an observer located on the traffic lane, and the oblong light is a notch opening on one side vertical of the base in order to receive a standard fixing bolt joining the / each beam to said vertical support. Barrier according to claim 3, characterized in that the lower base is traversed by at least one oblong opening with a substantially horizontal major axis which must receive a member for fixing the upper part of a segment. Barrier according to claim 6, characterized in that the lower base is traversed by at least two superimposed openings which must receive as many fixing members from a single segment. Barrier according to claim 6, characterized in that the lower base has two series of superimposed lights, series which are arranged at a certain horizontal distance from each other, the series having to receive fasteners from two separate segments contiguous. Barrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the middle part of the arms is formed by the superposition and the fixing to one another of two plates traversed by vertical lights which are to receive fixing bolts at variable levels according to the level relative of the two plates. Barrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the upper and lower parts each have two parallel longitudinal edges, the top of the bottom of each segment being applied to the bottom of the top Barrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the non-horizontal edges of the upper and lower parts of each segment are oblique at two opposite inclinations on the one hand for the two upper parts and on the other hand for the two lower parts of two segments contiguous, the upper edge of each upper part and the lower edge of each lower part thus being longer than the other two.

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