FR2773829A1 - Road marker cone with annular groove - Google Patents

Abstract

The cone (1), injection molded in one piece from a plastic material, has an annular groove (4) round its tip and a zone (5) with a rough surface below it to give a grip. The rough surface is in the form of irregular filament projections some 0.5 cm high, covering an area of between 2 and 10 cm deep, and preferably about 4 cm. Both the groove and rough surface are made during the molding process.

Description

 The present invention relates to a road signaling beacon of the type commonly known as a traffic cone.

 Such beacons, made of plastic material, generally of orange color with reflective bands, are commonly used to delimit and temporarily indicate zones, in particular of works, or traffic lanes on roads and motorways.

 These beacons, with a unit weight of the order of 4 Kg, are generally placed on the ground by means of a square base, most often made in one piece with the frustoconical body of the beacon.

 Once their use is complete, for example to delimit a highway lane during work, the beacons are picked up "on the fly" by one or two highway employees, loaded in the back of a pick-up truck driving slowly, the employee (s) manually entering the beacons near their tapered upper end.

 In order to facilitate gripping, provision has already been made to equip such tags near the upper end of the frustoconical body, with a gripping groove making it possible to block the phalanges of the fingers of the user who has grasped the tag by the palm of his hand open on the part of the body of the tag located below the throat.

 However, it is noted, taking into account the environment of use, and in particular in the event of rain, that, by grasping the tag to recover it, the attendant sometimes sees the tag escape him.

Indeed, the palm of his hand slides along the smooth body of the beacon, made slippery by splashes of water or oil, or runoff water, the phalanges of the fingers also fail to hang in the throat.

 Thus, the tag can only be recovered at the cost of stopping the van, thereby slowing down the overall pickup operation of the tags.

 This risk of not entering the tag can be further increased when, as is generally the case, the attendant wears gloves.

 The present invention proposes, by particularly simple and economical means, to avoid such a drawback.

 The tag according to the present invention is essentially characterized by the fact that it comprises, below the groove provided near the upper end of the frustoconical body, an area provided with asperities ensuring an "anti-slip" effect during the pickup of the tag by the pickup attendant.

 The asperities can be of any suitable type, but in an advantageous form of implementation of the invention, these asperities are constituted by protrusions in relief, in the form of filaments irregularly arranged giving the corresponding area, to the touch, an "orange peel" appearance.

 The zone provided with roughness advantageously has a height of between 2 and 10 cm, and is advantageously around 4 cm, the height of the roughness being of the order of 0.5 cm.

 It is understood that the zone provided with asperities associated with the groove near the upper end of the frustoconical part of the tag, makes it possible to ensure an effective grip ensuring first of all a braking effect avoiding the skidding of the hand of the user when he grasps the beacon in or below the area provided with asperities, the groove securing in the second time the blocking of the phalanges, which allows the attendant to reassemble the beacon in the van before going to the next tag.

In order to better understand the invention will now be described by way of example in no way limiting an embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawing in which
FIG. 1 is an elevation view of a beacon according to the present invention, and
- Figure 2 is an enlarged detail view of part of Figure 1.

 The signaling beacon illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a tapered hollow body 1 made of PVC by injection, in one piece with a base 2 of square section.

 Usually the tag is orange and has reflective bands 3.

 In the vicinity of its upper end, the frustoconical part 1 has a groove 4 below which is formed a zone 5 provided with irregular asperities in the form of filaments, the configuration of which is best seen in FIG. 2.

 These asperities are formed during molding by appropriate machining of the mold wall.

The entire plastic tag, particularly in
PVC is molded in one piece by injection, the groove and the roughness of said area having come from molding.

 The combination of the groove 4 and the zone 5, provided with non-slip effect asperities, constitutes, as explained above, a "handle" for gripping to allow a collector to grab and raise the beacon.

 Although the invention has been described in connection with a particular embodiment, it is obvious that it is in no way limited thereto and that it can be made different variants and modifications without departing from its scope or of his mind.

Claims (5)

 1. Road traffic sign of the traffic cone type, comprising a frustoconical body having near its upper end a gripping groove, characterized in that it comprises, below said groove (4), a zone (5) with rough edges.  2. Beacon according to claim 1, characterized in that said roughness consists of raised projections, in the form of irregularly arranged filaments.  3. Beacon according to any one of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the area (5) provided with roughness has a height between 2 and 10 cm, preferably about 4 cm.  4. Beacon according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is made of plastic, in particular PVC.  5. Beacon according to claim 4, characterized in that it is produced by injection molding, the groove (4) and the roughness of said zone (5) having come from molding.