FR2850800A1 - Electrical cabinet rectangular board for supporting electrical equipment e.g. meter, has central perforation zone arranged in horizontal lines and contained in rectangular zone, and two lateral perforation zones - Google Patents

Abstract

The board (1) has a fixing zone (3) of preset length situated between a set of perforation lines and a side of the board. The perforations are divided into a central perforation zone (6) in a regular pattern arranged in horizontal lines and two lateral perforation zones (8). The central zone is contained in a rectangular zone of length equal to the set of the perforation lines. An independent claim is also included for a fixation process of a rectangular perforated board to a bottom of an electrical cabinet intended to form a fixation support.

Description

I

  The invention relates to the general field of industrial and tertiary electrical equipment.

  It relates more specifically to equipment for an electrical cabinet by providing a perforated plate intended to be mounted in the bottom of an electrical cabinet and to support various equipment.

  The electrical cabinets commonly used in professional environments are intended to protect various electrical equipment such as, for example, meters, protection, distribution or connection devices, measuring instruments, automata.

  Among the possible methods of fixing this equipment inside the cabinet, perforated plates are often used for their convenience.

  These plates generally consist of a flat sheet metal provided with fixing means allowing the mounting of the plate on the internal face of one of the walls of the cabinet.

  Perforations are made in the plate so that it forms a grid of sufficient rigidity to support the electrical equipment provided.

  These perforations make it possible to form a network of pre-drilled holes 20 for conventional mounting of the equipment on the plate, for example, directly by screws and nuts.

  The regular distribution of the perforations on the plate allows great freedom in the dimensions and locations chosen for the equipment to be fixed.

  The perforations also make it possible, independently or in addition to the aforementioned mounting, to fix any type of insert to the plate.

  These inserts may for example be pliers-nuts capable of holding a nut at the level of a perforation to form a tapped hole, or alternatively clip-on elements providing an adequate surface for the suspension of elements.

  Such perforated plates are known from document FR 1 502 640. This document describes in detail the use of nut pliers on grooved plates to fix apparatus thereon by acting on the front side of the plate only, the nut pliers dispensing with '' have to lock the nuts or the screw heads at the back of the plate.

  Likewise, the document FR 2 260 255 describes a perforated plate according to a defined pitch, this plate being able to receive pliers-nuts.

  These known plates, as described in the documents mentioned, prove to be suitable for their main function which is to present a perforated surface suitable for receiving apparatus fixing elements.

  However, these documents do not deal with the question relating to the fixing of the perforated plate itself inside the electrical cabinet.

  This question, although it does not seem central a priori, turns out to be of primary importance when fixing and using such a plate.

  It appears in fact that perforated plates available on the market include, at each of their four corners, a fixing zone materialized by an absence of perforation as well as cutouts or holes, and possibly forms ensuring the self-centering of the plate, suitable for ensuring the positioning of the plate on means of attachment to the cabinet.

  The perforation of the plate having to be interrupted in the vicinity of these fixing zones, the manufacture of the plate with a single perforation punch which would have the same width as the plate is not possible. Use is then made of a modular punching tool, for example hydraulic, the outer punches of which can be raised or lowered as a function of the area to be perforated on the plate. A high manufacturing cost results from the use of such punches.

  The object of the invention is to overcome this drawback by proposing a perforated plate which is cheaper to manufacture and more practical to use.

  To this end, and according to a first object, the invention provides a rectangular plate for the bottom of an electrical cabinet, perforated along horizontal lines of perforations and intended to form a fixing support, at least one of the four corners of the plate being occupied by a fixing zone of a predetermined width, each fixing zone being located between a set of at least one line of perforations and the edge of the plate, characterized in that the perforations are distributed in: - a zone of central perforations with regular pattern arranged in horizontal lines and contained in a rectangular area of the same width as said set of at least one line of perforations; - two lateral perforation zones located on either side of the central perforations.

  The terminology used in the preceding paragraph supposes, for reasons of clarity of the statement, that the flat plate is described in a vertical position, the word "width" referring to a measurement taken in the horizontal direction.

  Rather than trying to cover as much of the plate as possible with a regular pattern of perforations, the invention takes the advantage of delimiting the plate into heterogeneous zones of perforations.

  The central perforations are thus intended to form a regular mesh in the same way as the perforations of the plates of the prior art, while the lateral perforations, independent of the first, also allow the attachment of the equipment but can moreover be adapted to receive plate edge equipment (trunking, cable tray, etc.).

  The central perforation zone is a rectangular zone devoid of fixing zone and therefore able to integrate any regular pattern over its entire surface.

  Finally, the height (measured vertically) of the lateral perforation zones is chosen to allow the plate to include the fixing zones above and below each of these lateral perforation zones.

  According to a preferred characteristic, the lateral perforations are also arranged in horizontal lines each coinciding with one of said horizontal lines along which the central perforations are arranged.

  This arrangement makes it possible to obtain homogeneous horizontal lines so as to allow the attachment of elements projecting from the central zone onto the lateral zones.

  The central perforations can also be rectangular in shape.

  Rectangular shapes are preferred for central perforations because they allow not only the fixing of threaded elements, but also the clipping of elements horizontally or vertically.

  In addition, in the central perforation zones, the dimension along the horizontal lines of a perforation is substantially equal to the vertical distance separating the external sides of a series of two vertically adjacent perforations.

  An element adapted to be clipped horizontally on a perforation can thus also be clipped vertically, straddling two perforations.

  Likewise, the lateral perforation zones comprise at least one set of perforations arranged on the same horizontal line and having horizontally a distance separating the external sides of this set 15 substantially equal to said dimension of the central perforations.

  The clip-on element of the central zone mentioned above can thus be clipped horizontally astride a set of perforations.

  So that this type of clip-on element is moreover allowed to be clipped vertically at the level of the lateral perforation zones, the latter may comprise at least one set of perforations arranged vertically and having vertically a distance separating the external sides of this set. substantially equal to said dimension of the central perforations.

  According to one embodiment, the central perforations are staggered.

  According to a preferred characteristic, the lateral perforations comprise circular perforations.

  While the central perforations form a homogeneous network, the lateral perforations can comprise perforations adapted to the type of element that is going to be mounted on the periphery of the plate, at the level of the lateral zones. Circular perforations are useful for many items such as rivets.

  According to one embodiment, the lateral perforations comprise at least one rectangular perforation for each of the horizontal lines along which these lateral perforations are arranged, these perforations being aligned with the central perforations located on the corresponding horizontal line.

  At least one rectangular perforation is thus provided for each line of lateral perforations, the alignment of the perforations allowing the continuity of the perforation lines from one zone to the other.

  Furthermore, the lateral perforations may include perforations whose height measured vertically is substantially equal to the height measured vertically of the central perforations.

  This harmonization of heights allows the same 10 fixing elements to be used in the different perforation zones.

  According to a preferred characteristic, the lateral perforations are arranged in patterns of four horizontal lines of perforations succeeding each other vertically, the first of said lines comprising three rectangular perforations, the second line comprising a rectangular perforation and a circular perforation, the third line comprising a perforation rectangular and two circular perforations, and the fourth line being identical to the second.

  According to another preferred characteristic, the lateral perforations extend vertically from one attachment zone to the other.

  According to a second object, the invention provides a method of manufacturing a perforated rectangular plate for the bottom of an electrical cabinet intended to form a fixing support, comprising the following steps: - manufacturing a solid rectangular plate; - Select a fixing zone on each of the four sides of the plate; - Make horizontal perforation lines outside said fixing zones, these perforation lines being contained in a rectangular zone centered vertically on the plate and of a maximum width equal to the maximum possible width of a line of perforations located between two attachment zones; - Make additional horizontal perforation lines outside of said fixing zones, these lines being located on either side of said rectangular zone.

  According to one embodiment of the method, said additional perforations are produced so that the lines of perforations of the rectangular zone coincide with the lines of perforations situated on either side of this zone.

  In addition, the step of producing the perforation lines of said rectangular area can be carried out with a single punching tool.

  The manufacture of such a perforated plate requires only a single tool width for the realization of the central zone, independently of the fixing zones.

  In addition, the step of producing additional perforations on either side of the central zone makes it possible to accommodate there perforations of different types in order to have a wider panel of elements to be fixed on the plate.

  Other characteristics and advantages of the invention appear in the light of the following description of a preferred embodiment given by way of non-limiting example, description made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: - Figure 1 shows in perspective an electrical cabinet in the bottom of which is mounted a plate; FIG. 2 represents a perforated plate according to the invention, seen from the front; - Figures 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 each show the lower left corner of a perforated plate according to the invention, in various variants; FIG. 8 shows in profile a fixing element which can be clipped onto a perforated plate according to the invention.

  FIG. 1 is intended to illustrate the manner in which any perforated plate 1 is positioned inside an electrical cabinet 2.

  For reasons of simplicity, the perforations have not been shown on plate 1.

  The plate 1 is introduced into the cabinet 2 along the center lines of FIG. 1. It is then fixed in the corners of the cabinet 2 (for example to brackets) at the level of four zones of fixing 3.

  Although the plate 1 is here vertical when it is fixed to the cabinet 2, which is the most general case, it can also be arranged horizontally and on any wall of the cabinet 2.

  FIG. 2 represents a perforated plate 1 according to the invention, seen from the front.

  The vocabulary used to describe this plate 1, throughout this application, refers to plate 1 as it is arranged in this figure 2.

  The plate 1 is made from a rectangular steel sheet and 10 has four fixing zones 3 each located at a corner of the plate 1.

  Each of these fixing zones 3 is materialized by a notch 4 intended to ensure the centering of the plate in the cabinet 1 and one by an open fixing eye 5 in which will be engaged the threaded rod or the screw 15 intended for the securing the plate 1.

  The plate 1 also has a central perforation area 6 in which are arranged, in staggered rows, rectangular perforations 7.

  The central perforation zone 6 has the shape of a rectangle whose height is substantially equal to the height of the plate 1 and whose width 20 corresponds substantially to the maximum width of the horizontal lines of this central zone.

  In fact, the perforations 7 being staggered, the central zone is formed by the repetition along the vertical of a pattern of two horizontal lines: a line of nine perforations and a line of eight perforations.

  The width of the central zone 6 therefore corresponds to the width of the lines of nine perforations.

  Note that, on the upper and lower parts of the plate 1, the lines of nine perforations are of a width which is small enough to be contained horizontally between the two fixing zones 3.

  The perforated plate further comprises two zones 8 of lateral perforations on either side of the zone 6 of central perforations.

  These zones 8 each extend vertically between two fixing zones 3 and have a width delimited on the one hand by the edge of the plate 1 and on the other hand by the zone 6 of central perforations.

  The zones 8 comprise, in the present embodiment, various perforations such as rectangular perforations 9, 10, 11 and circular perforations 12, 13.

  These perforations are arranged in a regular vertical succession of a pattern of four horizontal lines of perforations.

  For these zones 8 of lateral perforations, any type of perforation 10 can also be provided, depending on the elements which it is desired to attach thereto.

  In order to keep the same lines of perforations, the central perforations 6 have been aligned horizontally with the lateral perforations 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

  FIGS. 3 to 7 represent possible variants of the perforated plate 1 according to the invention.

  Each of these plates being rectangular and being arranged substantially like that of FIG. 2, only the lower left corner of each plate has been shown in FIGS. 3 to 7.

  These detailed views nevertheless make it possible to present the arrangement 20 of the perforations of the central 6 and lateral 8 zones relative to a fixing zone 3.

  FIG. 3 shows an arrangement of the central perforation zones 6 and lateral 8 similar to that of FIG. 2. However, it can be seen that here the zone 8 of lateral perforations has perforations which encroach on the zone 6 of central perforations (including the border is shown in dashed lines).

  In fact, the central zone 6 being delimited by a width lying horizontally between two fixing zones 3, nothing prevents using the solid plate parts situated at the edge of this zone 6 to continue the lateral perforations there.

  FIG. 4 also shows an arrangement similar to that of FIG. 2 but whose zones of central perforations 6 and of lateral perforations 8 have borders which coincide.

  FIG. 5 is the detail view of a plate 1 which, in a similar manner to that of FIG. 2, has a zone of central perforations 6 which is set back with respect to the zones of lateral perforations 8.

  As regards FIGS. 6 and 7, they represent plates 1 whose arrangement is different from that of FIG. 2.

  FIG. 6 shows a plate comprising the same type of perforations as in FIG. 5, the lateral perforation zones 8 further comprising an additional circular perforation 14 which exploits, one line in two, the non-perforated space of the perforation zone central 6, in the same way as the plate of FIG. 3.

  Finally, FIG. 7 shows a plate whose lateral perforation zones 8 are similar to those of FIG. 6 but whose central perforation zone 6 is arranged in a column, the perforations 7 being aligned vertically with one another.

  The different types of inserts or fastening elements capable of being fixed on these different perforation zones 6, 8 are composed on the one hand, of everything that can be clipped or screwed on rectangular holes, whatever the place on the plate, and on the other hand, of everything that can be attached to a circular orifice, only for the lateral perforation areas 8.

  To promote the compatibility of the inserts or fastening elements with the two types of perforation zones 6, 8, the height of the various rectangular perforations is the same everywhere.

  In addition, the width of the central perforations 7 (marked DI in FIG. 3) is equal to the vertical distance (marked D2) separating the external sides 25 from a series of two vertically adjacent perforations.

  These distances are moreover equal to the distances marked D3 and D3 ′ separating the external sides of a horizontal set of lateral perforations, as well as to the distance marked D4 separating the external sides of a vertical set of lateral perforations.

  The equality Dl = D2 = D3 = D3 '= D4 makes it possible, for example, to fix on the plate 1, both in the central perforation zone 6 and in the lateral perforation zone 8, clip-on elements such as that shown in FIG. profile in FIG. 8 and from the front, mounted on the plate, in FIG. 2.

  This element 15 comprises two elastic fixing claws 16 and a hook 17 intended for the attachment of suitable electrical elements.

  FIG. 2 represents the element 15 in four different positions, sometimes clipped onto a single central rectangular perforation 7, sometimes straddling 5 two horizontal lines of the central perforation area 6, or even straddling two lateral perforations, as well horizontally (more or less near the edge of the plate) than vertically.

  The perforated plate 1 illustrated in FIG. 2 and which has just been described can be produced in the manner indicated below.

  The starting material can be a conventional laminated sheet which is cut to the desired dimensions.

  The four fixing zones are then produced, for example by machining or with an appropriately shaped punch.

  These fixing zones delimit the maximum zone width of 15 central perforations 6.

  A punch having a profile capable of forming rectangular perforations along two horizontal staggered lines (one of nine perforations and one of eight perforations) is used successively to produce the entire central zone 6.

  The lateral perforation area 8 is then produced using a punch capable of forming the pattern of four lines which is repeated cyclically along the vertical. he

Claims (15)

  1. Rectangular plate (1) for the bottom of an electrical cabinet (2), perforated along horizontal perforation lines and intended to form a fixing support, at least one of the four corners of the plate being occupied by a fixing zone ( 3) of a predetermined width, each fixing zone (3) being located between a set of at least one line of perforations and the edge of the plate (1), characterized in that the perforations are distributed in: - a zone of central perforations (6) with regular pattern arranged in horizontal lines and contained in a rectangular zone of the same width as said set of at least one line of 10 perforations; - two lateral perforation zones (8) located on either side of the central perforations (6).   2. Plate according to claim 1, characterized in that the lateral perforations (8) are also arranged in horizontal lines each coinciding with one of said horizontal lines along which the central perforations (6) are arranged.   3. Plate according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the central perforations (6) are of rectangular shape.   4. Plate according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, in the zones of central perforations (6), the dimension along the horizontal lines of a perforation is substantially equal to the vertical distance separating the external sides a series of two vertically adjacent perforations.   5. Plate according to claim 4, characterized in that the lateral perforation zones (8) comprise at least one set of perforations arranged on the same horizontal line and having horizontally a distance separating the external sides of this set substantially equal to said dimension of the central perforations.   6. Plate according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the lateral perforation zones (8) comprise at least one set of perforations arranged vertically and having vertically a distance separating the external sides of this set substantially equal to said dimension of central perforations.   7. Plate according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the central perforations (6) are arranged in staggered rows.   8. Plate according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the lateral perforations (8) comprise circular perforations (12, 13).   9. Plate according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the lateral perforations (8) comprise at least one rectangular perforation for each of the horizontal lines along which these 10 lateral perforations (8) are arranged, these perforations being aligned with the central perforations (6) located on the corresponding horizontal line.   10. Plate according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the lateral perforations (8) comprise perforations whose height measured vertically is substantially equal to the height measured vertically of the central perforations (6).   11. Plate according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the lateral perforations (8) are arranged in patterns of four horizontal lines of perforations succeeding each other vertically, the first of said lines comprising three rectangular perforations (10), the second line 20 comprising a rectangular perforation (9) and a circular perforation (12), the third line comprising a rectangular perforation (11) and two circular perforations (13), and the fourth line being identical to the second.   12. Plate according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the lateral perforations (8) extend vertically from one fixing zone (3) to the other.   13. Method of manufacturing a perforated rectangular plate (1) for the bottom of an electrical cabinet (2) intended to form a fixing support, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - manufacturing a solid rectangular plate; - select a fixing zone (3) on each of the four sides of the plate; - Make horizontal perforation lines outside of said fixing zones (3), these perforation lines being contained in a rectangular zone (6) centered vertically on the plate and of a maximum width equal to the maximum possible width of a line of perforations located between two fixing zones (3); - Make additional horizontal perforation lines (8) outside of said fixing areas (3), these lines being located on either side of said rectangular area (6).   14. Method according to claim 13, characterized in that said additional perforations (8) are produced so that the perforation lines of the rectangular area (6) coincide with the perforation lines 10 located on either side of this zone (6).   15. The method of claim 13 or 14, characterized in that the step of making the perforation lines of said rectangular area (6) is carried out with a single punching tool.