FR3073394A1 - PODOTACTILE PLOT WITH QUICK POSITION - Google Patents

Abstract

This tactile pad comprises: a convex upper face, a substantially flat lower face (10), a rod (4) of synthetic material extending perpendicularly from the lower face (10) and carrying fins (16) substantially parallel to the lower surface (10) is substantially planar, and the fins (16) have a decreasing diameter while moving away from the substantially flat bottom face (16).

Description

The present invention relates to a tactile pad for rapid installation in the ground.

It is known to stick tactile pads on the ground to provide guidance, to signal a situation or a variation in topography that is potentially dangerous for blind or partially sighted people. This assembly of tactile pads is used to make orientation aid bands (B.A.O) or vigilance awareness bands (B.E.V). They are found inside buildings but also outside to indicate potentially dangerous places such as stairs, curbs, obstacles, platform edges (railway track for example), etc.

One installation technique consists of depositing tactile pads using glue. The tactile pads are placed one by one on the floor of the signaled area. To do this, a template perforated with holes makes it possible to position the tactile pads in the desired locations. The amount of adhesive deposited under each tactile pad must be controlled in order to avoid glue overflowing on the ground after positioning the tactile pads. In addition, the drying time of the glue used means that access to the area to be reported must be blocked for a certain time.

In order to optimize the intervention time for the production of a strip on the ground, it is also proposed strips formed from flexible material at the surface of which protrusions each reproduce the shape of a tactile pad. The dimensions of the strip formed can be adapted on demand by an operator in order to correspond to the needs of the area to be protected. The use of this type of formed strip is not easy on soils whose topography is tormented with, moreover, a poor surface condition, which causes a reduction in the service life of the formed strip.

Document ER 3017795, for its part, proposes a fitting template for tactile pads comprising a first face, a second face opposite the first face, imprints comprising on the one hand housings adapted to receive tactile pads and, on the other hand passages between the housing and the second face and passage restriction means adapted to maintain the tactile pads in the housing.

However, while giving excellent results, even outdoors, glued touch pads are overlooked by some customers who may not have confidence in the method of attachment.

There are also nail-shaped devices which are designed to be sealed in the ground so that the head of the nail forms a tactile stud. To set up such a tactile pad, it is necessary to drill a hole, to vacuum the dust being in the hole, to put a mortar of chemical sealing in the hole and to place the nail / stud. As appears from the description of this process, numerous laying steps are necessary to set up tactile pads. In addition, you have to wait for the chemical seal to be set before you can walk on the alertness tape that has been carried out.

The invention therefore aims to provide means for carrying out the installation of tactile pads easily, quickly and without glue. Advantageously, a strip on the ground produced by implementing such means will have a long service life.

To this end, the present invention provides a tactile pad comprising a convex upper face and a substantially planar lower face.

According to the present invention, this tactile pad further comprises a synthetic material rod extending perpendicularly from the underside and carrying fins substantially parallel to the flat underside, and the fins have a decreasing diameter away from the substantially planar underside.

Such a tactile pad allows a purely mechanical fixing. It suffices to make a hole of suitable diameter, corresponding substantially to an average diameter of the fins, to allow good attachment of the tactile pad in this hole.

To avoid having sharp edges, each fin is advantageously in the form of a disc with a rounded peripheral edge.

To allow good deformation of the fins, and also guarantee good retention when the fins are deformed in a hole, each fin has for example a thickness of between 0.5 and 1.0 mm.

According to one embodiment, to have a deformation of the fins in a hole not in the shape of a cone but of a corolla, the fins can for example have at their periphery a variable thickness.

In a preferred embodiment, a tactile pad according to the present invention is made of an alloy of thermoplastic resins. By mixing several different resins, it is then possible to obtain an alloy well suited to the present application. In this embodiment, to obtain good toughness (capacity not to propagate a crack), said resin has dry resilience during a Charpy resilience test with notch greater than 60 kJ / m ²

According to an alternative embodiment, the tactile pad is a bi-material pad and comprises a metal capsule at least partially forming the upper face, said capsule being overmolded with synthetic material.

According to another alternative embodiment, the tactile pad comprises a metal head comprising the upper face and the lower face of the tactile pad, said head carrying from the lower face a metal rod serving as a core for overmolding with synthetic material in order to form the rod and its fins.

The present invention also provides a method of setting up a tactile pad, in which:

- a hole with a nominal diameter is dug in the ground, perpendicular to the surface thereof,

- the inside of the dug hole is cleaned, and

a stud provided with a rod is placed in the hollowed out and cleaned hole, the rod taking place in the hole, the tactile stud being a tactile stud as described above, at least one fin having a diameter less than nominal diameter of the dug hole, at least two fins having a diameter greater than the nominal diameter of the dug hole, and the tactile pad being placed in the hole by pressing or striking on the convex upper face of the tactile pad.

It is also proposed here a method of setting up a vigilance awareness band, characterized in that it consists in implementing several times a method of setting up a tactile pad as described below. above. In such a method, the dug holes advantageously all have the same nominal diameter. According to a preferred variant, the holes are dug using a drilling template.

Details and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the description which follows, given with reference to the appended schematic drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a tactile pad,

FIG. 2 is a side view of the tactile pad of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along the section line III-III of FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 is a top view of a tactile pad corresponding both to the first embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 3 and to the embodiment of the following figures,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of a tactile pad,

FIG. 6 is a side view of the tactile pad of FIG. 5, and

FIG. 7 is a sectional view along the section line VII-VII of FIG. 6.

Figures 1 to 4 illustrate a first embodiment of a tactile pad. The latter comprises, on the one hand, a head 2 and, on the other hand, a rod 4.

Head 2 is of standardized shape. It is shown in plan view in FIG. 4 and in side view in FIG. 2. This head 2 has a base 6 in the form of a disc of thin thickness (of the order of a millimeter, for example less than 2 mm) surmounted by a spherical cap 8. The base 6 and the spherical cap 8 together have a convex upper face intended to form a sensitive protuberance for a visually impaired or blind person with his foot and / or his cane as well as a lower face 10 substantially flat intended to rest on a floor. In accordance with the standard in force, the spherical cap 8 has circular grooves 12. Such a form is known to a person skilled in the art since it is defined by a standard.

In an original manner, this head 2 is provided with the rod 4. The latter has a central part 14 and fins 16.

The central part 14 extends perpendicular to the lower face 10 and is connected to the latter. In the embodiment of Figures 1 to 3, it is a hollow central part having a cross-shaped section. The lengths of the branches of the cross decrease slightly away from the underside 10. The height of the central part 14 corresponds for example to the diameter of the head 2 at its base

6. As a purely illustrative and nonlimiting example, this height and this diameter are approximately 25 mm. As is apparent from the second embodiment of FIGS. 5 to

7, it is possible to have a length of the rod different from the diameter of the head 2.

The central part 14 carries the fins 16 which extend from this central part 14 transversely with respect to said central part 14 (and therefore substantially parallel to the lower face 10).

In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 1 to 4, each fin 16 generally has the shape of a disc. They each extend from the central part 14 and have a circular peripheral edge, the latter being rounded to avoid having sharp edges. The fins 16 are full, except in the center corresponding to the hollow part of the central part 14.

The embodiment of Figures 1 to 3 comprises eight fins 16. The four fins 16 located on the side of the head 2 all have the same outside diameter. The other four fins 16 have a decreasing diameter as one moves away from the head 2. The space separating two fins 16 is substantially constant. The thickness of the fins is for example between 0.3 and 2 mm, for example between 0.5 and 1.0 mm.

The structure of the tactile pad according to the second embodiment shown in the drawing is the same as that of the first embodiment. The same references are used here to designate similar elements.

As already indicated above, the head 2 of the tactile pad is identical in the two embodiments. Technically, many variants can be envisaged but the standards impose a framework as to the shape and dimensions of this head which will serve as a tactile pad.

The difference of this second embodiment compared to the first embodiment therefore relates to the rod 4. The latter here also includes a central part 14 and fins 16. However, the central part 14 is here solid and of circular section (slightly decreasing in diameter away from the head 2) and the fins 16 are here four in number.

The fins 16 here also have a circular peripheral edge and rounded edges so as not to have sharp edges. The overall shape here is also that of a disc, but as can best be seen in FIG. 6, two zones 18 of each fin, diametrically opposite, have a slight excess thickness, of the order of 5 to 20% of l thickness of the fin 16.

In the two embodiments illustrated in the drawing, the tactile pads are produced from a single material. This is a synthetic material which has several qualities: good thermal resistance so that it can be used both outdoors and indoors, good impact resistance to resist in particular the stress linked to the passage of heavy traffic in public places, good UV resistance to be able to be used in direct sunlight, good shear resistance so that the head remains fixed to the rod and also good toughness (ability of a material to resist the propagation of a crack ) so that the fins can deform without breaking. The material must be both hard enough to have good mechanical resistance, in particular to wear, and also flexible enough to allow the deformation of the fins 16 as explained below. To meet these constraints, it is for example proposed to use an alloy of several thermoplastic resins. To have good toughness, an alloy will be chosen which exhibits, when dry and at room temperature (23 ° C.), a resilience during a Charpy resilience test with notch (ISO standard 179 / leA) greater than 60, and preferably 70 kJ / m ² Preferably, under these conditions (dry and 23 ° C), the material does not break during a Charpy resilience test without cuts.

An embodiment not illustrated in the drawing provides that the tactile pad, according to the first or else the second embodiment, is not made only of synthetic material, but of two materials. For example, the upper face of the head 2 is made, partially or entirely, of metal, for example stainless steel (or other). A metal capsule then partially or completely forms the upper face of the tactile pad and it is overmolded with synthetic material, preferably an alloy of thermoplastic resins.

It is also possible to have an entirely metallic head 2 from which extends a metallic rod which is then overmolded with synthetic material, to form a synthetic rod with fins as described above.

The tactile pads described above are intended to be put in place and form a vigilance awareness band by placing each rod in a hole drilled beforehand and by putting the tactile pad there so that the head comes to rest on the ground fixedly.

It is intended, for example, to arrange the tactile pads in holes with a nominal diameter of 12 mm (purely illustrative and in no way limitative). It is then preferably provided that at least one fin 16 of each tactile pad has a diameter strictly less than 12 mm and at least two fins have a diameter strictly greater than 12 mm, at least one of these two fins having a outer diameter greater than 13 mm.

In the embodiment of Figure 2, a hole 20 with a nominal diameter of 12 mm is shown. Note that a fin 16 has an outside diameter of 12 mm, that is to say corresponding to the nominal diameter of the hole for which the tactile pad is intended, two fins of a smaller diameter and five of a larger diameter (one with a diameter for example of 13 mm and four with a diameter of 14 mm).

In the embodiment of Figure 6, the hole 20 with a nominal diameter of mm is again shown. Note that a fin 16 has an outside diameter of 12 mm, that is to say corresponding to the nominal diameter of the hole for which the tactile pad is intended, a single fin is of a smaller diameter and two others are d '' a larger diameter (one with a diameter for example of 13 mm and one with a diameter of 14 mm).

To make a vigilance alert strip, it suffices to drill holes with a nominal diameter, as many holes as there are studs necessary for the dimensions of the strip to be produced. The holes are preferably drilled using a template. They are then cleaned, for example by suction, so as not to leave too much debris from the material drilled in the holes. Then just place a tactile pad in each hole and come to drive it. The positioning of the tactile pads in the corresponding holes is easily done thanks to the fins of smaller diameter which are designed to enter without difficulty into the corresponding hole drilled at nominal diameter. Then just come and walk on the tactile pads to come and push them. You can also push each touch pad with a mallet, preferably rubber so as not to leave a mark on the heads of the touch pads.

The solution proposed here has many advantages. First of all, the installation is simple: only one piece per hole, no dowel, no chemical sealing, .... The exposure time is limited which saves time, and therefore money , to the vigilance awakening tape installers.

Factory tests have shown that the tactile studs as described above have great tolerance for the diameter of the hole in which they each take place. Thus, for a nominal diameter of 12 millimeters as mentioned purely by way of illustration above, it is still possible, thanks to the flexibility of the fins, to bring the tactile pad into a hole drilled to 11 millimeters but this same tactile pad will hold sufficiently well also in a hole with a diameter of millimeters.

Of course, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above by way of nonlimiting examples and to the variants mentioned. It also relates to all the variant embodiments within the reach of those skilled in the art within the scope of the claims below.

Claims (10)

described above by way of nonlimiting examples and with the variants mentioned. It also relates to all the variant embodiments within the reach of those skilled in the art within the scope of the claims below. 1. tactile pad comprising a convex upper face and a substantially planar lower face (10), characterized in that it further comprises a rod (4) of synthetic material extending perpendicularly from the lower face (10) and carrying fins (16) substantially parallel to the substantially planar underside (10), and in that the fins (16) have a decreasing diameter away from the substantially planar underside (10). 2. tactile pad according to claim 1, characterized in that each fin (16) is in the form of a disc with a rounded peripheral edge. 3. tactile pad according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that each fin (16) has a thickness between 0.5 and 1.0 mm. 4. tactile pad according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the fins (16) have at their periphery a variable thickness. 5. tactile pad according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it is made of an alloy of thermoplastic resins which exhibits dry resilience during a Charpy resilience test with notch greater than 60 kJ / m ² 6. tactile pad according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises a metal capsule at least partially forming the upper face, said capsule being overmolded with synthetic material. 7. tactile pad according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises a metal head comprising the upper face and the lower face of the tactile pad, said head carrying from the lower face a metal rod serving as 'soul for overmolding with synthetic material to form the rod (4) and its fins (16). 8. Method for setting up a tactile pad, in which: - a hole (20) with a nominal diameter is dug in the ground, perpendicular to the surface thereof, - the inside of the dug hole is cleaned, and - a stud provided with a rod (4) is placed in the hole (20) dug and cleaned, the rod (4) taking place in the hole (20), characterized in that the tactile pad is a tactile pad according to one of claims 1 to 7, in that at least one fin (16) has a diameter less than the nominal diameter of the dug hole (20), in that at least two fins (16) have a larger diameter the nominal diameter of the hole (20) dug, and 5 in that the tactile pad is placed in the hole (20) by pressing or striking on the convex upper face of the tactile pad. 9. A method of setting up a vigilance awareness band, characterized in that it consists in implementing several times a method according to claim 8, the dug holes all having the same nominal diameter. 10 10. Method for setting up a vigilance alert strip according to claim 9, characterized in that the holes (20) are dug using a drilling template.