GB2093888A - Barrier - Google Patents

Abstract

The barrier comprises one or more elongate elements (13, 14) secured to support members (21) by fixing means (27, 29), one part (29) of the fixing means being adapted to be movable along the elongate elements (13, 14) to enable convenient and may be irregular spacing for the support members (10). The part (29) may be a spring-loaded nut retained in an undercut groove extending along the rear face of the elongate element. The support members may have a generally triangular portion (15) to act as a base for the barrier. The limb 18 of the support acts to brace the limb 16 should the barrier be subjected to impact serving to displace the limb 16 towards limb 18. The barrier may be used against persons or vehicles. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A barrier The present invention relates to a barrier adapted for mounting on a surface, for example the ground or the floor or wall of a building. The barrier may serve as a protection to a building or other structure, a deterrent to prevent persons or vehicles entering a potentiaily hazardous zone, or a vehicle restraining barrier.

Barriers are well known and may include one or more substantially parallel elongate elements, said elongate elements being supported from the ground, floor or other surface by a plurality of support members extending substantially at right angles to the elongate elements. The support members are spaced along the elongate elements at suitable intervals depending on the restraining force required by the barrier.

It is usual for the elongate elements to be secured to the support members by a bolt passing through a respective elongate element and support member, the elongate element and support member then being clamped together by tightening a nut onto the boit.

Such a fixing arrangement has inherent problems since, if the holes are pre-formed in the elongate elements, and if for any reason it is not possible to locate the support member on the support surface, e.g. the ground, in the position determined by the hole in the elongate element, the elongate element cannot be adequately supported.

In order to overcome the above mentioned problem, the support members can first be fixed to the ground or supporting surface and the elongate elements then drilled at the appropriate place. This method of fixing the elongate elements to the floor however, requires drilling machinery at the site of fixing which may well be remote from a convenient power source thereby requiring electrical generators or other equipment to provide power, furthermore even a slight error in the positioning of a hole in the elongate element may well render the whole section of elongate elements useless, the elongate element will now have been weakened at a position in which fixing to a support member cannot take place due to slight misalignment.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a barrier which overcomes or substantially reduces the above mentioned problems.

According to one aspect of the present invention, we provide a barrier comprising an elongate element supported from a surface by support members, wherein the elongate element is adapted to captively hold one part of a fixing means, said one part being adapted to co-operate with another part, which parts co-operate with a support member, and wherein said one part of the fixing means is movable along the elongate element to enable it to be aligned with the other part of the fixing means and said support member, to secure the elongate element to the support.

Preferably said elongate element is adapted to permit of positioning of said one part of the fixing means anywhere along its length.

Preferably the elongate element is of a crosssection adapted to partially surround said one part of the fixing means and so captively hold said one part of the fixing means.

Preferably the fixing means comprises a nut part and a bolt part, conveniently the nut part is held captively by said elongate element.

Preferably the support part is provided with holes through which the fixing means can extend, the holes being provided in spaced relationship with each other to afford means for securing a plurality of elongate elements to the support member.

The support members may comprise a spring steel element and may comprise a spring steel U-shaped element as described and claimed in British Patent Specification No. 1,167,915.

It is envisaged that different parts of the barrier may be intended to provide different functions, for example if the barrier is provided secured to the ground, lower elongate elements may be intended to provide restraint from impact by vehicles whilst elongate elements spaced further from the ground may be intended as a hand rail or guard rails to prevent persons entering a non-permitted or hazardous area. The elongate elements attached to the support member or members may therefore be of a different cross-section and strength, the cross-section and strength being of a nature to endure the treatment and purpose for which it is intended.

The invention will now be described in more detail by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIGURE 1 is one view of part of a barrier of the present invention; FIGURE 2 is a sectional view along the line Il-Il shown in Figure 1; FIGURE 3 is an enlarged sectional view illustrating the fixing of a lower elongate element to the support member; FIGURE 4 is an enlarged sectional view illustrating the fixing of one of another elongate element.

Referring first to Figure 1, three identicai support members 10 are secured to the ground and support elongate elements hereinbefore referred to for convenience as rails 11, 1 2a, 1 2b, 13 and 14 in spaced relationship with each other and above the ground.

Referring now to Figure 2, the support 10 comprises a first part 1 5 of triangular-like configuration comprising a first limb 1 6 adapted to extend substantially at right angles to the surface to which the first part 1 5 is secured, a base 1 7 which is secured in juxtaposition with the support surface or ground and a third limb 1 8 which extends at an angle of approximately 600 to the base 17 towards the first limb 16 and stops a short distance away from the first limb 1 6.

The purpose of the third limb 1 8 is to provide additional support should the first limb 1 6 be subjected to impact in a direction towards the third limb 18. If the first limb 16 is subjected to a large impact, it will come into contact with the third limb 1 8 which will be resiliently deformed and hence supplement the force exerted by the first limb 16 restoring the first part 1 5 of the support member 10 to its position as shown in Figure 2.

The third limb 1 8 assists in preventing any undesired permanent deformation of the angular relationship between the first limb 1 6 and the base 17.

The base 17 is provided with two through bores 19 and 20 through which bolts may pass to anchoring means provided in the ground or surface to which the support member 10 is to be secured.

The support member 10 is provided with a second extension part 21 having through bores 22 and 23 which are aligned with respective through bores 24 and 25 in the first part 15, through which aligned through bores respective bolts 26 and 27 pass to secure the extension part 21 to the first part 15. The bolt 26 is provided with a nut 28 and the bolt 27 is provided with a nut 29, by means of which nuts and bolts the first part 1 5 is secured to the extension part 21.

The lower rail 11 has a cross-section the same as the rails 1 2a and 12b and the cross-section thereof is shown in Figure 3, the rail 11 being fixed to the support member 10 by means of the nut 29 and bolt 27 which also serves to secure the extension 21 to the first part 1 5.

The nut 29 is held captively within the channel of rail 11 there being provided a spring 30 which acts on the nut 29 and urges it into frictional engagement with the ends 31 and 32 of an inwardly directed flange of the rail. The nut 29 may be provided with respective grooves 33 and 34 so as to centrally locate the nut 29, which grooves 33 and 34 co-operate with the ends 31 and 32 of the inwardly directed flange so that the nut 29 may be slid along the rail to any desired position for fixing to the support member.

To secure the rail 11 to the support member 10 the bolt 27 passes through the aligned through bores 23 in the extension part 21 and 25 in the first part 15, and threadedly engages nut 29. On tightening of the bolt 27 the rail 11, extension part 21 and first part 1 5 will be firmly secured together.

The two rails 1 2a and 1 2b are each secured in a similar manner to a plate member 32. In each case a bolt passes through a through bore in the plate member and co-operates with a respective nut held by the respective rail 1 2a and 1 2b. The plate member 32 is then secured to both the first part 15 and extension part 21 by a bolt 26 passing through aligned through bores 22 and 24 and cooperating with nut 28 to firmly clamp all three parts together.

The rail 14 is provided on the upper end 33 of the extension part 21, which upper end 33 is bent over at right angles to the remainder of the extension part 21. The cross-section of the rail 14 is the same as the rails 11, 1 2a and 12b, however since the rail 14 is intended to serve as a hand rail it does not have to be so strong and may therefore be made of material that is thinner than that from which the rails 11, 1 2a and 1 2b are made.

Once again the rail 14 captively holds the spring loaded nut 34 which may be slid along the rail to any convenient position so as to be aligned with a through bore 35 provided in the upper end 33 of the extension part 21, a bolt 36 passing through the through bore 35 and engaging the nut 34 to firmly secure the rail 14 to the upper end of the extension part 21.

Between the rail 14 and the rail 1 2b is a guard rail 13 which is intended partly as a "filler" to fill the space between the rail 1 2b and the hand rail 14. If the rail 1 3 was not provided a relatively large space would exist between the rail 1 2b and the hand rail 14 allowing access, particulariy to small children, through the barrier.

The rail 13 therefore does not have to be as strong as the rails 11, 1 2a and 1 2b and may therefore be of a smaller section.

The section of rail 1 3 shown in Figure 4 once again defines a channel adapted to captively hold a nut 37 which is spring loaded to frictionally engage inwardly turned ends of the flange provided on the rail, such inwardly turned ends of the flange provided on the rail, such inwardly turned ends engaging within grooves in the nut 37 enabling the nut to be centrally located relative to the rail and which nut may also be slid along the rail by the application of a small force.

It will be appreciated that the barrier of the present invention may have any suitably shaped support part which may be fixed to any surface.

The longitudinal rails may be of any suitable crosssection and are adapted to captively hold one part of a fixing means and enable that part of the fixing means to be moved along the rail so that the location of the support members 10 on the supporting surface is not critical.

It is envisaged that the rails may include an integral or additional part for captively hold said one part of the fixing means.

The rails may be provided of any suitable length and means for joining rails in end to end relationship may be provided, such means may comprise an internal or external sleeve or plate member, which sleeves or plate members may be firmly secured to the rails and thus securely join the rails in end to end relationship by using the fixing means for fixing the rails to the support members to clamp the sleeves or plates securely to adjacent ends of a pair of rails.

The size and strength of the barrier will be determined by the function that it is intended to provide as will the means by which the barrier is mounted on the ground or surface. In the example of a barrier as described with reference to the drawings, the barrier is a multi-purpose barrier having lower rails to restrain impact from vehicles, the upper part providing support means for a hand rail and also a barrier to prevent access from one side to the other of the barrier to prevent persons from entering a potentially hazardous area, for example.

The barrier described has fixing means in the form of nuts and bolts, the nut being the part captively held by each of the rails. However, it is envisaged that as an alternative the bolt could be held captively by the rails or some other fixing means could be used, one of the parts being captively held by the rail and being permitted to slide to any desired position therealong until it cooperates with the other or other parts of the fixing means to securely clamp the rail to the support member.

Claims (13)

1. A barrier comprising an elongate element supported from a surface by support member, wherein the elongate elements is adapted to captively hold one part of a fixing means, said one part being adapted to co-operate with another part, which parts co-operate with a support member, and wherein said one part of the fixing means is movable along the elongate element to enable it to be aligned with the other part of the fixing means and said support member, to secure the elongate elements to the support.

2. A barrier as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said elongate element is adapted to permit of positioning of said one part of the fixing means anywhere along its length.

3. A barrier as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the elongate element is of a cross-section adapted to partially surround said one part of the fixing means and so captively hold said one part of the fixing means.

4. A barrier according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said fixing means comprises a nut part and a bolt part, and wherein the nut part is held captively by said elongate element.

5. A barrier as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said support members are each provided with a plurality of holes through which respective fixing means can extend, the holes being provided in spaced relationship with each other to afford means four securing a plurality of elongate elements to each support member.

6. A barrer as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said support members comprise a spring steel element.

7. A barrier as claimed in Claim 6 wherein said support members comprise a spring steel U-shaped or triangular-like element as described and claimed in British Patent Specification No.

1,167,915.

8. A barrier as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said one part of the fixing means comprises a nut part biased into engagement with said elongate element by resilient means acting between said nut part and a surface of said elongate element.

9. A barrier as claimed in Claim 8 wherein said spring means comprises a helical spring.

10. A barrier as claimed in Claim 8 or Claim 9 wherein said nut part is provided with a pair of grooves into which respective edges of said elongate elements are adapted to engage.

11. A barrier as claimed in any one of the preceding claims including a plurality of support members and a plurality of elongate elements secured thereto and extending therebetween.

12. A barrier substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

13. A barrier including any novel feature or novel combinations of features disclosed herein and/or illustrated in the accompanying drawings.