GB2102485A - Fastening electrical apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The disclosed device comprises a platen (1) provided with regularly spaced openings (2, 2', 2''), a shaped rail (14) along the length of which a plurality of pairs of holes (24, 25) are provided, and at least two resilient fastening yokes provided with hooks (42, ..., 45) which engage into empty spaces (38, 39) resulting from alignment of said holes with said openings. The device can advantageously be used for fastening apparatus, particularly electrical apparatus, having a shoe adapted to cooperate with standard shaped rails. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A device for fastening electrical apparatus The invention relates to a device for fastening apparatus, particularly electrical apparatus, comprising a platen which includes a series of identical openings or apertures regularly spaced along orthogonally - extending lines and columns, a metal shaped rail having on the one hand a flat bottom in which are provided regularly spaced holes and on the other hand a pair of parallel flanges the outer edges of which are bent to cooperate with said apparatus, and resilient removable hook means which engage into said holes and openings to secure said shaped rail to said platen.

A device of such type which can be suitably used in arrangements where electrical apparatus are to be disposed next to each other is illustrated, e.g. in French Patent No. 2,173,194.

In this known device, there are used an intermediate platen and small columns which are disposed between the metal shaped rail and the apertured platen, which may induce strong twistening stresses in the platen where the latter is vertically arranged and the electrical apparatus associated with the shaped rail are heavy.

Furthermore, the platen which is used in this known device has only a few circular openings, which prevents the shaped rails from being fastened to the platen in positions where the platen surface can be effectively used depending upon the volume occupied by the apparatus to be accomodated by the shaped rails. The purpose of the invention is therefore to improve the respective fastening capabilities of a plurality of shaped rails onto a platen having openings therein, without relying upon intermediate fastening means, while insuring an excellent stiffness of the resulting assembly.

According to the invention such a result is achieved bythefollowing means: in a known perse manner, the openings are rectangularly shaped and are regularly spaced along lines and columns according to a pre-selected pitch and are spaced apart from each other by crossbars all having the same pre-determined width, the bottom of the shaped rail being provided along its length with a series of pairs of holes of which two adjacent parallel edges extending perpendicularly to the axis of the shaped rail are spaced apart by a distance equal to the sum of said pre-selected pitch and said predetermined width and have a length greater than the crossbar width, and said resilient hook means consisting of a U-shaped thin member which has a bottom portion provided with a pair of parallel hooks at each end thereof, adjacent parallel edges of the hooks of each pair being spaced apart by a distance slightly greater than the crossbar width, and parallel remote edges of the hooks of each pair being spaced apart by a distance less than the length of the holes provided in the shaped rail.

Other features of the invention, together with particular arrangements of the shaped rail or fastening means will become better apparent from the hereinbelow disclosure taken in combination with the appended drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a front view of the platen; Figure 2 shows a front view of the shaped rail; Figure 3 illustrates a side view of the shaped rail having an electrical apparatus mounted thereon; Figure 4 shows the respective position of the platen openings and the holes in the shaped rail when they are assembled to each other; Figures 5, 6 and 7 show an elevation view, a top view and a side view of a fastening yoke, respectiveliy and Figure 8 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a shaped rail fastened to a platen by a yoke along a plane extending along axis X-X' of Figure 2.

A platen (1) according to the invention, as shown in Figure 1, is provided with a series of identical rectangular openings (2,2', 2") (3,3', 3") (4, 4' 4") arranged in lines (L, L', L") and in columns (C, C', C").

The openings are spaced in the horizontal direction with a pitch (p) and vertically spaced with a pitch (P/2) measured between two analog edges (5, 6) and (5', 6'), respectively, and are spaced apart by crossbars such as (7,8,9, 10, 11, 13) all having the same width (m).

All crossbars such as (9, 10, 11) have thus a common axis YY'.

A standard shaped rail (14) having a generally U-shaped cross-section such as the shaped rail which is used in the invention and shown in Figures 2 and 3, has a bottom (15) and two parallel flanges (16, 17) the outer edges (18, 19) of which are bent, e.g. in opposite directions and in the same plane; such types of shaped rail, or a shaped rail having a (not shown) different cross-sectional shape, and a similar bottom portion, are commonly used to accomodate apparatus, particularly electrical apparatus (20) having a shoe (20') provided with fastening means (21) (21') cooperating with said edges.

The bottom (15) has, substantially along its longitudinal axis XX', a plurality of pairs of holes such as (22), (23), each pair comprising holes (24, 25), (26, 27), respectively, which are aligned along XX'.

Two adjacent parallel edges (28,29) and (30,31), respectively, of the holes of each pair, which are orthogonal to XX' and preferably rectangularly shaped, are spaced apart by a distance (d) equal to (p + m) and have a length (q) greater than the width (m) of a crossbar, said length being measured in a direction perpendicular to said axis, which is also the direction in which said adjacent edges extend; the width of said holes is designated by (r).

Thus, an appropriate selection of the above dimensions will permit said bottom (15) to be placed against the platen in the maner as shown in Figure 4, where axis XX' of the shaped rail is in alignment with axis YY' of crossbars (9, 10, 11) in such a way that two adjacent edges (28,29) of the holes of a pair (22) register with aligned edges (32, 33) and (34, 35), respectively, orthogonal to YY', of four openings (3, 4, 3", 4") which are dispbsed on each side of those two openings (3', 4') in the platen which are between openings (3, 4) and (3", 4") in a direction parallel to axis XX'.

Once the platen and shaped rail are in such positions respective to each other, overlapping of said holes and openings showns upon alignment two pairs of empty portions (36, 37) and (38, 39), respectively, the empty portions of each pair such as (36, 37) and (38, 39) being disposed on each side of a same crossbar such as (9) or (11), respectively.

The second pair (23' or (23') of holes (26, 27) or (26', 27') is spaced apart from the first pair of holes by a distance (t) or (t') such as, for the selected position of the first pair, as shown in Figure 4, the second pair is in a similar position with respect to its adjacent openings and crossbars. Said distance (t) or (t') is thus equal either to pitch (p) minus width (m) of the crossbar, i.e. (p-m) = t, orto said value of (t) incremented by one or more pitches (p), i.e. t' (p-m) + Kp, wherein K is an integer (see also Figure 1).

Said distance (t) or (t') is thus represented by the general relation: t = (p-m) + Kp ort = (K+1) p-m wherein K is an integer or zero.

The shaped rail is secured to the platen by means of at least two resilient yokes such as the yoke designated by (60) in Figures 5, 6 and 7, which yokes form resilient and removable hook means.

Yoke (60) is made from a resilient thin sheet material and is generally U-shaped with a rectangular bottom portion (61) and two pairs of hooks (40, 41) orthogonally extending at each of both ends of said bottom portion, respectively.

Hooks (42, 32) and (44, 45) of each pair have substantially the same outline shape and have terminal portions (46,47) and (48,49), respectively, facing towards each other, the terminal portions (48, 49) of a hook pair (41) extending into inclined ramps (50,51).

Bottom portion (61) also has a bearing surface (52) facing towards the hooks and having a slightly convex shape.

Adjacent parallel edges (55,56) of two particular hooks such as (42, 43) are spaced apart by a distance (s) slightly greater than width (m) of the crossbar, while remote parallel edges (57, 58) of said hooks are spaced apart by a distance (v) slightly less than length (q) of a hole.

Resilient yoke (60) provides coupling of the platen with shaped rail when the pairs of hooks (42,43) and (44, 45) are disposed in the above-mentioned pairs of empty portions (36, 37) and (38, 39), respectively, as it can be seen in Figure 8 where it can be ascertained that bearing surface (52) of bottom portion (61) of yoke (60) presses bottom (15) of shaped rail (14) against front surface (53) of platen (1) once the terminal portions of the hooks are locked on the areas of rear surface (54) of said platen in which crossbars (7, 12) and (8, 13) are accomodated.For placing said yoke into position, hooks (42, 43) are first engaged into a pair of empty portions against edges (32, 33), and then hooks (44, 45) are folded back into the other pair of empty portions; the hooks become resiliently snapped after they have been resiliently distorted by ramps (50, 51) sliding over edges (34,35) of the crossbars.

The above-described fastening device has a good stiffness and an excellent impact and vibration resistance, which is due to the fact that the shaped rail and platen cannot move relative to each other in any direction once the yokes have been installed.

In addition, if the openings are arranged in lines with a first pitch (p) and in columns with a second pitch (p/2), a shaped rail can be fastened along any of these two directions.

A platen such as the above-described one will have e.g. the following dimensions: p = 30 mm., p/2 = 15 mm., m = 4mm. The shaped rail will then be provided with holes such that t = 26 mm. and t' = 26 mm. + K.30 mm. Length (q) ofthe holes in the shaped rail will be less than 20 mm. and preferably about pal2, e.g. 15 mm., a shaped rail of such a length retaining a sufficient stiffness where width (r) of said hole is about 5 mm.

With such a device, shaped raisl can very easily be placed and secured to a platen either along the line or column direction and with varying spacings. If lightweight apparatus are mounted on the shaped rails, only two fastening yokes can be used; if the apparatus are heavy, as many yokes as required will be used to maintain the rail effectively fastened to the platen.

Said device can also be used for fastening apparatus which are not electrical apparatus but include hooking shoes adapted to cooperate with standardshaped rails, as it is the case with pneumaticallyoperated apparatus.

Claims (7)

1. A device for fastening apparatus, particularly electrical apparatus, comprising: a platen provided with a series of identical openings regularly spaced along orthogonally-extending lines and columns, a metal shaped rail having one the one hand a flat bottom provided with spaced-apart holes and one the other hand two parallel flanges the outer edges of which are bent to cooperate with said apparatus, resilient and removable hook means which engage into said holes and openings to secure said rail to said platen, said openings being of rectangular shape and arranged in lines and columns with a pre-selected pitch and being spaced apart from each other by crossbars all having the same predetermined width, said bottom of said shaped rail being provided along its length with a series of pairs of holes of which two adjacent parallel edges orthogonal to the axis of said shaped rail are spaced apart by a distance equal to the sum of said pre-selected pitch ad pre-determined width, characterized in that said holes are of a length (q) greater than the width (m) of said crossbars, said resilient hook means (60) consisting of a U-shaped member having a bottom portion (61) provided with a pair of parallel hooks (42,43) and (44,45), respectively, at each end thereof, adjacent parallel edges (55, 56) of the hooks of each pair (40,41) being spaced apart by a distance (s) slightly greater than the width (m) of said crossbars, and remote parallel edges (58, 59) of the hooks of each pair being spaced apart by a distance (v) less than said length (q) ofthe holes provided in said shaped rail.

2. Afastening device according to claim 1, characterized in that said openings (2,3,4) provided in said platen are spaced apart with a first pitch (p) along one direction (L) and with a second pitch (p/2) along a second direction (C).

3. Afastening device according to claim 1, characterized in that said hooks means (60) has a convex bottom portion (61) the convexity of which faces towards said hooks (42 45), two particular hooks (44,45) of a pair (41) having inclined ramps (so, 51).

4. Afastening device according to claim 1, characterized in that two remote parallel edges (29, 30) one of which is associated with a first hole (25) of a first pair of holes (22) and the other of which is associated with a second hole (26) of a second pair of holes (23) or (23'), respectively, are spaced apart by a distance (t) or (t') such as t = (K+1) p-m wherein K is an integer of zero.

5. A fastening device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said pitch (p) is 30 mm., said width (m) is 4 mm. and said length (q) is less than 20 mm.

6. Afastening device according to claim 5, characterized in that said length (q) of a particular hole is 15 mm., its width (r) is 5 mm. and said distance (t) is 26 mm.

7. A device, for fastening apparatus, substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.