GB2145751A

GB2145751A - Hand rail assemblies

Info

Publication number: GB2145751A
Application number: GB08318430A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Christopher John Fox
Original assignee: G F P ENGINEERING Ltd
Current assignee: G F P ENGINEERING Ltd
Priority date: 1983-07-07
Filing date: 1983-07-07
Publication date: 1985-04-03
Also published as: GB8318430D0; GB2145751B

Abstract

A hand rail assembly comprises upright members (6) and horizontal members (8) secured to and extending between adjacent upright members. Each upright member (6) comprises a base member (10) and an upright element (12). The base member comprises a flat section, and a stepped spigot (14) extending vertically from a central region of the flat section. Extending through the base member (10) and through the spigot (14) is an elongate bolt (16). An upright element (12) of hollow circular cross-section is mounted on the spigot (14) with the bolt (16) extending generally co-axially within, and a curable material is introduced into the upright element around the bolt to secure the upright element to the base. At its upper end portion, each upright element (12) is provided with one or more bores (30) into which spigots (32) are secured by adhesive. Hollow horizontal member (8), having a scalloped end, is positioned over the spigot (32) into tight surface-to-surface abutment with the upright element (12). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements relating to hand rail assemblies This invention is concerned with improvements relating to hand rail assemblies, of the kind comprising upright members secured at spaced intervals to the floor or ground, and horizontal members extending between the upright members at a desired height, typically 3 to 4 feet. Conventionally the members are fabricated from metal, but such suffer from the disadvantages of corrosion, and the need for periodic maintenance. It has therefore been suggested to manufacture both the upright members and the horizontal members of hollow, rectangular cross-section plastics tubing. However such known systems have relatively low strength, and suffer from the disadvantage, that they cannot readily be used where (for example) it is desired to angularly off-set adjacent horizontal members at selected angles.

It is to be appreciated that the term "horizontal" is used herein in conventional manner as indicating those members which provide the hand rail portion of the system, and does not imply that such members should or must extend horizontally in the strict geometric sense of the word.

According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a hand rail assembly comprising hollow upright members of generally circular cross-section, and hollow horizontal members of generally circular cross-section, and least one end portion of each of the horizontal members being scalloped permitting said one end of the horizontal member to be positioned over a spigot extending radially from the upright member into close abutting contact between the scalloped end portion and the wall of the upright member.

Preferably the spigot is inserted into a bore provided in the upright member and secured therein by adhesive, preferably the spigot extending internally of the upright members at least as far as the longitudinal axis of the upright member. The elongate spigot may extend diametrically through co-axial bores in the upright member where it is desired that an adjacent, similar, horizontal member extends co-axially, and where it is desired that adjacent horizontal members are relatively inclined, but lying in the same horizontal plane, preferably shorter spigots are utilised which are mounted in inclined radial bores, the spigots being chamfered on their inner ends, said chamfered ends being secured in abutment by adhesive in addition to being adhesively secured in the wall of the upright member.

The upright members and the horizontal members may be produced by a pultrusion operation, preferably from a reinforced plastics material such as a glass-reinforced plastics material. A particularly desirable material is one comprising woven mesh reinforcing material, for example glass fibre woven roving, on the inner face of the member, and a random fibre reinforcing radially outwardly thereof.

Preferably the spigots are of hollow circular cross-section, also being of a reinforced plastics material, and again conveniently, the adhesive used to adhere these in place, is an epoxy resin.

Difficulty is also encountered in known hand rail systems, in providing the upright members with adequate load bearing capability.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is also provided a method of manufacture of an upright member for a hand rail assembly in which a hollow upright element is mounted on a base member, said method comprising the step of introducing a settable material into the interior of the upright element, and permitting said material to set.

Thus the settable material (which is preferably a durable plastics material) provides, or assists in the provision of, a bond between the base member and the upright element.

Preferably a tying element is secured to the base member, over which the upright element is mounted and around which the settable material sets. The tying element assisting in the transmission of load between the upright element and the base member via the set material.

Desirably the base member is provided with a spigot, which is a cross-section such as to enable the upright element to be a sliding fit thereon, and onto which, in contact with a horizontal surface of the base member, the uright element may be secured by adhesive, the tying element preferably extending through the spigot.

If desired a sleeve may be mounted around the lower end of the upright element, conveniently being secured to the upright element and to a horizontal surface of the base member by adhesive. Alternatively, the sleeve may be formed in situ from a resin and fibrous reinforcing material.

The method according to the second aspect of the invention permits a hand rail assembly to be provided which has greatly increased load-bearing characteristics and by the use of which the tendency of the lower end of the upright element to disruption under load is greatly reduced. The method may be used to manufacture an upright of any desired crosssection, but is particularly advantageous when utilised with uprights of hollow circular crosssection, particularly when manufactured from reinforced plastics material as hereinabove described.

This method according to the second aspect of the invention may provide an upright mem ber for a hand rail assembly in accordance with the first aspect of the invention.

There will now be given a detailed description, to be read with reference to the accompanying drawings, of a hand rail assembly which is a preferred embodiment of this invention, and which has been selected, together with a method of manufacturing an upright member for the hand rail assembly, for the purposes of illustrating the invention by way of example.

In the accompanying drawing: Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of the hand rail assembly which is the preferred embodiment of this invention; and Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view showing an example of a junction area between two horizontal members of the assembly.

The hand rail assembly which is the preferred embodiment of this invention comprises upright members 6 and horizontal members 8 secured to and extending between adjacent upright members. Whilst the horizontal members 8 will normally extend parallel to the surface to which the upright members are secured, this is not necessarily the case.

Each upright member 6 comprises a base member 10 and an upright element 12. The base member 10 comprises a flat section, which may conveniently be bolted to the floor or ground or even embedded in concrete or the like, and a stepped spigot 14 extending vertically upwardly from a central region of the flat section. Extending through the base member 10, and through the spigot 14 is an elongate bolt 16, which is secured in position by a head 18 and nut 20, a thick washer 22 being disposed between the nut 20 and the spigot 14.

In the manufacture of the hand rail assembly which is the preferred embodiment of this invention, the upright element 12, which is of hollow circular cross-section, is made by poltrusion from glass-reinforced plastics material, and is mounted on the spigot 14 with the bolt 1 6 extending generally co-axialiy within, the lower end portion of the upright element 1 2 being adhesively secured for example by epoxy resin adhesive, to the spigot 14, and to horizontal surface 24 provided by the step of the spigot.A curable plastics material M is then introduced into the upright element 12, e.g. by pouring before a cap C of the upright member is secured in place, to surround and completely cover the bolt 16, which material M, together with a nut 26 on the upper end of the bolt 16, provides a tying element serving to secure the upright element 1 2 to the base 10, and transmit any load from the upright element 1 2 to the base member 10.

A sleeve 28 is slid downwardly over the upright element 12, and is similarly secured by an epoxy resin adhesive to the upright element 1 2 and to the base member 10, said sleeve serving to reinforce the lower end of the upright element. Alternatively, glass fibre woven roving impregnated with a curable resin is wound around the element 1 2 and the resin is permitted to cure to form the sleeve in situ.

At its upper end portion. each upright element 1 2 is provided with one or more bores 30, said bores usually lying in a horizontal plane. Spigots 32 are positioned in the bores 30, the spigots being relatively short, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, and being provided with chamfered inner faces 33 whereby adjacent spigots 32 may be secured together along a diametral line for example by adhesive, before cap C is adhered in place.

Alternatively the inner ends of the spigots each may be cut at an angle to their longitudinal axes, as shown at 32a in Fig. 2, and again secured together by adhesive. Further alternatively the spigots may be longer, and extend directly through the upright element 1 2 where no connection with another spigot is required In both cases, the spigots 32 may be secured in position by adhesive.

Each of the horizontal members 8 is scalloped at its ends, allowing the end of the member to be slid over a spigot 32 into tight surface-to-surface abutment with the upright element 1 2. In this manner the members 8 may each by secured by epoxy resin adhesive both to the associated spigot 32, and to the upright element 12, providing reiatively high rigidity of the assembled structure.

Of course, the upright element 1 2 need not be made as described i.e. by pultrusion, but could be made in any other manner.

Claims

1. A hand rail assembly comprising hollow upright members of generally circular crosssection, and hollow horizontal members of generally circular cross-section, at least one end portion of each of the horizontal members being scalloped permitting said one end of the horizontal member to be positioned over a spigot extending radially from the upright member into close abutting contact between the scalloped end portion and the wall of the upright member.

2. A hand rail assembly according to Claim 1 wherein the spigot extends into a bore provided in the upright member.

3. A hand rail assembly according to Claim 2 wherein the spigot is secured in the bore by adhesive.

4. A hand rail assembly according to one of Claims 2 and 3 wherein the spigot extends internally of the upright member at least as far as the longitudinal axis of the upright member.

5. A hand rail assembly according to one of Claims 2 and 3 wherein the upright member is provided with two bores, axes of which lie in the same horizontal plane, into each of which bores a spigot extends.

6. A hand rail assembly according to Claim 5 wherein the spigots abut and are secured together by adhesive.

7. A hand rail assembly according to one of Claims 5 and 6 wherein the axes of the two bores intersect at the longitudinal axis of the upright member at an angle of less than 180 .

8. A hand -rail assembly according to Claim 7 wherein the inner ends of the spigots are chamfered.

9. A hand rail assembly according to one of Claims 2 and 3 wherein the spigot is elongate and extends diametrically through co-axial bores in the upright member.

1 0. A hand rail assembly according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the upright members are produced by a pultrusion operation.

11. A hand rail assembly according to Claim 10 wherein the upright members are of a glass-reinforced plastics material.

1 2. A hand rail assembly according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the horizontal members are produced by a pultrusion operation.

1 3. A hand rail assembly according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the horizontal members are of a glass-reinforced plastics material.

14. A hand rail assembly according to Claim 11 or Claim 1 3 wherein the glassreinforced plastics material comprises woven mesh reinforcing material on an inner face of the member and a random fibre reinforcing material radially outwardly thereof.

1 5. A hand rail assembly according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the spigots are of hollow circular cross-section, being of a reinforced plastics material.

1 6. A method of manufacture of an upright member for a hand rail assembly in which a hollow upright element is mounted on a base member, said method comprising a step of introducing a settable material into the interior of the upright element, and permitting said material to set.

1 7. A method according to Claim 16 wherein a tying element is secured to the base member, over which the upright element is mounted and around which the settable material sets.

1 8. A method according to Claim 1 7 wherein the base member is provided with a spigot having a cross-section such as to enable the upright element to a sliding fit thereon, and onto which, in contact with the horizontal surface of the base member, the upright element is secured.

1 9. A method according to Claim 1 8 wherein the tying element extends through the spigot.

20. A method according to any one of Claims 1 6 to 1 9 wherein a sleeve extends around the lower end of the upright element.

21. A method according to Claim 20 wherein the sleeve is secured to the upright element and to a horizontal surface of the base member by adhesive.

22. A method according to Claim 20 wherein the sleeve is formed is situ.

23. A method according to any one of Claims 1 6 to 22, wherein the hand rail assembly is according to any one of Claims 1 to 15.

24. A hand rail assembly constructed and arrangement substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

25. A method of manufacture of an upright member for a hand rail assembly, when carried out substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

26. Any novel feature or novel combination of features herein before described and/or shown in the accompanying drawings.