GB2163477A - Retaining device - Google Patents

Abstract

A device suitable for retaining a fixture e.g. radiator against a wall comprises a member 6 adapted for mounting on the wall and part 8 releasably connecting the member to the fixture 18. Member 6 and part 8 are retained together by a rivet 13, about which relative pivoting can take place. Extending in a radial direction from the centre of part 8 is a resilient dog 14 which engages a relate 15 in the rim of flange 10 to lock the member 6 and part 8 against relative pivoting. Dog 14 may be released by means of screw 16. With the device in the locked position shown in Figure 2, finger 12 fits behind retainer 19 and prevents radiator 18 from swinging away from the wall 20. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Retaining Device The present invention is a device for securing to a wall a domestic or industrial fixture, in particular a fixture which it is desired to be able to move away from its mounted position in a simple manner.

A particular example of such a fixture is a wallmounted domestic water-filled radiator. When access is required to the wall behind such a radiator, for example to paint the wall or to apply wallpaper or to inspect the wall for some purpose, it may often be necessary to drain the radiator and then remove it totally from its mounting. It may in some cases be feasible to swing the radiator away from the wall if the retaining brackets are dismantled but more often the radiator has to be lifted bodily from the brackets. There is a clear need for a retaining device which affords more ready access to the wall area behind such a fixture.

An object of my invention is to provide a retain ng device which meets that need.

The retaining device according to my invention comprises a member adapted for mounting upon a wall and means for releasably connecting said member to the fixture, for example a radiator, which it is desired to retain against the wall.

The aforesaid member may be designed to project outwards from the wall or to be fitted flush against the wall surface. It may be adapted for wall-mounting by the provision of one or more screw holes or, less desirably, by having a self-adhesive pad on that part thereof which is intended to abut the wall.

The means for releasably connecting the member to the fixture may take a wide variety of forms.

In a very simple version, the member is connected either to the fixture direct or to a bracket or other added feature of the fixture by means of one or more magnets. For example a single magnet may be mounted upon the retaining member and may cooperate with a magnetic material in the form of a pad secured to a radiator or to a bracket projecting from the radiator.

In another form of the invention, the connecting of the wall-mountable member to the fixture may involve mechanical inter-engaging of two components associated with the member and the fixture respectively. Thus, for example, in the case of a radiator conventionally provided with a mounting bracket in the form of a squared loop, a projection associated with the wall-mountable member may be designed to project into the loop to retain the radiator against the wall in use and to be retractable out of engagement with said loop when access to the wall behind the radiator is desired. The movement of the projection between these respective positions may be linear or pivotal.

The connecting of the wall-mountable member to the fixture is preferbly biassed, for example by springs, in a direction maintaining the connection so that a positive step has to be taken to overcome that bias when it is desired to release the fixture from the wall. Thus a positive lock may be provided which must be opened to permit release of the fixture, for example in the form of a linearlyoperating bolt. As an alternative, a spring-loaded projection or resilient finger may engage a corresponding socket and may require positive disengagement to release the fixture from the wall.

In one preferred form, the retaining device according to my invention is a disengageable bracket which comprises a wall-mountable first part, a second part pivoted to the first part and having a projection which can, by pivoting of said second part, be swung into a generally upright position, locking means for releasably securing said parts together when said projection is in said position, and lock releasing means to permit relative movement of said parts.

The wall-mountable first part of the bracket may, in its simplest form, be a flat plate with a pivotsupporting projection or flange. Securing holes may conveniently be provided so that the plate may be secured directly to a wall surface, as by means of screws and wall plugs or by bolting to a metal or wooden wall. The pivot-supporting projection or flange may advantageously extend perpendicularly out from such a flat plate and may be apertured to receive a pivot pin or may carry a stud upon which the second part may be directly pivoted.

The second part of the bracket has a projection which can be pivoted into a generally upright position. It is this projection which will engage the radiator or other fixture and retain it against the wall.

The projection may be narrow and elongated or may be wide and flat, depending in part upon the nature of the fixture and the feature thereof which it is intended to engage in use. Thus, for example, in the case of a foldaway table, the weight of the table is largely borne by the table hinge and the projection on the bracket has mainly a retaining function and may therefore be relatively light in design. In the case of a domestic radiator filled with water, the bracket may be required to contribute to supporting the weight of the fixture and the projection may therefore be of more substantial design.

Two such disengageable brackets may be used, if desired, to provide extra support for the fixture.

Alternatively, a single elongated support bracket may be adopted, which has either a single, similarly elongated projection or two or more relatively narrow projections.

The disengageable bracket has, as indicated, locking means for releasably securing its two parts together when the fixture-engaging projection is in a generally upright position. This locking means may be a spring-loaded pin on one part which in the locked position is urged by the spring into a corresponding aperture on the other part. In another form it may be a rigid pin or other feature of the one bracket part, designed to fit a corresponding feature of the other part when the two bracket parts are themselves urged together by a spring. In yet another form, one or both of the bracket parts may be made in a resilient material, for example a spring steel or resilient plastics material, and the locking means may then be an inherently resilient feature of one of the parts, suitably engaging a feature of the other part.

The lock-releasing means may take a variety of forms but advantageously the selected means should be readily accessible and easy to operate.

In a domestic setting, the ease of operation should not be such as to be operable by a child. Preferably the releasing means is a button or screw which, when operated, simply presses the interlocking features out of engagement with each other. If the releasing means is a button, then advantageously the button is operated against the resistance of a spring, so that the button returns to its original position after use. Particularly when the fixture is in a domestic setting, I prefer that the releasing means be a screw, which when turned a short angular distance in one direction causes the locking features to disengage and when turned in the reverse direction allows the lock to operate again.

In general, the retaining device according to my invention may be made by any suitable metal or alloy or plastics material, where necessary a material which combines the strength to help support the fixture with those characteristics which lead to easy manufacture. As indicated above, in some forms of my invention it is necessary or desirable that at least one of the bracket parts be made of a resilient material, for example an ABS rubber.

My invention will now be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of one preferred embodiment of the retaining device according to my invention in the form of a disengageable bracket; Figure 2 is a side elevation of the bracket of Figure 1 in the engaged position, retaining a domestic radiator in place; Figure 3 is a side elevation, corresponding to Figure 2, of the bracket in disengaged position; Figure 4 is a perspective view of a domestic radiator, retained in position as in Figure 2; Figure 5 is a perspective view corresponding to Figure 4 with the bracket disengaged; Figure 6 is an exploded perspective of a second embodiment of the retaining device according to my invention; Figure 7 illustrates an alternative method of spring-locking the cooperating parts of a bracket;; Figure 8 illustrates the operation of a further embodiment of the invention in the form of a rotary locking member; and Figure 9 shows the rotary member of Figure 8 in perspective.

Referring firstly to Figure 1 of the drawings, the bracket illustrated comprises two main components, namely a first bracket part 6, apertured at 7, 7 to permit mounting against a wall, as by means of screws, and a second bracket part 8. The first part 6 is essentially a flat plate 9 having a rounded flange 10 extending perpendicularly from the plate 9. The second part 8 is essentially a flat disc 11 and, extending tangentially from the disc 11 and in a plane at right angles to it, a flat 'finger' 12. The two parts 6 and 8 are retained together by a rivet 13, about which relative pivotting of the parts can take place.

Extending in a generally radial direction from the centre of the bracket part 8 is a resilient dog 14 which, when the finger 12 is in an upright position, engages a rebate 15 in the rim of the flange 10, thereby locking the two bracket parts against relative pivotting. A small release screw 16, located in a threaded aperture 17 in the flange 10, is aligned with the dog 14 when the finger 12 is upright. Thus tightening (clockwise) rotation of the release screw 16 urges the resilient dog 14 out of engagement with the rebate 15 and allows the part 8 to pivot in an anti-clockwise direction such that the finger 12 is retracted downwards from its upright position.

Anticlockwise rotation of the screw 16 permits the dog 14 to engage the rebate when the two are aligned, so locking the bracket parts together again.

In Figures 2 to 5, a radiator 18, which may remain filled with water from the central heating system, is shown as having one form of conventional metal retainer 19, in this case a square loop, seen in section in Figures 2 and 3. With the bracket in the locked position shown in Figures 2 and 4, the finger 12 fits behind the retainer 19 and prevents the radiator 18 from swinging away from the wall 20, while simultaneously providing a measure of additional vertical support for the radiator and its contents.

If it is desired to gain access to that area of the wall 20 which is normally covered by the radiator 18, the release screw 16 is turned clockwise until the dog 14 is disengaged from the rebate 15 and then the lock nuts 21 adjacent the radiator valves are slackened by a half-turn. The radiator may now be swung down, in the direction shown by the arrow in Figure 5, until it rests upon the floor. The lock nuts 21 may be tightened to prevent leakage of water while the desired access is gained to the wall behind the radiator. By reversing the whole procedure, including temporarily re-slackening the lock nuts 21 and also turning the release screw 16 in an anticlockwise direction, the radiator may be restored to its original position when the necessary work has been completed.

As shown in Figure 5, the illustrated radiator is supported by two identical brackets. If desired, brackets of different hands may be used, that is a right-hand and a left-hand bracket, especially in settings where access to the release screws 16 is thereby improved.

The retaining device illustrated in Figure 6 has many similarities to that of Figures 1 to 5. However the locking together of the wall-mounted first bracket part 30 to the second bracket part 31 is achieved in a somewhat different way. A resilient locking washer 32 is pinned to the part 30 and has a radial finger-like projection 33. In the locked position of the device the finger 33 is located in a slot 34 in an upstanding circumferential rim 35 of the part 31. Release of the relatively pivotted parts 30 and 31 is achieved by tightening a grub screw 36 until the finger 33 clears the sides of the slot 34. If, before the radiator is returned to its upright position, the screw 36 is turned in an anti-clockwise direction by a small amount, the finger 33 is able to spring back into the slot 34 when the radiator is upright and thereby automatically lock the latter in its position of use.

Figure 7 illustrates a split-ring method of locking the two bracket parts together, the parts being releasable by the application of axial pressure, as for example with a screwdriver, on the relatively overlapping sectors.

Finally, Figures 8 and 9 illustrate in simplified form an embodiment of my invention incorporating a rotary locking member 40, pivotally mounted at 41 upon a flat wall-mounted plate (not shown).

The member 40 is part-circular in profile but has two opposed flat peripheral areas 42 and 43. Between these flat areas, a circumferential groove 44 extends between flanges 45 and 46.

As shown in Figure 8, the rotary member 40 is so mounted as to align with a conventional squareloop bracket 47 secured via flanges 48 and 49 to the rear of a radiator. When the radiator is in its upright position of use, the member 40 may be rotated so that the edge of the loop portion of the bracket 47 enters the groove 44 and is retained by the flange 45 in that position. When it is desired to lower the radiator to gain access to the wall behind it, the member 40 is rotated until the flat area 42 is parallel to the edge of the bracket 47, thereby releasing the latter and permitting the radiator to be moved.

While my invention has been described above particularly as used to retain a domestic radiator, it will be understood that the retaining device according to my invention has other applications. For example, it may be used to retain a gas fire releasably against a wall or to retain a door in an open position.

Claims (10)

1. A device for retaining a fixture against a wall comprising a member adapted for mounting upon a wall and means for releasably connecting said member to said fixture.

2. A retaining device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for releasably connecting said member to said fixture comprises one or more magnets.

3. A retaining device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for releasably connecting said member to said fixture comprises a projection associated with the wall-mountable member and movable between a fixture-engaging position and a retracted position.

4. A retaining device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the movement of the projection between its positions is linear.

5. A retaining device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the movement of the projection between its positions is pivotal.

6. A retaining device as claimed in claim 5, comprising a wall-mountable first bracket part, a second bracket part pivoted to said first part and having a projection which can, by pivoting of said second part, be swung into a generally upright position, locking means for releasably securing said parts together when said projection is in said position, and lock releasing means to permit relative movement of said parts.

7. A retaining device as claimed in claim 6, wherein said wall-mountable first bracket part is a flat plate with a pivot-supporting projection or flange.

8. A retaining device as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein the locking means comprises a springloaded or resilient projection on one bracket part engaging an aperture or slot on the other bracket part.

9. A retaining device as claimed in any of claims 6 to 8, wherein the lock-releasing means comprises a button or screw which, when operated, disengages the parts from each other.

10. A device for retaining a fixture against a wall, which device is substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, Figures 1 to 5, Figure 6, Figure 7 or Figures 8 and 9 of the accompanying drawings.