GB2170238A

GB2170238A - Connector for connecting a carrier member to an upright member, in particular for forming facade latticeworks

Info

Publication number: GB2170238A
Application number: GB08601141A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Heinz Rodl; Heinz Isenberg; Lothar Mademann
Original assignee: Julius and August Erbsloeh GmbH and Co
Current assignee: Erbsloeh Aluminium GmbH
Priority date: 1985-01-25
Filing date: 1986-01-17
Publication date: 1986-07-30
Also published as: NL8503506A; DE3502476A1; GB2170238B; GB8601141D0; DE3502476C2

Abstract

A connector 15 serves to connect carrier members 11 such as girders, stringers, crossbars and the like to upright members 10 such as posts and pillars. for forming facade latticeworks for accommodating plate-like filling members such as for example multiple glass panes, the connector 15 is secured to the upright member 10 by a connection plate 16 and to the carrier member 11 by at least one carrier plate 17 which is arranged perpendicular to the connection plate 16, and so that on the one hand the connector 15 can be assembled to the upright member 10 in the works and in order on the other hand for it to be able easily to fit the carrier member 11 in position on site, the connector 15 engages with its carrier plate 17 into a groove 22 in the carrier member 11 and is braced in a secured position therein by means of a wedge member 34. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Connector for connecting a carrier member to an upright member in particular for forming facade latticeworks This invention relates to a connector for connecting carrier members such as girders, stringers, crossbars and the like to upright members such as posts, pillars and the like, in particular for forming facade latticeworks, which may be thermally insulated, for receiving plate-like filling members, wherein the connector is secured with a connection plate to the upright member and with at least one carrier plate arranged perpendicularly to the connection plate, to the carrier member.

For the purposes for forming for example facade latticeworks or grid structures, it is known for the horizontally extending carrier members to be connected to the perpendicularly extending upright members, by means of connectors. In that arrangement, angled or Tshaped members are often used as the connectors, with such members being connected on the one hand to the upright member and on the other hand to the carrier member, for example by screwing, riveting, welding or the like. However, such connections are disadvantageous insofar as they must essentially be made on site. In general the known constructions do not make it possible to provide for pre-fitting of the connectors to one component or the other.

The problem of the present invention is that of improving a connector of the kind set forth in the opening part of this specification, in such a way that on the one hand the connector can be easily pre-assembled to the upright members, and the carrier members can be fixedly connected to the pre-assembled connectors in a simple fashion.

According to the present invention there is provided connector for connecting an elongate carrier member, such as a girder, stringer, crossbar and the like, to an upright member, such as a post, pillar and the like for forming facade latticeworks, which may be thermally insulated, for receiving plate-like filling members, said connector having a connection plate for screwing it to the upright member and at least one carrier plate disposed perpendicularly to the connection plate, said carrier plate being insertable into a groove in the carrier member and held in the groove by means of a wedge member.

The connector may be pre-assembled to the upright member by the connector being screwed by screws extending through the connection plate to the upright member. The carrier member can be easily cut to length and fitted onto the connectors which are disposed on the upright members at selected spacings, and can then be fixedly connected thereto by bracing a wedge member in position. In that connection, the carrier plate is advantageously provided, at its region which engages into the groove in the carrier member, with a wedge bar which rises towards the connection plate of the carrier plate and which has a wedge groove of the wedge member engaging thereover.

In order to secure the carrier member in its position of connection on the upright member or on the connector which is fixed to the upright member, the carrier plate, in the region of its wedge bar, advantageously has a row of locking teeth at which a locking tongue on the wedge member can be latched. That ensures that the wedge member cannot be removed from its locking position without being intentionally acted upon from the outside, so that the arrangement reliably remains in its connected condition.

In order to adjust the connecting position of the connector on the upright member, a further embodiment of the invention provides that the carrier plate which engages into the groove in the carrier member has a carrier pin which is directed towards the connection plate and which extends beyond same and which engages into walls of the upright member. If now when using thermal insulation members for forming the facade structure, the connector is formed from a plastics material in order to maintain the thermal barrier, it may be advantageous for the carrier pin which projects out of the carrier plate to be formed from metal and the plastics injected around the pin.

That ensures, in the event of a fire, that, in the case of total destruction of the plastics material, the crossbars and beams or girders do not fall down so that the danger of collapse is substantially reduced.

In order now that heat barrier members can be used, with a barrier bar portion disposed in the middle region of the shaped bar members, it is advantageous in accordance with a further feature of the invention if two carrier plates which are disposed in spaced and parallel relationship with each other project perpendicularly out of the connection plate and engage over a middle wall projection of a carrier member having grooves formed by angular bars, on both sides. In that connection it will be understood that in that case both carrier plates are also provided with carrier pins in order to guarantee adjustment of the connector on the upright member.

Secure mounting of the carrier pins on the upright member is ensured, even in the event of a fire, in that the carrier plates have a setback portion which bridges over an angular bar portion, forming a groove, of the upright member, the carrier pins of the carrier plates projecting into said set-back portion and, in the connected condition, engaging positively through two groove walls of the upright member, which are in parallel and spaced-apart relationship to each other.

In order to facilitate assembly, it is advantageous for the wedge members to have an extension portion which projects rearwardly beyond the wedge bar and which is supported on the one hand directly against a groove wall of the carrier member: and on the other hand by way of a spring bar portion against the oppositely disposed groove wall of the carrier member. That arrangement ensures that, upon displacement of the wedge members in the clamping direction, they can also be pushed with their wedge groove securely onto the wedge bar of the carrier plate of the connector, without special insertion oeprations being necessary.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of an example, with reference to the accompanying drawings; in which: Figure 1 is a perspective exploded view of the region of the connection between an upright member and a carrier member, using the connector according to the invention, Figure 2 is a sectional view of the connection region shown in Figure 1, taken along the line 11-11 indicated'in Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a cross-section through the connection region taken along the line Ill-Ill indicated in Figure 2.

Inthe embodiment shown in the drawings, both the upright member 10 and the carrier member 11 comprise individual shaped elongate members, namely the actual load-supporting member 13,14, a composite shaped bar member 12 which can be connected thereto, and a holding bar (not shown) which holds the filling or infill members and which can be connected to 'the composite shaped bar member 12. The upright member 10 and the carrier member 11 in the illustrated embodiment are preferably formed of aluminium and alloys thereof. The carrier girder or beam 14 of the carrier member 11 is secured by means of a connector 15 to the basic load carrying member 13 of the upright member 10, the bar member 13 performing the actual support function.The connector 15 may be formed of a high-strength plastics material, in order to maintain the thermal barrier effect.

The connector 15 substantially has a connection plate 16 which extends parallel to the longitudinal direction of the upright member 10; in the illustrated embodiment, two -carrier plates 17 which are disposed in parallel spacedapart reiationship to each other project at a right angle from the connection plates 17 corresponds to the outside spacing of the middle limb portions 18 and 19 of the carrier girder 14. The side walls of the carrier girder 14 are formed by angular bars 20 and 21 which form grooves 22. At their ends which project into the groove 22, the carrier plates 17 each have a wedgeshaped bar 23 which rises towards the connection plate 16.On one side beside the wedge bar 23 there is a row of locking teeth 24 extending at a spacing and parallel to the inclination of the wedge bar, on the inwardly disposed side in the illustrated embodiment, the arrangement of the row of teeth 24 being such that the wedge bar 23 and the row of locking teeth 24 extend within the groove 22. The upright member 10 also includes middle limb portions 25 and 26 which project out of the basic bar member 13 thereof and which serve in particular for securing the composite shaped bar member 12 and which, together with a respective angular bar 27 which extends the side walls of the basic shaped bar member 13, form longitudinal grooves in the upright member 10.

In the connected condition, in the case of the embodiment illustrated in Figure 1, the connection plate 16 lies against the middle limb portion 25 and is secured thereto by means of tapping screws 28 which engage in holes 29 in the limb portion 25.

While the connection plate 16 terminates at the level of the limbs of the angular bar 27, that accommodate the sealing strips 30, the carrier plates 17 are provided with a set-back stepped portion 31 which bridges over the groove-forming angular bar 27 and into which project metal pins 32 extending from the free ends of the carrier plates 17. In the connected condition of the connector 15 on the upright member 10, the pins 32 pass through holes 33 in the angular bar 27 and in the middle limb portion 25 and thereby centre the connector 1 5 in position on the upright member 10.When the connector 1 5 is screwed to the upright member 10 in that way, a carrier member 11 which fits in respect of length between two adjacent upright members can be pushed onto the connector 15 from the rear, engaging with its middle limb portions 18 and 19 between the carrier plates 17.

Wedge members 34 are pushed into the grooves 22 of the carrier member 11 and serve to fix the carrier member 11 to the connector 15. The wedge members 34 have a wedge-shaped groove 35 which extends in an inclined configuration in the same way as the inclination of the wedge bar 23 of the connector 15, the wedge-shaped groove 35 engaging over the wedge bar 23 of the connector 15.

To permit the wedge member 34 to be suitable for use on both sides, it is of a symmetrical construction and has locking tongue portions 36 which are arranged beside the wedge groove on both sides. The locking tongue portions 36 latch into the row of teeth -24 of the connector 15 and thus secure the wedge member 34 in the groove 22 in the carrier member 11, in the connected condition. In order to fix the wedge member 34 during its movement that is required for assembly purposes for introducing the wedge bar 23 of the connector 15 into the wedge groove 35 of the wedge member 34, the wedge member 34, in the connected condition, has an exten sion portion 37 which extends rearwardly beyond the wedge bar 23 and on which there is formed a spring bar portion 38 which bears against the respective groove wall formed by the middle limb portions 18 and 19.After a carrier member 11 has been fitted onto the connectors 15 secured to the upright members 10, for the purposes of securing the connected condition as between the upright member 10 and the respective carrier member 11, the wedge members 34 are pushed onto the wedge bars 23 of the carrier plates 17, where, as a result of the inclined configurations of the wedge bar 23 and the wedge groove 35, the carrier member 11 is braced to the upright member 10 by means of the connector 15, by way of the wedge members 34.

As already mentioned, the illustrated embodiment is only an example of the invention and the invention is in no way restricted solely thereto. Thus it is possible, for example, to use instead of the carrier member 11 which is of substantially U-shaped crosssection, a carrier member which is of an angular cross-section. In that case the connector 15 would be suitably modified so that only one carrier plate 17 needs to be provided on the connection plate 16. At any event, a filling member for example in the form of a composite glass pane can be fitted into a latticework which is prepared in the above-indicated manner, for forming for example a facade structure, sealing strips 39 which are fitted into grooves in the composite shaped bar portions 12 then engaging over the composite glass pane on the outside thereof. A holding member (not shown) engages over the sealing strips, and in turn can be screwed for example to the composite shaped bar portion 12.

Claims

1. A connector for connecting an elongate carrier member, such as a girder, stringer, crossbar and the like, to an upright member, such as a post, pillar and the like for forming facade latticeworks, which may be thermally insulated, for receiving plate-like filling members, said connector having a connection plate for screwing it to the upright member and at least one carrier plate disposed perpendicularly to the connection plate, said carrier plate being insertable into a groove in the carrier member and held in the groove by means of a wedge member.

2. A connector as claimed in claim 1, in which, in its region which engages into the groove in the carrier member the carrier plate is provided with a wedge bar which rises towards the connection plate and which is engaged with a wedge shaped groove of the wedge member.

3. A connector as claimed in claim 2, in which in the region of its wedge bar the carrier plate is provided with a row of locking teeth with which a locking tongue provided on the wedge member can be engaged.

4. A connector as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the carrier plate which engages into the groove in the carrier member is provided with a carrier pin which is directed towards the connection plate and which extends therebeyond the plate so as to engage into holes provided in the upright member.

5. A connector as claimed in any preceding claim, in which two carrier plates are provided which are spaced apart and in parallel relationship with each other and project at a right angle from the connection plate, said carrier plates in use engaging over a middle wall projection of a carrier member having grooves formed by angular bars on both sides.

6. A connector as claimed in any preceding claim, in-which the carrier plate or plates have a set-back or stepped portion which bridges over an angular bar portion, which forms a groove, of the upright member, the carrier pins projecting into said set-back or stepped portion and in the connecting condition engaging positively through two groove walls of the upright member, said groove walls extending in parallel and spaced relationship to each other.

7. A connector as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the wedge member has an extension portion which extends rearwardly beyond the wedge bar and which is supported on the one hand directly against a groove wall of the carrier member and on the other hand by way of a spring bar portion against the oppositely disposed groove wali of the carrier member.

8. A connector for connecting an elongate carrier member to an upright member substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.