GB2193993A

GB2193993A - Personnel tethering safety rail

Info

Publication number: GB2193993A
Application number: GB08717724A
Authority: GB
Inventors: William Gibson Queen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-08-01
Filing date: 1987-07-27
Publication date: 1988-02-24
Anticipated expiration: 2007-07-27
Also published as: GB8717724D0; GB2193993B

Abstract

A personnel tethering safety rail, especially but not exclusively for use aboard a marine vessel, comprises a tube 2 of appropriate length and fitted at a desired location, the tube having an axial slot, and a runner element in the form of a ball 5 runs within the tube 2 and carries a stud with a head (6A) projecting through the tube slot to enable fitment of one end of a harness line (10) to the ball 5. The associated safety harness (9) for a wearer preferably has an elongate slide (11) to slidingly receive the other end of the harness line (10). Preferably a branch tube portion is provided adapted to receive a tethering ball whereby one tethered harness wearer can pass another. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Personnel tethering safety rail The present invention relates to a personnel tethering safety rail for use in conjunction with safety harnesses. The rail is especially but not exclusively intended for use in marine vessels to prevent people from being lost overboard.

Travelling tethering arrangements for the crew aboard a marine vessel, especially a small vessel such as a yacht, are known.

These have comprised a lifeline or handrail mounted on stanchions and running around the side of the vessel, and a tethering line attached at one end to a harness worn by a crew member and releasably clipped at the other end around the lifeline or rail so as to be runnable therealong. A problem with this prior arrangement has been that movement of the tethering line was blocked by the stanchions so that to pass a stanchion the tethering line had to be unclipped and reclipped to the lifeline and as will be appreciated the time of this operation represented a period of danger to the crew member.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved travelling tethering arrangement for use on board vessels which overcomes the above problem.

According to the present invention there is provided a personnel tethering safety rail for use with safety harnesses comprising an elongate member, a conduit within said elongate member and extending along the length of this member, the elongate member having an axially extending slotted opening to said conduit, and a runner element retained in said conduit but runnable therealong, the runner element having a portion extending outwith said slotted opening and adapted for attachment to a tethering line of a safety harness.

Preferably the runner element comprises a ball, and preferably the elongate member is in the form of a tube with an axial slot. The rail can be made up of a plurality of tube sections each comprising the above tube with suitable connection means between the sections. Preferably the ball has a fitment attached thereto to facilitate connection to the tethering line.

The rail (tube) can be mounted on stanchions but the stanchion/rail connections can conveniently be free of the slotted opening so that there is no obstruction to the movement of the ball (and consequently to the harness line and harness wearer).

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 shows a side elevation of a tube of a tethering rail according to the present invention; Figure 2 shows a plan view of the tube of Fig. 1; Figure 3 shows a side view to a larger scale of the roller ball used in the rail of Figs. 1 and 2; and Figure 4 shows a schematic view of a harness attached to the rail of Figs. 1 and 2 by means of a harness or tethering line.

Referring to the drawings, a personnel tethering safety rail 1 comprises a tube 2 providing an internal conduit (bore) 3, and the tube 2 has an axial slot 4 opening to the conduit 3. A ball 5 is retained within the conduit 3 and is dimensioned to run smoothly in the conduit 3. A threaded pin 6 is screwed into a threaded opening in this ball 5 by means of head 6A adapted to receive an Allan key and a fixture plate 7 is freely carried by this pin 6.

A releasable ring 7A can be fitted to the plate 7 to facilitate fitment of a harness strap. The ball 5 can be inserted into the conduit 3 via an open end 8 of the tube 2 such that the pin 6 projects through the slot 4. The tube 2 shown may comprise only a section of the full rail and the various rail sections can be joined together by suitable means. Fig. 4 shows a strap harness 9 tethered to the safety rail 1 by means of a harness or tethering line 10 which can be a wire or strap of metal or synthetic material. In particular the line 10 is freely clipped onto a guide rail or line 11 secured to a belt 12 of the harness: this enables the harness wearer to conveniently turn through about 1800 without wrapping the line 10.

It is possible for the rail 1 to be mounted on stanchions (shown by dashed line 13), and the rail can be secured to the stanchions (either by welding or by means of screws at holes 14) such that slot 4 is unobstructed.

However it is a particularly beneficial feature of the rail 1 that it can be attached directly to a vessel bulk or other structure, eg via screwholes 14, but still provide a travelling tethered facility: this can be of particular d- vantage in some small yachts where the provision of raised lifelines is not practicable. The rail can house several balls 5.

The safety rail 1 enables a continuous movement of the ball 5 so that where the rail 1 is applied at the sides of a marine vessel a crew member tethered to the rail should be able to move freely and easily around the perimeter of the vessel without the need to unclip and reclip the harness line 10. The ball 5 provides a smooth non-snagging movement. The tube 2 and ball 5 can be made of metal, eg stainless or galvanised steel, but it would be possible for one or both of these items to be of synthetic plastic material, eg nylon. Modifications are of course possible. This conduit 3 could be provided in some other member than a round tube 2.

Figs. 5a to 5C show side views of alternative forms of the ball fitment device of Figs. 2 and 3, and Fig. 6 shows a side view of a modification which enables one tethered har ness wearer to pass another.

In Figs. 5A to 5C, a further ball 5A is fitted to the stud 6 in place of the head 6A of Fig.

3. The stud 6 shown in Fig. 5A is of plain non-threaded form, and the balls 5, 5A are secured to the stud 6 by welds 15. Also, instead of a harness line fixture in the form of a simple plate 7, this harness fixture 7A of Figs. 5A has a part cup end 7B partly surrounding the ball 5A: this gives improved stress loading between the ball 5A and the fixture 7A. In Fig. 5B the part cup from har ness fixture 7A is again present and in this case a threaded stud in the form of an Allan screw GB is used which screw GB serves to hold the ball 5A and the fixture 7A in position.Fig. 5C shows yet a further form of ball fitment using balls 5, 5A and an Allan screw GB: again, this ball arrangement of Fig. 5C is preferably used with a part cup form harness fixture 7A.

Fig. 6 shows schematically an arrangement enabling one harness wearer tethered to rail 2 to pass another. Thus the rail 2 includes a junction or branch portion 16 having a conduit 3 and a slot 4 just as in the rail 2 so that the ball 5' to which one harness wearer is attached can move into the conduit 3 of portion 16 to enable the ball 5" in the rail 2 and attached to another harness wearer to move along the rail 2 (rightwards in Fig. 6) and past the ball 5' in junction portion 16. The ball 5' can then be moved back into the rail 2 to enable movement say in the leftwards direc -tion. Conveniently the junction position 16 could comprise an upright stanchion and, of course, the slot 4 can only extend in the position 16 to a limited extent. A ball barrier 17 could be present and located in a nominal po sition to limit the balls movement in conduit 16.

As can be seen in Fig. 6, the stud 6 of a ball 5 running in the tube 2 has to be swung through 90" to move into the slot 4 of the branch conduit 16: this means that the ball 5 and fitments will simply run past the conduit 16 unless there is a definite move to place the ball in the conduit 16.

Claims

1. A personnel tethering safety rail for use with safety harnesses comprising an elongate member, a conduit within said elongate mem ber and extending along the length of the member, the elongate member having an axi ally extending slotted opening to said conduit, and a runner element retained in said conduit but runnable therealong, the runner element having a portion extending outwith said slotted opening and adapted for attachment to a tethering line of a safety harness.

2. A safety rail as claimed in claim 1, wherein the runner element comprises a ball.

3. A safety rail as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the elongate member is in the form of a tube with an axial slot.

4. A safety rail as claimed in claim 2, wherein the ball is secured to a stud projecting from the slotted opening.

5. A safety rail as claimed in claim 4, wherein a fixing head is located on the stud oppositely to the ball.

6. A safety rail as claimed in claim 5, wherein the stud carries a fixture element adapted for fitment to a safety harness line.

7. A safety rail as claimed in claim 5 or 6, wherein said fixing head is in the form of a secondary ball.

8. A safety rail as claimed in claim 6 and in claim 7, wherein the fixture element includes an arcuate surface portion adapted to partially lie over said secondary ball.

9. A safety rail as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, including means for fastening the elongate member on a base surface.

10. A safety rail as claimed in claim 2, where in said arcuate surface is defined by a cup-form structure.

10. A safety rail as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the elongate member is supported on stanchion means.

11. A safety rail as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least two runner elements are provided, and passing means are provided to enable one runner element to pass the other.

12. A safety rail as claimed in claim 11, wherein said passing means comprises a laterally directed branch conduit into which a runner element can pass from the elongate member.

13. A safety rail as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of elongate member sections are provided arranged in end-to-end relationship.

14. A personnel tethering safety rail substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings or those figures as modified by any one of Figs. Sa-Sc or by Fig. 6.

15. A safety rail as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in combination with a safety harness, said safety harness including elongate slide means to slidingly receive one end of a harness line fitted to the runner element of the safety rail.

CLAIMS Amendments to the claims have been filed, and have the following effect: Claims 1 to 8 and 10 above have been deleted or textually amended.

New or textually amended claims have been filed as follows:- Claims 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 above have been re-numbered as 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 and their appendancies corrected.

1. A personnel tethering safety rail for use with safety harnesses comprising an elongate member, a conduit within said elongate mem ber and extending along the length of the member, the elongate member having an axially extending slotted opening to said conduit, and a runner element retained in said conduit but runnable therealong, a cylindrical stud having one end attached to the runner element, said cylindrical stud extending through said slotted opening so as to have an external portion outwith said elongate member, a holder element rotatably carried by said external portion of the cylindrical stud, a head on the other end of the stud for retainment of the holder element of the stud, and tethering line securing means on said holder element positionable beyond a side-edge of the elongate member.

2. A personnel tethering safety rail for use with safety harnesses comprising an elongate member, a conduit within said elongate member and extending along the length of the member, the elongate member having an axially extending slotted opening to said conduit, and a runner element retained in said conduit but runnable therealong, a cylindrical stud having one end attached to the runner element, said cylindrical stud extending through the slotted opening so as to have an external portion outwith said elongate member, a holder element rotatably carried by said external portion of the cylindrical stud and adapted for fitment to a safety harness tethering line, and a head on the other end of the stud for retainment of the holder element on the stud, said head having an at least part ball form while the holder element includes an arcuate surface portion adapted to partially lie over said head.

3. A safety rail as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the runner element comprises a ball.

4. A safety rail as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the elongate member is in the form of a tube with an axial slot.

6. A safety rail as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the elongate member is supported on stanchion means.