GB2224625A

GB2224625A - Securing garden canes together

Info

Publication number: GB2224625A
Application number: GB8924729A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Charles Charman
Original assignee: SALAMANDER AUTOMOTIVE Ltd
Current assignee: SALAMANDER AUTOMOTIVE Ltd
Priority date: 1988-11-03
Filing date: 1989-11-02
Publication date: 1990-05-16
Also published as: GB8825709D0; GB8924729D0

Abstract

A spring clip 24 is used to secure together two crossed but generally upstanding side canes 10 and 12 (fixed in the ground) and a horizontal top cane 22 supported by the crossed side canes. The clip, made from a single length of wire, comprises a top run extending at an acute angle across the top cane and dependent limbs extending down from opposite ends of the top run and bearing against opposite side faces of the top cane. Free end portions of the wire length are turned inwards and upwards to form vee shaped bearers which engage beneath upwardly divergent undersurfaces of the two side canes. The clip so draws the side canes together and holds down the top cane. <IMAGE>

Description

SECURING TOGETHER GARDEN CANES It is well known to gardeners to form each year a temporary framework for supporting annual climbing plants, such as runner beans, which can be grown up the framework during the summer season. At the end of the season, when the plants are finished with, the framework can be disassembled for sheltered storage of its components during the winter.

Such a framework is commonly made by joining stout canes (e.g. of bamboo). A common form of framework is a straight tunnel-like structure of triangular cross-section constructed by connecting crossing top end portions of pairs of upstanding but mutually inclined side canes. The canes of each pair are spaced apart at their bottom ends and set into the ground.

They are secured where they cross (at their top ends) not only to each other but also to a generally horizontal top cane which is supported by the crossed side canes and extends between one pair of canes and the next. A structure is so formed comprising a plurality of pairs of oppositely ine lined side canes set into the ground, the pairs being maintained spaced apart at their tops by means of one or more top canes running along the length of the structure from pair to pair.

Such a structure so involves structural assemblies which each comprise two upstanding but mutually inclined side canes (or the like) of which bottom end portions are set into the ground (or otherwise secured) at spaced apart positions and of which top end portions are secured crossed, a top cane of the structure being secured to and supported by the crossed side canes. A structural assembly of that kind is referred to hereinafter as a structural assembly of the kind hereinbefore defined.

In constructing such frameworks as hereinbefore referred to, gardeners have most commonly used string, twine or wire to secure the canes together.

It is an object of the present invention to enable structural assemblies of the kind hereinbefore defined to be formed more readily and quickly, for example in constructing such a framework, by means of a suitable connecting device for securing together the three canes.

The invention provides, in one of its aspects, a structural assembly of the kind hereinbefore defined in which a spring clip secures the three canes together, the clip being arranged to bear down against the top cane and to urge together upper portions of the side canes, so to trap the top cane between the clip and the side canes.

The clip may be formed from a single length of wire. For weather-protection, the wire may be plastics-coated.

There now follows a description, to be read with reference to the accompanying drawings, of the use of a spring clip in forming an assembly of canes which illustrates the invention by way of example.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the assembly; and Figure 2 is a side view of the assembly.

Two generally upstanding but mutually inclined side canes 10 and 12 stand with bottom end portions 14 and 16 forced into the ground, and so fixed at spaced-apart positions. Top end portions 18 and 20 of the canes are crossed (as seen in Figure 1) and so form a support for a generally horizontal top cane 22 extending generally perpendicularly to the two side canes. A spring clip 24 serves to hold the three canes together in the assembled condition, as hereinafter described.

The assembly is but one of a plurality of such assemblies in a tunnel-like framework, the top cane 22 extending longitudinally of the structure between successive crossed pairs of side canes 10 and 12.

The spring clip 24 is formed in one piece from a length of thick steel wire. The clip comprises a straight top run 26 and straight dependent limbs 28 and 30 which extend down perpendicularly from opposite ends of the top run 26. The top run and limbs together form a bridging piece of the clip. From the bottom ends of the limbs 28 and 30, free end portions of the wire length are each turned inwards and upwards into a vee shape to form hook-form bearers 32 and 34 interconnected by the bridging piece; in a relaxed condition of the clip, the bearers 32 and 34, the limbs 28 and 30 and the top run 26 all lie in a common plane.

Applied to the assembly of the side canes 10 and 12 and the top cane 22, the bridging piece of the spring clip straddles the assembly with the top run 26 of the clip extending at an acute angle across the top cane. The limbs 28 and 30 bear against opposite side faces of the top cane. The bearers 32 and 34 are pressed in opposite directions out of the plane of the clip to engage beneath upwardly divergent undersurfaces of the two side canes above the level at which the canes cross, as is illustrated by the drawings. The hook-form bearers partly embrace the side canes. The top end portions 18 and 20 of the side canes are so urged together by the resiliently displaced bearers of the clip, and the top cane so trapped between the side canes and held down to the side canes by the clip's top run 26.

Whilst in the clip described above and illustrated in the drawings the two limbs 28 and 30 are generally parallel and perpendicular to the top run 26 (in the relaxed condition of the clip), it can be found advantageous to have the limbs inclined towards one another. The top run may in that case be slightly raised at its mid-point, and the bearers 32 and 34 overlap one another in the relaxed condition.

Claims

1. A structural assembly of the kind hereinbefore defined in which a spring clip secures the three canes together, the clip being arranged to bear down against the top cane and to urge together upper portions of the side canes, so to trap the top cane between the clip and the side canes.

2. An assembly according to claim 1 in which the clip comprises hook-form bearers interconnected by a bridging piece of the clip, the bridging piece straddling the top cane of the assembly and the bearers engaging beneath upwardly divergent undersurfaces of the two side canes above the level at which the canes cross.

3. An assembly according to claim 2 in which the clip is formed from a single length of wire comprising a top run which extends at an acute angle across the top cane and limbs extending down from opposite ends of the top run, the top run and limbs together forming the bridging piece, and free end portions of the wire length being turned inwards and upwards from bottom ends of the limbs into vee shapes to form the bearers.

4. A spring clip suitable for use in a structural assembly according to claim 2, the clip being formec from a single length of wire and comprising a top run and limbs extending down from opposite ends of the top run to form the bridging piece, and free end portions of the wire length being turned inwards and upwards from bottom ends of the limbs into vee shapes to form the bearers.

5. A structural assembly of the kind hereinbefore defined substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. A spring clip substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.