GB2237938A

GB2237938A - Trunking

Info

Publication number: GB2237938A
Application number: GB9022161A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Graeme Ryland Frederick Dell
Original assignee: INTERIOR PROFILE Ltd
Current assignee: INTERIOR PROFILE Ltd
Priority date: 1989-10-14
Filing date: 1990-10-11
Publication date: 1991-05-15
Anticipated expiration: 2010-10-11
Also published as: GB9022161D0; GB8923187D0; GB2237938B

Abstract

Trunking comprises a base 11 and a cover 12 which together define an enclosure 13, the cover providing a front wall 14 and a forward end portion 15 of a top wall of the enclosure and the base 11 providing a rear wall 18, generally horizontal bottom wall 19 and remainder 17 of the top wall. Covers and bases of other shapes are disclosed (Figs 3, 4, and 7 to 10). Cable supports 41 may divide the enclosure into three or four parts. The recess 34 can receive a fastening screw 33 for securing the cover 12. A mounting member 52 receives the ends of the supports. Corner pieces for the trunking may be provided (Figs 11 & 11a). The trunking is made of Al or plastics. <IMAGE>

Description

Title: "Trunking" Description of Invention This invention relates to trunking.

An object of the invention is to provide a new and improved trunking.

According to one aspect of the present invention we provide a trunking comprising a base part and a cover part, which together define an enclosure, the cover part providing a front wall and a forward end portion of a top wall of the enclosure, and the base part providing at least a rear wall and the remainder of the top wall of the enclosure.

According to a second aspect of the present invention we provide a trunking comprising a base part and a cover part, which together define an enclosure, the base part having a pair of generally oppositely facing outwardly directed connecting formations which are adapted to inter-engage with a pair of generally oppositely facing inwardly directed connecting formations of the cover part.

According to a third aspect of the present invention we provide a trunking comprising a base part and a cover part, which together define an enclosure wherein the cover part has a groove extending longitudinally thereof adjacent an upper end of a front wall of the enclosure and the groove having an upper wall which is inclined to the horizontal at an angle of less than 90 and there being at least one opening in said upper wall to receive a fastener which is engaged with the base part to fasten the cover part to the base part.

The first to third aspects of the invention may be provided alone or in any desired combination.

In each aspect of the invention the enclosure may be generally rectangular, having in addition to said front and top walls a rear and bottom wall, the rear wall and at least part of the bottom wall being provided by said base part.

Further according to the first aspect of the invention the base part may have at a forward end said remainder of the top wall, a downwardly and forwardly extending flange provided with a recess in an upper surface thereof to receive an inwardly directed projection provided on said forward end portion of the top wall of the cover part.

The flange may have a fastener receiving means to receive a fastener engaged with the cover part to fasten the cover part to the base part.

The base part may have a bottom wall part having at a forward end thereof an upwardly and forwardly extending further flange having a recess in a lower surface thereof to receive an inwardly directed projection provided on the cover part.

The top wall and/or the bottom wall may be generally horizontal.

The fastener receiving means may comprise a threaded aperture provided at the free end of the flange and having a longitudinal axis which extends generally in the same direction as the direction in which the flange extends from said top wall part.

Further according to the third aspect of the invention the groove may be of generally V-shape.

The V-shaped groove may have an included angle of substantially 900 so that the upper wall of the groove is inclined to the horizontal at an angle of substantially 0 45 In each aspect of the invention the trunking may further comprise a mounting member and a support member which support member in use, extends between formations provided on the base part and on the mounting member, to space apart the base part and the mounting member.

The support member may define an internal partition in the enclosure.

The mounting member may locate with further recesses provided in the flange and in the further flange of the base part.

Preferably the further recesses are provided in the lower surface of the flange and in the upper surface of the further flange.

The formations provided on the mounting member may include a recessed portion in which is receivable a tooth-like projection provided by the support member thus to mutually engage said support member and said mounting member.

In each aspect of the invention the trunking may further include a corner part having a vertical rear wall which, in use, lies adjacent to and substantially flush with a vertical rear wall of a base part, a vertical front wall which, in use, lies adjacent to and substantially flush with a cover part, and formations which permit of aligning with the corner part and connecting thereto further lengths of trunking such that such further lengths extend at an angle of less than 1800 to one another.

Examples of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: FIGURE 1 is a cross-sectional view through a trunking embodying the invention, FIGURES 2 to 4 and 8 show alternative configurations of a cover part, FIGURE 5 is a side elevation of a mounting member of an alternative embodiment of the invention, FIGURE 5A is a front elevation of the mounting member shown in Figure 5, FIGURE 5B is a view of the mounting member shown in Figure 5 taken on the line A-A in Figure 5, FIGURE 6 is a cross-sectional view of a cable support for use with a mounting member such as is shown in Figure 5, FIGURE 7 is a cross-sectional view of a forward end of a bottom wall of a base part in the alternative embodiment of the invention, FIGURE 9 is a cross-sectional view of a base part of another embodiment of the invention, FIGURE 10 is a cross-sectional view of a cover part of the other embodiment of the invention, FIGURE 11 is a side elevation of a corner part of the other embodiment of the invention, and FIGURE llA is a section on the line C-C of the corner part shown in Figure 11.

Referring now to Figure 1, a trunking 10 for electrical conductors comprises a base part 11 and a cover part 12 which together define a generally rectangular enclosure 13. The cover part 12 provides a generally vertical front wall 14 and a forward portion 15 of a generally horizontal top wall 16 the remainder 17 of which is provided by the base part 11.

The base part 11 also provides a vertical rear wall 18 and a generally horizontal bottom wall 19. The base and cover parts 11, 12 are made as extrusions in a suitable aluminium alloy although, if desired, they may be made of other metal or as a moulding in synthetic plastics material or indeed in any other suitable material or manner.

The portion 17 of the top wall 16 provided by the base part 11 has at its forward end 20 an inwardly and forwardly extending flange 21 which is provided with a recess 22 of truncated triangular cross-section in its upper surface 23. Received within the recess 22 is a projection 24 of corresponding configuration which projects inwardly at the inner end of the top wall portion 15 provided by the cover part 12.

At a forward end 25 of the bottom wall 19 of the base part 11 is provided an inwardly and forwardly directed further flange 26 which has a recess 27 provided in its downwardly facing surface 28. The recess 27 is of generally parallelogram cross-section and has received therein a projection 29 provided on a rearwardly extending flange 30 provided at the lower end of the front wall 14 of the cover part 12.

Thus, the recesses 22 and 27 provide a pair of generally oppositely facing outwardly directed connecting formations which inter-engage with a pair of generally oppositely facing inwardly directed connecting format ions provided by the projections 24 and 29 of the cover part.

The flange 21 has at its outer free end 31 a screw threaded recess 32 in which a screw 33 is received. The longitudinal axis of the screw threaded recess 31 being generally parallel to the direction in which the flange 21 extends from the portion 17 of the top surface 16.

The cover part 14 has a longitudinally extending recess 34 formed therein adjacent its upper end and the recess 34 is of V-shape in cross-section having an included angle of approximately 90 so that an upper wall 35 of the recess 34 is inclined to the horizontal at an angle of 450. An appropriate aperture is provided in the upper wall 35 to receive the shank of the screw 33 so that a countersunk head 36 of the screw can engage with the wall 35 and thus fasten the cover part 12 in position.

Because of the inclination of the upper wall 35 at an angle of about 450 it will be appreciated that from a viewpoint which is inclined to the horizontal at an angle which increases from 450 the head 36 of the screw will be progressively more obscured by a corner part 37 of the cover part 12 and hence when the trunking is positioned on a skirting the screw head 36 will be completely or substantially completely hidden by the corner portion 37 from the viewpoint of a person standing in the room at a position sufficiently close to the skirting for the screws to be otherwise significantly noticeable.

Although a countersunk headed screw is preferable other screw heads may be used although they would be accordingly less well hidden.

By providing the positions of inter-engagement between the cover and base parts as described above the configuration of the cover part adjacent the top and bottom forward corners 38, 38' can be configured as desired and Figures 2 to 4 show alternative configurations for these regions, corresponding parts being identified in Figures 2 to 4 by the same reference numerals as were used in Figure 1 but with the addition of the subscript a to c respectively.

This provides a high degree of freedom for a designer and also permits of relatively economical provision of a desired style without the need to change the base part 11 in any way.

A preferred angle of inclination of the top forward corner 38a of the cover part 12a shown in Figure 2 is 45t to the front wall 14a.

The top wall 35 of the recess is provided with a longitudinally extending localised groove shown at 35l a - c to provide a guide, transversely of the surface 35 for the position at which the aperture for the screw 33 is to be drilled.

The flange 21 is provided with a generally downwardly facing recess 50 of part circular crosssection whilst the further flange 26 is provided with an upwardly facing recess 51 of generally parallelogram configuration to receive end parts of a mounting member 52 which is thereby supported within the enclosure independently of the cover part 12. The base part 11 and the mounting member 52 are each provided with suitable formations 40 to support cable supports 41. The cable supports 41 are fixedly secured to the base part 11 by means of screws 100 which are received between the formations 40 and, if desired, surfaces of the formations which face each other may be provided with serrations to assist firm location of the screws 100 in the formations 40. Such serrations are shown with the numeral 600 in Figures 8 to 10.

The member 52 may be made in any suitable material such as an aluminium extrusion or an extrusion in any other suitable metal or a moulding in synthetic plastics material or indeed in any other suitable way.

In Figures 5 to 7 parts of an alternative embodiment of the invention are shown.

The base part for this alternative embodiment is analogous to the base part 11 shown in Figure 1 except inasmuch as the forward end of the bottom wall of the base part is modified as shown in Figure 7. The forward end 25 retains the further flange 26 having the generally parallelogram cross-section recess 27 provided in its downwardly facing surface 28 but the upwardly facing surfacing surface lacks a recess 51 having three sides in cross-section such as is shown in Figure 1 and instead includes a recess 151 which in cross-section has two sides.

A mounting member 114 for engagement with such a base part is shown in Figures 5, 5A, and 5B.

The mounting member 114 provides modified upper 200 and lower 201 extremities which are not directly receivable in or supported by any part of the base 11, and formations 140 which are each contoured to include a recess 102 which is generally triangular in crosssection.

A cable support 141 for use in spacing apart the base part 11 and the mounting members 114 is shown in Figure 6 and includes a tooth-like projection 104 which is engagable with the triangular cross-section recess 102 to mutually engage the mounting member 114 and the cable support 141.

It will be understood that other complimentary shapes of projection and of recess could be provided if desired.

A mounting member 114 can, by means of the cable supports 141, be connected with the base part 11 anywhere along the length thereof.

The mounting member 114 is supported entirely by the cable supports 141 which are supported on the base 11 by screws in an analogous fashion to the way in which the cable supports 141 shown in Figure 1 are supported.

The mounting member provides at upper 200 and lower 201 extremities, and at longitudinally extending side extremities 114a, tapered portions which may be used where desirable to assist in freeing a projection such as the projection 24 of a cover part 12 from location in complimentary recess 22 in a base part 11.

In Figures 9 and 10 are shown a base part and a cover part for use together in another embodiment of the invention.

This other embodiment is, by provision of formation projections 240, suitable for dividing, by cable supports analogous to cable supports 41 or 141, an enclosure defined by the trunking into a maximum of three internal compartments as opposed to four such compartments in the embodiments of Figures 1 to 8. The other embodiment is thus suitable for manufacture in a smaller dimension than the embodiments described above with the advantage that it is compact.

A cover part 212 is, in use, spaced apart from and connected with the base part 211 by, in addition to cable supports (not shown), a mounting member or members which are analogous to those described above in relation to the other embodiments of the invention.

Referring to Figures 11 and llA a corner part 500 for trunking according to the invention is shown. The corner part can be dimensioned for use with any of the embodiments of the invention described above.

It permits of readily laying the trunking around a corner of a building or a room therein.

It includes a vertical rear wall 518 which, in use, lies adjacent to and substantially flush with a vertical rear wall 18 of a base part (not shown) and a vertical front wall 512 which, in use, lies adjacent to, and substantially flush with a cover part (not shown).

It further includes alignment tabs 550 for alignment of the corner part 500 with an adjacent base part (not shown) on either side of the corner part 500.

The alignment tabs 500, in use, abut a rear wall, 18, a bottom wall 19 and a top wall 16 of an adjacent base part (not shown).

Other alignment tabs 551 are provided to abut a cover part (not shown).

The corner part 500 permits of aligning therewith and connecting thereto further lengths of trunking such that the further lengths of trunking extend at an angle of approximately 900 to one another.

It will be appreciated that, if desired, a corner part could be provided to which further lengths of trunking could be connected so as to extend at an angle to one another other than 900 or 1800.

Formations 101 are provided on the base part 11 and cover part 12 for the reception of a screw, bolt or the like by which an earth lead may be securely fastened thereto These formations 101 may, if desired, possess serrations 600 to assist firm location of the screw, and bolt or the like therein.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, or a class or group of substances or compositions, as appropriate, may, separately or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A trunking comprising a base part and a cover part, which together define an enclosure, the cover part providing a front wall and a forward end portion of a top wall of the enclosure, and the base part providing at least a rear wall and the remainder of the top wall of the enclosure.
2. A trunking comprising a base part and a cover part, which together define an enclosure, the base part having a pair of generally oppositely facing outwardly directed connecting formations which are adapted to inter-engage with a pair of generally oppositely facing inwardly directed connecting formations of the cover part.
3. A trunking comprising a base part and cover part, which together define an enclosure wherein the cover part has a groove extending longitudinally thereof adjacent an upper end of a front wall of the enclosure, the groove having an upper wall which is inclined to the horizonal at an angle of less than 900 and there being at least one opening in said upper wall to receive a fastener which is engaged with the base part to fasten the cover part to the base part.
4. A trunking according to any one of Claims 1, 2 or 3 having the features of the trunking according to at least one of the others of Claims 1, 2 or 3.
5. A trunking according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 or Claim 3 when incorporating the features of the trunking according to Claim 1 in which the enclosure is generally rectangular, having in addition to said front and top walls a rear and bottom wall, the rear wall and at least part of the bottom wall being provided by said base part.
6. A trunking according to Claim 1 or Claim 5 in which the base part has at a forward end of said remainder of the top wall, a downwardly and forwardly extending flange provided with a recess in an upper surface thereof to receive an inwardly directed projection provided on said forward end portion of the top wall of the cover part.
7. A trunking according to Claim 6 in which the flange has a fastener receiving means to receive a fastener engaged with the cover part to fasten the cover part to the base part.
8. A trunking according to any one of Claims 1 or 5 to 7 in which the base part has a bottom wall part having at forward end thereof an upwardly and forwardly extending further flange having a recess in a lower surface thereof to receive an inwardly directed projection provided on the cover part.
9. A trunking according to any one of Claims 1 or 5 to 8 in which the top wall and/or the bottom wall are generally horizontal.
10. A trunking according to Claim 7 or Claims 8 or 9 when appendant to Claim 7 in which the fastener receiving means comprises a threaded aperture provided at the free end of the flange and having a longitudinal axis which extends generally in the same direction as the direction in which the flange extends from said top wall part.
11. A trunking according to any one of Claims 3 or Claims 5 to 10 when appendant to Claim 3 in which the groove is of generally V-shape.
12. A trunking according to Claim 11 in which the Vshaped groove may have an included angle at substantially 900 so that the upper wall of the groove is inclined to the horizontal at an angle of substantially 450.
13. A trunking according to any one of the preceding claims which further comprises a mounting member and a support member which support member, in use, extends between formations provided on the base part and on the mounting member to space apart at the base part and the mounting member.
14. A trunking according to Claim 13 in which the support member defines an internal partition in the enclosure.
15. A trunking according to Claim 13 or Claim 14 when appendant to Claims 6 and 8 in which the mounting member locates with further recesses provided in the flange and in the further flange of the base part.
16. A trunking according to Claim 16 in which the further recesses are provided in the lower surface of the flange and in the upper surface of the further flange.
17. A trunking according to Claim 13 or Claim 14 in which the formations provided on the mounting member include a recessed portion in which is receivable a tooth-like projection provided on the support member thus to mutually engage said support member and said mounting member.
18. A trunking according to any one of the preceding claims which includes a corner part having a vertical rear wall which, in use, lies adjacent to and substantially flush with a vertical rear wall of the base part, a vertical front wall which1 in use, lies adjacent to and substantially flush with a cover part, and formations which permit of aligning therewith and connecting thereto further lengths of trunking such that further lengths of trunking extend at an angle of less than 1800 of one another.
19. A trunking substantially as described hereinbefore and with reference to the accompanying drawings.
20. Any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein.