GB2260591A

GB2260591A - Fixing arrangements

Info

Publication number: GB2260591A
Application number: GB9121804A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kenneth Francis Hawkins
Original assignee: HEMPSTED GROUP HOLDINGS Ltd
Current assignee: HEMPSTED GROUP HOLDINGS Ltd
Priority date: 1991-10-15
Filing date: 1991-10-15
Publication date: 1993-04-21
Also published as: GB9121804D0

Abstract

A fixing arrangement for fixing a first object eg. downpipe 10 to a second object eg. wall 12, comprises a connecting member eg. screw 20 extending from one of the objects and a key-hole slot 24 in the other object, the fixing arrangement further comprising resilient means eg. pad 18 for urging a head portion 36 of the connecting member 20 into engagement with the narrow portion of slot 24, and loping means operable either by angular movement of one object eg. pipe 10 relative to the other Fig 1, or by angular movement of a part 16 disposed between the two objects (Fig 2, 4 not shown), when (a) stem portion 30 of the connecting member 20 is disposed in the narrow slot portion, to retain the stem portion 30 of the connecting member 20 in said narrow slot portion. The latter may comprise a semi-circular extension (54, Fig 4 not shown). A C-shaped tool comprising a spanner and screwdriver (Fig 6, not shown) may be provided. <IMAGE>

Description

Fixing Arranqements The invention relates to fixing arrangements, and particularly, although by no means exclusively, to .arra.ngements for connecting downpipes of rainwater guttering systems to buildings.

According to the invention there is provided a fixing arrangement for fixing a first object to a second object, comprising a connecting member extending from one of the objects and a slot in the other object, the connecting member having a stem portion and an enlarged head portion and the slot having a wide slot portion through which the head portion of the connecting member can pass and a narrow slot portion connecting with the wide slot portion and having a width less than the width of the head portion, the fixing arrangement further comprising locking means operable by angular movement of one of the objects relative to the other, or by angular movement of a part disposed between the two objects, when the stem portion of the connecting member is disposed in the narrow slot portion, to retain the stem portion of the connecting member in said narrow slot portion.

Preferably, the fixing arrangement further comrprises resilient means for urging the head portion into frictional engagement with the inner marginal edge of the narrow slot portion when the stem portion of the connecting member is disposed in the narrow slot portion.

Advantageously, the locking means comprises a locking element which is offset from the connecting member, and a further slot co-operable with the locking element, at least part of the further slot being of arcuate form.

In this case, the locking element may have a stem portion and an enlarged head portion, and the further slot may have a wide slot portion through which the head portion of the locking element can pass as the head portion of the connecting member passes through the wide slot portion of the first-mentioned slot and a narrow slot portion having a width less than the width of the head portion of the locking element, and at least a portion of the narrow slot portion may be of arcuate form.

Preferably, the locking means is operable by angular movement of one of the objects relative to the other about the connecting member, the locking element extends from one of the objects, and the further slot is formed in the other object.

Alternatively, the locking means includes a part disposed between the first and second objects and is operable by angular movement of the part relative to the first and second objects about the connecting member, the locking element extends from one of said other object and the angularly movable part and the further slot is in the other of said other object and the angularly movable part.

The further slot may have a first part which extends radially with respect to the axis of operation of the locking means and a second part which extends about an arc of a circle centered on the axis of operation of the locking means.

In this case, the length of the first part of the further slot may be equal or substantially equal to the length of the first mentioned slot, and the second part of the further slot may extend around substantially 180 .

Conveniently, the resilient means is in the form of a resilient pad adapted to be positioned between the two objects.

Such a resilient pad may be formed with at least one slot or groove corresponding to the path of movement of the locking element during operation of the arrangement to connect the first object to the second object.

The connecting member may be releasably fixed to said one object.

The first or second object may be a downpipe of a rainwater guttering system.

The invention also provides a fixing arrangement in combination with a tool having a handle portion, the handle portion having a screwdriver head formed integrally at one end thereof.

The tool may further comprise a wrench grip.

The invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a sectional view through a downpipe of a rainwater guttering system, which is fixed to a wall by means of a screw, a locking disc and a resilient pad; Figure 2 is a sectional view through a different part of the downpipe of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view of the downpipe of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a plan view of the locking disc of Figure 1; and Figure 5 is a plan view of the resilient pad of Figure 1.

Figure 1 shows a downpipe 10 connected to a wall 12 of a building by means of a locking disc 16, a resilient pad 18 and a screw 20. The downpipe 10 is formed, on one of its sides, with a box portion 22 which may be integrally formed with the rest of the downpipe 10, or may be connected to it by welds 23. The box portion 22 is formed with a keyhole-shaped slot 24, as is best shown in Figure 3, which is a side view of the side portion 26 of the box portion 22. The keyhole slot 24 comprises a large portion 25 and a narrow portion 27 which connects with the large portion 25. The end of the narrow portion 27 furthest away from the large portion 25 is located substantially at the centre of the side portion 26, although this is not essential for the operation of the arrangement.

Returning to Figure 1, the screw 20 is fixed to the wall 12 by means of a plastic plug 28 or the like, and the shaft 30 of the screw 20 passes through central holes 32 and 34 in the locking disc 16 and the resilient pad 18 respectively in order to support the disc 16 and pad 18 on the wall 12. The pad 18 is discshaped, and has the same diameter as the locking disc 16 so that it sits neatly beneath the locking disc 16 when attached to the wall 12. The holes 32 and 34 in the locking disc 16 and resilient pad 18 are too small to allow the head 36 of the screw 20 to pass through them, although the hole 34 in the pad 18 need not be smaller than the head 36.

Figures 2 and 3 show a headed stud 40 attached to the side wall 26 of the box portion 22. The stud 40 is formed with a head portion 42 and a stem portion 44, and is connected to the side wall 26 by means of a threaded portion 46 of the stud which engages within a weld nut 48 attached to the inside of the box portion 22. Alternatively, the stud 40 may be attached to the side walls 26 by means of riveting, or the weld nut may be replaced by a threaded member formed integrally with the side wall 26. The diameters of the stem and head portions of the stud 40 are typically about 6.5mm and 9.5mm respectively. The headed stud 40 passes through a slot 50 formed in the locking disc 16, and also passes into a slot 52 formed in the resilient pad 18, as will be described below.

Referring to Figure 4, the slot 50 formed in the locking disc 16 comprises a narrow slot portion 54 which connects with a wider slot portion 56 formed at one end of the narrow slot portion 54. The narrow portion 54 comprises an arcuate narrow portion 57 which lies along an arc of a circle centred generally upon the hole 32 formed in the disc 16, and a further narrow portion 58 which connects the wider slot portion 56 with one end of the arcuate narrow portion 57. The arcuate narrow portion 57 extends around approximately 180 of the disc 16. The head 42 of the stud 40 is small enough to pass through the wide portion 56, but not the narrow portion 54, of the slot 50. However, the narrow portion 54 is wide enough to allow the stem 44 of the stud 40 to be slid along its length.

Referring to Figure 5, the resilient pad 18 is formed with a slot 52 extending radially away from the hole 34, but not connecting with the hole 34. The width of the slot 52 is slightly greater than the diameter of the head 42 of the stud 40, and the length A of the slot 52 corresponds approximately with the length A of the keyhole 24 formed in the side wall 26. These lengths A are also approximately equal to the length A shown in Figure 4, corresponding to the combined length of the wider slot portion 56 and the further narrow slot portion 58 of the slot 50.

In order to attach the bracket 14 to the wall 12, the locking disc 16 and resilient pad 18 are first attached to the wall 12 by means of the screw 20, as shown in figure 1. Next, the large portion 25 of the keyhole slot 24 is passed over the head 36 of the screw 20, and the box portion 22 is moved downwards so that the shaft 30 of the screw 20 moves along the narrow portion 27 of the keyhole slot 24. In order to achieve this, the sidewall 26 of the box portion 22 must be pressed against the locking disc 16 so as to compress the resilient pad 18 between the disc 16 and the wall 12. Once the shaft 30 of the screw 20 has been moved along the length of the narrow portion 27 of the keyhole 24, the box portion 22 is released and moves away from the wall 12 under the action of the compressed resilient pad 18.It will be appreciated that, because the resilient pad 18 is under compression, the head 36 of the screw 20 is maintained in good frictional contact with the inner marginal edge of the narrow portion 27 of the keyhole 24. This ensures that the bracket 14 is firmly held by the head 36 of the screw 20. The length of the narrow portion 27 of the keyhole 24 typically enables the bracket 14 to be slid downwards by about 9.5mm after the large portion 25 of the keyhole has been passed over the screw head 36.

The locking disc 16 is positioned so that, at the same time as the keyhole 24 is passed over the head 36 of the screw 20, the head 42 of the headed stud 40 passes through the wide portion 56 of the slot 50 formed in the locking disc 16. As the shaft 30 of the screw 20 passes along the narrow portion 27 of the keyhole 24, the stem 44 of the headed stud 40 simultaneously passes along the narrow portion 58 of the slot 50 formed in the locking disc 16. At the same time, the head 42 of the stud 40 passes along the slot 52 formed in the resilient pad 18.

Next, the locking disc 16 is rotated so that the stem 44 of the stud 40 passes along the arcuate narrow portion 54 of the slot 50 until it comes to rest at the end 60 of the arcuate narrow portion 54. It will be appreciated that, in order for the arrangement to operate correctly, the radius R of the arcuate narrow portion 57 should correspond with the distance between the headed stud 40 and the narrow portion 27 of the keyhole 24, which distance is also indicated by R in Figure 3.

Once the stem 44 of the stud 40 has come to rest at the end 60 of the arcuate narrow portion 54, the shaft portion 30 of the screw 20 is prevented from moving back along the narrow portion 27 to the large portion 25 of the keyhole 24, and the bracket 14 is therefore securely attached to the wall 12.

Furthermore, the force exerted on the locking disc 16 by the compressed resilient pad 18 ensures that the locking disc is in good frictional contact with the resilient pad 18 and the side wall 26. The locking disc 16 cannot, therefore, be rotated manually without the assistance of a special locking tool such as, for example a C-spanner.

A suitable C-spanner is shown in Figure 6.

The C-spanner is formed with a protrusion 62 which is of complementary shape to a recess 64 formed in the edge of the locking disc 16. The protrusion is formed on an arcuate portion 66 which is positioned around the locking disc 16, with the protrusion 62 engaged within the recess 64, in order to rotate the disc 16. In this way, the disc 16 can be firmly locked in position so as to make the downpipe 10 difficult to remove from the wall 12 by vandals or thieves.

The handle 68 of the C-spanner is integrally formed with a screwdriver head 70 at one of its ends for tightening the screw 20, and with a wrench grip 72 at its other end for tightening the headed stud 40 within the weld nut 48.

Once the downpipe 10 is attached to the wall 12 as described above, the side of the downpipe 10 nearest to the wall 12 lies at a distance of about 25mm from the wall 12, thus providing a neat and attractive guttering system for a building.

The downpipe 10 and bracket 14 may be of any suitable material such as, for example, plastics or aluminium.

In a non-illustrated variant of the above embodiment, the arcuate slot 50 is formed in the side wall 26 of the box portion 22, and the stud 40 is formed on the locking disc 16. It will be appreciated that such an arrangement may be operated in exactly the same way as the embodiment described above.

Furthermore, it is not essential to the operation of the fixing arrangement that the stud 40 should be headed. A primary pupose of the stud 40 is to prevent relative movement between the screw 30 and the keyhole 24, and this could still be achieved without the head 42 of the stud 40. It follows that, in this case, the slot 50 would not be required to be formed with the wide portion 56.

It is possible to conceive of many further embodiments of the invention. For example, a first object having a first headed connecting member and an arcuate slot similar to the slot 50 could be fixed directly to a second object having a second headed connecting member and a keyhole slot. In this case, the two objects would be connected together by simultaneously passing the heads of the first and second connecting members through the wide portions of the keyhole slot and the arcuate slot respectively, and then effecting relative movement of the two objects so as to cause the stem portions of the two connecting members to move along the narrow portions of the two slots. The two objects would be locked together by means of relative rotation of the objects so as to cause the stem portion of the second connecting member to move along the arcuate portion of the first slot, thus ensuring that the first connecting member is prevented from moving towards the wide portion of the keyhole slot and becoming separated from the keyhole slot.

In a variant of this embodiment, both of the slots are formed in the first object, and both of the headed connecting members are formed in the second object. The two slots receive the two connecting members in order to fix the two objects together, and the arcuate slot is generally centered upon the keyhole slot.

Claims

1. A fixing arrangement for fixing a first object to a second object, comprising a connecting member extending from one of the objects and a slot in the other object, the connecting member having a stem portion and an enlarged head portion and the slot having a wide slot portion through which the head portion of the connecting member can pass and a narrow slot portion connecting with the wide slot portion and having a width less than the width of the head portion, the fixing arrangement further comprising locking means operable by angular movement of one of the objects relative to the other, or by angular movement of a part disposed between the two objects, when the stem portion of the connecting member is disposed in the narrow slot portion, to retain the stem portion of the connecting member in said narrow slot portion.

2. A fixing arrangement as claimed in claim 1, further comprising resilient means for urging the head portion into frictional engagement with the inner marginal edge of the narrow slot portion when the stem portion of the connecting member is disposed in the narrow slot portion.

3. A fixing arrangement as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the locking means comprises a locking element which is offset from the connecting member, and a further slot co-operable with the locking element, at least part of the further slot being of arcuate form.

4. A fixing arrangement as claimed in Claim 3, wherein the locking element has a stem portion and an enlarged head portion, and the further slot has a wide slot portion through which the head portion of the locking element can pass as the head portion of the connecting member passes through the wide slot portion of the first-mentioned slot and a narrow slot portion having a width less than the width of the head portion of the locking element, at least a portion of the narrow slot portion being of arcuate form.

5. A fixing arrangement as claimed in claim 3 or 4, wherein the locking means is operable by angular movement of one of the objects relative to the other about the connecting member and wherein the locking element extends from one of the objects and the further slot is formed in the other object.

6. A fixing arrangement as claimed in claim 3 or 4, wherein the locking means includes a part disposed between the first and second objects and is operable by angular movement of the part relative to the first and second objects about the connecting member, and wherein the locking element extends from one of said other object and the angularly movable part and the further slot is in the other of said other object and the angularly movable part.

7. A fixing arrangement as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 6, wherein the further slot has a first part which extends radially with respect to the axis of operation of the locking means and a second part which extends about an arc of a circle centered on the axis of operation of the locking means.

8. A fixing arrangement as claimed in claim 7, wherein the length of the first part of the further slot is equal or substantially equal to the length of the first mentioned slot.

9. A fixing arrangement as claimed in claim 7 or claim 8, wherein the second part of the further slot extends around substantially 180 .

10. A fixing arrangement as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the resilient means is in the form of a resilient pad adapted to be positioned between the two objects.

11. A fixing arrangement as claimed in Claim 10, wherein the resilient pad is formed with at least one slot or groove corresponding to the path of movement of the locking element during operation of the arrangement to connect the first object to the second object.

12. A fixing arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the connecting member is releasably fixed to said one object.

13. A fixing arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the first or second object is a downpipe of a rainwater guttering system.

14. A fixing arrangement as claimed in claim 6 or any one of claims 7 to 13 when dependent on claim 6, in combination with a tool having a handle portion, the handle portion having a screwdriver head formed integrally at one end thereof.

15. The combination of Claim 14, wherein the tool further comprises a wrench grip.

16. A fixing arrangement substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.