GB2273275A

GB2273275A - Rail installation for the roof of a building.

Info

Publication number: GB2273275A
Application number: GB9400817A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rainer Hoffmann; Alfred Kupka
Original assignee: Mannesmann AG
Current assignee: Vodafone GmbH
Priority date: 1993-10-20
Filing date: 1994-01-18
Publication date: 1994-06-15
Anticipated expiration: 2014-01-18
Also published as: FR2697562A1; GB9400817D0; FR2697562B1; DE9316317U1; GB2273275B

Abstract

Support feet (3) are arranged in spaced pairs across the roof (23) of the building. A sleeper (2) is connected between each pair of support feet (3). The rails (1) are secured to top plates (5) carried by the support feet (3) which are vertically adjustable in height. The installation gives access to the facade of the building and offers simplified production and assembly.

Description

RAIL INSTALLATION FOR FACADE-TRAVELLING MEANS The invention relates to a rail installation for facade-travelling means.

One known rail installation is described in German Patent No. DE 30 31 783. Two mutually opposite rails, which generally have a double-T or I section, rest on sleepers having a U-shaped section and are bolted to these by way of clamping pieces. The ends of each sleeper are placed on a pair of support feet the height of which is adjustable by way of screw threads. The support feet are merely superimposed loosely on the roof covering in order not to damage the roof covering. To accommodate temperature expansion of the rails which comprise individual sections without displacement of the support feet, one end of each rail section has a fixed bearing and the other a loose bearing. The loose bearing is constructionally realised in that the clamping pieces are not bolted directly to the sleeper, but rather are connected rigidly to one arm of an L-section.The other arm is fastened such as to be slidingly movable in the rail longitudinal direction, to one arm of the U-shaped sleeper.

This known system is fully satisfactory in its technical functionality. However, the necessary production expenditure is considerable. The reason for this is due in particular to the fact that, by virtue of the curve geometries within a rail installation, as a rule sleepers of different lengths are needed. The result of this is inevitably also that the bores for fastening the clamping pieces have each to be positioned at different intervals.

Added to this is the fact that as a rule special products produced in a relatively costly manner (e.g. from cast aluminium) are used as the adjustable support feet.

It is an object of the invention therefore, to provide an improved rail installation, the production and assembly of which are simplified and, thereby, the construction expenditure as a whole is clearly reduced.

A rail installation for facade-travelling means on a building in accordance with the invention comprises rails, a plurality of support feet positioned in spaced pairs across the roof of the building and each having a top plate to which a rail is secured and a sleeper connected between each pair of support feet.

In contrast to the known rail installation, the individual rail sections are not placed onto the sleepers and connected to these, but rather the rails are placed onto a top plate, which is connected securely, suitably by bolting, to a support foot, preferably to a vertically adjustable portion thereof. In order to ensure the desired spacing of the rails from one another, in each case a pair of mutually opposite support feet are connected securely to a sleeper either at the fixed portion or, preferably, at the vertically adjustable portion of each support foot.

The sleeper no longer has to provide a bearing surface for the rail sections as a result of which any desired sections can be used as sleepers. In particular hollow sections such as tubes having a circular cross-section are a possibility. Such tubes are not only obtainable particularly cheaply, but in terms of weight offer an optimum moment of resistance for the absorption of the bending loads that are to be expected. The vertical forces caused by the inherent weight of the roof-travelling trolley of a facade-travelling means are no longer absorbed by way of the sleepers, but rather directly by way of the support feet and diverted into the roof covering.

The invention will now be further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a view of a rail installation in accordance with the invention in a direction transverse to that of the rails; Figure 2 is a view of the rail installation of Figure 1 in the rail direction; Figures 3 and 4 illustrate variants of the rail installation in accordance with Figure 1; and Figures 5 and 6 are top views of the rail installation of Figures 1 and 2 respectively with an external building corner (normal curve) and an internal building corner (counter-curve).

In the rail installation of Figures 1 and 2 the rails, which are as a rule double-T-shaped or I-shaped in crosssection, do not rest on a sleeper 2, but rather directly on top plates 5, which are connected securely to the vertically adjustable portion 4 of a support foot 3.

Alternatively the plates 5 can be the fixed component of the support feet 3.

Preferably, the vertically adjustable part 4 is designed as a tube having a circular cross-section. The stationary or fixed part of the support feet 3 is formed by a base plate 11 and a threaded spindle 12 which as a rule stands perpendicular to it and which is provided with a spindle nut 13 equipped with actuation arms. The free part of the threaded spindle 12 projects into the tubular part 4, the inside diameter of which is only slightly larger than the outside diameter of the threaded spindle 12, so that the part 4 rests securely on the spindle nut 13. By rotating the spindle nut 13, the vertical position of the top plate 5 can be infinitely adjusted to any desired setting within the range limited by the spindle length and the length of the part 4.The vertical position thus set can be secured against unintentional displacement by way of an adjusting screw 22 on the spindle nut 13, in a simple manner. It is advantageous to use, for the unit consisting of the plate 11, threaded spindle 12 and spindle nut 13, commercially available scaffold support feet as used in scaffolding erection, since these are cheaply available as mass-produced parts.

The support feet 3 are placed loosely onto the roof covering 23. In order not to damage the latter it is expedient to provide the base plates 11 with an elastic overlay 14. It can furthermore be advantageous to design the connection between the base plate 11 and the threaded spindle 12 not in a rigid manner, but rather as a joint (not shown) with the axis of rotation parallel to the base plate 11, so that even with an uneven roof covering 23, vertical alignment of the longitudinal axis of the support foot 3 is possible.

As will be apparent in particular for Figure 2, in each case a mutually opposed pair of support feet 3 are held at a fixed spacing from one another by a sleeper 2.

The sleeper 2 is advantageously designed as a tube having a circular section. The sleeper 2 is preferably connected to the vertically adjustable part 4 of each support foot 3.

The connection is advantageously in the form of a clamping connection by means of a coupling element 10, of the type which is likewise known per se from scaffolding erection and is obtainable very cheaply as a mass-produced part.

The coupling element 10 consists of several halfshell-shaped component parts which are adapted to the contour of the vertically adjustable part 4 of the support foot 3 and the sleeper 2 and which are held together by way of swivel joints 6, 7 and can be clamped, by tightening anchor screws 8, 9, securely to the parts that are to be connected. In Figure 2 this coupling element 10 is merely indicated schematically. However, this representation illustrates a considerable advantage of the arrangement, which is that the length of the tubes that are to be used as sleepers 2 does not have to be exactly adhered to and no holes of any kind have to be drilled at specific spacings into the sleepers 2. The tube for each sleeper 2 only has to correspond at least to the necessary rail spacing, but may readily also be somewhat larger, since the longitudinal axes of the supporting foot 3 and sleeper 2 do not intersect, but run past, and are spaced from, one another.

The desired rail spacing can be adjusted in a problem-free manner on the construction site. A lateral projection of individual sleepers can, when required, advantageously be used for connecting a guard-rail 19. As is indicated in broken lines in Figure 2 this can be achieved, for example, by means of 90" tube bends to that part 2a of the sleeper 2 which extends beyond the actual rail bed, so that no direct fastening to the roof of the building is necessary.

Clearly the vertical adjustment of the support feet 3 can also be realised in other ways. For example, the construction in accordance with Figure 1 could also be reversed i.e. with spindle 12 at the top and tube 4 at the bottom or the part 4 could directly itself be provided with a thread for the spindle 12.

The connection between the support foot 3 and the sleeper 2 can also be executed differently. Figure 3 shows a variant in which the tubular sleeper 2 is mounted in a fitting-like reception piece or collar 20 with a horizontally aligned longitudinal axis, which is connected securely to the vertically adjustable part 4. This fitting-like reception piece 20 could also be formed as a tubular T-piece and be fixed by way of clamping screws on the vertically adjustable part 4. Of course, also a welded connection could be provided.

In the embodiment shown the reception piece 20 consists of two half-shells, which are held together by a clamping element 21, for example a screw connection, and fixed to the part 4. As a result of the clamping element 21 the sleeper 2 is also braced securely with the reception piece 20. A further, though less preferred variant is shown in Figure 4. In this, in contrast to the embodiments of Figure 2 or Figure 3, the sleeper 2 is welded directly to the vertically adjustable part 4.

The fastening of the individual partial length sections used for the rails 1 to the top plate 5 can be effected directly, i.e. without using special clamping pieces. For this, simple bolts 15 with nuts 17 and appropriate washers can be used, as is shown in the righthand half of Figure 1 for the partial length section la.

As a result of the bolted connection 15, 17 the partial length rail section la is connected in the sense of a fixed bearing rigidly to the support foot 3. In order to be able to absorb thermal expansions of the rails 1, the directly adjoining partial length rail section lb is fastened in the sense of a loose bearing on the top plate 5 of the same support foot 3 whilst leaving an adequate expansion joint in the region of the centre of the support foot 3. A bolted connection 15, 17 is used but, in contrast to that of right-hand half of the Figure, this fastening is not rigid, but designed so as to be slidingly movable.For this purpose, a slotted hole 16 which extends in the rail longitudinal direction is provided in the top plate 5 and the bolt 15 is provided with a distance bush 18, the height of which is slightly greater than the thickness of the top plate 5 and the outside diameter of which is slightly smaller than the width of the slotted hole 16. In accordance with the respective thermal expansion, the partial length rail section lb can then be displaced on the top plate 5 relative to the section la without danger of an undesired displacement of the supporting foot 3 on the roof covering 23.

The advantages of the rail installation include more especially that inexpensive mass-produced parts from scaffolding construction can be used and that the mechanical processing of the sleepers is essentially done away with as are the requirements as to special accuracy of length (at least in the case of the embodiments in accordance with Figure 2 or 3). Sleepers of the same length can even be utilised for the setting of different rail spacings.

Different rail spacings occur within a rail installation, as is shown in Figures 5 and 6 which in each case is a top view of a curve. On this score account has to be taken of the fact that rail-tied roof-travelling trolleys of facade-travelling means, for the most part, travel on three wheels, two of which travel on the rail facing the building facade 24 and the third of which travels on the rail furthest remote from the facade 24.

Whereas in parallel rail sections the rail spacing corresponds exactly to the gauge 5 of the roof-travelling trolley (i.e. the height on the basis of the isosceles triangle formed by the wheels), in curved regions, on account of the necessary tightness of the curves, the track spacing varies such that the base of the triangle, in the sense of a chord, always lies on the curve of one rail 1 and the triangle apex on the other rail 1. Depending on the type of curve, the sleepers 2' or 2" in the curve region have to be longer or shorter than the sleepers 2 in the region of the parallel rail sections. The radii of curvature Ra and Ri of the curves therefore do not emanate from the same central point.

Figure 5 shows a normal curve i. e. a curve in the case of which the building facade 24 lies on the outer side of the curve. In this case the installation length of the sleepers 2' has to be somewhat longer than that of the sleepers 2. If necessary this could be achieved with tubes of identical length which corresponds to the minimum length of the sleepers 2', since the effective installation length of each sleeper 2 can be freely set on the erection site.

The case of a curve on an internal corner of the building facade 24 is shown in Figure 6. Since, in this case, the two wheels running on a common rail 1 lie on the inside of the curve, the effective installation length of the sleepers 2" in the curve region has to be set somewhat shorter than that of the normal sleepers 2.

In the rail installations of Figures 5 and 6 the support feet 3 are not placed directly onto the roof covering, but instead, to reduce the surface pressure, rest on loose plates 25 which consist, for example, of concrete.

Claims

1. A rail installation for facade-travelling means on a building comprising rails, a plurality of support feet positioned in spaced pairs across the roof of the building and each having a top plate to which a rail is secured and a sleeper connected between each pair of support feet.

2. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the height of the support feet is vertically adjustable, the support feet each including a fixed portion and a vertically adjustable portion.

3. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 2, wherein each sleeper is connected to the vertically adjustable portion of the associated support foot.

4. A rail installation as claimed in either Claim 2 or Claim 3, wherein the fixed portion of each support foot comprises a scaffolding support having a base plate, a threaded spindle on the base plate with a spindle nut on which the vertically adjustable portion of the supporting foot rests.

5. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 4, wherein the threaded spindle is connected to the base plate by way of a swivel joint, the axis of rotation of which is arranged parallel to the base plate.

6. A rail installation as claimed in either Claim 4 or Claim 5, wherein the base plate of the support foot is provided with an elastic overlay.

7. A rail installation as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the rails are formed in sections and wherein directly contiguous rail sections are connected to one another by way of a common support foot with one section being rigidly secured to the top plate by a fixed bearing and the other being movably secured to the top plate by an adjustable bearing.

8. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 7, wherein the adjustable bearing comprises a slot in the top plate extending in the longitudinal direction of the rail and a screw passing through the slot having a superimposed distance bush, the height of which is slightly greater than the thickness of the top plate and the outside diameter of which is slightly smaller than the width of the slot such that the screw is slidable in the slot, the screw being clamped securely to the rail section by way of a nut with a washer straddling the wide sides of the slot.

9. A rail installation as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein each sleeper is formed from a hollow section.

10. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 9, wherein each sleeper is a tube of circular cross-section.

11. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 10, wherein the portion of the support foot which is connected securely to the top plate is a tube having circular crosssection.

12. A rail installation as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the connections between the supporting feet and the sleepers comprise clamping connections.

13. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 12 when dependent on Claim 11, wherein each clamping connection comprises a scaffolding coupling element having joints and anchor screws, which element is placed around the parts to be connected and is clamped securely thereto by means of the anchor screws.

14. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 13, wherein at least part of the sleepers extends being the rail bed on that side of the rail bed which faces the building facade for the reception of a guard-rail.

15. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 12, wherein each clamping connection comprises a fitting-like reception piece on the support foot which is horizontally aligned in use and into which a section of a sleeper can be introduced and be securely clamped.

16. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 15, wherein the reception piece comprises a tubular T-piece and is fixed by clamping screws.

17. A rail installation as claimed in Claim 15, wherein the reception piece is formed from two half-shells which are held together and fixed by a screw connection.

18. A rail installation as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 11, wherein the sleepers are welded to the support feet.

19. A rail installation substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.