GB2280211A - Rotatable corner protector - Google Patents

Abstract

A corner protector particularly for doorways and corridor corners in hospitals comprises a freely rotatable aluminium tube (10) and a mounting element (12) to which it is pivotally mounted through pivots (22) on brackets (18). The brackets conform to the external shape of the mounting element and roller assembled together. The cross-section of the mounting element has wings (13) disposed at right-angles and having flat inner faces (14) to protect a corner (24). The outer faces are tapered at their free ends (15) and have concave arcuately curved portions (16) leading into a part-circular seat (17) for the roller. A gap is provided between the roller (10) and the seat (17) to allow for elastic deformation of the roller on impact. The arcuately curved wings deflect an impacting vehicle such as a hospital bed or trolley which then skates off the roller, distributing the load over the corner (24) to minimise damage. <IMAGE>

Description

CORNER PROTECTOR This invention relates to a corner protector for building structures particularly door frames and wall corners.

The invention was particularly devised for use in hospitals and nursing homes to protect principally door frames but also to some extent external corners of walls, against impact by trolleys, moveable hospital type beds and wheelchairs.

Particular problems occur in hospitals and nursing homes where patients are wheeled for example to X-ray or theatre in their hospital beds. The beds are relatively heavy, particularly when loaded with the patient and are not easily steerable so it is difficult to avoid occasional collisions with door frames and corridor walls, particularly where hospital or nursing home premises were not designed with this problem in mind. Similar problems also occur with transit trolleys and wheelchairs although both of these are relatively lighter and simpler to steer.

Impacts with door frames will cause damage sufficient to harbour germs and repeated impacts may cause serious structural damage to the door frame.

It has therefore been proposed to provide a corner protector.

A previously proposed corner protector comprised a roller mounted vertically so as to project from the corner and secured by means of top and bottom brackets screwed into the door frame. The idea of the prior corner protector was to deflect a bed, trolley or wheelchair which was pushed against the roller, which could spin freely.

However, the prior corner protector was somewhat unsightly and could harbour dirt. It was also vulnerable to being ripped off the door frame or wall corner by a trolley scraping along the surface and striking the roller partly from behind, exerting a pulling force on the localised fixings which could pull off one or both of the fixing brackets.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new or improved corner protector which overcomes or reduces these disadvantages.

According to the invention there is provided a corner protector comprising, a freely rotatable roller adapted to be mounted vertically; a mounting element comprising an elongate extrusion adapted to be secured to the corner to be protected and of the same length as the roller, the mounting element having a cross-section including a part-circular seat conforming as a free fit to the roller, a pair of wings disposed at rightangles to each other, the faces of the wings remote from the right-angle being tapered from their free ends and being concavely arcuately shaped to merge with said seat; and a pair of pivot brackets, each of a cross-section substantially that of the roller and mounting element when assembled together, each of said pivot brackets having a respective pivot pin for rotatably mounting the roller.

The mounting element cross-section may include one or more part-circular grooves adapted to receive threaded fasteners to secure the pivot brackets at opposed ends of the mounting element.

The mounting element may be provided with fixing holes formed through the cross-section at the centre of said part-circular seat at spaced positions along the length of the mounting element whereby it can be secured to the corner to be protected.

Preferably, the roller comprises a tube of circular crosssection.

The roller may be made of aluminium alloy, mild steel or stainless steel and the mounting element may optionally be made of aluminium or an aluminium alloy.

A small gap may be provided between the roller and the partcircular seat. The gap may be between 0.5mm and 3.0mm and is preferably 1.4mm.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described in more detail by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a sectional view of a roller and a mounting element adapted to cooperate with the roller, Figure 2 is a sectional view of a pivot bracket intended for assembly with the mounting element and roller.

Referring firstly to Figure 1, a roller is generally indicated at 10 and may be of metal or of resilient material such as rubber. A metal roller may be coated with resilient material if desired. The roller may be hollow or solid. In the example shown, it is an extruded light aluminium alloy tube having a central bore 11.

A mounting element is generally indicated at 12. It comprises a single piece extrusion, preferably in light aluminium alloy although it could be made in a synthetic plastics material or another metal. The cross-section is symmetrical and includes a pair of wings 13 which are disposed at right-angles to each other. The inner faces 14 of the wings are flat and planar.

The outer faces are tapered at their free ends 15 and then have a concave arcuately curved portion 16.

Facing away from the right-angle, the section also includes a part-circular seat 17 which conforms to the shape of the outer surface of the tubular roller 10. The roller can be assembled with the remaining elements of the corner protector so as to be a free rolling fit in the seat 17. A gap of between 0.5mm and 3.Omm is provided, preferably about 1.4mm between the roller 10 and seat 17. The concave arcuately curved faces 16 of the wings 13 lead directly into the seat 17.

Figure 2 illustrates a pivot bracket generally indicated at 18. Two identical pivot brackets 18 are provided, one at each end of each corner protector. It will be seen that the pivot bracket 18 has a cross-sectional shape substantially that of the sub-assembly of the roller 10 and mounting element 12 allowing for the gap, as shown in Figure 1. The arcuately curved portions 19 of wings 20 are equivalent to the curved portion 16 of the wings 13. However instead of the seat 17, the cross-sectional shape extends into a part-circular projection 21 which is marginally smaller than the roller 10 but is of approximately the same size.

A projecting pivot pin 22 is provided on one end face of the pivot bracket, and a pair of pivot brackets of relatively short length are provided for securing to opposed ends of the assembly.

Each of the cross-sections of the mounting element 12 and pivot bracket 18 has a pair of circular cross-section grooves 23 which provide an untapped recess to receive a self-tapping screw used for assembling the corner protector.

In use, the mounting element 12 is secured to the corner to be protected which is illustrated in dotted lines at 24. This is achieved by introducing fasteners in transverse holes 25 drilled at intervals in the base of the seat 17. Before securing the mounting element 12 to the corner, one of the pivot brackets 18 is presented to the lower end of the mounting element 12 and is secured in position by self-tapping screws inserted upwardly into the circular grooves 23. The pivot pin 22 is presented upwardly.

The roller 10 is then lowered so that the central hole 11 receives the pivot pin 22. A further bracket is added at the top of the roller 10, inverted compared with the first pivot bracket so that its pivot pin 22 projects downwardly into the central bore 11 and two more self-tapping screws are inserted in the grooves 23 to secure the assembly into position.

The pivot pins, preferably of steel, mate with the roller ends so that the roller will rotate freely, even under deflective loads.

It will be appreciated that, because the parts of the assembly can be made as simple extrusions, costs can be kept to a minimum. The mounting element and roller can be cut to length on site, if desired. Furthermore, the assembly includes very few crevices and the gap between the roller and the mounting element for example is kept to a small value, typically 0.5mm to 3.Omm. This means that the device will not harbour excessive amounts of dirt and is very easy to clean, which is important in a hospital environment. The whole assembly can be provided with a suitable surface finish for example polyester powder coating or anodising. Alternatively the roller can be rubber or plastics coated.

In use, the trolley or bed which makes contact with the wall will tend to skate along the arcuately curved portion 16 of the mounting element and to glance off the roller 10. There is no possibility of a projecting portion hooking behind the roller 10 and pulling the fixings out of the assembly.

Furthermore, a number of fixings are used at different points throughout the height of the mounting element through the fixing holes 25. The mounting element can be selected to be of any desired height to afford suitable protection for a door frame or other corner.

If any impact occurs against the mounting element, it will be appreciated that the load of the impact will be spread by the planar surfaces 14 of the wings 13 over a substantial area of the underlying corner 24 on both sides of the corner. This means that the likelihood of even a heavy impact causing damage is greatly reduced.

An impact directly onto the roller 10 will initially be absorbed by the flexure of the roller until it comes into contact with the seat 17. For example it has been calculated that, with a 1.4mm separation between the roller 10 and seat 17 and a 600mm roller, a 400Kg vehicle striking the roller will need to be travelling at approximately 0.48 mph to cause an aluminium tube roller to contact the seat 17.

If the vehicle is travelling at more than this speed, the tube contacts the support and additional impact firstly elastically deforms the tube. This will cope with impacts of up to 0.8mph. Any higher speed impact by a 400Kg vehicle will tend to dent the tube but will not damage the corner 24 or the mounting element 12. It will be appreciated that serious damage to the tube may necessitate its replacement but that it is the cheapest component of the assembly and may readily be replaced.

The corner protector can be used in other than hospital environments, and may prove useful for example in factories, warehouses and supermarkets.

In addition to use as a corner protector, the device can be used to provide a general protective roller, for example as a locator/protector for use at the head of a hospital bed and in this context the roller may preferably be of rubber so as to soften impacts of the bed against the underlying wall.

Lifting and lowering of the bed can be accommodated by movements of the roller.

Claims (10)

CLAINS

1. A corner protector comprising, a freely rotatable roller adapted to be mounted vertically; a mounting element comprising an elongate extrusion adapted to be secured to the corner to be protected and of the same length as the roller, the mounting element having a cross-section including a part-circular seat conforming as a free fit to the roller, a pair of wings disposed at rightangles to each other, the faces of the wings remote from the right-angle being tapered from their free ends and being concavely arcuately shaped to merge with said seat; and a pair of pivot brackets, each of a cross-section substantially that of the roller and mounting element when assembled together, each of said pivot brackets having a respective pivot pin for rotatably mounting the roller.

2. A corner protector according to claim 1 wherein the mounting element cross-section includes one or more partcircular grooves adapted to receive threaded fasteners to secure the pivot brackets at opposed ends of the mounting element.

3. A corner protector according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the mounting element is provided with fixing holes formed through the cross-section at the centre of said partcircular seat at spaced positions along the length of the mounting element whereby it can be secured to the corner to be protected.

4. A corner protector according to any preceding claim wherein the roller comprises a tube of circular cross-section.

5. A corner protector according to any preceding claim wherein the roller is made of light aluminium alloy.

6. A corner protector according to any preceding claim wherein the mounting element is made of light aluminium alloy.

7. A corner protector according to any preceding claim wherein a small gap is provided between the roller and the part-circular seat.

8. A corner protector according to claim 7 wherein the gap is between 0.5mm and 3.0mm.

9. A corner protector according to claim 8 wherein the gap is 1.4mm.

10. A corner protector substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.