GB2325943A - Handrail or balustrade system - Google Patents

Abstract

A handrail or balustrade system includes tubes (10) whose ends define sockets, and connectors (12) which may take various forms such as straight line, T or cruciform, being characterised in that they have spigots (16,18) which mate with the sockets. Each spigot has a uniform cross-section part (20) which is a close sliding fit inside the socket, a neck groove (24) closest to the main body of the connector, and a tapered lead-in outer end (22) to facilitate insertion into the socket. A preferably self-curing bonding agent is placed on the surface of the spigot before insertion, with any surplus being forced into the neck groove.

Description

HANDRAIL SYSTEM This invention relates to a handrail system including the aspects of providing kits or sets of components for constructing handrail assemblies of various types and forms, and the method of their construction using said kits or sets.

Handrail assemblies take various forms and serve various purposes.

They often have to be tailored individually to a greater or lesser extent to fit their particular location and to ensure that they are fully secured and otherwise safe, thus involving accurate off-site prefabrication and/or skilled and timeconsuming on-site work.

Thus a handrail system for a flight of stairs will require the provision of a balustrade assembly fencing the open side of the flight comprising upright supports and longitudinal rails angled to match the slope of the steps and horizontal at landings or the like. As well as such free standing balustrade a handrail is usually needed along the inside wall or walls from which the stairs and landings project, this will consist of a rail, again following the angle of the stairs, and attached to the wall by brackets or the like. In other situations such as a balcony or walkway the longitudinal rails will be horizontal and be located at intervals by upright stanchions.

The aesthetic appearance of the assembled system is usually an important consideration leading to a preference for neatness of construction without bulky joints or couplings and unsightly fastening elements such as bolts or screws. Neatness is also desirable for practical reasons. The elderly or disabled may have difficulty in obtaining continuous support, particularly while using stairs, if the run of rail gripped by the hand is discontinuous or has substantial variations in cross-sectional profile along its length as where tubular lengths of rail are coupled or located by insertion into or through larger diameter screw or other couplings or supporting eyes.

In some applications tubular lengths of rail are welded on-site or otherwise end to end and/or to connecting pieces such as upright stanchions or supporting brackets but this is a skilled and costly process, not always convenient to carry out on-site, and requiring further finishing processes to provide a satisfactory appearance and smoothness to the hand.

The object of the invention is to provide improvements in handrail systems, in particular to enable systems of high quality as to strength, durability, and appearance to be provided in a particularly economical and effective way and with such parts of the assembly process as have to be carried out on-site being quick to achieve and without requiring highly skilled labour or special purpose plant such as welding equipment.

According to the invention there is provided a handrail system including at least one tubular rail whose ends define sockets of substantially uniform internal cross-section, and at least one connector element having a body portion and one or more spigot formations projecting therefrom; the or each spigot formation having an elongate median part of uniform cross-section sized to be a sliding fit in a said socket, a proximal neck part between the median part and the body shaped to form a reduced cross-section peripheral groove, and a distal lead-in part tapering outwardly of the median part to terminate in a reduced cross-section end, whereby the rail and connector element are operatively secured together by use of a suitable adhesive or bonding agent to fasten the selected spigot formation in the selected socket, the lead-in part facilitating insertion of the spigot formation into the socket and assisting in the even distribution of the adhesive or bonding agent around the joint so formed, the sliding fit accommodating the necessary thin layer of adhesive or bonding agent over all the mating faces of the joint, and the neck part forming a reservoir for receiving any excess adhesive or bonding agent so that it is not extruded to the exterior of the finished joint as the spigot formation is pushed fully home.

One or more additional peripheral grooves may be provided spaced along the median part for some applications.

Preferably the external profile of the body portion of the connector element will match the exterior profile of the connected rail as far as is possible consistent with the function of the particular connector element, or at least in the part of the body adjoining the respective spigot formation so that the adjoining exterior surfaces of the rail and connector element merge at a flush joint.

The adhesive or bonding agent used will preferably be a quick-setting self-curing compound which will bond to the materials used to form the components (typically metal) without heat or exposure to air, for example an adhesive of the type known as "Superglue" and/or one of the bonding compounds developed for jointing metal sold under the trade mark or trade name "LOCTITE".

The invention further resides in a kit or set of parts for use in assembling a handrail system including a plurality of tubular rails and of connector elements as previously defined and for assembly as above.

The invention also resides in a method of providing and assembling a handrail system including the provision of parts or components as above referred to and the steps of assembling them as above defined.

Some examples of the invention are now more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 is a side elevation of a straight line connector element of a handrail system, Figure 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation of an assembled handrail system, Figure 3 shows a four-way connector element, and Figure 4 shows an eyed stanchion assembly.

The handrail system of this example uses tubular rails 10 of circular cross-section, conveniently standard extruded or other metal tubing of aluminium alloy, stainless steel, galvanised or plated steel or other metals, typically of 1 1/2" (38mm) or 2" (51mm) nominal outside diameter. Rails 10 are cut to length as necessary and are joined endwise and otherwise formed into the handrail assembly using connector elements, one example 12 of which is shown in detail in Figure 1.

Element 12 has a circular section body portion 14 corresponding in outside diameter to the outside diameter of rail 10. In this example body 14 straight, but it may also be angled to provide the transition between a horizontal run of rail and a run sloping upwards or downwards for steps or stairs.

Each end of element 12 terminates in a respective spigot formation 16, 18 identical to each other, spigot 16 is now described in detail.

An elongate median part 20 of the spigot is of uniform circular section accurately sized to be a sliding fit in the socket formed by the end of the rail 10. For rails having outside diameters referred to above (dimension A in Figure 1) the diameter of part 20 is preferably dimension B on Figure 1. The sliding fit provides a very small clearance between the periphery of part 20 and the interior wall of rail 10, for example of the order of 0.010-0.008 inches (0.2540-0.2032 mm).

The outer extremity of formation 16 is shaped to provide a distal leadin part 22 of tapered or conical profile to facilitate insertion into the rail socket.

There is also a proximal neck part 24 of formation 16 between part 20 and the full diameter body portion 14 in the form of a peripheral groove of lesser minimum diameter than part 20.

In this example there is also a peripheral groove 26, somewhat wider than neck 24, about midway along median part 20.

In joining formation 12 to rail 10 a self-setting bonding compound is applied to formation 16 and/or the interior of the rail socket before they are pushed together into mating engagement. Lead-in part 16 assists in the effective mating and also in the uniform distribution of the compound throughout the joint. The small clearance between part 20 and the socket interior ensures that a thin film of the compound is present over the whole area of part 20. Any excess compound carried beyond the inner end of part 20 can squeeze into the groove of the neck part 24 so that it is not extruded to the exterior of the finished joint. Rail 10 is pushed right home so that its end face abuts the opposing end face of body portion 14 forming a flush joint. Thus the exterior surface of the finished assembled is smooth and continuous throughout the length of the assembly of rails and connector element giving a neat appearance, smoothness of handling as there are no rivets, screws, couplings or other fastenings and providing quick assembly without specialized processes such as welding.

Experiments have shown that joints formed as above using a suitable bonding compound are of very high strength once the compound has cured (which takes only a short time) and well exceeding the industry standards, such as the appropriate British Standard, for handrail systems.

It will be appreciated that a wide variety of forms of connector element can be provided for constructing various handrail assemblies or systems.

One form of assembly is shown diagrammatically in Figure 2. This assembly is a balustrade forming a guard rail or barrier along a location including a short flight of steps 30. The balustrade consists generally of upright stanchions 32 at intervals supporting three vertically spaced longitudinal rail assemblies 34a,b,c. The stanchions themselves may be built up as an assembly of a set of connector elements and rails as indicated diagrammatically in the case of stanchion 32a which consists of a base stem 40, upper and lower four-way connector elements 42 and 44 linked by a short vertical rail 46 forming the middle part of the stanchion, and a top T connector 48 supported by another short length of rail 50 forming an upper part of the stanchion.

On the left of Figure 2 the ends of the horizontal rail lengths are supported by connector elements 52 having flanges for attachment to a vertical wall or other structure 54.

Next to steps 30 unitary stanchions 32 are shown which are pre-formed with integral arms, one set of which are angled to match the slope of the steps 30, terminating in spigot formations 16, 18 connecting with appropriate lengths of rail to form the completed assembly.

Figure 3 shows a four-way connector element 56 having four arms 58 each terminating in a spigot formation 60 as previously described.

By providing appropriately shaped and angled connector elements there is no need to bend the rails for installation, thus again saving in skilled work and equipment, particularly during on-site installation.

It will be appreciated that rail sections other than circular can be used in the invention, for example tubing of oval, rectangular, hexagonal, or other polygonal cross-section could be used in company with appropriately formed connector elements. For some applications rails and/or connecting elements formed from plastics material might be employed, the bonding compound being selected as appropriate for the type of material used.

The connector element will preferably be hollow to save weight and material. Vent holes may be provided to allow escape of air from otherwise closed rail sections as the spigot formations are pressed home.

It will be appreciated that rails and/or connector elements embodying the invention or used in the method thereof can be provided in a wide variety of shapes and forms additional to those referred to above. They may also be used in combination with conventional types of handrail components, for example lengths of rail, connected end to end by connector elements of the invention, may in turn be supported in stanchions having apertures or eyes to receive them.

Figure 4 shows an eyed stanchion assembly comprising a connector element 70 having a spigot formation 72, generally as described above, secured in a rail 74. The free end part of element 70 is shaped to define a transverse eye 76 which will receive and locate a tubular handrail. In this example spigot formation 72 is longer than the Figure 1 version and has two peripheral grooves 78 spaced along its median part 80.

Claims (8)

CLAIMS:-

1. A handrail system including at least one tubular rail whose ends define sockets of substantially uniform internal cross-section, and at least one connector element having a body portion and one or more spigot formations projecting therefrom; the or each spigot formation having an elongate median part of uniform cross-section sized to be a sliding fit in a said socket, a proximal neck part between the median part and the body shaped to form a reduced cross-section peripheral groove, and a distal lead-in part tapering outwardly of the median part to terminate in a reduced cross-section end, whereby the rail and connector element are operatively secured together by use of a suitable adhesive or bonding agent to fasten the selected spigot formation in the selected socket, the lead-in part facilitating insertion of the spigot formation into the socket and assisting in the even distribution of the adhesive or bonding agent around the joint so formed, the sliding fit accommodating the necessary thin layer of adhesive or bonding agent over all the mating faces of the joint, and the neck part forming a reservoir for receiving any excess adhesive or bonding agent so that it is not extruded to the exterior of the finished joint as the spigot formation is pushed fully home.

2. A system as in claim 1 wherein the medium part has one or more additional peripheral groups spaced therealong.

3. A system as in claim 1 or 2 wherein the extensive profile of at least that part of the body portion adjoining the or a respective spigot formation matches the exterior profile of the rail connecting with the latter formation to provide a flush joint.

4. A handrail system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in figures 1, 2, 3 and/or 4 of the accompanying drawings.

5. A kit or set of parts for use in assembling a handrail comprising a plurality of rails and a plurality of connector elements as defined by any one of the preceding claims.

6. A method of forming a handrail including the steps of providing a kit or set of parts as in claim 5, applying an adhesive or bonding agent to the spigot formations of the connector elements and/or to the sockets of the rails, and pushing said elements fully home into said sockets.

7. A method as in claim 6 wherein the adhesive or bonding agent is a quick-setting self-curing compound which bonds without heat or exposure to air.

8. A method of forming a handrail substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.