GB2478965A

GB2478965A - A scaffold tube clamp for lifting scaffold pipes

Info

Publication number: GB2478965A
Application number: GB1005009A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kieran Forrey
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-03-25
Filing date: 2010-03-25
Publication date: 2011-09-28
Anticipated expiration: 2030-03-25
Also published as: GB201005009D0; GB2478965B

Abstract

A scaffold tube clamp 10 for raising and lowering scaffold tubes. The clamp 10 includes a clamping means (20, 30, 40) for holding a scaffold tube, a releasable catch which may include a pin 60 and strap 50, or alternatively may be a cam 352 (figure 4) and lever 354 (figure 4) quick-release catch 350 (figure 4). The clamp also includes a lifting eye or aperture 70 which may be positioned in several orientations. The clamp may be used when erecting or dismantling scaffolding to reduce the risk of falling tubes and make the process safer.

Description

A scaffold tube clamp The present invention relates generally to a scaffold tube clamp, and to a method of raising and/or lowering scaffold tubes and finds particular, although not exclusive, utility in the erection and/or dismantling of scaffolding.

Scaffolding is used to provide access at heights to buildings and other structures.

It comprises of a series of tubular members (tubes) affixed to one another by means of clamps. Such clamps use nuts and bolts to hold the tubes in place.

During erection and dismantling of scaffolding the individual tubes are either passed from hand to hand from one worker to another, or are raised and lowered using a simple rope tied about the tube.

Neither method is satisfactory as there is a risk of tubes becoming loose and falling to the ground potentially injuring people. There is therefore a need for an improved means for the raising and lowering of scaffold tubes.

In a first aspect, the invention provides a scaffold tube clamp for the raising and lowering of scaffold tubes comprising a clamping means for holding at least one scaffold tube, the clamping means operable such that in a closed position it prevents the at least one scaffold tube from moving relative to the clamp and iii an open position the at least one scaffold tube may be freely inserted or withdrawn from the clamp, a releasable catch for securing the clamping means in the closed position, and a lifting eye, wherein the releasable catch and/or the clamping means may be manually operated without the need for any tools.

In this regard, a tool may mean a spanner, and without tools means that it may be operated by hand alone.

The releasable catch may include a cam and a lever and the cam may be rotatable by means of the lever. This releasable catch may be considered to be a quick-release catch of the sort found on bicycles for the raising and lowering of handlebars and saddles.

The clamping means may include gripping means for gripping the at least one scaffold tube. This may take the form of a rubber lining within the clamp which is compressed between the outer surface of the tube and inner surface of the clamp. This gripping means may increase the grip of the clamp on the tube. The gripping means may be rubber.

I

The scaffold tube clamp may include more than one clamping means, each for clamping at least one scaffold tube. In other words, it is contemplated that a collection of two or three or more clamps may be provided in a bundle. In this way more than one tube may be lowered or raised at the same time. The arrangement of clamps may be linear or circular.

The clamping means and the lifting eye may be arranged such that, in use, with at least one scaffold tube clamped in the clamp, and the whole arrangement being suspended by the lifting eye, the at least one scaffold tube hangs substantially vertically.

This may be aided by the provision of more than one lifting eye, the multitude of eyes arranged sub stantially equidistantly around the clamp.

The clamping means and the lifting eye may be arranged such that, in use, with at least one scaffold tube clamped in the clamp, and the whole arrangement being suspended by the lifting eye, the at least one scaffold tube lies substantially horizontally.

The scaffold tube clamp may comprise at least two clamping means, the lifting eye being arranged centrally between them.

In a second aspect, the invention provides a method of raising and/or lowering scaffold tubes, the method comprising the steps of providing a scaffold tube clamp according to the first aspect, and as described and/or claimed herein, opening the clamping means, inserting at least one scaffold tube, closing the clamping means, securing the clamping means in a closed position using the releasable catch, attaching a flexible line to the lifting eye and using the flexible line to raise and/or lower the at least one scaffold tube.

In this regard the flexible line may be a rope, chain or other such means.

The step of securing the clamping means in the closed position may include moving a lever, and/or stretching a resilient member.

The above and other characteristics, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention. This description is given for the sake of example only, without limiting the scope of the invention. The reference figures quoted below refer to the attached drawings.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first scaffold tube clamp in the open position; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a second scaffold tube clamp in the closed position; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a third scaffold tube clamp in the closed position; Figure 4 is a plan view of a fourth scaffold tube clamp in the closed position; Figure 5 is a perspective view of a collection of three scaffold tube clamps; Figure 6 is a perspective view of the collection of three scaffold tube clamps of Figure Sin use with scaffold tubes; and Figure 7 is an elevational view of a scaffold tube clamped in place in the scaffold tube clamp of Figure 2.

The present invention wiLl be described with respect to particular embodiments and with reference to certain drawings but the invention is not limited thereto but only by the claims. The drawings described are on'y schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, the 52e of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn to scale for illustrative purposes. The dimensions and the relative dimensions do not correspond to actual reductions to practice of the invention.

Furthermore, the terms first, second, third and tile like in the descrip don and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking or in any other manner. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that the embodiments of the invention described herein are capable of operation in other sequences than described or illustrated herein.

Moreover, the terms top, bottom, over, under and the like in the description and the claims are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that the embodiments of the invention described herein are capable of operation in other orientations than described or illustrated herein.

It is to be noticed that the term "comprising", used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being restricted to the means listed thereafter; it does not exclude other elements or steps. It is thus to be interpreted as specifying the presence of the stated features, integers, steps or components as referred to, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps or components, or groups thereof. Thus, the scope of the expression "a device comprising means A and B" should not be limited to devices consisting only of components A and B. It means that with respect to the present invention, the only relevant components of the device are A and B. Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may refer to different embodiments.

Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this

disclosure, in one or more embodiments.

Similarly it should be appreciated that in the description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some features included in other embodiments, combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope of the invention, and form yet further embodiments, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth.

However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practised without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of

this description.

The invention will now be described by a detailed description of several embodiments of the invention. It is clear that other embodiments of the invention can be configured according to the knowledge of persons skilled in the art without departing from the true spirit or technical teaching of the invention, the invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

The scaffold tube clamp 10 in Figure 1 comprises two halves 20, 30 pivotably joined together by a hinge 40. In the closed position (refer to Figure 2) the clamp is substantially cylindrical. The two halves 20, 30 may be held together by a strap 50 which may be permanently attached to one half 30 and removably attached to the other half 20. This may be achieved by means of a hole in the strap 50 engaging over a pin 60 provided on the outer surface of the other half 20.

A lifting eye 70 in the form of a loop is provided on the outer curved surface of the first half 30. The axis of the hole in the eye 70 is parallel to the axis of the bore of the clamp 10.

A liner 80 is provided within the clamp in the form of a ribbed surface which may comprise rubber or some other resilient material.

The clamp 10 when in the closed position has a bore (measured without the liner 80) arranged to be slightly larger than the diameter of the scaffold tubes for which it is to used. The bore may be substantially 52mm in diameter. Other dimensions are contemplated. If no liner 80 is present then the internal diameter (bore) of the clamp may be smaller.

With the liner 80 present, the bore or diameter may be approximately 46 mm.

Other dimensions are contemplated.

In Figure 2, a different clamp 20 is shown. It is the same as the clamp 10 in Figure 1 except that the lifting eye 170 is arranged with a different orientation (the axis of the hole in the eye 170 is perpendicular to the axis of the bore of the clamp 110).

Figure 2 shows the strap 50 holding the clamp 110 closed in that the hole in the strap has been placed over the pin 60. Due to the resilience of the strap 50 it may be stretched over the pin to ensure the clamp 110 does not open. In this regard the strap must be stretched slightly to engage the pin 60 with the hole.

Figure 3 shows yet another clamp 210. This clamp 210 is similar to the first two clamps 10, 110 but the lifting eye 270 is arranged on one flat axial end of the clamp 210.

More than one lifting eye 270 may be arranged around the perimeter of the bore such that by suitable arrangement of lines through the eyes 270 a scaffold tube may be held substantially vertical during its raising and lowering.

A different way of releasably locking a clamp 310 is shown in Figure 4. This clamp 310 includes two halves 320, 330, as before, together with a liner 380, a lifting eye 370 and a hinge 340. However, the locking means is of the quick-release lever type 350.

The lever 354 has at one end an eccentric cam 352 to which is attached a bolt 356. At the end of the bolt 356 is a nut 359. A tab 360 is integral with one half 320 of the clamp 310. The cam 352 may rotate within a shell 356, this shell 356 being integral with the other half 330 of the clamp 310. By rotation of the cam 352, by moving the lever, the bolt is pulled towards the shell 356 thus forcing the nut 359 against the tab 360 to lock the clamp 310 in the closed position.

To open the clamp 310, the lever 354 is rotated away from the clamp 310 thus allowing the nut 359 to move away from the tab 360. The bolt 358 may then be rotated away from the tab such that the two halves 320, 330 of the clamp 310 may be opened about tlie hinge 340. Tlie pressure exerted by tlie nut 359 against the tab 360 may be adjusted by rotation of the nut 359 around and along the bolt 358.

Other means of releasably securing clamps in the closed position are contemplated.

It is possible to join several clamps together as is shown in Figure 5 where three clamps 410 have been connected together. This connection may he by means of welding together or by mounting the clamps on a support.

A central lifting eye 470 provides a point by which the three clamps may be raised and lowered. With three scaffold tubes 51 in position the eye 470 allows for them to be raised and lowered with their longitudinal axes being substantially vertical.

An example of this is shown in Figure 6 where a line 66 is shown suspending the clamps 410 via the lifting eye 470.

Other combinations of clamps are possible such as two, four etc. Also, other arrangements of clamps such as in a hexagonal or square formation are possible.

Finally, Figure 7 shows how a clamp 110 with a llfting eye 170 located on its curved side may look in use with a scaffold tube 51 clamped in place and a line 66 connected to the eye 170 suspending the scaffold tube 51. The clamp 110 may be located towards one end of the tube to ensure that the tube 51 is suspended substantially vertically. For instance, the clamp 51 may be located at a distance from one end which is approximately one third, or less, of the overall length of the tube 51.

Claims

Claims 1. A scaffold tube clamp for the raising and lowering of scaffold tubes comprising a clamping means for holding at least one scaffold tube, the clamping means operable such that in a closed position it prevents the at least one scaffold tube from moving relative to the clamp and in an open position the at least one scaffold tube may be freely inserted or withdrawn from the clamp, a releasable catch for securing the clamping means in the closed position, and a lifting eye, wherein the releasable catch and/or the clamping means may be manually operated without the need for any tools.
2. The scaffold tube clamp of claim 1, wherein the releasable catch includes a cam and a lever and the cam is rotatable by means of the lever.
3. The scaffold tube clamp of either one of claims I and 2, wherein the clamping means includes gripping means for gripping the at least one scaffold tube.
4. The scaffold tube clamp of any preceding claim, including more than one clamping means, each for clamping at least one scaffold tube.
5. The scaffold tube clamp of any preceding claim, wherein the clamping means and the lifting eye are arranged such that, in use, with at least one scaffold tube clamped in the clamp and the whole arrangement being suspended by the lifting eye the at least one scaffold tube hangs substantially vertically.
6. The scaffold tube clamp of any one of claims I to 4, wherein the clamping means and the lifting eye are arranged such that, in use, with at least one scaffold tube clamped in the clamp and the whole arrangement being suspended by the lifting eye the at least one scaffold tube lies substantially horizontally.
7. The scaffold tube clamp of any preceding claim, comprising at least two clamping means, the lifting eye being arranged centrally between them.
8. A method of raising and/or lowering scaffold tubes, the method comprising the steps of providing a scaffold tube clamp according to any one of claims I to 7, opening the clamping means, inserting at least one scaffold tube, closing the clamping means, securing the clamping means in a closed position using the releasable catch, attaching a flexible line to the lifting eye and using the flexible line to raise and/or lower the at least one scaffold tube.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of securing the clamping means in the closed position includes moving a lever, and/or stretching a resilient member.
10. A scaffold tube clamp substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
11. A method of raising and/or lowering scaffold tubes substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.