IES20010442A2 - Improvements in street bollards - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention provides a street bollard adapted for being biased into a chosen ground position and/or radial orientation, which bollard comprises a base, at least one elastic member connectable to said base in at least two locations thereon, and means for securing said elastic member or members to the ground beneath said base, under tension between said securing means and said base, wherein the elastic restoring force produces by undesired displacement or rotation of the bollard is effective to restore the bollard to the chosen position and/or radial orientation.

Description

DESCRIPTION This invention relates to street bollards and the like, namely short thick posts serving as street furniture and commonly used for traffic regulation, as in informing, advising, directing, and controlling street users etc. Conventional bollards may be free-standing or fixed to the ground. Free-standing bollards tend to be used on a temporary or eventrelated basis, eg in the form of the well-known traffic cones. Fixed bollards are commonly used to call attention to traffic islands and pedestrian crossings, to define traffic lanes, to give advance notice of road and lane junctions, etc. Specialised bollards, which may be either free-standing or fixed, serve for the display of advertising matter, as a mount for mirrors to help drivers check their vehicle lights without leaving the driving seat, and for other purposes more or less unrelated to traffic management.

Conventional street bollards are vulnerable to contact with vehicles. Vehicle impact can cause displacement in the case of the free-standing bollard, which must then be restored manually to its proper position; vehicle impact causes damage or destruction in the case of the bollard that is secured to the ground; and that must then be removed and replaced, which is costly. The invention seeks, among its objects, to overcome the above-recited drawbacks of conventional street bollards.

The invention arose from recognition of a need to combine a basically free-standing street (or traffic) bollard with a capacity on the part of the bollard to revert to its original position and, for preference, its original orientation about an internal vertical axis, following undesired displacement of the bollard, as by contact with a vehicle. It aims at combining the better features of the free-standing and the fixed bollard, while adding a position- and orientation-recovery feature which is new and ingenious.

The invention accordingly provides a street bollard adapted for being biased into a chosen ground position and/or radial orientation, which bollard comprises a base, at least one elastic member connectable to said base in at least two locations thereon, and means for securing said elastic member or members to the ground beneath said base, under tension between said securing means and said base, wherein the elastic restoring force produced by undesired displacement or rotation of the bollard is effective to restore the bollard to the chosen position and/or radial orientation.

For preference the elastic member is a single one and is elongate, is connectable to the base under tension between opposite points on the periphery of said base, and is securable to the ground beneath the base between said points.

The elastic member may be, for example, a metallic helical spring, but is for preference a stout rubber rope which may be moulded or extruded, or which may be plaited from several strands of lesser girth. Its ends may be detachably attachable to the base by conventional means. Such detachable attachment can be effected by providing each elastic member with a retainable formation such as a knot or a threaded-on bead or ball, or an eyelet, at an end thereof, and providing the bollard with at least one corresponding complementary retaining formation. Such retaining formation can be a slot or a cutaway portion of the edge region of the base of the bollard, or a perforation therethrough, or, for retaining an eyelet, a peg, a hook or a bolt.

Detachment then facilitates the prior fixing of the securing means to the ground, which procedure can be effected without the encumbrance that the body of the bollard would otherwise present.

The means for securing the elastic member to the ground may take various forms which will readily occur to the skilled person, but it is for preference a flat rigid plate bearing a transverse edge-to-edge groove of such internal cross-section as to accommodate and secure the elastic member when said plate is secured to the ground by adhesion, masonry nailing, plug and screw fixing, or other conventional fixing means.

The invention is particularly suited to the anchoring or biasing into position of a bollard, or a set of bollards, bearing minors for use by a vehicle driver in checking the functioning status of the vehicle's lights without having to dismount. Such bollards, although they answer to the general definition of street bollards given above, are confined in use for preference to service station forecourts, car parks and specially dedicated areas. While the correct repositioning of such bollards is important, their correct re-orientation (as described above) is often more important still, for producing reliable visible reflections of the vehicle lights.

The elastic member(s) and the ground-securing means are preferably sufficiently robust to survive displacement of the bollard, by accidental vehicle impact, up to a magnitude that will not be exceeded in normal use. The carcase of the bollard is preferably of conventional hollow plastics construction, and is likewise sufficiently robust to survive many such impacts without disablement.

In a preferred embodiment, the bollard is also adapted to be secured to the site against unauthorised removal, in the form of theft or other hazards, by means of a connector which can be secured to the ground and releasably locked to the bollard, as with a padlock. For example, a multi-stranded wire cable can have one of its ends fixed, as by welding, to the securing means that anchors the elastic member to the ground, and its other end formed into a loop through which, and through an open lug provided on the base of the bollard, a padlock can be engaged.

The invention will be better understood from the following description of a particular and preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig 1 is a perspective view of a bollard according to the invention, equipped with two convex mirrors (only one of which appears in the drawing) for use in vehicle light checking, Fig 2 is an underneath perspective view of the bollard ofFig 1, Fig 3 (a), (b) and (c) are respectively a three-quarter top view, a plan view with accessories, and a side elevation, of a ground anchoring device for the bollard of Figs 1 and 2, Fig 4 (a), (b) and (c) are worm's-eye or underneath plan views of a bollard according to the invention, showing states respectively of rest, displacement and disorientation of the bollard with respect to the ground anchoring device, Fig 5 (a) - (d) comprises perspective views of bollard formations useful for effecting 5 anchorage of the elastic member to the bollard, Fig 6 is an underneath perspective view, similar to Fig 2, of an alternative embodiment of a bollard according to the invention, Fig 7 is an elevation of the bollard of Fig 6 following removal of one wall of the body portion for clarity of illustration, io Fig 8 is a section, taken longitudinally through the thwart 66 of Fig 7 and viewed in the direction of the arrow Z, in use of the bollard, Fig 9 is a perspective view of a locking plate for use with the bollard of Figs 6-8, and Fig 10 (a) and (b) are worm's-eye or underneath plan views of the bollard of Figs 6-8, showing respectively (a) a state of rest and (b) a state of displacement or disorientation, of the bollard with respect to the ground anchoring device.

Referring now to the drawings, a bollard 1 for use in checking a vehicle's lights is a hollow structure of plastics material fabricated by rotational moulding and comprising a body portion 2 and a head portion 3 which carries two convex checking mirrors 4.

The bollard 1 has a base 5 of generally triangular shape comprising two flat portions 6, intended for ground contact in use, and a recess 8 which, in use, creates a through channel between the bollard and the ground. The base of the recess 8 bears a projecting perforated lug 9 which fits within said recess so as not to project beyond the plane of the flat portions 6, 7.

A bollard anchoring device comprises a sturdy metallic ground plate 20 with intersecting open channels 21, 22 formed in the underside thereof, and perforations 23 for use in securing the ground plate 20 to the ground with masonry nails, steel spikes, bolts 23a, rivets or the like, depending on the nature of the ground as substrate:· An elongate flexible elastic member 24 fits into the channel 21 and can be secured to the ground intermediate its ends 25 by means of the ground plate 20; said ends 25 are expanded to adapt them for retention by respective notches 10,11 or perforations 10a, la in the bollard 1. Alcoves 12, 13 recessed into the sides of the body portion 2 of the bollard 1 serve to house the respective notches 10,11 or the respective perforations 10a, 11a accessibly, and to accommodate the anchored ends 25 of the elastic member 24.

The ends 25 are in effect expanded by virtue of their passage through respective beads or balls 26. Alternatively, toggles 27 are applied to the ends 25 to expand said ends after they have been passed through perforations 10a, 1 la.

As seen in Fig 3 (b), a multi-strand high-tensile strength cable 28 is housed at one end with a stop 30 in channel 22 of the ground plate 20 and terminates in a plaited-in loop 29 at its other end, for padlocking together with the lug 9 to secure the bollard 1 against unauthorised removal from its current site. The elastic member 24 and the cable 28 are twisted or knotted together at the centre of the ground plate 20; this stops the elastic member 24 from slipping. The cable 28 has a slack length of about 1.5 m (Fig 7); this is neatly coiled and taped underneath the bollard. The slack is in readiness for bollard movement consequent on impact by a vehicle.

Referring specifically to Fig 4, (a) shows (from underneath) a condition of rest of the bollard 1, in which the elastic member 24, under a pre-applied working tension, adopts a straight-line posture. Almost all displacement or rotation of the bollard 1 tends to distort the posture of the elastic member from the rectilinear, thus increasing its length and the tension in it. The increased tension elastically biases the bollard 1 back into the rest condition (a). Thus (b) shows a linear displacement that produces a V-shape in the elastic member 24, and a return bias or force indicated by the arrow W. In turn, (c) shows a rotary displacement (disorientation) which produces a Z-shape in the elastic member 24 (as seen in plan) and a return bias in the form of a couple centered on the plate 20 and indicated by the arrows X and Y. As for the ground plate 20, its being secured to the ground defines a motionless attachment point of the bollard 1 to the ground. Disorientation is to be understood as rotation about this point.

Referring finally to Figs 6 -10, a bollard 60 comprises a body portion 62 and a head portion 63, with a base portion 65 which is a void bridged by a wooden thwart 66 secured at its ends to the inside faces of respective sides of the bollard by screw means 67. In use of the bollard, the thwart 66 is horizontally disposed with a ground clearance convenient for accommodating the ground plate 20 and its accessories.

The screw means 67 serve also to secure a locking plate 68 to the body portion 62 opposite one end of the thwart 66. Said locking plate 68 is bent to give an inclined wing io 69 which passes through a prepared slot 70 in the body portion 62 to project into the interior of the bollard. Wing 69 bears a perforation 71 to admit a padlock 72 for securing the cable 28 to the bollard. The other end of the cable 28 is secured to the ground plate 20 by welding.

An elongate flexible elastic member 78 is detachably attached to the thwart 66 by an eyelet 80 and a bolt 81, and is similarly attached at its other end 82 (Fig 10) to the other end of the thwart 66. The residual or intermediate portion of said elastic member 78 can be secured to the ground beneath the ground plate 20 whenever required, for use of the bollard.

It will be clear that the invented bollard cannot be pushed over or blown over in normal use, and also that small displacements or disorientations of the bollard are seifcompensating.

Claims (5)

1. A street bollard adapted for being biased into a chosen ground position and/or radial orientation, which bollard comprises a base, at least one elastic member connectable to io said base in at least two locations thereon, and means for securing said elastic member or members to the ground beneath said base, under tension between said securing means and said base, wherein the elastic restoring force produced by undesired displacement or rotation of the bollard is effective to restore the bollard to the chosen position and/or radial orientation.

2. A bollard according to Claim 1 which comprises one single elongate elastic member.

3. A bollard according to Claim 1 or 2 in which the elastic member is an elastic rope, the ends of which are shaped for retention by complementary formations in the base of 20 the bollard.

4. A bollard according to a preceding claim, which bollard additionally comprises cable means for locking the bollard to the ground against unauthorised removal. 25

5. A bollard according to a preceding claim which carries at least one mirror and is intended for use in checking the functioning of the lights of a vehicle from within the vehicle.